, and we can come here to-morrow, anyway," Amy added. "What do you
think about it, Betty?"

"Well, I am just crazy to see what the gypsies left there," the Little
Captain answered, "but I do think it's a little late now to begin
exploring. It isn't as if this were our last day on the island."

"I think Betty is right, fellows." It was Roy who spoke. "Mrs. Irving
left the girls in our care and she won't do it again in a hurry if we
don't get them home pretty soon."

"That's so, of course," Allen admitted reluctantly. "Just the same, it's
a crime to leave a discovery like this without getting to the bottom of
it."

"But we can come to-morrow," Betty pleaded. "It isn't as if----"

"Oh, I know all about that," he interrupted. "But we probably can't find
the place to-morrow."

"Well, we will have to take our chances on that," cried Mollie, tapping
her foot impatiently. "The rest of you may stay here all night if you
want to, but I'm going back to 'The Shadows.'"

"Hold on a minute, Mollie, can't you?" said Will. "I wish it weren't so
late, but since it is, I suppose we shall have to act accordingly. Who's
got the lunch basket?"

"Frank had, the last time I saw it," said Amy, looking about her at the
gathering shadows uneasily. "Oh, please let's hurry."

"I forgot all about the basket," Frank confessed. "I think I left it
over there behind the bushes."

Allen went with him to find it, while the girls stood huddled together,
wishing themselves back at the bungalow. Mystery is wonderful in the
glaring sun of noon-day, but in the chill dusk of evening, with a damp
mist rising and touching all the land with clammy fingers--at such a
time it is not so alluring. All they wanted was home and a fire and a
chance to talk things over.

Allen and Frank, carrying the basket between them, soon rejoined those
who were waiting at the cave, and they started along the shores of the
lake, keeping a sharp lookout for anything that looked like a gypsy.

However, they reached home at last without encountering anything more
formidable than their own shadows.

"But I _would_ like to know what they had in those bags," sighed Betty,
as the boys took leave of them. "Can we go back the first thing in the
morning, Allen?"

"We can't go too soon to suit me," Allen agreed. "But aren't you going
to let us fellows come over to-night to talk things over?"

"Of course," said Mollie, "and we'll have a fire."

"That sounds good," said Roy. "