l the girls."

All that had been gayety and gladness was instantly turned into
consternation and confusion. A young lady lured away from the Tip-Top!
And the hotel crowded with guests!

Belle was obliged to call for a doctor. Nor was it any case of
imagined nerves. The excitement of the big ball had been enough, the
disappearance of Cora was more than her weak heart could stand. Bess
tried to be brave, but to lose Cora! Then she recalled the face at the
window.

Hazel and Betty waited for nothing, but took up a lantern and started
out to search. If she had fallen down some place! Oh, if they could
only make her hear them!

"Here, porter," called Mr. Rand, when he had heard all the details that
could be given, "get me a donkey--a good, lively donkey. I can manage
one of the little beasts better than I can a horse. I used to ride one
in Egypt. I'll go over the hills if it is midnight."

"Oh, don't, Mr. Rand," begged Jack. "You are not strong enough to go
over the mountains that way."

"I am not, eh! Well, young man, I'll show you!" and he was already
waiting for the donkey to be brought up from the hotel stables.
"Nothing like a good donkey for a thing that has to be done."

But it was such a wild wilderness--the sort chosen just on that account
for hotel purposes. And after the brilliancy of the ballroom it did
seem so very dark out of doors.

"This way, Hazel," said Betty courageously. "I know the loneliest
spot. Maybe she has been stolen, and might be hidden away in that
hollow."

"But if we go there alone----"

"I'm not afraid," and Betty clutched her light stick. "If I found her,
they would hear me scream all the way to--Portland!"

Men were searching all over the grounds. Every possible sort of
outdoor lantern had been pressed into service, and the glare of
searchlights flickered from place to place like big fireflies.

It was terrible--everything dreadful was being imagined. Only Ed,
Walter and Jack tried to see a possibility of some mistake--of some
reasonable explanation.

It was exciting at first, that strange, dark hunt, but it soon became
dreary, dull and desolate.

Hazel and Betty gave up to have a good cry. Jack and Ed insisted upon
following Mr. Rand on horses, making their way over the mountain roads
and continually calling Cora.

Walter followed the advice of the hotel proprietor, and went to notify
the drivers of a stage line, which took passengers on at the Point.