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an's answer, with a slight shrug of the shoulders. They reached Sunny Slopes about noon, and decided--at least their ravenous appetites decided for them--that they had better have something to eat before they inquired further into the mystery of Mrs. Bragley's papers. Nan was the only one who seemed very much excited, and the others did not notice that the girl scarcely touched her lunch. It seemed an age to her before the meal was finished and Mr. Mason declared that they were ready to make their investigations. Nan and her friends would have been very much surprised had they known that they were being followed on their trip to Sunny Slopes, yet such was a fact. The two men who had tried so hard to gain possession of Sarah Bragley's documents were growing desperate. "We've got to do something and do it quick," snapped the tall, thin man. "Do you hear me?" "I certainly do," growled the other. "If we fail we won't get a cent of the cash that was promised to us." "I know that, too," answered the short man, and scowled deeply. Mr. Mason had once, in his less affluent days, been a real estate broker himself, and so pooh-poohed his wife's suggestion that he get some one who knew the country to direct them. "My dear," he said, "if this Mrs. Bragley has any property around here, I'll find it." He had, with Nan's consent, examined the documents the widow had given her and had seemed, to Nan's eager eyes, to have been considerably impressed by them. So now as they crowded out of the restaurant--it was the first one they had come to, and they had been too hungry to argue about its elegance or lack of it--and climbed into the cars again, Nan could hardly keep still in her eagerness to know the truth at once. They passed down a short business street, and then, making a turn, came out on a broad country road. "Sunny Slopes begins about a mile from here," said Mr. Mason. "It covers quite a bit of territory, I am told. While one end is quite barren, the other end is excellent for orange growing and is covered with bearing trees." "Oh, dear, I hope Mrs. Bragley's end is the orange-growing end!" cried Nan. "Don't be too much disappointed if it isn't," said Mrs. Mason kindly. Suddenly Bess, who had been laughing and talking with Rhoda about school affairs, gave a little bounce and cried out excitedly: "Look there! Isn't that an orange grove?" "It surely is," Mr. Mason called back to her, adding i
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