at Hazel saw, and I believe he was the one
who dropped the green goggles," was Harriet's emphatic declaration. "I
wonder what his grievance is?"

"All our stuff gone; we'll have to go back, won't we?" mourned Margery.

"We have our luggage, but that is some distance from here," replied the
guardian. "How long will it take us to get to our supplies, Mr. Grubb?"

"A day, or a day and a half, I reckon."

"Then we had better go for them to-morrow morning. We can do nothing
more this evening. But--what are we to do for food?"

"We have a little. We have some coffee and a spoonful of rice. That's
enough. We can live another twenty-four hours or so on that. I'll fix
up something now. Maybe there's something in a cache back of the hut.
I'll see." To their delight, Janus returned, not long after that, with
a small sack of flour and one of corn meal. It did not take the girls
long to start a fire in the small cook stove. They threw open the
windows, the "Shelter" warming up very quickly.

The girls began work at once, Janus showing them how to make the kind
of corn cakes that are popular with the mountain guides in the White
Mountain range. All the time Harriet Burrell was thinking intently
over their situation and the loss of the supplies. She was considering
the perplexing problems from different viewpoints, with a view toward
solving them.

"What did the thief do with our supplies?" she demanded, turning to the
guide.

"Probably took them away with him. That's the way thieves usually do.
Otherwise, what's the use in stealing?"

"I don't think so, sir. I do not believe this thief took the stuff
because he wanted it, but rather to make you trouble."

"Maybe, maybe. It's all the same thing."

"Oh, no, sir; it isn't, not if he did not carry the stuff away with
him. If he did not carry it away with him, what could he have done
with it?" She regarded Mr. Grubb inquiringly.

"I swum! I don't know," declared Janus, looking deeply puzzled.

"Nor do I, but I propose to find out. Is there such a thing as a
lantern here, Mr. Grubb?"

He shook his head. "Better leave off everything else till we get some
food. There's the coffee pot on the steps outside, where I put it, but
the cream is all gone. We'll have to drink our coffee black."

"Yeth, and thtay awake all night," averred Tommy. "But we don't care.
We are used to thtaying awake all night, aren't we, Jane?"

"Yes, darlin', we are," agreed Jan