was so comical that the girls had to laugh in spite of
themselves. As if at a signal, the sun broke through the heavy mist that
had risen over night and flooded the room with golden beams. Somehow the
world suddenly seemed a better and a happier place to live in, and the
girls' spirits rose like mercury.

"Do you suppose Mrs. Irving will really want to go?" Amy asked, as they
finished dressing. "She seemed eager enough last night, but she may have
changed her mind by this time."

"I don't think so," said Betty. "She is as game as we are for things
like that."

"Yes, and she is feeling better now," said gentle little Amy.

The boys called for them bright and early. It seemed that they, also,
had spent a rather restless night, and were glad of the sunshine and
warmth of the morning.

The party started off in high spirits to find the cave and solve its
mysteries. Mrs. Irving was with them, for, as Betty had said, she was a
game little person and in for a good time whenever one could be found.

"Suppose we can't find the place?" it was Grace who voiced the thought
that had been secretly troubling them all. "Betty just found it by
accident yesterday."

"Don't cross bridges till you come to them, Grace," Frank admonished
her. "We'll find it, all right, if we have to cover every square inch of
the island."

"I vote that we let Allen and Betty take the lead," Roy suggested. "They
know more about it than we do--or at least they ought to."

"What's that?" asked Betty, who had been deep in a conversation with
Amy. "Who's talking about me now?"

"They are shifting the responsibility to our shoulders, that's all,"
Allen explained. "Roy says because we found the cave in the first place,
it's sort of up to us not to disappoint them now."

"You may be sure we'll do our best," said the Little Captain, with her
whimsical smile, "since we'd be disappointing ourselves at the same
time."

"Wasn't it somewhere about here, Allen?" asked Mollie, pointing into the
woods. "The place looks familiar."

"I don't think so," said Allen, puzzled. "Betty and I noticed a big tree
that was almost directly on a line with the cave, but I don't see it
to-day. I wonder----"

"It's a little farther ahead, I think, Allen," Betty volunteered, trying
to force conviction into her tone. "I'm sure we haven't passed it."

"Well, I'm not," said Mollie, abruptly. "I'm positive I saw the bushes
where we hid yesterday quite a distance down the road."