.

Astonishment held the little group motionless, but the strangers, or so
they appeared, stepped forward impulsively.

"It's no wonder you don't remember me," said the girl impulsively,
"since I was dressed very differently when you last saw me. I am Anita
Benton--the girl you rescued the other day."

As usual, Betty was the first to find her voice. "Oh, we _are_ glad to
see you!" she said warmly. "We were wondering when you and your brother
were coming to pay us that promised visit."

"Oh, we would have been here long ago, but, you see, I was rather,
well--shaken up," Anita explained, with a merry little laugh that made
the girls warm to her at once. "Conway could hardly wait to come to tell
you all how grateful he was--and is," she added, with a quaint little
sideways glance in the direction of her tall brother.

"Anita's right. I almost came alone when I found she was inconsiderate
enough to get sick," said Conway, who had been regarding the scene with
lively interest. "You see, I never knew before what it was to almost
lose a small sister."

"He speaks as if he had any number of them," cried Anita, gaily; and one
could see at a glance the perfect understanding and union between the
two. "But, really, this is the very first day I have been able to walk
any distance at all, so Con and I thought we'd take advantage of it."

"Well, we are mighty glad you did," said Roy heartily, and Mollie
glanced at him sideways. "I wonder if you two could help us solve a
riddle," he added. "We had just about given it up for a bad job when you
came along."

"What is it?" asked the girl eagerly. "I love riddles."

"Don't let him get your hopes raised," Betty warned. "It isn't a riddle
at all. The thing is, we found a cave yesterday, and to-day it has
simply vanished, disappeared, gone up in smoke."

"A cave?" said Conway, interestedly. "A cave around here? Why, I never
heard of any."

"Well, we are beginning to think that _we_ dreamed it," said Allen,
pessimistically. "The only strange thing about it is that we all should
dream the same thing."

"But please tell me what you mean," begged Anita. "Caves are even better
than riddles. Why did you say you dreamed it?"

There could be no escaping this emphatic young person--that they
realized--so Allen started to explain. When he had finished the two
visitors were almost, if not quite, as excited as the Outdoor Girls and
their boy chums had been.

"You think it was somewher