CHAPTER VII
THE CLUE AT THE SPRING HOUSE
Just how Cora did manage to run her car into Chelton, with a stiffenedwrist and a twisted shoulder, she was not able to explain afterward tothe anxious ones at home. Belle rode with her, and was sufficientlyfamiliar with the machine to take a hand at the wheel now and then,but it was Cora who drove the _Whirlwind_, in spite of that.
It was now two days since the eventful afternoon at the strawberrypatch, and the girls were ready again to make the trip to Squaton, inquest of the crate of berries promised to Mrs. Robinson.
Jack argued that his sister was not strong enough to run her car withease, so he insisted on going along. Then, when his friends, Ed Fosterand Walter Pennington, heard of this they declared it was a trick ofJack's to "do them out of a run with the motor girls," and theypromptly arranged to go along also.
Ed rode with Walter, in the latter's runabout, and the twins were, ofcourse, together in the _Flyaway_, while Cora was beside Jack in the_Whirlwind_, for, although the girls were speedily turning into theyears that would make them young ladies, they still maintained thedecorum of riding "girls with girls" and "boys with boys," except onvery rare occasions.
As they rode along, an old stone house, set far back from the highway,attracted Jack's attention.
"Let's stop here," he suggested, "and look over the place. I'll bet ithas an open fire place with a crane and fixings, for cooking."
Word was passed to those in the other cars, and all were glad to stop,for the afternoon was delightful, and the ride to Squaton rathershort.
As no path marked the grass that led to the old house it was evidentthat no one had lately occupied it. The boys ran on ahead to make surethat no ghosts or other "demons" might be lurking within the moldyplace, while Cora, Bess and Belle stopped to pick some particularlypretty forget-me-nots, from near the spring that trickled alongthrough the neglected place.
Just back of the house, over the spring, the boys discovered theinevitable house for cooling milk, and here they delayed to drink fromtheir pocket cups.
"What's in the other side?" asked Walter, peering through the brokenboards into a second room or shed, for the shack was divided into twoparts.
"More spring, I suppose," replied Jack, taking his third drink fromthe small cup.
Walter and Ed had finished drinking just as the girls came up, andJack attended to their various degrees of thirst for pure springwater.
"What a quaint old place," remarked Belle. "What's in the other littlehouse?"
"We are just about to find out," said Jack. "The other fellowscouldn't wait, and are in there now."
Hurrying out, they all entered, through the battered door, into the"other side."
"Well, I declare!" exclaimed Ed. "What does this mean?"
"I also declare, 'what does this mean?'" added Jack, picking up from aqueer sort of wooden platform in the place, the unmistakable bluebonnet of a child or young girl.
"And this!" exclaimed Cora, picking up a hat. "This is--Nellie's hat!Nellie from the strawberry patch!"
"They have run away!" gasped Bess, without further investigation, "andhere are the remains of their lunch!" The fragments of a very meagermeal--some crusts of dry bread--and an empty strawberry box, told thestory. "Surely this had been the lunch of the runaways."
"They must have slept here," went on Cora. "Poor little dears! What ashame! How frightened they must have been to sleep in such a place."
"When you young ladies get through with the allegory, I hope you willgive us the libretto," interrupted Jack. "Who may be the fair maidswho have slept in this shack, and eaten the bread of freedom?"
"Why, the girls from the strawberry patch, of course," said Bess, asif that explained everything.
"Why 'of course,'" said Jack mockingly.
"Certainly, of course," put in Ed, in the same tone of voice.
"And, to be sure, of course," went on Walter, provokingly.
"Why, we didn't tell you, did we?" spoke Cora finally. Then she didtell as much as she thought it wise to divulge about Nellie and Rose.
This information "caused a stir," (as Jack put it) among the boys.Instantly they began up-turning stones, pulling down boards, and doingall sorts of foolish things searching for the runaways. But no otherevidences were unearthed of the stay of the two girls in the springhouse.
"I hope they hear us," called Jack, finally, raising his voice almostto a shout. "I must find Rose," he called. "Rose is all the world tome! My own little garden flower without a thorn----"
Walter interrupted with: "I must see Nellie home! Nellie! Nellie!Pretty little Nellie!"
"Do be quiet," begged Cora, "you will arouse the ghosts in the oldhouse."
"Let's," suggested Walter. "Haven't seen a ghost in an age, and aghost would be just pie for us in this place."
"Please don't," almost sobbed Belle. "I am really awfully creepy inhere."
Seeing that she was actually nervous, the girls went outside, but theboys were not yet satisfied with their investigations.
"What on earth is this rig-a-my-gig for?" asked Walter, indicating thebig sloping circular platform which occupied nearly all the space inthe shack. It was on a pivot and could be turned around.
"Why, that's--let me see, that's----" but Jack couldn't just say what itwas.
"I know," exclaimed Ed, suddenly. "That's a treadmill."
"A thread mill?" asked Walter.
"No, a treadmill--a mill that was treaded. They used to make butter inolden times by having a sheep or a dog travel around on that sort ofwheel, which was geared to a churn."
"See page one hundred and eight Encyclopedia Fosteria," put in Jack,with a good natured slap on Ed's broad shoulders. "When you don't seewhat you want--ask Ed," he finished.
Feeling that they had actually solved the mystery of the circularplatform, the boys spent some time in examining the strange machine.Meanwhile the girls were peering in the broken windows of the oldhouse, for Bess insisted that Nellie and Rose might have fallen illafter their long tramp from the strawberry patch, and that they mightactually be lying within the tottering mass of mortar, beams andstones. But, of course, the fears of Bess were soon proved unfounded,and, at the urgent order of Cora, the party started again on the roadto Squaton to get that "much delayed" crate of berries for Mrs. PerryRobinson.
"Keep a lookout along the road for the girls," Cora directed, as theystarted off. "We might spy them resting under a tree."
"You will never spy them," insisted Jack. "I am going to find Rose--myRose, and Walter has his heart set on Nellie--_the_ Nellie. So yougirls may go to sleep, if you wish, for all the good your looking willdo."
Only a joke--but many a jest begets a truth!
So the motor girls thought, in their long search for the unfortunaterunaways.