“Call it ‘charming,’” said Walter gallantly, “and we boys will agree with you.”
They had some music after dinner, but as all were tired from their strenuous day they went to their rooms early.
“Girls,” exclaimed Cora, as soon as they were alone, “I’ve found out whom that gypsy girl resembles! It’s Mr. Morley!”
“Mr. Morley!” exclaimed Bess and Belle in a breath.
“Isn’t it so?” demanded Cora. “I was struck by it when we first saw him just after we got off the boat.”
“When I come to think of it, I believe you’re right,” replied Belle slowly.
“He has a way of holding his head like hers,” agreed Bess.
“But it’s the eyes,” went on Cora. “They’re blue like hers, and there are times when they have exactly the same expression. Girls, I believe we’re on the edge of a mystery!”
“Don’t talk so loud,” cautioned Belle, “or the boys may catch something of what you’re saying and they’ll tease us to death about it.”
“But, after all, what does it all amount to?” asked Bess. “It doesn’t prove that they have the slightest connection with each other.”
“And even if they have, what could we do about it?” asked Belle. “It’s like the dog running after the train. What would he do with it if he caught it?”
“It is a tangle,” admitted Cora. “We couldn’t go to Mr. Morley and tell him that we’d seen a gypsy girl who reminded us of him.”
“He mightn’t take it as a compliment,” suggested Bess.
“Or he might think we’d gone crazy,” said Belle.
“There are probably ten million people in the world that the gypsy girl looks like in one way or another,” said Bess, with difficulty suppressing a yawn. “Let’s go to bed and forget all about it.”
But Cora, as she slipped between the sheets, was far from intending to dismiss the subject in such cavalier fashion.
At breakfast the next morning, Paul proposed that they should visit an old logging camp that Joel had told him was located a few miles away.
“Of course it isn’t in operation now,” he said. “You’d have to visit it in winter to see it running full blast. But it will be interesting to see the bunk-houses and the flumes, and get an idea of the way the work is carried on.”
“We won’t have to do much walking,” said Jack. “Joel says that the road between here and there is a pretty good one for the cars. We can take our lunch along and make an all-day picnic of it.”