"Oh, mother will be the happiest woman in the world if they can only find her silver for her." Mollie was so agitated she was actually trembling. "Girls, do you think they will?"
"There, there, don't get so excited about it, Mollie, dear," cautioned the Little Captain. "You may be sure the boys will do the very best they can."
At the end of the hardest hour they had ever spent, for inaction was not easy for Outdoor Girls, they heard the welcome sound of masculine voices and the regular tramp-tramp of the boys' feet.
"Oh, oh," they cried together in whole-souled relief, while Mollie added eagerly: "Did you get it--did you?"
Allen, who was in the lead, shook his head regretfully. "We couldn't find a sign of anything," he said. "Not even the camp."
"But if you didn't find anything, what ever in the world kept you so long?" Betty demanded. "We imagined all sorts of horrible things happening to you."
"Oh, you couldn't get rid of us," said Will, cheerily. "We hated to come back empty handed--that's all."
"Well, we are mighty glad to get you back," said Mollie, who, after the first disappointment, had become resigned to the inevitable.
"That's the way to make them appreciate us; eh, fellows?" said Frank, as he flung himself into the car. "They don't realize how good we really are till they think we are gone."
"Right you are, Frank," said Roy. "What do you say to full speed ahead?"
"Full speed ahead it is," Frank agreed, and they were off like a shot down the road.
The Outdoor Girls and their boy friends made good time for the rest of the journey and it was not quite sundown when they came in sight of the beautiful shores of Lake Tarracusio.
"We will have to leave the automobiles somewhere in town, won't we?" asked Amy, as the two machines drew up side by side for a final consultation.
"Of course," said Grace. "According to Mollie's description of the rickety old steamer I should think it would have all it could do to carry us--let alone the machines."
"There ought to be at least one big garage in town, Frank," Betty suggested. "Let's move along the main street until we find it."
"Nobody asks me for my advice," complained Mollie, in an injured tone. "And I am the most likely one to know about it."