"We need a hammer," Judy remarked, ignoring him.
"Here's the one we were using before. We forgot it and left it here. But where is the paint?"
"That's odd," declared Judy. "It really looks as if someone's stolen it. I'm glad they left the hammer, anyway."
"What," asked Horace, "are you trying to do? I suppose I'll find you building a little row of cottages next. If you're going to take in tourists it wouldn't be a bad idea. Cottages would look quite cozy nestled in among the trees in the haunted grove."
"Why do you call it that?" demanded Judy.
"The name just came back to me," Horace laughed. "Grandpa called it that, and he told me once that the trees talked. I heard them myself when I was just a little fellow. It scared me nearly out of my wits."
"It scared quite a lot of us today," said Honey.
Judy nudged her to keep quiet, but it was too late.
"You don't mean to tell me the trees still talk!" Horace exclaimed. "That's news! If we can find out why--"
"We don't mean to tell you anything we don't wish to see printed in the _Farringdon Daily Herald_," Judy interrupted. "The story would look pretty ridiculous, anyway, without an explanation. 'TREES TALK. SCARE TOURISTS AWAY.' Seriously," she continued, "some rather peculiar tourists did stop here. That's why we're taking down the sign."
"I don't get it," Horace said. "If you didn't want them to stop, why did you put the sign up in the first place?"
"We did, only we didn't. Oh, bother!" Judy exclaimed. "I'm not explaining anything, am I? It's a good thing you don't write the way I talk. By the way, did the _Herald's_ star reporter bring along a copy of today's paper?"
"Ouch!" exclaimed Horace as Judy pulled the paper out from under him and then seated herself at his side to read it. "That news is hot off the press. I might have burned myself. It was my own story I was messing up, too."
Judy glanced at the headlines--THIEVES LOOT MILLIONAIRE'S HOME--and quickly read Horace's story about the mysterious looting of a secluded old mansion not far from the national forest.
"The national forest!" she exclaimed. "Honey, do you remember the look that man gave me when I mentioned it? The other men acted funny, too. Maybe _they_ were the thieves. Horace, could they have been escaping over this road?"
