The Meadow-Brook Girls in the Hills | Page 4

will
you be ready to start?"
"As soon after daylight as we shall be able to get our breakfast."
"He had better bring our baggage from the station to-night. Then we
can have our packs in readiness," suggested Harriet Burrell.
"Yes, please do that, Mr. Grubb."
"Anything else, Miss?"
"Not that I think of for the moment. We have our tent in sections. We
also shall pack our blankets and such other things as will be needed.
The rest of the equipment can be sent on ahead to meet us wherever
you say. I don't know what the most convenient point would be. Where
would you suggest?"

"I can send it to the Tip-Top station on Moosilauke. Will that do?"
"Yes."
"Then I'll be going," said the guide. "I'll take you over to the Compton
House, and if you want to see me again this evening, you can call me
on the telephone."
Janus had started to move toward the steps preparatory to going about
his duties, when an exclamation from Harriet Burrell caused them to
turn sharply to her.
"There he is! There is the man with the goggles!" she whispered,
pointing toward the store. They saw a stoop-shouldered man standing
with his back against the large window. He was facing them, but, his
face being in the shadow, they were unable to distinguish the features.
The light in the store being at his back, and his head slightly turned to
the steps, toward which Janus was moving, Harriet Burrell was enabled
to look directly through one of the lenses. She saw that the glass was
green and that it masked effectually the eyes of the strange man.
"Quick, Mr. Grubb!" cried the girl. "The man again! Find out who he
is!"
Janus, who had moved down to the second step, now started back, and
was on the porch with one bound, thrusting the Meadow-Brook Girls
aside in his eagerness to reach the man who had impersonated him.
"Where is he?" shouted Janus, in a voice that brought most of the
villagers from the store on the run. "I see him!" Grubb made a leap,
when, as though he had vanished into thin air, the stranger disappeared
from sight.
The Meadow-Brook Girls gasped in amazement. But Harriet Burrell,
quicker in thought and action than even the guide himself, leaped from
the end of the porch and sped swiftly around the side of the store
toward the rear yard.

CHAPTER II
MISS ELTING'S MYSTERIOUS CALLER
"Come back here!" shouted the guide. Harriet halted. She hesitated at
sight of the black shadows there rather than at the command. She
distinctly heard some one floundering over a high board fence that shut
in the rear yard of the store and post-office. Janus's hand was on her
arm.
"Well, I swum!" he exclaimed.
"Oh, that's too bad. He got away," cried Harriet ruefully. "I was too
slow. I could have caught him just as well as not, had I not been so
stupid as to wait."
Harriet and the guide walked to where her companions were standing,
not certain what they ought to do, not quite sure what had occurred.
"This one's all right," chuckled Janus. "She's got the spunk, but she
needs watching. She'll get the whole outfit in trouble. Tell me about it,"
he concluded, turning to Harriet.
"You saw it, sir?" asked Harriet quickly.
"I didn't see anything," returned the guide. "The man was standing on
the spot where you are standing at this moment. He was listening to
what we were saying, but for what reason I can't imagine. I made the
mistake of calling to you. I shouldn't have done that. When you started
for him he disappeared."
"Yes, we saw him; then we did not," added Miss Elting.
"You didn't stop to think. You were too excited, and, besides, I was
nearer to the man than were the rest of you girls. He simply dropped
down on all fours and ran off the porch like a dog or a cat."
"Well, I swum!" muttered the guide.

"Mr. Grubb, I don't like this," declared the guardian severely.
"Neither do I, Miss," he replied in a tone that made the girls laugh.
"I am not certain what I ought to do, Mr. Grubb," continued Miss
Elting. "If it means that my girls are to be annoyed and disturbed, we
shall be obliged to look for another guide. You know I have a personal
responsibility in this matter. I shall have to think it over. Unless you
can give me reasonable assurance that these incidents will not be
repeated, then I shall have to make some different arrangements. You
will please send the luggage to the hotel as suggested. I will see you
early in the morning, at any rate. Come, girls."
Janus,