Ann said as she crawled under the blankets.

Her thoughts drifted back to the blue-eyed boy. Who was he, and why was he with those peons? There must be some mystery back of it all. Could it be possible that he had been kidnaped as Peggy had jokingly suggested? “I’m going down there early tomorrow morning and find out more about it,” she told herself before dropping off to sleep.

CHAPTER III AN UNWELCOME VISITOR

AN UNWELCOME VISITOR

When Jo Ann opened her eyes the next morning, the sun was already shining through the open doorway. She lay still a moment and tried to think why she had wanted to get up early. What had she planned to do? Then it all came back to her. She was going down to the cave to find out more about the blue-eyed boy.

She threw back the covers and sprang up quickly, but the next moment she dropped back with a stifled groan.

“What’s the matter, Jo?” whispered Peggy. “You’re not stiff or sore, are you?”

“Oh no—of course not! I just groaned for the fun of it.”

“That’s the reason I didn’t want to go with you girls down to the goat ranch yesterday. I knew I wouldn’t be able to move today if I did. I’m going to take my climbing in smaller doses, so it won’t be so painful.”

Just then they heard a groan from the other end of the room, and both girls raised up on their elbows to look over at Florence.

“Are you sore too?” Jo Ann called out loud when she saw that Mrs. Blackwell was also awake now.

“I’ll say I am! It’s agony to move. We’ll have to climb some more today to get limbered up.”

“That’s exactly what we’re going to do just as soon as breakfast’s over. You remember we planned to take some food to those children down at the cave. I want to show you and Peggy my blue-eyed boy, too.”

Peggy laughed. “I surely hope you get to satisfy your curiosity about him—we won’t have a minute’s peace till you do.”

“Well, if we’re going down there this morning, we’d better roll out.” Florence screwed up her face and began slowly crawling out of bed.

Peggy smiled at the ridiculous contortions Jo Ann and Florence went through as they got up and 

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