began dressing.

Finally Jo Ann picked up a shoe and pitched it across at her. “You will laugh at me, will you?” she said good-naturedly. “Roll out yourself, or I’ll pour some cold water in your face.”

Jo Ann finished dressing first, and as she went out the door she called back, “I’ll make the fire while you girls finish dressing; then it won’t take us long to get breakfast.”

A few minutes later she was joined by Peggy and Florence, and all three girls set to work getting the breakfast started.

“I’ll set the table,” offered Peggy.

“And I’ll get the things from our refrigerator at the spring,” added Jo Ann, and started off stiff-legged down the path. “The walk’ll help to limber me up.”

“Jo ought to have a prize for her graceful walk,” smiled Peggy as she started into the house to set the table, while Florence went for some wood to replenish the fire.

A few minutes later Jo Ann came running back empty-handed, her sore muscles forgotten. “Our food’s gone—everything’s gone!” she called excitedly to Florence.

The wood dropped from Florence’s hands and sent up a shower of sparks as it fell into the fire. “Gone!” she gasped. “Are you sure you looked in the right place?”

“Sure. The box’s turned over, and there’s nothing under it.”

By this time Peggy, hearing the excitement, rushed out of the house, and all three girls raced back to the spring, then stood staring at the overturned box.

“What do you think happened?” asked Jo Ann. “Do you suppose someone stole the things and left the box there so it’d look as if a dog had done it?”

“I hardly think so,” replied Florence thoughtfully. “There’s no one up here who’d——” She stopped abruptly.

“Could it have been those people down at the cave who——” began Jo Ann; then the next moment she answered her own question: “No, I know they didn’t do it. They’re poor, but I don’t believe they’d steal.”

Peggy looked over at Jo Ann. “How do you know? You can’t prove it.”

Dropping to her knees beside the spring Jo Ann began examining the moss-covered stones. “The moss is scraped off this rock where something heavy stepped on it, but then we 

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