For a long while Dave could not sleep. As had been the case the night previous, he tumbled and tossed on his couch, thinking of the trouble that had come to him. But at last tired nature claimed its own, and he sank into a profound slumber, from which he did not awaken until some time after sunrise. "Hello! I must have overslept," he declared, as he leaped up, to see that his chums were almost dressed. Dave was just finishing his toilet, and the other boys and some of the girls had started to walk down to the dock to look at the lake, when a cry came from the kitchen of the bungalow. "Mrs. Wadsworth! Mr. Porter!" came a call from the hired girl. "Please come here!" "What is it, Mary?" asked Mrs. Wadsworth, as she appeared from her own room. "Sure, ma'am, a whole lot of things are missing!" declared the girl. "Missing! What is missing?" "Sure, ma'am, almost everything in the kitchen is missing, ma'am!" and the girl pointed around in a helpless sort of fashion. "All the knives and forks and spoons are gone! And so are some of the pots and pans and kettles!" "Is that possible?" "Yes, ma'am. And that ain't all, ma'am. Sure, and most of the things in the pantry and in the ice-box are gone, too!" announced Mary, running from one place to another. "Sure, ma'am, we've been burglarized, ma'am!" CHAPTER XXVIII DELLA FORD'S STATEMENT "Burglars!" "Did they take any of our valuables?" "Oh, I wonder if they were in our rooms!" "Mary, were all the things here when you went to bed?" questioned Mrs. Wadsworth, of the servant girl, who was now in the wildest possible state of excitement, wringing her hands and running from one room to another. "Yes, ma'am, when I went to bed everything was in its place. I'm sure of it, ma'am." The boys as well as the girls crowded into the kitchen, and then looked into the pantry, in a corner of which was located the ice-box. "How about this pantry window, Mary? Did you leave it open last night?" asked Dave, pointing to the window in question. "Sure, sir, I did not! I always lock up well before I go to bed," answered the girl. "You didn't open the window this morning?" "No, sir." "Then that is where the thief must have come in," remarked Roger. "I think we had better take a look around and see just how much is missing," advised Phil. "The thief may have cleaned us out more than we imagine." Upon this, a systematic search was made through all the rooms of the bungalow. In the midst of the work Ben came running over from the other place. "Say, what do you know about this!" he called out. "Somebody visited our bungalow last night and took nearly all our victuals and our tableware and our kitchen utensils!" "The same thing happened here, Ben," answered Dave. "We are just sizing up the situation, to find out how much is gone."