"Oh, yes! We were waiting for a trolley car, and we heard an automobile coming. Then I had to throw away a bundle--I didn't want to take it along with me. I thought Aunt Delia might describe our clothes." "You got along pretty well for amateurs," remarked the detective with a laugh. "Some experts might have done worse." "Then you came straight to Lookout Beach?" asked the reporter. "Oh, no," answered Nellie. "We had to work our way down. First we went to work at the Wayside Inn." "Now, I want to speak," announced Jack with a comical gesture. "I would like to know whose shadow it was I was chasing one night around the Wayside? I never had such an illusionary race before in all my life. I came near concluding that my mind was haunted." Nellie laughed outright. "Oh, wasn't that funny!" she exclaimed. "I was trying to hide something, and you were trying to see who I was. I thought I would never get away from you, but I did fool you, after all." "That's right," admitted Jack. "But you left me a lock of your hair." Nellie blushed to her ear tips. Rose frowned, and shook her head to call her sister's attention to the man who was taking notes. "Where does my story come in?" demanded Andy. "I had a part in this show." "Oh, we are coming to you," replied the reporter. "Seems to me this will make a serial. It's a first-rate story, all right." "Don't say anything about the graveyard," whispered Belle to Ed. "I should hate to have that to get into print." "Oh, that's another story," replied the scribe. "We've got one end of that. The chauffeur declares he went after you, and spent all night in a cemetery--looking for the party he had left stalled there." Jack and Ed took a hand at story telling at this juncture, and it was the orphans' turn to listen in surprise at the disclosures. Finally the boys got back to the runaways' part in the happenings. "Then you came to Clover Cottage?" suggested Cora, smiling at the two girls. "Yes, we came here the first night. After that we got work in the motion picture show." "And was it your nose I almost burned off?" asked Ed. "I beg--your--pardon," and he made a courtly bow to Nellie. "Yes. That was a great trick," said Rose. "We almost killed ourselves trying to hide that night. We managed to walk right past you, though, without your knowing us." "And were you the 'carrier pigeon?'" asked Belle. "It was you, of course, who came up in the automobile, played ghost, and hung the note on the lamp?" "Oh, yes. The manager of the show wanted us to stay on, and we felt so dreadful that Nellie told him something about our trouble. Then he said he would drive us out to the cottage if we wanted to leave a message. He wrote the note for us, and Nellie crept in and hung it where she said you would be sure to see it." "We saw it, all right," commented Jack, smiling broadly. "And so they thought we took the old earrings," spoke up Rose indignantly.