“We will talk about that when we are inside the house,” she said very firmly, and Mollie had nothing else to do but obey. The girls did breathe a little more freely when the door was locked, but they found themselves wishing even more ardently that the boys would come back. The window against which the horribly distorted face had been pressed seemed to hold a peculiar fascination for the Outdoor Girls and they found themselves unable to turn their eyes away from it. “Oh, I wish the boys would come back,” moaned Amy, after a few moments more had passed in strained silence. “If anything should happen to them I’m sure I would die.” “Nonsense, Amy,” snapped Mollie. “What could one little mad old man do to three big husky soldier boys?” The words had hardly been spoken when the sound of voices could be heard coming toward the house, and a moment later the boys themselves stamped up on the porch. “Not a sign of him,” said Will in response to the girls’ eager questions. “I don’t see how he could have disappeared so completely in such a short time.” “We all took different directions, too,” said Roy, taking a seat on the couch again and staring fascinatedly at the window. “If all the rest of you hadn’t seen it too, I should certainly think I had been mistaken.” “You weren’t mistaken,” Mollie assured him grimly. “I can vouch for that.” “Didn’t one of you girls call out something about Professor Dempsey?” asked Frank, abruptly. “Yes,” said Betty, going over to him, and putting an excited hand on his shoulder. “That’s the thing that startled us so, Frank. We are sure it was Professor Dempsey’s face. But, still, it was so wild and distorted that we really wouldn’t feel like contradicting any one who told us it wasn’t he,” she added slowly. “Do you understand what I mean?” Frank nodded, and Will broke in excitedly: “But the poor old codger’s looks would naturally be changed,” he argued, “after he had spent all this time wandering around the woods! out of his mind at that. I am inclined to think that the girls are right and that it is really Professor Dempsey.” “If only I could have gotten my hands on him!” mourned Roy. “We wouldn’t have been in any further doubt.” “There is really no doubt, boys. We just want! oh, I don’t know what we want!” exclaimed Mollie, who was excited and unstrung and nervous. Soon after that they all went to bed, having first decided to make a more thorough search of the woods in the morning and take the postponed trip to the head of the falls. They slept fitfully and were glad when at last they woke to find the sun shining in their windows. For once Amy and Grace did not have to be coaxed or wheedled or forced to get out of bed, but dressed quickly and were ready almost as soon as Mollie and Betty. “You know I rather hated to leave the boys in that room last night,” Betty confided to Grace, stopping before the mirror for one final little pat of her hair. “I was afraid that! he! might come back!!”