"Look, girls, he dropped something," cried Betty, who had gone on a few steps in advance of them. "And it's--why, I do believe it's----" "My opal ring!" cried Mollie, staring at it unbelievingly. "Oh, I can't believe it. Give it to me, Betty; it has my initials on the inside. Yes, that's my ring." The ring passed from one to the other, and the girls regarded it thoughtfully. "Which proves beyond the shadow of a doubt," said Betty at last, "that Adolph Hensler was the thief." "Oh, if we could only have stopped him!" mourned Amy, for perhaps the eleventh time. "It's terrible to be so close and then lose sight of him again." "If it weren't for getting back our stolen things," said Grace with a little shiver, "I'd be only too glad not to lay eyes on his beauteous countenance again. Goodness, I know I'll dream of him to-night." They walked on after that for some time in silence, each one busy with her own absorbing thoughts. Then suddenly Betty spoke. "Do you know, girls," she said, "I may be foolish--probably I am, but I have a strong conviction that some time we're going to meet that spy again--and the third time he isn't going to get away from us!" CHAPTER XV MORE SURPRISES The next few weeks were filled with such excitement, that the girls even forgot to miss the boys. In the letters they received from the latter--and they were many--they never failed to find comments upon this strange fact. The boys seemed to feel a little aggrieved that the girls did not weep a few more tears in the absence of their devoted swains. "Of course I want you to be happy, Betty," Allen had written once upon this theme, "but I'd like to feel that you missed me, a little anyway. It makes a fellow feel as though it wouldn't make any difference if he disappeared off the face of the earth. If you missed me one-tenth as much as I miss you--" etc., etc., until Betty's laugh bubbled over and she patted the letter consolingly. "Never mind, Allen, dear," she said, putting the letter away carefully in the rapidly increasing pile, tied with the blue ribbon. "If you only knew what I know, you wouldn't have time to miss me so much either. But I am glad," she added, all to herself, flushed of face and shy-eyed, "oh, so very glad, Allen, to have you miss me!" So the days went on, drawing rapidly nearer to the date of their departure, while the excitement and good spirits of the girls rose proportionately. About a week before the great day, they gave another of the affairs which had grown so rapidly in popularity. This time it was to raise funds for the Hostess House, and the girls gave heart and soul and all their time to make it a success. They were to have some very elaborate tableaux with dancing afterward, and all Deepdale was on tiptoe with anticipation long before the night arrived. And how they all enjoyed it!