reply.
“Marshall!” Mrs. Mallow cried out, her voice sharp with anxiety.
The sound of gruff whisperings could be heard. “I told you they were up to some joke,” Doris said under her breath. She tiptoed to the door and suddenly threw it wide.
“Boo!” she shouted. “You can’t fool—oh!” The girl reeled back and slammed the door.
“It—it’s that Moon man, and somebody else!” she gasped.
“Oh dear, oh dear,” moaned Mrs. Mallow. “And we are here by ourselves.”
“Say, inside there,” demanded someone from beyond the door. “Open up!”
“You had better get away in a hurry,” Doris cried back bravely. “You are trespassing!”
“No, I’m not,” came the reply. “I’m a deputy sheriff and I’m here with Mr. Moon who claims that two young fellers living here tried to burglarize his room at the hotel.”
The occupants of the room looked at one another, speechless.
Kitty dived under the covers, but Doris hurried to her clothes and began to dress as rapidly as possible.
Presently she was clad, and opened the door again.
“What you say is absurd,” she said.
“I’m sorry, lady, but I’m only doing my duty,”
said a man, flashing his badge. “You’ll have to let me look in the boys’ room.”
Doris was thinking quickly. How could she hold off these men?
“If they’re in their room—which they won’t be —we’ll wake ’em quick enough,” Moon laughed evilly. “Come on, Sheriff. Look in the next room.”
CHAPTER XVII
The Plot That Failed
Doris, her heart in her mouth, followed the men to the door of the chamber occupied by the two boys.
“Is this where they sleep?” the deputy sheriff demanded.
Doris refused to answer.
“Try it anyhow, Sheriff,” Moon commanded.
The officer rattled the doorknob and then pushed violently against it. Under his weight the door flew open.
“Here, show a light,” Moon laughed again. “I guess we’ll find the place empty.”
Doris’s hair almost rose on end as she heard a voice, unmistakably Dave’s, murmur sleepily:
“Wha-what’s the matter? Who’s there?”
The sheriff struck a match, and by the dim flare revealed the two boys in their beds, covered to their chins. Dave was blinking sleepily, but Marshmallow, his mouth open, snored gently.
“I guess you were wrong, Mr. Moon,” the officer said.
“I—well, I could have sworn—” stammered th« discomfited Moon.
“What’s the matter, Doris?” Dave demanded, now wide awake.
“I don’t know, but it is outrageous,” stormed the girl. “Now, will you men please leave these grounds at once before I call for help!”
“I’m sorry, lady, but I was just doin’ my duty,” the sheriff apologized, backing away.
Henry Moon, speechless, was already in full retreat. A moment later the car was heard to move off into the warm, dark night.
“Are they gone?” came from Marshmallow.
“Yes,” Doris replied. “And will you two please—”
“Explain?” Dave finished for her. “Certainly!”
Throwing back the covers, he jumped from the bed, fully clad, as Doris switched on the light.
Marshmallow followed suit, likewise revealing himself in the clothing he had worn at the table.
“It’s a long story, mates,” Marshmallow grinned.
“But first make sure that those men have really gone,” Dave cautioned.
“I’ll tell Mrs. Mallow and Kitty that everything is all right,” Doris said.
She paused at the door of her room and Kitty’s to tell the news, and then made sure that Moon and the deputy sheriff had gone.
A few minutes later all five were assembled in the boys’ room, the two girls and Mrs. Mallow listening with horror to the boys’ story.
“It was all my idea,” Marshmallow began, “and if you think I’m bragging, I’ll confess that nothing came of it.
“It flashed over me just before dinner, this scheme, and I gave Dave the sign to come down to the village with me—alone. We knew that Saturday night meant big doings, especially with the movie show on, so our scheme shouldn’t have fallen through.”
“What scheme?” Doris exclaimed. “Don’t be so mysterious!”
“Patience, patience,” Marshmallow advised. “We went to the Raven Rock Ritz, that magnificent hostelry where Moon and his two friends are stopping, and Dave and I took’a room there, too.”
“What in the world for?” demanded Mrs. Mallow. “Are you dissatis—”
“Sh! All will be revealed,” her son grinned. “It cost only two dollars, and we didn’t pay that, having to leave sort of unceremoniously. In signing the register we looked over the page for Henry Moon’s name and got the number of his room. There are only eight or ten in the hotel, and we found that his was at the end of the one and only corridor on the first and only floor.
“So Dave and I sauntered down. Somebody was saying in an excited sort of voice, ‘I tell you, she found it all out. She’s wise.’ Then and there we knew there wasn’t much time to waste.”
“They were talking about you, of course,” Dave interrupted, indicating Doris.
“We walked out front, then, where we could keep an eye on the hall door,” continued Dave, “and after a while Moon came out with the Bedelle boy—the stowaway, you know—and the two men. We watched them go up the street a little way, then we went back to Moon’s room, tried the key to our room in the lock—and it worked!”
“Marshall!” Mrs. Mallow exclaimed in a shocked voice. “You could have been arrested! That is—”
“We almost were arrested, as you know,” Marshmallow admitted. “But when one is on the trail of thieves one has to take risks.
“Anyhow, we went into the room and I kept watch at the door while Dave started a search for the stolen papers.”
“I
