“Where is he?” shouted Janus, in a voice that brought most of the villagers from the store on the run.  “I see him!” Grubb made a leap, when, as though he had vanished into thin air, the stranger disappeared from sight.

The Meadow-Brook Girls gasped in amazement.  But Harriet Burrell, quicker in thought and action than even the guide himself, leaped from the end of the porch and sped swiftly around the side of the store toward the rear yard.

CHAPTER II

MISS ELTING’S MYSTERIOUS CALLER

“Come back here!” shouted the guide.  Harriet halted.  She hesitated at sight of the black shadows there rather than at the command.  She distinctly heard some one floundering over a high board fence that shut in the rear yard of the store and post-office.  Janus’s hand was on her arm.

“Well, I swum!” he exclaimed.

“Oh, that’s too bad.  He got away,” cried Harriet ruefully.  “I was too slow.  I could have caught him just as well as not, had I not been so stupid as to wait.”

Harriet and the guide walked to where her companions were standing, not certain what they ought to do, not quite sure what had occurred.

“This one’s all right,” chuckled Janus.  “She’s got the spunk, but she needs watching.  She’ll get the whole outfit in trouble.  Tell me about it,” he concluded, turning to Harriet.

“You saw it, sir?” asked Harriet quickly.

“I didn’t see anything,” returned the guide.  “The man was standing on the spot where you are standing at this moment.  He was listening to what we were saying, but for what reason I can’t imagine.  I made the mistake of calling to you.  I shouldn’t have done that.  When you started for him he disappeared.”

“Yes, we saw him; then we did not,” added Miss Elting.

“You didn’t stop to think.  You were too excited, and, besides, I was nearer to the man than were the rest of you girls.  He simply dropped down on all fours and ran off the porch like a dog or a cat.”

“Well, I swum!” muttered the guide.

“Mr. Grubb, I don’t like this,” declared the guardian severely.

“Neither do I, Miss,” he replied in a tone that made the girls laugh.

“I am not certain what I ought to do, Mr. Grubb,” continued Miss Elting.  “If it means that my girls are to be annoyed and disturbed, we shall be obliged to look for another guide.  You know I have a personal responsibility in this matter.  I shall have to think it over.  Unless you can give me reasonable assurance that these incidents will not be repeated, then I shall have to make some different arrangements.  You will please send the luggage to the hotel as suggested.  I will see you early in the morning, at any rate.  Come, girls.”

Janus, somewhat downcast and very thoughtful, led the way to the Compton House, a short distance down the street from the post-office and grocery store.  The girls began talking almost as soon as they had left the store porch.