The Bobbsey Twins at Cedar Camp Part 10

But the automobile continued to go more and more slowly, and once, on a hill, it almost stopped.

"If we can get over the top we can coast down and soon be in Cedar Camp," said Mr. Bobbsey, in answer to an anxious look from his wife.

The car did manage to climb the hill, and then it was easy to go down the other side. But there was still a farther distance to go than Mr.

Bobbsey had thought. The night settled down, it became dark, and then, suddenly, when the car was on a rough road in a sort of lane cut through the evergreen trees, the engine, with a sort of cough and chug, stopped altogether.

"Oh, dear!" exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey. "We're stalled!"

"Looks like it," said Mr. Bobbsey, preparing to get out and see what the trouble was.

"Where are we?" asked Bert, getting ready to follow his father and help if he could.

"We're in the North Woods," answered Mr. Bobbsey. "Several miles from Cedar Camp, I'm afraid."

"It--it's awful dark!" whispered Flossie. "Aren't they going to turn on the lights?"

"There aren't ever any lights in the woods 'ceptin' fireflies, are there, Daddy?" asked Freddie.

"Only our auto lights," answered his father. "Well, we may be able to travel soon."

As he was getting out of the car into the dark road, a mournful, shrill cry that echoed all about sounded through the forest.

"What's that?" gasped Nan, shrinking close to her mother. "Oh, what is it?"

CHAPTER VIII--A NUTTING PARTY

Mrs. Bobbsey was rather alarmed at what had happened to the automobile to cause it to stop. She was also worried, thinking perhaps they all might have to stay out in the woods all night, if they could not go on to camp. So when Nan asked the cause of the strange noise her mother did not at first answer.

The sound came again, just as Bert was getting down out of the car to go to his father, who had lifted the hood over the motor to see what was wrong, and the strange sound so startled this Bobbsey twin lad that he let go his hold of the side of the car and slid with a b.u.mp to the ground.

"Ugh!" grunted Bert, as he fell.

He grunted in such a funny way, and he looked so odd sitting there in the dusk, as if he did not know what had happened, that Flossie and Freddie laughed. And this laughter seemed to make them less afraid of the queer call of the woods.

"Hurt yourself, Bert?" asked his father, looking up from his task of throwing the gleams of a flashlight in among the parts of the automobile motor.

"No, sir," Bert answered. "I just sat down sudden, that's all. But what was that noise, Daddy? Is it----"

As if finding fault because the Bobbsey twins had come to Cedar Camp, once more the warning call came.

"There it goes again!" exclaimed Nan.

Flossie and Freddie shrank closer to their mother, and even Nan seemed a little afraid, but Mr. Bobbsey only laughed.

"That's a hoot owl--or a screech owl, I don't know which," he said.

"Anyhow, it's only a bird with feathers and big, staring eyes. And, very likely, it's looking down at us now and wondering what we're doing in his woods."

"Is the owl looking at us now?" asked Freddie, climbing away from his mother and venturing to the door of the car.

"Very likely," his father said. "But the chances are you can't see it.

Owls keep pretty well hidden when there's any daylight left."

"Well, the light is fast fading," said Mrs. Bobbsey. "It's getting dark very fast, d.i.c.k. And unless we get to camp soon--well, you know what may happen," she said to her husband. "Do you think you can get the motor to going?"

"I think so," he answered. "Bert, please come here and hold the light for me."

Glad to be of help to his father, Bert arose from the ground, to which he had slipped when the sudden noise of the owl startled him, and went to hold the flash lamp. As he sent the beam moving about, in order to direct it just where his father wished it, there was a whirr and a flutter in the almost leafless branches of the trees overhead, and Flossie cried:

"There it is!"

"Yes, that's Mr. Owl," laughed her father. "He came up to look at us, but he doesn't like our bright light, because it hurts his eyes. So he flew away. Now come on, Bert, and we'll get the motor to running again.

They'll be anxious at Cedar Camp if we don't get there soon."

"Do they expect us?" asked Nan.

"Oh, surely," said her father. "Hold the light steady, Bert."

The Bobbsey twin lad did as requested, and after a little examination, his father exclaimed:

"I see what the trouble is--a loose wire on a spark plug! That's easily fixed. We'll be traveling on again in a few minutes."

And so they were. Once the wire was fastened in place, the automobile could go again. Bert and his father got back in, there was a chugging and throb of the motor, and off they went through the woods, the two headlights gleaming along the dark road in the midst of the trees.

"I wish we could have arrived by daylight," said Mr. Bobbsey, as he carefully steered the car. "Cedar Camp looks ever so much better then."

"I'm glad to get here at all--so we don't have to stay out in the woods all night," said Mrs. Bobbsey.

"It would be fun to be out in the woods all night--if owls didn't bite you--wouldn't it, Flossie?" asked Freddie.

"Yes, I guess maybe," answered the little girl. "But I'd rather be in our camp an' have something to eat."

"I guess I would, too," agreed Freddie.

"Well, here we are, then. Cedar Camp!" suddenly cried Mr. Bobbsey, and, almost before the twins knew it, the car had turned from the dense woods and was in a clearing, or place where many trees were chopped down.

Around the clearing were many log cabins, and inside some of them, and outside others, lanterns were glowing, so the place was quite light, compared to the darkness of the forest.

"Cedar Camp!" cried Bert. "Is this it?"

"Yes," his father answered. "Here we are--a little late, but better late than never! Now to find our cabin."

He guided the car into the midst of the clearing, and the children could see the various cabin doors opening and men and women looking out.

"That you, Mr. Bobbsey?" a voice called.