"We'll have the best time ever, Jessie," said Dave, in talking the matter over the day after his arrival home. "I am sure you will like it."
"Have you your things packed, Dave?" questioned his sister, who was present. "You don't want to leave that until the last minute."
"Oh, packing is getting easy to me, Laura. I feel like a regular traveler since I took those trips to Cave Island, and after the runaways, and to the Landslide Mine and Yellowstone Park."
"Oh, it was splendid, the way you relocated that gold mine, Dave!" cried Jessie. "How glad Roger and his folks must have been."
"They surely were glad," answered the youth. "I never saw Roger look so happy in my life. It took a big weight off his shoulders."
"And, just to think that they are going to give you and Phil an interest in that mine!" remarked Laura. "Why, Dave, if you keep on, you'll be a rich man some day."
"Well, I sha'n't complain if I am," answered the brother, coolly.
It had been arranged that the start for Mirror Lake should be made on the following Monday morning. Some of the folks were to go as far as they could by train, but the young people had demurred, stating that they wanted if possible to make the trip by automobile.
"We can take our machine and the Basswood car," said Dave. "It won't take us more than two or three days, and it will be lots of fun."
"But what are we going to do with the automobiles after we reach Carpen Falls?" asked Dunston Porter. "You can't go any farther in an auto than that."
"Isn't there some sort of garage at Carpen Falls?" questioned Ben, who was present.
"Probably there is. Anyway, I know there is a livery stable there."
"Then we could leave the machines there until we were ready to bring them back," replied Dave.
"We'll see about this later," said Dave's father, with a shake of his head. Automobiling did not appeal to him quite as strongly as it did to his son and his brother.
It was a beautiful afternoon, and Dave and Ben had arranged for a little run in the automobile, taking Laura and Jessie along. Dave ran the car, with Jessie on the seat beside him. Their course was out of Crumville, and then over the distant hills to a winding road which ran beside the river.
"It seems so strange, Dave, to think you are not going back to Oak Hall this fall," remarked Jessie, when the automobile was bowling along over the smooth highway.