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diff --git a/31499-h/31499-h.htm b/31499-h/31499-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d64a675 --- /dev/null +++ b/31499-h/31499-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,5346 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml11/DTD/xhtml11.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" > +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> +<meta name="generator" content="eppg.py 0.53 (25-Feb-2010)" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of A Campfire Girl's Happiness by Jane L. 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Stewart + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Campfire Girl's Happiness + +Author: Jane L. Stewart + +Release Date: March 4, 2010 [EBook #31499] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A CAMPFIRE GIRL'S HAPPINESS *** + + + + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + +<div class='fs08'> +<table class='center' summary=""> +<tr><td align='center'><b>THE CAMPFIRE GIRLS SERIES</b></td></tr> +<tr><td><p>A CAMPFIRE GIRL’S FIRST COUNCIL FIRE<br /> +A CAMPFIRE GIRL’S CHUM<br /> +A CAMPFIRE GIRL IN SUMMER CAMP<br /> +A CAMPFIRE GIRL’S ADVENTURE<br /> +A CAMPFIRE GIRL’S TEST OF FRIENDSHIP<br /> +A CAMPFIRE GIRL’S HAPPINESS</p></td></tr> +</table> +</div> + +<hr class='pb' /> + +<div class='figcenter'> +<a id='link_i1'></a><img src='images/illus-fpc.jpg' alt='' /> +<p class='center caption'> +They had hearty appetites for the camp breakfast. +</p> +</div> + +<hr class='pb' /> + +<div class='titlepage'> +<p class='fs20 mb40'>A Campfire Girl’s<br />Happiness</p> + +<p>By</p> <p class='fs12 mb30'>JANE L. STEWART</p> + +<div class='tpi'> +<img alt='emblem' src='images/illus-emb.png' /> +</div> + +<p class='fs08 mb40'>CAMPFIRE GIRLS SERIES<br />VOLUME VI</p> + +<p class='fs12'>THE<br />SAALFIELD PUBLISHING COMPANY<br /> +AKRON, OHIO               NEW YORK</p> + +<p class='fs08'>Made in U.S.A.</p> +</div> + +<hr class='pb' /> + +<p class='c fs08 mb00'>COPYRIGHT, MCMXIV<br />BY</p> +<p class='c mt00'>THE SAALFIELD PUBLISHING CO.</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> + +<h1>The Camp Fire Girls<br />At the Seashore</h1> + +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_11'></a>11</span><a id='link_1'></a>CHAPTER I<br /><span class='h2fs'>FROM THE ASHES</span></h2> + +<p>The sun rose over Plum Beach to shine down on a scene of confusion and +wreckage that might have caused girls less determined and courageous than those +who belonged to the Manasquan Camp Fire of the Camp Fire Girls of America to +feel that there was only one thing to do–pack up and move away. But, +though the camp itself was in ruins, there were no signs of discouragement among +the girls themselves. Merry laughter vied with the sound of the waves, and the +confusion among the girls was more apparent than real.</p> + +<p>“Have you got everything sorted, Margery–the <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_12'></a>12</span> things that are completely ruined and +those that are worth saving?” asked Eleanor Mercer, the Guardian of the +Camp Fire.</p> + +<p>“Yes, and there’s more here that we can save and still use than +anyone would have dreamed just after we got the fire put out,” replied +Margery Burton, one of the older girls, who was a Fire-Maker. In the Camp Fire +there are three ranks–the Wood-Gatherers, to which all girls belong when +they join; the Fire-Makers, next in order, and, finally, the Torch-Bearers, of +which Manasquan Camp Fire had none. These rank next to the Guardian in a Camp +Fire, and, as a rule, there is only one in each Camp Fire. She is a sort of +assistant to the Guardian, and, as the name of the rank implies, she is supposed +to hand on the light of what the Camp Fire has given her, by becoming a Guardian +of a new Camp Fire as soon as she is qualified.</p> + +<p>“What’s next?” cried Bessie King, who had been working with +some of the other girls in sorting out the things which could be used, despite +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_13'></a>13</span> the damage done by +the fire that had almost wiped out the camp during the night.</p> + +<p>“Why, we’ll start a fire of our own!” said Eleanor. +“There’s no sort of use in keeping any of this rubbish, and the best +way to get rid of it is just to burn it. All hands to work now, piling it up and +seeing that there is a good draught underneath, so that it will burn up. We can +get rid of ashes easily, but half-burned things are a nuisance.”</p> + +<p>“Where are we going to sleep to-night?” asked Dolly Ransom, +ruefully surveying the places where the tents had stood. Only two remained, +which were used for sleeping quarters by some of the girls.</p> + +<p>“I’m more bothered about what we’re going to eat,” +said Eleanor, with a laugh. “Do you realize that we’ve been so +excited that we haven’t had any breakfast? I should think you’d be +starved, Dolly. You’ve had a busier morning than the rest of us, +even.”</p> + +<p>“I <i>am</i> hungry, when I’m reminded of it,” said <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_14'></a>14</span> Dolly, with, a comical +gesture. “What ever are we going to do, Miss Eleanor?”</p> + +<p>“I’m just teasing you, Dolly,” said Eleanor. “Mr. +Salters came over from Green Cove in his boat, when he saw the fire, to see if +he couldn’t help in some way, and he’s gone in to Bay City. +He’ll be out pretty soon with a load of provisions, and as many other +things as he can stuff into the <i>Sally S</i>.”</p> + +<p>“Then we’re really going to stay here?” said Bessie +King.</p> + +<p>“We certainly are!” said Eleanor, her eyes flashing. “I +don’t see why we should let a little thing like this fire drive us away! +We are going to stay here, and, what’s more, we’re going to have +just as good a time as we planned to have when we came here–if not a +better one!”</p> + +<p>“Good!” cried half a dozen of the girls together.</p> + +<p>Soon all the rubbish was collected, and a fire had been built. And, while +Margery Burton applied a light to it, the girls formed a circle about <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_15'></a>15</span> it, and danced around, +singing the while the most popular of Camp Fire songs, Wo-he-lo.</p> + +<p>“That’s like turning all the unpleasant things that have happened +to us, isn’t it?” said Eleanor. “We just toss them into the +flames, and they’re gone! What’s left is clean and good and useful, +and we will make all the better use of it for having lost what is burning +now.”</p> + +<p>“Isn’t it strange, Miss Eleanor,” said Bessie King, +“that this should have happened to us so soon after the fire that burned +up the Pratt’s farm?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, it is,” replied Eleanor. “And there’s a lesson +in it for us, just as there was for them in their fire. We didn’t expect +to find them in such trouble when we started to walk there, but we were able to +help them, and to show them that there was a way of rising from the ruin of +their home, and being happier and more prosperous than they had been +before.”</p> + +<p>“We’re going to do that, too,” said Dolly, with spirit. +“I felt terrible when I first saw the place <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_16'></a>16</span> in the light, after the fire was all out, +but it looks different already.”</p> + +<p>“Mr. Salters will be here soon,” said Eleanor. “And now +there’s nothing more to do until he comes. We’ll have a fine +meal–and if you’re half as hungry as I am you’ll be glad of +that–and we’ll spend the afternoon in getting the place to rights. +But just now the best thing for all of us to do is to rest.”</p> + +<p>“I’ll be glad to do that,” said Dolly Ransom, as she linked +her arm with Bessie’s and drew her away. “I am pretty +tired.”</p> + +<p>“I should think you would be, Dolly. I haven’t had a chance to +thank you yet for what you did for me.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, nonsense, Bessie!” said Dolly, flushing. “You’d +have done it for me, wouldn’t you? I’m only just as glad as I can be +that I was able to do anything to get you away from Mr. Holmes–you and +Zara.”</p> + +<p>“Zara’s gone to pieces completely, Dolly. She was terribly +frightened–more than I was, I think, <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_17'></a>17</span> and yet I don’t see how that can be, because I +was as frightened as I think anyone could have been.”</p> + +<p>“I never saw them get hold of you at all, Bessie. How did it +happen?”</p> + +<p>“Well, that’s pretty hard to say, Dolly. You know, after we found +out that that yacht was here just to watch us, I was nervous, and so were +you.”</p> + +<p>“I think we had reason to be nervous, don’t you?”</p> + +<p>“I should say so! Well, anyhow, as soon as I saw that the tents were on +fire, I was sure that the men on the yacht had had something to do with it. But, +of course, there wasn’t anything to do but try as hard as I could to help +put out the fire, and it was so exciting that I didn’t think about any +other danger until I saw a man from the boat that had come ashore pick Zara up +and start to carry her out to it.”</p> + +<p>“They pretended to be helping us with the fire, and they really did +help, Bessie. I guess we wouldn’t have saved any of the tents at all if it +hadn’t been for them.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_18'></a>18</span>“Oh, I saw +what they were doing! When I saw the man pick Zara up, though, I knew right away +what their plan was. And I was just going to scream when another man got hold of +me, and he kept me from shouting, and carried me off to the yacht in the boat. +Zara had fainted, and they kept us down below in a cabin and said they were +going to take us along the coast until we came to the coast of the state Zara +and I were in when we met you girls first.”</p> + +<p>“We guessed that, Bessie. That was one of the things we were all +worrying about when we came here–that they might try to carry you two off +that way. I don’t see how it can be that you’re all right as long as +you’re in this state, and in danger as soon as you go back to the one you +came from.”</p> + +<p>“Well, you see, Zara and I really did run away, I suppose. Zara’s +father is in prison, so they said she had to have a guardian, and I left the +Hoovers. So that old Farmer Weeks–you know about him, don’t +you?–is our guardian in that <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_19'></a>19</span> state, and he’s got an order from the judge +near Hedgeville putting us in his care until we are twenty-one.”</p> + +<p>“But that order’s no good in this state?”</p> + +<p>“No, because here Miss Mercer is our guardian. But if they can get us +into that other state, no matter how, they can hold us.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, I see! And, of course, Miss Eleanor understood right away. When we +told the men who had helped us with the fire that you were missing, they said +they were afraid you must have been caught in the fire, but Miss Eleanor said +she was sure you were on the yacht. And they just laughed.”</p> + +<p>“I heard that big man, Jeff, talking to her when she went aboard the +yacht.”</p> + +<p>“Yes. They wouldn’t let her look for you, and he threatened to +put her off if she didn’t come ashore. You heard that, didn’t +you?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, yes! Zara and I could hear everything she said when she was in the +cabin on the yacht. But we couldn’t let her know where we were.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_20'></a>20</span>“Well, just +as soon as she could get to a telephone, Miss Eleanor called up Bay City, and +asked them to send policemen or some sort of officers who could search the +yacht. But we were terribly afraid that they would sail away before those men +could get here, and then, you see, we couldn’t have done a thing. There +wouldn’t have been any way of catching them.”</p> + +<p>“And they’d have done it, too, if it hadn’t been for you, +Dolly! I don’t see how you ever thought of it, and how you were brave +enough to do what you did when you did think of it.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, pshaw, Bessie–it was easy! I knew enough about yachts to +understand that if their screw was twisted up with rope it wouldn’t turn, +and that would keep them there for a little while, anyhow. And they never seemed +to think of that possibility at all. So I swam out there, and, of course, I +could dive and stay down for a few seconds at a time. It was easier, because I +had something to hold on to.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_21'></a>21</span>“It was +mighty clever, and mighty plucky of you, too, Dolly.”</p> + +<p>“There was only one thing I regretted, Bessie. I wish I’d been +able to hear what they said when they found out they couldn’t get +away!”</p> + +<p>“I wish you’d been there, too, Dolly,” said Bessie, +laughing. “They were perfectly furious, and everyone on board blamed +everyone else. It took them quite a while to find out what was the matter, and +then even after they found out, it meant a long delay before they could clear +the screw and get moving.”</p> + +<p>“I never was so glad of anything in my life, Bessie, as when we saw the +men from Bay City coming while that yacht was still here! We kept watching it +all the time, of course, and we saw them send the sailor over to dive down and +find out what was wrong. Then we could see him going down and coming up, time +after time, and it seemed as if he would get it done in time.”</p> + +<p>“It must have been exciting, Dolly.”</p> + +<p>“I guess it was just as exciting for you, wasn’t <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_22'></a>22</span> it? But it would have been +dreadful if, after having held them so long, it hadn’t been quite long +enough.”</p> + +<p>“Well, it <i>was</i> long enough, Dolly, thanks to you! I hate to think +of where I would be now if you hadn’t managed it so cleverly.”</p> + +<p>“What will they do to those men on the yacht, do you +suppose?”</p> + +<p>“I don’t know. Miss Eleanor wants to prove that it was Mr. Holmes +who got them to do it, I think. But that won’t be decided until her +cousin, Mr. Jamieson, the lawyer, comes. He’ll know what we’d better +do, and I’m sure Miss Eleanor will leave it to him to decide.”</p> + +<p>“I tell you one thing, Bessie. This sort of persecution of you and Zara +has got to be stopped. I really do believe they’ve gone too far this time. +Of course, if they had got you away, they’d have been all right, because +in that other state where you two came from what they did was all right. But +they got caught at it. I certainly do hope <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_23'></a>23</span> that Mr. Jamieson will be able to find some way to +stop them.”</p> + +<p>“I’m glad we’re going to stay here, aren’t you, +Dolly? Do you know, I really feel that we’ll be safer here now than if we +went somewhere else? They’ve tried their best to get at us here, and they +couldn’t manage it. Perhaps now they’ll think that we’ll be on +our guard too much, and leave us alone.”</p> + +<p>“I hope so, Bessie. But look here, there were two girls on guard last +night, and what good did it do us?”</p> + +<p>“You don’t think they were asleep, do you, Dolly?”</p> + +<p>“No, I’m sure they weren’t. But they just didn’t have +a chance to do anything. What happened was this. Margery and Mary were sitting +back to back, so that one could watch the yacht and the other the path that +leads up to the spring on top of the bluff, where those two men we had seen were +sitting.”</p> + +<p>“That was a good idea, Dolly.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_24'></a>24</span>“First rate, +but those people were too clever. They didn’t row ashore in a +boat–not here, at least. And no one came down the path, until later, +anyhow. The first thing that made Margery think there was anything wrong was +when she smelt smoke and then, a second later, the big living tent was all +ablaze.”</p> + +<p>“It might have been an accident, Dolly, I suppose–”</p> + +<p>“Oh, yes, it might have been, but it wasn’t! They were here too +soon, and it fitted in too well with their plans. Miss Eleanor thinks she knows +how they started the fire.”</p> + +<p>“But how could they have done that, if there were none of them here on +the beach, Dolly?”</p> + +<p>“She says that if they were on the bluff, above the tents, they could +very easily have thrown down bombs that would smoulder, and soon set the canvas +on fire. And there was a high wind last night, and it wouldn’t have taken +long, once a spark had touched the canvas, for everything to blaze up. They +couldn’t have picked a much better night.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_25'></a>25</span>“I +don’t suppose that can be proved, though, Dolly.”</p> + +<p>“I’m afraid not. That’s what Miss Eleanor says, too. She +says you can often be so sure of a thing yourself that it seems that it must +have happened, without being able to prove it to someone else. That’s +where they are so clever, and that’s what makes them so dangerous. They +can hide their tracks splendidly.”</p> + +<p>“I don’t see why men who can do such things couldn’t keep +straight, and really make more money honestly than they can by being +crooked.”</p> + +<p>“It does seem strange, doesn’t it, Bessie? Oh, look, +there’s the <i>Sally S.</i> with our breakfast–and there’s +another boat coming in. I wonder if Mr. Jamieson can be here already?”</p> + +<p>In a moment his voice proved that it <i>was</i> possible, and a few minutes +later, while the girls were helping Captain Salters to unload the stores he had +brought with him, Eleanor was greeting her attorney from Bay City.</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_27'></a>27</span><a id='link_2'></a>CHAPTER II<br /><span class='h2fs'>A NEW ALLY</span></h2> + +<p>“I guess you haven’t met Billy Trenwith properly yet, +Eleanor,” said Charlie Jamieson, smiling.</p> + +<p>“Maybe not,” said Eleanor, returning the smile, “but I +regard him as a friend already, Charlie. He was splendid this morning. If he +hadn’t understood so quickly, and acted at once, the way he did, I +don’t know what would have happened.”</p> + +<p>“I’m afraid I didn’t really understand at all, Miss +Mercer,” said Trenwith, a good looking young fellow, with light brown hair +and grey blue eyes, that, although mild and pleasant enough now, had been as +cold as steel when Bessie had seen him on the yacht. “But I could +understand readily enough that you were in trouble, and I knew that +Charlie’s cousin wouldn’t appeal to me <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_28'></a>28</span> unless there was a good reason. So I +didn’t feel that I was taking many chances in doing what you +wished.”</p> + +<p>“I’m afraid you took more chances than you know about, +Billy,” said Charlie, gravely. “You’re in politics, +aren’t you? And you have ambitions for more of a job than you’ve got +now?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, yes, I’m in politics, after a fashion,” admitted +Trenwith. “But I guess I could manage to keep alive if I never got another +political office. I had a bit of a practice before I became district attorney, +and I think I could build it up again.”</p> + +<p>“Well, I hope this isn’t going to make any difference, Billy. But +it’s only fair for you to know the sort of game you’re running into. +I don’t want to feel that you’re going ahead to help us without +understanding the situation just as it is.”</p> + +<p>“You talk as if this might be a pretty complicated bit of business, +Charlie. Suppose you loosen up and tell me about it. Then I may be able to +figure better on how I can help you.”</p> + +<p>“That’s just what I’m going to do, old man. <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_29'></a>29</span> I want you to meet two of +cousin’s protegees here–Bessie King and Zara, the mysterious. If we +knew more about Zara and her affairs this wouldn’t be such a Chinese +puzzle. But here goes! Ask me all the questions you like. And you girls–if +I go wrong, stop me.</p> + +<p>“In the first place, Miss Mercer here took a party of her Camp Fire +Girls, these same ones that you can see there so busy about getting breakfast, +over the state line, and they went to a camp on a lake a little way from a +village called Hedgeville.”</p> + +<p>“I know the place,” nodded Trenwith. “Never been there, but +I know where it is.”</p> + +<p>“Well, one morning they discovered these two–Bessie and Zara. And +they’d had a strange experience. They were running away!”</p> + +<p>“Bad business, as a rule,” commented Trenwith. “But I +suppose there was a good reason?”</p> + +<p>“You bet there was, old chap! Bessie had lived for a good many years +with an old farmer called Hoover and his wife. They had a son, too, a <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_30'></a>30</span> worthless young scamp +named Jake, lazy and ready for any sort of mischief that turned up!”</p> + +<p>“Is she related to them in any way, Charlie?”</p> + +<p>“Not a bit of it! When she was a little bit of a kid her parents left +her there as a boarder, and they were supposed to send money to pay for her keep +until they came back to get her. For a while they did, but then the money +stopped coming.”</p> + +<p>“But they kept her on, just the same?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, as a sort of unpaid servant. She did all the work she could +manage, and she didn’t have a very good time. Zara, here, has a father. +How long ago did Zara and her father come to Hedgeville, Bessie?”</p> + +<p>“They’d been there about two years when we–we had to run +away, Mr. Jamieson. They came from some foreign country, you know.”</p> + +<p>“Yes. And the people around Hedgeville couldn’t make much out +about them, so they decided, of course, being unable to understand them, <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_31'></a>31</span> that there must be +something wrong about Zara’s dad. No real reason at all, except that he +only spoke a little English, and liked to keep his business to +himself.”</p> + +<p>Trenwith laughed.</p> + +<p>“I know,” he said. “I see a lot of that sort of +thing.”</p> + +<p>“Well, the day before the two of them ran away–or the day before +they found the girls, rather–there’d been a fine shindy at the +Hoovers. Zara went over to see Bessie, and Jake Hoover locked her in a tool +shed. Then he managed, without meaning to do it, to set the tool shed afire, and +said he was going to say that Bessie had done it.”</p> + +<p>“Fine young pup, he must be!”</p> + +<p>“Yes–worth knowing! Anyhow, Bessie had only too good reason to +know that his mother would believe him and take his word, no matter what she and +Zara said. So, being scared, she just ran. I don’t blame her! I’d +have done the same thing myself. You and I both know that <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_32'></a>32</span> knowing he’s innocent doesn’t +keep a man who is unjustly accused from being afraid.”</p> + +<p>“No,” said Trenwith, thoughtfully. “I’ve had to learn +that it doesn’t pay to think a man’s guilty because he’s +scared and confused. It’s an old theory that innocence shows in a +prisoner’s eyes, and it’s very pretty–only it isn’t +true.”</p> + +<p>“Well, even so, they might not have run away if it hadn’t +happened that that was the day Zara’s father was arrested. Apparently with +an old miser and money lender called Weeks as the moving spirit, a charge of +counterfeiting was cooked up against him, and they took him off to my town to +jail.”</p> + +<p>“But it’s in another state!”</p> + +<p>“United States case, you see. My town’s the centre of the Federal +district. Zara and Bessie happened to get on to this, and when they crept up to +Zara’s house to find out if it was true, they overheard enough to show +them that it was–and, what was more, that old Weeks meant to get <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_33'></a>33</span> himself appointed +Zara’s guardian, and take her home with him.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, that was his game, eh?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, and if you’d ever seen him, you wouldn’t blame Zara +for being ready to run away before she went with him. He’s the meanest old +codger you ever saw. But he had a big pull in that region, because he held +mortgages on about all the farms, and he could do about as he liked.”</p> + +<p>“Well, I don’t see why they didn’t have a perfect right to +run away,” said Trenwith, “legally and morally. They didn’t +owe anything in the way of gratitude to any of these people.”</p> + +<p>“That’s just what I said!” declared Eleanor, vehemently. +“I looked into the story they told me, and I found out it was perfectly +true. So we helped them, and took them into this state.”</p> + +<p>“Yes. And old Weeks chased them, and got Zara away from them once. +Bessie tricked him and got her back,” said Jamieson. “And then the +old rip got a court order making him Zara’s guardian, but he tried to +serve it across the state <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_34'></a>34</span> line, and got dished for his trouble. So it looked as +if they’d shaken him pretty well.”</p> + +<p>“I should say so! Do you mean that he kept it up after that?”</p> + +<p>“He certainly did! And he got pretty powerful help too. Here’s +where the part of it that ought to interest you really begins. Miss Mercer took +the two girls home with her, and almost at once, in the middle of the night, +Zara was spirited away. At first we thought she’d been kidnapped but later +it turned out that she’d been deceived, and gone with them +willingly.”</p> + +<p>“This is beginning to sound pretty exciting, Charlie.”</p> + +<p>“I got interested in the case, Billy, and I tried to do what I could +for Zara’s father. He didn’t trust me much, and I had a dickens of a +time persuading him to talk. And then, just as I was about on the point of +succeeding, he shut up like a clam, fired me as his lawyer, and hired Isaac +Brack!”</p> + +<p>“That little shyster? Good Heavens!”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_35'></a>35</span>“Right! +Well, she–Zara, I mean–seemed to have vanished into thin air. We +couldn’t get any trace of her at all, until Bessie here dug up a wild idea +that it was in Morton Holmes’s car she’d been taken off.”</p> + +<p>“Holmes, the big dry goods merchant?” said Trenwith, with a +laugh. “How in the world did she ever get such a wild idea as that? He +wouldn’t be mixed up in anything shady!”</p> + +<p>“Just what we told her,” said Charlie, unsmilingly, “but +she insisted she was right. And, a little while later, after Miss Mercer had +taken the girls to her father’s farm, Holmes came along, tricked her into +getting in his car with another girl, and ran them over the state line. He met +Weeks and this Jake Hoover–but Bessie was too smart for them, and got back +over the state line safely. And the same day, putting two and two together, I +found Zara, held a prisoner in an old house that Holmes had bought!”</p> + +<p>“Good Lord!” said Trenwith, blankly. “So Holmes had been in +it from the start?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_36'></a>36</span>“I +don’t know how long he’s been mixed up in it, but he was in it then, +with both feet. He was hand in glove with old Weeks, and for some reason he was +mighty anxious to get both the girls across the state line and into old +Weeks’s care as guardian appointed by one of their courts over +there.”</p> + +<p>“But why, Charlie–why?”</p> + +<p>“I wish I knew. I’ve been cudgelling my brains for weeks to get +the answer to that question, Billy. It’s kept me awake nights, and +I’m no nearer to it now than I was at the beginning. But hold on, you +haven’t heard it all yet, by a good deal!”</p> + +<p>“What? Do you mean they weren’t content with that?”</p> + +<p>“Not so that you could notice it, they weren’t! The girls went to +Long Lake, up in the woods, and while they were there, a gypsy tried to carry +them off. He mixed them up a bit, and, partly by good luck, and partly by +Bessie’s good nerve and pluck, he was caught and landed in jail at +Hamilton, the county seat up there.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_37'></a>37</span>“Was Holmes +mixed up in that?”</p> + +<p>“Yes. He’d been fool enough to write a letter to the gypsy, and +sign his own name to it. He hired lawyers to defend the gypsy, too, but that +letter smashed his case, and the gypsy went to jail. They were afraid of Holmes, +though, at Hamilton and we couldn’t touch him. He’s got a whole lot +of money and power, too, especially in politics. So he can get away with things +that would land a smaller man in jail in a jiffy.”</p> + +<p>“His money and pull won’t do him any good down here,” said +Trenwith, his eyes snapping. “Have you any reason to think he was mixed up +in this outrage here this morning and last night, Charlie?”</p> + +<p>“Every reason to think so, Billy, but mighty little proof to back up +what I think. There’s the rub. Still–well, we’ll see what we +see later. I’ll give you some of the reasons.”</p> + +<p>“You’d better,” said Trenwith, grimly. “I think +it’s pretty nearly time for me to take a hand in this.” He shot a +look at Eleanor that <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_38'></a>38</span> +Bessie did not fail to notice. Evidently her charms had already made an +impression on him.</p> + +<p>“Yesterday, when Miss Mercer brought the girls down to Bay City from +Windsor,” Jamieson went on, “the train was to stop for a minute at +Canton, which, though they had none of them thought of it, is in Weeks’s +state. And Bessie happened to discover that Jake Hoover was spying on them. She +stayed behind the others at Windsor, discovered that he was telegraphing the +news to Holmes, and guessed the plot.”</p> + +<p>“Good for her!” exclaimed Trenwith.</p> + +<p>“So she got a message through to Miss Mercer on the train, and, being +warned, Zara was able to elude the people who searched the train for her at +Canton. Bessie went on a later train that didn’t stop at Canton at all, so +they were all right.”</p> + +<p>“That looks like pretty good evidence,” said Trenwith, frowning. +“He knew they were coming here and he’d made one attempt to get hold +of them on the way.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_39'></a>39</span>“Yes, and +there’s more. When this yacht turned up here last night, Miss Mercer and +the girls were nervous. And Bessie and her chum Dolly Ransom happened to +overhear two men who were put at the top of that bluff to watch the camp. They +talked about the ‘boss’ and how he meant to get those girls and had been +‘stung once too often.’ But they didn’t mention Holmes by +name.”</p> + +<p>“Too bad. Still, that fire was too timely to have been accidental. I +think maybe we can convict them of starting it. Then if these fellows think +they’re in danger of going to prison, we might offer them a chance of +liberty if they confess and implicate Holmes, do you see?”</p> + +<p>“It would be a good bargain, Billy.”</p> + +<p>“That’s what I think. I’d let the tool escape any time to +get hold of the man who was using him. They and the yacht are held safely at Bay +City, in any case, and we have plenty of time to decide what’s best to be +done there.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_40'></a>40</span>“If I know +Holmes, he’ll show you his hand pretty soon, Bill. I believe he thinks +that every man has his price, and he probably has an idea that he can get you on +his side if he works it right and offers you enough.”</p> + +<p>“He’s got several more thinks coming on that,” said +Trenwith, angrily. “What a hound he must be! We’ve got to get to the +bottom of this business, Charlie. That’s all there is to it!”</p> + +<p>“Won’t Jake Hoover help, Charlie?” suggested Eleanor. +“He told Bessie he would go in to see you.”</p> + +<p>“He did come, but I was called away, and meant to talk to him again +this morning, Nell. Then of course I had to come down here when I got this news +from you and so I didn’t have a chance. But I may get something out of him +yet.”</p> + +<p>“We’ve decided, Mr. Trenwith,” Eleanor explained, +“that the reason Jake is doing just what they want is that he’s +afraid of them–that they know of some wrong thing he has done, and have +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_41'></a>41</span> been threatening to +expose him if he doesn’t obey them.”</p> + +<p>“Well, if they’re scaring him,” said Charlie, “the +thing for us to do is to scare him worse than they can. He’ll stick to the +side he’s most afraid of.”</p> + +<p>“Let’s get him down here,” said Trenwith. “Then we +can not only handle him better, but we can keep an eye on him. I’m with +you in this, Charlie, for anything I can do.”</p> + +<p>“Good man!” said Charlie. “Then you’re not afraid of +Holmes? He’s pretty powerful, you know.”</p> + +<p>Trenwith looked at Eleanor. And when he saw the smile she gave him, and her +look of liking and of confidence, he laughed.</p> + +<p>“I guess I can look after myself,” he said. “No, I’m +not afraid of him, old man! We’ll fight this out together.”</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_43'></a>43</span><a id='link_3'></a>CHAPTER III<br /><span class='h2fs'>AN UNEXPECTED REUNION</span></h2> + +<p>“I like that Mr. Trenwith, Bessie,” said Dolly, when the meal was +over and she and Bessie were working together. They usually managed to arrange +their work so that they could be together at it.</p> + +<p>“So do I, Dolly. He doesn’t seem to be a bit afraid of Mr. +Holmes, and I do believe he will help Mr. Jamieson an awful lot.”</p> + +<p>“I guess he’ll need help, all right,” said Dolly, gravely. +“The more I think about that fire, the more scared I get. Why, how did +those wretches know that some of us wouldn’t be hurt?”</p> + +<p>“I guess they didn’t, Dolly.”</p> + +<p>“Then they simply didn’t care, that’s all. And isn’t +that dreadful, Bessie? The idea of doing such a thing!”</p> + +<p>“I wish we knew why they did it, or why Mr. <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_44'></a>44</span> Holmes wants them to do such things. +It’s easy enough to see why <i>they</i> did it–they wanted the money +he had promised to pay if they got Zara and me away from here.”</p> + +<p>“You remember what I told you. Mr. Holmes expects to make a lot of +money out of you two, in some fashion. I know you laughed at me when I said that +before, and said he had so much money already that that couldn’t be the +reason. But there simply can’t be any other, Bessie; that’s all +there is to it.”</p> + +<p>Bessie sighed wearily.</p> + +<p>“I wish it was all over,” she said. “Sometimes I’m +sorry they haven’t caught me and taken me back.”</p> + +<p>“Why, Bessie, that’s an awful thing for you to say! Don’t +you want to be with us?”</p> + +<p>“Of course I do, Dolly! I’ve never been so happy in my whole life +as I have been since that morning when I saw you girls for the first time. But I +hate to think of the trouble my staying makes, and when I think that maybe +there’s <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_45'></a>45</span> danger +for the rest of you, as there was last night–”</p> + +<p>“Don’t you worry about that, Bessie! I guess we can stand it if +you can. That’s what friends are for–to share your troubles. You +mustn’t get to feeling that way–it’s silly.”</p> + +<p>“Well, it doesn’t make much difference, Dolly. I don’t seem +to be able to help it. But I wish it was all over. And do you know what worries +me most of all?”</p> + +<p>“No. What?”</p> + +<p>“Why, what that nasty lawyer, Isaac Brack, said to me one time. Do you +remember my telling you? That unless I went with him, and did what he and his +friends wanted, I’d never find out about my father and my +mother.”</p> + +<p>“I don’t believe it, Bessie! I don’t believe he knows +anything at all about them, and I don’t believe, either, that that’s +the only way you’ll ever hear anything about them.”</p> + +<p>“But it might be true!”</p> + +<p>“Oh, come on, Bessie, cheer up! You’re going <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_46'></a>46</span> to be all right. And I’ll bet that +when you do find out about your parents, and why they left you with Maw Hoover +so long, you’ll be glad you had to wait so long, because it will make you +so happy when you do know.”</p> + +<p>Just then Eleanor’s voice called the girls together.</p> + +<p>“All hands to work rebuilding the camp,” she said. “We want +to have the new tents set up, and everything ready for the night. I’d like +those people to know, if they come snooping around here again, that it takes +more than a fire to put the Camp Fire Girls out of business!”</p> + +<p>“My, but you’re a slave driver, Nell,” said Charlie +Jamieson, jovially. He winked in the direction of Trenwith. “I’m +sorry for your husband when you get married. You’ll keep him busy, all +right!”</p> + +<p>Hearing the remark, Trenwith grinned, while Eleanor flushed. His look said +pretty plainly that he wouldn’t waste any sympathy on the man lucky enough +to marry Eleanor Mercer, and <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_47'></a>47</span> Dolly, catching the look, drew Bessie aside. Her +observation in such matters was amazingly keen.</p> + +<p>“Did you see that?” she whispered, excitedly. “Why, Bessie, +I do believe he’s fallen in love with her already!”</p> + +<p>“Well, I should think he would!” said Bessie, surprisingly. +“I wouldn’t think much of any man who didn’t! She’s the +nicest girl I ever saw or dreamed of seeing.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, she’s all of that,” agreed Dolly, loyally. “You +can’t tell me anything nice about Miss Eleanor that I haven’t found +out for myself long ago. But Mr. Jamieson isn’t in love with her–and +he’s known her much longer than Mr. Trenwith has.”</p> + +<p>“That hasn’t got anything at all to do with it,” declared +Bessie. “People don’t have to know one another a long time to fall +in love–though sometimes they don’t always know about it themselves +right away. And, besides, I think she and Mr. Jamieson are just like brother and +sister. They’re only cousins, of course, but they’ve sort <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_48'></a>48</span> of grown up together, and +they know one another awfully well.”</p> + +<p>“You may know more about things like that than I do,” agreed +Dolly, dubiously. “But I know this much, anyhow. If I were a man, +I’d certainly be in love with Miss Eleanor, if I knew her at +all.”</p> + +<p>She stopped for a moment to look at Eleanor.</p> + +<p>“Better not let her catch us whispering about her,” she went on. +“She wouldn’t like it a little bit.”</p> + +<p>“It isn’t a nice thing to do anyhow, Dolly. You’re +perfectly right. I do think Mr. Trenwith’s a nice man. Maybe he’s +good enough for her. But I think I’ll always like Mr. Jamieson better, +because he’s been so nice to us from the very start, when he knew that we +couldn’t pay him, the way people usually do lawyers who work so hard for +them.”</p> + +<p>“He certainly is a nice man, Bessie. But then so is Mr. +Trenwith.”</p> + +<p>“Look out, Dolly!” cautioned Bessie, with a <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_49'></a>49</span> low laugh. “You’ll be getting +jealous and losing your temper first thing you know.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, I guess not. Talking about losing one’s temper, I wonder if +Gladys Cooper is still mad at us?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, I hope not! That was sort of funny, wasn’t it, as well as +unpleasant? Why do you suppose she was so angry, and got the other girls in +their camp at Lake Dean to hating us so much when we first went +there?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, she couldn’t help it, Bessie, I guess. It’s the way +she’s been brought up. Her people have lots of money, and they’ve +let her think that just because of that she is better than girls whose parents +are poor.”</p> + +<p>“Well, the rest of them certainly changed their minds about us, +didn’t they?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, and it was a fine thing! I guess they realized that we were +better than they thought, when Gladys and Marcia Bates got lost in the woods +that time, and you and I happened to find them, and get them home +safely.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_50'></a>50</span>“I think +they were mighty nice girls, Dolly–much nicer than you would ever have +thought they could be from the way they acted when we first met them, and they +ordered us off their ground, just as if we were going to hurt it. When they +found out that they’d been in the wrong, and hadn’t behaved nicely, +they said they were sorry, and admitted that they hadn’t been nice. And I +think that’s a pretty hard thing for anyone to do.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, it is, Bessie. I know, because I’ve found out so often that +I’d been mean to people who were ever so much nicer than I. But +there’s one thing about it–it makes you feel sort of good all over +when you have owned up that way. I wish Gladys Cooper had acted like the rest of +them. But she was still mad.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, I think you’ll find she’s all right when you see her +again, Dolly. I guess she’s just as nice as the rest of them, +really.”</p> + +<p>“That’s one reason I’m sorry she acted that way. Because +she’s as nice as any girl you ever <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_51'></a>51</span> saw when she wants to be. I was awfully mad at her +when it happened, but now, somehow, I’ve got over feeling that way about +her, altogether, and I just want to be good friends with her again.”</p> + +<p>“You lose your temper pretty quickly, Dolly, but you get over being +angry just as quickly as you get mad, don’t you?”</p> + +<p>“I seem to, Bessie. And I guess that’s helping me not to get +angry at people so much, anyhow. I’m always sorry when I do get into one +of my rages, and if I’m going to be sorry, it’s easier not to get +mad in the first place.”</p> + +<p>While they talked, Bessie and Dolly were not idle, by any means. There was +plenty of work for everyone to do, for the fire had made a pretty clean sweep, +after all, and to put the whole camp in good shape, so that they could sleep +there that night, was something of a task.</p> + +<p>Trenwith and Jamieson, laughing a good deal, and enjoying themselves +immensely, insisted on doing the heavy work of setting up the ridge poles, and +laying down the floors of the new tents, <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_52'></a>52</span> but when it came to stretching the canvas over the +framework, they were not in it with the girls.</p> + +<p>“You men mean well, but I never saw anything so clumsy in my +life!” declared Eleanor, laughingly. “It’s a wonder to me how +you ever come home alive when you go out camping by yourselves.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, we manage somehow,” boasted Charlie Jamieson.</p> + +<p>“That’s just about what you do do! You manage–somehow! And, +yet, when this Camp Fire movement started, all the men I knew sat around and +jeered, and said that girls were just jealous of the good times the Boy Scouts +had, and predicted that unless we took men along to look after us, we’d be +in all sorts of trouble the first time we ever undertook to spend a night in +camp!”</p> + +<p>Charlie shook his head at Trenwith in mock alarm.</p> + +<p>“Getting pretty independent, aren’t they?” he said to his +friend. “You mark my words, <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_53'></a>53</span> Billy, the old-fashioned women don’t exist any +more!”</p> + +<p>“And it’s a good thing if they don’t!” Eleanor +flashed back at him. “They do, though, only you men don’t know the +real thing when you see it. You have an idea that a woman ought to be helpless +and clinging. Maybe that was all right in the old days, when there were always +plenty of men to look after a woman. But how about the way things are now? Women +have to go into shops and offices and factories to earn a living, don’t +they, just the way men do?”</p> + +<p>“They do–more’s the pity!” said Trenwith.</p> + +<p>Eleanor looked at him as if she understood just what he meant.</p> + +<p>“Maybe it isn’t so much of a pity, though,” she said. +“I tell you one thing–a girl isn’t going to make any the worse +wife for being self-reliant, and knowing how to take care of herself a little +bit. And that’s what we want to make of our Camp Fire Girls–girls +who can help themselves if there’s need for it, and who don’t need +to have <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_54'></a>54</span> a man +wasting a lot of time doing things for them that he ought to be spending in +serious work–things that she can do just as well for herself.”</p> + +<p>She stood before them as she spoke, a splendid figure of youth, and health +and strength. And, as she spoke, she plunged her hand into a capacious pocket in +her skirt.</p> + +<p>“There!” she said, “that’s one of the things that has +kept women helpless. It wasn’t fashionable to have pockets, so men got one +great advantage just in their clothes. Camp Fire Girls have pockets!”</p> + +<p>“You say that as if it was some sort of a motto,” said Charlie, +laughing, but impressed.</p> + +<p>“It is!” she replied. “Camp Fire Girls have pockets! +That’s one of the things you’ll see in any Camp Fire book you +read–any of the books that the National Council issues, I mean.”</p> + +<p>“I surrender! I’m converted–absolutely!” said +Jamieson, with a laugh. “I’ll admit right now that no lot of men or +boys I know could have put this camp up in this shape in such a time. <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_55'></a>55</span> Why, +hullo–what’s that? Looks as if you were going to have neighbors, +Nell.”</p> + +<p>His exclamation drew all eyes to the other end of the cove, and the surprise +was general when a string of wagons was seen coming down a road that led to the +beach from the bluff at that point.</p> + +<p>“Looks like a camping party, all right,” said Trenwith. +“Wonder who they can be?”</p> + +<p>Eleanor looked annoyed. She remembered only too well and too vividly the +disturbance that had followed the coming of the yacht, and she wondered if this +new invasion of the peace of Plum Beach might not likewise be the forerunner of +something unpleasant.</p> + +<p>“They’ve got tents,” she said, peering curiously at the +wagons. “See–they’re stopping there, and beginning to +unload.”</p> + +<p>“They’re doing themselves very well, whoever they are,” +said Trenwith. “That’s a pretty luxurious looking camp outfit. And +they’re having their work done for them by men who know the business, +too.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_56'></a>56</span>“Yes, and +they’re not making a much better job of it than these girls did,” +said Charlie. “Great Scott! Look at those cases of canned goods! +They’ve got enough stuff there to feed a regiment.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, I’m sorry they’re coming!” said Eleanor, +“whoever they are! I don’t want to seem nasty, but we were ever so +happy last summer when we were here quite alone.”</p> + +<p>“These people won’t bother you, Nell,” said Jamieson.</p> + +<p>“You don’t suppose this could be another trick of Mr. +Holmes’s, do you, Charlie!”</p> + +<p>“Hardly–so soon,” he said, frowning.</p> + +<p>“He didn’t leave us in peace very long after we got here, you +know. We only arrived yesterday–and see what happened to us last +night!”</p> + +<p>“Well, we might stroll over and have a look,” suggested Trenwith. +“I guess there aren’t any private property rights on this beach. +We’ll just look them over.”</p> + +<p>“All right,” said Eleanor. “Want to come, <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_57'></a>57</span> Dolly and Bessie? I see +you’ve finished your share of the work before the others.”</p> + +<p>So the five of them walked over.</p> + +<p>“Who’s going to camp here?” Trenwith asked one of the +workmen.</p> + +<p>“I don’t know, sir. We just got orders to set up the tents. +That’s all we know about it.”</p> + +<p>The three girls exchanged glances. That sounded as if it might indeed be Mr. +Holmes who was coming. But before any more questions could be asked, there was a +sudden peal of girlish laughter from above and a wild rush down from the +bluff.</p> + +<p>“Dolly Ransom! Isn’t this a surprise? And didn’t we tell +you we had a surprise for you?”</p> + +<p>“Why, Marcia Bates!” cried Dolly and Bessie, in one breath, as +the newcomer reached them. “I didn’t know you were going to leave +Lake Dean so soon.”</p> + +<p>“Well, we did! And we’re all here–Gladys Cooper, and all +the Halsted Camp Girls!”</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_59'></a>59</span><a id='link_4'></a>CHAPTER IV<br /><span class='h2fs'>ONE FRIEND LESS</span></h2> + +<p>In a moment the rest of the Halsted girls had reached the beach and were +gathered about Bessie and Dolly. There was a lot of laughter and excitement, but +it was plain that the girls who had once so utterly despised the members of the +Camp Fire were now heartily and enthusiastically glad to see them. And suddenly +Eleanor gave a glad cry.</p> + +<p>“Why, Mary Turner!” she said. “Whatever are you doing here? +I thought you were going to Europe!”</p> + +<p>“I was, until this cousin of mine”–she playfully tapped +Marcia on the shoulder–“made me change my plans. I’ll have you +to understand that you’re not the only girl who can be a Camp Fire +Guardian, Eleanor Mercer!”</p> + +<p>“Well,” gasped Eleanor, “of all things! Do <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_60'></a>60</span> you mean that you’ve +organized a new Camp Fire?”</p> + +<p>“We certainly have–the Halsted Camp Fire, if you please! +We’re not really all in yet, but we’ve got permission now from the +National Council, and the girls are to get their rings to-night at our first +ceremonial camp fire. Won’t you girls come over and help us?”</p> + +<p>“I should say we would!” said Eleanor. “Why, this is fine, +Mary! Tell me how it happened, won’t you?”</p> + +<p>“It’s all your fault–you must know that. The girls have +told me all about the horrid way they acted at Lake Dean, but really, you +can’t blame them so much, can you, Nell? It’s the way they’re +brought up–and, well, you went to the school, too, just as I +did!”</p> + +<p>“I know what you mean,” said Eleanor. “It’s a fine +school, but–”</p> + +<p>“That’s it exactly–that <i>but</i>. The school has got into +bad ways, and these girls were in a fair way to be snobs. Well, Marcia and some +of the <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_61'></a>61</span> others got to +thinking things over, and they decided that if the Camp Fire had done so much +for Dolly Ransom and a lot of your girls, it would be a good thing for them, +too.”</p> + +<p>“They’re perfectly right, Mary. Oh, I’m ever so +glad!”</p> + +<p>“So they came to me, and asked me if I wouldn’t be their +Guardian. I didn’t want to at first–and then I was afraid I +wouldn’t be any good. But I promised to talk to Mrs. Chester, and get her +to suggest someone who would do, and–”</p> + +<p>“You needn’t tell me the rest,” laughed Eleanor. “I +know just what happened. Mrs. Chester just talked to you in that sweet, gentle +way of hers, and the first thing you knew you felt about as small as a pint of +peanuts, and as if refusing to do the work would be about as mean as stealing +sheep. Now, didn’t you?”</p> + +<p>Mary laughed a little ruefully.</p> + +<p>“You’re just right! That’s exactly how it happened,” +she said. “She told me that no one would be able to do as much with these +girls as I could, <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_62'></a>62</span> +and then, when she had me feeling properly ashamed of myself, she turned right +around and began to make me see how much fun I would have out of it myself. So I +talked to Miss Halsted, and made her go to see Mrs. Chester–and here we +are!”</p> + +<p>Suddenly Eleanor collapsed weakly against one of the empty packing boxes that +littered the place, and began to laugh.</p> + +<p>“Oh, my dear,” she exclaimed, “if you only knew the awful +things we were thinking about you before we knew who you were!”</p> + +<p>“Why? Do you mean to say that you’re snobbish, too, and +didn’t want neighbors you didn’t know? Like my girls at Lake +Dean?”</p> + +<p>“No, but we thought you might be kidnappers, or murderers, or +fire-bugs, like our last neighbors!”</p> + +<p>“Eleanor! Are you crazy–and if you’re not, what on earth +are you talking about?”</p> + +<p>“I’m not as crazy as I seem to be, Mary. It’s only fair to +tell you now that this beach may be a <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_63'></a>63</span> pretty troubled spot while we’re here. We seem +to attract trouble just as a magnet attracts iron.”</p> + +<p>“I think you <i>are</i> crazy, Nell. If you’re not, won’t +you explain what you mean?”</p> + +<p>“Look at our camp over there, Mary. It’s pretty solid and +complete, isn’t it?”</p> + +<p>“I only hope ours looks half as well.”</p> + +<p>“Well, this morning at sunrise there were just two tents standing. +Everything else had been burnt. And I was doing my best to get the police or +someone from Bay City to rescue two of my girls who were prisoners on a yacht +out there in the cove!”</p> + +<p>Mary Turner appealed whimsically to Charlie Jamieson.</p> + +<p>“Does she mean it, Charlie?” she begged. “Or is she just +trying to string me?”</p> + +<p>“I’m afraid she means it, and I happen to know it’s all +true, Mary,” said Charlie, enjoying her bewilderment. “But +it’s a long story. Perhaps you’d better let it keep until you have +put things to rights.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_64'></a>64</span>“We’ll +help in doing that,” said Eleanor. “Dolly, run over and get the +other girls, won’t you? Then we’ll all turn in and lend a hand, and +it will all be done in no time at all.”</p> + +<p>“Indeed you won’t!” said Marcia. “We’re going +to do everything ourselves, just to show that we can.”</p> + +<p>“There isn’t much to do,” said Mary Turner, with a laugh. +“So you needn’t act as if that were something to be proud of, +Marcia. You see, I thought it was better to take things easily at the start, +Eleanor. They wanted to come here with all the tents and things and set up the +camp by themselves, but I decided it was better to have the harder work done by +men who knew their business.”</p> + +<p>“You were quite right, too,” agreed Eleanor. “That’s +the way I arranged things for our own camp the day we came. To-day we did do the +work ourselves, but there was a reason for the girls were so excited and nervous +about the fire <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_65'></a>65</span> that +I thought it was better to give them a chance to work off their excitement that +way.”</p> + +<p>“I’m dying to hear all about the fire and what has happened +here,” said Mary. “But I suppose we’d better get everything +put to rights first.”</p> + +<p>And, though the girls of the new Camp Fire insisted on doing all the actual +work themselves, they were glad enough to take the advice of the Manasquan girls +in innumerable small matters. Comfort, and even safety from illness, in camp +life, depends upon the observance of many seemingly trifling rules.</p> + +<p>Gladys Cooper, who, more than any of her companions at Camp Halsted, had +tried to make things unpleasant for the Manasquan girls at Lake Dean, had not +been with the first section of the new Camp Fire to reach the beach. Dolly had +inquired about her rather anxiously, for Gladys had not taken part in the +general reconciliation between the two parties of girls.</p> + +<p>“Gladys?” Marcia said. “Oh, yes, she’s coming. +She’s back in the wagon that’s bringing our <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_66'></a>66</span> suit cases. We appointed her a sort of +rear guard. It wouldn’t do to lose those things, you know.”</p> + +<p>“I was afraid–I sort of thought she might not want to come here +if she knew we were here, Marcia. You know–”</p> + +<p>“Yes, I <i>do</i> know, Dolly. She behaved worse than any of us, and +she wasn’t ready to admit it when you girls left Lake Dean. But +she’s come to her senses since then, I’m sure. The rest of us made +her do that.”</p> + +<p>Bessie King looked a little dubious.</p> + +<p>“I hope you didn’t bother her about it, Marcia,” she said. +“You know we haven’t anything against her. We were sorry she +didn’t like us, and understand that we only wanted to be friends, but we +certainly didn’t feel angry.”</p> + +<p>“If she was bothered, as you call it, Bessie, it served her good and +right,” said Marcia, crisply. “We’ve had about enough of +Gladys and her superior ways. She isn’t any better or cleverer or prettier +than anyone else, and it’s time she stopped giving herself +airs.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_67'></a>67</span>“You +don’t understand,” said Bessie, with a smile. “She’s one +of you, and if you don’t like the way she acts, you’ve got a perfect +right to let her know it, and make her just as uncomfortable as you +like.”</p> + +<p>“We did,” said Marcia. “I guess she’s had a lesson +that will teach her it doesn’t pay to be a snob.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, but don’t you think that’s something a person has to +learn for herself, without anyone to teach her, Marcia? I mean, there’s +only one reason why she could be nice to us, and that’s because she likes +us. And you can’t make her like us by punishing her for not liking us. +You’ll only make her hate us more than ever.”</p> + +<p>“She’ll behave herself, anyhow, Bessie. And that’s more +than she did before.”</p> + +<p>“That’s true enough. But really, it would be better, if she +didn’t like us, for her to show it frankly than to go around with a grudge +against us she’s afraid to show. Don’t you see that she’ll +blame us for making trouble between you girls <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_68'></a>68</span> and her? She’ll think that we’ve set her +own friends against her. Really, Marcia, I think all the trouble would be ended +sooner, in the long run, if you just let her alone until she changed her mind. +She’ll do it, sooner or later.”</p> + +<p>“I guess Bessie’s right, Marcia,” said Dolly, thoughtfully. +“I don’t see why Gladys acts this way, but I do think that the only +thing that will make her act differently will be for her to feel differently, +and nothing you can do will do that.”</p> + +<p>“Well, it’s too late now, anyhow,” said Marcia. “I +see what you mean, and I suppose you really are right. But it’s done. +You’ll be nice to her, won’t you? She’s promised to be +pleasant when she sees you–to talk to you, and all that. I don’t +know how well she’ll manage, but I guess she’ll do her +best.”</p> + +<p>“There’s no reason why we shouldn’t be nice to her,” +said Bessie. “She isn’t hurting us. I only hope that something will +happen so that we can be good friends.”</p> + +<p>“She really is a nice girl,” said Marcia, “and <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_69'></a>69</span> I’m awfully fond of +her when she isn’t in one of her tantrums. But she is certainly hard to +get along with when everything isn’t going just to suit her little +whims.”</p> + +<p>“Here she comes now,” said Dolly. “I’m going to meet +her.”</p> + +<p>“Well, you certainly did give us a surprise, Gladys,” cried +Dolly. “You sinner, why didn’t you tell us what you were going to +do?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, hello, Dolly!” said Gladys, coolly. “I didn’t +see much of you at Lake Dean, you know. You were too busy with your–new +friends.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, come off, Gladys!” said Dolly, irritated despite her +determination to go more than half way in re-establishing friendly relations +with Gladys. “Why can’t you be sensible? We’ve got more to +forgive than you have, and we’re willing to be friends. Aren’t you +going to behave decently?”</p> + +<p>“I don’t think I know just what you mean, Dolly,” said +Gladys, stiffly. “As long as the other girls have decided to be friendly +with your–friends, <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_70'></a>70</span> I am not going to make myself unpleasant. But you can +hardly expect me to like people just because you do. I must say that I get along +better with girls of my own class.”</p> + +<p>“I ought to be mad at you, Gladys,” said Dolly, with a peal of +laughter. “But you’re too funny! What do you mean by girls of your +own class? Girls whose parents have as much money as yours? Mine haven’t. +So I suppose I’m not in your class.”</p> + +<p>“Nonsense, Dolly!” said Gladys, angrily. “You know +perfectly well I don’t mean anything of the sort. I–I can’t +explain just what I mean by my own class–but you know it just as well as I +do.”</p> + +<p>“I think I know it better, Gladys,” said Dolly, gravely. +“Now don’t get angry, because I’m not saying this to be mean. +If you had to go about with girls of your own class you couldn’t stand +them for a week! Because they’d be snobbish and mean. They’d be +thinking all the time about how much nicer their clothes were than yours, or the +other way around. They wouldn’t have a good <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_71'></a>71</span> word for anyone–they’d just +be trying to think about the mean things they could say!”</p> + +<p>“Why, Dolly! What do you mean?”</p> + +<p>“I mean that that’s your class–the sort you are. Our girls, +in the Manasquan Camp Fire, and most of the Halsted girls, are in a class a +whole lot better than yours, Gladys. They spend their time trying to be nice, +and to make other people happy. There isn’t any reason why you +shouldn’t improve, and get into their class, but you’re not in it +now.”</p> + +<p>“I never heard of such a thing, Dolly! Do you mean to tell me that you +and I aren’t in a better class socially than these girls you’re +camping with?”</p> + +<p>“I’m not talking about society–and you haven’t any +business to be. You don’t know anything about it. But if people are +divided into real classes, the two big classes are nice people and people who +aren’t nice. And each of those classes is divided up again into a lot of +other classes. I hope I’m in as good a class as Bessie King and <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_72'></a>72</span> Margery Burton, but +I’m pretty sure I’m not. And I know you’re not.”</p> + +<p>“There’s no use talking to you, Dolly,” said Gladys, +furiously. “I thought you’d had time to get over all that nonsense, +but I see you’re worse than ever. I’m perfectly willing to be +friends with you, and I’ve forgiven you for throwing those mice at us at +Lake Dean, but I certainly don’t see why I should be friendly with all +those common girls in your camp.”</p> + +<p>“They’re not common–and don’t you dare to say they +are! And you certainly can’t be my friend if you’re going to talk +about them that way.”</p> + +<p>“All right!” snapped Gladys. “I guess I can get along +without your friendship if you can get along without mine!”</p> + +<p>“I didn’t mean to,” she said, disgustedly, to Bessie and +Marcia, “but I’m afraid I’ve simply made her madder than ever. +And there’s no telling what she’ll do now!”</p> + +<p>“Oh, I guess there’s nothing to worry about,” <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_73'></a>73</span> said Marcia, cheerfully +enough. “We can keep her in order all right, and if she doesn’t +behave herself decently I guess you’ll find that Miss Turner will send her +home in a hurry.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, I hope not,” said Bessie. “That wouldn’t really +do any good, would it? We want to be friends with her–not to have any more +trouble.”</p> + +<p>“I wish I’d kept out of it,” said Dolly, dolefully. +“I think I can keep my temper, and then I go off and make things worse +than ever! I ought to know enough not to interfere. I’m like the elephant +that killed a little mother bird by accident, and he was so sorry that he sat on +its nest to hatch the eggs!”</p> + +<p>“Maybe it’s a good thing,” said Marcia, laughing at the +picture of the elephant. “After all, isn’t it a good deal as Bessie +said? If there’s bad feeling, it’s better to have it open and +aboveboard. We all know where we are now, anyhow. And I certainly hope that +something will turn up to change her mind.”</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_75'></a>75</span><a id='link_5'></a>CHAPTER V<br /><span class='h2fs'>THE COUNCIL FIRE</span></h2> + +<p>“I hope it will, Bessie,” said Dolly. “But you know what a +nasty temper I’ve got. If she keeps on talking the way she has, I +don’t know what I’ll say.”</p> + +<p>“Well, you might as well say what you like, Dolly. I believe she wants +a good quarrel with someone–and it might as well be you.”</p> + +<p>“You mean you think she likes me to get angry?”</p> + +<p>“Of course she does! There wouldn’t be any fun in it for her if +you didn’t. Can’t you see that?”</p> + +<p>Dolly looked very thoughtful.</p> + +<p>“Then I won’t give her the satisfaction of getting angry!” +she declared, finally. “Of course you’re right, Bessie. If we +didn’t pay any attention at all to her it wouldn’t do her a bit of +good to get angry, would it?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_76'></a>76</span>“I wondered +how long it would take you to see that, Dolly.”</p> + +<p>They were walking back to their own tents as they spoke. Once arrived there, +neither said anything about the spirit Gladys had shown. They both felt that it +would be as well to let the other girls think that Gladys shared the friendly +feelings of the other Halsted girls. And since Bessie and Dolly happened to be +the only ones who knew that Gladys had been the prime mover in the trouble that +had been made at Lake Dean, it was easy enough to conceal the true facts.</p> + +<p>“She can’t do anything by herself,” said Dolly. “Up +at Lake Dean nothing would have happened unless the rest of those girls had +taken her part against us.”</p> + +<p>“I’m going to try to forget about her altogether, Dolly,” +said Bessie. “I’m not a bit angry at her, but if she won’t be +friends, she won’t and that’s all there is to it. And I don’t +see why I should worry about her when there are so many <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_77'></a>77</span> nice girls who <i>do</i> want to be +friendly. Why, what are you laughing at?”</p> + +<p>“I’m just thinking of how mad Gladys would be if she really +understood! She’s made herself think that she is doing a great favor to +people when she makes friends of them–and, if she only knew it, she would +have a hard time having us for friends now.”</p> + +<hr class='tb' /> + +<p>Charlie Jamieson and Billy Trenwith accepted Eleanor’s pressing +invitation to stay for the evening meal, but Trenwith seemed to feel that they +were wasting time that might be better spent.</p> + +<p>“Not wasting it exactly,” he said, however, when Eleanor +laughingly accused him of feeling so. “But I do sort of think that Charlie +and I ought to keep after this man Holmes. He seems to be a tough customer, and +I’ll bet he’s busy, all right.”</p> + +<p>“The only point, Billy,” said Charlie, “is that, no matter +how busy we were, there’s mighty little we could do. We don’t know +enough, you see. <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_78'></a>78</span> But +maybe when I get up to the city, I’ll find out more. I’ll go over +the facts with you in Bay City to-night, and then I’ll go up to town and +see what I can do with Jake Hoover and Zara’s father.”</p> + +<p>“Well, let’s do something, for Heaven’s sake!” said +Trenwith. “I hate to think that all you girls out here are in danger as a +result of this man’s villainy. If he does anything rotten, I can see that +he’s punished but that might not do you much good.”</p> + +<p>“I tell you what would do some good, and that’s to let Holmes +know that you will punish him, if he exposes himself to punishment,” said +Charlie Jamieson. “That’s the chief reason he’s so bold. He +thinks he’s above the law–that he can do anything, and escape the +consequences.”</p> + +<p>“Well, of course,” said Trenwith, “it may enlighten him a +bit when he finds that those rascals we caught to-day will have to stand trial, +just as if they were friendless criminals. If what you say about him is so, +he’ll be after me to-morrow, <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_79'></a>79</span> trying to call me off. And I guess he’ll find +that he’s up against the law for once.”</p> + +<p>“Did you get that telephone fixed up, Nell?” asked Charlie. +“You’re a whole lot safer with a telephone right here on the beach. +Being half a mile from the nearest place where you can ever call for help is bad +business.”</p> + +<p>Eleanor pointed to a row of poles, on which a wire was strung, leading into +the main living tent.</p> + +<p>“There it is,” she said, gaily. “I don’t see how you +got them to do it so fast, though.”</p> + +<p>“Billy’s a sort of political boss round here, as well as district +attorney,” laughed Jamieson. “When he says a thing’s to be +done, and done in a hurry, he usually has his way.”</p> + +<p>Eleanor looked curiously at Trenwith, and Charlie, catching the glance, +winked broadly at Dolly Ransom. It was perfectly plain that the young District +Attorney interested Eleanor a good deal. His quiet efficiency appealed to her. +She liked men who did things, and Trenwith was essentially <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_80'></a>80</span> of that type. He didn’t talk much +about his plans; he let results speak for him. And, at the same time, when there +was a question of something to be done, what he did say showed a quiet +confidence, which, while not a bit boastful, proved that he was as sure of +himself as are most competent men.</p> + +<p>Also, his admiration for Eleanor was plain and undisguised. Charlie Jamieson, +who was almost like a brother in his relations with Eleanor, was hugely amused +by this. Somehow cousins who are so intimate with a girl that they take a +brother’s place, never do seem able to understand that she may have the +same attraction for other men that the sisters and the cousins of the other men +have for them. The idea that their friends may fall in love with the girls they +regard in such a perfectly matter-of-fact way strikes them, when it reaches them +at all, as a huge joke.</p> + +<p>All the girls were sorry to see the two men who had helped them so much go +away after dinner, but of course their departure was necessary. Just <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_81'></a>81</span> now, after the exciting +events of the previous night, there seemed a reasonable chance of a little +peace, but the price of freedom from the annoyance caused by Holmes was constant +vigilance, and there was work for both the men to do. Moreover, the sight of the +cheerful fire from the other camp, and the thought of the great camp fire they +were presently to enjoy in common consoled them.</p> + +<p>“The Halsted girls are going to build the fire,” said Eleanor. +“It’s their first ceremonial camp fire, so I told Miss Turner they +were welcome to do it. They’re all Wood-Gatherers, you see. So we’ll +have to light the fire for them, anyhow. See, they’re at work already, +bringing in the wood. Margery, suppose you go over and make sure that +they’re building the fire properly, with plenty of room for a good draught +underneath.”</p> + +<p>“Who’s going to take them in, and give them their rings, Miss +Eleanor?” asked Dolly. “You, or Miss Turner?”</p> + +<p>“Why, Miss Turner wants me to do it, Dolly, because I’m older in +the Camp Fire than she is. <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_82'></a>82</span> She’s given me the rings. I think it’s +quite exciting, really, taking so many new girls in all at once.”</p> + +<p>“Come on,” cried Margery Burton, then. “They’re all +ready and they want us to form the procession now, and go over there.”</p> + +<p>“You are to light the fire, Margery. Are you all ready?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, indeed, Miss Eleanor. Shall I go ahead, and start the +flame?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, do!”</p> + +<p>Then while Margery disappeared, Eleanor, at the head of the girls, started +moving in the stately Indian measure toward the dark pile of wood that +represented the fire that was so soon to blaze up. As they walked they sang in +low tones, so that the melody rose and mingled with the waves and the sighing of +the wind.</p> + +<p>Just as the first spark answered Margery’s efforts with her fire-making +sticks, they reached the fire, and sat down in a great circle, with a good deal +of space between each pair of girls. Eleanor <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_83'></a>83</span> took her place in the centre, facing Margery, who now +stood up, lifting a torch that she had lighted above her head. As she touched +the tinder beneath the fire Eleanor raised her hand, and, as the flames began to +crackle, she lowered it, and at once the girls began the song of Wo-he-lo:</p> + +<div class='poetry'> +<p>Wo-he-lo means love.<br /> Wo-he-lo, wo-he-lo, wo-he-lo.<br /> We love +love, for love is the heart of life.<br /> It is light and joy and +sweetness,<br /> Comradeship and all dear kinship.<br /> Love is the joy of +service so deep<br /> That self is forgotten.<br /> Wo-he-lo means love.</p> +</div><!-- poetry --> + +<p>Outside the circle now other and unseen voices joined them in the chorus:</p> + +<div class='poetry'> +<p>Wo-he-lo for aye,<br /> Wo-he-lo for aye,<br /> Wo-he-lo, wo-he-lo, +wo-he-lo for aye!</p> </div><!-- poetry --> + +<p>Then for a moment utter silence, so that the murmur of the waves seemed +amazingly loud. Then, their voices hushed, half the Manasquan girls chanted:</p> + +<div class='poetry'> +<p>Wo-he-lo for work!</p> </div><!-- poetry --> + +<p>And the others, their voices rising gradually, answered with:</p> + +<div class='poetry'> +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_84'></a>84</span>Wo-he-lo for +health!</p> </div><!-- poetry --> + +<p>And without a break in the rhythm, all the girls joined in the final</p> + +<div class='poetry'> +<p>Wo-he-lo, wo-he-lo, wo-he-lo for love!</p> </div><!-- poetry --> + +<p>Then Margery, her torch still raised above her head, while she swung it +slowly in time to the music of her song, sang alone:</p> + +<div class='poetry'> +<p>O Fire!<br /> Long years ago when our fathers fought with great animals you +were their great protection.@<br /> When they fought the cold of the cruel +winter you saved them.<br /> When they needed food you changed the flesh of +beasts into savory meat for them.<br /> During all the ages your mysterious +flame has been a symbol to them for Spirit,<br /> So, to-night, we light our +fire in grateful remembrance of the Great Spirit who gave you to us.</p> +</div><!-- poetry --> + +<p>Then Margery took her place in the circle, and Eleanor called the roll, +giving each girl the name she had chosen as her fire name.</p> + +<p>Then Mary Turner, in her new ceremonial robe, fringed with beads, slipped +into the circle of the firelight, bright and vivid now.</p> + +<p>“Oh, Wanaka,” she said, calling Eleanor by her <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_85'></a>85</span> ceremonial name, “I +bring to-night these newcomers to the Camp Fire, to tell you their Desire, and to +receive from you their rings.”</p> + +<p>One by one the girls of the Halsted Camp Fire stepped forward, and each +repeated her Desire to be a Wood-Gatherer, and was received by Eleanor, who +explained to each some new point of the Law of the Fire, so that all might +learn. And to each, separately, as she slipped the silver ring of the Camp Fire +on her finger, she repeated the beautiful exhortation:</p> + +<div class='poetry'> +<p>Firmly held by the sinews which bind them,<br /> As fagots are brought from +the forest<br /> So cleave to these others, your sisters,<br /> Whenever, +wherever you find them.<br />  <br /> Be strong as the fagots are +sturdy;<br /> Be pure in your deepest desire;<br /> Be true to the truth +that is in you;<br /> And–follow the law of the Fire!</p> </div><!-- +poetry --> + +<p>One by one as they received their rings, the newcomers slipped into seats +about the fire, each one finding a place between two of the Manasquan girls. +Marcia Bates, flushed with pleasure, took a seat between Bessie and Dolly.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_86'></a>86</span>“Oh, how +beautiful it all is!” she said. “I don’t see how any of us +could ever have laughed at the Camp Fire! But, of course, we didn’t know, +about all this, or we never would have laughed as we did.”</p> + +<p>“I love the part about ‘So cleave to these others, your +sisters,’” said Dolly. “It’s so fine to feel that +wherever you go, you’ll find friends wherever there’s a Camp +Fire–that you can show your ring, and be sure that there’ll be +someone who knows the same thing you know, and believes in the same sort of +things!”</p> + +<p>“Yes, that’s lovely, Dolly. Of course, we’ve all read about +this, but you have to do it to know how beautiful it is. I’m so glad you +girls were here for this first Council Fire of ours. You know how everything +should be done, and that seems to make it so much better.”</p> + +<p>“It would have pleased you just as much, and been just as lovely if +you’d done it all by yourselves, Marcia. It’s the words, and the +ceremony that are so beautiful–not the way we do it. Every <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_87'></a>87</span> Camp Fire has its own way +of doing things. For instance, some Camp Fires sing the Ode to Fire all +together, but we have Margery do it alone because she has such a lovely +voice.”</p> + +<p>“I think it was splendid. I never had any idea she could sing so +well.”</p> + +<p>“Her voice is lovely, but it sounds particularly soft and true out in +the open air this way, and without a piano to accompany her. Mine +doesn’t–I’m all right to sing in a crowd, but when I try to +sing by myself, it’s just a sort of screech. There isn’t any beauty +to my tones at all, and I know it and don’t try to sing alone.”</p> + +<p>“Aren’t they all in now?” asked Bessie.</p> + +<p>There had been a break in the steady appearance of new candidates before +Eleanor. But, even as she spoke, another figure glided into the light.</p> + +<p>“No. There’s Gladys Cooper,” said Marcia, with a little +start.</p> + +<p>“I wonder if she sees what there is to the Camp Fire now,” said +Dolly, speculatively.</p> + +<p>“What is your desire?” asked Eleanor.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_88'></a>88</span>“I desire to +become a Camp Fire Girl and to obey the law of the Camp Fire,” said +Gladys, in a mechanical, sing-song voice, entirely different from the serious +tones of those who had preceded her.</p> + +<p>“She’s laughing to herself,” said Marcia, indignantly. +“Just listen! She’s repeating the Desire as if it were a bit of +doggerel.”</p> + +<p>They heard her saying:</p> + +<p>“Seek beauty, Give service, Pursue knowledge, Hold on to health, +Glorify work, Be happy. This law of the Camp Fire I will strive to +follow.”</p> + +<p>“Give service,” repeated Eleanor slowly. “You have heard +what I said to the other girls, Gladys. I want you to understand this point of +the law. It is the most important of all, perhaps. It means that you must be +friendly to your sisters of the Camp Fire; that you must love them, and put them +above yourself.”</p> + +<p>“I must do all that for my chums–the girls in our Camp Fire, you +mean, I suppose?” said Gladys. “I don’t care anything about +these other girls. And, Miss Mercer, all that you’re going <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_89'></a>89</span> to say in a +minute–‘So cleave to these others, your sisters’–that +doesn’t mean the girls in any old Camp Fire, does it?”</p> + +<p>Startled, Eleanor was silent for a moment. Mary Turner looked at Gladys +indignantly.</p> + +<p>“It means every girl in every Camp Fire,” said Eleanor, finally. +“And more than that, you must serve others, in or out of the Camp +Fire.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, that’s nonsense!” said Gladys. “I couldn’t +do that.”</p> + +<p>“Then you are not fit to receive your ring,” said Eleanor.</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_91'></a>91</span><a id='link_6'></a>CHAPTER VI<br /><span class='h2fs'>AN UNHAPPY ENDING</span></h2> + +<p>There was a gasp of astonishment and dismay from the girls. Somehow all +seemed to feel as if Eleanor’s reproach were directed at them instead of +at the pale and angry Gladys, who stood, scarcely able to believe her ears, +looking at the Guardian. There had been no anger in Eleanor’s +voice–only sorrow and distress.</p> + +<p>“Why, what do you mean, Miss Mercer?” Gladys gasped.</p> + +<p>“Exactly what I say, Gladys,” said Eleanor, in the same level +voice. “You are not fit to be one of us unless you mean sincerely and +earnestly to keep the Law of the Fire. We are a sisterhood; no girl who is not +only willing, but eager, to become our sister, may join us.”</p> + +<p>Slowly the meaning of her rejection seemed to sink into the mind of +Gladys.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_92'></a>92</span>“Do you mean +that you’re not going to let me join?” she asked in a shrill, +high-pitched voice that showed she was on the verge of giving way to an outbreak +of hysterical anger.</p> + +<p>“For your own sake it is better that you should not join now, Gladys. +Listen to me. I do not blame you greatly for this. I would rather have you act +this way than be a hypocrite, pretending to believe in our law when you do +not.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, I hate you! I hate the Camp Fire! I wouldn’t join for +anything in the world, after this!”</p> + +<p>“There will be time to settle that when we are ready to let you join, +Gladys,” said Eleanor, a little sternness creeping into her voice, as if +she were growing angry for the first time. “To join the Camp Fire is a +privilege. Remember this–no girl does the Camp Fire a favor by joining it. +The Camp Fire does not need any one girl, no matter how clever, or how pretty, +or how able she may be, as much as that girl needs the Camp <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_93'></a>93</span> Fire. The Camp Fire, as a whole, is a +much greater, finer thing than any single member.”</p> + +<p>Sobs of anger were choking Gladys when she tried to answer. She could not +form intelligible words.</p> + +<p>Eleanor glanced at Mary Turner, and the Guardian of the new Camp Fire, on the +hint, put her arm about Gladys.</p> + +<p>“I think you’d better go back to the camp now, dear,” she +said, very gently. “You and I will have a talk presently, when you feel +better, and perhaps you will see that you are wrong.”</p> + +<p>All the life and spirit seemed to have left the girls as Gladys, her head +bowed, the sound of her sobs still plainly to be heard, left the circle of the +firelight and made her lonely way over the beach toward the tents of her own +camp. For a few moments silence reigned. Then Eleanor spoke, coolly and +steadily, although Mary Turner, who was close to her, knew what an effort her +seeming calm represented.</p> + +<p>“We have had a hard thing to do to-night,” <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_94'></a>94</span> she said. “I know that none of you +will add to what Gladys has made herself suffer. She is in the wrong, but I +think that very few of us will have any difficulty in remembering many times +when we have been wrong, and have been sure that we were right. Gladys thinks +now that we are all against her–that we wanted to humiliate her. We must +make her understand that she is wrong. Remember, Wo-he-lo means love.”</p> + +<p>She paused for a moment.</p> + +<p>“Wo-he-lo means love,” she repeated. “And not love for +those whom we cannot help loving. The love that is worth while is that we give +to those who repel us, who do not want our love. It is easy to love those who +love us. But in time we can make Gladys love us by showing that we want to love +her and do what we can to make her happy. And now, since I think none of us feel +like staying here, we will sing our good-night song and disperse.”</p> + +<p>And the soft voices rose like a benediction, mingling <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_95'></a>95</span> in the lovely strains of that most +beautiful of all the Camp Fire songs.</p> + +<p>Silently, and without the usual glad talk that followed the ending of a +Council Fire, the circle broke up, and the girls, in twos and threes, spread +over the beach.</p> + +<p>“Walk over with me, won’t you?” Marcia Bates begged Dolly +and Bessie. “Oh, I’m so ashamed! I never thought Gladys would act +like that!”</p> + +<p>“It isn’t your fault, Marcia,” said Dolly. +“Don’t be silly about it. And, do you know, I’m not angry a +bit! Just at first I thought I was going to be furious. But–well, somehow +I can’t help admiring Gladys! I like her better than I ever did before, I +really do believe!”</p> + +<p>“Oh, I do!” said Bessie, her eyes glowing. “Wasn’t +she splendid? Of course, she’s all wrong, but she had to be plucky to +stand up there like that, when she knew everyone was against her!”</p> + +<p>“But she had no right to insult all you girls, Bessie.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_96'></a>96</span>“I +don’t believe she meant to insult us a bit,” said Dolly. “I +don’t think she thought much about us. It’s just that she has always +been brought up to feel a certain way about things, and she couldn’t +change all at once. A whole lot of girls, while they believed just what she did, +and hated the whole idea just as much, would never have dared to say so, when +they knew no one agreed with them.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, it’s just as Miss Eleanor said,” said Bessie, +“She’s not a hypocrite, no matter what her other faults are. +She’s not afraid to say just what she thinks–and that’s pretty +fine, after all.”</p> + +<p>“I wish she could hear you,” said Marcia, indignantly. “Oh, +it’s splendid of you, but I can’t feel that way, and there’s +no use pretending. I suppose the real reason I’m so angry is that +I’m really very fond of Gladys, and I hate to see her acting this way. +She’s making a perfect fool of herself, I think.”</p> + +<p>“But just think of how splendid it will be when <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_97'></a>97</span> she sees she is wrong, Marcia,” +said Bessie. “Because you want to remember if she’s plucky enough to +hold out against all her friends this way she will be plucky enough to own up +when she sees the truth, too.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, and she’ll be a convert worth making, too,” said +Dolly. “There’s just one thing I’m thinking of, Marcia. Will +she stay here? Don’t you suppose she’ll go home right away? I know I +would. I wouldn’t want to stay around this beach after what happened at +the Council Fire to-night.”</p> + +<p>They never heard Marcia’s answer to that question, for in the darkness, +Gladys herself, shaking with anger, rose and confronted them.</p> + +<p>“You bet I’m going to stay!” she declared, furiously. +“And I’ll get even with you, Dolly Ransom, and your nasty old Miss +Mercer, and the whole crew of you! Maybe you’ve been able to set all my +friends against me–I’m glad of it!”</p> + +<p>“No one is set against you, Gladys,” said Marcia, gently.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_98'></a>98</span>“Maybe you +don’t call it that, Marcia Bates, but I’ve got my own opinion of a +lot of girls who call themselves my friends and side against me the way +you’ve done!”</p> + +<p>“Why, Gladys, I haven’t done a thing–”</p> + +<p>“That’s just it, you sneak! Why, do you suppose I’d have +let them treat you as I was treated to-night? If it had happened to you and +I’d joined before, I’d have got up and thrown their nasty old ring +back at them! I don’t want their old ring! I’ve got much prettier +ones of my own–gold, and set with sapphires and diamonds!”</p> + +<p>“I’m very glad you’re going to stay, Gladys!” said +Dolly. “I’m sorry I’ve been cross when I spoke to you lately +two or three times, and I hope you’ll forgive me. And I think you’ll +see soon that we’re not at all what you think we are in the Camp +Fire.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, you needn’t talk that way to me, Dolly Ransom! You can +pretend all you like to be a saint, but I’ve known you too long to swallow +all that! You’ve done just as many mean things as <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_99'></a>99</span> anyone else! And now you stand around and +act as if you were ashamed to know me. Just you wait! I’ll get even with +you, and all the rest of your new friends, if it’s the last thing I ever +do!”</p> + +<p>Bessie’s hand reached out for Dolly’s. She knew her chum well +enough to understand that if Dolly controlled her temper now it would only be by +the exercise of the grimmest determination. Sure enough, Dolly’s hand was +trembling, and Bessie could almost feel the hot anger that was swelling up in +her. But Dolly mastered herself nobly.</p> + +<p>“You can’t make me angry now, Gladys,” said Dolly, finally. +“You’re perfectly right; I’ve done things that are meaner than +anything you did at Lake Dean. And I’m just as sorry for them now as you +will be when you understand better.”</p> + +<p>“Well, you needn’t preach to me!” said Gladys, fiercely. +“And you can give up expecting me to run away. I’m not a coward, +whatever else I may be! And I’d never be able to hold up my head if I +thought a lot of common girls had frightened <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_100'></a>100</span> me into running away from this place. I’m +going to stay here, and I’m going to have a good time, and you’d +better look out for yourselves–that’s all I can say! Maybe I know +more about you than you think.”</p> + +<p>And then she turned on her heel and left them.</p> + +<p>“Whew!” said Marcia. “I don’t see how you kept your +temper, Dolly. If she’d said half as much to me as she did to you, I never +could have stood it, I can tell you! Whatever did she mean by what she said just +then about knowing more than we thought?”</p> + +<p>“I don’t know,” said Dolly, rather anxiously. “But +look here, Marcia, I might as well tell you now. There’s likely to be a +good deal of excitement here.”</p> + +<p>“Yes,” said Bessie, rather bitterly. “And it’s all my +fault–mine and Zara’s, that is.”</p> + +<p>“I don’t see what you can mean,” said Marcia, +mystified.</p> + +<p>“Well, it’s quite a long story, but I really think <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_101'></a>101</span> you’d better know +all about it, Marcia,” said Dolly.</p> + +<p>And so, with occasional help from Bessie herself, when Dolly forgot +something, or when Bessie’s ideas disagreed with hers, Dolly poured the +story of the adventures of Bessie and Zara since their flight from Hedgeville +into Marcia’s ears.</p> + +<p>“Why, I never heard of such a thing!” Marcia exclaimed, when the +story was told. “So that fire last night wasn’t an accident at +all?”</p> + +<p>“We’re quite sure it wasn’t, Marcia. And don’t you +think it looks as if we were right?”</p> + +<p>“It certainly does, and I think it’s dreadful, Dolly–just +dreadful. Oh, Bessie, I am so sorry for you!”</p> + +<p>She threw her arms about Bessie impulsively and kissed her, while Dolly, +delighted, looked on.</p> + +<p>“Doesn’t it make you love her more than ever?” she said. +“And Bessie is so foolish about it sometimes. She seems to think that +girls won’t want to have anything to do with her, because <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_102'></a>102</span> she hasn’t had a +home and parents like the rest of us–or like most of us.”</p> + +<p>“That <i>is</i> awfully silly, Bessie,” said Marcia. “As if +it was your fault! People are going to like you for what you are, and for the +way you behave–not on account of things that you really haven’t a +thing to do with. Sensible people, I mean. Of course, if they’re like +Gladys–but then most people aren’t, I think.”</p> + +<p>“Of course they’re not!” said Dolly, stoutly. “And, +besides, I’m just sure that Bessie is going to find out about her father +and mother some day. I don’t believe Mr. Holmes would be taking all the +trouble he has about her unless there were something very surprising about her +history that we don’t know anything about. Do you, Marcia?”</p> + +<p>“Of course not! He’s got something up his sleeve. Probably she is +heiress to a fortune, or something like that, and he wants to get hold of it. +He’s a very rich man, isn’t he, Dolly?”</p> + +<p>“Yes. You know he’s the owner of a great big department store at +home. And Bessie says <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_103'></a>103</span> that it can’t be any question of money that +makes him so anxious to get hold of her and of Zara, because he has so much +already.”</p> + +<p>“H’m! I guess people who have money like to make more, Dolly. +I’ve heard my father talk about that. He says they’re never content, +and that’s one reason why so many men work themselves to death, simply +because they haven’t got sense enough to stop and rest when they have +enough money to live comfortably for the rest of their lives.”</p> + +<p>“That’s another thing I’ve told her. And she says that +can’t be the reason, but just the same she never suggests a better one to +take its place.”</p> + +<p>“Look here,” said Marcia, thoughtfully. “If Mr. Holmes is +spending so much money, doesn’t it cost a whole lot to stop him from doing +what he’s trying to do, whatever that is? I’m just thinking–my +father has ever so much, you know, and I know if I told him, he’d be glad +to spend whatever was needed–”</p> + +<p>Bessie finished unhappily.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_104'></a>104</span>“Oh, +that’s one thing that is worrying me terribly!” she cried, “I +just know that Miss Eleanor and Mr. Jamieson must have spent a terrible lot on +my affairs already, and I don’t see how I’m ever going to pay them +back! And if I ever mention it, Miss Eleanor gets almost angry, and says I +mustn’t talk about it at all, even think of it.”</p> + +<p>“Why, of course you mustn’t. It would be awful to think that +those horrid people were able to get hold of you and make you unhappy just +because they had money and you didn’t, Bessie.”</p> + +<p>And Dolly echoed her exclamation. Naturally enough, Marcia, whose parents +were among the richest people in the state, thought little of money, and Dolly, +who had always had plenty, even though her family was by no means as rich as +Marcia’s, felt the same way about the matter. Neither of them valued money +particularly; but Bessie, because she had lived ever since she could remember in +a family where the pinch of actual <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_105'></a>105</span> poverty was always felt, had a much truer +appreciation of the value of money.</p> + +<p>She did not want to possess money, but she had a good deal of native pride, +and it worried her constantly to think that her good friends were spending money +that she could see no prospect, however remote, of repaying.</p> + +<p>“I wish there was some way to keep me from having to take all the money +they spend on me,” she said, wistfully. “As soon as we get back to +the city, I’m going to find some work to do, so that I can support +myself.”</p> + +<p>She half expected Marcia to assail that idea, for it seemed to her that, nice +as she was, she belonged, like Gladys Cooper, to the class that looked down on +work and workers. But to her surprise, Marcia gave a cry of admiration.</p> + +<p>“It’s splendid for you to feel that way, Bessie!” she said. +“But, just the same, I believe you’ll have to wait until things are +more settled. It would be so much easier for Mr. Holmes to get hold of you if +you were working, you know.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_106'></a>106</span>“She’s going to come and stay with me +just as long as she wants to,” said Dolly. “And, anyhow, I really +believe things are going to be settled for her. Perhaps I’ve heard +something, too!”</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_107'></a>107</span><a id='link_7'></a>CHAPTER VII<br /><span class='h2fs'>THE CHALLENGE</span></h2> + +<p>When Bessie and Dolly returned to their own camp they found Eleanor Mercer +waiting for them, and as soon as she was alone with them, she did something +that, for her, was very rare. She asked them about their talk with Marcia +Bates.</p> + +<p>“You know that as a rule I don’t interfere,” she said. +“Unless there is something that makes it positively necessary for me to +intrude myself, I leave you to yourselves.”</p> + +<p>“Why, we would have told you all about it, anyhow, Miss Eleanor,” +said Dolly, surprised.</p> + +<p>“Yes, but even so, I want you to know that I’m sorry to feel that +I should ask you to tell me. As a rule, I would rather let you girls work all +these things out by yourselves, even if I see very plainly that you are making +mistakes. I think you can sometimes learn more by doing a thing wrong, <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_108'></a>108</span> provided that you are +following your own ideas, than by doing it right when you are simply doing what +someone else tells you.”</p> + +<p>“I see what you mean, Miss Eleanor,” said Bessie. “But this +time we really haven’t done anything, We saw Gladys, too, +and–”</p> + +<p>She went on to tell of their talk with Marcia and of the unpleasant episode +created by Gladys when she had overheard them talking.</p> + +<p>“I think you’ve done very well indeed,” said Eleanor, with +a sigh of relief, when she had heard the story. “I was so afraid that you +would lose your temper, Dolly. Not that I could really have blamed you if you +had, but, oh, it’s so much better that you didn’t. So Gladys has +decided to stay, has she!”</p> + +<p>“Yes,” said Dolly. “But Marcia seemed to think Miss Turner +might make her go home.”</p> + +<p>“She won’t,” said Eleanor. “She was thinking of it, +but I have had a talk with her, and we both decided that that wouldn’t do +much good. It might save us some trouble, but it wouldn’t do <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_109'></a>109</span> Gladys any good, and, +after all, she’s the one we’ve got to consider.”</p> + +<p>Dolly didn’t say anything, but it was plain from her look that she did +not understand.</p> + +<p>“What I mean is,” Eleanor went on, “that there’s a +chance here for us to make a real convert–one who will count. It’s +easy enough to make girls understand our Camp Fire idea when they want to like +it, and feel sure that they’re going to. The hard cases are the girls like +Gladys, who have a prejudice against the Camp Fire without really knowing +anything at all about it. And if the Camp Fire idea is the fine, strong, +splendid thing we all believe, why, this is a good time to prove it. If it is, +Gladys won’t be able to hold out against it.”</p> + +<p>“That’s what I’ve thought from the first, Miss +Eleanor,” said Bessie. “And I’m sure she will like us better +presently.”</p> + +<p>“Well, if she is willing to stay, she is to stay,” said Eleanor. +“And she is to be allowed to do everything the other girls do, except, of +course, <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_110'></a>110</span> she +can’t actually take part in a Council Fire until she’s a member. We +don’t want her to feel that she is being punished, and Miss Turner is +going to try to make her girls treat her just as if nothing had happened. +That’s what I want our Manasquan girls to do, too.”</p> + +<p>“They will, then, if I’ve got anything to say,” declared +Dolly, vehemently. “And I guess I’ve got more reason to be down on +her than any of the others except Bessie. So if I’m willing to be nice to +her, I certainly don’t see why the others should hesitate.”</p> + +<p>“Remember this, Dolly. You’re willing to be nice to her now, but +she may make it pretty hard. You’re going to have a stiff test of your +self-control and your temper for the next few days. When people are in the wrong +and know it, but aren’t ready to admit it and be sorry, they usually go +out of their way to be nasty to those they have injured–”</p> + +<p>“Oh, I don’t care what she says or does now,” said Dolly. +“If I could talk to her to-night without <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_111'></a>111</span> getting angry, I think I’m safe. I never came +so near to losing my temper without really doing it in my whole life +before.”</p> + +<p>“Well, that’s fine, Dolly. Keep it up. Remember this is pretty +hard for poor Miss Turner. Here she is, just starting in as a Camp Fire +Guardian, and at the very beginning she has this trouble! But if she does make +Gladys come around, it will be a great victory for her, and I want you and all +of our girls to do everything you can to help.”</p> + +<p>Then with a hearty good-night she turned away, and it was plain that she was +greatly relieved by what Bessie and Dolly had told her.</p> + +<p>“Well, I don’t know what you’re going to do, Bessie,” +said Dolly, “but I’m going to turn in and sleep! I’m just +beginning to realize how tired I am.”</p> + +<p>“I’m tired, too. We’ve really had enough to make us pretty +tired, haven’t we?”</p> + +<p>And this time they were able to sleep through the whole night without +interruption. The peace <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_112'></a>112</span> and calm of Plum Beach were disturbed by nothing +more noisy than gentle waves, and the whole camp awoke in the morning vastly +refreshed.</p> + +<p>The sun shone down gloriously, and the cloudless sky proclaimed that it was +to be a day fit for any form of sport. A gentle breeze blew in from the sea, +dying away to nothing sometimes, and the water inside the sand bar was so smooth +and inviting that half a dozen of the girls, with Dolly at their head, scampered +in for a plunge before breakfast.</p> + +<p>“They’re swimming over at the other camp, too,” cried +Dolly. “See? Oh, I bet we’ll have some good times with them. We +ought to be able to have all sorts of fun in the water.”</p> + +<p>“Aren’t there any boats here beside that old flat bottom +skiff?” asked Bessie.</p> + +<p>“Aren’t there? Just wait till you see! If we hadn’t had all +that excitement yesterday Captain Salters would have brought the <i>Eleanor</i> +over. He will to-day, too, and then you’ll see.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_113'></a>113</span>“What will +I see, Dolly? Remember I haven’t been here before, like you.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, she’s the dandiest little boat, Bessie–a little sloop, +and as fast as a steamboat, if she’s handled right.”</p> + +<p>“Now we’ll never hear the end of her,” said Margery Burton, +with a comical gesture of despair. “You’ve touched the button, +Bessie, and Dolly will keep on telling us about the <i>Eleanor</i>, and how fast +she is, until someone sits on her!”</p> + +<p>“You’re jealous, Margery,” laughed Dolly, in high good +humor. “Margery’s pretty clever, Bessie, and when it comes to +cooking–my!” She smacked her lips loudly, as if to express her sense +of how well Margery could cook. “But she can’t sail a +boat!”</p> + +<p>“Here’s Captain Salters now–and he’s towing the +<i>Eleanor</i>, all right, Dolly,” cried one of the other girls.</p> + +<p>“Oh, I’m so glad!” cried Dolly. “Bessie, you’ve +never been in a sail boat, have you? I’ll have to show you how everything +is done, and <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_114'></a>114</span> then +well have some bully fine times together. You’ll love it, I +know.”</p> + +<p>“She won’t if she’s inclined to be seasick,” said +Margery. “The trouble with Dolly is that she can never have enough of a +good thing. The higher the wind, the happier Dolly is. She’ll keep on +until the boat heels away over, and until you think you’re going over the +next minute–and she calls that having a good time!”</p> + +<p>“Well, I never heard you begging me to quit, Margery Burton!” +said Dolly. “You’re an old fraud–that’s what you are! +You pretend you are terribly frightened, and all the time you’re enjoying +it just as much as I am. I wish there was some way we could have a race. +That’s where the real fun comes in with a sail boat.”</p> + +<p>“You could get all the racing you want over at Bay City, Dolly. The +yacht club there has races every week, I think.”</p> + +<p>“But Miss Eleanor would never let me sail in one of those races, +Margery. I guess she’s right, too. I may be pretty good for a girl, but +I’m <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_115'></a>115</span> afraid I +wouldn’t have a chance with those men.”</p> + +<p>Margery pretended to faint.</p> + +<p>“Listen to that, will you?” she exclaimed. “Here’s +Dolly actually saying that someone might be able to do something better than she +could! I’ll believe in almost anything after that!”</p> + +<p>“Well, you can laugh all you like,” said Dolly, with spirit. +“But if we should have a race, I’ll be captain, and I know some +people who won’t get a chance to be even on the crew. They’ll feel +pretty sorry they were so fresh, I guess, when they have to stay ashore cooking +dinner while I and my crew are out in the sloop!”</p> + +<p>Then from the beach came the primitive call to breakfast–made by the +simple process of pounding very hard on the bottom of a frying pan with a big +tin spoon. That ended the talk about Dolly’s qualifications as a yacht +captain, and there was a wild rush to the beach, and to the tents, since those +who had been in for an early swim could not sit down to breakfast in their wet +bathing <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_116'></a>116</span> suits. But +no one took any great length of time to dress, since here the utmost simplicity +ruled in clothes.</p> + +<p>“Well, what’s the programme for to-day, girls?” asked +Eleanor, after the meal was over.</p> + +<p>“Each for herself!” cried half a dozen voices. And a broken +chorus rose in agreement.</p> + +<p>“I want to fish!” cried one.</p> + +<p>“A long walk for me!” cried another.</p> + +<p>“I’d like to make up a party to go over to Bay City and buy +things. We haven’t been near a store for weeks!” suggested +another.</p> + +<p>“All right,” said Eleanor. “Everyone can do exactly what +she likes between the time we finish clearing up after lunch and dinner. I think +we’ll have the same rule we did at Long Lake–four girls attend to +the camp work each day, while the other eight do as they like. You can draw lots +or arrange it among yourselves, I don’t care.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, that’s a fine arrangement,” said Dolly. +“It’s a little harder for the four who work than <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_117'></a>117</span> it would be if we all +pitched in, but no one really has to work any harder, for all that.”</p> + +<p>“It’s even in the long run,” said Eleanor. “And it +gives some of you a chance to do things that call for a whole afternoon. All +agreed to that, are you?”</p> + +<p>It was Eleanor’s habit, whenever possible, to submit such minor details +of camp life to a vote of the girls. Her authority, of course, was complete. If +she gave an order, it had to be obeyed, and she had the right, if she decided it +was best, to send any or all of the girls home. But–and many guardians +find it a good plan–she preferred to give the girls a good deal of +latitude and real independence.</p> + +<p>One result was that, whenever she did give a positive order, it was obeyed +unquestioningly. The girls knew by experience that usually she was content to +suggest things, and even agree to methods that she herself would not have +chosen, and, as they were not accustomed to receiving positive orders on all +sorts of subjects, they understood <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_118'></a>118</span> without being told that there was a good reason for +those that were issued. Another result, of course, and the most important, was +that the girls, growing used to governing themselves, grew more self-reliant, +and better fitted to cope with emergencies.</p> + +<p>The girls were still washing the breakfast dishes when Marcia Bates walked +along the beach and was greeted with a merry hail by Dolly and the others.</p> + +<p>“I’m here as an ambassador or something like that,” she +announced. “That little sloop out there is yours, isn’t +she?”</p> + +<p>“Well, we’ll have ours here as soon as it’s towed over from +Bay City. And we want to challenge you to a regular yacht race. I asked Miss +Turner if we might, and she said yes.”</p> + +<p>“I think that would be fine sport,” said Eleanor. “Dolly +Ransom is skipper of our sloop. Suppose you talk it over with her.”</p> + +<p>“I think it would be fine, Marcia!” said Dolly, <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_119'></a>119</span> with shining eyes. +“I was just wishing for a race this morning. When shall we have +it?”</p> + +<p>“Why not this afternoon?” asked Marcia. “We could race out +to the lighthouse on the rock out there and back. That’s not very far, but +it’s far enough to make a good race, I should think.”</p> + +<p>“Splendid!” said Dolly. “What sort of a boat is +yours?”</p> + +<p>“Just the same as yours, I think. We can see when they come, and if one +is bigger than the other, we can arrange about a handicap. Miss Turner said she +thought she ought to be in one boat, and Miss Mercer in the other.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, I think so, too. And I’ll be skipper of our boat, and have +Bessie King and Margery Burton for a crew. Who is your skipper?”</p> + +<p>“Gladys Cooper,” answered Marcia, after a slight pause.</p> + +<p>“Bully for her! Just you tell her I’m going to beat her so badly +she won’t even know she’s in a race.”</p> + +<p>Marcia laughed.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_120'></a>120</span>“All +right,” she said. “I’ll let you know when we’re +ready.”</p> + +<p>“Now, then, Bessie,” said Dolly, “just you come out with me +to the sloop in that skiff, and I’ll show you just what you’ll have +to do. It won’t be hard–you’ll only have to obey orders. But +you’d better know the names of the ropes, so that you’ll understand +my orders when I give them.”</p> + +<p>So for an hour Bessie, delighted with the appearance of the trim little +sloop, took lessons from Dolly in the art of handling small sailing craft.</p> + +<p>“You’ll get along all right,” said Dolly, as they pulled +back to the beach. “Don’t get excited. That’s the only thing +to remember. We’ll wear our bathing suits, of course, so that if we get +spilled into the water, there’ll be no harm done.”</p> + +<p>“We’ve got a good chance of being spilled, too,” said +Margery. “I know how Dolly likes to sail a boat. So if you don’t +want a ducking, you’d better make her take someone else in your +place.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_121'></a>121</span>“I +wouldn’t miss it for anything,” said Bessie, happily. +“I’ve never even seen a yacht race. I bet it must be lots of +fun.”</p> + +<p>“It won’t be rough, anyhow,” said Eleanor, after they had +landed. She looked out to sea. “It’s pretty hazy out there, Dolly. +Think there’ll be enough wind?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, yes,” said Dolly. “Plenty! It won’t be stiff, of +course, and we won’t make good time, but that doesn’t make any +difference. It’s as good for them as for us–and the other way +round.”</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_123'></a>123</span><a id='link_8'></a>CHAPTER VIII<br /><span class='h2fs'>THE RACE</span></h2> + +<p>The sloop that was to represent the Halsted Camp Fire in the race arrived in +the cove late in the morning, and from the shore there seemed to be no +difference in size between the two little craft. They were different, and one +might prove swifter than the other, for no two boats of that sort were ever +exactly alike. But so far as could be judged, the race was likely to be a test +rather of how the boats were sailed than of their speed, boat for boat.</p> + +<p>“I think you can sail on even terms, Dolly,” said Eleanor. +“I don’t believe there’ll be any need for either of you to +give away any time to the other.”</p> + +<p>“I’m glad of that, Miss Eleanor,” said Dolly. “It +seems much nicer when you’re exactly even at the start.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_124'></a>124</span>“Here’s Miss Turner now,” said +Bessie. “I guess they must be about ready to start. I hope I’ll do +the right thing when you tell me, Dolly, but I’m dreadfully afraid I +won’t.”</p> + +<p>“Don’t worry about it, and you’ll be much more likely to +get along well,” said Margery Burton, calmly. “And remember that +this race isn’t the most important thing in the world, even if Dolly +thinks it is.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, it’s all right for you to talk that way now,” said +Dolly. “But wait till we’re racing, Bessie, You’ll find +she’s just as much worked up about it then as I am–and probably more +so.”</p> + +<p>“Well, all ready, Nell?” asked Mary Turner, coming up to them +then. “Gladys seems to think she’s about ready to start, so I +thought I’d walk over and arrange about the details.”</p> + +<p>“I think the best way to fix up the start will be for the two sloops to +reach the opening in the bar together,” said Eleanor. “They can +start there and finish there, you see, and that will save the need of having +someone to take the time. We <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_125'></a>125</span> really haven’t anyone who can do that +properly. If we’re close together at the start you and I can call to one +another and agree upon the moment when the race has actually begun.”</p> + +<p>“All right,” said Miss Turner. “I’d thought of that +myself.” She lowered her voice. “I didn’t like to oppose this +race, Nell,” she said, speaking so that only Eleanor could hear her, +“but I’m not at all sure that it’s going to be a good +thing.”</p> + +<p>“Why not? I thought it would be good sport.”</p> + +<p>“It ought to be, but I don’t know how good a sportsman Gladys is. +If she wins, it will probably make her feel a lot better. But if she +loses–!”</p> + +<p>“I hadn’t thought of that side of it,” said Eleanor. +“But–oh, well, even so, I think it will probably be a good thing. +Gladys has got a lot of hard lessons to learn, and if this is one of them, the +sooner she learns it, the better. You and I will be along to see fair play. That +will <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_126'></a>126</span> keep her from +having anything to say if she does lose, you see.”</p> + +<p>“We’re in for it, anyhow, so I didn’t mean to have you +worry about it. I think anything that I might have done to stop the race would +have done more harm than the race itself can possibly do, in any +case.”</p> + +<p>“I’m quite sure of that, Mary. Well, we’ll get aboard our +yacht and you’d better do the same. They’re probably waiting +impatiently for you.”</p> + +<p>The flat-bottomed skiff that Bessie had despised proved handy for carrying +the <i>Eleanor’s</i> crew out to her. While the others climbed aboard, +Dolly, who insisted upon attending to everything herself when she possibly +could, arranged a floating anchor that would keep the boat in place against +their return, and a few moments later the <i>Eleanor’s</i> snowy sails +rose, flapping idly in the faint breeze.</p> + +<p>“Get up that anchor!” directed Dolly. “Bessie, you help +Margery. She’ll show you what to do.”</p> + +<p>Then a shiver shook the little craft, the wind filled the sails, and in a few +moments they were <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_127'></a>127</span> +creeping slowly toward the opening in the bar. Seated at the helm, Dolly looked +over toward the other camp and saw that the other yacht was also under way.</p> + +<p>“What do they call their boat?” she asked.</p> + +<p>“The <i>Defiance</i>,” said Eleanor.</p> + +<p>Dolly laughed at the answer.</p> + +<p>“I bet I know who named her!” she said, merrily. “If that +isn’t just like Gladys Cooper! Well, I want a good race, and I can have +just as much fun if we’re beaten, as long as I can feel that I +haven’t made any mistakes in sailing the <i>Eleanor</i>. But–well, I +guess I would like to beat Gladys. I bet she’s awfully sure of +winning!”</p> + +<p>“She’s had more experience in sailing boats like these than you +have, Dolly,” said Eleanor.</p> + +<p>“She’s welcome to it,” said Dolly. “I shan’t +make any excuses if I lose. I’ll be ready to admit that she’s better +than I am.”</p> + +<p>The two boats converged together upon the opening in the bar, and soon those +on one could see everything aboard the other. Gladys Cooper, <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_128'></a>128</span> like Dolly, sat at the +helm, steering her boat, and a look of grim determination was in her eyes and on +her unsmiling face.</p> + +<p>“She certainly does want to win,” said Margery. +“She’s taking this too seriously–score one for +Dolly.”</p> + +<p>“You think she’d do better if she weren’t so worked up, +Margery?”</p> + +<p>“Of course she would! There are just two ways to take a race or a +sporting contest of any sort–as a game or as a bit of serious work. If you +do the very best you can and forget about winning, you’ll win a good deal +oftener than you lose, if your best is any good at all. It’s that way in +football. I’ve heard boys say that when they have played against certain +teams, they’ve known right after the start that they were going to win, +because the other team’s players would lose their tempers the first time +anything went wrong.”</p> + +<p>“We seem to be on even terms now,” said Eleanor, and, cupping her +hands, she hailed Mary <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_129'></a>129</span> Turner. “All right? We might as well call +this a start.”</p> + +<p>“All right,” said Mary. “Shall I give the word!”</p> + +<p>“Go ahead!” said Eleanor.</p> + +<p>Instantly Dolly, with a quick look at her sails, which were hanging limp +again, since she had altered the course a trifle, became all attention.</p> + +<p>“One–two–three–go!” called Miss Turner, +clapping her hands at the word “go.”</p> + +<p>And instantly Dolly shifted her helm once more, so that the wind filled the +sails, and the <i>Eleanor</i> shot for the opening in the bar. Quick as she had +been, however, she was no quicker than Gladys, and the <i>Defiance</i> and the +<i>Eleanor</i> passed through the bar and out into the open sea together. Here +there was more motion, since the short, choppy waves outside the bar were never +wholly still, no matter how calm the sea might seem to be. But Bessie, who had +been rather nervous as to the effect of this motion, which she had been warned +to dread, found it by no means unpleasant.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_130'></a>130</span>For a few +moments Dolly’s orders flew sharply. Although the wind was very light, +there was enough of it to give fair speed, and the sails had to be trimmed to +get the utmost possible out of it while it lasted. Both boats tacked to +starboard, sailing along a slanting line that seemed likely to carry them far to +one side of the lighthouse that was their destination, and Bessie wondered at +this.</p> + +<p>“We’re not sailing straight for the lighthouse,” she said. +“Isn’t that supposed to be where we turn? Don’t we have to +sail around it?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, but we can’t go straight there, because the wind +isn’t right,” explained Dolly. “We’ll keep on this way +for a spell; then we’ll come about and tack to port, and then to starboard +again. In that way we can beat the wind, you see, and make it work for us, even +if it doesn’t want to.”</p> + +<p>Half way to the lighthouse there was less than a hundred feet between the +boats. The <i>Defiance</i> seemed to be a little ahead, but the advantage, if +she really had one at all, was not enough to have any real effect on the +race.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_131'></a>131</span>“Going out +isn’t going to give either of us much chance to gain, I guess,” said +Dolly. “The real race will be when we’re going back, with what wind +there is behind us.”</p> + +<p>But soon it seemed that Dolly had made a rash prediction, for when she came +about and started to beat up to port, the <i>Defiance</i> held to her +course.</p> + +<p>“Well, she can do that if she wants to,” said Dolly. “Just +the same, I think she’s going too far.”</p> + +<p>“It looks to me as if she were pretty sure of what she’s doing, +though, Dolly,” said Margery, anxiously. “Don’t you think you +tacked a little too soon?”</p> + +<p>“If I thought that I wouldn’t have done it, Margery,” said +Dolly. “Don’t bother me with silly questions now; I’ve got to +figure on tacking again so as to make that turn with the least possible waste of +time.”</p> + +<p>“Don’t talk to the ‘man’ at the wheel,” advised +Eleanor, with a laugh. “She’s irritable.”</p> + +<p>A good many of the nautical terms used so freely <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_132'></a>132</span> by the others might have been so much +Greek for all Bessie could understand of them, but the race itself had awakened +her interest and now held it as scarcely anything she had ever done had been +able to do.</p> + +<p>She kept her eyes fixed on the other boat, and at last she gave a cry.</p> + +<p>“Look! They’re going to turn now.”</p> + +<p>“Score one for Gladys, Margery,” said Dolly, quietly. +“She’s certainly stolen a march on me. Do you see that? She’s +going to make her turn on the next tack, and I believe she’ll gain nearly +five minutes on us. That was clever, and it was good work.”</p> + +<p>“Never mind, Dolly,” said Margery. “You’ve still got +a chance to catch her going home before the wind. I know how fast the +<i>Eleanor</i> is at that sort of work. If the <i>Defiance</i> is any better, +she ought to be racing for some real cups.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, don’t try to cheer me up! I made an awful mess of that, +Margery, and I know it. Gladys had more nerve than I, that’s all. She +deserves <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_133'></a>133</span> the lead +she’s got. It isn’t a question of the boats, at all. The +<i>Defiance</i> is being sailed better than the <i>Eleanor</i>.”</p> + +<p>“Margery’s right, though, Dolly,” said Eleanor. “The +race isn’t over yet. You haven’t given up hope, have you?”</p> + +<p>“Given up?” cried Dolly, scornfully, through set teeth. +“Just you watch, that’s all! I’m going to get home ahead if I +have to swamp us all.”</p> + +<p>“That’s more like her,” Margery whispered to Bessie.</p> + +<p>And now even Bessie could see that the <i>Defiance</i> had gained a big +advantage. Before her eyes, not so well trained as those of the others to weigh +every consideration in such a contest, had not seen what was really happening. +But it was plain enough now. Even while the <i>Defiance</i> was holding on for +the lighthouse, on a straight course, the <i>Eleanor</i> had to come about and +start beating up toward it, and the <i>Defiance</i> made the turn, and, with +spinnaker set, was skimming gaily for home <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_134'></a>134</span> a full five minutes before the <i>Eleanor</i> +circled lighthouse.</p> + +<p>In fact, the <i>Defiance</i>, homeward bound, passed them, and Mary Turner +laughed gaily as she hailed Eleanor.</p> + +<p>“This is pretty bad,” she called. “Better luck next time, +Nell!”</p> + +<p>Marcia Bates waved her hand gaily to them, but Gladys Cooper, her eyes +straight ahead, her hand on the tiller, paid no attention to them. There was no +mistaking the look of triumph on her face, however. She was sure she was going +to win, and she was glorying in her victory already.</p> + +<p>“I’ll make her smile on the other side of her face yet,” +said Dolly, viciously. “She might have waved her hand, at least. If +we’re good enough to race with, we’re good enough for her to be +decently polite to us, I should think.”</p> + +<p>“Easy, Dolly!” said Margery. “It won’t help any for +you to lose your temper, you know. Remember you’ve still got to sail your +boat.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_135'></a>135</span>The +<i>Defiance</i> was far ahead when, at last, after a wait that seemed to those +on board interminable, the <i>Eleanor</i> rounded the lighthouse in her +turn.</p> + +<p>“Lively now!” commanded Dolly. “Shake out the spinnaker! +We’re going to need all the sail we’ve got. There isn’t enough +wind now to make a flag stand out properly.”</p> + +<p>“And they got the best of it, too,” lamented Margery. “You +see, Bessie, the good wind there was when they started back carried them well +along. We won’t get that, and we’ll keep falling further and further +behind, because they’ve probably still got more wind than we have. +It’ll die out here before it does where they are.”</p> + +<p>Dolly stood up now, and cast her eyes behind her on the horizon, and all +about. And suddenly, without warning, she put the helm over, and the +<i>Eleanor</i> stood off to port, heading, as it seemed, far from the opening in +the bar that was the finishing, line.</p> + +<p>“Dolly, are you crazy?” exclaimed Margery. “This is a +straight run before the wind!”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_136'></a>136</span>“Suppose +there isn’t any wind?” asked Dolly. The strained, anxious look had +left her eyes, and she seemed calm now, almost elated. “Margery, +you’re a fine cook, but you’ve got a lot to learn yet about sailing +a boat!”</p> + +<p>Bessie was completely mystified, and a look at Margery showed her that she, +too, although silenced, was far from being satisfied. But now Margery suddenly +looked off on the surface of the water, and gave a glad cry.</p> + +<p>“Oh, fine, Dolly!” she exclaimed. “I see what you’re +up to–and I bet Gladys thinks you’re perfectly insane, +too!”</p> + +<p>“She’ll soon know I’m not,” said Dolly, grimly. +“I only hope she doesn’t know enough to do the same thing. I +don’t see how she can miss, though, unless she can’t see in +time.”</p> + +<p>Still Bessie was mystified, and she did not like to ask for an explanation, +especially since she felt certain that one would be forthcoming anyhow in a few +moments. And, sure enough, it was. For suddenly she felt a breath of wind, and, +at the <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_137'></a>137</span> same +instant Dolly brought the <i>Eleanor</i> up before the wind again, and for the +first time Bessie understood what the little sloop’s real speed was.</p> + +<p>“You see, Bessie,” said Margery, “Dolly knew that the wind +was dying. It’s a puffy, uncertain sort of wind, and very often, on a day +like this, there’ll be plenty of breeze in one spot, and none at all in +another.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, so we came over here to find this breeze!” said Bessie.</p> + +<p>“Yes. It was the only chance. If we had stayed on the other course we +might have found enough breeze to carry us home, but we would have gone at a +snail’s pace, just as we were doing, and there was no chance at all to +catch Gladys and the <i>Defiance</i> that way.”</p> + +<p>“We haven’t caught them yet, you know,” said Dolly.</p> + +<p>“But we’re catching them,” said Bessie, exultingly. +“Even I can see that. Look! They’re just crawling along.”</p> + +<p>“Still, even at the rate they’re going, ten minutes <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_138'></a>138</span> more will bring them to +the finish,” said Margery, anxiously. “Do you think she can make it, +Dolly?”</p> + +<p>“I don’t know,” said Dolly. “I’ve done all I +can, anyhow. There isn’t a thing to do now but hold her steady and trust +to this shift of the wind to last long enough to carry us home.”</p> + +<p>Now the <i>Eleanor</i> was catching the <i>Defiance</i> fast, and nearing her +more and more rapidly. It was a strange and mysterious thing to Bessie to see +that of two yachts so close together–there was less than a quarter of a +mile between them now–one could have her sails filled with a good breeze +while the other seemed to have none at all. But it was so. The <i>Defiance</i> +was barely moving; she seemed as far from the finish now as she had been when +Margery spoke.</p> + +<p>“They’re stuck–they’re becalmed,” said Margery, +finally, when five minutes of steady gazing hadn’t shown the slightest +apparent advance by the <i>Defiance</i>. “Oh, Dolly, we’re going to +beat them!”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_139'></a>139</span>“I guess +we are,” said Dolly, with a sigh of satisfaction. “It was about the +most hopeless looking race I ever saw twenty minutes ago, but you never can +tell.”</p> + +<p>And now every minute seemed to make the issue more and more certain. +Sometimes a little puff of wind would strike the <i>Defiance</i>, fill her +sails, and push her a little nearer her goal, but the hopes that those puffs +must have raised in Dolly’s rival and her crew were false, for each died +away before the <i>Defiance</i> really got moving again.</p> + +<p>And at last, passing within a hundred yards, so that they could see poor +Gladys, her eyes filled with tears, the <i>Eleanor</i> slipped by the +<i>Defiance</i> and took the lead. And then, by some strange irony of fate, the +wind came to the <i>Defiance</i>–but it came too late. For the +<i>Eleanor</i>, slipping through the water as if some invisible force had been +dragging her, passed through the opening and into the still waters of the cove +fully two hundred feet in the lead.</p> + +<p>“That certainly was your victory, Dolly,” said <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_140'></a>140</span> Eleanor. “If you +hadn’t found that wind, we’d still be floundering around somewhere +near the lighthouse.”</p> + +<p>“I do feel sorry for Gladys, though,” said Dolly. “It must +have been hard–when she was so sure that she had won.”</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_141'></a>141</span><a id='link_9'></a>CHAPTER IX<br /><span class='h2fs'>THE SPY</span></h2> + +<p>“That was bad luck. You really deserved to win that race, +Gladys,” Dolly called out, as the <i>Defiance</i> came within hailing +distance of the <i>Eleanor</i> again.</p> + +<p>Gladys looked at her old friend but said not a word. It was very plain that +the loss of the race, which she had considered already won, was a severe blow to +her, and she was not yet able, even had she been willing, to say anything.</p> + +<p>“That’s very nice of you, Dolly,” called Mary Turner. +“But it isn’t so at all. You sailed your boat very cleverly. We +didn’t think of going off after the wind until it was too late. I think it +was mighty plucky of you to keep on when we had such a big lead. +Congratulations!”</p> + +<p>“Oh, what’s the use of talking like that?” cried Gladys, +furiously. “It was a trick–that was all <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_142'></a>142</span> it was! If we had had a real wind all +the way, we’d have beaten you by half a mile!”</p> + +<p>“I know it, Gladys. It was a trick,” said Dolly, cheerfully. +“That’s just what I said. We’ll have another race, won’t +we? And we’ll pick out a day when the wind is good and strong, so that it +will be just the same for both boats.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, you’d find some other trick to help you win,” said +Gladys, sulkily. “Don’t act like that–it’s easy enough +for you to be pleasant. They’ll all be laughing at me now for not being +able to win when I had such a lead.”</p> + +<p>“I’m ashamed of you, Gladys,” said Mary Turner, blushing +scarlet. “Dolly, please don’t think that any of the rest of us feel +as Gladys does. If I’d known she was such a poor loser, I wouldn’t +have let her race with you at all. And there won’t be another race, Gladys +doesn’t deserve another chance.”</p> + +<p>“Gladys is quite right,” said Dolly, soberly. “It’s +very easy to be nice and generous when <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_143'></a>143</span> you’ve won; it’s much harder to be fair +when you’ve lost. And it was a trick, after all.”</p> + +<p>“No, it wasn’t, Dolly,” said Eleanor, seriously. “It +was perfectly fair. It was good strategy, but it wasn’t tricky at all. +Gladys knew just as much about the wind as you did. If she had done as you did +in time, instead of waiting until after she’d seen you do it, she would +have won the race.”</p> + +<p>“We’re going to have trouble with that Gladys Cooper yet,” +said Margery. “She’s spoiled, and she’s got a nasty +disposition to start with, anyhow. You’d better look out, Dolly, +She’ll do anything she can to get even.”</p> + +<p>“I think this race was one of the things she thought would help her to +get even,” said Bessie. “She was awfully sure she was going to be +able to beat you, Dolly.”</p> + +<p>“I almost wish she had,” said Dolly. “I don’t mean +that I would have done anything to let her win, of course, because there +wouldn’t be any fun about that. But what’s an old race, +anyhow!”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_144'></a>144</span>“That’s the right spirit, Dolly,” +said Eleanor. “It’s the game that counts, not the result. We ought +to play to win, of course, but we ought to play fair first of all. And I think +that means not doing anything at all that would spoil the other side’s +chances.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, that’s all right,” said Margery, “but I’m +glad we won.”</p> + +<p>“I’m glad,” said Dolly. “And I’m sorry, too. +That sounds silly, doesn’t it, but it’s what I mean. Maybe if Gladys +had won, we could have patched things up. And now there’ll be more trouble +than ever.”</p> + +<p>While they talked they were furling the <i>Eleanor’s</i> sails, and +soon they were ready to go ashore. Dolly had brought them up cleverly beside the +skiff, and, once the anchor was dropped and everything on board the swift little +sloop had been made snug for the night, they dropped over into the skiff and +rowed to the beach. There the other girls, who had been greatly excited during +the race, and were overjoyed by the result, greeted <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_145'></a>145</span> them with the Wo-he-lo song. Zara, +especially, seemed delighted.</p> + +<p>“I felt so bad that I cried when I thought you were going to be +beaten,” she said. “Oh, Bessie, I’m glad you won! And I bet it +was because you were on board.”</p> + +<p>Bessie laughed.</p> + +<p>“You’d better not let Dolly hear you say that,” she said. +“I didn’t have a thing to do with it, Zara. It was all Dolly’s +cleverness that won that race.”</p> + +<p>“I’m awfully glad you’re back, Bessie. I’ve had the +strangest feeling this afternoon–as if someone were watching +me.”</p> + +<p>Bessie grew grave at once. Although she never shared them, she had grown +chary of laughing at Zara’s premonitions and feelings. They had been +justified too often by what happened after she spoke of them.</p> + +<p>“What do you mean, dear!” she asked. “I don’t see how +anyone could be around without being seen. It’s very open.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_146'></a>146</span>“I +don’t know, but I’ve had the feeling, I’m sure of that. +It’s just as if someone had known exactly what I was doing, as long as I +was out here on the beach. But when I went into the tent, it stopped. That made +me feel that I must be right.”</p> + +<p>“Well, maybe you’re mistaken, Zara. You know we’ve had so +many strange things happen to us lately that it would be funny if it +hadn’t made you nervous. You’re probably imagining this.”</p> + +<p>Though Bessie tried thus to disarm Zara’s suspicions, she was by no +means easy in her own mind. She felt that it would be a good thing to induce +Zara to forget her presentiment, or feeling, or whatever it was, if she could. +But, just the same, she determined to be on her guard, and she spoke to +Dolly.</p> + +<p>“She’s a queer case, that Zara,” said Dolly, with a little +shiver. “If any other girl I knew said anything like that, I’d just +laugh at her. But Zara’s different, somehow. She seems sort <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_147'></a>147</span> of mysterious. Perhaps +it’s just because she’s a foreigner–I don’t +know.”</p> + +<p>“I spoke to you so that we could be on the lookout, Dolly. And I guess +we’d better not say anything to anyone else. I think a lot of the girls +would laugh at Zara if they knew that she had such ideas.”</p> + +<p>Bessie and Dolly managed to find occasion to cover most of the beach before +supper, and they went up to the spring at the top of the bluff that overlooked +the beach. The water had been piped down, and there was no longer any need of +carrying pails up there to get water, but it was still a pleasant little walk, +for the view from the top of the path was delightful. And Bessie and Dolly +remembered, moreover, that it was there that the men who had watched the camp on +the night of the fire had hidden themselves. But this time they found no one +there.</p> + +<p>Supper was a merry meal. The race of the afternoon was, of course, the +principal topic of conversation, and in addition there were adventures to <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_148'></a>148</span> be told by those who had +missed it and gone into Bay City to shop.</p> + +<p>But Bessie, watching Zara, noticed toward the end of the meal that her +strange little friend, who happened to be sitting near the entrance of the tent +in which they ate, was nervous and kept looking behind her out into the darkness +as if she saw something. And so, with a whispered explanation to Dolly, she rose +and crept very silently toward the door. As she passed Zara, she let her hand +fall reassuringly on her shoulder, and then, gathering herself, sprang out into +the night.</p> + +<p>And, so completely surprised by her sudden appearance that he could not get +out of the way, there was Jake Hoover! Jake Hoover, who was supposed to be in +the city, telling his story to Charlie Jamieson! Jake Hoover, who, after having +done all sorts of dirty work for Holmes and his fellow-conspirators, had told +Bessie that he was sorry and was going to change sides!</p> + +<p>“Jake!” said Bessie, sternly. “You miserable sneak! What +are you doing here!”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_149'></a>149</span>No wonder poor +Zara had had that feeling of being watched. Jake’s work for Holmes right +along had been mostly that of the spy, and here he was once more engaged in it. +Bessie was furious at her discovery. Big and strong as Jake was, he was +whimpering now, and Bessie seized him and shook him by the shoulders.</p> + +<p>“Tell me what you’re doing here right away!” commanded +Bessie. Gone were the days when she had feared him–the well-remembered +days of her bondage on the Hoover farm, when his word had always been enough to +secure her punishment at the hands of his mother, who had never been able to see +the evil nature of her boy.</p> + +<p>“I ain’t doin’ no harm–honest I ain’t, +Bessie,” he whined. “I–jest wanted–I jest wanted to see +you and Miss Mercer–honest, that’s why I’m here!”</p> + +<p>“That’s a likely story, isn’t it?” said Bessie, +scornfully. “If that was so, why did you come sneaking around like this? +Why didn’t you come <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_150'></a>150</span> right out and ask for us? You didn’t think we +were going to eat you, did you?”</p> + +<p>“I–I didn’t want them to know I was doin’ it, +Bess,” he said. “I’m scared, Bessie–I’m afraid of +what they’d do to me, if they found out I was takin’ your side +agin’ them.”</p> + +<p>Despite herself, Bessie felt a certain pity for the coward coming over her. +She released his shoulder, and stood looking at him with infinite scorn in her +eyes.</p> + +<p>“And to think I was ever afraid of you!” she said, aloud.</p> + +<p>“That’s right, Bess,” he said, pleadingly. “I +wouldn’t hurt you–you know that, don’t you? I used to like to +tease you and worry you a bit, but I never meant any real harm. I was always +good to you, mostly, wasn’t I?”</p> + +<p>“Dolly!” called Bessie, sharply. She didn’t know just what +to do, and she felt that, having Jake here, he should be held. It had been plain +that Charlie Jamieson had considered what he had to tell valuable.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_151'></a>151</span>“Hello! +Did you call me, Bessie?” said Dolly, coming out of the tent. +“Oh!”</p> + +<p>The exclamation was wrung out of her as she saw and recognized Jake.</p> + +<p>“So he’s spying around here now, is he?” she said. “I +told you he was a bad lot when you let him go at Windsor, didn’t I? I knew +he’d be up to his old tricks again just as soon as he got half a +chance.”</p> + +<p>“Never mind that, Dolly. Tell Miss Eleanor he’s here, will you, +and ask her to come out! I think she’d better see him, now that he’s +here.”</p> + +<p>“That’s right–and, say, tell her to hurry, will you?” +begged Jake. “I can’t stay here–I’m afraid they’ll +catch me.”</p> + +<p>Dolly went into the tent again, and in a moment Eleanor Mercer came out. She +had never seen Jake before, but she knew all about him for Bessie and Zara had +told her enough of his history for her to be more intimate with his life than +his own parents.</p> + +<p>“Good evening, Jake,” she said, as she saw <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_152'></a>152</span> him. “So you decided to talk to +us instead of to Mr. Jamieson? Well, I’m glad you’re here, +I’ll have to keep you waiting a minute, but I shan’t be long. Stay +right there till I come back.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, ma’am,” whined Jake. “But do hurry, please, +ma’am! I’m afraid of what they’ll do to me if they find +I’m here.”</p> + +<p>Eleanor was gone only a few minutes, and when she returned she was smiling, +as if at some joke that she shared with no one.</p> + +<p>“I’m sure you haven’t had any supper, Jake,” she +said. “The girls have finished. See, they’re coming out now. Come +inside, and I’ll see that you get a good meal. You’ll be able to +talk better when you’ve eaten.”</p> + +<p>Jake hesitated, plainly struggling between his hunger and his fear. But +hunger won, and he went into the tent, followed by Bessie and Dolly, who, +although the service was reluctant on Dolly’s part, at least, saw to it +that he had plenty to eat.</p> + +<p>“Just forget your troubles and pitch into that <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_153'></a>153</span> food, Jake,” said Eleanor, +kindly. “You’ll be able to talk much better on a full stomach, you +know.”</p> + +<p>And whenever Jake seemed inclined to stop eating, and to break out with new +evidences of his alarm, they forced more food on him. At last, however, he was +so full that he could eat no more, and he rose nervously.</p> + +<p>“I’ve got to be going now,” he said. “Honest, +I’m afraid to stay here any longer–”</p> + +<p>“Oh, but you came here to tell us something, you know,” said +Eleanor. “Surely you’re not going away without doing that, are +you?”</p> + +<p>“I did think you’d keep your word, Jake,” said Bessie, +reproachfully.</p> + +<p>“I can’t! I’ve got to go, I tell you!” Jake broke +out. His fright was not assumed; it was plain that he was terrified. “If +they was after you, I guess you’d know–here, I’m +going–”</p> + +<p>“Not so fast, young man!” said a stern voice in the door of the +tent, and Jake almost collapsed as Bill Trenwith, a policeman in uniform at his +back, came in. “There you are, Jones, there’s <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_154'></a>154</span> your man. Arrest him on a charge of +having no means of support–that will hold him for the present. We can +decide later on what we want to send him to prison for. He’s done enough +to get him twenty years.”</p> + +<p>Jake gave a shriek of terror and fell to the ground, grovelling at the +lawyer’s feet.</p> + +<p>“Oh, don’t arrest me!” he begged. “I’ll tell +you everything I know. Don’t arrest me!”</p> + +<p>“It’s the only way to hold you,” said Trenwith. +“You’ve got to learn to be more afraid of us than of +Holmes.”</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_155'></a>155</span><a id='link_10'></a>CHAPTER X<br /><span class='h2fs'>JAKE HOOVER’S CAPTURE</span></h2> + +<p>“You’re a fine lot,” declared Jake, something about +Trenwith’s manner seeming to steady him so that he could talk +intelligibly. “You tell me I won’t get into any trouble if I come +here, and then I find it’s a trap!”</p> + +<p>“No one told you anything of the sort, my lad,” said Trenwith, +sharply. “You promised to go to Mr. Jamieson and tell him what you knew. +No one made you any promises at all, except that you were told you +wouldn’t have any reason to regret doing it.”</p> + +<p>Jake looked at Eleanor balefully.</p> + +<p>“She’s too sharp, that’s what she is,” he complained +bitterly. “I might ha’ known she was playing a trick on +me–gettin’ me to stay here and eat a fine supper. I suppose she went +and sent word to you while I was doing it.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_156'></a>156</span>“Of course +I did, Jake,” said Eleanor quietly. “I telephoned to Mr. Trenwith +even before you had your supper because I knew that if I didn’t do +something to keep you here with us, you’d run away again. But I did it as +much for your sake as for Bessie’s.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, you did–not!” said Jake. “Why shouldn’t +you let me go now, then, if that is so?”</p> + +<p>“Listen to me, my buck,” said Trenwith, sternly. +“You’re not going to do yourself any good by getting fresh to this +lady, I can tell you that. You’re pretty well scared, aren’t you? +You told her that you were afraid of what Holmes would do to you?”</p> + +<p>But Jake, alarmed by Trenwith’s mention of the name of the man he +feared, shut his lips obstinately, and wouldn’t say a word in answer. +Trenwith smiled cheerfully.</p> + +<p>“Oh, you needn’t talk now, unless you want to,” he said. +“I know all you could tell me about that, anyhow. You’ve been up to +some mischief, and <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_157'></a>157</span> +they’ve kept on telling you that if you didn’t behave yourself +they’d give you away.”</p> + +<p>Jake’s hangdog look showed that to be true, although he still +maintained his obstinate silence.</p> + +<p>“Well, I happen to be charged with enforcing the law around here, and +it’s my duty to see that criminals are brought to justice. I don’t +know just what you’ve done, but I’ll find out, and I’ll see +that you are turned over to the proper authorities–unless you can do +something that will make it worth while to let you off. So, you see, +you’ve got just as much reason to be afraid of us as of the gang +you’ve been training with.</p> + +<p>“They won’t be able to help you now, either, even if they should +want to–and I don’t believe they want to, when it comes to that. +I’ve always found that crooks will desert their best friends if it seems +to them that they’ll get something out of doing it. So if you’re +trusting to them to get you out of this scrape, you’re making a big +mistake.”</p> + +<p>“You’d better listen to what Mr. Trenwith says, Jake,” said +Eleanor. “You think I’ve led you <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_158'></a>158</span> into a trap here. Well, I have, in a way. +You’ll have to go to jail for a little while, anyhow. But you’re +safer there than you would be if you were free. We’re all willing to be +your friends, for your father’s sake. If we can, we’ll get you out +of this trouble you are in. But you will have to help us. Think it +over.”</p> + +<p>“What’s the use?” said Jake, sullenly. “I ain’t +got nothin’ to tell you, because I don’t know nothin’. +An’ if I did–”</p> + +<p>“You’d better take him along, Jones,” said Trenwith to the +policeman. “It’s quite evident that we’ll get nothing out of +him to-night. And I don’t see any use wasting time on him while he’s +in this frame of mind.”</p> + +<p>And so Jake, whining and protesting, was taken away. As soon as he was out of +sight and hearing Trenwith’s manner changed.</p> + +<p>“By George,” he said, excitedly, “that’s a good piece +of work! There’s something mighty interesting coming off here pretty soon. +I’m not at liberty to tell you what it is yet, but I had a <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_159'></a>159</span> long talk on the +telephone with Charlie just before you called me, Eleanor, and there are going +to be ructions!”</p> + +<p>“Oh, I suppose we mustn’t ask you to tell us, if you’ve +promised not to do it,” said Eleanor, “but I do wish we +knew!”</p> + +<p>She didn’t seem to notice that he had called her by her first +name–a privilege that was not accorded, as a rule, to those who had no +more of an acquaintance with her than Billy Trenwith. But he had done it so +naturally, and with so little thought, that she could hardly have resented it, +anyway. But Dolly noticed it, and nudged Bessie mischievously.</p> + +<p>“Then you really think we’re going to find something out from +Jake, Mr. Trenwith?” asked Dolly.</p> + +<p>“We’ll find a way to make him talk, never fear,” said +Trenwith. “The boy’s a natural born coward. He’ll do anything +to save his own skin if he finds he’s in real trouble and that the others +of his gang can’t help him. I don’t think he’s naturally <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_160'></a>160</span> bad or vicious–I +think he’s just weak. He was spoiled by his mother, wasn’t he? He +acts the way a good many boys do who have been treated that way. He’s not +got enough strength of character to keep him from taking the easiest path. If a +thing seems safe, he’s willing to do it to avoid trouble.”</p> + +<p>“You know there’s just one thing that occurs to me,” said +Eleanor, looking worried. “Jake may have come here with some vague idea of +telling us what he knew. But suppose he has seen Holmes or some of the others +since Bessie got him to promise to go to Charlie Jamieson in the +city?”</p> + +<p>“I hoped you wouldn’t think of that,” said Trenwith, +gravely. “I thought of it, too. You mean he might have been here just as a +spy, with no idea of showing himself at all?”</p> + +<p>“The way he acted makes it look as if that was just why he was here, +too,” said Dolly. “He was sneaking around, and he certainly +didn’t seem very pleased when Bessie found him.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_161'></a>161</span>“He did +his best to squirm away,” said Bessie. “If Zara hadn’t been so +nervous while we were eating supper I would never have thought of going after +him, either. But she seems to be able to see things and hear things, in some +queer fashion, when no one else can.”</p> + +<p>“That’s a good thing for the rest of us,” said Trenwith +with a smile. “She’s a useful person to have around at a time like +this. I’m going to have a couple of my men–detectives–stay +around here to-night to keep an eye on things. It’s likely, of course, +that there’s nothing to be afraid of, but just the same, we don’t +want to take any chances.”</p> + +<p>“I’m glad you’ve done that,” said Eleanor. “I +don’t think I’m the ordinary type of timid woman, but I must confess +that all these things worry me, and I’ll feel a lot safer if I know that +we are not entirely at the mercy of any trick they try to play on us to-night. +They seem to be getting bolder, all the time.”</p> + +<p>“Well, after all you know, that’s one of the most hopeful things +about the whole business. <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_162'></a>162</span> It means that they’re getting +desperate–that their time is getting short. They feel that if they +don’t succeed soon they never will, because it will be too late. All +we’ve got to do is to stand them off a little longer, and the whole +business will be settled and done with.</p> + +<p>“I’ve got to get back to Bay City to-night. If anything happens, +don’t hesitate to call me up, no matter what time it is. If I’m out +at any time you do have to call me, I’ll leave word where I’m going, +so that if you tell them at my house who you are, they’ll find me. +Good-night!”</p> + +<p>Neither Dolly nor Bessie slept well that night. Jake’s appearance had +been disturbing; it seemed to both of them much more likely that his coming +heralded some new attempt by Holmes, rather than a desire on his part to +confess. But the night passed without anything to rouse them, and in the morning +their fears seemed rather foolish, as fears are apt to do when they are examined +in the sunlight of a new day.</p> + +<p>“I don’t see what they can do, after all,” said <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_163'></a>163</span> Dolly. “There +aren’t any woods around here as there were at Long Lake. We’re all +in sight of the camp and of one another all the time, and they certainly +won’t be able to work that trick of setting the tents on fire +again.”</p> + +<p>“I guess you’re right,” said Bessie. “It seems +different this morning, somehow. I was worried enough last night but I feel a +whole lot better now. I’m glad it’s such a beautiful day. The +weather makes a lot of difference in the way you feel. It always does with me, I +know.”</p> + +<p>“I’m going out in the sloop after breakfast,” said Dolly. +“That is, if Miss Eleanor says it’s all right. There’s a lot +more wind than there was yesterday, and we can have some good fun.”</p> + +<p>“Can I go, too?” asked Bessie. “You were quite right when +you told me I’d love the seashore, Dolly. Do you remember how I said I was +sorry we were leaving the mountains?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, I knew it would fascinate you, just as it does me. So you’ve +given up your love for the mountains?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_164'></a>164</span>“Not a bit +of it! I love them as much as ever, but I’ve found out that the seashore +has attractive things about it, too. And I think sailing, the way we did +yesterday, is about the nicest of all.”</p> + +<p>“Then you just wait until we get out there to-day, with a real breeze, +and a good sea running. That’s going to be something you’ve never +even dreamed of.”</p> + +<p>They had hearty appetites for breakfast in spite of their restless and +disturbed sleep, for the bracing effects of their swim, taken before the meal, +more than made up for the lack of proper rest. And after breakfast Dolly asked +permission to go out in the sloop, since one of the very few rules of the Camp +Fire, and one strictly enforced, had to do with water sports.</p> + +<p>None of the girls were ever allowed to go in swimming unless the Guardian was +present, and the same rules applied to boating and sailing–with the added +restriction that no girl who did not know how to swim well enough to pass +certain tests was allowed to go in a boat at all. Moreover, <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_165'></a>165</span> bathing suits had always to be worn +when in a boat.</p> + +<p>“Indeed you may,” said Eleanor, when Dolly asked her question. +“And will you take me with you! I’d like to be out on that sea +to-day. It looks glorious.”</p> + +<p>“We’ll love to have you along,” said Dolly. “How soon +may we start?”</p> + +<p>“It’s eight o’clock,” said Eleanor, looking at her +watch. “We can start at ten. That will allow plenty of time after eating. +Of course, we don’t intend to go in the water, but you never can +tell–it’s squally to-day, and we might be upset. And that’s one +thing I don’t believe in taking chances with. A cramp will make the best +swimmer in the world perfectly helpless in the water, and about every case of +cramps I ever heard of came from going in the water too soon after a +meal.”</p> + +<p>When they were aboard the <i>Eleanor</i> and scooting through the opening in +the bar, Bessie found that the conditions were indeed very different from <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_166'></a>166</span> those of the previous +afternoon. The wind had changed and become much heavier, and as the +<i>Eleanor</i> went along, she dipped her bow continually, so that the spray +rose and drenched all on board. But there was something splendidly exciting and +invigorating about it, and she loved every new sensation that came to her.</p> + +<p>“Here’s the <i>Defiance</i> coming out,” said Eleanor, +after they had been enjoying the sport for half an hour. “Gladys must like +this sort of a breeze, too.”</p> + +<p>“She does, but she’s never had as much of it as I have,” +said Dolly. “I hope she understands it well enough not to make any +mistakes. A boat like this takes a good deal of handling in a heavy breeze, and +it seems to me that she’s carrying a good deal of sail.”</p> + +<p>“She seems to be getting along all right, though,” said Eleanor, +after watching the <i>Defiance</i> for a few minutes. “Why, Dolly, I +wonder what she’s doing now.”</p> + +<p>The maneuvres of the <i>Defiance</i> seemed strange <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_167'></a>167</span> enough to prompt Eleanor’s +question, for, no matter how Dolly tacked, the <i>Defiance</i> followed her, +drawing nearer all the time. Since Dolly had no sort of definite purpose in +mind, it was plain that Gladys was simply following her. And soon the reason was +apparent.</p> + +<p>“She’s trying to race; she wants to show that she can beat us +to-day when there’s plenty of wind,” said Dolly. “If she +wanted to race, why didn’t she say so?”</p> + +<p>“Well, give her her way, Dolly,” said Eleanor. “Keep +straight on now for a little while and see if she can beat you. We’re just +about on even terms now.”</p> + +<p>And on even terms they stayed. Sometimes one, sometimes the other seemed to +gain a little advantage, but it was plain that the boats, as well as the +skippers, were very evenly matched. Since there was no agreement to race, Dolly +had the choice of courses, and in a spirit of mischief she came about +frequently. And every time she changed her course Gladys followed suit.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_168'></a>168</span>Although the +boats were often within easy hailing distance, Gladys avoided Dolly’s +eyes, and nothing was said by those on either sloop. They were satisfied with +the fun of this impromptu racing. But at last, when they were perhaps a mile +from the opening in the bar, and very close together, Eleanor, looking at her +watch, saw that it was nearly time for lunch.</p> + +<p>“You’d better turn for home now, Dolly,” she said. +“Suppose I give Gladys a hail and suggest a race to the bar?”</p> + +<p>“All right,” agreed Dolly.</p> + +<p>“Gladys!” Eleanor sent her clear voice across the water, and +Gladys answered with a wave of her hands. She seemed in better humor than she +had been the day before.</p> + +<p>“We’re going in now. Want to race to the bar?”</p> + +<p>“All right!” called Gladys, in answer and came about smartly. She +had been quick, but Dolly was just as quick, and they were on the most even +terms imaginable as the race began.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_169'></a>169</span>But Dolly and +the <i>Eleanor</i> had one advantage that Gladys was not slow to recognize. The +<i>Eleanor</i> had the inside course. In a close finish that would be very +likely to spell the difference between victory and defeat, since, to reach the +opening, Gladys would either have to get far enough ahead to cross the +<i>Eleanor’s</i> bows or else to cross behind her, which would entail so +much loss of time that Dolly would be certain to bring her craft home a winner. +But since the previous racing had shown the <i>Defiance</i> to be just a trifle +swifter before the wind, that advantage seemed to be one that Gladys could +easily overcome.</p> + +<p>Now that she was racing, however, Dolly changed her tactics. Fresh as the +wind was, she shook out a reef in her mainsail, and as they neared the bar the +<i>Eleanor</i> actually carried more canvas than Gladys dared to keep on the +<i>Defiance</i>, Being less used to heavy going than Dolly, she was not so sure +of the strength of her sticks, and reckless though she was, she was too wise to +be willing to take a chance of being dismasted.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_170'></a>170</span>And so the +advantage that Gladys had to gain to be able to cross the <i>Eleanor’s</i> +bows seemed to be impossible for her to attain. The <i>Eleanor</i> did not go +ahead, but she held her own, and she had the right of way.</p> + +<p>“You’re going to beat her again, and fair and square this +time,” said Eleanor, excitedly. “She won’t be able to say a +word to this!”</p> + +<p>“Look!” said Dolly, suddenly. “She’s going to cross +me–and she’s got no right to do it!” She shouted loudly. +“Gladys! Gladys! I’ll run you down! Don’t do that! I’ve +got the right of way!”</p> + +<p>But Gladys kept on with a mocking laugh. Furious at the trick, Dolly put her +helm hard over, and the <i>Eleanor</i> came up in the wind.</p> + +<p>“That’s a mean trick, if you like!” cried Dolly, +indignantly. “In a regular race, if she did a thing like that, the other +boat would run her down, and would win on a foul. But she knew very well +I’d give up the position rather than cause an accident!”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_171'></a>171</span>The check to the +<i>Eleanor</i> was only for a moment, but it was enough to throw her off her +course and make it certain that the <i>Defiance</i> would reach the bar +first.</p> + +<p>“Never mind, Dolly. You did the right thing,” said Eleanor, +quietly. “I think she’s quite welcome to the race, if she cares +enough about winning it to play a trick like that!”</p> + +<p>Bessie was up in the bow, looking intently at the <i>Defiance</i>. And now as +Gladys came up to get the straight course again, something went wrong. By some +mistaken handling of her helm she had lost her proper direction, and to her +amazement Bessie saw the boom come over sharply. She saw it, too, strike Gladys +on the head–and the next moment the <i>Defiance</i> gybed helplessly, +while Gladys was swept overboard.</p> + +<p>Bessie did not hesitate a moment. She had seen that blow struck by the boom, +and with a cry of warning she plunged overboard as they swept by the helpless +<i>Defiance</i>, and with powerful strokes made for the place where Gladys had +gone <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_172'></a>172</span> overboard. +Gladys had gone straight down, but Bessie had marked the spot, and she dived as +she reached it, and met her coming up. She clutched her in a moment, and was on +the surface almost at once, holding Gladys, and looking for Dolly and the +<i>Eleanor</i>. Dolly would return for her at once, she knew, if she had seen +Gladys go over. But, to her amazement the sloop was heading for the bar, sailing +away from her fast! Dolly had not seen her and, for a moment, Bessie was badly +scared.</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_173'></a>173</span><a id='link_11'></a>CHAPTER XI<br /><span class='h2fs'>THE RESCUE</span></h2> + +<p>In a moment, however, she realized that she could not be left alone for long. +Her absence from the <i>Eleanor</i> would be noticed, even if no one had seen +her leap overboard; and, moreover, the strange behavior of the <i>Defiance</i> +was sure to attract Dolly’s attention, for, without Gladys to direct her, +the <i>Defiance</i> was in a bad way. She had heeled over sharply, and seemed +now to be sailing in circles, following the errant impulses of the wind, which +caught first one sail, then another.</p> + +<p>Although she was quite near the <i>Defiance</i>, Bessie looked for no help +from her. To swim toward her, with Gladys as a burden, seemed hopeless. The boat +was not staying in one position. And moreover, Marcia Bates and the other girl +on board of her seemed almost entirely ignorant of what to do. They would have +quite enough, on <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_174'></a>174</span> +their hands in trying to get her headed for the opening in the bar.</p> + +<p>And suddenly a new danger was added to the others. For Gladys, it seemed, was +recovering her senses–or, rather, she was no longer unconscious. To her +horror, Bessie found, as Gladys opened her eyes, that she was delirious. That, +of course, was the effect of the blow on her head from the boom, but its effect, +no matter what the cause, was what worried Bessie.</p> + +<p>“Keep still! Don’t move, Gladys!” warned Bessie, as she saw +the other girl’s eyes open.</p> + +<p>But Gladys either would not or could not obey that good advice. She struggled +furiously by way of answer, and for a long minute Bessie was too busy keeping +afloat to be able to look for the coming of the help that was so badly +needed.</p> + +<p>There seemed to be no purpose to the struggles of Gladys, but they were none +the less desperate because of that. Her eyes had the wide, fixed stare that, had +Bessie known it, is so invariably <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_175'></a>175</span> seen in those who are in mortal fear of drowning. +And she clung to Bessie with a strength that no one could have imagined her +capable of displaying.</p> + +<p>And at last, though she hated to do it, Bessie managed to get her hands free, +and, clenching her fists, she drove them repeatedly into the other’s face +so that Gladys was forced to let go and put her hands before her face to cover +herself from the vicious blows.</p> + +<p>At once Bessie seized the opportunity. She flung herself away, knowing that +even though she did not try to help herself, but being conscious, Gladys would +not sink at once, and got behind her, so that she could grasp her by the +shoulders and be safe from the deadly clutch of her arms.</p> + +<p>Free from the terrible danger that is the risk assumed by all who rescue +drowning persons, that of being dragged down by the victim, Bessie was able to +raise her head and look for the <i>Eleanor</i>. And now she gave a wild cry as +she saw the sloop <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_176'></a>176</span> +bearing down upon her. Eleanor Mercer was in the bow, a coil of rope in her +hands, and a moment later she flung it skillfully, so that Bessie caught it. At +once Bessie made a noose and slipped the rope over Gladys’s shoulders. +Then she let go, and, turning on her back, rested while Gladys was dragged +toward the sloop.</p> + +<p>Bessie herself was almost exhausted by her struggle. She felt that, had her +very life depended upon doing it, she could not have swam the few yards that +separated her from the sloop. But there was no need for her to do it. Steering +with the utmost skill, Dolly soon brought the <i>Eleanor</i> alongside of Bessie +as she lay floating in the water, and a moment later she was being helped +aboard.</p> + +<p>“Lie down and rest,” commanded Eleanor. “Don’t try to +talk yet.”</p> + +<p>And Bessie was glad enough to obey. She lay down beside Gladys, who seemed to +have fainted again, and Eleanor threw a rug over her.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_177'></a>177</span>“Now we +must get them ashore as quickly as we can, Dolly,” said Eleanor. +“Bessie’s just tired out, but I don’t like the looks of Gladys +at all.”</p> + +<p>“The boom hit her,” said Bessie, weakly. “It hit her on the +head. That’s how she was knocked overboard. She didn’t know what she +was doing when she struggled so in the water.”</p> + +<p>“What a lucky thing you saw what happened!” said Dolly. “I +was so intent on the race that I never looked at all, and I didn’t even +know you’d gone over until I called to you and you didn’t +answer.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, I knew you’d come back, Dolly. I just wondered, when Gladys +was struggling so, if you’d be in time.”</p> + +<p>This time Dolly didn’t stop at the anchorage of the sloop, but ran her +right up on the beach. That meant some trouble in getting her off when they came +to that, but it was no time to hesitate because of trifles. Once they were +ashore, the other girls, who had, of course, seen nothing of the accident <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_178'></a>178</span> that had so nearly had a +tragic ending, rushed up to help, and in a few moments Gladys was being carried +to the big living tent.</p> + +<p>There her wet clothes were taken off, she was rubbed with alcohol, and +wrapped in hot blankets. And as Eleanor and Margery Burton stood over her, she +opened her eyes, looked at them in astonishment, and wanted to know where she +was.</p> + +<p>“Oh, thank Heaven!” cried Eleanor. “She’s come to her +senses, I do believe! Gladys, do you feel all right?”</p> + +<p>“I–I–think so,” said Gladys, faintly, putting her +hand to her head. “I’ve got an awful headache. What happened? I seem +to remember being hit on the head–”</p> + +<p>“Your boom struck you as it swung over, and knocked you into the water, +Gladys,” said Eleanor. “You couldn’t swim, and you don’t +remember anything after that, do you? It dazed you for a time, so that you +didn’t know what you were doing. But you’re all right now, though +<span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_179'></a>179</span> I’ve +telephoned for a doctor, and he’d better have a look at you when he comes, +just to make sure you’re all right.”</p> + +<p>“But–how did I get here?”</p> + +<p>“Bessie King saw you go overboard and jumped after you. Of course, the +girls on your boat were pretty helpless–she was going all around in +circles after you left the tiller free, so they couldn’t do +anything.”</p> + +<p>Gladys closed her eyes for a moment.</p> + +<p>“I’d like to talk to her later–when I feel better,” +she said. “I think I’ll try to go to sleep now, if I may. The pain +in my head is dreadful.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, that’s the best thing you can do,” said Eleanor +warmly. “You’ll feel ever so much better, I know, when you wake up. +Someone will be here with you all the time, so that if you wake up and want +anything, you’ll only need to ask for it.”</p> + +<p>But Gladys was asleep before Eleanor had finished speaking. Nature was taking +charge of the <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_180'></a>180</span> case +and prescribing the greatest of all her remedies, sleep.</p> + +<p>Eleanor turned away, with relief showing plainly in her eyes.</p> + +<p>“I think she’ll be all right now,” she said. “If that +blow were going to have any serious effects, I don’t believe she’d +be in her senses now.”</p> + +<p>“I think it’s a good thing it happened, in a way,” said +Dolly, when they were outside of the tent. “Did you notice how she spoke +about Bessie, Miss Eleanor?”</p> + +<p>“Yes. I see what you mean, Dolly. Of course, I’m sorry she had to +have such an experience, but maybe you’re right, after all. I’m +quite sure that her feelings toward Bessie will be changed after +this–she’d have to be a dreadful sort of girl if she could keep on +cherishing her dislike and resentment. And I’m sure she’s +not.”</p> + +<p>“Hello! Why aren’t you in bed, sleeping off that ducking?” +asked Dolly suddenly. For Bessie, in dry clothes, and looking as if she had had +nothing more exciting than an ordinary plunge <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_181'></a>181</span> into the sea to fill her day, was coming toward +them from her own tent.</p> + +<p>“Oh, I feel fine!” said Bessie. “The only trouble with me +was that I was scared–just plain scared! If I’d known that +everything was going to be all right, I could have turned and swam ashore after +you started towing Gladys in. Is she all right? I’m more bothered about +her than about myself.”</p> + +<p>“I think she’s going to feel a lot better when she wakes +up,” said Eleanor. “I think I’m enough of a doctor to be able +to tell when there’s anything seriously wrong. But I’m not taking +any chances–I’ve sent for a doctor.”</p> + +<p>“How about the other boat? Did they get in all right?” asked +Dolly, “I forgot all about them, I was so worked up about Bessie and +Gladys.”</p> + +<p>“They had a tough time, but they managed it,” said Margery +Burton. “Here’s Miss Turner now. I suppose she’s worried about +Gladys.”</p> + +<p>Worried she certainly was, but Eleanor was <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_182'></a>182</span> able to reassure her, and soon the doctor, arriving +from Green Cove, pronounced Gladys to be in no danger.</p> + +<p>“She’ll have that headache when she wakes up,” he said; +“but it will be a lot better, and by to-morrow morning it will be gone +altogether. Don’t give her much to eat; some chicken broth ought to be +enough. She’s evidently got a good constitution. If she had fractured her +skull she wouldn’t have been conscious yet, nor for a good many +days.”</p> + +<p>But the accident had one unforeseen consequence, that was rather amusing than +otherwise to Dolly, at first, at least. For, before the doctor was ready to go, +the sound of an automobile engine was heard up on the bluff, and a minute later +Billy Trenwith came racing down the path.</p> + +<p>At the sight of Eleanor he paused, looking a little sheepish.</p> + +<p>“I heard that Doctor Black was coming here–I was afraid something +might have happened to you,” he stammered.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_183'></a>183</span>“Why, +whatever made you think that?” said Eleanor, honestly puzzled. Then she +turned, surprised again by a burst of hysterical laughter from Dolly, who, +staring at Trenwith’s red face, was entirely unable to contain her mirth. +Under Eleanor’s steady gaze she managed to control herself, but then she +went off again helplessly as Doctor Black winked at her very deliberately.</p> + +<p>Scandalized and rather indignant as the point of the joke began to reach her, +Eleanor was dismayed to see that Bessie, the grave, was also having a hard time +to keep from laughing outright. So she blushed, which was the last thing in the +world she wanted to do, and then made some excuse for a hasty flight.</p> + +<p>“Well, you people have so many things happen to you all the +time,” said Trenwith, indignantly, “that I don’t see why it +wasn’t perfectly natural for me to come out to see what was wrong +now!”</p> + +<p>“Oh, don’t apologize to me, Mr. Trenwith!” <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_184'></a>184</span> said Dolly, +mischievously. “And–can you keep a secret?”</p> + +<p>He looked at her, not knowing whether he ought to laugh or frown, and Dolly +went up to him, put her hands on his shoulders, and raised herself so that she +could whisper in his ear.</p> + +<p>“She isn’t half as angry as she pretends,” she said.</p> + +<p>Then Eleanor came back, and Dolly made herself scarce. She had a positive +genius for knowing just how far she could go safely in her teasing.</p> + +<p>“I had to come out here, anyhow,” said Trenwith, to Eleanor. +“Look here. I got this message from Charlie Jamieson.”</p> + +<p>Eleanor took it.</p> + +<p>“I don’t see why you let Charlie order you around so,” she +said, severely. “Haven’t you any business of your own to attend to? +He hasn’t any right to expect you to waste all your time trying to keep us +out of trouble.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, it isn’t wasted,” he said, indignantly. <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_185'></a>185</span> “We’re +supposed to help our friends–and we’re friends, aren’t +we?”</p> + +<p>“Of course we are,” said Eleanor, relenting.</p> + +<p>He brightened at once.</p> + +<p>“Well,” he said, impulsively, “you see Charlie says he +doesn’t want me to let you and those two girls–Bessie and +Zara–out of my sight until he comes. Couldn’t you all come out for a +sail with me in my motor launch? We could have supper on board and it would be +lots of fun, I think.”</p> + +<p>Eleanor looked doubtful.</p> + +<p>“I don’t know about leaving the camp,” she said. “I +ought to be here to keep an eye on things.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, you can go perfectly well, Miss Eleanor,” said Margery +Burton. “It will do Bessie and Dolly a lot of good if you take +them–they’ve had a pretty exciting day. And we can ask all the +Halsted girls over to supper, and Miss Turner will be with them. She can take +your place as Guardian for a few hours, can’t she?”</p> + +<p>“If she will come. Why, yes, that would make <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_186'></a>186</span> it all right,” said Eleanor. +Somehow she found that she wasn’t half as strong-minded and self-reliant +when this very masterful young man was around. “You might go over and see, +Margery, if you will.”</p> + +<p>“Splendid!” said Trenwith. “We’ll have a perfectly +bully time, I know. You keep at it too hard, Miss Mercer–really you +do!”</p> + +<p>“We won’t go very far, will we?” said Eleanor, yielding to +the lure of a sail at sunset.</p> + +<p>“Oh, no, just a few miles down the coast. There’s a lot of pretty +scenery you ought to see–and I’ve got a man who helps me to run my +boat who’s a perfect wizard at cooking, We’ve got a sort of +imitation kitchen on board, but he does things in it that would make the chef of +a big hotel envious. He’s one of the few things I boast about.”</p> + +<p>Margery soon returned with word that the Halsted girls would accept the +supper invitation, and that Mary Turner would be delighted to come.</p> + +<p>Margery’s eyes were twinkling, and it was plain <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_187'></a>187</span> that Mary Turner had said something +else that was not to be repeated.</p> + +<p>“All right! That’s great!” said Trenwith, happily. +“I’ll run back to Green Cove in my car, and come around here again +in the launch. It was to follow me there. I’ll be back soon.”</p> + +<p>Indeed, in half an hour he was back, and Eleanor with Zara, Bessie and Dolly, +were taken out to the <i>Columbia</i> in two trips of the little dinghy which +served as her tender. The <i>Columbia</i> was a big, roomy, motor launch, +without a deck, but containing a little cabin, and a comfortable lounging space +aft, which was covered with an awning.</p> + +<p>“What a delightful boat!” said Eleanor, as she settled herself +comfortably amid the cushions Trenwith had provided for her. “I should +think you could have an awfully good time on her.”</p> + +<p>“I’ve used her a lot,” said Trenwith. “There’s +room in the cabin for two fellows to sleep, if they don’t mind being +crowded, and of course in warm weather one can sleep out here. I’ve used +her quite a lot to go duck hunting, and for little cruises <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_188'></a>188</span> when I’ve been all tired out. +Charlie Jamieson has been with me several times.”</p> + +<p>“I’ve heard him talk about the good times he’s had on her. +It was stupid of me to have forgotten.”</p> + +<p>“She’s not very fast or very fashionable, but she is good fun. +I’d rather have a steady, slow engine that you can depend on than one of +those racing motors that’s always getting out of order.”</p> + +<p>“All ready to start, sir, Mr. Trenwith,” said Bates, his +‘crew,’ then, and Trenwith took the wheel.</p> + +<p>“All right,” he said. “Let her go, Bates! You can steer +from the wheel in the bow after we get started, right down the coast. +We’ll lie to off Humber Island and eat supper.”</p> + +<p>“Right, sir!” said Bates. “I’ve got a good supper for +to-night, too.”</p> + +<p>“Being right out on the water this way makes me hungry,” said +Eleanor. “That’s good news, Bates.”</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_189'></a>189</span><a id='link_12'></a>CHAPTER XII<br /><span class='h2fs'>THE TRAITOR</span></h2> + +<p>The <i>Columbia</i> slowly and steadily made her way down the coast, keeping +within a mile or so of the shore. Speed was certainly not her long suit, but she +rode the choppy sea more easily than most boats so small would have done, and, +since she was not intended for speed, the usual traffic din of the motor was +absent. Altogether, she seemed an ideal pleasure boat.</p> + +<p>As they went along, Trenwith pointed out the various places of interest along +the shore.</p> + +<p>“Down this way we get to a part where a lot of rich men have built +summer homes,” he said. “You see there’s a good beach, and +they can buy enough land to have it to themselves. It’s pretty lonely, in +a way, because they’re a good long way from the railroad, but they +don’t seem to mind that.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_190'></a>190</span>“I suppose +not. They’ve got money enough to keep all the automobiles and yachts they +want, so they wouldn’t use the railroad anyhow. I never would if I could +get around any other way.”</p> + +<p>As they went on, the coast changed considerably from the familiar character +it had at Plum Beach. Cliffs took the place of the bluff, and while the beach +was still fine and level, there were rocky stretches at more and more frequent +intervals.</p> + +<p>“What’s the nearest town in this direction?” asked +Eleanor.</p> + +<p>“Rock Haven,” said Trenwith. “That’s more of a place +than Bay City, because it’s quite a seaport. Up at Bay City, you see, we +don’t amount to much except in the summer time. But Rock Haven is a big +place, and most of the people who live there are there all the year round +instead of only for three months or so in the summer. You haven’t any idea +of what a dull old place Bay City is in winter.”</p> + +<p>“If it’s so dull, I shouldn’t think you’d stay +there.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_191'></a>191</span>“Oh, it +was a good place for me to get a start, you know. I’ve been able to get +along in politics, and I’ve done better there than I would have in the +city, I suppose. And it’s all right for a bachelor, anyhow. He can always +get away. If I were married–well, it would be very different +then.”</p> + +<p>“I should think you’d like it much better in the city, though, +even if you are a bachelor. Why don’t you come there this +winter?”</p> + +<p>“Perhaps–I’d like–do you want me to come?”</p> + +<p>He leaned forward, as if her answer were the most important thing in the +world, and, seeing Dolly’s mischievous glance at Bessie, Eleanor blushed +slightly.</p> + +<p>“I think it would be better for you to be in the city,” she said, +with dignity.</p> + +<p>“Well, I’ll tell you a secret then–I’m really +bursting with a whole lot of others that I mustn’t tell. Charlie’s +been at me for months to come and be his partner, and I’ve promised to +think it over.”</p> + +<p>“I think that would be splendid.”</p> + +<p>“Well, I’m glad to hear you say so, because it <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_192'></a>192</span> really depends on you +whether I shall come or not.”</p> + +<p>“Hush!” she said, blushing again, and speaking in so low a tone +that only he could hear her. “You mustn’t talk like that +here–and now. It–it isn’t right.”</p> + +<p>She looked helplessly at Dolly, and Trenwith, understanding, looked as if she +had said something that delighted him. Perhaps she had–perhaps she had +even meant to do so.</p> + +<p>“I’ll attend to getting supper ready now, sir, Mr. Trenwith, if +you’ll take the wheel,” said Bates, just then.</p> + +<p>“All right,” said Trenwith, nodding. “Now make a good job +of it, Bates. I’ve been praising you up to the skies.”</p> + +<p>Bates grinned widely, and disappeared.</p> + +<p>No apologies were needed when they came to eat the supper which had been so +well heralded. A table was set up in the after part of the boat, and the awning +was drawn back so that the stars shone down on them. The <i>Columbia’s</i> +engine was <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_193'></a>193</span> +stopped, and she lay under the lee of Humber Island, a long, wooded islet that +sheltered them from the strong breeze, making the sea as smooth as a mill pond. +On shore twinkling lights began to appear, and, some distance away, a glare of +lights in the sky betrayed the location of Rock Haven.</p> + +<p>“Oh, this is lovely!” said Eleanor. “I’m so glad you +brought us here, Mr. Trenwith! But tell me, doesn’t anyone live on this +island? It’s so beautiful that I should think someone would surely have +built a summer home there long ago.”</p> + +<p>“I believe there are people there,” said Trenwith. “But +they are on the other side.”</p> + +<p>“I’m sorry we have to go home, but I suppose we really must be +starting,” said Eleanor, after supper. “It’s such a heavenly +night that it seems to me it would be perfect just to stay here.”</p> + +<p>“Wouldn’t it? But you’re right–we must be starting +back. We’ll go on and come around the other side of this island. You +should see it from <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_194'></a>194</span> +all points of view. Scenically, it’s our show place for this whole stretch +of coast.”</p> + +<p>And so as soon as Bates had finished clearing off the table he went back to +his engine, and the <i>Columbia</i> slipped along smoothly in the shadow of the +island. But a few minutes later, as they were gliding along on the seaward side, +where the water was far rougher, there was a sudden jar, and the next moment the +engine stopped.</p> + +<p>“Why, what’s the matter!” asked Eleanor, surprised.</p> + +<p>“Nothing much, probably,” said Trenwith “Bates will have it +fixed in a few minutes. The best engine in the world is apt to get balky at +times–and I must say that mine has chosen a very good time to +misbehave.”</p> + +<p>Eleanor chose to ignore the meaning he so plainly implied, but she was +perfectly content with the explanation, and sat there dreamily, expecting to +hear the reassuring whir of the motor at any moment. But the minutes dragged +themselves out, and the only sound that came from the <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_195'></a>195</span> engine was the tapping of the tools +Bates was using. Trenwith frowned.</p> + +<p>“This is very strange,” he said. “We’ve never been +delayed as long as this since I’ve had Bates. He usually keeps the motor +in perfect running order. I’ll just step forward and see what’s +wrong.”</p> + +<p>He returned in a few moments, his face grave.</p> + +<p>“Bates has some highly technical explanation of what is wrong,” +he said, seriously. “It seems that he needs some tools he hasn’t +got, in order to grind the valves. I’m afraid we’ll have to get +ashore somehow–he seems to be sure that he can find what he is looking for +there.”</p> + +<p>Eleanor looked rather dismayed.</p> + +<p>“It’s going to make us terribly late in getting ashore, +isn’t it?” she asked. “I’m afraid the others will be +worried about us.”</p> + +<p>“No. Bates says that as soon as he gets the tools he wants he will have +things fixed up, and he’s quite certain that he can get them on the +island. He says anyone who has a motor boat <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_196'></a>196</span> will be able to help him out–and they +certainly couldn’t live here without one.”</p> + +<p>“But how on earth are you going to get ashore if the engine won’t +work?” asked Dolly. “It seems to me that we’re stuck out +here.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, you leave that to us!” said Trenwith, cheerfully. +“I’m sorry this has happened, but please believe me when I say that +it isn’t a bit serious.”</p> + +<p>They soon saw the <i>Columbia</i> was to be rescued from her predicament. She +was fairly near the shore, and now Bates dropped an anchor, and she remained +still, swinging slowly on the chain.</p> + +<p>“He’ll row ashore, you see, hunt up the people, and tell them +what he wants,” said Trenwith. “Hurry up, Bates! Remember, +we’ve promised to get these young ladies home in good time.”</p> + +<p>“Right, sir,” said Bates, as he lowered the dinghy and dropped +into her. “Won’t take me long when I find the people on +shore–and about five minutes will fix that engine when I get back here +again.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_197'></a>197</span>He rowed off +into the darkness, making for a point of light that showed on shore, and they +settled back to wait as patiently as they could for his return.</p> + +<p>“Suppose Charlie turns up at the camp while we’re gone, and wants +you for something important?” asked Eleanor. “Oh, I’m afraid +we did wrong in coming!”</p> + +<p>“Not a bit of it! Old Charlie will understand. And I know his plans +pretty well, so there isn’t any danger of this causing any +trouble.”</p> + +<p>It seemed to take longer for Bates to find help than he had expected. At any +rate, the greater part of half an hour slipped away before they heard the sound +of oars coming toward them.</p> + +<p>“Why, there are two men rowing!” said Dolly, curiously. +“And that dinghy only has room for one man with oars.”</p> + +<p>“Probably they decided to send someone out with him to lend him a +hand,” said Trenwith. “People around these parts are pretty nice to +you if you have a breakdown, and I guess it’s <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_198'></a>198</span> partly because they never know when +they’re going to have one themselves.”</p> + +<p>“Well, that ought to make it easier to make the repairs that are +needed,” said Eleanor, somewhat relieved. “I really am getting +worried about what they’ll think at the beach. I’m afraid +they’ll be sure that something has happened to us.”</p> + +<p>“Good evening, Miss Mercer,” said a mocking voice behind her, and +she turned with a start to see Holmes!</p> + +<p>“You’re late,” said Holmes, reproachfully. “I +expected you an hour earlier. But then better late than, never! Ah, I see both +of them are with you! Silas Weeks will be very glad to see you two, I have no +doubt!”</p> + +<p>He spoke then to Bessie and Zara, who, terrified by his sodden appearance, +were staring at him.</p> + +<p>“Mr. Trenwith!” said Eleanor, sharply. “You know who this +man is, do you not? And what our feelings are concerning him? Are you going to +let him stay here?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_199'></a>199</span>“He has no +choice, Miss Mercer. Better not ask him too many questions about how you +happened to break down right off my island; he would have a hard time convincing +you with any story he told. Eh, Trenwith?”</p> + +<p>“Shut up!” growled Trenwith. “What does all this nonsense +mean? Get off my boat!”</p> + +<p>“Oh, are you trying to make them believe you didn’t know about +this? I beg your pardon, Trenwith, I really do! Of course, Miss Mercer, he knows +as well as I do that I am within my rights. You are now in a state where certain +court orders applying to Bessie King and her little friend Zara ate +valid–and, knowing that these two girls, who have run away from the courts +of this state, are here, I have taken steps to see that they are taken into +court. I am a law abiding citizen–I do not like to see the law +insulted.”</p> + +<p>Eleanor was dazed by the suddenness of the blow. To her it seemed an +accident; she could not believe that Trenwith could be guilty <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_200'></a>200</span> of such treachery as +Holmes was charging. But in a moment her faith in him was shattered.</p> + +<p>“I’d like to help out your pose, Trenwith,” Holmes said to +him. “But I need you, so you’ll have to come off your perch. +You’ll have to come ashore with the others, in case you should change your +mind. I only want two of these girls, but the others will have to come, too, of +course, because if they got away they might make trouble. You shall be perfectly +comfortable, Miss Mercer, however.”</p> + +<p>The look in Trenwith’s eyes, and the sheepish, hangdog expression of +his whole face made Eleanor gasp. So he had betrayed them! After all, despite +his fine talk, he had been tempted by the money that Holmes seemed prepared to +spend so lavishly! And he had led Bessie and Zara right into a trap–a +merciless trap, as she knew, from which escape would be most difficult, if not +utterly impossible.</p> + +<p>And in a moment the lingering remnants of her <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_201'></a>201</span> faith were shattered. For Holmes called +out, in a loud tone, at Bates:</p> + +<p>“Bates!” he cried. “Come aboard and start that engine! Then +you can take your tub right up to the landing pier in front of the +house.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, yes!” said Bates. He sprang aboard, and a moment later the +engine, perfectly restored, was started, although nothing had been done to it +since Bates went ashore, and, the anchor lifted, the <i>Columbia</i> began her +brief voyage to the pier.</p> + +<p>There had been no accident at all! The breakdown had been a deception, pure +and simple, intended to give Bates a chance to go ashore and warn Holmes that +his prey was within his reach.</p> + +<p>“Oh, how I despise you!” said Eleanor to Trenwith. “Go +away, please, so that I won’t have to look at you!”</p> + +<p>“Eleanor, listen!” he said, in a low whisper, pleadingly. +“I can explain–”</p> + +<p>“If you think I’m such a fool as to believe anything you tell me +now,” she said, furiously, “you are very much mistaken!”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_202'></a>202</span>He saw that to +argue with her was hopeless, and went forward gloomily. In a few minutes they +were ashore. Resistance, as Eleanor saw, was hopeless; the only thing to do was +to act sensibly, and hope for a chance to escape.</p> + +<p>“I have had three rooms arranged for you,” said Holmes, when they +reached a great rambling house. “They’re on the second floor. I +think you girls will be comfortable and you would rather, I am sure, have the +girls with you. You are in no danger.”</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_203'></a>203</span><a id='link_13'></a>CHAPTER XIII<br /><span class='h2fs'>A LUCKY MEETING</span></h2> + +<p>Half a dozen men had come out to the <i>Columbia</i> with Holmes and Bates, +and now, while Holmes himself disappeared for a minute, beckoning to Trenwith to +go with him, the other men watched Eleanor and the three girls. They drew off to +a little distance, but they kept their eyes on them.</p> + +<p>“They don’t look as if they could run very fast,” said +Dolly, hopefully. “Don’t you think we might be able to make a break +and get away?”</p> + +<p>“Where to, Dolly? This is an island, remember, and we don’t know +anything about it at all. We wouldn’t know where to run, if we did have +luck enough to get a good start–and we wouldn’t get very +far.”</p> + +<p>“I suppose that’s so,” said Dolly, her face falling. +“Oh, what a horrid shame! Just when everything seemed so nice and +peaceful!”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_204'></a>204</span>“There’s one thing,” said Eleanor, +her face set and stern. “They can’t hold me forever–or, at +least, I don’t suppose they can. And someone is going to be sorry for this +or my name’s not Eleanor Mercer!”</p> + +<p>“I don’t understand it yet,” said Bessie, who, although the +capture meant more to her than it did to any of the others, had not given way to +her emotions, and seemed as cool and calm as if she had been safely back on Plum +Beach.</p> + +<p>“It’s only too easy to understand,” said Eleanor, bitterly. +“Charlie was deceived in his friend, Mr. Trenwith. He’s just as easy +to bribe as Jake Hoover. That’s all. He cares more for money and success +than he does for his reputation as an honorable man. I’m disappointed in +him–but I suppose I ought not to be surprised.”</p> + +<p>“Well, I <i>am</i> surprised,” said Dolly, defiantly. “And +I’m sure, somehow, that he’s all right. I think he was just as badly +fooled as the rest of us. Mr. Holmes probably wants us to think as badly <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_205'></a>205</span> of him as possible, so +that, if he should try to help us, we wouldn’t trust him.”</p> + +<p>“I wish I could believe that, Dolly. But the evidence against him is +too strong, I’m afraid. Hush, we mustn’t talk. Here is Mr. Holmes +coming back. I don’t want him to think that we’re afraid–it +would please him too much.”</p> + +<p>With Mr. Holmes, as he came toward them, was a woman in servant’s garb, +middle aged, and sour in her appearance.</p> + +<p>“This woman will attend to you, Miss Mercer,” he said. “She +will do whatever you tell her–unless it should happen to conflict with the +orders she has from me. But she won’t talk to you about me, or about this +place because she knows that if she does I will find out about it, and she will +have reason to regret it.”</p> + +<p>“I’m very much pleased by one thing, Mr. Holmes,” said +Eleanor. “You’ve shown yourself in your true colors at last. I +suppose you understand that when I get back to the city I shall see to it that +everyone knows the truth about you. I <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_206'></a>206</span> don’t think you will find yourself welcome in +the homes of any decent people after I tell what I know.”</p> + +<p>“I’m sorry, Miss Mercer,” he said. “Of course you +must do what you think best. But it really won’t do any good. I could do +things a great deal worse than this, and still, with the money I happen to have, +people would keep on fawning on me, and pestering me with their attentions and +their invitations as much as ever.”</p> + +<p>“Perhaps you’re right, but I intend to find out. May I ask how +long you intend to keep me here as a prisoner?”</p> + +<p>“You are my guest, Miss Mercer, not my prisoner. Please don’t act +as if I were as great a villain as that. Losing your temper will not improve +matters in any way, you know–really it won’t. As for your question, +I think Bessie and Zara will be in the quite competent care of their old friend +Silas Weeks by noon to-morrow and then there will be no further reason for +keeping you here.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_207'></a>207</span>“Then, +unless you are remarkably quick in getting out of the country, Mr. Holmes, you +ought to be under arrest for kidnapping by to-morrow night.”</p> + +<p>Holmes laughed.</p> + +<p>“Oh, do let’s be friends!” he said. “You and your +friends have really given me a lot of trouble. But do I bear you any malice? Not +I! If you hadn’t taken care of those misguided girls after they ran away +from Hedgeville, none of this would have come about.”</p> + +<p>“I suppose you think you have some excuse for acting in this +fashion?”</p> + +<p>“I certainly have, Miss Mercer. The very best. After all, why +shouldn’t I tell you! It’s too late for you to do me any harm +now–I have won the game.”</p> + +<p>“But there will be a return match. Don’t forget that! My father +is as rich as you are, Mr. Holmes, and when he hears of the way I have been +treated, he will spend his last cent, if necessary, to get his revenge on +you.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_208'></a>208</span>“Dear me, +I hope he won’t do anything so foolish, Miss Mercer! It would be a +dreadful waste of money–and he wouldn’t get it, in any case. +However, I don’t want you to be needlessly worried. Zara will soon be safe +with her father. She won’t have to stay very long with the estimable +Farmer Weeks. You know, I really don’t blame her for disliking +him.”</p> + +<p>Zara gave a little cry of joy.</p> + +<p>“Will I see my father? Is he well?” she cried.</p> + +<p>“Quite well–but very obstinate,” said Holmes. +“That’s your fault, too, Miss Mercer. I’m sorry to say that +lately he has seemed to be inclined to listen to your cousin, Mr. Jamieson. He +is willing, you see, to deal with whoever happens to be in charge of his +daughter. He knows our friend Silas very well–too well, I think. And so, +when he knows that Zara is being looked after by him, I think he will be glad to +meet my terms, and so secure his freedom.”</p> + +<p>“You brute!” said Eleanor, hotly. “What are your +terms?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_209'></a>209</span>“Ah, that +would be telling! You will have to wait to discover that. You see, Silas Weeks +wasn’t quite as stupid as the rest of the people at Hedgeville, and when +he couldn’t find out what old Slavin was doing there, he came to +me–because he thought I probably could.”</p> + +<p>“Slavin!” said Eleanor, in an amazed tone. “Is that your +father’s name, Zara? Why didn’t you tell us?”</p> + +<p>“He told me not to,” said Zara, nervously.</p> + +<p>“Zara’s father had one bad fault; he wasn’t at all ready to +trust people,” Holmes went on, easily. “He didn’t even trust +me as he should have done, and he’s been positively insulting to Weeks. +It’s made a lot of trouble for him.”</p> + +<p>He looked at his watch, then turned to the servant.</p> + +<p>“Go upstairs and make the rooms comfortable for Miss Mercer at +once,” he said. “It’s getting late.” Then he turned to +the men who had accompanied him to the <i>Columbia</i>. “It’s all +right, boys,” he said. “You needn’t wait.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_210'></a>210</span>“These +people keep their ears entirely too wide open,” he explained to Eleanor. +“I have to be rather careful with them, though they probably +wouldn’t understand much if they did hear. Well, that is about all +I’ve got to tell you, anyhow. You see, you needn’t worry about your +friend Zara. As to Bessie–Well, that’s different.”</p> + +<p>He looked at Bessie malevolently.</p> + +<p>“I don’t think I care to tell you anything more about her,” +he said. “Weeks will look after her all right–as well as she +deserves to be looked after.”</p> + +<p>Bessie seemed to be nervous as he looked at her, and edged away from him.</p> + +<p>“If you think you can keep Bessie in the care of that man Weeks,” +said Eleanor, “you are going to find yourself decidedly mistaken. He +won’t treat her properly, and if he doesn’t, the courts won’t +compel her to stay there. I know enough law for that, and I tell you now, that, +even though you may have some sort of law on your side just now, because you +have played this trick, you <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_211'></a>211</span> won’t be able to count on the law much +longer. It will be as powerful against you, properly used, as it has been for +you, improperly used.”</p> + +<p>“Oh!” Holmes laughed, unpleasantly. There was no mirth in the +laugh, only mockery and contempt. “Really, Miss Mercer–why, where +has that little baggage gone to?”</p> + +<p>He stared wildly about the room, and Eleanor, startled, looked about her +also. Bessie had disappeared; vanished into thin air. In a rage, Holmes darted +here and there about the great hall of the house in which they had been +standing. But, though he looked behind curtains and all the larger pieces of +furniture, and made a great fuss, he found no sign of her. For a moment he was +completely baffled, and almost beside himself with rage.</p> + +<p>“I always thought villains were clever,” said Dolly, as he stood +still. Her voice was scornful. “Why, even a girl like Bessie can fool you! +She’s done it plenty of times before now–you didn’t <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_212'></a>212</span> think you could keep her +from doing it this time, too, did you?”</p> + +<p>“What do you mean!” stormed Holmes, moving toward her, his hand +raised as if he meant to strike her. But if he thought he could frighten Dolly +he was much mistaken. She faced him calmly.</p> + +<p>“You can’t make me tell you anything, even if you do hit +me,” she said. “And you won’t find Bessie, either, unless she +wants you to. I saw her go–but I’m not going to tell you how she +managed it.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, I’m not going to hit her,” yelled Holmes. “What +good would that do?”</p> + +<p>He sprang to a bell, and pushed it violently. In a moment two or three of the +men he had dismissed, thus giving Bessie her chance to escape, answered his +summons, and he ordered them to start in search of her at once.</p> + +<p>“Find her, and you’ll be rewarded,” he shouted. “But +if you don’t, I’ll make you pay for it!”</p> + +<p>Eleanor had never seen a man in such a furious <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_213'></a>213</span> rage. It was plain that his plan, +successful as it seemed to be, was still in danger of being upset, and the +knowledge gave Eleanor new hope. It had seemed to her that, with Trenwith turned +traitor, there was not one chance in a million to foil Holmes this time. But now +everything was changed. He stayed with them only long enough to give them into +the keeping of the servant, who came down the stairs just as he finished giving +his orders to the men for the pursuit of Bessie.</p> + +<p>“If any of them get out, I’ll know it’s your fault,” +he said to her. “And you know what I can do to you. You wouldn’t +like to go to jail for a few years, I guess. You will, if anyone else gets away +from this house to-night.”</p> + +<p>Then he followed the men he had sent out in search of Bessie.</p> + +<p>And all the time Bessie herself had heard every word, and seen every action +of the scene that followed the discovery of her escape. While Holmes was talking +to Eleanor she had seized the chance <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_214'></a>214</span> to slip over to a heavily curtained window, which, +she guessed, must open right on the ground.</p> + +<p>She took the chance of it being open, and fortune favored her. Concealed by +the curtain, she was able to slip out, and then, instead of running as fast and +as far as she could, as nine people out of ten would have done, she stayed where +she was. She reasoned that there, so close to the house, was the last place +where search would be made.</p> + +<p>And she was right. She saw Holmes dash from the room; she saw Eleanor and the +other girls being led upstairs. And then she not only heard, but saw the pursuit +of her that was begun. Men with lanterns searched the grounds; they looked +behind every bush. But, though a single glance, almost, would have revealed her +had anything like a careful search of the flower beds close to the house been +made, no one came near her hiding-place. Between her and the open garden was +only a flimsy screen of rose bushes, but it proved enough.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_215'></a>215</span>She stayed +there, scarcely daring to breathe, while the men searched the grounds and the +beach. And she was still there, more than an hour later, when they returned, +tired and discouraged, to report the failure of their search to Holmes, who was +back in the room from which she had escaped.</p> + +<p>“Fury!” cried Holmes. “She must be on the island! +There’s no way that she can have got away! Well, watch the boats! That +will have to do for to-night. She can’t get away without a boat–and +they are all in the boat-house. If she wanders down to the other end, to the +fort, we can catch her in the morning. They won’t believe any story she +can tell them, if she should happen to get there. And I don’t want to +disturb them to-night–I’d rather wait until morning, when they will +be over with the papers. I haven’t any real right to hold them to-night, +except the right of force.”</p> + +<p>Bessie thrilled at the information those few words gave her. She remembered +now that there was a fort, manned by United States soldiers, on <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_216'></a>216</span> Humber Island. It was +one of the chain of forts that guarded the approaches to Rock Haven. And Bessie +had an idea that she would be able to find someone at the fort to believe her +story, wild and improbable as she knew it must sound. The great problem now was +to get out of the grounds unseen.</p> + +<p>And that problem, of course, her cleverness in hiding so close to the house +had made much easier to solve. No one would suspect now that she was there; if +she waited until the house was quiet, and the men who were to watch the boats +had gone to their post, she should be able to steal out of the garden and in the +direction of the fort.</p> + +<p>To be on the safe side, she waited nearly an hour longer. Then, as quietly as +she could, she began her solitary walk. Fortune, and her own ability to move +quietly, favored her. In five minutes she was out of the grounds, and in woods +where, though the walking was difficult, and she stumbled more than once, she at +least felt safe from the danger of pursuit.</p> + +<p>Soon the woods began to thin; then they grew <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_217'></a>217</span> thicker again. But, after she had been walking, as +she guessed, for more than an hour, it grew lighter and she saw ahead of her the +outlines of dark buildings–Fort Humber, she was sure. And a minute later +the sharp hail of a sentry halted her, and at the same time made her sure that +she had not lost her way.</p> + +<p>“Who goes there?” called the sentry.</p> + +<p>“I’ve lost my way,” said Bessie, trusting to her voice to +make him understand that she was not to be driven away. “Is this the fort? +I’d like to see some officer, if you please.”</p> + +<p>“Wait there! I’ll pass the word,” said the sentry.</p> + +<p>And in a few minutes a young lieutenant came toward her.</p> + +<p>“Bless my soul!” he said, “What are you doing here, young +lady! Come with me–you can explain inside.”</p> + +<p>And, once inside the fort, the first person she saw was Charlie Jamieson!</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_219'></a>219</span><a id='link_14'></a>CHAPTER XIV<br /><span class='h2fs'>AT THE FORT</span></h2> + +<p>“Bessie King!” he exclaimed amazed. “What on earth, are you +doing here? And where is Trenwith?”</p> + +<p>“I don’t know,” said Bessie. She felt safe and for a moment +she was on the verge of collapsing completely. But then she remembered that not +her own fate alone, but that of the others whom she loved and who had been so +good to her depended upon her. And, in a few quick words, she told the story of +the accident to the <i>Columbia</i>, with the treachery of Billy Trenwith and +the subsequent appearance of Holmes and his men.</p> + +<p>“There you are, gentlemen!” said Jamieson, turning to the little +group of men in uniform, who, tremendously interested, had listened intently to +all that Bessie had said. “You laughed at me–you <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_220'></a>220</span> insisted that the sort +of thing I told you about wasn’t possible–that it simply +couldn’t happen in this country, and in this time. What do you think +now?”</p> + +<p>“I guess it’s one on us,” said one of the officers, with a +reluctant laugh. “But, really, Jamieson, you can’t blame us much, +can you? It’s pretty incredible, even now.”</p> + +<p>“I’m bothered about Trenwith, though,” said Charlie. +“Something has gone wrong.”</p> + +<p>“Miss Mercer is perfectly sure that he is in league with Mr. +Holmes,” said Bessie. “Do you think that’s so, Mr. +Jamieson?”</p> + +<p>“I hope not,” said Charlie, soberly. “I’ve found out +one thing lately though, Bessie;–that when there is money involved, you +can never tell what is going to happen.”</p> + +<p>“Did you know we were here–how did you fold out?”</p> + +<p>“No questions just now! It’s time something was being done. Tell +me, can you take me to this house, and show me how to get in!”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_221'></a>221</span>“Yes, I +think I can find my way back through the woods.”</p> + +<p>“No need of that,” said one of the officers. “There’s +a road that leads right to that place. What’s Holmes doing there, anyhow? +It isn’t his place. It belongs to some people who bought it a little while +ago.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, a Mr. and Mrs. Richards,” said Charlie. “But from +what Bessie here says, he seems to be doing about as he likes with it. Well, I +don’t want to waste any more time. Do you suppose I can see Colonel +Hart!”</p> + +<p>“You can unless your eyesight is failing,” said the Colonel, +appearing in the doorway. He had heard the question, and came forward smiling, +his hand outstretched. “How are you, Jamieson? What can I do for +you?”</p> + +<p>“A great deal, if you will, Colonel,” said Charlie. +“I’d like to speak to you privately for a minute, if I +may–”</p> + +<p>“Shabby business–that’s what I call it,” said one of +the young officers. “He knows we’re wild <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_222'></a>222</span> to know what’s going on, and +there he goes off with the old man to tell him about it where we can’t +hear.”</p> + +<p>Then one of them happened to think that Bessie might be in need of +refreshment after her exciting experiences, and they waited on her as if she had +been a princess. By the time she had been able to convince them that she wanted +nothing more, Jamieson and the Colonel returned.</p> + +<p>“All right, my boy,” the colonel was saying. “I’ll +attend to it, and do as you wish. Maybe it isn’t strictly according to the +regulations, but I don’t believe anyone will ever file charges against me. +Depend upon me. You’re starting now!”</p> + +<p>“Yes,” said Jamieson. “Come along, Bessie. We’re +going back to the house.”</p> + +<p>“I’m ready,” said Bessie, simply.</p> + +<p>“You’re not afraid?”</p> + +<p>“Not as long as you’re there. I don’t believe Mr. Holmes +can do anything while you’re around.”</p> + +<p>“Well, I hope he can’t, Bessie. But when they <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_223'></a>223</span> had managed to get away +as you did to-night, a whole lot of girls wouldn’t be in a hurry to run +into the same danger again.”</p> + +<p>“I wouldn’t be very happy about getting away myself unless Zara +escaped, too, Mr. Jamieson. And I’m afraid of Mr. Holmes–I +don’t know what he might do if he were angry enough. I wouldn’t be +sure that Dolly and Miss Eleanor were safe with him.”</p> + +<p>“Well, they are, Bessie. Of course, what I’m planning may go +wrong, but I feel pretty confident that we are going to give Mr. Holmes the +surprise of his life this night.”</p> + +<p>They walked on steadily through the darkness, the going of course being much +easier than Bessie had found it in her flight, since she now had a good road +under her feet instead of the stumpy wood path, full of twisted roots and +unexpected bumps.</p> + +<p>And at last a light showed through the trees to one side of the road, and +Bessie stopped.</p> + +<p>“That’s the place, I’m pretty sure,” she said. <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_224'></a>224</span> “I can tell for +certain, if we turn in, but I’m sure I didn’t pass another +house.”</p> + +<p>So they went in, and a minute’s examination enabled Bessie to recognize +the grounds. She had had plenty of time to study them earlier in the night, when +she had crouched behind the rose bushes, expecting to be discovered and dragged +out every time one of the searchers passed near her.</p> + +<p>“I wish I knew about Trenwith,” said Charlie, anxiously. +“That is one part of this night’s work that puzzles me. I +don’t understand it at all, and it worries me.”</p> + +<p>“He went off with Mr. Holmes after we got inside the house,” said +Bessie. “But I didn’t see him again after that. He wasn’t with +Mr. Holmes in the big hall again, after I had got away. I’m sure of +that.”</p> + +<p>“What are you going to do now?” asked Bessie.</p> + +<p>“I’m not certain. I’d like very much to know where the +other girls are. We ought to be all together.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_225'></a>225</span>“Perhaps I +can find out,” said Bessie. “You stay here, and I’ll slip +along toward the house. If Dolly’s awake, I can find out where she +is.”</p> + +<p>“All right. But if you see anyone else, or if anyone interferes with +you, call me right away.”</p> + +<p>Bessie promised that she would, and then she slipped away, and a moment later +found herself in front of the house.</p> + +<p>“I’ll try this side last,” she said to herself. “I +don’t believe they’d put them in front–more likely +they’d put them on the east side, because that only looks out over the +garden, and there’d be less chance of their seeing anyone who was +coming.”</p> + +<p>So, moving stealthily and as silently as a cat, she went around to that side +of the house, and a moment later the strange, mournful call of a whip-poor-will +sounded in the still night air. It was repeated two or three times, but there +was no answer. Then Bessie changed her calling slightly.</p> + +<p>At first she had imitated the bird perfectly. But this time there was a false +note in the call–just the slightest degree off the true pitch of the +bird’s <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_226'></a>226</span> note. +Most people would not have known the difference, but to a trained ear that +slight imperfection would be enough to reveal the fact that it was a human +throat that was responsible, and not a bird’s. And the trick served its +turn, for there was an instant answer. A window was opened above Bessie, very +gently, and she saw Dolly’s head peering down over the ivy that grew up +the wall.</p> + +<p>“Wait there!” she whispered. “Get dressed, all three of +you! Mr. Jamieson is here–not far away. I’m going to tell him where +you are.”</p> + +<p>She marked the location of the window carefully, and then, sure that she +would remember it when she returned, went back to Jamieson.</p> + +<p>“Did you locate them? Good work!” he said. “All right. Go +back now and tell them to make a rope of their sheets–good and strong. I +saw where you were standing, and, if they lower that, I don’t think we +will have any trouble getting up to their window. I want to be inside that +house–and I don’t want Holmes to know I’m there until <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_227'></a>227</span> I’m ready.” +He chuckled. “He thinks I’m back in the city. I want him to have a +real surprise when he finally does see me.”</p> + +<p>Bessie slipped back then and told Dolly what to do, and in a few minutes the +rope of sheets came down, rustling against the ivy. Bessie made the signal she +had agreed on with Jamieson at once–a repetition of the bird’s call, +and he joined her. Then he picked her up and started her climbing up the wall, +with the aid of tie rope and the ivy.</p> + +<p>For a girl as used to climbing trees as Bessie, it was a task of no great +difficulty, and in a minute she was safely inside the room, and had turned to +watch Jamieson following her. His greater weight made his task more difficult, +and twice those above had all they could do to repress screams of terror, for +the ivy gave way, and he seemed certain to fall.</p> + +<p>But he was a trained athlete, and a skillful climber as well, and, difficult +as the ascent proved to be for him, he managed it, and clambered over <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_228'></a>228</span> the sill of the window +and into the room, breathless, but smiling and triumphant.</p> + +<p>“Oh, I’m so glad you’re here, Charlie!” said Eleanor. +“There is someone we can trust, after all, isn’t there?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, sure!” he said. “Don’t you take on, Nell, and +don’t ask a lot of questions now. It’ll be daylight pretty +soon–and, believe me, when the light comes, there’s going to be +considerable excitement around these parts.”</p> + +<p>“But why did you bring Bessie back here? How did she find +you?”</p> + +<p>He raised his hand with a warning gesture, and smiled.</p> + +<p>“Remember, Nell, no questions!” he said. “All we can do +just now is to wait.”</p> + +<p>Wait they did–and in silence, save for an occasional whisper.</p> + +<p>“That man Holmes has a woman guarding us,” whispered Eleanor. +“She is just outside the door in the hall–sleeping there. The idea +is to keep us from leaving these rooms. Evidently they never <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_229'></a>229</span> thought of our going by +the window. We did think of it, but we couldn’t see any use in it, because +we felt we wouldn’t know where to go on this island, even if we got +outside the grounds!”</p> + +<p>“That’s what he counted on, I guess,” answered Charlie. +“I’m glad you stayed. Cheer up, Nell! You’re going to have a +package of assorted surprises before you’re very much older!”</p> + +<p>To the five of them, practically imprisoned, it seemed as if daylight would +never come. But at last a faint brightness showed through the window, and +gradually the objects in the room became more distinct. And, with the coming of +the light, there came also sounds of life in the house. The voices of men +sounded from the garden, and Charlie smiled.</p> + +<p>“They’ll begin wondering about that rope and footprints under +this window pretty soon,” he said. “And I guess none of them will be +exactly anxious to tell Holmes, either.”</p> + +<p>He was right, for in a few moments excited <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_230'></a>230</span> voices echoed from below, and then there was an +argument.</p> + +<p>“Well, he’s got to be told,” said one man. +“It’s your job, Bill.”</p> + +<p>“Suppose you do it yourself.”</p> + +<p>Apparently, they finally agreed to go together. And five minutes later there +was a commotion outside the door.</p> + +<p>“Here’s where I take cover!” whispered Charlie, with a +grin. And, just before the door was opened, and Holmes burst in, his face livid +with anger, the lawyer hid himself behind a closet door.</p> + +<p>Holmes started at the sight of the four girls standing there, fully dressed, +his jaw dropping.</p> + +<p>“So you’re all here?” he said, an expression of relief +gradually succeeding his consternation. “Found you couldn’t get +away, eh, Bessie? Why didn’t you come to the front door instead of +climbing in that way? We’d have let you in all right.” He laughed, +harshly.</p> + +<p>“Well, I’ve had about all the trouble you’re going to give +me,” he said. “Silas Weeks will be <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_231'></a>231</span> here to take care of you pretty soon, my girl, and +now that he’s got you in the state where you belong, I guess you +won’t get away again very soon.”</p> + +<p>“What state do you think this island is in!” asked Charlie +Jamieson, appearing suddenly from his hiding-place.</p> + +<p>Holmes staggered back. For a moment he seemed speechless. Then he found his +tongue.</p> + +<p>“What are you doing here? How did you get into my house?” he +snarled. “I’ll have you arrested as a burglar.”</p> + +<p>“Ah, no, you won’t,” said Charlie, pleasantly. “But +I’m going to have you arrested–for kidnapping. Answer my +question–do you think this is in the state where the courts have put +Bessie in charge of Silas Weeks?”</p> + +<p>“Certainly it is,” said Holmes, blustering.</p> + +<p>“You ought to keep up with the news better, Mr. Holmes. The United +States Government has bought this island for military purposes. It’s a +Federal reservation now, and the writ of the state <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_232'></a>232</span> courts has no value whatever. Even the +land this house stands on belongs to the government now–it was taken by +condemnation proceedings.”</p> + +<p>Eleanor gave a glad cry at the good news. At last she understood the trap +into which Holmes had fallen.</p> + +<p>“Look outside–look through the window!” said Jamieson.</p> + +<p>Holmes rushed to the window, and his teeth showed in a snarl at what he +saw.</p> + +<p>“You can’t get away, you see,” said Jamieson. “There +isn’t any sentiment about those soldiers. They’d shoot you if you +tried to run through them. I’d advise you to take things easily. +There’ll be a United States marshal to take you in charge pretty soon. +He’s on his way from Rock Haven now. He’ll probably come on the same +boat that brings Silas Weeks–and some other people you are not +expecting.”</p> + +<p>Holmes slumped into a chair. Defeat was written in his features. But he +pulled himself together presently.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_233'></a>233</span>“You’ve got the upper hand right +now,” he said. “But what good does it do you? I’m the only one +who knows the truth, and the reason for all this. They won’t do anything +to me–they can’t prove any kidnapping charge. The boat was +disabled–I entertained these girls over night when they were stranded +here.”</p> + +<p>“We’ll see about that,” said Jamieson, quietly. “And +I may know more than you think I’ve been finding out a few things since +the talk I had with Jake Hoover in Bay City yesterday. Did you know that he was +arrested the day before yesterday at Plum Beach?”</p> + +<p>Evidently Holmes had not known it. The news was a fresh shock to him. But he +was determined not to admit defeat.</p> + +<p>“Much good he’ll do you!” he said. “He doesn’t +know anything–even if he thinks he does.”</p> + +<hr class='pb' /> +<h2><a id='link_15'></a>CHAPTER XV<br /><span class='h2fs'>THE MYSTERY SOLVED</span></h2> + +<p>There was a knock at the door, and, in answer to Jamieson’s call to +come in, one of the young officers Bessie had seen at the fort entered. He +smiled cheerfully at Bessie, saluted the other girls, and grinned at +Jamieson.</p> + +<p>“We’ve herded all the people we found around the place down in +the boat-house,” he said. “They were too scared to do anything. Is +this your man Holmes?”</p> + +<p>“You guessed right the very first time, Lieutenant,” said +Charlie. “Any sign of that boat from Rock Haven?”</p> + +<p>“She’s just coming in,” said the officer. “She ought +to land her passengers at the pier in about ten minutes.”</p> + +<p>“Then it’s time to go down to meet her,” said Charlie. +“Come on, girls, and you too, Holmes. <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_234'></a>234</span> You’ll be needed down there. And I guess +you’ll find it worth your while to come, too.”</p> + +<p>Holmes, protesting, had no alternative, and in sullen silence he was one of +the little group that now made its way toward the pier. She was just being tied +up as they arrived, and Silas Weeks, his face full of malign triumph at the +sight of Bessie and Zara, was the first to step ashore.</p> + +<p>“Got yer, have I?” he said. He turned to a lanky, angular man who +was at his side. “There y’are, constable,” he said. +“There’s yer parties–them two girls there! Arrest them, will +yer?”</p> + +<p>“Not here, I won’t,” said the constable. “You +didn’t tell me it was to come off here. This is government land–I +ain’t got no authority here.”</p> + +<p>“You keep your mouth shut and your eyes and ears open, Weeks,” +said Jamieson, before the angry old farmer could say anything. Then he stepped +forward to greet a man and woman who had followed Weeks down the gangplank.</p> + +<p>“I’m glad you’re here, Mrs. Richards, and you <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_235'></a>235</span> too, Mr. +Richards,” he said. “I’m going to be able to keep my +promise.”</p> + +<p>Holmes was staring at Mrs. Richards and her husband in astonishment.</p> + +<p>“You here, Elizabeth?” he exclaimed. “And Henry, too? I +didn’t know you were coming!”</p> + +<p>“We decided to come quite unexpectedly, Morton,” said the lady, +quietly. She was a woman of perhaps forty-two or three, tall and distinguished +in her appearance. But, like her husband, her face showed traces of privations +and hardship.</p> + +<p>Behind them came a stiff, soldierly looking man, in a blue suit, and him +Jamieson greeted with a smile and handshake.</p> + +<p>“There’s your man, marshal,” he said, pointing to Holmes. +“I guess he won’t make any resistance.”</p> + +<p>And, while Mr. and Mrs. Richards stared in astonishment, and Weeks turned +purple, the marshal laid his hand on the merchant’s shoulder, and put him +under arrest. Holmes was trapped at last.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_236'></a>236</span>“What does +this mean?” Mrs. Richards asked, indignantly. “What are you doing to +my brother, Mr. Jamieson?”</p> + +<p>“That’s quite a long story, Mrs. Richards,” he answered, +easily. “And, strange as it may seem, I’ll have to answer it by +asking you and your husband some questions that may seem very personal. But +I’ve made good with you so far, and I can assure you that you will have no +cause to regret answering me.”</p> + +<p>Mrs. Richards bowed.</p> + +<p>“In the first place, you and your husband have been away from this part +of the country for quite a long time, haven’t you?”</p> + +<p>“Yes. For a number of years.”</p> + +<p>“And you have not always been as well off, financially, as you are +now?”</p> + +<p>“That is quite true. My husband, shortly after our marriage, failed in +business, owing–owing to conditions he couldn’t control.”</p> + +<p>“Isn’t it true, Mrs. Richards, that those conditions were the +result of his marriage to you? <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_237'></a>237</span> Didn’t your father, a very rich man, resent +your marriage so deeply that he tried to ruin your husband in order to force you +to leave him?”</p> + +<p>There were tears in the woman’s eyes as she nodded her head in +answer.</p> + +<p>“Thank you. I know this is very painful–but I must really do all +this. You refused to leave your husband, however, and when he decided to go to +Alaska, you went with him?</p> + +<p>“And there he made a lucky strike, some four or five years ago, that +made him far richer than he had ever dreamed of becoming?”</p> + +<p>“That is quite true.”</p> + +<p>“But, although you were rich, you did not come home? You spent a good +deal of time in the Far North, and when you went out for a rest, you came no +further east than Seattle or San Francisco?”</p> + +<p>“There was no reason for us to come here. All our friends had turned +against us in our misfortunes, and our only child was dead. So it was only a few +months ago that we came home.”</p> + +<p>“That is very tragic. Thank you, Mrs. Richards. <span class='pagenum +pncolor'><a id='page_238'></a>238</span> One moment–I have another +question to ask.”</p> + +<p>He stepped toward the gangplank.</p> + +<p>“I will be back in a moment,” he said.</p> + +<p>He went on board the boat, and while all those on the dock, puzzled and +mystified by his questions, waited, he disappeared. When he returned he was not +alone. A woman was with him, and, at the sight of her Bessie gave a cry of +astonishment.</p> + +<p>“Now, Mrs. Richards,” said Charlie. “Have you ever seen +this woman before?”</p> + +<p>“I think I have,” she said, in a strange, puzzled tone. +“But–she has changed so–”</p> + +<p>“Her name is Mrs. Hoover, Mrs. Richards. Does that help you to +remember?”</p> + +<p>“Oh!” Mrs. Richards sobbed and burst into tears. “Mrs. +Hoover!” she said, brokenly. “To think that I could forget you! Tell +me–”</p> + +<p>“One moment,” said Charlie, interrupting. His own voice was not +very steady, and Eleanor, a look of dawning understanding in her eyes, was <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_239'></a>239</span> staring at him, greatly +moved. “It was with Mrs. Hoover that you left your child when you went +west under an assumed name, was it not? It was she who told you that she had +died?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, I lied to you–I lied to you!” wailed Maw Hoover, +breaking down suddenly, and throwing herself at the feet of Mrs. Richards. +“She wasn’t dead. It was that wicked Mr. Holmes and Farmer Weeks who +made me say she was.”</p> + +<p>“What?” thundered Richards. “She isn’t dead? Where is +she?”</p> + +<p>“Bessie!” said Charlie, calling to her sharply. “Here is +your daughter, Mrs. Richards, and a daughter to be proud of!”</p> + +<p>And the next moment Bessie, Bessie King, the waif no longer, but Bessie +Richards, was in her mother’s arms!</p> + +<p>“So Mr. Holmes was Bessie’s uncle!” said Eleanor, amazed. +“But why did he act so?”</p> + +<p>“I can explain that,” said Charlie, sternly. “It was he who +set his father so strongly against his sister’s marriage to Mr. Richards. +He expected <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_240'></a>240</span> that +he would inherit, as a result, her share of his father’s estate, as well +as his own. But his plans miscarried. Mrs. Richards and her husband had +disappeared before her father’s death, and, when he softened and was +inclined to relent, he could not find them. But he knew they had a daughter, and +he left to her his daughter’s share of his fortune–over a million +dollars. There was no trace of the child, however, and so there was a provision +in the will that if she did not come forward to claim the money on her +eighteenth birthday it should go to her uncle–to Holmes.”</p> + +<p>“I always said it was money that was making him act that way!” +cried Dolly Ransom.</p> + +<p>“Yes,” said Jamieson. “He had squandered much of his own +money–he wanted to make sure of getting Bessie’s fortune for +himself. So when he learned through Silas Weeks where the child was, he paid +Mrs. Hoover to tell her parents she was dead, and then, after she had run away, +he and Weeks did all they could to get her back to a place where there was no +chance of anyone finding <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_241'></a>241</span> out who she was. They nearly succeeded–but I +have been able to block their plans. And one reason is that they were greedy and +they couldn’t let Zara Slavin and her father alone. He is a great inventor +and they profited by his ignorance of American customs.”</p> + +<p>“I only found out her name last night,” said Eleanor. “I +wondered if he could be the Slavin who invented the new wireless +telephone–”</p> + +<p>“They got him into jail on a trumped-up charge,” said Charlie. +“And then they tried to keep Zara away from people who might learn the +truth from her, and offer to supply the money he needed. In a little while they +would have robbed him of all the profits of his invention.”</p> + +<p>“I’ll finance it myself,” said Richards, “and he can +keep all of the profit.”</p> + +<p>Bessie’s father and mother were far too glad to get her back to want to +punish Ma Hoover, who was sincerely repentant. They could hardly find words +enough to thank Eleanor and Dolly for <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_242'></a>242</span> their friendship, and to Charlie Jamieson their +gratitude was unbounded.</p> + +<p>But suddenly, even while the talk was at its height, there was a diversion. +Billy Trenwith, his clothes torn, his hands chafed and bleeding, appeared on the +dock.</p> + +<p>“Good Heavens, Billy, I’d forgotten all about you!” said +Charlie. “Where have you been?”</p> + +<p>“How can you speak to him as a friend after the way he betrayed +us?” asked Eleanor, indignantly, and Billy winced. But Charlie laughed +happily.</p> + +<p>“He didn’t betray you,” said he. “I cooked up this +whole thing, just to catch Holmes red-handed, and he walked right into the trap. +I told Billy not to tell you, because I wanted you to act so that Holmes +wouldn’t know it was a trick.”</p> + +<p>“He didn’t trust me, though,” said Billy, ruefully. +“As soon as he had the girls, he tied me up and chucked me into his cellar +so that I couldn’t change my mind, he said. That’s why I +didn’t meet you at the fort.”</p> + +<p>Eleanor, shamefaced and miserable, looked at <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_243'></a>243</span> him. Then, with tears in her eyes, she held out her +hand to him.</p> + +<p>“Can you ever forgive me?” she asked.</p> + +<p>“You bet I can!” he shouted. “Why, you were meant to think +just what you did! There’s nothing to forgive!”</p> + +<p>“I ought to have known you couldn’t do a mean, treacherous +thing,” she said.</p> + +<p>“All’s well that ends well,” said Charlie, gaily. +“Now as to your brother, Mrs. Richards? I don’t suppose you want him +arrested?”</p> + +<p>“No–oh, no!” said she, looking at Holmes +contemptuously.</p> + +<p>“Then, if you’ll withdraw the charge of kidnapping, Eleanor, he +can go.”</p> + +<p>And the next moment Holmes, free but disgraced, slunk away, and out of the +lives of those he had so cruelly wronged.</p> + +<hr class='tb' /> + +<p>Sunset of that day found them all back at Plum Beach, where the Camp Fire +Girls, who had been almost frantic at their long absence, greeted them <span +class='pagenum pncolor'><a id='page_244'></a>244</span> with delight. The story +of Bessie’s restoration to her parents, and of the good fortune that was +soon to be Zara’s, seemed to delight the other girls as much as if they +themselves were the lucky ones, and Gladys Cooper, completely restored to +health, was the first to kiss Bessie and wish her joy.</p> + +<p>And after dinner Eleanor, blushing, rose to make a little speech.</p> + +<p>“You know, girls,” she said, “Margery Burton is to be a +Torch-Bearer as soon as we get back to the city. And you are going to need a new +Guardian soon. She will be chosen–and she will make a better one than I +have been, I think.”</p> + +<p>There was a chorus of astonished cries.</p> + +<p>“But why are you going to stop being Guardian, Miss Eleanor?” +asked Margery.</p> + +<p>“Because–because–”</p> + +<p>“I’ll tell you why,” said Billy Trenwith, leaping up and +standing beside her. “It’s because she’s going to be married +to me!”</p> + +<p>There was a moment of astonished silence. <span class='pagenum pncolor'><a +id='page_245'></a>245</span> And then, from every girl there burst out, without +signal, the words of the Camp Fire song:</p> + +<p>“Wo-he-lo–wo-he-lo–wo he-lo–Wo-he-lo for +Love!”</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's A Campfire Girl's Happiness, by Jane L. 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