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+Project Gutenberg's A Campfire Girl's Happiness, by Jane L. 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: ASCII
+
+*** 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
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE CAMPFIRE GIRLS SERIES
+
+  A CAMPFIRE GIRL'S FIRST COUNCIL FIRE
+  A CAMPFIRE GIRL'S CHUM
+  A CAMPFIRE GIRL IN SUMMER CAMP
+  A CAMPFIRE GIRL'S ADVENTURE
+  A CAMPFIRE GIRL'S TEST OF FRIENDSHIP
+  A CAMPFIRE GIRL'S HAPPINESS
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: They had hearty appetites for the camp breakfast.]
+
+
+
+
+A CAMPFIRE GIRL'S HAPPINESS
+
+By
+
+JANE L. STEWART
+
+[Illustration]
+
+CAMPFIRE GIRLS SERIES
+
+VOLUME VI
+
+THE SAALFIELD PUBLISHING COMPANY
+
+AKRON, OHIO--NEW YORK
+
+Made in U.S.A.
+
+
+
+
+COPYRIGHT, MCMXIV
+
+BY
+
+THE SAALFIELD PUBLISHING CO.
+
+
+
+
+THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS AT THE SEASHORE
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+FROM THE ASHES
+
+
+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.
+
+"Have you got everything sorted, Margery--the things that are completely
+ruined and those that are worth saving?" asked Eleanor Mercer, the
+Guardian of the Camp Fire.
+
+"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.
+
+"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 the
+damage done by the fire that had almost wiped out the camp during the
+night.
+
+"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."
+
+"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.
+
+"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."
+
+"I _am_ hungry, when I'm reminded of it," said Dolly, with, a
+comical gesture. "What ever are we going to do, Miss Eleanor?"
+
+"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
+_Sally S_."
+
+"Then we're really going to stay here?" said Bessie King.
+
+"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!"
+
+"Good!" cried half a dozen of the girls together.
+
+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 it, and danced around, singing the while the most popular of Camp
+Fire songs, Wo-he-lo.
+
+"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."
+
+"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?"
+
+"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."
+
+"We're going to do that, too," said Dolly, with spirit. "I felt terrible
+when I first saw the place in the light, after the fire was all out, but
+it looks different already."
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"I should think you would be, Dolly. I haven't had a chance to thank you
+yet for what you did for me."
+
+"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."
+
+"Zara's gone to pieces completely, Dolly. She was terribly
+frightened--more than I was, I think, and yet I don't see how that can
+be, because I was as frightened as I think anyone could have been."
+
+"I never saw them get hold of you at all, Bessie. How did it happen?"
+
+"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."
+
+"I think we had reason to be nervous, don't you?"
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"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 state, and he's got an order from the judge near
+Hedgeville putting us in his care until we are twenty-one."
+
+"But that order's no good in this state?"
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"I heard that big man, Jeff, talking to her when she went aboard the
+yacht."
+
+"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?"
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"It was mighty clever, and mighty plucky of you, too, Dolly."
+
+"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!"
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"It must have been exciting, Dolly."
+
+"I guess it was just as exciting for you, wasn't it? But it would have
+been dreadful if, after having held them so long, it hadn't been quite
+long enough."
+
+"Well, it _was_ long enough, Dolly, thanks to you! I hate to think
+of where I would be now if you hadn't managed it so cleverly."
+
+"What will they do to those men on the yacht, do you suppose?"
+
+"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."
+
+"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 that Mr.
+Jamieson will be able to find some way to stop them."
+
+"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."
+
+"I hope so, Bessie. But look here, there were two girls on guard last
+night, and what good did it do us?"
+
+"You don't think they were asleep, do you, Dolly?"
+
+"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."
+
+"That was a good idea, Dolly."
+
+"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."
+
+"It might have been an accident, Dolly, I suppose--"
+
+"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."
+
+"But how could they have done that, if there were none of them here on
+the beach, Dolly?"
+
+"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."
+
+"I don't suppose that can be proved, though, Dolly."
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"It does seem strange, doesn't it, Bessie? Oh, look, there's the
+_Sally S._ with our breakfast--and there's another boat coming in.
+I wonder if Mr. Jamieson can be here already?"
+
+In a moment his voice proved that it _was_ 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.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+A NEW ALLY
+
+
+"I guess you haven't met Billy Trenwith properly yet, Eleanor," said
+Charlie Jamieson, smiling.
+
+"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."
+
+"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 unless there was a good reason. So I didn't
+feel that I was taking many chances in doing what you wished."
+
+"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?"
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"That's just what I'm going to do, old man. 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.
+
+"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."
+
+"I know the place," nodded Trenwith. "Never been there, but I know where
+it is."
+
+"Well, one morning they discovered these two--Bessie and Zara. And
+they'd had a strange experience. They were running away!"
+
+"Bad business, as a rule," commented Trenwith. "But I suppose there was
+a good reason?"
+
+"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
+worthless young scamp named Jake, lazy and ready for any sort of
+mischief that turned up!"
+
+"Is she related to them in any way, Charlie?"
+
+"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."
+
+"But they kept her on, just the same?"
+
+"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?"
+
+"They'd been there about two years when we--we had to run away, Mr.
+Jamieson. They came from some foreign country, you know."
+
+"Yes. And the people around Hedgeville couldn't make much out about
+them, so they decided, of course, being unable to understand them, 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."
+
+Trenwith laughed.
+
+"I know," he said. "I see a lot of that sort of thing."
+
+"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."
+
+"Fine young pup, he must be!"
+
+"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 knowing he's
+innocent doesn't keep a man who is unjustly accused from being afraid."
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"But it's in another state!"
+
+"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 himself appointed Zara's guardian, and take her home with
+him."
+
+"Oh, that was his game, eh?"
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"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 line, and got dished for his trouble. So it looked
+as if they'd shaken him pretty well."
+
+"I should say so! Do you mean that he kept it up after that?"
+
+"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."
+
+"This is beginning to sound pretty exciting, Charlie."
+
+"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!"
+
+"That little shyster? Good Heavens!"
+
+"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."
+
+"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!"
+
+"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!"
+
+"Good Lord!" said Trenwith, blankly. "So Holmes had been in it from the
+start?"
+
+"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."
+
+"But why, Charlie--why?"
+
+"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!"
+
+"What? Do you mean they weren't content with that?"
+
+"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."
+
+"Was Holmes mixed up in that?"
+
+"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."
+
+"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?"
+
+"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."
+
+"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 Bessie
+did not fail to notice. Evidently her charms had already made an
+impression on him.
+
+"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."
+
+"Good for her!" exclaimed Trenwith.
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"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?"
+
+"It would be a good bargain, Billy."
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"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!"
+
+"Won't Jake Hoover help, Charlie?" suggested Eleanor. "He told Bessie he
+would go in to see you."
+
+"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."
+
+"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 been threatening to expose him
+if he doesn't obey them."
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"Good man!" said Charlie. "Then you're not afraid of Holmes? He's pretty
+powerful, you know."
+
+Trenwith looked at Eleanor. And when he saw the smile she gave him, and
+her look of liking and of confidence, he laughed.
+
+"I guess I can look after myself," he said. "No, I'm not afraid of him,
+old man! We'll fight this out together."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+AN UNEXPECTED REUNION
+
+
+"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.
+
+"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."
+
+"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?"
+
+"I guess they didn't, Dolly."
+
+"Then they simply didn't care, that's all. And isn't that dreadful,
+Bessie? The idea of doing such a thing!"
+
+"I wish we knew why they did it, or why Mr. Holmes wants them to do such
+things. It's easy enough to see why _they_ did it--they wanted the
+money he had promised to pay if they got Zara and me away from here."
+
+"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."
+
+Bessie sighed wearily.
+
+"I wish it was all over," she said. "Sometimes I'm sorry they haven't
+caught me and taken me back."
+
+"Why, Bessie, that's an awful thing for you to say! Don't you want to be
+with us?"
+
+"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 danger for the rest of you, as there was last
+night--"
+
+"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."
+
+"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?"
+
+"No. What?"
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"But it might be true!"
+
+"Oh, come on, Bessie, cheer up! You're going 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."
+
+Just then Eleanor's voice called the girls together.
+
+"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!"
+
+"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!"
+
+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 Dolly, catching the look, drew
+Bessie aside. Her observation in such matters was amazingly keen.
+
+"Did you see that?" she whispered, excitedly. "Why, Bessie, I do believe
+he's fallen in love with her already!"
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"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 of grown
+up together, and they know one another awfully well."
+
+"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."
+
+She stopped for a moment to look at Eleanor.
+
+"Better not let her catch us whispering about her," she went on. "She
+wouldn't like it a little bit."
+
+"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."
+
+"He certainly is a nice man, Bessie. But then so is Mr. Trenwith."
+
+"Look out, Dolly!" cautioned Bessie, with a low laugh. "You'll be
+getting jealous and losing your temper first thing you know."
+
+"Oh, I guess not. Talking about losing one's temper, I wonder if Gladys
+Cooper is still mad at us?"
+
+"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?"
+
+"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."
+
+"Well, the rest of them certainly changed their minds about us, didn't
+they?"
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"That's one reason I'm sorry she acted that way. Because she's as nice
+as any girl you ever 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."
+
+"You lose your temper pretty quickly, Dolly, but you get over being
+angry just as quickly as you get mad, don't you?"
+
+"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."
+
+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.
+
+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, but when it came to
+stretching the canvas over the framework, they were not in it with the
+girls.
+
+"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."
+
+"Oh, we manage somehow," boasted Charlie Jamieson.
+
+"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!"
+
+Charlie shook his head at Trenwith in mock alarm.
+
+"Getting pretty independent, aren't they?" he said to his friend. "You
+mark my words, Billy, the old-fashioned women don't exist any more!"
+
+"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?"
+
+"They do--more's the pity!" said Trenwith.
+
+Eleanor looked at him as if she understood just what he meant.
+
+"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 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."
+
+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.
+
+"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!"
+
+"You say that as if it was some sort of a motto," said Charlie,
+laughing, but impressed.
+
+"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."
+
+"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. Why, hullo--what's that?
+Looks as if you were going to have neighbors, Nell."
+
+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.
+
+"Looks like a camping party, all right," said Trenwith. "Wonder who they
+can be?"
+
+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.
+
+"They've got tents," she said, peering curiously at the wagons.
+"See--they're stopping there, and beginning to unload."
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"These people won't bother you, Nell," said Jamieson.
+
+"You don't suppose this could be another trick of Mr. Holmes's, do you,
+Charlie!"
+
+"Hardly--so soon," he said, frowning.
+
+"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!"
+
+"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."
+
+"All right," said Eleanor. "Want to come, Dolly and Bessie? I see you've
+finished your share of the work before the others."
+
+So the five of them walked over.
+
+"Who's going to camp here?" Trenwith asked one of the workmen.
+
+"I don't know, sir. We just got orders to set up the tents. That's all
+we know about it."
+
+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.
+
+"Dolly Ransom! Isn't this a surprise? And didn't we tell you we had a
+surprise for you?"
+
+"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."
+
+"Well, we did! And we're all here--Gladys Cooper, and all the Halsted
+Camp Girls!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+ONE FRIEND LESS
+
+
+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.
+
+"Why, Mary Turner!" she said. "Whatever are you doing here? I thought
+you were going to Europe!"
+
+"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!"
+
+"Well," gasped Eleanor, "of all things! Do you mean that you've
+organized a new Camp Fire?"
+
+"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?"
+
+"I should say we would!" said Eleanor. "Why, this is fine, Mary! Tell me
+how it happened, won't you?"
+
+"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!"
+
+"I know what you mean," said Eleanor. "It's a fine school, but--"
+
+"That's it exactly--that _but_. The school has got into bad ways,
+and these girls were in a fair way to be snobs. Well, Marcia and some of
+the 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."
+
+"They're perfectly right, Mary. Oh, I'm ever so glad!"
+
+"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--"
+
+"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?"
+
+Mary laughed a little ruefully.
+
+"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,
+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!"
+
+Suddenly Eleanor collapsed weakly against one of the empty packing boxes
+that littered the place, and began to laugh.
+
+"Oh, my dear," she exclaimed, "if you only knew the awful things we were
+thinking about you before we knew who you were!"
+
+"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?"
+
+"No, but we thought you might be kidnappers, or murderers, or fire-bugs,
+like our last neighbors!"
+
+"Eleanor! Are you crazy--and if you're not, what on earth are you
+talking about?"
+
+"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 pretty troubled spot while we're here. We seem
+to attract trouble just as a magnet attracts iron."
+
+"I think you _are_ crazy, Nell. If you're not, won't you explain
+what you mean?"
+
+"Look at our camp over there, Mary. It's pretty solid and complete,
+isn't it?"
+
+"I only hope ours looks half as well."
+
+"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!"
+
+Mary Turner appealed whimsically to Charlie Jamieson.
+
+"Does she mean it, Charlie?" she begged. "Or is she just trying to
+string me?"
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"Indeed you won't!" said Marcia. "We're going to do everything
+ourselves, just to show that we can."
+
+"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."
+
+"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 that I thought it was better to give them a
+chance to work off their excitement that way."
+
+"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."
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"Gladys?" Marcia said. "Oh, yes, she's coming. She's back in the wagon
+that's bringing our suit cases. We appointed her a sort of rear guard.
+It wouldn't do to lose those things, you know."
+
+"I was afraid--I sort of thought she might not want to come here if she
+knew we were here, Marcia. You know--"
+
+"Yes, I _do_ 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."
+
+Bessie King looked a little dubious.
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"We did," said Marcia. "I guess she's had a lesson that will teach her
+it doesn't pay to be a snob."
+
+"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."
+
+"She'll behave herself, anyhow, Bessie. And that's more than she did
+before."
+
+"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 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."
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"She really is a nice girl," said Marcia, "and 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."
+
+"Here she comes now," said Dolly. "I'm going to meet her."
+
+"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?"
+
+"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."
+
+"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?"
+
+"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, 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."
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"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 word for anyone--they'd just be trying to think
+about the mean things they could say!"
+
+"Why, Dolly! What do you mean?"
+
+"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."
+
+"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?"
+
+"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 Margery
+Burton, but I'm pretty sure I'm not. And I know you're not."
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"All right!" snapped Gladys. "I guess I can get along without your
+friendship if you can get along without mine!"
+
+"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!"
+
+"Oh, I guess there's nothing to worry about," 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."
+
+"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."
+
+"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!"
+
+"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."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE COUNCIL FIRE
+
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"You mean you think she likes me to get angry?"
+
+"Of course she does! There wouldn't be any fun in it for her if you
+didn't. Can't you see that?"
+
+Dolly looked very thoughtful.
+
+"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?"
+
+"I wondered how long it would take you to see that, Dolly."
+
+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.
+
+"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."
+
+"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 nice girls who _do_ want to be friendly.
+Why, what are you laughing at?"
+
+"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."
+
+                   *       *       *       *       *
+
+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.
+
+"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."
+
+"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.
+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."
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"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, trying to call me off. And I guess he'll
+find that he's up against the law for once."
+
+"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."
+
+Eleanor pointed to a row of poles, on which a wire was strung, leading
+into the main living tent.
+
+"There it is," she said, gaily. "I don't see how you got them to do it
+so fast, though."
+
+"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."
+
+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 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.
+
+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.
+
+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
+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.
+
+"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."
+
+"Who's going to take them in, and give them their rings, Miss Eleanor?"
+asked Dolly. "You, or Miss Turner?"
+
+"Why, Miss Turner wants me to do it, Dolly, because I'm older in the
+Camp Fire than she is. She's given me the rings. I think it's quite
+exciting, really, taking so many new girls in all at once."
+
+"Come on," cried Margery Burton, then. "They're all ready and they want
+us to form the procession now, and go over there."
+
+"You are to light the fire, Margery. Are you all ready?"
+
+"Yes, indeed, Miss Eleanor. Shall I go ahead, and start the flame?"
+
+"Yes, do!"
+
+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.
+
+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 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:
+
+    Wo-he-lo means love.
+    Wo-he-lo, wo-he-lo, wo-he-lo.
+    We love love, for love is the heart of life.
+    It is light and joy and sweetness,
+    Comradeship and all dear kinship.
+    Love is the joy of service so deep
+    That self is forgotten.
+    Wo-he-lo means love.
+
+Outside the circle now other and unseen voices joined them in the
+chorus:
+
+    Wo-he-lo for aye,
+    Wo-he-lo for aye,
+    Wo-he-lo, wo-he-lo, wo-he-lo for aye!
+
+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:
+
+    Wo-he-lo for work!
+
+And the others, their voices rising gradually, answered with:
+
+    Wo-he-lo for health!
+
+And without a break in the rhythm, all the girls joined in the final
+
+    Wo-he-lo, wo-he-lo, wo-he-lo for love!
+
+Then Margery, her torch still raised above her head, while she swung it
+slowly in time to the music of her song, sang alone:
+
+    O Fire!
+    Long years ago when our fathers fought with great animals you
+      were their great protection.
+    When they fought the cold of the cruel winter you saved them.
+    When they needed food you changed the flesh of beasts into savory
+      meat for them.
+    During all the ages your mysterious flame has been a symbol to
+      them for Spirit,
+    So, to-night, we light our fire in grateful remembrance of the
+      Great Spirit who gave you to us.
+
+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.
+
+Then Mary Turner, in her new ceremonial robe, fringed with beads,
+slipped into the circle of the firelight, bright and vivid now.
+
+"Oh, Wanaka," she said, calling Eleanor by her ceremonial name, "I bring
+to-night these newcomers to the Camp Fire, to tell you their Desire, and
+to receive from you their rings."
+
+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:
+
+    Firmly held by the sinews which bind them,
+    As fagots are brought from the forest
+    So cleave to these others, your sisters,
+    Whenever, wherever you find them.
+
+    Be strong as the fagots are sturdy;
+    Be pure in your deepest desire;
+    Be true to the truth that is in you;
+    And--follow the law of the Fire!
+
+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.
+
+"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."
+
+"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!"
+
+"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."
+
+"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 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."
+
+"I think it was splendid. I never had any idea she could sing so well."
+
+"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."
+
+"Aren't they all in now?" asked Bessie.
+
+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.
+
+"No. There's Gladys Cooper," said Marcia, with a little start.
+
+"I wonder if she sees what there is to the Camp Fire now," said Dolly,
+speculatively.
+
+"What is your desire?" asked Eleanor.
+
+"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.
+
+"She's laughing to herself," said Marcia, indignantly. "Just listen!
+She's repeating the Desire as if it were a bit of doggerel."
+
+They heard her saying:
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"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 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?"
+
+Startled, Eleanor was silent for a moment. Mary Turner looked at Gladys
+indignantly.
+
+"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."
+
+"Oh, that's nonsense!" said Gladys. "I couldn't do that."
+
+"Then you are not fit to receive your ring," said Eleanor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+AN UNHAPPY ENDING
+
+
+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.
+
+"Why, what do you mean, Miss Mercer?" Gladys gasped.
+
+"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."
+
+Slowly the meaning of her rejection seemed to sink into the mind of
+Gladys.
+
+"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.
+
+"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."
+
+"Oh, I hate you! I hate the Camp Fire! I wouldn't join for anything in
+the world, after this!"
+
+"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
+Fire. The Camp Fire, as a whole, is a much greater, finer thing than any
+single member."
+
+Sobs of anger were choking Gladys when she tried to answer. She could
+not form intelligible words.
+
+Eleanor glanced at Mary Turner, and the Guardian of the new Camp Fire,
+on the hint, put her arm about Gladys.
+
+"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."
+
+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.
+
+"We have had a hard thing to do to-night," 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."
+
+She paused for a moment.
+
+"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."
+
+And the soft voices rose like a benediction, mingling in the lovely
+strains of that most beautiful of all the Camp Fire songs.
+
+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.
+
+"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!"
+
+"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!"
+
+"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!"
+
+"But she had no right to insult all you girls, Bessie."
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"But just think of how splendid it will be when 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."
+
+"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."
+
+They never heard Marcia's answer to that question, for in the darkness,
+Gladys herself, shaking with anger, rose and confronted them.
+
+"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!"
+
+"No one is set against you, Gladys," said Marcia, gently.
+
+"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!"
+
+"Why, Gladys, I haven't done a thing--"
+
+"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!"
+
+"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."
+
+"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 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!"
+
+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.
+
+"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."
+
+"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 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."
+
+And then she turned on her heel and left them.
+
+"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?"
+
+"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."
+
+"Yes," said Bessie, rather bitterly. "And it's all my fault--mine and
+Zara's, that is."
+
+"I don't see what you can mean," said Marcia, mystified.
+
+"Well, it's quite a long story, but I really think you'd better know all
+about it, Marcia," said Dolly.
+
+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.
+
+"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?"
+
+"We're quite sure it wasn't, Marcia. And don't you think it looks as if
+we were right?"
+
+"It certainly does, and I think it's dreadful, Dolly--just dreadful. Oh,
+Bessie, I am so sorry for you!"
+
+She threw her arms about Bessie impulsively and kissed her, while Dolly,
+delighted, looked on.
+
+"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 she hasn't had a home and
+parents like the rest of us--or like most of us."
+
+"That _is_ 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."
+
+"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?"
+
+"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?"
+
+"Yes. You know he's the owner of a great big department store at home.
+And Bessie says 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."
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"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--"
+
+Bessie finished unhappily.
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+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 poverty was always felt, had a much truer appreciation of the
+value of money.
+
+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.
+
+"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."
+
+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.
+
+"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."
+
+"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!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE CHALLENGE
+
+
+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.
+
+"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."
+
+"Why, we would have told you all about it, anyhow, Miss Eleanor," said
+Dolly, surprised.
+
+"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, provided that you are following your own ideas, than by
+doing it right when you are simply doing what someone else tells you."
+
+"I see what you mean, Miss Eleanor," said Bessie. "But this time we
+really haven't done anything, We saw Gladys, too, and--"
+
+She went on to tell of their talk with Marcia and of the unpleasant
+episode created by Gladys when she had overheard them talking.
+
+"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!"
+
+"Yes," said Dolly. "But Marcia seemed to think Miss Turner might make
+her go home."
+
+"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 Gladys any good, and,
+after all, she's the one we've got to consider."
+
+Dolly didn't say anything, but it was plain from her look that she did
+not understand.
+
+"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."
+
+"That's what I've thought from the first, Miss Eleanor," said Bessie.
+"And I'm sure she will like us better presently."
+
+"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, 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."
+
+"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."
+
+"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--"
+
+"Oh, I don't care what she says or does now," said Dolly. "If I could
+talk to her to-night without 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."
+
+"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."
+
+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.
+
+"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."
+
+"I'm tired, too. We've really had enough to make us pretty tired,
+haven't we?"
+
+And this time they were able to sleep through the whole night without
+interruption. The peace and calm of Plum Beach were disturbed by nothing
+more noisy than gentle waves, and the whole camp awoke in the morning
+vastly refreshed.
+
+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.
+
+"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."
+
+"Aren't there any boats here beside that old flat bottom skiff?" asked
+Bessie.
+
+"Aren't there? Just wait till you see! If we hadn't had all that
+excitement yesterday Captain Salters would have brought the
+_Eleanor_ over. He will to-day, too, and then you'll see."
+
+"What will I see, Dolly? Remember I haven't been here before, like you."
+
+"Oh, she's the dandiest little boat, Bessie--a little sloop, and as fast
+as a steamboat, if she's handled right."
+
+"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 _Eleanor_, and how fast she
+is, until someone sits on her!"
+
+"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!"
+
+"Here's Captain Salters now--and he's towing the _Eleanor_, all
+right, Dolly," cried one of the other girls.
+
+"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 then
+well have some bully fine times together. You'll love it, I know."
+
+"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!"
+
+"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."
+
+"You could get all the racing you want over at Bay City, Dolly. The
+yacht club there has races every week, I think."
+
+"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 afraid I wouldn't have a chance with those men."
+
+Margery pretended to faint.
+
+"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!"
+
+"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!"
+
+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 suits. But no one took any great length
+of time to dress, since here the utmost simplicity ruled in clothes.
+
+"Well, what's the programme for to-day, girls?" asked Eleanor, after the
+meal was over.
+
+"Each for herself!" cried half a dozen voices. And a broken chorus rose
+in agreement.
+
+"I want to fish!" cried one.
+
+"A long walk for me!" cried another.
+
+"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.
+
+"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."
+
+"Yes, that's a fine arrangement," said Dolly. "It's a little harder for
+the four who work than it would be if we all pitched in, but no one
+really has to work any harder, for all that."
+
+"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?"
+
+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.
+
+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
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"I'm here as an ambassador or something like that," she announced. "That
+little sloop out there is yours, isn't she?"
+
+"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."
+
+"I think that would be fine sport," said Eleanor. "Dolly Ransom is
+skipper of our sloop. Suppose you talk it over with her."
+
+"I think it would be fine, Marcia!" said Dolly, with shining eyes. "I
+was just wishing for a race this morning. When shall we have it?"
+
+"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."
+
+"Splendid!" said Dolly. "What sort of a boat is yours?"
+
+"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."
+
+"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?"
+
+"Gladys Cooper," answered Marcia, after a slight pause.
+
+"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."
+
+Marcia laughed.
+
+"All right," she said. "I'll let you know when we're ready."
+
+"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."
+
+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.
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"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?"
+
+"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."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE RACE
+
+
+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.
+
+"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."
+
+"I'm glad of that, Miss Eleanor," said Dolly. "It seems much nicer when
+you're exactly even at the start."
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"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 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."
+
+"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."
+
+"Why not? I thought it would be good sport."
+
+"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--!"
+
+"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 keep her from having anything to say if she does lose, you see."
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+The flat-bottomed skiff that Bessie had despised proved handy for
+carrying the _Eleanor's_ 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
+_Eleanor's_ snowy sails rose, flapping idly in the faint breeze.
+
+"Get up that anchor!" directed Dolly. "Bessie, you help Margery. She'll
+show you what to do."
+
+Then a shiver shook the little craft, the wind filled the sails, and in
+a few moments they were 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.
+
+"What do they call their boat?" she asked.
+
+"The _Defiance_," said Eleanor.
+
+Dolly laughed at the answer.
+
+"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 _Eleanor_. But--well, I guess I would like
+to beat Gladys. I bet she's awfully sure of winning!"
+
+"She's had more experience in sailing boats like these than you have,
+Dolly," said Eleanor.
+
+"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."
+
+The two boats converged together upon the opening in the bar, and soon
+those on one could see everything aboard the other. Gladys Cooper, like
+Dolly, sat at the helm, steering her boat, and a look of grim
+determination was in her eyes and on her unsmiling face.
+
+"She certainly does want to win," said Margery. "She's taking this too
+seriously--score one for Dolly."
+
+"You think she'd do better if she weren't so worked up, Margery?"
+
+"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."
+
+"We seem to be on even terms now," said Eleanor, and, cupping her hands,
+she hailed Mary Turner. "All right? We might as well call this a start."
+
+"All right," said Mary. "Shall I give the word!"
+
+"Go ahead!" said Eleanor.
+
+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.
+
+"One--two--three--go!" called Miss Turner, clapping her hands at the
+word "go."
+
+And instantly Dolly shifted her helm once more, so that the wind filled
+the sails, and the _Eleanor_ shot for the opening in the bar. Quick
+as she had been, however, she was no quicker than Gladys, and the
+_Defiance_ and the _Eleanor_ 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.
+
+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.
+
+"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?"
+
+"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."
+
+Half way to the lighthouse there was less than a hundred feet between
+the boats. The _Defiance_ 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.
+
+"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."
+
+But soon it seemed that Dolly had made a rash prediction, for when she
+came about and started to beat up to port, the _Defiance_ held to
+her course.
+
+"Well, she can do that if she wants to," said Dolly. "Just the same, I
+think she's going too far."
+
+"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?"
+
+"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."
+
+"Don't talk to the 'man' at the wheel," advised Eleanor, with a laugh.
+"She's irritable."
+
+A good many of the nautical terms used so freely 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.
+
+She kept her eyes fixed on the other boat, and at last she gave a cry.
+
+"Look! They're going to turn now."
+
+"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."
+
+"Never mind, Dolly," said Margery. "You've still got a chance to catch
+her going home before the wind. I know how fast the _Eleanor_ is at
+that sort of work. If the _Defiance_ is any better, she ought to be
+racing for some real cups."
+
+"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
+the lead she's got. It isn't a question of the boats, at all. The
+_Defiance_ is being sailed better than the _Eleanor_."
+
+"Margery's right, though, Dolly," said Eleanor. "The race isn't over
+yet. You haven't given up hope, have you?"
+
+"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."
+
+"That's more like her," Margery whispered to Bessie.
+
+And now even Bessie could see that the _Defiance_ 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
+_Defiance_ was holding on for the lighthouse, on a straight course,
+the _Eleanor_ had to come about and start beating up toward it, and
+the _Defiance_ made the turn, and, with spinnaker set, was skimming
+gaily for home a full five minutes before the _Eleanor_ circled
+lighthouse.
+
+In fact, the _Defiance_, homeward bound, passed them, and Mary
+Turner laughed gaily as she hailed Eleanor.
+
+"This is pretty bad," she called. "Better luck next time, Nell!"
+
+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.
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+The _Defiance_ was far ahead when, at last, after a wait that
+seemed to those on board interminable, the _Eleanor_ rounded the
+lighthouse in her turn.
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+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
+_Eleanor_ stood off to port, heading, as it seemed, far from the
+opening in the bar that was the finishing, line.
+
+"Dolly, are you crazy?" exclaimed Margery. "This is a straight run
+before the wind!"
+
+"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!"
+
+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.
+
+"Oh, fine, Dolly!" she exclaimed. "I see what you're up to--and I bet
+Gladys thinks you're perfectly insane, too!"
+
+"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."
+
+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 same instant Dolly
+brought the _Eleanor_ up before the wind again, and for the first
+time Bessie understood what the little sloop's real speed was.
+
+"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."
+
+"Oh, so we came over here to find this breeze!" said Bessie.
+
+"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 _Defiance_ that way."
+
+"We haven't caught them yet, you know," said Dolly.
+
+"But we're catching them," said Bessie, exultingly. "Even I can see
+that. Look! They're just crawling along."
+
+"Still, even at the rate they're going, ten minutes more will bring them
+to the finish," said Margery, anxiously. "Do you think she can make it,
+Dolly?"
+
+"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."
+
+Now the _Eleanor_ was catching the _Defiance_ 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
+_Defiance_ was barely moving; she seemed as far from the finish now as
+she had been when Margery spoke.
+
+"They're stuck--they're becalmed," said Margery, finally, when five
+minutes of steady gazing hadn't shown the slightest apparent advance by
+the _Defiance_. "Oh, Dolly, we're going to beat them!"
+
+"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."
+
+And now every minute seemed to make the issue more and more certain.
+Sometimes a little puff of wind would strike the _Defiance_, 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 _Defiance_ really got moving again.
+
+And at last, passing within a hundred yards, so that they could see poor
+Gladys, her eyes filled with tears, the _Eleanor_ slipped by the
+_Defiance_ and took the lead. And then, by some strange irony of
+fate, the wind came to the _Defiance_--but it came too late. For
+the _Eleanor_, 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.
+
+"That certainly was your victory, Dolly," said Eleanor. "If you hadn't
+found that wind, we'd still be floundering around somewhere near the
+lighthouse."
+
+"I do feel sorry for Gladys, though," said Dolly. "It must have been
+hard--when she was so sure that she had won."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE SPY
+
+
+"That was bad luck. You really deserved to win that race, Gladys," Dolly
+called out, as the _Defiance_ came within hailing distance of the
+_Eleanor_ again.
+
+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.
+
+"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!"
+
+"Oh, what's the use of talking like that?" cried Gladys, furiously. "It
+was a trick--that was all it was! If we had had a real wind all the way,
+we'd have beaten you by half a mile!"
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"Gladys is quite right," said Dolly, soberly. "It's very easy to be nice
+and generous when you've won; it's much harder to be fair when you've
+lost. And it was a trick, after all."
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"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!"
+
+"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."
+
+"Oh, that's all right," said Margery, "but I'm glad we won."
+
+"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."
+
+While they talked they were furling the _Eleanor's_ 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 them with the Wo-he-lo song. Zara, especially, seemed delighted.
+
+"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."
+
+Bessie laughed.
+
+"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."
+
+"I'm awfully glad you're back, Bessie. I've had the strangest feeling
+this afternoon--as if someone were watching me."
+
+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.
+
+"What do you mean, dear!" she asked. "I don't see how anyone could be
+around without being seen. It's very open."
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+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.
+
+"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 of mysterious. Perhaps
+it's just because she's a foreigner--I don't know."
+
+"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."
+
+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.
+
+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 be told by those who had missed it and gone into Bay City to shop.
+
+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.
+
+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!
+
+"Jake!" said Bessie, sternly. "You miserable sneak! What are you doing
+here!"
+
+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.
+
+"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.
+
+"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!"
+
+"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
+right out and ask for us? You didn't think we were going to eat you, did
+you?"
+
+"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."
+
+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.
+
+"And to think I was ever afraid of you!" she said, aloud.
+
+"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?"
+
+"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.
+
+"Hello! Did you call me, Bessie?" said Dolly, coming out of the tent.
+"Oh!"
+
+The exclamation was wrung out of her as she saw and recognized Jake.
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+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.
+
+"Good evening, Jake," she said, as she saw 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."
+
+"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."
+
+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.
+
+"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."
+
+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.
+
+"Just forget your troubles and pitch into that food, Jake," said
+Eleanor, kindly. "You'll be able to talk much better on a full stomach,
+you know."
+
+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.
+
+"I've got to be going now," he said. "Honest, I'm afraid to stay here
+any longer--"
+
+"Oh, but you came here to tell us something, you know," said Eleanor.
+"Surely you're not going away without doing that, are you?"
+
+"I did think you'd keep your word, Jake," said Bessie, reproachfully.
+
+"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--"
+
+"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 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."
+
+Jake gave a shriek of terror and fell to the ground, grovelling at the
+lawyer's feet.
+
+"Oh, don't arrest me!" he begged. "I'll tell you everything I know.
+Don't arrest me!"
+
+"It's the only way to hold you," said Trenwith. "You've got to learn to
+be more afraid of us than of Holmes."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+JAKE HOOVER'S CAPTURE
+
+
+"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!"
+
+"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."
+
+Jake looked at Eleanor balefully.
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"Yes, you did--not!" said Jake. "Why shouldn't you let me go now, then,
+if that is so?"
+
+"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?"
+
+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.
+
+"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
+they've kept on telling you that if you didn't behave yourself they'd
+give you away."
+
+Jake's hangdog look showed that to be true, although he still maintained
+his obstinate silence.
+
+"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.
+
+"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."
+
+"You'd better listen to what Mr. Trenwith says, Jake," said Eleanor.
+"You think I've led you 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."
+
+"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--"
+
+"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."
+
+And so Jake, whining and protesting, was taken away. As soon as he was
+out of sight and hearing Trenwith's manner changed.
+
+"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 long talk on the
+telephone with Charlie just before you called me, Eleanor, and there are
+going to be ructions!"
+
+"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!"
+
+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.
+
+"Then you really think we're going to find something out from Jake, Mr.
+Trenwith?" asked Dolly.
+
+"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 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."
+
+"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?"
+
+"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?"
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"Well, after all you know, that's one of the most hopeful things about
+the whole business. 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.
+
+"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!"
+
+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.
+
+"I don't see what they can do, after all," said 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."
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"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?"
+
+"Oh, I knew it would fascinate you, just as it does me. So you've given
+up your love for the mountains?"
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+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.
+
+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, bathing suits had always to be worn when in a boat.
+
+"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."
+
+"We'll love to have you along," said Dolly. "How soon may we start?"
+
+"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."
+
+When they were aboard the _Eleanor_ and scooting through the
+opening in the bar, Bessie found that the conditions were indeed very
+different from those of the previous afternoon. The wind had changed and
+become much heavier, and as the _Eleanor_ 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.
+
+"Here's the _Defiance_ coming out," said Eleanor, after they had
+been enjoying the sport for half an hour. "Gladys must like this sort of
+a breeze, too."
+
+"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."
+
+"She seems to be getting along all right, though," said Eleanor, after
+watching the _Defiance_ for a few minutes. "Why, Dolly, I wonder
+what she's doing now."
+
+The maneuvres of the _Defiance_ seemed strange enough to prompt
+Eleanor's question, for, no matter how Dolly tacked, the _Defiance_
+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.
+
+"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?"
+
+"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."
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"You'd better turn for home now, Dolly," she said. "Suppose I give
+Gladys a hail and suggest a race to the bar?"
+
+"All right," agreed Dolly.
+
+"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.
+
+"We're going in now. Want to race to the bar?"
+
+"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.
+
+But Dolly and the _Eleanor_ had one advantage that Gladys was not
+slow to recognize. The _Eleanor_ 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 _Eleanor's_ 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 _Defiance_ to be just a trifle swifter before the
+wind, that advantage seemed to be one that Gladys could easily overcome.
+
+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 _Eleanor_ actually carried more canvas than Gladys
+dared to keep on the _Defiance_, 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.
+
+And so the advantage that Gladys had to gain to be able to cross the
+_Eleanor's_ bows seemed to be impossible for her to attain. The
+_Eleanor_ did not go ahead, but she held her own, and she had the
+right of way.
+
+"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!"
+
+"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!"
+
+But Gladys kept on with a mocking laugh. Furious at the trick, Dolly put
+her helm hard over, and the _Eleanor_ came up in the wind.
+
+"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!"
+
+The check to the _Eleanor_ was only for a moment, but it was enough
+to throw her off her course and make it certain that the _Defiance_
+would reach the bar first.
+
+"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!"
+
+Bessie was up in the bow, looking intently at the _Defiance_. 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
+_Defiance_ gybed helplessly, while Gladys was swept overboard.
+
+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 _Defiance_, and with powerful strokes made for the
+place where Gladys had gone 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
+_Eleanor_. 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.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE RESCUE
+
+
+In a moment, however, she realized that she could not be left alone for
+long. Her absence from the _Eleanor_ would be noticed, even if no
+one had seen her leap overboard; and, moreover, the strange behavior of
+the _Defiance_ was sure to attract Dolly's attention, for, without
+Gladys to direct her, the _Defiance_ 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.
+
+Although she was quite near the _Defiance_, 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 their hands in trying to
+get her headed for the opening in the bar.
+
+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.
+
+"Keep still! Don't move, Gladys!" warned Bessie, as she saw the other
+girl's eyes open.
+
+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.
+
+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 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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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 _Eleanor_. And now she gave
+a wild cry as she saw the sloop 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.
+
+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
+_Eleanor_ alongside of Bessie as she lay floating in the water, and
+a moment later she was being helped aboard.
+
+"Lie down and rest," commanded Eleanor. "Don't try to talk yet."
+
+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.
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"Oh, I knew you'd come back, Dolly. I just wondered, when Gladys was
+struggling so, if you'd be in time."
+
+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 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.
+
+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.
+
+"Oh, thank Heaven!" cried Eleanor. "She's come to her senses, I do
+believe! Gladys, do you feel all right?"
+
+"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--"
+
+"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 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."
+
+"But--how did I get here?"
+
+"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."
+
+Gladys closed her eyes for a moment.
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+But Gladys was asleep before Eleanor had finished speaking. Nature was
+taking charge of the case and prescribing the greatest of all her
+remedies, sleep.
+
+Eleanor turned away, with relief showing plainly in her eyes.
+
+"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."
+
+"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?"
+
+"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."
+
+"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 into the sea to fill her
+day, was coming toward them from her own tent.
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"They had a tough time, but they managed it," said Margery Burton.
+"Here's Miss Turner now. I suppose she's worried about Gladys."
+
+Worried she certainly was, but Eleanor was able to reassure her, and
+soon the doctor, arriving from Green Cove, pronounced Gladys to be in no
+danger.
+
+"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."
+
+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.
+
+At the sight of Eleanor he paused, looking a little sheepish.
+
+"I heard that Doctor Black was coming here--I was afraid something might
+have happened to you," he stammered.
+
+"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.
+
+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.
+
+"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!"
+
+"Oh, don't apologize to me, Mr. Trenwith!" said Dolly, mischievously.
+"And--can you keep a secret?"
+
+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.
+
+"She isn't half as angry as she pretends," she said.
+
+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.
+
+"I had to come out here, anyhow," said Trenwith, to Eleanor. "Look here.
+I got this message from Charlie Jamieson."
+
+Eleanor took it.
+
+"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."
+
+"Oh, it isn't wasted," he said, indignantly. "We're supposed to help our
+friends--and we're friends, aren't we?"
+
+"Of course we are," said Eleanor, relenting.
+
+He brightened at once.
+
+"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."
+
+Eleanor looked doubtful.
+
+"I don't know about leaving the camp," she said. "I ought to be here to
+keep an eye on things."
+
+"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?"
+
+"If she will come. Why, yes, that would make 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."
+
+"Splendid!" said Trenwith. "We'll have a perfectly bully time, I know.
+You keep at it too hard, Miss Mercer--really you do!"
+
+"We won't go very far, will we?" said Eleanor, yielding to the lure of a
+sail at sunset.
+
+"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."
+
+Margery soon returned with word that the Halsted girls would accept the
+supper invitation, and that Mary Turner would be delighted to come.
+
+Margery's eyes were twinkling, and it was plain that Mary Turner had
+said something else that was not to be repeated.
+
+"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."
+
+Indeed, in half an hour he was back, and Eleanor with Zara, Bessie and
+Dolly, were taken out to the _Columbia_ in two trips of the little
+dinghy which served as her tender. The _Columbia_ 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.
+
+"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."
+
+"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 when I've been all tired out.
+Charlie Jamieson has been with me several times."
+
+"I've heard him talk about the good times he's had on her. It was stupid
+of me to have forgotten."
+
+"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."
+
+"All ready to start, sir, Mr. Trenwith," said Bates, his 'crew,' then,
+and Trenwith took the wheel.
+
+"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."
+
+"Right, sir!" said Bates. "I've got a good supper for to-night, too."
+
+"Being right out on the water this way makes me hungry," said Eleanor.
+"That's good news, Bates."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE TRAITOR
+
+
+The _Columbia_ 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.
+
+As they went along, Trenwith pointed out the various places of interest
+along the shore.
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+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.
+
+"What's the nearest town in this direction?" asked Eleanor.
+
+"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."
+
+"If it's so dull, I shouldn't think you'd stay there."
+
+"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."
+
+"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?"
+
+"Perhaps--I'd like--do you want me to come?"
+
+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.
+
+"I think it would be better for you to be in the city," she said, with
+dignity.
+
+"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."
+
+"I think that would be splendid."
+
+"Well, I'm glad to hear you say so, because it really depends on you
+whether I shall come or not."
+
+"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."
+
+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.
+
+"I'll attend to getting supper ready now, sir, Mr. Trenwith, if you'll
+take the wheel," said Bates, just then.
+
+"All right," said Trenwith, nodding. "Now make a good job of it, Bates.
+I've been praising you up to the skies."
+
+Bates grinned widely, and disappeared.
+
+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
+_Columbia's_ engine was 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.
+
+"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."
+
+"I believe there are people there," said Trenwith. "But they are on the
+other side."
+
+"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."
+
+"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
+all points of view. Scenically, it's our show place for this whole
+stretch of coast."
+
+And so as soon as Bates had finished clearing off the table he went back
+to his engine, and the _Columbia_ 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.
+
+"Why, what's the matter!" asked Eleanor, surprised.
+
+"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."
+
+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 engine was the tapping of the tools Bates was using. Trenwith
+frowned.
+
+"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."
+
+He returned in a few moments, his face grave.
+
+"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."
+
+Eleanor looked rather dismayed.
+
+"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."
+
+"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 will be able to help him
+out--and they certainly couldn't live here without one."
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+They soon saw the _Columbia_ 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.
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+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.
+
+"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!"
+
+"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."
+
+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.
+
+"Why, there are two men rowing!" said Dolly, curiously. "And that dinghy
+only has room for one man with oars."
+
+"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 partly because they never know when
+they're going to have one themselves."
+
+"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."
+
+"Good evening, Miss Mercer," said a mocking voice behind her, and she
+turned with a start to see Holmes!
+
+"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!"
+
+He spoke then to Bessie and Zara, who, terrified by his sodden
+appearance, were staring at him.
+
+"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?"
+
+"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?"
+
+"Shut up!" growled Trenwith. "What does all this nonsense mean? Get off
+my boat!"
+
+"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."
+
+Eleanor was dazed by the suddenness of the blow. To her it seemed an
+accident; she could not believe that Trenwith could be guilty of such
+treachery as Holmes was charging. But in a moment her faith in him was
+shattered.
+
+"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."
+
+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.
+
+And in a moment the lingering remnants of her faith were shattered. For
+Holmes called out, in a loud tone, at Bates:
+
+"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."
+
+"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 _Columbia_
+began her brief voyage to the pier.
+
+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.
+
+"Oh, how I despise you!" said Eleanor to Trenwith. "Go away, please, so
+that I won't have to look at you!"
+
+"Eleanor, listen!" he said, in a low whisper, pleadingly. "I can
+explain--"
+
+"If you think I'm such a fool as to believe anything you tell me now,"
+she said, furiously, "you are very much mistaken!"
+
+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.
+
+"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."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+A LUCKY MEETING
+
+
+Half a dozen men had come out to the _Columbia_ 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.
+
+"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?"
+
+"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."
+
+"I suppose that's so," said Dolly, her face falling. "Oh, what a horrid
+shame! Just when everything seemed so nice and peaceful!"
+
+"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!"
+
+"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.
+
+"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."
+
+"Well, I _am_ 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 of him as
+possible, so that, if he should try to help us, we wouldn't trust him."
+
+"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."
+
+With Mr. Holmes, as he came toward them, was a woman in servant's garb,
+middle aged, and sour in her appearance.
+
+"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."
+
+"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 don't think you will find yourself welcome in the
+homes of any decent people after I tell what I know."
+
+"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."
+
+"Perhaps you're right, but I intend to find out. May I ask how long you
+intend to keep me here as a prisoner?"
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+Holmes laughed.
+
+"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."
+
+"I suppose you think you have some excuse for acting in this fashion?"
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+Zara gave a little cry of joy.
+
+"Will I see my father? Is he well?" she cried.
+
+"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."
+
+"You brute!" said Eleanor, hotly. "What are your terms?"
+
+"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."
+
+"Slavin!" said Eleanor, in an amazed tone. "Is that your father's name,
+Zara? Why didn't you tell us?"
+
+"He told me not to," said Zara, nervously.
+
+"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."
+
+He looked at his watch, then turned to the servant.
+
+"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 _Columbia_. "It's all right, boys," he said. "You
+needn't wait."
+
+"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."
+
+He looked at Bessie malevolently.
+
+"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."
+
+Bessie seemed to be nervous as he looked at her, and edged away from
+him.
+
+"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 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."
+
+"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?"
+
+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.
+
+"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 think you could
+keep her from doing it this time, too, did you?"
+
+"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.
+
+"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."
+
+"Oh, I'm not going to hit her," yelled Holmes. "What good would that
+do?"
+
+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.
+
+"Find her, and you'll be rewarded," he shouted. "But if you don't, I'll
+make you pay for it!"
+
+Eleanor had never seen a man in such a furious 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.
+
+"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."
+
+Then he followed the men he had sent out in search of Bessie.
+
+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 to slip over to
+a heavily curtained window, which, she guessed, must open right on the
+ground.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+"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."
+
+Bessie thrilled at the information those few words gave her. She
+remembered now that there was a fort, manned by United States soldiers,
+on 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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+Soon the woods began to thin; then they grew 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.
+
+"Who goes there?" called the sentry.
+
+"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."
+
+"Wait there! I'll pass the word," said the sentry.
+
+And in a few minutes a young lieutenant came toward her.
+
+"Bless my soul!" he said, "What are you doing here, young lady! Come
+with me--you can explain inside."
+
+And, once inside the fort, the first person she saw was Charlie
+Jamieson!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+AT THE FORT
+
+
+"Bessie King!" he exclaimed amazed. "What on earth, are you doing here?
+And where is Trenwith?"
+
+"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 _Columbia_, with the treachery of
+Billy Trenwith and the subsequent appearance of Holmes and his men.
+
+"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 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?"
+
+"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."
+
+"I'm bothered about Trenwith, though," said Charlie. "Something has gone
+wrong."
+
+"Miss Mercer is perfectly sure that he is in league with Mr. Holmes,"
+said Bessie. "Do you think that's so, Mr. Jamieson?"
+
+"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."
+
+"Did you know we were here--how did you fold out?"
+
+"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!"
+
+"Yes, I think I can find my way back through the woods."
+
+"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."
+
+"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!"
+
+"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?"
+
+"A great deal, if you will, Colonel," said Charlie. "I'd like to speak
+to you privately for a minute, if I may--"
+
+"Shabby business--that's what I call it," said one of the young
+officers. "He knows we're wild 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."
+
+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.
+
+"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!"
+
+"Yes," said Jamieson. "Come along, Bessie. We're going back to the
+house."
+
+"I'm ready," said Bessie, simply.
+
+"You're not afraid?"
+
+"Not as long as you're there. I don't believe Mr. Holmes can do anything
+while you're around."
+
+"Well, I hope he can't, Bessie. But when they 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."
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+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.
+
+And at last a light showed through the trees to one side of the road,
+and Bessie stopped.
+
+"That's the place, I'm pretty sure," she said. "I can tell for certain,
+if we turn in, but I'm sure I didn't pass another house."
+
+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.
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+"What are you going to do now?" asked Bessie.
+
+"I'm not certain. I'd like very much to know where the other girls are.
+We ought to be all together."
+
+"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."
+
+"All right. But if you see anyone else, or if anyone interferes with
+you, call me right away."
+
+Bessie promised that she would, and then she slipped away, and a moment
+later found herself in front of the house.
+
+"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."
+
+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.
+
+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 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.
+
+"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."
+
+She marked the location of the window carefully, and then, sure that she
+would remember it when she returned, went back to Jamieson.
+
+"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 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."
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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 the sill of the window and into the room, breathless, but
+smiling and triumphant.
+
+"Oh, I'm so glad you're here, Charlie!" said Eleanor. "There is someone
+we can trust, after all, isn't there?"
+
+"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."
+
+"But why did you bring Bessie back here? How did she find you?"
+
+He raised his hand with a warning gesture, and smiled.
+
+"Remember, Nell, no questions!" he said. "All we can do just now is to
+wait."
+
+Wait they did--and in silence, save for an occasional whisper.
+
+"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 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!"
+
+"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!"
+
+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.
+
+"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."
+
+He was right, for in a few moments excited voices echoed from below, and
+then there was an argument.
+
+"Well, he's got to be told," said one man. "It's your job, Bill."
+
+"Suppose you do it yourself."
+
+Apparently, they finally agreed to go together. And five minutes later
+there was a commotion outside the door.
+
+"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.
+
+Holmes started at the sight of the four girls standing there, fully
+dressed, his jaw dropping.
+
+"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.
+
+"Well, I've had about all the trouble you're going to give me," he said.
+"Silas Weeks will be 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."
+
+"What state do you think this island is in!" asked Charlie Jamieson,
+appearing suddenly from his hiding-place.
+
+Holmes staggered back. For a moment he seemed speechless. Then he found
+his tongue.
+
+"What are you doing here? How did you get into my house?" he snarled.
+"I'll have you arrested as a burglar."
+
+"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?"
+
+"Certainly it is," said Holmes, blustering.
+
+"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 courts has no value
+whatever. Even the land this house stands on belongs to the government
+now--it was taken by condemnation proceedings."
+
+Eleanor gave a glad cry at the good news. At last she understood the
+trap into which Holmes had fallen.
+
+"Look outside--look through the window!" said Jamieson.
+
+Holmes rushed to the window, and his teeth showed in a snarl at what he
+saw.
+
+"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."
+
+Holmes slumped into a chair. Defeat was written in his features. But he
+pulled himself together presently.
+
+"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."
+
+"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?"
+
+Evidently Holmes had not known it. The news was a fresh shock to him.
+But he was determined not to admit defeat.
+
+"Much good he'll do you!" he said. "He doesn't know anything--even if he
+thinks he does."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+THE MYSTERY SOLVED
+
+
+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.
+
+"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?"
+
+"You guessed right the very first time, Lieutenant," said Charlie. "Any
+sign of that boat from Rock Haven?"
+
+"She's just coming in," said the officer. "She ought to land her
+passengers at the pier in about ten minutes."
+
+"Then it's time to go down to meet her," said Charlie. "Come on, girls,
+and you too, Holmes. You'll be needed down there. And I guess you'll
+find it worth your while to come, too."
+
+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.
+
+"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?"
+
+"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."
+
+"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.
+
+"I'm glad you're here, Mrs. Richards, and you too, Mr. Richards," he
+said. "I'm going to be able to keep my promise."
+
+Holmes was staring at Mrs. Richards and her husband in astonishment.
+
+"You here, Elizabeth?" he exclaimed. "And Henry, too? I didn't know you
+were coming!"
+
+"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.
+
+Behind them came a stiff, soldierly looking man, in a blue suit, and him
+Jamieson greeted with a smile and handshake.
+
+"There's your man, marshal," he said, pointing to Holmes. "I guess he
+won't make any resistance."
+
+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.
+
+"What does this mean?" Mrs. Richards asked, indignantly. "What are you
+doing to my brother, Mr. Jamieson?"
+
+"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."
+
+Mrs. Richards bowed.
+
+"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?"
+
+"Yes. For a number of years."
+
+"And you have not always been as well off, financially, as you are now?"
+
+"That is quite true. My husband, shortly after our marriage, failed in
+business, owing--owing to conditions he couldn't control."
+
+"Isn't it true, Mrs. Richards, that those conditions were the result of
+his marriage to you? 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?"
+
+There were tears in the woman's eyes as she nodded her head in answer.
+
+"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?
+
+"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?"
+
+"That is quite true."
+
+"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?"
+
+"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."
+
+"That is very tragic. Thank you, Mrs. Richards. One moment--I have
+another question to ask."
+
+He stepped toward the gangplank.
+
+"I will be back in a moment," he said.
+
+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.
+
+"Now, Mrs. Richards," said Charlie. "Have you ever seen this woman
+before?"
+
+"I think I have," she said, in a strange, puzzled tone. "But--she has
+changed so--"
+
+"Her name is Mrs. Hoover, Mrs. Richards. Does that help you to
+remember?"
+
+"Oh!" Mrs. Richards sobbed and burst into tears. "Mrs. Hoover!" she
+said, brokenly. "To think that I could forget you! Tell me--"
+
+"One moment," said Charlie, interrupting. His own voice was not very
+steady, and Eleanor, a look of dawning understanding in her eyes, was
+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?"
+
+"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."
+
+"What?" thundered Richards. "She isn't dead? Where is she?"
+
+"Bessie!" said Charlie, calling to her sharply. "Here is your daughter,
+Mrs. Richards, and a daughter to be proud of!"
+
+And the next moment Bessie, Bessie King, the waif no longer, but Bessie
+Richards, was in her mother's arms!
+
+"So Mr. Holmes was Bessie's uncle!" said Eleanor, amazed. "But why did
+he act so?"
+
+"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 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."
+
+"I always said it was money that was making him act that way!" cried
+Dolly Ransom.
+
+"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 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."
+
+"I only found out her name last night," said Eleanor. "I wondered if he
+could be the Slavin who invented the new wireless telephone--"
+
+"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."
+
+"I'll finance it myself," said Richards, "and he can keep all of the
+profit."
+
+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 their friendship, and to
+Charlie Jamieson their gratitude was unbounded.
+
+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.
+
+"Good Heavens, Billy, I'd forgotten all about you!" said Charlie. "Where
+have you been?"
+
+"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.
+
+"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."
+
+"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."
+
+Eleanor, shamefaced and miserable, looked at him. Then, with tears in
+her eyes, she held out her hand to him.
+
+"Can you ever forgive me?" she asked.
+
+"You bet I can!" he shouted. "Why, you were meant to think just what you
+did! There's nothing to forgive!"
+
+"I ought to have known you couldn't do a mean, treacherous thing," she
+said.
+
+"All's well that ends well," said Charlie, gaily. "Now as to your
+brother, Mrs. Richards? I don't suppose you want him arrested?"
+
+"No--oh, no!" said she, looking at Holmes contemptuously.
+
+"Then, if you'll withdraw the charge of kidnapping, Eleanor, he can go."
+
+And the next moment Holmes, free but disgraced, slunk away, and out of
+the lives of those he had so cruelly wronged.
+
+                   *       *       *       *       *
+
+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 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.
+
+And after dinner Eleanor, blushing, rose to make a little speech.
+
+"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."
+
+There was a chorus of astonished cries.
+
+"But why are you going to stop being Guardian, Miss Eleanor?" asked
+Margery.
+
+"Because--because--"
+
+"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!"
+
+There was a moment of astonished silence. And then, from every girl
+there burst out, without signal, the words of the Camp Fire song:
+
+"Wo-he-lo--wo-he-lo--wo he-lo--Wo-he-lo for Love!"
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's A Campfire Girl's Happiness, by Jane L. Stewart
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A CAMPFIRE GIRL'S HAPPINESS ***
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