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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/29528-h.zip b/29528-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..75eabfa --- /dev/null +++ b/29528-h.zip diff --git a/29528-h/29528-h.htm b/29528-h/29528-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..32071f3 --- /dev/null +++ b/29528-h/29528-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,7868 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<HTML> +<HEAD> + +<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> + +<TITLE> +The Project Gutenberg E-text of The Camp Fire Girls in the Mountains, +by Jane L. Stewart +</TITLE> + +<STYLE TYPE="text/css"> +BODY { color: Black; + background: White; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; + text-align: justify } + +P {text-indent: 4% } + +P.noindent {text-indent: 0% } + +P.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-size: small } + +P.letter {text-indent: 0%; + font-size: small ; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +P.finis { font-size: larger ; + text-align: center ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +H3.h3left { margin-left: 0%; + margin-right: 1%; + margin-bottom: .5% ; + margin-top: 0; + float: left ; + clear: left ; + text-align: center } + +H3.h3right { margin-left: 1%; + margin-right: 0 ; + margin-bottom: .5% ; + margin-top: 0; + float: right ; + clear: right ; + text-align: center } + +H3.h3center { margin-left: 0; + margin-right: 0 ; + margin-bottom: .5% ; + margin-top: 0; + float: none ; + clear: both ; + text-align: center } + +H4.h4left { margin-left: 0%; + margin-right: 1%; + margin-bottom: .5% ; + margin-top: 0; + float: left ; + clear: left ; + text-align: center } + +H4.h4right { margin-left: 1%; + margin-right: 0 ; + margin-bottom: .5% ; + margin-top: 0; + float: right ; + clear: right ; + text-align: center } + +H4.h4center { margin-left: 0; + margin-right: 0 ; + margin-bottom: .5% ; + margin-top: 0; + float: none ; + clear: both ; + text-align: center } + +H5.h5left { margin-left: 0%; + margin-right: 1%; + margin-bottom: .5% ; + margin-top: 0; + float: left ; + clear: left ; + text-align: center } + +H5.h5right { margin-left: 1%; + margin-right: 0 ; + margin-bottom: .5% ; + margin-top: 0; + float: right ; + clear: right ; + text-align: center } + +H5.h5center { margin-left: 0; + margin-right: 0 ; + margin-bottom: .5% ; + margin-top: 0; + float: none ; + clear: both ; + text-align: center } + +IMG.imgleft { float: left; + clear: left; + margin-left: 0; + margin-bottom: 0; + margin-top: 1%; + margin-right: 1%; + padding: 0; + text-align: center } + +IMG.imgright {float: right; + clear: right; + margin-left: 1%; + margin-bottom: 0; + margin-top: 1%; + margin-right: 0; + padding: 0; + text-align: center } + +IMG.imgcenter { margin-left: auto; + margin-bottom: 0; + margin-top: 1%; + margin-right: auto; } + +</STYLE> + +</HEAD> + +<BODY> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's The Camp Fire Girls in the Mountains, 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: The Camp Fire Girls in the Mountains + or Bessie King's Strange Adventure + +Author: Jane L. Stewart + +Release Date: July 27, 2009 [EBook #29528] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CAMP FIRE GIRLS IN MOUNTAINS *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + +</pre> + + +<BR><BR> + +<A NAME="img-cover"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-cover.jpg" ALT="Cover art" BORDER="2" WIDTH="420" HEIGHT="668"> +</CENTER> + +<BR><BR> + +<A NAME="img-front"></A> +<CENTER> +<IMG CLASS="imgcenter" SRC="images/img-front.jpg" ALT="The motor boat kept dashing back and forth, making swimming almost impossible." BORDER="2" WIDTH="363" HEIGHT="531"> +<H4 CLASS="h4center" STYLE="width: 363px"> +The motor boat kept dashing back and forth,<BR>making swimming almost impossible. +</H4> +</CENTER> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CAMP FIRE GIRLS SERIES, VOLUME IV +</H3> + +<BR><BR> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +The Camp Fire Girls +<BR> +In the Mountains +</H1> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +or +</H3> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +Bessie King's Strange Adventure +</H2> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +by +</H3> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +JANE L. STEWART +</H2> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +THE SAALFIELD PUBLISHING COMPANY +<BR> +Chicago —— AKRON, OHIO —— New York +<BR> +MADE IN U. S. A. +</H4> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H5 ALIGN="center"> +Copyright, 1914 +<BR> +By +<BR> +The Saalfield Publishing Co. +</H5> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3> +THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS SERIES +</H3> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +1. THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS IN THE WOODS<BR> +2. THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS ON THE FARM<BR> +3. THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS AT LONG LAKE<BR> +4. THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS IN THE MOUNTAINS<BR> +5. THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS ON THE MARCH<BR> +6. THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS AT THE SEASHORE<BR> +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +TABLE OF CONTENTS +</H2> + +<TABLE ALIGN="center" WIDTH="80%"> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">I. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap01">PEACEFUL DAYS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">II. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap02">FOREBODINGS OF TROUBLE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">III. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap03">A NEW PLAN</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IV. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap04">A FRIEND IN TROUBLE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">V. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap05">A TANGLED NET</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VI. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap06">BESSIE KING'S PLUCK</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap07">BACK AT LONG LAKE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">VIII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap08">A NOVEL RACE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">IX. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap09">THE PATHFINDERS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">X. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap10">THE SIGNAL SMOKES</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XI. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap11">OFF TO THE MOUNTAINS</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap12">ENEMIES WITHOUT CAUSE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIII. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap13">A PLAN OF REVENGE</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XIV. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap14">THE SPIRIT OF WO-HE-LO</A></TD> +</TR> + +<TR> +<TD ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top">XV. </TD> +<TD ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top"> +<A HREF="#chap15">COALS OF FIRE</A></TD> +</TR> + +</TABLE> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap01"></A> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +The Camp Fire Girls In the Mountains +</H2> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER I +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +PEACEFUL DAYS +</H4> + +<P> +On the shores of Long Lake the dozen girls who made up the Manasquan +Camp Fire of the Camp Fire Girls of America were busily engaged in +preparing for a friendly contest and matching of skill that had caused +the greatest excitement among the girls ever since they had learned +that it was to take place. +</P> + +<P> +For the first time since the organization of the Camp Fire under the +guardianship of Miss Eleanor Mercer, the girls were living with no aid +but their own. They did all the work of the camp; even the rough work, +which, in any previous camping expedition of more than one or two days, +men had done for them. For Miss Mercer, the Guardian, felt that one of +the great purposes of the Camp Fire movement was to prove that girls +and women could be independent of men when the need came. +</P> + +<P> +It was her idea that before the coming of the Camp Fire idea girls had +been too willing to look to their brothers and their other men folks +for services which they should be able, in case of need, to perform for +themselves, and that, as a consequence, when suddenly deprived of the +support of their natural helpers and protectors, many girls were in a +particularly helpless and unfortunate position. So the Camp Fire +movement, designed to give girls self-reliance and the ability to do +without outside help, struck her as an ideal means of correcting what +she regarded as faults in the modern methods of educating women. +</P> + +<P> +Before the camp on Long Lake was broken up they hoped to have a +ceremonial camp fire, but there were gatherings almost every night +around the big fire that was not a luxury and an ornament at Long Lake, +but a sheer necessity, since the nights were cool, and at times chilly. +This fire was never allowed to go out, but burned night and day, +although, of course, it reached its full height and beauty after dark, +when the flames shot up high and sent grotesque shadows dancing under +and among the trees, and on the sandy beach which had been selected as +the ideal location for the camp. +</P> + +<P> +At these meetings everyone had a chance to speak. Miss Eleanor, or +Wanaka, as she was called in the ceremonial meetings, did not attempt +to control the talk on these occasions. She only led it and tried, at +times, to guide it into some particular channel. It would have been +easy for her to impress her own personality on the girls in her charge, +since they not only admired, but loved her, but she preferred the +expression of their own thoughts, and she knew, also, that to +accomplish her own purpose and that of the founders of the Camp Fire, +it was necessary for the girls to develop along their own lines, so +that when they reached maturity they would have formed the habit of +thinking things out for themselves and knowing the reason for things, +as well as the facts concerned. +</P> + +<P> +"I think we're too likely to forget the old days when this country was +being explored and opened up," Eleanor said one night. "Out west that +isn't so, and out there, if you notice, women play a much bigger part +than they do here. Those states in the far west, across the +Mississippi, give women the right to vote as soon as women show that +they want it. They are more ready to do that than the states in the +east." +</P> + +<P> +"Why is that, Wanaka?" asked Margery Burton, one of the Fire-Makers of +the Camp Fire. +</P> + +<P> +"In the west," said Eleanor, answering the question, "men and women +both find it easier to remember the old days of the pioneers, when the +women did so much to make the building of our new country possible. +They faced the hardships with the men. They did their share of the +work. They travelled across the desert with them, and, often, when the +Indians made attacks, the women used guns with the men." +</P> + +<P> +"But there isn't any chance for women to do that sort of thing now," +said Dolly Ransom, or Kiama, as she was known in the ceremonial +meetings. "The Indians don't fight, and the pioneer days are all over." +</P> + +<P> +"They'll never be over until this country is a perfect place to live +in, Dolly, and it isn't—not yet. Some people are rich, and some are +poor, and I'm afraid it will always be that way, because it has always +been so. But everyone ought to have a chance to rise, no matter how +poor his or her parents are. That was the idea this country was built +on. You know the words of the Declaration of Independence, don't you? +That all men are created free and equal? This was the first country to +proclaim that." +</P> + +<P> +"But what is there to do about that?" +</P> + +<P> +"Ever so many things, Dolly. Some men who have money use it to get +power they shouldn't have, to make people work without proper +conditions, and for too little money. Oh, there are all sorts of +things to be made right! And one reason that some of them have gone +wrong is that women who have plenty of comforts, and people to look +after them, have forgotten about the others. There is as much work for +women to do now as there ever was in the pioneer days—more, I think." +</P> + +<P> +"The Camp Fire Girls are going to try to make things better, aren't +they, Wanaka?" asked Margery Burton. For once she wasn't laughing, so +that her ceremonial name of Minnehaha might not have seemed +appropriate. But as a rule she was always happy and smiling, and the +name was really the best she could have chosen for herself. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, indeed," said Eleanor. "So far we've been pretty busy thinking +about ourselves, and doing things for ourselves, but there has been a +reason for that." +</P> + +<P> +"What reason, Miss Eleanor?" asked Dolly. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, it's hard to get much done unless you're in the right condition +to do it. You know when an athlete is going to run in a long race, he +doesn't just go out and run. He trains for it a long time before he is +to run, and gets his body in fine condition. And it's the same with a +man who has some mental task. If he has to pass an examination, for +instance, he studies and prepares his mind. That's what we have to do; +prepare our minds and bodies. In the city, in the winter, we will take +up a lot of these things. I'm just mentioning them to you now so that +you can think about them and won't be surprised when we start to go +into them seriously." +</P> + +<P> +"I know something I've thought about myself," said Dolly, eagerly. "In +some of the stores at home they have seats so that the girls can sit +down when they don't have to wait on people. And in some they don't. +But in the stores where they do have them, the girls get more done, and +one of them told me once that she felt ever so much stronger and better +when the rush came in the afternoon, if she'd been able to sit down +instead of standing up all day." +</P> + +<P> +"Of course. And that's a splendid idea, Dolly. Some of the stores +make the girls stand up all day long, because they think it pleases the +women who come in to shop. But if you could make those store keepers +see that they'd really get more work done by the girls if they let them +rest when the stores are empty, they'd soon provide the chairs, even if +the law didn't make them do it." +</P> + +<P> +"This place looks as if pioneers might have lived here, Wanaka," said +Margery Burton. +</P> + +<P> +"They passed along here once, Margery, years and years ago, but they +were going on, and they didn't stop. You see, the reason this country +has stayed so wild is that it's hard to get at. The trees haven't been +cleared away, and roads haven't been built." +</P> + +<P> +"Isn't it good land? Wouldn't it pay to plough it, after the trees +were cut down?" asked Bessie King. +</P> + +<P> +"It would, and it wouldn't, Bessie. It's just about the same sort of +land as in the valleys below, where there are some of the best farms in +the whole state. But we need the forests, too. You know why, don't +you?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, I don't," said Bessie, after a moment's thought. "I know they're +beautiful, and that it's splendid for people to be able to come up here +and live, and camp out. But that isn't the only reason, is it?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, it isn't even anywhere near the most important, Bessie. You know +what a dry summer means, don't you? You lived long enough on Paw +Hoover's farm at Hedgeville to know that?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, indeed! It's bad for the crops; they all get burned up. We had +a drought two or three years ago. It never rained at all, except for +little showers that didn't do any good, all through July and August, +and for most of June, as well. Paw Hoover was all broken up about it. +He said one or two more summers like that would put him in the +poor-house." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, if there weren't any forests, all our summers would be like +that. The woods are great storehouses of moisture, and they have a lot +to do with the rain. Countries where they don't have forests, like +Australia, are very dry. And that's the reason." +</P> + +<P> +"They have something to do with floods, too, don't they, Wanaka?" asked +Dolly. "I think I read something like that, or heard someone say so." +</P> + +<P> +"They certainly have. In winter it rains a good deal, and snows, and +if there are great stretches of woods, the trees store up all that +moisture. But if there are no trees, it all comes down at once, in the +spring, and that's one of the chief reasons for those terrible floods +and freshets that do so much damage, and kill so many people." +</P> + +<P> +"But if that's so, why are the trees cut down so often?" +</P> + +<P> +"That's just one of the things I was talking about. Some men are +selfish, you see. They buy the land and the trees, and they never +think, or seem to care, how other people are affected when they start +cutting. They say it's their land, and their timber; that they paid +for it." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I suppose it is—" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, but like most selfish people, they are short-sighted. It is very +easy to cut timber so that no harm is done, and in some countries that +really are as free and progressive as ours, things are managed much +better. We waste a whole forest and leave the land bare and full of +stumps. Then, you see, it isn't any use as a storehouse for moisture, +which nature intended it to be, and neither is it any use to the timber +cutters, so that they have to move on somewhere else." +</P> + +<P> +"Could they manage that differently?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, if they would only cut a certain number of trees in any +particular part of the woods in any one year, and would always plant +new ones for every one that is taken out, there wouldn't be such a +dreadful waste, and the forests would keep on growing. That's the way +it is usually done abroad—in Germany, and in Russia, and places like +that. Over there they make ever so much more money than we do out of +forests, because they have studied them, and know just how everything +ought to be done." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't we do anything like that at all?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, we're beginning to now. The United States government, and a good +many of the states, have seemed to wake up in the last few years to the +need of looking after the woods better, and so I really believe that in +the future things will be managed much better. But there has been a +terrible lot of waste, here and in Canada, that it will take years to +repair." +</P> + +<P> +"They don't spoil the woods about here that way, do they?" +</P> + +<P> +"No; but then, you see, this is a private preserve, and one of the +reasons it is so well looked after is that some of the men who own it +like to come here for the shooting." +</P> + +<P> +"I know," said Margery. "I thought that was why the guides were kept +here." +</P> + +<P> +"It is, but it's only one reason. A few miles away, if we go that way, +I can show you acres and acres of woods that were burned two years ago, +and you never saw such a desolate spot in all your life. It's +beginning to look a little better now, because, if you give nature a +chance, she will always repair the damage that men do from +carelessness, and from not knowing any better." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I think it would be dreadful for all these lovely woods to be +burned up! And that wouldn't do anyone any good, would it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Of course not! That's the pitiful part of it. But a terrible lot of +fires do start in the woods almost every year. You see, after a hot, +dry summer, when there hasn't been much rain, the woods catch fire +easily, and a small fire, if it isn't stamped out at once, grows and +spreads very fast, so that it soon gets to be almost impossible to put +out at all." +</P> + +<P> +"I saw a forest fire once, in the distance," said Dolly. "It was when +I was out west, and it looked as if the whole world was burning up." +</P> + +<P> +"I expect it did, Dolly. And if you'd been closer, you'd have seen how +hard the rangers and everyone in the neighboring towns had to fight to +get control of that fire. It doesn't seem as if they could burn as +fast as they do, but they're terrible. It's the hardest fire of all to +put out, if it once gets away. That's why we have such strict rules +about never leaving a camping place without putting out a fire." +</P> + +<P> +"Would one of the little fires we make when we stop on the trail for +lunch start a great big blaze?" +</P> + +<P> +"It certainly would. It's happened just that way lots and lots of +times. Many campers are careless, and don't seem to realize that a +very few sparks will be enough to start the dry leaves burning. +Sometimes people see that their fire is just going out, as they think, +and they don't feel that it's necessary to pour water on it and make +sure that it's really dead. You see, the fire stays in the embers of a +wood fire a long, long time, smouldering, after it seems to be out, and +then—well, can't you guess what might happen?" +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose the wind might come up, and start sparks flying?" +</P> + +<P> +"That's exactly what does happen. Why, in the big forest preserves out +west they have men in little watch-towers on the high spots in the +hills, who don't do anything but look for smoke and signs of a fire. +They have big telescopes, and when they see anything suspicious they +make signals from one tower to the next, and tell where the fire is. +Then all the rangers and watchers run for the fire, and sometimes, if +it's been seen soon enough, they can put it out before it gets to be +really dangerous." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I know now why I've got to be careful," said Dolly. "I wouldn't +start a fire for anything!" +</P> + +<P> +"Good! And I think it's time to sing the good-night song!" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap02"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER II +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +FOREBODINGS OF TROUBLE +</H4> + +<P> +"I think we'll beat those old Boy Scouts easily when we have that field +day, Bessie," said Dolly Ransom to her chum, Bessie King. "Look at the +way we beat them in the swimming match the other day." +</P> + +<P> +A friendly rivalry between the Camp Fire Girls and the Boy Scouts of a +troop that was camping at a lake some miles away had led, a short time +before, to a swimming contest in which skill, and not speed and +strength, had been the determining factors, and, vastly to the surprise +and disgust of the boys, the girls had had the best of them. +</P> + +<P> +"We don't want to be over-confident," said Bessie. "You know they +thought we were easy, and I don't believe they tried as hard as they +might have done. After all, girls and boys aren't the same, and if +boys are any good, they're stronger and better at games than girls, no +matter how good the girls are." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, they tried right enough," said Dolly. "They just couldn't do it, +that's all." +</P> + +<P> +"Another thing, Dolly, we've got to remember, is that those weren't +races. If they had been we'd have been beaten, because those boys +could really swim a lot faster than we could. It was just a case of +doing certain things and doing them just the right way. Anyone can +learn that if they're patient enough, and it's not really very +important. I'm glad we won, because I think boys sometimes get the +idea that girls can't do anything, and it's just as well for them to +find out that we can." +</P> + +<P> +"You're getting on, Bessie. When you first came from Hedgeville you +wouldn't have believed that, or, if you had, you wouldn't have said it." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I think I would have, Dolly. You know about the only boy I had +much to do with in those days was Jake Hoover, and you saw him when he +tried to help get me back where I'd be bound over to that Farmer Weeks +until I was grown up." +</P> + +<P> +"That's so, Bessie. You wouldn't have much use for boys if you thought +they were all like him, would you?" +</P> + +<P> +"I know they're not, though, Dolly. So I never got any such foolish +ideas." +</P> + +<P> +"What sort of things will we do in this field day, Bessie? Do you +know?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not exactly. Miss Mercer hasn't arranged everything yet with their +Scoutmaster, Mr. Hastings. You know the reason we're going to have it +is that Mr. Hastings used to tease Miss Mercer about the Camp Fire +Girls." +</P> + +<P> +"That's what I thought. He said we really couldn't manage by +ourselves, didn't he, if we were caught out in the woods without a man +to do a lot of things for us?" +</P> + +<P> +"I think he did. They say a lot of the Boy Scouts think the Camp Fire +Girls are just imitating them, and that isn't so at all, because I got +Miss Eleanor to tell me all about it. The Camp Fire Girls are more +serious. They want to prepare girls to make good homes, and look after +them properly, and to help them to make things better in their own +homes. +</P> + +<P> +"The Boy Scouts were organized partly to give boys something to do, and +to keep them out in the open air as much as possible, to make the boys +stronger, and healthier, and keep them from being idle and getting into +mischief." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, that's what we're for, too, isn't it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, but not so much. Girls don't get into just the same sort of +mischief that boys do, so it's a different thing altogether. But, +anyhow, Miss Eleanor says it's silly for one to laugh and jeer at the +other; that all the Camp Fire people, the ones who are at the head of +the movement, approve of the Boy Scouts and think it's a fine thing, +and that most of the men who started the Boy Scout movement are +interested in the Camp Fire, too." +</P> + +<P> +"Then she's going to try to prove that we really can manage by +ourselves?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. And I think the idea is for their troop of Boy Scouts and our +Camp Fire to make a march on the same day, going about the same +distance, and doing everything without any help at all; cooking meals, +finding water, making camp, getting firewood, and everything of that +sort. A certain time is to be allowed for eating, and we are to make +smoke signals when we reach the camping place, and again when we leave. +There aren't to be any matches; all fires are to be made by rubbing +sticks together. We're to cook just the same sort of meals, and the +party that gets back to the starting point first wins." +</P> + +<P> +"We're not to go together, then?" +</P> + +<P> +"No. Won't it be much more exciting? You see, we won't know how +nearly finished they are. And they won't be able to see how fast we +are working. So each side ought to work just as fast as it can. It's +a new sort of a race, and I think it will be great sport." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, so do I! We're each to spend the same amount of time eating?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, because if we didn't, one side could hurry through its meal, or +eat almost nothing at all, and get a start that way. And there's no +object in eating fast. It's to see how quietly we can march and +prepare our food and clean up afterward that we're having the test. It +isn't to be exactly like a race. The idea is to get as much fun and +good exercise out of it as anything else." +</P> + +<P> +"Still it really will be a race, because each side will want to win. +Don't the Boy Scouts have contests like that among themselves, +sometimes?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes. That's where the idea came from, of course." +</P> + +<P> +"My, Bessie, but I'm glad everything is so quiet around here now! It +doesn't seem possible that we've had such exciting times since we've +been here, does it?" +</P> + +<P> +"You mean about the gypsy who mistook you for me and tried to kidnap +you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. I think he's safe for a time now. Did you see Andrew, the +guide, when he came in to tell Miss Eleanor about how they'd taken +those gypsies down to the town, where the sheriff took hold of them?" +</P> + +<P> +"No. What did he say?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, it seems that on the way down, John—he's the one who actually +carried me off, you know—tried to bribe them and get them to let him +go free. He said he had a friend who would pay a whole lot of money if +they would let him escape, and they could pretend that he just got +away, so that no one would ever know that they had had anything to do +with it." +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose they just laughed at him?" +</P> + +<P> +"They certainly did, and tied him up a little tighter, so that there +wouldn't be any chance of his managing to get away." +</P> + +<P> +"Did he want them to let Lolla and Peter go, too?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, that's the funny part of it. He didn't seem to care at all what +happened to them, so long as he didn't have to go to jail. He's just +as mean as a snake, Bessie. I've got no use for him at all." +</P> + +<P> +"He was glad enough to have them help him when he wanted to get hold of +us, Dolly. But when he saw a chance to desert them he didn't remember +that, I suppose. What did Andrew think they would do to them?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, he didn't know. He said that when the people in the town heard +what the gypsies had done they were pretty mad, but, of course, they +didn't really start to do anything to hurt them. The sheriff said he'd +see that they were kept tight until they could be tried, and Andrew +guessed they wouldn't have much chance of getting off when the people +around the town would be on the jury. The men in those parts haven't +any use for gypsies, you see, and they'd be pretty sure to see to it +that they were properly punished." +</P> + +<P> +"I wouldn't mind seeing Lolla get off, Dolly. I don't think she's as +bad as the others." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I do, Bessie. I think she's worse. Why, she did her best to get +you into the same trap I was in! She was treacherous and lied to you." +</P> + +<P> +"I know all that, too, Dolly. But it was because John made her do it. +He frightened her, I think, and besides that she's going to be married +to him, and among the gypsies a woman isn't supposed to do any thinking +when her husband tells her to do something. She just has to do it, +whether she thinks it's right or not. It isn't as if she had planned +the whole thing out." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, she hurt you more than she did me. If you don't want her to be +punished, I don't see why I should." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't think I want anyone to be punished, Dolly. But it isn't just +what I want that counts, and I suppose that if that man John got off so +easily it would be a bad thing, because if he's punished it may +frighten some others who'd be ready to do the same thing, and make them +understand that they'd better be careful before they do things that are +against the law." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I'd like to see him in jail, just to get even for the fright he +gave me when he snatched me up and carried me off through the woods. +And he left me there in that place he found, too, with a handkerchief +in my mouth, and tied up so that I couldn't move, so I don't see why I +shouldn't be glad to see him suffering himself. It was awful, Bessie, +and if you hadn't followed me and had a chance to sneak in there and +cheer me up, I don't know what I would have done." +</P> + +<P> +"We'll have to tell what we know about what happened to us, I suppose," +said Bessie. "I don't like the idea of that, but Miss Eleanor says we +can't help it; that the law will make us do it." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I think it will be good fun. We'll get our names in the +newspapers, Bessie, and maybe there will be pictures of us. I won't +have any trouble telling them, either. I don't believe I'll ever +forget the things that happened to us that day, if I live to be a +hundred years old." +</P> + +<P> +"No, neither shall I." +</P> + +<P> +They had no more chance to discuss the matter, for just then they heard +the voice of Eleanor Mercer, the Guardian of their Camp Fire, calling +them. When they answered her call, finding her in the opening of her +own tent, her face was very grave. +</P> + +<P> +"I've just had a letter from Charlie Jamieson, my cousin, the lawyer," +she said. "I wrote to him about the extraordinary attempt that this +gypsy made to kidnap Dolly, and of how certain we were that Mr. Holmes +was back of it." +</P> + +<P> +"I wish we knew why Mr. Holmes is so anxious to get hold of me, or to +get me into the same state I came from, so that Farmer Weeks can keep +me there until I'm twenty-one," said Bessie, looking worried. +</P> + +<P> +"I wish so, too, Bessie," said Eleanor, anxiously. "I don't know how +much Dolly knows about this business, but I'm very much afraid that she +may be drawn into it from now on. And Mr. Jamieson agrees with me." +</P> + +<P> +"Why, how is that possible?" asked Bessie. "You don't mean that they +may try to take her away?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know, Bessie. That's the worst part of it. You see, they may +think she knows too much for it to be safe to leave her out of any +plans they are making now. We don't know what those plans are. This +last time, you see, Mr. Holmes evidently thought he had a splendid +chance to get hold of you through this gypsy, without being suspected +himself." +</P> + +<P> +"He thought everyone would just blame the gypsy and never think about +him at all, you mean?" +</P> + +<P> +"You see, the gypsy misunderstood—or rather Mr. Holmes misled him by +accident. He thought Dolly was Bessie, and the other way around. So +Dolly really suffered in your place that time, Bessie." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm very glad I did!" said Dolly, stoutly. +</P> + +<P> +"I know that, Dolly. You're not selfish, no matter what your other +faults may be. But I think you've got to understand just what we know +about the reasons for all this, though it isn't very much. Bessie +doesn't know much about her parents. They left her—because they had +to—when she was a very small girl, in charge of Mr. and Mrs. Hoover, +farmers, in Hedgeville." +</P> + +<P> +"I know about that, Miss Eleanor. The place where we first met Bessie +and Zara, you mean." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. And Mrs. Hoover and her son Jake didn't treat Bessie well. In +fact, they treated her so badly that finally she ran away. You know +that the Camp Fire thinks people ought to stay at home, even if things +aren't very pleasant, but Bessie was quite right, I believe, to run +away then, because they had no real claim to her." +</P> + +<P> +"I should say she was!" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, you know about Bessie's chum, Zara, too. Her father was in +trouble, and was to be arrested. And when Zara and Bessie found out +that Zara was to be taken by this Mr. Weeks, a miser and a money +lender, Zara ran away, too, and we Camp Fire Girls helped them to get +away from that state and have been looking after them since." +</P> + +<P> +"And then they stole Zara away!" +</P> + +<P> +"No, not exactly. They lied to Zara, and told her things that made her +willing to go with them. Mr. Holmes seems to have been responsible for +that. You remember yourself how Mr. Holmes tricked you and Bessie into +going for a ride with him in his automobile, when we were all at the +farm?" +</P> + +<P> +"I certainly do! I ought to, because all the trouble we had then was +my own fault." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, never mind that, because, as it turned out, it was owing to that +ride that we got Zara back. She's with us now, and we are going to try +to keep her, and get her father out of prison, because Mr. Jamieson is +sure he is innocent. But we've got to be mighty careful, because we +don't know how Mr. Holmes happens to be mixed up with Farmer Weeks, and +why either of them should care anything about Bessie and Zara and +Zara's father. That's why I wanted to be sure that you understood as +much as we do ourselves." +</P> + +<P> +"I see, and I'll promise to be as careful as I can, Miss Eleanor. I +wouldn't get Bessie or Zara into any more trouble for the world." +</P> + +<P> +"I know you wouldn't, Dolly, and I hope it won't be very long before +the whole thing is straightened out. Mr. Jamieson is working hard to +try to find out what it is all about, and I think he's sure to find out +soon. This letter I had from him today is a new warning, really. He +says Mr. Holmes has hired lawyers to try to get that gypsy off." +</P> + +<P> +"That proves that he hired him, too, I should think," said Bessie. +</P> + +<P> +"It seems to, certainly, but I'm afraid it isn't legal proof, even +though it satisfies us. But the chief point is that Mr. Jamieson is +worried about you two when you have to testify." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap03"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER III +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +A NEW PLAN +</H4> + +<P> +"Why, there couldn't be anything they could do to us then, I should +think!" exclaimed Dolly. +</P> + +<P> +"I hope not," said Miss Mercer. "But, well, we've had reason to learn +to be careful when we're dealing with these people. And Mr. Jamieson +seems to think that the thing to fear most is the other gypsies." +</P> + +<P> +"I thought of that, too," said Bessie, gravely. "They stick to one +another, don't they?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, they certainly do. They're very clannish. And Mr. Holmes, I'm +afraid, is clever enough and unscrupulous enough to be willing to use +them for his own purposes. He wouldn't tell them directly what he +wanted, you see. He'd just hire someone who was clever enough to get +them inflamed and worked up to the point of being willing to hurt you +two, and, if they could get at her, Zara, too, by way of revenge." +</P> + +<P> +"We can't help going down there if they send for us, I suppose, Miss +Eleanor?" +</P> + +<P> +"No. There's no way out of it. You see, if someone does you an +injury—borrows money from you and doesn't pay it back, say—the law +will help you get it, if you want to be helped. You can decide whether +you want to do anything or not. But if a crime is committed, then it's +a different matter, and you've got to get the law's help, whether you +want to or not. +</P> + +<P> +"For instance, if someone robs your house, you might be willing to +forgive the robber, but the law has to be satisfied, because that's the +sort of crime that affects everyone, and not just you alone." +</P> + +<P> +"I see. And I suppose that this time the law feels that if they are +not punished, those gypsies might try to kidnap someone else?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. The idea isn't just punishment. It's the way people who live +together in towns and countries have to protect themselves. In the +early days there wasn't any law. If a man was robbed, and he was +strong enough, he protected himself by going out and fighting the +robber. But that wouldn't work very well, because if a man was very +strong, and wicked as well, he could rob his neighbors, and no one of +them was strong enough to protect himself. +</P> + +<P> +"So it wasn't very long before people began to find out that, while no +one of them was strong enough to stop such robbers, a whole lot of them +banded together were stronger than any one man. And so they made the +first laws." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I see," said Dolly. "Bessie isn't strong enough by herself to do +anything to Mr. Holmes, or to stop him from doing what he likes to her, +because he's rich. But if all the other people who live in the state +take her side he can't fight against them. That's it, isn't it?" +</P> + +<P> +For a day or two after that peace reigned over the camp by Long Lake. +The girls looked forward eagerly to the field day that had been +planned, but they looked forward to it, too, with a certain degree of +regret, for it would mark the climax and the end, as well, of their +stay at the lake, which, though it had been so exciting, had also been +so delightful that all the girls wished for nothing better than to stay +there indefinitely. But they could not do that, as Miss Mercer +explained to them. +</P> + +<P> +"We've got to make way for others," she said, in telling them of the +new plans. "You see, my father is only one of the owners of this +preserve, and we take it in turns to use this lake for a camping site. +Now Mr. Spurgeon, one of the other owners, is going to bring up a party +of his friends, and we must make room for them." +</P> + +<P> +"Are we going home?" asked Margery Burton, disappointedly. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, don't you want to go home?" asked Eleanor, with a laugh, which +was echoed by the other girls, who heard the note of sorrow in the +question. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I suppose so," said Margery. "But one is home quite a good deal, +after all, in the winter, and we do have such a good time when we're +out in the woods this way. I love to get right close to nature." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, you needn't be frightened, Margery, because I've got a plan that +will keep us as close to nature as anyone could want to be." +</P> + +<P> +A chorus of excited voices was raised at that. +</P> + +<P> +"Where are we going next, Miss Mercer?" +</P> + +<P> +"What are we going to do?" +</P> + +<P> +"Shall we get to the seashore this summer?" +</P> + +<P> +"Later on, I expect," she answered, to the last question. "You do love +the beach and the surf, don't you? Well, so do I, and I expect we +shall want to spend a little time there. But first I've a plan I think +some of you will like even better." +</P> + +<P> +"We're sure to like anything you plan, Miss Eleanor," said Dolly, with +enthusiasm. "I don't believe any Camp Fire has as nice a Guardian as +you. It seems to me you spend all your time thinking up ways of giving +us a good time." +</P> + +<P> +"What is the new plan?" asked Margery. "I wonder if I can guess?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know. You might all try, and see how near you come to it." +</P> + +<P> +"I think we're going to go home by walking!" said Margery. +</P> + +<P> +"I believe we'll go through the chain of lakes that begins at Little +Bear in a boat, or in boats!" said Dolly. +</P> + +<P> +But, though they all took turns in guessing, Eleanor only smiled wisely +when the last guess had been made. +</P> + +<P> +"You were very nearly right, Margery," she said. "We are going to +tramp home, but not the way we came. We're going to take the long way +round. We're going straight up and through the mountains and down the +other side, and then we'll have a long trip on fairly level ground, but +we won't go straight home." +</P> + +<P> +"Where, then?" asked Dolly. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, we'll combine everything on the one trip, Dolly, and we'll wind +up at the seashore. By the time we've had a little swimming and +sailing there it'll be time to think about what we're going to do in +the autumn—school, and, work, and all the other things." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, that's splendid!" cried Margery, her eyes shining. "I've always +wanted to go up in the real mountains, where you were so high that you +could see all around the country. We'll do that, won't we? Here we're +in the mountains, really, but it doesn't seem like it. Everything's so +high, you can't see over." +</P> + +<P> +Eleanor pointed to the distant hills, blue in the haze that hung over +them. +</P> + +<P> +"Do you see Mount Grant, the big one in the center, there?" she said. +"And do you see that other mountain that seems to be right next to it? +That's Mount Sherman. And right between them there's a little gap. +Really, it's quite wide, though you can't tell that from here. Well, +that's Indian Notch, and we get through the mountain range by going +through it. It's a fine, wild country, but there's a good road through +the notch now, and sometimes one meets quite a lot of automobiles going +through. I think it will be a glorious trip, don't you, girls?" +</P> + +<P> +"I certainly do!" said Bessie King. "I'm like Margery. I've always +wanted to see the real mountains. I used to dream about them, and +sometimes I'd think I'd really been there. But I guess it was just +because I dreamed so much that I got to thinking so." +</P> + +<P> +Eleanor looked at her curiously. +</P> + +<P> +"Maybe your people came from the mountains, Bessie," she said. "It's +very strange that some natural things seem to get into the blood of +peoples and races. Like the mountains, and the sea, and great rivers. +Sometimes all the men in a family, for generations, will be sailors, +even if their parents have planned something else for them. The sea is +in their blood, and it calls them." +</P> + +<P> +"Sometimes I think the mountains are calling me just that way," said +Bessie. "But I never really understood that before." +</P> + +<P> +"It's the same way with mountaineers. The Swiss are never really happy +except among their mountains. And that's true of every mountainous +race. The people who live along the Mississippi, here, and along the +Don and the Vistula, and the other great rivers in Russia, never seem +to be able to live happily unless they can see the great river rolling +by their homes every day. If they go far away they get homesick." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm not a bit like that!" exclaimed Dolly. "One place is just as good +as another for me, if I like the people. I like to travel and see new +places. I'd like to be on the move all the time." +</P> + +<P> +"I think a great many Americans are getting to be that way," said +Eleanor, reflectively. "It's natural, in a way, you see. For +generations the young men and women have been moving on, from settled +parts of the country to new land, where there were greater +opportunities to make a fortune." +</P> + +<P> +"I've read about that," said Dolly. "You mean like the people from New +England, who went west to Oregon and Washington?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. But that can't go on forever, you see, because about all the new +land is taken up and settled now. Of course, out in the far west, +there's still room for people; lots and lots of room. But this whole +country is settled now. Law and order have been established about +everywhere. And we'll begin to settle down soon, and our people will +love their homes, and the places where they were born, just as the +Virginians and the other Southerners do now." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, it isn't that I don't like my own home!" said Dolly. "If I were +away from it very long I know I'd get dreadfully homesick, and want to +go back. But I don't want to stay there or anywhere else all the time." +</P> + +<P> +"You're a wanderer," laughed Eleanor. "That's what's the matter with +you, Dolly. You want to see everything that's to be seen. Well, I'm a +little that way myself. When I was a little bit of a kiddie I always +got tremendously excited if we were going on a journey. I guess it's a +pretty good thing, really, that we are that way. It's the reason this +country has grown so wonderfully, that spirit of enterprise and +adventure. That's what made the pioneers." +</P> + +<P> +"It isn't just Americans who do it, either, is it?" said Margery. "The +Italians and the other foreigners who come here seem to be just as +anxious to find new places—" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, but that's different," said Zara, the silent one, quickly. "I +know, because my father and I are foreigners. And do you know why we +came here? It was because we couldn't live happily in our own country!" +</P> + +<P> +The girls looked at her curiously, so fiery was her speech, and so much +in earnest was she. +</P> + +<P> +"We come from Poland," she said. "Over there, a man can't call his +soul his own. Soldiers and policemen used to come to our house, and +wake us up in the middle of the night to look for papers. And often +and often they would steal anything we had that they liked. Oh, how I +hate the Russians!" +</P> + +<P> +Eleanor sighed. Gradually, slowly but surely, she felt that she was +finding her way into the secret of Zara and her father. +</P> + +<P> +"Then you came here because you had heard that this was a free country +and a refuge for those who were oppressed?" she ventured, gently. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," said Zara. "And it's not true! There are kind people here, +like you, and Bessie, and Mr. Jamieson. But haven't they put my father +in prison, just the way they did in Poland and in Sicily, when we tried +to live there quietly? And didn't all the people in Hedgeville +persecute him, and tell lies about both of us? We haven't been happy +here." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm afraid that's true, Zara. But you are going to be, remember that. +You have good friends working for you now, you and your father both. +And it isn't the fault of this country that there are bad and wicked +men in it, who are willing to do wrong if they see a chance to make +money by doing so." +</P> + +<P> +"But if this country is all that people say about it, they shouldn't be +allowed to do it. The law is helping them. In Poland, it was just the +same. The law was against my father there—" +</P> + +<P> +"Listen, Zara! The law may seem to help them at first, but you may be +very sure of one thing. If your father has done nothing wrong, and his +enemies have lied and deceived the people in authority in order to get +the law on their side, they will pay bitterly, for it in the end." +</P> + +<P> +"But the law ought to know that my father is right—" +</P> + +<P> +"The law works slowly, Zara, but in the end it is sure to be right. +You see, your father's case is a very exceptional one. The people who +made the law in the beginning couldn't have expected it to come. But +the wonderful thing about the law is that, while it is often very hard, +it will always find out the truth sooner or later. +</P> + +<P> +"Sometimes, for a little while, people who are innocent have to suffer +because they are unjustly accused. But the law will free them if they +have really done no wrong, and, what is more, it will punish those who +swear falsely against them. Be patient, and you will find that you and +your father made no mistake when you believed that this was the land of +the free and the home of those who are oppressed in their own +countries." +</P> + +<P> +Zara's eyes, dark and sombre, seemed to be full of fire. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I hope so," she cried, passionately. "For my father's sake! He +has been disappointed and deceived so often." +</P> + +<P> +"We'll have a good long talk sometime, Zara," she said, finally. "Then +maybe I'll be able to explain some things to you better, and make you +understand the real difference between this country and the ones you +have known." +</P> + +<P> +Then she brightened, and turned to the other girls, who had all been +rather sobered by the sudden revelation, through Zara, of a side of +life hidden from them as a rule. +</P> + +<P> +"We're not going to take that trip just for ourselves and our own fun," +she said. "We're going to be missionaries, in a way; we want to spread +the light of the Camp Fire, and see if we can't get a lot of new Camp +Fires organized in the places we pass through. It's just in such +lonely, country places that the girls need the Camp Fire most, I +believe." +</P> + +<P> +"That will be splendid," said Margery Burton. "We could stay and teach +them all the ceremonies, and the songs, and how to organize new Camp +Fires, couldn't we?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. We want to make them see how much it has done for us. When they +know that they'll do the rest for themselves, I think. I shall expect +all you girls to help, because you can do ever so much more than I. +It's the girls who really count—not the Guardians, you know." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap04"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER IV +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +A FRIEND IN TROUBLE +</H4> + +<P> +The next morning Eleanor Mercer, summoned from the group of girls with +whom she was discussing some details of the coming contest with the Boy +Scouts by the appearance of a man who had rowed up to the little +landing stage, accompanied by one of the guides, old Andrew, called +Bessie King and Dolly Ransom to her with a grave face. +</P> + +<P> +"This is Deputy Sheriff Rogers, from Hamilton," she explained. "He +says that you must go there today to testify against those gypsies." +</P> + +<P> +"Sorry, ma'am, if it's awkward jest now," said the officer. "But law's +law, and orders is orders." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, we understand that perfectly, Mr. Rogers," said Eleanor. "You +have to do your duty, and of course we are anxious to see that the law +is properly enforced. Don't think we're complaining. But I will admit +I am nervous." +</P> + +<P> +"Nervous, ma'am? Why, there ain't nothin' to be nervous about!" +</P> + +<P> +"I hope you're right, Mr. Rogers. But there are things back of this +attempt to kidnap my two girls here that haven't come out at all yet. +I don't suppose you've heard of them. And it's been suggested to me +that it might not be quite safe for them at Hamilton." +</P> + +<P> +The deputy sheriff laughed heartily at that. +</P> + +<P> +"Safe?" he said. "Well, I should some guess they'll be safe down +there! Sheriff Blaine—he's my boss, ma'am, you see—would jest about +rip the hide off of anyone who tried to tech them young ladies while +they was there obeyin' the orders of the court. Don't you worry none. +We'll look after them all right enough." +</P> + +<P> +"As long as you know that there may be some danger, I shall be +relieved, and feel that everything is all right," said Eleanor, +pleasantly. "It's when we're not expecting their blows that the people +we are afraid of have been able to strike at us successfully. There is +a Mr. Holmes—" +</P> + +<P> +"I know him well, if it's Mr. Holmes, the big storekeeper from the city +you mean, ma'am," interrupted Rogers. "Say, if he's a friend of yours, +you can be sure you'll be looked after all right down to Hamilton. We +think a sight of him down there. He's a fine man, m'am; yes, indeed, a +fine man!" +</P> + +<P> +Eleanor looked startled, and only Bessie's quick pinch of her arm +prevented Dolly from crying out in surprise and disgust. Knowing what +they did of the treachery and meanness of Holmes, this praise of him +was disturbing to a degree. But Eleanor never changed countenance. +She understood, as if by some instinct, that this was a time for +keeping her own counsel. +</P> + +<P> +"I shall go to Hamilton with you," said Eleanor, decidedly. "Will you +be able to wait a little while, Mr. Rogers, while we get ready?" +</P> + +<P> +"Surely, ma'am," said Rogers. "We want to get the train that goes down +from the station here at noon, and that gives us lots of time. If we +start two hours from now we'll catch it, with time to spare." +</P> + +<P> +"Then if you'll sit down and make yourself comfortable," she said, +"we'll be ready when it's time to start." +</P> + +<P> +As soon as Rogers had taken himself off, Eleanor called the girls +together in her own tent. +</P> + +<P> +"I feel that it is my duty to be with Bessie and Dolly at Hamilton," +she explained. "And, because I rather foresaw this, I have arranged +for a friend of mine to come over here and take my place as Guardian at +short notice. She is Miss Drew—Miss Anna Drew—and some of you must +have met her in the city. She has had plenty of experience as a Camp +Fire Guardian, and you'll all like her, I know. +</P> + +<P> +"Please make it as easy for her as possible. Do just as she tells you, +even if she doesn't have the same way of doing everything that I have. +I'll get back as soon as I can, and I want you to have a good time +while we're gone." +</P> + +<P> +"We'll see that she doesn't have any trouble, Wanaka," said Margery +Burton loyally. "She'll find that this Camp Fire can behave itself, +all right!" +</P> + +<P> +"Thanks! I knew I could count on all of you," said Eleanor. "Now I'm +going to send her a note by Andrew. Her people own some of this land, +and she happens to be in their camp at one of the other lakes, so that +she'll be able to get here before we go if she starts at once." +</P> + +<P> +Andrew was quite ready to carry the note, and went off while Eleanor +and the two girls made the simple preparations that were necessary for +their trip. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm so glad you didn't say anything when the deputy sheriff spoke that +way of Mr. Holmes," she said to Bessie and Dolly. "I was afraid one of +you would cry out and I really couldn't have blamed you if you had." +</P> + +<P> +"I would have—I was just going to," said Dolly honestly, "but Bessie +pinched me, so I shut up, though I couldn't see why. I still think he +ought to know that this man he seems to think so much of is the very +one they ought to watch most carefully if they really want to make sure +that we don't get into any trouble while we're going down there." +</P> + +<P> +"The trouble is that he wouldn't believe it, Dolly, and it would simply +discredit us with him and all the other authorities at Hamilton, so +that they wouldn't believe us when we had something to tell them that +we were sure was true." +</P> + +<P> +"But we're sure that Mr. Holmes was behind this gypsy. We've got the +letter he wrote to him to prove it!" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, but Mr. Jamieson doesn't want anyone to know we have that letter +until the proper time comes. He wants to catch Mr. Holmes in a trap if +he possibly can, so that he'll be harmless after this. You can see +what a good thing that would be." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes. I never thought of that! He doesn't want to put him on his +guard, you mean?" +</P> + +<P> +"Just exactly that, Dolly. You see, if Mr. Holmes thinks we don't +suspect him, it's possible that he may betray himself in some fashion. +He'll feel sure that this man John hasn't betrayed him, and if he +thinks we don't know anything about the part he had in this kidnapping +plan, he may try to do something, else that will get him into serious +trouble. +</P> + +<P> +"And we've got to move very slowly and very carefully, because it's +quite plain that he has a lot of friends at Hamilton and that they +won't believe anything against him, no matter how serious it may be, +unless they get absolute proof." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I do hope Mr. Jamieson will be able to catch him this time! I'd +feel ever so much better about Bessie and Zara if I knew that they +didn't need to be afraid of him any longer." +</P> + +<P> +"So would I, Dolly, and so would Mr. Jamieson. It's this man who is +worrying us more than all the other enemies Bessie and Zara have, put +together." +</P> + +<P> +"Because he's so rich?" +</P> + +<P> +"Partly that, and because he's so clever, too. And if all I hear about +him is true, the more he is beaten, the more dangerous he becomes. He +doesn't like to be beaten, and it makes him so angry that he takes all +sorts of chances, and does the wildest, most desperate things to get +even. They say he was very unfair to a lot of small shopkeepers in the +city when he was building up his big store." +</P> + +<P> +"How do you mean, Miss Eleanor?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, he did everything he could to make them sell out to him for a +small price, and, if they wouldn't do it, he did his best to ruin their +business. He would circulate false stories about them, and he used his +influence with the police and the city authorities to make all sorts of +trouble for them. +</P> + +<P> +"Then he would open a store next door to them, sometimes, and sell +everything they did cheaper, at a loss, so that people would stop +buying from them. You see, he could afford to lose money doing that, +because he knew that if he once got them out of the way, he could put +prices up again, and get his money back." +</P> + +<P> +"You didn't know all that the day after Zara was taken away, did you, +Miss Eleanor?" asked Bessie. "Don't you remember how you laughed at me +then for saying I didn't like him, and that I thought he might be mixed +up in Zara's disappearance?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, I do remember it very well, Bessie. I've often thought what a +good thing it was that your eyes were so sharp, and that you suspected +him even when all the rest of us thought he was all right. If it +hadn't been for that, Mr. Jamieson would never have looked up the +records that gave him the clue to where Mr. Holmes had hidden Zara." +</P> + +<P> +"I think Bessie would make a pretty good detective," said Dolly. "They +do have women detectives now, don't they? And she seems to be able to +tell from looking at people whether they can be trusted or not." +</P> + +<P> +Bessie laughed heartily at that suggestion. +</P> + +<P> +"I can't do anything of the sort," she said. "And, even if I could, I +wouldn't be a detective, Dolly. The trouble with you is that you read +too many novels. You think people behave in real life just the way the +people in the books you read do, and they don't." +</P> + +<P> +The return of old Andrew, the guide, who had rowed across the lake on +his return from carrying Eleanor's note to Miss Drew, was the signal to +complete the preparations for departure. +</P> + +<P> +"I caught her, all right, Miss Eleanor," said Andrew. "Says she won't +be able to come over here till after lunch, but she'll be right over +then with a bundle of sticks to keep the young ladies in order till you +get back yourself." +</P> + +<P> +"Good!" laughed Eleanor. "That's all right, then, and I can leave here +with a clear conscience. Andrew, you'll sort of keep an eye on things +till I get back, won't you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Leave it to me, ma'am," said Andrew. "Say, me and some of the boys +was thinking maybe you'd like to have some of us turn up, sort of +casual like, down at Hamilton?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, it's very good of you, Andrew, but I don't believe we'll need any +help from you, thanks." +</P> + +<P> +"You can't always sometimes tell," said Andrew, sagely. "Now, this +here Rogers is a good fellow enough, but obstinate as a mule, and the +sheriff might be his twin brother for that. They're birds of a +feather, see? And onct they get it into their heads that a thing's so, +there ain't nothin' I know of, short of a stick of dynamite, will make +them change their minds. So we thought that mebbe it wouldn't be a bad +idea to have some of us within call." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll let you know if we need any help, Andrew," promised Eleanor. +"And it's very good of you to offer to come. But Mr. Jamieson will be +there—you know him, don't you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Mister Charlie? Indeed I do, ma'am, and a fine young chap he is, too. +I've often hunted with him through these woods up here. If he's goin' +to look after the law part of this for you, you'll have a good chance +to beat them sharks down there. Some pretty smart lawyers there at +Hamilton, they tell me, ma'am. I ain't never been to law myself. Any +time I get into a fight I can't settle with my tongue, I use my hands. +Cheaper, and better, too, in the long run." +</P> + +<P> +"It's the old-fashioned way, Andrew. Most people can't settle their +troubles so easily. Well, you'll row us to the end of the lake, I +suppose?" +</P> + +<P> +"Get right in, ma'am! Might as well start, so's you can take it easy +on the trail. Not a bit of use hurryin' when there ain't no need of +it, I say. There's lots of times when it can't be helped, without +lookin' for a chance." +</P> + +<P> +So, with the strains of the Wo-he-lo cheer rising from the girls who +were left behind, they started in the boat for the first stage of the +short journey to Hamilton. +</P> + +<P> +Andrew insisted on going with them as far as the station, and as the +train pulled out, they heard his cheery voice. +</P> + +<P> +"Now, remember if you need me or any of the boys, all you've got to do +is to send us word, and we'll find a way to get there a bit quicker +than we're expected," he cried. "Ain't nothin' we wouldn't do for you +and the young ladies, Miss Eleanor!" +</P> + +<P> +"You leave them to us, old timer," Rogers called back from the car +window. "We'll guarantee to return them, safe and sound. And it won't +take any long time, neither. There's a good case against that sneaking +gypsy, and we'll have him on his way to the penitentiary in two shakes +of a lamb's tail." +</P> + +<P> +"If you don't, I'll vote for another sheriff next election," vowed +Andrew, "if I have to vote a Demmycratic ticket to do it, and that's +somethin' I ain't done—not since I was old enough to vote." +</P> + +<P> +Rogers was reassuring enough in his speech and manner, but Eleanor had +a presentiment of evil; a foreboding that something was wrong. +</P> + +<P> +The railroad trip to Hamilton was not a long one, and within two hours +of the time they had left Long Lake the brakeman called out the name of +the county seat. Eleanor and the two girls, with Rogers carrying their +bags, moved to the door, and, as they reached the ground, looked about +eagerly for Jamieson. +</P> + +<P> +He was nowhere to be seen. But Holmes was there, avoiding their eyes, +but with a grin of malicious triumph that worried Eleanor. And Rogers, +a moment after he had left them to speak to a friend, returned, his +face grave. +</P> + +<P> +"I hear your friend Mr. Jamieson is arrested," he said. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap05"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER V +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +A TANGLED NET +</H4> + +<P> +"Arrested?" cried Eleanor, startled. "Why, what do you mean? How can +that be?" +</P> + +<P> +"That's all I know, ma'am," said Rogers, soberly. "Even if I did know +anything more, I guess maybe I oughtn't to be saying anything about it. +I'm an officer, you see. But here's the district attorney. Maybe +he'll be able to tell you what you want." +</P> + +<P> +He pointed to a tall, thin man who was talking earnestly to Holmes, and +who came over when Rogers beckoned to him. +</P> + +<P> +"This is Mr. Niles, Miss Mercer," said Rogers. "I'll leave you with +him." +</P> + +<P> +"Glad to meet you, Miss Mercer," said Niles, heartily, "though I'm +sorry to have dragged you away from your good times at Long Lake. +These, I suppose, are the young ladies who were kidnapped?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, though of course they weren't really kidnapped, because they got +away before any real harm was done," Eleanor replied. "But, Mr. Niles, +what is this absurd story about my cousin, Mr. Jamieson? Mr. Rogers +said something about his having been arrested." +</P> + +<P> +Niles grew grave. +</P> + +<P> +"I hope you're right—I hope it is absurd, my dear young lady," he +said. "Your cousin, you say? Dear me, that's most distressing—most +distressing, upon my word! However, you will understand I had nothing +to do with the matter. +</P> + +<P> +"I have to take cognizance, in my official capacity, of any charges +that are made, but I am allowed to have my own opinion as to the guilt +or innocence of those accused—yes, indeed! And I am quite sure that +Mr. Jamieson had nothing to do with this attempted kidnapping!" +</P> + +<P> +"What?" gasped Eleanor. "Do you mean to say that it is on such a +charge as that that he has been arrested?" +</P> + +<P> +She laughed, in sheer relief. The absurdity of such an accusation, she +was sure, would carry proof in itself that Charlie was innocent. No +matter who was trying to spoil his reputation, they could not possibly +succeed with such a flimsy and silly charge. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm glad it seems so funny to you, Miss Mercer," said Niles, stiffly. +"I'll confess that it looked serious to me, although, as I say, I do +not believe in Mr. Jamieson's guilt. However, he will have to clear +himself, of course, just as anyone else accused of a crime must do. +Where I have jurisdiction, no favors are shown. +</P> + +<P> +"The poor are on a basis of equality with the rich; I would send a +guilty millionaire to prison with a light heart, and on the same day I +would move heaven and earth to secure the freedom of an innocent +beggar, though men of wealth were trying to railroad him to jail!" +</P> + +<P> +He finished that peroration with a sweeping and dignified bow. And +then he stopped, thunder-struck, as a clear, girlish laugh rose on the +air. It was Dolly who laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"I couldn't help it," she said, afterward. "He was so funny, and he +didn't know it! As if anyone would take a man who talked such rot as +that seriously!" +</P> + +<P> +But the trouble was that, vain and pompous as Niles plainly was, his +official position made it necessary to take him seriously. Though at +first she was disposed to agree with Dolly, and had, indeed, had +difficulty in keeping a straight face herself while he was boasting of +his own incorruptibility, Eleanor discovered that fact as soon as she +had a chance to talk with Charlie Jamieson. +</P> + +<P> +"I shall be glad to arrange for you to have an interview with your +cousin, Miss Mercer," Niles informed her. "Theoretically, he is a +prisoner, although of course he will be able to arrange for his own +release on bail as soon as he finds some friend who owns property in +this county. But I have given orders that he is not to be confined in +a cell. I trust he is making himself very much at home in the parlor +of Sheriff Blaine. If you will honor me, I will take you there." +</P> + +<P> +"I should like to see him at once," said Eleanor. "Come, girls! Mr. +Niles, I am sure, will find a place where you can wait for me while I +talk with Mr. Jamieson." +</P> + +<P> +Charlie greeted her with a sour grin when she was taken to the room +where, a prisoner, he was sitting near a window and smoking some of the +sheriff's excellent tobacco. +</P> + +<P> +"Hello, Nell!" he said. "First blood for our friend Holmes on this +scrap, all right. First time I've ever been in jail. It's intended as +a little object lesson of what he can do when he once starts out to be +unpleasant, I fancy. He must know that he hasn't any sort of chance of +keeping me here." +</P> + +<P> +"Why, Charlie, I never heard anything so absurd!" said Eleanor, hotly. +"As if you, who have done everything possible for those girls, would do +such an insane thing as hire that gypsy to kidnap them. And especially +when we know who did do it!" +</P> + +<P> +"That's just the rub! We know, but can we prove it? You see, it's my +idea that Holmes is starting this as a sort of backfire. He thinks +we're going to accuse him, and he wants to strike the first blow. He's +clever, all right." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't see what good it can do him, Charlie." +</P> + +<P> +"A lot of good, and this is why. He puts me on the defensive, right +away. He wants time as much as anything else. And if he can keep me +busy proving my own innocence, he figures that I'll have less time to +get after him. It's a good move. The more chance he has to work on +those gypsies, the less likely they are to say anything that will make +trouble for him. He can show them his power and scare them, even if he +can't buy them. +</P> + +<P> +"And I think the chances are that he won't find it very hard to buy +them. They pinched me as soon as I got off the train this morning. +I've sent out a lot of telegrams, asking fellows to come up here and +bail me out, but of course I can't really expect to get an answer +today—an answer in person, at least." +</P> + +<P> +"Mr. Niles seems friendly. He said that he doesn't believe you're +guilty, Charlie." +</P> + +<P> +"That's kind of him, I'm sure. Niles is an ass—a pompous, +self-satisfied ass! Holmes is using him just as he likes, and Niles +hasn't got sense enough to see it. He's honest enough, I think, but he +hasn't got the brains of a well-developed jellyfish." +</P> + +<P> +Eleanor laughed at the comparison. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, if he's honest, you don't have anything to fear, I suppose," she +said. "I'm glad of that, Charlie. I was afraid at first that he might +be just a tool of Mr. Holmes, and that he would do what Mr. Holmes told +him." +</P> + +<P> +"I'd feel easier in my mind if he were a regular out-and-out crook, +Nell. That sort always has a weakness. Your crook is afraid of his +own skin, and when he knows he's doing things for pay, he'll always +stop just short of a certain danger point. He won't risk more than so +much for anyone. But with this chap it's different. He's probably let +Holmes, or Holmes's gang, fill him up with a lot of false ideas, and +they're clever enough to get him to wanting to do just what they want +him to do." +</P> + +<P> +"And you mean that he'll think he's doing the right thing?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, and not only that, but he'll persuade himself that he figured the +whole thing out, thought it out for himself, when really he'll just be +carrying out their own suggestions. We've got to find some way to +spike his guns, or else Holmes will work things so that his gypsy will +get off, and there'll be no sort of chance to pin the guilt down to +him, where it belongs." +</P> + +<P> +"Then the first thing to do is to get you out, isn't it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, but I've done all that can be done on that. There's really +nothing to be done now but just wait—and I'd rather do pretty nearly +anything I can think of but that." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know, Charlie. Why can't I give bail for you? You know, Dad +made over all that land up in the woods around Long Lake that he owns +to me. So I'm a property holder in this county—and that's what is +needed, isn't it?" +</P> + +<P> +"By Jove! You're right, Nell! Here, I'll make out an application. +You send for Niles, and we'll get him to approve this right now. Then +we'll get the judge to sign the bail bond, and I'll get out. I never +thought of that—good thing you've got a good head on your shoulders!" +</P> + +<P> +Eleanor, pleased and excited, went out to find Niles, and returned to +Charlie with him at once. +</P> + +<P> +"H'm, bail has been fixed at a nominal figure—five thousand dollars," +said Niles. "I may mention that I suggested it, knowing that you would +not try to evade the issue, Mr. Jamieson. We have heard of you, sir, +even up here. If the young lady will come to the judge's office with +me, I have no doubt we can arrange the matter." +</P> + +<P> +Before long it was evident there was a hitch. +</P> + +<P> +"I am sorry, Miss Mercer," said Niles, with a long face, "but there +seems to be some doubt as to this. You have not the deed with you—the +deed giving title to this property?" +</P> + +<P> +"No," said Eleanor. "But the records are here, are they not? +Certainly you can make sure that I own it?" +</P> + +<P> +Niles shook his head. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm afraid we must have the deed," he said. +</P> + +<P> +For the moment it looked as if Charlie would have to stay in +confinement over night, at least. But suddenly Eleanor remembered old +Andrew and his offer to help. And twenty minutes later she was +explaining matters to him over the telephone. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, sure," he said. "I can fix you up, Miss Eleanor. I've saved +money since I've been working here, and I've put it all into land. I +know these woods, you see, and I know that when I get ready to sell +I'll get my profit. I'll be down as soon as I can come." +</P> + +<P> +"Don't say a word," said Charlie. "It wouldn't be past them to fake +some way of clouding the old man's title if they knew he was coming. +We'll spring that on them as a surprise. Evidently they figure on +being able to keep me here until to-morrow, at least. They've got some +scheme on foot—they've got a card up their sleeves that they want to +be able to play while I'm not watching them. I don't just get on to +their game—it's hard to figure it out from here. But if I once get +out I won't be afraid of them. We'll be able to beat them, all right, +thanks to you. You're a brick, Nell!" +</P> + +<P> +Andrew was as good as his word. He reached the town in time to go to +the judge with the deeds of his property, and though Holmes, who was +evidently watching every move of the other side closely, scowled and +looked as if he would like to make some protest, there was nothing to +be done. He and his lawyers had no official standing in the case—they +could only consult with and advise Niles in an unofficial fashion. +And, though Niles held a long conference with Holmes and his party +before the bail bond was signed, it proved to be impossible for the +court to decline to accept it. Some things the law made imperative, +and, much as Niles might feel that he was being tricked, he could not +help himself. +</P> + +<P> +Once he was free, as he was when the bail bond was signed, Jamieson +wasted no time. He saw Eleanor and the two girls settled in the one +good hotel of Hamilton, and then rushed back to the court house. And +there he found a strange state of affairs. Holmes had brought with him +from the city two lawyers, though Isaac Brack, the shyster, was not one +of them. And the leader, a man well known to Jamieson, John Curtin by +name, now appeared boldly as the lawyer for the accused gypsies. +Moreover, he refused absolutely to allow Charlie to see his clients. +</P> + +<P> +In answer to Charlie's protests he merely looked wise, and refused to +say anything more than was required to reiterate his refusal. But +Charlie had other sources of information, and an hour after his +release, meeting Eleanor, who had walked down to look around the town, +leaving the girls behind at the hotel, he gave her some startling news. +</P> + +<P> +"They're trying to get those gypsies out right now," he said. "They +were indicted, you know, for kidnapping. Now Curtin has got a writ of +habeas corpus, and he's kept it so quiet that it was only by accident I +found it was to be argued." +</P> + +<P> +"What does that mean?" asked Eleanor. "I don't know as much about the +law as you do, you know." +</P> + +<P> +"It means that a judge will decide whether they are being legally held +or not, Nell. And it looks very much to me as if Holmes had managed to +fix things so that they'll get off without ever going before a jury at +all! Niles isn't handling the case right. He's allowed Holmes and his +crowd to pull the wool over his eyes completely. If we had some +definite proof I could force him to hold them. But—" +</P> + +<P> +Eleanor laughed suddenly. +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't suppose it was necessary to give this to you until the +trial," she said. "But look here, Charlie—isn't this proof?" And she +handed him the letter found on John, the gypsy—a letter from Holmes, +giving him the orders that led to the kidnapping of Dolly. +</P> + +<P> +Charlie shouted excitedly when he read it. +</P> + +<P> +"By Jove!" he said. "This puts them in our power. You were quite +right—we don't want to produce this yet. But I think I can use it to +scare our friend Niles. If I'm right, and he's only a fool, and not a +knave, I'll be able to do the trick. Here he is now! Watch me give +him the shock of his young life!" +</P> + +<P> +Niles approached, with a sweeping bow for Eleanor, and a cold nod for +Jamieson. But the city lawyer approached him at once. +</P> + +<P> +"How about this habeas corpus hearing, Mr. District Attorney?" he +asked. "Are you going to let them get those gypsies out of jail?" +</P> + +<P> +"The case against them appears to be hopelessly defective, sir," +returned Niles, stiffly. "I am informed by counsel for the defense +that there are a number of witnesses to prove an alibi for the man +John, and I feel that it is useless to try to have them held for trial." +</P> + +<P> +"Suppose I tell you that I have absolute evidence—evidence connecting +them with the plot, and bringing in another conspirator who has not yet +been named? Hold on, Mr. Niles, you have been tricked in this case. I +don't hold it against you, but I warn you that if you don't make a +fight in this case, papers charging you with incompetence will go to +the governor at once, with a petition for your removal!" +</P> + +<P> +"I—I don't know why I should allow one of the prisoners in this case +to address me in such a fashion!" stuttered Niles. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't care what you know! I'm telling you the truth, and, for your +own sake, you'd better listen to me," said Jamieson, grimly. "I mean +just what I say. And unless you want to be lined up with your friend +Curtin in disbarment proceedings, you'd better cut loose from him. I +suppose Holmes has told you he'll back your ambitions to go to +Congress, hasn't he?" +</P> + +<P> +Niles seemed to be staggered. +</P> + +<P> +"How—how did you know that?" he gasped. +</P> + +<P> +As a matter of fact, Charlie had not known it; he had only made a +shrewd guess. But the shot had gone home. +</P> + +<P> +"There's more to this than you can guess, Mr. Niles," he said, more +kindly. "It's a plot that is bigger than even I can understand and +they have simply tried to use you as a tool. I knew that once you had +a hint of the truth, your native shrewdness would make you work to +defeat it. You understand, don't you?" +</P> + +<P> +Coming on top of the bullying, this sop to the love of Niles for +flattery was thoroughly effective. Charlie was using the same sort of +weapons that the other side had employed. And Niles held out his hand. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll take the chance," he said. "I'll see that those fellows stay in +jail, Mr. Jamieson. As I told Miss Mercer, I was sure from the +beginning that you were all right. May I count on you for aid when the +case comes up for trial?" +</P> + +<P> +"You may—and I'll give you a bigger prisoner than you ever thought of +catching," said Charlie. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap06"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VI +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +BESSIE KING'S PLUCK +</H4> + +<P> +"We've got them, I think," Jamieson said to Eleanor Mercer and the two +girls after his talk with District Attorney Niles. "There's just one +thing; I don't understand how Holmes can be so reckless as to take a +chance when he must remember that he hasn't got a leg left to stand on." +</P> + +<P> +"He probably doesn't know that we know anything about it," said Bessie. +"And I guess he thinks that if we had had that note all this time we'd +have produced it before, so that he thought it was safe to act." +</P> + +<P> +"You're probably right, Bessie," said Eleanor. "I thought that letter +would be useful, Charlie, when we took it from that gypsy. I don't +suppose I really had any right to keep it, but just then, you see, +Andrew and the other guides were the only people around, and they would +never question anything I did—they'd just be sure I was right." +</P> + +<P> +"Good thing they do, for you usually are," laughed Charlie. "I've +given up expecting to catch you, Nell. You guess right too often. And +this time you've certainly called the turn. Niles is convinced. All +I'm afraid of now is that he won't be able to hold his tongue." +</P> + +<P> +"You want to surprise Mr. Holmes, then?" +</P> + +<P> +"I certainly do. I'd give a hundred dollars right now to see his face +when I spring that letter and ask for a warrant for his arrest. Mind +you, I don't suppose for a minute we'll be able to do him any real +harm. He's got too much influence, altogether, with bigger people than +Niles and this judge here." +</P> + +<P> +"You know I'm not very vindictive, Charlie, but I would like to see him +get the punishment he deserves. I'd much rather have them let those +poor gypsies off, if only they would put him in prison in their place. +I feel sorry for them—really, I do. It seems to me that they were +just led astray by a man who certainly should know better." +</P> + +<P> +"That part of it's all right enough, Eleanor. But if one accepted the +excuse from every criminal that he was led astray by a stronger +character, no one would ever be punished. Pretty nearly everyone who +ever gets arrested can frame up that excuse." +</P> + +<P> +"You don't think it's a good one?" +</P> + +<P> +"It is, to a certain extent. But if our way of punishing people for +doing wrong is any good at all, and if it is really to have any good +effect, it's got to teach the weaklings that every man is responsible +himself for what he does, that he can't shift the blame to someone else +and get out of it that way. +</P> + +<P> +"You remember the poem Kipling wrote about that? I mean that line that +goes: 'The sins that we sin by two and two we must pay for one by one.' +It seems pretty hard sometimes, but it's got to be done. However, even +if Holmes gets out of this, it's a thundering good thing that we've got +as much as we have against him." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't see why, if you say he's going to get off without punishment." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I think it's apt to make him more careful, for one thing. And +for another, some people will believe the evidence against him, and +he'll have the punishment of being partly discredited at least. That's +better than nothing, you know. One reason he's in a position to do +these rotten things without fear of being caught is that he's supposed +to be so respectable. Let people once begin to think he isn't any +better than he should be, and he'll have to mind his p's and q's just +like anyone else, I can tell you." +</P> + +<P> +"That's so! I didn't think of that." +</P> + +<P> +"The thing to do now is to make sure that the trial comes off at once. +I've got an idea that they'll try to get a delay, now that they've had +to give up their hope of rushing it through while I was tied up and +couldn't tell whatever I happened to know. They'll figure that the +more time they have, the more chance there is that they can work out +some new scheme, or that something will turn up in their favor—some +piece of luck. And it's just as likely to happen as not to happen, +too, if we give them a chance to hold things up for a few weeks. You +want to get away, too, don't you?" +</P> + +<P> +"We certainly do, Charlie. The girls would be dreadfully disappointed +if we didn't get back in time to make the tramp through the mountains +with them." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I guess we'll manage it all right. Leave that to me. You've +had bothers and troubles enough already since you got here. I ought to +have a nurse! Here I come to look after your interests, and see that +nothing goes wrong with you and your affairs, and the first thing you +have to do is to get me out of jail!" +</P> + +<P> +Eleanor returned his laugh. +</P> + +<P> +"We really enjoyed it, though you've got Andrew to thank, not me," she +said. "Do you really think they'll manage to get it postponed after +to-morrow?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not if I have to sit up with Niles and hold his hand all night, to +keep him in line," vowed Jamieson. +</P> + +<P> +And, indeed, the morning proved that there was no cause for worry. +Niles, stiffened by Jamieson, refused even to see the men from the +other side, who were employed by Holmes, when they came to his office +to beg for an adjournment, or to ask him to consent to it, at least, +since only the judge had the power to grant it. And the trial began at +the appointed time. +</P> + +<P> +Charlie, not being actively engaged as a lawyer in the case, could not +spring his sensation himself. But he sat near Niles, waiting for the +opportune moment, and, before the morning session was over, since he +saw that the time was drawing near, he wrote a note to Niles, +explaining his plan to surprise Holmes fully, which he handed to him in +the quiet courtroom. +</P> + +<P> +"That's great—great!" said Niles. "It's immense, Jamieson! I never +dreamed of anything like that. Heavens! How I have been deceived in +this man Holmes! You have the original letter, you say?" +</P> + +<P> +Jamieson tapped his breast pocket significantly. +</P> + +<P> +"You bet I've got it!" he said. "And it doesn't leave my possession, +either, until it's been read into the records of this court. You'll +have to call me as a witness, Niles. That's the only way we can get +this over, since I can't very well act as counsel for either side of +the case." +</P> + +<P> +"All right. First thing after lunch," said Niles. +</P> + +<P> +Holmes was in the courtroom, and Jamieson, happening to look up just as +Niles spoke to him, caught the merchant pointing to him, the while he +bent over and talked earnestly with a sinister, scowling man who was +unknown to the lawyer, but who seemed to be on the most intimate terms +with Holmes. However, he thought nothing of the incident. He had +understood from the first that in opposing Holmes, and doing all he +could to spoil his plans regarding Bessie and Zara, he was incurring +the millionaire's enmity, and he did not greatly care. +</P> + +<P> +"You know," he had said to Eleanor, "this chap Holmes thinks—or he did +think, at least—that I'd be scared by his ability to help or hurt a +man in my profession in the city. But I think a whole lot of that is +bluff on his part. I don't believe he can do as much as he thinks he +can. And I don't know that I care a whole lot, anyhow. He hasn't gone +out of his way to help me so far, and I've managed to get along pretty +well. I guess I can do without him to the end of the chapter." +</P> + +<P> +Just after the court adjourned for lunch, Niles was called away by +Curtin, the leader of the lawyers Holmes had hired to defend the gypsy +prisoners, and Jamieson saw them talking earnestly together for several +minutes. Naturally, he did not try to overhear the conversation, but +he could not have done so in any case, for Curtin kept looking about +him, so that it was evident that he, at least, regarded what he had to +say as both important and confidential. But Charlie waited patiently, +sure that Niles would tell him all he wanted to know, unless he should +again go over to the other side. +</P> + +<P> +"They're wise to us," said Niles, when he returned. "Curtin knows +we've got something up our sleeves, and maybe he wasn't anxious to find +out what it was!" +</P> + +<P> +"You didn't tell him, I hope?" +</P> + +<P> +"Not I! Trust me to know better than that! But I think he's got an +inkling." +</P> + +<P> +"Lord, why shouldn't he?" said Charlie to himself, bitterly. "Of +course, there's no reason why that gypsy shouldn't tell him! He +probably doesn't realize what the letter means, but we do, and if the +rascal has told them that it was taken away from him they would realize +at once that they were up against it, and hard!" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, you haven't told me the whole story," he said, with a suggestion +of being offended in his tone. "So I can't give you my advice as I +would be glad to do if you had taken me into your confidence." +</P> + +<P> +"You'll know it all pretty soon, Niles," said Charlie. "Don't think +you're being slighted—you're not. I know just how valuable you are to +us, and that we couldn't get along without you. And, what's more, I'll +say that I never saw a case handled better than this one. You're all +right. Don't worry; I don't care much if they do know. It's too late +for them to do anything now. I'm going to run back to the hotel. I've +got to get a few papers from my room. Then I'll be back." +</P> + +<P> +Leaving Niles with little ceremony, he hurried back to the hotel, and +went directly to his room, without telling anyone where he was going. +As he passed through the lobby the clerk happened to be busy and did +not see him, and, since his room was on the second floor, he did not +wait for the elevator, but walked up. Seemingly, the only person who +was interested in his movements was the sinister, black-browed man who +had been talking so earnestly with Holmes in the courtroom half an hour +before. And Charlie, in a great hurry, paid no attention to +him—probably did not even know that he was in the hotel. +</P> + +<P> +With the man, however, matters were very different. He watched Charlie +go up the stairs with the keen eyes of a hawk; and, a minute later, +followed him up. And when, ten minutes after he had entered his room, +Charlie opened the door to come out, he was met with a sharp blow on +the chest that staggered him and sent him reeling back into his room. +</P> + +<P> +In an instant the sinister man he had dismissed so readily from his +mind when he had seen him talking with Holmes was on him, the door +closing as he flung himself through it, and Charlie, taken completely +by surprise, was overpowered before he could even begin to put up any +sort of resistance. +</P> + +<P> +Even his belated impulse to call for help came too late. A gag was +thrust into his mouth as he was about to open it, and then, with no +pains to be gentle, his assailant produced stout cord from his pocket +and tied him securely to the bed. +</P> + +<P> +While he was thus rendering Charlie impotent to obstruct him in any way +the ruffian said nothing whatever. Now, however, standing off a +minute, and looking at his victim with much satisfaction, he broke his +silence. +</P> + +<P> +"Trussed up as neat as a turkey for Thanksgiving," he said, in a hoarse +whisper that seemed to be his natural speaking voice. "You won't do +any more damage, I guess." +</P> + +<P> +And then Charlie, who had been bewildered by this attack, realized at +last its meaning. For his assailant came close to him, began to search +his pockets, and, in a moment, drew out, with a cry of triumph, the +precious letter from Holmes to the gypsy—the letter without which the +whole case against Holmes was bound to collapse! +</P> + +<P> +Charlie struggled insanely for a moment, but then suddenly he grew +quiet. For his eyes had happened to wander toward the window, which +the thief, with the carelessness for details that has caused the +downfall of so many of his kind, had left uncovered. And, peering +straight at him from a window across a small light shaft, he saw Bessie +King. He was longing to communicate with her when the thief suddenly +addressed him again. +</P> + +<P> +"Say, bo," he said, in the same hoarse whisper, "I ain't got nuttin' +against you, see? If youse wants this here writin', you can have +it—if youse is willin' to pay more fer it than the other guy!" +</P> + +<P> +He looked greedily at Charlie, and, though the lawyer understood +thoroughly that the man was only trying to add to the money that Holmes +had promised him, and would probably not give up the paper, no matter +how much was offered, he jumped at the chance to gain time. Bessie had +disappeared, and he was sure that she had gone for help. If he could +hold the robber for a few minutes he might beat him yet. +</P> + +<P> +To talk with the gag in his mouth was, of course, impossible, and he +managed to lift his bound hands toward his mouth to remind the robber +of this. +</P> + +<P> +"Say, that's right," said the thief. "Here, I'll ease youse a bit so +youse can talk. But no tricks, mind!" +</P> + +<P> +"How much do you want?" gasped Charlie, when he was able to speak. The +man stood over him, ready to silence any attempt to cry out, and he +knew that it would be useless to call. +</P> + +<P> +"How much you got? I don't mean in your clothes, but what youse has +got salted away in your room," asked the thief. "I ain't got time to +look for it or I'd leave you tied up," he added, with a leer. +</P> + +<P> +"You've got something to sell, so name your price," said Charlie, still +trying to kill time. "That's for you to do. What does the other side +offer you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Gimme two hundred bucks!" suggested the robber. +</P> + +<P> +"That's a lot of money," said Charlie, pretending to hesitate. "I +might give it to you, but I haven't got it here. I could get it for +you or give you a check——" +</P> + +<P> +"Cash—and cash down!" leered the robber. "An' say, if youse thinks +some of them dames youse is workin' with can help youse out of this +hole, guess again. They're all locked up, same as you—from the +outside. And there ain't no telephones in the rooms in this hotel." +</P> + +<P> +For a moment Charlie's heart sank. If this was true, even though she +realized his danger, Bessie could not help him. He did not know what +to do, or what to say. But, fortunately for him, he was spared from +deciding. For there was a sudden crash at the door, and in a moment it +gave way before the onslaught of the proprietor, two or three clerks, +and a couple of stout porters. In a second the robber was overpowered +and a prisoner, and then Charlie saw Bessie, her eyes alight with +eagerness, in the background. +</P> + +<P> +"I climbed down the waterspout!" she cried. "I knew I had to get them +to help you!" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap07"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VII +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +BACK AT LONG LAKE +</H4> + +<P> +"Why, Bessie's a regular brick!" said Charlie, as they sat at dinner +that night. Eleanor and the two girls were going back to Long Lake on +the first train in the morning, and they were celebrating with the best +dinner the town of Hamilton could afford. "I told you I needed a +nurse, Nell, and here one of you had to save me for the second time +since I came here to look after you!" +</P> + +<P> +"That man was terribly clever," said Eleanor, gravely. "I never even +knew I was locked in—I was let out before I had had a chance to find +it out for myself." +</P> + +<P> +"Bessie and I didn't know it, either, until she saw him tying Mr. +Jamieson up," said Dolly. "We'd have found it out as soon as we wanted +to leave the room to go down for lunch, of course, but he was so quiet +about locking us in that neither of us heard him at all." +</P> + +<P> +"He was just a little bit too clever," said Charlie. "If he hadn't +been so anxious to make a little more money out of me, he would have +got clean away and given that paper to Holmes." +</P> + +<P> +"Not getting it seemed to upset Mr. Holmes a good deal, didn't it?" +laughed Eleanor. "Is it true that he left town by the first train +after he heard that the letter had been found when they searched that +wretched man?" +</P> + +<P> +"Quite true," said Charlie, happily. +</P> + +<P> +"Just what did happen in court this afternoon?" asked Dolly. "I +thought we were going to be witnesses and have all sorts of fun. And +now it's all over and our trip down here has just been wasted!" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, Holmes's lawyer, Curtin, threw up the case as soon as he heard +about that letter, Dolly. There wasn't anything else for him to do. +With that, added to the stories you two girls had to tell, there wasn't +any way of getting those gypsies off." +</P> + +<P> +"Are they going to send them to prison?" +</P> + +<P> +"John will go to jail for six months. He's the one who actually +carried Dolly off, you know. As for Peter and Lolla, who helped him, +they get off easily. They were sentenced, too, but the judge suspended +sentence. If they forget, and do anything more that's wrong, they'll +have to serve out their term." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm very glad," said Eleanor. "Poor souls! I don't believe they +understood what a dreadful thing they were doing." +</P> + +<P> +"It was a good thing for them they decided to plead guilty and take +their medicine," said Charlie. "Or, I should say, it's a good thing +that Curtin decided it for them. Don't worry about them any more. +Holmes will have to pay John a good deal of money when he comes out of +jail to make him keep quiet—if he manages, first, to shut up the +people here, so that the whole story doesn't come out." +</P> + +<P> +"Can he do that, now that they've seen that letter?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm half afraid he can. He's got a tremendous lot of money, you see, +and this is a time when he naturally wouldn't hesitate much about +spending it. And I don't know that it's such a bad thing. It gives us +a starting point, you see. And if the thing isn't made public, he may +get more reckless, and give us another chance to land him where he +belongs, and that's in the penitentiary. He's cleared out now and we +couldn't persuade these people to go after him, even if it was worth +while, which I don't believe it is." +</P> + +<P> +"How on earth did you get down?" Eleanor asked Bessie. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I saw there wasn't anything else to do," said Bessie, modestly. +"If you could have seen that man's face! I was terribly frightened. I +didn't know what he might be going to do to Mr. Jamieson, so I just +knew I had to get help. And I was afraid to call out of the window." +</P> + +<P> +"Why? Someone would have been sure to hear you," said Eleanor. +</P> + +<P> +"Because I thought the only person who was absolutely sure to hear me +was that man who was tying Mr. Jamieson up. And I didn't know what he +would do, but I was afraid he might do something dreadful right away if +I called out and he knew that he was being watched." +</P> + +<P> +"You're all right, Bessie!" said Jamieson, admiringly. "Was it very +hard, going down the waterspout?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, it really wasn't. Dolly was afraid I was going to fall, and she +wanted to go herself. But I said I had seen it, and made the plan, and +so I had a right to be the one to go. It really wasn't so far." +</P> + +<P> +"Far enough," said Jamieson, grimly. "You might easily have broken +your neck, climbing down three flights that way." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, but it wasn't three! It was only one. You see, there was a +balcony outside the window, and on the next floor there was another, +and I thought that window was pretty sure to be open. It was, so I got +inside, and then I found the room I was in was empty, and the door was +open, so all I had to do was to walk down the stairs and tell the +manager. They all came up and, well, you know what happened then +yourself." +</P> + +<P> +"I certainly do!" said Jamieson. "And I don't think I'm likely to +forget it very soon, either. That was a pretty tough character. I'll +remember his face, all right." +</P> + +<P> +"Well," said Eleanor, happily, "all's well that ends well, they say. I +really believe Dolly had the worst time, when you think about it. She +had to watch Bessie climbing down that waterspout." +</P> + +<P> +"That was dreadful," said Dolly, shuddering at the memory. "But I +think it was much worse for Mr. Jamieson and Bessie than for me." +</P> + +<P> +"Bessie was so busy getting down that I don't believe she had much time +to think about the danger," said Eleanor. "And Mr. Jamieson didn't +know her door was locked, so he had the relief of thinking that she'd +been able to get help in just an ordinary fashion. Of course, if he or +I had known what a risk she was running we'd have been half wild with +anxiety about her. So you see it really was hard for you not to scream +or do anything to startle that man." +</P> + +<P> +"That was what I was afraid of most," said Bessie. "I don't know what +I'd have done if Dolly had screamed." +</P> + +<P> +"You needn't have been afraid! I was too frightened even to open my +mouth," said Dolly, honestly. "I couldn't have uttered a sound, no +matter what depended on it, until I saw you were all right. And then I +just slumped down and laughed—as if there was something funny." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, we can all laugh at it now," said Eleanor. "Are you going back +to the city to-night, Charlie?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, I guess I'll be held up here until about noon to-morrow," he +answered. "I've got to appear against that poor chap, and there are +one or two other matters I want to attend to while I'm here. I'll see +you on your train in the morning, and I'll try to look out for myself +when you're gone." +</P> + +<P> +It was an enthusiastic and eagerly curious crowd of girls that welcomed +them back to Long Lake the next day when, in the middle of the morning, +the well-remembered camp appeared. Miss Drew, who had taken Eleanor's +place as Guardian, laughed as she greeted her friend. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know how you do it, Nell," she said. "I never saw anything +like these girls of yours. They did their best not to let me know, but +I managed to find out, without their knowing it, that you did about +everything in a different way from mine—and a much better way." +</P> + +<P> +"Nonsense!" said Eleanor. "I've made a few changes in the theoretical +rules of the Camp Fire. All Guardians are allowed to do that, you +know. But it's only because they seemed to suit us a little better—my +ideas, I mean." +</P> + +<P> +"You know," said Anna Drew, thoughtfully, "I think that's the very best +thing about the Camp Fire. It doesn't hold you down to hard and fast +rules that have got to be followed just so." +</P> + +<P> +"If it did, it would defeat its own purposes," said Eleanor. "What we +want to do—and it's for Guardians, if they're youngsters like you and +me, as well as for the girls—is to train ourselves to attend to our +jobs properly." +</P> + +<P> +"Why, what jobs do you mean?" +</P> + +<P> +"The job every girl ought to get sooner or later—running a home. It's +a lot more of a job, and a lot more difficult, and important, too, than +waiting on people in a shop, or being a stenographer, and yet no one +ever thinks an awful lot about it before it comes along." +</P> + +<P> +"That's so, Nell. I never thought of it just that way. But you're +right. We get married, and a whole lot of us don't have any idea at +all of how to look after a house." +</P> + +<P> +"It isn't fair to the men who marry us. Marriage is supposed to be a +partnership—husband and wife as partners. But if the man knew as +little about his part of the job as the woman generally does about hers +when she gets married, most married couples would be in the poorhouse +in a year." +</P> + +<P> +"That sounds old-fashioned, but I don't believe it is, somehow." +</P> + +<P> +"It certainly is not. It's what I try to keep in mind. That's why we +don't go in much for talking about votes for women. I'm not saying we +ought not to vote, or that we ought to. But I do think there are a lot +of things we ought to think about first. Times have changed a lot, but +after all women and men don't change so very much. Or, at least, they +ought not to change." +</P> + +<P> +"I think I see what you're driving at. You mean that your great +grandmother and mine probably spun cloth and made clothes for +themselves and most of the family, and did all sorts of other things +that we never think of doing?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. And I don't mean that we ought to go back to that. A man can +buy a better shirt in a shop now for less money than you or I would +have to spend in making him one. But there are plenty of other things +we could do in a house that we never seem to think of, somehow." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't see how you think of all that! I thought I'd spent a lot of +time studying the Camp Fire, but I never got hold of those ideas." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, they're not all mine—not a bit of it! You ought to talk to Mrs. +Chester, our Chief Guardian. She'd make you think, and she'd make you +believe you were doing it all by yourself, too." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, she's wonderful. I don't know her very well, but I hope to see +more of her this winter. I want to be Guardian of a Camp Fire of my +own. I've had just enough of the work, substituting for other girls, +to want to spend a lot more time at it." +</P> + +<P> +"You'll get the chance all right—don't worry about that! It's +Guardians we need more than anything else. It isn't as easy as you +would think to get girls and women who've got the patience and the time +for the work. But that's chiefly because they don't know how +fascinating it is, and how much more fun there is in doing it than in +spending all your time going about having what people call a 'good +time.' I've never had such a good time in my life as since we got up +this Manasquan Camp Fire." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I wish I could stay with you, and go on this wonderful tramp +with you. But I've got a lot of girls coming up to visit me, and I've +simply got to be there to entertain them. So if you're really going to +stay, and don't need me any more, I'll have to be getting Andrew to +take me back home again." +</P> + +<P> +"I wish you could stay, too, but if you can't, you can't. I'm ever so +grateful to you for coming. I can tell you right now that there aren't +many people I'd trust my girls to, as I did with you!" +</P> + +<P> +"I know it's a compliment, Nell, so you needn't talk about gratitude. +I'm the one to be grateful, I'm sure. The more experience I get before +I'm a regular Guardian myself, the better chance I'll have to make good +when the time comes." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm ever so glad you feel that way about it, Anna. You know, there +are ever and ever so many girls who could do the work, and won't try. +I'm not sure that it's so much 'won't' as—oh, I don't know! I think +they're afraid—they haven't any confidence in themselves. They think +it would be absurd for them to try to direct others. I felt that way +myself." +</P> + +<P> +"Nearly everyone who is at all likely to make good does, Anna. That's +the strangest part of it. When I hear a girl talking about how easy it +is to be a good Guardian, 'and how sure she is that she'll make good, +I'm always afraid she's going to fail. If you make the girls +understand they've got to help you, and that you know that if they +don't you won't be able to succeed, you get them ever so much more +interested." +</P> + +<P> +"That's easy to understand. It makes them feel that they really do +have a part in the work. I noticed that about your girls, +particularly, Nell. They seemed to feel that they were all a part of +the Camp Fire." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, that's the spirit I've always tried to put into them. I'm very +glad if I've really succeeded in doing it. It was a good deal of a +trust for me, as well as for them—leaving them to you. It shows, I +think, that the Camp Fire is in good shape and able to get along, not +exactly by itself, but under different conditions. I might easily have +to leave them, you know, and if they couldn't go right ahead under +another Guardian, I'd feel that my work had been, in a way, at least, a +failure." +</P> + +<P> +"All ready, Miss Drew!" called old Andrew, and then the girls gathered +on the beach and sung the Wo-he-lo song as the boat glided off. +</P> + +<P> +Eleanor welcomed the quiet days that followed, during which she +completed the plans for the field day in which the Boy Scouts were also +to take part, and for the long tramp she planned as the chief event of +the summer for her girls. +</P> + +<P> +"It seems sort of slow, now that those gypsies have gone, and there's +no one to make trouble for us," Dolly complained. But Bessie and Zara, +who heard her, only laughed at her. +</P> + +<P> +"You'd better be careful," said Zara. "First thing you know you'll be +starting some new trouble." +</P> + +<P> +"She's right," said Bessie. "You said when we got away from that gypsy +that you'd had enough excitement for awhile, Dolly." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, well," Dolly pouted, "it is slow up here—no place to buy soda, no +moving picture shows—nothing!" +</P> + +<P> +"I call the swimming and the walks pretty exciting," said Zara. "I'm +really learning. I went about twenty yards this afternoon." +</P> + +<P> +"But I know how to swim, and one walk is just like another," said Dolly. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, we'll have the field day pretty soon, and then, after that, +we'll start on our long walk. There'll be plenty of excitement then, +and one walk won't be just like another. I bet you'll be wishing for a +train before we're down in the valley again." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap08"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VIII +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +A NOVEL RACE +</H4> + +<P> +The morning of the long-awaited field day dawned clear and bright. The +camp was stirring with the first rays of the rising sun, that gilded +the tree tops to the east, and painted the surface of the lake, smooth +as a mirror, with a hundred hues. The day promised to be hot in the +open, but there was no danger of great heat on the march, which was +entirely through the woods. +</P> + +<P> +"We won't worry about how hot it's going to be under the sun," said +Eleanor Mercer as the girls sat at their early breakfast. +</P> + +<P> +"No. Our work is under the trees, until we get to the camping spot," +said Margery Burton. +</P> + +<P> +"Now here's the plan of campaign," said Eleanor. "I am going to send +two girls ahead to build the fire. That's the most important thing, +really—to get the fire started." +</P> + +<P> +"We can't use matches, can we?" asked Zara. +</P> + +<P> +"No, the fire must be made Indian fashion, with two sticks. But we all +know how to do that, I think. The idea of sending two girls ahead is +to have that part of the work done when the main body reaches our +camping ground." +</P> + +<P> +"Where is that? We can know now, can't we, Wanaka?" asked Margery. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, it's all right to tell you now. You know those twin peaks beyond +Little Bear Lake—North Peak and South Peak?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," came the answer, in chorus. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, our place is on North Peak, and Mr. Hastings will take his +Scouts to South Peak. The trails are different, but they're the same +length." +</P> + +<P> +"Why was that kept such a secret?" asked Bessie. +</P> + +<P> +"Because Mr. Hastings and I decided that it would be fairer if there +was no chance at all to go over the trail first and learn all about it. +Then there was the chance that if either party thought of it they could +locate kindling wood and fallen wood that could be used for the +fire-making. On a regular hike, you see, you would go to a place that +was entirely strange, and it seemed better to keep things just as near +to regular hiking conditions as we could." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I see! And that's a good idea, too. It's just as fair for one as +for the other, then." +</P> + +<P> +"Who are going to be the two girls to go ahead? And why can't we all +get there at the same time?" asked Dolly. +</P> + +<P> +"One question at a time," said Eleanor, with a laugh. "I'll answer the +second one first. We've got to carry all the things we need for making +camp and getting a meal cooked. So if we send out two girls ahead, +with nothing to carry, they can make much better time than those who +have the heavy loads." +</P> + +<P> +"Will they do the same thing?" asked Zara. "The Boy Scouts, I mean?" +</P> + +<P> +Eleanor smiled. +</P> + +<P> +"Ah, I don't know," she said. "They will if Mr. Hastings thinks of it, +I'm sure, because it would be a good move in a race." +</P> + +<P> +"Is it quite fair in case they don't happen to think of it?" asked +Margery, doubtfully. +</P> + +<P> +"Why not? This isn't just like a foot-race. It isn't altogether a +matter of speed and strength, or even of endurance—" +</P> + +<P> +"I should hope not!" declared Dolly. "If it was, what chance would we +have against those boys?" +</P> + +<P> +"Suppose we found some new way of rubbing sticks that would make fire +quicker than the regular way, it would be fair to use that, wouldn't +it, Margery?" asked Bessie. +</P> + +<P> +"That's the idea. Bessie's right, Margery," said Eleanor. "We have a +perfect right, and so have they, to employ any time-saving idea we +happen to get hold of. And I'm quite sure this is a good one, and that +Mr. Hastings will think of it, too." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I hope he doesn't do anything of the sort!" said Margery, wholly +converted and now enthusiastic for the plan. +</P> + +<P> +"You haven't told us yet who is to go ahead," said Dolly. "I'm just +crazy to be one of the two—" +</P> + +<P> +"We all are! Who wouldn't like to get out of carrying a load?" cried +two or three girls in chorus. +</P> + +<P> +Eleanor laughed at the eagerness they displayed. +</P> + +<P> +"It won't be all fun for the pathfinders, as we'll call them," she +said. "They've got a lot of responsibility, you see." +</P> + +<P> +"What sort of responsibility?" asked Margery. "All they've got to do +is to go just as fast as they can and make a fire when they get to the +peak." +</P> + +<P> +"That isn't all they've got to do, though. They've got to make a smoke +signal, for one thing, by stopping the smoke with a blanket, and then +letting it rise, straight up, three times. And they've got to go to +work and get enough wood to keep the fire going, as soon as they've +lighted it." +</P> + +<P> +"But they'll be able to go along ever so easily on the trail!" +</P> + +<P> +"It isn't a very well marked trail. Neither of the trails to the peak +is, for that matter. And the pathfinders, if they find they're in any +danger of making a wrong turn, must make a sign for us who follow. +That might easily save us a good many minutes in getting there. So you +see it isn't quite as easy as you thought. Now, I'll call for +volunteers. Who wants to join the pathfinders?" +</P> + +<P> +Every girl there put up her hand at once, amid a chorus of laughs and +jesting remarks. +</P> + +<P> +"Heavens! Well, you can't all be pathfinders, or there'd be no one to +carry the dinner! We'll have to figure out some way of picking out +two, because that's all there can be." +</P> + +<P> +"We might draw lots," said Margery. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't like that idea much," said Eleanor. "If you're all so anxious +to go, we ought to make it a reward of some sort—a prize. It's too +bad I didn't think of it earlier, because then we could have had a +really good competition." +</P> + +<P> +She frowned thoughtfully for a moment. +</P> + +<P> +"I know what we'll do," she said. "There are just eight of you, and +we'll divide all the dishes from breakfast into eight even piles. We +can do that easily. Then you shall all start together—" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, that's good!" said Dolly. "And the ones who finish first will be +pathfinders?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, those who finish first, and put their dishes away properly, +Dolly—not just finish washing and drying. I'll be the judge. Come +on, Margery, we'll arrange the piles." +</P> + +<P> +So the arrangements were made, and then, with each girl standing over +her own pile of dishes, they waited eagerly for the word. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll start you," laughed Eleanor. "Now, are you ready? Take +dishes—wash!" +</P> + +<P> +And at once there was a great splashing and commotion. But Eleanor +broke in with a laugh. +</P> + +<P> +"Time!" she called. "Stop washing'" +</P> + +<P> +Everyone stopped, and looked at her curiously. +</P> + +<P> +"Here's a rule," she said. "I only just thought of it. Anyone who +breaks a dish is out of the race, even if she finishes five minutes +ahead of the next girl. Understand?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," they cried. +</P> + +<P> +"All right. Dolly, you kept on washing for nearly half a minute after +the others had stopped. When I give them the word to start again, +don't you do it. I'll give you a starting signal of your own. You, +too, Mary King! I'll call your names when you two are to start." +</P> + +<P> +Then they bent to their piles again, and waited for Eleanor's "Ready? +Wash!" +</P> + +<P> +Dolly and Mary King, forced to restore the time they had unwittingly +stolen from the others, waited as patiently as they could until they +heard "Now, Dolly!" and after a moment more, "All right, Mary!" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, this is fine sport!" cried Dolly, washing with an energy she had +never displayed before. "I think we ought to have races like this ever +so often. They're much better fun than most of the games we play!" +</P> + +<P> +"Anything that makes you act as if you liked work is a fine little +idea, Dolly," said Margery. "But I haven't got time to talk—I've got +to wash. I never thought anyone could wash dishes as fast as you're +doing it!" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm in practice," laughed Dolly. "I hate them so, that I'm always +trying to get them done just as quickly as I can." +</P> + +<P> +And a moment later Dolly, to the general surprise, had put away her +last dish, an easy winner. +</P> + +<P> +It was plain to her in a moment that the struggle, now that she was out +of it, would be between Margery and Bessie. They had finished washing +almost at the same moment, with Margery perhaps a couple of spoons +ahead. +</P> + +<P> +"Hurry, Bessie, do hurry!" pleaded Dolly. "We've done so much together +up here, we ought to be pathfinders together, too. Can't I help her, +Miss Eleanor?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, that wouldn't be fair, Dolly," laughed Eleanor. "Each one has got +to win or lose on her own merits in this race." +</P> + +<P> +Bessie smiled as she heard Dolly's impulsive appeal. She wanted to +win, too, because it was impossible for her to engage in any contest +without wanting to come out ahead, or as far ahead as she could. This +time, of course, second place was all she could hope for, but she was +not one of those people who, if the chief prize is beyond their reach, +relax their efforts to do as well as they can. +</P> + +<P> +As she finished wiping each dish dry she arranged it, stacking her +dishes in order of their size, so that they could all be carried easily +to the tent where they were to be laid away. +</P> + +<P> +Margery, on the other hand, grew nervous as she neared the end. Once a +plate slipped through her hand, but, fortunately, her cry of dismay as +it fell was premature, for it did not break. But she was putting her +dishes down anywhere, without regard for their size or for convenience +in carrying them, and as a result, though she had finished the actual +drying nearly a minute before Bessie, she was still frantically +gathering her piled dishes together in her arms when Bessie wiped the +last spoon. +</P> + +<P> +Then, without haste, Bessie picked up her whole pile, and, starting +before Margery, walked carefully over to the tent. She put away her +last dish before Margery was half done, and the contest was over. +</P> + +<P> +"Go on, girls!" cried Eleanor, as she saw that interest was slackening +with the choice of the second pathfinder. "You don't want to be last, +do you? I should think you'd all want to avoid that!" +</P> + +<P> +The reminder was enough, and the others were soon busily finishing +their tasks. Zara was fourth, right after Margery, and then there was +a wild scramble among the last four. They finished almost together, +and Eleanor, with a laugh, had to declare that there was a tie for +sixth, seventh and eighth places. +</P> + +<P> +"So no one was really last!" she declared, merrily. "My, but that was +good fun! It certainly was, if you enjoyed racing half as much as I +did watching you! It's a pity we never thought of that before." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll beat you next time, you two!" vowed the panting Margery, shaking +her first in mock anger at Bessie and Dolly. "More haste, less speed! +That's what beat me! But I'll know better next time." +</P> + +<P> +"We'll have a team race some time," said Eleanor. "Two teams of +four—that ought to be good fun. Oh, there are lots of ways of having +a good time if you only think of them!" +</P> + +<P> +Then she clapped her hands as a sign for attention. +</P> + +<P> +"Now we've got to take our fun for the rest of the day more seriously," +she said. "You girls will have to take your fire-making sticks, and an +old blanket. You understand how to make smoke signals, don't you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, indeed!" cried Dolly and Bessie, in one breath. +</P> + +<P> +"All right, then. How will you make signs to show us which way to go?" +</P> + +<P> +"With a hatchet. We'll blaze the trees," suggested Bessie. "Then +you'll be sure to see it. There's no way that a sign like that can be +blown away, or get moved by accident. With the thin end of the blaze +in the direction you are to take, if there's a choice." +</P> + +<P> +"All right. Hatchet, old blanket, fire-making sticks. You'd better +carry water bottles, for you'll be thirsty on the way." +</P> + +<P> +"Why, we'll find plenty of water. There must be springs!" Dolly +protested. +</P> + +<P> +"Undoubtedly; but you don't know just where they are, and you'd waste +time looking for them. If you have your water bottles, with a little +bit of lemon juice in the water, you can have a drink wherever you +like." +</P> + +<P> +"I like the taste of lemon juice, too." +</P> + +<P> +"It isn't only because you like it that it's a good thing to have it, +but it will quench your thirst better than plain water, and it will +make your water last better, too, because you don't need to drink so +much of it." +</P> + +<P> +"It's fine if you're hot, too," said Margery, approvingly. "A little +lemon water will cool you off better than half a dozen of those +ice-cream sodas you're so fond of, Dolly." +</P> + +<P> +Dolly made a face at her. +</P> + +<P> +"I think it's mean of you to tease me about soda when you know I can't +have it, no matter how much I want it," she said. "But I don't care, +really. I wouldn't have an ice-cream soda now, if I had a pocket full +of money and I could get one by going across the street!" +</P> + +<P> +Eleanor smiled at her. +</P> + +<P> +"What a reckless promise! Only you know you are perfectly safe," she +said, half mockingly. +</P> + +<P> +"I really mean it," protested Dolly. "I'm going to swear off—for a +long time, anyhow. Bessie and Zara and I are going to try to get +enough honor beads to be Fire-Makers as soon as we get back to the +city, and that's one of the ways I'm going to try." +</P> + +<P> +"Then you've started already?" said Eleanor. +</P> + +<P> +"No, not yet," said Dolly. "I'm going to wait—" +</P> + +<P> +A shout of laughter interrupted her. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes, we know! Until you have just one or two last ones—" +</P> + +<P> +Dolly flushed dangerously for a moment. But her new control over +herself, that she was fighting so hard to maintain, saved her from the +sharp reply that was on her tongue. +</P> + +<P> +"You might let me finish," she said. "If I swore off now I suppose the +time while we're here would count toward an honor bead, but what's the +use of swearing off something I can't get, anyhow? I'm going to swear +off the first time I see a soda fountain!" +</P> + +<P> +"Good for you, Dolly!" exclaimed Eleanor, heartily. "That's the right +spirit." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap09"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER IX +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +THE PATHFINDERS +</H4> + +<P> +It did not take the two pathfinders long to get so far ahead of the +main party that they were out of sight and almost out of hearing. The +girls who carried the necessary provisions and utensils, however, made +their way light by singing Camp Fire songs as they walked, and their +voices echoed through the woods. +</P> + +<P> +"This is great! Oh, I love it!" said Dolly, happily. "I'm so glad you +beat Margery, Bessie!" +</P> + +<P> +"I thought you liked Margery, Dolly?" +</P> + +<P> +"I do, but you're my very dearest chum, Bessie! I think Margery's +great, but she is just a little bit superior, sometimes. I expect I +deserve it when she gives me a lecture, but I like you because you +don't preach, though you're just as good as she is any day in the week!" +</P> + +<P> +"I'll probably lecture you some time, Dolly, if I think you need it." +</P> + +<P> +"Go ahead! I don't mind when you do it, or if you do it. I don't know +why, but it's the same way with Miss Eleanor. She's scolded me +sometimes, but she isn't a bit like my Aunt Mabel, or the teachers at +school." +</P> + +<P> +"How do you mean? They're kind to you, I suppose? It isn't that that +makes the difference?" +</P> + +<P> +"No. I don't just know what it is, except that she makes me feel as if +I had made her unhappy, and they always talk just as if they thought it +was their duty." +</P> + +<P> +"It probably is, Dolly. You ought to have had the sort of scoldings I +used to get from Maw Hoover! Then you'd know what a real scolding is +like." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I just hate that woman, Bessie, for the way she treated you. +Don't you hate her, too?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know. I used to, but I'm sort of sorry for her, Dolly." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't see why!" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, since I've been away from the farm, I've seen that she didn't +have a very much better time than I did. She had to work all day long, +and she never got much pleasure." +</P> + +<P> +"That wasn't any excuse for her treating you so badly." +</P> + +<P> +"I think maybe it was, Dolly. I suppose she was nervous, like a whole +lot of other women, and she had to have something to wear herself out +on. She took things out on me. I'm beginning to think that maybe she +wasn't really mad at me when she acted like that. I believe she used +to get so upset about things that she had to sort of kick out at +whatever was nearest—and it happened to be me." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I hate her, just the same! You can forgive her if you like, but +I'm not going to!" +</P> + +<P> +"It's a good thing she never did anything to you, Dolly. If you hate +her like that when you've never even seen her, what would you do if you +had some real reason for it?" +</P> + +<P> +Dolly laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose I am silly," she said, "but I can't help it. I just feel +that way, that's all. Do you know what I wish, Bessie?" +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing dreadful, I hope, Dolly." +</P> + +<P> +"She'd think it was, I'm sure—spiteful old cat! I wish you'd find out +all about your father and mother, and that they'd not be lost any more." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Dolly, so do I! But that wouldn't seem dreadful to Mrs. Hoover, +I'm sure. I think she'd be glad enough." +</P> + +<P> +"Let me finish. I wish you'd find them or that they'd find you, and +turn out to be ever so rich. They might, you know. It might all be a +mistake, or an accident, or something." +</P> + +<P> +"I wouldn't care if they weren't rich, Dolly, if only I knew what had +become of them, and why they had to leave me there all that time with +the Hoovers." +</P> + +<P> +"I just know there's some good reason, Bessie. You're so nice that +you're bound to be happy some time. Of course you'd like to have your +father and mother, whether they were rich or not. But wouldn't it be +great if they really were rich?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know. I don't know what it's like to be rich, Dolly." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, you could do all sorts of things! You could make them take you +back to Hedgeville in an automobile, just for one thing." +</P> + +<P> +"There are lots and lots of places I'd rather go to, Dolly." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, yes, of course! But think of how everyone would stare at you, and +how envious they would be! I bet they'd be sorry then that they +weren't nice to you." +</P> + +<P> +Bessie smiled wistfully at the fantastic idea Dolly's lively brain had +conjured up. +</P> + +<P> +"It would be fun," she sighed. "They did tease me dreadfully, some of +the girls. You see, the Hoovers didn't have so very much money, and my +clothes were mostly old things that Maw made over to fit me when she +was through with them." +</P> + +<P> +"You could go back in better dresses than any of those Hedgeville girls +ever even saw, Bessie. And just think of how that horrid Jake Hoover +would feel then." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, well, there's no use thinking about it, Dolly. It won't ever +happen. So I shan't be disappointed, anyhow." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, it might happen and I think it's simply great to dream about +things that might happen to you. It doesn't do any harm, and it's +awfully good fun." +</P> + +<P> +"You do the dreaming, Dolly, and tell me about your dreams. You can do +it better than I could. I'm no good at dreaming that way at all." +</P> + +<P> +"All right, that's a bargain. And right now I guess we'd better stop +thinking about dreams and attend to pathfinding. Here's a turn. Which +way ought we to go?" +</P> + +<P> +"Straight ahead, I'm sure," said Bessie. "See how the trail narrows in +the other direction, and it doesn't look as if it had ever been made +like the main trail. It's more as if people had just broken through +one after another, until a sort of trail was made." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, and it isn't straight ahead, either. When there's a big tree in +the way, the trail goes around it, and on the regular trail the guides +went along a straight line and chopped down trees when they had to." +</P> + +<P> +"All right. Give me the hatchet, and I'll mark the proper way to go." +</P> + +<P> +Deftly Bessie, who had had long practice in the use of a hatchet when +she lived with the Hoovers, cut off a strip of bark on a tree at the +meeting point of the two trails, so that it formed a plain and +unmistakable guide to anyone who knew anything at all of woodcraft. +</P> + +<P> +Then they pressed on. They walked fast, and, with nothing to delay +them, they made good time, pausing only once in a while to take a sip +from their water bottles. +</P> + +<P> +"I can't hear the girls singing any more, can you?" asked Dolly, +presently. +</P> + +<P> +"No," said Bessie, pausing to listen. "I guess we must be quite a +little way ahead of them now. We ought to be, of course." +</P> + +<P> +"How much sooner than they ought we to reach the peak?" +</P> + +<P> +"That's pretty hard to tell. I don't know how far it is. But I should +think we ought to walk about four miles to their three. So if it's ten +miles, we ought to be about two miles and a half ahead of them when we +get there—and they ought to walk that in about half an hour—say a +little more, forty minutes." +</P> + +<P> +"That would give us plenty of time to get things ready." +</P> + +<P> +"I should hope so! We really haven't so very much to do when we get +there. It's quite an honor for us to be allowed to make the fire, +isn't it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, it is. But we won the right to do it, Bessie. You must remember +that. And, of course, it isn't like a ceremonial fire." +</P> + +<P> +"No, but it's a real fire, and an important one. Look! We're +beginning to go down hill now. We'll be climbing again before we get +there, though." +</P> + +<P> +"Let's hurry! I'm just crazy to get the fire started. Who is going to +make the light?" +</P> + +<P> +"Why, you are, Dolly! You won the dish-washing race, so you've +certainly got the right to do that." +</P> + +<P> +"I'll let you do it if you want to, Bessie. I don't care about the old +race." +</P> + +<P> +"No. You earned the right. And I believe you can do it better than I +can, anyhow." +</P> + +<P> +"It's just a trick, when you once know how. I used to think it was a +wonderful thing to do, but it's just as easy as threading a needle." +</P> + +<P> +"That's another thing that isn't easy until you know just how to do it, +though." +</P> + +<P> +"I guess that's so. I've seen boys try to do it, ever and ever so many +times, and they usually threw the needle and thread away two or three +times before they managed it." +</P> + +<P> +"Are we to cook lunch as soon as we all get to the camping spot?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't think so. It would be too early, you see." +</P> + +<P> +"I guess the fire will be made, though. Do you know what we are going +to have?" +</P> + +<P> +"Potatoes. I saw those. And I believe we're going to have a ham, too. +And coffee, of course, and a lot of fruit for dessert." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, the ham would take quite a long time to cook. I guess maybe +we'd have to start in cooking right away to get finished in time." +</P> + +<P> +"The boys ought to be having just the same sort of meal that we do. Or +else it wouldn't be fair, because some things take longer to cook than +others, and you can't hurry them, either." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I remember now that Miss Eleanor spoke about that. That's one of +the rules." +</P> + +<P> +"I believe we're getting near, for the trail is rising pretty sharply +now," said Dolly. +</P> + +<P> +"That's so. See how hilly it is getting to be. It's quite clear on +top of the peaks, I believe. I wonder if we'll be able to see them on +the other peak and if they'll be able to see us?" +</P> + +<P> +"We'll see the smoke, anyhow. There's nearly half a mile between the +two peaks, Miss Eleanor said." +</P> + +<P> +"Come on, let's hurry. I'll be dreadfully disappointed if they get +their fire started first." +</P> + +<P> +"So will I." +</P> + +<P> +Then the ascent grew so sharp that for a time they needed all their +breath for the climb before them. But the prospect of reaching their +destination prevented them from being weary; they were too excited by +this strange sort of race in which the contestants could not see one +another at all. +</P> + +<P> +"I think this is splendid!" panted Bessie. "This being on our honor. +Either side could cheat, and the other wouldn't know it—but neither +side will." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, there's no fun in cheating," said Dolly, scornfully. "If I win +anything, I want to know I've really won it, not that I got it because +I was smarter than someone else that way." +</P> + +<P> +"That's right. Of course it's no fun to cheat! I always wonder why +people who cheat play games at all. I don't believe they really know +themselves, or they wouldn't do it." +</P> + +<P> +Then came the last part of the ascent, and they went at it with a will, +though they were ready for a rest. But when they reached the summit, +and were able to stand still at last in an open space almost altogether +clear of trees they were amply rewarded for all their exertions. +</P> + +<P> +First of all they looked eagerly to the south, toward the peak that was +the twin of their own. A happy exclamation burst from them +simultaneously. +</P> + +<P> +"No smoke there yet!" cried Bessie. +</P> + +<P> +"We're here in time!" echoed Dolly. +</P> + +<P> +"We mustn't waste any time, though," cried Bessie. "Get your sticks +started while I lay a fire, Dolly." +</P> + +<P> +Swiftly Dolly sank to her knees and arranged her fire-making apparatus, +the bow, the socket and the drill. Then, while she drew the bow +steadily and slowly, making the drill revolve in the socket which was +full of punk, Bessie brought small, dry sticks and a few leaves, so +that when the spark came in the punk, it would have fuel upon which to +feed. +</P> + +<P> +"There it is—the fire!" cried Dolly. "See how it runs along in the +leaves, Bessie." +</P> + +<P> +First a little glowing ember; then tiny flames, that crackled and +sputtered. And then arose a wisp of smoke. Carefully Bessie piled on +stick after stick, carefully chosen and well dried by sun and wind, so +that they would burn quickly. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, the beautiful fire!" cried Dolly. "I do love it, Bessie. See, +how it runs along. Really, it's a splendid fire!" +</P> + +<P> +Merrily it blazed up, bright and clear. +</P> + +<P> +"Now we want some green wood that will make a smoke," said Dolly. +"Here's some. I think it's burning well enough now, don't you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. Let's make the smoke now." +</P> + +<P> +On went the green, damp wood, resinous and full of oil. And in a +moment a thick smoke hid the bright, leaping flames. +</P> + +<P> +"Here's the blanket!" cried Dolly. "Catch the other side—now!" +</P> + +<P> +Standing on either side of the fire, the blanket held over it, they +dipped it down now, so that the smoke was caught and held under the +obstruction. Then they lifted it clear of the fire altogether, and the +smoke, released, rose straight up in a long, tall column, that was +visible for miles where the trees did not obscure the view. Once and +again they repeated this, making three separate columns of smoke before +they left the fire to itself. +</P> + +<P> +And still there was no answering smoke from the other peak. The girls +had won their race. +</P> + +<P> +"Did the Indians really use those signals?" asked Dolly. +</P> + +<P> +"They certainly did. Out on the plains, you see, smoke like that could +be seen for miles and miles. And so, if there were Indians a few miles +apart, signals could go very, very quickly for great distances, and +they could send messages for hundreds of miles almost as quickly as we +can send them now by telegraph." +</P> + +<P> +Then they piled on more dry wood, and built the fire up so that it was +a great, roaring blaze. +</P> + +<P> +"Now we will just find the water. They'll need that for cooking." +</P> + +<P> +In less than five minutes after they separated to look for the spring +they knew was near, Dolly cried out that she had found it. And in the +same moment the first smoke rose from South Peak. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap10"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER X +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +THE SIGNAL SMOKES +</H4> + +<P> +"There's smoke, Dolly!" cried Bessie, triumphantly. "Oh, but we've +beaten them on this! Ours must have gone up twenty minutes before +theirs, and they must have been able to see it when they were building +their fire, too." +</P> + +<P> +"Good! Oh, we'll take them down a peg or two before we're done today, +Bessie!" +</P> + +<P> +"Don't be too confident yet, Dolly. Remember this is only the start. +There's ever so much more to be done before we've won." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't care! You and I have done our share, anyhow." +</P> + +<P> +"You certainly have," said Eleanor Mercer's laughing voice. "But +Bessie's right; it isn't time to celebrate yet. Come on, now, we're +all going to be busy cooking and getting ready to cook." +</P> + +<P> +Dolly and Bessie looked at the girls emerging from the trail in +surprised delight. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, you've done your share, and more, too," said Bessie. "We +thought we came pretty fast, and we didn't expect you for another +fifteen minutes, anyway." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, we didn't exactly loiter on the way. I expect we'd all be glad +of a chance to rest a little, but that will have to come later. We'll +be able to take things easy while we're eating. We're each to allow a +full hour for that, you see, no matter when we get ready." +</P> + +<P> +"But if we're ready to start eating first we can start clearing up +first, too, can't we?" asked Dolly. +</P> + +<P> +"Certainly! That's the object of hurrying now. When we're ready to +sit down we're to make two smokes, and they are to do the same, and +again when we've finished, or when our hour is up, at least. We'll +keep tabs on one another that way, you see, and each side will know +just how much the other has done. There's got to be some such +arrangement as that to make it interesting." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes," said Margery Burton. "It wouldn't really seem like a race +unless we knew a little something about what the other side was doing, +I think." +</P> + +<P> +"Well," said Eleanor, "I see you've got a splendid fire. I'll appoint +you chief cook, Margery. You are to be here at the fire, and Zara +shall help you." +</P> + +<P> +Zara sprang to attention at once, and she and Margery unwrapped the +ham, and got out the big boiler in which it was to be cooked. +</P> + +<P> +"You go and get water, Dolly and Bessie," said Eleanor, then. "There +are the buckets. Hurry, now, so that the water can be boiling while +the others are fixing the ham." +</P> + +<P> +And so dividing up the tasks that were to be done, she assigned one to +each girl. They were all as busy as bees in a moment, and the work +flew beneath their accustomed fingers. Miss Eleanor knew the girls +thoroughly, and while, as a rule, she saw to it that each girl had to +do a certain number of things that did not particularly appeal to her +since that made for good discipline, she managed matters differently +today. +</P> + +<P> +It was a time to give each girl the sort of work she most enjoyed, and +which, therefore, she was likely to do better and more quickly than any +of the other girls. +</P> + +<P> +Although a stranger, hearing the singing, and seeing the bustling group +of girls without understanding just what they were doing, might have +thought he was looking on at a scene of great confusion, order really +ruled. Each girl knew exactly what she was to do, and there was no +overlapping. Things were done once, and once only, whereas, at the +ordinary picnic there are half a dozen willing hands for one task, and +none at all for another. +</P> + +<P> +"Too many cooks spoil the broth," says the proverb, and the same rule +applies doubly to such meals as the one the girls were so busily +preparing. But there was no spoiling here, and in a surprisingly short +time most of the girls were able to rest. Places were laid for the +meal; plenty of water had been provided for the cooks, and there was an +ample heap of firewood beside the fire. +</P> + +<P> +"I'll be ready for dinner when it's time, all right," said Dolly, +sniffing the delicious odor of the cooking ham as it rose from the +fire. "My, but that smells good!" +</P> + +<P> +"I've heard some people who had to cook meals say that it spoiled their +appetites, and that they didn't enjoy meals they had to cook +themselves," said Eleanor. "But I don't believe that applies to us a +bit. You'll be able to eat with the rest of us, won't you, +Margery—you and Zara?" +</P> + +<P> +"I can't speak for Zara," said Margery, laughing. "But I certainly can +for myself. Just you watch me when dinner's ready! Let's start the +coffee, Zara." +</P> + +<P> +A great coffee pot had been brought, and a muslin sack full of coffee. +This sack was now put in the coffee pot, which was filled with water, +and the pot was set on the fire. There is no better way of making +coffee. The finest French drip coffee pot in the world can't equal the +brew that this simple and old-fashioned method produces. And anyone +who has ever tasted really good coffee made in such a fashion will +agree that this is so. +</P> + +<P> +"Can those boys really cook, Miss Eleanor?" asked Dolly, looking toward +the other peak, whence smoke was rising steadily. +</P> + +<P> +"Can't they, just!" said Eleanor, heartily. "What makes you ask that, +Dolly?" +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know. It seems sort of funny for them to be able to do it, +that's all. You expect boys to do lots of other things, but cooking +seems to be a girl's business." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, there are lots of times when it's a good thing for a man to be +able to cook himself a meal, especially when he's camping out. And +they certainly can do it—those Boy Scouts." +</P> + +<P> +"Have you ever tasted any of their cooking?" +</P> + +<P> +"I certainly have. One day I was out for a long tramp near the city, +and I managed to lose way in some fashion. You know some of the roads +are pretty lonely, and I managed to go a long way without coming to any +sort of a house where I wanted to stop and ask them to let me have +something to eat, and I was nearly starved." +</P> + +<P> +"What did you do? Wasn't there even a store where you could have +bought something?" +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't find it, if there was. Well, finally I decided to try a +short cut through some woods, and I hadn't gone very far when I ran +plump into this same troop of Boy Scouts that is on the other peak now!" +</P> + +<P> +"I bet you were glad to see them!" +</P> + +<P> +"Indeed I was. I knew Mr. Hastings, you see, and when I told him I was +lost and hungry, he made me sit down right away, and he explained that +they were just going to have an early supper." +</P> + +<P> +"That must have been good news!" +</P> + +<P> +"If you knew how hungry I was, you'd believe it. Well, I never have +had a meal that tasted half so good. They had crisp bacon, and the +most delicious coffee, and real biscuit!" +</P> + +<P> +"Biscuit! And had they cooked them themselves?" +</P> + +<P> +"They certainly had—and they were so good and flaky they fairly melted +in my mouth. If you'd tasted that supper you'd never ask again if boys +could cook. Those boys over there today will fare just as well as we +do ourselves, and they'll have just as good a time getting the meal +ready, too." +</P> + +<P> +"I guess they're better able to look after themselves than most of the +boys we know at home." +</P> + +<P> +"Dinner!" cried Margery, then. "Everything else ready? We'll be all +ready for you in a jiffy now. The ham's cooked, and so are the +potatoes and the corn is all roasted!" +</P> + +<P> +"We're ready whenever you are," said Eleanor, with a glance at the +"table." "Dolly, you and Bessie can send up your two smoke signals +now. I do believe we're ready to eat before they are!" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, we're going to beat them all the way!" said Dolly, happily. +</P> + +<P> +Bessie and Dolly, holding the blanket together, wasted no time in +making the signal that let those on the other peak know that the Camp +Fire was ahead in another stage of the race, and, just as the second +smoke was made, a faint cheer was carried across the space between the +two peaks by the wind, which had shifted. +</P> + +<P> +But it was fully twenty minutes after the girls had begun their meal +before two pillars of smoke rose from South Peak as a sign that over +there, too, the meal was ready. +</P> + +<P> +"What a shame that we've got to waste a whole hour eating!" said Dolly. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't call it waste. I'm dog-tired," said Margery. "I'm mighty +glad to sit down and rest, and I'm mighty hungry, too." +</P> + +<P> +"So'm I," said Bessie. And there were plenty to echo that. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, if no one else will say it, I will," said Margery, presently. +"This <I>is</I> a good dinner, if I did help cook it." +</P> + +<P> +"No one ever praises your cooking any more; they're too busy eating," +said Eleanor. "You established your reputation long ago." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, this was the sort of dinner you couldn't spoil," admitted +Margery, frankly. "And when people are frightfully hungry, you only +waste your time if you do any really fine cooking for them. All they +want is food, and they don't care much what it is, or how it's cooked." +</P> + +<P> +"You don't go on that principle, though, Margery. I notice you take +just as much trouble with your cooking whether it's likely to be +appreciated or not." +</P> + +<P> +"I do that for my own sake because I really enjoy cooking. I know what +I'm going to do next year if I can. Teach cooking in the high school. +And I think I can get the work, too." +</P> + +<P> +"That's fine, Margery. I know you'll enjoy it." +</P> + +<P> +"I think it will be pretty good fun. You know, it isn't only just the +girls in school. A whole lot of older girls come down—brides, and +girls who are going to be married. And they are the silliest things, +sometimes!" +</P> + +<P> +"Time's nearly up," said Eleanor, looking at her watch. "Bessie, +signal four times with the smoke. I want to see if my watch is right +by Mr. Hastings'." +</P> + +<P> +Four times the smoke rose, and from the other peak rose two short +answering smokes. +</P> + +<P> +"We arranged that signal, you see," said Eleanor. "Now, watch! He'll +show the time by his watch. Count the smokes carefully." +</P> + +<P> +First of all came two smokes. +</P> + +<P> +"That's the hour; two o'clock," said Eleanor. "Now count the next lot +carefully; that'll be the first digit of the minutes." +</P> + +<P> +Four smoke pillars rose, at regular intervals. And then, after a +well-marked pause, six more went up. +</P> + +<P> +"All right," said Eleanor. "Answer with four smokes. That means it +was forty-six minutes past two, fourteen minutes to three, when they +started signalling. And my watch and his agree exactly, so that's all +right." +</P> + +<P> +"We'll have a good lead when we are able to start cleaning up," she +continued. "But we can't waste any time. We start at two minutes to +three, and you want to remember that they know just how far behind they +are, and we won't be able to gain any more time from now on." +</P> + +<P> +"Why not, Miss Eleanor," asked Margery, "if we've done it so far?" +</P> + +<P> +"It's going to be very different now, Margery. I don't say that they +exactly despised us before, but I certainly do believe they +underestimated us. They thought they were going to have an easy time, +and they probably loafed a little this morning. But now, you see, they +know that they're in for a licking if they don't do mighty well, and +they'll strain every nerve to beat us." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I suppose so, but we've really got a splendid lead." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. And do you know what will happen if we don't look out? We'll be +over-confident, just the way they were this morning, and it will have +just the same result. In a race, you know, a good runner will very +often let a slower one stay ahead until they are near the finish. They +call it making the pace. And then, when he gets ready, he goes right +by, and wins as he likes." +</P> + +<P> +But the warning, although Eleanor was sure that it had been needed, +seemed to spur the girls on. They were waiting eagerly when she gave +the word to start cleaning up, and each girl, her task assigned to her +in advance, was at work as soon as the command to go was given. +</P> + +<P> +In no time at all, as it seemed, the dishes ware washed. Then Bessie +and Dolly, as tenders of the fire, brought buckets of water and poured +them over the glowing embers, for the rule of the Camp Fire never to +leave a spark of flame behind them in the woods was strictly enforced. +</P> + +<P> +They put the fire out while the others finished packing the things that +had to be taken back. All the rubbish had been burned before water was +poured on the fire, and when everything was finished and the girls were +ready to start the march back to Long Lake there was no sign of their +visit except the blackened ring where the fire had burned. +</P> + +<P> +"Zara, I'm going to leave you here as a sentry when we start," said +Eleanor. "I'll carry your pack until you join us." +</P> + +<P> +"How long am I to stay?" asked Zara. +</P> + +<P> +"Until you see that their fire is put out. That will mean that they +will be ready to start within two minutes, and I want to know just how +much of a start we have on the hike home." +</P> + +<P> +"I see. As soon as they put it out I'm to start after you and report?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes. Here's my watch. Remember the exact time. If they catch up +with us, it will be on this hike." +</P> + +<P> +Then they started, singing happily as they went down the hill. The +homeward path was easy. Burdens were lighter than they had been on the +trip from Long Lake, and the path was mostly down hill. And, moreover, +the Camp Fire Girls had the consciousness that, in order to win, they +needed only to hold the advantage they had gained. +</P> + +<P> +"Here's Zara!" cried Bessie, who had been looking behind her. +</P> + +<P> +"Good! What time did they put out their fire?" asked Eleanor. +</P> + +<P> +"Just ten minutes after you started," said Zara. "I came as quickly as +I could, but you must have been walking fast." +</P> + +<P> +"I told you they'd begin gaining on us," said Eleanor. "See, they +picked up ten minutes in clearing up. Come on, now, we must hurry!" +</P> + +<P> +Hurry they did, and when they reached Long Lake there was a brief +period of bustle. A new fire had to be made, and they worked with +feverish haste. But they were in time. Bessie and Dolly sent up the +first smoke signal before any pillar appeared at the other end of the +lake. But the margin was small, for the first Boy Scout pillar rose +just as they sent up their third! +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap11"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XI +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +OFF TO THE MOUNTAINS +</H4> + +<P> +Two days after the triumph over the Boy Scouts in the test of the trip +to Twin Peaks and back, and bidding good-bye regretfully to Long Lake, +the girls started on the long tramp that was to take them through the +mountains and to the valley below them on the other side. +</P> + +<P> +"I've decided not to try to do any camping on the trip," said Eleanor, +"We could have more fun that way, perhaps, but it would mean carrying a +lot more, and I think the loads we've got are plenty big enough. I +know my own pack is going to feel heavy enough when we strike some of +the real climbing later on." +</P> + +<P> +"I should think we could do much better, too, in the way of interesting +others in the Camp Fire," said Margery, "if we stay at farm houses or +wherever they will take us in. We'll seem to be more among them, and +of them. Don't you think so?" +</P> + +<P> +Eleanor smiled at Margery, pleased that she should have guessed one of +her reasons for adopting the course she had chosen. She was already +thinking seriously of the time when Margery should be able to take her +place as a Guardian. +</P> + +<P> +"We won't start tramping right away, you know," said Eleanor, as they +disembarked from the boats at the end of Long Lake, and started over +the trail for the railroad. "We could tramp through these woods, but +it's very slow going, and I feel that we'd do better if we took the +train to Crawford, or Lake Dean, where we strike the road through the +notch. That will give us a good start, and give us very beautiful and +interesting country for our first day's walk." +</P> + +<P> +"Shall we go on the same railroad we came up on, Miss Eleanor?" asked +Bessie. +</P> + +<P> +"For a little way. We change a few stations further on, though, and +get on the line that climbs right up into the mountains. There's no +real road that we could follow. We'd have to take wood trails. So +we'll save a lot of time here, and have it for the part of the trip +where we can have some really good walking." +</P> + +<P> +The trip to Moose Junction did not take long. The place seemed hardly +worthy of its name. There was no imposing station, but only a little +wooden shack with a long platform for freight. But at one side of the +shack was a train that provoked exclamations of delighted laughter. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, that train hasn't grown up yet!" exclaimed Dolly, immensely +amused when she saw it. +</P> + +<P> +"It's a narrow gauge railroad, you see, Dolly," said Eleanor. "This +road is really only used in the summer time. In the winter no one is +up here except a few guides who haven't any use for trains, anyhow, and +the tracks are covered with snow." +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose it was cheaper to build than a regular railroad would be?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, a good deal cheaper. The cars are smaller, you see, and then, +when they built it, they had a chance to get their cars and engines +very cheap. In the old days, a great many railroads were built like +this, even the regular roads that were used all the year round. But +gradually they were all changed, and the rails were made the same on +railroads all over the country, and then these people were able to get +their cars and the other things they needed second hand. And it's +plenty good enough, of course, for all the use anyone wants to make of +this." +</P> + +<P> +Two puffing little engines were at the head of the two-car train that +was waiting at the junction, and, in a little while, after the +passengers for Crawford, the terminal station of the road, were all +aboard, they pulled out with a great snorting and roaring that amused +the girls immensely. But, ridiculous as they looked, the little +engines were up to their work, and they took the sharp, steady climb +well enough. +</P> + +<P> +"I like this," said Dolly. "It's awfully slow, but you can see the +country. On some of those big trains you go so fast you can't see a +thing, and this is really worth seeing." +</P> + +<P> +"It certainly is!" exclaimed Bessie, who was gazing raptly out of the +window. "Look back there where we came from! Who would ever have +thought that there were so many lakes and ponds?" +</P> + +<P> +"We're getting so high above them now that we can see them, Bessie. +Look, there's Long Lake, and I do believe I can see Loon Pond, too!" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm sure of it, Dolly. Oh, this is splendid! But we can't see much +up ahead, can we?" +</P> + +<P> +"Nothing but trees. It's like the old story of the man who wanted to +see a famous forest, and when he was in the very middle of it he said +he couldn't see the forest because there were so many trees." +</P> + +<P> +"I've seen mountains before," said Zara. "But they weren't like this. +Where I used to live there would be one or two big mountains, but they +stood out, and you could see all the way up no matter how close you +were." +</P> + +<P> +"Were they all covered with trees, like this?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, not at all. There were lots of little farms, and olive trees, and +gardens. And sometimes there would be smoke coming from the top of the +mountains." +</P> + +<P> +"You mean the volcanoes, don't you?" said Dolly. "I'd like to see an +eruption some time. Like the ones at Vesuvius." +</P> + +<P> +"I never saw one," said Zara, with a shudder. "But I've seen the paths +where the lava came down, and the places where people were killed, and +where whole villages were wiped out. I'm glad there aren't any around +here." +</P> + +<P> +"So is Dolly, Zara," said Bessie, dryly. "She's always wishing for +things she doesn't really want at all, because she thinks they would be +exciting." +</P> + +<P> +That would have started an argument without fail, if Dolly had not just +then had to devote her attention to something that she noticed before +anyone else. She sniffed the air that came in through the car windows +once or twice. +</P> + +<P> +"I smell smoke," she said.. "And look at the sun! It's so funny and +red. See, you can look at it without it hurting your eyes at all. And +it's a good deal darker, the way it gets before a thunder shower, +sometimes." +</P> + +<P> +"She's right," said Bessie. "I believe the woods must be on fire +somewhere near here." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm afraid they are," said Eleanor Mercer, who had stopped in the +aisle beside them and had overheard Bessie's remark. "But not very +near. You know the smoke from a really big forest fire is often +carried for miles and miles, if the wind holds steady." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, it can't be so very far—not more than twenty or thirty miles, +can it, Miss Eleanor?" +</P> + +<P> +"It's impossible to say, but I have known the smoke from a fire two +hundred miles away to make people uncomfortable. They can't smell it, +but it darkens the air a little." +</P> + +<P> +"Why, I had no idea of that!" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, here's something stranger yet. I heard you all talking about +volcanoes. A good many years ago there was a frightful eruption in +Japan, or near Japan, rather, when a mountain called Krakatoa broke +out. That was the greatest eruption we know anything about. And a +long time afterward people began to notice that the sunsets were very +beautiful half the way around the world from it, and no one knew why, +until the scientists explained that it was the dust from the volcano!" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I hope this fire isn't where we are going!" said Dolly. +</P> + +<P> +"So do I," said Eleanor. "That's the very first thing I thought of, +though. It wouldn't do to go into a country while the fire was on, +because it might be dangerous and we'd certainly be in the way of the +people who were fighting it, and that wouldn't be right." +</P> + +<P> +"Whatever should we do, Miss Eleanor? Go home?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I hardly think it's likely to be as bad as that. We might have to +stay at Crawford for a day or two, but I was planning to spend tonight +there, anyhow. Some friends of ours have a big camp on the lake, and +they said we could stay, if we wanted to." +</P> + +<P> +"Is it as pretty a place as Long Lake?" +</P> + +<P> +"I think so. But it's quite different. Lake Dean is a great big +place, you know. It's more than thirty miles long, and you could put +Long Lake into it and never know where it was. But it's very +beautiful. And it's the highest big lake anywhere in this part of the +world. It's right in the mountains." +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose there will be lots of people there?" asked Dolly. +</P> + +<P> +"Plenty," said Eleanor, smiling back at her. "But we won't have much +to do with them, we'll be there such a short time." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, well, I don't care!" said Dolly, defiantly, as she heard the laugh +that greeted Eleanor's answer. "I probably wouldn't like them, anyhow!" +</P> + +<P> +"I really do think it's getting darker. We must be getting nearer to +the fire," said Bessie, who had been looking out of the window. "Do +you suppose it was some careless campers who started it, Miss Eleanor?" +</P> + +<P> +"That's pretty hard to say. But a whole lot of fires do get started by +just such people in the woods. It shows you why we are so careful when +we build a fire and have to leave the place." +</P> + +<P> +In the next hour, as the train still crawled upward, the smoke grew +thicker and thicker, until presently it was really like dusk outside +the car, and, though it was hot, the windows had to be closed, since +the smoke was getting into the eyes of all the passengers and making +them smart. +</P> + +<P> +"I used to think a forest fire would be good fun," said Dolly, choking +and gasping for breath, "but there isn't any fun about this. And if +it's as bad as this here, think of what it must be like for the people +who are really close to it." +</P> + +<P> +"It's about the most serious thing there is," said Eleanor, gravely. +"There's no fun about a forest fire." +</P> + +<P> +At Crawford they saw the big lake, but much of its beauty was hidden +since it lay under a pall of heavy smoke. Even then they could see +nothing of the fire, but the smoke rose thickly from the woods to the +west of the lake, and they soon heard, from those about the station, +that a great section of the forest in that direction was ablaze. +</P> + +<P> +"Good thing the lake's in the way," said one of the station porters. +"That's the only thing that makes us safe. It can't jump water. If it +wasn't for that it'd be on us by morning." +</P> + +<P> +"There are cottages and camps on the other side of the lake though, +aren't there?" asked Dolly. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, and they're fighting hard to save them," said the porter. "They +ain't got much chance, though, unless the wind shifts and sends the +fire back over the ground it's burned over already. It's got out of +hand, that's what that fire's been an' gone and done." +</P> + +<P> +"We'll have to stay here until it's out," said Eleanor, with decision. +"Our road begins right up there"—she pointed to the northwest end of +the lake—"and the chances are the fires will be burning over that way +before the night's over. However, I don't believe there'll be a great +amount of damage done, if they can save the buildings on the shores of +the lake." +</P> + +<P> +"Why not, Miss Eleanor?" asked Margery. "It looks like a pretty bad +fire." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, it is, but there isn't a great deal to burn. About two or three +miles back from the lake there's a wide clearing, and the fire must +have started this side of that, or it wouldn't have jumped. And it +can't have been burning very long, or we'd have had the smoke at Long +Lake." +</P> + +<P> +Then she went off to make some inquiries, and was back in a few minutes. +</P> + +<P> +"Come on, girls," she said. "It's only about ten minutes' walk to Camp +Sunset, where we are to stay." +</P> + +<P> +And she led the way down to the lake, and along to a group of buildings +made out of rough hewn logs, that stood among trees near the water. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh!" gasped Dolly, when they were inside the main buildings. "They +call this a camp! Electric lights, and it couldn't be better furnished +if it were in the city!" +</P> + +<P> +"The Worcesters like to be comfortable," said Eleanor, with a smile, +"even when they pretend they're roughing it. It is a beautiful place, +though I like our own rough shacks in the Long Lake country better." +</P> + +<P> +"Come on! I want to explore this place, Bessie!" cried Dolly. "May +we, Miss Eleanor?" +</P> + +<P> +"Go ahead, but be back in half an hour. We've got to help to get +dinner, even if we are in the midst of luxury!" +</P> + +<P> +So off went the two girls, and Dolly, always delighted by anything new, +was all over the place in a few minutes. +</P> + +<P> +"Look at those summer houses—places for having tea, I bet," she said. +"Hello! Why, there's another camp, just like this!" +</P> + +<P> +Sure enough, through the trees they could see other buildings, all logs +outside, but probably all luxury within. And, even while they were +looking at them, Dolly suddenly heard her own name. +</P> + +<P> +"Dolly! Dolly Ransom! Is that really you?" +</P> + +<P> +Dolly and Bessie looked up, surprised, for the call came from above and +a girl began to climb down from a tree above them, and they saw that +she had been hidden on a platform that was covered by leaves and +branches. +</P> + +<P> +"Gladys Cooper!" said Dolly. "Well, whoever would have thought of +seeing you here?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, there are lots of us here!" said Gladys, rushing up to Dolly as +soon as she reached the ground, and embracing her. "We're all in a +regular camp here, about a dozen of us. We're supposed to do lessons, +but I haven't looked at a book since I've been here, and I don't +believe any of the other girls have, either!" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh," said Dolly, suddenly remembering Bessie. "This is Bessie King, +Gladys. And this is my friend Gladys Cooper, Bessie. We used to go to +school together before her parents sent her off to boarding-school." +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly Gladys broke into a roar of laughter. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, this is rich!" she exclaimed. "I forgot—why, you must be one of +the Camp Fire Girls who are coming here, aren't you, Dolly?" +</P> + +<P> +"I certainly am—and Bessie's another," said Dolly, a little +resentfully. "Why are you laughing?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, it seems so funny for you to belong! None of our crowd do, you +know, except you. We were furious when we heard you were coming. We +couldn't see why the Worcesters let you people have the camp. But +you'll spend all your time with us, won't you, Dolly? And"—she seemed +to remember Bessie suddenly—-"bring your friend along, sometimes." +</P> + +<P> +"Indeed, and I'll stay with my own friends!" she said, flushing hotly. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap12"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XII +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +ENEMIES WITHOUT CAUSE +</H4> + +<P> +"Horrid little snob!" commented Dolly, as, with the surprised Bessie +following her, she turned on her heel abruptly and left Gladys Cooper +standing and looking after her. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, Dolly! What's the matter? And why did she talk that way about +the Camp Fire Girls?" +</P> + +<P> +"Because she's just what I called her—a snob! She thinks that because +her father has lots of money, and they can do whatever they like that +she and her family are better than almost anyone else. And she and her +nasty crowd think the Camp Fire Girls are common because some of us +work for a living!" +</P> + +<P> +Dolly's honest anger was very different from the petulance that she had +sometimes displayed, as on the occasion when she had been jealous of +poor Bessie. And Bessie recognized the difference. It seemed to +reveal a new side of Dolly's complex character, the side that was loyal +and fine. Dolly was not resenting any injury, real or fancied, to +herself now; the insult was to her friends, and Bessie realized that +she had never before seen Dolly really angry. +</P> + +<P> +"As if I'd leave you girls and stay with them while we're here!" cried +Dolly. "I can just see myself! They'd want to know if I didn't think +Mary Smith's new dress was perfectly horrid, and if I said I did, +they'd go and tell her, and try to make trouble. Oh, I know +them—they're just a lot of cats!" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, don't you think you may be hard on her, Dolly?" asked Bessie. +Secretly she didn't think so; she thought Gladys Cooper was probably +just what Dolly had called her. But it seemed to her that she ought to +keep Dolly from quarreling with an old friend if she could. "Maybe she +just wanted to see you, and she knew you, and didn't know the rest of +us." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, nonsense, Bessie! You're always trying to make people out better +than they are. I don't know these girls who are up here with her, but +she'd say she knew me, and that we lived in the right sort of street at +home, and that her mother and my aunt called on one another, so I'm all +right. I know her little ways!" +</P> + +<P> +And Bessie was wise enough to see that to argue with Dolly while she +was in such an angry mood would only make matters worse. Bessie loved +peace, because, perhaps, she had had so little of it while she lived in +Hedgeville with the Hoovers. But Dolly wasn't in a peaceful mood, and +words weren't to bring her into one, so Bessie decided to change the +subject. +</P> + +<P> +"We'd better hurry back," she said. "I really think it must be almost +time to start getting supper ready." +</P> + +<P> +"Good!" said Dolly. "We haven't really come so far, but it's taken us +a long time, hasn't it? That old train from Moose Junction is about +the pokiest thing in the way of a train I ever saw." +</P> + +<P> +So they made their way back to the big building that, as they had +already learned, was called the "Living Camp." The sleeping rooms were +in other and smaller buildings, that were grouped about the central +one, in which were only three rooms, beside the big kitchen, a huge, +square hall, with a polished floor, covered with skins instead of rugs, +to bear out the idea of a rough woods dwelling, and two smaller rooms +that were used as a dining-room and a library. +</P> + +<P> +And, as soon as they arrived, they found that they were not the only +ones who had had an encounter with their next door neighbors. Margery +Burton was talking excitedly to Eleanor Mercer. +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't know I was on their old land!" she was saying. "And, if I +was, I wasn't doing any harm." +</P> + +<P> +"Tell me just what happened, Margery," said Eleanor, quietly. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, I was just walking about, looking around, the way one always does +in a new place, and the first thing I knew a girl in a bathing suit +came up to me!" +</P> + +<P> +"'I beg your pardon,' she said, 'but do you know that you are +trespassing?' +</P> + +<P> +"I said I didn't, of course, and she sort of sneered. +</P> + +<P> +"'Well, you know it now, don't you?' she said, as if she was trying to +be just as nasty as she could. 'Why don't you go to the land you're +allowed to use? I do think when people are getting charity they ought +to be careful!'" +</P> + +<P> +"That's another of that crowd of Gladys Cooper's," stormed Dolly. +"What did you say, Margery? I hope you gave her just as good as she +sent!" +</P> + +<P> +"I was so astonished and so mad I couldn't say a thing," said Margery. +"I was afraid to speak—I know I'd have said something that I'd have +been sorry for afterward. So I just turned around and walked away from +her." +</P> + +<P> +"What did she do? Did she say anything more, Margery?" asked Eleanor, +who, plainly, was just as angry as Dolly, though she had better control +of her temper. +</P> + +<P> +"No, she just stood there, and as I walked off she laughed, and you +never heard such a nasty laugh in your life! I'd have liked to pick up +a stone and throw it at her!" +</P> + +<P> +"Good for you! I wish you had!" said Dolly. "It would have served her +right—the cat! Bessie and I met one of them, too, but I happened to +know her, so she asked me to come and spend all my time with them while +we were here! I'm glad I sailed into her. Bessie seemed to think I +was wrong, but I'm just glad I did." +</P> + +<P> +Eleanor Mercer looked troubled. She understood better than the girls +themselves the reason for what had happened, and it distressed and hurt +her. The other girls who had heard Margery's account of her experience +were murmuring indignantly among themselves, and Eleanor could see +plainly that there was trouble ahead unless she could manage the +situation—the hardest that she had yet had to face as a Camp Fire +Guardian. +</P> + +<P> +"You say it was Gladys Cooper you saw, Dolly?" she said. "The Gladys +Cooper who lives in Pine Street at home?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, that's the one, Miss Eleanor." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm surprised and sorry to hear it," said Eleanor. "How does she +happen to be there, Dolly? Do you know? The Coopers haven't any camp +here, I know." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, it's a girls' summer camp, Miss Eleanor. You know the sort. +They're run for a lot of rich girls, whose parents want to get rid of +them for the summer. They're supposed to do some studying, but all +they, ever really do is to have a good time. I'd have gone to one this +year if I hadn't joined the Camp Fire Girls instead. Gladys laughed at +me in the city when she heard I was going to join." +</P> + +<P> +"Mrs. Cooper wouldn't like it, I know that," said Eleanor, +thoughtfully. "She's a charming woman. She and my mother are great +friends, and I know her very well, too. There's nothing snobbish about +her, though they have so much money. I remember now; they went to +Europe this summer, and they didn't take Gladys with them." +</P> + +<P> +"I wish they had!" said Dolly, viciously. "I wish she was anywhere but +here." +</P> + +<P> +"Well," said Eleanor, "I'll find out in the morning just where the line +comes between the two camps, and we'll have to be careful not to cross +it." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm sure none of us want to go into their camp," said Margery. "But +there's no fence, and there aren't any signs, so how is one to know?" +</P> + +<P> +"We'll find some way to tell," said Eleanor, decisively. "And we won't +give them any chance to make any more trouble. They've got a right to +warn us off their property, of course, though they're just trying to be +nasty when they do it. But as long as they are within their rights, we +can't complain just because they're doing it to be ugly. We mustn't +put ourselves in the wrong because nothing would suit them better." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I hope we'll be able to get away to-morrow!" said Margery, +angrily. "I don't want ever to see any of them again." +</P> + +<P> +Eleanor's eyes flashed. +</P> + +<P> +"I've made up my mind to one thing," she said. "We're going to stay +here just as long as we like! I don't intend to be driven away in that +fashion. And I shouldn't wonder if we could start our missionary work +better with them than with anyone else!" +</P> + +<P> +"That's right—about staying here, I mean!" said Dolly, +enthusiastically. "Why, Margery, if we ran away now, they'd think they +had scared us off. You wouldn't want that, would you?" +</P> + +<P> +"No, I guess not!" said Margery. "I hadn't thought of that. But it's +true. It would be giving them an awful lot of satisfaction, wouldn't +it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Understand, Dolly, and the rest of you," said Eleanor, firmly, "I +don't mean to have any petty fighting and quarrelling going on. But I +won't let them think they can make us run away, either. Pay no +attention to them and keep out of their way, if you can. But we've got +just as much right to be here as they have to be in their camp, because +we're here as the guests of the Worcesters." +</P> + +<P> +"I know Miss Worcester," said Margery, hotly. "I'll bet she'd be +furious if she knew how they were acting." +</P> + +<P> +"She doesn't need to know, though, Margery," said Eleanor. "This is +our quarrel, not hers, and I think we can manage to settle it for +ourselves. Don't begin thinking about it. Remember that we're in the +right. It will help you to keep your tempers. And don't do anything +at all to make it seem that we're in the wrong." +</P> + +<P> +"My, but Miss Eleanor was angry!" said Dolly, when she was alone with +Bessie' after supper, which, despite the unpleasantness caused by the +girls next door, had been as jolly as all meals that the Camp Fire +Girls ate together. "I'm glad to see that she can get angry; it makes +her seem more lake a human being." +</P> + +<P> +Bessie laughed. +</P> + +<P> +"She can get angry, all right, Dolly," she said. "I've heard it said +that it isn't the person who never gets angry that ought to be praised; +it's the person with a bad temper who controls it and never loses it. +Miss Eleanor was angry because she is fond of us and thought those +other girls were being nasty to us. It wasn't to her that they'd been +nasty." +</P> + +<P> +"No, and just you watch Gladys Cooper if she gets a chance to see Miss +Eleanor! The Mercers have got just as much money as the Coopers, and +they are in just as good society. But you don't see Miss Eleanor +putting on airs about it! Gladys would be nice enough to her, you can +bet!" +</P> + +<P> +"Dolly, why don't you go over and see Gladys, if you know her so well? +You might be able to talk to her and make her see that they are in the +wrong." +</P> + +<P> +"No, thank you, Bessie! I'm no good at that sort of thing. I'd just +get angry again, and make the trouble worse than ever. If she's got +any sense at all, she must know I'm angry, and why, and if she wants to +be decent she can come over and see me." +</P> + +<P> +Nothing more happened that night. The girls, tired from their journey, +were glad to tumble into bed early. They all slept in one house, which +contained only sleeping rooms, and, because of the smoke, which was +still being blown across the lake when they went to bed, windows had to +be closed. The house was ventilated by leaving a big door open in the +rear and on the side away from the wind and the smoke, and of course +all the doors of the sleeping rooms were also left open. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm awfully sorry that smoke is blowing this way," said Dolly. "Look +here, Bessie, there's a regular porch running all the way around the +house. And do you see these screens that you can let down? I bet they +sleep out here." +</P> + +<P> +"They do," said Eleanor. "This sleeping porch arrangement is one of +the very best things about this camp, I think. But I don't see how we +can use it to-night, for the smoke is much too thick." +</P> + +<P> +So they regretfully closed their windows. And in the morning they +found that visitors had been at the house during the night. Every +window was firmly closed from the outside, wedges having been driven in +in such a fashion that it was impossible to open the windows from +within. The doors, too, were barred in some manner. +</P> + +<P> +"That's a joke those girls from the next camp played on us!" cried +Dolly, furiously. "Look there! They must have done it. No one else +could have managed it." +</P> + +<P> +The house resembled nothing so much as a hive of angry bees. The girls +buzzed with indignation, and loud were the threats of vengeance. +</P> + +<P> +"How are we going to get out?" cried Margery, indignantly. "What a +wicked thing to do! Suppose the place had caught fire? We might all +have been burned up just because of their joke!" +</P> + +<P> +But Bessie had busied herself in seeking a means of escape instead of +planning revenge, and now she called out her discovery. +</P> + +<P> +"Here's a little bit of a window, but I think I can get through it," +she said, emerging from a closet that no one had noticed. "If you'll +boost me up I'm pretty sure I can get out." +</P> + +<P> +"But you'll only be on the porch when you do get out, Bessie," said +Dolly. +</P> + +<P> +"I think maybe I can get those wedges out of the windows if I get out +there. If I can't, I'm quite sure I can manage to get to the ground +and get help. You see, everything downstairs is barred the same way. +I don't see how they could have done all that without our hearing them." +</P> + +<P> +"We were sleeping pretty soundly, Bessie," said Eleanor, her cheeks red +with indignation at the trick that had been played upon her girls. "If +the windows had been open, they couldn't have done it." +</P> + +<P> +Bessie had hard work getting through the tiny closet window, which had +been overlooked by the raiders, but she managed it somehow, and in a +moment she was outside. She first ran to the edge of the porch to look +around, and, to her anger and surprise, she saw a group of girls, all +in bathing suits, watching her and the house. At her appearance a +shout of laughter went up, and she recognized Dolly's friend, Gladys +Cooper, who was evidently a ringleader in the mischief. +</P> + +<P> +Bessie was sorely tempted to reply, but she realized that she would +only be playing into their hand if she seemed to notice them at all, +and, going to the other side of the house so that they could not see +her, she examined the windows. But she decided very quickly that she +could do nothing without tools of some sort, and she had none to work +with. +</P> + +<P> +Without any further hesitation, she slipped over the rail of the porch, +being still out of sight of the raiders, and went down the pillar, +which, being nothing more than a tree with its bark still clinging to +it, gave her an easy descent. Once on the ground, her task was easy. +She worked very quietly, and in a minute or two she had one of the +ground floor windows open. Eleanor Mercer, who had heard her at work, +was waiting for her. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Miss Eleanor," said Bessie, tensely, "those girls are all around +at the other side of the house, watching. They laughed at me like +anything when they saw me, and I'm sure they think we'll have to get +the guide to let us out." +</P> + +<P> +"Good," said Eleanor, snappily. "Do you think we can get behind them, +Bessie?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm sure we can, if we go out this way and go around through the +trees." +</P> + +<P> +So bidding the other girls to stay behind for the moment, Eleanor +climbed out, and followed Bessie off the porch and around to the back +of the house. They swung around in a wide arc, moving quietly and +making as little noise as possible, until they heard laughter in front +of them. And a moment later they came around, and faced the astonished +raiders. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap13"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XIII +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +A PLAN OF REVENGE +</H4> + +<P> +Bessie had to laugh at the sight of Gladys Cooper's face when Dolly's +friend saw Miss Eleanor. It fell, and Gladys turned the color of a +beet. Evidently she had had no idea that Miss Mercer was with the Camp +Fire Girls. +</P> + +<P> +"How do you do, Gladys?" said Eleanor, pleasantly. "Do you know that +you are trespassing?" +</P> + +<P> +"The—the Worcesters gave us permission to come on their land whenever +we liked," stammered Gladys. +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, when they supposed that they and their guests were to receive the +same sort of courtesy from you. But the Worcesters aren't here just +now, and I must ask you girls not to come across the line at all, +unless you wish to behave in a very different manner." +</P> + +<P> +"I—I don't know what you mean, Miss Mercer. We haven't done +anything—" +</P> + +<P> +"That's silly, Gladys. I'm not going to do anything about it, but I +think it would be very easy to prove that it was you and your friends +who locked us in. Didn't you stop to think of what would have happened +if there had been a fire?" +</P> + +<P> +Gladys grew pale. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't suppose you did," Eleanor went on. "I don't think you mean to +be wicked, any of you. But just try to think of how you would have +felt if that house had caught fire in the night, and some of us had +been burned to death because we couldn't get out." +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't—we never thought of that," said Gladys. "Did we, girls?" +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I don't suppose you did. But that doesn't excuse the trick you +played at all. I'm not going to say anything more now, but I think +that if you stop to consider yourselves, you'll find out how mean you +were, and what a contemptible thing you've done." +</P> + +<P> +With heads hanging, and tears in the eyes of some of them, completely +crushed by Miss Eleanor's quiet anger as they would not have been had +she heaped reproaches upon them, the raiders started to return to their +own camp. Eleanor stood aside to let them pass; then, with Bessie, she +went back to the camp. +</P> + +<P> +"I hardly think we'll have any more trouble with them," she said. +</P> + +<P> +"I don't see why they dislike us so much," said Bessie. "We haven't +done anything to them." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't know how to explain it, Bessie. It isn't American; that's the +worst thing about it. But you know that in Europe they have lords and +dukes and an aristocracy, don't you? People who think that because +they're born in certain families they are better than anyone else?" +</P> + +<P> +"Yes." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, there's a good deal of excuse for people to feel that way over +there, because it's their system, and everyone keeps on admitting it, +and so making the aristocrats believe it. They're the descendants of +men who, hundreds of years ago, really did do great things, and earned +certain honors that their children were allowed to inherit." +</P> + +<P> +"But it isn't the same over here at all, Miss Eleanor." +</P> + +<P> +"No, and that's just it. But these girls, you see, are all from rich +homes. And in this country some people who have a lot of money are +trying to make an aristocracy, and the only reason for being in it is +having money. That's all wrong, because in this country the best men +and women have always said and believed that the only thing that +counted was what you were, not what you had." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I'm not going to feel bad about them, Miss Eleanor. I guess +that if they really were such wonderful people they wouldn't think they +had to talk about it all the time, they'd be sure that people would +find it out for themselves." +</P> + +<P> +"You're very sensible, Bessie, and I only hope the other girls will +take it the same way. I really couldn't blame them if they tried to +get even in some fashion, but I hope they won't, because I don't want +to have any trouble. I'm afraid of Dolly, though." +</P> + +<P> +"I think Dolly's perfectly fine!" said Bessie, enthusiastically. "They +were willing to be nice to her, but she stuck to us, and said she +wouldn't have anything to do with them." +</P> + +<P> +"That's what the Camp Fire has done for her, Bessie. I'm afraid that +if Dolly hadn't joined us, she'd have been as bad as they are, simply +because she wouldn't have stopped to think." +</P> + +<P> +Bessie considered that thoughtfully for a moment before she answered. +</P> + +<P> +"Well, then, Miss Eleanor," she said, finally, "don't you suppose that +if that's so, some of those girls would be just as nice as Dolly, if +they belonged to the Camp Fire and really understood it?" +</P> + +<P> +"I'm sure of it, Bessie—just as sure as I can be! And I do wish there +was some way of making them understand us. I'd rather get girls like +that, who have started wrong, than those who have always been nice." +</P> + +<P> +Contrary to Bessie's expectations, when they reached the Living Camp, +Eleanor made no appeal to the girls to refrain from trying to get even +with the raiders. Eleanor knew that if she gave positive orders that +no such attempt was to be made she would be obeyed, but she felt that +this was an occasion when it would be better to let the girls have free +rein. She knew enough about them to understand that a smouldering fire +of dislike, were it allowed to burn, would do more harm than an +outbreak, and she could only hope that they would not take the matter +too seriously. +</P> + +<P> +"We're all going in bathing this afternoon after lunch," said Dolly to +Bessie, after breakfast. "I asked Miss Eleanor, and she said it would +be all right. The water's cold here, but not too cold, and with this +smoke all over everything, I think it will be better in the water than +it would be anywhere else." +</P> + +<P> +"The wind hasn't shifted much yet, has it?" said Zara. +</P> + +<P> +"It's shifted, but not altogether the right way," said Bessie. "I +think the houses along the lake are all right now, but the wind is +blowing the fire in a line parallel with them, you see, and it will +burn over a lot more of the woods before they can get it under control." +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Eleanor says we'll have to stay here a couple of days, at least," +said Margery. "Girls, what do you think about those cats in the next +camp?" +</P> + +<P> +Dolly's teeth snapped viciously. +</P> + +<P> +"I think we ought to get even with them," she said. "Are we going to +let them think they can play a trick like that on us and not hear +anything at all about it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, what's the use?" said Margery. "I think it would be better if we +didn't pay any attention to them at all—just let them think we don't +care." +</P> + +<P> +"You were mad enough last night and this morning, Margery," said Dolly. +"You didn't act then as if you didn't care!" +</P> + +<P> +"No, I suppose I didn't. I was as mad as a wet hen, and there's no +mistake about that. But, after all, what's the use? I suppose we +could put up some sort of game on them, but I'm pretty sure Miss +Eleanor wouldn't like it." +</P> + +<P> +"I think you're right," said Bessie. "If we let them alone they'll get +tired of trying to do anything nasty to us. You ought to have seen the +way they sneaked off when Miss Eleanor spoke to them this morning. +They acted just the way I've seen a dog do after it's been whipped." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, that's all right, too, Bessie," said Dolly. "But that won't last. +They probably did feel pretty cheap at first, but when they've had a +chance to talk things over, they'll decide that they had the best of +us. And I know how Gladys Cooper and the rest of the girls from home +will talk. They'll tell about it all over town." +</P> + +<P> +"Let them!" said Margery. "I'm not going to do a thing. And you can't +start a war all by yourself, Dolly. If you try it you'll only get into +trouble, and be sorry." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, will I?" said Dolly, defiantly. "Well, I'm not saying a word. +But if I see a good chance to get even with them, I'm going to do +it—and I won't ask for any help, either! Just you wait!" +</P> + +<P> +"Let's quit scrapping among ourselves, Dolly. Wouldn't they just be +tickled to death if they knew we were doing that! Nothing would please +them any better." +</P> + +<P> +But even Margery's newly regained patience was to be sorely tried that +afternoon, when, after an early lunch, the Camp Fire Girls donned their +bathing dresses and went in swimming off the float in front of the +Worcester camp. +</P> + +<P> +"Come on, Dolly," she cried. "See that rock out there? I'll race you +there and back!" +</P> + +<P> +They went in together, diving so that their heads struck water at just +the same moment, while the rest of the girls watched them from the +float. On the outward journey they were close together, but they had +not more than started back when there was a sudden outburst of laughter +from the float where Gladys Cooper and her friends were watching, and +the next moment a white streak shot through the water, making a +terrific din, and kicking up a tremendous lot of spray. +</P> + +<P> +"Whatever is that?" cried Zara. +</P> + +<P> +"A motor boat," said Mary King. "Look at it go! Why, what are they +trying to do?" +</P> + +<P> +The answer to that question was made plain in a moment. For the motor +boat, into which three or four of the girls from the next camp had +leaped, kept dashing back and forth between the float and the rock. It +raised great waves as it passed, and made fast swimming, and for that +matter, swimming of any sort, almost impossible. Moreover, it was +plain from the laughter of those on board that their only purpose was +to annoy the Camp Fire Girls and spoil their sport in the water. +</P> + +<P> +Dolly and Margery, exhausted by their struggle with the waves from the +motor boat, struggled to the float as best they could and came up, +dripping and furious. +</P> + +<P> +"See that!" cried Dolly. "They can't be doing that for fun. All they +want to do is to bother us. You'd think we had tried to do something +mean to them the way they keep on nagging us." +</P> + +<P> +"They certainly seem to be looking for trouble," said Margery, "But +let's try not to pay any attention to them, girls." +</P> + +<P> +Margery knew that Eleanor Mercer expected her, so far as she could, to +help her on the rare occasions when it was necessary to keep the girls +in order, and she realized that she was facing a test of her temper and +of her ability to control others: She was anxious to become a Guardian +herself, and she now sternly fought down her inclination to agree with +Dolly that something should be done to take down the arrogant girls +from the next camp, who were so determined to drive them away. +</P> + +<P> +"I shall have to speak to whoever is in charge of those girls," said +Eleanor. "I'm quite sure that no teacher would permit such behavior, +but I can imagine that anyone who tried to control those girls would +have her hands full, too." +</P> + +<P> +"You bet she would!" said Dolly. "Miss Eleanor, isn't there some way +we can get even?" +</P> + +<P> +Eleanor ignored the question. All her sympathies were with Dolly, but +she really wanted to avoid trouble, although it was easy to see that +unless the other girls changed their tactics, trouble there was bound +to be. So she tried to think of what to say to Dolly. +</P> + +<P> +"Try to be patient, Dolly," she said, finally. "Did you ever hear the +old saying that pride goes before a fall? I've never known people to +act the way those girls are doing without being punished for it in some +fashion. If we give them the chance, they'll do something sooner or +later that will get them into trouble. And what we want to do, if we +can, is to remember that two wrongs don't make a right, and that for us +to let ourselves become revengeful won't help matters at all." +</P> + +<P> +But for once Dolly did not seem disposed to take Miss Eleanor's advice +as she usually did. Stealing a look at her chum's face, Bessie knew +that Dolly would not rest until she had worked some scheme of revenge, +and she felt that she couldn't blame Dolly, either. She could never +remember being as angry as these rich, snobbish girls had made her. +</P> + +<P> +Time and again,—every time, in fact, that any of the Camp Fire Girls +ventured into the water—the motor boat returned to the charge. Their +afternoon's sport in the water, to which all the girls had looked +forward so eagerly, was completely spoiled, and the tormentors did not +refrain even when Miss Eleanor, who had intended to sit on the float +without swimming at all, challenged two or three of the girls to a +race. She did that in the hope that the other girls might respect her, +but her hope was vain. +</P> + +<P> +To be sure, Gladys Cooper seemed to be a little frightened at the idea +of bothering Miss Eleanor. +</P> + +<P> +"Let's keep off until she's through," Bessie heard Gladys saying. +"That's Miss Mercer—she knows my mother. We oughtn't to bother her. +She comes from one of the best families in town." +</P> + +<P> +But Gladys was laughed down. +</P> + +<P> +"She'll have to suffer for the company she keeps, then," said a big, +ugly-looking girl. "Can't play favorites, Gladys! We want to make +them see they're not wanted here. My mother only let me come here +because we were told this was an exclusive place." +</P> + +<P> +And Miss Eleanor, like the others, was soon forced to beat a retreat to +the float. Dolly was strangely silent for the rest of the day. +Bessie, watching her anxiously, could tell that Dolly had some trick in +her mind, but, try as she would, she could not find out what her plan +was. +</P> + +<P> +"No, I won't tell you, Bessie," said Dolly, when her chum finally asked +her point-blank what she meant to do. "You're not a sneak, and I'm not +afraid of your telling on me, but you'll be happier if you don't know." +</P> + +<P> +Bessie felt that whatever Dolly might try to do to the other girls +would serve them right, but she was worried about her chum. And when +Dolly slipped off by herself after dinner, Bessie determined that she +would not let her chum run any risks alone, even if she was not a +sharer of Dolly's secret. +</P> + +<P> +It was not a hard matter to trace Dolly, even though Bessie let her +have a good start before she followed. She knew that any plan Dolly +had must involve going to the other camp, and she hid herself, moving +carefully so as to avoid detection, in a place that commanded the +approach. And in a very abort time she heard Dolly coming; and saw +that she was carrying a large basket with the utmost care. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap14"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XIV +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +THE SPIRIT OF WO-HE-LO +</H4> + +<P> +Bessie stole along silently behind Dolly. She wanted very much to say +something, but she was afraid of what might happen if she let Dolly +know that she was spying on her. And she had made up her mind, anyhow, +that she would do more harm than good by interfering at this time. +</P> + +<P> +Whatever it was she was doing might be wrong, but, after all, she had a +good deal of provocation, and she had been far more patient already +than anyone who knew her would have expected her to be. +</P> + +<P> +"I bet they're just trying to work her up to trying to get even," +Bessie reflected to herself. "Gladys Cooper knows her, so she must +know what a temper Dolly has, and she must be surprised to think that +she hasn't managed to arouse her yet." +</P> + +<P> +That thought made Bessie gladder than ever that she had decided to +follow Dolly. While she was not in the plot herself, she meant to be +in it if Dolly got into trouble, or if, as Bessie half feared, it +turned out that her chum was walking into a trap. Moreover, she was +entirely ready to take her share of the blame, if there was to be any +blame, and to let others believe that she had shared Dolly's secret +from the first and had deliberately taken part in the plot. +</P> + +<P> +Dolly's movements were puzzling. Bessie had expected her to go to the +back of the camp, and when she heard laughter and the sound of loud +talking coming from the boathouse, which was, of course, on the very +shore of the lake, Bessie breathed a sigh of relief, since it seemed to +her that the fact that the other girls were there would greatly +increase Dolly's chance of escaping detection. +</P> + +<P> +But instead of taking advantage of what Bessie regarded as a great +piece of luck, Dolly paused to listen to the sounds from the boathouse, +and then turned calmly and walked in its direction. +</P> + +<P> +For a moment an unworthy suspicion crossed Bessie's mind. +</P> + +<P> +"I wonder if she can be going to see them—to make up with them?" +Bessie asked herself. +</P> + +<P> +But she answered her own question with an emphatic no almost as soon as +she had asked it. Dolly's anger the night before and that afternoon +had not been feigned. +</P> + +<P> +As she neared the boathouse, Dolly moved very cautiously. Even though +she could see her, Bessie could not hear her, and she even had +difficulty in following Dolly's movements, for she had put on a dark +coat, and was an inconspicuous object in the darkness. +</P> + +<P> +From the boathouse there now came the sound of music; a phonograph had +been started, and it was plain from the shuffling of feet that the +girls inside were dancing. Dolly crept closer and closer, until she +reached one of the windows. Even as she did it a sharp, shrill voice +cried out, and Bessie saw someone rush toward her from the darkness of +a clump of trees near the boathouse. It was a trap, after all! Bessie +rushed forward, but before she had taken more than a couple of steps, +and before, indeed, her assailant could reach her, Dolly had +accomplished her purpose. +</P> + +<P> +Still running, Bessie saw her lift the basket she carried, and throw it +point-blank through the window, first taking off the cover. And then +the noise of the phonograph, the shout of Dolly's assailant, and all +the noises about the place were drowned in a chorus of shrill screams +of terror from inside the boathouse. +</P> + +<P> +Bessie had never heard such a din. For the life of her she could not +guess what Dolly had done to produce such an effect, and she did not +stop to try. For the girl who had seen Dolly and rushed toward her, +although too late to stop her, had caught hold of Dolly and was +struggling to hold her. +</P> + +<P> +Bessie rushed at her, however, and, so unexpected was her coming, that +the other girl let go of Dolly and turned to grapple with the rescuer. +That was just what Bessie wanted. With a quick, twisting motion she +slipped out of the other girl's grip, and the next moment she was +running as hard as she could to the back of the camp, where, if she +could only get a good start, she would find herself in thick woods and +so safe from pursuit. +</P> + +<P> +She knew Dolly had recognized her at once. But neither had called the +other's name, since that would enable whoever heard them to know which +of the Camp Fire Girls was responsible for this sudden attack. +</P> + +<P> +As she ran Bessie could bear Dolly in front of her, and she knew that +Dolly must be able to hear her. Otherwise she was sure her chum would +have turned back to rescue her. Behind her the screams of the +frightened girls from the boathouse were still rising, but when Bessie +stopped in ten minutes, she could hear no signs of pursuit. +</P> + +<P> +"Dolly!" she cried. "It's all right to stop now. They're not chasing +us any more." +</P> + +<P> +Dolly stopped and waited for her, and when she came up Bessie saw at +once that Dolly was angry—and at her. +</P> + +<P> +"Much good it did you to try to stop me, didn't it?" said Dolly, +viciously. "You got there too late!" +</P> + +<P> +"I didn't try to stop you, and I was right behind you all the time!" +said Bessie, angrily. "I was behind you so that if you got into any +trouble I'd be there to help you—and I was. You're very grateful, +aren't you?" +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Bessie, I am sorry! I might have known you wouldn't do anything +sneaky. And you certainly did help me! I was going to thank you for +that anyhow, as soon as I'd scolded you. But I knew you didn't want to +try to get even with them, and I supposed, of course, that you were +there to stop me." +</P> + +<P> +Suddenly she began to laugh, and sat down weakly on the ground. +</P> + +<P> +"Did you hear them yell?" she gasped. "Listen to them! They're still +at it!" +</P> + +<P> +"Whatever did you do to them, Dolly? I never heard such a noise in my +life! You'd think they really had something to be afraid of." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, wouldn't you? Instead of just a basket full of poor, innocent +little mice that were a lot more frightened than they were!" +</P> + +<P> +"Dolly Ransom!" gasped Bessie. "Do you mean to say that's what you +did?" +</P> + +<P> +Bessie tried hard to be shocked, but the fun of it overcame her of a +sudden, and she joined Dolly on the ground, while they clung to one +another and rocked with laughter. +</P> + +<P> +"I wasn't able to stop and watch them. That's all I'm sorry for now," +said Dolly, weakly. "But hearing them was pretty nearly as fine, +wasn't it?" +</P> + +<P> +"Never heard of such a thing to do!" panted Bessie. "However did you +manage it, Dolly? Where did you get the mice?" +</P> + +<P> +"Promise not to tell, Bessie? I can't get anyone else into trouble, +you know." +</P> + +<P> +Bessie nodded. +</P> + +<P> +"It was the guide—the Worcester's guide. He's just as mad at them as +we are. It seems they've bothered him a lot, anyhow, and he didn't +like them even before we came. He suggested the whole thing, and he +was willing to do it. But I told him it was our quarrel, and that it +was up to one of us to do it if he would get the mice. So he did, and +put them in that basket for me. The rest of it was easy." +</P> + +<P> +"They'll be perfectly wild, Dolly. I bet they'll be over at the camp +complaining when we get back." +</P> + +<P> +"Let them complain! It won't do them much good! Miss Eleanor is going +to give me beans for doing it, but she won't let them know it! I know +her, and she won't really be half as angry as she'll pretend to be." +</P> + +<P> +"It was a wild thing to do, Dolly." +</P> + +<P> +"I suppose it was, but did you think I was going to let Gladys Cooper +tell all over town how they treated us? She'll have something to tell +this time." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, you got even, Dolly. There's no doubt of that. We'd better +hurry back now, don't you think? They're quieter down there." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm going to tell Miss Eleanor what I did just as soon as I see her," +said Dolly. "She'd find out that it happened sooner or later, and I'm +not ashamed of having done it, either. I'd do the same thing to-morrow +if I had as good a reason!" +</P> + +<P> +And, sure enough, as soon as they reached the camp, Dolly marched up to +Miss Eleanor, who was sitting by herself on the porch, and told her the +whole story. +</P> + +<P> +"And was Bessie in this too?" asked Eleanor, trying to look stern, but +failing. +</P> + +<P> +"No, she was not. She didn't know what I was going to do at all. She +just followed to see that I didn't get into any trouble. And I'd have +been caught if she hadn't been there." +</P> + +<P> +"I—I'm sorry you did it, Dolly," said Eleanor, almost hysterically. +She was trying to suppress the laughter that she was shaking with, but +it was hard work. "Still, I don't believe I'll scold you very much. +Now you've got even with them for all the things they've done—more +than even, if the screams I heard mean anything. We didn't know what +was up." +</P> + +<P> +"Not exactly <I>what</I> was up," said Margery, who had overheard part of +the conversation, "but we knew who was up as soon as we found you were +gone, Dolly." +</P> + +<P> +Margery looked at Miss Eleanor, then she choked, and left the porch +hurriedly. And the next moment roars of laughter came from the other +girls, as Margery told them the story. +</P> + +<P> +"But I'm glad you've told me all about it, Dolly," said Eleanor. "I +don't mind saying that I think you had a good deal of excuse—but do +try to let things work out by themselves after this. The chances are +you've only made them hate us more than ever, and they will feel that +it's a point of honor now to get even with us for this. All the girls +will have to suffer for what you did." +</P> + +<P> +Even as she spoke, Bessie saw two or three figures approaching from the +direction of the other camp, and a shrill voice was raised. +</P> + +<P> +"There she is, Miss Brown. She's the one who's supposed to look after +them." +</P> + +<P> +Gladys Cooper was the speaker, but as soon as she saw Eleanor look +around she dropped back, leaving a woman whose manner was timid and +nervous, and whose voice showed that she had little spirit, to advance +alone. +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Mercer?" she said, inquiringly, to Eleanor. "I am Miss Brown, +and I have been left in charge of Miss Halsted's Camp this summer while +she is away. She is ill. I am one of the teachers in her school—" +</P> + +<P> +"Sit down, Miss Brown," said Eleanor, kindly. One look at poor Miss +Brown explained the conduct of the girls in her care. She was one of +those timid, nervous women who can never be expected to control anyone, +much less a group of healthy, mischievous girls in need of a strong, +restraining hand. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm—really very sorry—I don't like—but I feel it is my duty—to +speak to you, Miss Mercer," stammered Miss Brown. "The fact is—the +young ladies seem to think it was one of your Camp Fire Girls who let +loose a—number of mice in our boathouse this evening." +</P> + +<P> +"I'm afraid it was, Miss Brown," said Eleanor, gravely. "And I need +hardly say that I regret it. I naturally do not approve of anything of +the sort. But your girls have themselves to blame to a certain extent." +</P> + +<P> +"Why, I don't see how that can be!" said Miss Brown, looking bewildered. +</P> + +<P> +"Now, Miss Brown, honestly, and just between us, haven't they made your +life a burden for you ever since you've been here with them alone? Let +me tell you what they've done since we've been here." +</P> + +<P> +And calmly and without anger, Eleanor told the teacher of the various +methods of making themselves unpleasant that the girls in the camp had +adopted since the coming of the Camp Fire Girls. She raised her voice +purposely when she came to the end. +</P> + +<P> +"Now, mind, I don't approve of this joke with the mice," she said. +"But I do think it would be more plucky if your girls, after starting +all the trouble and making themselves as hateful as they possibly +could, had kept quiet when the tables were turned. When they worried +us, we didn't go over to make a complaint about them. I must say I am +disappointed in those of your girls whom I happen to know, like Gladys +Cooper. I thought she was a lady." +</P> + +<P> +There was a furious cry from the darkness beyond the porch, and the +next instant Gladys herself was in front of Eleanor, with tears of rage +in her eyes. +</P> + +<P> +"You shan't say I'm not a lady," she cried. "I don't care if you are +Miss Mercer! We don't want your horrid charity girls up here, and we +tried to make them understand it—" +</P> + +<P> +"Stop!" said Eleanor, sternly. "Listen to me, Gladys! I like your +mother, and I'm sorry to see you acting in such a way. What do you +mean by charity girls?" +</P> + +<P> +"They haven't got the money to come up here," stammered Gladys. +</P> + +<P> +"It hasn't been given to them, if you mean that," said Eleanor. "We +don't believe in idle, useless girls in the Camp Fire. And every girl +here, even those like Dolly Ransom, who could have got the money at +home very easily, have earned all their expenses for this vacation, +except two who didn't have time, and are here as my guests. Don't talk +about charity. They have a better right to be here than you have. Now +go away, and if you don't want to have unpleasant things happen to you, +don't do unpleasant things to other people." +</P> + +<P> +Quite cowed by the sudden anger in Eleanor's voice, Gladys didn't +hesitate. And Miss Brown, before she left the porch, looked wistfully +at Eleanor. +</P> + +<P> +"I wish I had your courage, my dear," she whispered. "That served +Gladys right, but if I spoke so to her, I should lose my position." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I suppose it wasn't a nice thing to do," said Dolly, as she and +Bessie prepared for bed that night. "But I really do think we won't +have any more trouble. I think Gladys and the rest of them have +learned a lesson." +</P> + +<P> +"I hope so, Dolly," said Bessie. "I wouldn't have done it myself, but +I really am beginning to think that maybe it was the best thing that +could have happened. Thunderstorms clear the air sometimes; perhaps +this will have the same effect." +</P> + +<P> +It was well after midnight when the girls were awakened by loud +knocking below. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, that's some trick of theirs," said Dolly, sleepily, and turned +over again. +</P> + +<P> +But a few minutes later Eleanor's voice, calling them, took them +downstairs in a hurry. They found her talking to Miss Brown, who was +in tears. +</P> + +<P> +"Girls," said Eleanor, "Gladys Cooper and another girl are lost, and +they must be out on the mountain. It's turned very cold. Shall we +help find them? We haven't been friends, but remember what Wo-he-lo +means!" +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap15"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XV +</H3> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +COALS OF FIRE +</H4> + +<P> +There wasn't a single dissenting voice. Once they knew what was +required, the girls rushed at once to their rooms to dress, and within +ten minutes they were all assembled on the porch. Mingled with them +were most of the girls from Miss Halsted's camp, thoroughly frightened +and much distressed, and evidently entirely forgetful of the trouble +that had existed as late as that evening between the two camps. +</P> + +<P> +"Now, I'll tell you very quickly what the situation is," said Eleanor. +"Don't mind asking questions, but make them short. It seems that some +of the other girls over there were angry at Gladys when they got back +there after Miss Brown came here to see me. And they told her she had +been wrong in setting them against us." +</P> + +<P> +"I knew she was the one who had done it!" Dolly whispered to Bessie. +</P> + +<P> +"She and one other girl, Marcia Bates, were great chums, and they got +angry. They said they wouldn't stay to be abused—isn't that right, +Miss Brown?—and they decided to go for a walk in the woods back of the +lake here." +</P> + +<P> +"They've often done it before," said Miss Brown. "I thought it was all +right and they would have gone, anyhow, even if I'd told them not to do +it." +</P> + +<P> +"When they started," Eleanor went on, "the moon was up, and there were +plenty of stars, so that they should have been able to find their way +back easily, guided by the moon or by the Big Bear—the Dipper. But +it's clouded up since then and it's begun to rain. The wind has +changed, too, and they might easily have lost themselves." +</P> + +<P> +"Wouldn't they be on a regular trail?" asked Margery Burton. +</P> + +<P> +"There aren't any regular trails back here," spoke up one of the girls +from the Halsted camp. "There are just a lot of little paths that +criss-cross back and forth, and keep on getting mixed up. It's hard +enough to find your way in daylight." +</P> + +<P> +"They have sent for guides from the big hotel at the head of the lake," +said Eleanor. "They will get here as soon as they can, and a few men +are out searching already. But I think the best thing for us to do is +to organize a regular patrol. We'll beat up the mountain quickly, and +pretty well together, in a long line, so that there won't be more than +a hundred feet between any two of us. Then when we get to the ridge +about half way up we'll start back, and cover the ground more +carefully, if we haven't found them." +</P> + +<P> +"Why won't we go beyond the ridge?" asked Dolly. +</P> + +<P> +"We'll leave that part to the men. I think myself that it's most +unlikely they would go beyond that. I've had our guides here make up a +whole lot of resinous torches. They'll burn very brightly, and for a +long time, and each of us will take as many as she can carry, about +fifteen or twenty. +</P> + +<P> +"And I've made up a lot of little first-aid packages, in case one of +the girls is hurt, or has twisted her ankle. That may be the reason +they're out so late. When we start to come back we'll break up in +twos, and each pair will go back and forth, instead of coming straight +down, so that we'll cover the whole side of the mountain." +</P> + +<P> +"How shall we know if we find them?" asked Bessie. "I mean how will +the others know?" +</P> + +<P> +"I've got one horn for every two of us," said Eleanor. "One toot won't +mean anything, just that we're keeping in touch. But whoever finds +them is to blow five or six times, very close together. It's very +still in the woods, and a signal like that can be heard even when +you're a long way from it." +</P> + +<P> +"Can't some of us go and help, Miss Mercer?" asked one of the Halsted +girls, the one, incidentally, who had been the ruling spirit in the +trick to spoil the pleasures of swimming for the Camp Fire Girls. +</P> + +<P> +"I think you better stay at home, and get a lot of good hot coffee or +broth or something ready for them when they get back," said Eleanor. +"They'll need something of the sort, I can promise you. And really, +I'm afraid you'd be rather useless in the woods. Our girls, you see, +have to be able to find their way pretty well. You'll be more useful +at home." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't expect to find them on the way up," said Eleanor, as they +started. "We might, of course, but we'll look better coming back, and +it's then that I think we'll have the best chance. Come on, now! +Shout every little while." +</P> + +<P> +The night was pitch black now. A fine mist of rain was falling and +threatening to become a steady downpour. It was a bad night for +anyone, even those who were hardened, to be out in the woods without +shelter or special covering, and it was about as bad as it could be for +girls who were not at all used to even the slightest exposure. +</P> + +<P> +Eleanor's face was very grave, and she looked exceedingly worried as +she crossed back and forth in front of the line of Camp Fire Girls, +lifting her own voice in shouts to the lost ones, and giving hints here +and there for the more important homeward journey. +</P> + +<P> +The trip up the mountain produced no results. The rain was falling +more heavily, and, moreover, the wind was rising. It blew hard through +the trees and the silence of the woods that Eleanor had spoken of was a +thing of the past. The wind sighed and groaned, and Eleanor grew more +and more worried. +</P> + +<P> +"We've got to search just as carefully as we can," she said. "We +mustn't leave any part of this ground uncovered. With all the noise +the wind is making, we might easily pass within a few feet of them and +shout at the top of our lungs without them hearing us. It is going to +be even harder to find them than I feared, but we have just got to do +the best we can." +</P> + +<P> +At the top of the ridge of which she had spoken, Eleanor marshalled her +forces. She told them off two by two, and Bessie and Dolly were +assigned to work together. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm going to cover the whole ground, and keep in touch with all of +you," she said. "Keep blowing your horns, there's more chance that +they will be heard. You all have your pocket compasses and plenty of +matches, haven't you? I don't want any of my own girls to be lost." +</P> + +<P> +"All right," she said, when they had all answered. "Now I want each of +you to take a strip about six yards wide as we go down, and just walk +back and forth across it. If you come to any gullies or holes where +they might have fallen down be particularly careful. Light your +torches, and look into them. Don't pay attention to the paths or +trails, just cover the ground." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I do hope we can find them!" said Bessie, as they started. "I'd +hate to think of their being out here all night on a night like this." +</P> + +<P> +"Yes, and in a way it's really my fault," said Dolly, remorsefully. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, Dolly, how can you think that?" +</P> + +<P> +"It was because Gladys quarrelled with the rest of them that she went +out. And if I hadn't thrown those mice in at them there wouldn't have +been any quarrel. Don't you see?" +</P> + +<P> +"I think it's silly to blame yourself, though, Dolly. She might have +gone out just the same, anyhow." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I'll never forgive myself if anything happens to them, Bessie. +I might have kept my temper, the way you and Margery did. They didn't +do any more to me than they did to the rest of you. Oh, I am sorry, +and I am going to try to control myself better after this." +</P> + +<P> +Then they went on in silence for a time. Bessie felt sorry for Dolly, +and she really did think that Dolly's conscience, now that it was +beginning to awaken, was doing more than its share. It was unlike the +care-free Dolly to worry about anything she had done, but it was like +her, too, to accuse herself unsparingly once she began to realize that +she might possibly be in the wrong. It was Dolly's old misfortune that +was grieving her now; her inability to forecast consequences before +they came along to confound her. +</P> + +<P> +For a long time they had no results, and the blowing of horns and the +occasional flash of a torch between the trees showed them that the +others were meeting with no better success. Sometimes, too, Eleanor +joined them for a moment. She could tell them nothing, and they +continued to search with unabated vigor. +</P> + +<P> +"Look, Bessie!" said Dolly, suddenly. She had lighted a torch to +explore a gully a few moments before, and it was still burning +brightly. Now it showed them the opening of what looked like a cave, +black and dismal looking. +</P> + +<P> +"Why, do you think they might be in there?" asked Bessie. "I'll blow +my horn in the mouth. They'd hear that, and come out." +</P> + +<P> +But blow as hard as she would, there was no answer. She turned away in +disappointment. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm afraid they're not there," she said. +</P> + +<P> +"I'm going in to find out," said Dolly, suddenly. "They might not have +heard us. You can't tell what that horn would sound like in there; it +might not make any noise at all." +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, I don't believe they're in there," said Bessie. "And I think it +might be dangerous. There might be snakes there, or a hole you would +fall into, Dolly." +</P> + +<P> +"I don't care! This is all my fault, and I'm going!" +</P> + +<P> +And without another word, she plunged into the dark entrance. Bessie +tried to call her back, but Dolly paid no heed. And in a moment, first +leaving behind signs of their having gone in, Bessie followed her, +lighting another torch. She had not gone far when she heard a happy +cry from Dolly. +</P> + +<P> +"Here they are! I've found them!" Dolly shouted. "They're sound +asleep, and I don't believe there's a thing the matter with them!" +</P> + +<P> +Nor was there. Both the lost girls slept soundly, and when Gladys +finally woke up, blinking at the light of the torches, she looked +indignantly at Dolly. +</P> + +<P> +"You're a sneak, Dolly Ransom!" she said. "I should think you would +want to stay with your own sort of people—" +</P> + +<P> +But Dolly was too happy at finding the pair of strays to care what +Gladys said to her. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, come off, Gladys!" she said. "I suppose you don't know that +you're lost, and that half the people around the lake are out looking +for you? Come on! You'll catch a frightful cold lying here with those +thin dresses on. Hurry, now!" +</P> + +<P> +And finally she managed to arouse them enough to make them understand +the situation. Even then, however, Gladys was sullen. +</P> + +<P> +"That's that silly old Miss Brown," she said. "It's just like her to +go running off to your crowd for help, Dolly. I suppose we ought to be +grateful, but we'd have been all right there until morning." +</P> + +<P> +Dolly didn't care to argue the matter. Her one thought now was to get +outside of the cave and send out by means of the horns the glad news +that the lost ones were found. In a few moments she and Bessie, +blowing with all their might, announced the good tidings. +</P> + +<P> +"Now you two will just walk as fast as you can, so that you can get +into bed and have something warm inside of you. I'll be pretty mad if +you get pneumonia and die after all the trouble we've taken to save +you!" she said, laughing. +</P> + +<P> +Gladys wasn't in any mood, it seemed, to appreciate a joke. As a +matter of fact, both she and Marcia Bates had awakened stiff from the +cold, and though she wouldn't admit it she was very glad of the +prospect of a warm and comfortable bed. +</P> + +<P> +And when the searchers and the rescued ones reached the Halsted Camp, +Gladys wasn't left long in doubt as to the fate of the vendetta she had +declared against the Camp Fire Girls. For, even while she was being +put to bed, she could hear the cheers that were being given by her own +chums for the girls she had tried to make them despise. +</P> + +<P> +"Oh, Miss Mercer, I think you and the Camp Fire Girls are splendid!" +said Emily Turner, the big girl who had been the ringleader of the +tricks with the motor boat. "You're going to stay here quite a while, +aren't you?" +</P> + +<P> +"No," said Eleanor, regretfully. "It was only the fire that made us +stay here as long as we have. Now this wind and rain have ended that, +and we'll go on as soon as the storm is over; day after to-morrow, if +it clears up to-morrow, so that it will be dry when we start." +</P> + +<P> +"Well, I hope we'll see you again—all of you," said Emily. "Come on, +girls, let's give the school cheer for the Manasquan Camp Fire!" +</P> + +<P> +They gave it with a will and then Dolly sprang to her feet. +</P> + +<P> +"Now, then, the Wo-he-lo cheer!" she called. +</P> + +<P> +They sang it happily, and then, as they moved toward their own camp, +their voices rose in the good-night song of the Camp Fire: <I>Lay me to +sleep in sheltering flame</I>. +</P> + +<P> +"I believe Miss Eleanor was right, after all," said Bessie. "Those +girls really like us now." +</P> + +<P> +"All but Gladys Cooper," said Dolly. "But then she doesn't know any +better. And she'll learn." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<HR> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap16"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +SUMMER SNOW +<BR> +AND +<BR> +OTHER FAIRY PLAYS +</H3> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +By GRACE RICHARDSON +</P> + +<P> +Finding there is a wide demand for plays which commend themselves to +amateurs and to casts comprised largely of children, Miss Richardson, +already well and widely known, has here given four plays which are +unusually clever and fill this need. They call for but little stage +setting, and that of the simplest kind, are suited to presentation the +year around, and can be effectively produced by amateurs without +difficulty. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +PUCK IN PETTICOATS +</H3> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +By GRACE RICHARDSON +</P> + +<P> +Five plays about children, for children to play—Hansel and Gretel, The +Wishing Well, The King of Salt, The Moon Dream, and Puck in Petticoats. +Each is accompanied by stage directions, property plots and other +helpful suggestions for acting. Some of the plays take but twenty +minutes, others as long as an hour to produce, and every one of the +five are clever. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +HANDY BOOK OF PLAYS FOR GIRLS +</H3> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +By DOROTHY CLEATHER +</P> + +<P> +Not one of the six sparkling plays between these covers calls for a +male character, being designed for the use of casts of girls only. +They are easily, effectively staged—just the sort that girls like to +play and that enthusiastic audiences heartily enjoy. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<HR> + +<BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +FICTION FOR GIRLS +</H3> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +BETTY, The SCRIBE +</H4> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +By LILIAN TURNER +<BR> +Drawings by KATHARINE HAYWARD GREENLAND +</P> + +<P> +Betty is a brilliant, talented, impulsive seventeen-year-old girl, who +is suddenly required to fill her mother's place at the head of a +household, with a literary, impractical father to manage. +</P> + +<P> +Betty writes, too, and every time she mounts her Pegasus disaster +follows for home duties are neglected. Learning of one of these +lapses, her elder sister comes home. Betty storms and refuses to share +the honors until she remembers that this means long hours free to +devote to her beloved pen. She finally moves to the city to begin her +career in earnest, and then—well, then comes the story. +</P> + +<P> +"Miss Turner is Miss Alcott's true successor. The same healthy, +spirited tone is visible which boys and girls recognized in LITTLE MEN +and LITTLE WOMEN."—The Bookman. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +Elizabeth Hobart at Exeter Hall +</H4> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +By JEAN K. BAIRD +<BR> +Illustrated by R. G. VOSBURGH +</P> + +<P> +A spirited story of every-day boarding-school life that girls like to +read. Full of good times and girlish fun. +</P> + +<P> +Elizabeth enters the school and loses no time in becoming one of the +leading spirits. She entertains at a midnight spread, which is +recklessly conducted under the very nose of the preceptress, who is +"scalped" in order to be harmless, for every one knows she would never +venture out minus her front hair; she champions an ostracized student; +and leads in a daring plan to put to rout the Seniors' program for +class day. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +The Saalfield Publishing Co., AKRON, OHIO +</H4> + +<BR><BR> + +<HR> + +<BR><BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +THE BRADEN BOOKS +</H4> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +FAR PAST THE FRONTIER +</H3> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +By JAMES A. BRADEN +</P> + +<P> +The sub-title "Two Boy Pioneers" indicates the nature of this +story—that it has to do with the days when the Ohio Valley and the +Northwest country were sparsely settled. Such a topic is an unfailing +fund of interest to boys, especially when involving a couple of +stalwart young men who leave the East to make their fortunes and to +incur untold dangers. +</P> + +<P> +"Strong, vigorous, healthy, manly."—Seattle Times. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +CONNECTICUT BOYS IN THE WESTERN RESERVE +</H4> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +By JAMES A. BRADEN +</P> + +<P> +The author once more sends his heroes toward the setting sun. "In all +the glowing enthusiasm at youth, the youngsters seek their fortunes in +the great, fertile wilderness of northern Ohio, and eventually achieve +fair success, though their progress is hindered and sometimes halted by +adventures innumerable. It is a lively, wholesome tale, never dull, +and absorbing in interest for boys who love the fabled life of the +frontier."—Chicago Tribune. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +THE TRAIL OF THE SENECA +</H4> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +By JAMES A. BRADEN +</P> + +<P> +In which we follow the romantic careers of John Jerome and Return +Kingdom a little farther. +</P> + +<P> +These two self-reliant boys are living peaceably in their cabin on the +Cuyahoga when an Indian warrior is found dead in the woods nearby. The +Seneca accuses John of witchcraft. This means death at the stake if he +is captured. They decide that the Seneca's charge is made to shield +himself, and set out to prove it. Mad Anthony, then on the Ohio, comes +to their aid, but all their efforts prove futile and the lone cabin is +found in ashes on their return. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +CAPTIVES THREE +</H4> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +By JAMES A. BRADEN +</P> + +<P> +A tale of frontier life, and how three children—two boys and a +girl—attempt to reach the settlements in a canoe, but are captured by +the Indians. A common enough occurrence in the days of our +great-grandfathers has been woven into a thrilling story. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +The Saalfield Publishing Co., AKRON, OHIO +</H4> + +<BR><BR> + +<HR> + +<BR><BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +MARY A. BYRNE'S BOOKS` +</H4> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +THE FAIRY CHASER +</H4> + +<P> +"Telling of two boys who go into the vegetable and flower-raising +business instead of humdrum commercial pursuits. The characters and +situations are realistic."—PHILADELPHIA TELEGRAPH. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +LITTLE DAME TROT +</H4> + +<P> +One of the most pleasing of juveniles, made pathetic by the strength +with which the author pictures the central figure, a little girl made +miserable by her mother's strict adherence to a pet "method" of +training. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +THE LITTLE WOMAN IN THE SPOUT +</H4> + +<P> +"This pleasing story may have been developed from real life, from real +children, so true a picture does it portray of girlish life and +sports."—GRAND RAPIDS HERALD. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +ROY AND ROSYROCKS +</H4> + +<P> +A glowing Christmas tale, fresh and natural in situations, that will +interest both boys and girls. +</P> + +<P> +It tells how two poor children anticipate the joys of the holiday, and +how heartily they enter into doing their part to make the day merry for +themselves and others. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +PEGGY-ALONE +</H4> + +<P> +The chronicles of the Happy-Go-Luckys, a crowd of girls who did not +depend upon riches for good times. This club was very stretchible as +to membership, so they elected Peggy-Alone from pity of her loneliness. +Freed from governess, nurse and solicitous mother, she has the jolliest +summer of her life. +</P> + +<P> +Illustrated by Anna B. Craig +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +The Saalfield Publishing Co., AKRON, OHIO +</H4> + +<BR><BR> + +<HR> + +<BR><BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +THE BILLY WHISKERS SERIES +<BR> +BY +<BR> +FRANCES TREGO MONTGOMERY +</H4> + +<P> +Billy Whiskers—frolicsome, mischief-making, adventure-loving, Billy +Whiskers—is the friend of every boy and girl the country over, and the +things that happen to this wonderful goat and his numerous animal +friends make the best sort of reading for them. +</P> + +<P> +As one reviewer aptly puts it, these stories are "just full of fun and +good times," for Mrs. Montgomery, the author of them, has the happy +faculty of knowing what the small boy and his sister like in the way of +fiction. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +TITLES +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +BILLY WHISKERS<BR> +BILLY WHISKERS' KIDS<BR> +BILLY WHISKERS, JR.<BR> +BILLY WHISKERS' TRAVELS<BR> +BILLY WHISKERS AT THE CIRCUS<BR> +BILLY WHISKERS AT THE FAIR<BR> +BILLY WHISKERS' FRIENDS<BR> +BILLY WHISKERS, JR. AND HIS CHUMS<BR> +BILLY WHISKERS' GRANDCHILDREN<BR> +BILLY WHISKERS' VACATION<BR> +BILLY WHISKERS KIDNAPED<BR> +BILLY WHISKERS' TWINS<BR> +BILLY WHISKERS IN AN AEROPLANE<BR> +BILLY WHISKERS IN TOWN<BR> +BILLY WHISKERS IN PANAMA<BR> +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +The Saalfield Publishing Co., AKRON, OHIO +</H4> + +<BR><BR> + +<HR> + +<BR><BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +THE BETTY BOOKS +</H4> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +By ALICE HALE BURNETT +<BR><BR> +(For Girls 8 to 10 years old) +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Four very interesting stories, each complete in itself, relating the +many doings of Betty and her friends. The characters are <I>real</I> girls +and a happy, healthful tone lends the books additional charm. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +Betty and Her Chums +</H4> + +<P> +Amy and Louise visit Betty and the three girls spend a happy summer +together. A picnic supper on the mountain-top, at sunset, furnishes +much pleasurable excitement for a large party of girls and boys. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +Betty's Attic Theatre +</H4> + +<P> +With the help of their friends, Betty, Amy and Louise give a play which +is full of laughable mishaps. They have lots of fun getting ready for +the great event and it is voted a huge success. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +Betty's Carnival +</H4> + +<P> +The girls gave an affair for the benefit of the Fresh Air Fund. +Decorated floats sent down the river and viewed by the audience seated +on the shore. A lemonade and cake booth also help to make the affair a +most enjoyable one. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +Betty's Orphans +</H4> + +<P> +Betty and her two chums entertain three little orphans at her country +home. The city waifs find much to surprise and amuse them and to their +great joy all of them are finally adopted in pleasant homes. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +Illustrations in Color. +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +The Saalfield Publishing Co., Akron, Ohio +</H4> + +<BR><BR> + +<HR> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Camp Fire Girls in the Mountains, by +Jane L. 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Stewart + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Camp Fire Girls in the Mountains + or Bessie King's Strange Adventure + +Author: Jane L. Stewart + +Release Date: July 27, 2009 [EBook #29528] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CAMP FIRE GIRLS IN MOUNTAINS *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + + + + + +[Illustration: Cover art] + + + +[Frontispiece: The motor boat kept dashing back and forth, making +swimming almost impossible.] + + + + + +CAMP FIRE GIRLS SERIES, VOLUME IV + + + +The Camp Fire Girls + +In the Mountains + + +or + +Bessie King's Strange Adventure + + +by + +JANE L. STEWART + + + + + +THE SAALFIELD PUBLISHING COMPANY + +Chicago ---- AKRON, OHIO ---- New York + +MADE IN U. S. A. + + + + +Copyright, 1914 + +By + +The Saalfield Publishing Co. + + + + +THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS SERIES + + 1. THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS IN THE WOODS + 2. THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS ON THE FARM + 3. THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS AT LONG LAKE + 4. THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS IN THE MOUNTAINS + 5. THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS ON THE MARCH + 6. THE CAMP FIRE GIRLS AT THE SEASHORE + + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS + + I. PEACEFUL DAYS + II. FOREBODINGS OF TROUBLE + III. A NEW PLAN + IV. A FRIEND IN TROUBLE + V. A TANGLED NET + VI. BESSIE KING'S PLUCK + VII. BACK AT LONG LAKE + VIII. A NOVEL RACE + IX. THE PATHFINDERS + X. THE SIGNAL SMOKES + XI. OFF TO THE MOUNTAINS + XII. ENEMIES WITHOUT CAUSE + XIII. A PLAN OF REVENGE + XIV. THE SPIRIT OF WO-HE-LO + XV. COALS OF FIRE + + + + +The Camp Fire Girls In the Mountains + + +CHAPTER I + +PEACEFUL DAYS + +On the shores of Long Lake the dozen girls who made up the Manasquan +Camp Fire of the Camp Fire Girls of America were busily engaged in +preparing for a friendly contest and matching of skill that had caused +the greatest excitement among the girls ever since they had learned +that it was to take place. + +For the first time since the organization of the Camp Fire under the +guardianship of Miss Eleanor Mercer, the girls were living with no aid +but their own. They did all the work of the camp; even the rough work, +which, in any previous camping expedition of more than one or two days, +men had done for them. For Miss Mercer, the Guardian, felt that one of +the great purposes of the Camp Fire movement was to prove that girls +and women could be independent of men when the need came. + +It was her idea that before the coming of the Camp Fire idea girls had +been too willing to look to their brothers and their other men folks +for services which they should be able, in case of need, to perform for +themselves, and that, as a consequence, when suddenly deprived of the +support of their natural helpers and protectors, many girls were in a +particularly helpless and unfortunate position. So the Camp Fire +movement, designed to give girls self-reliance and the ability to do +without outside help, struck her as an ideal means of correcting what +she regarded as faults in the modern methods of educating women. + +Before the camp on Long Lake was broken up they hoped to have a +ceremonial camp fire, but there were gatherings almost every night +around the big fire that was not a luxury and an ornament at Long Lake, +but a sheer necessity, since the nights were cool, and at times chilly. +This fire was never allowed to go out, but burned night and day, +although, of course, it reached its full height and beauty after dark, +when the flames shot up high and sent grotesque shadows dancing under +and among the trees, and on the sandy beach which had been selected as +the ideal location for the camp. + +At these meetings everyone had a chance to speak. Miss Eleanor, or +Wanaka, as she was called in the ceremonial meetings, did not attempt +to control the talk on these occasions. She only led it and tried, at +times, to guide it into some particular channel. It would have been +easy for her to impress her own personality on the girls in her charge, +since they not only admired, but loved her, but she preferred the +expression of their own thoughts, and she knew, also, that to +accomplish her own purpose and that of the founders of the Camp Fire, +it was necessary for the girls to develop along their own lines, so +that when they reached maturity they would have formed the habit of +thinking things out for themselves and knowing the reason for things, +as well as the facts concerned. + +"I think we're too likely to forget the old days when this country was +being explored and opened up," Eleanor said one night. "Out west that +isn't so, and out there, if you notice, women play a much bigger part +than they do here. Those states in the far west, across the +Mississippi, give women the right to vote as soon as women show that +they want it. They are more ready to do that than the states in the +east." + +"Why is that, Wanaka?" asked Margery Burton, one of the Fire-Makers of +the Camp Fire. + +"In the west," said Eleanor, answering the question, "men and women +both find it easier to remember the old days of the pioneers, when the +women did so much to make the building of our new country possible. +They faced the hardships with the men. They did their share of the +work. They travelled across the desert with them, and, often, when the +Indians made attacks, the women used guns with the men." + +"But there isn't any chance for women to do that sort of thing now," +said Dolly Ransom, or Kiama, as she was known in the ceremonial +meetings. "The Indians don't fight, and the pioneer days are all over." + +"They'll never be over until this country is a perfect place to live +in, Dolly, and it isn't--not yet. Some people are rich, and some are +poor, and I'm afraid it will always be that way, because it has always +been so. But everyone ought to have a chance to rise, no matter how +poor his or her parents are. That was the idea this country was built +on. You know the words of the Declaration of Independence, don't you? +That all men are created free and equal? This was the first country to +proclaim that." + +"But what is there to do about that?" + +"Ever so many things, Dolly. Some men who have money use it to get +power they shouldn't have, to make people work without proper +conditions, and for too little money. Oh, there are all sorts of +things to be made right! And one reason that some of them have gone +wrong is that women who have plenty of comforts, and people to look +after them, have forgotten about the others. There is as much work for +women to do now as there ever was in the pioneer days--more, I think." + +"The Camp Fire Girls are going to try to make things better, aren't +they, Wanaka?" asked Margery Burton. For once she wasn't laughing, so +that her ceremonial name of Minnehaha might not have seemed +appropriate. But as a rule she was always happy and smiling, and the +name was really the best she could have chosen for herself. + +"Yes, indeed," said Eleanor. "So far we've been pretty busy thinking +about ourselves, and doing things for ourselves, but there has been a +reason for that." + +"What reason, Miss Eleanor?" asked Dolly. + +"Well, it's hard to get much done unless you're in the right condition +to do it. You know when an athlete is going to run in a long race, he +doesn't just go out and run. He trains for it a long time before he is +to run, and gets his body in fine condition. And it's the same with a +man who has some mental task. If he has to pass an examination, for +instance, he studies and prepares his mind. That's what we have to do; +prepare our minds and bodies. In the city, in the winter, we will take +up a lot of these things. I'm just mentioning them to you now so that +you can think about them and won't be surprised when we start to go +into them seriously." + +"I know something I've thought about myself," said Dolly, eagerly. "In +some of the stores at home they have seats so that the girls can sit +down when they don't have to wait on people. And in some they don't. +But in the stores where they do have them, the girls get more done, and +one of them told me once that she felt ever so much stronger and better +when the rush came in the afternoon, if she'd been able to sit down +instead of standing up all day." + +"Of course. And that's a splendid idea, Dolly. Some of the stores +make the girls stand up all day long, because they think it pleases the +women who come in to shop. But if you could make those store keepers +see that they'd really get more work done by the girls if they let them +rest when the stores are empty, they'd soon provide the chairs, even if +the law didn't make them do it." + +"This place looks as if pioneers might have lived here, Wanaka," said +Margery Burton. + +"They passed along here once, Margery, years and years ago, but they +were going on, and they didn't stop. You see, the reason this country +has stayed so wild is that it's hard to get at. The trees haven't been +cleared away, and roads haven't been built." + +"Isn't it good land? Wouldn't it pay to plough it, after the trees +were cut down?" asked Bessie King. + +"It would, and it wouldn't, Bessie. It's just about the same sort of +land as in the valleys below, where there are some of the best farms in +the whole state. But we need the forests, too. You know why, don't +you?" + +"No, I don't," said Bessie, after a moment's thought. "I know they're +beautiful, and that it's splendid for people to be able to come up here +and live, and camp out. But that isn't the only reason, is it?" + +"No, it isn't even anywhere near the most important, Bessie. You know +what a dry summer means, don't you? You lived long enough on Paw +Hoover's farm at Hedgeville to know that?" + +"Yes, indeed! It's bad for the crops; they all get burned up. We had +a drought two or three years ago. It never rained at all, except for +little showers that didn't do any good, all through July and August, +and for most of June, as well. Paw Hoover was all broken up about it. +He said one or two more summers like that would put him in the +poor-house." + +"Well, if there weren't any forests, all our summers would be like +that. The woods are great storehouses of moisture, and they have a lot +to do with the rain. Countries where they don't have forests, like +Australia, are very dry. And that's the reason." + +"They have something to do with floods, too, don't they, Wanaka?" asked +Dolly. "I think I read something like that, or heard someone say so." + +"They certainly have. In winter it rains a good deal, and snows, and +if there are great stretches of woods, the trees store up all that +moisture. But if there are no trees, it all comes down at once, in the +spring, and that's one of the chief reasons for those terrible floods +and freshets that do so much damage, and kill so many people." + +"But if that's so, why are the trees cut down so often?" + +"That's just one of the things I was talking about. Some men are +selfish, you see. They buy the land and the trees, and they never +think, or seem to care, how other people are affected when they start +cutting. They say it's their land, and their timber; that they paid +for it." + +"Well, I suppose it is--" + +"Yes, but like most selfish people, they are short-sighted. It is very +easy to cut timber so that no harm is done, and in some countries that +really are as free and progressive as ours, things are managed much +better. We waste a whole forest and leave the land bare and full of +stumps. Then, you see, it isn't any use as a storehouse for moisture, +which nature intended it to be, and neither is it any use to the timber +cutters, so that they have to move on somewhere else." + +"Could they manage that differently?" + +"Yes, if they would only cut a certain number of trees in any +particular part of the woods in any one year, and would always plant +new ones for every one that is taken out, there wouldn't be such a +dreadful waste, and the forests would keep on growing. That's the way +it is usually done abroad--in Germany, and in Russia, and places like +that. Over there they make ever so much more money than we do out of +forests, because they have studied them, and know just how everything +ought to be done." + +"Don't we do anything like that at all?" + +"Yes, we're beginning to now. The United States government, and a good +many of the states, have seemed to wake up in the last few years to the +need of looking after the woods better, and so I really believe that in +the future things will be managed much better. But there has been a +terrible lot of waste, here and in Canada, that it will take years to +repair." + +"They don't spoil the woods about here that way, do they?" + +"No; but then, you see, this is a private preserve, and one of the +reasons it is so well looked after is that some of the men who own it +like to come here for the shooting." + +"I know," said Margery. "I thought that was why the guides were kept +here." + +"It is, but it's only one reason. A few miles away, if we go that way, +I can show you acres and acres of woods that were burned two years ago, +and you never saw such a desolate spot in all your life. It's +beginning to look a little better now, because, if you give nature a +chance, she will always repair the damage that men do from +carelessness, and from not knowing any better." + +"Oh, I think it would be dreadful for all these lovely woods to be +burned up! And that wouldn't do anyone any good, would it?" + +"Of course not! That's the pitiful part of it. But a terrible lot of +fires do start in the woods almost every year. You see, after a hot, +dry summer, when there hasn't been much rain, the woods catch fire +easily, and a small fire, if it isn't stamped out at once, grows and +spreads very fast, so that it soon gets to be almost impossible to put +out at all." + +"I saw a forest fire once, in the distance," said Dolly. "It was when +I was out west, and it looked as if the whole world was burning up." + +"I expect it did, Dolly. And if you'd been closer, you'd have seen how +hard the rangers and everyone in the neighboring towns had to fight to +get control of that fire. It doesn't seem as if they could burn as +fast as they do, but they're terrible. It's the hardest fire of all to +put out, if it once gets away. That's why we have such strict rules +about never leaving a camping place without putting out a fire." + +"Would one of the little fires we make when we stop on the trail for +lunch start a great big blaze?" + +"It certainly would. It's happened just that way lots and lots of +times. Many campers are careless, and don't seem to realize that a +very few sparks will be enough to start the dry leaves burning. +Sometimes people see that their fire is just going out, as they think, +and they don't feel that it's necessary to pour water on it and make +sure that it's really dead. You see, the fire stays in the embers of a +wood fire a long, long time, smouldering, after it seems to be out, and +then--well, can't you guess what might happen?" + +"I suppose the wind might come up, and start sparks flying?" + +"That's exactly what does happen. Why, in the big forest preserves out +west they have men in little watch-towers on the high spots in the +hills, who don't do anything but look for smoke and signs of a fire. +They have big telescopes, and when they see anything suspicious they +make signals from one tower to the next, and tell where the fire is. +Then all the rangers and watchers run for the fire, and sometimes, if +it's been seen soon enough, they can put it out before it gets to be +really dangerous." + +"Well, I know now why I've got to be careful," said Dolly. "I wouldn't +start a fire for anything!" + +"Good! And I think it's time to sing the good-night song!" + + + + +CHAPTER II + +FOREBODINGS OF TROUBLE + +"I think we'll beat those old Boy Scouts easily when we have that field +day, Bessie," said Dolly Ransom to her chum, Bessie King. "Look at the +way we beat them in the swimming match the other day." + +A friendly rivalry between the Camp Fire Girls and the Boy Scouts of a +troop that was camping at a lake some miles away had led, a short time +before, to a swimming contest in which skill, and not speed and +strength, had been the determining factors, and, vastly to the surprise +and disgust of the boys, the girls had had the best of them. + +"We don't want to be over-confident," said Bessie. "You know they +thought we were easy, and I don't believe they tried as hard as they +might have done. After all, girls and boys aren't the same, and if +boys are any good, they're stronger and better at games than girls, no +matter how good the girls are." + +"Oh, they tried right enough," said Dolly. "They just couldn't do it, +that's all." + +"Another thing, Dolly, we've got to remember, is that those weren't +races. If they had been we'd have been beaten, because those boys +could really swim a lot faster than we could. It was just a case of +doing certain things and doing them just the right way. Anyone can +learn that if they're patient enough, and it's not really very +important. I'm glad we won, because I think boys sometimes get the +idea that girls can't do anything, and it's just as well for them to +find out that we can." + +"You're getting on, Bessie. When you first came from Hedgeville you +wouldn't have believed that, or, if you had, you wouldn't have said it." + +"Oh, I think I would have, Dolly. You know about the only boy I had +much to do with in those days was Jake Hoover, and you saw him when he +tried to help get me back where I'd be bound over to that Farmer Weeks +until I was grown up." + +"That's so, Bessie. You wouldn't have much use for boys if you thought +they were all like him, would you?" + +"I know they're not, though, Dolly. So I never got any such foolish +ideas." + +"What sort of things will we do in this field day, Bessie? Do you +know?" + +"Not exactly. Miss Mercer hasn't arranged everything yet with their +Scoutmaster, Mr. Hastings. You know the reason we're going to have it +is that Mr. Hastings used to tease Miss Mercer about the Camp Fire +Girls." + +"That's what I thought. He said we really couldn't manage by +ourselves, didn't he, if we were caught out in the woods without a man +to do a lot of things for us?" + +"I think he did. They say a lot of the Boy Scouts think the Camp Fire +Girls are just imitating them, and that isn't so at all, because I got +Miss Eleanor to tell me all about it. The Camp Fire Girls are more +serious. They want to prepare girls to make good homes, and look after +them properly, and to help them to make things better in their own +homes. + +"The Boy Scouts were organized partly to give boys something to do, and +to keep them out in the open air as much as possible, to make the boys +stronger, and healthier, and keep them from being idle and getting into +mischief." + +"Well, that's what we're for, too, isn't it?" + +"Yes, but not so much. Girls don't get into just the same sort of +mischief that boys do, so it's a different thing altogether. But, +anyhow, Miss Eleanor says it's silly for one to laugh and jeer at the +other; that all the Camp Fire people, the ones who are at the head of +the movement, approve of the Boy Scouts and think it's a fine thing, +and that most of the men who started the Boy Scout movement are +interested in the Camp Fire, too." + +"Then she's going to try to prove that we really can manage by +ourselves?" + +"Yes. And I think the idea is for their troop of Boy Scouts and our +Camp Fire to make a march on the same day, going about the same +distance, and doing everything without any help at all; cooking meals, +finding water, making camp, getting firewood, and everything of that +sort. A certain time is to be allowed for eating, and we are to make +smoke signals when we reach the camping place, and again when we leave. +There aren't to be any matches; all fires are to be made by rubbing +sticks together. We're to cook just the same sort of meals, and the +party that gets back to the starting point first wins." + +"We're not to go together, then?" + +"No. Won't it be much more exciting? You see, we won't know how +nearly finished they are. And they won't be able to see how fast we +are working. So each side ought to work just as fast as it can. It's +a new sort of a race, and I think it will be great sport." + +"Oh, so do I! We're each to spend the same amount of time eating?" + +"Yes, because if we didn't, one side could hurry through its meal, or +eat almost nothing at all, and get a start that way. And there's no +object in eating fast. It's to see how quietly we can march and +prepare our food and clean up afterward that we're having the test. It +isn't to be exactly like a race. The idea is to get as much fun and +good exercise out of it as anything else." + +"Still it really will be a race, because each side will want to win. +Don't the Boy Scouts have contests like that among themselves, +sometimes?" + +"Oh, yes. That's where the idea came from, of course." + +"My, Bessie, but I'm glad everything is so quiet around here now! It +doesn't seem possible that we've had such exciting times since we've +been here, does it?" + +"You mean about the gypsy who mistook you for me and tried to kidnap +you?" + +"Yes. I think he's safe for a time now. Did you see Andrew, the +guide, when he came in to tell Miss Eleanor about how they'd taken +those gypsies down to the town, where the sheriff took hold of them?" + +"No. What did he say?" + +"Why, it seems that on the way down, John--he's the one who actually +carried me off, you know--tried to bribe them and get them to let him +go free. He said he had a friend who would pay a whole lot of money if +they would let him escape, and they could pretend that he just got +away, so that no one would ever know that they had had anything to do +with it." + +"I suppose they just laughed at him?" + +"They certainly did, and tied him up a little tighter, so that there +wouldn't be any chance of his managing to get away." + +"Did he want them to let Lolla and Peter go, too?" + +"No, that's the funny part of it. He didn't seem to care at all what +happened to them, so long as he didn't have to go to jail. He's just +as mean as a snake, Bessie. I've got no use for him at all." + +"He was glad enough to have them help him when he wanted to get hold of +us, Dolly. But when he saw a chance to desert them he didn't remember +that, I suppose. What did Andrew think they would do to them?" + +"Well, he didn't know. He said that when the people in the town heard +what the gypsies had done they were pretty mad, but, of course, they +didn't really start to do anything to hurt them. The sheriff said he'd +see that they were kept tight until they could be tried, and Andrew +guessed they wouldn't have much chance of getting off when the people +around the town would be on the jury. The men in those parts haven't +any use for gypsies, you see, and they'd be pretty sure to see to it +that they were properly punished." + +"I wouldn't mind seeing Lolla get off, Dolly. I don't think she's as +bad as the others." + +"Oh, I do, Bessie. I think she's worse. Why, she did her best to get +you into the same trap I was in! She was treacherous and lied to you." + +"I know all that, too, Dolly. But it was because John made her do it. +He frightened her, I think, and besides that she's going to be married +to him, and among the gypsies a woman isn't supposed to do any thinking +when her husband tells her to do something. She just has to do it, +whether she thinks it's right or not. It isn't as if she had planned +the whole thing out." + +"Well, she hurt you more than she did me. If you don't want her to be +punished, I don't see why I should." + +"I don't think I want anyone to be punished, Dolly. But it isn't just +what I want that counts, and I suppose that if that man John got off so +easily it would be a bad thing, because if he's punished it may +frighten some others who'd be ready to do the same thing, and make them +understand that they'd better be careful before they do things that are +against the law." + +"Well, I'd like to see him in jail, just to get even for the fright he +gave me when he snatched me up and carried me off through the woods. +And he left me there in that place he found, too, with a handkerchief +in my mouth, and tied up so that I couldn't move, so I don't see why I +shouldn't be glad to see him suffering himself. It was awful, Bessie, +and if you hadn't followed me and had a chance to sneak in there and +cheer me up, I don't know what I would have done." + +"We'll have to tell what we know about what happened to us, I suppose," +said Bessie. "I don't like the idea of that, but Miss Eleanor says we +can't help it; that the law will make us do it." + +"Oh, I think it will be good fun. We'll get our names in the +newspapers, Bessie, and maybe there will be pictures of us. I won't +have any trouble telling them, either. I don't believe I'll ever +forget the things that happened to us that day, if I live to be a +hundred years old." + +"No, neither shall I." + +They had no more chance to discuss the matter, for just then they heard +the voice of Eleanor Mercer, the Guardian of their Camp Fire, calling +them. When they answered her call, finding her in the opening of her +own tent, her face was very grave. + +"I've just had a letter from Charlie Jamieson, my cousin, the lawyer," +she said. "I wrote to him about the extraordinary attempt that this +gypsy made to kidnap Dolly, and of how certain we were that Mr. Holmes +was back of it." + +"I wish we knew why Mr. Holmes is so anxious to get hold of me, or to +get me into the same state I came from, so that Farmer Weeks can keep +me there until I'm twenty-one," said Bessie, looking worried. + +"I wish so, too, Bessie," said Eleanor, anxiously. "I don't know how +much Dolly knows about this business, but I'm very much afraid that she +may be drawn into it from now on. And Mr. Jamieson agrees with me." + +"Why, how is that possible?" asked Bessie. "You don't mean that they +may try to take her away?" + +"I don't know, Bessie. That's the worst part of it. You see, they may +think she knows too much for it to be safe to leave her out of any +plans they are making now. We don't know what those plans are. This +last time, you see, Mr. Holmes evidently thought he had a splendid +chance to get hold of you through this gypsy, without being suspected +himself." + +"He thought everyone would just blame the gypsy and never think about +him at all, you mean?" + +"You see, the gypsy misunderstood--or rather Mr. Holmes misled him by +accident. He thought Dolly was Bessie, and the other way around. So +Dolly really suffered in your place that time, Bessie." + +"I'm very glad I did!" said Dolly, stoutly. + +"I know that, Dolly. You're not selfish, no matter what your other +faults may be. But I think you've got to understand just what we know +about the reasons for all this, though it isn't very much. Bessie +doesn't know much about her parents. They left her--because they had +to--when she was a very small girl, in charge of Mr. and Mrs. Hoover, +farmers, in Hedgeville." + +"I know about that, Miss Eleanor. The place where we first met Bessie +and Zara, you mean." + +"Yes. And Mrs. Hoover and her son Jake didn't treat Bessie well. In +fact, they treated her so badly that finally she ran away. You know +that the Camp Fire thinks people ought to stay at home, even if things +aren't very pleasant, but Bessie was quite right, I believe, to run +away then, because they had no real claim to her." + +"I should say she was!" + +"Well, you know about Bessie's chum, Zara, too. Her father was in +trouble, and was to be arrested. And when Zara and Bessie found out +that Zara was to be taken by this Mr. Weeks, a miser and a money +lender, Zara ran away, too, and we Camp Fire Girls helped them to get +away from that state and have been looking after them since." + +"And then they stole Zara away!" + +"No, not exactly. They lied to Zara, and told her things that made her +willing to go with them. Mr. Holmes seems to have been responsible for +that. You remember yourself how Mr. Holmes tricked you and Bessie into +going for a ride with him in his automobile, when we were all at the +farm?" + +"I certainly do! I ought to, because all the trouble we had then was +my own fault." + +"Well, never mind that, because, as it turned out, it was owing to that +ride that we got Zara back. She's with us now, and we are going to try +to keep her, and get her father out of prison, because Mr. Jamieson is +sure he is innocent. But we've got to be mighty careful, because we +don't know how Mr. Holmes happens to be mixed up with Farmer Weeks, and +why either of them should care anything about Bessie and Zara and +Zara's father. That's why I wanted to be sure that you understood as +much as we do ourselves." + +"I see, and I'll promise to be as careful as I can, Miss Eleanor. I +wouldn't get Bessie or Zara into any more trouble for the world." + +"I know you wouldn't, Dolly, and I hope it won't be very long before +the whole thing is straightened out. Mr. Jamieson is working hard to +try to find out what it is all about, and I think he's sure to find out +soon. This letter I had from him today is a new warning, really. He +says Mr. Holmes has hired lawyers to try to get that gypsy off." + +"That proves that he hired him, too, I should think," said Bessie. + +"It seems to, certainly, but I'm afraid it isn't legal proof, even +though it satisfies us. But the chief point is that Mr. Jamieson is +worried about you two when you have to testify." + + + + +CHAPTER III + +A NEW PLAN + +"Why, there couldn't be anything they could do to us then, I should +think!" exclaimed Dolly. + +"I hope not," said Miss Mercer. "But, well, we've had reason to learn +to be careful when we're dealing with these people. And Mr. Jamieson +seems to think that the thing to fear most is the other gypsies." + +"I thought of that, too," said Bessie, gravely. "They stick to one +another, don't they?" + +"Yes, they certainly do. They're very clannish. And Mr. Holmes, I'm +afraid, is clever enough and unscrupulous enough to be willing to use +them for his own purposes. He wouldn't tell them directly what he +wanted, you see. He'd just hire someone who was clever enough to get +them inflamed and worked up to the point of being willing to hurt you +two, and, if they could get at her, Zara, too, by way of revenge." + +"We can't help going down there if they send for us, I suppose, Miss +Eleanor?" + +"No. There's no way out of it. You see, if someone does you an +injury--borrows money from you and doesn't pay it back, say--the law +will help you get it, if you want to be helped. You can decide whether +you want to do anything or not. But if a crime is committed, then it's +a different matter, and you've got to get the law's help, whether you +want to or not. + +"For instance, if someone robs your house, you might be willing to +forgive the robber, but the law has to be satisfied, because that's the +sort of crime that affects everyone, and not just you alone." + +"I see. And I suppose that this time the law feels that if they are +not punished, those gypsies might try to kidnap someone else?" + +"Yes. The idea isn't just punishment. It's the way people who live +together in towns and countries have to protect themselves. In the +early days there wasn't any law. If a man was robbed, and he was +strong enough, he protected himself by going out and fighting the +robber. But that wouldn't work very well, because if a man was very +strong, and wicked as well, he could rob his neighbors, and no one of +them was strong enough to protect himself. + +"So it wasn't very long before people began to find out that, while no +one of them was strong enough to stop such robbers, a whole lot of them +banded together were stronger than any one man. And so they made the +first laws." + +"Oh, I see," said Dolly. "Bessie isn't strong enough by herself to do +anything to Mr. Holmes, or to stop him from doing what he likes to her, +because he's rich. But if all the other people who live in the state +take her side he can't fight against them. That's it, isn't it?" + +For a day or two after that peace reigned over the camp by Long Lake. +The girls looked forward eagerly to the field day that had been +planned, but they looked forward to it, too, with a certain degree of +regret, for it would mark the climax and the end, as well, of their +stay at the lake, which, though it had been so exciting, had also been +so delightful that all the girls wished for nothing better than to stay +there indefinitely. But they could not do that, as Miss Mercer +explained to them. + +"We've got to make way for others," she said, in telling them of the +new plans. "You see, my father is only one of the owners of this +preserve, and we take it in turns to use this lake for a camping site. +Now Mr. Spurgeon, one of the other owners, is going to bring up a party +of his friends, and we must make room for them." + +"Are we going home?" asked Margery Burton, disappointedly. + +"Why, don't you want to go home?" asked Eleanor, with a laugh, which +was echoed by the other girls, who heard the note of sorrow in the +question. + +"Oh, I suppose so," said Margery. "But one is home quite a good deal, +after all, in the winter, and we do have such a good time when we're +out in the woods this way. I love to get right close to nature." + +"Well, you needn't be frightened, Margery, because I've got a plan that +will keep us as close to nature as anyone could want to be." + +A chorus of excited voices was raised at that. + +"Where are we going next, Miss Mercer?" + +"What are we going to do?" + +"Shall we get to the seashore this summer?" + +"Later on, I expect," she answered, to the last question. "You do love +the beach and the surf, don't you? Well, so do I, and I expect we +shall want to spend a little time there. But first I've a plan I think +some of you will like even better." + +"We're sure to like anything you plan, Miss Eleanor," said Dolly, with +enthusiasm. "I don't believe any Camp Fire has as nice a Guardian as +you. It seems to me you spend all your time thinking up ways of giving +us a good time." + +"What is the new plan?" asked Margery. "I wonder if I can guess?" + +"I don't know. You might all try, and see how near you come to it." + +"I think we're going to go home by walking!" said Margery. + +"I believe we'll go through the chain of lakes that begins at Little +Bear in a boat, or in boats!" said Dolly. + +But, though they all took turns in guessing, Eleanor only smiled wisely +when the last guess had been made. + +"You were very nearly right, Margery," she said. "We are going to +tramp home, but not the way we came. We're going to take the long way +round. We're going straight up and through the mountains and down the +other side, and then we'll have a long trip on fairly level ground, but +we won't go straight home." + +"Where, then?" asked Dolly. + +"Why, we'll combine everything on the one trip, Dolly, and we'll wind +up at the seashore. By the time we've had a little swimming and +sailing there it'll be time to think about what we're going to do in +the autumn--school, and, work, and all the other things." + +"Oh, that's splendid!" cried Margery, her eyes shining. "I've always +wanted to go up in the real mountains, where you were so high that you +could see all around the country. We'll do that, won't we? Here we're +in the mountains, really, but it doesn't seem like it. Everything's so +high, you can't see over." + +Eleanor pointed to the distant hills, blue in the haze that hung over +them. + +"Do you see Mount Grant, the big one in the center, there?" she said. +"And do you see that other mountain that seems to be right next to it? +That's Mount Sherman. And right between them there's a little gap. +Really, it's quite wide, though you can't tell that from here. Well, +that's Indian Notch, and we get through the mountain range by going +through it. It's a fine, wild country, but there's a good road through +the notch now, and sometimes one meets quite a lot of automobiles going +through. I think it will be a glorious trip, don't you, girls?" + +"I certainly do!" said Bessie King. "I'm like Margery. I've always +wanted to see the real mountains. I used to dream about them, and +sometimes I'd think I'd really been there. But I guess it was just +because I dreamed so much that I got to thinking so." + +Eleanor looked at her curiously. + +"Maybe your people came from the mountains, Bessie," she said. "It's +very strange that some natural things seem to get into the blood of +peoples and races. Like the mountains, and the sea, and great rivers. +Sometimes all the men in a family, for generations, will be sailors, +even if their parents have planned something else for them. The sea is +in their blood, and it calls them." + +"Sometimes I think the mountains are calling me just that way," said +Bessie. "But I never really understood that before." + +"It's the same way with mountaineers. The Swiss are never really happy +except among their mountains. And that's true of every mountainous +race. The people who live along the Mississippi, here, and along the +Don and the Vistula, and the other great rivers in Russia, never seem +to be able to live happily unless they can see the great river rolling +by their homes every day. If they go far away they get homesick." + +"I'm not a bit like that!" exclaimed Dolly. "One place is just as good +as another for me, if I like the people. I like to travel and see new +places. I'd like to be on the move all the time." + +"I think a great many Americans are getting to be that way," said +Eleanor, reflectively. "It's natural, in a way, you see. For +generations the young men and women have been moving on, from settled +parts of the country to new land, where there were greater +opportunities to make a fortune." + +"I've read about that," said Dolly. "You mean like the people from New +England, who went west to Oregon and Washington?" + +"Yes. But that can't go on forever, you see, because about all the new +land is taken up and settled now. Of course, out in the far west, +there's still room for people; lots and lots of room. But this whole +country is settled now. Law and order have been established about +everywhere. And we'll begin to settle down soon, and our people will +love their homes, and the places where they were born, just as the +Virginians and the other Southerners do now." + +"Oh, it isn't that I don't like my own home!" said Dolly. "If I were +away from it very long I know I'd get dreadfully homesick, and want to +go back. But I don't want to stay there or anywhere else all the time." + +"You're a wanderer," laughed Eleanor. "That's what's the matter with +you, Dolly. You want to see everything that's to be seen. Well, I'm a +little that way myself. When I was a little bit of a kiddie I always +got tremendously excited if we were going on a journey. I guess it's a +pretty good thing, really, that we are that way. It's the reason this +country has grown so wonderfully, that spirit of enterprise and +adventure. That's what made the pioneers." + +"It isn't just Americans who do it, either, is it?" said Margery. "The +Italians and the other foreigners who come here seem to be just as +anxious to find new places--" + +"Oh, but that's different," said Zara, the silent one, quickly. "I +know, because my father and I are foreigners. And do you know why we +came here? It was because we couldn't live happily in our own country!" + +The girls looked at her curiously, so fiery was her speech, and so much +in earnest was she. + +"We come from Poland," she said. "Over there, a man can't call his +soul his own. Soldiers and policemen used to come to our house, and +wake us up in the middle of the night to look for papers. And often +and often they would steal anything we had that they liked. Oh, how I +hate the Russians!" + +Eleanor sighed. Gradually, slowly but surely, she felt that she was +finding her way into the secret of Zara and her father. + +"Then you came here because you had heard that this was a free country +and a refuge for those who were oppressed?" she ventured, gently. + +"Yes," said Zara. "And it's not true! There are kind people here, +like you, and Bessie, and Mr. Jamieson. But haven't they put my father +in prison, just the way they did in Poland and in Sicily, when we tried +to live there quietly? And didn't all the people in Hedgeville +persecute him, and tell lies about both of us? We haven't been happy +here." + +"I'm afraid that's true, Zara. But you are going to be, remember that. +You have good friends working for you now, you and your father both. +And it isn't the fault of this country that there are bad and wicked +men in it, who are willing to do wrong if they see a chance to make +money by doing so." + +"But if this country is all that people say about it, they shouldn't be +allowed to do it. The law is helping them. In Poland, it was just the +same. The law was against my father there--" + +"Listen, Zara! The law may seem to help them at first, but you may be +very sure of one thing. If your father has done nothing wrong, and his +enemies have lied and deceived the people in authority in order to get +the law on their side, they will pay bitterly, for it in the end." + +"But the law ought to know that my father is right--" + +"The law works slowly, Zara, but in the end it is sure to be right. +You see, your father's case is a very exceptional one. The people who +made the law in the beginning couldn't have expected it to come. But +the wonderful thing about the law is that, while it is often very hard, +it will always find out the truth sooner or later. + +"Sometimes, for a little while, people who are innocent have to suffer +because they are unjustly accused. But the law will free them if they +have really done no wrong, and, what is more, it will punish those who +swear falsely against them. Be patient, and you will find that you and +your father made no mistake when you believed that this was the land of +the free and the home of those who are oppressed in their own +countries." + +Zara's eyes, dark and sombre, seemed to be full of fire. + +"Oh, I hope so," she cried, passionately. "For my father's sake! He +has been disappointed and deceived so often." + +"We'll have a good long talk sometime, Zara," she said, finally. "Then +maybe I'll be able to explain some things to you better, and make you +understand the real difference between this country and the ones you +have known." + +Then she brightened, and turned to the other girls, who had all been +rather sobered by the sudden revelation, through Zara, of a side of +life hidden from them as a rule. + +"We're not going to take that trip just for ourselves and our own fun," +she said. "We're going to be missionaries, in a way; we want to spread +the light of the Camp Fire, and see if we can't get a lot of new Camp +Fires organized in the places we pass through. It's just in such +lonely, country places that the girls need the Camp Fire most, I +believe." + +"That will be splendid," said Margery Burton. "We could stay and teach +them all the ceremonies, and the songs, and how to organize new Camp +Fires, couldn't we?" + +"Yes. We want to make them see how much it has done for us. When they +know that they'll do the rest for themselves, I think. I shall expect +all you girls to help, because you can do ever so much more than I. +It's the girls who really count--not the Guardians, you know." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +A FRIEND IN TROUBLE + +The next morning Eleanor Mercer, summoned from the group of girls with +whom she was discussing some details of the coming contest with the Boy +Scouts by the appearance of a man who had rowed up to the little +landing stage, accompanied by one of the guides, old Andrew, called +Bessie King and Dolly Ransom to her with a grave face. + +"This is Deputy Sheriff Rogers, from Hamilton," she explained. "He +says that you must go there today to testify against those gypsies." + +"Sorry, ma'am, if it's awkward jest now," said the officer. "But law's +law, and orders is orders." + +"Oh, we understand that perfectly, Mr. Rogers," said Eleanor. "You +have to do your duty, and of course we are anxious to see that the law +is properly enforced. Don't think we're complaining. But I will admit +I am nervous." + +"Nervous, ma'am? Why, there ain't nothin' to be nervous about!" + +"I hope you're right, Mr. Rogers. But there are things back of this +attempt to kidnap my two girls here that haven't come out at all yet. +I don't suppose you've heard of them. And it's been suggested to me +that it might not be quite safe for them at Hamilton." + +The deputy sheriff laughed heartily at that. + +"Safe?" he said. "Well, I should some guess they'll be safe down +there! Sheriff Blaine--he's my boss, ma'am, you see--would jest about +rip the hide off of anyone who tried to tech them young ladies while +they was there obeyin' the orders of the court. Don't you worry none. +We'll look after them all right enough." + +"As long as you know that there may be some danger, I shall be +relieved, and feel that everything is all right," said Eleanor, +pleasantly. "It's when we're not expecting their blows that the people +we are afraid of have been able to strike at us successfully. There is +a Mr. Holmes--" + +"I know him well, if it's Mr. Holmes, the big storekeeper from the city +you mean, ma'am," interrupted Rogers. "Say, if he's a friend of yours, +you can be sure you'll be looked after all right down to Hamilton. We +think a sight of him down there. He's a fine man, m'am; yes, indeed, a +fine man!" + +Eleanor looked startled, and only Bessie's quick pinch of her arm +prevented Dolly from crying out in surprise and disgust. Knowing what +they did of the treachery and meanness of Holmes, this praise of him +was disturbing to a degree. But Eleanor never changed countenance. +She understood, as if by some instinct, that this was a time for +keeping her own counsel. + +"I shall go to Hamilton with you," said Eleanor, decidedly. "Will you +be able to wait a little while, Mr. Rogers, while we get ready?" + +"Surely, ma'am," said Rogers. "We want to get the train that goes down +from the station here at noon, and that gives us lots of time. If we +start two hours from now we'll catch it, with time to spare." + +"Then if you'll sit down and make yourself comfortable," she said, +"we'll be ready when it's time to start." + +As soon as Rogers had taken himself off, Eleanor called the girls +together in her own tent. + +"I feel that it is my duty to be with Bessie and Dolly at Hamilton," +she explained. "And, because I rather foresaw this, I have arranged +for a friend of mine to come over here and take my place as Guardian at +short notice. She is Miss Drew--Miss Anna Drew--and some of you must +have met her in the city. She has had plenty of experience as a Camp +Fire Guardian, and you'll all like her, I know. + +"Please make it as easy for her as possible. Do just as she tells you, +even if she doesn't have the same way of doing everything that I have. +I'll get back as soon as I can, and I want you to have a good time +while we're gone." + +"We'll see that she doesn't have any trouble, Wanaka," said Margery +Burton loyally. "She'll find that this Camp Fire can behave itself, +all right!" + +"Thanks! I knew I could count on all of you," said Eleanor. "Now I'm +going to send her a note by Andrew. Her people own some of this land, +and she happens to be in their camp at one of the other lakes, so that +she'll be able to get here before we go if she starts at once." + +Andrew was quite ready to carry the note, and went off while Eleanor +and the two girls made the simple preparations that were necessary for +their trip. + +"I'm so glad you didn't say anything when the deputy sheriff spoke that +way of Mr. Holmes," she said to Bessie and Dolly. "I was afraid one of +you would cry out and I really couldn't have blamed you if you had." + +"I would have--I was just going to," said Dolly honestly, "but Bessie +pinched me, so I shut up, though I couldn't see why. I still think he +ought to know that this man he seems to think so much of is the very +one they ought to watch most carefully if they really want to make sure +that we don't get into any trouble while we're going down there." + +"The trouble is that he wouldn't believe it, Dolly, and it would simply +discredit us with him and all the other authorities at Hamilton, so +that they wouldn't believe us when we had something to tell them that +we were sure was true." + +"But we're sure that Mr. Holmes was behind this gypsy. We've got the +letter he wrote to him to prove it!" + +"Yes, but Mr. Jamieson doesn't want anyone to know we have that letter +until the proper time comes. He wants to catch Mr. Holmes in a trap if +he possibly can, so that he'll be harmless after this. You can see +what a good thing that would be." + +"Oh, yes. I never thought of that! He doesn't want to put him on his +guard, you mean?" + +"Just exactly that, Dolly. You see, if Mr. Holmes thinks we don't +suspect him, it's possible that he may betray himself in some fashion. +He'll feel sure that this man John hasn't betrayed him, and if he +thinks we don't know anything about the part he had in this kidnapping +plan, he may try to do something, else that will get him into serious +trouble. + +"And we've got to move very slowly and very carefully, because it's +quite plain that he has a lot of friends at Hamilton and that they +won't believe anything against him, no matter how serious it may be, +unless they get absolute proof." + +"Oh, I do hope Mr. Jamieson will be able to catch him this time! I'd +feel ever so much better about Bessie and Zara if I knew that they +didn't need to be afraid of him any longer." + +"So would I, Dolly, and so would Mr. Jamieson. It's this man who is +worrying us more than all the other enemies Bessie and Zara have, put +together." + +"Because he's so rich?" + +"Partly that, and because he's so clever, too. And if all I hear about +him is true, the more he is beaten, the more dangerous he becomes. He +doesn't like to be beaten, and it makes him so angry that he takes all +sorts of chances, and does the wildest, most desperate things to get +even. They say he was very unfair to a lot of small shopkeepers in the +city when he was building up his big store." + +"How do you mean, Miss Eleanor?" + +"Why, he did everything he could to make them sell out to him for a +small price, and, if they wouldn't do it, he did his best to ruin their +business. He would circulate false stories about them, and he used his +influence with the police and the city authorities to make all sorts of +trouble for them. + +"Then he would open a store next door to them, sometimes, and sell +everything they did cheaper, at a loss, so that people would stop +buying from them. You see, he could afford to lose money doing that, +because he knew that if he once got them out of the way, he could put +prices up again, and get his money back." + +"You didn't know all that the day after Zara was taken away, did you, +Miss Eleanor?" asked Bessie. "Don't you remember how you laughed at me +then for saying I didn't like him, and that I thought he might be mixed +up in Zara's disappearance?" + +"Yes, I do remember it very well, Bessie. I've often thought what a +good thing it was that your eyes were so sharp, and that you suspected +him even when all the rest of us thought he was all right. If it +hadn't been for that, Mr. Jamieson would never have looked up the +records that gave him the clue to where Mr. Holmes had hidden Zara." + +"I think Bessie would make a pretty good detective," said Dolly. "They +do have women detectives now, don't they? And she seems to be able to +tell from looking at people whether they can be trusted or not." + +Bessie laughed heartily at that suggestion. + +"I can't do anything of the sort," she said. "And, even if I could, I +wouldn't be a detective, Dolly. The trouble with you is that you read +too many novels. You think people behave in real life just the way the +people in the books you read do, and they don't." + +The return of old Andrew, the guide, who had rowed across the lake on +his return from carrying Eleanor's note to Miss Drew, was the signal to +complete the preparations for departure. + +"I caught her, all right, Miss Eleanor," said Andrew. "Says she won't +be able to come over here till after lunch, but she'll be right over +then with a bundle of sticks to keep the young ladies in order till you +get back yourself." + +"Good!" laughed Eleanor. "That's all right, then, and I can leave here +with a clear conscience. Andrew, you'll sort of keep an eye on things +till I get back, won't you?" + +"Leave it to me, ma'am," said Andrew. "Say, me and some of the boys +was thinking maybe you'd like to have some of us turn up, sort of +casual like, down at Hamilton?" + +"Why, it's very good of you, Andrew, but I don't believe we'll need any +help from you, thanks." + +"You can't always sometimes tell," said Andrew, sagely. "Now, this +here Rogers is a good fellow enough, but obstinate as a mule, and the +sheriff might be his twin brother for that. They're birds of a +feather, see? And onct they get it into their heads that a thing's so, +there ain't nothin' I know of, short of a stick of dynamite, will make +them change their minds. So we thought that mebbe it wouldn't be a bad +idea to have some of us within call." + +"I'll let you know if we need any help, Andrew," promised Eleanor. +"And it's very good of you to offer to come. But Mr. Jamieson will be +there--you know him, don't you?" + +"Mister Charlie? Indeed I do, ma'am, and a fine young chap he is, too. +I've often hunted with him through these woods up here. If he's goin' +to look after the law part of this for you, you'll have a good chance +to beat them sharks down there. Some pretty smart lawyers there at +Hamilton, they tell me, ma'am. I ain't never been to law myself. Any +time I get into a fight I can't settle with my tongue, I use my hands. +Cheaper, and better, too, in the long run." + +"It's the old-fashioned way, Andrew. Most people can't settle their +troubles so easily. Well, you'll row us to the end of the lake, I +suppose?" + +"Get right in, ma'am! Might as well start, so's you can take it easy +on the trail. Not a bit of use hurryin' when there ain't no need of +it, I say. There's lots of times when it can't be helped, without +lookin' for a chance." + +So, with the strains of the Wo-he-lo cheer rising from the girls who +were left behind, they started in the boat for the first stage of the +short journey to Hamilton. + +Andrew insisted on going with them as far as the station, and as the +train pulled out, they heard his cheery voice. + +"Now, remember if you need me or any of the boys, all you've got to do +is to send us word, and we'll find a way to get there a bit quicker +than we're expected," he cried. "Ain't nothin' we wouldn't do for you +and the young ladies, Miss Eleanor!" + +"You leave them to us, old timer," Rogers called back from the car +window. "We'll guarantee to return them, safe and sound. And it won't +take any long time, neither. There's a good case against that sneaking +gypsy, and we'll have him on his way to the penitentiary in two shakes +of a lamb's tail." + +"If you don't, I'll vote for another sheriff next election," vowed +Andrew, "if I have to vote a Demmycratic ticket to do it, and that's +somethin' I ain't done--not since I was old enough to vote." + +Rogers was reassuring enough in his speech and manner, but Eleanor had +a presentiment of evil; a foreboding that something was wrong. + +The railroad trip to Hamilton was not a long one, and within two hours +of the time they had left Long Lake the brakeman called out the name of +the county seat. Eleanor and the two girls, with Rogers carrying their +bags, moved to the door, and, as they reached the ground, looked about +eagerly for Jamieson. + +He was nowhere to be seen. But Holmes was there, avoiding their eyes, +but with a grin of malicious triumph that worried Eleanor. And Rogers, +a moment after he had left them to speak to a friend, returned, his +face grave. + +"I hear your friend Mr. Jamieson is arrested," he said. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +A TANGLED NET + +"Arrested?" cried Eleanor, startled. "Why, what do you mean? How can +that be?" + +"That's all I know, ma'am," said Rogers, soberly. "Even if I did know +anything more, I guess maybe I oughtn't to be saying anything about it. +I'm an officer, you see. But here's the district attorney. Maybe +he'll be able to tell you what you want." + +He pointed to a tall, thin man who was talking earnestly to Holmes, and +who came over when Rogers beckoned to him. + +"This is Mr. Niles, Miss Mercer," said Rogers. "I'll leave you with +him." + +"Glad to meet you, Miss Mercer," said Niles, heartily, "though I'm +sorry to have dragged you away from your good times at Long Lake. +These, I suppose, are the young ladies who were kidnapped?" + +"Yes, though of course they weren't really kidnapped, because they got +away before any real harm was done," Eleanor replied. "But, Mr. Niles, +what is this absurd story about my cousin, Mr. Jamieson? Mr. Rogers +said something about his having been arrested." + +Niles grew grave. + +"I hope you're right--I hope it is absurd, my dear young lady," he +said. "Your cousin, you say? Dear me, that's most distressing--most +distressing, upon my word! However, you will understand I had nothing +to do with the matter. + +"I have to take cognizance, in my official capacity, of any charges +that are made, but I am allowed to have my own opinion as to the guilt +or innocence of those accused--yes, indeed! And I am quite sure that +Mr. Jamieson had nothing to do with this attempted kidnapping!" + +"What?" gasped Eleanor. "Do you mean to say that it is on such a +charge as that that he has been arrested?" + +She laughed, in sheer relief. The absurdity of such an accusation, she +was sure, would carry proof in itself that Charlie was innocent. No +matter who was trying to spoil his reputation, they could not possibly +succeed with such a flimsy and silly charge. + +"I'm glad it seems so funny to you, Miss Mercer," said Niles, stiffly. +"I'll confess that it looked serious to me, although, as I say, I do +not believe in Mr. Jamieson's guilt. However, he will have to clear +himself, of course, just as anyone else accused of a crime must do. +Where I have jurisdiction, no favors are shown. + +"The poor are on a basis of equality with the rich; I would send a +guilty millionaire to prison with a light heart, and on the same day I +would move heaven and earth to secure the freedom of an innocent +beggar, though men of wealth were trying to railroad him to jail!" + +He finished that peroration with a sweeping and dignified bow. And +then he stopped, thunder-struck, as a clear, girlish laugh rose on the +air. It was Dolly who laughed. + +"I couldn't help it," she said, afterward. "He was so funny, and he +didn't know it! As if anyone would take a man who talked such rot as +that seriously!" + +But the trouble was that, vain and pompous as Niles plainly was, his +official position made it necessary to take him seriously. Though at +first she was disposed to agree with Dolly, and had, indeed, had +difficulty in keeping a straight face herself while he was boasting of +his own incorruptibility, Eleanor discovered that fact as soon as she +had a chance to talk with Charlie Jamieson. + +"I shall be glad to arrange for you to have an interview with your +cousin, Miss Mercer," Niles informed her. "Theoretically, he is a +prisoner, although of course he will be able to arrange for his own +release on bail as soon as he finds some friend who owns property in +this county. But I have given orders that he is not to be confined in +a cell. I trust he is making himself very much at home in the parlor +of Sheriff Blaine. If you will honor me, I will take you there." + +"I should like to see him at once," said Eleanor. "Come, girls! Mr. +Niles, I am sure, will find a place where you can wait for me while I +talk with Mr. Jamieson." + +Charlie greeted her with a sour grin when she was taken to the room +where, a prisoner, he was sitting near a window and smoking some of the +sheriff's excellent tobacco. + +"Hello, Nell!" he said. "First blood for our friend Holmes on this +scrap, all right. First time I've ever been in jail. It's intended as +a little object lesson of what he can do when he once starts out to be +unpleasant, I fancy. He must know that he hasn't any sort of chance of +keeping me here." + +"Why, Charlie, I never heard anything so absurd!" said Eleanor, hotly. +"As if you, who have done everything possible for those girls, would do +such an insane thing as hire that gypsy to kidnap them. And especially +when we know who did do it!" + +"That's just the rub! We know, but can we prove it? You see, it's my +idea that Holmes is starting this as a sort of backfire. He thinks +we're going to accuse him, and he wants to strike the first blow. He's +clever, all right." + +"I don't see what good it can do him, Charlie." + +"A lot of good, and this is why. He puts me on the defensive, right +away. He wants time as much as anything else. And if he can keep me +busy proving my own innocence, he figures that I'll have less time to +get after him. It's a good move. The more chance he has to work on +those gypsies, the less likely they are to say anything that will make +trouble for him. He can show them his power and scare them, even if he +can't buy them. + +"And I think the chances are that he won't find it very hard to buy +them. They pinched me as soon as I got off the train this morning. +I've sent out a lot of telegrams, asking fellows to come up here and +bail me out, but of course I can't really expect to get an answer +today--an answer in person, at least." + +"Mr. Niles seems friendly. He said that he doesn't believe you're +guilty, Charlie." + +"That's kind of him, I'm sure. Niles is an ass--a pompous, +self-satisfied ass! Holmes is using him just as he likes, and Niles +hasn't got sense enough to see it. He's honest enough, I think, but he +hasn't got the brains of a well-developed jellyfish." + +Eleanor laughed at the comparison. + +"Well, if he's honest, you don't have anything to fear, I suppose," she +said. "I'm glad of that, Charlie. I was afraid at first that he might +be just a tool of Mr. Holmes, and that he would do what Mr. Holmes told +him." + +"I'd feel easier in my mind if he were a regular out-and-out crook, +Nell. That sort always has a weakness. Your crook is afraid of his +own skin, and when he knows he's doing things for pay, he'll always +stop just short of a certain danger point. He won't risk more than so +much for anyone. But with this chap it's different. He's probably let +Holmes, or Holmes's gang, fill him up with a lot of false ideas, and +they're clever enough to get him to wanting to do just what they want +him to do." + +"And you mean that he'll think he's doing the right thing?" + +"Yes, and not only that, but he'll persuade himself that he figured the +whole thing out, thought it out for himself, when really he'll just be +carrying out their own suggestions. We've got to find some way to +spike his guns, or else Holmes will work things so that his gypsy will +get off, and there'll be no sort of chance to pin the guilt down to +him, where it belongs." + +"Then the first thing to do is to get you out, isn't it?" + +"Yes, but I've done all that can be done on that. There's really +nothing to be done now but just wait--and I'd rather do pretty nearly +anything I can think of but that." + +"I don't know, Charlie. Why can't I give bail for you? You know, Dad +made over all that land up in the woods around Long Lake that he owns +to me. So I'm a property holder in this county--and that's what is +needed, isn't it?" + +"By Jove! You're right, Nell! Here, I'll make out an application. +You send for Niles, and we'll get him to approve this right now. Then +we'll get the judge to sign the bail bond, and I'll get out. I never +thought of that--good thing you've got a good head on your shoulders!" + +Eleanor, pleased and excited, went out to find Niles, and returned to +Charlie with him at once. + +"H'm, bail has been fixed at a nominal figure--five thousand dollars," +said Niles. "I may mention that I suggested it, knowing that you would +not try to evade the issue, Mr. Jamieson. We have heard of you, sir, +even up here. If the young lady will come to the judge's office with +me, I have no doubt we can arrange the matter." + +Before long it was evident there was a hitch. + +"I am sorry, Miss Mercer," said Niles, with a long face, "but there +seems to be some doubt as to this. You have not the deed with you--the +deed giving title to this property?" + +"No," said Eleanor. "But the records are here, are they not? +Certainly you can make sure that I own it?" + +Niles shook his head. + +"I'm afraid we must have the deed," he said. + +For the moment it looked as if Charlie would have to stay in +confinement over night, at least. But suddenly Eleanor remembered old +Andrew and his offer to help. And twenty minutes later she was +explaining matters to him over the telephone. + +"Why, sure," he said. "I can fix you up, Miss Eleanor. I've saved +money since I've been working here, and I've put it all into land. I +know these woods, you see, and I know that when I get ready to sell +I'll get my profit. I'll be down as soon as I can come." + +"Don't say a word," said Charlie. "It wouldn't be past them to fake +some way of clouding the old man's title if they knew he was coming. +We'll spring that on them as a surprise. Evidently they figure on +being able to keep me here until to-morrow, at least. They've got some +scheme on foot--they've got a card up their sleeves that they want to +be able to play while I'm not watching them. I don't just get on to +their game--it's hard to figure it out from here. But if I once get +out I won't be afraid of them. We'll be able to beat them, all right, +thanks to you. You're a brick, Nell!" + +Andrew was as good as his word. He reached the town in time to go to +the judge with the deeds of his property, and though Holmes, who was +evidently watching every move of the other side closely, scowled and +looked as if he would like to make some protest, there was nothing to +be done. He and his lawyers had no official standing in the case--they +could only consult with and advise Niles in an unofficial fashion. +And, though Niles held a long conference with Holmes and his party +before the bail bond was signed, it proved to be impossible for the +court to decline to accept it. Some things the law made imperative, +and, much as Niles might feel that he was being tricked, he could not +help himself. + +Once he was free, as he was when the bail bond was signed, Jamieson +wasted no time. He saw Eleanor and the two girls settled in the one +good hotel of Hamilton, and then rushed back to the court house. And +there he found a strange state of affairs. Holmes had brought with him +from the city two lawyers, though Isaac Brack, the shyster, was not one +of them. And the leader, a man well known to Jamieson, John Curtin by +name, now appeared boldly as the lawyer for the accused gypsies. +Moreover, he refused absolutely to allow Charlie to see his clients. + +In answer to Charlie's protests he merely looked wise, and refused to +say anything more than was required to reiterate his refusal. But +Charlie had other sources of information, and an hour after his +release, meeting Eleanor, who had walked down to look around the town, +leaving the girls behind at the hotel, he gave her some startling news. + +"They're trying to get those gypsies out right now," he said. "They +were indicted, you know, for kidnapping. Now Curtin has got a writ of +habeas corpus, and he's kept it so quiet that it was only by accident I +found it was to be argued." + +"What does that mean?" asked Eleanor. "I don't know as much about the +law as you do, you know." + +"It means that a judge will decide whether they are being legally held +or not, Nell. And it looks very much to me as if Holmes had managed to +fix things so that they'll get off without ever going before a jury at +all! Niles isn't handling the case right. He's allowed Holmes and his +crowd to pull the wool over his eyes completely. If we had some +definite proof I could force him to hold them. But--" + +Eleanor laughed suddenly. + +"I didn't suppose it was necessary to give this to you until the +trial," she said. "But look here, Charlie--isn't this proof?" And she +handed him the letter found on John, the gypsy--a letter from Holmes, +giving him the orders that led to the kidnapping of Dolly. + +Charlie shouted excitedly when he read it. + +"By Jove!" he said. "This puts them in our power. You were quite +right--we don't want to produce this yet. But I think I can use it to +scare our friend Niles. If I'm right, and he's only a fool, and not a +knave, I'll be able to do the trick. Here he is now! Watch me give +him the shock of his young life!" + +Niles approached, with a sweeping bow for Eleanor, and a cold nod for +Jamieson. But the city lawyer approached him at once. + +"How about this habeas corpus hearing, Mr. District Attorney?" he +asked. "Are you going to let them get those gypsies out of jail?" + +"The case against them appears to be hopelessly defective, sir," +returned Niles, stiffly. "I am informed by counsel for the defense +that there are a number of witnesses to prove an alibi for the man +John, and I feel that it is useless to try to have them held for trial." + +"Suppose I tell you that I have absolute evidence--evidence connecting +them with the plot, and bringing in another conspirator who has not yet +been named? Hold on, Mr. Niles, you have been tricked in this case. I +don't hold it against you, but I warn you that if you don't make a +fight in this case, papers charging you with incompetence will go to +the governor at once, with a petition for your removal!" + +"I--I don't know why I should allow one of the prisoners in this case +to address me in such a fashion!" stuttered Niles. + +"I don't care what you know! I'm telling you the truth, and, for your +own sake, you'd better listen to me," said Jamieson, grimly. "I mean +just what I say. And unless you want to be lined up with your friend +Curtin in disbarment proceedings, you'd better cut loose from him. I +suppose Holmes has told you he'll back your ambitions to go to +Congress, hasn't he?" + +Niles seemed to be staggered. + +"How--how did you know that?" he gasped. + +As a matter of fact, Charlie had not known it; he had only made a +shrewd guess. But the shot had gone home. + +"There's more to this than you can guess, Mr. Niles," he said, more +kindly. "It's a plot that is bigger than even I can understand and +they have simply tried to use you as a tool. I knew that once you had +a hint of the truth, your native shrewdness would make you work to +defeat it. You understand, don't you?" + +Coming on top of the bullying, this sop to the love of Niles for +flattery was thoroughly effective. Charlie was using the same sort of +weapons that the other side had employed. And Niles held out his hand. + +"I'll take the chance," he said. "I'll see that those fellows stay in +jail, Mr. Jamieson. As I told Miss Mercer, I was sure from the +beginning that you were all right. May I count on you for aid when the +case comes up for trial?" + +"You may--and I'll give you a bigger prisoner than you ever thought of +catching," said Charlie. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +BESSIE KING'S PLUCK + +"We've got them, I think," Jamieson said to Eleanor Mercer and the two +girls after his talk with District Attorney Niles. "There's just one +thing; I don't understand how Holmes can be so reckless as to take a +chance when he must remember that he hasn't got a leg left to stand on." + +"He probably doesn't know that we know anything about it," said Bessie. +"And I guess he thinks that if we had had that note all this time we'd +have produced it before, so that he thought it was safe to act." + +"You're probably right, Bessie," said Eleanor. "I thought that letter +would be useful, Charlie, when we took it from that gypsy. I don't +suppose I really had any right to keep it, but just then, you see, +Andrew and the other guides were the only people around, and they would +never question anything I did--they'd just be sure I was right." + +"Good thing they do, for you usually are," laughed Charlie. "I've +given up expecting to catch you, Nell. You guess right too often. And +this time you've certainly called the turn. Niles is convinced. All +I'm afraid of now is that he won't be able to hold his tongue." + +"You want to surprise Mr. Holmes, then?" + +"I certainly do. I'd give a hundred dollars right now to see his face +when I spring that letter and ask for a warrant for his arrest. Mind +you, I don't suppose for a minute we'll be able to do him any real +harm. He's got too much influence, altogether, with bigger people than +Niles and this judge here." + +"You know I'm not very vindictive, Charlie, but I would like to see him +get the punishment he deserves. I'd much rather have them let those +poor gypsies off, if only they would put him in prison in their place. +I feel sorry for them--really, I do. It seems to me that they were +just led astray by a man who certainly should know better." + +"That part of it's all right enough, Eleanor. But if one accepted the +excuse from every criminal that he was led astray by a stronger +character, no one would ever be punished. Pretty nearly everyone who +ever gets arrested can frame up that excuse." + +"You don't think it's a good one?" + +"It is, to a certain extent. But if our way of punishing people for +doing wrong is any good at all, and if it is really to have any good +effect, it's got to teach the weaklings that every man is responsible +himself for what he does, that he can't shift the blame to someone else +and get out of it that way. + +"You remember the poem Kipling wrote about that? I mean that line that +goes: 'The sins that we sin by two and two we must pay for one by one.' +It seems pretty hard sometimes, but it's got to be done. However, even +if Holmes gets out of this, it's a thundering good thing that we've got +as much as we have against him." + +"I don't see why, if you say he's going to get off without punishment." + +"Well, I think it's apt to make him more careful, for one thing. And +for another, some people will believe the evidence against him, and +he'll have the punishment of being partly discredited at least. That's +better than nothing, you know. One reason he's in a position to do +these rotten things without fear of being caught is that he's supposed +to be so respectable. Let people once begin to think he isn't any +better than he should be, and he'll have to mind his p's and q's just +like anyone else, I can tell you." + +"That's so! I didn't think of that." + +"The thing to do now is to make sure that the trial comes off at once. +I've got an idea that they'll try to get a delay, now that they've had +to give up their hope of rushing it through while I was tied up and +couldn't tell whatever I happened to know. They'll figure that the +more time they have, the more chance there is that they can work out +some new scheme, or that something will turn up in their favor--some +piece of luck. And it's just as likely to happen as not to happen, +too, if we give them a chance to hold things up for a few weeks. You +want to get away, too, don't you?" + +"We certainly do, Charlie. The girls would be dreadfully disappointed +if we didn't get back in time to make the tramp through the mountains +with them." + +"Well, I guess we'll manage it all right. Leave that to me. You've +had bothers and troubles enough already since you got here. I ought to +have a nurse! Here I come to look after your interests, and see that +nothing goes wrong with you and your affairs, and the first thing you +have to do is to get me out of jail!" + +Eleanor returned his laugh. + +"We really enjoyed it, though you've got Andrew to thank, not me," she +said. "Do you really think they'll manage to get it postponed after +to-morrow?" + +"Not if I have to sit up with Niles and hold his hand all night, to +keep him in line," vowed Jamieson. + +And, indeed, the morning proved that there was no cause for worry. +Niles, stiffened by Jamieson, refused even to see the men from the +other side, who were employed by Holmes, when they came to his office +to beg for an adjournment, or to ask him to consent to it, at least, +since only the judge had the power to grant it. And the trial began at +the appointed time. + +Charlie, not being actively engaged as a lawyer in the case, could not +spring his sensation himself. But he sat near Niles, waiting for the +opportune moment, and, before the morning session was over, since he +saw that the time was drawing near, he wrote a note to Niles, +explaining his plan to surprise Holmes fully, which he handed to him in +the quiet courtroom. + +"That's great--great!" said Niles. "It's immense, Jamieson! I never +dreamed of anything like that. Heavens! How I have been deceived in +this man Holmes! You have the original letter, you say?" + +Jamieson tapped his breast pocket significantly. + +"You bet I've got it!" he said. "And it doesn't leave my possession, +either, until it's been read into the records of this court. You'll +have to call me as a witness, Niles. That's the only way we can get +this over, since I can't very well act as counsel for either side of +the case." + +"All right. First thing after lunch," said Niles. + +Holmes was in the courtroom, and Jamieson, happening to look up just as +Niles spoke to him, caught the merchant pointing to him, the while he +bent over and talked earnestly with a sinister, scowling man who was +unknown to the lawyer, but who seemed to be on the most intimate terms +with Holmes. However, he thought nothing of the incident. He had +understood from the first that in opposing Holmes, and doing all he +could to spoil his plans regarding Bessie and Zara, he was incurring +the millionaire's enmity, and he did not greatly care. + +"You know," he had said to Eleanor, "this chap Holmes thinks--or he did +think, at least--that I'd be scared by his ability to help or hurt a +man in my profession in the city. But I think a whole lot of that is +bluff on his part. I don't believe he can do as much as he thinks he +can. And I don't know that I care a whole lot, anyhow. He hasn't gone +out of his way to help me so far, and I've managed to get along pretty +well. I guess I can do without him to the end of the chapter." + +Just after the court adjourned for lunch, Niles was called away by +Curtin, the leader of the lawyers Holmes had hired to defend the gypsy +prisoners, and Jamieson saw them talking earnestly together for several +minutes. Naturally, he did not try to overhear the conversation, but +he could not have done so in any case, for Curtin kept looking about +him, so that it was evident that he, at least, regarded what he had to +say as both important and confidential. But Charlie waited patiently, +sure that Niles would tell him all he wanted to know, unless he should +again go over to the other side. + +"They're wise to us," said Niles, when he returned. "Curtin knows +we've got something up our sleeves, and maybe he wasn't anxious to find +out what it was!" + +"You didn't tell him, I hope?" + +"Not I! Trust me to know better than that! But I think he's got an +inkling." + +"Lord, why shouldn't he?" said Charlie to himself, bitterly. "Of +course, there's no reason why that gypsy shouldn't tell him! He +probably doesn't realize what the letter means, but we do, and if the +rascal has told them that it was taken away from him they would realize +at once that they were up against it, and hard!" + +"Well, you haven't told me the whole story," he said, with a suggestion +of being offended in his tone. "So I can't give you my advice as I +would be glad to do if you had taken me into your confidence." + +"You'll know it all pretty soon, Niles," said Charlie. "Don't think +you're being slighted--you're not. I know just how valuable you are to +us, and that we couldn't get along without you. And, what's more, I'll +say that I never saw a case handled better than this one. You're all +right. Don't worry; I don't care much if they do know. It's too late +for them to do anything now. I'm going to run back to the hotel. I've +got to get a few papers from my room. Then I'll be back." + +Leaving Niles with little ceremony, he hurried back to the hotel, and +went directly to his room, without telling anyone where he was going. +As he passed through the lobby the clerk happened to be busy and did +not see him, and, since his room was on the second floor, he did not +wait for the elevator, but walked up. Seemingly, the only person who +was interested in his movements was the sinister, black-browed man who +had been talking so earnestly with Holmes in the courtroom half an hour +before. And Charlie, in a great hurry, paid no attention to +him--probably did not even know that he was in the hotel. + +With the man, however, matters were very different. He watched Charlie +go up the stairs with the keen eyes of a hawk; and, a minute later, +followed him up. And when, ten minutes after he had entered his room, +Charlie opened the door to come out, he was met with a sharp blow on +the chest that staggered him and sent him reeling back into his room. + +In an instant the sinister man he had dismissed so readily from his +mind when he had seen him talking with Holmes was on him, the door +closing as he flung himself through it, and Charlie, taken completely +by surprise, was overpowered before he could even begin to put up any +sort of resistance. + +Even his belated impulse to call for help came too late. A gag was +thrust into his mouth as he was about to open it, and then, with no +pains to be gentle, his assailant produced stout cord from his pocket +and tied him securely to the bed. + +While he was thus rendering Charlie impotent to obstruct him in any way +the ruffian said nothing whatever. Now, however, standing off a +minute, and looking at his victim with much satisfaction, he broke his +silence. + +"Trussed up as neat as a turkey for Thanksgiving," he said, in a hoarse +whisper that seemed to be his natural speaking voice. "You won't do +any more damage, I guess." + +And then Charlie, who had been bewildered by this attack, realized at +last its meaning. For his assailant came close to him, began to search +his pockets, and, in a moment, drew out, with a cry of triumph, the +precious letter from Holmes to the gypsy--the letter without which the +whole case against Holmes was bound to collapse! + +Charlie struggled insanely for a moment, but then suddenly he grew +quiet. For his eyes had happened to wander toward the window, which +the thief, with the carelessness for details that has caused the +downfall of so many of his kind, had left uncovered. And, peering +straight at him from a window across a small light shaft, he saw Bessie +King. He was longing to communicate with her when the thief suddenly +addressed him again. + +"Say, bo," he said, in the same hoarse whisper, "I ain't got nuttin' +against you, see? If youse wants this here writin', you can have +it--if youse is willin' to pay more fer it than the other guy!" + +He looked greedily at Charlie, and, though the lawyer understood +thoroughly that the man was only trying to add to the money that Holmes +had promised him, and would probably not give up the paper, no matter +how much was offered, he jumped at the chance to gain time. Bessie had +disappeared, and he was sure that she had gone for help. If he could +hold the robber for a few minutes he might beat him yet. + +To talk with the gag in his mouth was, of course, impossible, and he +managed to lift his bound hands toward his mouth to remind the robber +of this. + +"Say, that's right," said the thief. "Here, I'll ease youse a bit so +youse can talk. But no tricks, mind!" + +"How much do you want?" gasped Charlie, when he was able to speak. The +man stood over him, ready to silence any attempt to cry out, and he +knew that it would be useless to call. + +"How much you got? I don't mean in your clothes, but what youse has +got salted away in your room," asked the thief. "I ain't got time to +look for it or I'd leave you tied up," he added, with a leer. + +"You've got something to sell, so name your price," said Charlie, still +trying to kill time. "That's for you to do. What does the other side +offer you?" + +"Gimme two hundred bucks!" suggested the robber. + +"That's a lot of money," said Charlie, pretending to hesitate. "I +might give it to you, but I haven't got it here. I could get it for +you or give you a check----" + +"Cash--and cash down!" leered the robber. "An' say, if youse thinks +some of them dames youse is workin' with can help youse out of this +hole, guess again. They're all locked up, same as you--from the +outside. And there ain't no telephones in the rooms in this hotel." + +For a moment Charlie's heart sank. If this was true, even though she +realized his danger, Bessie could not help him. He did not know what +to do, or what to say. But, fortunately for him, he was spared from +deciding. For there was a sudden crash at the door, and in a moment it +gave way before the onslaught of the proprietor, two or three clerks, +and a couple of stout porters. In a second the robber was overpowered +and a prisoner, and then Charlie saw Bessie, her eyes alight with +eagerness, in the background. + +"I climbed down the waterspout!" she cried. "I knew I had to get them +to help you!" + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +BACK AT LONG LAKE + +"Why, Bessie's a regular brick!" said Charlie, as they sat at dinner +that night. Eleanor and the two girls were going back to Long Lake on +the first train in the morning, and they were celebrating with the best +dinner the town of Hamilton could afford. "I told you I needed a +nurse, Nell, and here one of you had to save me for the second time +since I came here to look after you!" + +"That man was terribly clever," said Eleanor, gravely. "I never even +knew I was locked in--I was let out before I had had a chance to find +it out for myself." + +"Bessie and I didn't know it, either, until she saw him tying Mr. +Jamieson up," said Dolly. "We'd have found it out as soon as we wanted +to leave the room to go down for lunch, of course, but he was so quiet +about locking us in that neither of us heard him at all." + +"He was just a little bit too clever," said Charlie. "If he hadn't +been so anxious to make a little more money out of me, he would have +got clean away and given that paper to Holmes." + +"Not getting it seemed to upset Mr. Holmes a good deal, didn't it?" +laughed Eleanor. "Is it true that he left town by the first train +after he heard that the letter had been found when they searched that +wretched man?" + +"Quite true," said Charlie, happily. + +"Just what did happen in court this afternoon?" asked Dolly. "I +thought we were going to be witnesses and have all sorts of fun. And +now it's all over and our trip down here has just been wasted!" + +"Why, Holmes's lawyer, Curtin, threw up the case as soon as he heard +about that letter, Dolly. There wasn't anything else for him to do. +With that, added to the stories you two girls had to tell, there wasn't +any way of getting those gypsies off." + +"Are they going to send them to prison?" + +"John will go to jail for six months. He's the one who actually +carried Dolly off, you know. As for Peter and Lolla, who helped him, +they get off easily. They were sentenced, too, but the judge suspended +sentence. If they forget, and do anything more that's wrong, they'll +have to serve out their term." + +"I'm very glad," said Eleanor. "Poor souls! I don't believe they +understood what a dreadful thing they were doing." + +"It was a good thing for them they decided to plead guilty and take +their medicine," said Charlie. "Or, I should say, it's a good thing +that Curtin decided it for them. Don't worry about them any more. +Holmes will have to pay John a good deal of money when he comes out of +jail to make him keep quiet--if he manages, first, to shut up the +people here, so that the whole story doesn't come out." + +"Can he do that, now that they've seen that letter?" + +"I'm half afraid he can. He's got a tremendous lot of money, you see, +and this is a time when he naturally wouldn't hesitate much about +spending it. And I don't know that it's such a bad thing. It gives us +a starting point, you see. And if the thing isn't made public, he may +get more reckless, and give us another chance to land him where he +belongs, and that's in the penitentiary. He's cleared out now and we +couldn't persuade these people to go after him, even if it was worth +while, which I don't believe it is." + +"How on earth did you get down?" Eleanor asked Bessie. + +"Oh, I saw there wasn't anything else to do," said Bessie, modestly. +"If you could have seen that man's face! I was terribly frightened. I +didn't know what he might be going to do to Mr. Jamieson, so I just +knew I had to get help. And I was afraid to call out of the window." + +"Why? Someone would have been sure to hear you," said Eleanor. + +"Because I thought the only person who was absolutely sure to hear me +was that man who was tying Mr. Jamieson up. And I didn't know what he +would do, but I was afraid he might do something dreadful right away if +I called out and he knew that he was being watched." + +"You're all right, Bessie!" said Jamieson, admiringly. "Was it very +hard, going down the waterspout?" + +"No, it really wasn't. Dolly was afraid I was going to fall, and she +wanted to go herself. But I said I had seen it, and made the plan, and +so I had a right to be the one to go. It really wasn't so far." + +"Far enough," said Jamieson, grimly. "You might easily have broken +your neck, climbing down three flights that way." + +"Oh, but it wasn't three! It was only one. You see, there was a +balcony outside the window, and on the next floor there was another, +and I thought that window was pretty sure to be open. It was, so I got +inside, and then I found the room I was in was empty, and the door was +open, so all I had to do was to walk down the stairs and tell the +manager. They all came up and, well, you know what happened then +yourself." + +"I certainly do!" said Jamieson. "And I don't think I'm likely to +forget it very soon, either. That was a pretty tough character. I'll +remember his face, all right." + +"Well," said Eleanor, happily, "all's well that ends well, they say. I +really believe Dolly had the worst time, when you think about it. She +had to watch Bessie climbing down that waterspout." + +"That was dreadful," said Dolly, shuddering at the memory. "But I +think it was much worse for Mr. Jamieson and Bessie than for me." + +"Bessie was so busy getting down that I don't believe she had much time +to think about the danger," said Eleanor. "And Mr. Jamieson didn't +know her door was locked, so he had the relief of thinking that she'd +been able to get help in just an ordinary fashion. Of course, if he or +I had known what a risk she was running we'd have been half wild with +anxiety about her. So you see it really was hard for you not to scream +or do anything to startle that man." + +"That was what I was afraid of most," said Bessie. "I don't know what +I'd have done if Dolly had screamed." + +"You needn't have been afraid! I was too frightened even to open my +mouth," said Dolly, honestly. "I couldn't have uttered a sound, no +matter what depended on it, until I saw you were all right. And then I +just slumped down and laughed--as if there was something funny." + +"Well, we can all laugh at it now," said Eleanor. "Are you going back +to the city to-night, Charlie?" + +"No, I guess I'll be held up here until about noon to-morrow," he +answered. "I've got to appear against that poor chap, and there are +one or two other matters I want to attend to while I'm here. I'll see +you on your train in the morning, and I'll try to look out for myself +when you're gone." + +It was an enthusiastic and eagerly curious crowd of girls that welcomed +them back to Long Lake the next day when, in the middle of the morning, +the well-remembered camp appeared. Miss Drew, who had taken Eleanor's +place as Guardian, laughed as she greeted her friend. + +"I don't know how you do it, Nell," she said. "I never saw anything +like these girls of yours. They did their best not to let me know, but +I managed to find out, without their knowing it, that you did about +everything in a different way from mine--and a much better way." + +"Nonsense!" said Eleanor. "I've made a few changes in the theoretical +rules of the Camp Fire. All Guardians are allowed to do that, you +know. But it's only because they seemed to suit us a little better--my +ideas, I mean." + +"You know," said Anna Drew, thoughtfully, "I think that's the very best +thing about the Camp Fire. It doesn't hold you down to hard and fast +rules that have got to be followed just so." + +"If it did, it would defeat its own purposes," said Eleanor. "What we +want to do--and it's for Guardians, if they're youngsters like you and +me, as well as for the girls--is to train ourselves to attend to our +jobs properly." + +"Why, what jobs do you mean?" + +"The job every girl ought to get sooner or later--running a home. It's +a lot more of a job, and a lot more difficult, and important, too, than +waiting on people in a shop, or being a stenographer, and yet no one +ever thinks an awful lot about it before it comes along." + +"That's so, Nell. I never thought of it just that way. But you're +right. We get married, and a whole lot of us don't have any idea at +all of how to look after a house." + +"It isn't fair to the men who marry us. Marriage is supposed to be a +partnership--husband and wife as partners. But if the man knew as +little about his part of the job as the woman generally does about hers +when she gets married, most married couples would be in the poorhouse +in a year." + +"That sounds old-fashioned, but I don't believe it is, somehow." + +"It certainly is not. It's what I try to keep in mind. That's why we +don't go in much for talking about votes for women. I'm not saying we +ought not to vote, or that we ought to. But I do think there are a lot +of things we ought to think about first. Times have changed a lot, but +after all women and men don't change so very much. Or, at least, they +ought not to change." + +"I think I see what you're driving at. You mean that your great +grandmother and mine probably spun cloth and made clothes for +themselves and most of the family, and did all sorts of other things +that we never think of doing?" + +"Yes. And I don't mean that we ought to go back to that. A man can +buy a better shirt in a shop now for less money than you or I would +have to spend in making him one. But there are plenty of other things +we could do in a house that we never seem to think of, somehow." + +"I don't see how you think of all that! I thought I'd spent a lot of +time studying the Camp Fire, but I never got hold of those ideas." + +"Oh, they're not all mine--not a bit of it! You ought to talk to Mrs. +Chester, our Chief Guardian. She'd make you think, and she'd make you +believe you were doing it all by yourself, too." + +"Yes, she's wonderful. I don't know her very well, but I hope to see +more of her this winter. I want to be Guardian of a Camp Fire of my +own. I've had just enough of the work, substituting for other girls, +to want to spend a lot more time at it." + +"You'll get the chance all right--don't worry about that! It's +Guardians we need more than anything else. It isn't as easy as you +would think to get girls and women who've got the patience and the time +for the work. But that's chiefly because they don't know how +fascinating it is, and how much more fun there is in doing it than in +spending all your time going about having what people call a 'good +time.' I've never had such a good time in my life as since we got up +this Manasquan Camp Fire." + +"Well, I wish I could stay with you, and go on this wonderful tramp +with you. But I've got a lot of girls coming up to visit me, and I've +simply got to be there to entertain them. So if you're really going to +stay, and don't need me any more, I'll have to be getting Andrew to +take me back home again." + +"I wish you could stay, too, but if you can't, you can't. I'm ever so +grateful to you for coming. I can tell you right now that there aren't +many people I'd trust my girls to, as I did with you!" + +"I know it's a compliment, Nell, so you needn't talk about gratitude. +I'm the one to be grateful, I'm sure. The more experience I get before +I'm a regular Guardian myself, the better chance I'll have to make good +when the time comes." + +"I'm ever so glad you feel that way about it, Anna. You know, there +are ever and ever so many girls who could do the work, and won't try. +I'm not sure that it's so much 'won't' as--oh, I don't know! I think +they're afraid--they haven't any confidence in themselves. They think +it would be absurd for them to try to direct others. I felt that way +myself." + +"Nearly everyone who is at all likely to make good does, Anna. That's +the strangest part of it. When I hear a girl talking about how easy it +is to be a good Guardian, 'and how sure she is that she'll make good, +I'm always afraid she's going to fail. If you make the girls +understand they've got to help you, and that you know that if they +don't you won't be able to succeed, you get them ever so much more +interested." + +"That's easy to understand. It makes them feel that they really do +have a part in the work. I noticed that about your girls, +particularly, Nell. They seemed to feel that they were all a part of +the Camp Fire." + +"Well, that's the spirit I've always tried to put into them. I'm very +glad if I've really succeeded in doing it. It was a good deal of a +trust for me, as well as for them--leaving them to you. It shows, I +think, that the Camp Fire is in good shape and able to get along, not +exactly by itself, but under different conditions. I might easily have +to leave them, you know, and if they couldn't go right ahead under +another Guardian, I'd feel that my work had been, in a way, at least, a +failure." + +"All ready, Miss Drew!" called old Andrew, and then the girls gathered +on the beach and sung the Wo-he-lo song as the boat glided off. + +Eleanor welcomed the quiet days that followed, during which she +completed the plans for the field day in which the Boy Scouts were also +to take part, and for the long tramp she planned as the chief event of +the summer for her girls. + +"It seems sort of slow, now that those gypsies have gone, and there's +no one to make trouble for us," Dolly complained. But Bessie and Zara, +who heard her, only laughed at her. + +"You'd better be careful," said Zara. "First thing you know you'll be +starting some new trouble." + +"She's right," said Bessie. "You said when we got away from that gypsy +that you'd had enough excitement for awhile, Dolly." + +"Oh, well," Dolly pouted, "it is slow up here--no place to buy soda, no +moving picture shows--nothing!" + +"I call the swimming and the walks pretty exciting," said Zara. "I'm +really learning. I went about twenty yards this afternoon." + +"But I know how to swim, and one walk is just like another," said Dolly. + +"Well, we'll have the field day pretty soon, and then, after that, +we'll start on our long walk. There'll be plenty of excitement then, +and one walk won't be just like another. I bet you'll be wishing for a +train before we're down in the valley again." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +A NOVEL RACE + +The morning of the long-awaited field day dawned clear and bright. The +camp was stirring with the first rays of the rising sun, that gilded +the tree tops to the east, and painted the surface of the lake, smooth +as a mirror, with a hundred hues. The day promised to be hot in the +open, but there was no danger of great heat on the march, which was +entirely through the woods. + +"We won't worry about how hot it's going to be under the sun," said +Eleanor Mercer as the girls sat at their early breakfast. + +"No. Our work is under the trees, until we get to the camping spot," +said Margery Burton. + +"Now here's the plan of campaign," said Eleanor. "I am going to send +two girls ahead to build the fire. That's the most important thing, +really--to get the fire started." + +"We can't use matches, can we?" asked Zara. + +"No, the fire must be made Indian fashion, with two sticks. But we all +know how to do that, I think. The idea of sending two girls ahead is +to have that part of the work done when the main body reaches our +camping ground." + +"Where is that? We can know now, can't we, Wanaka?" asked Margery. + +"Yes, it's all right to tell you now. You know those twin peaks beyond +Little Bear Lake--North Peak and South Peak?" + +"Yes," came the answer, in chorus. + +"Well, our place is on North Peak, and Mr. Hastings will take his +Scouts to South Peak. The trails are different, but they're the same +length." + +"Why was that kept such a secret?" asked Bessie. + +"Because Mr. Hastings and I decided that it would be fairer if there +was no chance at all to go over the trail first and learn all about it. +Then there was the chance that if either party thought of it they could +locate kindling wood and fallen wood that could be used for the +fire-making. On a regular hike, you see, you would go to a place that +was entirely strange, and it seemed better to keep things just as near +to regular hiking conditions as we could." + +"Oh, I see! And that's a good idea, too. It's just as fair for one as +for the other, then." + +"Who are going to be the two girls to go ahead? And why can't we all +get there at the same time?" asked Dolly. + +"One question at a time," said Eleanor, with a laugh. "I'll answer the +second one first. We've got to carry all the things we need for making +camp and getting a meal cooked. So if we send out two girls ahead, +with nothing to carry, they can make much better time than those who +have the heavy loads." + +"Will they do the same thing?" asked Zara. "The Boy Scouts, I mean?" + +Eleanor smiled. + +"Ah, I don't know," she said. "They will if Mr. Hastings thinks of it, +I'm sure, because it would be a good move in a race." + +"Is it quite fair in case they don't happen to think of it?" asked +Margery, doubtfully. + +"Why not? This isn't just like a foot-race. It isn't altogether a +matter of speed and strength, or even of endurance--" + +"I should hope not!" declared Dolly. "If it was, what chance would we +have against those boys?" + +"Suppose we found some new way of rubbing sticks that would make fire +quicker than the regular way, it would be fair to use that, wouldn't +it, Margery?" asked Bessie. + +"That's the idea. Bessie's right, Margery," said Eleanor. "We have a +perfect right, and so have they, to employ any time-saving idea we +happen to get hold of. And I'm quite sure this is a good one, and that +Mr. Hastings will think of it, too." + +"Well, I hope he doesn't do anything of the sort!" said Margery, wholly +converted and now enthusiastic for the plan. + +"You haven't told us yet who is to go ahead," said Dolly. "I'm just +crazy to be one of the two--" + +"We all are! Who wouldn't like to get out of carrying a load?" cried +two or three girls in chorus. + +Eleanor laughed at the eagerness they displayed. + +"It won't be all fun for the pathfinders, as we'll call them," she +said. "They've got a lot of responsibility, you see." + +"What sort of responsibility?" asked Margery. "All they've got to do +is to go just as fast as they can and make a fire when they get to the +peak." + +"That isn't all they've got to do, though. They've got to make a smoke +signal, for one thing, by stopping the smoke with a blanket, and then +letting it rise, straight up, three times. And they've got to go to +work and get enough wood to keep the fire going, as soon as they've +lighted it." + +"But they'll be able to go along ever so easily on the trail!" + +"It isn't a very well marked trail. Neither of the trails to the peak +is, for that matter. And the pathfinders, if they find they're in any +danger of making a wrong turn, must make a sign for us who follow. +That might easily save us a good many minutes in getting there. So you +see it isn't quite as easy as you thought. Now, I'll call for +volunteers. Who wants to join the pathfinders?" + +Every girl there put up her hand at once, amid a chorus of laughs and +jesting remarks. + +"Heavens! Well, you can't all be pathfinders, or there'd be no one to +carry the dinner! We'll have to figure out some way of picking out +two, because that's all there can be." + +"We might draw lots," said Margery. + +"I don't like that idea much," said Eleanor. "If you're all so anxious +to go, we ought to make it a reward of some sort--a prize. It's too +bad I didn't think of it earlier, because then we could have had a +really good competition." + +She frowned thoughtfully for a moment. + +"I know what we'll do," she said. "There are just eight of you, and +we'll divide all the dishes from breakfast into eight even piles. We +can do that easily. Then you shall all start together--" + +"Oh, that's good!" said Dolly. "And the ones who finish first will be +pathfinders?" + +"Yes, those who finish first, and put their dishes away properly, +Dolly--not just finish washing and drying. I'll be the judge. Come +on, Margery, we'll arrange the piles." + +So the arrangements were made, and then, with each girl standing over +her own pile of dishes, they waited eagerly for the word. + +"I'll start you," laughed Eleanor. "Now, are you ready? Take +dishes--wash!" + +And at once there was a great splashing and commotion. But Eleanor +broke in with a laugh. + +"Time!" she called. "Stop washing'" + +Everyone stopped, and looked at her curiously. + +"Here's a rule," she said. "I only just thought of it. Anyone who +breaks a dish is out of the race, even if she finishes five minutes +ahead of the next girl. Understand?" + +"Yes," they cried. + +"All right. Dolly, you kept on washing for nearly half a minute after +the others had stopped. When I give them the word to start again, +don't you do it. I'll give you a starting signal of your own. You, +too, Mary King! I'll call your names when you two are to start." + +Then they bent to their piles again, and waited for Eleanor's "Ready? +Wash!" + +Dolly and Mary King, forced to restore the time they had unwittingly +stolen from the others, waited as patiently as they could until they +heard "Now, Dolly!" and after a moment more, "All right, Mary!" + +"Oh, this is fine sport!" cried Dolly, washing with an energy she had +never displayed before. "I think we ought to have races like this ever +so often. They're much better fun than most of the games we play!" + +"Anything that makes you act as if you liked work is a fine little +idea, Dolly," said Margery. "But I haven't got time to talk--I've got +to wash. I never thought anyone could wash dishes as fast as you're +doing it!" + +"I'm in practice," laughed Dolly. "I hate them so, that I'm always +trying to get them done just as quickly as I can." + +And a moment later Dolly, to the general surprise, had put away her +last dish, an easy winner. + +It was plain to her in a moment that the struggle, now that she was out +of it, would be between Margery and Bessie. They had finished washing +almost at the same moment, with Margery perhaps a couple of spoons +ahead. + +"Hurry, Bessie, do hurry!" pleaded Dolly. "We've done so much together +up here, we ought to be pathfinders together, too. Can't I help her, +Miss Eleanor?" + +"No, that wouldn't be fair, Dolly," laughed Eleanor. "Each one has got +to win or lose on her own merits in this race." + +Bessie smiled as she heard Dolly's impulsive appeal. She wanted to +win, too, because it was impossible for her to engage in any contest +without wanting to come out ahead, or as far ahead as she could. This +time, of course, second place was all she could hope for, but she was +not one of those people who, if the chief prize is beyond their reach, +relax their efforts to do as well as they can. + +As she finished wiping each dish dry she arranged it, stacking her +dishes in order of their size, so that they could all be carried easily +to the tent where they were to be laid away. + +Margery, on the other hand, grew nervous as she neared the end. Once a +plate slipped through her hand, but, fortunately, her cry of dismay as +it fell was premature, for it did not break. But she was putting her +dishes down anywhere, without regard for their size or for convenience +in carrying them, and as a result, though she had finished the actual +drying nearly a minute before Bessie, she was still frantically +gathering her piled dishes together in her arms when Bessie wiped the +last spoon. + +Then, without haste, Bessie picked up her whole pile, and, starting +before Margery, walked carefully over to the tent. She put away her +last dish before Margery was half done, and the contest was over. + +"Go on, girls!" cried Eleanor, as she saw that interest was slackening +with the choice of the second pathfinder. "You don't want to be last, +do you? I should think you'd all want to avoid that!" + +The reminder was enough, and the others were soon busily finishing +their tasks. Zara was fourth, right after Margery, and then there was +a wild scramble among the last four. They finished almost together, +and Eleanor, with a laugh, had to declare that there was a tie for +sixth, seventh and eighth places. + +"So no one was really last!" she declared, merrily. "My, but that was +good fun! It certainly was, if you enjoyed racing half as much as I +did watching you! It's a pity we never thought of that before." + +"I'll beat you next time, you two!" vowed the panting Margery, shaking +her first in mock anger at Bessie and Dolly. "More haste, less speed! +That's what beat me! But I'll know better next time." + +"We'll have a team race some time," said Eleanor. "Two teams of +four--that ought to be good fun. Oh, there are lots of ways of having +a good time if you only think of them!" + +Then she clapped her hands as a sign for attention. + +"Now we've got to take our fun for the rest of the day more seriously," +she said. "You girls will have to take your fire-making sticks, and an +old blanket. You understand how to make smoke signals, don't you?" + +"Yes, indeed!" cried Dolly and Bessie, in one breath. + +"All right, then. How will you make signs to show us which way to go?" + +"With a hatchet. We'll blaze the trees," suggested Bessie. "Then +you'll be sure to see it. There's no way that a sign like that can be +blown away, or get moved by accident. With the thin end of the blaze +in the direction you are to take, if there's a choice." + +"All right. Hatchet, old blanket, fire-making sticks. You'd better +carry water bottles, for you'll be thirsty on the way." + +"Why, we'll find plenty of water. There must be springs!" Dolly +protested. + +"Undoubtedly; but you don't know just where they are, and you'd waste +time looking for them. If you have your water bottles, with a little +bit of lemon juice in the water, you can have a drink wherever you +like." + +"I like the taste of lemon juice, too." + +"It isn't only because you like it that it's a good thing to have it, +but it will quench your thirst better than plain water, and it will +make your water last better, too, because you don't need to drink so +much of it." + +"It's fine if you're hot, too," said Margery, approvingly. "A little +lemon water will cool you off better than half a dozen of those +ice-cream sodas you're so fond of, Dolly." + +Dolly made a face at her. + +"I think it's mean of you to tease me about soda when you know I can't +have it, no matter how much I want it," she said. "But I don't care, +really. I wouldn't have an ice-cream soda now, if I had a pocket full +of money and I could get one by going across the street!" + +Eleanor smiled at her. + +"What a reckless promise! Only you know you are perfectly safe," she +said, half mockingly. + +"I really mean it," protested Dolly. "I'm going to swear off--for a +long time, anyhow. Bessie and Zara and I are going to try to get +enough honor beads to be Fire-Makers as soon as we get back to the +city, and that's one of the ways I'm going to try." + +"Then you've started already?" said Eleanor. + +"No, not yet," said Dolly. "I'm going to wait--" + +A shout of laughter interrupted her. + +"Oh, yes, we know! Until you have just one or two last ones--" + +Dolly flushed dangerously for a moment. But her new control over +herself, that she was fighting so hard to maintain, saved her from the +sharp reply that was on her tongue. + +"You might let me finish," she said. "If I swore off now I suppose the +time while we're here would count toward an honor bead, but what's the +use of swearing off something I can't get, anyhow? I'm going to swear +off the first time I see a soda fountain!" + +"Good for you, Dolly!" exclaimed Eleanor, heartily. "That's the right +spirit." + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE PATHFINDERS + +It did not take the two pathfinders long to get so far ahead of the +main party that they were out of sight and almost out of hearing. The +girls who carried the necessary provisions and utensils, however, made +their way light by singing Camp Fire songs as they walked, and their +voices echoed through the woods. + +"This is great! Oh, I love it!" said Dolly, happily. "I'm so glad you +beat Margery, Bessie!" + +"I thought you liked Margery, Dolly?" + +"I do, but you're my very dearest chum, Bessie! I think Margery's +great, but she is just a little bit superior, sometimes. I expect I +deserve it when she gives me a lecture, but I like you because you +don't preach, though you're just as good as she is any day in the week!" + +"I'll probably lecture you some time, Dolly, if I think you need it." + +"Go ahead! I don't mind when you do it, or if you do it. I don't know +why, but it's the same way with Miss Eleanor. She's scolded me +sometimes, but she isn't a bit like my Aunt Mabel, or the teachers at +school." + +"How do you mean? They're kind to you, I suppose? It isn't that that +makes the difference?" + +"No. I don't just know what it is, except that she makes me feel as if +I had made her unhappy, and they always talk just as if they thought it +was their duty." + +"It probably is, Dolly. You ought to have had the sort of scoldings I +used to get from Maw Hoover! Then you'd know what a real scolding is +like." + +"Oh, I just hate that woman, Bessie, for the way she treated you. +Don't you hate her, too?" + +"I don't know. I used to, but I'm sort of sorry for her, Dolly." + +"I don't see why!" + +"Well, since I've been away from the farm, I've seen that she didn't +have a very much better time than I did. She had to work all day long, +and she never got much pleasure." + +"That wasn't any excuse for her treating you so badly." + +"I think maybe it was, Dolly. I suppose she was nervous, like a whole +lot of other women, and she had to have something to wear herself out +on. She took things out on me. I'm beginning to think that maybe she +wasn't really mad at me when she acted like that. I believe she used +to get so upset about things that she had to sort of kick out at +whatever was nearest--and it happened to be me." + +"Well, I hate her, just the same! You can forgive her if you like, but +I'm not going to!" + +"It's a good thing she never did anything to you, Dolly. If you hate +her like that when you've never even seen her, what would you do if you +had some real reason for it?" + +Dolly laughed. + +"I suppose I am silly," she said, "but I can't help it. I just feel +that way, that's all. Do you know what I wish, Bessie?" + +"Nothing dreadful, I hope, Dolly." + +"She'd think it was, I'm sure--spiteful old cat! I wish you'd find out +all about your father and mother, and that they'd not be lost any more." + +"Oh, Dolly, so do I! But that wouldn't seem dreadful to Mrs. Hoover, +I'm sure. I think she'd be glad enough." + +"Let me finish. I wish you'd find them or that they'd find you, and +turn out to be ever so rich. They might, you know. It might all be a +mistake, or an accident, or something." + +"I wouldn't care if they weren't rich, Dolly, if only I knew what had +become of them, and why they had to leave me there all that time with +the Hoovers." + +"I just know there's some good reason, Bessie. You're so nice that +you're bound to be happy some time. Of course you'd like to have your +father and mother, whether they were rich or not. But wouldn't it be +great if they really were rich?" + +"I don't know. I don't know what it's like to be rich, Dolly." + +"Oh, you could do all sorts of things! You could make them take you +back to Hedgeville in an automobile, just for one thing." + +"There are lots and lots of places I'd rather go to, Dolly." + +"Oh, yes, of course! But think of how everyone would stare at you, and +how envious they would be! I bet they'd be sorry then that they +weren't nice to you." + +Bessie smiled wistfully at the fantastic idea Dolly's lively brain had +conjured up. + +"It would be fun," she sighed. "They did tease me dreadfully, some of +the girls. You see, the Hoovers didn't have so very much money, and my +clothes were mostly old things that Maw made over to fit me when she +was through with them." + +"You could go back in better dresses than any of those Hedgeville girls +ever even saw, Bessie. And just think of how that horrid Jake Hoover +would feel then." + +"Oh, well, there's no use thinking about it, Dolly. It won't ever +happen. So I shan't be disappointed, anyhow." + +"Well, it might happen and I think it's simply great to dream about +things that might happen to you. It doesn't do any harm, and it's +awfully good fun." + +"You do the dreaming, Dolly, and tell me about your dreams. You can do +it better than I could. I'm no good at dreaming that way at all." + +"All right, that's a bargain. And right now I guess we'd better stop +thinking about dreams and attend to pathfinding. Here's a turn. Which +way ought we to go?" + +"Straight ahead, I'm sure," said Bessie. "See how the trail narrows in +the other direction, and it doesn't look as if it had ever been made +like the main trail. It's more as if people had just broken through +one after another, until a sort of trail was made." + +"Yes, and it isn't straight ahead, either. When there's a big tree in +the way, the trail goes around it, and on the regular trail the guides +went along a straight line and chopped down trees when they had to." + +"All right. Give me the hatchet, and I'll mark the proper way to go." + +Deftly Bessie, who had had long practice in the use of a hatchet when +she lived with the Hoovers, cut off a strip of bark on a tree at the +meeting point of the two trails, so that it formed a plain and +unmistakable guide to anyone who knew anything at all of woodcraft. + +Then they pressed on. They walked fast, and, with nothing to delay +them, they made good time, pausing only once in a while to take a sip +from their water bottles. + +"I can't hear the girls singing any more, can you?" asked Dolly, +presently. + +"No," said Bessie, pausing to listen. "I guess we must be quite a +little way ahead of them now. We ought to be, of course." + +"How much sooner than they ought we to reach the peak?" + +"That's pretty hard to tell. I don't know how far it is. But I should +think we ought to walk about four miles to their three. So if it's ten +miles, we ought to be about two miles and a half ahead of them when we +get there--and they ought to walk that in about half an hour--say a +little more, forty minutes." + +"That would give us plenty of time to get things ready." + +"I should hope so! We really haven't so very much to do when we get +there. It's quite an honor for us to be allowed to make the fire, +isn't it?" + +"Yes, it is. But we won the right to do it, Bessie. You must remember +that. And, of course, it isn't like a ceremonial fire." + +"No, but it's a real fire, and an important one. Look! We're +beginning to go down hill now. We'll be climbing again before we get +there, though." + +"Let's hurry! I'm just crazy to get the fire started. Who is going to +make the light?" + +"Why, you are, Dolly! You won the dish-washing race, so you've +certainly got the right to do that." + +"I'll let you do it if you want to, Bessie. I don't care about the old +race." + +"No. You earned the right. And I believe you can do it better than I +can, anyhow." + +"It's just a trick, when you once know how. I used to think it was a +wonderful thing to do, but it's just as easy as threading a needle." + +"That's another thing that isn't easy until you know just how to do it, +though." + +"I guess that's so. I've seen boys try to do it, ever and ever so many +times, and they usually threw the needle and thread away two or three +times before they managed it." + +"Are we to cook lunch as soon as we all get to the camping spot?" + +"I don't think so. It would be too early, you see." + +"I guess the fire will be made, though. Do you know what we are going +to have?" + +"Potatoes. I saw those. And I believe we're going to have a ham, too. +And coffee, of course, and a lot of fruit for dessert." + +"Well, the ham would take quite a long time to cook. I guess maybe +we'd have to start in cooking right away to get finished in time." + +"The boys ought to be having just the same sort of meal that we do. Or +else it wouldn't be fair, because some things take longer to cook than +others, and you can't hurry them, either." + +"Oh, I remember now that Miss Eleanor spoke about that. That's one of +the rules." + +"I believe we're getting near, for the trail is rising pretty sharply +now," said Dolly. + +"That's so. See how hilly it is getting to be. It's quite clear on +top of the peaks, I believe. I wonder if we'll be able to see them on +the other peak and if they'll be able to see us?" + +"We'll see the smoke, anyhow. There's nearly half a mile between the +two peaks, Miss Eleanor said." + +"Come on, let's hurry. I'll be dreadfully disappointed if they get +their fire started first." + +"So will I." + +Then the ascent grew so sharp that for a time they needed all their +breath for the climb before them. But the prospect of reaching their +destination prevented them from being weary; they were too excited by +this strange sort of race in which the contestants could not see one +another at all. + +"I think this is splendid!" panted Bessie. "This being on our honor. +Either side could cheat, and the other wouldn't know it--but neither +side will." + +"Oh, there's no fun in cheating," said Dolly, scornfully. "If I win +anything, I want to know I've really won it, not that I got it because +I was smarter than someone else that way." + +"That's right. Of course it's no fun to cheat! I always wonder why +people who cheat play games at all. I don't believe they really know +themselves, or they wouldn't do it." + +Then came the last part of the ascent, and they went at it with a will, +though they were ready for a rest. But when they reached the summit, +and were able to stand still at last in an open space almost altogether +clear of trees they were amply rewarded for all their exertions. + +First of all they looked eagerly to the south, toward the peak that was +the twin of their own. A happy exclamation burst from them +simultaneously. + +"No smoke there yet!" cried Bessie. + +"We're here in time!" echoed Dolly. + +"We mustn't waste any time, though," cried Bessie. "Get your sticks +started while I lay a fire, Dolly." + +Swiftly Dolly sank to her knees and arranged her fire-making apparatus, +the bow, the socket and the drill. Then, while she drew the bow +steadily and slowly, making the drill revolve in the socket which was +full of punk, Bessie brought small, dry sticks and a few leaves, so +that when the spark came in the punk, it would have fuel upon which to +feed. + +"There it is--the fire!" cried Dolly. "See how it runs along in the +leaves, Bessie." + +First a little glowing ember; then tiny flames, that crackled and +sputtered. And then arose a wisp of smoke. Carefully Bessie piled on +stick after stick, carefully chosen and well dried by sun and wind, so +that they would burn quickly. + +"Oh, the beautiful fire!" cried Dolly. "I do love it, Bessie. See, +how it runs along. Really, it's a splendid fire!" + +Merrily it blazed up, bright and clear. + +"Now we want some green wood that will make a smoke," said Dolly. +"Here's some. I think it's burning well enough now, don't you?" + +"Yes. Let's make the smoke now." + +On went the green, damp wood, resinous and full of oil. And in a +moment a thick smoke hid the bright, leaping flames. + +"Here's the blanket!" cried Dolly. "Catch the other side--now!" + +Standing on either side of the fire, the blanket held over it, they +dipped it down now, so that the smoke was caught and held under the +obstruction. Then they lifted it clear of the fire altogether, and the +smoke, released, rose straight up in a long, tall column, that was +visible for miles where the trees did not obscure the view. Once and +again they repeated this, making three separate columns of smoke before +they left the fire to itself. + +And still there was no answering smoke from the other peak. The girls +had won their race. + +"Did the Indians really use those signals?" asked Dolly. + +"They certainly did. Out on the plains, you see, smoke like that could +be seen for miles and miles. And so, if there were Indians a few miles +apart, signals could go very, very quickly for great distances, and +they could send messages for hundreds of miles almost as quickly as we +can send them now by telegraph." + +Then they piled on more dry wood, and built the fire up so that it was +a great, roaring blaze. + +"Now we will just find the water. They'll need that for cooking." + +In less than five minutes after they separated to look for the spring +they knew was near, Dolly cried out that she had found it. And in the +same moment the first smoke rose from South Peak. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE SIGNAL SMOKES + +"There's smoke, Dolly!" cried Bessie, triumphantly. "Oh, but we've +beaten them on this! Ours must have gone up twenty minutes before +theirs, and they must have been able to see it when they were building +their fire, too." + +"Good! Oh, we'll take them down a peg or two before we're done today, +Bessie!" + +"Don't be too confident yet, Dolly. Remember this is only the start. +There's ever so much more to be done before we've won." + +"I don't care! You and I have done our share, anyhow." + +"You certainly have," said Eleanor Mercer's laughing voice. "But +Bessie's right; it isn't time to celebrate yet. Come on, now, we're +all going to be busy cooking and getting ready to cook." + +Dolly and Bessie looked at the girls emerging from the trail in +surprised delight. + +"Well, you've done your share, and more, too," said Bessie. "We +thought we came pretty fast, and we didn't expect you for another +fifteen minutes, anyway." + +"Well, we didn't exactly loiter on the way. I expect we'd all be glad +of a chance to rest a little, but that will have to come later. We'll +be able to take things easy while we're eating. We're each to allow a +full hour for that, you see, no matter when we get ready." + +"But if we're ready to start eating first we can start clearing up +first, too, can't we?" asked Dolly. + +"Certainly! That's the object of hurrying now. When we're ready to +sit down we're to make two smokes, and they are to do the same, and +again when we've finished, or when our hour is up, at least. We'll +keep tabs on one another that way, you see, and each side will know +just how much the other has done. There's got to be some such +arrangement as that to make it interesting." + +"Yes," said Margery Burton. "It wouldn't really seem like a race +unless we knew a little something about what the other side was doing, +I think." + +"Well," said Eleanor, "I see you've got a splendid fire. I'll appoint +you chief cook, Margery. You are to be here at the fire, and Zara +shall help you." + +Zara sprang to attention at once, and she and Margery unwrapped the +ham, and got out the big boiler in which it was to be cooked. + +"You go and get water, Dolly and Bessie," said Eleanor, then. "There +are the buckets. Hurry, now, so that the water can be boiling while +the others are fixing the ham." + +And so dividing up the tasks that were to be done, she assigned one to +each girl. They were all as busy as bees in a moment, and the work +flew beneath their accustomed fingers. Miss Eleanor knew the girls +thoroughly, and while, as a rule, she saw to it that each girl had to +do a certain number of things that did not particularly appeal to her +since that made for good discipline, she managed matters differently +today. + +It was a time to give each girl the sort of work she most enjoyed, and +which, therefore, she was likely to do better and more quickly than any +of the other girls. + +Although a stranger, hearing the singing, and seeing the bustling group +of girls without understanding just what they were doing, might have +thought he was looking on at a scene of great confusion, order really +ruled. Each girl knew exactly what she was to do, and there was no +overlapping. Things were done once, and once only, whereas, at the +ordinary picnic there are half a dozen willing hands for one task, and +none at all for another. + +"Too many cooks spoil the broth," says the proverb, and the same rule +applies doubly to such meals as the one the girls were so busily +preparing. But there was no spoiling here, and in a surprisingly short +time most of the girls were able to rest. Places were laid for the +meal; plenty of water had been provided for the cooks, and there was an +ample heap of firewood beside the fire. + +"I'll be ready for dinner when it's time, all right," said Dolly, +sniffing the delicious odor of the cooking ham as it rose from the +fire. "My, but that smells good!" + +"I've heard some people who had to cook meals say that it spoiled their +appetites, and that they didn't enjoy meals they had to cook +themselves," said Eleanor. "But I don't believe that applies to us a +bit. You'll be able to eat with the rest of us, won't you, +Margery--you and Zara?" + +"I can't speak for Zara," said Margery, laughing. "But I certainly can +for myself. Just you watch me when dinner's ready! Let's start the +coffee, Zara." + +A great coffee pot had been brought, and a muslin sack full of coffee. +This sack was now put in the coffee pot, which was filled with water, +and the pot was set on the fire. There is no better way of making +coffee. The finest French drip coffee pot in the world can't equal the +brew that this simple and old-fashioned method produces. And anyone +who has ever tasted really good coffee made in such a fashion will +agree that this is so. + +"Can those boys really cook, Miss Eleanor?" asked Dolly, looking toward +the other peak, whence smoke was rising steadily. + +"Can't they, just!" said Eleanor, heartily. "What makes you ask that, +Dolly?" + +"I don't know. It seems sort of funny for them to be able to do it, +that's all. You expect boys to do lots of other things, but cooking +seems to be a girl's business." + +"Oh, there are lots of times when it's a good thing for a man to be +able to cook himself a meal, especially when he's camping out. And +they certainly can do it--those Boy Scouts." + +"Have you ever tasted any of their cooking?" + +"I certainly have. One day I was out for a long tramp near the city, +and I managed to lose way in some fashion. You know some of the roads +are pretty lonely, and I managed to go a long way without coming to any +sort of a house where I wanted to stop and ask them to let me have +something to eat, and I was nearly starved." + +"What did you do? Wasn't there even a store where you could have +bought something?" + +"I didn't find it, if there was. Well, finally I decided to try a +short cut through some woods, and I hadn't gone very far when I ran +plump into this same troop of Boy Scouts that is on the other peak now!" + +"I bet you were glad to see them!" + +"Indeed I was. I knew Mr. Hastings, you see, and when I told him I was +lost and hungry, he made me sit down right away, and he explained that +they were just going to have an early supper." + +"That must have been good news!" + +"If you knew how hungry I was, you'd believe it. Well, I never have +had a meal that tasted half so good. They had crisp bacon, and the +most delicious coffee, and real biscuit!" + +"Biscuit! And had they cooked them themselves?" + +"They certainly had--and they were so good and flaky they fairly melted +in my mouth. If you'd tasted that supper you'd never ask again if boys +could cook. Those boys over there today will fare just as well as we +do ourselves, and they'll have just as good a time getting the meal +ready, too." + +"I guess they're better able to look after themselves than most of the +boys we know at home." + +"Dinner!" cried Margery, then. "Everything else ready? We'll be all +ready for you in a jiffy now. The ham's cooked, and so are the +potatoes and the corn is all roasted!" + +"We're ready whenever you are," said Eleanor, with a glance at the +"table." "Dolly, you and Bessie can send up your two smoke signals +now. I do believe we're ready to eat before they are!" + +"Oh, we're going to beat them all the way!" said Dolly, happily. + +Bessie and Dolly, holding the blanket together, wasted no time in +making the signal that let those on the other peak know that the Camp +Fire was ahead in another stage of the race, and, just as the second +smoke was made, a faint cheer was carried across the space between the +two peaks by the wind, which had shifted. + +But it was fully twenty minutes after the girls had begun their meal +before two pillars of smoke rose from South Peak as a sign that over +there, too, the meal was ready. + +"What a shame that we've got to waste a whole hour eating!" said Dolly. + +"I don't call it waste. I'm dog-tired," said Margery. "I'm mighty +glad to sit down and rest, and I'm mighty hungry, too." + +"So'm I," said Bessie. And there were plenty to echo that. + +"Well, if no one else will say it, I will," said Margery, presently. +"This _is_ a good dinner, if I did help cook it." + +"No one ever praises your cooking any more; they're too busy eating," +said Eleanor. "You established your reputation long ago." + +"Well, this was the sort of dinner you couldn't spoil," admitted +Margery, frankly. "And when people are frightfully hungry, you only +waste your time if you do any really fine cooking for them. All they +want is food, and they don't care much what it is, or how it's cooked." + +"You don't go on that principle, though, Margery. I notice you take +just as much trouble with your cooking whether it's likely to be +appreciated or not." + +"I do that for my own sake because I really enjoy cooking. I know what +I'm going to do next year if I can. Teach cooking in the high school. +And I think I can get the work, too." + +"That's fine, Margery. I know you'll enjoy it." + +"I think it will be pretty good fun. You know, it isn't only just the +girls in school. A whole lot of older girls come down--brides, and +girls who are going to be married. And they are the silliest things, +sometimes!" + +"Time's nearly up," said Eleanor, looking at her watch. "Bessie, +signal four times with the smoke. I want to see if my watch is right +by Mr. Hastings'." + +Four times the smoke rose, and from the other peak rose two short +answering smokes. + +"We arranged that signal, you see," said Eleanor. "Now, watch! He'll +show the time by his watch. Count the smokes carefully." + +First of all came two smokes. + +"That's the hour; two o'clock," said Eleanor. "Now count the next lot +carefully; that'll be the first digit of the minutes." + +Four smoke pillars rose, at regular intervals. And then, after a +well-marked pause, six more went up. + +"All right," said Eleanor. "Answer with four smokes. That means it +was forty-six minutes past two, fourteen minutes to three, when they +started signalling. And my watch and his agree exactly, so that's all +right." + +"We'll have a good lead when we are able to start cleaning up," she +continued. "But we can't waste any time. We start at two minutes to +three, and you want to remember that they know just how far behind they +are, and we won't be able to gain any more time from now on." + +"Why not, Miss Eleanor," asked Margery, "if we've done it so far?" + +"It's going to be very different now, Margery. I don't say that they +exactly despised us before, but I certainly do believe they +underestimated us. They thought they were going to have an easy time, +and they probably loafed a little this morning. But now, you see, they +know that they're in for a licking if they don't do mighty well, and +they'll strain every nerve to beat us." + +"Oh, I suppose so, but we've really got a splendid lead." + +"Yes. And do you know what will happen if we don't look out? We'll be +over-confident, just the way they were this morning, and it will have +just the same result. In a race, you know, a good runner will very +often let a slower one stay ahead until they are near the finish. They +call it making the pace. And then, when he gets ready, he goes right +by, and wins as he likes." + +But the warning, although Eleanor was sure that it had been needed, +seemed to spur the girls on. They were waiting eagerly when she gave +the word to start cleaning up, and each girl, her task assigned to her +in advance, was at work as soon as the command to go was given. + +In no time at all, as it seemed, the dishes ware washed. Then Bessie +and Dolly, as tenders of the fire, brought buckets of water and poured +them over the glowing embers, for the rule of the Camp Fire never to +leave a spark of flame behind them in the woods was strictly enforced. + +They put the fire out while the others finished packing the things that +had to be taken back. All the rubbish had been burned before water was +poured on the fire, and when everything was finished and the girls were +ready to start the march back to Long Lake there was no sign of their +visit except the blackened ring where the fire had burned. + +"Zara, I'm going to leave you here as a sentry when we start," said +Eleanor. "I'll carry your pack until you join us." + +"How long am I to stay?" asked Zara. + +"Until you see that their fire is put out. That will mean that they +will be ready to start within two minutes, and I want to know just how +much of a start we have on the hike home." + +"I see. As soon as they put it out I'm to start after you and report?" + +"Yes. Here's my watch. Remember the exact time. If they catch up +with us, it will be on this hike." + +Then they started, singing happily as they went down the hill. The +homeward path was easy. Burdens were lighter than they had been on the +trip from Long Lake, and the path was mostly down hill. And, moreover, +the Camp Fire Girls had the consciousness that, in order to win, they +needed only to hold the advantage they had gained. + +"Here's Zara!" cried Bessie, who had been looking behind her. + +"Good! What time did they put out their fire?" asked Eleanor. + +"Just ten minutes after you started," said Zara. "I came as quickly as +I could, but you must have been walking fast." + +"I told you they'd begin gaining on us," said Eleanor. "See, they +picked up ten minutes in clearing up. Come on, now, we must hurry!" + +Hurry they did, and when they reached Long Lake there was a brief +period of bustle. A new fire had to be made, and they worked with +feverish haste. But they were in time. Bessie and Dolly sent up the +first smoke signal before any pillar appeared at the other end of the +lake. But the margin was small, for the first Boy Scout pillar rose +just as they sent up their third! + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +OFF TO THE MOUNTAINS + +Two days after the triumph over the Boy Scouts in the test of the trip +to Twin Peaks and back, and bidding good-bye regretfully to Long Lake, +the girls started on the long tramp that was to take them through the +mountains and to the valley below them on the other side. + +"I've decided not to try to do any camping on the trip," said Eleanor, +"We could have more fun that way, perhaps, but it would mean carrying a +lot more, and I think the loads we've got are plenty big enough. I +know my own pack is going to feel heavy enough when we strike some of +the real climbing later on." + +"I should think we could do much better, too, in the way of interesting +others in the Camp Fire," said Margery, "if we stay at farm houses or +wherever they will take us in. We'll seem to be more among them, and +of them. Don't you think so?" + +Eleanor smiled at Margery, pleased that she should have guessed one of +her reasons for adopting the course she had chosen. She was already +thinking seriously of the time when Margery should be able to take her +place as a Guardian. + +"We won't start tramping right away, you know," said Eleanor, as they +disembarked from the boats at the end of Long Lake, and started over +the trail for the railroad. "We could tramp through these woods, but +it's very slow going, and I feel that we'd do better if we took the +train to Crawford, or Lake Dean, where we strike the road through the +notch. That will give us a good start, and give us very beautiful and +interesting country for our first day's walk." + +"Shall we go on the same railroad we came up on, Miss Eleanor?" asked +Bessie. + +"For a little way. We change a few stations further on, though, and +get on the line that climbs right up into the mountains. There's no +real road that we could follow. We'd have to take wood trails. So +we'll save a lot of time here, and have it for the part of the trip +where we can have some really good walking." + +The trip to Moose Junction did not take long. The place seemed hardly +worthy of its name. There was no imposing station, but only a little +wooden shack with a long platform for freight. But at one side of the +shack was a train that provoked exclamations of delighted laughter. + +"Why, that train hasn't grown up yet!" exclaimed Dolly, immensely +amused when she saw it. + +"It's a narrow gauge railroad, you see, Dolly," said Eleanor. "This +road is really only used in the summer time. In the winter no one is +up here except a few guides who haven't any use for trains, anyhow, and +the tracks are covered with snow." + +"I suppose it was cheaper to build than a regular railroad would be?" + +"Yes, a good deal cheaper. The cars are smaller, you see, and then, +when they built it, they had a chance to get their cars and engines +very cheap. In the old days, a great many railroads were built like +this, even the regular roads that were used all the year round. But +gradually they were all changed, and the rails were made the same on +railroads all over the country, and then these people were able to get +their cars and the other things they needed second hand. And it's +plenty good enough, of course, for all the use anyone wants to make of +this." + +Two puffing little engines were at the head of the two-car train that +was waiting at the junction, and, in a little while, after the +passengers for Crawford, the terminal station of the road, were all +aboard, they pulled out with a great snorting and roaring that amused +the girls immensely. But, ridiculous as they looked, the little +engines were up to their work, and they took the sharp, steady climb +well enough. + +"I like this," said Dolly. "It's awfully slow, but you can see the +country. On some of those big trains you go so fast you can't see a +thing, and this is really worth seeing." + +"It certainly is!" exclaimed Bessie, who was gazing raptly out of the +window. "Look back there where we came from! Who would ever have +thought that there were so many lakes and ponds?" + +"We're getting so high above them now that we can see them, Bessie. +Look, there's Long Lake, and I do believe I can see Loon Pond, too!" + +"I'm sure of it, Dolly. Oh, this is splendid! But we can't see much +up ahead, can we?" + +"Nothing but trees. It's like the old story of the man who wanted to +see a famous forest, and when he was in the very middle of it he said +he couldn't see the forest because there were so many trees." + +"I've seen mountains before," said Zara. "But they weren't like this. +Where I used to live there would be one or two big mountains, but they +stood out, and you could see all the way up no matter how close you +were." + +"Were they all covered with trees, like this?" + +"No, not at all. There were lots of little farms, and olive trees, and +gardens. And sometimes there would be smoke coming from the top of the +mountains." + +"You mean the volcanoes, don't you?" said Dolly. "I'd like to see an +eruption some time. Like the ones at Vesuvius." + +"I never saw one," said Zara, with a shudder. "But I've seen the paths +where the lava came down, and the places where people were killed, and +where whole villages were wiped out. I'm glad there aren't any around +here." + +"So is Dolly, Zara," said Bessie, dryly. "She's always wishing for +things she doesn't really want at all, because she thinks they would be +exciting." + +That would have started an argument without fail, if Dolly had not just +then had to devote her attention to something that she noticed before +anyone else. She sniffed the air that came in through the car windows +once or twice. + +"I smell smoke," she said.. "And look at the sun! It's so funny and +red. See, you can look at it without it hurting your eyes at all. And +it's a good deal darker, the way it gets before a thunder shower, +sometimes." + +"She's right," said Bessie. "I believe the woods must be on fire +somewhere near here." + +"I'm afraid they are," said Eleanor Mercer, who had stopped in the +aisle beside them and had overheard Bessie's remark. "But not very +near. You know the smoke from a really big forest fire is often +carried for miles and miles, if the wind holds steady." + +"Well, it can't be so very far--not more than twenty or thirty miles, +can it, Miss Eleanor?" + +"It's impossible to say, but I have known the smoke from a fire two +hundred miles away to make people uncomfortable. They can't smell it, +but it darkens the air a little." + +"Why, I had no idea of that!" + +"Well, here's something stranger yet. I heard you all talking about +volcanoes. A good many years ago there was a frightful eruption in +Japan, or near Japan, rather, when a mountain called Krakatoa broke +out. That was the greatest eruption we know anything about. And a +long time afterward people began to notice that the sunsets were very +beautiful half the way around the world from it, and no one knew why, +until the scientists explained that it was the dust from the volcano!" + +"Well, I hope this fire isn't where we are going!" said Dolly. + +"So do I," said Eleanor. "That's the very first thing I thought of, +though. It wouldn't do to go into a country while the fire was on, +because it might be dangerous and we'd certainly be in the way of the +people who were fighting it, and that wouldn't be right." + +"Whatever should we do, Miss Eleanor? Go home?" + +"Oh, I hardly think it's likely to be as bad as that. We might have to +stay at Crawford for a day or two, but I was planning to spend tonight +there, anyhow. Some friends of ours have a big camp on the lake, and +they said we could stay, if we wanted to." + +"Is it as pretty a place as Long Lake?" + +"I think so. But it's quite different. Lake Dean is a great big +place, you know. It's more than thirty miles long, and you could put +Long Lake into it and never know where it was. But it's very +beautiful. And it's the highest big lake anywhere in this part of the +world. It's right in the mountains." + +"I suppose there will be lots of people there?" asked Dolly. + +"Plenty," said Eleanor, smiling back at her. "But we won't have much +to do with them, we'll be there such a short time." + +"Oh, well, I don't care!" said Dolly, defiantly, as she heard the laugh +that greeted Eleanor's answer. "I probably wouldn't like them, anyhow!" + +"I really do think it's getting darker. We must be getting nearer to +the fire," said Bessie, who had been looking out of the window. "Do +you suppose it was some careless campers who started it, Miss Eleanor?" + +"That's pretty hard to say. But a whole lot of fires do get started by +just such people in the woods. It shows you why we are so careful when +we build a fire and have to leave the place." + +In the next hour, as the train still crawled upward, the smoke grew +thicker and thicker, until presently it was really like dusk outside +the car, and, though it was hot, the windows had to be closed, since +the smoke was getting into the eyes of all the passengers and making +them smart. + +"I used to think a forest fire would be good fun," said Dolly, choking +and gasping for breath, "but there isn't any fun about this. And if +it's as bad as this here, think of what it must be like for the people +who are really close to it." + +"It's about the most serious thing there is," said Eleanor, gravely. +"There's no fun about a forest fire." + +At Crawford they saw the big lake, but much of its beauty was hidden +since it lay under a pall of heavy smoke. Even then they could see +nothing of the fire, but the smoke rose thickly from the woods to the +west of the lake, and they soon heard, from those about the station, +that a great section of the forest in that direction was ablaze. + +"Good thing the lake's in the way," said one of the station porters. +"That's the only thing that makes us safe. It can't jump water. If it +wasn't for that it'd be on us by morning." + +"There are cottages and camps on the other side of the lake though, +aren't there?" asked Dolly. + +"Yes, and they're fighting hard to save them," said the porter. "They +ain't got much chance, though, unless the wind shifts and sends the +fire back over the ground it's burned over already. It's got out of +hand, that's what that fire's been an' gone and done." + +"We'll have to stay here until it's out," said Eleanor, with decision. +"Our road begins right up there"--she pointed to the northwest end of +the lake--"and the chances are the fires will be burning over that way +before the night's over. However, I don't believe there'll be a great +amount of damage done, if they can save the buildings on the shores of +the lake." + +"Why not, Miss Eleanor?" asked Margery. "It looks like a pretty bad +fire." + +"Oh, it is, but there isn't a great deal to burn. About two or three +miles back from the lake there's a wide clearing, and the fire must +have started this side of that, or it wouldn't have jumped. And it +can't have been burning very long, or we'd have had the smoke at Long +Lake." + +Then she went off to make some inquiries, and was back in a few minutes. + +"Come on, girls," she said. "It's only about ten minutes' walk to Camp +Sunset, where we are to stay." + +And she led the way down to the lake, and along to a group of buildings +made out of rough hewn logs, that stood among trees near the water. + +"Oh!" gasped Dolly, when they were inside the main buildings. "They +call this a camp! Electric lights, and it couldn't be better furnished +if it were in the city!" + +"The Worcesters like to be comfortable," said Eleanor, with a smile, +"even when they pretend they're roughing it. It is a beautiful place, +though I like our own rough shacks in the Long Lake country better." + +"Come on! I want to explore this place, Bessie!" cried Dolly. "May +we, Miss Eleanor?" + +"Go ahead, but be back in half an hour. We've got to help to get +dinner, even if we are in the midst of luxury!" + +So off went the two girls, and Dolly, always delighted by anything new, +was all over the place in a few minutes. + +"Look at those summer houses--places for having tea, I bet," she said. +"Hello! Why, there's another camp, just like this!" + +Sure enough, through the trees they could see other buildings, all logs +outside, but probably all luxury within. And, even while they were +looking at them, Dolly suddenly heard her own name. + +"Dolly! Dolly Ransom! Is that really you?" + +Dolly and Bessie looked up, surprised, for the call came from above and +a girl began to climb down from a tree above them, and they saw that +she had been hidden on a platform that was covered by leaves and +branches. + +"Gladys Cooper!" said Dolly. "Well, whoever would have thought of +seeing you here?" + +"Oh, there are lots of us here!" said Gladys, rushing up to Dolly as +soon as she reached the ground, and embracing her. "We're all in a +regular camp here, about a dozen of us. We're supposed to do lessons, +but I haven't looked at a book since I've been here, and I don't +believe any of the other girls have, either!" + +"Oh," said Dolly, suddenly remembering Bessie. "This is Bessie King, +Gladys. And this is my friend Gladys Cooper, Bessie. We used to go to +school together before her parents sent her off to boarding-school." + +Suddenly Gladys broke into a roar of laughter. + +"Oh, this is rich!" she exclaimed. "I forgot--why, you must be one of +the Camp Fire Girls who are coming here, aren't you, Dolly?" + +"I certainly am--and Bessie's another," said Dolly, a little +resentfully. "Why are you laughing?" + +"Oh, it seems so funny for you to belong! None of our crowd do, you +know, except you. We were furious when we heard you were coming. We +couldn't see why the Worcesters let you people have the camp. But +you'll spend all your time with us, won't you, Dolly? And"--she seemed +to remember Bessie suddenly---"bring your friend along, sometimes." + +"Indeed, and I'll stay with my own friends!" she said, flushing hotly. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +ENEMIES WITHOUT CAUSE + +"Horrid little snob!" commented Dolly, as, with the surprised Bessie +following her, she turned on her heel abruptly and left Gladys Cooper +standing and looking after her. + +"Why, Dolly! What's the matter? And why did she talk that way about +the Camp Fire Girls?" + +"Because she's just what I called her--a snob! She thinks that because +her father has lots of money, and they can do whatever they like that +she and her family are better than almost anyone else. And she and her +nasty crowd think the Camp Fire Girls are common because some of us +work for a living!" + +Dolly's honest anger was very different from the petulance that she had +sometimes displayed, as on the occasion when she had been jealous of +poor Bessie. And Bessie recognized the difference. It seemed to +reveal a new side of Dolly's complex character, the side that was loyal +and fine. Dolly was not resenting any injury, real or fancied, to +herself now; the insult was to her friends, and Bessie realized that +she had never before seen Dolly really angry. + +"As if I'd leave you girls and stay with them while we're here!" cried +Dolly. "I can just see myself! They'd want to know if I didn't think +Mary Smith's new dress was perfectly horrid, and if I said I did, +they'd go and tell her, and try to make trouble. Oh, I know +them--they're just a lot of cats!" + +"Oh, don't you think you may be hard on her, Dolly?" asked Bessie. +Secretly she didn't think so; she thought Gladys Cooper was probably +just what Dolly had called her. But it seemed to her that she ought to +keep Dolly from quarreling with an old friend if she could. "Maybe she +just wanted to see you, and she knew you, and didn't know the rest of +us." + +"Oh, nonsense, Bessie! You're always trying to make people out better +than they are. I don't know these girls who are up here with her, but +she'd say she knew me, and that we lived in the right sort of street at +home, and that her mother and my aunt called on one another, so I'm all +right. I know her little ways!" + +And Bessie was wise enough to see that to argue with Dolly while she +was in such an angry mood would only make matters worse. Bessie loved +peace, because, perhaps, she had had so little of it while she lived in +Hedgeville with the Hoovers. But Dolly wasn't in a peaceful mood, and +words weren't to bring her into one, so Bessie decided to change the +subject. + +"We'd better hurry back," she said. "I really think it must be almost +time to start getting supper ready." + +"Good!" said Dolly. "We haven't really come so far, but it's taken us +a long time, hasn't it? That old train from Moose Junction is about +the pokiest thing in the way of a train I ever saw." + +So they made their way back to the big building that, as they had +already learned, was called the "Living Camp." The sleeping rooms were +in other and smaller buildings, that were grouped about the central +one, in which were only three rooms, beside the big kitchen, a huge, +square hall, with a polished floor, covered with skins instead of rugs, +to bear out the idea of a rough woods dwelling, and two smaller rooms +that were used as a dining-room and a library. + +And, as soon as they arrived, they found that they were not the only +ones who had had an encounter with their next door neighbors. Margery +Burton was talking excitedly to Eleanor Mercer. + +"I didn't know I was on their old land!" she was saying. "And, if I +was, I wasn't doing any harm." + +"Tell me just what happened, Margery," said Eleanor, quietly. + +"Why, I was just walking about, looking around, the way one always does +in a new place, and the first thing I knew a girl in a bathing suit +came up to me!" + +"'I beg your pardon,' she said, 'but do you know that you are +trespassing?' + +"I said I didn't, of course, and she sort of sneered. + +"'Well, you know it now, don't you?' she said, as if she was trying to +be just as nasty as she could. 'Why don't you go to the land you're +allowed to use? I do think when people are getting charity they ought +to be careful!'" + +"That's another of that crowd of Gladys Cooper's," stormed Dolly. +"What did you say, Margery? I hope you gave her just as good as she +sent!" + +"I was so astonished and so mad I couldn't say a thing," said Margery. +"I was afraid to speak--I know I'd have said something that I'd have +been sorry for afterward. So I just turned around and walked away from +her." + +"What did she do? Did she say anything more, Margery?" asked Eleanor, +who, plainly, was just as angry as Dolly, though she had better control +of her temper. + +"No, she just stood there, and as I walked off she laughed, and you +never heard such a nasty laugh in your life! I'd have liked to pick up +a stone and throw it at her!" + +"Good for you! I wish you had!" said Dolly. "It would have served her +right--the cat! Bessie and I met one of them, too, but I happened to +know her, so she asked me to come and spend all my time with them while +we were here! I'm glad I sailed into her. Bessie seemed to think I +was wrong, but I'm just glad I did." + +Eleanor Mercer looked troubled. She understood better than the girls +themselves the reason for what had happened, and it distressed and hurt +her. The other girls who had heard Margery's account of her experience +were murmuring indignantly among themselves, and Eleanor could see +plainly that there was trouble ahead unless she could manage the +situation--the hardest that she had yet had to face as a Camp Fire +Guardian. + +"You say it was Gladys Cooper you saw, Dolly?" she said. "The Gladys +Cooper who lives in Pine Street at home?" + +"Yes, that's the one, Miss Eleanor." + +"I'm surprised and sorry to hear it," said Eleanor. "How does she +happen to be there, Dolly? Do you know? The Coopers haven't any camp +here, I know." + +"Oh, it's a girls' summer camp, Miss Eleanor. You know the sort. +They're run for a lot of rich girls, whose parents want to get rid of +them for the summer. They're supposed to do some studying, but all +they, ever really do is to have a good time. I'd have gone to one this +year if I hadn't joined the Camp Fire Girls instead. Gladys laughed at +me in the city when she heard I was going to join." + +"Mrs. Cooper wouldn't like it, I know that," said Eleanor, +thoughtfully. "She's a charming woman. She and my mother are great +friends, and I know her very well, too. There's nothing snobbish about +her, though they have so much money. I remember now; they went to +Europe this summer, and they didn't take Gladys with them." + +"I wish they had!" said Dolly, viciously. "I wish she was anywhere but +here." + +"Well," said Eleanor, "I'll find out in the morning just where the line +comes between the two camps, and we'll have to be careful not to cross +it." + +"I'm sure none of us want to go into their camp," said Margery. "But +there's no fence, and there aren't any signs, so how is one to know?" + +"We'll find some way to tell," said Eleanor, decisively. "And we won't +give them any chance to make any more trouble. They've got a right to +warn us off their property, of course, though they're just trying to be +nasty when they do it. But as long as they are within their rights, we +can't complain just because they're doing it to be ugly. We mustn't +put ourselves in the wrong because nothing would suit them better." + +"Oh, I hope we'll be able to get away to-morrow!" said Margery, +angrily. "I don't want ever to see any of them again." + +Eleanor's eyes flashed. + +"I've made up my mind to one thing," she said. "We're going to stay +here just as long as we like! I don't intend to be driven away in that +fashion. And I shouldn't wonder if we could start our missionary work +better with them than with anyone else!" + +"That's right--about staying here, I mean!" said Dolly, +enthusiastically. "Why, Margery, if we ran away now, they'd think they +had scared us off. You wouldn't want that, would you?" + +"No, I guess not!" said Margery. "I hadn't thought of that. But it's +true. It would be giving them an awful lot of satisfaction, wouldn't +it?" + +"Understand, Dolly, and the rest of you," said Eleanor, firmly, "I +don't mean to have any petty fighting and quarrelling going on. But I +won't let them think they can make us run away, either. Pay no +attention to them and keep out of their way, if you can. But we've got +just as much right to be here as they have to be in their camp, because +we're here as the guests of the Worcesters." + +"I know Miss Worcester," said Margery, hotly. "I'll bet she'd be +furious if she knew how they were acting." + +"She doesn't need to know, though, Margery," said Eleanor. "This is +our quarrel, not hers, and I think we can manage to settle it for +ourselves. Don't begin thinking about it. Remember that we're in the +right. It will help you to keep your tempers. And don't do anything +at all to make it seem that we're in the wrong." + +"My, but Miss Eleanor was angry!" said Dolly, when she was alone with +Bessie' after supper, which, despite the unpleasantness caused by the +girls next door, had been as jolly as all meals that the Camp Fire +Girls ate together. "I'm glad to see that she can get angry; it makes +her seem more lake a human being." + +Bessie laughed. + +"She can get angry, all right, Dolly," she said. "I've heard it said +that it isn't the person who never gets angry that ought to be praised; +it's the person with a bad temper who controls it and never loses it. +Miss Eleanor was angry because she is fond of us and thought those +other girls were being nasty to us. It wasn't to her that they'd been +nasty." + +"No, and just you watch Gladys Cooper if she gets a chance to see Miss +Eleanor! The Mercers have got just as much money as the Coopers, and +they are in just as good society. But you don't see Miss Eleanor +putting on airs about it! Gladys would be nice enough to her, you can +bet!" + +"Dolly, why don't you go over and see Gladys, if you know her so well? +You might be able to talk to her and make her see that they are in the +wrong." + +"No, thank you, Bessie! I'm no good at that sort of thing. I'd just +get angry again, and make the trouble worse than ever. If she's got +any sense at all, she must know I'm angry, and why, and if she wants to +be decent she can come over and see me." + +Nothing more happened that night. The girls, tired from their journey, +were glad to tumble into bed early. They all slept in one house, which +contained only sleeping rooms, and, because of the smoke, which was +still being blown across the lake when they went to bed, windows had to +be closed. The house was ventilated by leaving a big door open in the +rear and on the side away from the wind and the smoke, and of course +all the doors of the sleeping rooms were also left open. + +"I'm awfully sorry that smoke is blowing this way," said Dolly. "Look +here, Bessie, there's a regular porch running all the way around the +house. And do you see these screens that you can let down? I bet they +sleep out here." + +"They do," said Eleanor. "This sleeping porch arrangement is one of +the very best things about this camp, I think. But I don't see how we +can use it to-night, for the smoke is much too thick." + +So they regretfully closed their windows. And in the morning they +found that visitors had been at the house during the night. Every +window was firmly closed from the outside, wedges having been driven in +in such a fashion that it was impossible to open the windows from +within. The doors, too, were barred in some manner. + +"That's a joke those girls from the next camp played on us!" cried +Dolly, furiously. "Look there! They must have done it. No one else +could have managed it." + +The house resembled nothing so much as a hive of angry bees. The girls +buzzed with indignation, and loud were the threats of vengeance. + +"How are we going to get out?" cried Margery, indignantly. "What a +wicked thing to do! Suppose the place had caught fire? We might all +have been burned up just because of their joke!" + +But Bessie had busied herself in seeking a means of escape instead of +planning revenge, and now she called out her discovery. + +"Here's a little bit of a window, but I think I can get through it," +she said, emerging from a closet that no one had noticed. "If you'll +boost me up I'm pretty sure I can get out." + +"But you'll only be on the porch when you do get out, Bessie," said +Dolly. + +"I think maybe I can get those wedges out of the windows if I get out +there. If I can't, I'm quite sure I can manage to get to the ground +and get help. You see, everything downstairs is barred the same way. +I don't see how they could have done all that without our hearing them." + +"We were sleeping pretty soundly, Bessie," said Eleanor, her cheeks red +with indignation at the trick that had been played upon her girls. "If +the windows had been open, they couldn't have done it." + +Bessie had hard work getting through the tiny closet window, which had +been overlooked by the raiders, but she managed it somehow, and in a +moment she was outside. She first ran to the edge of the porch to look +around, and, to her anger and surprise, she saw a group of girls, all +in bathing suits, watching her and the house. At her appearance a +shout of laughter went up, and she recognized Dolly's friend, Gladys +Cooper, who was evidently a ringleader in the mischief. + +Bessie was sorely tempted to reply, but she realized that she would +only be playing into their hand if she seemed to notice them at all, +and, going to the other side of the house so that they could not see +her, she examined the windows. But she decided very quickly that she +could do nothing without tools of some sort, and she had none to work +with. + +Without any further hesitation, she slipped over the rail of the porch, +being still out of sight of the raiders, and went down the pillar, +which, being nothing more than a tree with its bark still clinging to +it, gave her an easy descent. Once on the ground, her task was easy. +She worked very quietly, and in a minute or two she had one of the +ground floor windows open. Eleanor Mercer, who had heard her at work, +was waiting for her. + +"Oh, Miss Eleanor," said Bessie, tensely, "those girls are all around +at the other side of the house, watching. They laughed at me like +anything when they saw me, and I'm sure they think we'll have to get +the guide to let us out." + +"Good," said Eleanor, snappily. "Do you think we can get behind them, +Bessie?" + +"I'm sure we can, if we go out this way and go around through the +trees." + +So bidding the other girls to stay behind for the moment, Eleanor +climbed out, and followed Bessie off the porch and around to the back +of the house. They swung around in a wide arc, moving quietly and +making as little noise as possible, until they heard laughter in front +of them. And a moment later they came around, and faced the astonished +raiders. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +A PLAN OF REVENGE + +Bessie had to laugh at the sight of Gladys Cooper's face when Dolly's +friend saw Miss Eleanor. It fell, and Gladys turned the color of a +beet. Evidently she had had no idea that Miss Mercer was with the Camp +Fire Girls. + +"How do you do, Gladys?" said Eleanor, pleasantly. "Do you know that +you are trespassing?" + +"The--the Worcesters gave us permission to come on their land whenever +we liked," stammered Gladys. + +"Yes, when they supposed that they and their guests were to receive the +same sort of courtesy from you. But the Worcesters aren't here just +now, and I must ask you girls not to come across the line at all, +unless you wish to behave in a very different manner." + +"I--I don't know what you mean, Miss Mercer. We haven't done +anything--" + +"That's silly, Gladys. I'm not going to do anything about it, but I +think it would be very easy to prove that it was you and your friends +who locked us in. Didn't you stop to think of what would have happened +if there had been a fire?" + +Gladys grew pale. + +"I don't suppose you did," Eleanor went on. "I don't think you mean to +be wicked, any of you. But just try to think of how you would have +felt if that house had caught fire in the night, and some of us had +been burned to death because we couldn't get out." + +"I didn't--we never thought of that," said Gladys. "Did we, girls?" + +"Well, I don't suppose you did. But that doesn't excuse the trick you +played at all. I'm not going to say anything more now, but I think +that if you stop to consider yourselves, you'll find out how mean you +were, and what a contemptible thing you've done." + +With heads hanging, and tears in the eyes of some of them, completely +crushed by Miss Eleanor's quiet anger as they would not have been had +she heaped reproaches upon them, the raiders started to return to their +own camp. Eleanor stood aside to let them pass; then, with Bessie, she +went back to the camp. + +"I hardly think we'll have any more trouble with them," she said. + +"I don't see why they dislike us so much," said Bessie. "We haven't +done anything to them." + +"I don't know how to explain it, Bessie. It isn't American; that's the +worst thing about it. But you know that in Europe they have lords and +dukes and an aristocracy, don't you? People who think that because +they're born in certain families they are better than anyone else?" + +"Yes." + +"Well, there's a good deal of excuse for people to feel that way over +there, because it's their system, and everyone keeps on admitting it, +and so making the aristocrats believe it. They're the descendants of +men who, hundreds of years ago, really did do great things, and earned +certain honors that their children were allowed to inherit." + +"But it isn't the same over here at all, Miss Eleanor." + +"No, and that's just it. But these girls, you see, are all from rich +homes. And in this country some people who have a lot of money are +trying to make an aristocracy, and the only reason for being in it is +having money. That's all wrong, because in this country the best men +and women have always said and believed that the only thing that +counted was what you were, not what you had." + +"Well, I'm not going to feel bad about them, Miss Eleanor. I guess +that if they really were such wonderful people they wouldn't think they +had to talk about it all the time, they'd be sure that people would +find it out for themselves." + +"You're very sensible, Bessie, and I only hope the other girls will +take it the same way. I really couldn't blame them if they tried to +get even in some fashion, but I hope they won't, because I don't want +to have any trouble. I'm afraid of Dolly, though." + +"I think Dolly's perfectly fine!" said Bessie, enthusiastically. "They +were willing to be nice to her, but she stuck to us, and said she +wouldn't have anything to do with them." + +"That's what the Camp Fire has done for her, Bessie. I'm afraid that +if Dolly hadn't joined us, she'd have been as bad as they are, simply +because she wouldn't have stopped to think." + +Bessie considered that thoughtfully for a moment before she answered. + +"Well, then, Miss Eleanor," she said, finally, "don't you suppose that +if that's so, some of those girls would be just as nice as Dolly, if +they belonged to the Camp Fire and really understood it?" + +"I'm sure of it, Bessie--just as sure as I can be! And I do wish there +was some way of making them understand us. I'd rather get girls like +that, who have started wrong, than those who have always been nice." + +Contrary to Bessie's expectations, when they reached the Living Camp, +Eleanor made no appeal to the girls to refrain from trying to get even +with the raiders. Eleanor knew that if she gave positive orders that +no such attempt was to be made she would be obeyed, but she felt that +this was an occasion when it would be better to let the girls have free +rein. She knew enough about them to understand that a smouldering fire +of dislike, were it allowed to burn, would do more harm than an +outbreak, and she could only hope that they would not take the matter +too seriously. + +"We're all going in bathing this afternoon after lunch," said Dolly to +Bessie, after breakfast. "I asked Miss Eleanor, and she said it would +be all right. The water's cold here, but not too cold, and with this +smoke all over everything, I think it will be better in the water than +it would be anywhere else." + +"The wind hasn't shifted much yet, has it?" said Zara. + +"It's shifted, but not altogether the right way," said Bessie. "I +think the houses along the lake are all right now, but the wind is +blowing the fire in a line parallel with them, you see, and it will +burn over a lot more of the woods before they can get it under control." + +"Miss Eleanor says we'll have to stay here a couple of days, at least," +said Margery. "Girls, what do you think about those cats in the next +camp?" + +Dolly's teeth snapped viciously. + +"I think we ought to get even with them," she said. "Are we going to +let them think they can play a trick like that on us and not hear +anything at all about it?" + +"Oh, what's the use?" said Margery. "I think it would be better if we +didn't pay any attention to them at all--just let them think we don't +care." + +"You were mad enough last night and this morning, Margery," said Dolly. +"You didn't act then as if you didn't care!" + +"No, I suppose I didn't. I was as mad as a wet hen, and there's no +mistake about that. But, after all, what's the use? I suppose we +could put up some sort of game on them, but I'm pretty sure Miss +Eleanor wouldn't like it." + +"I think you're right," said Bessie. "If we let them alone they'll get +tired of trying to do anything nasty to us. You ought to have seen the +way they sneaked off when Miss Eleanor spoke to them this morning. +They acted just the way I've seen a dog do after it's been whipped." + +"Oh, that's all right, too, Bessie," said Dolly. "But that won't last. +They probably did feel pretty cheap at first, but when they've had a +chance to talk things over, they'll decide that they had the best of +us. And I know how Gladys Cooper and the rest of the girls from home +will talk. They'll tell about it all over town." + +"Let them!" said Margery. "I'm not going to do a thing. And you can't +start a war all by yourself, Dolly. If you try it you'll only get into +trouble, and be sorry." + +"Oh, will I?" said Dolly, defiantly. "Well, I'm not saying a word. +But if I see a good chance to get even with them, I'm going to do +it--and I won't ask for any help, either! Just you wait!" + +"Let's quit scrapping among ourselves, Dolly. Wouldn't they just be +tickled to death if they knew we were doing that! Nothing would please +them any better." + +But even Margery's newly regained patience was to be sorely tried that +afternoon, when, after an early lunch, the Camp Fire Girls donned their +bathing dresses and went in swimming off the float in front of the +Worcester camp. + +"Come on, Dolly," she cried. "See that rock out there? I'll race you +there and back!" + +They went in together, diving so that their heads struck water at just +the same moment, while the rest of the girls watched them from the +float. On the outward journey they were close together, but they had +not more than started back when there was a sudden outburst of laughter +from the float where Gladys Cooper and her friends were watching, and +the next moment a white streak shot through the water, making a +terrific din, and kicking up a tremendous lot of spray. + +"Whatever is that?" cried Zara. + +"A motor boat," said Mary King. "Look at it go! Why, what are they +trying to do?" + +The answer to that question was made plain in a moment. For the motor +boat, into which three or four of the girls from the next camp had +leaped, kept dashing back and forth between the float and the rock. It +raised great waves as it passed, and made fast swimming, and for that +matter, swimming of any sort, almost impossible. Moreover, it was +plain from the laughter of those on board that their only purpose was +to annoy the Camp Fire Girls and spoil their sport in the water. + +Dolly and Margery, exhausted by their struggle with the waves from the +motor boat, struggled to the float as best they could and came up, +dripping and furious. + +"See that!" cried Dolly. "They can't be doing that for fun. All they +want to do is to bother us. You'd think we had tried to do something +mean to them the way they keep on nagging us." + +"They certainly seem to be looking for trouble," said Margery, "But +let's try not to pay any attention to them, girls." + +Margery knew that Eleanor Mercer expected her, so far as she could, to +help her on the rare occasions when it was necessary to keep the girls +in order, and she realized that she was facing a test of her temper and +of her ability to control others: She was anxious to become a Guardian +herself, and she now sternly fought down her inclination to agree with +Dolly that something should be done to take down the arrogant girls +from the next camp, who were so determined to drive them away. + +"I shall have to speak to whoever is in charge of those girls," said +Eleanor. "I'm quite sure that no teacher would permit such behavior, +but I can imagine that anyone who tried to control those girls would +have her hands full, too." + +"You bet she would!" said Dolly. "Miss Eleanor, isn't there some way +we can get even?" + +Eleanor ignored the question. All her sympathies were with Dolly, but +she really wanted to avoid trouble, although it was easy to see that +unless the other girls changed their tactics, trouble there was bound +to be. So she tried to think of what to say to Dolly. + +"Try to be patient, Dolly," she said, finally. "Did you ever hear the +old saying that pride goes before a fall? I've never known people to +act the way those girls are doing without being punished for it in some +fashion. If we give them the chance, they'll do something sooner or +later that will get them into trouble. And what we want to do, if we +can, is to remember that two wrongs don't make a right, and that for us +to let ourselves become revengeful won't help matters at all." + +But for once Dolly did not seem disposed to take Miss Eleanor's advice +as she usually did. Stealing a look at her chum's face, Bessie knew +that Dolly would not rest until she had worked some scheme of revenge, +and she felt that she couldn't blame Dolly, either. She could never +remember being as angry as these rich, snobbish girls had made her. + +Time and again,--every time, in fact, that any of the Camp Fire Girls +ventured into the water--the motor boat returned to the charge. Their +afternoon's sport in the water, to which all the girls had looked +forward so eagerly, was completely spoiled, and the tormentors did not +refrain even when Miss Eleanor, who had intended to sit on the float +without swimming at all, challenged two or three of the girls to a +race. She did that in the hope that the other girls might respect her, +but her hope was vain. + +To be sure, Gladys Cooper seemed to be a little frightened at the idea +of bothering Miss Eleanor. + +"Let's keep off until she's through," Bessie heard Gladys saying. +"That's Miss Mercer--she knows my mother. We oughtn't to bother her. +She comes from one of the best families in town." + +But Gladys was laughed down. + +"She'll have to suffer for the company she keeps, then," said a big, +ugly-looking girl. "Can't play favorites, Gladys! We want to make +them see they're not wanted here. My mother only let me come here +because we were told this was an exclusive place." + +And Miss Eleanor, like the others, was soon forced to beat a retreat to +the float. Dolly was strangely silent for the rest of the day. +Bessie, watching her anxiously, could tell that Dolly had some trick in +her mind, but, try as she would, she could not find out what her plan +was. + +"No, I won't tell you, Bessie," said Dolly, when her chum finally asked +her point-blank what she meant to do. "You're not a sneak, and I'm not +afraid of your telling on me, but you'll be happier if you don't know." + +Bessie felt that whatever Dolly might try to do to the other girls +would serve them right, but she was worried about her chum. And when +Dolly slipped off by herself after dinner, Bessie determined that she +would not let her chum run any risks alone, even if she was not a +sharer of Dolly's secret. + +It was not a hard matter to trace Dolly, even though Bessie let her +have a good start before she followed. She knew that any plan Dolly +had must involve going to the other camp, and she hid herself, moving +carefully so as to avoid detection, in a place that commanded the +approach. And in a very abort time she heard Dolly coming; and saw +that she was carrying a large basket with the utmost care. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE SPIRIT OF WO-HE-LO + +Bessie stole along silently behind Dolly. She wanted very much to say +something, but she was afraid of what might happen if she let Dolly +know that she was spying on her. And she had made up her mind, anyhow, +that she would do more harm than good by interfering at this time. + +Whatever it was she was doing might be wrong, but, after all, she had a +good deal of provocation, and she had been far more patient already +than anyone who knew her would have expected her to be. + +"I bet they're just trying to work her up to trying to get even," +Bessie reflected to herself. "Gladys Cooper knows her, so she must +know what a temper Dolly has, and she must be surprised to think that +she hasn't managed to arouse her yet." + +That thought made Bessie gladder than ever that she had decided to +follow Dolly. While she was not in the plot herself, she meant to be +in it if Dolly got into trouble, or if, as Bessie half feared, it +turned out that her chum was walking into a trap. Moreover, she was +entirely ready to take her share of the blame, if there was to be any +blame, and to let others believe that she had shared Dolly's secret +from the first and had deliberately taken part in the plot. + +Dolly's movements were puzzling. Bessie had expected her to go to the +back of the camp, and when she heard laughter and the sound of loud +talking coming from the boathouse, which was, of course, on the very +shore of the lake, Bessie breathed a sigh of relief, since it seemed to +her that the fact that the other girls were there would greatly +increase Dolly's chance of escaping detection. + +But instead of taking advantage of what Bessie regarded as a great +piece of luck, Dolly paused to listen to the sounds from the boathouse, +and then turned calmly and walked in its direction. + +For a moment an unworthy suspicion crossed Bessie's mind. + +"I wonder if she can be going to see them--to make up with them?" +Bessie asked herself. + +But she answered her own question with an emphatic no almost as soon as +she had asked it. Dolly's anger the night before and that afternoon +had not been feigned. + +As she neared the boathouse, Dolly moved very cautiously. Even though +she could see her, Bessie could not hear her, and she even had +difficulty in following Dolly's movements, for she had put on a dark +coat, and was an inconspicuous object in the darkness. + +From the boathouse there now came the sound of music; a phonograph had +been started, and it was plain from the shuffling of feet that the +girls inside were dancing. Dolly crept closer and closer, until she +reached one of the windows. Even as she did it a sharp, shrill voice +cried out, and Bessie saw someone rush toward her from the darkness of +a clump of trees near the boathouse. It was a trap, after all! Bessie +rushed forward, but before she had taken more than a couple of steps, +and before, indeed, her assailant could reach her, Dolly had +accomplished her purpose. + +Still running, Bessie saw her lift the basket she carried, and throw it +point-blank through the window, first taking off the cover. And then +the noise of the phonograph, the shout of Dolly's assailant, and all +the noises about the place were drowned in a chorus of shrill screams +of terror from inside the boathouse. + +Bessie had never heard such a din. For the life of her she could not +guess what Dolly had done to produce such an effect, and she did not +stop to try. For the girl who had seen Dolly and rushed toward her, +although too late to stop her, had caught hold of Dolly and was +struggling to hold her. + +Bessie rushed at her, however, and, so unexpected was her coming, that +the other girl let go of Dolly and turned to grapple with the rescuer. +That was just what Bessie wanted. With a quick, twisting motion she +slipped out of the other girl's grip, and the next moment she was +running as hard as she could to the back of the camp, where, if she +could only get a good start, she would find herself in thick woods and +so safe from pursuit. + +She knew Dolly had recognized her at once. But neither had called the +other's name, since that would enable whoever heard them to know which +of the Camp Fire Girls was responsible for this sudden attack. + +As she ran Bessie could bear Dolly in front of her, and she knew that +Dolly must be able to hear her. Otherwise she was sure her chum would +have turned back to rescue her. Behind her the screams of the +frightened girls from the boathouse were still rising, but when Bessie +stopped in ten minutes, she could hear no signs of pursuit. + +"Dolly!" she cried. "It's all right to stop now. They're not chasing +us any more." + +Dolly stopped and waited for her, and when she came up Bessie saw at +once that Dolly was angry--and at her. + +"Much good it did you to try to stop me, didn't it?" said Dolly, +viciously. "You got there too late!" + +"I didn't try to stop you, and I was right behind you all the time!" +said Bessie, angrily. "I was behind you so that if you got into any +trouble I'd be there to help you--and I was. You're very grateful, +aren't you?" + +"Oh, Bessie, I am sorry! I might have known you wouldn't do anything +sneaky. And you certainly did help me! I was going to thank you for +that anyhow, as soon as I'd scolded you. But I knew you didn't want to +try to get even with them, and I supposed, of course, that you were +there to stop me." + +Suddenly she began to laugh, and sat down weakly on the ground. + +"Did you hear them yell?" she gasped. "Listen to them! They're still +at it!" + +"Whatever did you do to them, Dolly? I never heard such a noise in my +life! You'd think they really had something to be afraid of." + +"Yes, wouldn't you? Instead of just a basket full of poor, innocent +little mice that were a lot more frightened than they were!" + +"Dolly Ransom!" gasped Bessie. "Do you mean to say that's what you +did?" + +Bessie tried hard to be shocked, but the fun of it overcame her of a +sudden, and she joined Dolly on the ground, while they clung to one +another and rocked with laughter. + +"I wasn't able to stop and watch them. That's all I'm sorry for now," +said Dolly, weakly. "But hearing them was pretty nearly as fine, +wasn't it?" + +"Never heard of such a thing to do!" panted Bessie. "However did you +manage it, Dolly? Where did you get the mice?" + +"Promise not to tell, Bessie? I can't get anyone else into trouble, +you know." + +Bessie nodded. + +"It was the guide--the Worcester's guide. He's just as mad at them as +we are. It seems they've bothered him a lot, anyhow, and he didn't +like them even before we came. He suggested the whole thing, and he +was willing to do it. But I told him it was our quarrel, and that it +was up to one of us to do it if he would get the mice. So he did, and +put them in that basket for me. The rest of it was easy." + +"They'll be perfectly wild, Dolly. I bet they'll be over at the camp +complaining when we get back." + +"Let them complain! It won't do them much good! Miss Eleanor is going +to give me beans for doing it, but she won't let them know it! I know +her, and she won't really be half as angry as she'll pretend to be." + +"It was a wild thing to do, Dolly." + +"I suppose it was, but did you think I was going to let Gladys Cooper +tell all over town how they treated us? She'll have something to tell +this time." + +"Well, you got even, Dolly. There's no doubt of that. We'd better +hurry back now, don't you think? They're quieter down there." + +"I'm going to tell Miss Eleanor what I did just as soon as I see her," +said Dolly. "She'd find out that it happened sooner or later, and I'm +not ashamed of having done it, either. I'd do the same thing to-morrow +if I had as good a reason!" + +And, sure enough, as soon as they reached the camp, Dolly marched up to +Miss Eleanor, who was sitting by herself on the porch, and told her the +whole story. + +"And was Bessie in this too?" asked Eleanor, trying to look stern, but +failing. + +"No, she was not. She didn't know what I was going to do at all. She +just followed to see that I didn't get into any trouble. And I'd have +been caught if she hadn't been there." + +"I--I'm sorry you did it, Dolly," said Eleanor, almost hysterically. +She was trying to suppress the laughter that she was shaking with, but +it was hard work. "Still, I don't believe I'll scold you very much. +Now you've got even with them for all the things they've done--more +than even, if the screams I heard mean anything. We didn't know what +was up." + +"Not exactly _what_ was up," said Margery, who had overheard part of +the conversation, "but we knew who was up as soon as we found you were +gone, Dolly." + +Margery looked at Miss Eleanor, then she choked, and left the porch +hurriedly. And the next moment roars of laughter came from the other +girls, as Margery told them the story. + +"But I'm glad you've told me all about it, Dolly," said Eleanor. "I +don't mind saying that I think you had a good deal of excuse--but do +try to let things work out by themselves after this. The chances are +you've only made them hate us more than ever, and they will feel that +it's a point of honor now to get even with us for this. All the girls +will have to suffer for what you did." + +Even as she spoke, Bessie saw two or three figures approaching from the +direction of the other camp, and a shrill voice was raised. + +"There she is, Miss Brown. She's the one who's supposed to look after +them." + +Gladys Cooper was the speaker, but as soon as she saw Eleanor look +around she dropped back, leaving a woman whose manner was timid and +nervous, and whose voice showed that she had little spirit, to advance +alone. + +"Miss Mercer?" she said, inquiringly, to Eleanor. "I am Miss Brown, +and I have been left in charge of Miss Halsted's Camp this summer while +she is away. She is ill. I am one of the teachers in her school--" + +"Sit down, Miss Brown," said Eleanor, kindly. One look at poor Miss +Brown explained the conduct of the girls in her care. She was one of +those timid, nervous women who can never be expected to control anyone, +much less a group of healthy, mischievous girls in need of a strong, +restraining hand. + +"I'm--really very sorry--I don't like--but I feel it is my duty--to +speak to you, Miss Mercer," stammered Miss Brown. "The fact is--the +young ladies seem to think it was one of your Camp Fire Girls who let +loose a--number of mice in our boathouse this evening." + +"I'm afraid it was, Miss Brown," said Eleanor, gravely. "And I need +hardly say that I regret it. I naturally do not approve of anything of +the sort. But your girls have themselves to blame to a certain extent." + +"Why, I don't see how that can be!" said Miss Brown, looking bewildered. + +"Now, Miss Brown, honestly, and just between us, haven't they made your +life a burden for you ever since you've been here with them alone? Let +me tell you what they've done since we've been here." + +And calmly and without anger, Eleanor told the teacher of the various +methods of making themselves unpleasant that the girls in the camp had +adopted since the coming of the Camp Fire Girls. She raised her voice +purposely when she came to the end. + +"Now, mind, I don't approve of this joke with the mice," she said. +"But I do think it would be more plucky if your girls, after starting +all the trouble and making themselves as hateful as they possibly +could, had kept quiet when the tables were turned. When they worried +us, we didn't go over to make a complaint about them. I must say I am +disappointed in those of your girls whom I happen to know, like Gladys +Cooper. I thought she was a lady." + +There was a furious cry from the darkness beyond the porch, and the +next instant Gladys herself was in front of Eleanor, with tears of rage +in her eyes. + +"You shan't say I'm not a lady," she cried. "I don't care if you are +Miss Mercer! We don't want your horrid charity girls up here, and we +tried to make them understand it--" + +"Stop!" said Eleanor, sternly. "Listen to me, Gladys! I like your +mother, and I'm sorry to see you acting in such a way. What do you +mean by charity girls?" + +"They haven't got the money to come up here," stammered Gladys. + +"It hasn't been given to them, if you mean that," said Eleanor. "We +don't believe in idle, useless girls in the Camp Fire. And every girl +here, even those like Dolly Ransom, who could have got the money at +home very easily, have earned all their expenses for this vacation, +except two who didn't have time, and are here as my guests. Don't talk +about charity. They have a better right to be here than you have. Now +go away, and if you don't want to have unpleasant things happen to you, +don't do unpleasant things to other people." + +Quite cowed by the sudden anger in Eleanor's voice, Gladys didn't +hesitate. And Miss Brown, before she left the porch, looked wistfully +at Eleanor. + +"I wish I had your courage, my dear," she whispered. "That served +Gladys right, but if I spoke so to her, I should lose my position." + +"Well, I suppose it wasn't a nice thing to do," said Dolly, as she and +Bessie prepared for bed that night. "But I really do think we won't +have any more trouble. I think Gladys and the rest of them have +learned a lesson." + +"I hope so, Dolly," said Bessie. "I wouldn't have done it myself, but +I really am beginning to think that maybe it was the best thing that +could have happened. Thunderstorms clear the air sometimes; perhaps +this will have the same effect." + +It was well after midnight when the girls were awakened by loud +knocking below. + +"Oh, that's some trick of theirs," said Dolly, sleepily, and turned +over again. + +But a few minutes later Eleanor's voice, calling them, took them +downstairs in a hurry. They found her talking to Miss Brown, who was +in tears. + +"Girls," said Eleanor, "Gladys Cooper and another girl are lost, and +they must be out on the mountain. It's turned very cold. Shall we +help find them? We haven't been friends, but remember what Wo-he-lo +means!" + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +COALS OF FIRE + +There wasn't a single dissenting voice. Once they knew what was +required, the girls rushed at once to their rooms to dress, and within +ten minutes they were all assembled on the porch. Mingled with them +were most of the girls from Miss Halsted's camp, thoroughly frightened +and much distressed, and evidently entirely forgetful of the trouble +that had existed as late as that evening between the two camps. + +"Now, I'll tell you very quickly what the situation is," said Eleanor. +"Don't mind asking questions, but make them short. It seems that some +of the other girls over there were angry at Gladys when they got back +there after Miss Brown came here to see me. And they told her she had +been wrong in setting them against us." + +"I knew she was the one who had done it!" Dolly whispered to Bessie. + +"She and one other girl, Marcia Bates, were great chums, and they got +angry. They said they wouldn't stay to be abused--isn't that right, +Miss Brown?--and they decided to go for a walk in the woods back of the +lake here." + +"They've often done it before," said Miss Brown. "I thought it was all +right and they would have gone, anyhow, even if I'd told them not to do +it." + +"When they started," Eleanor went on, "the moon was up, and there were +plenty of stars, so that they should have been able to find their way +back easily, guided by the moon or by the Big Bear--the Dipper. But +it's clouded up since then and it's begun to rain. The wind has +changed, too, and they might easily have lost themselves." + +"Wouldn't they be on a regular trail?" asked Margery Burton. + +"There aren't any regular trails back here," spoke up one of the girls +from the Halsted camp. "There are just a lot of little paths that +criss-cross back and forth, and keep on getting mixed up. It's hard +enough to find your way in daylight." + +"They have sent for guides from the big hotel at the head of the lake," +said Eleanor. "They will get here as soon as they can, and a few men +are out searching already. But I think the best thing for us to do is +to organize a regular patrol. We'll beat up the mountain quickly, and +pretty well together, in a long line, so that there won't be more than +a hundred feet between any two of us. Then when we get to the ridge +about half way up we'll start back, and cover the ground more +carefully, if we haven't found them." + +"Why won't we go beyond the ridge?" asked Dolly. + +"We'll leave that part to the men. I think myself that it's most +unlikely they would go beyond that. I've had our guides here make up a +whole lot of resinous torches. They'll burn very brightly, and for a +long time, and each of us will take as many as she can carry, about +fifteen or twenty. + +"And I've made up a lot of little first-aid packages, in case one of +the girls is hurt, or has twisted her ankle. That may be the reason +they're out so late. When we start to come back we'll break up in +twos, and each pair will go back and forth, instead of coming straight +down, so that we'll cover the whole side of the mountain." + +"How shall we know if we find them?" asked Bessie. "I mean how will +the others know?" + +"I've got one horn for every two of us," said Eleanor. "One toot won't +mean anything, just that we're keeping in touch. But whoever finds +them is to blow five or six times, very close together. It's very +still in the woods, and a signal like that can be heard even when +you're a long way from it." + +"Can't some of us go and help, Miss Mercer?" asked one of the Halsted +girls, the one, incidentally, who had been the ruling spirit in the +trick to spoil the pleasures of swimming for the Camp Fire Girls. + +"I think you better stay at home, and get a lot of good hot coffee or +broth or something ready for them when they get back," said Eleanor. +"They'll need something of the sort, I can promise you. And really, +I'm afraid you'd be rather useless in the woods. Our girls, you see, +have to be able to find their way pretty well. You'll be more useful +at home." + +"I don't expect to find them on the way up," said Eleanor, as they +started. "We might, of course, but we'll look better coming back, and +it's then that I think we'll have the best chance. Come on, now! +Shout every little while." + +The night was pitch black now. A fine mist of rain was falling and +threatening to become a steady downpour. It was a bad night for +anyone, even those who were hardened, to be out in the woods without +shelter or special covering, and it was about as bad as it could be for +girls who were not at all used to even the slightest exposure. + +Eleanor's face was very grave, and she looked exceedingly worried as +she crossed back and forth in front of the line of Camp Fire Girls, +lifting her own voice in shouts to the lost ones, and giving hints here +and there for the more important homeward journey. + +The trip up the mountain produced no results. The rain was falling +more heavily, and, moreover, the wind was rising. It blew hard through +the trees and the silence of the woods that Eleanor had spoken of was a +thing of the past. The wind sighed and groaned, and Eleanor grew more +and more worried. + +"We've got to search just as carefully as we can," she said. "We +mustn't leave any part of this ground uncovered. With all the noise +the wind is making, we might easily pass within a few feet of them and +shout at the top of our lungs without them hearing us. It is going to +be even harder to find them than I feared, but we have just got to do +the best we can." + +At the top of the ridge of which she had spoken, Eleanor marshalled her +forces. She told them off two by two, and Bessie and Dolly were +assigned to work together. + +"I'm going to cover the whole ground, and keep in touch with all of +you," she said. "Keep blowing your horns, there's more chance that +they will be heard. You all have your pocket compasses and plenty of +matches, haven't you? I don't want any of my own girls to be lost." + +"All right," she said, when they had all answered. "Now I want each of +you to take a strip about six yards wide as we go down, and just walk +back and forth across it. If you come to any gullies or holes where +they might have fallen down be particularly careful. Light your +torches, and look into them. Don't pay attention to the paths or +trails, just cover the ground." + +"Oh, I do hope we can find them!" said Bessie, as they started. "I'd +hate to think of their being out here all night on a night like this." + +"Yes, and in a way it's really my fault," said Dolly, remorsefully. + +"Why, Dolly, how can you think that?" + +"It was because Gladys quarrelled with the rest of them that she went +out. And if I hadn't thrown those mice in at them there wouldn't have +been any quarrel. Don't you see?" + +"I think it's silly to blame yourself, though, Dolly. She might have +gone out just the same, anyhow." + +"Well, I'll never forgive myself if anything happens to them, Bessie. +I might have kept my temper, the way you and Margery did. They didn't +do any more to me than they did to the rest of you. Oh, I am sorry, +and I am going to try to control myself better after this." + +Then they went on in silence for a time. Bessie felt sorry for Dolly, +and she really did think that Dolly's conscience, now that it was +beginning to awaken, was doing more than its share. It was unlike the +care-free Dolly to worry about anything she had done, but it was like +her, too, to accuse herself unsparingly once she began to realize that +she might possibly be in the wrong. It was Dolly's old misfortune that +was grieving her now; her inability to forecast consequences before +they came along to confound her. + +For a long time they had no results, and the blowing of horns and the +occasional flash of a torch between the trees showed them that the +others were meeting with no better success. Sometimes, too, Eleanor +joined them for a moment. She could tell them nothing, and they +continued to search with unabated vigor. + +"Look, Bessie!" said Dolly, suddenly. She had lighted a torch to +explore a gully a few moments before, and it was still burning +brightly. Now it showed them the opening of what looked like a cave, +black and dismal looking. + +"Why, do you think they might be in there?" asked Bessie. "I'll blow +my horn in the mouth. They'd hear that, and come out." + +But blow as hard as she would, there was no answer. She turned away in +disappointment. + +"I'm afraid they're not there," she said. + +"I'm going in to find out," said Dolly, suddenly. "They might not have +heard us. You can't tell what that horn would sound like in there; it +might not make any noise at all." + +"Oh, I don't believe they're in there," said Bessie. "And I think it +might be dangerous. There might be snakes there, or a hole you would +fall into, Dolly." + +"I don't care! This is all my fault, and I'm going!" + +And without another word, she plunged into the dark entrance. Bessie +tried to call her back, but Dolly paid no heed. And in a moment, first +leaving behind signs of their having gone in, Bessie followed her, +lighting another torch. She had not gone far when she heard a happy +cry from Dolly. + +"Here they are! I've found them!" Dolly shouted. "They're sound +asleep, and I don't believe there's a thing the matter with them!" + +Nor was there. Both the lost girls slept soundly, and when Gladys +finally woke up, blinking at the light of the torches, she looked +indignantly at Dolly. + +"You're a sneak, Dolly Ransom!" she said. "I should think you would +want to stay with your own sort of people--" + +But Dolly was too happy at finding the pair of strays to care what +Gladys said to her. + +"Oh, come off, Gladys!" she said. "I suppose you don't know that +you're lost, and that half the people around the lake are out looking +for you? Come on! You'll catch a frightful cold lying here with those +thin dresses on. Hurry, now!" + +And finally she managed to arouse them enough to make them understand +the situation. Even then, however, Gladys was sullen. + +"That's that silly old Miss Brown," she said. "It's just like her to +go running off to your crowd for help, Dolly. I suppose we ought to be +grateful, but we'd have been all right there until morning." + +Dolly didn't care to argue the matter. Her one thought now was to get +outside of the cave and send out by means of the horns the glad news +that the lost ones were found. In a few moments she and Bessie, +blowing with all their might, announced the good tidings. + +"Now you two will just walk as fast as you can, so that you can get +into bed and have something warm inside of you. I'll be pretty mad if +you get pneumonia and die after all the trouble we've taken to save +you!" she said, laughing. + +Gladys wasn't in any mood, it seemed, to appreciate a joke. As a +matter of fact, both she and Marcia Bates had awakened stiff from the +cold, and though she wouldn't admit it she was very glad of the +prospect of a warm and comfortable bed. + +And when the searchers and the rescued ones reached the Halsted Camp, +Gladys wasn't left long in doubt as to the fate of the vendetta she had +declared against the Camp Fire Girls. For, even while she was being +put to bed, she could hear the cheers that were being given by her own +chums for the girls she had tried to make them despise. + +"Oh, Miss Mercer, I think you and the Camp Fire Girls are splendid!" +said Emily Turner, the big girl who had been the ringleader of the +tricks with the motor boat. "You're going to stay here quite a while, +aren't you?" + +"No," said Eleanor, regretfully. "It was only the fire that made us +stay here as long as we have. Now this wind and rain have ended that, +and we'll go on as soon as the storm is over; day after to-morrow, if +it clears up to-morrow, so that it will be dry when we start." + +"Well, I hope we'll see you again--all of you," said Emily. "Come on, +girls, let's give the school cheer for the Manasquan Camp Fire!" + +They gave it with a will and then Dolly sprang to her feet. + +"Now, then, the Wo-he-lo cheer!" she called. + +They sang it happily, and then, as they moved toward their own camp, +their voices rose in the good-night song of the Camp Fire: _Lay me to +sleep in sheltering flame_. + +"I believe Miss Eleanor was right, after all," said Bessie. "Those +girls really like us now." + +"All but Gladys Cooper," said Dolly. "But then she doesn't know any +better. And she'll learn." + + + + +SUMMER SNOW + +AND + +OTHER FAIRY PLAYS + +By GRACE RICHARDSON + +Finding there is a wide demand for plays which commend themselves to +amateurs and to casts comprised largely of children, Miss Richardson, +already well and widely known, has here given four plays which are +unusually clever and fill this need. They call for but little stage +setting, and that of the simplest kind, are suited to presentation the +year around, and can be effectively produced by amateurs without +difficulty. + + + +PUCK IN PETTICOATS + +By GRACE RICHARDSON + +Five plays about children, for children to play--Hansel and Gretel, The +Wishing Well, The King of Salt, The Moon Dream, and Puck in Petticoats. +Each is accompanied by stage directions, property plots and other +helpful suggestions for acting. Some of the plays take but twenty +minutes, others as long as an hour to produce, and every one of the +five are clever. + + + +HANDY BOOK OF PLAYS FOR GIRLS + +By DOROTHY CLEATHER + +Not one of the six sparkling plays between these covers calls for a +male character, being designed for the use of casts of girls only. +They are easily, effectively staged--just the sort that girls like to +play and that enthusiastic audiences heartily enjoy. + + + +FICTION FOR GIRLS + + +BETTY, The SCRIBE + +By LILIAN TURNER + +Drawings by KATHARINE HAYWARD GREENLAND + +Betty is a brilliant, talented, impulsive seventeen-year-old girl, who +is suddenly required to fill her mother's place at the head of a +household, with a literary, impractical father to manage. + +Betty writes, too, and every time she mounts her Pegasus disaster +follows for home duties are neglected. Learning of one of these +lapses, her elder sister comes home. Betty storms and refuses to share +the honors until she remembers that this means long hours free to +devote to her beloved pen. She finally moves to the city to begin her +career in earnest, and then--well, then comes the story. + +"Miss Turner is Miss Alcott's true successor. The same healthy, +spirited tone is visible which boys and girls recognized in LITTLE MEN +and LITTLE WOMEN."--The Bookman. + + + +Elizabeth Hobart at Exeter Hall + +By JEAN K. BAIRD + +Illustrated by R. G. VOSBURGH + +A spirited story of every-day boarding-school life that girls like to +read. Full of good times and girlish fun. + +Elizabeth enters the school and loses no time in becoming one of the +leading spirits. She entertains at a midnight spread, which is +recklessly conducted under the very nose of the preceptress, who is +"scalped" in order to be harmless, for every one knows she would never +venture out minus her front hair; she champions an ostracized student; +and leads in a daring plan to put to rout the Seniors' program for +class day. + + + +The Saalfield Publishing Co., AKRON, OHIO + + +THE BRADEN BOOKS + + +FAR PAST THE FRONTIER + +By JAMES A. BRADEN + +The sub-title "Two Boy Pioneers" indicates the nature of this +story--that it has to do with the days when the Ohio Valley and the +Northwest country were sparsely settled. Such a topic is an unfailing +fund of interest to boys, especially when involving a couple of +stalwart young men who leave the East to make their fortunes and to +incur untold dangers. + +"Strong, vigorous, healthy, manly."--Seattle Times. + + + +CONNECTICUT BOYS IN THE WESTERN RESERVE + +By JAMES A. BRADEN + +The author once more sends his heroes toward the setting sun. "In all +the glowing enthusiasm at youth, the youngsters seek their fortunes in +the great, fertile wilderness of northern Ohio, and eventually achieve +fair success, though their progress is hindered and sometimes halted by +adventures innumerable. It is a lively, wholesome tale, never dull, +and absorbing in interest for boys who love the fabled life of the +frontier."--Chicago Tribune. + + + +THE TRAIL OF THE SENECA + +By JAMES A. BRADEN + +In which we follow the romantic careers of John Jerome and Return +Kingdom a little farther. + +These two self-reliant boys are living peaceably in their cabin on the +Cuyahoga when an Indian warrior is found dead in the woods nearby. The +Seneca accuses John of witchcraft. This means death at the stake if he +is captured. They decide that the Seneca's charge is made to shield +himself, and set out to prove it. Mad Anthony, then on the Ohio, comes +to their aid, but all their efforts prove futile and the lone cabin is +found in ashes on their return. + + + +CAPTIVES THREE + +By JAMES A. BRADEN + +A tale of frontier life, and how three children--two boys and a +girl--attempt to reach the settlements in a canoe, but are captured by +the Indians. A common enough occurrence in the days of our +great-grandfathers has been woven into a thrilling story. + + + +The Saalfield Publishing Co., AKRON, OHIO + + + +MARY A. BYRNE'S BOOKS + + +THE FAIRY CHASER + +"Telling of two boys who go into the vegetable and flower-raising +business instead of humdrum commercial pursuits. The characters and +situations are realistic."--PHILADELPHIA TELEGRAPH. + + +LITTLE DAME TROT + +One of the most pleasing of juveniles, made pathetic by the strength +with which the author pictures the central figure, a little girl made +miserable by her mother's strict adherence to a pet "method" of +training. + + +THE LITTLE WOMAN IN THE SPOUT + +"This pleasing story may have been developed from real life, from real +children, so true a picture does it portray of girlish life and +sports."--GRAND RAPIDS HERALD. + + +ROY AND ROSYROCKS + +A glowing Christmas tale, fresh and natural in situations, that will +interest both boys and girls. + +It tells how two poor children anticipate the joys of the holiday, and +how heartily they enter into doing their part to make the day merry for +themselves and others. + + +PEGGY-ALONE + +The chronicles of the Happy-Go-Luckys, a crowd of girls who did not +depend upon riches for good times. This club was very stretchible as +to membership, so they elected Peggy-Alone from pity of her loneliness. +Freed from governess, nurse and solicitous mother, she has the jolliest +summer of her life. + +Illustrated by Anna B. Craig + + + +The Saalfield Publishing Co., AKRON, OHIO + + + +THE BILLY WHISKERS SERIES + +BY + +FRANCES TREGO MONTGOMERY + +Billy Whiskers--frolicsome, mischief-making, adventure-loving, Billy +Whiskers--is the friend of every boy and girl the country over, and the +things that happen to this wonderful goat and his numerous animal +friends make the best sort of reading for them. + +As one reviewer aptly puts it, these stories are "just full of fun and +good times," for Mrs. Montgomery, the author of them, has the happy +faculty of knowing what the small boy and his sister like in the way of +fiction. + + +TITLES + + BILLY WHISKERS + BILLY WHISKERS' KIDS + BILLY WHISKERS, JR. + BILLY WHISKERS' TRAVELS + BILLY WHISKERS AT THE CIRCUS + BILLY WHISKERS AT THE FAIR + BILLY WHISKERS' FRIENDS + BILLY WHISKERS, JR. AND HIS CHUMS + BILLY WHISKERS' GRANDCHILDREN + BILLY WHISKERS' VACATION + BILLY WHISKERS KIDNAPED + BILLY WHISKERS' TWINS + BILLY WHISKERS IN AN AEROPLANE + BILLY WHISKERS IN TOWN + BILLY WHISKERS IN PANAMA + + + +The Saalfield Publishing Co., AKRON, OHIO + + + +THE BETTY BOOKS + +By ALICE HALE BURNETT + +(For Girls 8 to 10 years old) + + +Four very interesting stories, each complete in itself, relating the +many doings of Betty and her friends. The characters are _real_ girls +and a happy, healthful tone lends the books additional charm. + + +Betty and Her Chums + +Amy and Louise visit Betty and the three girls spend a happy summer +together. A picnic supper on the mountain-top, at sunset, furnishes +much pleasurable excitement for a large party of girls and boys. + + +Betty's Attic Theatre + +With the help of their friends, Betty, Amy and Louise give a play which +is full of laughable mishaps. They have lots of fun getting ready for +the great event and it is voted a huge success. + + +Betty's Carnival + +The girls gave an affair for the benefit of the Fresh Air Fund. +Decorated floats sent down the river and viewed by the audience seated +on the shore. A lemonade and cake booth also help to make the affair a +most enjoyable one. + + +Betty's Orphans + +Betty and her two chums entertain three little orphans at her country +home. The city waifs find much to surprise and amuse them and to their +great joy all of them are finally adopted in pleasant homes. + + +Illustrations in Color. + + + +The Saalfield Publishing Co., Akron, Ohio + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Camp Fire Girls in the Mountains, by +Jane L. 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