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The Outdoor Girls on Pine Island; Or, A Cave and What It Contained

by Laura Lee Hope · English · Gutenberg #19294 · 297,685 chars · public domain (US)

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Title: The Outdoor Girls on Pine Island; Or, A Cave and What It Contained

Author: Laura Lee Hope


        
Release date: September 16, 2006 [eBook #19294]

Language: English

Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19294

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The Outdoor Girls On Pine Island

OR

A CAVE AND WHAT IT CONTAINED

BY LAURA LEE HOPE

AUTHOR OF "THE OUTDOOR GIRLS OF DEEPDALE," "THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS,"
"THE BOBBSEY TWINS," "BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE," ETC.

_ILLUSTRATED_

  NEW YORK
  GROSSET & DUNLAP
  PUBLISHERS




BOOKS FOR GIRLS

By LAURA LEE HOPE

       *       *       *       *       *

12mo. Cloth. Illustrated. Price per volume, 50 cents, postpaid.


=THE OUTDOOR GIRLS SERIES=

          THE OUTDOOR GIRLS OF DEEPDALE
          THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT RAINBOW LAKE
          THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN A MOTOR CAR
          THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN A WINTER CAMP
          THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN FLORIDA
          THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT OCEAN VIEW
          THE OUTDOOR GIRLS ON PINE ISLAND


=THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS SERIES=

          THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS AT OAK FARM
          THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS SNOWBOUND
          THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS UNDER THE PALMS
          THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS AT ROCKY RANCH
          THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS AT SEA


=THE BOBBSEY TWINS SERIES=

For Little Men and Women

          THE BOBBSEY TWINS
          THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN THE COUNTRY
          THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT THE SEASHORE
          THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT SCHOOL
          THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT SNOW LODGE
          THE BOBBSEY TWINS ON A HOUSEBOAT
          THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT MEADOWBROOK
          THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT HOME

GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK

COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY GROSSET & DUNLAP

       *       *       *       *       *

THE OUTDOOR GIRLS ON PINE ISLAND




[Illustration: THEIR CLOTHES WERE PICTURESQUE AND EACH ONE CARRIED A
HUGE BUNDLE.

_The Outdoor Girls on Pine Island._ _Frontispiece_ (_Page 172_)]





CONTENTS

          CHAPTER                              PAGE

              I THE RUNAWAY CAR                  1

             II A LUCKY ESCAPE                   8

            III FORTUNES                        14

             IV THE GYPSY ENCAMPMENT            23

              V THIEVES IN DEEPDALE             32

             VI A WONDERFUL OUTING              41

            VII CLOSED FOR REPAIRS              50

           VIII THE JET NECKLACE REAPPEARS      60

             IX PINE ISLAND AT LAST             70

              X BRIGHT AND EARLY                79

             XI A JOLLY TRIP                    88

            XII "WHERE THERE IS SMOKE----"      96

           XIII THE GATHERING OF THE CLANS     105

            XIV A VICTORY FOR BETTY            113

             XV A SPLENDID CATCH               120

            XVI NOT A MOMENT TOO SOON          129

           XVII BENEATH THE MOON               141

          XVIII WATER SPRITES                  151

            XIX A MARVELOUS DISCOVERY          160

             XX DANGEROUS VISITORS             171

            XXI THE LOST TRAIL                 179

           XXII MOLLIE WINS                    191

          XXIII HIDDEN TREASURE                202

           XXIV LYING IN WAIT                  212

            XXV GLORIOUS NEWS                  221




THE OUTDOOR GIRLS ON PINE ISLAND




CHAPTER I

THE RUNAWAY CAR


"The boys will be here in five minutes!" cried Mollie Billette, bursting
in upon her friend, dark hair flying and eyes alight. "You'd better get
on your hat."

"What boys and why the hat?" returned Grace Ford who, pretty and
graceful, as always, was provokingly calm.

"I'll answer any and everything if you will only get ready. Oh, have you
got to go upstairs? Hurry then," and Mollie swung her feet impatiently
as Grace detached herself from the great chair slowly and gracefully and
started out into the hall.

"If you will come upstairs with me, Mollie," Grace suggested, "perhaps
you will deign to tell me why you rush in here like a whirlwind and
insist on my putting on my hat to go goodness knows where."

"Oh, all right, if you will only hurry," cried Mollie in desperation,
and jumping from her chair she propelled her friend in most undignified
haste up the broad stairway--Grace protesting at every step.

"Here's your coat. Now don't talk--act!" Mollie was commanding when
Grace took her firmly by her two shoulders and backed her up against the
wall.

"Now listen here, young lady," she said, looking sternly down into her
friend's laughing eyes. "It's my turn to talk. I refuse to budge another
step until you have explained, to my perfect satisfaction, the cause of
all this rush."

"Well, since you feel that way about it," laughed Mollie, "suppose you
let me--sit down."

"Will you tell me about it if I let you go? Promise!"

"Uh-huh," said Mollie, and so she was released. "There isn't much to
tell anyway," she went on. "Betty and I met Frank Haley and Will a few
minutes ago and Frank happened to remark that it was a splendid day for
an auto ride. We agreed with him--that's all."

"Fine--but where's Betty?" and Grace adjusted her tiny toque with care
before the huge mirror.

"Oh, she's coming, just as soon as she lets her mother know where she's
off to. We wanted Amy to go along too--stopped in there on the way
down--but Mrs. Stonington isn't feeling well and Amy thought she ought
to stay with her."

"I'm sorry for that. But would there have been room for all of us in
Frank's car, anyway?"

"Oh, yes, it's a big seven-passenger affair. Mr. Nelson says it is a
wonder. Just think! I can only squeeze five into mine," and Mollie drew
a long sigh at Fate.

"How ungrateful, Mollie--most girls would be glad of the chance to ride
around in a neat little machine like yours. Why, I'd even be thankful
for a tiny runabout."

"There it is now," Mollie said as a motor horn tooted insistently on the
drive below. "Don't let's keep them waiting."

"Hello, girls, we'd have been here sooner if Betty hadn't delayed us."
It was Frank Haley who spoke, a handsome young fellow, whose merry grey
eyes showed that he deserved his name--the first part of it, at least.
"Come, 'fess up, Betty," he added, turning to the bright-eyed,
rosy-cheeked girl beside him.

"I'm afraid I did keep them waiting, girls--about two minutes," Betty
Nelson admitted, then added in defense: "But I couldn't go looking the
way I was, you know."

"I don't see why not. I didn't see anything wrong."

"That doesn't prove a single thing, Frank," Grace retorted as he opened
the door for the girls. "Boys never do."

"Don't they though?" Frank objected. "Do you mean to say I don't know
that that little whatever-you-may-call-it in your hat is quite
considerable----"

"Class?" finished Will, who had been busy tucking in the robe about
Mollie's feet. "Personally I think we're a pretty fine crowd, take us
all together."

"Well, did you ever hear such--Frank, don't you think we'd better get
started before he says anything worse?" and Betty turned appealingly to
Frank.

"Just as you say," he answered obligingly, and at his words the great
car glided noiselessly down the drive and out into the street.

"Where to?" called Will from the tonneau. "How about a little spin in
the country, Frank?"

"Ask the girls," was the reply. "What they say goes."

"Oh, yes, let's," said Mollie eagerly. "It is just getting so green and
beautiful now. Summer is the only time in the year anyway."

"The winter didn't seem to bother you girls much last year," Frank broke
in. "If I could go to Florida every winter, the cold and wintry blasts
would have no more terrors for me."

"Oh, well, it was wonderful--in more ways than one," this last so low
that only Will heard it, as Grace squeezed his hand under cover of the
robe. You see, Will was her brother, and they were very fond of each
other, as well they might be.

"Whom did you wave to then, Betty?" Mollie asked, as the car swung off
into the country road. "I didn't see them till we were almost past."

"Alice Jallow and her friend, Kitty Rossmore. They're always together,"
Betty answered, then added: "By the way, Mollie, it seems to me you were
just saying you had something good to tell."

"My aunt has a bungalow out on Pine Island. It's a lovely place, the
bungalow, I mean, not the island, although if all they say is true, I
shouldn't wonder if that's all right too."

"But, Mollie, what has that to do with us?" Grace interrupted. "Is she
going to ask you to make her a visit?"

"No. It's lots better than that. You see Uncle James wants to take her
to Europe this summer and so----"

"Oh, Mollie!" Betty interrupted, her eyes sparkling. "You don't
mean----"

"Yes I do--exactly," and Mollie settled back with a contented sigh.

"I'm afraid I am very stupid to-day," Grace remarked.

"More than usual?" asked Will, the irrepressible, with a twinkle in his
eye.

"Why don't you see, Grace?" Betty's face was radiant. "Can't you see
Mollie means that we are to occupy that vacated bungalow this summer?"

"But please, girls, don't get your minds made up to it yet, for nothing
is really settled, you know. Perhaps I should have waited till I was
sure before I spoke of it." Mollie seemed to be doubtful.

"Oh, it's certain to turn out all right," said Betty, with conviction.
"Everything has that we have ever planned before, and there is no reason
why this should be an exception."

"And even if it doesn't, just think what fun we will have thinking about
it," added Grace, philosophically, at which they all laughed.

"Anyway you are a dear, Mollie, for having such lovely relatives,"
cried Betty gaily. "If I could only climb over this seat, I'd give you
two great big hugs, one for each of them."

"Nobody calls me a dear and offers to hug me, and I've got the loveliest
relatives in the world--you can ask them if you don't believe me," and
Frank managed to look very pathetic and forlorn.

All this time they had been getting farther and farther out into the
country and now Frank put on extra speed to ascend the rather steep
incline directly in front of them.

"Your car runs like a dream, Frank," Betty was saying as they reached
the top. "Look at that great big haystack down there--it must have taken
some time to gather it in. Why don't you slow down a little? Don't you
think--oh, what is it, Frank?" for she had noticed the set lines of his
mouth and the look of terror that had flashed into his eyes. "Oh,
Frank!" she cried again.

"Sit tight," he muttered through clenched teeth. "The brake won't work!"

On, on dashed the great machine, swaying from side to side and gaining
velocity with each second, while the girls, with terror tugging at their
hearts, sat still--and waited.




CHAPTER II

A LUCKY ESCAPE


To those who are already acquainted with the Outdoor Girls, no
explanations are necessary, but for the benefit of my new readers I will
take advantage of this moment to make them better acquainted with the
characters and setting of the story.

In the first book of this series, called "The Outdoor Girls of
Deepdale," the girls, Betty Nelson, sometimes called the Little Captain,
because of her fearless leadership, Mollie Billette, Grace Ford and Amy
Blackford, had gone on their famous walking tour, and during their
wanderings had solved the mystery of a five-hundred-dollar bill.

The second volume, "The Outdoor Girls at Rainbow Lake," tells of a
summer full of interest and adventure during which the horse Grace was
riding ran away with her. This misfortune led to the loss of some very
valuable papers, with a subsequent strange happening on an island,
about which, and the recovery of the papers, you may read, dear reader,
if you will.

"The Outdoor Girls in a Motor Car" is the third book of the series. Yes,
there really was a house where all sorts of weird sights and sounds
might be seen and heard at night if one had the courage to stay around.
And you may imagine the consternation of the Outdoor Girls when Mollie
was captured by the "ghost."

At the end of a delightful summer, spent in touring the country in
Mollie's car, the girls had a wonderful chance to spend the winter in
the woods. Needless to say, they took advantage of the opportunity. The
fourth book, "The Outdoor Girls in a Winter Camp," describes the
settlement of a certain property dispute, involving Mr. Ford. The happy
result was made possible by the good fortune that favors our girls. This
volume tells also how Amy was claimed by a brother, of whose existence
she was unaware.

Then followed their adventures in Florida during which the girls had
succeeded in finding Will Ford, Grace's brother, who had been virtually
kidnapped by a villainous labor contractor and had been set to work in a
turpentine camp. The fifth volume, entitled "The Outdoor Girls in
Florida; or, Wintering in the Sunny South," tells of many other
adventures the girls had during their winter among the "orange
blossoms," but now it was over, and Deepdale, which they had left
covered deep with snow, had begun once more to stir with life beneath
the gentle touch of spring.

In the sixth book, "The Outdoor Girls at Ocean View," the girls have
many good times and stirring adventures. The discovery of a box,
containing veritable riches in diamonds, led to the kidnapping of Betty
and Amy and their subsequent rescue.

And now that spring had dipped into summer, and they were again in
Deepdale, was this ride of theirs, begun so joyously, about to end in
tragedy?

"Frank, Frank!" screamed Grace, "if you don't stop, I'll jump, I will--I
will!"

"No, you won't! Sit where you are!" her brother Will commanded sternly.
"Sit still, I tell you!"

On, on, they went with ever-increasing speed, while Frank tried
desperately to jam the useless brake--but to no effect! The car was like
a horse with the bit between its teeth, plunging madly to destruction.

"Oh, oh, _oh_!" screamed Grace, pressing her hands tightly before her
eyes. "We're going to be killed, I know it!"

There was a shock, a sound like tearing cloth, the big machine plowed
half its length through the big haystack and--stopped!

"Frank, I'm getting smothered; won't you dig me out?" It was Betty's
voice, plaintive and half hysterical.

Will and Frank shook the hay from their own eyes and then went to the
rescue of the girls. Then they stared at each other. Gradually the look
of utter bewilderment faded from their faces and a smile flashed from
one to the other like a ray of sunshine.

Then suddenly Mollie laughed. "Oh, you look so funny!" she gasped. "Just
when I thought we were all going to be killed----"

"You get disappointed," Frank finished with a rueful smile. "Just the
same, it's lucky for us that big haystack was just exactly where it is,"
he added. "When I hit the rock I sure thought we were all goners."

"Oh, don't," begged Grace, then added, with a shame-faced little smile,
"I'm sorry I made such a fuss--I always am ashamed of myself when the
danger is over."

"You needn't apologize, Grace," said Betty, quickly. "If there's one
time you ought to be excused for making a fuss it's when you think it's
going to be your last chance."

That was Betty all over--bright, generous, fun-loving, the acknowledged
leader of the girls. Grace was tall, graceful, slender, with a pretty
face framed in a wealth of bright hair. She was accustomed to take life
more easily than Betty and, although not a coward in the true sense of
the word, she was always willing to have the other girls go first. Then
there was Mollie, dark eyed and quick tempered, with more than a touch
of the French in her, but Betty's equal in bravery. The last of the
little quartette was Amy Blackford (formerly called Amy Stonington), who
has not yet appeared in this book. Up to a year before she had been
surrounded by a mystery which would have held great interest for the
girls even had they not loved and admired her for her own good
qualities.

Such were the girls who, with Betty's help, were fast recovering their
good spirits.

"If we can back the machine out of this haystack," Frank was saying, "I
guess we had better start for home."

"But don't you think we had better walk," Grace suggested nervously.
"I'm afraid to trust myself to the old thing again."

"Oh, there won't be any danger now," Will assured her. "We can go back
by a roundabout route where there aren't any hills to speed us into
haystacks. How about it, Frank?"

"You're right! We are not going to take any more chances, I can tell you
that." Then, turning to the girl beside him, he added, "How are you
feeling, Betty? Awfully shaken up?"

"Not a bit," she assured him, gaily. "Why, after the first shock I
really enjoyed it."

"That's the way to talk and I'm mighty glad no one's hurt. Now for
home."

After a great number of half starts and sudden stops they succeeded
finally in backing the great machine away from the haystack and out on
the road again.

"Now remember your promise," cried Grace as they started off. "No more
speeding, Frank, and no more hills."

"Right," he sang back, cheerily. "We have had excitement enough for one
day. Just watch me."

And, true to his word, after an hour's roundabout trip, they swung
quietly into Deepdale, without having encountered further mishap on the
way.




CHAPTER III

FORTUNES


Early the next morning Mollie hailed Betty as the Little Captain went up
the street.

"Where to, so early?" she called. "Why didn't you stop for me?"

"Oh, I was going to Amy's first, to find out how Mrs. Stonington is,"
said Betty as she turned back. "Then I was going to stop in to see if
you would go with me to call on Grace. I promised her last night I would
come over this morning."

"But isn't it early?" said Mollie, doubtfully. "Probably Grace won't
even be up yet."

The Little Captain seated herself comfortably on the board step of the
veranda. "Yes she will," she said decidedly. "I told her yesterday that
if I came over this morning and found her in bed eating candy before
breakfast instead of enjoying the wonderful morning air, I'd never come
over again. She knows that I mean it, too."

"Well, in that case, she may be up," laughed Mollie. "If you will wait a
minute I'll go with you to Amy's," she added and ran lightly into the
house.

The girls found Mrs. Stonington very much improved and Amy only too glad
to get out into the glorious sunshine of the summer morning.

As the three chums, clad daintily in white, with a background of velvety
green lawn to set them off, approached the Fords' beautiful home, they
were surprised beyond measure to see Grace swinging leisurely back and
forth in the big hammock under the trees. They stopped short and gazed
upon this spectacle.

"And she's not eating chocolates either," remarked Amy in an awe-struck
voice. "What can have happened?"

"I wish you would stop gazing at me like that," said Grace, raising her
head and looking at the three girls who were still regarding her
fixedly. "Is it my hair, or is my nose red, or is it my skirt that's too
tight? Please tell me and get it over with. I can stand anything but
this suspense."

"A miracle has taken place--the impossible has happened!" cried Betty,
striking a theatrical pose. "Never again will I doubt the wisdom of
those so learned----"

"What is she raving about, girls, do you know?" asked Grace plaintively.
"She never used to be like this."

"It's the shock, that's all," interpreted Mollie. "Never mind, Betty,"
she added soothingly. "You will get used to it in time."

"Amy, you're the only sane one in that crowd," cried Grace in
desperation. "Will you kindly explain what those two lunatics are
talking about--if they know themselves!" This last was uttered so
vindictively that the girls came down from rhetorical heights with a
bounce.

"Oh," laughed Betty, running up to Grace and giving her a hug. "You must
really forgive us, Grace dear, we just couldn't help it--you reformed so
suddenly, you know."

"Reformed?" said Grace, still mystified, while she made room for the
other girls in the hammock. "What do you mean--'reformed'? I didn't know
I needed to."

"Listen to the child," mocked Mollie. "Why, don't you know, Grace, that
there isn't one of us that doesn't need a lot of reforming?"

"Speak for yourself, Mollie Billette," remarked Grace, a trifle shortly,
for her natural good temper was becoming ruffled under the continued
teasing.

"Now, please, girls," said Betty, fearing a storm, "don't let's
quarrel, whatever we do. We were only surprised to see you up so early,
Grace, that's all. But now I'm mighty glad you are, because we'll have a
chance for a nice long talk. What time do you suppose it is now?"

"It was nearly ten when I came out of the house," Grace replied,
placated by the Little Captain's tactful changing of the subject. "Can't
you all stay to lunch? Then we can make a good long day of it."

The girls took a walk about town before lunch, just to "be sure of an
appetite," as Amy said. During the tramp they met Roy Anderson, an old
boy friend.

"Are you doing anything particular this afternoon?" he wanted to know,
and upon the girls replying in the negative, asked if he might bring
some of the other boys around. "We have made a discovery!" he shouted
after them. "We'll tell you about it when we see you."

And so, the noon meal over, the girls strolled out on the lawn again and
waited eagerly for what the boys might have to tell them.

They had not long to wait--in fact they had barely had time to settle
themselves in the comfortable chairs, when along the road came--not the
boys, but a ragged, bent, old woman, leaning heavily on a twisted stick
for support. Instead of going straight on, as the girls had expected
she would do, the old woman turned in at the drive and made straight for
them.

"What shall we do? Shall we go in the house?" whispered Grace to Betty.
"I don't like her looks very much, do you?"

"She isn't particularly beautiful," Betty telegraphed back. "But she
can't possibly do us any harm. Let's wait and see what she has to say."

As the old hag drew nearer, the girls instinctively shrank back in their
chairs. And, indeed, she was not a prepossessing figure. Her head was
bound about with an old red handkerchief, tied under the wrinkled chin
and framing a face seamed and crisscrossed with a million wrinkles. An
old, tattered shawl covered her bent shoulders, and the hand that
grasped the knotted stick was claw-like and emaciated. Her eyes were the
only part of her that seemed to retain some semblance of youth. They
were little and beady and exceedingly keen, so that when she raised them
to Betty's young face, that staunch little captain felt that she would
almost rather be anywhere else than there beneath the trees with the
searching eyes of the old crone fixed upon her.

"What do you want?" Betty gasped, trying to make her voice calm and
steady, but with little success.

"I won't hurt you, pretty ladies," said the old woman, divining their
repugnance and half-fear and desiring to placate them. "Won't you have
your fortunes told? Only twenty-five cents, and I can tell you of your
past and as much as you will of your future. Only a quarter, pretty
ladies."

Betty glanced inquiringly at the other girls, but they shook their heads
decidedly--the mumbling old crone was getting on their nerves.

"Not to-day," said Betty, as kindly as she could. "We are expecting
company and we haven't time. Some other time perhaps."

"Some other day may be too late," said the old crone, leeringly. "Oh,
yes, you will have all the time there is to be miserable in. And you
will be! You will be! The curse be on you for refusing an old woman like
me the price of her bread!" and she hobbled down the long drive
muttering to herself and stopping once to shake her fist at the startled
girls.

"Oh, did you ever!" Mollie exclaimed. Just then there was a sound of
jolly, masculine laughter and around a corner of the house came the
boys.

"Oh, I've never been so glad to see anybody in all my life!" said Grace
with a little shiver, as the boys paused to gaze after the retreating
form of the old hag. "It is such a relief to have some boys around!"

"I say! who's your venerable friend, Grace?" Roy inquired as he and his
friends joined the girls.

"Yes, what did you do to her, Betty?" It was Allen Washburn who asked
the question. He was a young lawyer, liked and admired by every one in
Deepdale, and let it be said here that Betty was no exception to the
general rule. And as for young Allen Washburn himself, he never sought
to conceal his genuine admiration for the Little Captain. "The last I
saw of her, she was shaking her fist at the house. She didn't seem to be
in any too sweet a temper, either."

"It was just because we wouldn't let her read our fortunes," Betty
explained. "Oh, I wouldn't let that old thing touch me!"

"I could tell your fortune for you, if you'd only let me," whispered
Allen, so softly that only Betty heard. But that was as it should be,
since it was intended for her ear alone.

"She looked just like a--oh, what do you call them?--the people that
wander around all the time and never have any homes--oh, I know,
gypsies," said Amy eagerly. "Wasn't she a gypsy, Will?"

"Oh, now she's gone and spilled the beans!" said Frank, so ruefully
that they all laughed. "Here we come, all primed to give you a surprise,
and we find you prepared beforehand."

"But what surprise?" asked Mollie. "She didn't tell us anything--we
wouldn't let her."

"Yes, she did. She told you everything, only you don't know it," was
Will's enigmatic comment. "You see," he went on, "there's a gypsy
encampment near by and we thought you girls might like to visit it. The
caravans they use and the strange costumes are all mighty interesting."

"Oh, won't that be fine!" said Grace eagerly. "I've always wanted to see
one of those things near by. When can we go?"

"I thought you didn't like gypsies, Grace," Betty broke in.

"Well, I wouldn't if they were all like this," answered Grace. "But
they're not, are they, Roy? There are lots and lots of really
romantic-looking ones if all the books I've read know anything about
it."

"Of course there are. You don't suppose we'd take you to see a lot of
old crones like this peppery woman, do you?" Roy answered. "Why, I've
heard there are some mighty good-looking girls in this crowd."

"Now I see why they're so anxious to go," laughed Betty. "I don't think
we'd better chance it, girls. They might become so charmed with the
fair gypsy maids that they'd forget our existence."

"I don't think you need worry too much about that," said Allen,
answering the challenge in Betty's eyes. "The only question is whether
we will have eyes to see the charms of the gypsy maids."

"Here! here!" shouted Will. "You're coming on, Allen, you're coming on.
I wish I could reel them off like that. Well, ladies, what day shall we
set for the adventure?"

"To-night," said Betty promptly.

"Good," Frank responded. "Betty has the right idea, all right. To-night
it is!"

So it was settled, and when they parted eyes were bright with the
excitement of the coming adventure.




CHAPTER IV

THE GYPSY ENCAMPMENT


Betty was ready before any one arrived that night. The boys and girls
were to meet at her house and from there go on to the gypsy encampment.

She sat on the porch with a light wrap thrown over one arm and waited
impatiently.

"Oh, why don't they come?" she thought. "The girls said they would be
early, and the boys are always away ahead of time. Oh, here come Grace
and Will, now if the others will only hurry."

"Hello, Betty! Been waiting long?" It was Will's cheery greeting.

"Oh, for hours and hours," said the Little Captain with a sigh. "I'd
begun to think everybody had forgotten all about it. I'm so glad you're
here. You can keep me company anyway."

"Oh, are we the first?" Grace was surprised. "I hurried Will till he
nearly had a fit. Said we would be ahead of everybody else, but I didn't
believe him."

"Some day," said Will in a prophetic voice, "some day, young lady, you
will learn that I _do_ know something."

"Oh, do you really think so?" said Grace, hopefully. "If that day ever
comes, Will, dear, I will be the very first to congratulate you."

"Here come some of the others," Betty cried out. "I can't quite make
them out, but it looks like Roy and Amy and--yes--there's Allen, too.
But who is the other girl? It certainly isn't Mollie. I know her walk
too well."

"No, it isn't Mollie," said Grace, slowly. "Do you know whom it looks
like, Betty?"

"No," said that young person, straining her eyes in the direction of the
newcomers. "Who is it?"

"I'm not sure but it looks like----" Grace paused a moment, then said
with conviction, "I'm right! It's Alice Jallow, and I don't like her
very much. What is she doing in our crowd anyway?"

"That's what I would like to know," growled Will. "We had just enough
before. I don't know who's going to take care of her."

"Will, don't be ungallant," warned his sister. "Play the game. Probably
there's some explanation, anyway."

But to the Little Captain, as she watched the quartette approaching,
there seemed no plausible explanation. Why should Allen be paired off
with "this Jallow girl"? Betty knew very little of the latter except
that she was always trying to get in where she was not wanted. Well, she
certainly was not wanted now. Oh, why did Allen look so happy? If "this
Jallow girl" had her, Betty's, escort, where did she come in? Hot tears
of anger and mortification rose to her eyes, but she drove them back
mercilessly and her greeting to the newcomers was as merry as ever.

"Hello, everybody!" she called. "You surely took long enough to get
here."

"Hello, Betty! This is----" Amy paused, then went on rather awkwardly.
"You see, Alice happened to be at the house when the boys came
and--well--we brought her along," she finished, lamely.

"And here I am," said Alice effusively. "I do hope I'm not putting any
one out. The idea of visiting the gypsy camp was so fascinating that I
simply couldn't resist the temptation. I think you might have let me in
on it in the first place," and she looked reproachfully at Allen.

That young gentleman had been sending imploring looks in Betty's
direction over Alice Jallow's head, which the former had chosen
absolutely to ignore. Now, being thus appealed to, he smiled down at
Alice.

"It certainly was a grave oversight on our part," he said.

Betty felt as if her little world had been turned upside down and she
wanted to shake somebody--it didn't much matter who it was--but shake
somebody she must, good and hard!

Just at this critical moment up came the two missing ones, Mollie and
Frank--and a third.

"Now, who is that?" thought the poor Little Captain in despair. "If this
keeps on, we shall have the whole town assembled pretty soon. Oh, dear!"

"Betty, this is a friend of mine, Jack Sanford," Frank introduced him in
his own pleasant way. "He's not such a bad chap when you get to know him
well," he added, while his friend thanked him, ironically.

Betty acknowledged the introduction gaily. If Allen liked "this Jallow
girl," why, he could, that was all! and she was not going to let them
spoil the evening for her. Besides, here was one providentially sent, or
so it seemed to her. And he was nice, too, very nice! He seemed to be
hail-fellow-well-met with the boys. And the girls--well, one could see
that they liked him from the start. But if only Allen would not look so
happy!

"Suppose we start, now we're all here," suggested Roy. "The sooner we
get there the more time we'll have."

"Bright boy," commented Allen. "How did you ever find that out?" Then,
under cover of the laughter and the darkness, he found Betty's hand and
held it for a moment. "Betty," he pleaded, "I----"

"May I, Miss Nelson?" It was Jack Sanford, bowing low before her.

"Sounds like a dance," laughed Betty, and added: "Indeed you may. Oh,
isn't it a wonderful night?"

Allen ground his teeth and once more submitted to the effusive
attentions of Alice Jallow. If Betty could have seen him then she would
have been moved to pity.

"Is it very far to the camp?" Mollie asked, after they had been walking
some time. "I'm anxious to get there."

"Not very far, now," Roy assured her. "It's just on the outskirts of the
town. Just wait till you get there. When you see how interesting it is
you won't mind the walk."

"I guess you don't know whom you are talking to," called Betty, just
behind them. "You forget that walking is our middle name."

"Pardon, fair damsel," said Roy in mock humility. "I must confess I had
forgotten for the moment that----"

"Oh, look! look! All the bonfires and things and people sitting around
them!" Mollie interrupted. "That must be the camp, isn't it, Roy?"

It really was the camp. The young people drew closer together as they
neared it, fascinated, yet half afraid. There were huge bulky objects in
the background beyond the illuminated circle of firelight.

"Those are the caravan wagons, aren't they?" demanded the Little Captain
in hushed tones. "Oh, I wish I could see inside one of them."

"Yes, they are the Pullman cars of the gypsies," laughed Jack. "Perhaps
you wouldn't like them so much inside if you did see them," he added.

"Oh, let's go on," urged Grace at Betty's elbow. "I'm dying to see more
of them, even if I am horribly afraid. Just look at all the tents they
have put up. They must expect to stay a long time."

The girls' eyes grew wider and wider as they advanced toward the circle
of flickering firelight. It seemed they were not the gypsies' only
visitors, for there were many residents of Deepdale, some of whom the
girls recognized.

The roving folk had set forth their wares upon rudely constructed
tables, ready for the first purchaser. Some of the things were truly
beautiful--pieces of rare old lace, chains and chains of many-colored
beads, silver that was polished till it reflected dazzlingly the dancing
firelight. There were rude tents set aside for the telling of fortunes,
and somewhere further back in the camp the wild, sweet strains of a
violin mingled with a man's sweet tenor voice.

"Some of those fellows surely can sing," Frank remarked. "I'd give a
good hundred dollars this minute if I had his voice."

"I wish I could find one for you, Frank," said Grace. "I need the
hundred badly."

The young people spent over an hour wandering about the place, enjoying
to the full the novelty and the romance of it all.

Just as they had about made up their minds that it was time to go home,
Betty, who had exclaimed more than once over the beauty of some of the
young gypsy girls, their beauty being emphasized by the picturesque
clothes they wore, stepped back to look into a tent they had passed a
moment before.

Allen saw his opportunity and was quick to improve it.

"You must be careful how you trot about alone here, Betty. You know----"
he began, when she interrupted him.

"Oh, it is!" she said. "It is!"

"What?" asked Allen, mystified.

She drew him back into the shadows before she answered. "I wasn't sure,
but now I know," she said. "That's the very old woman who wanted to tell
our fortunes at Grace's this afternoon."

"Well, what of it?" he inquired, with an attempt to be reassuring. "She
won't hurt you--not while I'm around."

"Oh, but I don't like her looks," and the girl shivered slightly.

"You need your coat, Betty," said Allen. "Where is it?"

"Jack--Mr. Sanford has it. I'll get it."

She started forward, but he laid a restraining hand on her arm. "Betty,
Betty," he whispered. "You're not going to keep this up, are you?"

"What do you mean?" she questioned, with an attempt at dignity that was
not a very great success.

"You know as well as I do," he answered. "It wasn't my fault. Amy
introduced her and I--well, I had to be decent. Betty, don't you know
me well enough----"

"Where have you people been anyway?" It was Amy's voice. "We've been
looking all over for you."

"Right here, every minute," said Allen cheerily, and the little party
started on again. Not, however, before Mollie and Grace had exchanged
very significant glances.

The young people turned for a last look at the gypsy rendezvous before a
bend in the road shut it from view.

"I've had an awfully good time," said Grace, then added, irrelevantly:
"I only hope those gypsies don't steal anything."

"That's a good hope," whispered Allen in Betty's ear. "They are dabsters
when it comes to getting away with other people's property."




CHAPTER V

THIEVES IN DEEPDALE


The door bell rang out its noisy summons.

Betty forestalled the maid on her way to the portal with a merry: "I'll
go, Mary. It's probably one of the girls."

It was not one of the girls only, but all three of them, and seemingly
in the wildest excitement.

"Oh, Betty, Betty!" Mollie cried, not even stopping to say "hello."
"Have you heard the news--have you?"

"No, it's so early----" began Betty, but Grace interrupted her.

"But it isn't half as bad as what happened to us," she said, sinking
into a porch chair and fanning herself violently, being overcome either
by the heat or her emotions--possibly both. "Why! dad's running around
the house like a mad man this morning, swearing all sorts of vengeance
on the thief, whoever he or she is--I suppose it must be a he, though,
because women don't steal----"

"Hold on, hold on a minute," commanded Betty, her hands over her ears.
"How _do_ you expect me to find out what has happened if you won't come
to the point?"

"Well, I was going to tell you if you'd only have a little patience,"
Grace continued, in an injured voice. Here she paused to put into her
mouth a chocolate cream, which she had taken from a little box she had
brought with her. Then, seeing Amy about to speak, she went on hastily,
holding the box out mutely toward her friends, who all shook their
heads. "Here I rush all the way over and get all heated up and
everything----"

"Oh, for goodness' sake, Grace!" Mollie broke in, having come to the end
of her patience. "If you don't tell the story I will. You have been half
an hour already getting nowhere."

At this dire threat Grace continued quickly. "Oh, well," she
capitulated, "since you are in such a hurry--well, the fact is, Betty,
Beauty's been stolen," and she delivered the terrible news in a hushed
voice.

"Oh!" said Betty, horrified. "And your father valued him above all the
rest. Are you sure he was stolen, Grace?"

"Well, I don't see what else could have happened to him." Now that she
had delivered her news, Grace was once more as calm and composed as
ever. "The horse couldn't very well file the padlock from the outside or
climb out the window, and the groom wouldn't be very likely to take him
for a gentle stroll in the middle of the night. And unless one of those
things has happened, Beauty has been stolen. Anyway, he's gone, there's
no doubt of that."

"That's pretty bad--I can imagine just how your father feels, Grace,"
Betty's voice was grave. "I do hope they will be able to trace him. Does
your father suspect the gypsies?"

"Yes, ever since the store was robbed the other night, dad has been
suspicious of them," Grace answered. "He has tried to watch his horses
with especial care, too. That's one thing that makes him so tearing mad
to-day. Oh, you should have heard him!" and Grace sighed at the memory.

"I remember," said Betty thoughtfully, "that Allen said something the
other night when we went to visit their camp about the gypsies being
expert thieves. From the way things have turned out I guess he knew what
he was talking about."

"And they looked so nice and romantic, too," said Amy, and drew a sigh
at the irony of fate.

This conversation took place between the girls on a certain morning
several days after their memorable visit to the gypsy camp. A day or so
before one of the large stores of the town had been looted and
practically cleaned out. For two days Deepdale had been in a furore of
excitement and indignation, for in the memory of most of the inhabitants
no such crime had ever been perpetrated. There had been small robberies,
of course, but that Hendall's, traditionally the oldest store in
Deepdale, should have been treated to such insult, and by a band of
roving gypsies, too--for every one suspected them from the first--why,
it was unheard of! incredible!

Detectives and sheriff had searched the town from end to end but had
found no sign of the missing goods. They had visited the gypsy camp,
too, submitting it to a strict investigation, but with no result. The
countryside had been scoured for miles around, but no trace had as yet
been found of the missing criminals nor of their loot. Indeed, the
thieves had covered their tracks well, and the inhabitants of Deepdale
were beginning to lose hope of immediate reparation.

Such was the chaotic state of affairs on this beautiful summer morning
when Mr. Ford had awakened to find his splendid horse, Beauty, the
ornament of his stables and the pride of his heart, strangely and
inexplicably missing.

For an hour or so the girls pondered on these two mysterious robberies
and found themselves not one whit nearer the solution. It was Mollie who
finally suggested that they go to her house and look at a couple of new
dresses she had bought recently. "It will help get our minds off the
robbery," she said.

The girls agreed readily, for they were always anxious to see Mollie's
things. "They are always so novel," Grace had once said, and Mollie had
been uncertain whether to ticket it a compliment or otherwise.

"Really, my head aches trying to figure things out," Amy complained, as
they neared the Billette home.

"Well, it seems to me it is just about time some of those detectives
found things out for us," Mollie rejoined. "Will ought to be able to
help, Grace," she added, "since he is in the secret service."

"You may be sure he is doing his best," Grace retorted with spirit.
"Those gypsies make thieving their profession and it isn't always as
easy to track them as it seems. If you don't believe me, just try it
yourself."

"I didn't say anything about not believing you," Mollie rejoined, icily.
"And there's no reason why you have to go up in the air about nothing.
I was simply suggesting, that's all."

"Girls, some day, I am just going to get terribly angry about something
and then let fly," Betty broke in. "I'd just like to know what would
happen and where we would end up if you didn't have me to act as
peacemaker."

"Probably in the county jail for disturbing the peace," said Grace
ruefully, and Mollie laughed, thereby restoring harmony, for the time
being at least.

"Oh, hurry, please do hurry, Mollie!" A small cyclone precipitated
itself out of the house and into Mollie's arms. "Muvver's cwyin' tuwible
and she's telephonin' to evwybody to make you come home quick.
Oh--oh----" This was the beginning of a muffled wail--silenced by
Mollie's hand over the small one's mouth.

"Dodo, don't cry," Mollie implored. "What is the matter with mother? Is
she sick? Oh, don't bother to tell me--I'll see for myself. Come on,
girls."

"Had we better?" asked Betty, with instinctive delicacy. "It may be
something she won't want us to know."

"Oh, don't be silly," cried Mollie, impatiently, shoving the three girls
before her through the doorway. "You know as well as I do that we
haven't any secrets from you. Oh, what can be the matter?"

They found Mrs. Billette in the library where her small daughter,
Dora--nicknamed Dodo, and one of a pair of exceedingly mischievous
twins--ran to tell her of Mollie's timely arrival.

The girls followed hesitatingly, as Mollie rushed forward and threw her
arms about her mother's neck, crying: "Mother, dear, what is it? Dora
says you have been crying and that you have been telephoning for me all
over. Oh, I wish I had known! We would have run all the way."

"Oh, I suppose a few moments more or less would make no difference. It
wouldn't bring back the silver," said Mrs. Billette, quietly. Hysterics
had given place to a sort of despairing resignation. "Only, at first, I
felt as if I must talk to some one about it. The twins didn't
understand, of course, and I couldn't very well talk to Jane."

"But, Mother, what is it?" Mollie demanded again. "Has Aunt Elvira died
or has Paul caught the mumps, or----"

"Of course not, Mollie! How silly of you," her mother broke in,
impatiently. "Aunt Elvira will probably live another twenty years. And
as for Paul's having the mumps----"

"Then what is it? Have we been robbed?" Mollie's little foot tapped a
sharp tattoo on the floor.

"That is just what has happened to us," said Mrs. Billette, as the girls
stared incredulously. "We've been robbed of some things that money never
can replace. Oh-oh-oh, if I had only put it in a safer place! How could
I have been such a fool! Oh! oh!" and Mrs. Billette, poor woman, was
fast verging on another attack of hysteria.

Mollie put her arms about her mother soothingly. "There, there, Mother,"
she crooned. "It may turn out all right after all. But, remember, you
haven't told us what is lost yet," she suggested, with a gentleness very
unlike her former impatience. "I think it would make you feel much
better to talk about it. Did you say it was the silver that had been
stolen?"

"Yes, the silver tea service that has been in the family for over a
hundred and twenty years." Mrs. Billette's French origin gleamed in her
dark eyes as she added: "Oh, if we could only catch them! I'd like to
make them suffer for this!"

From Mrs. Billette's rather disjointed story the girls gathered that not
only the valuable tea service was missing, but also a number of smaller
articles, such as knives and forks. Then there was a valuable jet
necklace which Mrs. Billette had locked up with the silver for safe
keeping.

The girls were stunned by this last calamity. They could think of one
solution and one only, and that was--the gypsies.

As Betty took leave of the girls at her own door that noon, after vainly
urging them to stay to lunch--they were too impatient to get home and
spread the news to stop for anything, even lunch at Betty's--she heard
the jangle of the telephone.

"Sorry you won't come in," she called. "I'll see you later, anyway!" and
she flew upstairs to answer the insistent summons.

"Hello! . . . Oh, that you, Allen? . . . Yes, I've just come home from
Mrs. Billette's. . . . She has lost a silver tea service and some other
things. . . . What's that? . . . Yes, stolen. . . . Gone! . . . Are you
sure? . . . Oh, now they will never get their things! . . . Yes, come
over to-morrow and we can talk things over. . . . Don't be silly! . . .
Yes, come early. . . . Good-bye."

As she hung up the receiver mechanically, Betty's gaze traveled out of
the window and over the smooth, green lawn to the far-distant horizon.

"Gone!" she murmured. "The gypsies are gone! Oh, I wonder where they
went to?"




CHAPTER VI

A WONDERFUL OUTING


"Hello, Betty, that you? Yes, this is Mollie, of course. It seems to me
that I'm always at the 'phone these days. But, oh, Betty, I just simply
couldn't wait a minute to tell you! . . . Yes, I've just received a
letter. . . . What's that? . . . No, mother hasn't been able to trace her
silver at all yet. Isn't it terrible? . . . Oh, well, she is becoming
resigned to the worst. . . . But, Betty, aren't you a bit interested? . . .
Yes, I know you are, dear, and it's very sweet of you. . . . Well, it's
from Aunt Elvira. Remember I told you the other day that she intended to
go to Europe? Well, it's about that. . . . Yes, there has been so much
excitement about these old gypsies that I had almost forgotten I had
such an aunt. . . . No, I won't tell you one thing more about it, except
that everything is O. K. Will you come over to-night? . . . What's
that--you can't? Oh, Betty, you just have to. Oh, well, if that's all
why don't you bring him along? . . . Yes, all the boys are coming anyway.
Will says he has something to talk over with us. . . . Then I may count
on you, to-night, honey? . . . All right--good-bye till then."

This conversation took place in the morning. Promptly at eight that
evening the door bell rang and Betty, after a last peep in the mirror
and a finishing pat to her dress, flew down to answer the summons.

"Right on the dot, Allen," she laughed, flinging the door wide open.
"The clock is just striking the hour--listen," and obediently he
listened, his eyes on Betty's face, while the sweet chimes filled the
hall with melody.

"No wonder I am on the minute," he said, smiling whimsically. "I have
been wandering around for the past half hour trying to kill time. You
see I didn't quite dare to come at half-past seven."

She laughed gaily. "You would have had to spend your time in the library
if you _had_ come early," she said. "Because I have been ready for only
half a minute. Here's your hat, Allen," she added, taking it down from
the peg where he had just deposited it for the evening. Her manner was
grave but mischief sparkled in her eyes.

"What's the big idea?" he inquired, regarding the hat held out to him
with a puzzled expression. "I am very well acquainted with the article
in your hand. Too well acquainted, in fact, for this is the second
season we have been chums; and I see prospect of a third, if the law
business doesn't pick up. But, seriously, what is the idea, Betty? Do
you want me to go home and spend a dismal evening all by myself--is that
it?"

"Far from it, Allen. Oh, please don't look so glum," she added, and the
mischief bubbled over from her eyes and she laughed happily.

Opening Allen's hand, she placed the unwelcome hat therein and closed
his fingers over it. "The explanation for all this," she went on, making
him a curtsy, "is very simple. We have been invited to spend the evening
at Mollie's."

"Oh, bother M----" he began, then added, decidedly: "I came to see you
to-night and I am not going to the Billettes' or anywhere else! Here,
hat, get back where you belong," and he flung the offending article back
on the hook with an air of finality that matched his words.

"Please don't be an old bear," coaxed Betty, and Betty knew how to coax
to perfection. "Mollie has some perfectly wonderful news to tell us and
all our girls and boys are going to be there to hear it. You wouldn't
want me to be terribly disappointed--now you know you wouldn't," and she
looked at him appealingly.

Mollie opened the door to them herself, radiantly eager to tell her
news.

"Oh, hurry, you two!" she cried. "I thought you would never get here. We
have been waiting for--oh, ever so long."

"Well, if we are the last, everybody must have turned over a new leaf
just for to-night," remarked Betty, as she started for the library from
which came a confused murmur of many voices, speaking all at once, with
now and then a burst of merry laughter.

"Leave your hat here, Allen," said Mollie, and Betty threw him a merry
glance over her shoulder.

"Hello, everybody," she called a moment later, as she flung aside the
portières and stood framed in the doorway. "Mollie tells us we are the
last and----"

"Well, so you are. We thought you and Allen had mistaken the date," said
Frank. "Accidentally on purpose," he added slyly.

"Not a chance in the world, Frank," said Allen, who had come into the
room in time to hear the last remark. "I might be afflicted with loss of
memory; but, Betty--never!" They all laughed with enjoyment--all but
Betty who threw him a reproachful glance which he refused to catch.

"Well, now we are here, let's have the news," said Roy, who was always
impatient to get to the heart of things. "Come on, Mollie--out with it."

Nothing loath, Mollie settled herself with an important air and began
her tale.

"Well, you see----" she began, when Will interrupted.

"No, we don't. What?" he asked innocently.

"Now I won't try to tell it at all if you are going to begin that," said
Mollie with asperity. And Grace added:

"Do let Mollie tell it her own way, Will, and if you interrupt again, we
will get the boys to throw you out. You will do it, won't you, boys?"

"Sure!" they shouted with one accord, and Will retired meekly into a
corner.

"I'll begin all over again," said Mollie. "You all know, with the
exception of Amy and Allen, and they soon will, that I have been
expecting to hear from my aunt and uncle every day. They took rather a
long time to make up their minds, but now everything is settled. They
are really going to Europe, and we girls are going to have the use of
their bungalow, 'The Shadows,' for the summer. Or at least for the month
and a half that is left."

"Splendid, Mollie! Where is the bungalow?" inquired Betty, leaning
forward eagerly. "We ought to have a wonderful time."

"Well, I hope we shall," Mollie continued. "The bungalow is on an island
called Pine Island in Lake Tarracusio. They say it is a beautiful place,
and it is only about a day's journey in an auto. We could make it
easily."

"All this is very fine, but where do we come in?" Allen inquired. "There
isn't room in this wonderful bungalow for us, is there?"

"Of course not!" said Mollie scornfully. "And if there were, do you
think we would have you boys fussing around?"

"Well, I was just in search of information," Allen answered defensively.
"And all I get is scorn and ridicule."

"Hard luck, old man," said Will, feelingly. "I am in the same boat. But
you girls had better look out," he added threateningly. "Don't forget
that I had something to suggest to-night and if you don't treat me
better, I'll----"

"Will this do," interrupted Mollie, and, with hands clasped in prayerful
attitude, she besought Will, with tears in her voice, to have pity. "Oh,
kind and noble sir," she said, "be kind--be gracious to us, your humble
slaves, and deign to honor----"

"Now that's something like," broke in Will, beaming around on the
assembled company. "If you had done that from the first, Mollie----"

"Oh, Will, please hurry," Betty urged impatiently. "I know you have
something good to tell us, and I wish you wouldn't keep us in such
terrible suspense."

"Well, since you appreciate how great is the----"

"Yes, yes, go on," Grace interrupted.

"News I am about to impart," he continued without a glance in her
direction.

"You will impart it," Allen finished for him.

"Thank you," said Will, bowing gravely in Allen's direction. "As our
friend says, I will proceed. Well, to come down to brass tacks," he
continued, dropping the air of dignity, which, considering his youthful
appearance, was always very comical, "I thought maybe you fellows would
like to put up a tent on the same island and camp there near the girls
for the rest of the summer. We could have no end of fun."

There was a yell of joy from the boys, and the excited exclamations,
questions and answers that followed showed that they agreed heartily
with Will in his last prophecy that "they would have no end of fun."

"Oh, won't it be great!" cried Betty, her cheeks flushed with
excitement. "I do believe this is the very best of all," then her face
clouded as she turned to Allen, who had not been taking a very active
part in the conversation.

"Do you think you can make it, Allen?" she asked, trying to keep the
eagerness out of her voice. "You said something about a change in the
management of the firm----" her voice was questioning.

"Why, I was just wondering if I couldn't fix things up some way," he
answered seriously. "It looks as if some of our work might have to lay
over for a time anyway, and if it does----"

"Of course you will have to manage it somehow, Allen," Frank broke in.
"Why, having you there would be half the fun!"

"Oh, I guess I can," Allen began uncertainly. Then he continued: "But
you can just better believe if there is a chance in the world, I'll be
there."

"That's the way to talk," cried Mollie. "Now there is just one important
thing we haven't decided yet, girls, and that is, whom are we going to
have for a chaperon."

"I have been thinking of that, and I am sure I know just the one," said
Amy quietly; and they turned to her in amazement. Amy was like that, she
didn't talk much, but when she did, what she said was usually to the
point. "You all know young Mrs. Irving whose husband travels?"

"And she seems sort of lonely sometimes," Grace added, taking a
chocolate nut from a dish of candy that Mollie had placed, for Grace's
special delectation, on the table.

"Amy, you _are_ a wonder," said Mollie, regarding her chum with awe. "I
would never have thought of her in a thousand years, and of course she's
just the one."

"Well, now that the all-important question of chaperon is happily
settled," said Roy, veering back to the point like a compass, "suppose
we decide when to start."

After much discussion it was finally decided they were to start a week
from that day, which was Tuesday.

It was late when Mollie's guests started for home, and even then they
were all reluctant to go. As Allen stood on the porch of the Nelson home
a few minutes later, Betty turned to him impulsively.

"Oh, I do hope you will be able to go, Allen," she said.

"Would you be sorry if I didn't?" he asked her, eagerly.

"Why, of course."

"Then, I'll be there," he said, with a smile.




CHAPTER VII

CLOSED FOR REPAIRS


"Grace, Grace, do wake up!" Betty looked at her sleeping chum in
absolute amazement. How could anybody sleep so soundly on this, the day
of days, when one should have been awake at six o'clock thinking over
the delights in store!

Grace had come over the night before to talk over some minor details of
the outing, bringing with her a new and, she declared, a specially
delicious brand of chocolates. It had been so late when she had started
to leave that she had been prevailed upon to spend the night with Betty.
And so it was that on that eventful morning she lay slumbering
peacefully in the Little Captain's bed, defying all that impatient young
person's efforts to rouse her.

"Grace! Grace!" Betty cried again. "Won't you please wake up? Why, it's
seven o'clock this minute! We have to be out of the house in an hour."

Grace groaned dismally. "Oh, Betty, I will have to have some more
sleep," she wailed, pitifully. "If I don't I won't be fit for a thing
the rest of the day. Don't you suppose we could make it if we started by
nine?" she added hopefully.

Betty paused in the act of putting on a shoe and held it poised in the
air while she gazed at her friend incredulously.

"Grace Ford, of all the----" she almost stuttered. Then, as a thought
flashed before her mind she laughed delightedly. "Can't you see them,
Grace," she chuckled, putting on one shoe and picking up the other.
"Can't you see the boys when I tell them they will have to walk around
the block while Grace gets her beauty sleep. Oh! oh!" and even Grace had
to laugh at the picture.

"They probably wouldn't wait anyway," Betty continued, with the tact of
a diplomat. "They would go on to The Shadows and let you follow later at
your leisure. It will be a nice, dusty, hot ride in the train, too," she
added, examining the lace on her handkerchief with the air of a
connoisseur.

Grace sat up on the edge of the bed and regarded her chum reproachfully.
"Nobody has any heart at all, and you least of all, Betty Nelson," she
complained. "Oh, where did I put my slippers? I was so excited last
night I don't remember what I did with them," and she began a listless
search under the bed.

"They are over by that chair," said Betty patiently. Then went on: "Oh,
Grace, dear, please wake up. You will give me the blues if you don't
shake off that dead and alive air. Imagine Betty Nelson with the blues
to-day."

"It _is_ rather impossible," remarked Grace, regarding Betty's flushed
cheeks and dancing eyes with admiration. "I wish I didn't need any more
sleep than you, Betty. Oh, well, the worst part of getting up is over
now and I'll feel fine when I get some breakfast. You just watch me."

"That's something like," Betty said approvingly. "Oh, Grace, we are
going to have one of the most glorious times we ever had in our lives
to-day."

"Shouldn't wonder," Grace agreed. "What does that clock say, half-past
seven? Oh, Betty, now I _will_ have to hurry!"

"If you glare at the clock like that it is apt to develop palpitation of
the heart and stop altogether," laughed Betty. "It can't help the time,
you know."

"Well, that is the very first time I have ever been accused of stopping
a clock," said Grace with dignity. Then added plaintively: "And by my
best friend, too! Oh, well, I suppose you can get used to anything if
you try hard enough."

"Oh, Grace, you're a dear when you look resigned like that," said Betty,
dancing over to her friend and hugging her ecstatically. "If you weren't
so pretty, I wouldn't dare talk about stopping clocks," she added, and
peace was restored, and soon both hurried down to breakfast.

"Oh, there they are now," cried Betty, hastily swallowing the last of
her cocoa. "I knew they would be here before we were half ready. Oh,
Gracy, dear, hurry, will you!"

"I am all ready," Grace answered. "Suppose you go out and speak to them
while I get the luggage. I'll bring down your hat and coat, too, if you
want me to."

"You _are_ a dear," said Betty, for the second time this morning.
"Goodness, they are making enough noise with their old horns. Anybody
would think there were ten automobiles instead of two," and while she
ran out to greet the newcomers, Grace hurried--yes, actually
_hurried_--up the stairs to get the small bags they were to take with
them for immediate use, in case the trunks, which had been sent on
before, did not arrive in time.

Betty found the others all radiant. Roy was at the wheel in Mollie's
car--she had invited him to act as chauffeur and he had gleefully
accepted--with Mollie herself beside him and Will and Amy in the
tonneau.

The others--Mrs. Irving, their young and jolly chaperon, and the four
girls and boys--were to make the journey in Frank's big car, with Frank,
of course, at the wheel.

"Hello, Betty!" Will shouted. "You are looking as sweet and fresh as a
daisy! Jump in! Where's that runaway sister of mine? I hope you
succeeded in getting her up in time."

"I did--after considerable persuasion," laughed Betty. "I came out to
tell you we just have to get our outside things on and we shall be
ready. I can see Grace beckoning now--just a minute," and she ran toward
the house.

"Can't we carry the luggage--and the chocolates?" said Frank and Allen
together.

"If you insist," Betty flung the answer over her shoulder as she joined
Grace.

The boys had tumbled out of the automobile and were racing up the drive
as if their lives depended on their reaching the porch at the same
second. The girls adjusted their pretty panamas before the wide mirror
while the boys picked up the bags and waited.

"Is my hat on right, Allen, or should it be tilted a little more over
the left eye?" mimicked Frank, as they watched the girls. "Or, perhaps
it should be made to cover my face entirely?"

"I think the latter--with places for the eyes and nose," said Allen in
the same tone of voice.

"Anybody who invented such a hat would be a benefactor to the world at
large, Frank," said Betty, as she swept past him--her nose in the air.

"Oof! That was an awful one," returned Frank, while Grace chuckled at
his discomfiture. "A few more of those, Betty, and I am afraid I shall
have to stay at home!"

"That sounds just like Percy," Betty remarked, as the boys deposited the
luggage in the car and opened the door for the girls. "For goodness'
sake, don't take him for a model, Frank."

"I wonder where the dear old chappie is, anyway," remarked Allen as he
took his seat between Betty and Mrs. Irving in the tonneau. Grace was to
sit with Frank. "I haven't seen him about town lately. I wonder if
mother has taken her darling boy to the seashore," he added, as the car
moved off.

"I hope so. If she would only take him to Kalamazoo it would suit me
better," said Betty. "It's a wonder he didn't invite himself to come
along."

"Nothing doing!" laughed Frank. "I can just imagine darling Percy
sleeping in a tent and cooking his own meals. Can't you, Allen? Oh, what
a circus!"

"It is rather hard to imagine the immaculate Percy in those
surroundings," drawled Grace. "He would be running down to the river to
wash his hands every two minutes. How do we get over to the island from
the mainland, Betty, do you remember?" she added. "I know Mollie said
something about a steamer, but I didn't get a very good idea of it."

"Oh, we will have lots of fun on it," Betty answered, enjoying the
prospect immensely. "Mollie says it is an old, rickety thing that looks
as if it were going to pieces any minute. She thinks it must be at least
two hundred years old, if what her aunt says is true. It will be awfully
interesting."

"Yes, especially if it fulfills its promise and goes to pieces in the
middle of the lake," Grace remarked dryly. "I wouldn't mind the dip in
weather like this, but I would rather choose the time and place."

"Well, perhaps it _would_ be better if we put on our bathing suits
first," Betty admitted. "Then we would at least be prepared for the
worst."

"I wouldn't call that the worst thing that could happen to us," said
Allen; and when the girls looked to him for an explanation he added: "It
would be no end of fun to be dumped in the river with a boatful of
pretty girls. Think of the good time we could have rescuing you."

"Well, maybe you call that fun, but I should say it was pretty hard
work," said Frank, ungallantly. "Especially if the girls should lose
their heads and begin to choke you. All hail, for Davy Jones' locker!"

"You needn't worry," said Betty, with dignity. "In the first place we
wouldn't have to be rescued. We can swim just as well as you boys
can----"

"Now, now, Betty," Frank protested laughingly, "don't exaggerate."

"I'm not," she denied indignantly. "We haven't lived in the outdoors for
nothing, you know."

"Well, we shall have a chance to settle all disputes when we get to Pine
Island," said Allen. "To change the subject--has anybody noticed that
the sun has gone under a cloud and that there is a stiff little breeze
coming up? I shouldn't wonder if we were in for a storm."

"Yes, we may need our bathing suits even before we get to the island,"
said Betty, ruefully. "I hope you didn't forget to bring your suit, Mrs.
Irving," she added, turning to the chaperon, who had been singularly
silent during the ride. Perhaps she was realizing for the first time the
great responsibility she had taken upon herself. However, she spoke now,
accompanying her words with a bright smile.

"Indeed I did," she said. "There is nothing I enjoy quite so much as a
good swim. From what you girls say of the island we ought to have as
many as we want."

"I am very much afraid we won't leave to wait till we get there," said
Frank, regarding the sky anxiously. "Unless I am a pretty poor prophet
we are in for a considerable spell of bad weather. What do you say,
Allen?"

"I say you are right and then some," Allen answered emphatically. "I
think it would be a pretty good stunt to get the top up, Frank, before
the girls are deluged."

Accordingly Frank slowed down and waited for Mollie's trim little
machine to catch up with them.

"What do you make of the weather?" asked Will, as they came up
alongside. "Looks pretty threatening, don't you think?"

"If you don't want to get wet, you had better do what we are going to,"
Frank advised them. "Put your top up."

"Oh, hurry, Frank, I felt a drop then!" exclaimed Grace. "And there's
another! Oh, do hurry!"

The boys worked quickly and in a few moments had raised the tops and
were ready to let down the waterproof sides that would make them
comfortable in almost any weather.

"We are going to speed up some," Frank shouted to those in the other
car. "When the roads get muddy it's going to be pretty hard going, so we
want to make good time now."

"Aye, aye, Captain!" Roy answered. "Lead, and we follow."

For a short distance all went well. In fact, the girls rather liked
riding in the rain. Then suddenly, without any warning, Frank stopped
the car.

"What is it, Frank?" cried Grace in alarm. "Did you run over somebody?"

"No, it's worse than that," he answered gloomily. "Look, the road's
closed for repairs!"




CHAPTER VIII

THE JET NECKLACE REAPPEARS


The girls and boys stared at each other, dismay written on their faces.
The road closed and the rain pouring down in torrents--a nice
predicament! It was Mrs. Irving's calm voice which first broke the
silence.

"There must be some way around," she said. "It will take us a little
longer, that's all."

"Oh, of course we shall be able to strike the main part of the road
again if we go a couple of miles out of our way," Frank agreed, a
worried frown on his forehead. "The only question is, how are we going
to find our way? I didn't bring a chart with me--worse luck."

"Perhaps Roy has one," Betty suggested. "He usually carries a lot of
junk like that around with him."

"Well, if he has this particular species of junk it will come in mighty
handy just now," said Frank, hopefully. "I'll stick my head out and yell
at him. Gee, it sure is raining some!" and he craned his neck toward
the other car, squinting his eyes to keep out the stinging drops. "Hey,
Roy!" he shouted. "Do you happen to have anything like a map of the
surrounding country in your inside vest pocket? If you have, throw it
over. We are stuck good and plenty."

"I don't get you, old man," Roy shouted back. "Say the first part of
that speech over again, will you?"

Frank drew in his head and mopped his face and hair with a huge silk
handkerchief. "Two minutes before the next plunge," he announced to the
amused occupants of his car. "Allen, if he doesn't get me this time you
will have to change places with me. I'll be almost drowned," then he
thrust his head out once more and shouted in the direction of Mollie's
car.

"I said, have you a map of this here countryside?" he repeated. "Betty
says you usually carry such things with you."

"Sorry I can't oblige," came his disappointing answer. "I left that home
in my old coat this morning."

"Of course, just when you knew we would probably need it!" Frank
retorted scathingly. "Now we'll have to hike along and trust to luck.
Nobody knows where we will end up."

"Well, you needn't blame it on me," Roy shouted wrathfully. "I couldn't
be expected to see twenty miles down the road from Deepdale."

"Nobody accused you of it," Frank answered, in the same belligerent
voice. "But as long as you had the chart you might have thought far
enough----"

Grace seized Frank's arm and pulled him back into the machine. "For
goodness' sake, what is the use of making such a fuss about that old
map?" she said. "And in the rain, too!"

"Yes, if that were you and I, Grace," said Betty, "the boys would say
something about 'isn't that just like a woman,' or, 'aren't girls the
limit--always arguing about nothing?'"

"Votes for women!" Allen shouted. "Since when have you taken to stump
oratory, Betty?"

"Oh, she is just naturally eloquent," said Grace languidly and they all
laughed, even Frank--although his brow clouded anxiously a minute later.

"However, all this isn't getting us anywhere," he said. "We can't stay
out here in the rain all night, you know."

"I don't believe any of us expect to," said Allen, dryly. "What do you
say we take that side road we passed a little way back, Frank? We can at
least see where it leads and we can inquire our way as we go along."

"I don't know whom we shall find to inquire of," said Frank, who,
contrary to his usual custom, persisted in looking at the gloomy side of
everything. "We didn't pass a soul on the way down."

"Please cheer up, Frank," laughed Betty. "You ask us to make a
suggestion and then when we do you scout it. Suppose you tell us what
_you_ would like to do."

"I know what I should _like_ to do," he added, readily. "I should like
to break down that board that is in our way and go ahead whether they
like it or not. Nothing would give me greater pleasure."

"However?" suggested Allen.

"However, I know we'd get pinched--pardon, ladies--I mean, pulled in.
That doesn't sound just right, either, does it?" and he regarded them
with laughing eyes.

"I imagine 'arrested' is the word you want," said Betty, demurely.

"That's it, thank you," he said, all irritability gone as suddenly as it
had come. "So, as long as that is understood, perhaps we might do worse
than follow Allen's suggestion, after all."

"Genius always triumphs in the end," said Allen, with a gravity that set
them laughing.

"Perhaps it would be better if we hurried a little," Mrs. Irving
suggested, when they had had their laugh out. "With no delay it would
take us almost till sundown to reach The Shadows and I don't want to be
too late."

"All right, here goes to try to back the old bus out of this mud-hole
and turn her around," Frank agreed. "I don't know how long it will take
us, though."

"You had better tell Roy what you are going to do," Grace suggested. "We
don't want any collisions."

Frank obediently thrust out his head, only to jerk it back quickly the
next instant with a startled exclamation. "They are gone!" he said.

"Gone!" the others cried together.

"But they couldn't have gone far," Mrs. Irving added.

"Probably they have motored back to the crossroads to wait for us,"
Allen suggested. "When they saw the blockade they knew there was just
one thing to do and they did it."

"Well, they might at least have told us where they were going," Frank
grumbled. "They should have known Mrs. Irving would be worried."

"They probably thought they'd decamp before the mud got so bad," said
Betty. "Just the same, they should have told us."

"You are right," Mrs. Irving agreed. "However, the only thing to do now
is to follow them as quickly as possible."

For answer, Frank threw in the clutch, and the big machine very slowly
and painfully plowed its way through the clinging mud of the road and
turned its face toward the crossroads and, in all probability, Mollie's
runaway car.

"No wonder they want to repair the road," said Frank when they were well
under way. "If the rest of it is any worse than this I should think they
would need a new one."

"There's Mollie's car, straight ahead," said Grace a moment later. "I
wager they are just sitting there as large as life, laughing at us."

"Let them laugh," said Frank savagely. "It's good to see somebody
happy."

"Well, if that's all you want," sang Betty, cheerily, "just look at
Grace and Mrs. Irving and Allen and me. I, for my part, am having the
time of my life. And look, everybody," she added, "it isn't raining
nearly so hard as it was. We will be seeing the sun next!"

"There is just one thing that is better to have along than the sun,"
said Allen, softly. Mrs. Irving, hearing, smiled knowingly to herself.

When they overtook the car ahead, Roy explained that they had gotten out
of the way to make room for Frank's big car to turn around.

"You surely gave us plenty of it," Frank remarked dryly, upon hearing
the explanation. "But we will have to hurry now if we expect to get
anywhere before dark."

As they all heartily agreed to this, especially Mrs. Irving, there was
no further discussion and the cars swung down the narrow side road at a
very good pace--good, that is, considering the going.

They had been riding for half an hour when suddenly Betty's prediction
came true. The rain stopped entirely and the sun peeped out from behind
the clouds, touching the leaden sky with gold.

"I knew it, I knew it!" cried Betty in delight. "Now we can take down
the top, can't we, Frank? Oh, let's do it!"

"Mighty good suggestion, Betty," Frank agreed, bringing the car to a
stop once more. "The good old sun sure does change everything, doesn't
it?"

Five minutes later the cars started on again, with the breeze fanning
the faces of the occupants and the sun pouring down goldenly upon them.
As Frank had said, "The world was a different place to live in."

A moment later those in Frank's car were surprised to see Roy stop his
automobile and signal them to draw up alongside.

"Did you see that gypsy girl who just passed in front of us?" Mollie
whispered when they had done as they were desired. Then, as the girls
nodded assent, she continued excitedly: "Well, I am almost sure she had
on that jet necklace that disappeared with mother's silver! Oh, if we
could only follow the girl we might find that too! Oh, can't we--can't
we?" she added, fairly dancing with excitement.

"Sure, come ahead, fellows!" cried Allen, who was always ready for
adventure. "Did you see which way she went, Roy?"

"Over this way, I think," Roy answered. "We may be able to trace her to
the gypsy camp. There must be one near here, and it is probably the
same."

"We'll be back in a minute," called Will, and then the boys disappeared
in the underbrush.

"Oh, I'm afraid to have them go," whispered Betty fearfully. "Suppose
one of those murderous-looking gypsies should stab them in the back!"

"One gypsy couldn't do it all," said Grace with a little nervous laugh.
"I guess they can take care of themselves, Betty. We needn't worry."

"What do you think, Mrs. Irving?" Amy asked quietly. "The boys went off
in such a hurry they didn't give you a chance to say anything if you had
wanted to."

"I imagine talking wouldn't have done much good anyway," answered Mrs.
Irving with a smile. "Besides, there should not be any danger if they
only keep their wits about them."

"Oh, mother will be the happiest woman in the world if they can only
find her silver for her." Mollie was so agitated she was actually
trembling. "Girls, do you think they will?"

"There, there, don't get so excited about it, Mollie, dear," cautioned
the Little Captain. "You may be sure the boys will do the very best they
can."

At the end of the hardest hour they had ever spent, for inaction was not
easy for Outdoor Girls, they heard the welcome sound of masculine voices
and the regular tramp-tramp of the boys' feet.

"Oh, oh," they cried together in whole-souled relief, while Mollie added
eagerly: "Did you get it--did you?"

Allen, who was in the lead, shook his head regretfully. "We couldn't
find a sign of anything," he said. "Not even the camp."

"But if you didn't find anything, what ever in the world kept you so
long?" Betty demanded. "We imagined all sorts of horrible things
happening to you."

"Oh, you couldn't get rid of us," said Will, cheerily. "We hated to come
back empty handed--that's all."

"Well, we are mighty glad to get you back," said Mollie, who, after the
first disappointment, had become resigned to the inevitable.

"That's the way to make them appreciate us; eh, fellows?" said Frank, as
he flung himself into the car. "They don't realize how good we really
are till they think we are gone."

"Right you are, Frank," said Roy. "What do you say to full speed ahead?"

"Full speed ahead it is," Frank agreed, and they were off like a shot
down the road.




CHAPTER IX

PINE ISLAND AT LAST


The Outdoor Girls and their boy friends made good time for the rest of
the journey and it was not quite sundown when they came in sight of the
beautiful shores of Lake Tarracusio.

"We will have to leave the automobiles somewhere in town, won't we?"
asked Amy, as the two machines drew up side by side for a final
consultation.

"Of course," said Grace. "According to Mollie's description of the
rickety old steamer I should think it would have all it could do to
carry us--let alone the machines."

"There ought to be at least one big garage in town, Frank," Betty
suggested. "Let's move along the main street until we find it."

"Nobody asks me for my advice," complained Mollie, in an injured tone.
"And I am the most likely one to know about it."

Mollie gave the directions for finding the garage which her aunt had
written. A minute later they drew up before the place and tumbled out,
bag and baggage, in obedience to Frank's instructions.

While the boys were in the garage talking to the proprietor, the girls
had a chance to look about them.

"Isn't it lovely?" cried Mollie delightedly. "It looks just like the
little colored pictures of towns they have in the magazines sometimes.
The same quaint little frame houses with green shutters and well-kept
lawns in front----"

"And flower beds with borders of white shells," Amy finished for her. "I
know just what you mean, Mollie; I've seen them myself."

"Girls," said Betty, jumping up from the overturned suitcase she was
using for a seat, and speaking impressively, "I have a feeling----" here
she paused for effect. "I have a feeling," she continued, "that we are
going to have a good time."

"Humph," snorted Mollie. "Why don't you tell us something we don't
know?"

"Get off the luggage, you girls!" Will commanded, good-naturedly. "The
man in there says we have just exactly five minutes to catch that joke
steamer for the island, and if he is right, we've got to hustle. Sling
over that bag, Sis, will you?"

"With the greatest of pleasure," said Grace. "But will somebody kindly
tell me how we are going to make that boat in five minutes?"

"By running like the very wind," Frank declared, and, picking up two
suitcases in one hand, he propelled Grace down the street with the
other. "Please hurry," he urged. "Never mind about your hats, girls. It
will soon be so dark nobody will be able to see them."

"Shall we give them a race?" asked Allen of Betty, as they prepared to
follow Roy, who had taken both Mollie and their gay little chaperon in
tow.

"Let's," said Betty with dancing eyes. "Nobody knows us here and I
wouldn't care if they did--better people than you and I have run for
boats before, Allen."

"Oh, I don't know," he said, argumentatively. "Just as good, possibly,
but never better."

"All right, have it your own way," she laughed. "Now do we begin?
One--two--three--come on. We'll beat them even with the head start."

Off they raced, light and graceful and buoyantly alive. It was no task
at all to overtake Roy, who was hampered by gasping little Mrs.
Irving--who, although young, was not--_so_ young. Next came Amy and
Will, running easily, but Allen and Betty passed them as if they had
been standing still.

"Oh, you will, will you?" Will shouted as they went by. "We'll see about
that. What do you say, Amy, more speed?"

"Sure," said game little Amy. "I can go lots faster than this." So the
two quickened their pace, but Betty and Allen were on wings, and, try as
they might, they could not lessen the space between.

"Oh, well, we don't want to beat them anyway, do we?" said Will, when
they had to give up.

"No, we wouldn't think of taking the fun from them," she panted, and
they both laughed merrily.

Meanwhile the two champion runners had overtaken Grace and Frank and had
started on the last lap to the wharf.

"There's the little steamer now, Allen!" gasped Betty. "Oh, do you think
it will go without us?" As if for answer the whistle on the curious old
ferry shrieked a warning to all would-be voyagers to Pine Island.

Allen's hand tightened its grasp of Betty's arm. "Are you game for one
last spurt?" he asked her. "We may be able to make it."

Betty nodded her head, for just then breath was precious and not to be
wasted in idle words. Silently, the two called on their splendid reserve
strength, while arm in arm they sped along the shore to the dock. They
reached it just in the nick of time.

"Hold on there, will you?" shouted Allen, with what he had left of his
breath. "The rest of the party will be up in a minute."

True to his prophecy, in a moment's time the entire company was
assembled on the ancient dock, tired and out of breath, but happy to be
there nevertheless.

"You two are some classy little speed merchants," remarked Frank,
slangily, while he regarded the pair thus designated with profound
admiration. "I never knew two people could run so fast before."

"So this is the steamer!" said Grace, as soon as she could find breath
enough to speak at all. "It does justify your aunt's description,
Mollie, although it doesn't look quite so rickety as I expected."

"Probably she will look lots worse in the daylight," Will prophesied
cheerfully. "Say, folks, what do you say to our making ourselves
comfortable? We have quite some ride before us; eh, Mollie?"

"About half an hour's _sail_," corrected Mollie. "You _ride_ in an
automobile, but you _sail_ in a boat."

"I don't see why ride isn't just as appropriate as sail in this case,"
said Will, sitting on a suitcase beside Amy, with his back against the
rail, prepared to argue the point. "Especially since this old tub has
never known a sail."

"Betty," Frank said, turning to that young person who was gazing
dreamily out over the water, "what did they put in that basket when we
stopped at the hotel this afternoon?"

"What?" she said, bringing her mind down to every-day things with an
effort. "Oh, the basket! I wouldn't dare tell you that," she added, with
sudden animation. "Boys, boys, if you could only see inside--if you only
could--oh, how your mouths would water!"

"Just think," said Grace, tragically. "Here we have everything that goes
to make up a romantic sail----"

"What, for instance?" Roy demanded. "If you call a leaky old ferryboat
with the weather so damp that you can't touch the rail without feeling
as if you have had a dip in the briny--if that's what you call romantic,
then give me a good open fire and plenty of chicken bones to gnaw."

"Oh," said Betty in sorrow, shaking her head at the depths to which the
boys had fallen. "Frank, I would never have thought it of you. Just the
same," she added, in a stage whisper, "I wouldn't mind having a couple
of them myself."

"Betty, Betty," Allen reproved her. "I thought----"

"Oh, Mollie, look there," cried Betty, pulling her friend towards her
and indicating an indistinct shadowy bulk looming eerily before them.
"Mollie, dear, that's the island, isn't it? I can't wait until I put my
two feet on it."

"Oh, I wish we could see an inch before our noses!" said Grace
impatiently. "I can't make out a single blessed thing."

"Probably going to rain some more," said Frank consolingly. "Never mind,
Grace, whenever your heart begins to fail you, just think of--what,
fellows?"

"Chicken!" they shouted, with one voice.

"You don't know you are going to get any, yet," Betty declared. "If I
remember rightly, Frank is the only one who said anything about it, and
he doesn't know what he is talking about."

"Betty, don't be heartless," Allen implored. "Is there or is there not a
fowl in that basket?"

"There is!" she answered in solemn tones.

"Hoorah!" shouted Will. "Three cheers for the good old bird!"

As he spoke the little steamer scraped against the dock that was almost
invisible to those on deck, then came to a full stop. The shrill whistle
which Roy contemptuously characterized as a joke, broke the misty
stillness with a shriek, that echoed and re-echoed, thrown back upon
itself by some distant cave or hillside on the island.

"Goodness! I wouldn't mind a nice fire myself," said Mollie, shivering
with something a little more than cold. There was something mysterious
about this island, shrouded as it was in the clinging mist--something
that made the girls draw close together for companionship. "I hope it
will be more cheerful in the daytime--the island, I mean, not the fire,"
she added.

"Girls," cried Betty, "this looks like a regular adventure island. Maybe
we'll find the gypsies here."

"Oh, don't," shivered Amy. "Don't talk about gypsies--until daylight, at
least."

"Here comes the rain!" Roy shouted. "We'll have to hurry some, if we
want to beat it to the house. Here, Will, take hold of this bag. Quick,
I can't carry more than three at a time."

"Give it to Allen," Will advised, as they tumbled out on the tiny
wharf. "I have more than my share already."

"Oh, all right," said Allen, "I'll be the goat. How about it,
Betty--shall we give them another race? It looks as if a little speed
would come in handy."

"No, let Mollie lead this time. I hope she knows the way."

"Of course I do," said Mollie, coming up behind them. "There isn't any
way to find. The house is at the end of the wharf. Follow us and----"

"You'll get something to eat," Roy finished for her. "We have the
basket."

"Then you needn't worry about our following you," said Allen. "Only if
you don't look out we will get there before you after all. Come on,
Betty," and for the second time that day the young folks had a chance to
test their skill in running. The main thing was that they got there
before the rain.




CHAPTER X

BRIGHT AND EARLY


The morning dawned clear and bright. Mollie woke first in the large,
sunshiny room which the girls had chosen to occupy together during their
stay on Pine Island.

It contained two large double beds--each in a little alcove of its own.
The spotless grass mats, the flowers that bloomed on the wide-silled,
latticed windows gave the room an air of cheerful hominess and comfort
that was very pleasant.

All this Mollie took in subconsciously as her sleepy gaze wandered about
the room. Then slowly full wakefulness banished the last vestige of
sleep from her eyes and she sat up in bed.

"The sun!" she cried joyfully. "And I was sure it was going to be rainy
this morning! Oh, now we shall see the island as it really is. Wake up,
Amy, do! Oh, goodness, how the child sleeps!" and she shook her
slumbering friend with no uncertain hand.

"There is no use, Mollie," said Betty's voice from the other end of the
room. "You couldn't wake Amy or Grace without a good shaking."

"What's that?" cried Mollie, startled, as a loud knock sounded on the
door. "I wonder who is coming to visit us so early?"

"Probably one of the boys," Betty suggested, "come to tell us it is nine
o'clock and high time we were up and dressed."

"Nine o'clock!" Grace fairly stuttered, but just then Mollie called out
an impatient:

"Who's there?" in response to a second and harder knock at the door.

"It's I, Will. Mrs. Irving sent me up to ask when in the name of common
sense you girls are coming down to breakfast."

"What time is it?" Betty countered. "If you tell us that, we'll tell you
what time we are coming down."

"It is half-past eight," Will answered. "We fellows have been up since
six o'clock getting our summer quarters fixed up!"

"I won't believe it until I see it," said Mollie darkly. "Six o'clock,
indeed!" and she sniffed disdainfully.

"Well, if you don't believe it," said Will, through the keyhole, "all
you have to do is to come down and see for yourself. We've got
everything fixed up O. K. all right. But say! when are you fellows--I
mean girls--going to get up?"

"Right away, Will," Betty promised, popping out of bed and into her
slippers all at once. "We will be down in a jiffy."

It required a great deal of tact to coax Amy and Grace out of bed, but
it took a still greater amount of merciless driving to get them
downstairs and into the big airy dining room, where Mrs. Irving was
impatiently awaiting them.

"Here you are," she said, laying down her book as the four girls tumbled
into the room. "I thought you would be tired after last night's fun, so
I let you sleep it out."

"Well, we surely did sleep," said the Little Captain brightly. "I for
one feel as if I'll never sleep again."

"And I feel as if I could sleep forever," said Grace. "You never saw
anything like Betty, Mrs. Irving," she complained. "Why, I do believe
she could have made a fortune in the old days as an overseer down
South."

Mrs. Irving laughed. "You don't look especially brow-beaten," she said.
"And anyway, I should think you would be glad to get up--you must be
nearly starved to death."

"I thought after last night, and the chicken, I could never eat again,"
said Mollie, her eyes sparkling at the memory. "But I find that I can,
very easily. Oh, Mrs. Irving, what is there?"

"Well," their chaperon began, "there are the eggs we had put up with the
other things yesterday and some fruit and honey and we can make some
fluffy white biscuits in no time----"

"Oh, oh, say no more!" said Betty, clapping her hands joyfully and
executing a little dance about the room. "Honey and biscuits--I could
make a meal of them alone. Mrs. Irving, show me the stove--lead me to
it--and I'll make the biscuits," she finished importantly.

"Mrs. Irving," Grace pleaded, turning to the chaperon, "you are the only
one here who could possibly make Betty do anything that she didn't want
to do or stop her doing anything she had set her heart on. Won't you
please interfere for the sake of the community? It might really be
dangerous," she added plaintively.

"Don't worry," Mollie put in. "I have eaten Betty's biscuits of old,
and, believe me, they are good. All I ask is that you hustle,
Betty--shoo----" And she hurried the willing Little Captain before her
into the kitchen.

Mrs. Irving followed more slowly with Amy and Grace, and they were just
in time to hear Mollie's last sentence: "Where have the boys
disappeared to?"

"They're out yonder in the woods," Mrs. Irving replied, indicating a
spot beyond the cottage. "They were up very early this morning--couldn't
wait to get the tents up. Allen left word that they would stop around in
a couple of hours to say good-afternoon to you girls--if you happened to
be up by that time," and the little chaperon's eyes twinkled as she saw
the look of rising indignation in the girls' faces.

"If we happen to be up, indeed," sniffed Betty, bustling around the
kitchen in a business-like fashion, sorting out pans and getting out the
flour, which Mollie's aunt had very thoughtfully left in the larder. "If
they talk like that much more, they won't get any of my biscuits. Just
wait till they smell them, girls--they will go down on their knees."

"Yes, the only way to manage boys is to feed them well," sighed Amy,
with a funny air of knowing all there was to be known about men.

"Oh, Amy! Amy!" gasped Mollie, "you will be the death of me yet. Anybody
would actually think, to hear you talk, that you had really had some
experience. Say, Betty," she added, regarding the doughy mixture--the
result of Betty's skillful manipulation, "that looks mighty
interesting--I shouldn't mind learning how to make them myself."

"Oh, it's lots of fun," Betty affirmed, cutting out the biscuits with an
improvised cutter--this last being the top of a baking powder can. "Only
take my advice," she went on, standing with the cover poised in the air
and speaking earnestly. "Don't try it on your family first--they never
appreciate you. Why, the first time I made biscuits, do you know what
dad said?"

"No, but I can imagine," said Grace, who had also been regarding the
operation, "judging from what dad and Will would have remarked."

"Well, he said," Betty continued, patting the last biscuit into its
appointed place and regarding her work with satisfaction, "he said the
best thing I could do with them would be to pack them and send them to
the old country to use in some of the new howitzers or something like
that they are getting out. How is that for a slam?"

"Well, I shouldn't wonder," said Grace wickedly, "if he were justified."

Betty turned and shot a reproachful glance at her friend. "Just for
that, Grace," she said, "I ought to say you can't have any of
these--works of art," indicating the pan she was putting into the oven.
"Why do you girls stand around staring at me anyway?" she added, a
sudden note of impatience in her voice. "Why don't you do something to
earn your living? Set the table or get the water boiling for the eggs. I
can't do everything--now scatter! If you were all as hungry as I am you
wouldn't wait to be told."

Laughingly the girls did as the Little Captain bid--somehow it was
impossible to do anything else.

"Where is the table cloth, Mollie?" called Amy from the other room. "We
used paper napkins and doilies last night." Then she added, as Mollie
came to help her, "Did you ever see anybody eat like those boys last
night?"

"It was a wonderful and awesome sight," Mollie agreed, as she and Amy
spread the cloth. "I wonder," she added as a sudden thought struck her,
"if the boys have had their breakfast."

"What a question!" said Grace, appearing at the door carrying a plateful
of the most deliciously golden honey the girls had ever seen--or so at
least it seemed to them. "Do you imagine they could exist from six
o'clock to ten without eating? Mollie, I gave you credit for more
sense."

"Is that so?" retorted Mollie, cross because she was hungry. "Well, I
have a good deal more sense than some people I know. I mention no names,
but see where I am looking," and she stared steadfastly at her unruffled
chum, who was calmly setting the honey on the table.

"Here I am again," said Betty, "acting the part of peacemaker. Oh,
girls, it is too wonderful a day for outdoor girls to quarrel. I am
simply crazy to get out in the woods and just revel in the grass and the
trees and the sunshine." And she glanced longingly out of the open door
that led to the porch. "Oh, I wish," she said, "I wish the biscuits
could be done and eaten all in five minutes. Amy, did you put the eggs
in?" she demanded, and Amy, who had been gazing out of the window,
scuttled out to the kitchen obediently.

The girls had nearly finished breakfast, when there was a sound of
voices outside the door, and a moment later the boys burst in upon them.

"Hello!" said Allen, evidently surprised. "I didn't expect to see you
for another hour."

"Say, those biscuits look good," said Roy. "I should say biscuit," he
corrected himself. "Say, Betty, do you happen to have any more of those
around?"

"No, and you don't get this one, either. It belongs to Amy," said Betty
decidedly. "She has had only three and I made four apiece."

Frank was just about to protest when she added compromisingly: "I'll
make some more for lunch."

"When is lunch?" inquired Will practically. "Twelve o'clock?"

"No, about one," Mollie answered. "We couldn't possibly eat before
then."

Allen had been talking to Betty in an undertone, and now he broke into
the conversation with: "Betty says she wants to see our camp. Who cares
to go along?"

There was a clamorous assent followed by a faint little protest from
Grace. "Don't you think we had better wash the dishes first?" she asked.

"Oh, hang the dishes!" said Frank, inelegantly. "Remember we are
camping."

"We'll wash them up with the lunch dishes," Betty compromised, then
added, with a sly little glance in Allen's direction: "We'll make the
boys wipe them for us."




CHAPTER XI

A JOLLY TRIP


The girls and the boys, laughingly driving Mrs. Irving before them,
fairly tumbled down the shallow steps in their eagerness to feel the
soft grass under their feet. As Betty said, it was a glorious day, a
typical day in early August, when a soft breeze tempers the heat of the
scorching sun, and sets the trees to murmuring.

The spicy air, sweet with the intoxicating scent of damp, moist earth
and blossoming flowers, went to their heads like wine and they danced
down the path that led through the woods on feet that scarcely touched
the ground.

Soon they emerged from the dense shadows of the wood into the small
clearing which was thick and mossy under foot, and there, nestling among
the trees, were the two tents the boys had so laboriously constructed.

"Oh, it is ideal!" cried Mollie, delightedly, as they stopped for a
moment on the outskirts of the clearing to survey the scene.

[Illustration: THEY ROAMED ABOUT THE CLEARING INSPECTING THE TENT
CRITICALLY. _Page 89_

_The Outdoor Girls on Pine Island._]

"Glad you like it," said Frank, then advancing toward the nearer of the
two tents, he paused, turned, and made a low bow. "Enter, fair damsels,"
he said.

"He thinks he is reading 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court,'"
drawled Grace. "However, we will deign to honor you with our presence."
And she swept past him with a queenly air that elicited amused laughter
from the others.

For more than an hour the Outdoor Girls and their friends roamed about
the clearing inspecting the tent critically, inside and out, and picking
flowers in between times. It was Will who first suggested a change.

"Why not take a walk about the country?" he asked. "I guess we have seen
all there is to be seen here. Come on, everybody. I want to get a bigger
appetite for lunch."

"All right; where shall we go?" Betty agreed readily. "Your aunt must
have told you about this part of the world, Mollie. Where can we find
excitement?"

"Well, there is the summer colony at the other end of the island,"
Mollie began doubtfully. "But it is rather a long way off. The steamer
touches there from here."

"Too far to go before lunch," Mrs. Irving said.

The party spent the rest of the time until one o'clock visiting the
wharf and roaming the country in the immediate vicinity of the pretty
bungalow.

True to her promise, Betty turned out at the appointed time a panful of
the most appetizing biscuits, and let it be said here that the boys did
them full justice--to say nothing of the girls.

It was well on toward three o'clock before the girls had changed their
morning middies and skirts for dainty afternoon dresses, and had made
all other necessary preparations for a trip to town. Mrs. Irving
declined to go, saying she wished to write letters.

It was in the best of spirits that the party of young people stood on
the end of the dock, waiting to hail the little steamer as it
chug-chugged its way from the summer colony at the far end of Pine
Island to the mainland.

When finally it did come in sight, the girls and the boys found
themselves convulsed with laughter. If the shabby little craft had
appeared grotesque in the mist of the night before, how much more
forlorn did it look in the full, dazzling glare of the sun! As it came
nearer they saw that the decks were crowded with people, the gay dresses
of the girls mingling with the white flannel trousers and dark coats of
the men.

"It's a wonder," said Frank, "that with all that crowd of people paying
good money to be towed ashore, they couldn't get something a little more
modern. My! it looks as if it had come out of the ark."

"Oh, well, as long as it is seaworthy, I suppose they think it will do
as well as any other," said Roy. "The more some people make the less
they like to spend."

By this time the clumsy ferry had plowed its way to the wharf, and had
come to a stop, while the people on board eyed the waiting young folks
curiously.

"Guess they will know us the next time they see us," whispered Allen.
"We ought to hang out a placard: _Don't stare. We don't look it, but we
are human._"

Betty laughed gaily. "They do need a few lessons in manners."

The bungalow party thoroughly enjoyed the trip to the mainland. The
scenery was as beautiful as it had been pictured, and when they got
tired of looking at the sky, the water, and the mainland, they had
plenty to occupy their attention in the people about them. Everybody
seemed ready for a good time, and the old ferryboat was filled with
shouts and laughter.

"I shouldn't mind knowing some of those people," Roy confided to Allen,
as they leaned against the shaky, old rail. "There's certainly nothing
slow about them."

"Well, there is no reason why we shouldn't know them," said Allen. "From
what Mollie says, they are pretty close neighbors. In fact, the girls
said something about going over there this afternoon."

"Well," returned Roy, "we can't go too soon to suit me."

"If you are thinking of girls," said Allen, as Mollie and Grace came up
to them, "it is my opinion that they have nothing half so good to offer
us as we have already."

"I guess you are right," Roy admitted, as they joined the rest of the
party. "Just look at all those dudes, staring at Betty and Grace! Say!
I'd like to teach them manners!" and he glowered at the unconscious boys
from the summer colony with a ferocity that should have terrified the
most hardy.

"Come away," said Allen. "You can't blame them for doing just what we
have done for the last two years," he added, dryly.

"Here we are, almost ashore," cried Amy, a little later. "Have you got
the list of the things we need, Allen? Let's see--butter and sugar and
baking powder and eggs and--oh, we mustn't forget the meat."

"Chocolates," murmured Grace.

"Don't worry so soon, Amy," laughed Will. "There will be plenty of time
for that when we get back to the island and find that we have forgotten
half the things."

"Well, if we think of them now," said usually quiet Amy, "there won't be
any excuse for our forgetting them later."

"Well, but perhaps we shall need an excuse," reasoned Will. "You would
never make a good diplomat, Amy."

Betty put her arm protectingly around the younger girl. "There is no
reason why you should want to be that, is there?" she questioned. "Amy
thinks that as long as she feeds you boys well there is no need of----"

"Oh, Betty, do stop," begged Amy, her face flushing scarlet. "It isn't
fair."

"I know it," said Betty soothingly, while the boys looked on, curious to
know the meaning of this mystery. "I won't do it again, dear, I
promise."

"I wish you would tell us----" Allen began, but once more Mollie
interrupted.

"We had better get down near the front," she said, "or we'll not be
able to get ashore in half an hour. Did you ever see such a mob?"

"It is considerable of a crowd," Frank admitted. "I think Mollie's
suggestion is a good one, fellows. Let's try to make an opening while we
can."

The boys managed so well that when the little boat scraped against the
wall, their party was almost the first to set foot upon the land.

"That was pretty good work," said Will, with an air of satisfaction as
they made their way to the shore, followed by a stream of laughing
humanity. "I hope the girls didn't mind getting their dresses mussed.
Say, fellows, if any one should ask me, I'd tell them it was one peach
of a day!"

There being no disputing this fact, no one tried. The eight young people
swung down the shaded street, feeling in tune with the whole world.

They succeeded in finding the general store.

"Now get out that list, Allen," said Betty, as they entered the wide
doorway. "It would really be a shame to forget anything."

Allen began to search through his pockets, calmly at first, then in
frantic haste. Seven pairs of eyes followed his panicky movements
anxiously.

"You have never gone and forgotten it?" cried Mollie, in the awed tones
of one announcing the end of the world. "Oh, Allen! you haven't?"

"Guess I have," he returned grimly, and, having searched through every
pocket, began all over again. "It's strange--I could have sworn----"

"You're a nice one----" Grace began, but Roy interrupted her with a
shout that made their nearest neighbors turn and look at them curiously.

"I have it!" he cried. "Don't you remember, Allen, that you gave it to
me just before we left, while you ran back to get something for Betty?
Behold," and he dangled the precious list before their eyes.

"Oh," sighed Mollie in relief, "now if we girls had done anything like
that----"

"Hands up, don't shoot!" cried Roy. "We admit everything."




CHAPTER XII

"WHERE THERE IS SMOKE----"


The Outdoor Girls must have a fire. That they had decided at the supper
table. What was the use of having a big fire-place if they never used
it? Betty's theory was, that it was wicked to let anything go to waste.
All this being true, it stood to reason that a fire they must have.

"I wonder if the boys wouldn't come in and help us build it," Grace
suggested, seized with a brilliant idea. "There are already some logs in
the fire-place, but I feel that I would like to have somebody else work
for me to-night."

"Why, of course," said Mollie. "That's what we brought them with us
for--to help out when they were needed."

"They would be flattered if they could hear you," said Amy.

"I don't see why they insist on staying out in the woods and cooking
their own meals. Just think what fun we could have with them, if they
were here now," put in Mollie once again.

"Yes, but then think of all the trouble they would be making us," said
Betty. "Besides," she added, "your aunt didn't say anything about a
troop of noisy boys, Mollie, when she lent us her bungalow for the
summer."

"That's right, too," Mollie reluctantly conceded. "Just the same I hope
they haven't forgotten they are due here at six-thirty to wipe the
dishes. There is _such_ a pile of them!"

"Methinks," Grace announced solemnly, "that even at this moment I hear
the sound of approaching footsteps."

"How can you hear footsteps on the grass?" Mollie demanded rudely. "You
must have better ears than I have."

"Of course I have," Grace retorted calmly. "I knew that long ago."

Before Mollie could answer a head was poked in at the door and an
accompanying voice asked cheerily: "May we come in? Are we on time?"

"You're as welcome as a day in June, Frank," called Betty, as she arose
and started to take the dishes into the kitchen. "We want you to wipe
these for us, and make a fire."

"Anything else?" Frank inquired mildly, while the rest of him followed
his head into the room. "The fellows told me to come on ahead, and say
to you ladies that they would be here as soon as they got through
scouring their frying pan."

"Poor boys," said Amy impulsively. "Why don't they bring the things
here?"

But Mollie's thoughts took another direction. "I hope they bring back
the sapolio," she said practically. "It was the only cake we had."

Betty paused half way to the kitchen and balanced her pile of dishes on
one hand. "Mollie," she cried in dismay, "they will never think of it!
Don't you think you had better go back and tell them, Frank?" she said.

"Sure!" he answered obligingly, while he sunk into an easy chair with a
sigh of content. Evidently he was settled for the evening.

"Then why don't you go?" Mollie demanded impatiently. "If boys aren't
the most aggravating things, when they want to be!" she added.

"There's plenty of time," Frank assured her calmly. "I left the fellows
in the first throes of cleaning up--they won't be through for half an
hour at least."

"Well, I don't care," said Betty, continuing her journeyings into the
kitchen. "If we haven't anything to scour the pans with, then they'll
not get scoured--that's all."

"That's the spirit I like to see," said Frank, and Betty could have
thrown something at him, with the greatest of pleasure. "It's fine to
see anybody resigned to the inevitable."

"Well, I know one thing," Mollie threatened, "if you don't go back in
five minutes, I will," and for emphasis she banged the salt cellar
forcibly upon the table.

"What's the matter with our going together?" Frank inquired, moving his
head slightly to bring Mollie within his range of vision. "The distance
won't seem half as far if I have such pleasant company," he added
gallantly.

"Don't do it," Betty, coming in from the kitchen, advised. "Make him
work a little."

"Oh, you're only jealous because I didn't ask you," Frank teased. "I
always knew you thought a good deal of me, Betty."

She made a little face at him, but did not deign to reply. Indeed, why
should she--the accusation was so plainly absurd?

Long before they had expected, voices were heard in the distance and the
most unearthly noises broke the woodland stillness. There was a banging
of wood upon tin and the clatter of utensils mingling with the
outrageous uproar from three pairs of sound and healthy lungs. There
were shouts and war cries and yells, combining in a weird clamor that
could be heard for miles around--or so it seemed to the girls.

The girls looked at each other inquiringly--then made a concerted rush
for the door.

"Oh, what a noise!" cried Betty. "It's just as well there isn't anybody
else in this part of the wood."

A moment later the boys rushed upon them, vigorously pounding utensils,
and shouting at the top of their voices. The girls gave way before them,
and the roisterers tumbled in and took possession as though they were
really the Redskins, whose cries they were successfully imitating. They
raced about the house like madmen, while the girls watched their antics
in a peculiar frame of mind. If the truth must be told, they were
undecided whether to be displeased or amused. Amusement conquered in the
end, however, for the boys were irresistibly funny, and the girls
laughed till they ached and the tears rolled down their cheeks.

After considerable time they all managed to quiet down enough to talk
sense.

"The girls want us to make a fire, fellows," said Frank. "The idea looks
good to me."

"It is good," Allen agreed. "Give us the wood and matches, and we will
have a fire going in no time."

"The wood is in the fire-place," Betty answered, "and Mollie has the
matches, I think."

With this the boys set to work energetically, while the girls and Mrs.
Irving stood about them in a semi-circle.

"It's so different from building a fire in the open," Amy commented. "I
always love them. Can't we toast marshmallows? That's the most fun of
all."

"We could if we had any," Grace replied dryly. "I have some chocolates
but you can't roast them, and nobody had the sense to think to buy
marshmallows to-day."

At this last remark, Frank sat back upon his heels and favored Mollie
with a sly wink--while that young lady smiled mysteriously.

"Thereby hangs a tale of which you shall hear later," he said, and, in
spite of all their urging, he could not be made to say another word.

However, their curiosity was forgotten a moment later--forgotten in the
excitement caused by a strange and curious happening.

Suddenly the smoke which had been rolling in clouds up the chimney,
refused to roll farther. There being no other exit except into the room,
the girls and boys suddenly found themselves suffocating. They choked,
and the boys stumbled to their feet and followed the fleeing girls into
the dining room.

There was a chorus of sneezes and smothered cries of "I'm choking! Open
the window, some one, quick!"

"The windows are open and the doors, too," gasped Frank, in answer to
this last request.

"Don't be alarmed, any one," Allen commanded. "It's nothing but a
clogged-up chimney, and that won't hurt anybody."

"But the smoke!" gasped Mollie. "Why, the house will be ruined. What
will Aunt Elvira say?"

"Oh, it won't hurt anything," said Betty, making a brave attempt to push
her way through the smoke into the living room. "But it is terrible.
Can't we do something to stop it, boys?"

"I don't know how we can--unless----" Roy turned quickly to Mollie. "Did
your aunt say anything about a blower?" he asked eagerly.

"I don't remember--I--I don't remember," stammered poor Mollie, whose
memory was being taxed to the utmost. "You might look though, and see
what you can find."

"Oh, do hurry, somebody!" begged Grace. "I'll take to the woods in
another minute."

"Oh, have a little patience, Sis, can't you?" cried Will, losing his
temper. "We are all doing the best we can."

"But look," said Mollie, suddenly pointing to the other room. "The
smoke is beginning to clear and the wood isn't half burned out yet."

"Let's investigate," Frank suggested. "Maybe we can find out what is
wrong with the thing. Come on," and in they all trooped, coughing and
choking, but dauntless.

"Get me a stick, will you, girls," Roy entreated, as he went nearer to
inspect the fire-place. "A broom will do. Or anything else you happen to
have around."

Mollie disappeared into the kitchen and returned a moment later,
bringing back with her an old stick that looked as though it might have
been a clothespole in its better days.

"Will this do?" she asked, holding it out to Roy. "It was the only thing
I could find."

"Just what I wanted," Roy answered. "Now, fellows, let's see what we can
do with the thing."

The four boys crowded around, peering up into the opening as if they
hoped to find the solution of the mystery there, while the girls watched
them with breathless interest.

It was then that it happened. Roy poked upward inquiringly with his
stick, and for answer a cloud of soot and ashes discharged itself from
the chimney, showering the boys' faces with grimy dust.

They drew back with cries of disgust and began rubbing their eyes and
faces furiously. Then the four blackened adventurers turned to the girls
appealingly. They looked so funny, standing there with their faces black
and their clothes bespattered with grime and a look of sheepish chagrin
on their faces, that the girls burst into gales of uncontrolled
laughter.

"You look just like candidates for a minstrel show," gasped Mollie,
while the boys stood regarding her reproachfully. "Oh, boys, if you only
had a mirror! If you only had!"




CHAPTER XIII

THE GATHERING OF THE CLANS


"If you got us some soap and water," Will suggested after they had
indulged in some sheepish grins at their own expense, "you might be
doing a little good in the world."

"Well, you ought to know how to find it yourselves," Grace retorted.
"Suppose you go and wash, and make yourselves look like respectable
citizens again--even though you aren't," she added sweetly.

"Look out, Grace, some time we will get even for all the knocks you have
been handing out," Frank threatened, shaking a grimy fist in her
direction.

"Now I don't suppose we can have a fire at all," sighed Mollie, as the
boys made a rush for the stairs. "And I did so want one."

"If we can find a blower," Allen shouted from the landing, "we'll have a
good fire yet."

"Yes, look around, girls, will you?" Roy added, "It will save no end of
time."

"Do you know what a blower looks like?" Mollie inquired, a puzzled frown
on her forehead. "How can I find anything when I don't know what it
looks like?"

"Oh, I know," said Betty. "We used to have one at home before dad put
the hood on the fire-place. Let's go on a still hunt."

This they did, and when the boys came down a few minutes later they
proudly announced their discovery.

"This is it, isn't it?" asked Betty, indicating a big square of tin with
a handle at the top. "It looks like the one we used to use."

"It's exactly the thing," cried Frank, pouncing on it eagerly. "Now if
this doesn't make the wood burn, nothing will."

In less time than it takes to tell the boys had succeeded in igniting
the green wood, and had applied the blower before the smoke had had a
chance to get out into the room.

The fire danced and glowed, while its leaping flames sent fantastic
shadows playing hide and seek around the room.

"How is this for a fire, eh?" said Will, holding out his hand to the
welcome warmth of the blaze, for although the days were hot, the nights
were apt to be damp and cool on this island, surrounded as it was by the
waters of the lake. "Some time the girls will find out that we know our
business pretty well. Oh, that feels good!"

"You are right," said Frank, as they instinctively drew their chairs
nearer to the fire. "Now all we need is something to roast or toast, it
doesn't much matter which."

"That reminds me," said Betty, turning accusing eyes upon Roy and
Mollie, whose faces were clearly outlined in the dancing fire-light.
"You two people over there seem to have a secret that you don't want to
share with us. I think Mrs. Irving knows," she went on, turning an
accusing eye on the chaperon where she sat in the midst of the circle,
"but she won't let on. Suppose you tell the rest of us what it is."

"Well, Mollie said something about a fire," Roy admitted, "and I thought
a couple of boxes of marshmallows wouldn't be unwelcome; so, when the
rest of you were all busy buying other things, Mollie and I slipped off
and got them. Where are they, Mollie?"

"I'll get them," she answered, rising reluctantly from her comfortable
chair. "I hid them. I knew that if Grace once had an inkling they were
in the house she would never rest till she found them. In that case----"
she paused impressively, and looked about her, "there wouldn't have been
one left by to-night."

They laughed, well knowing the truth of this remark, while Grace gave a
sigh at being so misunderstood.

A few moments later, Mollie had returned with the cherished sweetmeats
and the boys were busily engaged in the process of toasting them on the
ends of long wire forks made especially for that purpose.

"Um--um, this is good," said Betty, biting off the end of a delicious
morsel. "Why didn't you buy three boxes while you were about it, Roy?"

"That's all you get----" Roy was beginning, when Mollie interrupted him,
speaking dreamily.

"Wasn't he a funny old man, Roy?" she said--"the one who sold us the
candies, I mean."

"Yes, I guess he must have been in his dotage," Roy agreed. "In five
minutes he told us all his life's history and then some."

"That's pretty good," said Allen with interest, while he dangled his
marshmallow perilously near the leaping flames. "I bet you couldn't do
as well."

"I know I couldn't," Roy answered modestly. "That old chap was a past
master all right. Some of the things he said were interesting, though.
Weren't they, Mollie?"

"Very," said Mollie, while she stared fixedly at the fire. "Interesting
and--a little creepy," she added.

The girls started and leaned forward eagerly, Mrs. Irving and the boys
evincing equal interest.

"Creepy!" Amy repeated, in awed tones. "Oh, Mollie, what do you mean?"

"Just that," said Mollie, enjoying the sensation she was making. "He was
an awfully wizened old man, and when he heard we were from Pine
Island--well, he told us some mighty queer things."

"Pine Island?" cried Mrs. Irving, the color flaming into her cheeks,
whether from excitement or the warmth of the fire, no one could tell.

"What can be strange about Pine Island?" demanded Betty. "Mollie, I
could shake you; why don't you tell us and have it over with?"

Mollie glanced at Roy. "Shall I?" she asked, just as if she had not been
longing for the last half hour for the time to come when she could
create a sensation by telling.

"You might as well," he answered condescendingly. "As long as we have to
have them around for the rest of the summer, we might as well let them
in on it."

"Well of all the----" Grace was beginning, when Betty nudged her
sharply.

"Don't interrupt, Grace, whatever you do," she whispered. "They take
long enough getting to the point anyway."

Grace saw the wisdom in this, and stopped short.

"Well," began Mollie, speaking slowly and with aggravating distinctness,
"you see, in the old days, this island used to be a rendezvous for all
the wandering gypsies for miles around."

"What?" Frank cried.

"Well, I am only telling you what the old man said," asserted Mollie
defensively and with warmth. "I don't say he may not be mistaken----"

"Oh, that's all right, Mollie," Betty broke in quickly. "We understand
that you are not vouching for the old man's honesty. All we want is his
story. Please go on--I am awfully interested."

"Just think, gypsies on this island!" murmured Amy, shuddering.

"He says," Mollie continued, "in the old days there used to be as many
as two or three hundred of the gypsies gathered around here--on this
part of the island, too." She paused to see the effect of her words.

"But didn't your aunt say anything about that, Mollie?" Grace queried.
"Why, it seems impossible. I don't wonder you felt creepy, especially
if there are many like that old crone we saw in Deepdale," and she
glanced over her shoulder in the direction of the open window.

"Don't you think we had better lock the door?" suggested Amy. "Some of
those men in the gypsy camp looked actually murderous."

Of course the boys laughed at her fears, and Roy remarked casually: "The
old chap told us something else, fellows, that may be of interest later
on."

"What's that?" Will demanded.

"He said that when the tide was on the ebb, you could actually ford the
lake to the islands farther south. It might be worth while trying some
time."

"You bet it will!" said Allen, and his eagerness was not feigned.

"We'll try it the first chance we get," Frank added.

"We're going, too," said Betty. "You needn't think you can leave us
behind when there is anything like that afoot."

"We wouldn't try," said Allen, ruefully. "Especially as you girls say
you can swim."

"However, they will have to prove that point," Roy put in.

"That's easy," said Grace fearlessly. "As we have remarked before, we
haven't been outdoor girls all our lives for nothing."

"If you boys hadn't been so set on our looking at your old camp to-day,"
said Amy with unusual spirit, "we would have proved it to you before
this. But do you really think there are gypsies on the island?" she
added. "Because, if there are, we might be able to find some of their
loot." She voiced this last desire in hushed tones.

The girls laughed even while they drew their chairs still closer to the
fire.

"Such a chance!" gibed Will, but Betty's eyes were shining in the glow
of the fire-light.

"Oh, if we only could!" she whispered softly. "If we could only get the
stuff stolen from Deepdale!"




CHAPTER XIV

A VICTORY FOR BETTY


Breakfast was cleaned away and Betty, with Mollie at her heels, made a
rush for the bedroom.

"I'm willing to wager anything," called the former, gaily, "that I'll be
in my bathing suit before any of the rest of you have started."

"I hope the water isn't too cold," Grace shivered, as she took out her
bathing suit. "If there is anything I hate, it's trying to swim in icy
water. It almost makes my heart stop beating."

"All right, we'll have the weather man heat it for you," said Betty,
slipping into her neat little suit. "I don't know how the water can be
cold, though," she added, "the air is suffocating to-day."

"Now--one, two, three--go!" and they were off like four little black
sprites, down the broad stairway and into the living room where the boys
were already assembled, talking to the chaperon.

The boys wore raincoats over their bathing suits; and, as the girls
entered the room, they shouted a merry greeting.

"So soon?" called Frank in surprise. "Why, we didn't expect to see you
for an hour at least."

"An hour?" said Betty, with feigned indignation--for she was a good
little actress, was Betty. "Why, we thought you were never coming!"

"You mean to say you were waiting for us?" said Allen, incredulously.
"Betty, are you telling the truth? Mrs. Irving, is she?"

"I assure you I was too busy finding my bathing suit and getting into it
to know just when the girls were ready," responded the chaperon.

At one part of the island the ground dipped gradually so that one might
have any depth of water desired, and it was to this part that the young
folks made their way.

"Remember----" said Frank, referring to the conversation of the night
before, "remember, you girls will have to prove your claims to
championship swimming this morning. If you were just faking, now is the
time we'll find you out."

"We're not faking," Mollie denied stoutly. "I learned to swim when I was
nine years old, and I've been swimming ever since."

"Really?" Roy inquired with interest. "Then you must be Mollie's ghost,
while the real Mollie is swimming around out there somewhere," waving
his hand in the direction of the water, "chumming with some of the
beautiful water nymphs. Just think, nothing to do but swim for--how many
years is it, Mollie?" he asked.

"Goose!" was all she answered, but that one little word managed somehow
to contain a world of scorn.

"You try it first, Will," begged his sister. "Then you can tell us
whether it is cold or not."

"Say, what kind of sport are you, anyway?" Will demanded. "That's the
way with girls--they all make a big bluff about being able to do what we
can, and then when it actually comes down to business they want to try
it on us first. I'd like to see one of you go in first!"

Betty made a dash for the water. "Wouldn't it be nice," she flung back
at him over her shoulder, "if all wishes could be granted so easily.
Come on, girls--we'll show them a thing or two," and she waded in till
the water was above her waist, then plunged in over her head.

Mollie followed close upon her heels and it was a moment before the boys
realized what had happened, and could rouse themselves to action.

"Come on, fellows!" Allen shouted. "We can't let two girls get the best
of us like that."

Mrs. Irving, who was at home in the water, entered and swam out boldly.

"Are you going to stay there?" Frank shouted to Amy and Grace, who stood
uncertainly on the bank, undecided whether to advance or retreat. "Come
on in--the water's fine."

Thus encouraged, the two girls threw caution to the winds, and waded in
till the warm water was up to their shoulders.

"Oh, it is wonderful!" cried Amy. "Look how far we are behind. Let's see
if we can't catch up with them." And they started off with a will after
their deserting comrades.

It was not long before the powerful strokes of the boys brought them up
beside Mollie and Betty who were swimming easily.

"Hello, runaways," was Frank's greeting, turning over on his back and
propelling himself by a whirlpool motion of his arms. "Thought you'd
give us the slip, did you? Well, we shall see."

Betty followed Frank's example, floating lazily on the still surface of
the water.

"We weren't running away," she said; "we just wanted to show you we
weren't afraid, that's all."

"I'll give you a race to that floating log out there, Betty."

Betty turned over and regarded the log in question with thoughtful eyes.
"All right," she agreed, after a moment's hesitation. "I guess I can
make that easily enough. Will you call the start?"

"Just as you say," he answered. "We are almost even now, and when I say
go, we're off. Agreed?"

"Uh'huh," answered Betty.

"All right. One--two--three--go!"

They shot forward together, side by side and shoulder to shoulder, each
determined to save his strength for the final spurt.

By this time the others had come up and were watching the race with
interest.

On, on the two racers went, with no apparent effort, until half the
distance to the log had been covered. It was then that the watchers
noticed the change. Betty lengthened her stroke a trifle and forged
ahead, while Frank still kept the same steady stroke.

Then, when more than half of the remaining distance had been covered,
Frank evidently made up his mind that it was time to show those people
some real speed. Suddenly he dropped the lazy stroke, and it seemed as
though he were imbued with new life. His arms and legs worked together
with the precision of a machine and he shot through the water like a
catapult.

Betty was not prepared for so sudden a transformation, but her surprise
lasted only a minute. Gallantly she gathered all her strength and made a
dash for the goal.

"I see Betty's finish," Will was saying, when Mollie cried excitedly:

"You just watch Betty. Did you ever see a girl like her?"

As Allen came up beside the pair he thought that at last he and Mollie
had found something to agree upon.

They watched Betty with straining eyes.

"She'll do it!" cried Allen. "I never thought it was possible for a girl
to swim like that. Look, she has caught up to him."

It was so. Betty had used the last ounce of strength in her strong,
young arms and the result was a tie.

She and Frank laid hands upon the log at one and the same instant.

Frank shook the water from his eyes, and regarded his rival in
amazement. "How did you ever do it?" he questioned. "I thought I had you
beat a mile."

"Well, that's where you had another think coming." Betty would not have
been human had she not gloried in this victory--for even a tie with one
of Frank's strength and muscle was a triumph. "I told you I could
swim."

"Hoorah for the cham_peens_!" shouted Will as the others reached the
goal a few moments later. "That's pretty good work, Betty. I have to
hand it to you."

"Don't you think we had better get to the shore and rest a while?" Roy
suggested. "Amy and Grace seem to have gotten there before us, and Mrs.
Irving has gone back to the bungalow."

The others agreed and they all swam lazily toward the mossy bank. Betty
drew herself up and sank upon the grassy knoll with a sigh of utter
relaxation.

"I'd like to give you a longer race," said Frank, whose near defeat at
the hands of a girl was hard to bear. "I bet I could beat you easily on
a long stretch."

Betty sat up suddenly and stared at him. "Frank Haley!" she cried, "I've
a good mind to take you up."

"A race! a race!" cried Mollie, clapping her hands in delight. "Oh, I'd
love to see it."

"Go on, Frank, set the day," Allen urged. "After what you said you are
in honor bound to give Betty a chance."

"I am perfectly willing," said Frank, glancing toward Betty. "What do
you say about it?"

"You can't arrange it too soon to suit me," Betty answered, undaunted.




CHAPTER XV

A SPLENDID CATCH


"Can't anybody think of anything to do?" Mollie queried impatiently.
"I'll go crazy if I have to sit around here for another half hour," and
she dug the toe of her shoe into the soft sward viciously.

"You are not very flattering to our company," said Roy, leaning on one
elbow and smiling up lazily at the straight little figure beside him.

Mrs. Irving was lying down and the rest of the party was gathering about
the camping place of the boys, some roaming about restlessly and others
sitting upon the grass. It was a sultry, scorching day, when not a
breeze came to temper the heat--a day when the slightest movement
produces the effect, as Mollie had said, "of a fire lighted right under
your nose." The young people were restlessly on edge, undecided what to
do.

It was too hot to make the long-looked-for walk to the summer colony a
possibility. Of course they could swim, but this they had done all
morning long and one couldn't swim forever! This was the state of
affairs then, when Mollie made her petulant remark.

"That's nonsense," she retorted, in reply to Roy. "It isn't the company
I find fault with, it's the atmosphere."

Allen and Betty, who had come back from a little ramble in the woods,
surveyed the scene thoughtfully.

"I tell you what we can do," said Allen, and the two on the grass
regarded him hopefully. "We fellows have brought some fishing
tackle--suppose we go out and try to get some fish for supper? That
doesn't require much energy," he added.

"Allen, you have saved my life!" cried Mollie, springing up from the
mossy rock, which had been her seat. "Can't we go right away? Oh, do
call the others and ask them to hurry!"

"Take it easy," Roy cautioned, still stretched out on the grass. "You'll
get all heated up again. Besides there's no such awful rush--we have all
the time there is before us."

But Mollie was all action, now that there was some definite point in
view.

She called the others to her, speaking quickly.

"We are going to catch some fish," she announced eagerly. "Or at least
we are going to try to."

"Try is good," murmured Frank, but Mollie continued, unheeding.

"It is strange that I didn't remember before," she went on, "what Aunt
Elvira said about the wonderful fishing pool about a mile away."

"A mile!" groaned Grace. "Do you mean to say that we have to walk a mile
in this blazing heat?"

"Nobody _has_ to," Mollie retorted. "It's only a question of wanting to.
I'm going if I have to go alone."

"Oh, come on, Grace, be a sport," Frank coaxed. "Just think how nice and
shady and cool it will be when we get there. It _will_ be nice and shady
and cool, won't it, Mollie?" he added, turning to her for confirmation.

"Nice rocks with great, big trees shading them and clear, cold water
with lots of fish in it and--and--oh, everything!" she agreed in a burst
of enthusiasm.

"That sounds mighty good to me," said Roy. "Now for the fishing
tackle--where is it, fellows?"

"Oh, wait a minute," called Mollie, as they made a rush for the tents.
"There are some rods up at the house, too. We might as well take all we
can get."

"Good!" said Will. "I'll go with the girls, fellows, and help them while
you are getting things ready."

Their present elation was very different from the apathy which had
possessed them so short a time before. Indeed, Mollie's description of
the fishing pool was very alluring.

"Whereabouts did you see the tackle, Mollie?" Will asked, as they
entered the house.

"Oh, I can find it," said Mollie with conviction. "I think there were
four rods. I hope I wasn't mistaken."

"If you were," said Amy, "one of us will have to sit still and watch!"

"And I think I know who that will be," said Will with a sly glance at
his sister.

"Just for that," Grace retorted, "I'll show you the best catch of the
day."

"We shall see," said Mollie, opening the door of a small closet under
the stairs. "Look," she added, "there they are. You're a judge of rods,
Will--how do these look?"

Will took them in his hands and examined them minutely. "They're
pippins!" he exclaimed joyfully. "I don't know when I've seen a better
outfit. You ought to be able to catch all the fish in the lake with
these, girls," and he regarded them admiringly.

"We'd better watch out for the boys," said Amy, wisely, as they left the
house. "They will be exchanging their rods for ours, if we aren't
careful."

They all laughed, including Mrs. Irving, who had come downstairs. She
had not been feeling well of late--the heat had been too much for
her--but she had announced a strong desire to accompany the young folks,
if they went very far from home.

They found the three boys industriously digging worms, and so intent
were they in this absorbing occupation that they did not look up when
the party approached.

"What are you doing?" Grace asked, and then, as Allen held up a
wriggling candidate for the hook, she shivered and drew back in disgust.

"Ugh," she said, "how I hate the nasty things! Somebody will have to
bait my hook for me. I couldn't do it in a million years."

"All right, nobody asked you to. How's that for a good fat one, eh?"
asked Roy, as he held up an unusually fine one for her inspection.

"Why is it boys always have to tease?" Betty asked of the world in
general. "We know you have to have worms for bait, but that doesn't
make us like to look at them."

"Well, I guess that's enough," said Allen, clapping the top on the big
tin box, and getting to his feet. "Now if the fish don't like the bait
any better than you girls, I shouldn't wonder if we got done out of our
supper."

"My aunt says they are wonderfully agreeable," said Mollie as they
started down the path, "especially in that pool. She says they just fall
over one another in their hurry to get caught."

"And you waited all this time to tell us about it," said Allen
reproachfully. "And even then I had to suggest it."

"Yes, if it were just an ordinary pool you could understand it," Frank
added. "But a marvel like this! Gee, those fish must be hungry!"

The Outdoor Girls and their companions tramped for what seemed to them a
very long time, but at last they were rewarded by a vision of a
beautiful glade--all trees and rocks and crystal-clear water.

"Well, this looks like something," said Will, drawing a deep breath. "I
wouldn't mind camping here for the rest of the season."

Betty laughed. "You would either have to saw down about a hundred
trees," she said, "or camp in the pool with the little fishes."

"Well, it might not be so bad at that," said Will, cheerfully, while he
helped Amy over the uneven places. "I could have fish dinners if I
wanted them anyway."

"Well, there is nothing like looking on the bright side of things,"
laughed Allen. "Look, Betty, here is a place that was just made for you.
Seat and back and everything complete. Isn't it a dandy?"

"Do I dangle my feet over it?" asked Betty doubtfully, surveying the
water beneath. "Suppose one of my slippers dropped off?"

"I suppose I'd go down and get it," he said, brushing the difficulty
aside with a wave of his hand.

"But it would be ruined," wailed Betty. "They don't feel very tight, you
know."

Allen ran his hand through his hair in evident perplexity. Then his brow
cleared before the light of a sudden inspiration.

"Can't you take them off?" he asked eagerly.

"Allen!" she cried. "What an idea! Of course I can't."

"Well, what are you going to do then?" he demanded despairingly. "I've
suggested everything I could think of and you certainly can't stand up
all afternoon."

"What are you two talking about?" Grace demanded. "Don't you know you
are blocking the way?"

"I don't want to put my feet over the edge," Betty explained. "And I
don't know what else to do."

"Follow my example," Mollie suggested. "Sit on 'em."

"Good idea," Betty agreed. And she immediately plumped down on her two
slim ankles, looking up at Allen invitingly. "You look so far away," she
said. "When you sit down you are not nearly so impressive. There's
plenty of room for two," and she patted the rock beside her.

Allen obediently stretched his long length on the turf at her side,
letting his legs hang over.

"You see I'm not afraid to risk a dip in the aqua pura," he said. "It
wouldn't ruin my dainty little gunboats."

"It looks as if nothing would hurt them but an axe," Frank remarked. He
had seated himself next to Allen and Betty, after having made Grace
comfortable, and was busily engaged in baiting his hook. "You'd better
hurry up, Allen--we'll have all the fish in the place hooked before you
get started."

"Oh, no you won't," said Allen. "Hand us some of those worms, Will, will
you?"

"Don't let them come too near me, will you, Allen?" begged Betty. "I
don't like them much more than Grace does."

"Anybody would think you were talking about some lion or tiger from the
jungle," laughed Allen, as Will handed him the bait, "instead of three
little, harmless, unoffending worms----"

"Who seem to be running in a streak of hard luck," Frank finished, as he
cast his line into the water.

"It does seem foolish," Betty admitted, taking her rod from Allen's
hand, "but I can't help it. Come, little fishes," she called, casting
her line far out into the pool. "Right this way! You have got to live up
to the reputation Mollie has given you."

Allen had just succeeded in landing a magnificent, big fish, and was
holding it down to keep it from sliding into the water, when a terrified
cry broke the stillness.

"Help! help! I am drowning."

For one stupefied instant, the fishers gazed dumbly at one another. Then
Allen released his hold on the big fish, letting it slide unheeded into
the water, and led the dash through the woods.

"Help! help!" called the voice again, fainter this time.

"Keep up your courage!" Allen shouted. "We are coming!"




CHAPTER XVI

NOT A MOMENT TOO SOON


"Oh, oh!" Betty almost sobbed, as they stumbled on over stumps and
fallen logs. "If the boys can only get there in time--if they only can!"

As Allen was the first to start, so he was also the first to reach the
water's edge. He was just in time to see two hands above the surface of
the water--two hands clutching in anguish.

As he rid himself of his shoes in frantic haste, there was one thought
and one only in his mind--to reach the helpless owner of those hands and
bring her back to life and hope. He was sure it was a girl--those little
appealing hands could belong to no other.

The next moment he was in the water, swimming desperately toward the
point where he had seen the hands disappear.

Oh, he would never reach it! The water seemed to be some living thing,
pushing him; driving him back to the shore in spite of himself! His
muscles seemed weighted with lead, his sodden clothing dragged upon him
mercilessly! Oh, he would never reach her in time--he couldn't!

Then a wild, hot thought flashed through his consciousness, searing it
like a flame. Now was no time to say he could not! He must! _He must!_ A
life depended on his ability to reach that spot when the girl came to
the surface again--if indeed she ever did. Ah, perhaps what he had seen
had been the last time. Then he must dive, dive, dive until he found
her, even though he lose his own life in the attempt.

But no--there right before him so near that he could almost touch it, a
figure rose to the surface, struggling faintly.

With one supreme effort Allen forged ahead and grasped the skirt of the
girl's bathing suit as she sank for the last time beneath the surface.

"Thank God!" he murmured, as he raised the girl's head, with its mass of
tangled hair, above the water. "Oh, thank God!"

As he turned and started to swim slowly back to shore with his burden,
he almost ran into the other three boys who had followed close upon his
heels.

"Oh, you've got her, have you?" said Frank, unutterable gladness in his
voice. "I was sure you would be too late."

"It may be yet," said Roy, "if we don't get her to shore pretty quick.
Here, let me take her, old man--you're all tuckered out."

Allen willingly released his burden, and they swam as quickly as they
could to the shore.

They found the girls waiting for them, with white, strained faces.

"Oh, oh!" cried Grace, as they lifted the poor little inert body on to
the bank. "Oh, do you suppose she is dead?"

"Well, she will be if we don't hurry pretty fast," said Betty, her voice
trembling but determined. "Boys, look about and see if you can find
anything round and hard that we can use in place of a barrel. Oh, do
hurry! Mollie, you take her other arm and move it up and down--that's
the way--hard--hard."

Mollie did as she was told and in less time than seemed possible the
boys returned bringing with them part of a fallen log. This Betty
declared was the very thing.

For half an hour they worked over the unconscious form and more than
once during that time, they had almost given up hope of bringing back
the spark of life. Then, all at once, a change took place--the ashy look
of her face gave way to a faint tinge of color--the blue lips parted in
something very like a sigh, and her hands, which had been lying inert
and lifeless at her side, twitched almost imperceptibly.

"Oh, she's coming back! she's coming!" cried Amy almost in tears. "Oh, I
was sure she was dead!"

"Hush," Betty cautioned her in a whisper. "I think she knows what we are
talking about," then bending over the girl she said very gently: "Do you
feel better, dear?"

Slowly the eyelids fluttered, and the eyes gazed vaguely up into Betty's
sweet ones. The lips moved and Betty bent down closer to listen.

"I don't know you, do I?" the words were almost inaudible. "I--I--don't
seem to remember----"

"Don't try, my dear," said Betty soothingly, while two tears made their
way down her face, only to be dashed away impatiently. "You have been
through a terrible experience, and you don't have to think very hard
just now--there is plenty of time."

Slowly, understanding replaced the vague wonder in the girl's eyes, and
she reached out with an unsteady hand to touch Betty's white dress.

"I wanted to be sure you were real," she explained, smiling wistfully.
"I was afraid you might vanish. Will you help me to remember?" she
pleaded.

Betty's warm heart went out to the girl, and when she spoke her voice
was full of pity and tenderness.

"I'll help you as far as I can," she promised. "You were swimming and
something happened that made you cry for help. Luckily we happened to be
near and one of the boys got you and brought you back to land. And here
you are getting strong and well again," she finished brightly.

"Well, whoever you are, you're a dear," said the stranger, the emphasis
showing how quickly she was gaining strength. "I remember now all about
it. Mother and dad have told me over and over that I must not come over
here alone; but the day was perfect for a swim and no one else would
come, so I slipped off by myself. I was swimming all right, and then I
was taken with cramps. Oh, oh, it was terrible!" and she covered her
face with her hands to shut out the memory.

"Don't think of it," said Amy compassionately, kneeling down beside the
girl and taking the cold hand in hers. "It's all over now, and you are
safe and sound. Try just to remember that."

The girl looked up wonderingly at the sweet girlish faces gathered about
her. "I think you must be a--a company of angels," a sharp sob broke
the attempt at a laugh--for she was still very weak. "You are all so
good to me I----"

"You would have done the same for any of us," said Betty, trying hard to
keep her voice matter-of-fact. "So you needn't thank us for it. How are
you feeling--better?"

"A great deal," answered the girl, with a grateful glance toward Betty.
"I almost feel as if I could stand up."

"If you want to try, one of the boys will help you," Grace suggested,
turning to the latter, who had been standing several feet back from the
little group, natural delicacy forbidding them to intrude.

But now, being thus appealed to for help, they stepped forward like one
person, offering assistance. They helped the girl to her feet and
steadied her as she stood, weak and trembling.

She looked from one to the other with a wan little smile on her lips.
"Which one of you have I to thank for--for saving me?" she asked.

"None of us," said Roy, with an attempt at gallantry which was rendered
funny by his extremely sodden aspect. "It was a pleasure."

Noting the girl's bewilderment, Betty hastened to explain. "They all did
it," she said; "but if credit is due to any one of them it must be given
to Allen for reaching you first."

"Nonsense!" said Allen, abashed at being brought into the limelight. "I
was nearer than the other fellows, that's all. What's the use of talking
about it, anyway?"

"There is a good deal of use, I think," the girl answered softly. "If
you people hadn't been so good and kind to me, I would have----" she
paused before the word, and shivered again in her weakness.

"Don't think of it any more," Betty urged. "Now, what you most need is
rest. If we could get you back to our cottage or, perhaps, to your own
people----" she paused questioningly.

"Oh, please," said the girl, "if you could only get me back to the
hotel, you don't know how grateful I would be. Mother and dad will be
crazy."

"If we were only nearer our bungalow, we might take you back there and
then send word to your mother and father," said Mollie, thoughtfully.
"But I guess it is just about as far one way as the other."

"Yes, the best thing we can do," Mrs. Irving decided, "is to get her as
quickly as possible to the summer colony. That is where you come from,
isn't it?" she asked.

The girl nodded. All this time she had been standing, supported on
either hand by Roy and Will. But now Allen had a suggestion to make.

"We could make a seat," he said, "and carry her the rest of the distance
to the colony. The sooner we start the better it will be."

On this plan they agreed. Very naturally the girl was strainingly eager
to relieve the anxiety of her parents--to let them know she was safe
again.

Allen and Frank, being the stronger of the boys, volunteered to carry
the slight girl--she was young, scarcely sixteen--for the first half
mile. Then the other two boys were to carry her the rest of the
distance.

In a moment the little procession was formed, and it started off for the
woods, toward the summer colony. Allen and Frank moved in front with
their burden, followed by the four girls and Mrs. Irving, while Roy and
Will brought up the rear.

The boys were wet to the skin, and even on a scorching day in August
that is anything but a pleasant sensation. Then, too, the way was rough,
and the briers and brambles along the path scratched their hands and
tore at their clothing. Ordinarily all these petty annoyances would have
tended toward making them irritable and cross, but on this day all such
trifles passed over their heads unnoticed. For had they not between
them done a marvelous thing? To save one life--to have brought back from
eternity one little soul--was there not joy enough in that to last them
all their days? The girls thought there was.

After a walk that seemed endless, Will called out to the boys in the
front: "Isn't it time for relief work, Allen? We must have traveled more
than half a mile."

"We're not tired," Allen shouted back. "The hotel is right ahead--we can
carry her for the rest of the way."

"Just as you say," Roy answered. "But we are ready whenever you want
us."

"All right," called Allen. "We may be glad of your help yet;" and so the
little party went on.

A few moments later they heard voices directly ahead, and Anita--for
that, she had said, was her name--raised her voice excitedly. "They are
probably coming in search of me," she cried, cheeks flushing with the
hope of it. "I knew they would! Oh, I knew it! Dad! Conway!" she called.

"Nita! where are you?" a voice shouted back, unutterable relief
vibrating in every syllable. "Call again!"

Anita obeyed with a will. "Just keep on the way you are coming. I'm all
right, but please hurry!"

Then the two relief parties came face to face. Frank and Allen set the
girl gently upon her feet and her father caught her in his arms. "You're
safe!" he murmured over and over again. "My little girl!" and the others
turned away before the depth of his emotion.

His weakness lasted only a moment, then recovering his self-control he
handed Anita over to the affectionate bear hugs of an elder brother, and
turned to his daughter's rescuers.

"Madam," he said to Mrs. Irving, "if you will tell me to whom I am
indebted for Anita's safe return, I will try to thank him or her or all
of you as the case may be. Although thanks at this time seem a small
return for such a service."

"I am sure none of us wish any thanks for whatever little help we may
have been able to render your daughter," Mrs. Irving answered, with
grave courtesy. "We can only thank a kind fate for leading us within
hearing distance of her appeal for help. The rest is simply what you and
your son would have done for any of us had we been in similar danger."

"That doesn't make what you have done any the less splendid," Anita's
brother broke in impulsively, holding his sister as though he would
never let her go again. "Anita is tired now, but when we hear the whole
story, I know we are going to be even more grateful to you than we were
before--eh, Anita?"

"Oh, they were wonderful to me," said the girl, her eyes shining like
stars. "If it hadn't been for them--I don't dare--think----" and again
her hand flew to her eyes to shut out the horror of that awful moment.

Suddenly all Mrs. Irving's mother instinct rose to the fore, and she
spoke impulsively. "Take the child home," she begged; "what she needs
more than anything else is rest. You can see she is at the breaking
point."

Mr. Benton looked at his daughter, who indeed was trembling like a leaf
in her brother's arms, and saw the truth of the statement. "You are
right," he said slowly. "We can't get Anita home too soon." Then,
turning once more to Mrs. Irving, he added, while his eyes traveled over
the group of girls and boys behind her: "Although we haven't time now to
become better acquainted, we are going to stay here the rest of the
summer, and if you expect to remain our neighbors----"

"Yes, father," broke in Anita, "they live at the bungalow at the other
end of the island, and they have already invited Conway and me to visit
them. When shall we go, Con?"

"As soon as you are able, sister dear," Conway Benton said fondly. "I'll
be glad to go any time. Now we will have to get you home."

So, after many words of mutual understanding and friendliness, they
parted and went on their separate ways.

"I guess we shall have just time to get the fish and reach the bungalow
before dark," said Mrs. Irving, as our party started to retrace their
steps with weary feet and joyful hearts.

It was not till they had nearly reached the fishing pool that Allen
thought of his big fish.

"It was wicked to let that beauty go," he said, gazing ruefully into the
pool. "He was the king of them all."

"Yes, but just see what you accomplished," Betty said at his elbow,
softly. "What you did to-day is worth a million fish."

"Yes, and there are plenty more where that came from," he added, smiling
down at her. "Now let's hike along home--I am getting hungry."




CHAPTER XVII

BENEATH THE MOON


"I have often read about it, but I never thought I would be fortunate
enough to actually see it," said Amy, clasping her hands behind her
head, and gazing out at the blue of an azure sky.

The four girls were seated on the steps of the veranda talking, talking
over the events of the day before and speculating as to the future.

"Well, it scared me nearly to death," said Grace, who was curled up on
the lower step, with a cushion brought from the house acting as head
rest. "I declare when I saw them drag her up on the bank, Betty, I
thought that she was dead. She looked so drawn and white, and----"

"Well, you couldn't expect her to look particularly rosy and happy,
after all she had been through," Mollie remarked. "If I had been doused
under water as long as that poor girl was I would not only have looked
dead, I'd have been it."

"Oh, I don't know," Grace retorted lazily. "If I'm not mistaken it
would take a good deal to stop that tongue of yours, Mollie."

"Speak for yourself," Mollie was beginning angrily, when Betty entered
into the conversation. She had been dreamily studying the shimmering
ripples the soft wind had stirred upon the surface of the water.

"Some day," she began in a sing-song voice, her eyes still fixed on the
distance, "I'm just going to let you two go on to the bitter finish. I
shouldn't wonder if you will be like the two cats of Kilkenny. You
remember what they did, don't you?"

"No, what?" asked Mollie, and Grace added: "We might just as well know
where our bad tempers are going to land us. What did they do, Betty?"

"They fought and they fit and they scratched and they bit," chanted
Betty, "till instead of two cats there weren't any."

"I guess we had better take warning while there is still time, Grace,"
said Mollie, with a little laugh. And so for the time being at least
peace was restored.

"But when do you suppose Anita and her brother will come to see us?"
asked Amy. "I do hope it won't be very long."

"I think Amy likes Conway," said Grace, then turning to Betty she asked
meaningly: "Do you, by any chance, believe in love at first sight?"

"Oh, I think it can be done," Betty answered, her eyes twinkling with
fun as she looked at Amy's flushed face. "At least, I do believe in
strong attractions at the first meeting. Perhaps that is all Amy has
felt just yet."

"Oh, girls!" implored Amy, in an agony of bashfulness, "I don't like
Conway Benton one bit more than any of the rest of you, and you know it.
I think it is mean for you to tease."

"Oh, Amy, dear, it is only fun," cried Betty, throwing an arm about her
friend. "We don't really think that you have been smitten with a
stranger's charms. Still _stranger_ things have happened."

"I don't agree with you," said Amy, and they wisely forbore to pursue
the subject.

"Oh, but didn't that fish taste good last night?" said Mollie, coming
down to every-day matters. "I never ate anything like it in all my
life."

"That's because we caught it ourselves," said Grace, unconsciously
voicing a common trait in human nature.

"Let's take fish out of the conversation for a little while," Betty
suggested, "and talk about something romantic."

"For instance?" Grace inquired, with uplifted eyebrows.

"The gypsies," Betty answered. "Ever since the other night I've been
wondering if there was anything in what that old store-keeper said."

"I hope not," said Amy, with a shudder. "I am more afraid of them than
anything else in the world, I think."

"I don't see why," Mollie reflected. "Probably they are a great deal
more afraid of us."

"Well, all gypsies are akin, they say; so maybe we could find out
something about Mr. Ford's Beauty and about Mrs. Billette's silver,"
returned Betty.

"Oh, don't talk about that," cried Mollie. "It fairly makes me sick, for
I'm sure we shall never hear of the things again."

"I wonder when the boys are going to try to ford to the islands?" said
Grace. "The tide's getting low now."

"Hello! where is everybody?" it was Will's voice calling from the woods.
"We are going for a paddle--who wants to come along?"

"Ask us," called Betty. "We were just hoping you'd come to life."

"Ah, the voice of the siren," called Will, over his shoulder. "Come on,
fellows, let's break up this galaxy of beauty."

The boys sauntered up to the group of girls, and sprawled upon the steps
wherever there was room.

"Where _have_ you kept yourselves all morning?" Mollie inquired, as
Frank drew a bur from her white skirt. "If you hadn't come pretty soon,
we were going over to look for you."

"Oh, just around clearing up," Frank replied, with a vague little
gesture. "If we had known how much you wanted to see us, we would have
left some things undone."

"You needn't have hurried on my account," Grace drawled. "I don't know
when I have ever felt happier than I did before you came. Oh, Roy, do
look out, you are sitting on my dress."

Roy rose with alacrity. "Gee! a fellow can't do anything around here
without getting sat on," he complained.

"It seems to me it was Grace's dress that was being sat on that time,
not you," Betty remarked, with a glint of mischief in her eyes. "I
wonder if anybody else has ever noticed," she went on, "the funny habit
all you boys have of blaming somebody else for blaming you."

"You're away too deep for me, Betty," Roy protested with a shake of his
head. "That must be a mighty funny habit."

"To change the subject," said Allen, rising and stretching his arms far
above his head, as if to make sure his muscles were still in good
condition, "who wants to share a nice little canoe with me? Your aunt
sure knew what she was doing, Mollie."

"We would all like to go, I know," said Betty, with a doubtful glance at
the fast sinking sun. "Only I am afraid it is pretty near dinner time."

"Well, I tell you what we'll do," said Frank, with sudden inspiration.
"We'll postpone our canoeing trip till to-night. There is going to be a
fine moon."

"What difference does that make?" Grace asked severely. "I think we had
better go now, and have a fire this evening."

"Oh, Grace, don't be a kill-joy," said her brother. "It is going to be
too wonderful a night to spend indoors."

"Well, if Mrs. Irving says so," she began, and they all knew it was
settled.

"Have dinner early, will you?" Roy urged, taking out his watch. "It is a
quarter past five now. Can you be ready to start by six?"

"Oh, long before," Mollie assured him, rising hurriedly, and starting
toward the house, while the others followed her example.

Then after a whispered consultation with the girls at the door, she
turned and threw the boys a merry glance.

"If you are very good," she said, "we will let you eat with us
to-night."

"Fine!" cried Allen. "And biscuits, Betty?"

"Biscuits," she answered.

They were hilarious all during the meal. In the first place, everything
was delicious, and in the second, everybody was in the best of spirits.

Afterward they cleared away the dishes in no time, and the four girls,
Mrs. Irving having refused to be of the party, ran upstairs to get the
light wraps that were always needed at night. The boys met them outside
as they rushed down laughing and breathless, and ready for a good time.

"I hope it doesn't take the moon till twelve o'clock to show itself,"
said Will, as they made their way down the walk and on to the float
where the canoes were attached. "Mrs. Irving says that we are to be back
by ten o'clock at the latest."

"That will give us plenty of time," Frank answered. "Don't you remember
we saw it a little after seven last night?"

"It's lucky these canoes are eighteen feet long," said Allen, as he
unfastened the rope. "Otherwise we would have to take turns paddling."

"Who's going to do the work first?" asked Betty. Then she added: "I love
to paddle."

"If nobody has any objection," said Allen, "you shall. Grace, you drop
into the middle with Frank, until it comes your turn to do the work.
Betty may like it, but I must say I'd rather watch you people slave."

"All right, we'll go fifty-fifty with you," Frank agreed cheerily.
"Here, Grace, step in the middle--that's the way. Now we are all
settled. Let her go, Captain."

Allen swung himself into the stern, and deftly pushed the canoe clear of
the swaying float. "All right," he sang out. "Left hand or right, Betty?
It makes no difference to me. Now for the moon."

"Look out, Allen, you are getting poetical," warned Betty, as she dipped
her paddle into the clear water. "Many a man has reached for the moon,
only to find that he had plucked some green cheese."

"Are you sure it wasn't limburger?" asked Frank, mildly for so strong a
subject.

"Ugh, don't!" cried Grace. "How I hate even the name of the horrid
stuff!"

"And on a night like this, too," said Betty. "Can't we talk about
something less odoriferous?"

"Remember you started it," said Frank defensively.

"Yes, I know, but what I spoke of is such a wee little cousin to----"

"Is that the dipper up there, Frank?" Grace asked, in haste to change
the subject. "Somehow it doesn't look natural."

Frank squinted aloft. "That's our same old friend," he said. "By the
way, speaking of dippers, I am getting thirsty."

"Well, I can't give you a drink, but I can feed you. Have a chocolate?"
cried Grace.

"Oh, Grace!" protested Betty, "you never brought chocolates along?"

"To be sure I did. Why not?"

"You are hopeless," laughed Frank.

"Look at that shooting star," said Betty, pointing with her paddle. "Oh,
that was a beauty!"

"Did you wish on it?" asked Grace eagerly.

"I didn't know I had to. Goodness, did I throw away an opportunity?"
Betty's tone was dismayed.

"Why, of course," said Grace, with an air of superiority. "It's bad luck
if you don't."

"All right, I won't let the next one escape," Betty promised.

And so they went on and on, enjoying the shadowy stillness of the
night, and later revelling in the silver radiance of the moonlight.

It was not until they started on their journey side by side with the
other canoe that Allen broached a subject that had been almost entirely
forgotten in the excitement of the last few days.

"Say, when are you and Frank going to practice for the big race, Betty?"
he asked. "I am mighty anxious to see it."

"To-morrow morning, I guess," said Betty, then added suddenly: "I don't
see why Frank and I should furnish all the fun. Why don't you all join
in? It would be ever so much more exciting."

"That's a good idea," said Allen. "I'll do it if the rest are willing.
How about it, Grace?"

"I'm willing," she replied. "Oh, I have a bright idea!"

"Shoot!" said Frank inelegantly.

"Suppose we take our lunch," she went on enthusiastically, "and have a
regular old-fashioned picnic in the woods beyond the camp."

"Grace, you are a marvel," cried Betty. "I can't think of anything I'd
like better. Swimming in the morning and a party in the afternoon! Oh,
every day is more wonderful than the last!"




CHAPTER XVIII

WATER SPRITES


The sunbeams danced across the shimmering water and into the room where
the Outdoor Girls lay sleeping. They made patches on the floors and
ceiling, and showered Mollie's face with golden darts.

She moved restlessly and raised her hand as though to ward off this
invader of her dreams, muttering softly, "Oh--don't----" Gradually she
passed from sleeping to waking and, realizing the cause of the
disturbance, sat up in bed with a start.

"Oh, the world's on fire with sunshine! What a day to swim! Now, as soon
as I can rouse these sleeping beauties, I'll proceed to get breakfast."

"Oh, A--my!" she called aloud, giving the bed such a thump that Amy's
eyes sprung wide open on the instant--wide and startled. "Are you going
to sleep for-_ever_? Oh, I'm hungry!" with which words she sprang out of
bed and began dressing hastily.

For once Amy seemed to agree with her chum, for the moonlight sail of
the night before with only Grace's candies to nibble on had left them
ravenous.

"All right," she said, sitting up and looking toward the bed in the far
corner of the big room. "Betty and Grace are just yawning themselves
awake. We ought to beat them dressed easily."

"We don't care," came Betty's sleepy voice. "Whoever gets down first has
to get the breakfast, you know."

Even this did not daunt Mollie. She did not mind getting breakfast at
all. In her own words, "she could smell the good things that much
longer." So now her only answer was: "Sleepy-head," uttered in a severe
tone.

"I don't care," came the defiant answer, "it's mighty nice to feel
sleepy sometimes," and Betty stretched luxuriously.

"Oh, dear!" said Grace irritably, "it seems to me life is one long
succession of getting ups and going to beds."

"The last isn't as hard as the first, is it, Gracy?" Mollie teased.

"Probably if you _could_ sleep, you wouldn't want to," replied Grace.

"Oh, if any one would only give you the chance!" and Betty gave Grace
an affectionate little shake. "Some time we won't call you, Grace," she
laughed. "I'd like to find out just how long you could sleep, if you
were left to yourself."

"Goodness, I wouldn't like to chance it," said Mollie, slipping a middy
over her head. "I am afraid we would have to carry her home at the end
of the summer--a sleeping beauty still."

"Or a still sleeping beauty," Betty suggested. "That would be more to
the point."

"Suits me exactly," Grace drawled, "as long as the prince is handsome
enough."

"Always the prince," groaned Mollie, giving Grace up in despair--then
added, as she opened the door preparatory to flight: "Frank is quite
good looking. Come on, Amy!"

"I don't see what that has to do with it!" Grace retorted; but only a
sharp click of the door and a little derisive laugh in the hall outside
answered her. "Oh, well," she added, sitting up and regarding Betty
reproachfully as if that young person were responsible, "I suppose I
have got to get up."

"Of course, and make yourself charming for the prince," said Betty,
pinning a rose at exactly the right angle in her soft white waist. "You
don't have to be a _sleeping_ beauty to find him, you know," she added
sagely.

"You seem to know a lot about it," said Grace, regarding her friend
soberly. "I shouldn't wonder if you had found him, Betty."

Betty turned sharply to see if she were joking, then the soft color
flooded her face. "Nonsense!" she said, but her tone was not convincing.

"Yes, you have," said Grace, not to be put off. "I can tell by the way
you look at him, and the way he looks at you and oh--and--a hundred
little things." She waved her hand vaguely.

"Oh, Gracy, don't be foolish," said Betty, recovering her usual
composure. "If you don't look out _I'll_ begin to get personal. You
needn't think you are the only one that has eyes."

"Oh, well," said, Grace, flushing in her turn. "If you are going to
begin that---- Oh, Betty, just smell the bacon! Please hand me that
shoe, quick!"

"Oh!" cried Betty, and drew back as a small stone flung by some one
below hurtled through the open window and fell to the floor at her feet.
"Look! It has something tied to it," she cried, and, stooping, picked it
up.

"Bring it here," called Grace excitedly. "Oh, this is romantic! Betty,
let me see it, quick!"

"Wait a minute, I haven't seen it myself yet," said Betty, as she
unfolded the tiny slip of paper attached to the stone. "Well, of all
the----"

Grace looked over her shoulder and this is what the two girls read:

          "When are you coming out? The water's fine."

With one accord they rushed to the window through which the message had
come and leaned far out. But look as they might in every direction,
there was no sight nor sound of human beings. The grounds about the
house and even the woods seemed deserted.

The girls drew back in, looked at each other in perplexity, then their
gaze instinctively traveled to the note still held in Betty's hand.

"Well," Grace announced, "it seems that we have here a key to some
mystery----"

"Mystery nothing!" Betty interrupted disrespectfully. "We know who wrote
this--there is no mistaking Roy's scrawl. The senders have
decamped--that's all."

"Speak of princes----" said Grace, as they went out arm in arm.

"And they are sure to turn up," Betty finished merrily.

Mollie's breakfast was good. And the young folks ate with the healthy
appetites of youth. Mrs. Irving left the table early to get herself
ready to go over to the summer colony where she had promised to spend
the day with friends who were summering there. The girls had scarcely
finished their breakfast when the boys broke in upon them.

"You girls eat too much," Frank complained, when the first greetings
were over. "Now, if you only had our dainty little appetites----"

"The best way to treat some people," put in Mollie significantly, "is to
pay no attention to them or their remarks."

"Is she speaking to me or at me?" Frank inquired good-humoredly.

"Oh, it is just a general slam at the sex," laughed Allen, who had not
taken his eyes from Betty and the pink rose. "We ought to be hardened by
this time."

"Yes, you are terribly ill-treated, aren't you?"

Betty sympathized and remarked: "It is truly a case for the S. P. C.
A.--I mean the S. P. C. C.," she corrected hastily, while the girls
laughed merrily and the boys looked injured.

"That's the worst yet, Betty," Will reproached her. "You needn't make
out you didn't mean it, either--we know better."

"Oh, all right," said Betty, her eyes twinkling. "Have it your own way."

"To change the subject," Roy broke in, "what are you girls all togged
up for--didn't you get my message?"

"Of course," said Grace. "You nearly put Betty's eyes out with it."

"Sorry," said Roy, with a quick glance at Betty's nearly injured eyes,
which had never looked brighter than at that instant. "They look pretty
good to me. But that brings me back to my first query--why are you girls
all dressed up?"

"Well, you know we could hardly wear our bathing suits down to
breakfast. Imagine a lot of sea nymphs boiling eggs and frying bacon!"
ejaculated Mollie.

"Besides," Betty argued, "it's just as much trouble to put ugly things
on as it is pretty ones----"

"And they don't look as nice," Frank finished.

"Exactly!" said Betty. "And now if you will excuse us we'll put on our
suits, and show you boys how to swim. Come on, girls!"

"You can't be too quick to suit me," Allen called after them.

Mollie made a little face at him from the doorway. "Anxious to meet your
Water-loo?" she mocked impishly, and before he could answer had followed
the girls up the stairway.

The boys raced back to camp to prepare themselves for the swim, and a
few minutes later met the girls coming from the house.

"You see you didn't have to wait," said Amy. "We are as anxious as you
to get into the water this morning. Oh, I can almost feel it!"

"Let's run," suggested Mollie. "Somehow to-day I can't be sedate. I'll
race everybody to the bank."

[Illustration: THEY RAN OUT INTO THE TEPID WATER.

_The Outdoor Girls on Pine Island._ _Page 158_]

She broke into a run, and the others followed--bringing up at the edge
of the water a moment later, breathless but glowing. This time no one
hesitated, not even Amy. They ran out into the tepid water, then plunged
in, swimming with strong, even, steady strokes.

It had been decided that all were to take part in the race--consequently
all were bent on losing not one moment of practice. They swam, off and
on, for the whole morning--occasionally throwing themselves upon the
mossy bank, to rest and get their breath, then going at it again with
renewed vigor and resolve.

It was only when the position of the sun and acute pangs of hunger
warned them that it was long past their luncheon hour, that they decided
it was time to turn their attention to other things.

"I left the basket back at the house," said Mollie, when they had come
to this conclusion. "I thought probably we would like to get dressed
before we ate."

"Oh, why?" Will protested. "It's a scorching hot day, and we'll probably
want to go in for a swim later on, anyway."

"Why not slip a skirt and middy over our bathing suits?" Betty
suggested. "By the time we reach the house, our suits will be dry. Mine
is almost, now."

"Good!" said Grace. "We'll feel more respectable, and if we do want to
go in for a swim later it won't be any trouble at all to take them off."

So it was decided, and they all tramped off through the woods, laughing,
merry, and friends with the world.




CHAPTER XIX

A MARVELOUS DISCOVERY


Upon reaching the house the Outdoor Girls ran upstairs while the boys
went back to camp to get some things they thought they might need. A few
moments later the girls rejoined them.

"Where shall we go?" Roy, who was leading the van, paused and looked
behind him. "Let's take some different part of the wood--some place we
haven't explored yet."

"If there is any," Allen agreed.

"There is some place, for we have not yet found the gypsies Mollie's old
store-keeper told her about," put in Betty.

"Very well, then, trot ahead, Roy, we'll follow you."

"All right, but don't blame me if we are lost."

"Oh, if there is any danger of that," said Amy, pulling away and looking
back longingly, "perhaps we better stick to what we know."

"Oh, Roy is only talking to hear himself talk," Will assured her. "It
isn't possible to get lost on this island, even if you wanted to. All
we would have to do would be to follow the shore and sooner or later
we'd be bound to come upon 'The Shadows.'"

Amy saw the reason in this and was reassured. "All right," she said;
"but it wouldn't be very much fun to get lost."

"Why not?" demanded Will, and she looked at him in surprise.

"Well, would it?" she asked wonderingly.

"It would be the greatest little lark ever," he said so decidedly that
Amy blushed. "We'd have some excitement for a little while, anyway."

When they had walked a little farther into the woods Roy stopped again,
and, pointing before him, called out: "We have found just the place,
people--it's Arcadia itself."

They crowded about him, gazing in the direction he had pointed out. It
was a wonderful island, this--where you were always stumbling into some
little glade or woodland bower made especially for you. Surely this tiny
garden spot of nature was even more alluring than the famous fishing
pool, and the girls pushed forward eagerly.

"That big flat stone over there will be just the very thing to spread
the eatables out on," said Grace, "and I guess we can all manage to get
around it, too."

"Of course we can," said Mollie enthusiastically. "It's exactly the
right height. Oh, every thing is perfect!"

"If you girls will only stop raving long enough to get us something to
eat," said Will plaintively, "you'll be doing some good in the world.
Gee, but I'm hungry!"

"Poor boy," said Betty, with ready sympathy, "I know just exactly how
you feel, because I'm nearly dead myself. Hand over the basket, Allen,
please, and I'll spread the cloth."

"You bet I will!" said Allen readily. "I'll help you fix things."

"Look out for him, Betty," Roy cautioned. "He's got his eye on the good
things."

"What good does that do?" sighed Allen. "I'd rather have my teeth on
them."

"So say we all of us," laughed Frank. "Can't I help, too, Betty?"

"Of course--all of you," the Little Captain agreed, magnanimously. "Come
on, girls--stop admiring the view and help with these things."

"Oh! will we?" cried Mollie, and all made a rush for the baskets.
"What's first? You've got the table cloth? Well, then the napkins next
and the sandwiches--and the biscuits, and--oh, boys, you never could
guess----" Mollie sat back on her heels and regarded them laughingly.
"Think of the thing you want most in the world," she said. "That's it!"

"There are lots of things I want," Frank began, but Roy interrupted him.

"There is only one thing in the world that is better than anything
else," he said.

"And that?" the others queried breathlessly.

"Plum pudding!" He pronounced the two words with the reverence due them.

Grace stared at him in amazement. "How did you know?" she stammered.
"It's almost uncanny."

"Not at all," said Roy, with a superior air. "It's perfectly simple--I
smelled it."

"Oh, so that was the blithe and savory odor that assailed our nostrils a
short time ago," said Frank. "But my hopes never soared to the heights
of plum pudding."

"And here is the hard sauce," said Mollie, passing it around from one to
the other as though it had been a precious jewel. "Amy made it--all of
powdered sugar--with perhaps a little egg and butter thrown in--and I
know it is delicious."

"You had better put that out of sight till we get through eating other
things, Mollie," Betty cautioned. "The boys will be starting at the
wrong end of the meal."

"Yes, and spoil their appetites," Amy added, while Mollie removed the
temptation.

However, from the way the good things disappeared, there seemed no
reason for Amy's fears--appetites like those were proof even against
plum pudding.

At last the picnickers stretched themselves, replete and happy, upon the
soft grass, to discuss a further course of action.

"What shall we do next?" asked Betty, after a somewhat lengthy pause.
"Are we going to take a walk or swim some more or just stay here?"

"You've got the right idea," Roy commended.

"Which?" she asked, with uplifted eyebrows. "I suggested three things."

"The last of course," he answered, plucking a piece of long grass and
beginning to chew the end of it. "I don't know what you put in that plum
pudding, but it has made me everlastingly sleepy. I'd like to take a
nice long nap;" and a prodigious yawn gave truth to his words.

"How interesting," Grace mocked. "Mrs. Irving warned Mollie that it
might have such an effect--in fact, she said it was too hearty for hot
weather. Behold we have the proof of her words."

"For goodness' sake, Roy, brace up!" cried Will, in a stage whisper.
"Can't you see what you are doing? If you keep this up they won't give
us any more. Brace up!"

Seeing the wisdom of this, Roy did his best to "brace up," but the girls
only laughed at him.

"We are sleepy, too," Amy confessed, "so we won't tell. Besides, don't
you suppose _we_ like plum pudding?"

"Good!" said Roy, leaning back against the tree with a relieved sigh.
"Now we can act naturally."

However, the Outdoor Girls and their boy chums were too active to remain
quiet long, even after plum pudding. Allen was the first to become
restless, and the others soon caught it from him. He rose, went through
some gymnastic exercises, then looked about him curiously. "I wonder if
there are any more places like this hereabout?" he said. "Does anybody
want to take a little tramp and find out? You look about as energetic as
a bunch of turtles. Come on, let's do something."

"Why do something when we can get lots more fun out of doing nothing?"
asked Roy lazily. "What wouldst have us do?"

"I just told you," Allen's tone showed disgust. "Isn't there one among
you with any pep at all? How about you, Betty? You're usually the one
to start things."

Betty looked up at him with a slow, tantalizing little smile. "That's
why I am letting you take the lead this time," she purred. "I thought
I'd wait and see who'd make the first move."

"And I am going to force the second move," and before she could guess
what he was going to do, he leaned over, caught her two hands in his and
pulled her to her feet. "Now, you are going to take a little walk with
me, young lady. If the rest of this lazy crowd don't want to come along,
they know what they can do!"

The Little Captain blinked at him uncertainty. "You might tell me what
you are going to do," she complained. "Look, Allen--you hurt me!"

He regarded the brown little hand, held up for his inspection,
anxiously. "I don't see anything," he said. "But if I hurt it I am
sorry," and he stroked the place that should have been red.

"If you are going, why don't you go?" Grace demanded, then added
meaningly: "I guess they _are_ glad we are lazy."

"Please don't make any insinuations," said Betty, her nose in the air,
but Allen sent a laughing shot back at them before they disappeared into
the denser wood.

"You can eat another plum pudding if you like," he said.

Frank chuckled audibly. "Wise old chap--Allen," he remarked.

"I wish we could take his advice," mourned Amy. "If you boys hadn't been
such pigs, we might have had some pudding left."

"Oh, why didn't you make more?" was Will's uncivil comment.

For a long time Allen and Betty wandered through the woods, seeing
nothing and hearing nothing but the usual sights and sounds of the
forest--and seemingly quite content to go on in that way forever.

It was Allen who first broke the silence. "I wish you would tell me what
you are thinking about so hard, Betty. It must be very interesting,
because you haven't said a word to me since we left that lazy crowd back
there. 'Fess up!"

Betty flushed faintly. "You should never ask what a person thinks about
on a beautiful summer, day when she is wandering through the woodland
with--with----"

"Whom?" Allen prompted softly. "Go on, Betty, finish the story."

"Can't," she smiled up at him roguishly. "It's one of those 'to be
continued.'"

He caught her hand, but she drew it away quickly. "Allen, what's this?"
she cried.

She had accidentally brushed aside some brambles that had caught on her
dress, and there close beside them, so near that she could thrust her
hand into the opening, yawned the cavernous black mouth of a cave.

Allen drew her aside quickly. "Don't go near it," he commanded, in a
tone that made Betty look at him in surprise. "I'm suspicious of these
caves until I have investigated them myself. I am going to have a look,
Betty. You stay where you are."

But the Little Captain had not been so named for nothing. She seized
Allen's arm, and drew him back from the opening.

"Allen, if you go in there, I'm going, too," she cried, her eyes
blazing. "Do you suppose I'm going to stand here, and see you get eaten
up by a--a----"

"A what?" said Allen, putting his hands on her shoulders and laughing
down at her.

"Well, whatever there is in the cave," she finished lamely. "Anyway, I'm
going in with you."

"Betty, do be reasonable," he pleaded, but she flared up at that.

"Do you know, Allen, there is nothing a girl hates more than to have a
boy ask her to be reasonable, when she knows she is? Anyway," her voice
lowered and she pleaded her turn. "Anyway, it's lots worse to see
anybody get hurt, anybody that you like, that is, than it is to get hurt
yourself."

"You little soldier," Allen murmured. "But can't you see, Betty, that I
am here to protect you from danger if there is any--not let you run
right into it?"

"Then there is no reason why you should, either," she said obstinately.

"Will it make you feel any better if we get the others?" Allen asked,
just a little exasperated, for he liked mysteries and hated to leave
them unsolved. "We can get to them in five minutes if we run."

"Yes, that will be better," Betty agreed, seizing the suggestion
eagerly. "But do you think we can find the cave again?"

"Easily," said Allen. "You see, we are pretty near the water right here
and that bent old tree at the edge of the lake--see what I mean?--well,
that's right on the line with the mouth of the cave. I guess it will be
easy enough to find."

So it was settled, and they raced back hand in hand to the spot where
they had left their friends, eager to tell the news.

"So here you are," cried Mollie, at sight of the runaways. "We thought
you were never coming back."

Allen wasted no time, but told his story in the fewest words possible.
They were all tremendously excited, and followed the two adventurers
eagerly as they led the way along the shores of the lake.

"Are you sure you can find it again?" Grace was asking when Amy seized
her arm and pointed out over the water.

"Look!" she cried. "Gypsies!"




CHAPTER XX

DANGEROUS VISITORS


"Gypsies?" Betty echoed. "Where?"

"Can't you see?" returned Amy. "They are fording just as that old man
said they could. Oh, what are we going to do?"

The boys had been gazing with interest toward the little group of
wanderers, but at Amy's cry they were aroused to sudden action.

"Get to a place where we can see, and not be seen," said Frank. "I'd
like to watch this thing through."

"They are coming right this way, too," said Grace, delightfully afraid.
"Oh, what have they got on their backs?"

"Looks like loot of some sort," Will volunteered, peering forth from his
tree trunk. "Say, this promises to be a lark, fellows."

"We'd better get back a little farther, if we don't want them to run
right into us," Roy suggested. "They are headed this way."

The watchers retreated still farther into the woods until they came to
a dense overgrowth of foliage which effectually screened them from
prying eyes.

"This is just the thing," Roy exulted. "I tell you we are running in
luck to-day."

"I am glad you think so," said Amy. "If one of those gypsies discovered
us, I am afraid we wouldn't live long."

"Well, they are not going to," said Roy, overhearing the last remark.
"Don't be a wet blanket, Amy. Anyway, just because they are gypsies they
needn't be murderers."

"I'm not a----" Amy was beginning, when Allen hissed a sharp warning.
"Keep still, everybody," he said. "They are not a hundred yards away!"

After that silence reigned, broken only occasionally by a nervous
whisper from one of the girls as they watched the approach of the
enemy--or so they regarded them--with breathless interest.

There were about twenty in the group, of which the majority were men. As
they came nearer, the girls and boys could see how greatly their ages
varied. Some were old men with white hair and flowing beards, while
others were young striplings scarcely out of boyhood. Their clothes were
many hued and picturesque, while each one carried on his back a huge
bundle. They traveled along the bank, speaking in a low mellow tone, a
language which the Outdoor Girls and the boys had never heard before.

Grace crowded close to Betty, and the Little Captain squeezed her arm
reassuringly. "I kind of like them," she whispered. "They look so
interesting. They look like bandits or----"

Frank's hand closed abruptly over her mouth--for low as her tone had
been the gypsies were near enough now to hear the slightest whisper.

On, on came the little procession so near that the girls, by stretching
out their hands, could almost have touched them. They scarcely dared to
breathe.

The gypsies moved on for a short distance, then gathered about something
the nature of which the girls and boys could not discern. In his
curiosity, Allen forgot caution and rising from the protection of the
bushes he tip-toed over to a more advantageous lookout. In a moment he
was back again on his knees beside the crouching group crying in an
excited manner: "It's our cave--the cave Betty and I discovered--they
are going into it. Say, I wish we had gone in when we had the chance!"

"I don't," said Mollie, "they might have found you there and knifed you
in the back or something."

"Especially something," mocked Roy. But Mollie was too excited to hear
him.

"Look!" Grace cried. "Now that they are all inside, you wouldn't know
that there was any opening there at all."

"It _is_ tough to have to sit outside and look at nothing," Roy began.

"Don't look at me when you say that," complained Mollie, with a little
grimace.

"When we ought to be in there capturing the thieves--if that is what
they are," he finished.

"I'd bet on it," said Frank. "All gypsies are born robbers. Just the
same, I wouldn't mind having some of their loot."

"Frank!" Grace exclaimed, in a shocked voice. "You know you wouldn't
like anything of the sort."

"Why not?" he said, his eyes twinkling, for teasing Grace was one of his
greatest delights. "I wouldn't go in anybody's house and deliberately
steal anything, but if somebody is kind enough to do it for me----"

"It will do you as much good as it will them, eh, Frank?" finished Will,
companion in crime.

"I think you are just talking to hear yourselves talk," Grace commented,
and Betty heartily approved. "That's the most sensible thing I ever
heard you say, Grace."

"I'm getting stiff sitting on my heels," Mollie complained. "I wish
those old gypsies would go home where they belong, and let us get up."

"Seventh inning," said Frank. "All get up and stretch."

Willingly they followed his example, but no sooner had they risen to
their feet than they were sent scuttling back again like rabbits into a
burrow. The bushes were pushed aside and an aged gypsy stepped forth
from the opening. With a little gasp of excitement the girls realized
that he was without his heavy pack. Whatever it was they had brought
evidently had been left behind in the cave. One by one they emerged
until their number was complete. The last of the little band, a lad
apparently no more than sixteen years old, replaced the screening bushes
very carefully across the mouth of their hiding place. Then they turned,
and retraced their steps, still speaking that strange melodious tongue
of theirs, until they had reached the shore and departed the way they
had come. It was not till then that the watchers ventured to speak above
a whisper.

"Now for the cave and what it contains!" cried Will, and started for the
spot the gypsies had so lately occupied.

The girls and boys followed him, the former excited yet half fearful.

"Do you think we had better?" asked Amy, as Will pushed aside the
curtain of foliage and peered inside. "It's getting dark, and besides
the gypsies might come back. Please don't, Will."

"Do you mean to say that you girls want us to go home without seeing
what is in there?" asked Frank incredulously. "It can't be done, Amy."

Nevertheless, the boys hesitated before the entrance to this mysterious
hole. After all, it was getting dark and the very blackness of the place
was forbidding.

"If we only had some matches," said Roy uncertainly. "It wouldn't do us
much good to go stumbling around in the dark."

"And I presume Mrs. Irving is back and will be terribly worried," Mollie
added, seizing upon the most effective argument she could think of. "She
told us to be home before dark."

"Yes, and we can come here to-morrow, anyway," Amy added. "What do you
think about it, Betty?"

"Well, I am just crazy to see what the gypsies left there," the Little
Captain answered, "but I do think it's a little late now to begin
exploring. It isn't as if this were our last day on the island."

"I think Betty is right, fellows." It was Roy who spoke. "Mrs. Irving
left the girls in our care and she won't do it again in a hurry if we
don't get them home pretty soon."

"That's so, of course," Allen admitted reluctantly. "Just the same, it's
a crime to leave a discovery like this without getting to the bottom of
it."

"But we can come to-morrow," Betty pleaded. "It isn't as if----"

"Oh, I know all about that," he interrupted. "But we probably can't find
the place to-morrow."

"Well, we will have to take our chances on that," cried Mollie, tapping
her foot impatiently. "The rest of you may stay here all night if you
want to, but I'm going back to 'The Shadows.'"

"Hold on a minute, Mollie, can't you?" said Will. "I wish it weren't so
late, but since it is, I suppose we shall have to act accordingly. Who's
got the lunch basket?"

"Frank had, the last time I saw it," said Amy, looking about her at the
gathering shadows uneasily. "Oh, please let's hurry."

"I forgot all about the basket," Frank confessed. "I think I left it
over there behind the bushes."

Allen went with him to find it, while the girls stood huddled together,
wishing themselves back at the bungalow. Mystery is wonderful in the
glaring sun of noon-day, but in the chill dusk of evening, with a damp
mist rising and touching all the land with clammy fingers--at such a
time it is not so alluring. All they wanted was home and a fire and a
chance to talk things over.

Allen and Frank, carrying the basket between them, soon rejoined those
who were waiting at the cave, and they started along the shores of the
lake, keeping a sharp lookout for anything that looked like a gypsy.

However, they reached home at last without encountering anything more
formidable than their own shadows.

"But I _would_ like to know what they had in those bags," sighed Betty,
as the boys took leave of them. "Can we go back the first thing in the
morning, Allen?"

"We can't go too soon to suit me," Allen agreed. "But aren't you going
to let us fellows come over to-night to talk things over?"

"Of course," said Mollie, "and we'll have a fire."

"That sounds good," said Roy. "We won't keep you waiting."

Then the girls went in to relieve Mrs. Irving's anxiety and to tell her
the wonders they had witnessed that afternoon.




CHAPTER XXI

THE LOST TRAIL


Before the cheerful glow of the fire, the young people talked long that
night, while Mrs. Irving listened with interest. Her eyes sparkled at
the description of the cave and the gypsy troupe and once she broke in
with:

"You needn't think you are going to leave me behind when such exciting
things are happening. After this, I am going to be on the spot with the
rest of you."

"I wish you would," Mollie answered. "We thought you didn't care to go
along."

"Ask me in the morning," she said.

And now the morning had come at last. Betty had lain awake most of the
night, too excited to sleep and impatiently awaiting the first streak of
dawn.

Now it had come after a wait that had seemed interminable and she
slipped silently out of bed, determined not to awaken the sleeping
girls. But before she had time to move half way across the room, Grace
hailed her.

"Hello, Betty!" she called, "I'm glad you are up--I haven't been able to
sleep for the longest while. What are you going to do?"

"Get dressed, I suppose," Betty answered. "I simply couldn't lie in bed
any longer."

"Guess I will, too," said Grace; and that being the first time she had
ever agreed with Betty on that subject, the latter looked at her in
surprise.

"You must be all worked up, Gracy," she commented, "to be willing to get
up at this time in the morning. I don't think it can be six o'clock, at
the very latest."

"Well, anything is better than lying in bed awake," yawned Grace,
sitting up in bed and curving her arms behind her head with that slow,
instinctive grace that was part of her. "Look at Mollie staring at us
for all the world like a little night-owl," she added.

"Thanks," said Mollie dryly. "

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