The Outdoor girls at Bluff Point; or, A wreck and a rescue

NYPL RESEARCH LIBRARIES

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LAUEA LEE HOP

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THE BOAT CAME RUSHING TOWARD THEM.
The Outdoor Girls at Bluff Point. Frontispiece (Page 232)

The Outdoor Girls

at

Bluff Point

OR
A WRECK AND A RESCUE

BY
LAURA LEE HOPE

AUTHOR OP "THE OUTDOOR GIRLS OF DEEPDALE/' "THE

MOVING PICTURE GIRLS," "THE BOBBSEY TWINS,"

"BUNNY BROWN AND His SISTER SUE," "Six

LITTLE BUNKERS AT GRANDMA BELL'S," ETC.

ILLUSTRATED

NEW YORK

GROSSET & DUNLAP
PUBLISHERS

•

• •

.

•

•

.

TOUK

PBBUS

;H

AND

IOOKS FOR GIRLS

BY LAURA LEE HOPE

I2mo. Cloth. Illustrated.

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 OUTDOOR GIRLS IN ARMY SERVICE
THEOUTDOOR GIRLS ATTHE HOSTESS HOUSE
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

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 MOVING PICTURE GIRLS IN WAR PLAYS

THE BOBBSEY TWINS SERIES

(Twelve Titles)

THE BUNNY BROWN SERIES

(Eight Titles)

SIX LITTLE BUNKERS SERIES

(Five Titles)

GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK

COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY
GROSSET & DUNLAP

THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I To THE FRONT i

II BAD NEWS II

III MAKING PLANS 17

IV GRACE SURPRISES HER CHUMS ..... 27
V A PROBLEM SOLVED 37

VI LIFE AND DEATH 47

VII THE RACE 56

VIII RED RAGS 65

IX THUNDER AND MUD 75

X THE KNIGHT OF THE WAYSIDE .... 85

XI MYSTERY 95

XII NEARLY AN ACCIDENT 104

XIII OUTWITTING A CRANK 114

XIV BLUFF POINT AT LAST 123

| XV THE TELEGRAM 132

XVI THE SHADOW OF DISASTER 142

S [ XVII JOE BARNES AGAIN 152

XVIII SERIOUSLY WOUNDED ........ 162

XIX BETTY CONFESES 170

XX MISSING . . i&>

»

iv CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

XXI A NARROW ESCAPE 187

XXII DARKNESS BEFORE THE DAWN .... 197

XXIII THE SHADOW LIFTS 207

XXIV His THREE SWEETHEARTS 217

XXV JOY , .... 227

THE OUTDOOR GIRLS
AT BLUFF POINT

CHAPTER I

TO THE FRONT

"I KNOW it's utterly foolish and unreasonable,"
sighed Amy Blackford, laying down the novel she
had been reading and looking wistfully out of the
window, "but I simply can't help it."

"What's the matter?" asked Mollie Billette,
raising her eyes reluctantly from a book she
was devouring and looking vaguely at Amy's
profile. "Did you say something?"

"No, she only spoke," drawled Grace Ford,
extricating herself from a mass of bright-colored
cushions on the divan, preparatory to joining in
the conversation. "I ask you, Mollie, did you
ever know Amy to say anything important?"

"Wrhy yes, I have," said Mollie unexpectedly.
"In fact, she is about the only one of us Outdoor
Girls who ever does say anything important —
except Betty, perhaps."

2 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

Amy withdrew her gaze from the landscape
and looked at the speaker with a twinkle in her
eyes.

"What will you have, Mollie?" she asked whim-
sically. 'When you become complimentary, you
are apt to rouse my suspicions."

'Well, whatever you were going to say, please
say it, and let me get back to my book/' returned
Mollie, ignoring the imputation. "I was in the
most interesting part — "

"WThy, I'm just plain homesick/' said Amy,
adding quickly, as the girls looked at her in sur-
prise. "For Camp Liberty and the Hostess
House, you know. I miss the work and the long
hours of entertaining and cheering people up. I
feel," she looked around at them as though rind-
ing it hard to explain just what she meant, "sort
of— lost."

The three chums, Mollie Billette, Grace Ford,
and Amy Blackford were gathered in the com-
fortable library of Betty Nelson's home — Betty
being the fourth of the merry quartette, dubbed
the "Outdoor Girls" by the people of Deepdale,
because of their love of the open and of outdoor
sports.

The girls, as my old readers will doubtless re-
member, had helped establish a Hostess House at
Camp Liberty, and since then had given all their

TO THE FRONT 3

strength and time and youthful enthusiasm to the
great work of cheering our young fighters, en-
tertaining their loved ones, and, in the end, send-
ing them with fresh courage and happy memories
to the "other side'' for the great adventure.

And now the girls, completely worn out in
their loving service to others, had been sent, much
against their will, home to Deepdale for a rest
that they sorely needed.

To-day they had gathered in Betty's house to
discuss the rather hazy plans for their brief va-
cation. And Amy had simply voiced what was in?
the thoughts of all the girls. They were, un-
deniably and heartily, homesick for Camp Liberty
and their work at the Hostess House.

"Lost?" Mollie repeated Amy's expression
thoughtfully. "Yes, I guess that would pretty
well describe the feeling I've had for the last few
days. Sort of restless and aimless — wondering
what to do next."

"Goodness !" cried Grace whimsically, stretch-
ing her arms above her head and smothering a
yawn, "this is terrible, you know. If we don't
look out, we'll be forgetting how to enjoy our-
selves."

"That would be queer, wouldn't it?" agreed
Mollie, with a chuckle as she started to resume
her reading. "Especially for the Outdoor Girls,

4 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

who used to know how to enjoy themselves re-
markably well/'

A brief silence followed, broken only by the
rustle of paper as one of the girls turned a page.
Then, so suddenly that Mollie jumped nervously
and Grace almost upset a box of chocolates at her
elbow, Amy threw down her book and sprang to
her feet.

"I can't stand it another minute!'* she ex-
claimed desperately. "Girls, I must get out and
do something — this loafing is getting on my

nerves.'

"Goodness, the child's mad," declared Mollie,
looking at her chum with a mixture of
amusement and sympathy in her eyes. 'What do
you want to do, Amy, start a fight, or set the
town on fire? Whatever it is, I'm for you, as
Roy would say."

"Oh, I guess I must be crazy," said Amy, sub-
siding and seeming a little ashamed of her out-
burst. "Only, after so much band music and pa-
rades and bugle calls — everything in Deepdale
seems so quiet."

"Well, if all you want is noise, we'll easily
fix that," said Mollie briskly, running to the piano
and gathering in Grace and Amy on the way.
"Sing," she commanded, "and I'll make as much
noise as I can on the piano."

TO THE FRONT

5

Half laughing, half protesting, the girls obeyed
while Mollie conscientiously made good her threat
with the piano, and it was into this uproar that
Betty Ndbon stepped a moment later.

"Have mercy!" she screamed above the noise,
both hands clapped over her ears while she
laughed at them. "I thought they had turned
the house into a lunatic asylum or something/'

The music, if such it can be called, stopped so
suddenly that Betty's last words rang out with
absurd distinctness.

"Or something," Mollie mimicked, whirling
around and catching the newcomer in a bear's
embrace. "Come over to the couch, Betty Nel-
son, and explain yourself. Where have you been
and why did you keep us waiting?"

Laugingly the Little Captain, as she was often
called by the girls because of her talent for leader-
ship, permitted herself to be dragged over to the
couch by the impulsive Mollie, while Amy and
Grace seated themselves on the arms.

"What would you?" protested Betty, looking
from one accusing face to another. "I said I would
meet you here at two-thirty, and it is only quarter
past now."

"Only quarter past !" exclaimed Amy.

"Oh, is that all?" asked Mollie, in astonish-
ment, adding, as Betty lifted her wrist watch for

6 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

inspection: "Goodness, I thought we had been
waiting ages."

"I'm glad you wanted to see me so much,"
chuckled the Little Captain, adding, with a mis-
chievous twinkle in her eyes: "I imagine you
would have been still more impatient if you had
known — " she paused wickedly and just looked
at them.

"Don't tease, Betty! What is it?" they im-
plored in chorus, fairly pouncing upon her, while
Grace added, eagerly:

"Is it possible you have anything really inter-
esting to tell us?"

UI shouldn't wonder if you would think so,"
Betty teased, adding quickly to forestall the out-
burst she saw was coming, "It really isn't any-
thing at all — only — I met the postman on my
way — "

"Betty!" they cried, unable to contain their im-
patience another moment. 'You have letters!
Letters from our soldier boys !"

"How did you guess it?" said Betty, her eyes
dancing as she brought from a convenient pocket
three — yes, three — fat letters, each containing
the longed-for foreign postmark.

"How much will you give me?" teased Betty,
holding the precious missives behind her back.

"Not one other word, Betty Nelson!" they

TO THE FRONT 7

cried, and after a merry but brief struggle the
letters were seized and delivered to their right-
ful owners.

"Now I wonder/' drawled Grace with a twinkle,
as she hastily tore open her envelope, "who could
possibly be writing to us from the other side ?"

"Now I wonder/' chuckled Betty, as she hap-
pily drew from the convenient pocket the last, but
in her estimation decidedly not the least, fat let-
ter and proceeded to devour its contents without
delay.

And indeed the Outdoor Girls had little reason
to wonder who their correspondents might be, for
as regularly as clockwork those precious letters
with the strange foreign postmarks were delivered
to their eager hands.

There were other letters with that foreign
postmark, too, for in addition to their work at
the Hostess House, the girls had faithfully kept
up a large correspondence with the brave boys
who had already crossed the water and were wait-
ing impatiently for their chance "at the Huns."

But the four special letters were from their
closest friends — boys who had lived in Deepdale
before the war and were now in France prepar-
ing for the last stage of their journey.

Allen Washburn, on his way to make a great
name for himself in the law before the war put a

8 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

temporary check upon his ambitions, had been in
love with the Little Captain for — oh, yes, ever
since he could remember, while Betty — but Betty
would never really admit anything, not even to
herself.

Then there was Will Ford, Grace Ford's
brother, who was not only devoted to his pretty
sister, but, in spite of Amy's flushed protestations
to the contrary, to Amy Blackford, also — although
in quite a different manner !

Frank Haley was a high school chum of Will's,
who from the time of his first meeting with
Mollie Billette had seemed inclined to become her
shadow, to the latter's secret gratification and out-
ward indifference.

The last of the quartette was Roy Anderson,
one of the Deepdale boys, who was chiefly distin-
guished by his very open admiration for Grace.

The boys had shared in many of the adventures
of the Outdoor Girls, and of course had been
among the very first to volunteer to help "lick the
Boche" as they slangily but ardently put it. The
girls had gloried in their patriotism, and it was
their assignment to Camp Liberty that had first
given Betty the idea of working in the Hostess
House there.

They had been very happy, fired as they were
by enthusiastic patriotism, until the fateful day

TO THE FRONT 9

<

had come when the boys had entrained for Phila-
delphia and from there to the Great Adventure.
Then for the first time the girls had had the real
and terrible meaning of war brought home to
them. And the boys, so merry and care-free
when they had first entered the service, had
seemed suddenly older, more important, more
manly, only the fire of enthusiasm in their eyes
showing their indomitable youth.

Several months had passed since that day of
mingled tears and pride and heartache, and the
girls had had time to get used to the separation
a little — a very little. And now Betty had
brought them the letters they were always hungry
for, anxiously eager, yet always, at the very back
of their hearts, a little haunting fear of what they
might contain.

For several minutes they sat engrossed while
occasionally one of them read a funny or char-
acteristic extract over which they laughed haj>
pily.

"Listen to this," chuckled Mollie, while the
girls looked up expectantly. "Frank says that
Roy is getting terribly fat in spite of all the ex-

ercise— "

"Horrors!" interjected Grace.
"And when he, Frank, ventured to remonstrate
with him the other dav and advised him to cut

10 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

down on his chow, Roy said: 'Nothing doing!
I've got a definite end in view, old man. This
khaki outfit has acquired so much terra firma it's
beginning to stand alone, but if I get so fat I
can't wear it they'll have to give me another one
—see?"'

The girls laughed, but there was just a shade
of wistfulness in their laughter, for they knew
that the boys were only skirting the outer edge of
the hardships they would be called upon to en-
counter later on.

Then suddenly Betty gave a little cry of dis-
may.

"Oh, girls," she cried when they looked up at
her fearfully, "it's come! What we've been
dreading so long! The boys have been ordered
to the front !"

CHAPTER II

BAD NEWS

THE girls stared wide-eyed at Betty while
slowly the color drained from their faces. It was
true they had been dreading just this news for a
long, long time, yet now that it had come they
felt strangely quiet and numb. They had much
the same feeling as one who had received a stun-
ning blow. Until the paralysis had passed there
could be no pain. That would come later.

"How do you know?'* asked Mollie at last, in
a voice that sounded strange even to herself.
"Frank hasn't mentioned it."

"He will probably, toward the end," Betty ex-
plained, while slowly her heart contracted and
the tears welled to her eyes. "Allen didn't — not
till the last sentence. It's only a line, but th-thafs
enough. He says not to be alarmed if his letters
are delayed — it may be hard to get them
through."

"They are going to the front," Amy repeated
dazedly, as if she found it hard to really believe.

"When— did he say when, Betty?"

IT

12 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

"No, he didn't," said Betty slowly. "But you
know Allen. He wouldn't have said anything
about it if the time hadn't been pretty close at
hand."

"Why," cried Grace, catching her breath as
though the thought had just occurred to her,
"they may be in the front line trenches now!
They may be — they may be — "

And while the girls gazed at her in tragic
silence, imagining terrible, unbelievable things, a
moment will be taken to sketch briefly for the
benefit of new readers the various exciting or
amusing adventures which had befallen the Out-
door Girls in the days before the grim shadow of
war had spread itself over the land.

In the first volume of the series, entitled "The
Outdoor Girls of Deepdale," the girls had formed
a camping and tramping club and had tramped
for miles over the country, meeting with many
interesting adventures on the way.

After this, one good time had followed hard on
the heels of another, first at Rainbow Lake, then
at a winter camp where they had novel and in-
teresting experience on skates and ice-boats.

At Ocean View some time later the Outdoor
Girls had cleared up a mystery centering about
a strange box they had found in the sand. Then
had followed that splendid summer at Pine Island,

BAD NEWS 13

when the girls had accidentally discovered a
gypsy cave and had succeeded not only in round-
ing up the band of gypsies but in recovering sev-
eral valuable articles that had been stolen from
them. The four boys who were now facing the
enemy in France had shared in their fun that
summer, pitching camp near the bungalow of
the girls.

Their next adventure found the girls and boys
again at Pine Island, but under greatly altered
circumstances. America had just entered the
great war, and the four boys had responded
eagerly to the bugle call. Later they were sent
to Camp Liberty for training, to which the girls
soon followed them to work in the Hostess
House.

Will Ford, the brother of Grace, had caused
the girls, and especially his sister, anxiety and
uneasiness because of his failure to enlist with
the other boys. In the end he justified himself,
however, by delivering a German spy to justice
and enlisting in the service of his country im-
mediately afterward. The girls also recovered
some valuable jewelry that the spy had stolen
from them.

Then in the volume directly preceding this, en-
titled "The Outdoor Girls at the Hostess House,"
the girls had befriended an old woman who had

I4 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

been knocked down by an unscrupulous motor-
cyclist. They later learned the secret tragedy in
the life of their little old lady.

Now the girls had come home to Deepdale for
a much needed rest, only to be confronted with
the terrible, though, naturally, expected, news that
the boys had been ordered to the front.

"Yes they may be, probably are, facing death
at this minute," said Mollie slowly, finishing the,
broken sentence. "Perhaps at the very minute
we were playing and singing and enjoying our-
selves— "

"Mollie, don't !" cried Amy brokenly. "I don't
feel as if I could ever enjoy myself again/'

:<Well, we've got to, whether we can or not,"
said Betty, striving to control her quivering lips
and tilting her little chin at a brave angle. "We
can't just lie down at the very first shot, you
know."

"You talk as if we were on the firing line,"
said Grace hysterically.

"I suppose in a way we are," returned the
Little Captain slowly, wishing desperately that
those troublesome tears would stay where they
belonged — her eyes were so misty she could
hardly see Grace! "Only ours is a harder kind
of battle, because it's made up mostly of waiting
and working without any of the thrill and excite-

BAD NEWS 15

ment of the real fight to help us. But I'd like
to know," and there was a little ring of pride
and renewed courage in her voice, "what the real
fighters would do without us anyway. We're just
as much soldiers as they are, and if we don't do
our share, they can't do theirs."

"Of course you are right, Betty dear, you al-
ways are!" cried Mollie, taking heart and even
smiling a little. "We can't do anybody good by
moping."

"No," added Grace with a philosophy unusual
in her. 'That's why we have the hardest share,
I guess — because we have to keep gay and bright,
no matter how we feel."

"And we still have our work at the Hostess
House," Amy reminded them. "Maybe," she
added, a little wistfully, "if we work hard enough
we'll be able to forget — "

"What's all this about working and forget-
ting?" cried Mrs. Nelson, coming gayly into the
room. "I thought you had come home for a va-
cation."

The girls explained, and Mrs. Nelson looked
pityingly at their grave young faces.

"So that is it," she was beginning, when Mollie
sprang to her feet with a cry. She was staring at
the paper that Mrs. Nelson had carelessly thrown
on the table.

16 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

;'What is it?" they cried, as she snatched it up
and read the glaring headlines.

"The Hostess Housel" gasped Mollie. "Gone!
Burnt up! Read this!"

Dazedly the girls obeyed, the big type seem-
ing to strike them in the face as they read :

"Great Fire at Camp Liberty! Hostess House
and Several Barracks Buildings Burned to the
Ground !"

CHAPTER III

MAKING PLANS

"I CAN'T seem to get used to it," sighed Mol-
lie several days later, as she ran up the steps of
her porch and opened the screen door for the
girls. 'To think that no matter how much we
want to go back to the Hostess House — "

'There is no Hostess House to go back to,"
finished Grace, sinking down in a luxurious porch
swing and plumping the cushion behind her back.
Grace always had a gift for finding the soft places.
"It is rather discouraging."

"Just as we were going to work hard and for-
get how unhappy we were, too," added Amy
plaintively.

"Goodness, but we're not going to be unhappy/'
put in Betty, rocking vigorously. "I thought we
decided that three days ago."

'I know. But when we think — "

:'But we musn't think," Betty interrupted
quickly, adding with a little twinkle: "About
being unhappy, that is. All we have to do is just
hold on to the belief that the boys are coming

17

l8 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

back a year from now, maybe less — coming back
without a hair less than they had when they went
away."

"We didn't count 'em/' said Mollie drolly.
'The hairs, that is, so how can we tell?"

"Isn't she funny?" drawrled Grace, catching
the pillow Mollie threw at her and depositing it
calmly behind her back. "Thanks, old dear," she
said. "I just needed another one."

"I thought we came to talk over the plans for
our vacation/' Amy put in mildly, adding with
a little laugh: "We have to take one now
whether we wrant it or not."

"But we haven't the slightest idea what we're
going to do," protested Grace. "I guess we'd
just better stay at home and do nothing."

"My, aren't you encouraging?" cried Mollie,
looking up indignantly from the pair of socks
she was knitting. "You might at least suggest
something."

"Ooh, there you are !"

They turned suddenly to see a mischievous
little face peeping at them from around the corner
of the porch.

"Dodo, you little wretch, come here," cried
Mollie, trying to look severe and failing utterly.

"Now wrhat mischief have you been up to?"

"No," protested Dodo, shaking her curly head

MAKING PLANS

vigorously, as she reluctantly abandoned her
vantage point and came slowly toward Mollie.
"No mischief 'tall. Me an' Paul jus' playinV'

This was Dora, nicknamed Dodo, and Paul,
Mollie Billette's small brother and sister, who
were nearly always getting into some sort of
mischief from the time they stepped their little
feet out of bed in the morning till the time they
slipped the same little feet, tired out with getting
into trouble, into bed at night.

"You darling!" cried Betty, catching the little
figure to her and administering a bear's hug.
'You're terribly bad, but we can't help loving
you."

"Uh-uh," denied Dodo, wriggling free of
Betty's embrace and looking at her earnestly.
"Me's never bad — only Paul."

"Ooh, Dodo Billette!" cried Paul, bursting in
upon them from no one could quite tell \vhere.
" You's a big story teller!"

"You's the big 'tory teller," cried Dodo, com-
ing sturdily to the rescue of her reputation. 'You
just go 'way. Mol — lie, oh, Mollie, make him
go 'way!"

"Oh, dear!" cried Mollie, half amused and
half vexed as she put aside her knitting and'
took Dodo on her lap. "I thought you and Paul"
promised to play with the bunnies all the after-

20 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

noon and not bother sister. Can't you see she has
company ?"

'Yes," smiled the little girl, reaching up to
pat Mollie's cheek ingratiatingly. "Me an' Paul
got tired playin' wiv bunnies an' came to see you.
,We want," she added succinctly, "tandies !"

"Well, you won't get any, not this time," said
Mollie definitely, trying not to smile, while the
other girls were not even trying. It was always
hard not to laugh at the twins, naughty as they
often were.

"Why?" demanded Dodo severely.

"Never mind why," returned Mollie, putting
the little girl down and taking up her knitting
again. "Now run off, both of you, we want to
talk."

"But we want tandies," repeated Dodo, look-
ing surprised that Mollie had not understood the
first time. "Dive Paul an' me tandies — lots of
tandies — an' we'll go 'long. Shan't we, Paul?
Ooh — " the question ended in an anguished wail
as Dora's eyes rested on her faithless twin.

The latter had extracted Grace's half-filled
candy box from under a cushion where she had
hastily hidden it at the first threat of invasion by
the insatiable twins and was at the moment busily
engaged in devouring its contents. Grace had
been too busy watching Dodo to notice him.

MAKING PLANS 21

"Ooh, you bad boy ! You bad boy !" wailed the
little girl, making a dash for Paul, who deftly
evaded her and took refuge behind Betty's chair.
"Div me dos tandies — dive 'em to me."

"Can't," mumbled Paul, his mouth full, add-
ing by way of explanation a convincing: "Alt
gone."

"Paul Billette, come here this minute," com-
manded Mollie sternly, while Betty and Amy
tried hard to check their rising mirth and Grace
looked bereft. "Come here I say."

"Make Dodo go 'way then," bargained Paul,
adding in an explanatory tone: "Last time she
pulled my hair."

"An' me's goin* do it 'dain," declared Dodo
vengefully, when Betty reached over suddenly
and pulled the little girl into her lap.

"Stay here a minute, Honey," she coaxed, and
as Dodo tried vainly to wriggle loose added:
"Sister wants to speak to Paul."

"An' I," said Dodo soberly, "want to pull his
hair."

Again the girls had to strangle their mirth
while Mollie reiterated her command to Paul.
The latter, after regarding the wriggling Dodo
for a minute uncertainly, relucantly left his refuge
and stood before Mollie, head hanging.

"I'se sorry," he said in a small voice, trying to

22 OUTDOOR GIRLS 'AT BLUFF POINT

forestall the scolding he knew was coming. "Me

never do it anv more !"

•>

That," said Mollie sternly, though the corners
of her mouth twitched and there was a twinkle
in her eye, "is just exactly what you say every
time you're a bad naughty boy. Now, just to
make you remember how naughty you were, you
shan't have another piece of candy for a whole
week."

Paul's protest was drowned in a wail from
Dora.

"But me wants some randies," she cried. "Me
didn't take any."

"She would, if Paul hadn't seem them first,"
murmured Grace, but Mollie shot her a warning
glance.

"No," she said, "and just for being such a.
good girl, sister's going to give you six big
chocolates all for yourself."

Dodo gave a shout of glee and disengaging
herself with one last frantic wriggle from Betty's
embrace, precipitated herself upon Mollie like a
young cyclone.

"Ooh dive 'em to me, dive 'em to me quick,"
she demanded, then as Mollie made good her
promise the little girl turned upon the erring
Paul a look of conscious virtue and said gravely ;
"If you were a dood boy I would div you one,

MAKING PLANS 23

but now me's goin' eat 'em up, every one till dey's
all gone."

Then she took to her heels, scurrying down the
steps and around the corner of the house with
Paul in hot pursuit.

"Dodo," they heard him crying plaintively,
"I'll let you play wiv my best bunny if you will
div me one candy, just one — "

"I wouldn't give much for his chances,"
chuckled Mollie, adding with a sigh that was a
mixture of exasperation and amusement. "Aren't
they perfectly terrible? There isn't a minute of
the day when they're not in some mischief."

"No, they're adorable," cried Betty fondly. "I
wouldn't give two cents for children that didn't
get into mischief all the time."

"I don't care so much about the mischief,"
snid Grace, eyeing her empty chocolate box rue-
fully, "if they would only leave my candies alone."

"Never mind, Grade," replied Mollie, laugh-
ing at her, "you shall have a whole box of mine,
so you shall."

"Fine," agreed Grace, adding with a chuckle
as Mollie handed over the almost full box : "Since
my candies were more than half gone, I don't
call it such a bad bargain at that."

"I'll say it wasn't," dimpled Betty.

"Just the same," said Mollie, after a little pause,

24 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

"even though the t\vins are a great deal of trouble,
Mother said she just wouldn't have known what
to do without them — especially after I went to
Camp Liberty — the house would have been so
frightfully dull."

"I should think so," said Grace, adding sud-
denly, as though she had thought of it for the
first time : "Why she would have been all alone,
wouldn't she ? How awful !" For Mollie had no
father, he having died several years before.

"And the other day she said the strangest
thing," Mollie continued, suddenly earnest. "You
know how she adores Paul. Well, I caught her
looking at him with the most wistful expression,
and when I asked her what the matter was she
looked up at me and I saw there were tears in her
eyes.

" 'It's Paul,' she said softly. 'Of course Fin
thankful he is so little that I can keep him safe
at home with me, but sometimes when I think of
my dear country and the terrible wrongs she has
suffered, I almost wish that my little son were
old enough to bring retribution upon those
hideous Germans. Sometimes I feel cheated —
yes, you needn't stare — that I have not a son "over
there".' "

"Oh, Mollie!" cried the Little Captain softly,
"what a wonderful thing to say. And yet I think

MAKING PLAXS 25

she would die if anything happened to either of the
twins."

"That's just it," said Mollie, her eyes glowing
with pride, "Loving them as she does, she almost
wishes it were possible to make the supreme sacri-
fice for her country/'

"It was that spirit," said Grace thoughtfully,
"that won the battle of the Marne."

For a long time after that the girls worked
quietly, each busy with her own thoughts. It was
Amy who finally broke the silence.

"And here we are." she said plaintively, "let-
ting another whole afternoon slip by without de-
ciding what we are going to do on our vacation.
Can't somebody suggest something?"

"I have already suggested half a dozen things,
only to be laughed to scorn," said Mollie, adding
decidedly : "I'm through."

"And nothing I can say seems to meet with
approval," added Betty plaintively.

"Well," said Grace, stretching herself, sitting
up in the swing, and looking important, "nobody
asks me whether I have anything to suggest, add-
ing as they turned a battery of surprised and eager
glances her way: "I don't know whether I can
be persuaded to tell you now or not."

"Tell us !" they cried, piling into the swing till
the supporting ropes creaked with the strain.

26 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

"Can't we bribe you with candy?" pleaded
Amy.

"No. I just made an advantageous trade in
that article, you will remember," was the answer.

Anyway, we don't bribe, we command," put in
Betty. "Grace, we refuse to be trifled with.
What have you to suggest ? Out with it !"

"You'd better hurry." added Mollie, raising
her knitting needle threateningly, "before I spit
thee like a pig!"

CHAPTER IV

GRACE SURPRISES HER CHUMS

"I'M not a pig," cried Grace, striving to look
dignified, which is a rather difficult procedure
\vhen one is being hugged by three pairs of arms
at once. "I don't care how many times you spit
me, whatever that is, Mollie, but you shan't call
me a pig."

"Of course she shan't," said Betty soothingly.
"If she does it again, we'll try our hand at this
spitting business — "

"Goodness, sounds like a cat fight," chuckled
Grace, but Mollie uncerimoniously shook her into
attention.

"Grace, behave and tell us," she ordered.

"What?" asked Grace aggravatingly, but added
hastily as Mollie again raised the knitting needle
at a threatening angle : "All right, if you'll just
give me space enough to breathe I'll do any little
thing you ask."

With that the three jumped from the swing so
suddenly that Grace, the only occupant left,

27

28 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

bounced into the air and landed with a thump on
the cushions.

They laughed and drew up three chairs in a
semi-circle in front of her to make escape impos-
sible. Then three pairs of merry eyes focused
commandingly upon her.

"I didn't know it myself till last night," she
said in response to the tacit order. "Then it was
patriotic Aunt Mary who proposed it."

"Proposed what?" they cried.

"Well, that's what I'm going to tell you if you
give me half a chance. She said she felt as if
she owed something to us girls for having stood
so loyally behind Uncle Sam, and had decided
to offer us her cottage at Bluff Point to use as
long as we wanted it."

"Bluff Point!" cried Betty, while her eyes be-
gan to sparkle. "Why Grace ! isn't that the place
you were telling us about — "

"Where the quaint little house stands on a
bluff — " added Amy eagerly.

"Overlooking a sparkling white beach that leads
down to the ocean ?'' went on Betty.

"The very same," nodded Grace, and they
heaved a sigh of pure excitement and happiness.

"Isn't it wonderful," cried Mollie joyfully,
"how somebody is always doing something to
make us happy?"

GRACE SURPRISES HER CHUMS

29

'Yes, but when I said that to Aunt Mary last
night she smiled and looked wise — you know how
sweet she is — and said that that was the way hap-
piness always came to us — by helping others to
be happy."

"But we haven't done anything to make any-
body happy — particularly that is," said Mollie
wondering.

"I said that too," nodded Grace. "But she only
went on smiling, and I realized she must have
meant our work at the Hostess House."

"It's strange how everybody persists in calling
it work and giving us so much credit when it was
all such fun," said Betty. "But girls," she added,
laughing breathlessly, "the great fact is that we
are going to have another adventure in the open.
The very thought of it makes me want to roll in
the buttercups."

"Goodness, there's one open in the back
meadow," suggested Mollie. "You can roll in it,
if you want to."

"Well, I don't — I want a whole patch of them !"
cried Betty, while the rest laughed at Mollie's
picture. "My, I feel younger already."

"Well of course you need to," drawled Grace,
adding with a fond glance at the glowing Little
Captain : "You look so terribly like a dried-up
ancient, dear."

OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

"But when shall we start?" cried Mollie, com-
ing back to the all-absorbing topic at hand.
"Goodness, I'd like to throw a few clothes in a
suitcase and start right away — quick — this min-
ute— I can't wait !"

"Do you think it's catching?" asked Grace, anx-
iously.

"From the way I feel I should say it was al-
ready caught," twinkled Betty, adding eagerly:
"How long do you suppose we will have to wait,
Grace ? Did your Aunt Mary say when we could
have the cottage?"

"As soon as we want it," replied Grace, look-
ing surprised. "Didn't I tell you?"

"No you didn't," mimicked Mollie, adding as
she sprang to her feet impatiently : "I'd like to
know what we're waiting for anyway ! Why don't
we get started?"

"Now I know she's crazy," cried Betty, seizing
her chum and pulling her down upon the arm of
her chair. "Why we haven't decided anything
yet."

"What is there to decide?" cried Mollie, trying
to be patient and looking like a martyr.

"Why we don't even know how we're going to
get there yet," explained Betty soothingly.

"In the automobile, of course," cried Mollie,
jumping up again.

GRACE SURPRISES HER CHUMS

"Oh, can we?" cried Grace, forgetting to be
lanquid and bouncing eagerly in the swing.
"Mollie, that would be wonderful."

'Why of course we'll go in the car!" it was
Mollie's turn to look surprised. "What did you
think we were going to do — walk?"

'There are railroads, you know," Grace re-
minded her, relapsing into irony. "And as to
walking — well, we did that too before you got
your car, Mollie."

'Yes, and got sore feet," added Mollie.

'Well, now that we've decided not to go on
the railroad or walk," Amy broke in unexpectedly,
"I really don't see what we are waiting for."

"My goodness, there's another lunatic," cried
Grace, looking dispairingly at the Little Captain,
whose eyes twinkled merrily. 'What do you ex-
pect us to do — go just as we are?"

"No, but we can throw some things into a suit-
case— "

"How long do you suppose it will take us to
get there?" asked the Little Captain, coming to
Grace's rescue.

"Why, even in Mollie's car it will take two
days," said Grace, turning to Betty with the re-
lief of one who at last had a sane person to
reckon with. "Mollie and Amy evidently expect
to make it in a couple of hours."

32 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

"Oh well, I didn't know it was so far away/*
murmured Mollie, somewhat taken aback. "Of
course, then, we can't go until to-morrow."

The girls laughed merrily, and Betty hugged
her.

"We might," chuckled the latter, "even be
forced to wait till day after to-morrow."

"I won't do it!" cried Mollie, jumping up again.
"There's no reason in the world why we can't
start to-morrow."

"But, Mollie dear," insisted Betty mildly, "we
haven't even asked our folks whether we may go
or not — "

"As if we didn't know what they will say/'
broke in Mollie, but Betty went on without heed-
ing her.

"And we must have a chaperone, you know."

"Oh, I suppose so," sighed Mollie sinking down
m her chair resignedly, "but it's horribly tire-
some. I want to go now."

"You sound like Dodo with her candies," re-
ttiarked Grace, aimably helping herself to a lus-
cious milk chocolate filled with nuts. "Have one,
Mollie — it may make you feel better."

"It won't, but I will," said Mollie rather enig-
matically, reaching out a hand for the proffered
sweet. "Thank you, dear."

"But whom shall we have for a chaperone?"

GRACE SURPRISES HER CHUMS

33

cried Amy impatiently. "I'm almost as bad as
Mollie — I can hardly wait till to-morrow."

"Why," said Grace, nibbling daintily, "I
thought maybe you girls wouldn't mind if I asked
mother to go with us."

"Mind !" echoed Betty, while the others looked
at her in surprise. "Why of course we'd love
to have her! You know that. But I never
imagined she would care to go, she is so inter-
ested in Red Cross work and her clubs — "

'That's just it," said Grace, sitting up quickly,
"She's entirely worn out with work and worry
about Will, and I thought a little vacation with us
girls would help her out wonderfully. I'm not
sure she will go — I haven't asked her yet."

"Well, let's," cried Betty impulsively, jumping"*
to her feet. "She simply can't refuse if we all ask
her at once."

"Now you're saying something!" cried Mollie
fervently, albeit slangily, as she flung her arm
about the Little Captain and dragged her down
the steps. "Action is what we need — action, and
plenty of it."

The girls fairly ran the short distance from
Mollie's home to Grace's, and the people they met
on the way, greeted them heartily, musing as he or
she turned to go on: "There's probably some-
thing interesting in the air — the Outdoor Girls

34 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

always look like that when they have some new
adventure in tow." For Deepdale was very proud
and fond of its Outdoor Girls.

Mrs. Ford was just coming down the stairs
dressed to go out when the quartette burst in upon
her. She did look very tired and worn, as Grace
had said, but the smile that lighted her face at
sight of the girls made her appear ten years
younger.

" Mother," said Grace, taking one of her
mother's carefully gloved hands in her own and
leading her gently but firmly into the library, "we
have something very important to say to you/'

"Will it take long?" queried Mrs. Ford, smil-
ing at the other girls over her shoulder. "Be-
cause, if it will, I'm very much afraid I can't wait.
I'm a little late now."

"That," said Grace decidedly, as her mother
sank into a chair and the other girls grouped
themselves about her, "is exactly what we have
come to talk about. We think you need a little

•/

vacation."

"Vacation!" cried the lady, half rising from
her chair. "Why, my dear ! how can I take a va-
cation when my hands are so full of work now
that I am — "

"You don't have to take it," Grace interrupted
argumentatively, "we'll just give it to you."

GRACE SURPRISES HER OPIUMS

35

Mrs. Ford laughed helplessly and regarded the
eager young faces with amusement.

"Out with it, girls/' she commanded. " I know
you are plotting some terrible thing. What do
you intend to do, kidnap me ?"

"No, we're keeping that for a last resort," re-
turned Betty, and Mrs. Ford laughed outright
at the confession.

'We want," explained Grace, speaking fast for
fear of being interrupted, "to have you go with us
to Bluff Point. We need a chaperone, you know."

"I've no doubt of it," retorted her mother,
laughing, adding, with another anxious glance at
the clock: "But I'm afraid you will have to get
someone else, Honey. If I were free, I should
like nothing better, but you see how rushed I

am — *'

Ml

'But you're terribly tired, Mother, you know
you are," said Grace with unusual gentleness,
adding diplomatically: "What good will you be
to the Red Cross or to anyone else, I'd like to
know, if you let yourself get sick?"

"But I'm not sick," protested her mother, then
added with a sudden longing as the wild solitude
of Bluff Point rose before her eyes suggesting
utter peace and quiet, a chance to rest tired nerves
and gather strength for the last great drive:

"You're right, I am tired, terribly tired," and

36 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

the lines of weariness returning to her face. "I'd
love it, girls, but there's my work !"

It took the girls about five minutes of the hard-
est work they had ever done in their lives. But
they did what they had set out to do. At the end
of that time Mrs. Ford consented to start with
them whenever they were ready.

"Day after to-morrow ?" asked Mollie, her eyes
shining.

"I don't know why not," said Mrs. Ford, then
sprang to her feet with a cry of dismay. "Girls, I
completely forgot to telephone the Red Cross.
What will they think of me ?"

CHAPTER V

A PROBLEM SOLVED

"I WISH/' said Mollie, sitting back to view ap-
provingly the shining black hood of her car, "thafc
we had another machine. I'm afraid by the time
we've packed our bags and things into the ton-
neau we'll find it rather crowded. And for such
a long trip we ought to have plenty of room/'

'That's what I was thinking," agreed Amy,
rubbing a bit of nickle to a gleaming polish, for
the girls had gathered at Mollie's to help her
put the car in shape for the anticipated trip to
Bluff Point. And they had gone to their work
with a will, rubbing and polishing the big ma-
chine as they would have groomed a well-loved
horse. 'We will have our trunks sent, of course,
but we shall have to take our nighties and combs
and brushes and such things. We might put 'em
on the roof," she added hopefully.

"Yes, and we might wear 'em," said Grace
scornfully. "That is a brilliant idea."

"Well, I have one worth two of that," said
Betty, trying not to look mysterious.

37

38 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

"Betty, are you going to spring anything on
us?" cried Mollie, while the other two paused
with dust cloths uplifted.

"Not if you don't want me to/' returned the
Little Captain demurely.

"Betty, dear, I love you so," crooned Mollie,
running around the car and putting a rather oily
hand about Betty's waist. "You wouldn't want
such an ardent admirer to drop dead at your feet,
would you, now?"

"It would have the charm of novelty," chuckled
Betty, only to add quickly as Mollie made a
threatening gesture: "No, please don't kill me
yet. Come over here on the steps and Fll tell
you all about it."

"Yes, yes, go on," they cried, obediently rang-
ing themselves on the steps of the back porch and
fixing eager eyes upon her.

"Shoot !" Mollie commanded inelegantly.

"Well," said Betty speaking slowly to add to
the effect of her announcement, "I have a car!"

"A car !" they echoed, and Grace added : "Now
*I know she's crazy!"

"When ?" demanded Mollie, her eyes round and
black, as they always \vere under excitement.

"If you mean, when did I get it," answered
Betty, enjoying their surprise to the full, "I might
tell you that up to six o'clock last evening I had

A PROBLEM SOLVED 39

no more idea of owning a car than you did. How-
ever, at six-fifteen, I owned it," and her eyes
danced with the pride of ownership.

Then the girls fell upon her, all demanding ex-
planation of the miracle, till she raised her hand
pleadingly.

"Give me a chance," she begged. "How can
I tell you anything when you're making such a
noise?"

The girls seemed impressed with the common
sense of this. At any rate, they stopped talking
for the space of a half a minute.

"It was last night at dinner," explained Betty
hurriedly, seizing her opportunity. "Dad came
in a little late, and as he sat down he laughingly
asked us how we would like a racing car in the
family."

"A racing car!" they echoed.

"Of course we thought he was joking," con-
tinued Betty, "but when we found he was very
much in earnest of course we went wild with
excitement."

"I should think so," breathed Amy.

"But, Betty darling, how — " Mollie was be-
ginning when Betty cut her short by hurrying on
with her story.

"That's what we wanted to know, of course,"
she said. "It seems that one of Dad's clients owed

40 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

him a good deal of money, and although he, the
client, that is, had plenty of money, it was all tied
np in such a way that he couldn't get hold of it
right away, so he offered to give Dad his almost
new racing car in exchange. And/' here Betty
came to the most wonderful part of her story,
"since mother doesn't care for that type of car —
he gave it to me !"

"Betty, how mar-ve-lous !" breathed Mollie,
while Amy and Grace just stared.

"Can we see it? Have you got it at home?"
asked Amy, after a few minutes during which the
girls had been getting used to the wonderful
idea of Betty with a machine, and a racing ma-
chine at that.

"Oh, Betty, lead us to it," added Mollie yearn-
ingly.

"I don't know whether it's come yet or not,"
explained the Little Captain, as the" girls threw
aside dust rags and gingham aprons preparatory
to a concerted rush upon the new acquisition.
"That's why I didn't tell you about it sooner. I
was going to surprise you by taking you to it,"
she added, as they set off at a walk that was al-
most a run for the pretty Nelson house; "but
when Mollie spoke about another car I just
couldn't hold back any longer. Oh dear, I hope
it has come!"

A PROBLEM SOLVED

'Won't it be fun?' cried Mollie joyfully, exe-
cuting a little irrepressible skip in her delight.
'You can run it, Betty, of course, and take Grace
or Amy with you while our car comes behind — "

"With the luggage," finished Betty wickedly.
'Well you needn't be so conceited," retorted
Mollie, her nose in the air, while Betty looked
innocent.

"W'asn't that what you were going to say?"
she inquired.

However, there was no time for more conversa-
tion, for at that moment they turned a corner,
bringing Betty's house to sight, and what should
be going up the drive at that particular and
ecstatic moment but the graceful, low-bodied racer
itself!

With a shout the girls rushed forward. They
overtook the driver as he slowed to a stop, and
fairly danced with impatience while the man
pushed up his goggles, took off his hat, wiped
bis perspiring forehead, and slowly turned to
gir.ile at them.

"This is where Mr. Nelson lives, isn't it?" he
asked. "Mr. Todd asked me to bring the car
around — "

"Yes, yes, wre know all about it," interrupted
Betty, then added with a smile, as the man looked
surprised : "I suppose you think I'm terribly im-

42 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

patient, but, you see, the car is mine, and I can't
wait to try it out."

The man whistled and descended with alacrity.
The girls noticed rather absentmindedly that he
was a rather good looking young fellow, probably
one of the young men from Mr. Todd's office who
had volunteered to run this errand for him.

'Well, I don't blame you a bit for being in a
hurry," he said heartily, eyeing the beautiful lines
of the car with approval. "She sure is a great
little machine ! You are Miss Nelson, I suppose ?"
he added, turning to Betty. "You see," with evi-
dent embarrassment, "I promised to deliver the
car in person to Mr. Nelson — "

"Here he is, so there ought to be no difficulty
about that," said a jovial voice, and they turned
to find Mr. Nelson himself coming toward them.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Jameson. How do you
like my new acquisition? A beauty is it not?"

"I say so !" agreed the young fellow, and after
a few moments of general conversation, Mr. Nel-
son led him off toward the house, leaving the
girls to themselves. And that, as Mollie after-
ward remarked, "was just the most beautiful
thing he could have done !"

Before they had turned the corner of the house,
Betty had clambered in behind the steering wheel
and was bidding the girls follow.

A PROBLEM SOLVED 43

In their excitement they all tried to climb in,
forgetting that a car designed to seat two people
cannot by any stretch of imagination accommo-
date four. Then suddenly realizing what an ab-
surd picture they must be making, they began to
laugh.

"Well, now what are we going to do?" wailed
Mollie. "We can't all go at once/'

"Of course you can/' cried Betty busily ex-
amining her treasure, touching a lever here, a
button there, with loving fingers. "What, may I
ask, is the matter with the running boards?"

"Betty, you don't mean — "

"Yes, I do/' firmly.

"But we can't—"

"Well, then I'll have to take one at a time," de-
cided Betty, tooting the horn experimentally.
"Come on — who goes first ?"

"Oh, come on, we'll all go," cried Mollie danc-
ing with impatience. "You get in beside Betty,
Grace, since you're afraid of the running board,
and Amy and I'll hang on somewhere. Come on,
Amy. Be a sport, old girl."

Amy wavered for a moment, but the challenge
was too much for her, and she nodded her head in
assent.

"Thank goodness I can only die once," was her
cheerful comment.

44 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

So Grace climbed in beside the Little Captain,
while Amy and Mollie scrambled up on the run-
ning boards and clung to the sides of the car.
Then Betty tooted the horn triumphantly and be-
gan slowly to back down the drive.

"I don't know about this/' she remarked, as the
car made rather zigzagging work of it. "I've
driven mostly on a straight road, you know, and
I'm not very expert, even if I do know all about
a motor boat."

"So we see," commented Mollie wickedly, as
Betty nearly backed into a flower bed at one side
of the drive.

"Don't you think we'd better get off?" asked
Amy. "Till you turn into the road, anyway,
Betty ?" she added.

"Don't you dare," cried Betty, giving the wheel
a nervous little twist that caused Amy to groan
and clutch the side of the car tighter. "If you
make me stop now, I'll never get started again.
There!" as the car slid into the roadway, hesi-
tated a moment, then without a jar or a jerk,
glided swiftly along the smooth road, gathering
headway as it went. "Now we're all right."

"That was pretty work, Betty," complimented
Mollie, who, as an old and experienced driver,
felt capable of pronouncing judgment. "Now
let's see what this little car will do."

A PROBLEM SOLVED

45

"Not too fast," begged Amy, as Betty slid into
high gear. "Remember we're not used to this
kind of traveling, and we're apt to find ourselves
sitting in the road if you're not careful."

"Have you chosen your spot?" asked Betty,
her eyes twinkling*.

"Just the same, it might have been a good idea
to have brought some cushions along," said Mollie
ruefully. "We might have strapped them on and
used them the way you do life savers — in case of
emergency."

"My, you must be having a wonderful time,"
drawled Grace. "Have some candy Mollie — it
may help your courage."

"My courage doesn't need any help, thank you,"
snapped Mollie, adding wickedly : "Just for that
we ought to make you ride out here."

"Goodness, don't!" cried Betty, as she swung
the car around a corner and started once more
toward home. "The punishment wouldn't fit the
crime, Mollie. Besides, we'll be back in a few
minutes. Girls, she runs like a dream !"

"She's a wonder," agreed Mollie. "I guess
there's just about no limit to the speed she's capa-
ble of."

"Do you want me to let her out?" queried
Betty wickedly, but both Amy and Mollie pro-
tested vehemently.

46 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

"Some other time/' said Mollie, "when we're
not hanging on by our eyelids !"

A few minutes more, and they were again turn-
ing into the Nelson drive, which, by the way,
Betty took much more expertly this time. As
the car slowed, Amy and Mollie dropped off and
Amy opened the door for Lady Grace, who de-
scended slowly.

"Well, how do you like it?" cried Betty, jump-
ing out in her turn and regarding her new pos-
session with shining eyes. "Do you think she'll
do?"

"Do!" they cried, and Mollie added, patting the
smooth side of the car with admiring fingers :

"She's a wonder, Betty — as Roy would say, *a
perfect pippin.' Good-bye," she added suddenly,
starting down the drive.

"Where are you going?" cried Betty, as they
looked after her surprised.

"Home," she answered, adding with a chuckle:
"I've got to finish cleaning my old car. It's poor
old nose must be terribly out of joint."

CHAPTER VI

LIFE AND DEATH

THE next morning Betty awoke to the sound of
the telephone ringing imperatively in the hall. She
got up, dragged the instrument from its stand and
spoke drowsily into the receiver.

"Hello — who — why, Grace, how did you hap-
pen to wake up ? — Why, Grace, what is the mat-
ter, dear? — You have heard what? — Will is
wounded ? — Oh, Honey, how awful ! Is it serious ?
— Never mind, don't try to tell me about it now.
I'll get dressed just as fast as I can and come right
over — Yes, yes, in about five minutes."

Mechanically Betty replaced the receiver on the
hook and hurried back into her room. Then
swiftly she began to dress.

Will ! Dear old Will was \vounded ! That had
been about all she had been able to gather from
Grace's sobbing message — but that was enough.
He was the first of the boys to fall out there in
the trenches, and who knew but what Allen might
be the next !

And here only yesterday they had been so

47

48 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

happy, as happy as they could be with that shadow
always hanging over them. This was the day,
too — the incongruous thought struck Betty as she
hastily pulled on her clothing — the day they had
set for their trip to Bluff Point. Well, of course,
it was all off now. Who wanted to go anyway?

These thoughts and many more raced through
Betty's head as she put the finishing touches to her
toilet and crushed a garden hat on her pretty soft
hair. She was a very attractive picture as sha
ran down the stairs, but she neither knew it nor,
cared.

"Why, Betty dear, what is the meaning of the
hat?" her mother inquired, smiling as her young
daughter burst into the dining room. "You don't
need it to eat breakfast in, you know. Who called
on the 'phone?'5

"I'm not going to eat breakfast, at least not
right away. But there, of course, you don't
know," answering her mother's look of surprise.
"Grace called up and, oh, Mother, poor Will has
been wounded ! I don't want to c-cry," her chin
quivered and she turned away for a moment to
get control of the lump in her throat.

"I know, dear," said her mother, putting an
understanding arm about her, "and so I'm not
going to offer very much sympathy — just now.
Were you going over to see Grace, poor child ?':

LIFE AND DEATH 49

Betty squeezed her mother's hand gratefully
and nodded.

"I'll be back in a little while," she said finally,
getting the better of that annoying lump. "I just
want to find out all about it and give Grace my
sympathy."

And the Little Captain found poor Grace ia
need of all the sympathy she could possibly give
her. She was sitting in the darkest corner of the
library, all crumpled up in a big chair, her eyes
red with weeping and a damp ball of handkerchief
clutched tightly in one hand.

At sight of Betty running toward her, she began
to sob again, the tears running down her face un-
noticed.

"Betty, Betty, I knew you'd come," she cried,
as Betty knelt beside her and put two loving arms
about her. "I'm so m-miserable I just don't want
to live at all."

"But, Honey, it isn't nearly as bad as it might
be," said Betty, trying to sooth while wanting
desperately to know herself just how bad it was.
"You said he was only wounded, didn't you?"

"That's what the telegram said," Grace an-
swered, wiping her eyes drearily. "But how do
we know but what he may be dead by this time?"

'We don't know, of course," returned Betty, re-
covering a little of her optimism while she unos-

50 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

tentatiously handed Grace a fresh handkerchief,
"but the chances are against it."

"But perhaps they said he was just wounded to
1-let us down easy," cried Grace, evidently con-
vinced that there was no bright side to look upon.

"The Government doesn't do that; it hasn't
time," argued Betty. "It always lets you know
the worst at once."

A gleam of hope came into Grace's eyes.

"Then you think there's a chance?" she queried,
sitting up straight and beginning to look a little
more interested in life. "Do you think he may
get well ?"

"Why, of course," said Betty, adding reason-
ably: "If you would tell me just what the tele-
gram said, I'd have more to go on."

"That's all it said — what I told you/' replied
Grace, relaxing wearily. 'Just said that he was
wounded — nothing more. Dad is writing to
Washington to try to get more news. Of course,
he has a great deal of influence, being a lawyer
with a good many friends in Washington, and he
may be able to find out something. I don't know."

"Here come Mollie and Amy/' said Betty,
glancing through the window. "I guess," she
added thoughtfully, "Amy probably feels pretty
bad too."

"But she's not his sister," cried Grace, with a

LIFE AND DEATH 5I

sudden flare-up of jealousy that made Betty smile
in spite of her heartache. She could not help
wondering how Grace would have taken it if it had
been Roy instead of Will who had been wounded.

But Grace's little fit of jealousy did not last
long at sight of Amy's drawn, white face and the
traces of tears in her eyes. Instead, she opened
her arms to this other girl who was not Will's
sister, yet loved him too, and for a moment they
cried on each others shoulders.

Meanwhile Betty and Mollie wandered over to
the window and stood looking thoughtfully out
upon the lawn and not seeing any of it.

"Goodness!" said Mollie after a moment,
shrugging her shoulders a little impatiently, "of
course, it's terrible to have Will wounded, and I
can imagine Grace being all cut up about it, but
she — and Amy too — act as if he were dead."

"I know," said Betty softly, then added, look-
ing a little quizzically at Mollie : "But you know
I don't blame them so much when I try putting
myself in their place. Of course we love Will, but
suppose it had been Allen, for instance, or Frank."

Mollie started and uttered a little cry of pro-
test.

"Oh, but that would be different," she said
weakly, then catching Betty's eye, added soberly :
I see what you mean, of course. I suppose I

«

52 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

would act just the same, under different circum-
stances."

However, having had their cry out and feeling
better and much more cheerful in consequence,
Grace and Amy called to them and they crossed
the room quickly.

"We've decided," said Amy then, "that, since
we can't find out any more until Mr. Ford hears
from Washington, we might as well make the
best of it."

"And we want to talk about our trip," Grace
added.

"Our trip?" echoed Mollie. "Why I thought
of course we would give that up."

"I did too," explained Grace. "But when I
spoke of it to Dad, he said we were to do nothing
of the kind. He said we couldn't do poor Will" —
in spite of all her resolution her voice broke on
the name — "any good by staying at home and
moping, and that he would let us know as soon as
he had any authentic word from Washington.
And he insists on mother's going too."

And so it happened that a few hours later a
very sober group of Outdoor Girls started on
what should have been a joyful trip, with heavy
hearts and gloomy foreboding. Even the new
racer did not serve to liven the party.

The only time they laughed was when they

LIFE AND DEATH

53

ir

tc

found Dodo and Paul, the incorrigible twins,
hidden away under some raincoats in Mollie's car.

"Oh, but we want to go 'long," Dodo protested
vehemently when discovered.

'We just got to go 'long," Paul had added.
'No, you mustn't 'got to/ ' Mollie contradicted
them, while the others looked on amused. "Come,
Dodo, honey, be a good girl for sister and come
down. You too, Paul. We're in an awful hurry."

"But we not goin' to come down," Dodo in-
sisted.

" 'Less," Paul added diplomatically, "we get
tandies,"

"Lots of tandies," Dodo supplemented.

"Here, take these," Grace offered, holding out
a box of sweets which, despite all her trouble, she
had not forgotten.

"Don't give them the box — just take out a
few," Mollie suggested, but Grace insisted, while
her face clouded again.

"I don't want them, anyway. I don't know
why I took them. Habit, I suppose."

However, hope and optimism did not consent
to be kept long in the background on such a day
as this when the sun shone its brightest and the
birds sang their hardest and the very wind seemed
to be whispering of happier times to come.

"Well," sighed Amy at last, for she and Mrs.

54 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

Ford were riding in Mollie's car, while Grace was
with Betty in the racer, "it's plain to be seen that
nature at least doesn't know that anything horrible
or cruel is happening 'over there/ I don't think
I ever saw a more wonderful day."

"Maybe it is a good omen/' said Mollie, quick
to seize her opportunity. "I feel it in my bones
that it won't be long before we will hear good
news of Will — and you know my prophetic bones
never lie."

"I don't know anything of the sort," protested
Amy, although the remark brought a reluctant
smile to her lips. "I've known those same
prophetic bones to slip up before this."

"Which reminds me," Mollie cried, apropos of
nothing in particular, "that if we don't put on
more speed we'll not reach our destination before
dark. I wonder why Betty doesn't hurry," for
Betty and Grace in the speedy little racer were
taking the lead.

She signaled the latter with three long and
three short toots of the horn. A moment later the
racer slowed down and Betty turned around to
see what was wanted.

"You're too slow," cried Mollie. "If you don't
go a little faster, we'll have to run over you."

"Oh-ho, look who's talking!" gibed the Little
Captain, adding wickedly: "We were afraid to

LIFE AND DEATH 5:

speed up for fear of leaving you too far behind."

"Now I know we'll have to run over you/' cried
Mollie fiercely. "Toot, toot — out of my way !"

But Betty evidently had no intention of getting
out of anybody's way, for with a challenging blast
of her horn she put the little car at high and it
sprang forward gleefully.

Behind her, Mollie's car, like a big cat after a
mouse, gave exultant chase, fairly eating up the
road. And yet Betty maintained the distance be-
tween them' — even drew away a little.

"Goodness," cried Mollie suddenly, her eyes
sparkling, "I may be mistaken, but I think she
wants a race!"

CHAPTER VII

THE RACE

THEN began some fun that was novel and ex-
citing even to the Outdoor Girls, who thought
they had tried just about every sport there was.

Mollie bent her straight little back over the
steering wheel, gave her more power and the big
tar fairly flew ahead, lessening perceptibly the
distance between it and the racer.

Ho\vever, Betty, looking behind, seemed not in
the least concerned. On the contrary, she waved
her hand joyously as she recognized Mollie had
taken her challenge. Then she too bent over the
wheel with her eyes glued to the flying ribbon of
road ahead.

"Betty, Betty, stop it!" cried Grace, holding
frantically to her hat and the side of the car.
"Suppose we should m-meet somebody — a wagon
or a m-machine."

"So much the worse for it," retorted Betty
gayly. 'You keep your eye on Mollie, Grade
dear, and tell me whether she's gaining — that's a
good girl."

56

THE RACE

57

:ilf you think I'm going to help you break our
necks-—" Grace sputtered, but Betty cut her short
'Well, if you don't I will have to look for my-
self," she said, adding maliciously : "And then we
will have a smash-up !"

Grace groaned and looked behind her.
They're gaining," she cried, and then all at
once the spirit of the thing caught her — the con-
test of speed was getting into her blood. "Oh,
Betty, don't let 'em," she almost screamed, above
the noise of the motor and the rushing wind.
"They're not more than fifty feet behind now !"

Betty gave her a swift look, smiled to herself,
and once more fixed her dancing eyes on the road
ahead.

"All right," she crowed. "Just watch me rua
away from them. I wouldn't have had the
heart," she added with a chuckle, "if Mollie hadn't
brought it all on herself."

"But they're still gaining," insisted Grace
nervously, trying to look behind, ahead, keep her
seat, hat, and dignity all at the same time. "Look,
Betty, they're only about thirty feet behind!"

"That's near enough," Betty decided, and lean-
ing over suddenly, did something to the car that
Grace never quite understood. Anyway, it had
the desired effect. The little racer fairly leapt for-
ward and, like a horse that has been given his

58 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

head for the first time, took the bit between its
teeth and bolted.

Behind them Mollie looked her amazement.
She was getting every bit of speed out of her ma-
chine of which it was capable, and then, just as
victory was within sight, Betty was doing an in-
conceivable, unbelievable thing — she was winning
the race!

Mrs. Ford and Amy had been enjoying the race
tremendously, but now they leaned forward in sur-
prise.

"Goodness, she's beating us," cried Amy.

"No!" snapped Mollie sarcastically. "Who
would have supposed it ?"

"Perhaps it is because Betty's car is so much
lighter," suggested Airs. Ford consolingly. "We
have all the luggage and wraps, too."

"Oh, that wouldn't make so much difference,"
denied Mollie, who was too good a sportsman to
make excuses for herself. "Betty's racer has the
speed, that's all."

"Well, they're just about out of sight now,"
said Amy, leaning back resignedly. "I only hope
Betty doesn't run into anything and have a smash-
up. She hasn't driven a car as much as you,
Mollie."

"Oh, Betty'll take care of herself," said Mollie,
though she was slightly mollified by this tribute to

THE RACE

59

her superior experience, if not superior speed. "I
guess," she added, after a moment's reflection,
"I'd better sell this old car and get a racer too."

Mrs. Ford laughed softly, the first time she had
laughed or thought of laughing since receiving
the news of Will's being wounded.

"Don't go back on an old friend for its first
offence, Mollie," she chided, adding diplomati-
cally : "A racing car is just fine for speed, but I
think your automobile is much more sociable and
comfy."

'Well, I'm glad there's something nice about
it," said Mollie, for she had not yet recovered from
her surprise and chagrin. "I hope," she added,
as a sudden thought struck her, "that Betty doesn't
get too far ahead. I don't know this part of the
country very well and Betty has the map."

That will be the next thing," said Amy, with
a sigh, and Mollie looked at her sharply.

"What ?" she demanded.

'Why, that we'll get lost," Amy explained.
"Wasn't that what you meant?"

"Oh, I hope not," said Mrs. Ford, a little anx-
iously. "Perhaps we'll be able to see them when
we round this curve, Mollie."

But they rounded several curves, and still no
sign of Betty's car. Then happened what Mollie
had secretly been fearing would happen. They

6o OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

came to a crossroads and a sudden stop at one
and the same moment.

"Now, what?" queried Amy, in the tone of
resignation that never failed to rub Mollie the
wrong way. "Something the matter with the
engine?"

"No, the engine's all right," snapped Mollie,
adding, irritably: "But everything else is all
wrong."

'What, for instance?" queried Mrs. Ford sooth-
ingly. She knew that the first defeat Mollie had
ever experienced would be bound to rankle and
was prepared to make allowances. "If the en-
gine is all right, why don't we go on ?"

'Which way?" queried Mollie, spreading out
her arms with a hopeless gesture. "There are
two roads, one looks as good as the other, and
we haven't the slightest idea in the world which
to take."

"Oh !" gasped Amy.

Mrs. Ford gave a low whistle as she saw the
fix they were in.

"Then if Betty doesn't realize our predicament
and come back pretty soon, we'll either have to
stay here indefinitely, or go back the way we came,
is that it?"

"Yes," nodded Mollie, adding truthfully and
more than a little anxiously : "Only I'm not quite

THE RACE 6 1

sure I know just how we came. As I said, this is
unfamiliar country to me."

Amy groaned.

"Then we shall be lost for fair," she said. "Oh,
why did Betty do such a foolish thing?"

Mollie was about to retort when a cloud of dust
in the distance and a faint chug-chug made her
swallow her words.

"What's that?" she cried. "It sounds like a
motor. "I wonder — "

"Yes, it is!" cried Amy, straining her eyes to
see through the cloud of dust. "It's only a little
car, and it's coming at about ninety miles an
hour."

At this reference to Betty's speed, Mollie
winced a little but gave a relieved sigh neverthe-
less. For by this time the car was near enough
to be identified beyond doubt. It was a racer, and
there was a girl at the wheel.

A few moments later Betty herself, with a grin,
hailed them,

"Hello," she cried, adding as the car slowed to
a standstill: "This time the joke's on us. We
were so busy running away from you that we took
the wrong road. This one ends about two miles
up in somebody's farm."

"It's lucky something stopped you," said Mollie
dryly, adding as she cocked one eye at the sun:

62 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

'Well, let's be getting along. We'll have to
hurry and make up for lost time."

"Do you still want to get ahead of us ?" asked
Betty, as a moment later she swung her car into
the right road. "Because if you do — "

"Go on," cried Mollie, exasperated, yet begin-
ning to laugh, for after all Mollie was a good
loser. "Some way or other I'll get even with you,
Betty Nelson. Meanwhile hustle !"

And Betty hustled, with Mollie keeping just
far enough behind to avoid the cloud of dust
the little car threw up. For an hour more the
motors purred rhythmically, eating up mile after
mile, until finally the girls were compelled by
ravenous and healthy appetities to stop for lunch.

They had brought two big hampers, packed
full with sandwiches, fruit and cake and also
something to drink, and after the long ride in
the open the very thought of these delicacies
brought, as Grace said, "the tears of longing to
their eyes."

As Mrs. Ford handed one of the baskets over
the seat to Mollie in front, Betty and Grace
tumbled out of their car and came running toward
them.

"Are you going to get out and eat, in romantic
fashion, by the wayside?" queried Grace, eyeing
a pile of sandwiches hungrily. "Or are you going

THE RACE 63

to sit in state in the car and let us occupy the
running board?"

"We'll give you one of the hampers/'* offered
Mrs. Ford, but Mollie gasped in dismay.

"Oh, please don't," she begged. "Don't you
see — there are only two of them to our three.
And you want to give them half the lunch!"

They laughed at her, and Betty offered a solu-
tion.

Far be it from us to rob you, Honey," she
said soothingly. "We'll sit right here on this
rock—"

"Oh, goodness! who cares where we sit as
long as we get something," groaned Grace.
"Mollie, I'm dying."

"Well as long as you die out there it's all
right," retorted Mollie unfeelingly. Nevertheless,
she handed the sufferer a ham sandwich and a
hard boiled egg, which the latter came as near to
grabbing as her good breeding would permit.

However, when they had finished the lunch,
burned up what odds and ends remained, and had
once more started on their way, they found that
the shadow of unhappiness which the excitement
of the race had almost banished, was returning
again.

In front with Betty, Grace sighed so dolefully
that the Little Captain looked at her inquiringly,

64 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

an action which almost brought about a collision
with a tree by the wayside.

"Betty, what are you doing?"

"Trying to kill us," replied Betty serenely.
"And if you give any more sighs like that, I'll
do it."

"I didn't know I sighed," said Grace gloomily.
"But it wouldn't be any wonder if I did. I feel
as if I were made up of them — sighs, I mean."

Betty was silent a moment, then she asked sud-
denly :

"When does your father expect to hear from
Washington?"

"Not before the end of the week, anyway. And
by that time," Grace paused to control the tremb-
ling of her lips, "nobody knows what may have
happened. For all we know Will may be-
dead."

'

r

CHAPTER VIII

RED RAGS

WELL, we've been making pretty good speed
for the last three hours," said Mollie, taking first
one hand, then the other, from the steering wheel
and stretching her cramped fingers experimentally.
"Now if nothing else happens — "

The sound of an explosion cut short the rest
of the sentence, and she put on the brakes, at the
same time tooting a signal to Betty. The latter
stopped her car and came running back to see
what had happened.

"Tire," said Mollie laconically, forestalling the
inevitable questions. "I knew our luck had been
too good to be true. Well," with the air of a
martyr acceping the inevitable, "I suppose there's
nothing to do but get busy and fix it, though,
of course, this spoils our chances of getting to
Bensington to-night," Bensington being the town
midway between Deepdale and Bluff Point where
they had planned to spend the night. It was also
the only town for miles around that boasted a

hotel.

65

66 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

"Oh, I don't know/' said Betty in reply to
Mollie's gloomy prediction. ;'It won't be the
first time we've accomplished the impossible."

"But it will soon be dark."

"Goodness ! it won't be dark for hours and
hours," Betty laughed at her. "And this oughtn't
to take us more than half an hour at the longest.
Come on now, let's get busy."

Thus inspired, the girls "got busy," but they
were tired with the long drive and everything
seemed to go wrong. Their usually skillful
fingers fumbled, the tire was "too big or too little
or something," to quote Amy, and at the end of a
quarter of an hour's useless struggle their tempers
were worn to a frazzle and they were ready to
cry.

"Well, I never had anything act like that be-
fore," cried Mollie irritably. "I'd like to give
the person that wrote about the 'depravity of
inanimate things' a medal. The old tire's got
a mean disposition, that's all."

"Well, it isn't the only one," Grace was be-
ginning, when Mollie turned and glared at her.

"If you mean me —

"I meant all of us," Grace explained. "As long
as we have been going together, this is the first
time I can remember when all of us have been in
the doleful dumps at once."

RED RAGS 67

This brought a reluctant smile even to Mollie's
gloomy countenance, and Betty laughed merrily.

"Perhaps it's just as well," said the Little
Captain, adding with a chuckle: "It's the same
way with onions — if everybody eats 'em, no one
can notice the unpleasantness in the other fellow."

This brought a real laugh, and Mollie said
fondly :

"I always knew you were a 'philosophiker/
Betty, dear. But," she added, vindictively kick-
ing the tire that lay at her feet, "all the philoso-
phy in the world won't put this tire on for us.
And we can't very well get to Bensington on three
wheels and a rim."

"No !" cried Grace, sarcastically. "Who would
have guessed it?"

Mollie started to retort, but the threatened
resumption of hostilities was cut short by the
sound of a motor in the distance.

"Hark!" cried Mollie, a dramatic hand raised
to a listening ear. "Do I hear the approach of
an angel?"

"If 3'ou do, he has a pretty earthly means of
transportation," laughed Betty. "To me, it
sounds like a machine or a motorcycle."

"How can you?" cried Mollie, still dramatically,
poised. "It is an angel, I tell you, come to help
us out of our predicament."

68 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

"It is a motorcycle/' cried Amy excitedly.
'The engine is making too much noise for an
automobile."

:<Well," suggested Mrs. Ford quietly, "whoever
it is, I think it might be a good idea to get out
of the middle of the road."

''But if we do," Grace protested, "he'll go right
past us."

"And if we don't we'll get run over," added
Mrs. Ford.

The girls looked at each other helplessly.

"I tell you," cried Betty suddenly, her eyes
sparkling with a new idea. "Give me that old
red rag we use for a duster, Mollie, and I'll go
and signal your angel."

"Betty, you'll do no such thing," cried Amy,
shocked, while Mollie dug under the seat for the
improvised signal flag. "Think of signaling a
strange man!"

"But you forget he's an angel in disguise,"
laughed Betty, snatching the dust cloth Mollie
held out to her. "Anyway," she added, over her
shoulder, "desperate cases require desperate
remedies," and was off round the turn of the road.

There wasn't much time to spare either, for
when she had clambered up on a rock by the side
of the road, the motorcyclist was only a few
hundred feet away.

RED RAGS 69

At $ie unexpected sight of a red rag wildly
waved by a very graceful little figure in a gray
traveling suit, he looked surprised but promptly
put on his brakes. He leapt from his machine
and came running toward her while Betty de-
scended from her perch just in time to meet him
at the foot of the rock.

"Is there anything the matter?'* he asked, in
a nice voice that Betty immediately liked. In fact,
she liked nearly everything about him, from his
sunburned face and merry blue eyes to his trim
leather boots and puttees. So she gave him a
friendly little smile that showed all her dimples,
much to his secret admiration.

"Why, yes, there is," she answered, adding
with a chuckle : "If there hadn't been, I shouldn't
have been perched on that old rock, waving a
ridiculous red dust rag!"

Then, as they made their way around the turn
in the road toward the car where Mrs. Ford and
the girls were waiting for them, she explained
the situation, adding with another smile : "You
see, I had to stop you some way, so I chose the
very first method I could think of."

"It certainly was effective," he answered, smil-
ing.

Then after mutual introductions, by which the
girls learned that their new friend's name was

OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

Joe Barnes and that he had been on his way to
Deeming, a village about five miles away when
Betty's red flag had brought him to so sudden a
stop, the youth went to work with a will at the
tire while the girls alternately watched him and
helped by handing him the tools he needed.

In what seemed no time at all to the girls he
had finished his task and had pulled out a hand-
kerchief and was wiping his begrimed hands
with it.

"My, you did do that in a hurry!" sighed
Mollie, patting the new tire happily. You did
in fifteen minutes what five of us couldn't do in
half an hour."

"You were probably tired," he answered, glanc-
ing at the car, which gave unmistakable evidence
of the many miles they had come that day. "Are
you, have you — " he hesitated, evidently not
knowing whether his question would be taken in
good part or not. "Are you going very much
farther ?"

"Only about a hundred miles," laughed Betty,
then added in answer to his startled glance : "Not
to-night, though. We are just going as far as
Bensington."

"But Bensington is about fifteen miles away,"
he protested, adding as he glanced up at a lower-
ing gray cloud overhead : "And if I know any-

RED RAGS 71

tiling about weather signs, you will have to use
some speed to get there before the storm."

"The storm!" they cried simultaneously, fol-
lowing his glance, while Mollie added petulantly :

"Goodness, haven't we had enough troubles
for one day without getting a drenching into the
bargain ?"

"But we haven't got the drenching yet," Mrs.
Ford reminded her, adding, with a cordial smile
as she held out her hand to Joe Barnes: "We
don't know how to thank you Mr. Barnes, for
taking all this trouble for us."

"Please don't," he begged, flashing his nice
smile upon them. "I am only too glad to have
been of assistance. And now, if I might sug-
gest—"

Another glance at the ominous cloud which
had grown bigger and blacker even in these few
minutes, sent the girls scrambling unceremoni-
ously to their seats while Joe Barnes lifted his hat
and stood waiting for them to start. Once his
eyes rested upon Betty, and there was so much
undisguised admiration in them that she flushed
prettily and threw in the clutch with a jerk that
was not at all skillful.

"Good-bye," they called, and "good-bye," he
answered, as the two cars sprang forward in a
cloud of dust. Not until they were out of sight

72 OUTDOOR C1RLS AT BLUFF POINT

did Joe Barnes turn away and retrace his steps
toward his deserted motorcycle.

t/

*Joie, my boy," he communed with himself,
shaking his head over the memory of Betty's
dimples, "that little Miss Nelson is one girl in a
million. I wonder now," slowly mounting his
machine and looking reflectively at the road in
front of it, "why I didn't ask if I might call."
Then the absurdity of the idea made him laugh
at himself. 'What nonsense to think of taking
advantage of an accident — Where was it
they said they were stopping for the night?
Oh, yes, Bensington. Well, he might go there
and take a chance on seeing them — her. Fate
might even be kind to him and burst some more
tires!" Then he laughed at himself again and
started his motor.

Meanwhile Grace, who had noticed Joe
Barnes' expressive glance in Betty's direction and
the latter's subsequent confusion, commented
upon the coincidence.

"Goodness, Betty," she drawled lightly, "I al-
ways knew you were a heart breaker, but I never
saw you make a conquest in so short a time.
Half an hour and — poof — it's all over but the
shouting."

Betty gave an annoyed little laugh.

"Don't be foolish, Grade," she commanded,

RED RAGS

73

adding reflectively as she skillfully avoided a rock
in the road : "He was awfully nice looking
though, and pleasant."

"Of course !"

"But I couldn't help wondering," Betty went
on, as though talking to herself, "why he was
here at all when his country needs him."

"Um — yes, that was rather strange," mused
Grace. "One isn't used to seeing a young, good-
looking and apparently healthy boy on this side
of the water these days, unless he's in khaki. I
wonder if our knight by the wayside is by any
chance one of those insects we term — "

"Slackers?" finished Betty, adding in quick de-
fense: "No, I'm quite sure he isn't that kind.
You know we have had a good chance to study
both types, and he doesn't look like a slacker."

"Granted," agreed Grace, adding with a quick
change of mood: "Just the same, it makes me
feel desperate to see any young fellow running at
his own free will about the country, evidently en-
joying life, while our boys are giving up every-
thing—"

"But, if Joe Barnes isn't a slacker," Betty re-
minded her gently, "he is probably passionately
envying our boys the right to 'give up every-
thing'."

"Perhaps," replied Grace, eyes fixed moodily

74 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

upon the flying landscape. "But when I think of
Will—'

For a long time there was silence. Then Betty,
gave a little start and regarded with disfavor a
big drop that rested on the third finger of her
right hand. She immediately resigned the guid-
ance of the car to her left hand while she held
up the right for Grace's inspection.

"What's the matter with it?" queried the lat-
ter, who had been engrossed in her not too happy
meditations.

"Rain," cried Betty succinctly, adding with a
whimsical little smile : "I don't know whether Joe
Barnes is a slacker or not, but I do know he's a
good prophet. We surely shall have to put on
some speed if we want to reach Bensington before
the storm!"

CHAPTER IX

THUNDER AND MUD

"You don't mean it's raining!" cried Grace,
holding out a hand to see for herself. "Oh, dear>
and we have several miles to go before we even
reach the outskirts of Bensington. What shall
we do now?"

"I don't know/' answered Betty, while a wor-
ried frown wrinkled her pretty forehead. "I
don't know just how far out we are. Oh, there's
a signboard. What does it say, Grade? You
can read it better than I."

"Ten miles to Bensington," Grace read, lean-
ing far out of the car. "Oh Betty, we can't pos-
sibly make it ! Listen to that !"

"That" was an ominous rumble of thunder, and
Betty's pretty forehead puckered still more.

"Well, we can at least put the top up," she said
practically. "That will keep the worst of it off
anyway, and if we hurry we may have a chance of
beating it yet."

Betty brought the car to a stop, jumped out on
the road with Grace at her heels, and waited for

75

;6 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

Mollie to come up. They had not long to waitj
for a moment later Mollie stopped her car with a
grinding of brakes and came running up to her
chums.

;<I was wondering how long you were going to
ignore the warnings of nature," she said, with a
little grimace. "That cloud has been growing
with horrible rapidity for the last five minutes.
What are your plans, Captain?" and she favored
Betty with a true military salute.

"I wish I had some," said the latter, cocking a
still more anxious eye at the threatening cloud.
"And all I've been able to think of so far is the
very original idea of putting up the top."

"And side curtains," supplemented Mollie,
with a chuckle. "Strange as it may seem, even I
have been favored with that inspiration."

"Well, let's get busy," suggested Amy, with
practical, though slangy, emphasis. "We're apt
to get drowned while we stand here talking."

It was easy to see by the way they went to work-
that the girls agreed with her. Even Mrs. Ford
gave willing, though inexperienced, aid, and in a
very short time they had lifted the tops, adjusted
the side curtains and made all snug for the ex-
pected downpour.

Nor did they have very much time to spare.
While they had been working, the thunder had

THUNDER AND MUD 77

grown louder and more insistent and now the rain
began to fall in earnest.

"Duck!" cried Betty inelegantly, and they ran
for shelter.

"Well," said Betty, as she pressed the self-
starter and the engine purred evenly, "it's bad,
but it might be a good deal worse. We can't get
wet unless it's an unusually heavy downpour."

"Oh, it isn't getting wet that bothers me so
much," said Grace, and Betty looked at her in
surprise. "It's the roads," she added by way of
explanation. "I've heard Aunt Mary say that they
have terribly heavy storms in this part of the coun-
try, and sometimes in half an hour the roads get
almost impassable. Many a machine has been
known to sink three or four inches in mud, and
sometimes they get in so deep they have to be
hauled out."

"What a cheerful prospect!" cried Betty, dis-
mayed, adding, as the rain beat against the wind-
shield in steady, driving sheets : "Especially as this
storm bids fair to be a record breaker. Look how
muddy the roads are already."

"And we haven't passed more than two or three
wagons all the way out," wailed Grace. "And
they didn't look strong enough to pull a toy ma-
chine out. Oh, Betty, look out !"

The admonition was occasioned by a seemingly

7S OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

sudden wild desire on the part of the car to stand
on two wheels while it waved the other two spin-
ningly in the air.

Betty, though undeniably frightened, succeeded
in persuading the erring wheels to the muddy
road again. Then she slackened her speed and
began to laugh hysterically.

"I don't see anything to laugh about," pro-
tested Grace, still breathless with apprehension.

"Neither do I," admitted Betty, adding whim-
sically. "But I had either to laugh or cry, so I de-
cided to laugh. After all, you must admit, it was
a wonderful skid."

"The best of its kind," admitted Grace dryly.
"But please don't try it again, Honey, it has a
wearing effect on my nerves !"

They were silent for a while after that, while
Betty regarded the increasingly muddy road
ahead of her with anxious eyes. She had been
forced to slacken her speed more and more until
now they were barely crawling along.

rTm afraid we're in an awfully tight fix," she
said at last. "We're just plowing through this
mud, and if it's hard on us, what must it be for
Mollie, whose car is twice as heavy as this. Look
behind, will you, Gracie, and see how she's coming
along?"

"She is just coming, and that's all," reported

THUNDER AND MUD 79

Grace, after a prolonged scrutiny through the
rain-glazed window. "Goodness, we've been out
in storms before, but I never saw anything like
this. And listen to that thunder — o-oh !"

A terrific clap of thunder caused Grace to clap
her hands over her ears with a little moan, while
even steady-nerved Betty jumped in her seat and
took a tighter grip of the steering wheel.

"Oh, what shall we do!" cried Grace, for she
hated a thunderstorm worse than she hated any-
thing else on earth. 'We can't go on this way,
Betty. We're likely to get struck any moment."

"Well, I don't see that we'll be any less likely to
get struck if we stand still," retorted Betty, a little
sharply, for the situation was becoming wearing,
to say the least. :<If you can suggest any way
that we can get out of this fix — " the sentence was
cut short by a still louder and more terrifying
clap of thunder.

Grace huddled in her seat, miserably trying not
to die of fright

"Is Mollie still following us?'* asked Betty,
after an interval of weird flashes, crashing thun-
der, and rain beating relentlessly against the glass
in front and turning the road to a sea of mud.
"If she should get stuck I don't know what we
would do."

'Yes, she's still struggling," replied Grace.

So OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

"But it's getting so dark I can't more than just
make out the lines of the car. Oh, Betty, don't
you suppose we must be pretty close to Bensing-
ton?"

"No, I don't," Betty replied wearily. "You
see how we've been traveling — not more than a
snail's pace, and it won't be very long before we
shall have to stop altogether. I'm surprised that
Mollie has been able to keep going so long. You
will have to keep your eye on her all the time,
now, Grace, since it is getting so dark. We don't
want to lose her."

"But,: ' Grace su^ested hesitantly. "I don't see

C_5 Cj ^ '

that we could do them very much erood by stay-

* j *>

ing here with them, if they do get stuck.
Wouldn't it be better to go on and try to maka
Bensington? Then we could send help back to
them."

"I've thought of that," said Betty simply, "and
it would work all right provided we did manage
to reach Bensington. But the probability is that
we would be forced to stop a little further on, and
I must say I don't exactly enjoy the prospect of
spending the night alone on this deserted road."

Grace shivered, but answered with a nervous
little laugh : "I don't know but what we would
be safe enough at that. If we can't get through,
probably nobody else could."

THUNDER AND MUD Si

the same," said Betty decidedly, "I think
I would rather cling to the old theory that there
is safety in numbers. Besides, probably your
mother would rather decide that for us. Are
they still coming, Grace?"

"Goodness, you remind me of Bluebeard's
wife," Grace laughed hysterically. "I thought
you were going to say, 'Sister Anne, Sister Anne,
do you see a man' ?"

"Well, I see something better than a man,"
cried Betty suddenly, straining her eyes through
the darkness and the streaming windshield.
"Grace honey, do my e)7es deceive me, or is that
a light?"

"A light !" cried Grace excitedly. "Oh, Betty,
where — wait — yes, I see it! It is a light! And
there's another! Two lighted windows! Betty,
honey, we're saved !"

"It's a house!" cried Betty jubilantly, while
the hand that held the steering wheel shook with
relief. "You darling, wonderful house. Gracie,
dear, I think it showed on the horizon just in the
nick of time. Look behind once more."

"Yes, they're still coming. Oh, if they only
don't get stuck in front of the door !"

"Don't be a goose, Gracie," chided Betty, feel-
ing in hilarious spirits now that the end of their
trouble was in sight. "You ought to get down

82 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

on your knees in thankfulness that there is a front
door to get stuck in front of !"

"Oh, is that so?" mocked Grace, her own
spirits reviving at the prospect of relief. "Well,
I'm thankful enough, but I certainly don't intend
to get down on my knees about it. There isn't
room in here and you can see it's too muddy out-
side!"

Two minutes later Betty swung the little car
from the, by this time, almost impassable road
on to a gloriously graveled driveway that led up
to the hospitably lighted house.

"Now, if whoever lives here will only let us
in," she sighed, as she stopped the car and glanced
behind to be sure Mollie was following them,
"we'll have nothing left to ask for."

"Except something to eat," amended Grace
hungrily. "I thought I had eaten enough lunch
to last me a week, but I see I'm muchly mistaken.
What shall we do, Betty ?" as the latter started to
open the curtain and closed it quickly again as the
rain beat in upon them. "We are apt to get
soaked just running that little distance to the
porch."

"And the umbrellas are all wrapped up in the
back of Mollie's car," lamented Betty, then added,
with sudden decision : "I guess unless we want to
sit here all night we'd better chance it. I for one

GRACE AND BETTY MADE A QUICK DASH FOR SHELTER.
The Outdoor Girls at Bluff Point. Page 83.

THUNDER AND MUD 83

am so hungry I'd be willing to brave more than
a rain for the sake of something to eat."

"I'd say so!" groaned Grace, again reminded
of her own state of starvation. "You get out
your side Betty and I'll get out mine and we'll
make a quick dash for it."

So they lifted the curtains and slipped out,
thankful for the gravel walk that, while it was
wet and slippery, was still a delightful contrast
to the rnuddy sea of road they had left. They ran
head down against the blinding rain, and gained
the bottom step of the porch at the same time.

A moment more, and they had climbed to the
shelter of the porch itself, out of breath but jubi-
lant.

'Thank goodness !" cried Grace.

"And here come your mother and Mollie and
Amy," chuckled Betty as the trio followed their
example and raced for the porch. "I guess none
of them ever kne\v she could run so fast in her
life before. Hello, folks. Beautiful wreather,
isn't it?" she inquired gayly, as the three scram-
bled, panting, up on the porch. "You seem in a
terrible hurry to get somewhere."

"Speak for yourself, John," gasped Mollie,
shaking out her wet skirts and trying to regain
some of her dignity by putting her hat on straight.
"If you could know what I've been through for

84 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

the last hour, just coaxing the car along an inch
at a time — "

"Well," laughed Betty, as she turned to the
front door and pushed the bell, "I've been through
a little bit of everything, myself, for the last few,
hours, except a good square meal. And, judging
from the delightful aroma that hovers about this
place/' she added sniffing hungrily, "I shouldn't
wonder if that oversight wouldn't be swiftly rem-
edied!"

Then the door opened and a tall, gray-haired
lady stood in the lighted doorway.

CHAPTER X

THE KNIGHT OF THE WAYSIDE

THE lady stared at the bedraggled party in
amazed silence for a moment. Then Mrs. Ford
stepped impulsively forward.

"I don't wonder you look surprised/' she said
in her sweetly modulated voice, "for this is rather
an unheard of calling hour. But you see we were
caught in this awful downpour and had to seek
your house for refuge/'

"Oh, I'm sorry!" exclaimed the lady, opening
the door wider and motioning them into the
cheerfully lighted living room. "I didn't mean,"
she added with a smile, as they most willingly ac-
cepted her invitation, "that I was sorry you came,
but that you were forced to come by such condi-
tions. Won't you take off your things ? But you
are wet!" she exclaimed, as the girls started to
remove their dripping wraps.

"And we got it all," said Mrs. Ford with a wry
smile, :'just running abov* twenty feet from our
cars to your porch."

"Your cars !" the hostess repeated. "Then you

8s

86 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLLW POINT

motored down. If I had known that I shouldn't
have been so surprised at seeing you. Pedes-
trians are rather rare on a night like this."

"Yes, and motorists, too, if they have any
sense," said Mollie dryly, at which they all
laughed and their hostess looked still more in-
terested.

"Please sit down and dry out a little," said the
lady, indicating a grate fire which had evidently
only recently been lighted on account of the chill
in the air. :Tm glad I had the fire made. I must
have known," she added with a gracious smile,
"that you were coming to-night."

Then she excused herself, and the girls held out
eager hands to the fire.

"This is bliss," sighed Amy.

'Well, this is some contrast to about five min-
utes ago," chuckled Grace. :'I thought we were
in for a night in the mud at least."

Til never say we aren't lucky again," agreed
Betty, leaning an arm on the mantel and getting
her wet skirt as close to the fire as she could,
"We were just wondering," she added, address-
ing Mrs. Ford, "whether, if Mollie's car got
stuck, you would rather have Grace and me strug-
gle on to Bensington and get some help or stay
and keep you company. Although," she added
ruefully, "if we couldn't pull through that mud,

THE KNIGHT OF THE WAYSIDE 87

I don't know what we could find in Bensington
to do it."

"Probably the only gasoline vehicles they have
in the place are jitneys," agreed Mollie, with a
chuckle.

"I wonder/' Amy broke in, apropos of noth-
ing, "who our charming hostess is. She seems so
lovely. It seems odd to meet a person like her
and a house like this out in the wilderness."

'Yes, one does rather expect a farmer's wife
and a rambling old farmhouse so far out in the
country," agreed Mrs. Ford.

"Well, maybe her husband is a scientific
farmer," suggested Mollie, adding wickedly as
she turned a merry eye on Grace : "The kind Roy
once said he'd like to be. Remember, Grace?"

"Yes, I remember," Grace answered in a tone
that indicated the memory was not a pleasant
one. "And I told him he had better drop that
idea in a hurry if he expected me — I mean — any
girl — " she floundered, while they laughed mock-
ingly at her, "to have anything to do with him,"
she finished rather weakly, while the girls giggled
exasperatingly.

"Well, I don't know," remarked Betty, in an
altruistic effort to pour oil upon the troubled
waters, "that I would particularly mind marrying
a scientific farmer if they all have houses like this

OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

and acres of ground with orchards and cows and
chickens — "

"And potato bugs," finished Grace, while the
girls laughed merrily.

"Well," remarked Mollie, with a desperate
gleam in her eye, "I'd marry just about anybody
who would give me a square meal."

"Goodness," remarked Betty, twinkling, "it's
mighty lucky for Frank that there aren't any
young men of marriageable age on the horizon
just now."

The next moment she regretted her innocent
little speech, for she could see that the mention
of the boys had brought more vividly to Grace
and Mrs. Ford and Amy the thought of Will —
dear, bright, merry Will — lying wounded in some
far-away hospital, how badly wounded they could
not know, and dared not think.

The silence that fell upon them was broken by
the sound of their hostess' voice, evidently issuing
a command to some one in the kitchen. Then
the lady herself swept into the room.

"Fm sorry to have kept you waiting so long,"
she apologized, "but I have had to help the maid
get dinner on the table. She is a new one, and,
oh, so utterly helpless. Then, too, I was hoping
my son would come home, but since everything
is ready and I know you must be starving, we

THE KNIGHT OF THE WAYSIDE 89

won't delay dinner any longer. If you will come,
please — "

"But this is imposing upon good nature," pro-
tested Mrs. Ford, as the lady held back the por-
tiers and disclosed an inviting table set for seven,
elaborate with shining crystal and silver. 'To
drop down upon you from a clear — or rather, a
cloudy sky — "

They laughed, and their hostess dismissed the
protest with a little wave of her hand.

"It is a pleasure," she said, adding, as they took
their places: "I am only thankful that a lucky
chance enabled me to entertain you well to-night^
I was expecting guests from the nearest farm, but
since our next door neighbors are five miles down
the road, they hesitated to make the trip because
of the threatening weather. I guess it is just as
well for them they did not come," and she paused
to listen to the rain which was still pouring down
in torrents.

Mrs. Ford made an appropriate answer, and the
two ladies entered into a little confidential chat
that left the girls pretty much to their own de-
vices. And they were trying their best not to dis-
grace themselves and to pay decorous attention
to what their hostess was saying, while their
hearty young appetites were crying their protests
aloud.

90 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

At last came the new maid whom their hostess
had described as 'so utterly helpless,' looking to
the famished girls an angelic being, bearing about
her an aroma of tomato soup and fried chicken,
more tempting than ambrosia.

Without any perceptible hesitation, the girls
immediately began to eat and continued the
agreeable occupation without interruption to the
end of the meal, save for an answer to a question
or two asked by their hostess.

The helpless maid was just bringing in an enor-
mous layer cake to the accompaniment of admir-
ing glances from the girls when the sound of a
latch key in the door made the lady of the house
look up with a start.

"It must be my son!" she said, rising hastily,
"if you will excuse me a moment — "

Then came the sound of a hearty greeting in a
masculine voice, followed by a slithery sound of
wet clothing. Evidently the newcomer was di-
vesting himself of some uncomfortably damp ap-
parel. They could hear his mother speaking in
a low voice — probably she was preparing him to
meet the unexpected guests.

"By Jove! did you say two cars?'1 they heard
him exclaim, and it suddenly seemed to them there
was something familiar about his voice. "Now.
I wonder — all right, Mother. Just give me a

THE KNIGHT OF THE WAYSIDE 91

minute to get some dry clothes on and I'll be right
with you. Gosh, but I'm starved !"

The girls smiled sympathetically, for was it
only half an hour ago they had been in that iden-
tically uncomfortable state.

"I bet he's nice," said Mollie to Betty, in a
whisper just before their hostess once more en-
tered the room. "Anybody with an appetite like
that, has to be."

"Oh, you shouldn't have waited for me," said
the lady, noting that the ice cream that had fol-
lowed hard on the heels of the chocolate cake had
begun to melt. "I don't know what to do with
that boy/' she added, smiling with a mixture of
irritation and fond indulgence. "When he gets
out on his motorcycle, miles mean nothing to
him and time means less. He is always late to
dinner."

"I shouldn't think he would have found the
riding very pleasant to-night," said Betty smiling.
"In fact, it is a wonder he could ride at all — the
roads are almost impassable."

"Quite impassable, you mean," put in Mollie.

"Oh, he has conquered that difficulty," their
hostess explained, her eyes once more lighting
with pride in her son. "He has a sort of path
through the woods, which, while it perhaps lacks
the comforts of a state road, at least is not inches

OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

deep in mud. He did get caught that way once
and was several hours coming a few miles."

"She said he rode a motorcycle," remarked
Grace to Mollie with apparent irrelevance as the
lady turned to speak to Mrs. Ford.

"Well, what about it?" inquired Mollie, as she
proceeded with wonderful concentration to spear
one last small but delicious piece of chocolate on
the end of her fork.

"Doesn't that convey anything to your be-
nighted mind ?" Grace was drawling sarcastically
when Betty leaned toward her eagerly.

"I thought his voice sounded familiar," she
said. "Of course we know who he is now."

"Good evening, everybody," said the familiar
voice, and they turned to find its owner strolling
toward them across the room.

"Mr. Joe Barnes!" cried Mollie impulsively,
then checked herself and slowly grew red.

"That's who," sang out Joe Barnes slangily,
and in the laughter and greetings that followed
Mollie forgot her embarrassment.

Only Joe Barnes' mother looked completely
surprised and taken aback.

"You know each other, then," she rather stated
than asked as there was a lull in the conversation.
"I had no idea—"

Of course you hadn't," agreed her son, as he

"

THE KNIGHT OF THE WAYSIDE 93

took the vacant seat beside her and turned upon
her a pair of very handsome laughing eyes. "I
didn't either until a few minutes ago, and we
haven't been acquainted more than a few hours."
"Your son did us the favor of helping us out of
a difficulty this afternoon," Mrs. Ford explained,
taking pity on the lady's bewilderment. 'To be
explicit, he performed the very disagreeable opera-
tion of putting a new tire on the front wheel of

our car/

"Oh, so that's it," laughed Mrs. Barnes.

"Mother, what do you say to cutting out cere-
mony and getting down to brass tacks?" put in
Joe Barnes, eyeing hungrily the plate of steam-
ing soup the maid had set before him.

"We don't serve them," said his mother
demurely. "But I shouldn't wonder if what we
have would prove more digestible."

So Joe Barnes entertained them with fun and
jokes while he devoured the different courses
with a thoroughness that awoke the admiration
of the girls.

But no matter how conscientiously Joe did
justice to the good things set before him, there
was not a moment when he was not conscious of
Betty — Betty on the other side of the table,
dimpling and sending him back sally for sally
with ready wit. What lucky chance had prompted

94

OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

nature to send a thunderstorm that afternoon?
The jolly old lady was certainly on his side !

Then when Joe had decided that nothing- re-
mained to devour, the party adjourned to the liv-
ing room, where the former put some records on
the phonograph.

The Barnes had a collection of very wonder-
ful records, and for more than an hour the girls
sat entranced as, one by one, Joe produced for
their enjoyment, the greatest artists of the musi-
cal world.

Finally some one suggested that Betty play
some of the songs they had loved in those serv-
ice-filled days at the Hostess House. As the
girlish voices rang out in one patriotic song after
another, Joe Barnes, who was seated on the edge
of a table with one foot swinging idly, fidgeted
uneasily, while over his face came a sober, al-
most sullen expression.

"Gee, I wish they wouldn't!" he murmured to
himself.

CHAPTER XI

MYSTERY

BETTY presently broke into the opening strains
of "There's a long, long road awinding," and the
girlish voices took it up eagerly. They put into
the melody all the pathos and longing of their
hearts. They forgot where they were, the
pleasant room faded away, and they saw only a
sinister gray line of trenches, trenches that were
death traps for the flowering youth of America.
They were singing to the boys, their boys, and as
she listened Mrs. Ford's eyes rilled with tears.

Nor was she the only one of that little audience
who could not listen to the song unmoved. Joe
Barnes felt a great, unaccustomed lump rising in
his throat, and as the hot tears stung his eyes he
rose hastily and stood staring at, though not see-
ing, a great picture of some illustrious ancestor
that hung over the mantel.

And Mrs. Barnes, looking at her son, pressed a
hand over her heart, as though to still a hurt,
while in her eyes grew a look of yearning.

95

96 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

"My poor, poor boy!" she murmured over and
over to herself.

And the girls, all unaware of the emotions they
had awakened, drew the last sweet note to a
lingering close and stood quiet for a moment
while Betty's fingers rested on the keys. Then-

"That was very beautiful," said Mrs. Barnes,
trying to speak in a matter-of-fact tone. 'You
girls sing wonderfully together."

"We ought to," said Betty, forcing a lightness
she did not feel, for as usual she was the first to
sense the tense quality in the atmosphere, "for we
have certainly had practice enough. We used to
sing for the soldier boys at the Hostess House
almost every night."

"Yes, but it was sometimes very hard to make
them sing," added Amy. "Often they didn't
want to at first. But they always joined in toward
the end, and the gloomiest of them went away
with a smile on his lips."

"They could afford to laugh," said Joe Barnes
bitterly. He had left the picture of his illustrious
ancestor and had dropped down in his old posi-
tion on the edge of the table, leg swinging idly.
But his expression had changed. It was grim
and hard.

Betty, looking at him, suddenly remembered,
and she could see by the expressions on the faces

MYSTERY

97

of her chums that they also had awakened to the
situation.

With horrible lack of tact, they had offended
their kind host and hostess. That they had not
done so deliberately, helped their self-condemna-
tion not at all.

They had sung patriotic songs, they had
spoken of their work at the Hostess House and of
the soldier boys, while Joe Barnes, of military
age and seemingly in perfect health, did not weai}
a uniform. Even though he were a slacker, it
was terribly bad taste to tell him so in his own
home, while accepting his, or his mother's, hos-
pitality.

And something deep dowrn in their hearts, in-
tuition, perhaps, perhaps a sort of sixth sense
born of their wide experience of boys of all ages^
told them that he was not a slacker. There must
be some reason, some real excuse for his be-
havior.

'Won't you sing some more?" asked their
hostess in an attempt to relieve the situation,
while she kept one eye anxiously on her son.
"Surely you haven't finished."

"I'm afraid we have," said Betty, with a gay
little laugh, "for the very good reason that we
don't know any more songs to sing."

"And we want to hear some more real music,"

08 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

added Mollie, gamely following her lead. That
is, if you are not tired."

"Oh, no, music never tires us," returned Mrs.
Barnes, adding, with a little entreating glance at
her son: "Will you put on another record, dear
— something light and merry this time?"

"How about some dance music?" queried Joe
pleasantly. He was very much ashamed of his
weakness and ill temper, and was determined to
make up for it. "That's about the lightest and
merriest we have."

The girls assented eagerly, and in a few
minutes the unpleasant episode was forgotten —
or apparently forgotten. At least, for the time
being it was relegated to the background, and it
was not till some time later that Joe unexpectedly
broached it to Betty.

The drenching downpour had changed to a sort
of dismal drizzle and Mrs. Ford, upon remarking
this fact had made the suggestion that they get
into the machines again and try to make Ben-
sington. But Mrs. Barnes had so promptly and
emphatically negatived this that there was really
no room left for argument.

"Why, even with dry roads it would take you
two hours or more to get there, for at all times
the road is bad between here and Bensington, but
such a thing is simply out of the question with

MYSTERY

99

roads that are two feet deep in mud. No, you
must stay for the night. I have plenty of room
and am more than delighted to have you. No,
please don't object, for I will not hear of your
doing otherwise."

And so it had been settled, much to everybody's
satisfaction.

However, Betty was very much surprised when,
in the midst of a beautiful dance with Joe Barnes
— for Joe was a rather wonderful dancer — the
latter whirled her off toward a window seat ia
one corner of the room and placed her, a little
breathless, upon it.

'Well," she said, that unconquerable imp of
mischief dancing in her eyes, "have you any
adequate excuse to offer for the spoiling of an
exceptionally good dance?"

"Is it spoiled?" he asked reproach fully, as he
sank down beside her. "I thought perhaps I
was improving — the occasion."

She made a little face at him, incidentally show-
ing ail her dimples.

''I suppose, if I were a coquette," she said,
flushing a little under the very open admiration of
his eyes, "which I am not — "

'Tm not so sure," he murmured but she pre-
tended not to hear the interruption.

should deny that you had spoiled the dance.

. . •

960359A

loo OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

As it is," she flashed him a pretty smile that
robbed her words of all sting, "I'm telling you the
truth."

"And I," he countered, "am telling you the
truth when I say that if it were possible to talk
with you and dance at the same time, I should
not have brought you here. As it is, I choose
the greater of the two blessings."

"It must be very important — this that you
have to say to me," replied Betty, adding de-
murely : "Perhaps if you would tell me all about
it, we could dance again."

"In other words, 'get the agony over'," said
Joe, with a grimace. He waited a moment, while
the girls, who had danced to the end of the
record, turned it over, put in a new needle and
started off all over again.

"I don't know whether it will seem important
to you or not," he said at last, turning slowly
toward her. :<But what I have to tell you is just
about the most important thing in life to me."

The tone as well as the words sobered Betty,
and she turned to him earnestly.

"I shall be very glad to hear it then," she said
simply.

"I- -you — it's rather hard to begin," he stam-
mered, then straightened up and faced her frankly.

"The truth is, I can't help knowing that you

MYSTERY 101

wondered when you first saw me and am wonder-
ing now — as any one has a right to wonder these
days when they see a fellow like me in civilian
clothes — "

Betty started and the color rushed to her face,

"No, I haven't — " she began, then stopped
confused, remembering that she had been won-
dering just that thing only a few minutes, yes,
only a minute before. "I mean I thought — "

"Yes, it's easy to guess what you thought/'
he interrupted, misinterpreting her sentence while
the bitter look crept once more into his eyes.
"It's easy enough to guess what everybody thinks.
But," he straightened his shoulders and threw
back his head, "I don't think anybody will have
a right to think that very much longer. You
see," he added, turning to her again and speaking
more calmly, "I tried to enlist at the beginning of
the war, but they told me there was something
wrong here," he touched his chest, "with my
lungs."

Betty gave an involuntary exclamation of
pity.

'The doctor said it was just beginning," he
went on slowly, "and he said — he was a good
old scout, that doctor — that if I got out of the
city where I could get fresh air, eggs, and milk —
you know, the same old stuff — that I might sue-

102 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

ceed in curing myself up in a hurry and get in
the game in time to bring in my share of helmets
after all."

"Oh, so that's why you and your mother are
away out here!" cried Betty eagerly, laying an
impulsive little hand on his. "And you are well,
aren't you? Why, you must be! You look the
very picture of health/'

Joe gulped a little, looked at the friendly little
hand on his, tried to speak once or twice and
failed, then —

"I feel just fine," he said, striving to make his
voice sound natural. [<I never cough any more,
and I've got the appetite of a \volf — you saw how
I ate to-night — " a faint smile lighted his eyes
and found an answering one in Betty's. 'Vet,
I've been holding off for more than three weeks
for fear — just for fear — everything isn't all right.
You see, they've made a coward of me. I'm
afraid of being refused twice."

"Oh, but you won't be!" cried Betty, with
honest conviction in her voice. :Tm not much
of a doctor, although I've met so many of them
at Camp Liberty and heard them talk so much
about different diseases that I feel I ought at
least to qualify as an assistant," she paused to
smile at herself and he thought he had never seen
anything so pretty in his life, "and I would say

MYSTERY

that whatever your trouble has been, it is cured
no\v. I'm sure of it."

"Hold on, hold on," he entreated a little
huskily. "If I could only believe that — "

"Say, you two over there," Mollie's voice broke
in upon them gayly, "we've been trying hard to
be polite and not interrupt, but the clock has just
struck twelve and we have a long ride before us
to-morrow — or rather, to-day!"

Betty replied laughingly, but before she could
rejoin the others, Joe had whispered another
question.

'You really meant what you said?" he asked.

"With all my heart," she answered earnestly*

CHAPTER XII

NEARLY AX ACCIDENT

"LOOK at the sun ! Look at the sim !" cried
Betty, sitting up in bed and gazing joyfully out
at the sun-drenched landscape. "Girls, for
goodness sake, wake up. How can you sleep,
Grace?"

Grace groaned and opened one eye.

"House afire?'' she asked sleepily.

"Of course not, Silly. But the world is/'

Betty was evidently in high spirits, thought
Grace, as she rolled over and regarded her
critically.

"What do you mean — 'the world is'?" she in-
quired grumpily, managing with great difficulty,
to open the other eye. "Can't you talk sense ?':

"Not on a morning like this," retorted Betty,
running to the window and thrusting her head
far out into the balmy air. "Look, Lazybones,
the roads are pretty nearly dry and we couldn't
ask for a more wonderful day."

'What time is it?" queried Grace, without
enthusiasm. She was always unenthusiastic be-

«

104

NEARLY AN ACCIDENT 105

fore breakfast in the morning, especially if she
happened to get to bed rather late the night be-
fore.

"Half-past six/' replied Betty, turning from
the window and beginning hurriedly to gather her
things together. "And we all agreed last night
to get up at six. I wonder if I'm the only one

stirring/'

As if in answer to her question, there came a
soft tap on the door and their hostess' voice speak-
ing to them.

"Breakfast is almost ready," she said. "I had
it prepared early especially for you."

"That was dear of you," replied Betty, adding
with the greatest of optimism, considering that
three of them were not yet out of bed: "We'll
be down in ten minutes."

Although the ten minutes stretched into fifteen,
it is a tribute to Betty's excellent generalship that
the dressing of the other three girls was man-
aged in that time.

But perhaps the aroma of bacon floating tempt-
ingly up to them had something to do with it after
all, for they all four boasted youthfully unim-
paired appetites.

However that may be, the fact remains that
in fifteen minutes from the time Mrs. Barnes
stopped at the door, four very pretty and very

106 Oi'TDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

hungry young girls gathered in the dining room,
ready and eager for the day's adventure. Mrs.
Ford was already there.

Joe was there too, looking even more bronzed
and attractive in the morning light, and Betty,
glancing at him, could scarcely believe that what
the boy had told her the night before had not been
a dream. That splendid specimen of young man-
hood refused the right to serve his country be-
cause he had lung trouble ! She could not even
bring herself to think that other word, that hor-
rible word, consumption.

But there was one thing certain — she had not
been mistaken in her judgment of the night be-
fore. He might once have been the victim of dis-
ease, but he surely was not now7.

Perhaps something of what she was thinking
was reflected in her eyes as she looked at him, for,
he returned the glance with so much admiration
in his own that she hastily looked away and be-
came absorbed in the bacon on her plate.

It was a very merry breakfast and a very good
one, and when the time came at last for taking,
leave of their lovely hostess, they found them-
selves unexpectedly reluctant to do so.

"I wish you were coming with us/' said Mrs."
Ford, after the lady had waved aside her thanks
for the good time they had had. "I am sure you

NEARLY AN ACCIDENT

107

would enjoy the trip almost as much as we would
enjoy having you with us."

"I wish it were possible for me to go," Mrs,
Barnes replied rather wistfully, as they started
down the steps to the waiting automobiles. "It
is rather lonesome out here," then, catching a
glance from her son, who was trying to carry
three handbags at once, she added hastily : "But.
of course I love it and would miss it awfully.
Joe, be careful, dear, you nearly dropped that
bag in the dirt."

"I always thought I'd make good in the jug-
gling profession," replied Joe ruefully, as he
skillfully recovered the bag in question, "but I
guess I was mistaken. Where do these go,
Miss Billette — anywhere?" he asked, turning to
Mollie.

"Yes, just throw them in," replied Mollie, care-
lessly, absorbed in testing out her engine. "Only
leave room for Mrs. Ford, that's all."

Then, as Amy stopped to speak to Grace, Joe
escorted Betty to her little racer and helped her
into the driver's seat, though little help Betty
needed or asked of anyone.

"It's rather a rough deal, isn't it?" he asked
suddenly.

What?" inquired Betty, surprised.

"Fate introduces us one minute, then snatches

108 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

you away in the next, before I've had time for
more than a word with you."

"Why, I remember several words we've had
together," laughed Betty as she settled herself
more comfortably in her seat. "Is there anything
particular you want to say to me?"

Joe started to speak, evidently thought better
of it, and looked up at her soberly.

"I've already told you more than I ever ex-
pected to tell any one," he said, and she stretched
out an eager, sympathetic little hand to him.

"I know, and I have felt very proud of that
confidence," she said earnestly.

'Then you will let me write to you and tell
you how things are with me ?"

"Oh, I should be so glad !" she said, and there
was no doubting her sincerity.

He had no more than time to flash her a grate-
ful glance when Grace came up and put an end to
the conversation.

Amid expressions of friendship on both sides
and laughing farewells, the two cars slid back-
wards along the drive and out on to the road.
Then with a purring of engines, the little racer
leaped ahead with Mollie in close pursuit. They
were off once more.

It was as Betty had said. The long clear night
and the bright morning sunshine had done much

NEARLY AN ACCIDENT

109

toward drying the roads and though they were
still rather sticky and slippery, the girls had no
difficulty in keeping up a good rate of speed.

"This is something like," cried Grace, as she
stretched both arms above her head and breathed
deep of the balmy air. "I could be completely
happy if it weren't for one thing."

Betty had no need to ask what that one thing

^

was, and at mention of it her thought turned
involuntarily to Allen. Was he safe or had he
too — she shuddered at the thought.

"Wasn't it strange?" she said, seeking to
change the conversation and the trend of he£
own thoughts at the same time, "that Joe Barnes
proved to be Mrs. Barnes' son ?" It was not at all
what she had intended to say, and out of the
corner of her eye she saw Grace turn and look
at her curiously.

"No, I can't see that it's so very strange," Grace
said dryly. "At least I have seen stranger
things."

"Well, you know what I mean," retorted Betty,
still absently. "He is awfully nice, isn't he?"

"That's what he seemed to think of you," re-
turned Grace slyly.

"Of course he did! Why shouldn't he?" chal-
lenged Betty, coming out of her abstraction and
smiling gayly. "I like me, myself."

no OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLl'Fl*' POINT

"That's the worst of it," sighed Grace, turn-
ing for consolation to her inevitable box of
chocolates. "No matter how awful you are, we
have to love you just the same. Look out, Betty/'
as the car took a curve on three wheels. "Good-
ness ! you're getting to be a more expert skidder
than Mollie."

"Thanks," returned Betty, executing a bow
whose grace was somewhat impaired by the
proximity of the steering wheel. "Willst hand
me a candy, Gracie, honey? Thanks. That's a
good girl!"

For a long time after that they were quiet, en-
joying the swift motion, the warm wind upon
their faces, the fragrance of flowers and of moist
sweet earth flung to them from the depths of the
woodland.

Before they knew it, they had reached the out-
skirts of Bensington, then Bensington itself, and
were speeding through the queer little town with-
out a thought of stopping when a warning signal
from Mollie's horn brought them to an abrupt
stop. Betty jumped out and ran back.

'We'll need some provisions," Mollie called to
her. "Unless you and Grace think we can reach
the next town by noon."

"That's what we planned to do," Betty an-
swered. "Grace and I thought it would save time

NEARLY AN ACCIDENT m

not to stop here — and we haven't any time to
waste, you know."

"All right/' Mrs. Ford decided. "Perhaps it
will be just as well, for we shall have to put on
all speed in order to reach Bluff Point before
night."

So Betty raced back to her machine and in a
moment more they were off again, fairly eating
up the miles. As the roads grew dryer and dryer
beneath the scorching heat of the sun they made
even better time until a little past twelve o'clock
they entered the little village of Hill Crest.

The place boasted nothing so magnificent as a
hotel, but they managed to find a little bake shop
where the rosy-cheeked country woman who
worked there made them up some delicious sand-
wiches, supplied them with tempting rolls and
cake, and, wonder of wonders, set upon the table
a pitcher of fresh milk.

When they had finished this rural but eminently
satisfying repast, they hurried over to the one
big general store to buy a few supplies that they
would need that night. It was necessary to lay in
only a limited amount, as Grace's aunt Mary had
thoughtfully left her cottage well stocked and had
informed them that eggs, chickens and vegetables
of all kinds could be had fresh from the farmers
round about.

112 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

Then they were off again, eyes upon that rib-
bon of road in front, intent upon reaching their
destination before nightfall.

It was not till about four o'clock that they met
with their first setback.

Betty had just rounded a turn in the road,
horn honking for all it was worth, when she
found herself almost on top of a huge farm
wagon.

She yelled to the driver and put on her brakes
hard, hoping desperately that Mollie would not
run into her from behind. Grace shrieked and
covered her face with her hands.

It was a narrow escape, for when the car had
finally stopped there was not more than about an
inch between it and the wagon in front. Luckily
Mollie had been warned by the noise of the horn,
and had stopped her machine just around the
turn of the road. She and Mrs. Ford and Amy
came running to see what the matter was.

Meanwhile Betty had recovered herself and
was smiling apologetically up at the frightened
driver. His horses, startled by the noise and
shouting had tried to bolt, and he had had all
he could do to hold them in. The result was a
slightly heated condition on the part of his
temper.

"I'm sorry," Betty was saying, her voice still

NEARLY AN ACCIDENT

tremulous from the sudden fright she had re-
ceived. "I thought — "

"Yes, an' I thought too," he interrupted, in a
gruff, rude tone that whipped the color to her
face. "It would be a heap better if some folks'd
think before they done things. Durned old
gasoline wagons."

And, still muttering, the angry man turned and
whipped up his team while the girls stared after
bim dumbly.

CHAPTER XIII

OUTWITTING A CRANK

"OLD grouch/' cried Mollie, shaking a vindic-
tive little fist after the departing farmer. "If it
hadn't been that you would have killed yourself
too, Betty, I almost wish you had hit him."

"Well, I don't," said Grace ruefully. "Nobody
ever thinks of poor me."

"I guess we had better be a little more care-
ful in the future," said Mrs. Ford, a worried line
between her brows. "Better to be a little longer
reaching Bluff Point than to endanger our lives
and perhaps the lives of others."

"It almost looks as if we shouldn't have any
choice," said Mollie, and they looked at her in
surprise.

"Well, we can't hope to pass that wagon," she
explained, indicating the vehicle that was now
some hundred feet in front and was waddling
along at a snail's pace. "There isn't room, with
the ditch on one side and the drop on the other."

"It will be easy enough if he moves to one
side of the road," suggested Amy.

114

OUTWITTING A CRANK 115

"He'll move over if we toot at him," added
Grace.

But Mollie shook her head doubtfully.

"Pm not so sure," she said. "It would be just
like him to try to get even with us by blocking
the road."

"Get even with us?" repeated Betty indig-
nantly. "I might just as well say I want to get
even with him for being in the road when I
wanted to pass. How ridiculous."

"Of course it's ridiculous. That's probably
the reason he would think of it," insisted Mollie.
"I know these farmers," she added, nodding
darkly.

They laughed at her, and Betty cried gayly:
"Well, we won't get anywhere by standing here
in the road. I move we follow the old fellow and
see what he's up to. And if he gets too ridicu-
lous," she added, as she climbed back into the
car, "I know how I'll fix him."

"How?" they asked.

"I'll bump him," she responded ferociously,
and amid more fun and laughter they climbed
back into the cars and started on again.

'You know, even his back looks stubborn," re-
marked Grace, when, coming close to the wagon
and tooting the horn vigorously, the driver re-
fused to budge from the middle of the road. "I

Il6 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

guess perhaps you will have to carry out your
threat, Betty/'

"Well, I declare if I won't," exclaimed the
Little Captain, her cheeks flushing and her eyes
blazing at the stubborn insolence of the man.
"It would give me great pleasure to bump him
clear down the side of the mountain."

"It's getting late, too," worried Grace. "Can't
you do something, Betty?'

"Will you please suggest something?' cried
Betty, exasperated. "There's nothing in the
rules for driving a machine that covers this diffi-
culty. I don't know what to do, unless — Did
you bring the pistol?"

Grace started.

"Goodness! you're not going to kill him are
you?"

"Not unless I have to," replied Betty, and at
her expression, Grace laughed weakly.

"Yes, I brought the pistol," she said. "But it's
down in the bottom of the bag that is underneath
all the other bags in the tonneau of Mollie's car."

Betty groaned.

"And it isn't even loaded," added Grace, as an
afterthought. "Mother said it made her feel
safer to have it along since there aren't going to
be any men with us, but she wouldn't have it
loaded."

OUTWITTING A CRANK

117

'What good is it then?" queried Betty.

"Just to scare people with."

"Well, that's what I want to do to that —
man," cried Betty, trying to think of something
bad enough to call the cranky farmer, who still
urged his team along squarely in the middle of
the road and refused to give an inch. "Only I'd
like to scare him to death. My conscience
wouldn't even hurt."

"It would be murder just the same," Grace
suggested, with a little hysterical laugh, "whether,
you shot him or scared him to death."

Betty was silent for a minute or two, crawling
along behind the wagon while her blood boiled
and her anger surged. For Betty came from a
race of fighting ancestors who were not in the
habit of submitting to indignities.

"Grace, I've got to do something!" she burst
out at last, gripping the wheel so tightly her
knuckles showed white. "It isn't so much the
valuable time we're losing, but it's an absolute
necessity to show that fellow where he — "

"'Where he gets off," Grace finished slangily.
"I know dear, but how?':

Betty shook her head helplessly and just
glared.

Then suddenly Grace uttered a little cry and
sat up straight in her seat.

Ii8 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

"I have it!" she cried. "I know what we can
do."

"Tell me," demanded Betty.
'Why, I know this road pretty well," Grace
explained, speaking quickly. "We're not much
more than ten miles from Bluff Point."

"Yes, yes," cried Betty impatiently.
'Well, there is a short detour road that juts off
from the main road just a little further on, and
after running parallel to the road for half a mile
or so, crosses it again."

'Yes," cried Betty again, beginning to under-
stand the plot.

"So we'll take the detour," Grace finished
triumphantly, "and come out, in front of the
farmer."

"And then — " said Betty with a chuckle and a
gleam in her eye.

"The rest will be up to us," finished Grace.
"Shall we know what to do then?"

"I'll say we shall," chortled Betty, adding with
a glance over her shoulder at Mollie's car that
was creeping along some twenty feet behind them :
"Of course the next thing will be to tell Mollie.
Will you run back Grace ?':

For once Grace did not object, and without
waiting for Betty to stop the car, and indeed it
was hardly necessary at the rate they were go-

OUTWITTING A CRANK

119

ing, jumped out and ran back, waving an ex-
cited hand at Mollie.

Betty heard a whoop of delight from the rear,
and in a minute Grace was back in her place.

"How far is it from here?" asked Betty, scan-
ning the road ahead eagerly. "I hope," she
added, as a horrid fear assailed her, "that he
doesn't turn off on to the other road, too."

"Heavens, I hope not! Oh, there it is!" she
cried a moment later, as a turn in the winding
road brought the crossroads to view. "Now, if
he only doesn't turn down it !"

Eagerly they watched and drew a sigh of re-
lief as the driver jogged steadily on down the
main road.

"Now's our chance," exulted Betty, as she
changed gears with a challenging roar and slipped
off merrily down the detour road.

Sullenly the driver watched them go and then
with a shrug of his shoulders, turned once more
to his team.

Gayly the two cars sped along the road, bear-
ing four Outdoor Girls bent upon revenge. The
going was rough and bumpy, far worse than the
main road, but the girls never noticed it.

"That was one time Grace had a good idea,"
Mollie was exulting as they flew along. "I never
thought she was particularly brilliant before, but

120 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

I have changed my mind." Then catching- Mrs.
Ford's eye, she added with a little laugh : "You
see that's the way Grace and I talk about each
other. Only," plaintively, "she says much worse
things about me !"

"It will be fun," cried Amy, her eyes shin-
ing with anticipation, "to get in front of him
and give that old crank a taste of his own medi-

cine.'

..

Tie certainly deserves it," agreed Mrs. Ford,
for she was as indignant as the girls at the man's
insolence. "Didn't Grace say something about
pretending we were stalled?"

"She did," cried Mollie gleefully. "And as
luck, I mean bad luck, will have it, the mean old
engine will choose the very center of the road to
do it's stalling in. Bless it's little old heart," and
even Mrs. Ford chuckled with her.

As Grace had said, the detour was not over
half a mile long, and they soon came out on the
main road again. Then they backed the cars
several hundred feet down the road so as to ef-
fectually block all passage.

Betty tooted gleefully to Mollie, and Mollie
tooted gleefully back again. Then they jumped
from the machines and met in the middle of the
road for a consultation.

"He will be coming in sight any minute now,"

OUTWITTING A CRANK 121

Betty explained hurriedly, "so we must decide on
some definite plan of action."

"That's easy," said Mollie. "One of us will
get down underneath the machine and pretend to
be tinkering — "

"Goodness, that lets me out," said Grace in
dismay. "I wouldn't get down in the dirt for
fifty idiotic wagon drivers."

"Well, nobody's asking you to," cried Mollie
impatiently. "I fully intend to put on my over-
alls and do it myself."

"Better hurry up," cried Amy, who had been
glancing uneasily down the road. "He may come
along any minute now and we don't want him to
catch us here."

So amid much hilarity and giggling Mollie got
into the begrimed overalls and proceeded to
wriggle her small self beneath the car.

"I hope he hurries," she cried in a muffled voice.
"It isn't exactly what you might 'call comfortable
down here. Betty, get off my foot," as Grace
wickedly stepped on her toes.

"Just hear her," cried Betty plaintively.
"Everything just naturally gets blamed on

me.'

"Well, if you didn't, who did ?" queried Mollie
fiercely. "Tell me her name — "

"Betty, Betty, don't give me away," pleaded

122 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POIXT

Grace, at which the girls laughed while a satis-
fied chuckle came from under the car.

"I knew I'd find the guilty one," Mollie was
beginning when Betty cut her short with a warn-
ing cry.

"Pie's coming," she said, adding, as she vainly
tried to straighten the corners of her mis-
chievous mouth: "And please remember, girls,
this is a very solemn occasion!"

CHAPTER XIV

BLUFF POINT AT LAST

VERY anxious the Outdoor Girls looked as the
grouchy old farmer came toward them. Mollie
was making all sorts of noises under the car, ap-
parently tinkering with its mechanism, while the
girls kept up a running fire of questions.

"What is the matter, Mollie ?"

"Can't you find the trouble ?"

"Better let me get under and take a look."

"If we don't get started pretty soon, we'll not
get to Bluff Point before dark."

These and other remarks like them met the
suspicious ears of the driver as he jerked his
team to a standstill.

"Hey, what's the matter with you?" he hailed
them. "Have you got to stand right in the middle
of the road? Can't you move over some?"

At this Mollie wriggled out from under the
car and stood up, facing him. Her face was
flushed from restrained mirth, but it might well
have been the flush of indignation.

"If we could don't you suppose we would ?" she

123

124 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUVV TO/AT

queried, rather incoherently. "Do you think I'm
doing this for fun?" Then she abruptly disap-
peared from sight again. The abruptness was
caused by the terrible fear that if she stood look-
ing at that sour old virago another moment she
would have to spoil everything by laughing.

As for the other girls, they were slowly turn-
ing purple in an effort to maintain the solemnity
demanded by the occasion. A strange noise from
beneath the car, promptly followed by a choked
cough, didn't help them any, and they were re-
lieved when their victim turned his suspicious
gaze from them to the shallow ditch at the side
of the road wrhich was still muddy from the rain
of the night before. The only hope he had of
getting around them was to drive through this
mud.

Without a word or a glance in their direction,
he whipped up his team and started for the ditch.
This was something the girls had not foreseen,
and they were of no mind to let him get ahead of
them again.

Grace and Amy flashed a distress signal to
Betty, who stooped over Mollie's feet, the feet be-
ing all that could be seen of her, and cried with
a peculiar inflection :

"I think you must have found the trouble by
this time, Mollie, haven't you?"

BLUFF POINT AT LAST

125

Mollie took the hint and scrambled hurriedly
to her feet.

"I think so," she said, then as her eyes swiftly
took in the situation — the grim old man already
struggling through the ditch intent on getting
ahead of them — she jumped to her seat and
started the engine. "All right," she cried gayly.
"Come on, girls, jump in."

The girls jumped in with alacrity and Betty
and Grace ran to the car in front. Then while
the man whipped up his horses and called to them
in terms far from gentle, the two cars sprang for-
ward and were off down the road.

They turned once, to find the man urging his
team to the road and shaking his fist after the
"gasoline wagons." The girls waved to him
merrily, before the turn in the road shut him from
sight.

"I guess that will teach him a lesson," said
Grace, settling back comfortably.

"Shouldn't wonder," agreed Betty absently, ad-
ding with a rueful little smile. "It was great fun,
of course, but I hope we shan't meet many more
of his kind, or we'll never get to Bluff Point."

"We're almost there now," said Grace. "All
this part of the country is almost as familiar to me
as Deepdale. When T was a little kiddie, I used
almost to live with Aunt Mary."

126 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

"It's wonderful how little children love the
woods and brooks and all wild things," mused
Betty, adding, as the picture of Dodo and Paul,
hiding in the machines and begging to be taken
along, came back to her : "I almost wish we
could have brought the twins with us. They
would have so loved it."

"And we would have spent all our time trying
to keep them from falling into the ocean," added
Grace dryly. "Besides," she added, "I don't be-
lieve Mrs. Billette would have let them come.
They are such little mischiefs, and she is always
afraid something will happen to them."

"Yes, and they're good company for her,"
agreed Betty thoughtfully; "especially when
Mollie is away."

After a few minutes of silence Grace suddenly
clutched Betty's arm, making the Little Captain
jump.

"Betty," cried the former excitedly, "we're al-
most there. Just around that curve — "

"Well, you needn't scare me to death," pro-
tested Betty, taking one hand from the wheel to
nib the arm Grace had clutched.

"But I love it so," Grace cried, standing up
only to be jerked back into her seat as Betty
swung round the curve. "It's such a wonder-
ful place !"

BLUFF POINT AT LAST 127

"Is that it up on the hill?"

"Yes," answered Grace, standing up in earnest
now. 'Turn up the drive — it leads to the
garage at the back. And, Betty, the house stands
on a little bluff looking out over the ocean. Do
you hear it — the ocean I mean, not the house,
Silly!"

The road that they had traveled from Deepdale
to Bluff Point had led across country, Deepdale
being in the interior, so that the girls had scarcely
realized how close thev were coming to the

*

coast.

Now, as Betty stopped the car at the back of the
quaint little cottage, that sound of romance and
mystery, the soft lapping of water with the deeper
undertone of waves against rock came up to her
and she threw back her head with a little bubbling
laugh.

;<I don't wonder you love it, Gracie dear," she
said. :il do already. It's glorious."

They jumped out and ran back to meet Mollie's
car, which was puffing like an old man up the
steep grade.

The ocean! The ocean!" cried Betty
ecstatically, as she opened the doors and the girls
tumbled out. "Do you smell it ? Do you hear it ?
Oh, girls, hurry up, I can't wait to feel it!"

"Goodness, are you going to commit suicide ?"

128 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF FOIST

cried Mollie. "If that's what you want, I don't
see why you bothered to come away up here."

"Mother, Mother, give me the key, quick/' de-
manded Grace, as they ran around the side of the
house and Betty made a face at Mollie. "You
haven't forgotten it, have you?"

"No, I tied it on a ribbon around my neck,"
said Mrs. Ford, with a smile. "I had no intention
of forgetting it. Here it is."

"Thank you."

Grace fitted the key in the lock and opened the
'door, but when she turned, expecting to find the
girls at her back, she found that they had deserted
her.

They were standing, gazing out over a gleam-
ing white stretch of sand to the shimmering water
beyond, absolutely oblivious to everything but the
beauty of the scene.

The bluff on which they stood sloped gently
down to the beach below. Once down there, the
girls knew they would feel as though they were
isolated from all the rest of the world, for the
beach was in the form of a semi-circle, surrounded
on three sides by rocky bluffs and blocked off in
front bv the ocean.

tf

"How beautiful!" breathed Betty, as Grace
stole up and joined them. "We've seen a great
many wonderful views, but I never saw one to

BLUFF POINT AT LAST 129

equal this. Just look at the reflection of the sun
out there."

"Blood red," murmured Mollie. "That looks
like a hot day to-morrow."

"All the more excuse for taking a swim," put
in Amy, adding longingly: "I wish it weren't
too late now."

"I'm afraid it is," said Mrs. Ford, seizing her
opportunity. 'We still have to put the cars away
and get our provisions and cook supper — "

"Who said 'supper'?" Mollie demanded hun-
grily. "Mrs. Ford," she added, as they started
for the house, "won't you please make Betty make
some biscuits?"

"But you make as good biscuits as I do," pro-
tested Betty.

"No, I don't, Darling," denied Mollie, putting
an arm about her chum. "And, anyway," she
added convincingly, "I can eat more when I don't
have to make them !"

The girls were almost as pleased with the inte-
rior of the house as they had been with its sur-
roundings. There were odd little passages and
unexpected window seats such as Betty had
dreamed of having in her own little home some
day.

The thought brought back the picture of Allen
as he had gone away, gallant, hopeful, brave —

130 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

oh, so brave — and involuntarily she uttered a little
sigh.

"Please don't do that," said Grace, as they en-
tered the room they were to have together. "I'm
trying my best not to be as gloomy as I feel. But
if you begin to sigh, I'll just have to give up and
spoil the party/'

"I won't," said Betty, trying a little smile be-
fore the mirror and doing it pretty successfully.
"I didn't mean to that time, only, I was — just
thinking."

"I know," said Grace a little petulantly, as she
pulled off her hat and threw it on the bed. "It
seems to me that's all I'm ever doing — 'just think-
ing/ If I could only really do something! Some
time I'll scream aloud!"

"Well, don't you think we're all pretty much
in the same fix ?" suggested Betty gently, coming
over and putting an arm about her.

"I suppose so," she answered, eyes fixed mood-
ily on the floor. "Only the rest of you have only
one to worry about, while I — " she stopped,
flushed, and began letting down her thick hair.
"If I could only cry!"

"I imagine that might help us all," said Betty
wistfully, adding, with a touch of her old gayety :
"Perhaps I can arrange it after supper."

"What?" asked Grace.

BLUFF POINT AT LAST

13*

"A cry party/' she answered, and the absurdity
of it made them both laugh.

In spite of the shadow hanging over them, din-
ner that night was a great success. Everybody
pitched in, and, having acquired ravenous appe-
tites on their long ride, did the cooking in record
time, and of course everything tasted ambrosial.

After dinner they wandered out on the ve-
randa, which was almost as big as the rest of the
house put together. It was a wonderful night,
with the moon so bright that it shed a magic sil-
ver radiance over everything while the lapping
of the water came softly up to them.

Suddenly Mollie's hand slipped into Betty's
where they stood together looking out.

"On such a night as this," breathed Mollie,
scarcely above a whisper, "there should be noth-
ing but peace in the world."

"Should be — yes," agreed Betty, a little bit-
terly. "But things are not always as they should
bei"

CHAPTER XV

THE TELEGRAM

THE morning dawned gloriously bright, and
at the first ray of the sun the girls were up and
dressed and ready for the fun of the day.

"I don't know what I'll do if our trunks don't
rome," worried Amy, as she took a rather creased
white skirt and waist from her suitcase. [<I
brought only one change and a bathing suit."

"Well, as long as you brought the bathing suit,
it's all right/' returned Mollie, sticking one last
pin in her hair. "I intend to live in mine to-day."

"And, anyway, we can't possibly expect the
trunks till this afternoon," put in Grace; "so I
don't see any use in worrying about them now."

"If they don't come to-day, either Mollie or I
will go down to the station and see about them,"
offered Betty, who was looking as sweet and fresh
as the morning itself. "We'll probably have to go
down and get them anyway, since we expressed
them through by train and came by motor our-
selves."

"Oh, well, who cares," cried Mollie, stretching

132

THE TELEGRAM 133

her arms above her head and breathing deep of the
salt-laden air. "When we get down on that won-
derful beach, that looks too good to be true, we'li
be away from all the rest of the world and we
won't need any clothes but a bathing suit."

"Mother's up,'" cried Grace, as they stepped out
into the hall and smelled the welcome aroma of
coffee, "I thought I heard somebody go dowa-
stairs a little while ago."

"But we shouldn't have let her get the break-
fast," cried Betty. "We brought her up here for
a rest, not to wait on us."

"She probably didn't sleep very well," said
Grace, thinking of Will. "It really isn't any
wonder."

However, Mrs. Ford greeted the girls with a
bright smile when they entered the kitchen, and
when they remonstrated with her for getting up
so early she merely laughed at them.

"\Vhy, I haven't cooked for so long, it's just
fun for me," she said lightly, but Grace's loving
eyes saw how pale she looked and how sad her
eyes were when she was not smiling.

"Game little mother," she whispered to herself.

However, after they had cleared the remains of
a remarkably good breakfast away, they asked
Airs. Ford to put on her own bathing suit and take
a dtp with them.

134 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

After a minute's hesitation she agreed, and they
ran upstairs eagerly to get ready. They all had
black suits, and all but Grace wore snug-fitting
rubber caps, designed more for use than looks.
Grace wore a rakish little Scottish cap affair that
was immensely becoming but not at all comforta-
ble to swim in.

;<How do I look ?" she demanded complacently,
when she turned from a prolonged survey of her-
self in the mirror and pirouetted slowly before
them.

"Beautiful, but foolish," Mollie commented suc-
cinctly.

"Do you really expect to swim in it, dear?':
asked Amy mildly.

'The effect would be altogether stunning," sug-
gested Betty judicially, her head on one side, "if
you cocked it just a little further over one eye so
as to obscure the sight completely."

There was a ripple of laughter.

"Oh, you're all jealous," remarked Grace, not
at all disturbed as she turned back to the mirror
once more to pull a curl a little more fetchingly
over her ear. :T might have known you would
be."

"Goodness, an)-body would think she was at
Palm Beach or some other show place," cried
Mollie, pulling her own plain little cap a trifle

THE TELEGRAM 135

lower over her ears. :'If you expect an audience,
Grade, I'm afraid you will be disappointed/'

"Here I am, trying to give you something good
to look at — "

But they would hear no more and hustled her
with scant ceremony away from the mirror and
out of the door.

"Come on!" cried Betty, taking the stairs two
at a time. "Let's see who gets to the water first.
I'm betting nine to one on myself."

"Goodness, she's as conceited as you are,
Grade," gasped Mollie, following hard on Betty's
footsteps. "Here's my chance to take some of it
out of her!"

Grace and Amy, following at not quite such
breakneck speed, came out on the porch in time to
see two slender, black-clad figures with vivid red
and green caps scrambling down the side of the
bluff that led to the beach.

As they started after them Mrs. Ford joined
them and they ran together to the edge of the
bluff. The slope was not quite so gentle as they
had thought on the night before, and Mollie and
Betty were puffiing considerably when they
reached the bottom — which they did at almost the
same minute.

Then, fleet-footed, they sped across the sand
toward the inviting water beyond, while Mrs,

136 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

Ford, Grace, and Amy clambered down the bluff
in their turn.

At the bottom they turned, saw Betty and Mol-
lie reach the water's edge at the same instant — or
so it seemed to them — and dash into the green
depths. A moment more and the two black
figures were lost to sight and only two vivid caps
bobbed on the surface of the water.

"Do you suppose it's quite safe?' asked Mrs,
Ford. "I wish the girls hadn't been in such a
hurry."

"Oh you needn't worry about them," Grace as-
sured her. :<Betty and Mollie are regular fish in
the water, and you know there aren't any mean
currents around here. The beach slopes gradually
down so that they can't get caught in water holes
either, so don't worry, Mother," and she slipped
an affectionate hand into her mother's and re-
ceived an answering smile in return.

And, oh, how good that water did feel !

As they waded into it up to their waists, Mollie
and Betty came swimming back, shaking the
water from their eyes and cleaving the big com-
bers with long, powerful strokes.

"Well, who won?" Amy challenged them, as
they came within shouting distance.
Tell the truth," added Grace.
'Both of us," yelled Mollie.

.. •

THE TELEGRAM 137

"Or neither," Betty answered, getting to her
feet and walking the rest of the way in toward
them. "We couldn't have done better team work
if we had tried. Oh, isn't it glorious?"

"We don't know yet — we're not even all wet/'
returned Mollie, adding, as a great comber came
rushing toward them : "Come on, Gracie, here's
a good one. Let's get under it."

And "get under it" they did, cleaving the water
prettily, and in another minute were up on the
other side of the big wave. They shook the water
from their eyes and struck out merrily.

"Don't go too far," Mrs. Ford called after
them, and two bare gleaming arms waved back
at her.

The hours that followed were just one long
delight, and the girls looked surprised and a little
abused when Mrs. Ford reluctantly called them in.

"Why, it can't be more than eleven," protested
Grace.

"And we haven't seen the water for, oh, ages/'
added Mollie.

"Please, can't we have half an hour more?"
Amy added.

Mrs. Ford looked smilingly from one to thq
other and then at Betty.

"Well, haven't you any petition to make?" she
asked of the latter.

138 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

"I was thinking," said Betty squinting up at
the sun, "that Grace was wrong when she said it
wasn't more than eleven. It seems to me to be
after twelve."

"It is," said Mrs. Ford firmly. "Quarter past."

'Well, let's go!" cried Betty, starting toward
the bluff. "I don't know about the rest of you,
but I'm starving to death."

"But we'll want to swim again after lunch,
won't we?" protested Mollie.

"Of course."

"Well, then," she argued reasonably, "we don't
want to change our clothes just for lunch, and we
can't very well go up to the house in dripping
bathing suits."

The girls groaned.

'Then we'll have to wait for lunch until we've
sat here for hours and dried off," wailed Grace.

"And she hasn't even a box of chocolates!"
Betty mocked her. "It is a desperate case, Grace."

With another groan Grace sank into the soft,
warm sand while the others followed suit, looking
so mournful that Mrs. Ford was moved to take
pity on them.

"I dried off long ago," she said, adding, as they
looked at her hopefully : "I tell you what I'll do.
I'll go up and open a couple of cans of tongue and
make some sandwiches and bring down the cake

THE TELEGRAM

139

we bought yesterday. And we can have some
milk to drink, for I had the boy leave a couple of
extra quarts this morning. How will that do?"

"Do!" the girls echoed, while Grace hugged
her mother with vigor. The eyes of the girls fol-
lowed her gratefully as Mrs. Ford started off on
her work of rescue — at least, that is the way the
hungry girls regarded it.

"You know, I have a better appetite than I've
had in weeks," announced Mollie, as she dug her
toes into the warm sand. "I haven't been eating
much lately."

"I hadn't noticed it," commented Grace dryly.

"Well, mother did," returned Mollie spiritedly.
"She said she was glad I was going away be-
cause she thought the change would do me good,
I really should have stayed at home, I suppose,
and helped mother take care of the twins," she
added thoughtfully. "I never saw two children
with such an absolute genius for getting into mis-
chief. But when they're caught, they're so cun-
ning and dear and say such quaint things that
it is almost impossible to get angry with
them."

'They're adorable," agreed Betty, while all the
girls smiled fondly at thought of the twins.

'Just the same," remarked Grace, "although I
love them, I'm glad I'm not their sister, for I'd

I4o OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

never be able to eat a candy in comfort/' and the
girls laughed at her.

;'It seems so wonderful and peaceful here," said
Amy, after a short pause, "and we seem so
awfully far away from the rest of the world. It
almost makes one believe that the war 'over there'
is a dream — "

"Or a nightmare," interpolated Mollie.

"Well, it isn't," said Grace, adding, as she dug
her toes more deeply into the yielding sand : "And
if we don't hear more news of Will pretty soon,
I'll just die, that's all. I can't stand it!"

"There's your mother," cried Betty suddenly,
glad of an excuse to change the subject. "I think
she's calling us, too. Come on, let's go."

Nothing loath, they got to their feet, shook the
sand from their suits, and hurried to the bluff
where Mrs. Ford stood awaiting them.

As they clambered up toward her they noticed
that she looked excited and was holding a yellow
envelope in her hand.

"The trunks have come," she said, as they ran
up to her. "A big lumbering red-haired fellow
brought them from the station a few minutes ago.
He also brought this," indicating the envelope in
her hand.

"What is it?" they cried, a strange premoni-
tion of evil tightening about their hearts.

THE TELEGRAM 141

"A telegram for Mollie!"

Mollie turned a little pale under her tan and
took the yellow envelope gingerly, as though it
had been poisoned, or contained some T. N. T.
explosive.

"Who on earth — " she began, then interrupted
herself, and with trembling fingers tore the en-
velope open. The girls watched her, wide-eyed
and tense.

"It's from mother," she cried, then crushed the
paper in her hands and looked around at the sym-
pathetic faces with eyes grown dark with fear.
"Girls," she said, "I—I'm afraid to read it— I—"

CHAPTER XVI

THE SHADOW OF DISASTER

BETTY put a steadying arm about Mollie and
asked gently:

"Would it make it any easier if I were to read
it, dear?"

"No, oh, no!" cried Mollie, then smoothed out
the crushed paper and read the telegram through
while her face grew whiter and her lips closed in
a tense line. With a queer little sound in her
throat she turned away and handed it to Betty.

"Read it," she commanded in a choked voice.

Mrs. Ford put an arm about Mollie while Betty
read aloud and the girls crowded closer.

It was a brief, paralyzing message the telegram
contained.

"Twins are gone. Were not home last night,
and am wild with anxiety. No need your coming
home. Am doing everything possible to find
them. MOTHER/'

'The twins!" gasped Amy.

142

THE SHADOW OF DISASTER

143

"Gone!" added Grace, stupefied. "Oh, Betty,
are you sure you read it aright?"

For answer, Betty handed her the telegram and
turned to comfort Mollie, who was sobbing bit-
terly.

"I knew I shouldn't have gone away," she was
saying over and over again. "I knew I should
have stayed at home."

"But your staying at home probably wouldn't
have made any difference," argued Betty sooth-
ingly.

"And by this time they may have been found,
anyway," added Mrs. Ford, gently leading Mollie
toward the house, Betty at her side, while Grace
and Amy followed, mute with sympathy.

'Yes; or by this time they may be dead!"
sobbed Mollie, refusing to be comforted. "They
must have met with some accident or they
wouldn't have stayed away all n-night."

"Maybe they ran awray," suggested Grace, try-
ing hard to think of something cheering to say.
'They've done it before, you know."

'Yes," agreed Mollie, sinking into a porch
chair and searching desperately for a handker-
chief in her pocketless bathing suit. "But they
always came home before night. I know it must
be something awfully serious to keep them away
over night."

144

OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

Mrs. Ford was very much worried and dis-
turbed, but she nevertheless managed a bright
smile.

"As you say, they probably ran away," she
said. "Only this time they have wandered too
far and haven't been able to find their way back.
But if your mother has notified the police, as she
surely has by this time, they are sure to be found.
And now," she added, rising briskly and mak-
ing for the door, "since everything seems a good
deal worse than it is on an empty stomach, I'm
going to give you some lunch and we'll decide
what to do afterward/'

Left alone, the girls gazed helplessly at each
other. Mollie had stopped sobbing and was star-
ing moodily out at the ocean, her eyes and nose
swollen with weeping.

"I'll have to go home, of course," she said sud-
denly, breaking a silence filled with unhappy
thoughts. "I don't know that I'll be any good,
but I can at least comfort mother. I'm sorry,"
she gave them a wistful, apologetic little glance
that went straight to their hearts and brought the
tears to their eyes, "to break up the party."

"You darling," cried Betty, trying to laugh and
not making a very great success of it, "do you
think we care a rap about our old party? Only,"
she added thoughtfully, "as you say yourself, I

THE SHADOW OF DISASTER

145

don't see that you can do very much good by
going home."

"I could comfort mother," repeated Mollie, in a
flat tone, as though she were repeating a lesson,

"But she said not to come," suggested Grace.
"She said she was doing everything possible — "

"I know," interrupted Mollie, wearily. "Of
course she would say not to come. And I sup-
pose," she added, dabbing impatiently at her eyes,
"all I'd do would be to weep anyway, and make
things about ten times worse."

"Do you want your lunch inside or out here?"
Mrs. Ford asked from the doorway and the girls
jumped to their feet.

"Here we are, letting you do all the work
again," cried Betty self-reproachfully. "I guess
we'd rather have it out here, but we'll bring it
out ourselves. Please go over there, get into the
swing, and don't stir until we say you may."
Betty had a pretty manner, half of deference, half
of camaraderie, with older people that made them
love her. Mrs. Ford parted her cheek with a little
smile and obeyed her command while the three
girls ran into the kitchen to bring out the sand-
wiches and cake that she had already prepared.

And all the time Mollie sat motionless, staring
out over the ocean, apparently unconscious of
everything that was going on around her.

146 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

"Little Dodo and Paul," she said over and
over to herself. "What has happened to them?
Oh, I must go home, I must!"

"Come to your lunch," called Betty.

After lunch Mollie began to take a less gloomy
view of the situation and hope, which in youth
can never long be forced into the background, be-
gan to revive.

"In the first place," Betty argued, as she began
to clear away the dishes and Amy rose to help
her, " it couldn't have been an accident, or your
mother would have read about it in the papers.
The children are old enough to tell their names
and where they live."

"I know," said Mollie, while the troublesome
tears welled to her eyes again. "But it's possible
they may have been unconscious, and then they
wouldn't be able to tell anything."

"But there would have been at least an an-
nouncement describing the children," Amy ar-
gued in support of Betty.

"And, anyway, pretty nearly everybody in
Deepdale knows the twins," Grace added.

"Well, then, there are only two or three things
left that might have happened," said Mollie, her
lips quivering. "It's barely possible they may
have wandered off into the woods and gotten lost.
In that case somebody will have to hurry up and

THE SHADOW OF DISASTER

147

find them or they will just stay there and s-starve !
And that's almost worse than being run over."

"Well, with everybody in Deepdale, civilians
as well as police, searching for them/' said Betty
confidently, "I don't think there is very much
chance of their starving to death. If that's the
solution, I shouldn't wonder but that they are safe
at home now with everybody rejoicing."

Mollie's face brightened a little at this picture,
but almost immediately clouded over again.

"But we don't know that," she said. "And
until we do, I'm not going to let myself get too
happy.

"I wonder," she said suddenly, after the girls
had cleared away the lunch and had perched
themselves on the porch railing, :<just what I
ought to do first. Send a telegram to mother, I
suppose," answering her own question.

"Yes, I think I would," said Betty, adding, as
Mollie got up with characteristic impulsiveness
and started for the house : "Do you mind telling
us what you are going to say in it — about going
home, I mean?"

Mollie paused uncertainly.

"I — I don't just know," she admitted. "One
minute I think there's no question but what I
ought to go, and the next, I wonder if I wouldn't
only be in the way."

148 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

'There's another thing to consider," Mrs. Ford
put in. "It is almost a certainty that the children
will be found in a day or two, perhaps are found
already, and in that case you would have all your
trip for nothing. I don't like to advise — "

"Oh, please do," Mollie begged, adding with a
pathetic little smile : "I feel so awfully lonesome,
trying to decide everything all by myself."

'You poor little girl," said the woman tenderly,
then fearing lest sympathy would only make the
girl feel worse, added hurriedly : "In that case
I should most strongly advise that you wait a day
or two at least and give things a chance to
straighten out. At the end of that time, if they
haven't been found and you still think you ought
to go, we'll pack up everything and go along with
you, of course."

"That's what I'll do then," agreed Mollie, re-
lieved to have the question settled for her. "And
now," she added, making for the door once more,
"I'm going to get into my street things and wiz
down to that station in record time. Who wants
to come with me?"

It seemed everybody did, and in a very short
time the girls had changed from their bathing
suits to their street clothes and were ready for
the dash to the station, which was about two miles
from their house.

THE S 'H ADO IV OF DISASTER

149

They all climbed into Mollie's car, and the big
machine started slowly backward down the steep
incline.

"Better hold on," Mollie warned them. "I've
never done quite so steep a hill as this backward,
and the old boy may balk. Take your time, old
man," addressing the car, as it showed a tendency
to pick up speed too rapidly. "Of course we're
in a hurry, but we don't want to land on our ears.
That's the way — gently nowr. All right — we're
off !" as they reached the foot of the hill in safety
and swung around into the road. "Now let's see
how Ions: it will take you to reach that station."

o *•

As a matter of fact, it took scarcely any time
at all, for the demon of speed seemed to have
taken possession of Mollie, and she drove so reck-
lessly that even the girls, who were used to her
daring, were startled.

Yet something about the young driver's
straight little back and tightly compressed lips
kept them from protesting.

However, the wild ride came to an end without
accident, and the girls tumbled out of the ma-
chine and on to the station platform. They looked
about them, but the only person in sight was an
unpromising looking person with a bald head — •
though he could not have been over thirty-five —
beaked nose, and small red-rimmed eyes.

150 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

This decidedly unattractive individual lounged
against the door of the waiting room and eyed
the girls with insolent admiration.

"Anything I can do for you?' he asked, as he
saw that they hesitated. "Always willing to ob-
lige the ladies," he added.

The girls exchanged a glance, then Betty ap-
proached the lounger who had the grace to
straighten up as she addressed him.

"We want to send a telegram," she explained
coldly. "We understood we could send one from
here."

"Sure! That's me," he responded with alac-
rity. "Right this way, ladies."

The girls followed him reluctantly into a little
square booth-like place, and Mollie scribbled a
telegram on the blank he gave her. Then they
hurried out to the machine again. A little way
down the road Amy turned and looked back. The
fellow had resumed his lounging position and was
looking after them with his little red-rimmed eyes.

"Ugh! wasn't he awful?" said Betty, as Mollie
rounded a turn in the road on two wheels. :Tm
glad we don't have to see him often, he'd give me
the nightmare."

But Mollie did not answer. Her mind was
once more on the twins, and she was repeating
over and over the same old question.

THE SHADOW OF DISASTER 151

"What has happened — what has happened?
What could have happened ?"

"Betty," she said aloud, so suddenly that Betty
started, "there's just one thing we didn't think of
as being a solution. It's strange, too, for it is the
most probable solution of all."

"What?" asked Betty anxiously.

"Suppose — " said Mollie, her voice so low that
Betty had to bend forward to catch the words,
"Suppose they have been kidnapped!"

CHAPTER XVII

JOE BARNES AGAIN

'WELL, we've got to do something. There's no
use sitting around looking at each other!"

The girls started and looked reproachfully at
Mollie.

It was several days after the telegram had
come which had so upset them and their plans,
and they were sitting dejectedly on the sand at
the foot of the bluff trying to read. The attempt
had proved a failure, however, and one after
another the books had dropped to their laps while
they stared disconsolately out over the water.

'What would you suggest?" asked Grace list-
lessly, in response to Mollie's statement.

"Can't we go in swimming again?" asked Amy
mildly.

"No!" Mollie was very positive. "The boy
will be coming with the provisions and letters in a
little wrhile, and there may be a telegram or some-
thing from mother. If there isn't pretty soon,
I'll go mad."

"Let's take a walk then," suggested Betty.

152

JOE BARNES AGAIN

153

But again Mollie would have none of it.

"Too warm," she said.

"Well, I thought you were the one who wanted
to do something/' said Grace, getting up and
shaking the sand from her dress. "I guess the
trouble is," she added, "that you don't know what
you \vant."

"Yes I do," said Mollie, while the tears rose to
her eyes and she shook them away impatiently.
"Only the one thing I want more than anything
else I can't get."

"Maybe you forget," said Grace, while her own
voice trembled a little, "that I'm very nearly in
the same fix."

"No, we don't," cried Betty quickly. "But the
only way we can hope to bear the horrible things
that are happening to us is to get busy at some-
thing and try to occupy our minds."

"It's all very well for you to talk," Mollie re-
torted, in her nervous state saying something she
never would have thought of saying under normal
conditions, "but nothing terrible has happened to
you yet. Wait till it does. Then maybe it won't
be so easy to get your mind off it."

The thoughtless speech stung, and Betty turned
away to hide the hurt in her eyes.

''Perhaps you're right," she said quietly.
"Nothing very terrible has happened to me yet,

)54 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

personally. But perhaps you forget that we girh
always share each other's troubles — "

But Mollie would not let her finish. She was
down on her knees beside her chum, penitent arms
about her shoulders and was pouring out an
apology.

"I ought to be tarred and feathered," she cried
breathlessly. "I don't know7 what made me say
such a thing, Honey."

"I know," said Betty gently, "and that's why
it didn't go very deep — what you said."

'You're a darling!" cried Mollie. She gave the
Little Captain another bear's hug, then sat down
in the sand again with her arms clasped about her
knees. "It's this everlasting uncertainty and the
feeling of helplessness that gets on one's nerves
so. I always did hate to wait for anything — es-
pecially with my imagination."

"What's that got to do with it?" asked Amy,
surprised.

'Why, it — the imagination, I mean — just goes
running around in circles, thinking up all the hor-
rible things that might have happened until I al-
most go crazy. If I only didn't have to think !"

"You never used to have any trouble that way,"
said Grace, with a weak attempt at a joke that
ended in dismal failure.

"Isn't that the boy with the mail ?" asked Betty

JOE BARNES AGAIN

155

after a minute, as the rumble of an antiquated ve-
hicle and a masculine voice addressing in no un~
certain tones a pair of invisible mules came to
their ears. "Perhaps he's bringing good news to
us. Come on, we'll meet him half way."

Relieved at the prospect of action, the girls
sprang to their feet, dusted off the clinging sand,
and scrambled up the bluff. A minute more and
they were running down the hill pell mell toward
the oncoming team.

They had scarcely reached the bottom of the
hill when the long-eared and long-suffering ani-
mals rounded a turn in the road and ambled
slowly toward them.

The driver, the same gauky, red-headed coun-
try lad who had brought them their trunks, drew
rein as the fleet-footed girls reached him and
swept off his crownless hat with a gallantry that
left nothing to be desired.

:Tm bringing your provisions/* he began, add-
ing loquaciously, for he loved to talk and seldom
got the opportunity : "Sorry I couldn't get 'em to
you yesterday, but Abe up to the store took sick
and he says to me, 'Jake/ he says, 'guess mebbe
you'll have to be storekeeper an' delivery boy both
to-day. Shake a leg/ he says, 'an' I might mebbe
give you a dollar extry. You never can't tell/ he
says. He's that generous like, Abe is," the boy

156 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

shook his head sadly at the thought of Abe's
generosity, "that he'd give a whole chicken to a
kid dyin' of hunger, pervided he knowed the
chicken had the pip."

The girls chuckled at this last sentence, uttered
with a sort of ferocious sarcasm, even though they
had been standing on one foot with impatience
during the rest of his long speech.

Now, seeing that he was about to begin again,
Betty cut in quickly.

"It didn't bother us a bit, you're not coming
yesterday," she said, adding, as she leaned for-
ward eagerly : "What we do want to know is —
did you bring any mail?"

"Sure," he said, good-naturedly, reaching be-
hind him for a small package of letters which
Betty took eagerly. "An' there was a telegram
too, came yesterday — "

"Yesterday!" Mollie interrupted with a groan.
"And I'm just getting it to-day!"

"'But I was telling you," he started all over
again patiently, "as how Abe took sick and says
to me : 'Jake — ' "

"Yes, yes, we know," interrupted Mollie,
reaching impatiently for the crumpled yellow
envelope which he took from his pocket, smoothed
out carefully, and handed to her with maddening
deliberation. "Oh, if anything terrible has hap-

JOE BARNES AGAIN

157

pened I'll never forgive myself for not going to
the station yesterday!"

"But it was raining so hard, and we expected
the boy any minute." Amy thus tried to con-
sole her but it is doubtful if Mollie even heard
her. She had torn open the envelope and was
devouring the message whole while the girls
looked at her anxiously.

The red-headed orator, seeing that his presence
was no longer in demand, clucked to his team and
jogged oft" reluctantly. A telegram is rather a
rarity in Bluff Point and they might have taken
pity on a fellow and given him at least a hint
of its contents. But there, he didn't want to know
anyway — wouldn't if he could! Still, these out-
landers were mighty mean, close-mouthed folks!

"Nothing," said Mollie, in response to the un-
spoken question of the girls. "They haven't found
a trace of either of them yet, but the police are
confident that it is a case of kidnapping and that
they will be able to round up the criminals in a
short time. Poor little Dodo ! Poor little Paul !
If nothing worse happens to them they wrill be
scared to death. Oh, if I could only get hold o£
those kidnappers Yd — I'd kill 'em !" She clenched
her hands passionately and her lips shut in a
straight, grim little line.

"I guess we'd all be glad to," said mild little

158 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POIXT

Amy, with a look in her eyes that showed she
meant it.

As they started back down the road Betty sud-
denly remembered the packet of letters in her
hands. The excitement about the telegram had
put them completely out of her mind.

To think I could forget letters!" she mar-
veled, as she distributed them to their rightful
owners. "Here's one for you, Amy, and two for
you, Grace. One for Mrs. Ford and one for
Mollie and — and — two for me — '

She looked so surprised that they paused in the
act of opening their own letters to look at her.

'What's the matter?" Grace asked.

''Why here's one addressed to me in a perfectly
strange hand," she answered, turning the letter
over and over in her hand. "I can't imagine — "

o

"What's the postmark ?" asked Amy.

Betty looked and then colored prettily as she
realized who her unknown correspondent was.

'Why — why," she stammered, amazed at her
own confusion, "it's sent from Bensington, but — "

"Bensington !" Grace echoed, then her eyes
twinkled as the truth came to her. "So it's as
bad as that, is it?"

"I don't know what you mean," said Betty,
trying to look dignified and failing utterly, while
Mollie and Amv continued to stare their amaze-

JOE BARNES AGAIN

ment. They had forgotten completely that night
spent under the hospitable roof of Mrs. Barnes,
and even her son's engaging personality had faded
from their minds. There had been so many things
to think about and worry about. So now they
both said together:

'What in the world are you two talking of?"

"Do you mean to say you really don't know ?"
queried Grace in a superior tone. "Have you so
soon forgotten our knight of the wayside, Joe
Barnes?"

"Joe Barnes," they repeated weakly, then
turned their astonished gaze on Betty.

"Well, I can't help it," retorted Betty, feeling
vaguely the need of defense. "I didn't ask him
to."

"But how did he get your address?" asked
Mollie, still staring. "Who gave it to him?"

"I told him where we were going," cried Betty
desperately, driven into a corner. "But I had no
idea he was going to write to me until — until — "
hesitating as a picture of Joe Barnes, standing
beside her car and asking if he might tell her
"how things were with him" came vividly before
her eyes.

'Yes. Until?" they baited her, forgetting for
a moment the dark shadows hanging over them
in the fun of this unexpected discovery.

160 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

"Until the morning we came away," Betty an-
swered, seeing that she could not get away from
these pitiless inquisitors until she had satisfied
their curiosity.

"Did he ask to write to you then?'* probed
Mollie relentlessly.

;<I don't see what right — " Betty was beginning
spiritedly when she caught Mollie's eye and
ended in a little helpless laugh. "I suppose I'll
have to tell you all about it or you'll turn a simple
little molehill into a mountain."

"Quite right," said Grace cheerfully, and even
Betty had to laugh at her.

"Make a clean breast of it," ordered Mollie.

"But there really isn't anything to make a clean
breast of," protested Betty. "He simply asked
me if he might write and tell me how he — how
he—"

"How he what?" they queried.

"But I don't know whether I ought to tell you
about that or not." Betty was really in earnest.
"You see, what he told me was sort of in con-
fidence."

"In confidence!" repeated Grace, adding
wickedly : "Now we know it's a serious case."

"Nonsense," said Betty, almost crossly. 'He
simply said he hadn't been allowed to get into the
army because of ill health, but now that he felt

JOE BARNES AGAIN 161

well again he was going to try once more. It
was that he wanted to write and tell me about.
And because I was really interested, I said he
might. That's all."

"How romantic!" cried Mollie irrepressibly.
"For goodness sake, hurry up and read it, Betty,
and relieve our curiosity."

"I'll read it," said Betty firmly, "when I get
good and ready, and not one minute before !"

CHAPTER XVIII

SERIOUSLY WOUNDED

THEY walked the rest of the distance to the
house in absorbed silence, reading as they went.
Then suddenly Betty gave a little cry of amaze-
ment.

"I thought this was for me," she said, holding
up a letter. "But it isn't. It's for your mother,
Grace. I don't see how I could have made such
a mistake!"

But Grace only heard the first part of Betty's
speech. The last of it passed right over her head.

"A letter for mother?" she cried. "Oh, give
it to me, Betty. It may be from dad. Oh, it is!
It is!" she exclaimed, as she saw her father's
familiar writing. "He must have heard about
Will. Mother ! Mother — ' she broke away from
the girls and took the porch steps two at a time,
waving the letter wildly as she went.

"Oh, if it's only good news, if it's only good
news!" Betty found herself saying over and over
again as she, with Mollie, followed Grace into

the house.

162

SERIOUSLY WOUNDED

They found Mrs. Ford in the living room, pale
and trembling a little, holding the envelope in her
hand as though she dared not open it. Grace had
collapsed in a chair and was gazing up at her
mother with such agonized pleading in her eyes
that the girls could not look at her.

Then very slowly Mrs. Ford tore open the
envelope. At the same moment the girls seemed
to sense that they might be in some manner in-
truding, and with one accord they moved over to
the window and stood looking out.

After a wait that seemed interminable they
heard Grace say in a strained, far-away little
voice :

"Mother, what is it? Can't you tell me? I
think I'll die if I have to wait any longer."

"Read it," they heard Mrs. Ford say in a
choked voice, as a rustle of paper told that she
had handed the letter to Grace. "I can't tell you
dear. Oh, my boy, my boy!" And she sank
down in a chair and covered her face with her
hands.

The girls turned from the window and started
to leave the room, for they felt that the moment
was too sacred for even them who were so in-
tensely interested, to share.

Just as they reached the? door they paused, ar-
rested by a cry from Grace.

1 64 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

"Seriously wounded!" she read in a muffled
voice. "Oh, Mother, for all we know, that may
mean Will is — dead!"

They were startled by a muffled sob, and turned
in time to see Amy rush from the room. Poor
little Amy! In the excitement and grief of the
moment they had forgotten that she might also
be affected by this news of Will !

Betty and Mollie ran upstairs after her, leaving
Grace and her mother together.

"And I was so hoping/* said Betty as she
closed the door softly and Mollie flung herself cm
the bed, "that it would be good news/'

"Yes," said Mollie, staring moodily out the
window', "it does seem that everything terribk
that can happen to us is happening all at once. I
wonder what's next/'

"There isn't going to be any next," said Betty,
but in her heart she was not so sure. Almost
everyone in the world was suffering, one way or
another, and it was only to be expected that they
would get their full share.

And as she thought of Allen a hot wave of fear
went over her, leaving her faint and sick. Out
there in the very thickest of the fight, it would be
a miracle if he should be saved to come back to
her.

But he must come back, he must come back,

SERIOUSLY WOUNDED

heart cried over and over again. Hadn't
he said he would? And Allen always kept his
word.

Then she shook herself, and with an effort
brought her wandering thought back to this new
trouble — or rather, confirmation of an old one.

From the time Mr. Ford had received the
telegram telling of Will's wound, they had hoped
against hope that it had been a mistake, or that
at least, the wound had not been serious.

But this new report from Washington seemed
to put an end to that hope, and there was nothing
to do but to face the terrible reality. Will was
seriously wounded in some hospital in France,
and, as Grace had said, that might mean that even
now he was in a critical condition, perhaps, for
all they knew, he had died out there away from
all his dear ones and the friends that loved him.

"I don't suppose there is any use acting as
though he were dead already," said Mollie, break-
ing in upon her unhappy reverie. 'There have
been several thousand wounded soldiers over
there who have recovered."

"Yes, only to be sent back again to the firing
line and have it done all over," said Betty bitterly,
for, for a time at least, her staunch optimism
had deserted her and she was ready to see the
blackest side of everything.

1 66 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

"Yes, it does seem that once a soldier has gone
down to the very gates of death, he should be
exempted," sighed Mollie, adding dispiritedly :
"But I suppose if they made that a rule they
wouldn't have any armies left after awhile."

"And the boys themselves don't want to be
exempted," said Betty, feeling a little thrill of
pride in spite of her heartache. 'Their one big-
gest reason for getting well is to be able to get
another 'whack at the Hun/

"Shall we go and see if we can cheer up Amy "
she asked after an interval rilled with gloomy
meditation. "She is so brave and quiet about
everything that yon never have a chance to guess
kow hard she is taking her trouble. Poor girl !"

"I do feel awfully sorry for her," agreed Mollie,
shifting unhappily, "but I must say I don't feel
very capable of cheering anybody up myself.
never felt so horribly discouraged in my life."

"Well, it doesn't do any good to think about
it," said Betty. "Maybe if we try to make poor
Amy feel better we'll help ourselves at the same
time."

"I suppose it won't do any harm to try/'
agreed Mollie, rising wearily. "But I wish some-
body would lend me a smile for a little while till
I get mine back again. I might be able to play the
role of merry little sunshine better."

SERIOUSLY WOUNDED 167

She gave Betty a wry little smile, and arm in
arm they started down the hall to Amy's room.

The found the door shut, and tapped lightly
upon it. When there was no response they rapped
again, then tried the knob and found the door
was locked.

'Whatever in the world — " Mollie was begin-
ning apprehensively, when a plaintive voice in
the room behind the closed door interrupted
her.

"Who is it?"

"It's we. Dear — Mollie and Betty," answered
Betty quickly. "Can't you let us in?"

"I — I'd rather not," replied the voice falter-
ingly. "I'm all right, and I'll be out in a minute.
Please don't worry about me. You ought to be
used to my making a goose of myself by this
time." This last accompanied by a pitiful little
attempt at a laugh.

"All right, Honey," Betty spoke sympatheti-
cally, for she had often seen the time when even
her best friend would have been in the way.
"We only wanted to help, that's all. When you
want us we'll be in my room."

Amy murmured something in reply, and they
slipped back again into the other room and closed
the door.

"I guess she feels it even worse than we thought

168 OUTDOOR G1KLS AT BLUFF PO1XT

she did," said Mollie pityingly. "When Amy
cries she is pretty well cut up."

'Well, I guess all we can do now is just sit still
and wait till somebody wants us," said Betty, sit-
ting down irresolutely and folding her hands.
It was this last action that reminded her of the
letter from Joe Barnes which she had not yet
read. Although she had been holding it in her
hand all the while, she had completely forgotten
there was such a person as the writer.

At her exclamation Mollie looked up rather
listlessly.

"That's so," she said. "You never did find
out whether or not Joe Barnes had been accepted.
Tell me about it. I'd welcome a diversion — a
cyclone or a tidal wave or anything — if it would
only get my mind off our troubles."

"I'll guarantee it would be effective," returned
Betty absently, as she took up the closely written
pages. "It would be like burning yourself to make
you forget you have a toothache."

There was silence for a long while, broken only
by the sound of the waves breaking on the shore
and the crackling of the paper as Betty turned
page after page.

It was a long letter, filled with youthful en-
thusiasm. In it the youth spoke his pleasure in
meeting her and his hope that she would not only

SERIOUSLY WOUNDED 169

answer this letter but would allow him to write to
her often.

But over and above all the great fact stood
out that he had been accepted! The doctors had
looked him over and declared him fit in every re-
spect to serve his country.

As Betty read the last glowing sentence a sob
broke from her and she buried her head in her
arms. Mollie went over to her quickly.

"What is it?" she asked anxiously, putting an
arm about the Little Captain. "You haven't had
bad news too, have you, Betty?"

"N-no," sobbed Betty, raising eyes that were
shining through her tears. "I just love them
so — all those splendid boys that are so crazy to
give their lives for their country, that my heart
gets too full sometimes, that's all."

"Then I take it that Joe Barnes has been ac-
cepted," Mollie rather stated than asked.

"Yes," said Betty, feeling for a handkerchief.
"And he is simply wild with joy, Mollie," she
added, while the color flooded her face. "The
Germans simply can't last long with that spirit
against them. It makes our boys indomitable!"

CHAPTER XIX

BETTY CONFESSES

BETTY woke up the next morning with a sense
of deadly depression weighing her down. For
a few moments she lay staring up at the ceiling
trying to collect her thoughts. Then the events of
the day before came back to her and she frowned
unhappily.

The whereabouts of poor little Dodo and Paul
was still a mystery, and Will Ford, whom she had
come to regard almost as a brother, was terribly
wounded somewhere in France. She probably
would never see him again.

And there was Allen too, to worry about every
minute of the day and night. She had not heard
from him in — oh, ages. Yes, it must be every
bit of two weeks since she had read his last letter.
For all she knew, he might be worse off than poor
Will.

"Oh, well," she sighed, and, turning on her
side, looked out of the window.

There was no relief there from the gloom of her

thoughts, for the sky was leaden and overcast,

170

BETTY CONFESSES

171

looking as if it, too, were mourning for the
troubles of the world, and the surf beat loud and
threateningly on the shore.

"Guess it's going to rain and make things still
more cheerful/' she said, and at the sound Grace
opened heavy eyes and turned over restlessly.

"What are you mumbling about?" she asked
sleepily, closing her eyes again and sighing a
little.

"Nothing but the weather," replied Betty, add-
ing, with unusual gentleness : "It's early, so you
can turn over and get forty winks."

"What has happened to you?" asked Grace,
opening her eyes again in surprise at this unheard
of advice. Then as the full force of her trouble
came home to her she turned over noisily and
burrowed her head into the pillow.

"Guess I will," she said in a muffled voice.
"Don't any one dare wake me up till they have
some good news to tell me. I'm going to be
another Rip Van Winkle."

"Goodness, I hope it won't be that long be-
fore we have any good news," said Betty, trying
to speak lightly. This would never do, she
thought. They simply had to find some way out
of this terrible slough of despondency before it
mastered them completely.

"I'm going to get up," she announced briskly,

1-2 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

jumping- out of bed. "I've got to find something
to keep me busy till that good news of ours feels
like coming along. I'm getting absolutely morbid
just sitting around and thinking."

"Well, what is there to do?" asked Grace, roll-
ing over and regarding her listlessly.

"There's the house to be put in order," Betty
pointed out, recovering a little of her old spirits,
now that she had decided on a definite plan of
action. "And we never have really unpacked
our trunks because Mollie has been undecided
about staying."

"Yes, I know. And my clothes are a perfect
wreck. I haven't a thing to put on that doesn't
look as if it had been through the wars," Grace
agreed. "Not that it really matters," she added
indifferently.

"Of course it makes a difference/' returned
Betty sharply. She was determined to rouse
Grace out of her lethargy, no matter what means
she had to take. "Don't you know that when
you are dressed neatly and becomingly everything
seems brighter and more hopeful? And, any-
way/' she added, watching Grace out of the
corner of her eye, "it isn't like you to be careless
about your dress."

"Well, it isn't like me either to go moping
around as if I had one foot in the grave and the

BETTY CONFESSES 173

other was slipping," retorted Grace, with a spirit
that showed the experiment had worked. "I don't
think it's nice for you to make remarks like that
when you know how I'm feeling and the excuse
I have."

"Nobody has any excuse for giving up and act-
ing as if everything were lost when it isn't," said
Betty decidedly. "If our soldiers did that the
first time they had to retreat, how long do you
suppose our army would last?"

"But Will isn't your brother," insisted Grace
stubbornly. "If he were, maybe you would feel
differently."

There was a moment's pause.

"No he isn't my brother," returned Betty,
knowing she was going to hurt her friend but be-
ttering that the result would justify the means.
"But if he were I would try to behave so that
when he came back he would have a right to be
proud of me."

"Betty Nelson !" Grace sprang out of bed with
her eyes blazing, "do you know what you are
saying? Do you mean that if Will should come
back, he wouldn't be proud of me?"

"Not if you keep on taking your trouble lying
down," said Betty, sticking gamely to her guns,
though she was a little frightened at the success
of her experiment.

i;4 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

;<I may," she thought to herself, "have done
not wisely, but too well."

However, after one outraged and enraged stare
at Betty, Grace pointedly turned her back and
began hastily to pull on her clothes. She finished
dressing before Betty, and without a word left the
room.

"Now you have done it, Betty, my dear," said
Betty making a little face at her pretty reflection
in the mirror. "I shouldn't wonder if Grace
would never speak to you again. Poor Grade,
perhaps I shouldn't have said what I did, but I
simply had to start something."

On her way downstairs she tapped at Mollie's
door and found that she and Amy were both up
and dressing.

"Come in," called Mollie; "I need your help.
Amy's eyes are so swollen," she explained, as
Betty obeyed, "that she can't see to do me up.
Just the middle one, Betty. That's a dear."

As Betty obligingly did the "middle one" she
stole a glance at Amy, who was absently doing
up her hair without looking in the mirror.

"Look out!" she cried suddenly, making both
the girls jump. 'You nearly stuck that hairpin in
your eye, Amy," she explained, as they looked at
her reproachfully, "and that isn't the place for
it you know."

BETTY CONFESSES

175

Amy smiled a crooked little smile and put the
unruly hairpin in the right place.

"I'm apt to do anything to-day," she said, with
a sigh that seemed to come from her toes. "If
any of you want to live, you had just better keep
out of my way, that's all."

"Isn't it just wonderful weather?" said Mollie
sarcastically, gazing out at the leaden landscape.
'Just the kind of a day to put the J into Joy."

"If something doesn't happen pretty soon,"
put in Amy, with another deep sigh, "I'll just
naturally pass away. I wonder," she added, look-
ing really interested in the subject, "if anybody
ever did die of the blues."

"I don't believe so — but there's always hope,"
said Betty dryly, adding with sudden spirit:
"Now look here, girls, something's got to be
done about this. We really will make ourselves
sick if we don't try to look on the hopeful side of
things. It won't do anybody, least of all, our-
selves, any good to sit here and mope all day.
We've just got to fight against depression and
cheer up."

"That's all very well for you, Betty," Amy
voiced almost the same sentiment as Grace had
only a few moments ago, "but you are the only
one of us who hasn't been hurt personally. Sup-
pose it were Allen. Would you feel the same

176 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUl-V POINT

way then — about cheering up and taking it
bravely?"

Betty flushed angrily, at the same time feeling
a wild desire to go away and cry.

"I hope I would," she said steadily. "And if
I didn't, I would surely feel ashamed of myself.
It isn't," she paused at the door and looked back
at them, "as though Will or the twins were dead.
We have hope in both cases, so I don't see any use
of giving up. You talk," she choked back a sob,
"as though I didn't sympathize, as if I were an
outsider just because nothing has happened to —
Allen — yet — " her voice choked in a real sob this
time and she fled from the room.

The girls gazed after her unhappily.

"Did you ever !" gasped Mollie.

"I didn't mean to make her feel bad. Betty, of
all people !" said Amy, conscience stricken. "And
of course she's right about our trying to cheer up.
Only, I don't want to, someway."

"Betty's a darling," said Mollie thoughtfully.
"But of course she can't quite realize how badly
we feel. If it were her little brother and sister,

now — "

And so gradually Betty came to feel herself
more or less of an outsider with these girls who
were so close to her. And it was all because they
misunderstood her effort to cheer them up and

BETTY CONFESSES 177

thought she could not feel for them because noth-
ing terrible had happened to her yet.

"I'll show them," she told herself fiercely, "if
anything should happen to Allen — " But she
shivered and turned away shudderingly from the
thought. Allen — if only she could see him for
five minutes — just five minutes —

Some way the days dragged through until a
week passed, then part of another. Still there had
been no clue to the whereabouts of the twins, nor
any further news of Will.

"And this is the wonderful vacation we
planned !" said Grace with a wry smile, breaking
one of the long silences that had become common
with the Outdoor Girls these days.

They were, as usual, sitting on the sand and
trying to occupy their minds with sewing or
reading, yet always with an eye to the road in
readiness to rush to their red-headed combination
of delivery boy and postman whenever he saw
fit to put in an appearance.

Betty opened her mouth to say something, but
closed it again. She had learned that any sug-
gestion she might make would be wrongly in-
terpreted by the girls who were engrossed in their
own troubles, and so she had wisely decided to
say nothing.

"I haven't heard from Frank for ever so long,"

1 78 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

said Mollie, as if the fact had just occurred to
her. "I wonder if anything can have happened
to him?"

"I didn't see any name we knew in the casualty
list last night/' ventured Betty.

"Betty, is that what you read so carefully every
night?" asked Mollie, wide-eyed. "Oh, I don't
see how you ever have the courage!" as Betty
nodded. "If I saw the name of anybody I — I —
cared for in that dreadful list, I don't know what
I'd do."

"Oh, I don't know," returned the Little
Captain, while a wistful light grew in her eyes
and her lips quivered. 'When I don't find — what
I'm afraid to find — I feel like a criminal who has
been reprieved, and it gives me courage to face
another day."

Then suddenly the girls saw Betty in her true
light. Why, she was suffering too ! Think of her
reading that awful list every night with fear in
her heart ! And in the light of this revelation, her
brave efforts to cheer them seemed suddenly
heroic.

"Betty dear" Mollie moved over toward her

j

friend and put an arm about her. "Do you care

that much ?"

A little sob of pent-up misery broke from Betty
and she dropped her head on Mollie's <hr>uMcr.

BETTY CONFESSES 179

"Oh, so much!" she whispered brokenly.

Then everybody cried a little and the girls
called themselves all sorts of awful names for
being "brutes" to their adored Little Captain,
and when the storm cleared up everything seemed
brighter and they could even smile a little.

Then that night, when the little god of hope
seemed about to take his accustomed place in the
hearts of the Outdoor Girls, there came another
blow, even more staggering than the ones that
had gone before.

As Betty was scanning the casualty list with
terrified, yet eager, eyes, she gave a little cry, half
gasp and half sob that brought the girls running
to her.

Her face was ashen pale, and she pointed witk
trembling finger to a name half-way down in the
column.

"Oh, girls, it's come — it's come! Allen!
Allen! It can't be true!" and she dropped her
head upon her arms, crumpling the paper in her
hand.

CHAPTER XX

MISSING

MOLLIE took the paper from Betty's unresist-
ing hand, smoothed it out, traced her finger down
the column and finally came to the name she
sought.

"Sergeant Allen Washburn," she read in a
small, awed voice, while the other girls crowded
close to look over her shoulder.

l'Dead?" queried Grace breathlessly.

"No," Mollie shook her head. "He's among
the missing."

'That means," said Betty, lifting a face so
still and white that it startled the girls, "that he
is either dead or worse than dead. I wrould a
thousand times rather he were dead than have
him taken prisoner by the Germans."

:'But we don't know that he has been cap-
tured—"

'That's what missing almost always means,"

insisted Betty, still in that strange, lifeless voice.

'That," she added, as though speaking to herself,

"was the column I always read first, because T

180

MISSING l8l

was most afraid of it. I think/' she got up un-
steadily, and Mollie ran around to her, "that if
you don't mind, I'll go upstairs a little while."

She started for the door while the girls watched
her dumbly, not knowing what to do or say. Then
suddenly Grace ran after her.

"Betty, darling!" she cried, her own grief
forgotten in her pity for her chum, "let me come
too, won't you ? I don't suppose I'd be any good
to you just now, but I'd do my best."

"Let us all come, won't you, Dear?" begged
Mollie, while Amy's eyes silently pleaded.

But Betty only shook her head, smiling a piti-
ful little white smile, at them.

"Not just now — please," she said. "After a
while I'll— I'll call you."

They watched her run upstairs and heard her
door close quietly, oh, so quietly, behind her.

Left behind, the girls looked at one another
with wide frightened eyes.

"Girls, she worries me," said Mollie, speaking
in a whisper, almost as if there were death in the
house. "She is so quiet and still. And when one
knows Betty — "

"If she could only cry a little," said Grace,
speaking in the same tone. "It makes things so
much worse when you keep them bottled up that
way."

182 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

'Betty's so proud and so brave," said Amy
gently, as she sank into a chair and looked up,
wide-eyed, at the other two. "Only this after-
noon she let us see how terribly she cared.'

0

"And no wonder," said Grace, for there was
real grief in her heart. "There never was a finer
fellow than Allen. He made us all love him."

'But there we go again, speaking as if he were
dead," protested Mollie. "There is always hope,
since his name is only among the missing."

* Yes, of course ; but it is generally as Betty
said," returned Grace. "Nine-tenths of the men
reported missing are either dead or have fallen
into the hands of the Germans."

Mollie shuddered.

"Poor little Betty," she said. "The very
thought of it is enough to drive her crazy."

"If she would only let us comfort her," sighed
Amy.

4I — I really think that if she doesn't call us in
a few minutes, we'd better go up anyway," said
Grace nervously. "She looked so terribly queer
and unlike herself that I'm worried to death.
Hark! Did you hear something?"

The girls listened, but all they could hear was
the sighing of the wind about the house. Then,
far off in the distance, came a soft rumble of
thunder.

MISSING 183

"Oh, I hope it doesn't storm," cried Amy,
shivering. "That would be about the last straw."

And upstairs, in the room that Betty shared
with Grace, grief and fear and horror stalked
about unfettered and gazed upon the little figure
on the bed.

So still and white and rigid it was that the girls
would have been still more frightened could they
have seen it. For, propped on her elbows, with
grim, set face supported by her clenched fists,
Betty was gazing unseeingly out at the darkness
beyond the square of window pane.

"Somewhere he's out there," she kept saying
over and over to herself. "If he's dead, there's
the mud and grime — " she shuddered " — and
blood too — rivers of it. But if he's captured — •
Oh, I can't think — I mustn't think — "

And then she would begin all over again —

"Allen is lying out there — " over and over
again, till her brain whirled and her head ached
and she felt faint and sick. Still she could not
cry.

Her heart was frozen — that was it. And how
could one cry when one's heart was frozen ? Oh,
Allen ! Allen ! How could she go on living with-
out him? If she could only cry — if she could
only cry !

What was that? Thunder. The artillery of

OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

heaven ! Did they have war in heaven, she won-
dered. With a queer little laugh she got up and
walked to the window.

A flash of lightning greeted her, illumining the
world outside, flashing into bold relief the familiar
objects of the little room. She knealt down by
the window7, regardless of danger, and lifted her
face to the rising wind.

She welcomed the storm. It seemed, in some
mysterious wray, to quiet the tumult within her.
She stretched out her arms to it and cried aloud
her misery.

"Allen, my Allen, you will come back to me,
won't you, dear? You promised. Oh, Allen, if
you're alive are you thinking of me now? Are
you thinking of Betty?"

A sharper clap of thunder seemed to answer
her, and then quite suddenly the ice melted from
about her heart. Her head went down upon her
arms and great sobs shook her from head to
foot.

It wras so the girls found her a few minutes
later, and with cries of pity lifted her to her feet
and half-led, half-carried her back to the bed.

"We didn't know whether to come up or not/'
Mollie said hesitatingly. "But we though may-
be yon would need us, Dear. If you would rather
be alone — "

MISSING

But Betty shook her head and reached out an
unsteady little hand which Mollie instantly took
in her warm clasp.

"No, I want you to stay," she said, trying
desperately to choke back her sobs. "If some one
will — just please — give me a — h-handkerchief."

Amy slipped one into her hand, and Betty
dabbbed fiercely at the tears which still would
come.

"Don't try not to cry, Honey," whispered
Mollie, putting an understanding arm about the
Little Captain's shoulders and holding her close.
"Tears are just the very best things in the world
to help one through a crisis."

'Yes," added Grace, gently smoothing the hair
back from Betty's hot forehead, while Amy
sprinkled some toilet water on a fresh handker-
chief and slipped it unobtrusively into Betty's
other hand, "we'll just sit here and wait till you're
all through."

'Then we're going to take you down and give
you some hot tea and toast and love you a little,"
finished Amy.

All of which loving sympathy very nearly
caused a fresh outburst on Betty's part. How-
ever, she finally got the better of the storm within
her and even managed a little smile for the bene-
fit of the girls.

186 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POIXT

Then she wiped away the last tear, sighed, and
walked over to the window.

'The storm didn't amount to much after all,"
she said, after a while, very quietly. "Perhaps,"
and her voice was very wistful, "it's a good omen.
We'll all hope so, anyway."

"Betty, Betty, you're so wonderful/' cried
Mollie adoringly. "I never saw any one so brave.
You make me ashamed of myself."

"Oh, but I'm not brave," denied Betty, turning
back to them. "I'm not the least little bit brave.
I- -I went all to pieces a few minutes ago. But
he isn't reported dead," she added, drawing her-
self up, while two defiant spots of color burned in
her face. "And until he is, I'm going to hold on
to the hope that he is coming back. Nobody can
take that from me, anyway !"

"Now, you're making me ashamed of myself,"
said Grace in a small voice, while the tears
glistened in her eyes. "Here I've been imagining
the very worst, while you — Oh, Betty, forgive
me, won't you, Dear?"

Betty looked at her in real surprise.

"I haven't anything to forgive," she said.

CHAPTER XXI

A NARROW ESCAPE

THE next day dawned gloriously bright, and
the girls chose to take it as a good omen. Fol-
lowing Betty's example, they stopped moping
about and imagining the worst, and, although
there was not a minute of the day when their
hearts were not aching, they managed to smile
when the others were looking and to speak hope-
fully of the future. Under Betty's gallant leader-
ship, they had set up hope in their hearts and re-
fused to give despair a foothold.

'What do you say to a swim?" Mollie sug-
gested, looking out over the sparkling white sand
to the inviting water beyond. "We've only been
in swimming twice since we've been here."

'That is a terrible record for Outdoor Girls,"
Betty agreed. She was bustling busily about the
cheerful kitchen making a tempting blueberry pie.
There were circles under her eyes and she looked
very pale for Betty, but her voice was bright and
cheery.

"Can't you stop making pies for a few

187

188 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

minutes?" asked Mollie, turning to look at her.
'It's too nice outdoors to waste time in cooking."

"I imagine you -wouldn't say that to-night," re-
torted Betty, fluting the edges of her pie crust.
4I notice you generally like the results of my
labor."

"Who wouldn't?" returned Mollie. "I only
know of one person 'who can make better pies."

"And that's yourself, of course." Betty made a
little face at her and slipped the pie into the
oven. "Just for that you can have only one piece
to-night !"

:<I don't care, if you'll only stop working and
come along," insisted Mollie. "If I stay in
the house much longer I'll start thinking again —
and you know what that means."

Betty gave her a quick side-glance, hastily
dusted the flour from her hands and took off her
apron.

"I'm all ready," she announced. "Where are
the other girls?"

'In the living room, reading and eating candy
— or at least Grace is doing the candy part. Amy
has sworn off, you know."

The girls agreed eagerly to the proposed swim,
and in a few minutes had donned their suits and
caps and pronounced themselves ready.

"I ought to get a letter from mother to-day."

A NARROW ESCAPE 189

said Mollie, as her feet sank in the soft sand.
"She said yesterday that the detectives had picked
up a clue and thought they were on the right trail
at last."

"Why didn't you tell us?" Betty demanded.

"Oh, I don't know," Mollie replied wearily.
"I didn't think there was any use telling you until
I had something really definite. You know the
chief business of a detective is nosing out false
clues," she finished scornfully.

"Well, I know once we met a perfectly capable
detective," remarked Betty. By this time they
had reached the water and she put one toe into
it experimentally.

Ouch — it's cold," she said.
When did we meet a capable detective?"
queried Mollie, looking interested.

"Just after we went to Camp Liberty when
Will traced the German spy," Betty reminded her.
"Did you ever see prettier detective work in your
life ?"

"Yes, it was splendid," Mollie admitted, but
the reference proved to be an unfortunate one.
It brought back vividly the picture of Will as he
had been then, at the height of his triumph over
the apprehension of the spy — in which the Out-
door Girls had also played an important part —
and jubilant at the prospect of being able to join

" ,

it'

190 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

the colors at last and fight in the army of democ-
racy.

Try as they would, they could not enter into the
fun as they would have done a few weeks be-
fore. They swam about languidly and found to
their surprise that they became quickly and easily
tired.

'I never knew before how much influence mind
has over matter/' said Mollie, after they had
come out on the beach again. "I declare, even
my muscles feel depressed!"

"As Outdoor Girls we're getting to be marvel-
ous failures," remarked Grace, as she wrung the
water from her skirt and plumped down in the
sand. "I feel as weak as a rag."

'I guess it isn't much use trying to enjoy our-
selves," sighed Betty plaintively. "I've done my
best, but all the time I feel as if I were
just trying to kid myself, in the vulgar ver-
nacular."

"For goodness sake, don't you give up, Betty !"
cried Grace, in alarm. "If you get discouraged,
then I don't know what we shall do."

"I'm not really discouraged — " Betty began,
when a terrified cry cut her short and the girls
sprang to their feet bewildered.

"Where is it?" cried Mollie, but Betty caught
her arm and pointed with shaking fingers to

A NARROW ESCAPE

IQI

an orange-colored cap bobbing on the water
several hundred feet from shore.

"It's Amy!" she gasped. "Something must
have happened. Come on, girls! Who's going
with me?"

Without waiting for an answer, she was off
like a shot with Mollie and Grace close behind.

They had not missed quiet little Amy, and if
they had, would probably have thought she had
gone for an unusually long swim. And now had
come her frantic cry for help.

"What is the matter?'' Betty cried over and
over to herself, as she put all her strength into
the long, powerful strokes. Amy was a splendid
swimmer, almost as good as Betty herself.

For one terrible moment the thought of sharks
flashed into Betty's mind and she shuddered. But
the next minute reason reasserted itself and she
realized that sharks had never been seen on this
coast. Baby ones, perhaps, but not the man-eat-
ing variety.

She raised her head from the water and gazed
in the direction of the vivid cap. Yes, there it
was ! Thank heaven there was still time.

"Amy ! Amy !" she called, "I'm coming. Just
hold on for a minute, Honey. I'm almost to
you."

No answer came back to her, and when she

102 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

looked again for the cap she found to her horror
that it was gone.

"Oh," she moaned, "Fin too late. I'm too late.
Oh, Amy, Amy, just another minute — just a little
minute — " she redoubled her efforts and suddenly
gave a shout of joy.

There was the cap again, almost under her
hand. In her frenzy of haste she had covered the

^

distance with almost unbelievable speed.

Her shout seemed to rouse Amy, who had been
struggling feebly to keep her head above the
water, and the girl turned a terror-stricken face
to her.

"Can you put a hand on my shoulder ?" gasped
Betty, beginning to feel the tremendous effort she
had made. 'Hang on to me, Honey, and we'll
get out of this all right."

Amy clutched her shoulder, and slowly tha
Little Captain turned about, saving her strength
for the long swim back. She could not be too
long about it either, she thought desperately,
Amy was almost exhausted and had all she could
do to keep her head above the water.

It all depended on her, Betty. If she could get
to shore, carrying the double weight before Amy's
strength left her and she gave up altogether, all
well and erood. But if she could not — she groaned

o o

and set herself grimly to her task.

TWO OTHER BOBBING CAPS WERE COMING RAPIDLY NEARER.
The Outdoor Girls at Bluff Point. P^S* 193.

A NARROW ESCAPE

193

She had covered about an eighth of the distance
back when her heart leapt suddenly and she gave
a sigh of relief. There were two other bobbing
caps on the water coming rapidly nearer — and
those two caps could belong to nobody but Mollie
and Grace.

That meant help — and, oh, she did need help!
She was putting forth all her strength, but to her
agonized fancy she was not going forward at all.
Amy's almost dead weight dragging at her shoul-
der seemed a nightmare. Yet she dreaded be-
yond anything else to be relieved of the weight
for that would mean — . She refused to put the
awful thought into words, merely driving herself
on more desperately. And all the time she was
gasping out words of hope and courage to the poor
girl she supported.

Amy seemed beyond words, for she made no
answer, merely clutching Betty's shoulder more
tightly and holding on with a grimness born oi
terror.

Then just as the gallant Little Captain felt her
strength going and knew she could not hold out
much longer, Mollie came abreast of her with
Grace a few feet behind.

Mollie shook the water from her eyes, gave one
glance at Betty's face, then gave peremptory
orders.

194 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

"Give her to me, Betty," she directed. "I
you're about all in. That's it, Amy; grasp my
shoulder with your other hand. Get a good grip
before you let go of Betty. That's the way. Now
we're all right. Between us we'll have you in in
a jiffy. All right, Betty? Do you need help
yourself?'

But Betty shook her head, her long steady
strokes keeping her even with Mollie. In a mo-
ment Grace came up to them and directed Amy
to put her free hand on her shoulder, and in this
fashion they finally reached shallow water.

They found that they were not a moment too
soon, for as they got to their feet and stooped to
lift Amy, they found that she had fainted.

'Thank heaven that didn't happen out there,"
cried Betty, with a shuddering glance out over
the treacherous water.

Between them, fatigued though they were with
the ordeal they had just gone through, they got
Amy to the shore and began to work over her.

It did not take very long to bring her back to
consciousness, for Amy had a wonderful constitu-
tion and strong vitality. However, it seemed ages
to the anxious girls who worked over her, and
when at last she opened her eyes they were ready
to cry with relief.

"H-how do you feel ?" asked Betty tremulously,

A NARROW ESCAPE

for she was beginning to feel the reaction. "Are
you all right ?"

"Don't try to get up," commanded Mollie, as
Amy tried weakly to raise herself on her elbow.

'Just lie still and you'll feel better in a min-
ute," Grace added, while Amy looked from one to
the other of them with wide, bewildered eyes.

'What happened," she asked, then, as memory
came sweeping back to her, she gave a little cry
and covered her eyes with her hand.

"Oh, girls," she cried, "I thought I was going
to die!"

"Yes, yes, we know," said Betty soothingly, as
though she were talking to a little child, "but
you're all right now, dear."

"Don't try to tell us about it unless you want
to," added Mollie.

"I swam out farther than I meant to," Amy
went on, as though they had not spoken. "And
when I tried to get back I found that something
was wrong with my right leg." She was shiv-
ering with exhaustion and the memory of the
awful experience she had gone through, but when
the girls tried to stop her she would not listen and
hurried on feverishly.

"It was a cramp I guess, and the harder I tried
to get rid of it the worse it got till finally I got
panic-stricken. I called to you girls, but you

196 OL'TDOOR GIRLS AT BLL'i-1' POINT

didn't seem to hear me. Then — " she paused,
and the girls held their breath as she looked
around at them. 'Then- -I went down. I came
up again and called, and — and- -I saw you, Betty,
Oh, it was terrible !"

'Then/' cried Betty, her voice trembling,
"when you went down that last time —

'T didn't go down," Amy contradicted her. 4I
struggled so hard that I succeeded in getting my
head above water and- -that wras when you
reached me — Betty—

"Thank Heaven," said Betty, with a little sob,
"that I was there!"

CHAPTER XXII

DARKNESS BEFORE THE DAWN

"WELL," said Mollie, with a sigh, "I fancy
there isn't very much use of our sitting" around
here in our bathing suits. I, for one, don't feel
like swimming any more to-day."

"Nor I," agreed Grace.

"And I," said Amy, turning away with a shud-
der from the water where she had so closely come
to death, "feel as if I never wanted to see the
water again."

"Oh, but you will get over that," Betty assured
her quickly. "I don't blame you a bit for feeling
that way now — I do myself — but after a while
you will be just as crazy about it as ever.''

:'I don't know," said Amy slowly. "When you
have once come face to face with death like that,
you are not anxious to do it again in a hurry."

"'But you have never had a cramp before,"
reasoned Mollie, "and you probably never will
have one again."

"But I am not sure of that," insisted Amy.

"There's no reason why you can't be sure of it

198 OUTDOOR CIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

.-if tor a while," Betty pointed out. "You see, we
^irls are pretty well out of practice. It's a long
time since we did any swimming to amount to
anything, and our muscles are weak and flabby.
Why, we all got tired out to-day twice as quickly
as wre ordinarily would/'

"And you tried to swim too far," added Mollie.
'That's the reason your poor old muscles pro-
tested."

;<It might have happened to any one of us,"
Grace agreed. "All we need is a little practice to
swim as well as ever again."

"Oh, do you think so?': asked Amy eagerly,
while the color came back into her pale cheeks.
"If I could only be sure of that!"

Betty was about to rq>ly, but at that minute a
voice hailed them from the direction of the house
and they jumped up to see what was wanted.

'It's mother," said Grace. "And she seems to
be waiving something at us."

"It's an envelope," cried Mollie. "It maybe a
letter from mother."

She started running toward the house, with
Grace, thinking of Will, at her heels, while Betty
helped Amy to her feet.

"Are you feeling stronger now?" she asked.
"Or would you rather rest a little longer?"

Oh, I'm all right," Amy assured her, though

• • /

DARKNESS BEFORE THE DAWN 199

for a minute she had to cling to Betty for support.

They made their way rather slowly after the
others. Before they had reached the foot of the
bluff Mollie came scrambling down again and ran
toward them wildly.

''What do you think has happened now?" she
cried, taking Amy's other arm and helping her
along.

"Oh, Mollie," cried Amy, standing stock still
to gaze at her, "what — "

"The twins haven't been found?" Betty ques-
tioned eagerly, but Mollie shook her head.

"No such luck," she returned. "But we have
found out one thing. Those blessed little twins
are alive, anyway."

"How do you know?" they queried breath-
lessly.

By this time they had reached the top of tha
bluff and were all, Mrs. Ford included, hurrying
toward the house.

"They received a letter," Mollie explained,
sinking down on a step of the porch while the
others crowded about her eagerly, "from some old
rascal — oh, if I could only get my hands on him !"
she paused to glare about her ferociously, but they
impatiently hurried her on.

"Yes ! But the letter !" Betty urged.

:<It was from a man who demanded twenty

200 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

thousand dollars- she paused again, while the
girls gasped and crowded closer, "for the return
of the twins."

'Then they were kidnapped!" cried Grace.

"Yes. But they ran away first," explained
Mollie, almost beside herself with anger and ex-
citement. "And this old — brute! found them,
and, I suppose because they were well dressed,
thought he saw a way to make some easy money.
Oh, my poor darlings! My poor little Paul and
Dodo! Girls, we've just got to find them, that's
. . I can't sit here and do nothing a minute
: -r."

ut the police — " Amy suggested.

"Oh, the police! Of course they are on the job
-or think they are," interrupted Mollie scorn-
fully. "But I don't believe they will be able to
fjiul our babies in a thousand years. And every
lime I think of them, frightened to death! Oh,

r precious babies!*'

"I wonder how he found out where they lived,"
broke in Grace, who had been following her own
tr; in of thought.

"They told him, of course," said Mollie. "Poor
little trusting angels, of course they would think
any grown person was their friend. Oh, if they
had only fallen in with some respectable person
i tead of ;' at — " she could think of noth-

DARKNESS BEFORE THE DAWN 201

ing bad enough to call the man who had stolen the
twins.

"Of course," said Mrs. Ford — it was the first
time she had spoken — "your mother showed the
letter to the police."

"Of course," Mollie agreed, two angry spots
of color in her cheeks. "And equally of course
they have promised to do all in their power to ap-
prehend the villain. But it makes me wild to
just sit here and do nothing!"

"But I don't see what there is to do," said
Amy.

"Neither do I," cried Mollie, jumping to her
feet and beginning to pace restlessly up and down
the porch. "That's the worst of it. I feel so ab-
solutely helpless. And all the time I have no way
of knowing what horrible thing may be happen-

ing-"

"Oh, the man is probably treating them pretty
decently," said Betty, adding, reasonably: "If
he hopes to get all that money from your mother
he isn't going to take a chance on losing it by
harming the twins."

"I know," cried Mollie, stopping in her restless
promenade to regard Betty. "But how in the
world is mother going to raise any such sum of
money? Twenty thousand dollars — why, we
haven't that much ready cash in the world !"

202 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

:'But he doesn't know that," Grace pointed out
"And as long as he keeps on hoping — "

''But how long is he going to keep on hoping?"
cried Mollie, turning on her. 'He knows mighty
well that if mother had that much money she
would move heaven and earth to get it together
and get the twins back. And the very fact that
she hasn't — "

"Oh, but that doesn't always follow," Betty
broke in eagerly. 'There are a great many peo-
ple who, even if they had the money, would try
to bring the rascal to justice before they submit-
ted to blackmail."

"But not my mother," Mollie insisted.

"But the kidnapper doesn't know that," Grace
put in. "And he will probably lie mighty low for
a few weeks, knowing that the police are hunting
for him."

"For the next few weeks, yes," admitted Mol-
lie. "But he isn't going to wait forever, and when
he finds out that mother can't raise the money
what would be the natural thing for him to do?
Get the twins out of the way, of course," she
said, answering her own question.

"But there is always the chance — yes even the
probability- insisted Betty, "that before very
long the police will be able to find the fellow and
recover the twins.'

DARKNESS BEFORE THE DAWN

203

"Yes," Grace added, "that kind of criminal is
never very clever, you know. They are bound to
leave something undone that will incriminate
them."

Mollie groaned and sank into a chair.

"And in the meantime," she said, "all I have
to do is just to sit here and wait and act as if noth-
ing had happened. Oh, I can't ! I've simply got
to do something!"

"Well, I'm sure I don't know how a girl can do
anything that the police can't," sighed Grace, add-
ing wistfully: "Goodness, wouldn't I like a
chance to be happy again !"

"I guess we all would," said Mollie moodily.

They were silent for a long time after that,
each one busy with her own unhappy thoughts
and no one noticed that the sun had gone under
a cloud and that the wind was rising.

It was the increasing thunder of the waves on
the rocks that finally startled them into a realiza-
tion of the present.

"There's a fearful storm coming up!" cried
Grace, springing to her feet. "Look at those
banks of clouds."

"And I'm getting cold," added Amy, shivering,
and then they suddenly realized that they still
had on their bathing suits.

"I guess we're going crazy — and no wonder,"

204 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLl'l-'i- I'OL\T

said Grace, as they started indoors to change their
tilings.

"Has any one any idea what time it is?" asked
Mollie. "I'm sure I haven't."

''it must be after twelve, for I'm beginning1 to
feel hungry," Betty answered.

"And I'm feeling faint," Amy added. "I
shouldn't wonder if a cup of tea would go awfully
well."

"You poor little thing," said Betty, putting an
arm about her. "No wonder you feel faint. We
should have given you something to strengthen
you long ago. I don't know what we've been
thinking of !"

"It's a]i my fault," said Mollie contritely, notic-
ing suddenly how white Amy's face was and how
dark were the circles under her eyes. 'I let my
own affairs make me forget everything else. Whvt
didn't you say something, Amy?"

"I didn't think of it myself," Amy answered
truthfully, "until Betty spoke of being hungry.
Girls," she paused outside her door to sniff in-
quiringly, "do I smell something, or am I dream-
ing?"

"I'll say you smell something," Grace an-
swered, sniffing hungrily in her turn. It's
mother getting lunch, of course. I don't know
-what we ever would have done without her."

DARKNESS BEFORE THE DAWN 205

While the girls were dressing the threatened
storm was coming nearer, and toward the end
they had to put on the light to see to fix their hair.

Even had the sun been shining brightly, they
would have felt depressed, wThat with Amy's acci-
dent and the bad news Mollie had received; but
with the wind wailing dolefully and black dark-
ness in the middle of the day, they felt themselves
growing utterly discouraged.

Grace had heard no further news of Will, and
the one straw of hope that she clutched so des-
perately was that he had not died, or surely her
father would have heard. In this case, no news
was good news to a certain extent.

And as for Betty, brave as she had tried to be
since that terrible night when she had read Allen's
name among the missing, even she felt her cour-
age slipping — slipping, and began to wonder if
after all, hoping did any good.

To-day, as she stood before the mirror, mechan-
ically putting up her hair and looking through
and past her own reflection, her eyes suddenly
lost their preoccupied stare and became focused
upon herself. For the first time in days she was
seeing herself without the mask of cheerfulness
she had so determinedly assumed. And as she
looked, her eyes suddenly filled with tears — tears
almost of self-pity.

_jo6 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POIXT

For the mirror told her, what she had scarcely
realized, just how much she had suffered. Her
eyes, usually so bright and merry, were dark and
brooding. Her face looked thin and drawn, and
her lips — those lips that had always seemed to
smile even when her eyes were grave — had a
pathetic, wistful droop, and there were lines, yes,
actually lines, about them.

"If Allen should see you,' she told herself

j

tremulously, "he probably wouldn't know you,
Betty."

Yet all the while she knew that if it were pos-
sible for Allen to see her or for her to see Allen,
the face in the mirror would disappear as if by
magic and the old Betty would return, for joy
would have taken its place in her heart.

With a little sob she turned from the mirror
and switched off the light. The noise of the surt
beating against the rocks came to her menacingly
and the wind wailed shrilly around the house.

"Oh, Allen, Allen!" she cried, stretching out
her arms in an agony of entreaty. "Somewhere
you must hear me calling you. Allen, come back
to me, dear 1"

CHAPTER XXIII

THE SHADOW LIFTS

"I WONDER if it is going to rain forever," cried
MolJie petulantly, beating a restless tattoo on the
window pane. "As if we weren't forlorn enough
without the old weather making things a hundred
times worse."

'They say troubles never come singly, and I
guess they're right," sighed Amy. She was sit-
ting near the window in the brightest spot she
could find — which was not very bright at that —
knitting and trying her best not to think of Will.
The result was that he was never for a minute
out of her mind.

"What's the matter, Grace — I mean more than
usual?" Betty laid aside her book and looked
over at Grace questioningly. "I don't believe
you've said three consecutive words all day long."

"And left to myself I wouldn't say that much,"
returned Grace moodily, adding, as they turned
to stare at her: "It seems as if I never open my
mouth these days but what I say something un-
pleasant, so I made up my mind last night that I

207

208 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLLT-T POL\'T

wouldn't talk till I had something cheerful to talk-
about."

"Then you're apt to be dumb till doomsday,"
retorted Mollie, with such a depth of pessimism
that the girls had to smile at her.

'What an awful thing to happen to a girl," said
Betty, with a wry little smile.

"I'm glad you didn't say what girl," retorted
Grace, and therewith subsided into her gloomy
meditation again.

Betty took up her book and Amy went on with
her knitting while the rain came down in torrents
and the surf thundered and roared.

Mollie turned from the window and looked at
them, and the whole situation suddenly appealed'
to her rather hysterical sense of humor. She be-
gan to laugh, and the longer she laughed the har-
der she laughed till she sank into a chair and
shook with mirth.

The other girls first looked surprised, then
alarmed.

Betty threw down her book and went over to

m/

her.

"For goodness sake, Mollie, what's the joke?'
she asked, as Mollie looked up at her with red
face and watery eyes.

"If it's as funny as all that I think you might
share it with us," added Grace.

THE SHADOW LIFTS 209

"Oh, it isn't funny," gasped Moliie, "it's h-hor-

rible."

Then as suddenly as she had begun to laugh,
she began to cry with great sobs that tore them-
selves from her and seemed utterly beyond her
control.

Alarmed, the girls soothed and patted and com-
forted her till finally the storm had passed and
she became more quiet.

"You must think I'm a p-perfect idiot," she
sputtered, raising swollen eyes to them. "I don'fc
know what in the w- world g-got into me. I just
went all to pieces."

"So we see," said Betty, while she gently wiped
Mollie's eyes with a clean handkerchief. "But
please don't do it again," she added whimsically,
"I don't believe we could survive another one."

"But it's made me feel better," said Moliie, a
minute later, as though the discovery surprised
her. "It's made me feel lots better," she added.

"I wonder if we couldn't all try it," suggested
Amy.

"Yes, how do you get that way," added Grace,
with interest. "I'm willing to try anything

once.'

"It — it isn't pleasant while it lasts," said Mol-
iie, adding with a suggestion of a smile : "And I
doubt if I could give you the recipe."

2io OUTDOOR GIRLS AT I~LU1:1: POINT

"I wonder," Amy suggested shyly after a little
while, "if perhaps a little music wouldn't help
out. Won't you play for us, Betty?"

"Oh, Betty, please!" Grace took up the sug-
gestion eagerly. "It would take our minds off
ourselves."

'Yes, do, Betty. You know you never refuse,"
urged Mollie, jumping up and escorting the Little
Captain to the piano.

Betty obediently sat down to the piano, but her
fingers wandered over the keys uncertainly. She
did not want to play. Music, good music, always
roused in her a feeling of exquisite sadness, a
pain that was akin to joy, and in her present mood
she was afraid to play.

But the girls had asked her to, and if it would
make them feel any better —

She struck a chord of exquisite harmony, and
every fibre in her seemed yearningly to respond.
She had meant to play something bright and
cheerful, but almost against her will her fingers
wandered into Grieg's "To Spring."

The elusive, plaintive melody floated throb-
bingly out into the room, while the girls sat mo-
tionless, fascinated. They had never heard Betty
play just this way before, and instinctively they
knew that she was showing them her heart.

She played it through to the last whispering

THE SHADOW LIFTS 21 1

note, then dropped her head upon her arms and
sobbed as though her heart would break.

"You shouldn't have asked me," she said, when
they tried to comfort her. "I knew I couldn't
play without making a f-fool of myself. It was
the one — Allen loved best — " the last words so
low that they had to bend close to hear them.

"Poor little Betty!" cried Mollie, stroking her
hair gently. "It was selfish of us to ask you, but
you did play it wonderfully," she added with a
sudden little burst of enthusiasm. "You had us
all hypnotized."

"And then I had to go and spoil everything by
making a baby of myself," Betty lamented.
"Goodness, I've cried more in the last week than
in all the rest of my life before."

"Well, you have had plenty of company," said
Grace dryly. "Though what comfort that is, I
never could see."

Betty sat up, dabbed a last tear from her eyes,
and looked about her with a weak little attempt
at a smile.

"Well." she said, "now that Mollie and I have
entertained the company, I wonder who's next?"

"I'll recite that little ditty entitled, The Face
On the Barroom Floor'," Amy volunteered.
"Some kind person wished it upon me when I
was too young to object."

212 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF I>UI.\T

'Don't yon dare/' said Grace, alarmed. 'If
you do I'm going out, rain or no rain — "

"And get drowned."

'Well, there are worse things."

"No there aren't," denied Amy, with a shiver.
"I know, because I tried it."

At that moment came an interruption in the
shape of a sharp rapping at the kitchen door.

The girls looked at one another questioning^.

"Mercy, I wonder who's calling upon us in tl
weather?" said Mollie.

"It might be a good idea to look and see,"
Betty returned dryly, and ran to the kitchen, i -
lowed closely by the others.

She flung open the door, letting in a gust of
wind and a flood of rain as she did so, and a tall
figure in a rubber coat almost fell into the room.

'Why, it's our delivery-boy-mail-carrier !"
cried Betty, as the young giant recovered himself
and pulled off his dripping hat.

'Yes'm," he replied, with a good-natured grin
that stretched from ear to ear. "The very same,
an' at your service."

"But how did vou manage to get here?" cried

» o o

Betty, tOQ astonished even to offer the unexpected
visitor a seat. 'You never could drive through
that awful mud."

"No'm, T reckon mos' likely T couldn't," he

THE SHADOW LIFTS 213

answered amiably, adding with a return of the
loquacity that was his most marked failing: "1
remember one year we had a storm near s bad as
this, an' Luke Bailey, he got kind of short o' per-
visions — campin' in the woods he was — an' he
tried to drive his team into town — "

;'But you said you didn't drive out !" Grace in-
terrupted. "And if you didn't drive, you must
have walked all the way."

"Yes'm, reckon I did. Well, Luke he got jest
about as fur — "

"But why did you come?" broke in Mollie, un-
able to bear the suspense any longer.

:'I got this here package of letters," he replied,
seeming suddenly to remember the cause of his
errand. "Some o' them came a couple o' days
ago, but I said to myself I might jest as well wait
an' see if the weather didn't clear up — "

"And so when it didn't, you walked away up
here in all the rain," Betty finished for him, real
gratitude in her voice. "It was most awfully
kind of von."

mf

"Oh, that ain't nothin'," he denied, fidgeting
uneasily, while Mollie hastily sorted the letters.
"I ain't never finished tellin' you what happened
to Luke Bailey—"

He was off again, and the girls were vaguely
conscious of his voice rambling on and on while

2 i4 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

they eagerly scanned the handwriting on their
letters.

Then suddenly Betty gave a little cry and
tumbled back against the table, holding on to it
for support.

"Betty! Honey! What is it?" cried Amy.
"You look as white as a ghost."

"A letter," she gasped, holding out an envel-
ope with the familiar red diamond in the corner.
She was shaking from head to foot. "Girls, oh,
girls, it's from Allen!" Then she turned and
fled from the room.

Luke Bailey's biographer stared after her
stupidly while the girls gasped and looked wildly
at one another for confirmation of what they had
heard.

"A letter!" she had said. "From Allen!"

Then he was not dead — their dazed brains com-
prehended that fact. And he could not be miss-
ing either. After a minute that stupefying fact
became equally clear.

Then slowly they regained the use of their
tongues.

"Did you hear what I heard?" asked Mollie,
looking from Grace to Amy and back again."

"I think I'm awake," Grace answered, with the
same incredulous look in her eyes.

She said," Amy repeated slowly, "that she

<i

THE SHADOW LIFTS

215

had received a letter from Allen. Then the re-
port that he was missing must have been a mis-
take."

"It looks that way," said Mollie, two spots of
color beginning to burn in her face. Then she
turned to the boy who was still staring stupidly
from one to the other of them. Even the story of
Luke Bailey had been temporarily driven from his
mind.

"Miss Nelson," Mollie explained, taking pity
on his bewilderment, "has received the most won-
derful news, and we can't thank you enough for
bringing it to her. Can't we get you a cup of tea
or something?" she offered, rather vaguely.

But the boy refused, and seeing that they were
all tremendously excited about something, he
finally took his leave, feeling very much abused
that his story of Luke and his adventures had not
been listened to with the attention it deserved.

Once the door was closed behind this angel in
disguise, the girls rushed after Betty and were
met and nearly bowled over by that delirious little
person herself.

"He's not missing — never was!" she cried,
waving the letter wildly in the air, beside herself
with relief and joy. "He's just as well as ever
he was, and Grace darling, and Amy, too, he
says, he says — "

2i6 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POIXT

"Oh, what?'1 cried Grace, her face growing
white while Amy clutched the back of a chair.

Betty tried to pull herself together. She turned
the pages of the letter in search of a particular
place. Finding it, she began :

"He says that Will — Oh read it," she cried,
thrusting the letter into Grace's hands. 'There
it is — that paragraph. Read it aloud, Grace. Oh,
I think— I think— I'll die of joy!"

CHAPTER XXIV

HIS THREE SWEETHEARTS

GRACE'S eyes filled with tears of sheer weak-
ness, but she brushed them away impatiently.
Then she read, brokenly at first, then radiantly as
the marvelous truth came home to her.

'Poor old Will certainly did have a narrow
escape/ she read, " 'but thanks to the gods he
is out of danger now. I went to see him yester-
day— got leave for the first time in weeks — and
he was looking mighty chipper. No wonder, with
the good looking nurse he had/

Amy gave a little involuntary sound and then
blushed scarlet wrhen the girls looked at her.

"Never mind !" cried the joy incarnate that was
Betty, putting an arm about her. "Just wait till
you hear what he says later on. Go on, Gracie.

"

'But do you know what that old boy said
when I happened to comment upon the excellent

nursing he must have had?' Grace read on,

217

OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

while Amy tried hard to look unconcerned. "
reached under his pillow and pulled out three pic-
tures. 'Those are my three girls," he said, and I
swear there was moisture in his eyes. 'You prob-
ably won't believe me, old man, but there isn't a
girl or woman over here who could make me look
twice at her unless she resembles one of those,"
and he pointed to the photographs I still held.

" 'And when I opened them there was Mrs.
Ford's face smiling up at me as sweet as life, and
Grace with her best Gibson Girl expression — you
can tell her from me that that is some picture of
her — And who do you think the third was ?'

Grace paused again and looked over slyly at
Amy, who turned away her face, only just show-
ing the tip of one furiously blushing ear.

" 'It was Amy Blackford,' Grace read on.

'And it was one fine picture of her too. Gosh,
I didn't know it was as serious as all that, die}
you, little girl? But then the war does make a
fellow feel about ten years older than he really is,
and the girls at home suddenly seem the most de-
sirable and necessary tilings on earth. And Amy
did look so sweet and comfy and altogether like
home that I couldn't blame the old chap.

" 'Then I pulled out the picture of the most

HIS THREE SWEETHEARTS 219

beautiful girl in the world and we talked about
home and — other things, you know — until we
\vere ready to weep on each other's shoulders and
the handsome nurse put me out.

" 'Do you know what I'm going to do the first
minute I reach good old U. S. A. territory, Betty
de— ' "

But the sentence was never finished, for with a
quick movement, Betty snatched the letter away
and hugged it to her breast while her face flamed.

"That's all you get," she cried, "the rest be-
longs to me. Oh, girls, did you ever hear such
wonderful news? Allen strong and well and
Will recovering splendidly, and both of them so
sweet and loyal. Oh, I could kiss that beautiful
red-haired angel who brought all this happiness to
us. Where is he ? Has he gone back again ?"

"Yes, he has, and what do we care!" cried
Grace wildly, her face radiant. "Amy, you little
goose, you're not crying are 3'ou? Don't you
know there isn't a thing in the world to cry about ?
Come on — laugh, you sweet, comfy, little thing.
Don't you know that Will is getting better and
keeps our pictures under his pillow? That darl-
ing, wonderful, adorable boy. Great heavens!"
She stopped suddenly and a dismayed expression
crept over her face. "Excuse me, please," and

220 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

she was racing up the stairs, leaving the girls to
look after her, bewildered.

'What in the world," began Betty, when Amy
lifted a face, shining radiantly through her
tears.

"Don't you know?" she said with an under-
standing born of her wonderful happiness.
"Grace has gone to tell her mother. You really
can't blame her for being in a hurry/'

A few minutes later Grace called down to Amy.

"Come on up, Honey," she commanded.
"Mother wants to speak to you."

After Amy had left the room, Mollie and Betty
looked at each other questioningly.

"I wonder if Mrs. Ford is going to welcome
Amy into the family," chuckled Mollie.

"I hardly think so, since there isn't anything
definitely settled yet," said Betty absently. She
was thinking of Allen and what he had said in
the part of his letter she would not let Grace read.
Her eyes shone mistily and her heart sang. Allen,
her Allen, was safe, and, oh, those wonderful
things he had said !

"It must be nice to be as happy as they are,"
Mollie said, with a little sigh, and with a start
Betty came out of her preoccupation.

"Oh, Mollie, dear, I — I forgot," she confessed,
putting an arm about her chum. 'I was so sel-

HIS THREE SWEETHEARTS 221

fishly taken up with my own happiness that I
didn't think !"

"It isn't your fault," said Mollie, smiling
bravely. "You just can't be happy enough to suit
me. You know that, don't you, Betty?"

"Of course I do, you perfect brick !" said Betty,
hugging her fondly. "But we can't any of us be
really happy until we know7 you are. But even
that is coming out all right, I'm sure of it," she
finished gayly, her old optimism fully restored.

Mollie started to shake her head moodily,
thought better of it, and smiled instead.

"I won't be a death's head at the feast," she
told herself savagely. "I suppose I'm awfully
wicked, but now that they are all so happy, it
makes me feel dreadfully lonesome. I'm glad
from my very heart for them, of course. But, oh,
Paul! Oh, little Dodo! If you will only come
back to Mollie, she will never go away from you
again, never, never!"

Dinner that night for the other girls was a joy-
ful occasion. The girls dressed up in their pret-
tiest and best, Mrs. Ford and Betty cooked a most
appetizing supper, and if it had not been for
the one dark cloud still hanging over them, the
evening that followed would have been the hap-
piest they had ever spent.

Mollie kept her promise to herself and entered

222 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

into the gayety with the best of them, and no one
— except Betty, perhaps — realized how much she
was suffering.

However, when the lights were out that night
and everybody but herself was asleep, Mollie's
brave barrier broke down and she sobbed miser-
ably into her pillow.

"I want to go home!" she cried, heart broken-
ly. ;'I can't keep this up day after day! I can't!
If I don't hear some good news soon, I'll die- -I
know7 I shall/'

Only the sound of the waves pounding angrily
on the shore and the shrilling of a rapidly rising
wind answered her, and after a while she sank
into a troubled, uneasy sleep.

And how could she know as she lay there, rest-
lessly tossing from side to side and muttering
incoherently to herself, that the wind and waves
were actually sending her an answer which, in
her wildest moments, she could never have
imagined ?

Toward morning something, she could not tell
what, roused Betty and she sat up suddenly in
bed, every nerve taut, every sense alert.

The wind had increased in fury while they
slept, till now it was howling fiercely about the
house, rattling the windows and whistling shrilly
through the cracks, which together with the

HIS THREE SWEETHEARTS

223

pounding of the waves, made an almost deafening
uproar.

And the rain! It came down in sheeting tor-
rents and was driven by the rushing wind in mad-
dened gusts against the window panes until it
seemed they must give beneath the strain.

"What a storm!" cried Betty, pressing her
hands against her ears to keep out the noise of it.
"I wonder if that was what wakened me."

Then, becoming fully awake, she suddenly re-
alized that she was very uncomfortable, and,
looking down, discovered that the bed spread was
wet.

"Mercy, it's raining in all over us!" she cried
aloud, and, springing out of bed, ran over to the
window and closed it with a bang. When she
came back she found Grace sitting up in bed and
staring at her.

"For goodness sake, what's happening?" asked
the latter sleepily : "Is it the end of the world ?"

"Search me," returned Betty, inelegantly. She
had to almost scream to make herself heard above
the noise of the storm. Furthermore, her feet
were wet and her nightgown was wet, which did
not serve to lift her spirits. In fact, she was feel-
ing decidedly grumpy. 'The only thing I do
know," she shouted, "is that I'm nearly drowned."

"Don't you know that getting drowned at night

224 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

is strictly forbidden?" Grace began severely, but
was promptly smothered by an avenging pillow.
'Why don't you get in bed?" she asked, when she
had succeeded in disentangling herself. Betty
was sitting disconsolately on the dry side of the
bed, which happened to be that occupied by
Grace.

"If you want to know, just feel the covers/'
Betty answered. "Next time I'm going to make
you sleep on the side near the window. Think I'll
go in and see if Mollie and Amy are drowned
yet," she added, starting for the door. "Good-
ness, but this is a heavy storm !"

However, when she started to close the win-
dow in the next room she noticed to her surprise
that the rain had slackened, had almost stopped.
But not so the wind. If anything, it had increased
in fury.

*

She was about to turn back and tiptoe out of the
room, hoping that she had not roused the girls,
when her eye was caught and held by a vivid flash
of red somewhere out to sea.

Startled, she stood stock still, staring out in
the direction from which that light had come. It
seemed weird, eerv — that lonesome lisrht sending1

r C»

its signal out into the storm-whipped darkness.
For that it was a signal, she did not for a minute
doubt.

HIS THREE SWEETHEARTS

225

Then it came again — green this time — a light
that shot up rocketlike toward the sky, then,
bursting, dived to instant annihilation in the tur-
bulant water.

Another followed, and another, and then the
truth came home to Betty. Somewhere out there
in that foaming sea a ship had met with disaster,
perhaps at this moment was sinking and her crew
were sending out desperate appeals for aid.

For a moment she felt almost sick with pit}*
and excitement. Then she controlled herself and
ran over to wake the girls.

"Mollie ! Amy !" she cried, her voice shrill even
above the shrieking of the wind. ;<Wake up, wake
up! Oh, why don't you wake up?" as the girls
opened sleep-laden eyes and stared at her stu-
pidly.

"Wh-what's the matter," stammered Mollie,
suddenly sensing almost hysterical excitement in
Betty's voice and realizing that something terri-
ble had occurred.

"Is anybody sick?" queried Amy almost fret-
fully, for she had been enjoying the first good
sleep she had had in weeks.

"No. But somebody may be if we don't hurry
up," cried Betty, wild with impatience. "Don't
lie there asking foolish questions when people
may be dying."

226 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

"Dying," they echoed, still staring at her stu-
pidly.

'There's a wrecked ship out there," Betty ex-
plained, he"r words stumbling over each other as
she tried to make the girls understand. "They are
sending up signals for help, and if we don't get it
for them right away it may be too late. Oh, girls,
for all we know, it may be too late now !"

Mollie and Amy, at last fully awake and almost
as excited as Betty herself, sprang out of bee!
and rushed to the window to see for themselves
the signals the distressed vessel was sending up.

CHAPTER XXV

JOY

WHAT happened in the next hour the girls
never afterward clearly remembered. In what
seemed a nightmare, they found their clothes, and,
after turning things wrong side out, getting the
left shoe on the right foot, and various other mis-
haps calculated to wreck the most well-balanced
nervous system, they finally succeeded in getting
them on.

"Where shall we go?" Mollie gasped out, as,
clad in oilskins, they rushed madly down the
stairs.

"There's a farmhouse about a mile down the
road," explained Grace, "and all the farm hands
sleep on the premises. We can get them. And
there's the life-saving station only a little way
beyond. They may have seen the signals and be
on their way already."

"All right — let's go," said Betty grimly, as she
flung open the door.

A terrific gust of wind greeted her and sent her

staggering back upon the other girls.

227

228 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POL\T

'It's even worse than I thought," she gasped,
regaining her balance. "We will have to do some
fighting to get there, girls."

"A mile against that wind!" groaned Grace.
"Betty, I don't think we can ever make it."

''We've got to — or at least make the attempt,"
cried Betty, pulling her coat more tightly about
her. ;'If nobody else will come, I'm going alone,"
she added, and the girls knew her well enough to
be sure she meant it.

"Come on," cried Mollie, who had never yet
been known to ignore a challenge. 'We'll do our
best, anyway, even if we die trying."

'Bravo! Spoken like an Outdoor Girl!" cried
Betty, and at the challenge in her voice, Grace and
Amy instinctively straightened up.

'We're all Outdoor Girls," said Grace stoutly.

"And we'll show you," Amy added, with a ring
in her voice, "that we are not afraid to go any

where that you can go."

;'Fine !" cried the Little Captain, her eyes shin-
ing. "Come on, then. What chance has a pesky
old wind against four Outdoor Girls, I'd like to
know !"

She opened the door again, and this time, being
prepared for the onslaught of the wind, merely
gritted her teeth and ducked her head and plunged
gamely into it. And without a minute's hesita-

JOY

229

tion, the others, who were "also Outdoor Girls,"
fallowed her.

The fight with the wind that followed \vas all
they had expected it would be — and more. Their
clothes were wrhipped about their legs as if about
to disengage themselves and fly away from their
owners forever. And several times they were
forced to stop and turn their backs to catch their
breath and gather strength to go on.

But on they did go until the welcome vision of
a gaunt old farmhouse rising ghostily from the
early morning mist rewarded them and set their
hearts to beating high with hope.

As they fought their way step by step up to the
porch, they tried to call out, but found that what-
ever sound they were able to make was drowned
in the roar of the wind.

They found an old-fashioned knocker on the
big front door, and worked it with all their
strength. After what seemed to them an age of
waiting, the door itself opened and a head popped
out at them.

"Well, wrhat in time — " the owner of the voice
was beginning, when Betty pushed impatiently
past him, the girls following close behind her.

It took a surprisingly short time — seeing that
the girls all insisted upon talking at once — to
make the farmer understand the situation.

230

OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

'We're going on to the life-saving station,"
Betty told him, trembling with excitement.

"All right, but my boys'll beat 'em to it," he
promised, a glint in his grey eyes.

Then the girls were on their way again, push-
ing desperately against a wind that seemed to rise
higher and higher with every minute, while in
the east the greying sky grew light.

"A — clear — day!" Mollie gasped, pushing back
the wind-blown hair from her face. "At
last !"

"Do you hear anything?'1 Betty shouted back.
"It seems to me I — ' '

They listened, and then, above the wind, it
came to them unmistakably — the sound of voices,
masculine voices.

"The life-savers!" gasped Grace, "We don't
have to go any farther. Let's — let's — wait for
them."

They had not long to wait, for almost before
Grace had finished speaking half a dozen men
carrying life-saving paraphernalia broke through
the underbrush and came running down the path
toward them.

They stopped at sight of the panting girls, but
Betty waved them on impatiently.

"The wreck !" she cried. "We came for you !
Hurry!" and without another word the men

JOY

231

hurried on, leaving the girls to follow them more
slowly.

However, they accomplished the return trip in
about half the time it had taken them to fight their
way against the wind, and as the first bright rays
of the sun gilded the country side, they found
themselves back at the house, where Mrs. Ford
was anxiously awaiting them.

She had some breakfast prepared for them,
which they ate standing, then rushed headlong
down to the beach. The life-savers were already
busily at work launching their sturdy boats, and
as the girls followed the direction they were
taking out to sea they suddenly saw the wrecked
ship.

Driven by the hurricane wind, it had been
caught on one of those treacherous bars so com-
mon along this part of the coast. Part of the
bottom had been torn away, and if the ship had
not been so tightly wedged upon the bar it must
certainly have sunk hours before. As it was, thei
starboard deck stood high in the air while the port
side almost touched the water and was constantly
swept by mountainous combers.

The girls shivered as they looked.

"If the waves should wash it loose — " Betty
began, then checked herself. The possibility was
too horrible to contemplate.

232 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

''Look!" cried Mollie, clutching her arm.
'They arc filling the first boat. Oh, Betty, they'll
certainly be swamped ! I can't look !" She turned
away but the next minute her eyes were fixed
strainingly upon the wreck again.

'They're gone! They're gone!" cried Amy,
jumping up and down in her excitement as the
boat sunk in the hollow between two huge
combers and was lost to viewr. "No, they're not !
They're up again," as the boat, looking patheti-
cally tiny in comparison to the vastness of the
ocean, rose gallantly on the crest of a big wave
and came rushing toward them, reeling from side
to side. The next moment they were lost to view
again.

"Oh, they'll never make it, they'll never make
it," moaned Grace. "It isn't possible."

But the gallant little boat came on and on,
fighting it's bitter fight with the elements, till,
rising on one last long comber, it swept magnifi-
cently in and grounded on the shore.

The girls were already racing eagerly toward
it, and a few minutes later were welcoming the
poor bedraggled survivors back to safety. There
were nine of them in all, four women, one young
girl, three men and a little boy. The child was
sobbing and clung to his mother's skirts, ter-
rified.

JOY

233

Betty drew Grace aside.

"Some one will have to take them up to the
house, let them dry out, and give them something
to eat,'' she whispered. "Will you do that,
Grace?"

Grace nodded, and Amy, who had overheard
the request, begged to go with her. Mollie and
Beitv remained behind to watch the rest of the

j

rescue work.

Luckily the ship was a merchant vessel and
carried very few passengers, so that the life-
savers were confident of saving all those on board.
Also the wind was beginning to abate and the sea
was becoming less angry — all of which helped
them in their work.

The two girls were standing side by side,,
eagerly watching the progress of the second boat,
nrhen they were startled by a hail from behind
and turned to find Grace and Amy flying down
toward them.

"Mollie!" Amy gasped, trying to catch her
breath while her cheeks flamed with excitement,
"we just heard something we thought you ought
to know. You know the woman with the little
boy," she hurried on as Mollie was about to
speak, "well, while she was comforting her own
child, she happened to speak of two other chil-
dren on board — "

234

OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

'Who cry a great deal," Grace put in eagerly.
'They are in charge of a man who looks like a
Spaniard, and they seem to be in mortal terror
of him—"

"Girls," the word burst through dry lips as
Mollie took a step toward them, "what are you
telling me? Oh, I can't bear to hope if- she
grasped Grace's arm and shook it, not realizing
how she hurt. 'Tell me," she cried, "are they
boy and girl — "

"Yes," Grace answered trembling. "I don't
know, Mollie, dear, of course, but from her
description, those two children sounded an awful
lot like the twins!"

Mollie waited to hear no more, but was off like
a whirlwind down the beach toward the second
boat that was just coming in to shore. And
while she ran she was praying with all her fervent
young heart.

"Oh, Lord, give me back those babies!" she
cried sob'bingly. "If you only will I'll never,
never, never ask you for anything again as long
as I live."

Then she saw them!

A big, vicious looking man with black hair and
black bushy eyebrows was lifting Dodo — her little
Dodo — out of the boat. And while she looked,
her heart beating wildly, hardly able to believe the

JOY

235

evidence of her eyes, the man stretched out his
hand for the boy, who sat crouched in the back
of the boat. Then followed something that made
Mollie cry out in rage.

Because the boy hung back in evident terror,
the man struck him across the face, and, seizing
his hand, jerked him roughly out of the boat.

"Dodo! Paul!" screamed Mollie, racing down
toward them, unmindful of wet feet and sodden
clothing. "Babies, it's Mollie! Your own
Mollie who — "

But her voice was drowned in a shriek from
the twins as they tore themselves loose from the
man and flung themselves upon her. She dropped
to her knees in the sand and strained them to her,
laughing, crying, sobbing out endearments while
they clung to her frantically, burying their faces
in her neck.

"Don't let wicked man get Dodo!" sobbed the
little girl. "He's bad man ! He hurt Dodo."

With a cry Mollie jumped to her feet, an arm
about each of the twins, and looked about for
the man. The passengers who had also come
ashore in the boat stood looking on in bewilder-
ment. But the Spaniard had disappeared.

"Where did that man go?" cried Mollie fran^
tically. "There he is!" she added, as she caught
sight of him just approaching the foot of the

236 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLl'l:l: POINT

bluff, evidently bent on flight. "Don't let him
get away! He's a kidnapper!"

Several of the men were already racing off in
pursuit, and as the Spaniard was a heavy man
and not over agile, the foremost of them soon
overtook him.

He seemed to put up little resistance, evidently
realizing that he was too heavily out-numbered.
He surrendered to the inevitable and contented
himself with merely glo\vering.

"Come on," cried Mollie, taking the beloved
twins by the hand and starting back along the
beach while the girls, joyfully accompanied her,
talking and ejaculating all at the same time, no
one knowing what the other was saying — nor
caring. The wonderful fact was enough for
them.

When they scrambled up to the top of the
bluff they found the men awaiting them with
the sullen captive in their midst.

"What'll we do with him, Miss?" asked one of
them respectfully, touching his cap to Mollie.

"Do with him?" cried Mollie, regarding the
Spaniard with flashing eyes. "There isn't any-
thing bad enough to do to him. But for the
present, we'll have to be satisfied with locking
him up. We have plenty of evidence," she added,
waving that part of it aside with a motion of her

JOY.

237

hand. "Letters and things, you know. He kid-
napped my little brother and sister," indicating
the twins, who snuggled close against her and
regarded their former captor with terrified eyes,
"and then demanded twenty thousand dollars of
my mother for their return/'

"Blackmail, eh?" growled one of the men,
throwing a scornful look at the Spaniard. "Well,
you'll get paid up this time, old boy. Get on
there, will you ?"

It was many hours later and the dusk was fall-
ing softly over the land. The passengers of the
wrecked ship had long ago started villageward,
there to entrain for the city, leaving two of their
number behind.

These two were seated at the head of a long
table in the little house at Bluff Point, devour-
ing chicken and rice before an audience of ad-
miring and joyful Outdoor Girls. Only Mollie
very often could not see them for the tears that
dimmed her eyes.

Quite suddenly Betty stopped in the very middle
of a sentence to stare at Mollie.

"Your mother !" she cried. "You forgot to let
her know!"

"Oh, no, I didn't," Mollie answered. "I sent
a telegram by one of the boys who took that dirty

238 OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT

Spaniard to the station. And, oh, girls," she
leaned forward suddenly while the tears over-
flowed and slowly trickled down her face, "if she

*

does as I begged her to, she will be here to-
morrow. Darling little mother!"

At the love in her voice the girls felt their own
eyes grow wet.

"What a difference!" said Betty softly, look-
ing around the table. "A few nights ago we were
utterly miserable. Now we are wildly happy.
We have the darling twins back again, and our
boys 'over there' are safe. Girls," she cried, sud-
denly springing to her feet and raising her cup
on high, "let's drink a toast — "

To what ?" they cried, rising with one motion.
To the time when our boys come home !*'

And so, in the midst of their happiness, with
the dark clouds rolled away and the sun shining
through, we will once more wave farewell to our

O '

Outdoor Girls.

"
"

THE END

THE BUNNY BROWN SERIES

By LAURA LEE HOPE

Author of the Popular 'Bobbsey Twins" Books

Wrapper and text illustrations drawn by
FLORENCE ENGLAND NOSWORTHY

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TOM SWIFT AND HIS WIRELESS MESSAGE

Or The Castaways of Earthquake Island

TOM SWIFT AMONG THE DIAMOND MAKERS

Or The Secret of Phantom Mountain,

TOM SWIFT IN THE CAVES OF ICE

Or The Wreck of the Airship

TOM SWIFT AND HIS SKY RACER

Or The Quickest Flight on Record

TOM SWIFT AND HIS ELECTRIC RIFL1
Or Daring Adventures in Elephant Land

TOM SWIFT IN THE CITY OF GOLD

Or Marvellous Adventures Underground

TOM SWIFT AND HIS AIR GLIDER

Or Seeking the Platinum, Treasure

TOM SWIFT IN CAPTIVITY

Or A Daring Escape by Airship

TOM SWIFT AND HIS WIZARD CAMERA

Or The Perils of Moving Picture Taking

TOM SWIFT AND HIS GREAT SEARCHLIGHT.

Or On the Border for Uncle Sana

TOM SWIFT AND HIS GIANT CANNON

Or The Longest Shots on Record

TOM SWIFT AND HIS PHOTO TELEPHONE

Or The Picture that Saved a Fortune

TOM SWIFT AND HIS AERIAL WARSHIP

Or The Naval Terror of the Seas

TOM SWIFT AND HIS BIG TUNNEL,

Or The Hidden City of the Andes

GROSSET & DUNLAP*, PUBLISHERS NEW YORK

THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS

SERIES

By LAURA LEE HOPE

Author of "The Bobbsey Twins Series."
12mo. BOUND IN CLOTH. ILLUSTRATED. UNIFORM STYLE OF BIMDMfi

The adventures of Ruth and Alice DeVere. Their father,
a widower, is an actor who has taken up work for the
"movies." %Both girls wish to aid him in his work and visit
various localities to act in all sorts of pictures.

THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS

Or First Appearance in Photo Dramas.

Having lost his voice, the father of the girls goes into the movie*
and the girls follow. Tells how many "parlor dramas" are filmed.

THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS AT OAK FARM
Or Queer Happenings While Taking Rural Plays.

Full of fun in the country, the haps and mishaps of taking film
plays, and giving an account of two unusual discoveries.

THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS SNOWBOUND
Or The Proof on the Film.

A tale of winter adventures in the wilderness, showing how tb«
photo-play actors sometimes suffer.

THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS UNDER THE PALMS
Or Lost in the Wilds of Florida.

How they went to the land of palms, played many parts in dramas
before the camera; were lost, and aided others who were also lost.

THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS AT ROCKY RANCH
Or Great Days Among the Cowboys.

All who have ever seen moving pictures of the great West will
want to know just how they are made. This volume gives every detail
and is full of clean fun and excitement.

THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS AT SEA
Or a Pictured Shipwreck that Became Real

A thrilling account of the girls' experiences on the water.

THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS IN WAR PLAYS
Or The Sham Battles at Oak Farm.

The girls nlay important parts in big battle scenes and have plenty
of hard work along with considerable fun.

GROSSET & DUNLAP, . PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK

THE OUTDOOR CHUMS SERIES

By CAPTAIN QUINCY ALLEN

The outdoor chums are four wide-awake lads, sons of
wealthy men of a small city located on a lake. The boys
love outdoor life, and are greatly interested in hunting, fish-
kig, and picture taking. They have motor cycles, motor
boats, canoes, etc., and during their vacations go everywhere
and have all sorts of thrilling adventures. The stories give
full directions fcr camping out, how to fish, how to hunt wild
animals and prepare, the skins for stuffing, how to manage a
canoe, how to swim, etc. Full of the spirit of outdoor life.

THE OUTDOOR CHUMS

Or The First Tour of the Rod, Gun and Camera Club.

THE OUTDOOR CHUMS ON THE LAKE
Or Lively Adventures on Wildcat Island.

THE OUTDOOR CHUMS IN THE FOREST
Or Laying the Ghost of Oak Ridge.

THE OUTDOOR CHUMS ON THE GULF
Or Rescuing the Lost Balloonists.

THE OUTDOOR CHUMS AFTER BIG GAME

Or Perilous Adventures in the Wilderness.

*

THE OUTDOOR CHUMS ON ^ A HOUSEBOAT
Or The Rivals of the Mississippi.

THE OUTDOOR CHUMS IN THE BIG WOODS
Or The Rival Hunters at Lumber Run.

THE OUTDOOR CHUMS AT CABIN POINT
Or The Golden Cup Mystery.

12mo. Averaging 240 pages. Illustrated. Handsomely
bound in Cloth.

GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK

THE GIRLS OF CENTRAL
HIGH SERIES

By GERTRUDE W. MORRISON

12mo. BOUND IN CLOTH. ILLUSTRATED. UNIFORM STYLE CF BINDING.

Here is a series full of the spirit of high school life of to-
day. The girls are real flesh-and-blood characters, and we fol-
low them with interest in school and out There are many
contested matches on track and field, and on the water, as well
as doings in the classroom and on the school stage. There is
plenty of' fun and excftement, all clean, pure and wholesome.

THE GIRLS OF CENTRAL HIGH
Or Rivals for all Honors.

A stirring tale of high school life, full of fun, with a touch
of mystery and a strange initiation.

THE GIRLS OF CENTRAL HIGH ON LAKE LUNA

Or The Crew That Won.

Telling of water sports and fun galore, and of fine times in camp.

THE GIRLS OF CENTRAL HIGH AT BASKETBALL
Or The Great Gymnasium Mystery.

Here we have a number of thrilling contests at basketball and Sn
addition, the solving of a mystery which had bothered the high
school authorities for a long while.

THE GIRLS OF CENTRAL HIGH ON THE STAGE
Or The Play That Took the Prize.

How the girls went in for theatricals and how one of them wrote
a play which afterward was made over for the professional stage
end brought in ^ome much-needed money.

THE GIRLS OF CENTRAL HIGH ON TRACK AND

FIELD
Or The Girl Champions of the School League

This story takes in high school athletics in their most approved
and up-to-date fashion. Full of fun and excitement,

THE GIRLS OF CENTRAL HIGH IN CAMP

Or The Old Professor's Secret.

The girls went camping on Acorn Island and had a delightful
time at boating, swimming and picnic parties.

GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK

THE BOYS OF COLUMBIA HIGH

SERIES

By GRAHAM B. FORBES

Never was there a cleaner, brighter, more manly boy
than Frank Allen, the hero of this series of boys' tales, and
never was there a better crowd of lads to associate with than
the students of the School. All boys will read these storiesr
with deep interest The rivalry between the towns along the
river was of the keenest, and plots and counterplots to win
the champions, at baseball, at football, at boat racing, at
track athletics, and at ice hockey, were without number.
Any lad reading one volume of this series will surely want
the others.

THE BOYS OF COLUMBIA HIGH
Or The All Around Rivals of the School

THE BOYS OF COLUMBIA HIGH ON, THE DIAMOND
Or Winning Out by Pluck

THE BOYS OF COLUMBIA HIGH ON THE RIVER
Or The Boat Race Plot that Failed

THE BOYS OF COLUMBIA HIGH ON THE GRIDIRON
Or The Struggle for the Silver Cup

THE BOYS OF COLUMBIA HIGH ON THE ICE
Or Out for the Hockey Championship

THE BOYS OF COLUMBIA HIGH IN TRACK ATH-

LETICS
Or A Long Ran that Woa

THE BOYS OF COLUMBIA HIGH IN WINTER SPORTS
Or Stirring Doings on Skates and Iceboats

12 mo. Illustrated. Handsomely bound in cloth, with cover
design and wrappers in colors.

GROSSET a DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK

THE BOBBSEY TWINS BOOKS

For Little Men and Women

By LAURA LEE HOPE
Author of "The Bunny Brown" Series, Etc.

12tno. BOUND IN CLOTH. ILLUSTRATED. UNIFORM STYLE OF BINDING.

Copyright publications which cannot be obtained elsewhere.
Books that charm the hearts of the little ones, and of which
they never tire. Many of the adventures are comical in the
extreme, and all the accidents that ordinarily happen to youth-
ful personages happened to these many-sided little mortals.
Their haps and mishaps make decidedly entertaining reading.

THE BOBBSEY TWINS

THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN THE COUNTRY
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT THE SEASHORE
THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT SCHOOL

Telling how they go home from the seashore; went t« school and
were promoted, and of their many trials and tribulations.

.THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT SNOW LODGE

Telling of the winter holidays, and of the many fine times and
adventures the twins had at a winter lodge in the big woods,

THE BOBBSEY TWINS ON A HOUSEBOAT

Mr. Bobbsey obtains a houseboat, and the whole family go off on
a tour.

THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT MEADOW BROOK

The young folks visit the farm again and have plenty of good
times and several adventures,

THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT HOME

The twins get into all sorts of trouble — and out again — also bring
aid to a poor family.

GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK

THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS

SERIES

By VICTOR APPLETON

12mo. BOUND IN CLOTH. ILLUSTRATED. UNIFORM STYLE OF C1HDIW6.

Moving pictures and photo plays are famous the world
over, and in this line of books the reader is given a full
description of how the films are made — the scenes of little
dramas, indoors and out, trick pictures to satisfy the curious,'
soul-stirring pictures of city affairs, life in the Wild West,
among the cowboys and Indians, thrilling rescues along the
seacoast, the daring of picture hunters in ^the jungle among
savage beasts, and the great risks run in picturing ^conditions
in a land of earthquakes. The volumes 0teem with adven-
tures and will be found interesting from first chapter to last;

THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS
Or Perils of a Great City Depicted.

THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS IN THE WEST
Or Taking Scenes Among the Cowboys and Indians.

THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS ON THE COAST
Or Showing the Perils of the Deep.

THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS IN THE JUNGLE
Or Stirring Times Among the Wild Animals,

THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS IN EARTHQUAKE
Or Working Amid Many Perils. LAND

THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS ANE> JHE FLOOP
Or Perilous Days on the Mississippi.

THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS AT PANAMA
Or Stirring Adventures Along the Great Canal.

THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS UNDER THE SEA
Or The Treasure of the Lost Ship.

. i - -Jk

GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YOBS*

THE OUTDOOR GIRLS SERIES

By LAURA LEE HOPE

Author of the "Bobbsey Twin Books" and "Bunny Brown*

Series.

12mo. BOUND IN CLOTH. ILLUSTRATED. UNIFORM STYLE OF BINDING.

These tales take in the various adventures participated in
by several bright, up-to-date girls who lov^ outdoor life.
They are clean and wholesome, free from sensationalism,
absorbing from the first chapter to the last.

THE OUTDOOR GIRLS OF DEEPDALE
Or Camping and Tramping for Fun and Health.

Telling how the girls organized their Camping and Tramping C1ur>,
how they went on a tour, and of various adventures which befell them.

THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT RAINBOW LAKE
Or Stirring Cruise of the Motor Boat Gem.

One of the girls becomes the proud possessor of a motor boat an(J
invites her club members to take a trip down the river to Rum.
bow Lake, a beautiful sheet of water lying between the mountains.

THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN A MOTOR CAR
Or The Haunted Mansion of Shadow Valley.

One of the girls has learned to run a big motor car, and she invite*
the club to go on a tour to visit some distant relatives. On the wa>
they stop at a deserted mansion and make a surprising discovery.

THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN A WINTER CAMP
Or Glorious Days on Skates and Ice Boats.

In this story, the scene is shifted to a winter season. The jrirls
have some jolly times skating and ice boating, and visit a hunters'
camp in the big woods.

THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN FLORIDA.
Or Wintering in the Sunny South.

The parents of one of the girls have bought an orange grove in
Florida, and her companions are invited to visit the place. They tak*
a trip into the interior, where several unusual things happen.

THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT OCEAN VIEW
Or The Box that Was Found in the Sand.

The girls have great fun and solve a mystery while on an outing
along the New England coast.

THE OUTDOOR GIRLS ON PINE ISLAND
Or A Cave and What it Contained.

A bright, healthful story, full of good times at a bungalow camp
en Pine Island.

GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK