“Did you come to look for us?”

“How did you know where we were?”

“Oh, but we’re so glad to see you!”

“How far is it to camp? We’re almost dead!”

“Girls! Girls! Do restrain yourselves a little! We are not half so badly off as that!”

It was Mrs. Bonnell who uttered the last, and Natalie, Marie, Alice and Mabel who, in turn, gave voice to the other expressions, following the gladsome cry of Alice that she had heard the boys. And she really had.

“Camp Fire Girls ahoy!” yelled Jack, as he and his chums came a little nearer.

“However did you find us?” demanded Natalie, as the three came running along the path through the halo of misty light caused by the refraction of the Guardian’s electric torch on the raindrops.

“By the process of deduction!” said Phil, as he gave his sister’s hand a quick pressure, and then—pressed that of some one else. No, there’s no use in asking whose it was. Besides Phil often changed—as did Jack and Blake, for all the girls had hands that were temptations to hold.

“I don’t see how you knew we were here,” went on Mabel, as, after some hysterical laughter they resumed their way.

“Old Hanson told us he saw you coming over this direction in boats,” explained Blake, “and we put two and three together and got six. Then, by subtracting one we knew you five were over here and we came.”

“Oh, how glad we are!” exclaimed Natalie.

“And is it far to the lake?” inquired Alice. “It seems as if we must have walked ten miles.”

“The cove where you left your boats is about a quarter of a mile away,” explained Jack. “You’d have been there in about five minutes if you had kept on.”

“We were about to give up,” declared Natalie.

“We can never row back,” added Mabel.

“You won’t have to,” declared her brother. “We have the motor-boat, and we can leave your boats here until to-morrow.”

“It would be hard to find where we hid the oars, anyhow,” suggested Marie, fearing lest the boys would insist on towing the craft. “You haven’t, by any chance, anything to eat; have you?”

“Nary an eat!” confessed Blake. “We came off in such a hurry.”

“Where did you go?” asked Mabel, as if she did not know.

“To Mt. Harry,” explained Jack. “You see we heard that the Gypsy camp was over there, and we thought we could get on the track of that girl!”

“Did you?” asked Mrs. Bonnell innocently, nudging Marie under cover of the darkness.

“No. There wasn’t the sign of a camp. But what did you go to Bear Pond for?”

“How did you know we were at Bear Pond?” challenged Natalie.

“Because that’s the only place to go to on this road, or from this part of the lake. Every one goes to Bear Pond who comes over this way. So, when we got back, and went over to your camp, and found you weren’t home by supper time,” explained Jack, “we knew where you’d gone.”

“And we knew you were lost,” added Phil.

“How?” Mabel wanted to know.

“Because every one who goes to Bear Pond the first time gets lost,” declared Blake. “Don’t they, fellows?”

“Sure,” came the chorus.

“Why did you go without telling us?” asked Jack. “We could have shown you the road, and—”

“Oh-o-o-o-o!” suddenly screamed Mabel. “Look!”

“What is it? A snake?” asked Jack, springing to her side.

“No, but I saw two green eyes— Oh! how they glittered! On the path right in front of us!”

“A skunk, maybe!” volunteered Blake.

“Oh, you horrid thing!” came in five different intonations of feminine voices.

“Well, maybe it was only a ’coon, or ’possum,” admitted Blake. “He was probably attracted by Mrs. Bonnell’s light.”

“Then I’ll put it out!” declared the Guardian, who had kept the spring switch of her pocket electric torch pressed down, thus making a continuous light.

“No, don’t,” begged Blake. “We came off in such a hurry that we didn’t bring a lantern, and the path isn’t any too plain. They won’t hurt you.”

“I know—but—skunks——” hesitated Mrs. Bonnell.

“They’re as harmless as cats. Come on!” and resolutely Blake pressed forward. The two green spots had disappeared, and by the time the excitement had calmed down Jack’s question had been forgotten, to the relief of the girls, who did not want to answer unless they had to.

“Next time don’t try to find Bear Pond unless one of us goes along,” suggested Jack in patronizing tones.

“Oh, but we did find it,” declared Mabel. “It was after we found it, and on our way home, that we got lost. The hairpin blazing didn’t work.”

“The what?” cried Blake in curiosity.

“Mabel, if you mention that I’ll never forgive you!” threatened Mrs. Bonnell.

“Go on; tell!” urged Phil. “Hairpin blazing? What is that; a new kind of Camp Fire Girls’ stunt?”

“Don’t you tell!” warned the Guardian, and with laughter the girls refused.

“Oh, we’ll find out!&r............