It was Amy’s voice, frantic, terrified, that roused Jessie to a more immediate sense of her great peril. Her foot had caught in a crotch of a branch as she fell, and by this she hung, head downward, hands clasped desperately about the branch that had stopped her descent. In that position she could neither let herself down nor draw herself up. And she was still a dangerous distance from the ground.

Amy had climbed up to her, had taken in the situation in one startled glance. Nell, who had been following Jessie, clung to a branch, staring down, weak and sick with fright.

“Hang on, Jess, honey,” begged Amy. “We will get you out all right. Hold on for just another minute.”

Jessie held on desperately while Amy tugged at her foot, and Nell, mastering her fright, descended slowly. Miss Alling was calling out advice and commands. A horrible dizziness was engulfing Jessie. She felt as though all the blood in her body was pounding in her ears. The sight of the ground so far below set her senses reeling, made her fingers feel like putty.

“Are you holding hard?” she heard Amy’s voice asking as though from a long distance. “I have your foot loose, Jess and Nell is waiting below to catch you and let you down easy. Can you hold on?”

Jessie must have said yes, though she never afterward remembered having done so, for the next moment she felt her foot released, felt herself swing downward, felt Nell catch her in one strong young arm and hold her tight against the tree the while Nell’s voice urged frantically:

“There, put your foot on that branch—to the right—to the right!”

She felt it at last—something solid under her foot! She clung there, fighting the dizziness that swept over her again, thankful for Nell’s supporting arm.

The vertigo lasted for only a moment, and with the help of the girls she managed somehow to make the rest of that descent and reach the ground. There Miss Alling caught her in her arms and half led, half carried her into the lodge.

Phrosy, all whites-of-eyes and sympathy, made her a cup of tea and fussed over her until Jessie declared she would begin to think herself an invalid before long, instead of a perfectly healthy outdoor girl who had met with a simple accident.

“If that was simple, I hope I never meet anything complex!” was Amy’s comment.

In spite of the dreadful fright and shaking up they had had, the girls insisted upon finishing the work of installing the radio before the boys returned.

“For, after all our boasting, they must never know how near I came to grief,” was Jessie’s decision, and in this both Amy and Nell heartily agreed with her. It was easy to win Miss Alling and Phrosy over to their side, and it was solemnly vowed that absolute silence should be kept concerning the accident.

They worked feverishly after that, hoping to make up for lost time. The dangling aerial wires were attached to the roof of the lodge. Amy and Nell took charge of this, laying down the law that Jessie was to do no more climbing that day. Jessie herself adjusted the lead-in wire.

At last all was in readiness and the girls sat down to “listen in” with a pride and pleasure that more than paid them for their exertion.

Aunt Emma’s interest was also flattering, although she had a few sharp things to say about the inconvenience of using head phones.

They were thoroughly enjoying themselves when the boys came back, declaring that they had had a most delightful hike through the woods. They were really surprised to find the set erected and in working order in such a short time, and very heartily said so. In fact, everything was going splendidly when Darry made the announcement that he and the other boys intended to take a short run to Gibbonsville.

“But, when?” asked Amy, staring at him.

“Why, right away. It won’t take long,” returned Darry, at which his sister quite pointedly turned her back on him.

“You may all go when you like and stay as long as you please,” she informed him icily.

A few minutes later the girls stood watching Darry’s car as it disappeared in a cloud of dust down the road.

“I reckon I know why Darry has gone to Gibbonsville,” said Jessie, slowly. “He has gone to see that girl!”

“You mean that girl who passed the bad five-dollar bill on me?” demanded Amy.

“Yes.”

“But why should he go to see her?”

“I don’t know. It is certainly a mystery,” answered Jessie, and turned away. Somehow, she felt that she did not care just then to say more. She went in and set to work to adjust the radio set so that they might listen in with greater ease and clearness. She had found that she could always “lose herself” when working over the radio.

“I think it is mean of the boys to desert us,” said Amy, some time later, as she got into her snug-fitting black bathing suit and pulled a rubber cap over her heavy hair. “There! how do I look?” she added, turning slowly around so that Jessie and Nell might admire the effect.

“Stunning. You always do,” answered Nell, as she laced up her bathing shoes. “But I am wondering how long that suit will last in the water.”

The girls had felt the lure of the cool waters of the lake as they had not felt it since their arrival. They wanted, as Amy said, “to swim and swim and keep on swimming.”

So now ............