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Camp-Fire Girls at Twin Lakes or The Quest of a Summer Vacation

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<h2>CHAPTER XXII.</h2><h3>THE GRAHAM GIRLS CALL.</h3> “They’re early risers; we must say that much for them,” observed Katherine in a low voice. “We must give them credit for not lying in bed until 10 o’clock and, and——” “And for dressing for an afternoon party before breakfast,” Helen Nash concluded. “Isn’t it funny!” Hazel Edwards said with a suppressed titter. “I wonder if they are going in bathing.” “Keep still, girls,” Miss Ladd interposed. “They’re getting pretty near. Let’s not pay too much attention to them. Let them seek our acquaintance, not we theirs. The advantage will be on our side then.” At this suggestion of the Guardian, the girls turned their attention again to the conditions about their bathing beach. A moment later Katherine made a discovery that centered all interest in unaffected earnest upon the latest depredation of their enemy, or enemies. With a stick she fished out one end of a small rope and was soon hauling away at what appeared to be the “clothes line” they had used to indicate the safety limits of their bathing place. “Well, conditions are not as bad as they might be,” said Miss Ladd, as she took hold to assist at hauling the line out of the water. “We have the stakes and the rope and can put them back into place.” “Would you mind telling us what has happened?” These words drew the attention of the Camp Fire Girls away from the object discovered in the water and to the speaker, who was one of the older of the urbanely clad summer resorters from the Graham cottage. “Someone has been guilty of some very malicious mischief,” Miss Ladd replied. “We had roped in a bathing place after examining it and finding it safe for those who are not good swimmers, and you see what has been done with our work. The stakes were pulled up and the rope hidden in the water. Fortunately we have just discovered the rope.” “Isn’t that mean!” said the younger girl, whom the campers surmised correctly to be Olga Graham. “Mean is no name for it,” the other Graham girl declared vengefully. “Haven’t you any idea who did it?” “None that is very tangible,” Miss Ladd replied. “There was a mysterious prowler near our camp last evening, but we didn’t catch sight of him. He threw a heavy stone into our bonfire and knocked the sparks and embers in every direction, but he kept himself hidden. A little later we heard a hideous call in the timbers, which we were pretty sure was intended to frighten us.” “That’s strange,” commented the older of the visitors. “Maybe it’s the ghost,” suggested Olga with a faint smile. “Ghost!” repeated several of the Camp Fire Girls in unison. “I was just joking,” the younger Graham girl explained hurriedly. “Why did you suggest a ghost even as a joke?” inquired Katherine. The utterance of the word ghost, together with the probability that there was a neighborhood story behind it, forced upon her imagination an irrational explanation of the strange occurrences of the last evening. “Oh, I didn’t mean anything by it,” Olga reassured, but her words seemed to come with a slightly forced unnaturalness. “But there has been some talk about a ghost around here, you know.” “Did anybody ever see it?” asked Hazel Edwards. “Not that I know of,” avowed Olga. “Of course, I don’t believe in such things, but, then, you never can tell. It might be a half-witted person, and I’m sure I don’t know which I’d rather meet after dark—a ghost or a crazy man.” “Is there a crazy man running loose around here?” Ernestine Johanson inquired with a shudder. “There must be,” Olga declared with a suggestion of awe in her voice. “If it isn’t a ghost—and I don’t believe in such things—it must be somebody escaped from a lunatic asylum.” “I saw something mysterious moving through the woods near our cottage one night,” Addie Graham interposed at this point. “Nobody else in the family would believe me when I told them about it. It looked like a man in a long white robe and long hair and a long white beard. It was moonlight and I was looking out of my bedroom window. Suddenly this strange being appeared near the edge of the timber. He was looking toward the house, and I suppose he saw me, for he picked up a stone and threw it at the window where I stood. It fell a few feet short of its mark, and then the ghost or the insane man—call him what you please—turned and ran away.” “My sister told us about that next morning, and we all laughed at her,” said Olga, continuing the account. “I told her to go out and find the stone, and she went out and picked one up just about where she said the stone that was thrown at her fell.” “Were there any other stones near there?” Marion Stanlock inquired. “We looked around specially to find out if there were any others near, but didn’t find any,” Olga answered. “Addie—that’s my sister—had the laugh on us all after that.” “Do you live in the cottage over there?” Ethel Zimmerman inquired, pointing toward Graham summer residence. “Yes,” Addie replied. “Our name is Graham. We were very much interested when we learned that a company of Camp Fire Girls were camping near us.” “Don’t you girls camp out any?” Katherine asked with the view of possibly bringing out an explanation of the Graham girls’ attire, which seemed suited more for promenading along a metropolitan boulevard than for any other purpose. “Oh, dear no,” Olga answered somewhat deprecatingly. “We’d like to well enough, you know, but we’re in society so much that we just don’t have time.” Katherine wanted to ask the Graham girls if they were going to a stylish reception before breakfast, but restrained the impulse. Both Katherine and Hazel recognized Addie as the girl whom, on their first trip to Stony Point, they had seen handle roughly the little boy they believed to be Glen Irving, the grandnephew of Mrs. Hutchins’ late husband in whose interests they made the present trip of inspection. Whether or not she recognized among the campers the two girls to whom she had behaved so rudely on that occasion did not appear from her manner, which was all sweetness now. She continued her social discourse thus: “I really wish society did not demand so much of our time, and I’m sure my sister feels the same way about it. There’s nothing we’d like better than to become Camp Fire Girls and live close to nature, you know, just the way you girls live. Truly it must be delightful. But when you become an integral figure in society (she really said integral), you are regarded as indispensable, and society won’t let go of you.” None of the Camp Fire Girls attempted to reply to this speech. Their plan was to bring about an appearance of friendship between them and the Grahams in order that they might associate with the family that had custody of the little boy in whose interests they were working. Any attempt on their part, they felt, to discuss “society” from the point of view of the Graham girls must result in a betrayal of their utter lack of sympathy with this “social indispensability” of such helpless society victims. “We’d like, however, to do something for you in your unfortunate situation,” Addie Graham continued with a gush of seeming friendliness. “I’m sure my brother James—he’s 16 years old—would be glad to assist you in any way he can. I’m going to send him down here, if you say the word, to help you extend that rope around your swimming place. He’s a very handy boy, and it would be much better for you to let him do the work than to perform such a laborious task yourselves.” “Thank you ever so much,” returned Miss Ladd with a warmth that seemed to indicate acceptance of the offer. The truth was that anything which tended to increase friendly relations between them and the Grahams was acceptable. “I’ll send him around today,” the older Graham girl promised. “We must hurry back now for breakfast. We were just out for an early morning constitutional, you know.” “Come and see us any time you wish,” Miss Ladd urged. “You’ll always be welcome. We haven’t made the acquaintance of anybody around here yet. Come over and help us eat one of our constitutional luncheons, or suppers. We have real picnics every day, the jolliest kind of times—except when the ghost walks. Maybe you can help us catch the ghost, also.” “Maybe we can,” said Addie. “Well, good-by. You girls come and see us, too.” “Thank you,” was the acknowledgment uttered by several of the members of Flamingo Camp Fire as the two Misses Graham stepped primly in their French-heel shoes over the uneven ground and returned homeward along a diagonal course up the side of the hill-shore of Twin One. <hr class="major" /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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