The Girl Scout Pioneers | Page 9

tug at her rope it sprang up to her

face in a real caress! In fact it actually coiled around her like a friendly
thing.
Mrs. Johnston's wash was gone!
"Oh, he grabbed it!" wailed Grace. "He got hold of my rope when we
had to stop to make the rock and now--he has got it again!"
"Don't you dare stop one minute!" panted Madaline. "You have almost
murdered us as it is," she proclaimed in her excitement, which always
banished her ordinarily sparse supply of reasonable language.
"Nice way you help a sister," mocked Grace. "I thought you were going
to help me win honors," and she gathered up her delinquent rope with a
much disturbed expression on her pretty face.
"I think I have helped you save your life, if you only knew it,"
Madaline managed to articulate. "The idea--"
"All the same I did tie him up," admitted Grace, bolder now that she
could see the end of the woods. "I don't see how he got loose. I used the
running bow-line, and a couple of clove hitches. Our old knots came in
useful, but they didn't hold evidently. Hark! Wasn't that a whistle!
Sounded like Margaret's trill."
"Yes, and it's away over on the Avenue. Whatever will Captain Clark
say?"
"Now, Madie, you just promise you will say nothing about my man and
Mrs. Johnston's wash. I tried to do something noble and it didn't pan
out, so if you are a good little pal, and a first rate sport, you will keep
mam as a clam, won't you, please, Madie?"
"Well, since it did not end in a tragedy I suppose I may keep quiet
without breaking honor, but you know, Gracie, I am six months older
than you, and I would be held accountable at a trial."
"Don't you fret," and Grace was now shaking her curly head and

throwing her blazing cheeks up to the clearance light, with, renewed
defiance. "I certainly had a lovely time while it lasted."
"There are the girls!" exclaimed Madaline joyously. "It would have
been dreadful if they were obliged to go all the way into Flosston
without us. They would have come back with the mill bell man looking
for us."
"Whoo-hoo!! Coo-ee, Coo-ee!!" trilled Grace, and back came the
welcome answer.
"Coo-ee! Coo-ee! Whoo-hoo!"
Realizing the lost was found, Lieutenant Lindsley stood on top of the
little hill, just over the turn of the macadam road, that outlined Oakley
Avenue, the one street of distinction that ran through the country and
gave tone to little Flosston on its way. She was an attractive figure
standing there in her plain serge suit, and soft tam-o'-shanter on her
finely poised head, and even at a distance one would be correct in
describing Romaine Lindsley as an attractive, fine-looking young girl.
Around her were the other members of the hiking party, all of whom
had come to an abrupt halt, at the call of Grace and Madaline from the
woodlands.
"Don't run to meet them," cautioned the lieutenant, "that might mean
another mixup," and she gave a double quick trill to notify the
delinquents they were expected to report promptly. "After all there
appears to be no harm done, other than the loss of an afternoon's sport."
"But I did not get my watercress," wailed Winnie, the blonde of the
McKay twins.
"And I lost a perfectly good side comb mother just received from
Philadelphia," complained Cleo. "I wanted this kind and could not get
them around here. Now one is lost and the other useless."
"But we must not complain, Cleo," admonished the lieutenant

pleasantly. "It isn't good scouting, you know."
By this time the runaways, or lost sheep, had caught up with the
awaiting contingent. That they would be deluged with questions, and
all but stampeded for answers, was to be expected.
"It was an accident," Grace managed to inject finally. "Madie's foot
went blistered--and I hunted around for some--some medicated leaves,"
this was said in an apologetic tone, "and when the heel was all fixed we
were thoroughly lost."
Madaline sighed and smiled alternately, and agreed without venturing
to say so.
"Well, we are glad you met with no mishap," declared the lieutenant, to
whom girls lost in the woods was not a new adventure. "We were going
back for you just now. The trouble was we took the left road to look for
you, when, of course, you were hugging due right. Didn't you see our
trail?"
"Yes, after we struck it," responded spokes-man Grace. "We were so
deep in the cedar grove we had no chance to strike trails. Oh, girls, you
should see the wonderful picnic grounds we discovered!" she enthused,
with the very evident intention of getting Madaline's mind off the man
and the bag