The Outdoor Girls at Bluff Point | Page 4

feeling as one who had received a stunning
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 explained, 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-that's 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?"
"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 Outdoor 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
interesting 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, when the girls had
accidentally discovered a gypsy cave and had succeeded not only in
rounding up the band of gypsies but in recovering several 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
immediately afterward. The girls also recovered some valuable jewelry
that the spy had stolen from them.
Then in the volume directly preceding this, entitled "The Outdoor Girls
at the Hostess House," the girls had befriended an old woman who had
been knocked down by an unscrupulous motorcyclist. 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 ourselves--"
"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 excitement 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