The Outdoor Girls at the Hostess House | Page 4

in an automobile. From
there they went to a winter camp where they had many varied and
exciting experiences on skates and iceboats. Then followed a glorious
trip to Florida, where the girls braved many dangers and took thrilling
trips into the wilds of the interior.
Their next adventure took them to Ocean View and centered about a
mysterious box they found in the sand.
Then followed that glorious trip to Pine Island. An aunt of Mollie
Billette had turned her bungalow over to the Outdoor Girls for the
summer. During their strenuous adventures the girls had made many
friends among the boys and young men of Deepdale, and four of these
had asked and been granted permission by the girls to accompany them
to Pine Island and pitch their camp in the woods near by.
One of the young men was Allen Washburn, a rising young lawyer and
a great admirer of Betty. Another was Will Ford, Grace's brother, and a
third was his high school chum, Frank Haley. The fourth, Roy

Anderson, had been drawn into the circle chiefly through his
admiration for Grace.
During that eventful summer on Pine Island the young people had
accidentally discovered a gypsy cave, concealed by underbrush, and
had succeeded not only in rounding up the band of gypsies but in
recovering several valuable articles that had been stolen from the girls.
Their last adventure, related in the volume directly preceding this one,
and entitled "Outdoor Girls in Army Service," found the girls and boys
again at Pine Island, but under very much altered conditions. America
had entered the great World War and all the boys but Will Ford had
volunteered. Later, the boys were called to Camp Liberty, some
distance from Deepdale, and the girls conceived the plan of opening a
Hostess House for the benefit of the relatives and friends of the boys.
The plan worked out very satisfactorily.
While still at Pine Island the girls and boys had come upon a suspicious
looking man in the woods. Upon finding himself discovered the man
had made his escape, but in his hurry had dropped a letter which the
girls found to their disgust was written in code. They decided that the
man must have been a German spy.
At Camp Liberty the girls succeeded in rounding up the spy, and found,
to their surprise, that Will Ford, who was in the Secret Service, had
been engaged all that time in tracking him to earth. Will, having
accomplished his mission, immediately enlisted.
Now, at the time this story opens, the girls were still at the Hostess
House and looking forward apprehensively to the time, now imminent,
when the boys would be ordered across the sea to fight for the country
they loved.
"I'll go with Grace," volunteered Amy, in answer to Betty's request for
water. "I don't suppose we can find any, but we'll try."
The two girls hurried off, leaving Mollie and Betty to loosen the
woman's collar and rub her cold hands.

"Betty, Betty, is she dead?" Mollie was crying for perhaps the
hundredth time, when the woman herself answered the question by
opening her eyes and looking vacantly about her.
"Who--are--you?" she queried faintly, struggling to rise.
"Oh, please don't try to get up just yet," Betty pleaded, looking very
sweet and charming in her solicitude. "I don't think you're strong
enough--"
But the woman seemed of a different mind, and made such a desperate
effort to raise herself that Betty had no alternative but to help her to her
feet.
The girls supported the unsteady little figure while the dim old eyes
roved questioningly about.
"I--got--hurt!" she gasped, and then quite suddenly fainted again.
"Oh, Betty!" moaned Mollie, her face white with pity. "She's hurt
worse, much worse, than we thought she was! Oh, what shall we do?"
"There's only one thing to do," replied Betty, trying to hide the tremor
in her voice. "We'll have to get her to the hospital, and in a hurry."
"But Grace and Amy!" gasped Mollie. "We can't go without them."
"We can at least get her into the car," Betty said, indicating the limp
little figure in the roadway. "You take her feet, Mollie, and I'll take her
head. We haven't spent all our lives outdoors for nothing."
Between them they succeeded in carrying their burden to the car and
settled her gently in the tonneau.
"Oh, if Grace and Amy would only come!" Mollie was crying
distractedly when the girls themselves burst through the underbrush,
crying despairingly that they had not been able to find water, that there
was not a house anywhere for miles around.

But Betty cut their lamentations short and hurried them into the car.
"But where do I come in?" gasped Grace, as Betty dropped into the
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