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Campfire Girls at Twin Lakes

S >> Stella M. Francis >> Campfire Girls at Twin Lakes



[Illustration: Campfire Girls at Twin Lake]

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CAMPFIRE GIRLS AT TWIN LAKES
or,
The Quest of a Summer Vacation

BY STELLA M. FRANCIS

M. A. DONOHUE & CO.
CHICAGO
NEW YORK

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CAMPFIRE GIRLS' SERIES

CAMPFIRE GIRLS IN THE ALLEGHANY MOUNTAINS; or, A Christmas Success
Against Odds.

CAMPFIRE GIRLS IN THE COUNTRY; or, The Secret Aunt Hannah Forgot.

CAMPFIRE GIRLS' TRIP UP THE RIVER; or, Ethel Hollister's First Lesson.

CAMPFIRE GIRLS' OUTING; or, Ethel Hollister's Second Summer in Camp.

CAMPFIRE GIRLS' ON A HIKE; or, Lost in the Great North Woods.

CAMPFIRE GIRLS AT TWIN LAKES; or, The Quest of a Summer Vacation.

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COPYRIGHT 1918

M. A. DONOHUE & COMPANY

MADE IN U. S. A.

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INDEX

CHAPTER

I About Teeth and Teddy Bears. 9
II A Special Meeting Called. 13
III A Boy and a Fortune. 18
IV The Girls Vote "Aye." 23
V Honors and Spies. 27
VI A Telegram En Route. 32
VII A Double-Room Mystery. 36
VIII Planning in Secret. 42
IX Further Plans. 47
X A Trip to Stony Point. 51
XI Miss Perfume Interferes. 56
XII The Man in the Auto. 61
XIII A Nonsense Plot. 65
XIV Sparring for a Fee. 70
XV Langford Gets a Check. 75
XVI Langford Checks Up. 82
XVII A Day of Hard Work. 87
XVIII Planning. 91
XIX Watched. 95
XX A Missile. 100
XXI "Sh!" 104
XXII The Graham Girls Call. 108
XXIII "High C." 115
XXIV The Runaway. 120
XXV A Little Scrapper. 125
XXVI Ammunition and Catapults. 130
XXVII The Ghost. 136
XXVIII A Bump on the Head. 141
XXIX A Cruel Woman. 146
XXX The Girls Win. 151

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CAMP FIRE GIRLS AT TWIN LAKES
OR
The Quest of a Summer Vacation

BY STELLA M. FRANCIS




CHAPTER I.

ABOUT TEETH AND TEDDY BEARS.


"Girls, I have some great news for you. I'm sure you'll be interested,
and I hope you'll be as delighted as I am. Come on, all of you. Gather
around in a circle just as if we were going to have a Council Fire and
I'll tell you something that will--that will--Teddy Bear your teeth."

A chorus of laughter, just a little derisive, greeted Katherine Crane's
enigmatical figure of speech. The merriment came from eleven members of
Flamingo Camp Fire, who proceeded to form an arc of a circle in front of
the speaker on the hillside grass plot near the white canvas tents of
the girls' camp.

"What does it mean to Teddy Bear your teeth?" inquired Julietta Hyde
with mock impatience. "Come, Katherine, you are as much of a problem
with your ideas as Harriet Newcomb is with her big words. Do you know
the nicknames some of us are thinking of giving to her?"

"No, what is it?" Katherine asked.

"Polly."

"Polly? Why Polly?" was the next question of the user of obscure figures
of speech, who seemed by this time to have forgotten the subject that
she started to introduce when she opened the conversation.

"Polly Syllable, of course," Julietta answered, and the burst of
laughter that followed would have been enough to silence the most
ambitious joker, but this girl fun-maker was not in the least ambitious,
so she laughed appreciatively with the others.

"Well, anyway," she declared after the merriment had subsided; "Harriet
always uses her polysyllables correctly, so I am not in the least
offended at your comparison of my obscurities with her profundities.
There, how's that? Don't you think you'd better call me Polly, too?"

"Not till you explain to us what it means to Teddy Bear one's teeth,"
Azalia Atwood stipulated sternly. "What I'm afraid of is that you're
trying to introduce politics into this club, and we won't stand for that
a minute."

"Oh, yes, Julietta, you may have your wish, if what Azalia says is
true," Marie Crismore announced so eagerly that everybody present knew
that she had an idea and waited expectantly for it to come out. "We'll
call you Polly--Polly Tix."

Of course everybody laughed at this, and then Harriet Newcomb demanded,
that her rival for enigmatical honors make good.

"What does it mean to Teddy Bear one's teeth?" she demanded.

"Oh, you girls are making too much of that remark," Katherine protested
modestly, "I really am astonished at every one of you, ashamed of you,
in fact, for failing to get me. I meant that you would be
delighted--dee-light-ed--get me?--dee-light-ed."

"Oh, I get you," Helen Nash announced, lifting her hand over her head
with an "I know, teacher," attitude.

"Well, Helen, get up and speak your piece," Katherine directed.

"You referred to the way Theodore Roosevelt shows his teeth when he says
he's 'dee-light-ed'; but we got you wrong. When you said you would tell
us something that would 'Teddy Bear' our teeth, you meant b-a-r-e, not
b-e-a-r. When Teddy laughs, he bares his teeth. Isn't that it?"

"This isn't the first time that Helen Nash has proved herself a regular
Sherlock Holmes," Marion Stanlock declared enthusiastically. "We are
pretty well equipped with brains in this camp, I want to tell you. We
have Harriet, the walking dictionary; Katherine, the girl enigma; and
Helen, the detective."

"Every girl is supposed to be a puzzle," Ernestine Johanson reminded. "I
don't like to snatch any honors away from anyone, but, you know, we
should always have the truth."

"Yes, let us have the truth about this interesting, Teddy-teeth-baring,
dee-light-ing announcement that Katherine has to make to us," Estelle
Adler implored.

"The delay wasn't my fault," Katherine said, with an attitude of
"perfect willingness if all this nonsense will stop." "But here comes
Miss Ladd. Let's wait for her to join us, for I know you will all want
her opinion of the proposition I am going to put to you."

Miss Harriet Ladd, Guardian of the Fire, bearing a large bouquet of wild
flowers that she had just gathered in timber and along the bank of the
stream, joined the group of girls seated on the grass a minute later,
and then all waited expectantly for Katherine to begin.




CHAPTER II.

A SPECIAL MEETING CALLED.


Fern hollow--begging the indulgence of those who have read the earlier
volume of this series--is a deep, richly vegetated ravine or gully
forming one of a series of scenic convolutions of the surface of the
earth which gave the neighboring town of Fairberry a wide reputation as
a place of beauty.

The thirteen Camp Fire Girls, who had pitched their tents on the lower
hillside, a few hundred feet from a boisterous, gravel-and-boulder
bedded stream known as Butter creek, were students at Hiawatha
Institute, a girls' school in a neighboring state. The students of that
school were all Camp Fire Girls, and it was not an uncommon thing for
individual Fires to spend parts of their vacations together at favorite
camping places. On the present occasion the members of Flamingo Fire
were guests of one of their own number, Hazel Edwards, on the farm of
the latter's aunt, Mrs. Hannah Hutchins, which included a considerable
section of the scenic Ravine known as Fern hollow.

They had had some startling adventures in the last few weeks, and
although several days had elapsed since the windup in these events and
it seemed that a season of quiet, peaceful camp life was in store for
them, still they were sufficiently keyed up to the unusual in life to
accept surprises and astonishing climaxes as almost matters of course.

But all of these experiences had not rendered them restless and
discontented when events slowed down to the ordinary course of every-day
life, including three meals a day, eight hours' sleep, and a program of
tramps, exercises and honor endeavors. The girls were really glad to
return to their schedule and their handbook for instructions as to how
they should occupy their time. After all, adventures make entertaining
reading, but very few, if any, persons normally constituted would choose
a melodramatic career if offered as an alternative along with an
even-tenor existence.

All within one week, these girls had witnessed the execution of an
astonishing plot by a band of skilled lawbreakers and subsequently had
followed Mrs. Hutchins through a series of experiences relative to the
loss of a large amount of property, which she held in trust for a
relative of her late husband, and its recovery through the brilliant and
energetic endeavors of some of the members of the Camp Fire,
particularly Hazel Edwards and Harriet Newcomb. The chief culprit, Percy
Teich, a nephew of Mrs. Hutchins' late husband, had been captured, had
escaped, had been captured again and lodged in jail, and clews as to the
identity of a number of the rest had been worked out by the police, so
that the hope was expressed confidently that eventually they, too, would
be caught.

"Mrs. Hutchins is very grateful for the part this Camp Fire took in the
recovery of the lost securities of which she was trustee," Katherine
announced by way of introducing her "great news" to the members of the
Fire who assembled in response to her call. "Of course Hazel did the
really big things, assisted and encouraged by the companionship of
Harriet and Violet, but Mrs. Hutchins feels like thanking us all for
being here and looking pleasant."

Hazel Edwards, niece of Mrs. Hutchins, was not present during this
conversation. By prearranged purpose, she was absent from the camp when
Katherine put to the other girls the proposition made by the wealthy
aunt of their girl hostess. The reason it was decided best for her to
remain away while the other girls were considering the plan was that it
was feared that her presence might tend to suppress arguments against
its acceptance, and that was a possibility which Hazel and her aunt
wished to avoid. So Katherine was selected to lay the matter before the
Camp Fire because she was no more chummy with Hazel than any of the
other girls.

"Let's make this a special business meeting," suggested Miss Ladd, who
had already discussed the proposition with Katherine and Mrs. Hutchins.
"What Katherine has to say interests you as an organization. You'd have
to bring the matter up at a business meeting anyway to take action on it
and our regular one is two weeks ahead. We can't wait that long if we
are going to do anything on the subject."

It was a little after 10 o'clock and the girls had been working for the
last hour at various occupations which appeared on their several routine
schedules for this part of the day. In fact, all of their regular
academic and handwork study hours were in the morning. Just before
Katherine called the girls together, they were seated here and there in
shaded spots on camp chairs or on the grass in the vicinity of the camp,
occupied thus:

Violet Munday and Marie Crismore were studying the lives of well-known
Indians. Julietta Hyde and Estelle Adler were reading a book of Indian
legends and making a study of Indian symbols. Harriet Newcomb and Azalia
Atwood were studying the Camp Fire hand-sign language. Ernestine
Johanson and Ethel Zimmerman were crocheting some luncheon sets. Ruth
Hazelton and Helen Nash were mending their ceremonial gowns. Marion
Stanlock was making a beaded head band and Katherine Crane, secretary of
the Fire, was looking over the minutes of the last meeting and preparing
a new book in which to enter the records of the next meeting.

Everybody signifying assent to the Guardian's suggestion, a meeting was
declared and called to order, the Wohelo Song was sung, the roll was
called, the minutes of the last meeting were read, the reports of the
treasurer and committees were deferred, as were also the recording of
honors in the Record Book and the decorating of the count, and then the
Guardian called for new business. This was the occasion for Katherine to
address the meeting formally on the matter she had in mind.




CHAPTER III.

A BOY AND A FORTUNE.


"Now," said Katherine after all the preliminaries of a business meeting
had been gone through, "I'll begin all over again, so that this whole
proceeding may be thoroughly regular. I admit I went at it rather
spasmodically, but you know we girls are constituted along sentimental
lines, and that is one of the handicaps we are up against in our efforts
to develop strong-willed characters like those of men."

"I don't agree with you," Marie Crismore put in with a rather saucy
pout. "I don't believe we are built along sentimental lines at all. I've
known lots of men--boys--a few, I mean--and have heard of many more who
were just as sentimental as the most sentimental girl."

There were several half-suppressed titters in the semicircle of Camp
Fire Girls before whom Katherine stood as she began her address. Marie
was an unusually pretty girl, a fact which of itself was quite enough to
arouse the humor of laughing eyes when she commented on the
sentimentality of the opposite sex. Moreover, her evident confusion as
she tangled herself up, in her efforts to avoid personal embarrassment,
was exceedingly amusing.

"I would suggest, Katherine," Miss Ladd interposed, "that you be
careful to make your statement simple and direct and not say anything
that is likely to start an argument. If you will do that we shall be
able to get through much more rapidly and more satisfactorily."

Katherine accepted this as good advice and continued along the lines
suggested.

"Well, the main facts are these," she said: "Mrs. Hutchins has learned
that the child whose property she holds in trust is not being cared for
and treated as one would expect a young heir to be treated, and
something like $3,000 a year is being paid to the people who have him in
charge for his support and education. The people who have him in charge
get this money in monthly installments and make no report to anybody as
to the welfare of their ward.

"The name of this young heir is Glen Irving. He is a son of Mrs.
Hutchins' late husband's nephew. When Glen's father died he left most of
his property in trust for the boy and made Mr. Hutchins trustee, and
when Mr. Hutchins died, the trusteeship passed on to Mrs. Hutchins under
the terms of the will.

"That, you girls know, is the property which was lost for a year and a
half following Mr. Hutchins' death because he had hidden the securities
where they could not be found. Although Hazel, no doubt assisted very
much by Harriet, is really the one who discovered those securities and
returned them to her aunt, still Mrs. Hutchins seems disposed to give
us all some of the credit.

"For several months reports have reached Mrs. Hutchins that her
grandnephew has not been receiving the best of care from the relatives
who have charge of him. She has tried in various ways to find out how
much truth there was in these reports, but was unsuccessful. Little
Glen, who is only 10 years old, has been in the charge of an uncle and
aunt on his mother's side ever since he became an orphan three or four
years ago. His father, in his will, named this uncle and aunt as Glen's
caretakers, but privately executed another instrument in which he gave
Mr. and Mrs. Hutchins guardianship powers to supervise the welfare of
little Glen. It was understood that these powers were not to be
exercised unless special conditions made it necessary for them to step
in and take charge of the boy.

"Mrs. Hutchins wants to find out now whether such conditions exist. At
the time of the death of Glen's father, he lived in Baltimore, and his
uncle and aunt, who took charge of him, lived there, too. It seems that
they were only moderately well-to-do and the $3,000 a year they got for
the care and education of the boy was a boon to them. Of course, $3,000
a year was more than was needed, but that was the provision made by his
father in his will, and as long as they had possession of the boy they
were entitled to the money. Moreover, Mrs. Hutching understands that
Glen's father desired to pay the caretakers of his child so well that
there could be no doubt that he would get the best of everything he
needed, particularly education.

"But apparently his father made a big mistake in selecting the persons
who were to take the places of father and mother to the little boy. If
reports are true, they have been using most of the money on themselves
and their own children and Glen has received but indifferent clothes,
care, and education. Now I am coming to the main point of my statement
to you.

"Mrs. Hutchins talked the matter over with Miss Ladd and me and asked us
to put it up to you in this way: She was wondering if we wouldn't like
to make a trip to the place where Glen is living and find out how he is
treated. Mrs. Hutchins has an idea that we are a pretty clever set of
girls and there is no use of trying to argue her out of it. So that much
must be agreed to so far as she is concerned. She wants to pay all of
our expenses and has worked out quite an elaborate plan; or rather she
and her lawyer worked it out together. Really, it is very interesting."

"Why, she wants us to be real detectives," exclaimed Violet Munday
excitedly.

"No, don't put it that way," Julietta Hyde objected. "Just say she wants
us to take the parts of fourteen Lady Sherlock Holmeses in a Juvenile
drama in real life."

"Very cleverly expressed," Miss Ladd remarked admiringly. "Detective is
entirely too coarse a term to apply to any of my Camp Fire Girls and I
won't stand for it."

"We might call ourselves special agents, operatives, secret emissaries,
or mystery probers," Harriet Newcomb suggested.

"Yes, we could expect something like that from our walking dictionary,"
said Ernestine Johanson. "But whatever we call ourselves, I am ready to
vote aye. Come on with your--or Mrs. Hutchins and her lawyers'--plan,
Katherine. I'm impatient to hear the rest of it."

Katherine produced an envelope from her middy-blouse pocket and drew
from it a folded paper, which she unfolded and spread out before her.




CHAPTER IV.

THE GIRLS VOTE "AYE."


"Before I take up the plan outlined by Mrs. Hutchins and her lawyer,"
Katherine continued, as she unfolded the paper, "I want to explain one
circumstance that might be confusing if left unexplained. As I said, the
uncle and aunt who have Glen in charge live in Baltimore. They do not
own any real estate, but rent a rather expensive apartment, which they
never could support on the family income aside from the monthly payments
received from Mrs. Hutchins as trustee of Glen's estate. This family's
name is Graham, and its head, James Graham, is a bookkeeper receiving a
salary of about $1,800 a year. In these war times, when the cost of
living is so high, that is a very moderate salary on which to support a
family of six: father, mother, two girls and two boys, including Glen.

"But this family, according to reports that have reached Mrs. Hutchins,
is living in clover. Mr. Graham, who is a hard working man, still holds
his bookkeeping position, but in this instance it is a case of
'everybody loafs but father.' He is said to be a very much henpecked
husband. Mrs. Graham is said to be the financial dictator of the family.

"Now, Mrs. Graham seems to be a woman of much social ambition. Among the
necessaries of the best social equipment, you know, is a summer cottage
in a society summer resort with sufficient means to support it
respectably and leisure in the summer to spend at the resort. It is said
that the Grahams have all this. They have purchased or leased a cottage
at Twin Lakes, which you know is only about a hundred miles from
Hiawatha Institute. I think that every one of us has been there at one
time or another. It is about three hundred miles from here.

"What Mrs. Hutchins wants us to do is to make a trip to Twin Lakes,
pitch our tents and start a Camp Fire program just as if we were there
to put in a season of recreation and honor work. But meanwhile, she
wants us to become acquainted with the Graham family, cultivate an
intimacy with them, if you please, and be able to report back to her
just what conditions we find in their family circle, just how Glen is
treated, and whether or not he gets reasonable benefits from the money
given to the Grahams for his support and education.

"I have given you in detail, I think, what is outlined on this paper I
hold in my hand. I don't think I have left out anything except the names
of the children of the Graham family. But there are no names at all on
this paper. The reason for this is that it was thought best not to
disclose the identity of the family for the information of any other
person into whose hands it might fall, if it should be lost by us. The
names are indicated thus: 'A' stands for the oldest member of the
family, Mrs. Graham, for she is two years older than her husband and the
real head of the household; 'B' stands for the next younger, Mr. Graham;
'C' stands for Addie, the oldest daughter; 'D' for the next daughter,
Olga; 'E' for the only son, James, named after his father; and 'F'
stands for Glen. There, you have the whole proposition. What do you want
to do with it? Mrs. Hutchins, I neglected to mention, wants to pay all
of our expenses and hire help to take off our hands all the labor of
moving our camp."

Replies were not slow coming. Nearly every one of the girls had
something to say, as indicated by the eager attitudes of all and
requests from several to be recognized by the Guardian, who was "in the
chair." Azalia Atwood was the first one called upon.

"I think the proposition of Mrs. Hutchins is simply great," the latter
declared with vim. "It's delightfully romantic, sounds like a story with
a plot, and would make fourteen heroines out of us if we were successful
in our mission."

"I want to warn you against one danger," Miss Ladd interposed at this
point. "The natural thing for you to do at the start, after hearing this
lengthy indictment of the Graham family, is to conclude that they are a
bad lot and to feel an eagerness to set out to prove it. Now, I admit
that that is my feeling in this matter, but I know also that there is a
possibility of mistake. The Grahams may be high class people, but they
may have enemies who are trying to injure them. If you take up the
proposition of Mrs. Hutchins, you must keep this possibility in mind,
for unless you do, you might do not only the Grahams a great injustice,
but little Glen as well. It would be a pity to tear him away from a
perfectly good home that has been vilified by false accusations made by
unscrupulous enemies."

The discussion was continued for nearly an hour, the written
instructions in Katherine's possession were read aloud and then a vote
was taken. It was unanimous, in favor of performing the task proposed by
Mrs. Hutchins.




CHAPTER V.

HONORS AND SPIES.


"Why couldn't this expedition be arranged so that we girls could all win
some honors out of it?" Ruth Hazelton inquired, after the details of
Mrs. Hutchins' plan had been discussed thoroughly and the vote had been
taken.

"That is a good suggestion," said Miss Ladd. "What kind of honors would
you propose, Ruth?"

The latter was silent for some minutes. She was going over in her mind
the list of home-craft, health-craft, camp-craft, hand-craft,
nature-lore, business and patriotism honors provided for by the
organization, but none of them seemed to fit in with the program of the
proposed secret investigation.

"I don't think of any," she said at last. "There aren't any, are there?"

"No, there are not," the Guardian replied. "But now is the time for the
exercise of a little ingenuity. Who speaks first with an idea?"

"I have one," announced Ethel Zimmerman eagerly.

"Well, what is it, Ethel?" Miss Ladd inquired.

"Local honors," replied the girl with the first idea. "Each Camp Fire is
authorized to create local honors and award special beads and other
emblems to those who make the requirements."

"Under what circumstances is such a proceeding authorized?" was Miss
Ladd's next question.

"When it is found that local conditions call for the awarding of honors
not provided for in the elective list."

"Do such honors count for anything in the qualifications for higher
rank?"

"They do not," Ethel answered like a pupil who had learned her lesson
very well and felt no hesitancy in making her recitation.

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