Jane L. Stewart

“ And someone is going to be sorry for this or my name’s not Eleanor Mercer!”
“I don’t understand it yet,” said Bessie, who, although the capture meant more to her than it did to any of the others, had not given way to her emotions, and seemed as cool and calm as if she had been safely back on Plum Beach.
“It’s only too easy to understand,” said Eleanor, bitterly. “Charlie was deceived in his friend, Mr. Trenwith. He’s just as easy to bribe as Jake Hoover. That’s all. He cares more for money and success than he does for his reputation as an honorable man. ”

“ She’s the nicest girl I ever saw or dreamed of seeing.”
“Oh, she’s all of that,” agreed Dolly, loyally. “You can’t tell me anything nice about Miss Eleanor that I haven’t found out for myself long ago. But Mr. Jamieson isn’t in love with her–and he’s known her much longer than Mr. Trenwith has.”
“That hasn’t got anything at all to do with it,” declared Bessie. “People don’t have to know one another a long time to fall in love–though sometimes they don’t always know about it themselves right away. And, besides, I think she and Mr. Jamieson are just like brother and sister. ”

“ I’ll go over the facts with you in Bay City to-night, and then I’ll go up to town and see what I can do with Jake Hoover and Zara’s father.”
“Well, let’s do something, for Heaven’s sake!” said Trenwith. “I hate to think that all you girls out here are in danger as a result of this man’s villainy. If he does anything rotten, I can see that he’s punished but that might not do you much good.”
“I tell you what would do some good, and that’s to let Holmes know that you will punish him, if he exposes himself to punishment,” said Charlie Jamieson. “That’s the chief reason he’s so bold. ”

“ Dolly didn’t say anything, but it was plain from her look that she did not understand.
“What I mean is,” Eleanor went on, “that there’s a chance here for us to make a real convert–one who will count. It’s easy enough to make girls understand our Camp Fire idea when they want to like it, and feel sure that they’re going to. The hard cases are the girls like Gladys, who have a prejudice against the Camp Fire without really knowing anything at all about it. And if the Camp Fire idea is the fine, strong, splendid thing we all believe, why, this is a good time to prove it. ”

“ Do you mean to tell me that you and I aren’t in a better class socially than these girls you’re camping with?”
“I’m not talking about society–and you haven’t any business to be. You don’t know anything about it. But if people are divided into real classes, the two big classes are nice people and people who aren’t nice. And each of those classes is divided up again into a lot of other classes. I hope I’m in as good a class as Bessie King and 72 Margery Burton, but I’m pretty sure I’m not. And I know you’re not.”
“There’s no use talking to you, Dolly,” said Gladys, furiously. ”

“ You’d better look out, Dolly, She’ll do anything she can to get even.”
“I think this race was one of the things she thought would help her to get even,” said Bessie. “She was awfully sure she was going to be able to beat you, Dolly.”
“I almost wish she had,” said Dolly. “I don’t mean that I would have done anything to let her win, of course, because there wouldn’t be any fun about that. But what’s an old race, anyhow!”
144“That’s the right spirit, Dolly,” said Eleanor. “It’s the game that counts, not the result. We ought to play to win, of course, but we ought to play fair first of all. ”

“ I’m so glad you girls were here for this first Council Fire of ours. You know how everything should be done, and that seems to make it so much better.”
“It would have pleased you just as much, and been just as lovely if you’d done it all by yourselves, Marcia. It’s the words, and the ceremony that are so beautiful–not the way we do it. Every 87 Camp Fire has its own way of doing things. For instance, some Camp Fires sing the Ode to Fire all together, but we have Margery do it alone because she has such a lovely voice.” ”

“ Salters came over from Green Cove in his boat, when he saw the fire, to see if he couldn’t help in some way, and he’s gone in to Bay City. He’ll be out pretty soon with a load of provisions, and as many other things as he can stuff into the Sally S.”
“Then we’re really going to stay here?” said Bessie King.
“We certainly are!” said Eleanor, her eyes flashing. “I don’t see why we should let a little thing like this fire drive us away! We are going to stay here, and, what’s more, we’re going to have just as good a time as we planned to have when we came here–if not a better one!” ”

“ Talking about losing one’s temper, I wonder if Gladys Cooper is still mad at us?”
“Oh, I hope not! That was sort of funny, wasn’t it, as well as unpleasant? Why do you suppose she was so angry, and got the other girls in their camp at Lake Dean to hating us so much when we first went there?”
“Oh, she couldn’t help it, Bessie, I guess. It’s the way she’s been brought up. Her people have lots of money, and they’ve let her think that just because of that she is better than girls whose parents are poor.” ”

“ Sometimes a little puff of wind would strike the Defiance, fill her sails, and push her a little nearer her goal, but the hopes that those puffs must have raised in Dolly’s rival and her crew were false, for each died away before the Defiance really got moving again. ”

“ The sun rose over Plum Beach to shine down on a scene of confusion and wreckage that might have caused girls less determined and courageous than those who belonged to the Manasquan Camp Fire of the Camp Fire Girls of America to feel that there was only one thing to do–pack up and move away. ”

“ They’ll all be laughing at me now for not being able to win when I had such a lead.”
“I’m ashamed of you, Gladys,” said Mary Turner, blushing scarlet. “Dolly, please don’t think that any of the rest of us feel as Gladys does. If I’d known she was such a poor loser, I wouldn’t have let her race with you at all. And there won’t be another race, Gladys doesn’t deserve another chance.”
“Gladys is quite right,” said Dolly, soberly. “It’s very easy to be nice and generous when 143 you’ve won; it’s much harder to be fair when you’ve lost. ”

“ AN UNHAPPY ENDING
There was a gasp of astonishment and dismay from the girls. Somehow all seemed to feel as if Eleanor’s reproach were directed at them instead of at the pale and angry Gladys, who stood, scarcely able to believe her ears, looking at the Guardian. There had been no anger in Eleanor’s voice–only sorrow and distress.
“Why, what do you mean, Miss Mercer?” Gladys gasped.
“Exactly what I say, Gladys,” said Eleanor, in the same level voice. “You are not fit to be one of us unless you mean sincerely and earnestly to keep the Law of the Fire. We are a sisterhood ”

“ Be strong as the fagots are sturdy;
Be pure in your deepest desire;
Be true to the truth that is in you;
And–follow the law of the Fire!
One by one as they received their rings, the newcomers slipped into seats about the fire, each one finding a place between two of the Manasquan girls. Marcia Bates, flushed with pleasure, took a seat between Bessie and Dolly.
86“Oh, how beautiful it all is!” she said. “I don’t see how any of us could ever have laughed at the Camp Fire! ”

“ Of course, the girls on your boat were pretty helpless–she was going all around in circles after you left the tiller free, so they couldn’t do anything.”
Gladys closed her eyes for a moment.
“I’d like to talk to her later–when I feel better,” she said. “I think I’ll try to go to sleep now, if I may. The pain in my head is dreadful.”
“Yes, that’s the best thing you can do,” said Eleanor warmly. “You’ll feel ever so much better, I know, when you wake up. Someone will be here with you all the time, so that if you wake up and want anything, you’ll only need to ask for it.” ”

“ Remember this–no girl does the Camp Fire a favor by joining it. The Camp Fire does not need any one girl, no matter how clever, or how pretty, or how able she may be, as much as that girl needs the Camp 93 Fire. The Camp Fire, as a whole, is a much greater, finer thing than any single member.”
Sobs of anger were choking Gladys when she tried to answer. She could not form intelligible words.
Eleanor glanced at Mary Turner, and the Guardian of the new Camp Fire, on the hint, put her arm about Gladys. ”

“ Gladys Cooper, 128 like Dolly, sat at the helm, steering her boat, and a look of grim determination was in her eyes and on her unsmiling face.
“She certainly does want to win,” said Margery. “She’s taking this too seriously–score one for Dolly.”
“You think she’d do better if she weren’t so worked up, Margery?”
“Of course she would! There are just two ways to take a race or a sporting contest of any sort–as a game or as a bit of serious work. If you do the very best you can and forget about winning, you’ll win a good deal oftener than you lose, if your best is any good at all. ”

“ We can get rid of ashes easily, but half-burned things are a nuisance.”
“Where are we going to sleep to-night?” asked Dolly Ransom, ruefully surveying the places where the tents had stood. Only two remained, which were used for sleeping quarters by some of the girls.
“I’m more bothered about what we’re going to eat,” said Eleanor, with a laugh. “Do you realize that we’ve been so excited that we haven’t had any breakfast? I should think you’d be starved, Dolly. You’ve had a busier morning than the rest of us, even.” ”

“ May I ask how long you intend to keep me here as a prisoner?”
“You are my guest, Miss Mercer, not my prisoner. Please don’t act as if I were as great a villain as that. Losing your temper will not improve matters in any way, you know–really it won’t. As for your question, I think Bessie and Zara will be in the quite competent care of their old friend Silas Weeks by noon to-morrow and then there will be no further reason for keeping you here.”
207“Then, unless you are remarkably quick in getting out of the country, Mr. Holmes, you ought to be under arrest for kidnapping by to-morrow night.” ”

“ He is a great inventor and they profited by his ignorance of American customs.”
“I only found out her name last night,” said Eleanor. “I wondered if he could be the Slavin who invented the new wireless telephone–”
“They got him into jail on a trumped-up charge,” said Charlie. “And then they tried to keep Zara away from people who might learn the truth from her, and offer to supply the money he needed. In a little while they would have robbed him of all the profits of his invention.”
“I’ll finance it myself,” said Richards, “and he can keep all of the profit.” ”

“ Don’t you see that she’ll blame us for making trouble between you girls 68 and her? She’ll think that we’ve set her own friends against her. Really, Marcia, I think all the trouble would be ended sooner, in the long run, if you just let her alone until she changed her mind. She’ll do it, sooner or later.”
“I guess Bessie’s right, Marcia,” said Dolly, thoughtfully. “I don’t see why Gladys acts this way, but I do think that the only thing that will make her act differently will be for her to feel differently, and nothing you can do will do that.” ”

“ There was a knock at the door, and, in answer to Jamieson’s call to come in, one of the young officers Bessie had seen at the fort entered. He smiled cheerfully at Bessie, saluted the other girls, and grinned at Jamieson.
“We’ve herded all the people we found around the place down in the boat-house,” he said. “They were too scared to do anything. Is this your man Holmes?”
“You guessed right the very first time, Lieutenant,” said Charlie. “Any sign of that boat from Rock Haven?”
“She’s just coming in,” said the officer. “She ought to land her passengers at the pier in about ten minutes.” ”

“ He acts the way a good many boys do who have been treated that way. He’s not got enough strength of character to keep him from taking the easiest path. If a thing seems safe, he’s willing to do it to avoid trouble.”
“You know there’s just one thing that occurs to me,” said Eleanor, looking worried. “Jake may have come here with some vague idea of telling us what he knew. But suppose he has seen Holmes or some of the others since Bessie got him to promise to go to Charlie Jamieson in the city?” ”

“ Half a dozen men had come out to the Columbia with Holmes and Bates, and now, while Holmes himself disappeared for a minute, beckoning to Trenwith to go with him, the other men watched Eleanor and the three girls. They drew off to a little distance, but they kept their eyes on them.
“They don’t look as if they could run very fast,” said Dolly, hopefully. “Don’t you think we might be able to make a break and get away?” ”

“ I know how fast the Eleanor is at that sort of work. If the Defiance is any better, she ought to be racing for some real cups.”
“Oh, don’t try to cheer me up! I made an awful mess of that, Margery, and I know it. Gladys had more nerve than I, that’s all. She deserves 133 the lead she’s got. It isn’t a question of the boats, at all. The Defiance is being sailed better than the Eleanor.”
“Margery’s right, though, Dolly,” said Eleanor. “The race isn’t over yet. You haven’t given up hope, have you?” ”