A PLAN OF REVENGE
Bessie had to laugh at the sight of Gladys Cooper's face when Dolly's
friend saw Miss Eleanor. It fell, and Gladys turned the color of a
beet. Evidently she had had no idea that Miss Mercer was with the Camp
Fire Girls.
"How do you do, Gladys?" said Eleanor, pleasantly. "Do you know that
you are trespassing?"
"The--the Worcesters gave us permission to come on their land whenever
we liked," stammered Gladys.
"Yes, when they supposed that they and their guests were to receive the
same sort of courtesy from you. But the Worcesters aren't here just
now, and I must ask you girls not to come across the line at all,
unless you wish to behave in a very different manner."
"I--I don't know what you mean, Miss Mercer. We haven't done
anything--"
"That's silly, Gladys. I'm not going to do anything about it, but I
think it would be very easy to prove that it was you and your friends
who locked us in. Didn't you stop to think of what would have happened
if there had been a fire?"
Gladys grew pale.
"I don't suppose you did," Eleanor went on. "I don't think you mean to
be wicked, any of you. But just try to think of how you would have
felt if that house had caught fire in the night, and some of us had
been burned to death because we couldn't get out."
"I didn't--we never thought of that," said Gladys. "Did we, girls?"
"Well, I don't suppose you did. But that doesn't excuse the trick you
played at all. I'm not going to say anything more now, but I think
that if you stop to consider yourselves, you'll find out how mean you
were, and what a contemptible thing you've done."
With heads hanging, and tears in the eyes of some of them, completely
crushed by Miss Eleanor's quiet anger as they would not have been had
she heaped reproaches upon them, the raiders started to return to their
own camp. Eleanor stood aside to let them pass; then, with Bessie, she
went back to the camp.
"I hardly think we'll have any more trouble with them," she said.
"I don't see why they dislike us so much," said Bessie. "We haven't
done anything to them."
"I don't know how to explain it, Bessie. It isn't American; that's the
worst thing about it. But you know that in Europe they have lords and
dukes and an aristocracy, don't you? People who think that because
they're born in certain families they are better than anyone else?"
"Yes."
"Well, there's a good deal of excuse for people to feel that way over
there, because it's their system, and everyone keeps on admitting it,
and so making the aristocrats believe it. They're the descendants of
men who, hundreds of years ago, really did do great things, and earned
certain honors that their children were allowed to inherit."
"But it isn't the same over here at all, Miss Eleanor."
"No, and that's just it. But these girls, you see, are all from rich
homes. And in this country some people who have a lot of money are
trying to make an aristocracy, and the only reason for being in it is
having money. That's all wrong, because in this country the best men
and women have always said and believed that the only thing that
counted was what you were, not what you had."
"Well, I'm not going to feel bad about them, Miss Eleanor. I guess
that if they really were such wonderful people they wouldn't think they
had to talk about it all the time, they'd be sure that people would
find it out for themselves."
"You're very sensible, Bessie, and I only hope the other girls will
take it the same way. I really couldn't blame them if they tried to
get even in some fashion, but I hope they won't, because I don't want
to have any trouble. I'm afraid of Dolly, though."
"I think Dolly's perfectly fine!" said Bessie, enthusiastically. "They
were willing to be nice to her, but she stuck to us, and said she
wouldn't have anything to do with them."
"That's what the Camp Fire has done for her, Bessie. I'm afraid that
if Dolly hadn't joined us, she'd have been as bad as they are, simply
because she wouldn't have stopped to think."
Bessie considered that thoughtfully for a moment before she answered.
"Well, then, Miss Eleanor," she said, finally, "don't you suppose that
if that's so, some of those girls would be just as nice as Dolly, if
they belonged to the Camp Fire and really understood it?"
"I'm sure of it, Bessie--just as sure as I can be! And I do wish there
was some way of making them understand us. I'd rather get girls like
that, who have started wrong, than those who have always been nice."
Contrary to Bessie's expectations, when they reached the Living Camp,
Eleanor made no appeal to the girls to refrain from trying to get even
with the raiders. Eleanor knew that if she gave positive orders that
no such attempt was to be made she would be obeyed, but she felt that
this was an occasion when it would be better to let the girls have free
rein. She knew enough about them to understand that a smouldering fire
of dislike, were it allowed to burn, would do more harm than an
outbreak, and she could only hope that they would not take the matter
too seriously.
"We're all going in bathing this afternoon after lunch," said Dolly to
Bessie, after breakfast. "I asked Miss Eleanor, and she said it would
be all right. The water's cold here, but not too cold, and with this
smoke all over everything, I think it will be better in the water than
it would be anywhere else."
"The wind hasn't shifted much yet, has it?" said Zara.
"It's shifted, but not altogether the right way," said Bessie. "I
think the houses along the lake are all right now, but the wind is
blowing the fire in a line parallel with them, you see, and it will
burn over a lot more of the woods before they can get it under control."
"Miss Eleanor says we'll have to stay here a couple of days, at least,"
said Margery. "Girls, what do you think about those cats in the next
camp?"
Dolly's teeth snapped viciously.
"I think we ought to get even with them," she said. "Are we going to
let them think they can play a trick like that on us and not hear
anything at all about it?"
"Oh, what's the use?" said Margery. "I think it would be better if we
didn't pay any attention to them at all--just let them think we don't
care."
"You were mad enough last night and this morning, Margery," said Dolly.
"You didn't act then as if you didn't care!"
"No, I suppose I didn't. I was as mad as a wet hen, and there's no
mistake about that. But, after all, what's the use? I suppose we
could put up some sort of game on them, but I'm pretty sure Miss
Eleanor wouldn't like it."
"I think you're right," said Bessie. "If we let them alone they'll get
tired of trying to do anything nasty to us. You ought to have seen the
way they sneaked off when Miss Eleanor spoke to them this morning.
They acted just the way I've seen a dog do after it's been whipped."
"Oh, that's all right, too, Bessie," said Dolly. "But that won't last.
They probably did feel pretty cheap at first, but when they've had a
chance to talk things over, they'll decide that they had the best of
us. And I know how Gladys Cooper and the rest of the girls from home
will talk. They'll tell about it all over town."
"Let them!" said Margery. "I'm not going to do a thing. And you can't
start a war all by yourself, Dolly. If you try it you'll only get into
trouble, and be sorry."
"Oh, will I?" said Dolly, defiantly. "Well, I'm not saying a word.
But if I see a good chance to get even with them, I'm going to do
it--and I won't ask for any help, either! Just you wait!"
"Let's quit scrapping among ourselves, Dolly. Wouldn't they just be
tickled to death if they knew we were doing that! Nothing would please
them any better."
But even Margery's newly regained patience was to be sorely tried that
afternoon, when, after an early lunch, the Camp Fire Girls donned their
bathing dresses and went in swimming off the float in front of the
Worcester camp.
"Come on, Dolly," she cried. "See that rock out there? I'll race you
there and back!"
They went in together, diving so that their heads struck water at just
the same moment, while the rest of the girls watched them from the
float. On the outward journey they were close together, but they had
not more than started back when there was a sudden outburst of laughter
from the float where Gladys Cooper and her friends were watching, and
the next moment a white streak shot through the water, making a
terrific din, and kicking up a tremendous lot of spray.
"Whatever is that?" cried Zara.
"A motor boat," said Mary King. "Look at it go! Why, what are they
trying to do?"
The answer to that question was made plain in a moment. For the motor
boat, into which three or four of the girls from the next camp had
leaped, kept dashing back and forth between the float and the rock. It
raised great waves as it passed, and made fast swimming, and for that
matter, swimming of any sort, almost impossible. Moreover, it was
plain from the laughter of those on board that their only purpose was
to annoy the Camp Fire Girls and spoil their sport in the water.
Dolly and Margery, exhausted by their struggle with the waves from the
motor boat, struggled to the float as best they could and came up,
dripping and furious.
"See that!" cried Dolly. "They can't be doing that for fun. All they
want to do is to bother us. You'd think we had tried to do something
mean to them the way they keep on nagging us."
"They certainly seem to be looking for trouble," said Margery, "But
let's try not to pay any attention to them, girls."
Margery knew that Eleanor Mercer expected her, so far as she could, to
help her on the rare occasions when it was necessary to keep the girls
in order, and she realized that she was facing a test of her temper and
of her ability to control others: She was anxious to become a Guardian
herself, and she now sternly fought down her inclination to agree with
Dolly that something should be done to take down the arrogant girls
from the next camp, who were so determined to drive them away.
"I shall have to speak to whoever is in charge of those girls," said
Eleanor. "I'm quite sure that no teacher would permit such behavior,
but I can imagine that anyone who tried to control those girls would
have her hands full, too."
"You bet she would!" said Dolly. "Miss Eleanor, isn't there some way
we can get even?"
Eleanor ignored the question. All her sympathies were with Dolly, but
she really wanted to avoid trouble, although it was easy to see that
unless the other girls changed their tactics, trouble there was bound
to be. So she tried to think of what to say to Dolly.
"Try to be patient, Dolly," she said, finally. "Did you ever hear the
old saying that pride goes before a fall? I've never known people to
act the way those girls are doing without being punished for it in some
fashion. If we give them the chance, they'll do something sooner or
later that will get them into trouble. And what we want to do, if we
can, is to remember that two wrongs don't make a right, and that for us
to let ourselves become revengeful won't help matters at all."
But for once Dolly did not seem disposed to take Miss Eleanor's advice
as she usually did. Stealing a look at her chum's face, Bessie knew
that Dolly would not rest until she had worked some scheme of revenge,
and she felt that she couldn't blame Dolly, either. She could never
remember being as angry as these rich, snobbish girls had made her.
Time and again,--every time, in fact, that any of the Camp Fire Girls
ventured into the water--the motor boat returned to the charge. Their
afternoon's sport in the water, to which all the girls had looked
forward so eagerly, was completely spoiled, and the tormentors did not
refrain even when Miss Eleanor, who had intended to sit on the float
without swimming at all, challenged two or three of the girls to a
race. She did that in the hope that the other girls might respect her,
but her hope was vain.
To be sure, Gladys Cooper seemed to be a little frightened at the idea
of bothering Miss Eleanor.
"Let's keep off until she's through," Bessie heard Gladys saying.
"That's Miss Mercer--she knows my mother. We oughtn't to bother her.
She comes from one of the best families in town."
But Gladys was laughed down.
"She'll have to suffer for the company she keeps, then," said a big,
ugly-looking girl. "Can't play favorites, Gladys! We want to make
them see they're not wanted here. My mother only let me come here
because we were told this was an exclusive place."
And Miss Eleanor, like the others, was soon forced to beat a retreat to
the float. Dolly was strangely silent for the rest of the day.
Bessie, watching her anxiously, could tell that Dolly had some trick in
her mind, but, try as she would, she could not find out what her plan
was.
"No, I won't tell you, Bessie," said Dolly, when her chum finally asked
her point-blank what she meant to do. "You're not a sneak, and I'm not
afraid of your telling on me, but you'll be happier if you don't know."
Bessie felt that whatever Dolly might try to do to the other girls
would serve them right, but she was worried about her chum. And when
Dolly slipped off by herself after dinner, Bessie determined that she
would not let her chum run any risks alone, even if she was not a
sharer of Dolly's secret.
It was not a hard matter to trace Dolly, even though Bessie let her
have a good start before she followed. She knew that any plan Dolly
had must involve going to the other camp, and she hid herself, moving
carefully so as to avoid detection, in a place that commanded the
approach. And in a very abort time she heard Dolly coming; and saw
that she was carrying a large basket with the utmost care.