BAD NEWS
The girls stared wide-eyed at Betty while slowly the color drained from
their faces. It was true they had been dreading just this news for a
long, long time, yet now that it had come they felt strangely quiet and
numb. They had much the same 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 are right, Betty dear, you always are!" cried Mollie,
taking heart and even smiling a little. "We can't do anybody good by
moping."
"No," added Grace with a philosophy unusual in her. "That's why we have
the hardest share, I guess--because we have to keep gay and bright, no
matter how we feel."
"And we still have our work at the Hostess House," Amy reminded them.
"Maybe," she added, a little wistfully, "if we work hard enough we'll be
able to forget--"
"What's all this about working and forgetting?" cried Mrs. Nelson,
coming gayly into the room. "I thought you had come home for a
vacation."
The girls explained, and Mrs. Nelson looked pityingly at their grave
young faces.
"So that is it," she was beginning, when Mollie sprang to her feet with
a cry. She was staring at the paper that Mrs. Nelson had carelessly
thrown on the table.
"What is it?" they cried, as she snatched it up and read the glaring
headlines.
"The Hostess House!" gasped Mollie. "Gone! Burnt up! Read this!"
Dazedly the girls obeyed, the big type seeming to strike them in the
face as they read:
"Great Fire at Camp Liberty! Hostess House and Several Barracks
Buildings Burned to the Ground!"