[Illustration: “THIS IS THE LIFE!” CRIED MOLLIE.
_The Outdoor Girls Around the Campfire._ _Frontispiece--(Page 96)_]
The Outdoor Girls
Around the Campfire
or
The Old Maid of the Mountains
BY
LAURA LEE HOPE
AUTHOR OF “THE OUTDOOR GIRLS OF DEEPDALE,” “THE
OUTDOOR GIRLS IN THE SADDLE,” “THE MOVING
PICTURE GIRLS,” “THE BOBBSEY TWINS,”
“BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE,”
“SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT GRANDMA
BELL’S,” “MAKE BELIEVE STORIES,”
ETC.
_ILLUSTRATED_
NEW YORK
GROSSET & DUNLAP
PUBLISHERS
Made in the United States of America
BOOKS FOR GIRLS
BY LAURA LEE HOPE
12mo. Cloth. Illustrated.
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS SERIES
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS OF DEEPDALE
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT RAINBOW LAKE
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN A MOTOR CAR
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN A WINTER CAMP
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN FLORIDA
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT OCEAN VIEW
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS ON PINE ISLAND
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN ARMY SERVICE
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT THE HOSTESS HOUSE
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT BLUFF POINT
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AT WILD ROSE LODGE
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS IN THE SADDLE
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AROUND THE CAMPFIRE
THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS SERIES
THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS AT OAK FARM
THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS SNOWBOUND
THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS UNDER THE PALMS
THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS AT ROCKY RANCH
THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS AT SEA
THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS IN WAR PLAYS
THE BOBBSEY TWINS SERIES
(Sixteen Titles)
THE BUNNY BROWN SERIES
(Thirteen Titles)
SIX LITTLE BUNKERS SERIES
(Nine Titles)
MAKE BELIEVE STORIES
(Eleven Titles)
GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK
COPYRIGHT, 1923, BY GROSSET & DUNLAP
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AROUND THE CAMPFIRE
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I Plans 1
II Almost a Collision 10
III Enter the Twins 18
IV More Plans 26
V The Matter of a Will 36
VI The Little Old Lady 44
VII The Death of a Client 52
VIII Starting Adventure 60
IX Tramps 69
X A Toy Pistol 77
XI Burned Down 85
XII Making Camp 94
XIII Night in the Tent 103
XIV The Prowler 110
XV A Shadowy Bulk 119
XVI Air Mattresses 128
XVII The Old Maid of the Mountains 136
XVIII A Feast for a King 145
XIX The Storm 154
XX The Hold-Up 162
XXI Loneliness 173
XXII A Clew 179
XXIII The Lean-to 186
XXIV Romance 195
XXV Young Hearts 206
THE OUTDOOR GIRLS AROUND THE CAMPFIRE
CHAPTER I
PLANS
“Putt--putt--putt!” came the rhythmic throb of the motor as the little
motor boat sped over the glassy surface of the lake, stirring up the
water on either side of it and leaving a frothy white trail in its wake.
“How’s this for speed?” chortled the girl at the wheel, a pretty,
dark-haired girl with dancing brown eyes. “I reckon we could beat any
other boat on this old lake.”
“And then some!” agreed Mollie Billette, slangily. “I wish some one
would come along and challenge us to a race.”
“It would provide some excitement, anyway,” sighed Grace Ford, as she
lounged in the bow of the pretty little boat. “Looks like a pretty dull
summer to me, so far.”
“How do you get that way, Grace Ford?” cried Betty Nelson, she of
the dark hair and dancing eyes whom the girls fondly called “Little
Captain.” “Tell ’em, Amy,” she added, to the quiet, sweet-faced girl
who lounged beside Mollie Billette. “Tell ’em what you told me a little
while ago.”
Grace Ford sat upright, a chocolate half-way to her mouth, while Mollie
Billette’s black eyes regarded the “Little Captain” severely.
“Betty Nelson, what have you been holding back from us?” she demanded,
but Betty was still looking at Amy Blackford.
“Tell ’em, Amy,” she repeated. “The news is too good to keep.”
“I’ll say it is,” agreed Amy, a smile lighting up her quiet face. “When
Henry spoke of it to me at first I thought it was too good to be true.
I supposed he was joking.”
“Told you what?” cried Mollie Billette, in an exasperated tone. “If you
are not the most aggravating----”
“Hold your horses, old dear,” drawled Grace Ford, quietly helping
herself to another piece of candy. “Amy has the floor----”
“The deck, you mean,” murmured Amy, then added hastily, as the girls
threw impatient glances her way: “I’ll tell you just how it happened if
you give me a chance. You see, Henry,” Henry was Amy’s older brother,
“had a chance to take over an old shack near the upper end of Rainbow
Lake in part payment for a debt. And now that he has the shack, he
doesn’t know what to do with it.”
The girls leaned toward Amy eagerly.
“Then what?” asked Mollie.
“Why,” said Amy, with a smile of quiet enjoyment, “I told him I thought
we girls might help him out, for the summer, anyway. I thought it would
be a great lark to camp out there during vacation.”
“Amy, you are a wonder,” drawled Grace, but Mollie broke in impatiently.
“Is he going to let us have it?” she demanded.
“I should say so!” laughed Amy. “Said he would be glad to put it to
some sort of use. He said it would make a mighty fine summer camp but
that was about all it was good for.”
“It will be ideal,” broke in the Little Captain, happily, as she
brushed a wind-blown strand of hair from her eyes. “Why, at the upper
end of Rainbow Lake we’ll be as much alone as if we were in an African
forest.”
“More so, I hope,” drawled Grace, adding with a little shudder: “For in
an African forest they have wild animals for company while here----”
“We sha’n’t see anything wilder than a chipmunk,” chuckled the Little
Captain.
“Suits me fine,” said Grace heartily. “Wolves and bears may be all
right, but give me a chipmunk every time.”
“My, isn’t she brave?” said Mollie, admiringly, and the other girls
chuckled.
“Tell us more about this little shack, Amy,” said Betty, after a
while. “Is it very tiny, or is it big enough to contain us all without
squeezing?”
“Henry said it is of fair size,” replied Amy, wrinkling her forehead
in an attempt to remember details. “There are two rooms in it and the
rooms are furnished in a rough sort of way, with home-made furniture.”
The Little Captain let go of the wheel long enough to clap her hands
gleefully.
“Great!” she cried. “This gets better every minute. Think of it. A
house ready-made for us, and furnished, at that.”
“Too much luxury,” drawled Grace.
It was the first day of July and the Outdoor Girls, never completely
happy unless they were engaged in some outdoor sport, had embarked
in their pretty motor boat _Gem_ for a sail down the Argono river.
Although the motor boat was really Betty’s property, the Outdoor Girls
rather regarded it as their own. And indeed, when it is considered that
none of the four ever used it without the other three, it was the same
to them as though the ownership were actually theirs. As a matter of
fact, what belonged to one of the Outdoor Girls automatically belonged
to all of them.
Those who have kept in touch with Betty and her chums will need no
introduction to the _Gem_, but for the benefit of those who do not know
these Outdoor Girls so well, we will give a brief description of it.
For in this story the trim little motor boat plays rather an important
part.
First of all, the _Gem_ had been given to Betty by an uncle of hers,
a retired sea captain by the name of Amos Marlin. The old fellow had
produced the best craft of its size that could be found anywhere. There
was a large cockpit in the stern, and a tiny cooking galley. Also the
little boat boasted a small trunk cabin and an unusually powerful and
efficient motor. Altogether a snappy little craft, well meriting its
name of _Gem_.
And now, as the girls putt-putted briskly down the river, the thrill
of summer filling them with a fresh eagerness for adventure, it is no
wonder that Amy’s suggestion of a summer camp on the banks of Rainbow
Lake was greeted with enthusiasm.
So far, having made no plans for the summer months, they had about
decided to spend a rather uneventful summer in Deepdale, the thriving
and busy little town in which they had been brought up.
It might have been supposed, since Deepdale was situated so pleasantly
on the banks of the Argono--the latter emptying some miles below into
pretty Rainbow Lake--and since the bustling population of the town
itself numbered something like fifteen thousand, that the Outdoor Girls
would have been content to spend a summer there.
However, although they agreed that Deepdale was “the finest place in
the world,” change and adventure were what they really hankered after,
and Deepdale was too familiar a spot to offer them either.
But there was real adventure in the idea of camping out in the romantic
little shack so recently acquired by Amy Blackford’s brother, and they
welcomed it eagerly.
“I suppose we ought to run down there and look the place over,” said
Grace, cautiously. Grace was the only one of the four Outdoor Girls who
really considered comfort where adventure was concerned, and this trait
of hers no amount of ridicule or impatience on the part of the other
girls could overcome. For Grace, who was tall and slim and graceful,
was very fond of her ease. Once she was assured that an outing was to
be “comfortable,” then she could start in to enjoy herself.
So at this suggestion that they “run down there and look the place
over” the girls exchanged a glance of martyrdom.
“Why, of course,” said Mollie sarcastically, “Grace will have to be
sure she has a real hair mattress to sleep on and clean sheets twice a
week. Maybe we could manage to get an easy chair aboard the _Gem_--one
like the kind Betty’s dad uses.”
“A fine idea,” replied Grace, unabashed. “I never gave you credit for
so much thoughtfulness, Mollie dear. Have a chocolate?”
Mollie sniffed disdainfully.
“Keep your old chocolates,” she said. “The next time you offer me one
I’ve a good mind to throw the whole box overboard.”
“Just try it,” said Grace, lazily. “You’d have to toss me over, too,
you know.”
“Shouldn’t mind in the least,” said Mollie, at which the Little Captain
laughed and Amy Blackford chuckled.
“Talk about wild animals,” cried Betty, gayly. “We won’t need any with
you and Grace about, Mollie dear. Two wildcats are enough.”
“Did you hear what she called us?” asked Grace, feeling abused, but
Mollie was looking the other way.
“We’ve gone a pretty long way down the river,” she said. “Look, Betty,
isn’t that the new lake steamer, the _General Pershing_?”
Betty, who had been too absorbed in plans for the summer to notice
particularly where she was going, followed the direction of Mollie’s
pointing finger.
Suddenly her breath caught in a gasp and a thrill of apprehension swept
over her. The steamer was indeed the _General Pershing_, the great
shining new boat which plied up and down the lake and the river, and
it was coming toward them at what, to the Little Captain, seemed an
appalling rate of speed.
“Betty,” cried Mollie, leaning forward and catching Betty’s arm, “we’re
right in the path of it! For goodness’ sake, sheer over.”
“I can’t--very far!” said Betty, tight-lipped. “It’s shallow, near the
shore and--the rocks----”
Mollie took in the situation with a glance and a little groan of dismay
escaped her. At this point the river was very narrow and the shore on
either side bristled with cruel, jagged-looking rocks. A small boat
like the _Gem_ would be dashed to pieces upon them. Betty was right.
It would be madness to encroach too far upon them.
And yet on the other hand the steamer menaced them with destruction.
Bearing down full upon them, it could not fail to meet them squarely in
the middle of that narrow channel!
Useless for Betty to stop the motor. They had no time to turn, speeding
back to the safety of the wider water. If Betty kept her head, holding
the boat away from the oncoming steamer and at the same time far enough
from the rocks--
Amy and Grace, now fully alive to the peril of the situation, were
leaning forward, their faces white, their breath coming in terrified
gasps.
The Little Captain, her hand resolutely on the wheel, a prayer for
guidance in her heart, watched the oncoming rush of the big steamboat.