"Shall we tell the others?"
"N—no," decided Henrietta, contemplatively. "By the time he's reached the end of that swampy road without coming to anything he'll be too tired and discouraged to want to arrest anybody. He'll just make tracks for home. But when Dave comes we'll tell him to hide his venison."
"And," said Mabel, not knowing the depths of Dave's depravity, "he'll surely be here soon—he'll hurry right back with my father."
"Why, that's so," laughed Henrietta. "Your father is coming. Well, he won't know you—he'll think you're some relative of Dave's, and prescribe soap. But let's get those mushrooms. If that man comes back he mustn't find us here—he might ask questions we couldn't answer. And I think we'd better roll a log across the turn-off to Pete's Patch and throw a little old brush against it so it won't show."
CHAPTER XVIII
The Boy's Name
AN hour later, with a splendid lot of glistening mushrooms, Mabel and Henrietta returned to camp. As they neared the clearing, Mrs. Crane could be seen in the doorway of her tent, frantically waving a large towel.
"Oh," cried Mabel, quickening her pace, "the boy's awake! She wants me—I'm to be first—I'm to be——"