“As though we could sleep,” Janet sniffed disdainfully when bed was suggested.
“I’m going to sit with Virginia,” Madge said and departed to take up her post in the shadows at Virginia’s side.
Carol and Janet went off to join Phyllis and so once more silence descended on the Adventure Girls’ camp.
Virginia and Madge sat with their backs against a tree, facing the camp. Protected by the heavy shadows all around them, the girls could see the camp site clearly, but anyone coming stealthily onto the camp could not see them.
“Why do you suppose Jim thinks it necessary to guard the camp?” Madge whispered.
“It looks as though those bandits were interested in us for some reason,” Virginia murmured. “Why should they kidnap two of the girls, as Jim thinks they did, unless for some special reason?”
Madge thought this over for a moment. “But what reason could they have?” she asked at length.
“I don’t know,” Virginia answered.
It was strange. The girls had done nothing to warrant this attack on them by the outlaws. Or had they? They couldn’t tell what Gale or Val might have found after they left the camp. Perhaps they had stumbled on the hiding place of the bandits and now were being held prisoner by those very outlaws. Virginia half smiled to herself. The girls had come out for a restful, interesting summer and they had stumbled into a feud of bandits and rustlers.
She hoped fervently that Tom, riding hard toward the K Bar O, was safe. Since he had given her his gun, it left him unarmed and if he should come face to face with any of the rustlers---- She turned her thoughts sternly away from that subject. She had faith in Tom’s ability to take care of himself. He was no child, he was older than she, and he knew the range land and its secrets. The only time he had left the ranch was when he had been away to school. After graduation he had returned eagerly to his interrupted western life. Virginia settled herself more comfortably. No, Tom would be all right. It was not him she should worry about, but the two girls who had disappeared so mysteriously.