The girls groaned; everybody was too tired. But in a moment Ruth jumped up. “I will,” she said pleasantly.
“Thanks awfully,” said Edith, gratefully. “Do you want anybody to go with you?”
“No; it’s still light; and even if it weren’t, I wouldn’t mind meeting Doris’s ghost!”
Ruth ran out lightly, humming a song as she went. It was already twilight, and the gradual deepening of the shadows made the trees seem taller, and the absolute stillness increased the loneliness of the spot. “It is a spooky place,” she thought as she looked about her. “I wonder who’ll come down to the spring to-night for water?”
The girls, who in accordance with scout principles, had refrained from eating while they were hiking, felt that they were almost starved; nothing ever tasted quite so good as the meal their cooks prepared for them. They ate hungrily, talking little at first; gradually, as their appetites were appeased, and their bodies became rested, they became more talkative. It was dark when they had finished.
After the mess-kits had been washed and put away, and the food stored in the closet, the girls stepped out of the cabin to take a look at their surroundings. But, unlike the night of the boys’ party, there was no moon, and the trees cut off so much of the sky that very few stars were in view. Everything looked black and forbidding.
Doris shuddered. “I’m glad I’m not here alone!” she whispered, afraid to break the deep silence of the woods. “Those Boy Scouts must be pretty brave.”
Suddenly a screech sounded from a distant tree. The girls started fearfully. “What was it?” asked Doris.
“Only an owl,” replied Miss Phillips, laughing.
They turned and entered the cabin, feeling that the light of the lanterns, though somewhat dim and ghostlike, was more reassuring than the darkness.