“Y-e-s,—I believe you have all met her.”
“Is she a Girl Scout?”
“I believe she is.”
Lily and Marjorie both grew tremendously excited. “A member of Pansy troop?” asked the latter.
“That would be telling!” This last was uttered mysteriously; and the girls knew from their captain’s manner that she would give them no further information.
When the scouts appeared in the dining room, all in uniform, they created quite a sensation among the other guests at the inn. The people looked up pleasantly as they passed, and one woman even came over to the captain to request a demonstration of scouting at the local church, an invitation which Miss Phillips was forced to decline on account of lack of time.
All this while Ruth was scheming how to get away from the others to send her telegram to Harold. She regretted now that she had not seized the opportunity when she was with Lily; it would have been easier than after supper with all the others around.
The girls sat on the porch until nearly dusk, when Miss Phillips suggested that they go to the movies.
“At least, if they have a theatre,” added the captain. “Alice, will you run and ask the clerk?”
In a moment the girl returned with an affirmative answer, and the whole crowd started off in the direction indicated by the clerk. The absence of trolley cars, the lack of congested traffic of any kind, made the town seem almost as quiet to the girls as the woods where they usually spent their evenings. After walking along for some minutes in silence, Lily Andrews first spoke. She stopped suddenly, right in the middle of the block, overcome by a serious thought.