“Let the best patrol win, of course; but I mean ours to be the best if dogged will do it,” said the head of the school.
The junior Daisies, therefore, on the following Friday afternoon were thrilled and enthralled at the appearance of a special notice on the notice-board of their patrol. There would be, it appeared, an expedition on the following Saturday week, captained by the head. All Daisies were expected to attend, and—before the practice—they were requested to “make themselves as ready as possible” for the afternoon’s lesson, which would, it appeared, include exercise in spooring and tracking.
“But what can I do?” inquired Betty rather helplessly in the dormitory that night. For her recent efforts to extricate herself from the wood by means of applying the principles laid down by Eve had met with scant success. And she was terribly anxious not to disgrace the patrol to which she was attached.
“Sybil won’t expect you to know anything. We’re going to read up,” informed Mona and Rene.
But to the Mascot the blue Guide book was as yet forbidden ground. Betty would in feverish eagerness, as Sybil probably guessed, have read and re-read the blue book through, and in trying to work out every principle at one and the same time have failed miserably. “Nothing was to be gained by snatching,” as Miss Carey had said on the first night. Betty’s knowledge must come by slow degrees.
“I tell you what,” said Gerry, noticing her friend’s unhappy face, “we’ll both practise together. There’s a week before the expedition, and you’ll learn some things anyway by then. There’s a sandy place in the grounds here where we’ve worked at making footprints, and we’ll start on that. Different sized ones, and standing still and running ones, you know.”
Gerry dimpled in a friendly way.
This sounded delicious to the Mascot; in spite of the rather superior looks of Mona and Rene, Betty’s eyes danced at the thought. If she had known how very real and unexpectedly thrilling the tracking expedition at the end of the week would turn out to be, it is likely that she would not have longed for it quite as whole-heartedly and delightedly as she did.