“But I saw Slim and Dan and the Monkey slipping off into the woods by themselves just now,” said Sahwah, “and they were laughing to themselves and acting mighty mysterious.”
The next day Hinpoha found a piece of birchbark in Eeny-Meeny’s wooden hand, bearing the now familiar warning blaze and signed with the initials D. M. S.
“The handwriting on the wall again,” she said to Gladys. “What can the Dark of the Moon Society be, anyhow?”
After that mysterious warnings appeared all over camp. The girls would find them tacked to the trees in front of their tents, tied to the handles of the water pails and slipped in between the logs piled 158 ready for firewood. True to their agreement they never said a word about finding them to the Sandwiches, but were constantly on the lookout for the joke, which they knew would be sprung sooner or later. Katherine, who had flung her indigoes to the winds at the first hint of mystery, was the most intent on finding out what the boys were planning to do and meant to get ahead of them if she could possibly do it.
“The thing to do first,” said she with the air of a general, “is to find out which ones are the Dark of the Moon Society. Then we can watch those particularly.”
“They’re probably all in it,” said Gladys.
“I don’t think they are,” said Katherine. “I’ll lay my wager on the Captain, Slim and the Bottomless Pitt. Those three are mighty chummy all of a sudden. And I saw them go right past one of those signs on a tree and never look at it. That looks suspicious. They saw me and pretended they didn’t notice the sign.”
That night, Katherine, restless and unable to sleep, developed a thirst from rolling around on her pillow, and rising quietly, made for the water pail at the door of the tent. It was empty. Thirsts had been prevalent that night. She stood a moment irresolute and then, putting on her slippers and her gown, started boldly for the little spring on the hillside. It was bright moonlight and she could find 159 her way easily. She took a drink from the cup hanging on a broken branch beside the spring, and filling the pail so as to be prepared for a return of the thirst, she started back up the hill. Half way up she paused and stood still, looking out over the silvered surface of the lake, drinking in the magic beauty of the scene with eager soul.
“Oh, you wonderful, wonderful lake!” she murmured to herself.
A branch cracked sharply behind her and a small stone came rolling down the hillside. She turned hastily and looked up. Someone was moving among the trees up there. “The Dark of the Moon Society!” thought Katherine, and, dropping the pail of water, she ran up the path. The person above made no effort at flight or concealment, but walked out of the shadow of the trees onto a moonlit rock at the edge of the bluff. Then Katherine saw that it was Sahwah.