There was no spying on the Dark of the Moon Society that night. Mrs. Evans ordered Katherine off to bed at once, because it was too late to get into dry clothes and the air was too cool to keep the wet clothes on, and as Katherine was chief spy there was nothing doing unless she headed it. So if there was a meeting in the cave after all that commotion it went unobserved.
But a day or two later there was consternation in Katherine’s tent. The rumor had just gone around that the Dark of the Moon Society was going to kidnap Eeny-Meeny and burn her at the stake. Sahwah had overheard a bit of conversation in the woods that gave her the clue. It was going to happen that night.
Katherine went “straight up in the air.” “They sha’n’t burn Eeny-Meeny!” she declared, shaking 165 her fist above her head. “They’ll only touch her over my prostrate body!”
Many were the elaborate plans made for Eeny-Meeny’s defense. Katherine’s plan was voted the simplest and best. “Hide her!” she suggested, and this course was agreed upon. But simple as this plan sounded it presented unexpected difficulties. They couldn’t get a chance to do it. No matter when they approached Eeny-Meeny there was always one of the Sandwiches close at hand.
“They’re picketing her!” announced Katherine, baffled in several attempts. “I pretended I wanted to touch her up with color and carried her away from the Council Rock, and the Captain came right along, so I had to do it, and the minute I was through he insisted on carrying her back and I couldn’t object without rousing his suspicions, so back she went. Now Slim’s sitting and leaning his head against her.”
“The thing to do,” said Hinpoha, “is to have a counter attraction at the other end of the island that will draw them all away, and in the meantime one of us can hide her.”
“Good,” said Katherine, “what shall we do?”
“It ought to be a panic,” said Hinpoha, “and then if we yell loud enough they’ll forget everything and run to the rescue.”
“What would we scream for?” asked Gladys.
“Oh, for most anything,” answered Hinpoha. 166 “The main idea is to scream loud enough to start a panic. I’ll think up something in a minute.”