“This man is the only one in wrong,” said Blake grimly. “He came to arrest Natalie as a Gypsy pocket-book embezzler.”
“Oh, Natalie!” came in a chorus.
If there had been any doubt in the mind of the constable, it vanished at the sight of the others. Putting his warrant back in his pocket, and murmuring some indistinguishable words he slowly rowed away in his boat, as Jack and Phil came along the lake-shore path to the girls’ camp.
“What’s the row?” demanded Jack. “What did old Jackson want? Has some one been cutting down trees again?”
Blake explained, and his two chums were waxing very indignant until Natalie informed them that, after all it was a very natural mistake, and that no harm had been done.
“If you will look so much like a charming Indian maid, I suppose you must put up with the consequences, breath-of-the-pine-tree,” said Mabel. “It is the penalty of—well, notoriety.”
“Yes, your fame must have spread,” remarked Alice.
“Well, I wish some bread was spread,” declared Marie. “I’m as hungry as—well, as the hungriest animal in the woods. Is dinner ready, Nat?”
“I was getting it when I came near going to prison,” laughed Natalie. “If you’ll all help it will soon be on the table.”
“We’ll help!” exclaimed Jack eagerly. “We haven’t anything much in the grub line at our camp. Ask us, won’t you?”