At this moment the discussion of "High C" was dropped as suddenly as "it" had appeared upon the scene. Another arrival claimed the interest of the girls.
It was a little boy about ten years old, clad in steel-gray Palm Beach knickerbockers and golf cap, but not at all happy in appearance. He was a good looking youth, but there was no sprightly cheerfulness in his countenance. He seemed nervous and on the alert.
"My goodness!" exclaimed Hazel Edwards; "that's Glen Irving, the little boy we--"
Katherine, who was seated close to Hazel, cut the latter's utterance short by clapping her hand over the speaker's mouth.
CHAPTER XXIV
THE RUNAWAY.
The boy was excited. Evidently he was laboring under anything but normal conditions. He had appeared very suddenly around the north end of the bluff which sheltered the camp on the east. "High C" or "Jimmie Junior," as the girls from now on referred to young Graham, had left the camp around the south extremity of the bluff.
The youth in Palm Beach knickerbockers fairly rushed from the thicket north of the camp and directly toward the girls, all of whom jumped to their feet in astonishment. The newcomer did not slacken his pace, but ran up to the group of startled campers as if seeking their protection from a "Bogy Man." And as he stopped in the midst of the group which circled around him almost as excited as he, the little fellow looked back as if expecting to behold some frightful looking object bearing down upon him.
"I ran away," were his first words; "so-so they couldn't beat me."
"Who wanted to beat you?" inquired Miss Ladd sympathetically, leaning over and taking him gently by the hand.