"Where do they live?" was Miss Ladd's next question.
"Byron lives here, so does Mrs. Pruitt. Guy and Mark live in Baltimore."
"Do they live near the Graham's home in Baltimore?"
"Yes, right in the same block. Mark lives next door."
"Good. Now, Glen, we are going to take you back to Mrs. Graham. We haven't any right to keep you here, but if they beat you any more, we will complain to the police and take you away never to come back to them."
"Oh, I wish you would," exclaimed the little fellow, throwing his arms around the neck of the Guardian who had seated herself on the grass before him. "I don't want them to scare you with a ghost."
"Scare us with a ghost!" Miss Ladd repeated in astonishment. "What do you mean by that?"
"They said--" the boy began, but his explanation was interrupted in a manner so confusing that the group of Camp Fire Girls might easily have wondered if the world were suddenly assuming all the absurdities of a clownish paradise in order to be consistent with what was now taking place.
Addie Graham, the girl of ultra-style and perfume who had behaved so rudely to little Glen when she discovered the runaway with Katherine and Hazel in the woods, suddenly dashed into the deeply interested group of Camp Fire inquisitors, seized the boy in her arms, kissed him with apparent passionate fondness, and addressed him with a gush of endearment that must have brought tears to the eyes of an unsophisticated listener.