“Why-y?” The girl’s lips were parted breathlessly, her foot involuntarily stamping.
“Oh! you know you told us to invite our friends to the party; not you, but the other girls did, when they signaled across that night from the green Pinnacle–gee! and it was some signaling, too.” The scout’s glance was teasing now as it shot up from the grass. “So–so one of the older boys he ran across that bunch o’ fellows who were blooming round in the cave the other day–they’re all from camps on the lake–and invited the whole five. This one thought he couldn’t accept, but I guess he’s making a dash at it–at coming just the same!”
“Oh!... Oh, dear! I wish he wasn’t!”
“Why?” Now it was the scout’s turn to hang, breathless, upon the interrogation as he too jumped to his feet.
“Because–oh! because I’d be–be ever so much more comfortable without him–enjoy myself more.” Pem caught her breath wildly.
“Then ’twill be A. W. O. L. for him! ... A. W. O. L. for him–if I perish for it!”
“What–what does that mean?”
“Absent With-Out Leave, as they set it down in the Army!”
Mischief leaped to the Henkyl Hunter’s eye.
He beckoned Peagreen from the grass to follow him. A whisper in the tender-foot’s ear and down the winding sod-steps of the cliff they scrambled!