“Do you think she’ll let us do it?”
“I don’t see why not. We’ll be perfectly safe. I’m sure Jake is here alone, and he wouldn’t dare try to do anything to stop us here. He knows that he’d get into trouble if he did, and I don’t think he’s very brave, even in this new fashion of his unless some of the people he’s afraid of are right around to spur him on. You remember how Will Burns thrashed him? He didn’t look very brave then, did he?”
“I should say not! All right, I’ll tell her and see what she says. Then I’ll get back to the boarding-house. You’ll go there, won’t you?”
“No, I don’t think that would be a good idea at all. The best thing for you to do is to wait for me right there in the station. The ticket agent is a woman, and I’m sure she’ll let you stay with her until I come, if you get Miss Eleanor to speak to her. Miss Eleanor knows all the people here, and they all like her, and would do anything she asked them to do, if they could.
“And it’s easier for me to get to the station without being seen than to the boarding-house. Besides, I think it’s right around the station that we’ll have the best chance of finding out what they mean to do.”
“All right! I’ll obey orders,” said Dolly. “You’re right, too, I think, Bessie.”
Jake Hoover, creeping along, was out of sight when Dolly made a swift dash across the street, and in a minute she had disappeared. Bessie knew that Dolly’s movements, always rapid, were likely to prove altogether too elusive for Jake’s rather slow mind to follow, and, moreover, she was not much afraid of detection, even should Jake catch a glimpse of her chum. Jake was sure that all the Camp Fire Girls were in front of him; he would not, therefore, be looking in the rear for any of them, especially for those he wanted to track down.
Bessie had the harder task. She had to keep herself from Jake’s observation until after the train had gone, in any case, and as much longer as possible. As she had told Dolly, she was not very much afraid of anything he might attempt against them, but she saw no use in running any avoidable risks.
Once Jake was out of sight, she made her way slowly toward the station, prepared to make an instant dash for cover should she see Jake returning.
The one thing that was likely to cause him to come back toward her, she figured, was the presence of Holmes or one of the other men who were behind him in the conspiracy, and she was taking the chance, of course, that one of these men was behind her, and a spectator of her movements.