“Those boys looked mischievous. I didn’t know what it was all about, but after a while, I confess, I did suspect them. Never mind, I’ll be even with them.”
“No, you leave it to me,” interjected Jane.
“I am glad that none of you girls betrayed the boys,” declared Miss Elting approvingly. “I would suggest that you say nothing to them when we next see them. Let them introduce the subject if it is introduced at all. They may betray themselves. Tommy, don’t you lisp a word of it.”
“I don’t lithp,” retorted the little girl indignantly. “I thpeak jutht like other folkth.”
“I did not mean it that way, dear,” laughed the guardian. “I meant that you shouldn’t mention our experience to any one. Now that we have bought and paid for the melons I think we had better stow them in the car. Come, let us get ready for bed.”
“Are we to make an early start in the morning?” asked Hazel.
“Yes. We must not delay if we expect to remain in the contest.”
The girls had no intention of giving up the contest. They thought it possible that they might have the company of the Tramp Club on the morrow, as a good part of the Meadow-Brook course lay over a highway, this being the most direct route for the day’s tramping.
Rather to their surprise they discovered no trace of the Tramp Club next day. The smoke from the latter’s campfire was no longer visible when the girls left their own camp in the morning, nor was there any indication on the road that the boys had passed over it. What the girls did not know was that the boys had slipped off into a ravine when the word had been brought to them that the irate farmer was out looking for the people who had visited his melon patch. From there they had moved inland and made a new camp. In the morning they took a roundabout course, avoiding the highway. It were better to be beaten by the girls that day than to be caught by the angry farmer. It was because of this longer route that the Meadow-Brook Girls were again able to get ahead of their rivals.
The tracks of Jane’s car had long since been obliterated when the party neared the end of the day’s journey. This did not trouble them, for a certain definite stopping place had been agreed upon, and as was customary, when following the highway, the girls now and then dropped a handful of grass in the road. Especially was this done when they came to forks in the road, so that in case Jane McCarthy returned that way to look for them she might see which direction they had taken. In doing this, though the girls were unaware of the fact, they were following a gipsy practice as old as gipsies themselves. It was the gipsies’ way of marking their trail for the benefit of others of their kind who had straggled behind.