About their necks the girls wore a few brightly colored beads which to them meant more than precious stones, for each girl had won her beads by achievements as a Camp Girl. They hoped to win more on the long tramp across country. Harriet and Tommy had won several beads apiece, already, by their bravery at the barn fire, though of course the beads had not been awarded as yet. That would not be until after Miss Elting had made her report to the Chief Guardian at the completion of the trip.
The girls were now well on their way hoping soon to find Jane McCarthy and her car awaiting them. It was a five mile tramp over rough and steep hills, through woods and ravines. By this time however the Meadow-Brook Girls were becoming accustomed to rough traveling. The only one who made any really serious complaints was Margery Brown. She was usually in distress, but it was observed that the stout girl was beginning to lose considerable flesh. Her freckles were more pronounced, however, and her face was redder than it ever had been before.
The party, after a trying hike, reached the top of the range of hills about eleven o’clock in the morning. A long, sloping meadow stretched away from them until it met the highway.
“There is the road,” cried Harriet.
“But Crazy Jane ith nowhere in thight,” observed Tommy solemnly.
“This is where we should have been last night,” nodded Miss Elting. “But we should have missed all of our exciting experiences of last night had we taken the right trail.”
“Missed them!” exclaimed Margery. “I wish we had. I never shall get over thinking about that awful fire and that horrid old Gipsy woman.”
Harriet smiled to herself thinking that it was well that Margery had not seen the dark-faced men enter the barn that night.
“Shall we wait, or go on?” questioned Harriet.
Miss Elting decided that they should go on after reaching the highway. She told the girls to keep a sharp lookout for “signs.” The sign of the Meadow-Brook Girls was a triangle. It might be found chalked on a fence or elsewhere by the roadside. An arrow pointing away from the triangle indicated the direction in which a Meadow-Brook girl had traveled. An arrow pointing straight up indicated, “I will return.” An arrow pointing toward the ground meant, “wait here.” A broken arrow, pointing in any direction indicated, “danger.”