"You let me alone. I will let you know when I get ready for your thervithes. You needn't go on talking about me, either. You make me nervouth, ath Buthter sayth."
Janus began his preparations for the night. These consisted principally in taking each girl's rope and securing it to his own belt, which he had taken off for the purpose of making the ropes fast to it. They watched him with keen interest.
"Just a precaution," he explained. "If any one of you moves in the night I shall know it."
"My grathiouth!" shuddered Tommy, "ithn't it exthiting?" She made a ridiculous face at the guide's broad back.
The girls tried hard not to laugh, but Margery giggled audibly, bringing a frown from the guardian. Tommy, however, declared that she would not roll up in her blanket, that she would fold it over her, so she could get up without disturbing the camp.
"Roll up when you are ready," directed the guide.
Each girl, except Tommy, lay down on her blanket, and, tucking in one edge, proceeded to roll herself up in it Indian-fashion, leaving only her head and face exposed to the air. Tommy sat up, observing them solemnly.
"You look like a lot of mummieth," she declared.
"And we feel like them, darlin'," answered Jane.
The guide now proceeded to wrap the free end of rope about each girl's waist over the blanket, except in Tommy's case. She preferred to have the rope about her waist before rolling up in her blanket, determining in her own mind to slip the loop off after the others had gone to sleep. Fortunately, however, Tommy Thompson's eyes grew heavy and she dropped to sleep ahead of her companions. The guide lay down with his blanket half folded over him without a single worry on his mind, knowing that his charges could not get far away without a pulling on the lines that would awaken him.