At the end of the hardest hour they had ever spent, for inaction was not easy for Outdoor Girls, they heard the welcome sound of masculine voices and the regular tramp-tramp of the boys' feet.
"Oh, oh," they cried together in whole-souled relief, while Mollie added eagerly: "Did you get it—did you?"
Allen, who was in the lead, shook his head regretfully. "We couldn't find a sign of anything," he said. "Not even the camp."
"But if you didn't find anything, what ever in the world kept you so long?" Betty demanded. "We imagined all sorts of horrible things happening to you."
"Oh, you couldn't get rid of us," said Will, cheerily. "We hated to come back empty handed—that's all."
"Well, we are mighty glad to get you back," said Mollie, who, after the first disappointment, had become resigned to the inevitable.
"That's the way to make them appreciate us; eh, fellows?" said Frank, as he flung himself into the car. "They don't realize how good we really are till they think we are gone."
"Right you are, Frank," said Roy. "What do you say to full speed ahead?"
"Full speed ahead it is," Frank agreed, and they were off like a shot down the road.