“May, I think that is a fine idea. And when you see them give them our love and say that we will do anything they say. If they plan to go on with the camp—all right and well. We will stock them up again.”
“All right, Mr. Bentley, I’ll call you up when I get back and tell you all they say. Meantime, let Mr. Allison know that I intend running out to see them, will you?”
“Yes, I’ll call him up at once, May. Good-by.”
So it happened that Mrs. Vernon’s sister-in-law and May went to Freedom in the automobile the day following the Fourth, but found the town almost deserted. Mrs. Munson told them how the scouts led the way up the mountainside when the police arrived, and they weren’t expected back that day.
After sitting around and waiting until afternoon, May and Mrs. Vernon’s sister decided to go back. But they left notes with Mrs. Munson for the scouts, as soon as they should return.
That evening May telephoned the Bentleys. After telling the little she knew about the case, she asked them to come over and discuss a plan she had thought of. Then the Allisons were asked to run over and meet the others in planning a relief-party for the scouts.
That evening the whole plan was approved and worked out. May said that the sister-in-law had promised to send the factory truck to the house on Saturday at noon, so they need not worry about transporting the donations to the camp. As that was the only hitch in the entire plan, once it was removed every one was delighted.
That Saturday morning the local papers were full of the story of how a few girl scouts found and captured two desperate outlaws. The story was so highly embellished that several of the conservative parents in the town thought it was dreadful to allow girls to go off in the woods without a dog or a big brother. What the big brother would have done that the scouts didn’t accomplish is hard to say.
But most of the girls who had been so anxious to be scouts and spend the summer in camp, now gnashed their teeth in envy. Here were four girls who had to dig dandelions to earn the money to go away on, now having the most wonderful time! They had their names in the paper, and every one said what brave scouts they were! And, most of all, they were going to have ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS from the Government as a reward. “Oh, why did we have to sit at home all summer while these scouts were getting all the fun?” they wailed.
The three families of the Dandelion Camp Scouts felt very proud of their girls when they read the account in the papers, and they felt all the more eager to go to camp with the donations of furniture, and show the girls how much they appreciated their courage and cleverness in capturing the rascals.