“I have it! Let’s invite Elizabeth to join us in camp and then add, as an after-thought, how nice it would be if she brought her plane,” exclaimed Nita, showing that there were still some undestroyed self-motives in her character.
“Even so, there wouldn’t be any motive-power unless Zan supplied some of her boundless energy,” laughed the Guide.
“It won’t work in deep water, Miss Miller,” retorted Zan.
“If Elizabeth is invited for the plane why not ask Fred and Billy for their launch?” now suggested Jane.
“Sure enough! You tell Jack to, will you?” chorused some of the girls.
After a lively Council Meeting, the Woodcrafters started eagerly homeward for they were anticipating the camp and wanted to hear what the boys had to say about the plane and launch.
But it happened that Fiji and Jack had already thought of the launch and had invited Fred and his younger brother before the girls spoke of it. The plane was another matter and they agreed to see Elizabeth about joining them.
The campers intended starting for the trip immediately after school on Friday afternoon. Three automobiles—the Bakers’, Huberts’, and Remingtons’—would carry them and their luggage to the place selected. Fred, Billy, and Bob Baker would go in the launch, while Fiji and Jack planned to paddle their canoe around the Island to the beach where the camp was to be.
The canoe owned by the two boys was kept on the lake in Branch Brook Park when the boys were in the city, but during their vacations they usually took it with them. It now had to be transported across the city to the Passaic River. Here the boys arranged to meet the express-man and sail it from that point to Staten Island Sound, thence to the sea-beach-shore of the Island.
Fred Remington planned to sail the launch along the same route but he would start later in the day. The canoemen would start in the morning if clear. The girls in the cars would leave directly after school in the afternoon, and all expected to meet about the same time on the woodland site chosen by the boys.