Before they were out of sight, she turned and ran lightly to her room. Her languor dropping away like a cloak, she hastily pulled off her negligee, and began getting into her Camp Fire uniform at top speed. Sitting down on the edge of her couch bed, she made short work of drawing on and lacing her high tan boots. Springing up, she snatched her soft white felt hat from the wardrobe, and going to the mirror, set it carefully on her thick auburn hair. Seizing a powder puff, she applied it to her face, then picking up a tiny gold vanity case from the dressing table, tucked it inside her blouse.
Silently leaving the room, she crept down the staircase, casting an anxious glance down the hall toward the kitchen. From it floated Martha’s deep voice, raised in cheerful song as she ambled about at her work. Blanche made a noiseless dash out the front door, and ran like a deer in the direction the party had taken from the village on the hike of the previous day. For one who claimed the need for rest, Blanche Shirly was behaving in a very peculiar fashion.
CHAPTER X
A HURRIED HOMEWARD HIKE
Not until she was well out of sight of the Heights did Blanche slacken her pace. Panting from her mad dash down the road, which followed the lake, though high above it, she came to a halt and paused to take breath. After a moment or two of rest, she made for the side of it. Extracting the vanity case from her blouse, she opened it and took from it a bit of paper, which had been folded many times to fit into its limited quarters. Spread out, it revealed itself as a sheet of extremely thin note paper covered with writing. At the bottom of the sheet a small diagram had been drawn, which Blanche studied intently, glancing from time to time about her as though to verify the directions marked upon it. Snapping the vanity case shut, she returned it to her blouse and, paper in hand, started on down the road at a brisk trot which even athletic Ruth Garnier could hardly have improved upon.
Meanwhile, the unsuspecting company of forest worshippers were blithely tramping along through the woods, pausing frequently to exclaim over some bit of woodland wonder that, for the moment, claimed their admiring attention. Each was bent on identifying some tree, bush, bird or even weed, peculiar to the locality, and hitherto known only to them through books devoted to Nature study. Correct identifications of these forest denizens meant a proud addition to honors already gained. As an authority on the flora and fauna of that region, Miss Drexal was continually appealed to for confirmation.
Noon found them perhaps three miles into the wilderness. They had endeavored to steer a direct northerly course, frequently consulting the compass Ruth carried, which still obligingly pointed due north. Their progress had been most leisurely, for they were not concerned as to the amount of ground they covered. With so many interesting sights to see, they preferred to go slowly and thus miss nothing worth while.
The wrist watches, which most of the girls wore, showed half past twelve when they halted for luncheon in a tiny natural open space between the trees, within sight of a small but noisy brook which chattered complainingly as it rushed along over the stones.
The site chosen was an ideal spot for loitering, and the amateur foresters hailed it with shouts of gleeful acclamation.
“It seems good to see the sun again,” commented Sarah, squinting gratefully up at the sunlight that poured generously down from between the giant trees, which formed a leafy wall about the little enclosure.