"Tavia dear," she said, "whatever has happened?"
"She has promised to tell me first," said Nat, again showing his good sense in saving Tavia just then. "And we are not to hear one word until we get back to camp."
"Here come Ned, and Jack, and Doctor Ashton," interrupted Ralph. "Who is sick?"
"A friend of Tavia's, with whom she was stopping," said the wily Nat. "That was why she could not get word to us. Her friend was very sick, and her folks were all away."
Tavia looked her gratitude into Nat's manly face. The boys and the doctor had reached the tent.
"Wait here," ordered the doctor as he stepped within.
And it was Dorothy Dale who took up her place by the physician's side, as he did all that he could to unfold the case of Mary Harriwell.
"And how ever did you find this camp, one of the best for miles around?" asked Nat of Tavia, as they awaited the doctor's verdict.
"We fell into it. Whose is it?"
"Why the Babbitts left in a hurry last week—some one ill. They have not sent down for their things yet."