"Wait a moment, Mollie, please," Mrs. Burton murmured.
Adding to the enchantment of the present scene she could hear again the sound of music. The two musicians who had been singing on the veranda across from their hotel also must have wandered into the mission grounds.
Then, almost at the same instant, Mrs. Burton and Mrs. Webster discovered the Camp Fire girls.
Beyond the enclosed space of the old mission lay a broad piece of open ground. Over it tonight poured the unbroken radiance of the moon. In time long past this ground had been devoted to the use of the Indians who were being taught Christianity and the habits of civilization by the Spanish fathers. In those days this ground was encircled by a row of Indian huts. One part was set apart for the Indian women and girls, and here the Indian maiden remained in seclusion until her wedding day.
But tonight, in some mysterious fashion, the past seemed to have came back, for a group of Indian maidens had returned to their former dwelling place.
"The picture is too lovely to disturb," Mrs. Burton whispered irresolutely.
In the moonlight one could not discern the differences in the costumes of the Camp Fire girls, nor their fairer coloring.
Bettina, Marta, Peggy and Alice Ashton were seated upon the ground, forming a square, with Dan standing apparently hovering like a guardian angel above them.
As usual, Billy Webster was lying gazing up at the sky and Vera Lagerloff was sitting beside him.
A little apart from the others Gerry Williams and Sally Ashton were strolling up and down with their arms intertwined.