Tonight, however, was the first time that he had suggested bringing so many visitors at one time. But Terry had written to say he had a friend from the East who had just arrived at the Gardener ranch and wanted to call. There were also four or five western fellows who declined to be put off any longer.
Therefore Mrs. Burton had acquiesced and written to say she and the Camp Fire girls would be glad to see them. After all, she remembered how important a part their boy friends had played in her own Camp Fire days. Perhaps it was a sign of age to have expected other girls to be different. Anyhow, Mrs. Burton had the grace to laugh at herself after submitting to the inevitable. And she was now first to spy their expected guests.
But the moment after, Sally also had seen them and jumping quickly to her feet, all her sleepiness vanished, began waving a yellow scarf.
The newcomers made an effective picture, riding in single file along the trail which led from the Gardener ranch. Although the sun was not entirely down, the moon had risen and was showing faintly in the opposite sky. Later would be revealed, the Pleiades which the Indian calls the time of the sweet influences.
The young men were wearing rough-rider costumes. Observing Sally’s signal, Terry Benton, who was leading the line of march, rose in his saddle and saluted. The next instant six other men followed suit and together they halloed across the desert the long, curious cry of the western cowboy.
But the girls had also risen in a picturesque group about their camp fire, calling back in return the now world-famous camp fire cheer:
“Wohelo for aye, Wohelo for aye, Wohelo, Wohelo, Wohelo for aye!
Wohelo for work, Wohelo for health, Wohelo for love.”
Ten minutes later, leaving their burros below fastened to the trees near Cottonwood Creek, Terry and his friends, after climbing the mesa, came directly toward Mrs. Burton. And before Terry could introduce any one of them, a young man held out his hand.
“I have met you before, Mrs. Burton. You remember you said I could not be a member of your Camp Fire club? Well, I have done the next best thing, I am a visitor at the Gardener ranch. Benton and I are old friends, and when he wrote me of what was going on out here, I guessed the rest. Besides Mrs. Webster and Mrs. Graham confessed. I think they want a first-hand report of Miss Bettina and Miss Peggy from me.”