“Edith insists that she had no idea of this door being locked or what she was going to accomplish, and for this reason deserves no special praise or reward. She was only fighting her way to her mother and father.
“She says she recalls puzzling over the fact that no one was running down these stairs as she dragged herself up. Then she put out her hand and touched a heavy steel door. She could see nothing and was scarcely conscious of what she was doing. The door would not move, so she threw herself against it blindly, searching for the key, found and turned it in the lock. The door seemed to fall open from the weight of the men and women who had been trying to rush it. Her mother happened to be on a lower floor. Edith’s own father carried her downstairs when the others were so crazed with fear they might have trampled her.”
Tory put her gloved hands against her hot cheeks and leaned over toward the open window of the car for a breath of the winter air.
“Please do not let us talk of the fire again, Sheila, not for some time anyhow, certainly not to Mr. Winslow. I dread the thought of it; I think of nothing else, waking or sleeping. It may seem absurd, but Edith Linder was much calmer than I when we talked of it.”
The Troop Captain put her arm about the younger girl.
“No, Tory dear, we won’t speak of it again; I am sorry I troubled you. You are more sensitive and impressionable than the other girls and I ought to have remembered!”
Tory’s lips were trembling.
“That is a kind way of expressing things, Sheila, when the truth is I am a bigger goose. A good many people were injured. The Girl Scouts will have no difficulty now in finding people who need their care. I am giving nearly every cent of my allowance to the fund that is being raised.”
Fortunately the automobile had reached the end of the country road. To arrive at the evergreen cabin one must now follow a footpath.
With pleasure and relief the Troop Captain and Tory started along the familiar trail, leading to the heart of their former summer encampment in Beechwood Forest.