“Hello! Is that Camp Carter? Well, this is me.”
“Lucy! Is it you?” in Helen’s distracted tones from the other end.
“Yes, it’s me, and all of us are all right, but we are going to spend the night out.”
“Out where?”
“About ten miles from Greendale!”
“You mean outdoors?”
“Oh, no; with a spring-keeper!”
“A what? Oh, Lucy, are you crazy? We are so uneasy about all of you, we are nearly wild! It’s dark as can be and we are trying to keep it from mother and father that you have not come home. Tell me where you are. Speak distinctly and loudly and stop giggling.” Of course the usual giggles had rendered Lucy unable to speak.
“Here, Skeeter, come and tell her!” she gasped.
“Hello, Miss Helen! I’m Skeeter. The girls are all right. Yes, Frank and I are, too. We got lost somehow and never did find Jude Hanford’s, but we found a kind gentleman who lives ’way over on another mountain and he is going to feed us right now.”