“Not more than ten or twenty feet,” Dorry said.
“Then the bee-line hike is saved!” I said.
Dora said, “Oh, I’m so glad. I wondered how you’d ever get down the cliff. When the men came back from Riverview Park they had that horrid bandit with them—just think!”
“What did I tell you?” Pee-wee said.
She said, “Oh, I think it was just wonderful how you fastened him there——”
“Without the loss of a single life,” the kid shouted.
She said, “And when I saw that villainous creature and thought how you had really caught him, and when I saw the men had your rope, I was just stricken with remorse for the way we girls fooled you. I said, ‘I’m just going to run after them and take their rope so their hike won’t be spoiled.’ Because I thought you’d need it. So you’ll forgive me, won’t you, for pretending to be so brave when all the time it was my own house? You will, won’t you?”
I said, “I don’t know much about the girl scouts except that they giggle a lot but I’ll say this much, they know how to run and when it comes to good turns——”
“Will you let me prove I’m a scout? A real one?”