like to have an interview with that
old lady of yours, if you can manage it. We'll have to have her evidence,
you know."

"Oh, and isn't it lucky?" cried Betty, executing a little skip in her
excitement. "She told us only this morning that she was feeling perfectly
well again and would go away to-morrow. We were worrying ourselves sick
about it, but couldn't think up a single plan to keep her with us. And if
she had gone before this happened--" she stopped, overwhelmed by the mere
contemplation of the tragedy.

"I still feel as if I were dreaming," said Amy, as they entered the camp
gate. "It all happened so suddenly, and just when we were feeling so
awfully blue."

"Well, I know I wasn't dreaming," said Grace plaintively, "because in my
excitement I dropped two perfectly good candies in the road and forgot to
pick 'em up."

They laughed at her, and Betty added whimsically:

"Perhaps it was just as well for your digestion that you did. I suppose
you'll have to go to the guardhouse to explain about the prisoner," she
rather stated than asked, turning to Sergeant Mullins.

"Yes," he said, adding, with a trace of hesitation: "It won't take long
though, and if you don't mind waiting till I get back I'd like to have
that talk with the old lady he knocked down. It's necessary to see her as
soon as possible."

"Goodness, we don't mind waiting," cried Betty. "And you can't see her too
quickly to suit us. We're just crazy to see the whole thing settled--"

"And that brute behind the bars," finished Mollie vindictively.

Sergeant Mullins laughed boyishly, saluted smartly, and turned on his heel
to follow the boys who were fast bearing the prisoner to the guardhouse
and from there to the just punishment that had been so long in overtaking
him.

"Well," said Mollie, as she flopped down on the steps and favored the
girls with a beaming smile, "now what have you got to say for yourselves?"

"More in truth than in modesty," twinkled the Little Captain, "I should
say that we are pretty good."

"My! don't we love us?" queried Grace, fishing up from her pocket a
much-mangled and sadly worn chocolate and calmly inserting it between two
very pretty rows of white teeth. "It's really touching--"

"Oh, Grace, how can you think of candies at a time like this?" cried
Mollie impatiently.

"Don't know," returned Grace, calmly nibbling. "It's a gift, I guess."

"Gracie, you're an awful goose," cried Betty, hugging her impulsivel