clock when the "Comet," polished and oiled and
looking as neat in his dark blue and buff uniform as a soldier on
parade, stood ready for departure. The hamper of luncheon was strapped
on behind, and underneath the middle seats in a pan of ice were bottles
of root beer and ginger ale. Presently he started down the steep road
with his load. The rustic camp, perched on the ledge in the side of the
mountain, with its guard of pine trees crowding almost to its doors,
never looked more alluring.

"I declare I hate to leave the place," said Miss Campbell, peeping
through the glass window in the back curtain of the car.

"It's in good hands," laughed the doctor, as the voice of Alberdina
floated to them, singing in fulsome tones:

"Ach, mein lieber Augustine, Augustine, Augustine!"

But the motor car with its load of campers had not been long gone when
Alberdina withdrew her arms, elbow deep in soapsuds, from the wash tub,
and looked around her.

"Ach, mein lieber Gott," she said turning her large cow-like eyes on the
pile of linen, "I dis worg nod much lige. It is too many. I mag to coog
dos clothes and rest. Dis life it all hard worg ees."

She lifted an armful of linen garments from the tub and stuffed them
into the clothes boiler which she filled with water and set on the coal
oil stove. Then drawing up a steamer chair, she settled herself
comfortably and closed her eyes, not noticing that in the boilerful of
white things she had plunged a red silk handkerchief of Percy's. Nearly
an hour had passed when Alberdina awoke from her healthy,
conscienceless slumber with a start. Turning her head lazily, she
noticed that the clothes were boiling and the water was running over the
sides of the boiler.

"Mein Gott!" she said in German. "That little mistress will make of me
the Hamburger. I must do some work."

But to her horror and astonishment, when Alberdina made an effort to
rise from the low, easy chair, she could not move. She had been bound to
the chair with a stout rope, the clothes line in fact. Each fat red hand
was secured to an arm of the chair, her feet tied together and her body
strapped to the seat and back.

Alberdina groaned and her stupid eyes became humid with terror.

"Helb! Helb!" she called. "Helb bring. Mein Gott in himmel, helb!"

No answer came from the silent camp.

"Ees it for dis, den, I haf to you come?" she cried, addressing the
circle of mountains shimmering in opalescent light. Far down f