"

CHAPTER XX.

THE MISSILE.

Five of the members of the Camp Fire were present when Miss Ladd made
this startling announcement that they had been watched secretly for a
considerable time while roping off the limits of their swimming place.
The other girls had taken the lead back to the camp and were a
considerable distance ahead.

"Are they watching us yet?" Azalia asked.

"I think not," the Guardian replied. "I haven't seen any sign of them
during the last twenty minutes."

"How do you know they are girls?" Katherine inquired. "That's quite a
distance to recognize ages."

"Oh, they may be old women, but I'll take a chance on a guess that they
are not. The millinery I caught a peep at looked too chic for a
grandmother. I've got pretty good long-distance eyes, I'll have you
know," Miss Ladd concluded smartly.

There was no little excitement among the other girls when this bit of
news was communicated to them. But they had had good experience-training
along the lines of self-control, and just a hint of the unwisdom of loud
and extravagant remarks put them on their guard.

Some of the girls proposed that the plan of building a bonfire in the
evening be given up and nobody objected to this suggestion. All the
girls felt more like resting under the shade of a tree than doing
anything else, and those who had performed the more arduous tasks in the
work of the afternoon were "too tired to eat supper," as one of them
expressed it. So nobody felt like hunting through the timber for a big
supply of firewood.

The atmosphere had become very warm in the afternoon, but the girls
hardly noticed this condition until their work in the water was finished
and they returned to the camp. After they had rested a while some of the
girls read books and magazines, but little was done before supper.

After supper some of the girls, who felt more vigorous than those who
had performed the more exhausting labor of the afternoon, revived the
idea of a bonfire and were soon at work gathering a supply of wood. They
busied themselves at this until nearly dusk and then called the other
girls down to the water's edge, where on a large rocky ledge
arrangements for the fire had been made.

All of the girls congratulated themselves now on the revival of the
bonfire idea, for the mosquitos had become so numerous that comfort was
no longer possible without some agency to drive them away. A bonfire was
just the thing, although it woul