the members of
Flamingo Camp Fire as the two Misses Graham stepped primly in their
French-heel shoes over the uneven ground and returned homeward along a
diagonal course up the side of the hill-shore of Twin One.

CHAPTER XXIII.

"HIGH C."

All the members of Flamingo Camp Fire gathered close together on the
sandy beach after the departure of the two Graham girls and held a
low-toned discussion of the situation.

"There was only one thing missing this morning," Hazel Edwards observed.
"That was the perfume. I suppose they didn't have time to spill it on in
proper proportions."

"I wonder why they came down here at this time of day?" said Harriet
Newcomb. "There must be something in the air."

"I bet they never got up this early before unless their house was
afire," Ethel Zimmerman ventured.

"Do you suppose they wanted to be on hand to witness our discomfiture
when we discovered what had been done to our swimming place?" Azalia
Atwood asked.

"That would imply that they knew who did it and may even have been a
party to the plot," Miss Ladd reasoned.

"And why not?" Azalia returned. "They don't look to me, for a moment, to
be above it."

"I feel like a miserable hypocrite," Katherine declared with a sarcastic
smile. "I'm not used to extending warm expressions of friendship to
people for whom I haven't any use and asking them to call and see me."

"Remember you're a spy now," said Helen Nash slyly. "When engaged in a
praiseworthy spy work, always remember your mother and the pantry and
the fist in the jam, if you have any doubt as to the worthiness of your
occupation."

"Enough said," Katherine announced, "I'm convinced. The jam is well
spiced and I smell it already. I shall expect to find it on somebody's
fist."

The girls did not forego their morning plunge because of the removal of
the "safety line," but were careful to keep well within the approximate
limit which they remembered fairly well. After about fifteen minutes in
the water they returned to the camp and donned their khaki middies; then
they had breakfast.

The breakfast dishes had not long been washed and put away when another
caller arrived at the camp. Although not unheralded, the appearance of
this new arrival was a surprise to all the girls, for they had not
rested much importance upon the promise of Addie Graham to send her
brother to them to offer his assistance in repairing the damage done by
some mischief-maker in the night