beat me and everybody else'll beat me. Don't
let her take me back, please don't," Glen concluded, turning his face
pleadingly toward Miss Ladd.

"Oh, you must go back, Glen," the Guardian replied, reproachfully.
"That's your home, don't you know? Where in the world will you go if you
don't go back home? Think of it--no place in the world to go, no place
in the world."

There was a tone of awe in the young woman's voice that impressed the
boy. He cooled down considerably and looked meditatively at his monitor.

"They'll beat me," he protested earnestly. "They'll tie me to a bed post
and strap me."

"Why, how perfectly terrible!" Addie exclaimed. "I never heard of such a
thing. I can't understand such remarks."

"I'll tell you what we'll do," Katherine suggested reassuringly. "We'll
all go back to the house with you and fix everything up nice. They won't
beat you, I'm sure. Come on, Miss Graham, we'll help you, if you don't
think we're intruding."

Addie did not know how to reply and did not attempt to. She started
toward home and the Camp Fire Girls followed her, Miss Ladd leading the
battling runaway by the hand.

Glen was considerably bewildered and apparently submissive during the
journey homeward. He said little, and when he spoke, it was only a short
reply to something said to him.

At the door of the cottage, they were met by Mrs. Graham, to whom Addie
introduced them. None of the girls were well impressed by the woman's
appearance or manner. She affected the same ungenuine interest and
affection for Glen that had characterized Addie's manner toward him.
But they managed to bring about a condition more or less reassuring to
the boy and left him, with secret misgivings, in the custody of the
family which they held more than ever under suspicion.

"We've got to do some real spy work now," said Miss Ladd after they had
reached their camp again. "We've got to find out what is going on in
that house when those people have no suspicion that they are being
watched."

CHAPTER XXVI.

AMMUNITION AND CATAPULTS.

The thirteen Camp Fire Girls and their Guardian are hardly to be
censured because they did little more work of a routine nature that day.
One could hardly expect them to fix their minds upon any "even tenor"
occupation while the thrills of recent developments supplied so much
stimulus for discussion of future prospect.

They were careful in these discussions not to leave open any possibility