of their being overheard. Their conversations were always held in low
tones and in places where it would be difficult for any of the members
of the Graham family to find positions of concealment near enough to
overhear what was being said.

One thing decided upon was in line with Miss Ladd's declaration that
they must find out "what was going on in the Graham house," having
reference, of course, to the treatment received there by little Glen in
view of his violent protest against being returned to the care and
custody of the people whom he charged with acts of cruelty toward
himself. A scouting expedition was planned for the evening, the
"official scouts" of the Fire--Katherine and Hazel--being delegated to
this work. Katherine proposed that two others be selected to assist
them, and Miss Ladd suggested that they choose their assistants
themselves.

"We'll think it over and pick them before suppertime," said Katherine
after conferring with Hazel.

The result was that before sundown Azalia Atwood and Ernestine Johanson
had been added to the spy squad. Their selection came as a result of
general discussions of the work in prospect, in the course of which both
Azalia and Ernestine made several suggestions that were regarded as
clever and helpful for the scouting plans.

Shortly after the girls returned from the Graham cottage to their camp,
"Jimmie Junior" of the "treble cleff voice" appeared with the
announcement that he had brought his boat to the Camp Fire landing and
moored it by tying the painter to a projecting rock. They thanked him
and proceeded at once with the task of restoring the safety-guard line
to their bathing place. All put on their bathing suits and went down to
the beach.

With the aid of the boat their work was much easier than it had been the
first time. It is no easy performance for one person to sit on the
shoulders of another and wield a mallet on the upper end of a stake held
by a third person in water arm-pit deep. If you doubt this assertion,
just try it.

Well, this difficult feat was unnecessary this time. The stakes, rope,
and mallet were put into the boat, and three of the girls got in and
rowed out to the point where the southwest stake had been driven before.
Then two of them plunged overboard and, while one of these steadied the
boat and the other held the stake in position, the girl in the boat
drove it firmly into the sand-clay bed of the lake.

This operation was repeated until