to you."

Miss Harriet Ladd, Guardian of the Fire, bearing a large bouquet of wild
flowers that she had just gathered in timber and along the bank of the
stream, joined the group of girls seated on the grass a minute later,
and then all waited expectantly for Katherine to begin.

CHAPTER II.

A SPECIAL MEETING CALLED.

Fern hollow--begging the indulgence of those who have read the earlier
volume of this series--is a deep, richly vegetated ravine or gully
forming one of a series of scenic convolutions of the surface of the
earth which gave the neighboring town of Fairberry a wide reputation as
a place of beauty.

The thirteen Camp Fire Girls, who had pitched their tents on the lower
hillside, a few hundred feet from a boisterous, gravel-and-boulder
bedded stream known as Butter creek, were students at Hiawatha
Institute, a girls' school in a neighboring state. The students of that
school were all Camp Fire Girls, and it was not an uncommon thing for
individual Fires to spend parts of their vacations together at favorite
camping places. On the present occasion the members of Flamingo Fire
were guests of one of their own number, Hazel Edwards, on the farm of
the latter's aunt, Mrs. Hannah Hutchins, which included a considerable
section of the scenic Ravine known as Fern hollow.

They had had some startling adventures in the last few weeks, and
although several days had elapsed since the windup in these events and
it seemed that a season of quiet, peaceful camp life was in store for
them, still they were sufficiently keyed up to the unusual in life to
accept surprises and astonishing climaxes as almost matters of course.

But all of these experiences had not rendered them restless and
discontented when events slowed down to the ordinary course of every-day
life, including three meals a day, eight hours' sleep, and a program of
tramps, exercises and honor endeavors. The girls were really glad to
return to their schedule and their handbook for instructions as to how
they should occupy their time. After all, adventures make entertaining
reading, but very few, if any, persons normally constituted would choose
a melodramatic career if offered as an alternative along with an
even-tenor existence.

All within one week, these girls had witnessed the execution of an
astonishing plot by a band of skilled lawbreakers and subsequently had
followed Mrs. Hutchins through a series of experiences relative to the
loss of