hter, for they knew that the boys were only skirting the outer edge
of the hardships they would be called upon to encounter later on.

Then suddenly Betty gave a little cry of dismay.

"Oh, girls," she cried when they looked up at her fearfully, "it's come!
What we've been dreading so long! The boys have been ordered to the
front!"

CHAPTER II

BAD NEWS

The girls stared wide-eyed at Betty while slowly the color drained from
their faces. It was true they had been dreading just this news for a
long, long time, yet now that it had come they felt strangely quiet and
numb. They had much the same feeling as one who had received a stunning
blow. Until the paralysis had passed there could be no pain. That would
come later.

"How do you know?" asked Mollie at last, in a voice that sounded strange
even to herself. "Frank hasn't mentioned it."

"He will probably, toward the end," Betty explained, while slowly her
heart contracted and the tears welled to her eyes. "Allen didn't--not
till the last sentence. It's only a line, but th-that's enough. He says
not to be alarmed if his letters are delayed--it may be hard to get them
through."

"They are going to the front," Amy repeated dazedly, as if she found it
hard to really believe. "When--did he say when, Betty?"

"No, he didn't," said Betty slowly. "But you know Allen. He wouldn't
have said anything about it if the time hadn't been pretty close at
hand."

"Why," cried Grace, catching her breath as though the thought had just
occurred to her, "they may be in the front line trenches now! They may
be--they may be--"

And while the girls gazed at her in tragic silence, imagining terrible,
unbelievable things, a moment will be taken to sketch briefly for the
benefit of new readers the various exciting or amusing adventures which
had befallen the Outdoor Girls in the days before the grim shadow of war
had spread itself over the land.

In the first volume of the series, entitled "The Outdoor Girls of
Deepdale," the girls had formed a camping and tramping club and had
tramped for miles over the country, meeting with many interesting
adventures on the way.

After this, one good time had followed hard on the heels of another,
first at Rainbow Lake, then at a winter camp where they had novel and
interesting experience on skates and ice-boats.

At Ocean View some time later the Outdoor Girls had cleared up a mystery
centering about a strange box they had found in the