lf, of course." Betty made a little face at her and
slipped the pie into the oven. "Just for that you can have only one
piece to-night!"

"I don't care, if you'll only stop working and come along," insisted
Mollie. "If I stay in the house much longer I'll start thinking
again--and you know what that means."

Betty gave her a quick side-glance, hastily dusted the flour from her
hands and took off her apron.

"I'm all ready," she announced. "Where are the other girls?"

"In the living room, reading and eating candy--or at least Grace is
doing the candy part. Amy has sworn off, you know."

The girls agreed eagerly to the proposed swim, and in a few minutes had
donned their suits and caps and pronounced themselves ready.

"I ought to get a letter from mother to-day," said Mollie, as her feet
sank in the soft sand. "She said yesterday that the detectives had
picked up a clue and thought they were on the right trail at last."

"Why didn't you tell us?" Betty demanded.

"Oh, I don't know," Mollie replied wearily. "I didn't think there was
any use telling you until I had something really definite. You know the
chief business of a detective is nosing out false clues," she finished
scornfully.

"Well, I know once we met a perfectly capable detective," remarked
Betty. By this time they had reached the water and she put one toe into
it experimentally.

"Ouch--it's cold," she said.

"When did we meet a capable detective?" queried Mollie, looking
interested.

"Just after we went to Camp Liberty when Will traced the German spy,"
Betty reminded her. "Did you ever see prettier detective work in your
life?"

"Yes, it was splendid," Mollie admitted, but the reference proved to be
an unfortunate one. It brought back vividly the picture of Will as he
had been then, at the height of his triumph over the apprehension of the
spy--in which the Outdoor Girls had also played an important part--and
jubilant at the prospect of being able to join the colors at last and
fight in the army of democracy.

Try as they would, they could not enter into the fun as they would have
done a few weeks before. They swam about languidly and found to their
surprise that they became quickly and easily tired.

"I never knew before how much influence mind has over matter," said
Mollie, after they had come out on the beach again. "I declare, even my
muscles feel depressed!"

"As Outdoor Girls we're getting to be marvelous failures," remarked
Grace