tronger perhaps than I pretend to be."

Kara's tone was so unhappy and listless that Mr. Hammond's agreeable
face clouded.

"Your state of mind is due to the fact that you have not recovered
from the shock of your fall. You won't feel like that always, sure not
to, a girl with the courage and good sense you have always revealed.
Still, what I am going to tell you is obliged to stir you up. I don't
believe you will object to the other Girl Scouts hearing what I tell
you. You are such devoted friends.

"Ever since I entered this pretty room I have experienced an odd
sensation connected with it. Somehow it seemed associated with you.
This may not appear remarkable, the room is now your sanctuary and I
am sure everything in it is for your service. But that is not what I
have in mind.

"I was haunted by an almost forgotten impression. As I drove up to the
cabin this afternoon, I felt that I had been in this vicinity before.
Here something unusual had taken place which had left a strong
impression upon me. I felt this more keenly when I entered this room,
although I never beheld any other room so gay and pretty and filled
with so many girls.

"The room was not always like this, Kara. You Girl Scouts must have
seen the room a little as I beheld it a number of years ago, when you
chose this spot for your summer camping grounds.

"Did I not once confide to you, Kara, that I discovered a tiny little
girl in a deserted farmhouse when I was a young man, riding along a
lane in this neighborhood? It looked more like an abandoned farm in
those days to a man who knew extraordinarily little about farms.
Perhaps the little house was never anything more than a cabin in the
woods, with farmlands in the neighborhood. If so, they have vanished.
Do you recall, Kara, the little girl I discovered and who she
afterwards turned out to be?"

At last Tory Drew felt her senses returning, and at the same time an
impulse to action. During Mr. Hammond's rambling story she had
remained quiet, listening and yet all the time knowing its conclusion.

Previously Dr. McClain had impressed upon her the fact that Kara had
been found in the little house in which she was living at present. If
Mr. Hammond had once called the cabin a farmhouse, Dr. McClain had
always been certain of its identity.

It was the doctor's opinion that Kara must not for the present be
excited or disturbed by any reference to this fact.

At last Tory was aware that she shoul