start a panic here. So to make sure I took three cans--great big
ones--and buried them in the hot ashes. When they exploded I was going
to scream and make everybody come running."

"Well, they exploded all right," said Katherine drily. "I thought the
island blew up."

"So did I," said Hinpoha. "They went up just like dynamite. The kettle
was blown off the hanger and landed fifty feet away."

"To say nothing of blowing the tent down," said Katherine.

"Oh," said Hinpoha hastily, "that didn't blow down. The boys and Uncle
Teddy had taken it down this morning to fix it differently and they were
just setting it up again when the awful explosion came. They all yelled
and jumped and the whole thing came down on their heads."

Katherine looked over to where the arms and legs were still waving under
the billows of canvas and doubled up against a tree in silent spasms.
Then she suddenly straightened up. "Who is hiding Eeny-Meeny?" she
asked.

"Why," gasped Hinpoha, "you are!"

"I?" said Katherine.

"Yes, you!" said Hinpoha.

"I had forgotten all about the panic," said Katherine, "and the noise
scared everything out of my head."

"Quick, before it's too late!" said Hinpoha. "Run down and do it now
while everybody's still up here. It'll take at least five minutes to get
the boys out from under that tent."

Katherine fled from the scene as quietly as possible and ran to the
Council Rock. That whole end of the island was deserted. But when she
came to the place where Eeny-Meeny had always been she stood still in
amazement. Eeny-Meeny was not there. She had vanished mysteriously and
entirely, and in her place was a twig stuck upright into the ground,
topped with a piece of paper on which was drawn a picture of an Indian
maiden tied to the stake with the flames mounting around her, and
underneath was drawn in scrawling capitals: THE DARK OF THE MOON
SOCIETY.

Katherine pulled the twig from the earth and stood looking at it,
fascinated. Slowly the truth dawned on her. The Sandwiches had gotten
ahead of them again. Without having planned the panic they had instantly
seen the value of it and one of them had spirited Eeny-Meeny away during
the confusion. "Boys _are_ smarter than girls," she admitted
ruefully to herself. "At least, some are."

Then another thought flashed through her mind. She had told Antha not
half an hour ago that they were planning to hide Eeny-Meeny. Antha had
told the boys and they had decided to do