s they would have loved a
sister.

The house they stopped in front of was rather dingy and forbidding. It
was a large brick structure, set back a hundred feet from the street
on a plot of ground nearly an acre in extent. Most of the windows were
darkened with green blinds two generations out of date.

Mrs. Eddy put a key into the lock and opened the door. Then she
stepped aside and motioned the girls to enter, and they did so as if
moved by a spell that they were unable to resist. Then the woman
herself entered, closed the door and put the key into the lock and
turned it. If the twelve Camp Fire Girls had no suspicions as to the
genuineness of the motives of the woman up to this time, they had good
and sufficient reason to anticipate something dreadful when they saw
her take the key from the lock and put it in her coat pocket.

And still if there were any doubts in their minds after this act,
they were effectively dispelled by the sound of a man's voice coming
through a doorway from a dimly lighted room to the right, speaking
thus:

"Now, young ladies, let me warn you to be quiet. You have been led
into a trap; but you will not be hurt in any way if you obey orders.
One scream from any of you will be followed by a blow with a club that
will silence you for a long time--maybe, forever. This way, please.
Everybody be quiet and sensible, and you will be well treated."

* * * * *

CHAPTER XV.

A PILE OF SCRAP LUMBER.

Conditions and developments seemed to work favorably for the
mysterious trappers of the Camp Fire Girls. In the first place, when
Mrs. Stanlock returned home and found the house without an occupant,
except Kittie Koepke, who was working away very quietly in the
kitchen, it was difficult for her to suspect anything wrong.

"Where are the girls, Kittie?" she inquired, and the other replied,
with a suggestion of foreign accent:

"Oh, they just gone out for a walk. They be back soon, I guess."

"I hope they didn't go far," Mrs. Stanlock said, concernedly. "They
ought to be very careful. It will be getting dark before very long.
It's cloudy and looks like more snow. How long have they been gone?"

"About half an hour," Kittie answered. "I went out to the drug store
to get something for my toothache, and when I came back they was
gone."

This was the first reference that Mrs. Stanlock heard regarding
Kittie's toothache, but she accepted the statement for its fa