erful thing about the law is that, while it is often very hard,
it will always find out the truth sooner or later.

"Sometimes, for a little while, people who are innocent have to suffer
because they are unjustly accused. But the law will free them if they
have really done no wrong, and, what is more, it will punish those who
swear falsely against them. Be patient, and you will find that you and
your father made no mistake when you believed that this was the land of
the free and the home of those who are oppressed in their own
countries."

Zara's eyes, dark and sombre, seemed to be full of fire.

"Oh, I hope so," she cried, passionately. "For my father's sake! He
has been disappointed and deceived so often."

"We'll have a good long talk sometime, Zara," she said, finally. "Then
maybe I'll be able to explain some things to you better, and make you
understand the real difference between this country and the ones you
have known."

Then she brightened, and turned to the other girls, who had all been
rather sobered by the sudden revelation, through Zara, of a side of
life hidden from them as a rule.

"We're not going to take that trip just for ourselves and our own fun,"
she said. "We're going to be missionaries, in a way; we want to spread
the light of the Camp Fire, and see if we can't get a lot of new Camp
Fires organized in the places we pass through. It's just in such
lonely, country places that the girls need the Camp Fire most, I
believe."

"That will be splendid," said Margery Burton. "We could stay and teach
them all the ceremonies, and the songs, and how to organize new Camp
Fires, couldn't we?"

"Yes. We want to make them see how much it has done for us. When they
know that they'll do the rest for themselves, I think. I shall expect
all you girls to help, because you can do ever so much more than I.
It's the girls who really count--not the Guardians, you know."

CHAPTER IV

A FRIEND IN TROUBLE

The next morning Eleanor Mercer, summoned from the group of girls with
whom she was discussing some details of the coming contest with the Boy
Scouts by the appearance of a man who had rowed up to the little
landing stage, accompanied by one of the guides, old Andrew, called
Bessie King and Dolly Ransom to her with a grave face.

"This is Deputy Sheriff Rogers, from Hamilton," she explained. "He
says that you must go there today to testify against those gypsies."

"Sorry, ma'am, if it's a