"But the guard outside?"

"I've fixed him. Was it very wrong of me? While Mother Beppo wasn't looking I put some of the stuff in that coffee I brought him."

[Ill.u.s.tration: "I'd do anything for you." said the child, as she rapidly cut the ropes.]

"Well, upon my word, Wren! What sort of stuff?" gasped Jimsy.

"Oh, some sort of brown stuff. I've seen Mother Beppo smoke it. It makes her oh so sleepy. So I gave some to him and he's sound asleep now."

"Must have been opium," declared Roy. "Wren, do you know that you are a very bad young lady?"

"I'd do anything for you. You're so good and kind to me," said the child, as she rapidly cut the ropes.

For a time the boys, after being freed, just lay there, unable to move.

But after a while circulation set in and they began to move their limbs.

In half an hour the trio crept out of the tent and, crossing the "island," traversed the trunk bridge.

"Wait a minute," said Roy, when they reached the other side.

"What are you going to do?"

"Make that whole outfit prisoners till the officers of the law can get up here."

He took a broken branch as a lever and with Jimsy's a.s.sistance toppled the log down into the canon.

"Now I guess they'll stay put for a while," he said.

And they did. That was why, when a posse came up to capture the band, they carried materials for building a bridge across the canon. It may as well be said here that the band received heavy sentences, it being proved at their trial that they had made a practice of kidnapping children and then trying to collect ransoms for them.

There was a happy scene next day at the Parker home when Mrs. Harvey, a sweet-faced woman of middle age, arrived. After one look at Wren she swayed and then, recovering herself, called out in the voice that only a mother knows:

"Sylvia!"

"Mother!" screamed the child, and rushed into her open arms.

The tide of memory, driven to low ebb by ill-treatment and hardship, had rushed back with full force. The Wren, the gipsy waif, was once more Sylvia Harvey. A doctor said later that such cases were frequent following a severe shock. It was then that they recalled how the child had almost recollected some of her past life during the thunderstorm.

The happiness of little Wren and her mother in their reunion was shared by all of the party who had been instrumental in effecting it, for every one of them, including Jake, had become attached to the quiet little girl and rejoiced in her good fortune.

When Mrs. Harvey and Sylvia departed for the railway station the following day behind a pair of Mr. Parker's steady horses they were accompanied by the four aeroplanes, which hovered over them like so many st.u.r.dy guardian angels.

And when the train bore them away they watched the returning aerial escort until there was nothing visible but four tiny dots against the blue heaven.

"Oh, mother," exclaimed Wren, "they look no bigger than b.u.t.terflies now!"

And the Girl Aviators, flying every moment higher and farther on the powerful wings of the _Golden b.u.t.terfly_ and the delicate plane of the dainty _Dart_, looked back at the train crawling like a humble insect in the valley below and gloried in their untrammeled flight. As they followed Roy and Jimsy in an irregular procession through the air, their thoughts flew ahead, outdistancing the biplane and the _Red Dragon_ and speeding confidently toward the happy realizations of the future.

Miss Prescott, watching from the home of Mr. Parker for their return, also dreamed dreams and saw visions, and in them her "dear children"

were fulfilling the bright prophecies of the present. She saw them stronger because of adversity, braver because of success, and enn.o.bled by all their experiences; and she deemed herself happy in her capacity of chaperon to the Girl Aviators.

The End.

THE VICTORY BOY SCOUTS

BY CAPTAIN ALAN DOUGLAS

SCOUTMASTER

Stories from the pen of a writer who possesses a thorough knowledge of his subject. In addition to the stories there is an addenda in which useful boy scout nature lore is given, all ill.u.s.trated. There are the following twelve t.i.tles in the series:

1. _The Campfires of the Wolf Patrol_.

2. _Woodcraft; or, How a Patrol Leader Made Good_.

3. _Pathfinder; or, the Missing Tenderfoot_.

4. _Great Hike; or, the Pride of Khaki Troop_.

5. _Endurance Test; or, How Clear Grit Won the Day_.

6. _Under Canvas; or, the Search for the Carteret Ghost_.

7. _Storm-bound; or, a Vacation Among the Snow-Drifts_.

8. _Afloat; or, Adventures on Watery Trails_.

9. _Tenderfoot Squad; or, Camping at Racc.o.o.n Lodge_.

10. _Boy Scout Electricans; or, the Hidden Dynamo-.

11. _Boy Scouts in Open Plains; or, the Round-up not Ordered-.

12. _Boy Scouts in an Airplane; or, the Warning from the Sky_.

Radio Boys Series

1. Radio Boys in the Secret Service; or, Cast Away on an Iceberg--FRANK HONEYWELL

2. Radio Boys on the Thousand Islands; or, The Yankee Canadian Wireless Trail--FRANK HONEYWELL