"And no tide to worry about," added Margaret.

However dear was the ocean when at the ocean they tarried, the Scouts had a happy faculty of shifting their affection, and now it was the "wonderful lake!"

Miss Mackin was watching the swimmers and she quickly observed those most proficient.

"Madaline, don't go outside the float," she cautioned. "That's a pretty good swim for a little girl, I think."

The smallest Bobbie turned to obey when those nearest her saw her give a sudden jerk and then she screamed!

"Oh, something has got me! Quick!"

Miss Mackin only had to put her hand out to reach the frightened child, but Madaline's face showed pain and the director could not at once seem to a.s.sist her.

"My foot! Something's got my foot!" she cried.

"A crab!" exclaimed Grace, swimming quickly to Madaline's aid.

"Not in the lake!" protested Cleo.

By this time Miss Mackin had succeeded in freeing the very much frightened little Scout, and she was now leading her ash.o.r.e. Madaline had drawn her foot between two rocks that came together so closely they formed a very formidable trap, and the only way a victim could get out was to back out of the wider end of the opening. There were rocks only on the lake bottom near sh.o.r.e, and most bathers soon became familiar with their location.

As if that trifling incident opened the way for further "frowns of Fate" the girls in the water presently had reason to scamper.

The criticized blondes, they who ran the "Bug," that deformed motor boat, now deliberately turned the craft into the line of the swimmers.

At first it seemed accidental, but when Grace and Julia turned in another direction and the "Bug" cut after them, they realized that the girls in the hideous striped bathing suits were giving them a chase.

Miss Mackin saw this from ash.o.r.e and ran along the dock to the end of the pier. She called from there, and the girls in the queer squat boat seemed to take heed, for presently the boat made a complete circle and shot out again into the open lake.

"Come in, girls," called the director. "Time's up!"

"Oh, not one more swim?" begged Grace. But Corene said "no," and everyone realized Corene's experience with a director qualified her to dictate, so reluctantly they waded in and were soon back in camp, dressing for dinner.

"What do you think of those girls racing after us with their old motor boat?" Louise asked. They were looking rosy and feeling "frisky" after their swim, and the preparations for dinner (they had decided to have the main meal at noon), were aggravating in their appetizing lure.

"I think," replied Julia, "we will have to look out for those ladies,"

she wanted to say something more "descriptive," but let it go at "ladies."

"Why look out for them?" pressed Grace. She may have scented danger and "warmed to it," for Grace had the reputation of daring and courage.

"Well, they didn't seem to be 'cutting up' exactly, and they did steer their old bug-boat straight after us," reasoned Julia. "Wonder where they stop?"

"I saw them on the grounds of the Fayette the other day," said Madaline, "and one was in a hammock, with her feet sticking out and you could see her green silk stockings all the way from the corner."

"Must have terrible long----" The dinner gong interrupted Grace's sentence, for Corene was hammering her bread knife on the big tin tray with such startling results, that the very birds took fright and left the grounds before gathering the crumbs that might come to them from the table of the Bobbies.

CHAPTER X

MEET BUZZ AND FUSS

"Company!" called Madaline. "Someone is coming down our path."

"But we don't own the woods," replied Grace.

"They are surely coming here," insisted Cleo.

"And Bobbs! Listen!" exclaimed Louise. "It's the girls who wear long-legged green silk stockings! Just look!"

The intruders were almost upon them and the order Louise gave seemed entirely uncalled for. Everyone looked! In fact they stared at the two conspicuous blondes, who were recognized as the drivers of the bug-boat, and who seemed rudeness itself to the Scouts.

"Quick! Drop the tent flap, don't let them snoop!" whispered Cleo to Madaline who was nearest the pull rope.

Madaline picked herself up from her camp stool and with a great show of indifference sauntered into the tent and dropped the curtain as she went. The other girls exchanged glances of satisfaction.

"Good afternoon," chirped one of the callers. "May we come in?"

"Certainly," replied Corene. She had risen but did not offer her seat to the strangers.

"What a perfectly dear nook!" exclaimed the shorter girl. Her remark almost gave Louise a spasm of some kind, for she choked, and coughed, and finally ran off to get a drink.

"And do you stay here all the time?" asked the girl with the long black earrings.

"We're camping," replied Corene. At the moment everyone wished Mackey had not gone hunting new wild flowers.

"How perfectly lovely!" gasped Number One.

This threatened a spasm to Julia, but she kept her eyes on the sweater she started the year before, and thus offset serious consequences.

"We are at the Fayette," volunteered Number Two, "and we perfectly hate it." She dropped down on the gra.s.s and propped her useless parasol over her head in an obvious pose. The other followed suit. "I wish we might camp for a while, don't you, Buzz?"

The name brought Madaline out from the tent with a laugh in her eyes, but she closed the "door" after her, and carefully arranged the curtains.

"Buzz!" she whispered to Cleo.

"Could you possibly take us in?" asked the other caller.

This surprising question almost precipitated something worse than a choking spell all around. After the way those bold girls ran the Scouts out of the lake with their old yellow boat!

"We don't take boarders," replied Corene cruelly, grinding out the word "boarders" with vicious satisfaction.

"Oh, we know that. But Fuss meant could we come as Girl Scouts?"

"Girl Scouts!" repeated Cleo, incredulously.

"Why, yes, I think those togs are perfectly stunning and shouldn't mind at all wearing them," condescended Fuss. "Can you get those uniforms around here?"