would understand this ancient method of signaling.

“I should like to know how you found us?” said the guardian.

“We found out at Meadow-Brook where you were. The girls’ folks told us,” replied George. “We’ve a great surprise for you.”

“A surprise?” asked the girls in chorus.

“Yes”—George looked wisely at his companions—“the greatest ever. Don’t try to guess it, for you can’t.”

“Wath that why you thaw our folkth?” demanded Tommy shrewdly.

Captain George flushed to the roots of his hair. Tommy had come nearer the mark than she perhaps thought. Even Margery showed her curiosity.

“We are ready to hear about this great surprise,” said Miss Elting smilingly.

“All right, I’ll tell you about it, and——”

“Funny place to pitch a camp, this,” observed Sam Crocker, interrupting what Captain George was saying.

“Yes, I was thinking about that,” declared George. “Whatever induced you to come up to this hole?”

“Thith ithn’t a hole, it ith a thide hill,” corrected Tommy.

“You didn’t finish telling us about the surprise, George,” reminded Jane.

“That is so, I didn’t, did I? Oh, you will be surprised and delighted,” chuckled George. “It’s a dead secret, but I’ll tell you about it. As I was about to say, this is no sort of place for girls to camp. Now we have picked out a much better place.”

“Where?” asked the guardian.

“Up yonder in the woods, or thereabouts. You must move up there.”

“We are very well satisfied where we are,” replied Harriet Burrell, smiling mischievously. “Of course, if you can give us any really good reason why we should move our camp, we will carefully consider your suggestion.”

“We have a nice place picked out for you. That’s why we want you to move,” declared George bluntly.

“Thay, are you trying to play trickth on uth?” demanded Tommy.

“Not at all. Hope to die, we’re not. You’ll see that we are not when you get to the camp we have chosen for you. Now, we’ll be down here early in the morning and move you right up to it. You won’t have to lift a hand toward making the new camp. But we must be going. It is getting late. You’ll surely be ready, won’t you? We shall be on hand early,” announced the captain, rising. “Come along, fellows, we have stayed too long already. The girls will begin telling us to go home if we don’t move.”

“Wait! You haven’t told us about the great secret,” cried Margery, unable to restrain her curiosity any longer. “Tell us now.”

“We’ll tell you all about it in the morning,” called back the captain.

“I want to know now about the great thecret,” shouted Tommy.

The boys scrambled up the side of the hill, shouting their good-byes as they hurried on toward their own camp, leaving the curiosity of the Meadow-Brook Girls unsatisfied.

CHAPTER III
KEEPING THE GIRLS IN SUSPENSE

“Aren’t they provoking?” pouted Margery.

“They are queer boys,” observed Jane, with a shake of her head.

Harriet laughed gleefully.

“It is my opinion that the Tramp Club is preparing to play a joke on the Meadow-Brook Girls,” she declared. “However, I think we are well able to take care of ourselves. Miss Elting, what about this proposal to move the camp?”

“That is for you girls to decide. I see no objection to it. The boys no doubt wish to have us nearer to their own camp.”

“Why don’t they move down here, then?” questioned Jane.

“I hadn’t thought of that. What do you think?”

“I will think it over,” answered Harriet. “The morning will give us time to decide. We’ll sleep over it rather than decide hastily. I should like to know what that surprise is that they have planned for us; that is the kernel in the nut.”

“They just want to tease us,” complained Margery. “I don’t believe they have any surprise at all.”

“I think you are wrong, Margery,” replied Miss Elting. “Those boys surely have something that is to be a great surprise to us. If we don’t do as they wish, they may not tell us.”

“They will tell us,” nodded Harriet reflectively. “What do you girls say about moving camp?”

“We will leave that to you,” answered Hazel.

“Then let us turn in and decide the question to-morrow morning. I always like to sleep over anything of this sort.”

“I don’t. I like to know right away,” declared Margery.

They prepared for bed, having first banked the fire and consulted the skies for weather indications. The girls did not lie awake long thinking of the surprise that the Tramp Club had in store for them. They were far too sleepy to be particularly curious concerning it.

Breakfast, next morning, was finished by seven o’clock. The birds were darting through the air, or pouring forth their songs from bush or tree. The sun was shining brightly, and the skies were blue and smiling.

The girls had not finished washing the dishes when a shout from the top of the hill caused them to look up. Down the incline came the Tramp Club boys, jumping from rock to rock, raising a cloud of dust as they plunged recklessly down the side of the hill toward the camp.

“We have come to move you,” called Captain George, when still some distance from the camp. “Hurry out of the way before we run into you and your camp.”

“Not quite so fast! We haven’t decided to move,” answered Harriet laughingly as the boys came tearing down to them, flushed and breathless.

“We decided that yesterday. You haven’t anything to say about it. Here, Pickle, you drop that tent. Up with it!”

Tent pegs were drawn and down came the tent about Margery’s ears, she having been at work setting the tent to rights. Margery uttered a wail. Davy Dockrill ran to assist her.

“Don’t get in the way of the men,” advised Billy Burgess. “They have a big morning’s work ahead of them, and any one who gets in their way is likely to be run over and perhaps hurt.”

“I gueth they better not run over me,” warned Tommy. “I’d jutht like to thee them try to run over Tommy Thompthon.”

The camp already looked very much as though a tornado had passed over it. The belongings of the Meadow-Brook Girls lay strewn about the camp, the tent was flat on the ground, the fire had been kicked aside and the cooking utensils dragged out to cool off preparatory to packing them. Miss Elting gazed at the bold lads smilingly. Harriet had sat down and was laughing heartily. Margery was too angry to speak for a time, after having been assisted from the collapsed tent by Davy Dockrill.

“Would it be proper to ask where we are going?” questioned Harriet, after she had succeeded in controlling her merriment.

“You are going to a new camp, Miss Burrell, and you’re going to get the surprise of your young life,” answered Captain George.

“I am beginning to think that surprise is a joke, Captain.”

“You’ll find it isn’t. Oh, you girls will be beside yourselves with joy and sheer delight when you hear about it,” chuckled Sam.

“Provided we are not old ladies by that time and unable to walk without crutches on account of our rheumatic joints,” retorted Harriet mischievously.

“I think you should tell us before we shift our camp,” suggested Miss Elting almost severely.

“You are not moving your camp, we’re moving it for