They continued along the inviting footpath for more than a
mile before they noticed a heavy fog settling upon everything.

"Better turn and go back, girls. This fog is obscuring everything along
the way," suggested Mrs. Vernon.

"B-r-r-r! Isn't it damp!" shivered Joan.

"Yes, and it will be worse before we get home," added Judith.

They retraced their steps, but the fog came thicker and heavier all the
time, and before they had gone more than half the way back, it was
necessary for the scouts to go single file in order to keep in the
footpath that ran along the top of a high grassy bank beside the narrow
road.

"It would be so much simpler to hike along the road, Verny," suggested
Hester.

"But there are so many machines traveling back and forth, and we'd have
to scramble up this wet slippery bank to get out of the way every time
one rushed past," explained Julie.

Julie was in front, heading the line. Being Scout Leader of the Troop,
she naturally led in most things. Suddenly she stopped short and warned
those back of her:

"Look out for this big boulder right in the pathway--have to detour
towards the fence!"

"Boulder! Why, there wasn't any boulder here on our way over," argued
Ruth.

"The fog's in Julie's eyes," laughed Joan.

"Maybe we didn't notice a rock before," ventured Amy.

"Maybe we are on the wrong road," said Anne.

"We're right, all right, but I see a boulder in the way. If you don't
believe me, come here and sprain your toe kicking it!"

A few of the scouts crowded in front to peer through the puzzling fog to
see the questionable boulder, but IT unexpectedly got upon its clumsy
feet and started for the girls. In the fog it loomed up as big as an
elephant.

"Murder! Fire! Help! Help!!" came in confused screams from the scouts in
front, as they turned precipitously to flee from this unknown danger.
The confusion, as they fell back upon the scouts behind, while the great
"boulder" still advanced slowly, was awful!

But the soft earth of the bank had been washed out from under the top
layer of roots and grass, and when so many stamping, crowding girls
brought their weight upon the crumbling ground, it caved in with them.
Jumping, screaming, tumbling scouts now went headlong down the slide of
five feet into the roadway.

The Captain and Betty had been far enough in the rear to escape this
general stampede, but they, too, saw the dark object trying to skirt the
newly broken-down embankme