h bound her, but
could not loosen it. Again the call came, impatient and sharp, "Keith!
_Oh_, Keith!"

"Oh, I can't loosen it a bit," said Keith. "You'll have to wait till
Malcolm comes with his knife. We'll be back in just a minute. I'll go
and see what's the matter."

"Be sure that you don't stay!" screamed Ginger, as the scarlet bedroom
slippers and green striped legs flashed out of sight through the bushes.

"Back--in--a--minute!" sounded shrilly through the woods.

Keith found Malcolm on the back porch, pounding excitedly on a box which
the express-man had left there a few minutes before.

"It's the camera we have been looking for all week," he cried. "Come on
and have a look at it."

"Ginger said to hurry back," said Keith.

"Pshaw! It won't take but a minute. I'll pry the box open in a jiffy."

It was harder work than the boys had supposed, to take the tightly
nailed lid from its place, and they were so intent on their work they
did not realise how quickly the minutes were passing.

"Isn't it a beauty?" exclaimed Malcolm, when it was at last unpacked.
"It's lots bigger and finer than the one papa promised. But that's the
way he always does. Oh, isn't it a peach!"

"I'll tell you what," said Keith, dancing up and down in his excitement,
until he looked like a ridiculous little clown in the faded pink
bathing-suit and his stripes of green paint, "let's take each other's
pictures while we are dressed this way. We may never look so funny
again, and we can go down and take Ginger, too, while she is tied to
the tree."

"Can't now," said Malcolm, "it's too dark down there in the woods by
this time. See! there is nothing left now of the sun but those red
clouds above the place where it went down. I'm afraid it is too dark
even for us up here on the hill; but we can try. You do look funny, just
like a jumping-jack or a monkey on a stick."

"Surely Ginger won't mind waiting long enough for us to do it," said
Keith. "Anyhow we can never dress up this way again, and grandmother
will be coming home very soon, so you take mine quick, and I will
take yours."

The boys had had some practice before with a cheap little camera, but
this required some studying of the printed directions before they could
use it. The first time they tried it the plates were put in wrong, and
the second time they forgot to remove the cap. There were other things
in the box besides the camera: some beautiful pink curlew's wings, a
hands