elter thankfully, feeling sure that it would enable her to see
what Jake was doing without any danger of being discovered by him.

As she had expected, Jake did not enter the station. She had no sooner
taken up her position in the shelter of the billboard than she was able
to single him out from the men who were lounging about, waiting for the
train. His movements were still furtive and sly, and Bessie had to
repress a shudder of disgust. Such work seemed to bring out everything
small and mean and sly in Jake's nature, and Bessie's thoughts were full
of sympathy for his father. After all, Paw Hoover had always been good
to her, and when she and Zara had run away from Hedgeville, he had
helped them instead of turning them back, as he might so easily have
done. It seemed strange to Bessie that so good and kind a man should
have such a worthless son.

Twice, as Bessie looked, she saw Jake approach one of the windows of the
station building furtively, but each time he was scared away from it
before he had a chance to look in.

"Trying to make sure that I'm in there, and afraid of being seen at his
spying," decided Bessie. "That's great! If he doesn't see me, he'll
just decide that I must be there anyhow, and take a chance. It's a good
thing he's such a coward. But I wonder what he thinks we'd do to him,
even if we did see him?"

She laughed at the thought. Never having had a really guilty conscience
herself, Bessie had no means of knowing what a torturing, weakening
thing it is. She could not properly imagine Jake's mental state, in
which everything that happened alarmed him. Having done wrong, he
fancied all the time that he was about to be haled up, and made to pay
for his wrongdoing. And that, of course, was the explanation of his
actions, when, as a matter of fact, he could have walked with entire
safety into the station and the midst of the Camp Fire Girls.

Soon the whistle of the train that was to carry the Camp Fire Girls to
Plum Beach was heard in the distance, and a minute later it roared into
the station, stopped, and was off again. Seeing a great waving of
handkerchiefs from the last car, Bessie guessed what they meant. Miss
Eleanor had agreed to her plan, and this was the way the girls took of
bidding her good-bye and good luck.

As soon as the train had gone Jake rushed into the station, and Bessie
walked boldly toward it, a new idea in her mind. She had made up her
mind that to be afraid of Jake Hoover