t to cheer them up and thought she could not
feel for them because nothing terrible had happened to her yet.

"I'll show them," she told herself fiercely, "if anything should happen
to Allen--" But she shivered and turned away shudderingly from the
thought. Allen--if only she could see him for five minutes--just five
minutes--

Some way the days dragged through until a week passed, then part of
another. Still there had been no clue to the whereabouts of the twins,
nor any further news of Will.

"And this is the wonderful vacation we planned!" said Grace with a wry
smile, breaking one of the long silences that had become common with the
Outdoor Girls these days.

They were, as usual, sitting on the sand and trying to occupy their
minds with sewing or reading, yet always with an eye to the road in
readiness to rush to their red-headed combination of delivery boy and
postman whenever he saw fit to put in an appearance.

Betty opened her mouth to say something, but closed it again. She had
learned that any suggestion she might make would be wrongly interpreted
by the girls who were engrossed in their own troubles, and so she had
wisely decided to say nothing.

"I haven't heard from Frank for ever so long," said Mollie, as if the
fact had just occurred to her. "I wonder if anything can have happened
to him?"

"I didn't see any name we knew in the casualty list last night,"
ventured Betty.

"Betty, is that what you read so carefully every night?" asked Mollie,
wide-eyed. "Oh, I don't see how you ever have the courage!" as Betty
nodded. "If I saw the name of anybody I--I--cared for in that dreadful
list, I don't know what I'd do."

"Oh, I don't know," returned the Little Captain, while a wistful light
grew in her eyes and her lips quivered. "When I don't find--what I'm
afraid to find--I feel like a criminal who has been reprieved, and it
gives me courage to face another day."

Then suddenly the girls saw Betty in her true light. Why, she was
suffering too! Think of her reading that awful list every night with
fear in her heart! And in the light of this revelation, her brave
efforts to cheer them seemed suddenly heroic.

"Betty dear," Mollie moved over toward her friend and put an arm about
her. "Do you care that much?"

A little sob of pent-up misery broke from Betty and she dropped her head
on Mollie's shoulder.

"Oh, so much!" she whispered brokenly.

Then everybody cried a little and the girls called them