a story in real life! And I want to live in that story, too, and
help you just like a book heroine. I think we can make it awfully
interesting, being real enough so it isn't just make-believe. It's
keen, I tell you. But for once I want to see if a boy and a girl can't
cut out the love interest and be just good pals, like two boys
together." Marion got up and stood before him, plainly as ready to go
as to stay. "If you'll agree to that I'll go and help you find your
cave. Otherwise, I'll go back to camp and stay there, and you can look
after yourself."

"Be calm! Be calm!" Jack pushed back his mop of hair and grinned
derisively. "You should worry about any lovemaking from me. Take the
bunch out at the beach, or at a dance, and I can rattle off the
sentimental patter to beat the band. But it doesn't seem to fit in up
here--unless a fellow meant it honest-to-goodness. And I ain't going
to mean it, my dear girl. Not with you. I like you as a friend, but I
fear I can never be more than a step-brother to you." He pulled off a
dead twig from the bush beside him, snapped it in two and flipped the
pieces down the slope. "I'd look nice, making love to a girl, the fix
I'm in!" he added with a savage bitterness that gave the lie to his
smiling indifference. "A fellow ought to make sure his canoe is going
to stay right side up before he asks a girl to step into it."

"That's all right then. It's best to understand each other. Now, if I
were you, I'd have things brought up here, a little at a time, that
you'll need for your secret camp. Groceries, you know, and things. You
can make a place to keep them in till you get your vacation--and
listen! When I go to town I can buy you things that would look queer
if you sent for them. Towels and napkins and--"

Jack gave a whoop at that, though his ignorance of primitive living
did not fall far short of hers. But in the main, he took her advice
with praiseworthy gratitude. He had never expected to enjoy being an
outlaw. But under the influence of her enthusiasm and his own
youthfulness, he began to take a certain interest in the details of
her scheme--to plan with her as though it was going to be merely a
camping out for pleasure. That, of course, was the boy in him rising
to the bait of a secret cave in the mountains, and exchanging
heliograph signals with the heroine of the adventure, and lying upon a
ledge before his cave watching for enemies. There would be the bears,
too, that Hank Br