art," or "It's a wonder you wouldn't have gone to enough pains to
build a railroad or sink a submarine."

To which, on one occasion in the course of the evening, Earl Hamilton
replied:

"Thank you, ladies; we always do things thorough."

"-_ly_!" screamed Katherine Crane. Yes, it was really a scream, an
explosion, too, if the indelicacy may be excused. But the opportunity
for a come-back struck her so keenly, so swiftly, that she just could
not contain her eagerness to beat somebody else to it.

Well, the laugh that followed also was of the nature of an explosion.
And it was on poor Katherine quite as much as on Earl, who had tripped
up on an adjective in place of an adverb. The girl's eagerness was so
evident that it struck everybody as funnier than the boy's mistake in
grammar. Anyway, she recovered quite smartly and followed up her
attack with this pert addendum as the laughter subsided:

"You evidently don't do your lessons thorough-_ly_." The emphasis on
the "-ly" was so pronounced, almost spasmodic, as to bring forth
another laughing applause.

This exchange of repartee took place in the large school auditorium,
to which all repaired as soon as the outdoor exercises had been
finished.

The program of the evening was punctuated by interruptions of this
kind every now and then. Of course, the fun-makers waited for
suitable opportunities to spring their "quips and cranks," so that no
merited interest in the doing could be lost. And none of it was lost.
The presence of the bold invaders seemed to add zest to the most
routine of the Camp Fire performances, and when all was over everybody
was agreed that there had not been a dull minute during the whole
evening.

At the close of the Camp Fire Girls' program the 150 Boy Scouts arose
and, with heroic unison of voices peculiar to much practice in the
delivery of school yells, they chanted a clever parody of Wo-he-lo
Cheer, a Boy Scout's compliment to the Camp Fire Girls, and then
marched out of the auditorium and away toward the interurban line,
where their chartered train was waiting for them, and all the while
they continued the chant with variations of the words, the rhythmic
drive of their voices pulsing back to the Institute, but becoming
fainter and more faint until at last the sound was lost with the
speeding away of the trolley train in the distance.

* * * * *

CHAPTER III.

THE SKULL AND CROSS-BONES.

If Mar