pretty soon?" Holmes knows this country very
well, and he's got so much money that, if he spends it, he can probably
find people to do what he wants. Up there it's lonely country, and
pretty wild, and you could keep an eye on Bessie and Zara even better
than you can here. I don't know why he wants to have them in his power,
but it's quite evident that their plans depend on that for success, and
our best plan, as long as we're in the dark this way, and don't know the
answer to all these puzzling things, is to keep things as they are. I'm
convinced that they can't do anything that need worry us much as long as
we have Bessie and Zara safe and sound."

"We can start to-morrow," said Eleanor. "Bessie--will you tell the girls
to get ready? I'll go and make arrangements, Charlie."

And so, the next day, after lunch, the Camp Fire Girls, waving their
hands to kindly Mrs. Farnham, and making a great fuss over Walter, who
drove them to the station, said good-bye for the time, at least, to the
farm. And Dolly Ransom, Bessie noticed, took pains to be particularly
nice to Walter Stubbs.

CHAPTER III

LONG LAKE

"I love traveling," said Dolly, when they were settled in their places
in the train that was to take them up into the hills and on the first
stage of the journey to Long Lake. "I like to see new places and new
people."

"Dolly's never content for very long in one place," said Eleanor Mercer,
who overheard her remark, smiling. "If she had her way she'd be flying
all over the country all the time. Wouldn't you, Dolly?"

"I don't like to know what's going to happen next all the time," said
Dolly.

"I know just how you feel," Bessie surprised her by saying. "I used to
think, sometimes, when I was on Paw Hoover's farm in Hedgeville, that if
only I could go to sleep some night without knowing just what was going
to happen the next day I'd be happy. It was always the same, too--just
the same things to do, and the same places to see--"

"I should think Jake Hoover would have kept you guessing what he was
going to do next," said Dolly, spitefully. "The great big bully! Oh, how
glad I was when Will Burns knocked him down the other day!"

"Yes," admitted Bessie. "I didn't know just what Jake was going to tell
Maw Hoover about me next--but then, you see, I always knew it was
something that would get me into trouble, and that I'd either get beaten
or get a scolding and have to do without my supper. So even about that