, and that is the reason I
brought him away."

"And there is another thing," exclaimed Margery. "You should not say Mr.
Raybold and his party. He was the only one of them who behaved badly."

"That is true," said Mrs. Archibald. "His sister is somewhat obtrusive,
but she is a lady, gentle and polite, and it would have been very painful
to her and as painful to us had it been necessary forcibly to eject her
brother from our camp. It was to avoid all this that we--"

"Eloped," interjected Mr. Archibald.

[Illustration: "'IF THEY AIN'T THE CAMP ROBBERS!'"]

The good Peter laughed. "Perhaps you are right," said he. "But I shall
have a word with that bicycle fellow when he comes this way. You are an
original party, if there ever was one. First you go on somebody else's
wedding-journey, and then you elope in the middle of the night, and now
the best thing you can do is to go to bed. You can have a good sleep and a
nine-o'clock breakfast, and I do not see why you should leave here for two
or three days."

"Oh, we must go this morning," said Mrs. Archibald, quickly. "We must go.
We really cannot wait until any of those people come here. It makes me
nervous to think about it."

"Very good, then," said Peter. "The coach starts for the train at
eleven."

Mrs. Archibald was a systematic woman, and was in the habit of rising at
half-past seven, and when that hour arrived she awoke as if she had been
asleep all night. Going to the window to see what sort of a day it was,
which was also her custom, she looked out upon the lawn in front of the
house, and her jaw dropped and her eyes opened. There she beheld Margery
and Mr. Clyde strolling along in close converse. For a moment she was
utterly stupefied.

"What can this mean?" she thought. "How could they have missed us so soon?
We are seldom out of our cabin before eight o'clock. I cannot comprehend
it!" And then a thought came to her which made her face grow pale. "Is it
possible," she said to herself, "that any of the others have come? I must
go immediately and find out."

In ten minutes she had dressed and quietly left the room.

When Margery saw Mrs. Archibald descending the piazza, steps, she left Mr.
Clyde and came running to meet her.

"I expect you are surprised to see me here," she said, "but I intended to
tell you and Uncle Archibald as soon as you came down. You see, I did not
at all want to go away and not let Mr. Clyde know what had become of me,
and so, afte