n Margery's newly regained patience was to be sorely tried that
afternoon, when, after an early lunch, the Camp Fire Girls donned their
bathing dresses and went in swimming off the float in front of the
Worcester camp.

"Come on, Dolly," she cried. "See that rock out there? I'll race you
there and back!"

They went in together, diving so that their heads struck water at just
the same moment, while the rest of the girls watched them from the
float. On the outward journey they were close together, but they had
not more than started back when there was a sudden outburst of laughter
from the float where Gladys Cooper and her friends were watching, and
the next moment a white streak shot through the water, making a
terrific din, and kicking up a tremendous lot of spray.

"Whatever is that?" cried Zara.

"A motor boat," said Mary King. "Look at it go! Why, what are they
trying to do?"

The answer to that question was made plain in a moment. For the motor
boat, into which three or four of the girls from the next camp had
leaped, kept dashing back and forth between the float and the rock. It
raised great waves as it passed, and made fast swimming, and for that
matter, swimming of any sort, almost impossible. Moreover, it was
plain from the laughter of those on board that their only purpose was
to annoy the Camp Fire Girls and spoil their sport in the water.

Dolly and Margery, exhausted by their struggle with the waves from the
motor boat, struggled to the float as best they could and came up,
dripping and furious.

"See that!" cried Dolly. "They can't be doing that for fun. All they
want to do is to bother us. You'd think we had tried to do something
mean to them the way they keep on nagging us."

"They certainly seem to be looking for trouble," said Margery, "But
let's try not to pay any attention to them, girls."

Margery knew that Eleanor Mercer expected her, so far as she could, to
help her on the rare occasions when it was necessary to keep the girls
in order, and she realized that she was facing a test of her temper and
of her ability to control others: She was anxious to become a Guardian
herself, and she now sternly fought down her inclination to agree with
Dolly that something should be done to take down the arrogant girls
from the next camp, who were so determined to drive them away.

"I shall have to speak to whoever is in charge of those girls," said
Eleanor. "I'm quite sure that no teacher