Bessie stared at her, in wonder and admiration.  “Why, Dolly Ransom!” she said.  “However do you do it?  I never heard of such a thing!”

“I don’t know how I do it,” said Dolly, recovering her breath.  “No one who can does, I guess.  It’s just something you happen to be able to do.”

“You certainly frightened them,” said Bessie.  “And you saved us with your trick, Dolly.  I think they’ve run clear away.  We can follow them down the trail; they won’t stick to it, and I think we can go right back to Long Lake, now, without being afraid any more.  Come on, we’d better start.  I don’t want to stay here.”

CHAPTER XII

OUT OF THE FRYING PAN

“Stay here?  I should say not!” exclaimed Dolly.  “I’m almost starved—­and, Bessie, they must be terribly worried about us, too.  And now tell me, as we go along, how you ever found me.  I don’t see how you managed that.”

So, as they made their way down the trail, Bessie told her of all that had happened since her rude awakening at the camp fire, just after the gypsy had carried Dolly off.

“Oh, Bessie, it was perfectly fine of you, and it’s only because of you that we’re safe now!  But you oughtn’t to have taken such a risk!  Just think of what might have happened!”

“That’s just it, Dolly.  I’ve got time to think about it now, but then I could only think of you, and what was happening to you.  If I’d stopped to think about the danger I’m afraid I wouldn’t have come.”

“But you must have known it was dangerous!  I don’t know anyone else who would have done it for me.”

“Oh, yes, they would, Dolly.  That’s one of the things we promise when we join the Camp Fire Girls—­always to help another member of the Camp Fire who is in trouble or in danger.”

“Yes—­but not like that.  It doesn’t say anything about going into danger yourself, you know.”

“Listen, Dolly.  If you saw me drowning in the water, you’d jump in after me, wouldn’t you?  Or after any of the girls—­if there wasn’t time to get help?”

“I suppose so—­but that’s different.  It just means going in quickly, without time to think very much about it.  And you had plenty of time to think while you were tramping along that horrid dark trail after me.”

“Well, it’s all over now, Dolly, and, after all, you had to save both of us in the end.”

“That was just a piece of luck, and a trick, Bessie.  It didn’t take any courage to do that—­and, beside, if it hadn’t been for you I would never have had the chance to do that.  I wonder why Lolla let you have her knife to cut those cords about me?”

“I think she’s a regular actress, Dolly, and that she wanted to make me feel absolutely sure she was on our side, so that we would both be there in that trap when she and Peter came back.”

“It’s a good thing he was such a coward, Bessie.”