During the day just ended, they had passed scarcely a word with Patricia and Cora.  The former was a girl about Harriet’s age, the latter a year or two older.  Cora was proud and haughty.  In this respect she was unlike the average Camp Girl, making the contrast, in Harriet’s eyes, all the more marked.

Harriet bade both girls a courteous good night as she turned in to her cot.  They were more slow to get to bed, and a guardian’s voice reminding them that it was then a quarter after nine, fifteen minutes past the time when lights should be out, caused the two girls quickly to extinguish the lantern that hung on the centre pole and seek their cots.  Harriet in a half doze realized that they were talking.  She roused herself, not to listen, but because they had disturbed her.  But Harriet would not ask them to be quiet.  As for Tommy, that young woman was asleep almost the instant she touched the cot.  It will be recalled that she had had little sleep during the previous night.

Then Harriet went to sleep with the whisperings of Patricia and Cora reaching her but faintly.  She recalled afterwards that when she roused herself they were sitting on the edge of Patricia’s cot.

As the night advanced the camp became dark and silent.  Two or three figures might have been seen stealing into the tent where the two Meadow-Brook Girls lay sleeping, but their movements were so cautious and stealthy that they did not awaken the sleepers.

There was sudden rush of feet, a smothered exclamation and a half cry of alarm from Tommy’s cot, then a struggle from Harriet’s side of the tent A few moments of silence followed, after which two forms with their heads swathed in towels were led from the tent, one struggling with all her strength to free herself from her captors, the other walking along without a protesting word or action.

The camp slumbered on.  Not a sound had reached the ears of the sleeping guardians near at hand, nor had another Camp Girl been awakened.  The figures of captors and captives were swallowed up in the gloom of the forest within a few moments.

CHAPTER IX

SOUNDING THE GENERAL ALARM

The instant a hand touched her cot Harriet Burrell was awake and sitting up.  But to her amazement she was thrown on her back, a towel was twisted about her head by a pair of dexterous hands and her arms were pinioned at her sides.  At first she did not know what to make of this sudden attack, then a warning whisper in a girlish voice brought understanding with it.  Harriet had been struggling with good prospect of getting free, but she ceased her efforts at once upon coming to the conclusion that some of the Camp Girls were playing a midnight trick on her.  Harriet even assisted them by obediently rising from her cot.  A pair of rubber-soled tennis shoes were quickly slipped on her feet.  Her clothing, with the exception of her camp uniform, was handed her and she dressed as best she could under the circumstances.  Then her bathrobe was thrown about her shoulders and again the warning voice whispered to her to be silent.