“Harriet is as plucky as she is strong,” answered Miss Elting.

So Tommy did not fall after all.  Harriet had not been certain that the cord would hold, hence she had requested the guardians to stand ready to break the smaller girl’s fall.  After Tommy had been lowered, Harriet swung herself down and joined the excited group below.

“Miss Burrell, kindly explain what you were doing in the tree?” demanded the Chief Guardian.

“I went up to assist my companion.”

“What was she doing there—­how did she chance to be in the tree?”

“I do not know, Mrs. Livingston.  Tommy will know.  I was not there when she climbed the tree.  I heard her call and went to her assistance.”

Mrs. Livingston did not say that Harriet’s being near enough to hear the call before any of the others had heard it, needed explanation.  Instead she turned to Tommy.

“Miss Thompson, what were you doing in the tree?”

“I wath hanging down.”

“How did you get up there?  Did some one lift you there?”

“I climbed.  Then when I got up far enough tho they couldn’t get me, I yelled.”

“So who could not get you?” questioned the Chief Guardian sharply.

“Oh, thome folkth that I wath taking a walk with through the woodth,” answered Tommy lamely.

“Young women we will return to the camp,” announced Mrs. Livingston.  It was a silent procession, except in the case of Grace, who kept up a continual chatter without saying much of anything.

Most of the girls were aware that a serious offense had been committed and that the morrow would be a day of reckoning.  More than one girl in that party was shivering as though from the chill night air.  All crawled into bed silently that night with expectations of trouble when morning came.

CHAPTER X

AROUND THE COUNCIL FIRE

Tommy’s sprightly remarks failed to draw forth the customary laughter that usually greeted them at breakfast that morning.  The faces of most of the girls wore serious expressions.  Mrs. Livingston and the guardians were grave, speaking in low tones when they spoke at all, as if to impress upon all the Camp Girls the gravity of the previous night’s occurrences.  The suspicion of a laugh was raised, however, by Tommy’s remark toward the close of the meal.

“I with thomebody would laugh,” she complained with a queer little grimace.

“You may laugh if you wish,” answered the Chief Guardian pleasantly.  But somehow Tommy couldn’t quite bring herself to do so.

Breakfast being finished the daily routine of the camp went on with its accustomed regularity.  Not a word had been spoken about the hazing of the two new girls.  The guardians were following some carefully laid plan, but Harriet wondered that no inquiry was made.  She had fully looked for a searching investigation to take place immediately after breakfast.  None came.