“You must pretend to be very indignant if ever you are called to account, and I will pretend to be indignant, too.  I almost hope she does complain of us, and she will, too.  She is a sneak.”

“I don’t hope she’ll complain of us,” cried Cora in alarm.  “I know I should die of mortification.”

“You haven’t any courage, Cora Kidder,” declared Patricia scornfully.  “I see I shall have to look out for both of us, and——­”

“No, no,” protested Cora.  “Tell me what you want me to do.  I will do it.  I don’t want to be found out for what I already have done and be sent home.  What would I do?  Oh, what would I do?”

Patricia gave her a withering glance.

“What you need is backbone.  You haven’t any more courage than a two-year old child.  What ails you?”

“You say I haven’t any courage,” answered Cora hotly.  “I’ll show you whether I have or not.  What do you want me to do?” she demanded, straightening up to her full height and looking Patricia squarely in the eyes.

“That’s the way to talk, dear,” nodded Patricia.  “Let’s take a walk.  Forget the mean things I just said to you, but I had to do it to put some spunk into you.”

“There comes that Margery girl,” exclaimed Cora.

“Don’t mind her.  She wouldn’t see the side of a house if it were set up right in front of her.  I can’t say as much for that perfectly impossible Grace Thompson.  She is as sharp as she can be, and she isn’t afraid to speak right out before everybody.  Didn’t you see how she held her ground last night when most of the others ran away.”

“Oh, she was in the secret.  She knew all about it,” answered Cora Kidder.

“That’s where you make a mistake.  She didn’t.  Didn’t you see how frightened she was at first?”

Cora shook her head.

“You must keep your eyes open,” advised Patricia.  “You’ve gone too far to take any chances; that is, any more than you have to take.  She was going to run, then she held herself steady by sheer grit.  I don’t like her, I don’t like any of them, but I know real courage when I see it and she showed it last night.”

“Harriet knew, though?”

“Oh, yes; she was in the game.  Of course she was.  It was a shame.  She ought to be put out of the camp.  She will be.  There isn’t room here for her and me.”

Patricia linked an arm in that of Cora’s, walking away to a spot where they might be more by themselves.  There were too many girls passing back and forth now to make prudent a discussion such as was theirs.

A good part of the afternoon found Harriet Burrell in the kitchen of the cook tent.  Harriet was trying to win an “honor” by making soup.  By making five standard soups consecutively she would win another bead, provided the soups were favorably received by the Camp Wau-Wau Girls.

Harriet’s first day in the kitchen resulted in more confusion than the kitchen had known that season.  It seemed that everything was misplaced.  The dinner was late that night, but the soup was excellent.  The other girls in the kitchen made no complaint about the confusion, which they believed to be due to carelessness on Harriet’s part, because the misplaced articles and various ingredients scattered about were those which she had used in her work.