“Wait—­and keep my eyes open,” he said.  “I’m going to act as if I’d lost all interest in the case.  That may fool Brack.  Our best chance now, you see, is to wait for the other side to make a mistake.  They’ve made some already; the chances are they’ll do it again.  Then we can nab them.  What I want to do is to make them think they’re quite safe, that they needn’t be afraid of us any more.”

“You won’t need Bessie, then, right away?”

“No.  Really, she worries me.  I feel as if she weren’t safe here.  They seem to be afraid of her, and I wouldn’t put it past them to try to get hold of her and keep her where she can’t do any talking until they’ve done what they want to do.”

“But, Charlie, they must know that she’s told us everything she knows already.  Why should they want to take her away now?”

“If I knew that I could answer a lot of other questions, too.  But here’s a guess.  Suppose she knows something without knowing at all what it means, or how important it is?  That might easily be.  She might be able to clear up the whole mystery with some single, seemingly unimportant remark.  They may have good reason to know she hasn’t done it yet, but they may also be afraid that, at any time, she will entirely by accident give away their whole game.  And I’ve got an idea that if their game ever is exposed, someone will be in danger of going to jail.  See?  I’d like to figure out some good safe place for Bessie, where she’d be out of the way of all their tricks.”

Eleanor clapped her hands.

“Then I’ve got the very place!” she said.  “This business has upset the plans I’d made, but now I’m going to take my Camp Fire Girls down to dad’s farm in Cheney County.  You laughed at me when I was made a Camp Fire Guardian, Charlie, but you’re going to see now what a fine thing the movement is.”

“I didn’t mean to laugh at you, Eleanor,” he said, contritely.  “And I got over doing it long ago, anyhow.  I used to think this Camp Fire thing was a joke—­just something got up to please a lot of girls who wanted to wear khaki skirts and camp out because their brothers had joined the Boy Scouts and told them what a good time they were having.”

“That’s just like a man,” said Eleanor, quietly triumphant.  “None of you think girls can do anything worth while on their own account.  The Camp Fire Girls didn’t imitate the Boy Scouts, and they’re not a bit like them, really.  We haven’t anything against the Boy Scouts, but we think we’re going to do better work among girls than even the Scout movement does among boys.  Well, anyhow, we’re going down to the farm, and Bessie shall go along.  If anyone tries to kidnap her while she’s with the girls, they’ll have a hard time.  We stick together, let me tell you, and Wohelo means something.”

“You needn’t preach to me, Eleanor,” said the lawyer, laughing.  “You converted me long ago.  I’ll stand for anything you do, anyhow.  You’re all right—­you’ve got more sense than most men.  It’s a pity there aren’t more girls like you.”