They mapped out their plans and scheduled their prospective movements
by the calendar and the clock. They chartered an interurban train for
the run to and from the Institute. The arrival on the scene of the
Grand Council Fire was, as we have seen, a complete surprise to the
girls. The Scouts well knew that their presence would not be regarded
as an intrusion, for a Grand Council Fire, according to the handbook,
"is for friends and the public."

The interruption of the program by the marching of the Boy Scouts
within the circle of the Camp Fire Girls was permitted to continue for
ten or fifteen minutes, while a number of short speeches were made by
some of the boy leaders, in which they gloried over the way they had
"put one over on the girls."

"And we're not through yet," announced Harry Gilbert prophetically.
"Some of us are going to put over another surprise just about as
thrilling as this, and we want to challenge you to find out what it
is."

Of course this statement produced the very result the boys desired.
Naturally they wished the girls to think they were pretty bright
fellows. They got just what they were looking for as a result of their
"surprise," namely, volumes of praise. To be sure, this did not come
in the form of undisguised admiration. That isn't the way a clever
girl signifies her approval of this sort of thing. It just burst into
evidence through such mock jeers as, "You boys think you are so
smart," or "It's a wonder you wouldn't have gone to enough pains to
build a railroad or sink a submarine."