CHAPTER V

BETTY TAKES A DARE

It would be a week or two before Wild Rose Lodge would be ready for
the girls' occupancy, and as a relief for their impatience they filled
in the time in hiking, motoring and put-putting up and down the Argono
in their natty little motor boat.

But whatever it was they were doing, their conversation almost
invariably returned to one of two subjects-- the return of the boys
and the good time they would have at Moonlight Falls.

They spoke often of Professor Arnold Dempsey. They took a real
interest in the queer little old man, both because of the service he
had done them and the fact that he was watching and waiting for his
two big sons, even as they were anxiously awaiting the return of their
boys.

"It must be dreadfully lonely for him in that little cabin or house or
whatever you call it in the woods," Amy said one day as she and the
girls sauntered down to the dock where their motor boat was anchored.
"And he said he hardly ever had company."

"Goodness, I should think he would go crazy," Mollie commented. "Why,
I go almost mad when I don't have any one to talk to for an hour."

"I wonder if he lived in that little house all during the war," said
Betty thoughtfully. They had reached the dock and were walking slowly