"I think you had all better come into the house till the boys come back,"
their chaperon continued. "I shall feel safer when we are behind locked
doors."

The girls shivered, but Mollie protested.

"Suppose anything should happen to the boys?" she asked, but here Mrs.
Irving chose to exercise her authority.

"We will talk about that when we are inside the house," she said very
firmly, and Mollie had nothing else to do but obey.

The girls did breathe a little more freely when the door was locked, but
they found themselves wishing even more ardently that the boys would come
back.

The window against which the horribly distorted face had been pressed
seemed to hold a peculiar fascination for the Outdoor Girls and they found
themselves unable to turn their eyes away from it.

"Oh, I wish the boys would come back," moaned Amy, after a few moments
more had passed in strained silence. "If anything should happen to them
I'm sure I would die."

"Nonsense, Amy," snapped Mollie. "What could one little mad old man do to
three big husky soldier boys?"

The words had hardly been spoken when the sound of voices could be heard
coming toward the house, and a moment later the boys themselves stamped up
on the porch.