At four o’clock in the afternoon Mr. Fenton sent a large motor car to the Girl Scout camp to bear Kara, Miss Mason, Lucy Martin and any other girls who chose to ride to the place under discussion as the site to be chosen for the Greek pageant.

The spot lay midway between the two camps.

Earlier in the afternoon Miss Frean had started off with the girls who preferred the hike.

Walking steadily without pausing for rest, before the others they arrived at the proposed place.

When the signal was given to halt, Tory Drew dropped down on the ground and in the fashion supposed to be best for meditation sat looking about her.

Several of the other girls followed her example, while Miss Frean remained standing with three or four companions. They preferred to command a wider view of their surroundings.

They had reached the source of the stream of water which ended in the small lake before the camp in Beechwood Forest.

Here the water was fairly deep but the stream of no great width. On one side was a small clearing with a grove of trees not far away. Where the Girl Scouts stood at present the open space was larger. A dozen yards away a country road connected with the state road that ran through the village of Westhaven.

Beyond were a rim of blue hills.

“I would not be surprised if we conclude this is the proper location,” Miss Frean said reflectively. “There is the disadvantage of being so far from Westhaven. We shall have to transport the scenery and costumes out here and make arrangements for the audience to be seated. Yet the place itself is rarely lovely.”

Tory looked at her beseechingly.

“The place is ideal. Please don’t say a word against it. Uncle Richard insists that the early Greeks possessed a greater love of the beautiful than we possess. Yet surely this spot would have pleased them!

“Our tableaux can be shown on the other side of the water. The audience can be seated on this side. The distance will add to the illusion. The Palace of Odysseus with the courtyard in front where most of the scenes will take place, can be constructed in front of the grove of trees. Odysseus can land on what is supposed to be the island of the Sea-Kings from a Greek galley rowed up the stream. And I shall appear with my maidens who come down to the banks to wash the imperial clothes of my royal family. Until the moment to appear before the audience the players can be concealed beyond the trees.”

Closing her eyes and clasping her hands ecstatically together, Tory exclaimed:

“Can you not see the entire scene, the beauty and glamour, what Uncle Richard calls the Greek spirit that we are to portray?”

Joan Peters laughed and shook her head.

“No, Tory dear, I am afraid not. We cannot all see it, although I must only speak for myself. Can’t you appreciate that we are not all possessed of the artistic temperament and gifted with the power of seeing visions? I am a humdrum person who has to be shown.”

Joan moved away to join another group.

“Tory, yours is a fortunate gift, I am not pretending to deny it. There are times when I envy you. Still, dear, some of us before we can behold the completed masterpiece, are obliged to consider how we can get a sufficient number of chairs out here to permit the audience to be seated comfortably,” Memory Frean interposed.

The girl looked at her half challengingly.

“I am not so unpractical as you may think. Uncle Richard and I drove out here a few days ago and discussed the very problem of how to seat our audience. He promised to have any number of chairs sent out at his expense. We can guess the number required by the tickets we shall sell. I have an idea our audience will be very large. After paying for our costumes and scenery there will still be a good deal of money to be divided between the Boy Scout Troop and our own.”

“A noteworthy conclusion, Tory. I am glad you have made the necessary decisions and arrangements without waiting for the other arrivals. A confusion of tongues just adds to a confusion of ideas,” Lance McClain remarked, jumping from his bicycle and unexpectedly joining the small group.

Apparently he had ridden on ahead of his Scout Troop.

He turned now and greeted Miss Frean.

Then he came over toward Tory.

“I don’t wish to be teased, Lance. Of course I have not made any decision and nothing positive can be decided until the vote is taken. I have only been entertaining myself by dreaming that this is to be the chosen site. I can see a mental picture that is very wonderful.”

Lance shook his head and laughed.

“I am not wishing to be disagreeable, Tory. Of course this is the ideal spot. It takes you and me to recognize the fact.”

For some reason neither of them understood, Victoria Drew and Lance McClain usually argued unimportant issues and agreed upon the important ones.

From a little distance beyond, the rest of the Boy Scout Troop could now be seen approaching.

“Yes, Don will be here in a little while, Tory. Don’t you and Dorothy worry. I rode over because the camp doctor thought I wasn’t in very good shape. I am not in high favor at camp at present, so I thought I’d do what I was told on this occasion,” Lance remarked.

Only three girls were sufficiently near at this instant to overhear his speech, Tory, Dorothy McClain and Louise Miller. The other girls and Miss Frean had moved over to meet the advancing Troop.

“What are you talking about, Lance? What have you done of late to break the camp discipline? If you don’t care for your own sake, I think you might consider how much Don and I care for your Scout record. It was enough for you to have originated the ridiculous excursion that resulted in the trouble between your Troop and our own that has lasted until now. Please, please don’t get into any more mischief.”

In Dorothy’s tone there was something maternal. Lance alone of all her brothers called forth this spirit in her.

“Sister of mine, you take me too seriously. I have only wandered off from camp now and then for a stroll in the woods. I am obliged to meditate. I have not broken any of the commandments. It is my misfortune to be unlike other people. You have told me this a good many times. So perhaps I am frequently misunderstood.”

Lance’s tone was so indifferent and teasing that Dorothy was seriously annoyed.

“I don’t mind if Louise and Tory do hear what I have been wanting a chance to say to you, Lance. You had no right to tell Teresa Peterson that she would be chosen to play the part of Penelope in our Greek tableaux. She has been dreadfully disappointed and it has made things hard for all of us.”

“Teresa Peterson to play Penelope! Who says I made any such suggestion, Dorothy? Teresa looks more like a pretty doll than the model of Greek faithfulness and propriety.”

Dorothy looked puzzled.

“Teresa told me herself, Lance. She told me she had met you two or three times by accident and you had talked to each other for a little while. She seemed to feel she ought to speak of it to me and to Miss Mason. Teresa is a dear, but she isn’t as clever as some of the other girls and I don’t think you would ever care to be very intimate friends. She never could understand you as Tory and Louise do. You did tell Teresa she was to be chosen for Penelope, didn’t you?”

Lance whistled.

“I suppose so, if she insists upon it.”

“Well, I wish you would stick to one story or the other, Lance,” Dorothy protested, moving away with Tory Drew and leaving her brother and Louise Miller together.

“I suppose there are not many things I would not forgive you, but I never should forgive your not being truthful.”

Lance and Louise remained silent a few moments after the others had departed.

Reproachfully Louise studied the thin, eager face.

“Lance, I can guess it is in your code to protect a girl by telling a half truth. I suppose Teresa somehow got the impression she was to be chosen for Penelope without your having said so. She is a vain little thing. But what I want to say is, please never hurt Dorothy in order to protect anyone else. Perhaps she is only your sister, but she hates deceit more than anything in the world, and you know how devoted she is to you.”

Lance frowned.

“See here, Louise, I’m not in the habit of telling fibs, so don’t preach. I am not going to have Teresa suffer any more criticism from the rest of you girls. I have met her a few times and we have talked. She seemed to think perhaps it was a mistake as long as our two camps were not friendly, so I am glad she has spoken of the fact to Dorothy and Miss Mason. I wasn’t going to say anything first.

“You need not worry over Dorothy and me, Ouida. We have our scraps now and then, but there isn’t another girl I think holds a candle to her at present, not even you or Tory.

“By the way, we ought to be special friends. We are both ‘different,’ and no one ever really likes being. Dorothy says you have got some queer idea in your head that you would like to be a naturalist. That is almost as good as my wishing to be a musician, when we both have our own livings to earn, the sooner the better for ourselves and families. We aren’t all Tory Drews in this world!”

Louise’s earnest pale gray eyes with their dark lashes were staring intently at her companion.

“I agree with the first part of your speech, Lance, but I really don’t understand what you mean about Tory,” she returned.

“Don’t you? Well, nothing important. Only Tory is one of the people who has talent and charm and things are going to be fairly easy for her compared to you and me. When the time comes for her to study art she will have her chance. Most people are fond of her. At present in our family old Don and father will do pretty much anything she asks. So I thought maybe you and I might be kind of special friends, Ouida. I may probably get into a scrape some day and not know the best way out and want your help.”

“You can always count on me, Lance, if for no other reason than because you are Dorothy’s favorite brother,” Louise answered simply.

Observing that Miss Mason’s car had arrived and several others, Lance and Louise moved toward the newcomers.

Three members of the Boy Scout Council and three other members of the girls had driven out with Mr. Fenton. It was rare in the history of the Scout movement that the girls and boys should take part in the same entertainment and the subject was being seriously considered.