"He has--has all sorts of nerve," agreed
Pemrose readily, glancing sideways after
the boy whose courage she knew to be
as high as his colors.

"The Scoutmaster wouldn't hear of
our venturing in so far as to investigate
that running water, anyhow," said Studley.
"My eye! What's the rumpus now
-the kettle o' fish?"

It was a shriek from one girl--half-a-dozen
girls. It was a loud hiss, almost a
whistle, from some pallid vegetation near
the lake-edge. It was a black snake rearing
a blue-black head and glittering eye
within three feet of Una Grosvenor, novice
among Camp Fire Girls, whose scream tore
at the very stones of Tory Cave until they
cried out in echo.

It was a dozen green-clad girls scattering
wildly this way and that, olive-green aspen
leaves tossing in a whirlwind, shuffling from
pillar to post--from rock to darkling rock.

It was--it was a powerful reptile form,
in armor of jetty scales, trailing its six-foot
[[167]]

p166 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p167w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p168

v?