The Girl Scouts at Sea Crest Part 28

"We are to raid Jake's. Remember that," said Margaret.

"But we will surely have to make a contribution to Kitty," said Louise.

"She has had her eye on your buckles, Maggie."

"Why didn't you see the patient all the way home?" asked Leonore, when they stopped for the other girls at the Post Office.

"Oh, why didn't we?" reiterated Louise. "Leonore, she lives on forbidden ground. We have had a glimpse of it and hope for more, but we have to bide-a-wee, don't we, Margaret? Get me a quart of those peaches," she called out to Cleo, who seemed spellbound before a fruit stand.

"And I want new apples," ordered Margaret. "Don't take any old cold storage stuff. I want new ones, if they do pizen me," she declared.

"How folks stare," whispered Louise. "I'll have to leave off this handy little uniform for a while."

"Not at all," protested Margaret. "We want folks to know who we are. I feel like giving the cheer this very minute."

But the return of the marketers forestalled any such danger. Apples and peaches, and even a big melon, were piled in the car by the boy from the Italian fruit stand, and then Cleo insisted on every one having a soda before going back to Ocean Avenue.

The drug store, where the best soda was served, filled many other civic needs than those of supplying sundaes and prescriptions. It also served as a town information bureau, and just now, while the girls were waiting for their order, a very pompous woman in the spickest, spannest white duck outfit, was asking questions from the prescription clerk.

The girls heard him mention "the Point" and at this they stopped talking to "listen in."

"But I must get my messages as quickly as they are received," said the white duck woman. "It is of the utmost importance."

"Wireless messages have to be relayed," explained the man, "and besides that, we can't always get a boat over to the place." His voice was vindictive.

"All right, but please be more careful," said the woman. "It is not a matter of money, you know."

"We only have one kind of charge," fired back the clerk rather angrily.

"Our boys are paid for their time, and that's all we ask." He turned away to answer the telephone, and the haughty creature left the drug store. As she did she made no excuse for an impertinent survey of the girls, sipping their sodas.

"Know us the next time," said Cleo.

"Surely will," added Louise.

"And getting wireless messages for Luna Land! Now I'm all excited," and Margaret tried to make use of two drug store fans, one in each hand.

"It is flabbergasting," gulped Louise, finis.h.i.+ng her soda. "That white duck reminds me of something."

"Of Kitty's nurse," Margaret exclaimed. "I think though, the wireless one has a crackle the hospital brand lacks. Kitty's nurse was quite noiseless."

"That one wasn't, though," declared Julia. "She had enough starch in that outfit to defy even the Sea Crest dampness. Perhaps that was the real idea. Come on, scouts. Do you recall Neal is to take us out in his new launch?"

"And did you hear he is going to call it the Treddie, after us?" added Grace.

"Yes, wanted to make it True Tred, but we told him that was copyrighted," explained Julia.

"Shall we dare ask for a trip to the Point?" inquired Helen. "That was the plan you know; first trip in the new launch."

"We'll see. But come on, do. Leonore, you are a dear, to take us all about, and listen to our prattle," Cleo told the capable driver who had long since finished her soda, and was waiting patiently for the younger girls.

"I like it," she replied with evident sincerity.

"You shall have a box of sunburn cream for that," sang out Louise. "What is your brand? Or would you rather have a talc.u.m?"

Selecting from the bewildering display at the counter of summer toilet articles consumed still more time, until finally, realization that it was really lunch time, the fire bell announcing it, brought them all up sharply.

"Wish we had our slippers and pumps back," said Grace. "These emergency sneaks certainly look the part. When did Kitty say we were to raid Jake's?"

"No definite time was set, as they say about delayed scout meetings,"

replied Margaret, "but I could use my pretty buckled pumps this very afternoon."

"Wait a minute," Helen called to a news boy. "We want a paper!" They always seemed to want something when in town.

"Look! Look!" exclaimed Margaret, securing the sheet while some one else paid the boy. "We are all over the front page. Louise Hart, we will have to appoint a body guard for you, or the people will kidnap you. Just read this!"

"Oh, just listen," insisted Cleo. "It says the Sea Crest Life Savers are going to ask the naval authorities to acknowledge the brave act----"

But Louise had fallen back in a mock faint--The glory of the aftermath was getting a bit too thick for comfort.

CHAPTER XX

A REVELATION

"ANYWHERE you like, and the bottom, not the sky, is the limit." It was Neal, replying to the girls' request for a trip to the Point in the Treddie.

The party included Grace, Louise, Julia, Helen, Cleo, Isabel, Elizabeth and Corinne, the last named having run up from the Windward, to spend a few days with her school companions at Sea Crest.

"A regular excursion," said Elizabeth. "We should have brought eats."

"We may find them," suggested Neal, turning over his engine, whereat the Treddie chugged off.

"This may look like an excursion, girls," said Cleo, "but it feels like an expedition. I'm quivering with excitement."

"And I'm all goose flesh with apprehension," followed Louise. "How do we know what we are going to run into on Looney Land?"

"We don't. There would be no fun in it if we did," Grace told her. "I've come armed. If bears or lions howl at me they'll get ammonia from my tree," she rhymed, exhibiting Benny's water pistol.

"Spoof," Corinne exclaimed; "I thought we had wild terrors up at Windward, but we haven't come across bears nor injuns. Wish I had brought my illegal sling shot that I only use in self defense."

"Treddie can tread," remarked Isabel. "Who was it walked on the water?"

"Ancient or modern?" flipped Louise. "I'm busy thinking of walking on air just now."

"Which way do you want to go first?" asked Neal, turning a little from his steering wheel.

"To the Point," called Cleo.