Much relieved that they had not started a centre of infection in the camp, Katherine and Miss Gibbs returned to work after lunch, the latter issuing special instructions to her girls against the excessive consumption of the fruit they were gathering. Katherine was inclined to pose as an interesting invalid, and to claim sympathy, but the general feeling of her schoolfellows was against that attitude, and the verdict was "Greedy pig! Serves her right!" which was not at all to her satisfaction. "You're most unkind!" she wailed. "You've every one of you eaten quite as many strawberries as I have, only I've a delicate digestion, and can't stand them like you can. You're a set of ostriches! I believe you'd munch turnips if you were sent to hoe them! I don't mind what you say. So there!" As half-past six drew on, and most of the workers were handing in their last baskets for the day, Raymonde and Aveline kept watchful eyes on Mrs. Vernon. They fully expected that she might disappear on the way back to the camp, so, without making their purpose apparent, they shadowed her, pretending that they were looking for flowers in the hedge. They hung about in the vicinity of her tent until supper-time, and changed their seats at table so that they might sit nearer to her in the marquee. When the meal was over, and the washing up and water carrying finished, nearly everybody collected for an amateur concert. Miss Hoyle had a banjo, which she played atrociously out of tune, but on which she nevertheless strummed accompaniments while the rest roared out "Little Grey Home in the West," "The Long, Long Trail," and other popular songs. It was certainly not classical music, but it was amusing; and, as everybody joined in the choruses, the company consisted entirely of performers, with no audience except the cows in the adjacent pasture. Even Mrs. Vernon was singing, though with an inscrutable look in her grey eyes hardly suggestive of enjoyment. "She's doing it as a blind!" whispered Raymonde to Aveline. "Don't let her out of your sight for a single moment!"