"Of course," said Betty, laughing unsteadily. "It's always hard to say good-bye to anybody you--you--like," she added, "but when they're going away to war and you may never see them again----" "Please don't," begged Grace, squeezing her hand convulsively. "If you talk like that I just can't stand it, that's all. It wouldn't take very much----" "All right, I won't do it again," cried Betty with forced gaiety. "Isn't that Mollie waving to us? Of course it is. Come on, Grace, I'll run you a race." But Grace was in no mind to run a race, and Betty reached the meeting place alone, with Grace trailing in the rear. "Have any of the boys reached here yet?" asked Betty as she ran up the steps. "I was afraid we'd be late." "No, they haven't come," said Mollie, looking anxiously down the street; "and I'm so afraid they'll be late and miss the train, I don't know what to do. Do you suppose they could have forgotten?" "Mollie Billette," cried Betty, looking at her wonderingly, "what on earth----" "Oh, I know I'm impossibly silly," cried Mollie, dropping into a chair and rocking nervously; "but I just don't know what I'm saying this morning. I feel as if somebody was dead." "Not yet--but soon," boomed a deep voice behind them that made them jump a foot. "Roy Anderson!" cried Mollie, her French temper flaring forth. "That's a nice thing to do--come up behind us and scare us all to death. And it's not nice to joke about such a serious thing, either." "Gee, it won't do any good to cry about it," retorted Roy philosophically, looking around upon the three pretty girls with an appreciative eye. "I call it a great lark, and if only you girls were coming along my happiness would be complete." "Where are the other boys?" broke in Betty. "I thought you were all coming together." "I called for both of them," Roy answered, grinning, "but it seems they'd overslept themselves, and they said they'd be along later." "Well, if it's very _much_ later," said Grace grimly, "they might as well go back to bed again. That train isn't going to wait." "Oh, they'll be here all right," Roy assured her confidently. "They're not going to be left behind when there's any adventure like this afoot." "Here they come now," cried Betty, running to the edge of the porch and waving frantically. "Amy's with them, too. Must have picked her up on the way." "We'll save time if we go on down to meet them," Roy suggested, taking Grace by the arm. "Come along, girls, we really haven't any time to waste." Betty and Mollie needed no such invitation. They were down the steps and flying along the street before Grace had risen from her chair. "Oh, we were so afraid you'd be late," gasped Betty, as Allen caught her on the wing, as it were, and drew her to his side. "And if you weren't there on time, you might be tried for desertion, mightn't you?" she added, looking so adorable in her concern that Allen failed to reassure her right away.