Angel Island

But Frank again kept silence.

"Betchu we find them at home to-night," Honey said as they started down

the trail an hour ahead of time. "Who'll take me. Come!"

No one took him, luckily for Honey. There was no sign of life that

night, nor the next, nor the next. And in the meantime, the women did

not manifest themselves once during the daytime at the New Camp.

"God, we've got to do something about this," Ralph said at the end of

five days. "This is getting serious. I want to see Angela. I hadn't any

idea I could miss her so much. It seems as if they'd been gone for a

month. They must have been preparing for this siege for weeks. Where the

thunder are they hiding - in the jungle somewhere, of course?"

"Oh, of course," Honey assented. "I miss the boys, too," he mourned, "I

used to have a frolic with them every morning before I left and every

night when I got home."

"And it's all so uncomfortable living alone," Ralph grumbled. He was

unshaven. The others showed in various aspects of untidiness the lack of

female standards.

"I'm so sick of my own cooking," Honey complained.

"Not so sick as we are," said Pete.

"Anybody can have my job that wants it," Honey volunteered with a touch

of surliness unusual with him.

At noon the five women appeared again at the end of the trail.

In contrast to the tired faces and dishevelled figures of the men, they

presented an exquisite feminine freshness, hair beautifully coiled,

garments spotless and unwrinkled. But although their eyes were like

stars and their cheeks like flowers, their faces were serious; a dew, as

of tears lately shed, lay over them.

"Shall Angela fly?"' Julia asked without parley.

The women turned.

"Wait a moment," Frank called in a sudden tone of authority. "I'm with

you women in this. If you'll let me join your forces, I'll fight on your

side."

He had half-covered the distance between them before Julia stopped him

with a "Wait a moment!" as decisive as his own.

"In the first place," she said, "we don't want your help. If we don't

get this by our own efforts, we'll never value it. In the second place,

we'll never be sure of it. We don't trust you - quite. You tricked us

once. That was your fault. If you trick us again, that's our fault.

Thank you - but no, Frank."