The rest of the day went by in a whirl for Stella. She had to sit back and watch

  everything from the sidelines, but the Morgans and Bond acted like what came next

  was something they did all the time.

  Mister Morgan asked them to stay in the van while he went to get the park rangers.

  Then he returned with men in uniform and they went up the trail. About an hour later,

  the adult Morgans and rangers escorted a group of men in torn clothes and battered

  faces from the trail.

  Ruff rested his body on Stella the whole time so she had to struggle to watch what

  was going on from inside the van. The beating of a tail on the seat didn’t help.

  As soon as all of the goons were taken away, Mister Morgan got the fish bucket and

  had them go back to their camp. They had to cook the fish for dinner.

  The next part was the preparation and cooking of the fish. Stella was glad to sit that

  out as the Morgans did all the work. The strips of fish were speared and set over the

  fire to cook.

  A pot was produced and noodles were dropped in. Mister Morgan used water from

  a bottle for cooking. He frowned when the water didn’t boil over the open fire. He

  asked a small animal to heat the pot to the right temperature to boil the noodles. The

  salamander agreed, and soon they had fish and noodles ready to go.

  Mrs. Morgan cut up vegetables and put them in the pot with the noodles and let them

  simmer for a bit. Then she served all of it out on paper plates. Plastic forks were given

  to Bond and Stella. The Morgans had chop sticks.

  The meal went fast. Stella noted that no one talked about what had happened in the

  woods, or the men being hauled away by the rangers.

  She also noted that being a furry puppet didn’t stop Ruff from trying to sample some

  of the food from her plate. She finally pushed some off on the ground so he would be

  stalled in his efforts to take the whole plate from her.

  That worked for the six seconds it took for him to clean the ground with his tongue.

  Then he was back for more with his puppy dog eyes.

  “Down, Ruff,” said Mister Morgan. “Let the girl eat. We have some dog food for

  you.”

  The rest of the dinner went a bit faster with Stella being able to eat without a pest at

  her elbow. When she was done, she put the small amount left down for Ruff to eat.

  He devoured it with gusto.

  “All right, kids,” said Mister Morgan. He put his own plate down on top of Stella’s.

  It was empty to Ruff’s annoyance. “We have to head home tomorrow. Stella is going

  to have to catch her flight home in the afternoon. Let me feed Ruff, and then you can

  tell me a story better than the one I told you yesterday. Then it will be time to hit the

  sack.”

  “It’s pretty early, Dad,” said Mark. “Can’t we stay up longer?”

  “I don’t know,” said Mister Morgan. “Do you think you have earned the right to stay

  up longer?”

  “Yes,” said Melinda. “We didn’t do anything bad the whole day.”

  “And we kept out of the way when you wanted us to,” said Mark. “Plus Bond solved

  his mystery in his book.”

  “If you guys want to take Ruff for a walk and play,” said Mister Morgan. “I guess that

  will be fine. Don’t wander off that far. When you get back, you can tell your scary

  story.”

  “Then it will be bed time?,” asked Mark. Stella could see he was already trying to

  find ways to stretch out his awake time.

  “Sure,” said Mister Morgan. “I want a good scary story.”

  “I’ll see what I can do about that,” said Mark. He jumped up. “Come on, guys. We

  can hide and seek.”

  He rushed off into the dark, calling not it behind him. Melinda and Bond rushed off

  after him. Ruff looked up from his dog food and then continued to eat. He could hunt

  the kids down at his leisure.

  Stella remained where she had sat through dinner.

  “Something wrong, Stella?,” asked Mister Morgan. He put another log on the fire. He

  sat down against his log.

  “The thing that happened today,” said Stella. “That was because of me, wasn’t it?”

  “What do you mean?,” asked Mister Morgan.

  “Those men wouldn’t have come up here if I hadn’t been here,” said Stella. “So I

  caused that mess.”

  “Do you think so?,” asked Mister Morgan.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  “Yes,” said Stella. “They come up here because they were looking for me to find my

  dad.”

  “That’s a good chain of causality,” said Mister Morgan. “Take yourself out of the

  chain. If you weren’t around, what would they have done to find your dad?”

  “I don’t know,” said Stella.

  “You were the easiest fix for their problem,” said Mister Morgan. “If you hadn’t been

  around, someone else would have been used to put pressure on your dad. The thing

  is you can’t make people do what you want. You can trick them, you can make them

  think the thing they are doing for you is what they wanted to do in the first place, you

  can pay them to do what you want, you can coerce them. There’s always going to be

  people who only do what they want and nothing you do is going to change that no

  matter what you do.”

  “If I hadn’t been here, they would have threatened someone else?,” said Stella.

  “I guarantee it,” said Mister Morgan. “People who threaten other people’s loved ones

  will find something else to threaten if there aren’t any loved ones at hand. Something

  else deemed as valuable would be used. I’ve seen it a few times since I have been

  doing this heroing stuff. Most people who do that are bullies on the inside.”

  “Is that why you started being a hero?,” asked Stella.

  “No,” said Mister Morgan. “I was a kid, and I was adopted. Being a Scout was

  adventuring with your family. It was about doing things to help people when no one

  else could. When the Scouts were killed, I lost my family. I had to make do on my

  own for a while. Then I adopted others as my family, and then I had a natural family

  to go with the one I helped forge. Protecting the planet like we do is the same to me

  as protecting my family.”

  A lion drifted across Stella’s mind. She understood what he meant.

  “And he’s the finest example of the saving the planet hero I know,” said a voice out

  of the darkness.

  “Dad!,” shouted Stella. She jumped to her feet with a grin on her face.

  Pete Marston stepped out of the darkness as if appearing out of thin air. He wore a

  smile on his thin face. Keen eyes took in the camp as he caught Stella on the run.

  “Hey, Petey,” said Mister Morgan. He waved a hand. “Eavesdropping is bad for you.”

  “It’s how I make my living, Marty,” said Marston. “I heard you had some excitement

  up here.”

  “Nothing the wife couldn’t handle,” said Mister Morgan. He looked around. “She

  must be watching the kids to make sure they’re not scaring the bears. I didn’t expect

  to see you until tomorrow.”

  “When the Goreman Mob left town, I came up after them,” said Marston. “I heard

  what happened on the radio. You made the news with your capture of them.”

  “So much for my weekend off,” said Mister Morgan. “It’s a good thing we’re leaving

  in the morning. Reporters will be all over the park looking for us.”

  “Thanks for looking after Stella for me, Marty,” said Marston. “I didn’t think the mob

  would go for her, but I wanted her to be safe in case I was wrong.”

  “The next weekend I get off, you can look after my terrors for me,” said Mister

  Morgan. “Look out for Lin. She’s a biter.”

  Marston laughed.

  “Could I say goodbye?,” said Stella. “I don’t think it would be good if I just left

  without a word.”

  “Go ahead,” said Marston. “I’ll be waiting for you to come back.”

  Stella walked down the trail. She saw the thoughts of the children, but not the placid

  lake she associated with Mrs. Morgan. She wondered where the woman had gone.

  Maybe she was back at the campsite doing something to get ready for their leaving.

  “Hey, guys,” Stella called out. “My dad came to pick me up and I have to go.”

  “What?,” called Melinda. She appeared out of the darkness. “Your dad’s here? I

  thought he was meeting us at the airport.”

  The boys joined them. Mark frowned at the thought that Mister Marston had arrived

  at the camp and Ruff did nothing. Shouldn’t he have signaled danger, or new guest,

  or something?

  “So you’re going home now?,” said Bond. “That’s too bad. Mark and I have been

  trying to come up with a scary story to tell.”

  “It was great hanging out,” said Stella. “Mister Morgan already asked my dad to look

  after you guys the next time the weekend is free. I think Dad said you can come visit

  us.”

  “All right,” said Mark. “We’ll be in the city. Maybe we can chase some bad guys or

  something.”

  “I don’t think Dad is going to do let us do that,” said Stella. She smiled.

  “Wait,” said Bond. “You live in San Francisco?”

  “No,” said Stella. “I live in Los Angeles. San Francisco is a train ride away.”

  “I was thinking if you lived in the Bay area we could hang out,” said Bond.

  “I think all of you should come down and see the neighborhood with me,” said Stella.

  “It might even build character.”

  She smiled at the faces the siblings gave her for that.

  “I have to go,” said Stella. “I just wanted to say goodbye so you wouldn’t think I just

  left because I didn’t have some fun this weekend.”

  “It’s all right,” said Mark. He put out a hand. She shook it. “Scouts for life.”

  Bond did the same, then Melinda. The younger girl looked like she was going to cry.

  Ruff held out a paw to be shook with a grin and floppy ears hanging. He wagged his

  tail at the paw shake.

  “Let’s go back to camp,” said Mark. “It’s too bad you’re going to miss the scary story

  we’re going to tell.”

  “I know,” said Stella. “Come up with an even scarier one for your visit.”

  “I can do that,” said Mark.

  The four of them traced their way back to camp with Ruff bringing up the rear. They

  found the dads talking around the fire. Stella didn’t see Mrs. Morgan anywhere. She

  knew that her ability might be clouded by the other’s control of her thoughts.

  “Kids,” said Mister Morgan. “Say hello to Petey. You already know my kids, Petey.

  The other boy is Bond. He’s Corona’s and Ren’s.”

  “Hello, kids,” said Marston with a smile. “Thank you for looking after Stella for me.”

  “No problem,” said Mark.

  “She’s cool,” said Melinda.

  “Pleasure was ours,” said Bond.

  Mrs. Morgan appeared out of the darkness. The kids jumped back a little. Ruff

  wagged his tail. He snuffled in the direction of the box she was holding under one of

  her arms. She gestured for the kids to come closer.

  “I totally forgot about that,” said Mister Morgan. He got to his feet. He walked over

  and opened the box. He smiled. “Look what we have here. Who would like a piece

  of cake? We were going to save it for tomorrow, but since Stella is going home now,

  I don’t see why we can’t divvy it up now.”

  He handed out slices for the kids before taking one for himself. Mrs. Morgan sliced

  the last piece in half and gave one half to Marston while taking the other half. She

  threw the box in the fire to let it burn.

  “We should have got a bigger cake,” said Mister Morgan.