Now the one drawback of the Camp was its shortage of water.
The daily supply had to be carried in buckets from the farm, and as, owing to the warm dry weather, the well was getting low, their allowance at present was rather small, and had to be carefully husbanded.

The amount doled out for washing purposes certainly was quite inadequate for the due rinsing of five plentiful heads of hair.
"I suppose we shall just have to grin and bear it till we can get home and can mermaid properly in a bath!" sighed Mary.
"Oh, I can't! I'm going to wash mine somehow.

Look here, suppose we sneak off quietly this afternoon, and go on a water hunt ?" "There isn't a stream or a pond anywhere near." "We haven't tried the wood!" "Well, we're not allowed there, of course." "I don't see why we shouldn't go.

The young pheasants must be all hatched, and running about by this time, so what harm could we do?
Besides which, nobody's troubling about preserving game during the war.
They're shooting Germans instead of birds this year." "Very likely the gamekeeper has enlisted," suggested Beatrice, "in which case there'd be no one to stop us." Now the strict law of the Camp confined the girls to the pasture, but as it was the last week of the quarantine, they were beginning to grow a little slack about rules.

The five victims of the salt cure waited until Miss Huntley and Nurse Robinson were enjoying their afternoon siesta; then, without waiting for any permission, they climbed the fence into the lane, found a thin place in the hedge, and scrambled into the wood.
It was a thrillingly exciting experience.