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diff --git a/14630-h/14630-h.htm b/14630-h/14630-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..16ef1b8 --- /dev/null +++ b/14630-h/14630-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,5612 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Ruth Fielding On Cliff Island, by Alice B. Emerson. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right;} /* page numbers */ + .sidenote {width: 20%; padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em; margin-left: 1em; + float: right; clear: right; margin-top: 1em; + font-size: smaller; background: #eeeeee; border: dashed 1px;} + + .bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + .bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + .bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + .br {border-right: solid 2px;} + .bbox {border: solid 2px;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .figleft {float: left; clear: left; margin-left: 0; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: + 1em; margin-right: 1em; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .figright {float: right; clear: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span {display: block; margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em;} + img {border: 0;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14630 ***</div> + +<h1>Ruth Fielding</h1> +<h1>On Cliff Island</h1> + +<h5>OR</h5> + +<h2>THE OLD HUNTER'S TREASURE BOX</h2> + +<h3>BY</h3> + +<h2>ALICE B. EMERSON</h2> + +<p class="center">AUTHOR OF "RUTH FIELDING OF THE RED MILL," "RUTH +FIELDING AT SILVER RANCH," ETC.</p> + +<p class="center"><i>ILLUSTRATED</i></p> + + +<p class="figcenter"><img src="./images/emblem.jpg" alt="Emblem" title="Emblem" /></p> + +<p class="center">NEW YORK</p> + +<p class="center">CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY</p> + +<p class="center">PUBLISHERS</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h3><b>Books for Girls</b></h3> + +<p class="center">BY ALICE B. EMERSON</p> + + +<h4><b>RUTH FIELDING SERIES</b></h4> + +<p class="center">12mo. Cloth. Illustrated.</p> + +<p class="center">Price per volume, 40 cents, postpaid.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">RUTH FIELDING OF THE RED MILL</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Or, Jasper Parloe's Secret.</span><br /> + +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">RUTH FIELDING AT BRIARWOOD HALL</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Or, Solving the Campus Mystery.</span><br /> + +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">RUTH FIELDING AT SNOW CAMP</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Or, Lost in the Backwoods.</span><br /> + +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">RUTH FIELDING AT LIGHTHOUSE POINT</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Or, Nita, the Girl Castaway.</span><br /> + +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">RUTH FIELDING AT SILVER RANCH</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Or, Schoolgirls Among the Cowboys.</span><br /> + +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">RUTH FIELDING ON CLIFF ISLAND</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Or, The Old Hunter's Treasure Box.</span><br /> + +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">RUTH FIELDING AT SUNRISE FARM</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Or, What Became of the Raby Orphans.</span><br /> + +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">RUTH FIELDING AND THE GYPSIES</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Or, The Missing Pearl Necklace.</span><br /> +</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p class="center">CUPPLES & LEON CO., PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p class="center">COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY +CUPPLES & LEON COMPANY</p> + +<hr style="width: 33%;" /> + +<p class="center">RUTH FIELDING ON CLIFF ISLAND</p> + +<p class="figcenter"><a href="./images/1.jpg"><img src="./images/1-tb.jpg" alt="SHE SHOT OVER THE YAWNING EDGE OF THE CHASM AND DISAPPEARED" title="SHE SHOT OVER THE YAWNING EDGE OF THE CHASM AND DISAPPEARED" /></a></p><p class="figcenter">SHE SHOT OVER THE YAWNING EDGE OF THE CHASM AND DISAPPEARED</p> + + + +<h3>Contents</h3> + +<div class="center"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Contents"> +<tr><td align='left'>CHAPTER</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_I"><b>I.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>THE WRECK AT APPLEGATE CROSSING</td> +<td align='left'>1</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_II"><b>II.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>THE PANTHER AT LARGE</td> +<td align='left'>9</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_III"><b>III.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>UNCLE JABEZ HAS TWO OPINIONS</td> +<td align='left'>17</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_IV"><b>IV.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>ON THE WAY TO BRIARWOOD</td> +<td align='left'>26</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_V"><b>V.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>A LONG LOOK AHEAD</td> +<td align='left'>35</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_VI"><b>VI.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>PICKING UP THE THREADS</td> +<td align='left'>42</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_VII"><b>VII.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>"A HARD ROW TO HOE"</td> +<td align='left'>49</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII"><b>VIII.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>JERRY SHEMING AGAIN</td> +<td align='left'>57</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_IX"><b>IX.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>RUTH'S LITTLE PLOT</td> +<td align='left'>66</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_X"><b>X.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>AN EXCITING FINISH</td> +<td align='left'>73</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XI"><b>XI.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>A NUMBER OF THINGS</td> +<td align='left'>82</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XII"><b>XII.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>RUFUS BLENT'S LITTLE WAYS</td> +<td align='left'>90</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII"><b>XIII.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>FIGHTING FIRE WITH FIRE</td> +<td align='left'>98</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV"><b>XIV.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>THE HUE AND CRY</td> +<td align='left'>106</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XV"><b>XV.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>OVER THE PRECIPICE</td> +<td align='left'>115</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI"><b>XVI.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>HIDE AND SEEK</td> +<td align='left'>124</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII"><b>XVII.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>CHRISTMAS MORNING</td> +<td align='left'>133</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII"><b>XVIII.</b></a> +</td><td align='left'>FUN ON THE ICE</td> +<td align='left'>143</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX"><b>XIX.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>BLENT IS MASTER</td> +<td align='left'>150</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XX"><b>XX.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>THE FISHING PARTY</td> +<td align='left'>157</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI"><b>XXI.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>JERRY'S CAVE</td> +<td align='left'>166</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII"><b>XXII.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>SNOWED IN</td> +<td align='left'>173</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII"><b>XXIII.</b></a></td +><td align='left'>"A BLOW FOR LIBERTY"</td> +<td align='left'>181</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV"><b>XXIV.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>A MIDNIGHT MARAUDER</td> +<td align='left'>189</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='right'><a href="#CHAPTER_XXV"><b>XXV.</b></a></td> +<td align='left'>THE TREASURE BOX</td> +<td align='left'>197</td></tr> +</table> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>RUTH FIELDING ON CLIFF ISLAND</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I" />CHAPTER I</h2> + +<h2>THE WRECK AT APPLEGATE CROSSING</h2> + + +<p>A September morning has dawned, with only a vague tang of autumn in the +air. In the green old dooryard at the Red Mill, under the spreading shade +trees, two girls are shelling a great basket of dried lima beans for the +winter's store.</p> + +<p>The smaller, black-haired girl begins the conversation.</p> + +<p>"Suppose Jane Ann doesn't come, Ruth?"</p> + +<p>"You mean on this morning train?" responded the plumper and more +mature-looking girl, whose frank face was particularly attractive.</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"Then Tom said he would go back to meet the evening train—and we'll go +with him," said Ruth Fielding, with a smile. "But I could not go this +morning and leave poor Aunt Alvirah all these beans to shell."</p> + +<p>"Of course not," agreed her friend, promptly. "And Jane Ann won't feel +offended by our not meeting her at Cheslow, I know."</p> + +<p>"No, indeed, Helen," laughed Ruth. "Jane Ann Hicks is altogether too +sensible a girl."</p> + +<p>"Sensible about everything but her name," commented Helen Cameron, making +a little face.</p> + +<p>"And one can scarcely blame her. It <i>is</i> ugly," Ruth responded, with a +sigh. "Jane Ann Hicks! Dear, dear! how could her Uncle Bill be so +thoughtless as to name her that, when she was left, helpless, to his +care?"</p> + +<p>"He didn't realize that fashions in names change—like everything else," +observed Helen, briskly.</p> + +<p>"I wonder what the girls at Briarwood will say to that name," Ruth +pondered.</p> + +<p>"Why The Fox and Heavy will help us make the other girls toe the mark. And +Madge Steele! She's a regiment in herself," declared Helen. "We all had +such a fine time at Silver Ranch that the least we can do is to see that +Jane Ann is not hazed like the other infants."</p> + +<p>"I expect we all have to stand our share of hazing when we go into fresh +company," said Ruth, reflectively. "But there will not be the same crowd +to meet her that met us, dear."</p> + +<p>"And the Sweetbriars will be on hand to preserve order," laughed her chum. +"Thanks to <i>you</i>, Ruthie. Why—oh! see Tom!"</p> + +<p>She jumped up, dropping a lapful of pods, and pointed up the Cheslow road, +which here branched from the river road almost opposite the Red Mill.</p> + +<p>"What is the matter?" demanded Ruth, also scrambling to her feet.</p> + +<p>A big touring car was approaching at top speed. They could see that the +only person in it was a black-haired boy, who sat at the steering wheel.</p> + +<p>He brought the machine to an abrupt stop before the gate, and leaped out. +Tearing off his goggles as he ran, he approached the two girls in such a +state of excitement that he could scarce speak coherently.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Tom! what is it?" gasped Helen, seizing his arm with both hands.</p> + +<p>It took but a single glance to discover the relationship between them. +Twins never looked more alike—only Tom's features lacked the delicacy of +outline which belonged to his sister.</p> + +<p>"Tom!" cried Ruth, on the other side of the excited youth, "don't keep us +on tenter-hooks. Surely nothing has happened to Jane Ann?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know! They won't tell us much about it at the station," exclaimed +the boy.</p> + +<p>"There hasn't been a wreck?" demanded Ruth.</p> + +<p>"Yes. At Applegate Crossing. And it is the train from the west that is in +trouble with a freight. A rear-end collision, I understand."</p> + +<p>"Suppose something has happened to the poor girl!" wailed Helen.</p> + +<p>"We must go and see," declared Ruth, quick to decide in an emergency. "You +must drive us, Tom."</p> + +<p>"That's what I came back for," replied Tom Cameron, mopping his brow. "I +couldn't get anything out of Mercy's father——"</p> + +<p>"Of course not," Helen said, briskly, as Ruth ran to the house. "The +railroad employes are forbidden to talk when there is an accident. Mr. +Curtis might lose his job as station agent at Cheslow if he answered all +queries."</p> + +<p>Ruth came flying back from the house. She had merely called into the +kitchen to Aunt Alvirah that they were off—and their destination. While +Tom sprang in and manipulated the self-starter, his sister and the girl of +the Red Mill took their seats in the tonneau.</p> + +<p>By the time old Aunt Alvirah had hobbled to the porch, the automobile was +being turned, and backed, and then it was off, up the river road. Uncle +Jabez, in his dusty garments, appeared for a moment at the door of the +mill as they flashed past in the big motor car. Evidently he was amazed to +see the three—the girls hatless—starting off at such a pace in the +Camerons' car.</p> + +<p>Tom threw in the clutch at high speed and the car bounded over the road, +gradually increasing its pace until the hum of the engine almost drowned +out all speech. The girls asked no questions. They knew that, by following +the river road along the placid Lumano for some distance, they could take +a fork toward the railway and reach Applegate Crossing much quicker than +by going through Cheslow.</p> + +<p>Once Tom flung back a word or two over his shoulder. No relief train had +gone from their home station to the scene of the wreck. It was understood +that a wrecking gang, and doctors, and nurses, had started from the +distant city before ever the Cheslow people learned of the trouble.</p> + +<p>"Oh! if Jane Ann should be hurt!" murmured Helen for the twentieth time.</p> + +<p>"Uncle Bill Hicks would be heartbroken," agreed Ruth.</p> + +<p>Although the crossroad, when they struck into it at the Forks, was not so +smooth and well-built as the river highway, Tom did not reduce speed. Mile +after mile rolled away behind them. From a low ridge they caught a glimpse +of the cut where the two trains had come together.</p> + +<p>It was the old story of a freight being dilatory in getting out of a block +that had been opened for the passage of an express. The express had run +her nose into the caboose of the freight, and more harm was done to the +freight than to the passenger cars. A great crowd, however, had gathered +about.</p> + +<p>Tom ran the car into an open lot beside the tracks, where part of the +railroad fence had been torn away. Two passenger cars were on their sides, +and one or two of the box cars had burst open.</p> + +<p>"Look at that!" gasped the boy, whose bright eyes took in much that the +girls missed, for <i>they</i> were looking for Jane Ann Hicks. "That's a +menagerie car—and it's all smashed. See! 'Rival's Circus & Menagerie.' +Crickey! suppose some of the savage animals are loose!"</p> + +<p>"Oh! don't suggest such a thing," begged his sister.</p> + +<p>Tom saw an excited crowd of men near the broken cage cars of the traveling +menagerie. Down in the gully that was here crossed by the narrow span of +the railroad trestle, there was a thick jungle of saplings and brush out +of which a few taller trees rose, their spreading limbs almost touching +the sides of the ravine.</p> + +<p>It must be confessed that the boy was drawn more toward this point of +interest than toward the passenger train where Jane Ann might possibly be +lying injured. But Ruth and Helen ran toward this latter spot, where the +crowd of passengers was thickest.</p> + +<p>Suddenly the crowd parted and the girls saw a figure lying on the ground, +with a girl about their own age bending over it. Ruth screamed, "Jinny!" +and at the sound of the pet name her uncle's cow punchers had given her, +the girl from Silver Ranch responded with an echoing cry.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Ruth! And Helen! I'm not hurt—only scratched. But this poor +fellow——"</p> + +<p>"Who is he?" demanded Helen Cameron, as she and Ruth arrived beside their +friend.</p> + +<p>The figure on the ground was a very young man—a boy, in fact. He was +roughly dressed, and sturdily built. His eyes were closed and he was very +pale.</p> + +<p>"He got me out of the window when the car turned over," gasped Jane Ann. +"Then he fell with me and has either broken his leg, or twisted it——"</p> + +<p>"Only strained, Miss," spoke the victim of the accident, opening his eyes +suddenly. Ruth saw that they were kind, brown eyes, with a deal of +patience in their glance. He was not the sort of chap to make much of a +trifle.</p> + +<p>"But you can't walk on it," exclaimed Jane Ann, who was a large-framed +girl with even blacker hair than Helen's—straight as an Indian's—and +with flashing eyes. She was expensively dressed, although her torn frock +and coat were not in very good taste. She showed plainly a lack of that +motherly oversight all girls need.</p> + +<p>"They'll come and fix me up after a time," said the strange youth, +patiently.</p> + +<p>"That won't do," declared Ruth, quickly. "I suppose the doctors are busy +up there with other passengers?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes," admitted Jane Ann. "Lots of people were hurt in the cars a good +deal worse than Mr.—Mr.——?"</p> + +<p>"My name's Jerry Sheming, Miss," said the youth. "Don't you worry about +me."</p> + +<p>"Here's Tom!" cried Helen. "Can't we lift him into the car? We'll run to +Cheslow and let Dr. Davison look at his leg," she added.</p> + +<p>Tom, understanding the difficulty at a glance, agreed. Between the four +young folk they managed to carry Jerry Sheming to the car. They had +scarcely got him into the tonneau when a series of yells arose from the +crowd down near the derailed freight train.</p> + +<p>"Look out! Take care of that panther! I told you she was out!" shouted one +voice above the general uproar.</p> + +<p>Ruth Fielding and her friends, startled indeed, ran to the brow of the +hill. One of the wide-branched trees rose from the bottom of the ravine +right below them. Along one of the branches lay a long, cat-like body.</p> + +<p>"A black panther!" gasped Tom.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II" />CHAPTER II</h2> + +<h2>THE PANTHER AT LARGE</h2> + + +<p>"Say! let's get out of here!" exclaimed the girl from the West. "I don't +want to be eaten up by that cat—and Uncle Bill would make an awful row +over it. Come on!"</p> + +<p>She seized Ruth's hand and, leaving Tom to drag his sister with him, set +off at full speed for the motor car, wherein Jerry Sheming, the stranger, +still lay helpless.</p> + +<p>Helen was breathless from laughter when she reached the car. Jane Ann's +desire not to be eaten up by the panther because of what Mr. Bill Hicks, +of Bullhide, Montana, would say, was so amusing that Tom's twin forgot her +fright.</p> + +<p>"Stop your fooling and get in there—quick!" commanded the anxious boy, +pushing his sister into the tonneau. With the injured Jerry, the back of +the car was well filled. Tom leaped into the front seat and tried to start +the car.</p> + +<p>"Quick, Tom!" begged Ruth Fielding. "There's the panther."</p> + +<p>"Panther! What panther?" demanded Jerry, starting up in his seat.</p> + +<p>The lithe, black beast appeared just then over the brow of the hill. The +men who had started after the beast were below in the ravine, yelling, and +driving the creature toward them. The motor car was the nearest object to +attract the great cat's wrath, and there is no wild beast more savage and +treacherous.</p> + +<p>Tom was having trouble in starting the car. Besides, it was headed +directly for the huge cat, and the latter undoubtedly had fastened its +cruel gaze upon the big car and its frightened occupants.</p> + +<p>Ruth Fielding and her friends had been in serious difficulties before. +They had even (in the woods of the Northern Adirondacks and in the +foothills of the Montana Rockies) met peril in a somewhat similar form. +But here, with the panther creeping toward them, foot by foot, the young +friends had no weapon of defense.</p> + +<p>Ruth had often proved herself both a courageous and a sensible girl. +Coming from her old home where her parents had died, a year and a half +before, she had received shelter at the Red Mill, belonging to her great +uncle, Jabez Potter, at first as an object of charity, for Uncle Jabez was +a miserly and ill-tempered old fellow. The adventures of the first book of +this series, entitled "Ruth Fielding of the Red Mill; Or, Jasper Parloe's +Secret," narrate how Ruth won her way—in a measure, at least—to her +uncle's heart.</p> + +<p>Ruth made friends quickly with Helen and Tom Cameron, and when, the year +previous, Helen had gone to Briarwood Hall to school, Ruth had gone with +her, and the fun, friendships, rivalries, and adventures of their first +term at boarding school are related in "Ruth Fielding at Briarwood Hall; +Or, Solving the Campus Mystery."</p> + +<p>In "Ruth Fielding at Snow Camp; Or, Lost in the Backwoods," the third +volume of the series, are told the mid-winter sports of our heroine and +her friends; and later, after the school year is concluded, we find them +all at the seaside home of one of the Briarwood girls, and follow them +through the excitement and incidents of "Ruth Fielding at Lighthouse +Point; Or, Nita, the Girl Castaway."</p> + +<p>When our present story opens Ruth and the Camerons have just returned from +the West, where they had spent a part of the summer vacation with Jane Ann +Hicks, and their many adventures are fully related in the fifth volume of +the series, entitled "Ruth Fielding at Silver Ranch; Or, Schoolgirls Among +the Cowboys."</p> + +<p>Few perils they had faced, however, equalled this present incident. The +black panther, its gleaming eyes fixed upon the stalled motor car and the +young folk in it, crouched for only a moment, with lashing tail and bared +fangs.</p> + +<p>Uttering another half-stifled snarl, the beast bounded into the air. The +distance was too great for the brute to pass immediately to the car; but +it was plain that one more leap would bring her aboard.</p> + +<p>"Start it! Quick, Tom!" gasped Helen.</p> + +<p>"I—I can't!" groaned her brother.</p> + +<p>"Then we must run——"</p> + +<p>"Sit still!" commanded Jane Ann, with fire in her eye. "I'm not going to +run from that cat. I hate 'em, anyway——"</p> + +<p>"We can't leave Mr. Sheming," said Ruth, decidedly. "Try again, Tommy."</p> + +<p>"Oh, don't bother about me," groaned the young man, who was still a +stranger to them. "Don't be caught here on my account."</p> + +<p>"It will not do us any good to run," cried Ruth, sensibly. "Oh, Tommy!"</p> + +<p>And then the engine started. The electric starter had worked at last. Tom +threw in his clutch and the car lunged ahead just as the snarling cat +sprang into the air again.</p> + +<p>The cat and the car were approaching each other, head on. The creature +could not change its course; nor could Tom Cameron veer the car very well +on this rough ground.</p> + +<p>He had meant to turn the car in a big circle and make for the road again. +But that flashing black body darting through the air was enough to shake +the nerve of anybody. The car "wabbled." It shot towards the tracks, and +then back again.</p> + +<p>Perhaps that was a happy circumstance, after all. For as the car swerved, +there was a splintering crash, and the windshield was shivered. The body +of the panther shot to one side and the motor car escaped the full shock +of the charge.</p> + +<p>Over and over upon the ground the panther rolled; and off toward the road, +in a long, sweeping curve, darted the automobile.</p> + +<p>"Lucky escape!" Tom shouted, turning his blazing face once to look back at +the party in his car.</p> + +<p>"Oh! More than luck, Tommy!" returned Ruth, earnestly.</p> + +<p>"It was providential," declared Helen, shrinking into her seat again and +beginning to tremble, now that the danger was past.</p> + +<p>"Good hunting!" exclaimed the girl from the ranch. "Think of charging a +wildcat with one of these smoke wagons! My! wouldn't it make Bashful Ike's +eyes bulge out? I reckon he wouldn't believe we had such hunting here in +the East—eh?" and her laugh broke the spell of fear that had clutched +them all.</p> + +<p>"That critter beats the biggest bobcat I ever heard of," remarked Jerry +Sheming. "Why! a catamount isn't in it with that black beast."</p> + +<p>"Where'd it go?" asked Tom, quite taken up with the running of the car.</p> + +<p>"Back to the ravine," said Ruth. "Oh! I hope it will do no damage before +it is caught."</p> + +<p>Just now the four young friends had something more immediate to think +about. This Jerry Sheming had been "playing 'possum." Suddenly they found +that he lay back in the tonneau, quite insensible.</p> + +<p>"Oh, oh!" gasped Helen. "What shall we do? He is—Oh, Ruth! he isn't +<i>dead</i>?"</p> + +<p>"Of a strained leg?" demanded Jane Ann, in some disgust.</p> + +<p>"But he looks so white," said Helen, plaintively.</p> + +<p>"He's just knocked out. It's hurt him lots more than he let on," declared +the girl from Silver Ranch, who had seen many a man suffer in silence +until he lost the grip on himself—as this youth had.</p> + +<p>In half an hour the car stopped before Dr. Davison's gate—the gate with +the green lamps. Jerry Sheming had come to his senses long since and +seemed more troubled by the fact that he had fainted than by the injury to +his leg.</p> + +<p>Ruth, by a few searching questions, had learned something of his story, +too. He had not been a passenger on the train in which Jane Ann was riding +when the wreck occurred. Indeed, he hadn't owned carfare between stations, +as he expressed it.</p> + +<p>"I was hoofin' it from Cheslow to Grading. I heard of a job up at +Grading—and I needed that job," Jerry had observed, drily.</p> + +<p>This was enough to tell Ruth Fielding what was needed. When Dr. Davison +asked where the young fellow belonged, Ruth broke in with:</p> + +<p>"He's going to the mill with me. You come after us, Doctor, if you think +he ought to go to bed before his leg is treated."</p> + +<p>"What do you reckon your folks will say, Miss?" groaned the injured youth. +And even Helen and Tom looked surprised.</p> + +<p>"Aunt Alvirah will nurse you," laughed Ruth. "As for Uncle Jabez——"</p> + +<p>"It will do Uncle Jabez good," put in Dr. Davison, confidently. "That's +right, Ruthie. You take him along to your house. I'll come right out +behind you and will be there almost before Tom, here, and your uncle's Ben +can get our patient to bed."</p> + +<p>It had already been arranged that Jane Ann should go on to Outlook, the +Camerons' home. She would remain there with the twins for the few days +intervening before the young folk went back to school—the girls to +Briarwood, and Tom to Seven Oaks, the military academy he had entered when +his sister and Ruth went to their boarding school.</p> + +<p>"How you will ever get your baggage—and in what shape—we can only +guess," Tom said to the Western girl, grinning over his shoulder as the +car flew on toward the Red Mill. "Guess you'll have to bid a fond farewell +to all the glad rags you brought with you, and put on some of Ruth's, or +Helen's."</p> + +<p>"I'd look nice; wouldn't I?" she scoffed, tossing her head. "If I don't +get my trunks I'll sue the railroad company."</p> + +<p>The car arrived before the gate of the cottage. There was the basket of +beans just where Ruth and Helen had left them. And Aunt Alvirah came +hobbling to the door again, murmuring, "Oh, my back! and oh, my bones!" +and quite amazed when she saw Ben come running to help Tom Cameron into +the house with the youth from the railroad wreck.</p> + +<p>"Though, landy's sake! I don't know what your Uncle Jabez will say when he +comes back from town and finds this boy in the best bed," grumbled Aunt +Alvirah, after a bit, when she and Ruth were left alone with Jerry +Sheming, and the others had gone on in the car, hurrying so as not to be +late for luncheon at Outlook.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III" />CHAPTER III</h2> + +<h2>UNCLE JABEZ HAS TWO OPINIONS</h2> + + +<p>Dr. Davison came, found that Jerry's leg was not broken, left liniment, +some quieting medicine to use if the patient could not sleep, and went +away. Still Uncle Jabez had not returned from town.</p> + +<p>Dinner had been a farce. Ben, the hired man, was fed as usual; but Ruth +and Aunt Alvirah did not feel like eating; and, considering his fever, it +was just as well, the doctor said, if the patient did not eat until later.</p> + +<p>Jerry Sheming was a fellow of infinite pluck. The pain he had endured +during his rough ride in the automobile must have been terrific. Yet he +was only ashamed, now, that he had fainted.</p> + +<p>"First time I ever heard of a Sheming fainting—or yet a Tilton, Miss," he +told Ruth.</p> + +<p>"I don't believe you belong near here?" suggested Ruth, who sat beside +him, for he seemed restless. "I don't remember hearing either of those +names around the Red Mill."</p> + +<p>"No. I—I lived away west of here," replied Jerry, slowly. "Oh, a long +ways."</p> + +<p>"Not as far as Montana? That is where Jane Ann comes from."</p> + +<p>"The girl I helped through the car window?" he asked, quickly.</p> + +<p>"Yes. Miss Hicks."</p> + +<p>"I did not mean really West," he said. "But it's quite some miles. I had +been walking two days—and I'm some walker," he added, with a smile.</p> + +<p>"Looking for work, you said?" questioned Ruth, diffident about showing her +interest in the young fellow, yet deeply curious.</p> + +<p>"Yes. I've got to support myself some way."</p> + +<p>"Haven't you any folks at all, Mr. Jerry?"</p> + +<p>"I ain't a 'mister,'" said the youth. "I'm not so much older than you and +your friends."</p> + +<p>"You seem a lot older," laughed Ruth, tossing back her hair.</p> + +<p>"That's because I have been working most of my life—and I guess livin' in +the woods all the time makes a chap seem old."</p> + +<p>"And you've lived in the woods?"</p> + +<p>"With my uncle. I can't remember anybody else belongin' to me—not very +well. Pete Tilton is <i>his</i> name. He's been a guide and hunter all his +life. And of late years he got so queer—before they took him away——"</p> + +<p>"Took him away?" interrupted Ruth, "What do you mean by that?"</p> + +<p>"Why, I'll tell you," said Jerry, slowly. "He got wild towards the last. +It was something about his money and papers that he lost. He kep' 'em in a +box somewhere. There was a landslide at the west end of the island."</p> + +<p>"The island? What island?"</p> + +<p>"Cliff Island. That's where we lived. Uncle Pete said he owned half the +island, but Rufe Blent cheated him out of it. That's what made him so +savage with Blent, and he come pretty near killin' him. At least, Blent +told it that way.</p> + +<p>"So they took poor Uncle Pete into court, and they said he wasn't safe to +be at large, and sent him to the county asylum. Then—well, there wasn't +no manner o' use my stayin' around there. Rufe Blent warned me off the +island. So I started out to hunt a job."</p> + +<p>The details were rather vague, but Ruth felt a little diffident about +asking for further particulars. Besides, it was not long before Uncle +Jabez came home.</p> + +<p>"What do ye reckon your Aunt Alvirah keeps that spare room for?" demanded +the old miller, with his usual growl, when Ruth explained about Jerry. +"For to put up tramps?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Uncle! he isn't just a <i>tramp</i>!"</p> + +<p>"I'd like to know what ye call it, Niece Ruth?" grumbled Uncle Jabez.</p> + +<p>"Think how he saved Jane Ann! That car was rolling right down the +embankment. He pulled her through the window and almost the next moment +the car slid the rest of the way to the bottom, and lots of people—people +in the chairs next to her—were badly hurt. Oh, Uncle! he saved her life, +perhaps."</p> + +<p>"That ain't makin' it any dif'rent," declared Uncle Jabez. "He's a tramp +and nobody knows anything about him. Why didn't Davison send him to the +hospital? The doc's allus mixin' us up with waifs an' strays. He's got +more cheek than a houn' pup——"</p> + +<p>"Now, Jabez!" cried the little old lady, who had been bending over the +stove. "Don't ye make yourself out wuss nor you be. That poor boy ain't +doin' no harm to the bed."</p> + +<p>"Makin' you more work, Alviry."</p> + +<p>"What am I good for if it ain't to work?" she demanded, quite fiercely. +"When I can't work I want ye sh'd take me back to the poor farm where ye +got me—an' where I'd been these last 'leven years if it hadn't been for +your charity that you're so 'fraid folks will suspect——"</p> + +<p>"Charity!" broke in Uncle Jabez. "Ha! Yes! a fat lot of charity I've +showed you, Alviry Boggs. I reckon I've got my money's wuth out o' you +back an' bones."</p> + +<p>The old woman stood as straight as she could and looked at the grim miller +with shining eyes. Ruth thought her face really beautiful as she smiled +and said, wagging her head at the gray-faced man:</p> + +<p>"Oh, Jabez Potter! Jabez Potter! Nobody'll know till you're in your coffin +jest how much good you've done in this world'—on the sly! An' you'll let +this pore boy rest an' git well here before he has to go out an' hunt a +job for hisself. For my pretty, here, tells me he ain't got no home nor no +friends."</p> + +<p>"Uh-huh!" grunted Uncle Jabez, and stumped away to the mill, fairly beaten +for the time.</p> + +<p>"He grumbles and grunts," observed Aunt Alvirah, shaking her head as she +turned to her work again. "But out o' sight he's re'lly gettin' +tender-hearted, Ruthie. An' I b'lieve you showed him how a lot. Oh, my +back! and oh, my bones!"</p> + +<p>Before supper time a man on horseback came to the mill and cried a warning +to the miller and his family: "Look out for your stables and pigpens. +There's three beasts loose from those wrecked menagerie cars at the +crossing, Jabez."</p> + +<p>"Mercy on us! They ain't bound this way, are they?" demanded Uncle Jabez, +with more anxiety than he usually showed.</p> + +<p>"Nobody knows. You know, the piece of woods yonder is thick. The menagerie +men lost them an hour ago. A big black panther—an ugly brute—and a lion +and lioness. Them last two they say is as tame as kittens. But excuse me! +I'd ruther trust the kittens," said the neighbor. Then he dug his heels in +the sides of his horse and started off to bear the news to other residents +along the road that followed this bank of the Lumano River.</p> + +<p>Jabez shouted for Ben to hurry through his supper, and they closed the +mill tight while the womenfolk tried to close all the shutters on the +first floor of the cottage. But the "blinds" had not been closed on the +east side of the house since they were painted the previous spring. Aunt +Alviry was the kind of housekeeper who favored the morning sun and it +always streamed into the windows of the guest room.</p> + +<p>When they tried to close the outside shutters of those windows, one had a +broken hinge that the painters had said nothing about. The heavy blind +fell to the ground.</p> + +<p>"Goodness me!" exclaimed Ruth, running back into the house. "That old +panther could jump right into that room where Jerry is. But if we keep a +bright light in there all night, I guess he won't—if he comes this way at +all."</p> + +<p>It was foolish, of course, to fear the coming of the marauding animal +from the shattered circus car. Probably, Ruth told herself before the +evening was half over, "Rival's Circus and Menagerie" had moved on with +all its beasts.</p> + +<p>Uncle Jabez, however, got down the double-barreled shotgun, cleaned and +oiled it, and slipped in two cartridges loaded with big shot.</p> + +<p>"I ain't aimin' to lose my pigs if I can help it," he said.</p> + +<p>As the evening dragged by, they all forgot the panther scare. Jerry had +fallen asleep after supper without recourse to the medicine Dr. Davison +had left. As usual, Uncle Jabez was poring over his daybook and counting +the cash in the japanned money box.</p> + +<p>Ruth was deep in her text books. One does forget so much between June and +September! Aunt Alvirah was busily sewing some ruffled garment for "her +pretty."</p> + +<p>Suddenly a quick, stern voice spoke out of the guest room down the hall.</p> + +<p>"Quick! bring that gun!"</p> + +<p>"Hul-<i>lo</i>!" murmured Uncle Jabez, looking up.</p> + +<p>"That poor boy's delirious," declared Aunt Alvirah.</p> + +<p>But Ruth jumped up and ran lightly to the room where Jerry Sheming lay.</p> + +<p>"What <i>is</i> it?" she gasped, peering at the flushed face that was raised +from the pillow.</p> + +<p>"That cat!" muttered Jerry.</p> + +<p>"Oh, you're dreaming!" declared Ruth, trying to laugh.</p> + +<p>"I ain't lived in the woods for nothin'," snapped the young fellow. "I +never see that black panther in her native wilds, o' course; but I've +tracked other kinds o' cats. And one of the tribe is 'round here——There! +hear that?"</p> + +<p>One of the horses in the stable squealed suddenly—a scream of fear. Then +a cow bellowed.</p> + +<p>Uncle Jabez came with a rush, in his stocking feet, with the heavy shotgun +in his hand.</p> + +<p>"What's up?" he demanded, hoarsely.</p> + +<p>"I am!" exclaimed Jerry, swinging his legs out of bed, despite the pain it +caused him. "Put out that light, Miss Ruth."</p> + +<p>Aunt Alvirah hobbled in, groaning, "Oh, my back! and oh, my bones!"</p> + +<p>Uncle Jabez softly raised the sash where the blind was missing.</p> + +<p>"I saw her eyes," gasped Jerry, much excited. He reached out a grasping +hand. "Gimme that gun, sir, unless you are a good shot. I don't often +miss."</p> + +<p>"You take it," muttered Uncle Jabez, thrusting the gun into the young +fellow's hand. "My—my eyes ain't what they once was."</p> + +<p>"Send the women folk back. If she leaps in at the winder——"</p> + +<p>Suddenly he raised the gun to his shoulder. It was so dark in the room +they all saw the crouching creature on the lawn outside. It was headed for +the open window, and its eyes gleamed like yellow coals.</p> + +<p>In a moment the gun spoke—one long tongue of flame, followed by the +other, flashed into the night. There was a yowl, a struggle on the grass +outside, and then——</p> + +<p>"You're something of a shot, you be, young feller!" boomed out Jabez +Potter's rough voice. "I was some mistaken in you. Ah! it hurt ye, eh?" +and he proceeded to lift the suffering Jerry back into bed as tenderly as +he would have handled Ruth herself.</p> + +<p>They did not go out to see the dead panther until daybreak. Then they +learned that the pair of lions had already been caught by their owners.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV" />CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<h2>ON THE WAY TO BRIARWOOD</h2> + + +<p>If anything had been needed to interest Ruth Fielding deeply in the young +fellow who had been injured at the scene of the railroad wreck, the +occurrence that evening at the Red Mill would have provided it.</p> + +<p>It was not enough for her to make a veritable hero of him to Helen, and +Jane Ann, and Tom, when they came over from Outlook the following morning. +When the girl of the Red Mill was really interested in anything or +anybody, she gave her whole-souled attention to it.</p> + +<p>She could not be satisfied with Jerry Sheming's brief account of his life +with his half-crazed uncle on some distant place called Cliff Island, and +the domestic tragedy that seemed to be the cause of the old man's final +incarceration in a madhouse.</p> + +<p>"Tell me all about yourself—do," she pleaded with Jerry, who was to +remain in bed for several days (Uncle Jabez insisted on it himself, too!), +for the injured leg must be rested. "Didn't you live anywhere else but in +the woods?"</p> + +<p>"That's right, Miss," he said, slowly. "I got a little schooling on the +mainland; but it warn't much. Uncle Pete used to guide around parties of +city men who wanted to fish and hunt. At the last I did most of the +guidin'. He said he could trust me, for I hated liquor as bad as him. <i>My</i> +dad was killed by it.</p> + +<p>"Uncle Pete was a mite cracked over it, maybe. But he was good enough to +me until Rufus Blent came rummagin' round. Somehow he got Uncle Pete to +ragin'."</p> + +<p>"Who is this Rufus Blent?" asked Ruth, curiously.</p> + +<p>"He's a real estate man. He lives at Logwood. That's the landin' at the +east end o' the lake."</p> + +<p>"What lake?"</p> + +<p>"Tallahaska. You've heard tell on't?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Yes. But I was never there, of course."</p> + +<p>"Well, Miss, Cliff Island is just the purtiest place! And Uncle Pete must +have had some title to it, for he's lived there all his life—and he's +old. Fifty-odd year he was there, I know. He was more than a squatter.</p> + +<p>"I reckon he was a bit of a miser. He had some money, and he didn't trust +to banks. So he kept it hid on the island, of course.</p> + +<p>"Then the landslide come, and he talked as though it had covered his +treasure box—and in it was papers he talked about. If he could ha' got +those papers he could ha' beat Rufus Blent off.</p> + +<p>"That's the understandin' I got of him. Of course, he talked right ragin' +and foolish; but some things he said was onderstandable. But he couldn't +make the judge see it—nor could I. They let Rufus Blent have his way, and +Uncle Pete went to the 'sylum.</p> + +<p>"Then they ordered me off the island. I believe Blent wanted to s'arch it +himself for the treasure box. He's a sneakin' man—I allus hated him," +said Jerry, clenching his fist angrily.</p> + +<p>"But they could ha' put me in the jug if I'd tried to fight him. So I come +away. Don't 'spect I'll ever see Tallahaska—or Cliff Island—again," and +the young fellow's voice broke and he turned his face away.</p> + +<p>When Jane Ann Hicks heard something of this, through Ruth, she was eager +to help Jerry to be revenged upon the man whom he thought had cheated his +uncle.</p> + +<p>"Let me write to Bill Hicks about it," she cried, eagerly. "He'll come on +here and get after this thieving real estate fellow—you bet!"</p> + +<p>"I have no doubt that he would," laughed Helen, pinching her. "You'd make +him leave his ranch and everything else and come here just to do that. +Don't be rash, young lady. Jerry certainly did you a favor, but you +needn't take everything he says for the gospel truth."</p> + +<p>"I believe myself he's honest," added Ruth, quietly.</p> + +<p>"And I don't doubt him either," Helen Cameron said. "But we'd better hear +both sides of it. And a missing treasure box, and papers to prove that an +old hunter is owner of an island in Tallahaska, sounds—well, unusual, to +say the least."</p> + +<p>Ruth laughed. "Helen has suddenly developed caution," she said. "What do +you say, Tom?"</p> + +<p>"I'll get father to write to somebody at Logwood, and find out about it," +returned the boy, promptly.</p> + +<p>That is the way the matter was left for the time being. The next day they +were to start for school—the girls for Briarwood and Tom for Seven Oaks.</p> + +<p>It was arranged that Jerry should remain at the Red Mill for a time. Uncle +Jabez's second opinion of him was so favorable that the miller might +employ him for a time as the harvesting and other fall work came on. And +Jane Ann left a goodly sum in the miller's hands for young Sheming's use.</p> + +<p>"He's that independent that he wouldn't take nothing from me but a pair +of cuff links," declared Jane Ann, wiping her eyes, for she was a +tender-hearted girl under her rough exterior. "Says they will do for him +to remember me by. He's a nice chap."</p> + +<p>"Jinny's getting sentimental," gibed Tom, slily.</p> + +<p>"I'm not over you, Mister Tom!" she flared up instantly. "You're too +'advanced' a dresser."</p> + +<p>"And you were the girl who once ran away from Silver Ranch and the boys +out there, because everything was so 'common,'" chuckled Tom.</p> + +<p>Ruth shut him off at that. She knew that the western girl could not stand +much teasing.</p> + +<p>They were all nervous, anyway; at least, the girls were. Ruth and Helen +approached their second year at Briarwood with some anxiety. How would +they be treated? How would the studies be arranged for the coming months +of hard work? How were they going to stand with the teachers?</p> + +<p>When the two chums first went to Briarwood they occupied a double room; +but later they had taken in Mercy Curtis, a lame girl. Now that +"triumvirate" could not continue, for Jane Ann had begged to room with +Ruth and Helen.</p> + +<p>The western girl, who was afraid of scarcely anything "on four legs or +two" in her own environment, was really nervous as she approached +boarding school. She had seen enough of these eastern girls to know that +they were entirely different from herself. She was "out of their class," +she told herself, and if she had not been with Ruth and Helen these few +last days before the opening of the school term, she would have run away.</p> + +<p>Ruth was going back to school this term with a delightful sense of having +gained Uncle Jabez's special approval. He admitted that schooling such as +she gained at Briarwood was of some use. And he made her a nice present of +pocket-money when she started.</p> + +<p>The Cameron auto stopped for her at the Red Mill before mid-forenoon, and +Ruth bade the miller and Aunt Alvirah and Ben—not forgetting Jerry +Sheming, her new friend—good-bye.</p> + +<p>"Do—<i>do</i> take care o' yourself, my pretty," crooned Aunt Alvirah over +her, at the last. "Jest remember we're a-honin' for you here at the ol' +mill."</p> + +<p>"Take care of Uncle Jabez," whispered Ruth. She dared kiss the grim old +man only upon his dusty cheek. Then she shook hands with bashful Ben and +ran out to her waiting friends.</p> + +<p>"Come on, or we'll lose the train," cried Helen.</p> + +<p>They were off the moment Ruth stepped into the tonneau. But she stood up +and waved her hand to the little figure of Aunt Alvirah in the cottage +doorway as long as she could be seen on the Cheslow road. And she had a +fancy that Uncle Jabez himself was lurking in the dark opening to the +grist-floor of the mill, and watching the retreating motor car.</p> + +<p>There was a quick, alert-looking girl hobbling on two canes up and down +the platform at Cheslow Station. This was Mercy Curtis, the station +agent's crippled daughter.</p> + +<p>"Here you are at last!" she cried, shrilly. "And the train already hooting +for the station. Five minutes more and you would have been too late. Did +you think I could go to Briarwood without you?"</p> + +<p>Ruth ran up and kissed her heartily. She knew that Mercy's "bark was worse +than her bite."</p> + +<p>"You come and see Jane Ann—and be nice to her. She doesn't look it, but +she's just as scared as she can be."</p> + +<p>"Of course you'd have some poor, unfortunate pup, or kitten, to mother, +Ruth Fielding," snapped the lame girl.</p> + +<p>She was very nice, however, to the girl from Silver Ranch, sat beside her +in the chair car, and soon had Jane Ann laughing. For Mercy Curtis, with +her sarcastic tongue, could be good fun if she wished to be.</p> + +<p>Here and there, along the route to Osago Lake, other Briarwood girls +joined them. At one point appeared Madge Steele and her brother, Bob, a +slow, smiling young giant, called "Bobbins" by the other boys, who was +always being "looked after" in a most distressing fashion by his sister.</p> + +<p>"Come, Bobby, boy, don't fall up the steps and get your nice new clothes +dirty," adjured Madge, as her brother made a false step in getting aboard +the train. "Will you look out for him, Mr. Cameron, if I leave him in your +care?"</p> + +<p>"Sure!" said Tom, laughing. "I'll see that he doesn't spoil his pinafore +or mess up his curls."</p> + +<p>"Say! I'd shake a sister like that if I had one," grunted "Busy Izzy" +Phelps, disgustedly.</p> + +<p>"Aw, what's the odds?" drawled good-natured Bobbins.</p> + +<p>The hilarious crowd boarded the <i>Lanawaxa</i> at the landing, and after +crossing the lake they again took a train, disembarking at Seven Oaks, +where the boys' school was situated.</p> + +<p>From here the girls were to journey by stage to Briarwood. There was +dust-coated, grinning, bewhiskered "Old Noah Dolliver" and his "Ark," +waiting for them.</p> + +<p>There was a horde of uniformed academy boys about to greet Tom and his +chums, and to eye the girls who had come thus far in their company. But +Ruth and her friends were not so bashful as they had been the year before.</p> + +<p>They formed in line, two by two, and slowly paraded the length of the +platform, chanting in unison the favorite "welcome to the infants" used at +the beginning of each half at Briarwood:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"Uncle Noah, he drove an Ark—</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">One wide river to cross!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">He's aiming to land at Briarwood Park—</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">One wide river to cross!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">One wide river!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">One wide river of Jordan!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">One wide river!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">One wide river to cross!"</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>The boys cheered them enthusiastically. The girls piled into the coach +with much laughter. Even Mercy had taken part in this fun, for the +procession had marched at an easy pace for her benefit.</p> + +<p>Old Dolliver cracked his whip. Tom ran along in the dust on one side and +Bobbins on the other, each to bid a last good-bye to his sister.</p> + +<p>Then the coach rolled into the shadow of the cool wood road, and Ruth and +her friends were really upon the last lap of their journey to the Hall.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V" />CHAPTER V</h2> + +<h2>A LONG LOOK AHEAD</h2> + + +<p>"Hurrah! first glimpse of the old place!"</p> + +<p>Helen cried this, with her head out of the Ark. The dust rolled up in a +cloud behind them as they topped the hill. Here Mary Cox had met Ruth and +Helen that first day, a year ago, when they approached the Hall.</p> + +<p>There was no infant in the coach now save Jane Ann. And the chums were +determined to save the western girl from that strange and lonely feeling +they had themselves experienced.</p> + +<p>There was nobody in view on the pastured hill. Down the slope the Ark +coasted and bye and bye Cedar Walk came into view.</p> + +<p>"Shall we get out here, girls?" called Madge Steele, with a glance at +Mercy.</p> + +<p>"Of course we shall," cried that sprightly person, shaking her fist at the +big senior. "Don't you dare try to spare <i>me</i>, Miss! I am getting so +strong and healthy I am ashamed of myself. Don't you dare!"</p> + +<p>Madge kissed her warmly, as Ruth had. <i>That</i> was the best way to treat +Mercy Curtis whenever she "exploded."</p> + +<p>Suddenly Helen leaned out of the open half of the door on her side and +began to call a welcome to four girls who were walking briskly down the +winding pathway. Instantly they began to run, shouting joyfully in return.</p> + +<p>"Here we be, young ladies," croaked Old Dolliver, bringing his tired +horses to a halt.</p> + +<p>They struggled forth, Jane Ann coming last to help the lame girl—just a +mite. Then the two parties of school friends came together like the +mingling of waters.</p> + +<p>One was a very plump girl with a smiling, rosy face; one was red-haired +and very sharp-looking, and the other two balanced each other evenly, both +being more than a little pretty, very well dressed, and one dark while the +other was light.</p> + +<p>The light girl was Belle Tingley, and the dark one Lluella Fairfax; of +course, the red-haired one was Mary Cox, "The Fox," while the stout girl +could be no other than "Heavy" Jennie Stone.</p> + +<p>The Fox came forward quickly and seized both of Ruth's hands. "Dear Ruth," +she whispered. "I arrived just this morning myself. You know that my +brother is all right again?" and she kissed the girl of the Red Mill +warmly.</p> + +<p>Belle and Lluella looked a bit surprised at Mary Cox's manifestation of +friendship for Ruth; but they did not yet know all the particulars of +their schoolmates' adventures at Silver Ranch.</p> + +<p>Heavy was hurrying about, kissing everybody indiscriminately, and of +course performing this rite with Ruth at least twice.</p> + +<p>"I'm so tickled to see you all, I can't tell!" she laughed. "And you're +all looking fine, too. But it does seem a month, instead of a week, since +I saw you."</p> + +<p>"My! but you are looking bad yourself, Heavy," gibed Helen Cameron, +shaking her head and staring at the other girl. "You're just fading away +to a shadow."</p> + +<p>"Pretty near," admitted Heavy. "But the doctor says I shall get my +appetite back after a time. I was allowed to drink the water two eggs were +boiled in for lunch, and to-night I can eat the holes out of a dozen +doughnuts. Oh! I'm convalescing nicely, thank you."</p> + +<p>The girls who had reached the school first welcomed Jane Ann quite as +warmly as they did the others. There was an air about them all that seemed +protecting to the strange girl.</p> + +<p>Other girls were walking up and down the Cedar Walk, and sometimes they +cast more than glances at the eight juniors who were already such +friends. Madge had immediately been swallowed up by a crowd of seniors.</p> + +<p>"Say, Foxy! got an infant there?" demanded one girl.</p> + +<p>"I suppose Fielding has made her a Sweetbriar already—eh?" suggested +another.</p> + +<p>"The Sweetbriars do not have to fish for members," declared Helen, tossing +her head.</p> + +<p>"Oh, my! See what a long tail our cat's got!" responded one of the other +crowd, tauntingly.</p> + +<p>"The double quartette! There's just eight of them," crowed another. "There +certainly will be something doing at Briarwood Hall with those two +roomsful."</p> + +<p>"Say! that's right!" cried Heavy, eagerly, to Ruth. "You, and Helen, and +Mercy, and Jinny, take that quartette room on our other side. We'll just +about boss that dormitory. What do you say?"</p> + +<p>"If Mrs. Tellingham will agree," said Ruth. "I'll ask her."</p> + +<p>"But you girls will be 'way ahead of me in your books," broke in Jane Ann.</p> + +<p>"We needn't be ahead of you in sleeping, and in fun," laughed Heavy, +pinching her.</p> + +<p>"Don't be offish, Miss Jinny," said Helen, calling her by the title that +the cowboys did.</p> + +<p>"And my name—my dreadful, dreadful name!" groaned the western girl.</p> + +<p>"I tell you!" exclaimed Ruth, "we're all friends. Let's agree how we shall +introduce Miss Hicks to the bunch. She must choose a name——"</p> + +<p>"Why, call yourself 'Nita,' if you want to, dear," said Helen, patting the +western girl's arm. "That's the name you ran away with."</p> + +<p>"But I'm ashamed of that. I know it is silly—and I chose it for a silly +reason. But you know what all these girls will do to 'Jane Ann,'" and she +shook her head, more than a little troubled.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter with Ann?" demanded Mercy Curtis, sharply. "Isn't 'Ann +Hicks' sensible-sounding enough? For sure, it's not <i>pretty</i>; but we can't +all have both pretty names and pretty features," and she laughed.</p> + +<p>"And it's mighty tough when you haven't got either," grumbled the new +girl.</p> + +<p>"'Ann Hicks,'" quoth Ruth, softly. "I like it. I believe it sounds nice, +too—when you get used to it. 'Ann Hicks.' Something dignified and fine +about it—just as though you had been named after some really great +woman—some leader."</p> + +<p>The others laughed; and yet they looked appreciation of Ruth Fielding's +fantasy.</p> + +<p>"Bully for you, Ruthie!" cried Helen, hugging her. "If Ann Hicks agrees."</p> + +<p>"It doesn't sound so bad without the 'Jane,'" admitted the western girl +with a sigh. "And Ruth says it so nicely."</p> + +<p>"We'll all say it nicely," declared The Fox, who was a much different +"Fox" from what she had been the year before. "'Ann Hicks,' I bet you've +got a daguerreotype at home of the gentle old soul for whom you are named. +You know—silver-gray gown, pearls, pink cheeks, and a real ostrich +feather fan."</p> + +<p>"My goodness me!" ejaculated the newly christened Ann Hicks, "you have +already arranged a very fanciful family tree for me. Can I ever live up to +such an ancestress as <i>that</i>?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly you can," declared Ruth, firmly. "You've just <i>got</i> to. Think +of the original Ann—as Mary described her—whenever you feel like +exploding. Her picture ought to bring you up short. A lady like that +<i>couldn't</i> explode."</p> + +<p>"Tough lines," grumbled the western girl. "Right from what you girls call +the 'wild and woolly,' and to have to live up to silver-gray silk and +pearls—M-m-m-m!"</p> + +<p>"Now, say! say!" cried Belle Tingley, suddenly, and seizing upon Ruth, +about whom she had been hovering ever since they had met. "<i>I</i> want to +talk a little. There aren't any more infants to christen, I hope?"</p> + +<p>"Go on!" laughed Ruth, squeezing her. "What is the matter, <i>Bella mia</i>?"</p> + +<p>"And don't talk Italian," said Belle, shrugging her shoulders. "Listen! I +promised to ask you the minute you arrived, Ruthie, and now you've been +here ten at least."</p> + +<p>"It is something splendid," laughed Lluella, clapping her hands, evidently +being already a sharer in Belle's secret.</p> + +<p>"I'll tell you—if they'll let me," panted Belle, shaking Ruth a little. +"Father's bought Cliff Island. It's a splendid place. We were there for +part of the summer. And there will be a great lodge built by Christmas +time and he has told me I might invite you all to come to the +house-warming. Now, Ruth! it remains with you. If you'll go, the others +will, I know. And it's a splendid place."</p> + +<p>"Cliff Island?" gasped Ruth.</p> + +<p>"Yes. In Lake Tallahaska."</p> + +<p>"And your father has just bought it?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. He had some trouble getting a clear title; but it's all right now. +They had to evict an old squatter. I want you all to come with me for the +mid-winter holiday. What do you say, Ruthie?" asked Belle, eagerly.</p> + +<p>"I say it's a long look ahead," responded Ruth, slowly. "It's very kind of +you, Belle. But I'll have to write home first, of course. I'd like to go, +though—to Cliff Island—yes, indeed!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI" />CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<h2>PICKING UP THE THREADS</h2> + + +<p>Ann Hicks must see the preceptress at once. That came first, and Ruth +would not go into the old dormitory until the introduction of the western +girl was accomplished.</p> + +<p>There was a whole bevy of girls on the steps of the main building, in +which Mrs. Grace Tellingham and Dr. Tellingham lived. Nobody ever thought +of putting the queer old doctor first, although all the Briarwoods +respected the historian immensely. He was considered very, very scholarly, +although it would have been hard to find any of his histories in any +library save that of Briarwood itself.</p> + +<p>It was understood that just now he was engaged upon a treatise relating to +the possible existence of a race before the Mound Builders in the Middle +West, and he was not to be disturbed, of course, at his work.</p> + +<p>But when Ruth and Ann Hicks entered the big office room, there he was, +bent over huge tomes upon the work table, his spectacles awry, and his wig +pushed so far back upon his head that two hands' breadth of glistening +crown was exposed.</p> + +<p>The fiction that Dr. Tellingham was not bald might have been kept up very +well indeed, did not the gentleman get so excited while he worked. As soon +as he became interested in his books, he proceeded to bare his high brow +to all beholders, and the wig slid toward the back of his neck.</p> + +<p>The truth was, as Heavy Stone said, Dr. Tellingham had to remove his +collar to brush his hair—there really was so little of it.</p> + +<p>"Dear, dear!" sputtered the historian, peering at the two girls over his +reading glasses. "You don't want me, of course?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, Dr. Tellingham. This is a new girl. We wished to see Mrs. +Tellingham," Ruth assured him.</p> + +<p>"Quite so," he said, briskly. "She is—Ah! she comes! My dear! Two of the +young ladies to see you," and instantly he was buried in his books +again—that is, buried all but his shining crown.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Tellingham was a graceful, gray-haired lady, with a charming smile. +She trailed her black robe across the carpet and stooped to kiss Ruth +warmly, for she not only respected the junior, but had learned to love +her.</p> + +<p>"Welcome, Miss Fielding!" she said, kindly. "I am glad to see you back. +And this is the girl I have been getting letters about—Miss Hicks?"</p> + +<p>"Ann Hicks," responded Ruth, firmly. "That is the name she wishes to be +known by, dear Mrs. Tellingham."</p> + +<p>"I don't know who could be writing you but Uncle Bill," said Ann Hicks, +blunderingly. "And I expect he's told you a-plenty."</p> + +<p>"I think 'Uncle Bill' must be the most recklessly generous man in the +world, my dear," observed Mrs. Tellingham, taking and holding one of Ann's +brown hands, and looking closely at the western girl.</p> + +<p>For a moment the new girl blushed and her own eyes shone. "You bet he is! +I—I beg pardon," she stammered. "Uncle Bill is all right."</p> + +<p>"And Jennie Stone's Aunt Kate has been writing me about you, too. It seems +she was much interested in you when you visited their place at Lighthouse +Point."</p> + +<p>"She's very kind," murmured the new girl.</p> + +<p>"And Mrs. Murchiston, Helen's governess, has spoken a good word for you," +added the preceptress.</p> + +<p>"Why—why I didn't know so many people <i>cared</i>," stammered Ann.</p> + +<p>"You see, you have a way of making friends unconsciously. I can see that," +Mrs. Tellingham said, kindly. "Now, do not be discouraged. You will make +friends among the girls in just the same way. Don't mind their banter for +a while. The rough edges will soon rub off——"</p> + +<p>"But there <i>are</i> rough edges," admitted the western girl, hanging her +head.</p> + +<p>"Don't mind. There are such in most girls' characters and they show up +when first they come to school. Keep cheerful. Come to me if you are in +real trouble—and stick close to Miss Fielding, here. I can't give you any +better advice than that," added Mrs. Tellingham, with a laugh.</p> + +<p>Then she was ready to listen to Ruth's plea that the room next to The Fox +and her chums be given up to Ruth, Helen, Mercy and the new girl.</p> + +<p>"We love our little room; but it was crowded with Mercy last half; and we +could all get along splendidly in a quartette room," said Ruth.</p> + +<p>"All right," agreed the principal. "I'll telephone to Miss Scrimp and Miss +Picolet. Now, go and see about getting settled, young ladies. I expect +much of you this half, Ruth Fielding. As for Ann, I shall take her in hand +myself on Monday and see what classes she would best enter."</p> + +<p>"She's fine," declared Ann Hicks, when they were outside again. "I can get +along with her. But how about the girls?"</p> + +<p>"They'll be nice to you, too—after a bit. Of course, everybody new has to +expect some hazing. Thank your stars that you won't have to be put through +the initiation of the marble harp," and she pointed to a marble figure in +the tiny Italian garden in the middle of the campus.</p> + +<p>When Ann wanted to know what <i>that</i> meant, Ruth repeated the legend as all +new girls at Briarwood must learn it. But Ruth and her friends had long +since agreed that no other nervous or high-strung girl was to be hazed, as +she and Helen had been, when they first came to the Hall. So the ceremony +of the marble harp was abolished. It has been described in the former +volume of this series, "Ruth Fielding at Briarwood Hall."</p> + +<p>The two went back to the dormitory that had become like home to Ruth. Miss +Picolet, the little French teacher, beckoned them into her study. "I must +be the good friend of your good friend, too, Miss Fielding," she said, and +shook hands warmly with Ann.</p> + +<p>The matron of the house had already opened and aired the large room next +to that which had been so long occupied by The Fox and her chums. The +eight girls made the corridor ring with laughter and shouts while they +were getting settled. The trunks had arrived from Lumberton and Helen and +Ruth were busy decorating the big room which they were to share in the +future with the lame girl and Ann Hicks.</p> + +<p>There were two wide beds in it; but each girl had her own dressing case +and her locker and closet There were four windows and two study tables. +It was a delightful place, they all agreed.</p> + +<p>"Hush! tell it not in Gath; whisper it not in Ascalon!" hissed The Fox, +peering into the room. "You girls have the best there is. It's lots bigger +than our quartette——"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't think so. Only a 'teeny' bit larger," responded Ruth, +quickly.</p> + +<p>"Then it's Heavy that takes up so much space in our room. She dwarfs +everything. However," said the red-haired girl, "you can have lots more +fun in here. Shove back everything against one wall, roll up the rugs, and +then we can dance."</p> + +<p>"And have Picolet after us in a hurry," observed Helen, laughing.</p> + +<p>"Barefoot dancing is still in vogue," retorted The Fox. "Helen can play +her violin."</p> + +<p>"After retiring bell? No, thanks!" exclaimed Ruth's chum. "I am to stand +better in my classes this half than last spring or Monsieur Pa-<i>pa</i> will +have something to say to me. He doesn't often preach; but that +black-haired brother of mine did better last term than I did. Can't have +that."</p> + +<p>"They're awfully strict with the boys over at Seven Oaks," sighed Heavy, +who was chewing industriously as she talked, sitting cross-legged on the +floor.</p> + +<p>"What are you eating, Heavy?" demanded Belle, suddenly.</p> + +<p>"Some of those doughnut holes, I bet!" giggled Lluella. "They must be +awful filling, Heavy."</p> + +<p>"Nothing <i>is</i> filling," replied the stout girl. "Just think, almost the +whole universe is filled with just atmosphere—and your head, Lluella."</p> + +<p>"That's not pretty, dear," remarked The Fox, pinching Heavy. "Don't be +nasty to your playmates."</p> + +<p>"Well, I've got to eat," groaned Heavy. "If you knew how long it seemed +from luncheon to supper time——"</p> + +<p>Despite all Ruth Fielding could do, the girl from Silver Ranch felt +herself a good deal out of this nonsense and joviality. Ann could not talk +the way these girls did. She felt serious when she contemplated her future +in the school.</p> + +<p>"I'd—I'd run away if it wasn't for Uncle Bill," she whispered to herself, +looking out of the window at the hundreds of girls parading the walks +about the campus.</p> + +<p>Almost every two girls seemed chums. They walked with their arms about +each other's waists, and chattered like magpies. Ann Hicks wanted to run +and hide somewhere, for she was more lonely now than she had ever been +when wandering about the far-reaching range on the Montana ranch!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII" />CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<h2>"A HARD ROW TO HOE"</h2> + + +<p>Since Ruth Fielding had organized the S.B.'s, or Sweetbriars, there had +been little hazing at Briarwood Hall. Of course, this was the first real +opening of the school year since that auspicious occasion; but the effect +of the new society and its teachings upon the whole school was marked.</p> + +<p>Rivalries had ceased to a degree. The old Upedes, of which The Fox had +been the head, no longer played their tricks. The Fox had grown much older +in appearance, if not in years. She had had her lesson.</p> + +<p>Belle and Lluella and Heavy were not so reckless, either. And as the +S.B.'s stood for friendship, kindness, helpfulness, and all its members +wore the pretty badge, it was likely to be much easier for those "infants" +who joined the school now.</p> + +<p>Ann Hicks was bound to receive some hard knocks, even as Mrs. Tellingham +had suggested. But "roughing it" a little is sometimes good for girls as +well as boys.</p> + +<p>In her own western home Ann could have held her own with anybody. She was +so much out of her usual element here at Briarwood that she was like a +startled hare. She scented danger on all sides.</p> + +<p>Her roommates could not always defend her, although even Mercy, the +unmerciful, tried. Ann Hicks was so big, and blundering. She was taller +than most girls of her age, and "raw-boned" like her uncle. Some time she +might really be handsome; but there was little promise of it as yet.</p> + +<p>When the principal started her in her studies, it was soon discovered that +Ann, big girl though she was, had to take some of the lessons belonging to +the primary grade. And she made a sorry appearance in recitation, at best.</p> + +<p>There were plenty of girls to laugh at her. There is nothing so cruel as a +schoolgirl's tongue when it is unbridled. And unless the victim is blessed +with either a large sense of humor, or an apt brain for repartee, it goes +hard with her.</p> + +<p>Poor Ann had neither—she was merely confused and miserable.</p> + +<p>She saw the other girls of her room—and their close friends in the +neighboring quartette—going cheerfully about the term's work. They had +interests that the girl from the West, with her impoverished mind, could +not even appreciate.</p> + +<p>She had to study so hard—even some of the simplest lessons—that she had +little time to learn games. She did not care for gymnasium work, although +there were probably few girls at the school as muscular as herself. Tennis +seemed silly to her. Nobody rode at the Hall, and she longed to bestride a +pony and dash off for a twenty-mile canter.</p> + +<p>Nothing that she was used to doing on the ranch would appeal to these +girls here—Ann was quite sure of that. Ruth and the others who had been +with them for that all-too-short month at Silver Ranch seemed to have +forgotten the riding, and the roping, and all.</p> + +<p>Then, Helen had her violin—and loved it. Ruth was practicing singing all +the time she could spare, for she was already a prominent member of the +Glee Club. When the girl of the Red Mill sang, Ann Hicks felt her heart +throb and the tears rise in her eyes. She loved Ruth's kind of music; yet +she, herself, could not carry a tune.</p> + +<p>Mercy was strictly attentive to her own books. Mercy was a bookworm—nor +did she like being asked questions about her studies. Those first few +weeks Ann Hicks's recitations did not receive very high marks.</p> + +<p>Often some of the girls who did not know her very well laughed because she +carried books belonging to the primary grade. Ann Hicks had many studies +to make up that her mates had been drilled in while they were in the +lower classes.</p> + +<p>One day at mail time (and in a boarding school that is a most important +hour) Ann received a very tempting-looking box by parcel post. She had +been initiated into the meaning of "boxes from home." Even Aunt Alvirah +had sent a box to Ruth, filled with choicest homemade dainties.</p> + +<p>Ann expected nothing like that. Uncle Bill would never think of it—and he +wouldn't know what to buy, anyway. The box fairly startled the girl from +Silver Ranch.</p> + +<p>"What is it? Something good to eat, I bet," cried Heavy, who was on hand, +of course. "Open it, Ann—do."</p> + +<p>"Come on! Let's see what the goodies are," urged another girl, but who +smiled behind her hand.</p> + +<p>"I don't know who would send <i>me</i> anything," said Ann, slowly.</p> + +<p>"Never mind the address. Open it!" cried a third speaker, and had Ann +noted it, she would have realized that some of the most trying girls in +the school had suddenly surrounded her.</p> + +<p>With trembling fingers she tore off the outside wrapper without seeing +that the box had been mailed at the local post office—Lumberton!</p> + +<p>A very decorative box was enclosed.</p> + +<p>"H-m-m!" gasped Heavy. "Nothing less than fancy nougatines in <i>that</i>."</p> + +<p>She was aiding the heartless throng, but did not know it. It would have +never entered Heavy's mind to do a really mean thing.</p> + +<p>Ann untied the narrow red ribbon. She raised the cover. Tissue paper +covered something very choice——?</p> + +<p><i>A dunce cap.</i></p> + +<p>For a moment Ann was stricken motionless. The girls about her shouted. One +coarse, thoughtless girl seized the cap, pulled it from the box, and +clapped it on Ann Hicks's black hair.</p> + +<p>The delighted crowd shouted more shrilly. Heavy was thunderstruck. Then +she sputtered:</p> + +<p>"Well! I never would have believed there was anybody so mean as that in +the whole of Briarwood School."</p> + +<p>But Ann, who had held in her temper as she governed a half-wild pony on +the range, until this point, suddenly "let go all holts," as Bill Hicks +would have expressed it.</p> + +<p>She tore the cap from her head and stamped upon it and the fancy box it +had come in. She struck right and left at the laughing, scornful faces of +the girls who had so baited her.</p> + +<p>Had it not been disgraceful, one might have been delighted with the change +in the expression of those faces—and in the rapidity with which the +change came about.</p> + +<p>More than one blow landed fairly. The print of Ann's fingers was +impressed in red upon the cheeks of those nearest to her. They ran +screaming—some laughing, some angry.</p> + +<p>Heavy's weight (for the fleshy girl had seized Ann about the waist) was +all that made the enraged girl give over her pursuit of her tormentors. +Fortunately, Ruth herself came running to the spot. She got Ann away and +sat by her all the afternoon in their room, making up her own delinquent +lessons afterward.</p> + +<p>But the affair could not be passed over without comment. Some of the girls +had reported Ann's actions. Of course, such a disgraceful thing as a girl +slapping another was seldom heard of in Briarwood. Mrs. Tellingham, who +knew very well where the blame lay, dared not let the matter go without +punishing Ann, however.</p> + +<p>"I am grieved that one of our girls—a young lady in the junior +grade—should so forget herself," said the principal. "Whatever may have +been the temptation, such an exhibition of temper cannot be allowed. I am +sure she will not yield to it again; nor shall I pass leniently over the +person who may again be the cause of Ann Hicks losing her temper."</p> + +<p>This seemed to Ann to be "the last straw." "She might have better put me +in the primary grade in the beginning," the ranch girl said, spitefully. +"Then I wouldn't have been among those who despise me. I hate them all! +I'll just get away from here——"</p> + +<p>But the thought of running away a second time rather troubled her. She had +worried her uncle greatly the first time she had done so. Now he was sure +she was in such good hands that she wouldn't wish to run away.</p> + +<p>Ann knew that she could not blame Ruth Fielding, and the other girls who +were always kind to her. She merely shrank from being with them, when they +knew so much more than she did.</p> + +<p>It was her pride that was hurt. Had she taken the teasing of the meaner +girls in a wiser spirit, she knew they would not have sent her the dunce +cap. They continued to tease her because they knew they could hurt her.</p> + +<p>"I—I wish I could show them I could do things that they never dreamed of +doing!" muttered Ann, angrily, yet wistfully, too. "I'd like to fling a +rope, or manage a bad bronc', or something they never saw a girl do +before.</p> + +<p>"Book learning isn't everything. Oh! I have half a mind to give up and go +back to the ranch. Nobody made fun of me out there—they didn't dare! And +our folks are too kind to tease that way, anyhow," thought the western +girl.</p> + +<p>"Uncle Bill is just paying out his good money for nothing. He said Ruth +was a little lady—and Helen, too. I knew he wanted me to be the same, +after he got acquainted with them and saw how fine they were.</p> + +<p>"But you sure 'can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.' That's as +certain as shootin'! If I stay here I've got a mighty hard row to +hoe—and—and I don't believe I've got the pluck to hoe it." Ann groaned, +and shook her tousled black head.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII" />CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<h2>JERRY SHEMING AGAIN</h2> + + +<p>Ruth, with all the fun and study of the opening of the fall term at +Briarwood, could not entirely forget Jerry Sheming. More particularly did +she think of him because of the invitation Belle Tingley had extended to +her the day of their arrival.</p> + +<p>It was a coincidence that none of the other girls appreciated, for none of +them had talked much with the young fellow who had saved Ann Hicks from +the wrecked car at Applegate Crossing. Even Ann herself had not become as +friendly with the boy as had Ruth.</p> + +<p>The fact that he had lived a good share of his life on the very island +Belle said her father had bought for a hunting camp, served to spur Ruth's +interest in both the youth and the island itself. Then, what Jerry had +told her about his uncle's lost treasure box added to the zest of the +affair.</p> + +<p>Somewhere on the island Peter Tilton had lost a box containing money and +private papers. Jerry believed it to have been buried by a landslide that +had occurred months before.</p> + +<p>There must be something in this story, or why should "Uncle Pete," as +Jerry called him, have lost his mind over the catastrophe? Uncle Pete must +be really mad or they would not have shut him up in the county asylum.</p> + +<p>The loss of the papers supposed to be in the box made it possible for some +man named Blent to cheat the old hunter out of his holdings on Cliff +Island.</p> + +<p>Not for a moment did Ruth suppose that Mr. Tingley, Belle's father, was a +party to any scheme for cheating the old hunter. It was the work of the +man Blent—if true.</p> + +<p>Ruth was very curious—and very much interested. Few letters ever passed +between her and the Red Mill. Aunt Alvirah's gnarled and twisted fingers +did not take kindly to the pen; and Uncle Jabez loved better to add up his +earnings than to spend an evening retailing the gossip of the Mill for his +grandniece to peruse.</p> + +<p>Ruth knew that Jerry had soon recovered from his accident and that for +several weeks, at least, had worked for Uncle Jabez. The latter grudgingly +admitted that Jerry was the best man he had ever hired in the cornfield, +both in cutting fodder and shucking corn.</p> + +<p>Just before Thanksgiving there came a letter saying that Jerry had gone +on. Of course, Ruth knew that her uncle would not keep the young fellow +longer than he could make use of him; but she was sorry he had gone before +she had communicated with him.</p> + +<p>The girl of the Red Mill felt that she wished to know Jerry better. She +had been deeply interested in his story. She had hoped to learn more about +him.</p> + +<p>"If you are really going to Cliff Island for the holidays, Belle," she +told the latter, "I hope I can go."</p> + +<p>"Bully!" exclaimed Belle, joyfully. "We'll have a dandy time there—better +than we had at Helen's father's camp, last winter. I refuse to be lost in +the snow again."</p> + +<p>"Same here," drawled Heavy. "But I wish that lake you talk about, Belle, +wouldn't freeze over. I don't like ice," with a shiver.</p> + +<p>"Who ever heard of water that wouldn't freeze?" demanded Belle, +scornfully.</p> + +<p>"I have," said Heavy, promptly.</p> + +<p>"What kind of water, I'd like to know, Miss?"</p> + +<p>"Hot water," responded Heavy, chuckling.</p> + +<p>Helen, and most of the other girls who were invited to Cliff Island for +Christmas, had already accepted the invitation. Ruth wrote to her uncle +with some little doubt. She did not know how he would take the suggestion. +She had been at the mill so little since first she began attending +boarding school.</p> + +<p>This Thanksgiving she did not expect to go home. Few of the girls did so, +for the recess was only over the week-end and lessons began again on +Monday. Only those girls who lived very near to Briarwood made a real +vacation of the first winter holiday. A good many used the time to make up +lessons and work off "conditions."</p> + +<p>Thanksgiving Day itself was made somewhat special by a trip to Buchane +Falls, where there was a large dam. Dinner was to be served at five in the +evening, and more than half the school went off to the falls (which was +ten miles away) in several big party wagons, before ten o'clock in the +morning.</p> + +<p>"Bring your appetites back with you, girls," Mrs. Tellingham told them at +chapel, and Heavy, at least, had promised to do so and meant to keep her +word. Yet even Heavy did justice to the cold luncheon that was served to +all of them at the falls.</p> + +<p>It was crisp autumn weather. Early in the morning there had been a skim of +ice along the edge of the water; but there had not yet been frost enough +to chain the current of the Buchane Creek. Indeed, it would not freeze +over in the middle until mid-winter, if then.</p> + +<p>The picnic ground was above the falls and on the verge of the big +millpond. There were swings, and a bowling alley, and boats, and other +amusements.</p> + +<p>Ruth had fairly dragged Ann Hicks into the party. The girls who had been +meanest to the westerner were present. Ann would have had a woefully bad +time of it had not some of the smaller girls needed somebody to look out +for them.</p> + +<p>Ann hated the little girls at Briarwood less than she did the big ones. In +fact, the "primes," as they were called, rather took to the big girl from +the West.</p> + +<p>One of the swings was not secure, and Ann started to fix it. She could +climb like any boy, and there did not happen to be a teacher near to +forbid her. Therefore, up she went, unfastened the rope from the beam, and +proceeded to splice the place where it had become frayed.</p> + +<p>It was not a new rope, but was strong save in that one spot. Ann coiled +it, and although it did not have the "feel" of the fine hemp, or the good +hair rope that is part of the cowman's equipment, her hands and arm +tingled to lassoo some active, running object.</p> + +<p>She coiled it once more and then flung the rope at a bush. The little +girls shouted their appreciation. Ann did not mind, for there seemed to be +no juniors or seniors there to see. Most of the older girls were down by +the water.</p> + +<p>Indeed, some of the seniors were trying to interest the bigger girls in +rowing. Briarwood owned a small lake, and they might have canoes and +racing shells upon it, if the girls as a whole would become interested.</p> + +<p>But many of the big girls did not even know how to row. There was one big +punt into which almost a dozen of them crowded. Heavy sat in the stern and +declared that she had to have a big crowd in the bow of the boat, to +balance it and keep her end from going down.</p> + +<p>Therefore one girl after another jumped in, and when it was really too +full for safety it was pushed out from the landing. Just about the time +the current which set toward the middle of the pond seized the punt, it +was discovered that nobody had thought of oars.</p> + +<p>"How under the sun did you suppose a thing like this was going to be +propelled?" Heavy demanded. "I never did see such a fellow as you are, +Mandy Mitchell!"</p> + +<p>"You needn't scold me," declared the Mitchell girl. "You invited me into +the boat."</p> + +<p>"Did I? Why! I must have been crazy, then!" declared Heavy. "And didn't +any of you think how we were going to get back to shore?"</p> + +<p>"Nor we don't know now," cried another girl.</p> + +<p>"Oh-o!" gasped one of the others, darting a frightened look ahead. "We're +aiming right for the dam."</p> + +<p>"You wouldn't expect the boat to drift against the current, would you?" +snapped Heavy.</p> + +<p>"Let's scream!" cried another—and they could all do that to perfection. +In a very few minutes it was apparent to everybody within the circle of +half a mile or more that a bunch of girls was in trouble—or thought so!</p> + +<p>"Sit down!" gasped Heavy. "Don't rock the boat. If that yelling doesn't +bring anybody, we're due to reach a watery grave, sure enough."</p> + +<p>"Oh, don't, Heavy!" wailed one of the weaker ones. "How can you?"</p> + +<p>Heavy was privately as frightened as any of them, but she tried to keep +the others cheerful, and would have kept on joking till the end. But +several small boats came racing down the pond after them, and along the +bank came a man—or a boy—running and shouting. How either the girls in +the boats or the youth on the shore could help them, was a mystery; but +both comforted the imperiled party immensely.</p> + +<p>The current swung the heavy punt in toward the shore. Right at that end of +the dam the water was running a foot deep—or more—over the flash-board.</p> + +<p>If the punt struck, it would turn broadside, and probably tip all hands +over the dam. This was a serious predicament, indeed, and the spectators +realized it even more keenly than did the girls in the punt.</p> + +<p>The youth who had been called to the spot by their screams threw off his +coat and cap, and they saw him stoop to unlace his shoes. A plunge into +this cold water was not attractive, and it was doubtful if he could help +them much if he reached the punt.</p> + +<p>Down the hill from the picnic grounds came a group of girls, Ann Hicks in +the lead. Most of her companions were too small to do any good in any +event. The girl from the ranch carried a neat coil of rope in one hand and +she shouted to Heavy to "Hold on!"</p> + +<p>"You tell me what to hold on to, and you'll see me do it!" replied the +plump girl. "All I can take hold of just now is thin air."</p> + +<p>"Hold on!" said Ann again, and stopped, having reached the right spot. +Then she swung the rope in the air, let it uncoil suddenly, and the loose +end dropped fairly across Jennie Stone's lap.</p> + +<p>"Hold on!" yelled everybody, then, and Heavy obeyed.</p> + +<p>But the young fellow sprang to Ann's aid, and wrapped the slack of the +rope around a stout sapling on the edge of the pond.</p> + +<p>"Easy! Easy!" he admonished. "We don't want to pull them out of the boat. +You <i>can</i> fling a rope; can't you, Miss?"</p> + +<p>"I'd ought to," grunted Ann. "I've roped enough steers—Why! you're Jerry +Sheming," she declared, suddenly looking into his face. "Ruth Fielding +wants to see you. Don't you run away before she talks with you."</p> + +<p>Then the rope became taut, and the punt began to swing shoreward slowly, +taking in some water and setting the girls to screaming again.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX" />CHAPTER IX</h2> + +<h2>RUTH'S LITTLE PLOT</h2> + + +<p>The punt was in shallow water and the girls who had ventured into it +without oars were perfectly safe before any of the teachers arrived. With +them came Ruth and Helen, and some of the other juniors and seniors. Heavy +took the stump.</p> + +<p>"Now! you see what she did?" cried the stout girl, seizing Ann in her arms +the moment she could get ashore. "If she hadn't known how to fling a +lasso, and rope a steer, she'd never have been able to send that rope to +us.</p> + +<p>"Three cheers for Ann Hicks, the girl from the ranch, who knows what to do +when folks are drowning in Buchane Pond! One—two—three——"</p> + +<p>The cheers were given with a will. Several of the girls who had treated +the western girl so meanly about the dunce cap had been in the boat, and +they asked Ann to shake hands. They were truly repentant, and Ann could +not refuse their advances.</p> + +<p>But the western girl was still doubtful of her standing with her mates, +and went back to play with the little ones. Meanwhile she showed Ruth +where Jerry Sheming stood at one side, and the girl from the Red Mill ran +to him eagerly.</p> + +<p>"I am delighted to see you!" she exclaimed, shaking Jerry's rough hand. "I +was afraid I wouldn't be able to find you after you left the mill. And I +wanted to."</p> + +<p>"I'm glad of your interest in me, Miss Ruth," he said, "but I ain't got no +call to expect it. Mr. Potter was pretty kind to me, and he kept me as +long as there was work there."</p> + +<p>"But you haven't got to tramp it, now?"</p> + +<p>"Only to look for a steady job. I—I come over this way hopin' I'd hit it +at Lumberton. But they're discharging men at the mills instead of hiring +new ones."</p> + +<p>"And I expect you'd rather work in the woods than anywhere else?" +suggested Ruth.</p> + +<p>"Why—yes, Miss. I love the woods. And I got a good rifle and shotgun, and +I'm a good camp cook. I can't get a guide's license, but I could go as +assistant—if anybody would take me around Tallahaska."</p> + +<p>"Suppose I could get you a job working right where you've always lived—at +Cliff Island?" she asked, eagerly.</p> + +<p>"What d'ye mean—Cliff Island?" he demanded, flushing deeply. "I wouldn't +work for that Rufus Blent—nor he wouldn't have me."</p> + +<p>"I don't know anything about the man," said Ruth, smiling. "But one of my +chums has invited me to go to Cliff Island for the Christmas holidays. Her +father has bought the place and is building a lodge there."</p> + +<p>"Good lands!" ejaculated Jerry.</p> + +<p>"Isn't that a coincidence?" Ruth commented. "Now, you wouldn't refuse a +job with Mr. Tingley; would you?"</p> + +<p>"Tingley—is that the name?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. Perhaps I can get him, through Belle, to hire you. I'll try. Would +you go back?"</p> + +<p>"In a minute!" exclaimed Jerry.</p> + +<p>"Then I'll try. You see, in four or five weeks, we'll be going there +ourselves. I think it would just be jolly to have you around, for you know +all about the island and everything."</p> + +<p>"Yes, indeed, ma'am," agreed Jerry. "I'd like the job."</p> + +<p>"So you must write me every few days and let me know where you are. Mrs. +Tellingham won't mind—I'll explain to her," Ruth said, earnestly. "I am +not quite sure that I can go myself, yet. But I'll know for sure in a few +days. And I'll see if Belle won't ask her father to give you work at Cliff +Island. Then, in your off time, you can look for that box your uncle +lost. Don't you see?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Miss! I guess that's gone for good. Near as I could make out o' Uncle +Pete, the landslide at the west end of the island buried his treasure box +a mile deep! It was in one o' the little caves, I s'pose."</p> + +<p>"Caves? Are there caves on the island?"</p> + +<p>"Lots of 'em. Big ones as well as small. If Uncle Pete wasn't plumb crazy, +he had his money and papers in a hide-out that I'd never found."</p> + +<p>"I see Miss Picolet coming this way. She won't approve of my talking with +'a strange young man' so long," laughed Ruth. "You let me know every few +days where you are, Jerry?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, ma'am, I will. And thank you kindly."</p> + +<p>"You aren't out of funds? You have money?"</p> + +<p>"I've got quite a little store," said Jerry, smiling. "Thanks to that nice +black-eyed girl that I helped out of the car window."</p> + +<p>"Oh! Ann Hicks. And she's being made much of, now, by the girls, because +she knew how to fling a rope," cried Ruth, looking across the picnic +ground to where her schoolmates were grouped.</p> + +<p>"She's all right," said Jerry, enthusiastically. "They ought to be proud +of her—them that was in that boat."</p> + +<p>"It will break the ice for Ann," declared Ruth. "I am so glad. Now, I must +run. Don't forget to write, Jerry. Good bye."</p> + +<p>She gave him her hand and ran back to join her school friends. Ann had +gone about putting up the children's swing and at first had paid little +attention to the enthusiasm of the girls who had been saved from going +over the dam. But she could not ignore them altogether.</p> + +<p>"You're just the smartest girl I ever saw," Heavy declaimed. "We'd all be +in the water, sure enough, if you hadn't got that rope to us. Come on, +Ann! Be a sport. <i>Do</i> wear your laurels kindly."</p> + +<p>"I'm just as 'dumb' about books as ever. Flinging that rope didn't make +any difference," growled the western girl.</p> + +<p>"I don't care if you don't know your 'A.B., abs,'" cried one of the girls +who had taken a prominent part in the dunce cap trick. "You make me +awfully ashamed of myself for being so mean to you. Please forgive us all, +Ann—that's a good girl."</p> + +<p>Ann was awkward about accepting their apologies; and yet she was not +naturally a bad-tempered girl. She was just different from them all—and +felt the difference so keenly!</p> + +<p>This sudden reversal of feeling, and their evident offer of friendliness, +made her feel more awkward than ever. She remained very glum while at the +picnic grounds.</p> + +<p>But, as Ruth had said, the incident served to break the ice. Ann had +gotten her start. Somebody beside the "primes" gave her "the glad hand and +the smiling eye." Briarwood began to be a different sort of place for the +ranch girl.</p> + +<p>There were plenty of the juniors who looked down on her still; but she had +"shown them" once that she could do something the ordinary eastern girl +could not do and Ann was on the <i>qui vive</i> for another chance to "make +good" along her own particular line.</p> + +<p>She grew brighter and more self-possessed as the term advanced. Her +lessons, too, she attacked with more assurance.</p> + +<p>A few days after Thanksgiving Ruth received a letter in Aunt Alvirah's +cramped hand-writing which assured her that Uncle Jabez would make no +objection to her accepting the invitation to go to Cliff Island for the +holidays.</p> + +<p>"And I'll remind him of it in time so't he can send you a Christmas +goldpiece, if the sperit so moves him," wrote Aunt Alvirah, in her +old-fashioned way. "But do take care of yourself, my pretty, in the middle +of that lake."</p> + +<p>In telling Belle how happy she was to accept the invitation for the +frolic, Ruth diffidently put forward her request that Mr. Tingley give +Jerry Sheming a job.</p> + +<p>"I am quite sure he is a good boy," she told Belle. "He has worked for my +uncle, and Uncle Jabez praised him. Now, Uncle Jabez doesn't praise for +nothing."</p> + +<p>"I'll tell father about this Jerry—sure," laughed Belle. "You're an odd +girl, Ruth. You're always trying to do something for somebody."</p> + +<p>"Trying to do somebody for somebody, maybe," interposed Mercy, in her +sharp way. "Ruth uses her friends for her own ends."</p> + +<p>But Ruth's little plot worked. A fortnight after Thanksgiving she was able +to write to Jerry, who had found a few days' work near the school, that he +could go back to Cliff Island and present himself to Mr. Tingley's +foreman. A good job was waiting for him on the island where he had lived +so long with his uncle, the old hunter.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X" />CHAPTER X</h2> + +<h2>AN EXCITING FINISH</h2> + + +<p>Affairs at Briarwood went at high speed toward the end of the term. +Everybody was busy. A girl who did not work, or who had no interest in her +studies, fell behind very quickly.</p> + +<p>Ann Hicks was spurred to do her best by the activities of her mates. She +did not like any of them well enough—save those in the two neighboring +quartette rooms in her dormitory building—to accept defeat from them. She +began to make a better appearance in recitations, and her marks became +better.</p> + +<p>They all had extra interests save Ann herself. Helen Cameron was in the +school orchestra and played first violin with a hope of getting solo parts +in time. She loved the instrument, and in the evening, before the +electricity was turned on, she often played in the room, delighting the +music-loving Ann.</p> + +<p>Sometimes Ruth sang to her chum's accompaniment. Ruth's voice was so +sweet, so true and tender, and she sang ballads with such feeling, that +Ann often was glad it was dark in the room. The western girl considered it +"soft" to weep, but Ruth's singing brought the tears to her eyes.</p> + +<p>Mercy Curtis even gave up her beloved books during the hour of these +informal concerts. Other times she would have railed because she could not +study. Mercy was as hungry for lessons as Heavy Stone was for layer-cake +and macaroons.</p> + +<p>"That's all that's left me," croaked the lame girl, when she was in one of +her most difficult moods. "I'll learn all there is to be learned. I'll +stuff my head full. Then, when other girls laugh at my crooked back and +weak legs, I'll shame 'em by knowing more out of books."</p> + +<p>"Oh, what a mean way to put it!" gasped Helen.</p> + +<p>"I don't care, Miss! You never had your back ache you and your legs go +wabbly—No person with a bad back and such aches and pains as I have, was +ever good-natured!"</p> + +<p>"Think of Aunt Alvirah," murmured Ruth, gently.</p> + +<p>"Oh, well—she isn't just human!" gasped the lame girl.</p> + +<p>"She is very human, I think," Ruth returned.</p> + +<p>"No. She's an angel. And no angel was ever called 'Curtis,'" declared the +other, her eyes snapping.</p> + +<p>"But I believe there must be an angel somewhere named 'Mercy,'" Ruth +responded, still softly.</p> + +<p>However, it was understood that Mercy was aiming to be the crack scholar +of her class. There was a scholarship to be won, and Mercy hoped to get it +and to go to college two years later.</p> + +<p>Even Jennie Stone declared she was going in for "extras."</p> + +<p>"What, pray?" scoffed The Fox. "All your spare time is taken up in eating +now, Miss."</p> + +<p>"All right. I'll go in for the heavyweight championship at table," +declared the plump girl, good-naturedly. "At least, the result will +doubtless be visible."</p> + +<p>Ann began to wonder what she was studying for. All these other girls +seemed to have some particular object. Was she going to school without any +real reason for it?</p> + +<p>Uncle Bill would be proud of her, of course. She practised assiduously to +perfect her piano playing. That was something that would show out in +Bullhide and on the ranch. Uncle Bill would crow over her playing just as +he did over her bareback riding.</p> + +<p>But Ann was not entirely satisfied with these thoughts. Nor was she +contented with the fact that she had begun to make her mates respect her. +There was something lacking.</p> + +<p>She had half a mind to refuse Belle Tingley's invitation to Cliff Island. +In her heart Ann believed she was included in the party because Belle +would have been ashamed to ignore her, and Ruth would not have gone had +Ann not been asked.</p> + +<p>To tell the truth Ann was hungry for the girls to like her for +herself—for some attribute of character which she honestly possessed. She +had never had to think of such things before. In her western home it had +never crossed her mind whether people liked her, or not. Everybody about +Silver Ranch had been uniformly kind to her.</p> + +<p>Belle's holiday party was to be made up of the eight girls in the two +quartette rooms, with Madge Steele, the senior; Madge's brother, Bobbins, +Tom Cameron, little Busy Izzy Phelps, and Belle's own brothers.</p> + +<p>"Of course, we've got to have the boys," declared Helen. "No fun without +them."</p> + +<p>Mercy had tried to beg off at first; then she had agreed to go, if she +could take half a trunkful of books with her.</p> + +<p>Briarwood girls were as busy as bees in June during these last few days of +the first half. The second half was broken by the Easter vacation and most +of the real hard work in study came before Christmas.</p> + +<p>There was going to be a school play after Christmas, and the parts were +given out before the holidays. Helen was going to play and Ruth to sing. +It did seem to Ann as though every girl was happy and busy but herself.</p> + +<p>The last day of the term was in sight. There was to be the usual +entertainment and a dance at night. The hall had to be trimmed with greens +and those girls—of the junior and senior classes—who could, were +appointed to help gather the decorations.</p> + +<p>"I don't want to go," objected Ann.</p> + +<p>"Goosie!" cried Helen. "Of course you do. It will be fun."</p> + +<p>"Not for me," returned the ranch girl, grimly. "Do you see who is going to +head the party? That Mitchell girl. She's always nasty to me."</p> + +<p>"Be nasty to her!" snapped Mercy, from her corner.</p> + +<p>"Now, Mercy!" begged Ruth, shaking a finger at the lame girl.</p> + +<p>"I wouldn't mind what Mitchell says or does," sniffed The Fox.</p> + +<p>"Fibber!" exclaimed Mercy.</p> + +<p>"I never tell lies, Miss," said Mary Cox, tossing her head.</p> + +<p>"Humph!" ejaculated the somewhat spiteful Mercy, "do you call yourself a +female George Washington?"</p> + +<p>"No. Marthy Washington," laughed Heavy.</p> + +<p>"Only her husband couldn't lie," declared Mercy. "And at that, they say +that somebody wished to change the epitaph on his tomb to read: 'Here lies +George Washington—for the first time!'"</p> + +<p>"Everybody is tempted to tell a fib some time," sighed Helen.</p> + +<p>"And falls, too," exclaimed Mercy.</p> + +<p>"I must say I don't believe there ever was anybody but Washington that +didn't tell a lie. It's awfully hard to be exactly truthful always," said +Lluella. "You remember that time in the primary grade, just after we'd +come here to Briarwood, Belle?"</p> + +<p>"Do I?" laughed Belle Tingley. "You fibbed all right then, Miss."</p> + +<p>"It wasn't very bad—and I did <i>want</i> to see the whole school so much. +So—so I took one of my pencils to our teacher and asked her if she would +ask the other scholars if it was theirs.</p> + +<p>"Of course, all the other girls in our room said it wasn't," proceeded +Lluella. "Then teacher said just what I wanted her to say: 'You may +inquire in the other classes.' So I went around and saw all the other +classes and had a real nice time.</p> + +<p>"But when I got back with the pencil in my hand still, Belle come near +getting me into trouble."</p> + +<p>"Uh-huh!" admitted Belle, nodding.</p> + +<p>"How?" asked somebody.</p> + +<p>"She just whispered—right out loud, 'Lluella, that is your pencil and you +know it!' And I had to say—right off, 'It isn't, and I didn't!' Now, what +could I have said else? But it was an awful fib, I s'pose."</p> + +<p>The assembled girls laughed. But Ann Hicks was still seriously inclined +not to go into the woods, although she had no idea of telling a fib about +it. And because she was too proud to say to the teacher in charge that she +feared Miss Mitchell's tongue, the western girl joined the +greens-gathering party at the very last minute.</p> + +<p>There were two four-seated sleighs, for there was a hard-packed white +track into the woods toward Triton Lake. Old Dolliver drove one, and his +helper manned the other. The English teacher was in charge. She hoped to +find bushels of holly berries and cedar buds as well as the materials for +wreaths.</p> + +<p>One pair of the horses was western—high-spirited, hard-bitted mustangs. +Ann Hicks recognized them before she got into the sleigh. How they pulled +and danced, and tossed the froth from their bits!</p> + +<p>"I feel just as they do," thought the girl. "I'd love to break out, and +kick, and bite, and act the very Old Boy! Poor things! How they must miss +the plains and the free range."</p> + +<p>The other girls wondered what made her so silent. The tang of the frosty +air, and the ring of the ponies' hoofs, and the jingle of the bells put +plenty of life and fun into her mates; but Ann remained morose.</p> + +<p>They reached the edge of the swamp and the girls alighted with merry shout +and song. They were all armed with big shears or sharp knives, but the +berries grew high, and Old Dolliver's boy had to climb for them.</p> + +<p>Then the accident occurred—a totally unexpected and unlooked for +accident. In stepping out on a high branch, the boy slipped, fell, and +came down to the ground, hitting each intervening limb, and so saving his +life, but dashing every bit of breath from his lungs, it seemed!</p> + +<p>The girls ran together, screaming. The teacher almost fainted. Old +Dolliver stooped over the fallen boy and wiped the blood from his lips.</p> + +<p>"Don't tech him!" he croaked. "He's broke ev'ry bone in his body, I make +no doubt. An' he'd oughter have a doctor——"</p> + +<p>"I'll get one," said Ann Hicks, briskly, in the old man's ear. "Where's +the nearest—and the best?"</p> + +<p>"Doc Haverly at Lumberton."</p> + +<p>"I'll get him."</p> + +<p>"It's six miles, Miss. You'd never walk it. I'll take one of the +teams——"</p> + +<p>"You stay with him," jerked out Ann. "I can ride."</p> + +<p>"Ride? Them ain't ridin' hosses, Miss," declared Old Dolliver.</p> + +<p>"If a horse has got four legs he can be ridden," declared the girl from +the ranch, succinctly.</p> + +<p>"Take the off one on my team, then——"</p> + +<p>"That old plug? I guess not!" exclaimed Ann, and was off.</p> + +<p>She unharnessed one of the pitching, snapping mustangs. "Whoa—easy! You +wouldn't bite me, you know," she crooned, and the mustang thrust forward +his ears and listened.</p> + +<p>She dropped off the heavy harness. The bridle she allowed to remain, but +there was no saddle. The English teacher came to her senses, suddenly.</p> + +<p>"That creature will kill you!" she cried, seeing what Ann was about.</p> + +<p>"Then he'll be the first horse that ever did it," drawled Ann. "Hi, yi, +yi! We're off!"</p> + +<p>To the horror of the teacher, to the surprise of Old Dolliver, and to the +delight of the other girls, Ann Hicks swung herself astride of the dancing +pony, dug her heels into his ribs, and the next moment had darted out of +sight down the wood road.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI" />CHAPTER XI</h2> + +<h2>A NUMBER OF THINGS</h2> + + +<p>There may have been good reason for the teacher to be horrified, but how +else was the mustang to be ridden? Ann was a big girl to go tearing +through the roads and 'way into Lumberton astride a horse. Without a +saddle and curb, however, she could not otherwise have clung to him.</p> + +<p>Just now haste was imperative. She had a picture in her mind, all the way, +of that boy lying in the snow, his face so pallid and the bloody foam upon +his lips.</p> + +<p>In twenty-five minutes she was at the physician's gate. She flung herself +off the horse, and as she shouted her news to the doctor through the open +office window, she unbuckled the bridle-rein and made a leading strap of +it.</p> + +<p>So, when the doctor drove out of the yard in his sleigh, she hopped in +beside him and led the heaving mustang back into the woods. Of course she +did not look ladylike at all, and not another girl at Briarwood would have +done it. But even the English teacher—who was a prude—never scolded her +for it.</p> + +<p>Indeed, the doctor made a heroine of Ann, Old Dolliver said he never saw +her beat, and the boy, who was so sadly hurt (but who pulled through all +right in the end) almost worshipped the girl from Silver Ranch.</p> + +<p>"And how she can ride!" the very girl who had treated Ann the meanest said +of her. "What does it matter if she isn't quite up to the average yet in +recitations? She <i>will</i> be."</p> + +<p>This was after the holidays, however. There was too short a time before +Belle Tingley and her friends started for Cliff Island for Ann to +particularly note the different manner in which the girls in general +treated her.</p> + +<p>The party went on the night train. Mr. Tingley, who had some influence +with the railroad, had a special sleeper side-tracked at Lumberton for +their accommodation. This sleeper was to be attached to the train that +went through Lumberton at midnight.</p> + +<p>Therefore they did not have to skip all the fun of the dance. This was one +of the occasions when the boys from the Seven Oaks Military Academy were +allowed to mix freely with the girls of Briarwood. And both parties +enjoyed it.</p> + +<p>Belle's mother had arrived in good season, for she was to chaperone the +party bound for Logwood, at the head of Tallahaska Lake. She passed the +word at ten o'clock, and the girls got their hand-baggage and ran down to +the road, where Old Dolliver waited for them with his big sleigh. The boys +walked into town, so the girls were nicely settled in the car when Tom +Cameron and his chums reached the siding.</p> + +<p>Belle Tingley's two brothers were not too old to be companions for Tom, +Bob, and Isadore Phelps. And they were all as eager for fun and +prank-playing as they could be.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Tingley had already retired and most of the girls were in their +dressing gowns when the boys arrived. The porter was making up the boys' +berths as the latter tramped in, bringing on their clothing the first +flakes of the storm that had been threatening all the evening.</p> + +<p>"Let the porter brush you, little boy," urged Madge, peering out between +the curtains of her section and admonishing her big brother. "If you get +cold and catch the croup I don't know what sister <i>will</i> do! Now, be a +good child!"</p> + +<p>"Huh!" grunted Isadore Phelps, trying to collect enough of the snow to +make a ball to throw at her. "I wonder at you, Bobbins. Why don't you make +her behave? Treatin' you like an over-grown kid."</p> + +<p>"I'd never treat <i>you</i> that way, Master Isadore," said Madge, sweetly. +"For you very well know that you're not grown at all!"</p> + +<p>At that Isadore <i>did</i> gather snow—by running out for it. He brought back +a dozen snowballs and the first thing the girls knew the missiles were +dropping over the top of the curtains into the sheltered spaces devoted to +the berths.</p> + +<p>There <i>was</i> a great squealing then, for some of the victims were quite +ready for bed, and the snow was cold and wet. Mrs. Tingley interfered +little with the pranks of the young folk, and Izzy was careful not to +throw any snow into <i>her</i> compartment.</p> + +<p>But the tease did not know when to stop. He was usually that way—as Madge +said, Izzy would drive a willing horse to death.</p> + +<p>It was Heavy and Ann, however, who paid him back in some of his own coin.</p> + +<p>The boys finally made their preparations for bed. Izzy paraded the length +of the car in his big robe and bed slippers, for a drink of ice water.</p> + +<p>Before he could return, Heavy and Ann bounced out in their woolen kimonas +and seized him. By this time the train had come in, the engine had +switched to the siding, picked up their sleeper, and was now backing down +to couple on to the train again.</p> + +<p>The two girls ran Izzy out into the vestibule, Heavy's hand over his +mouth so that he could not shout to his friends for help. The door of the +vestibule on the off side was unlocked. Ann pushed it open.</p> + +<p>The snow was falling heavily—it was impossible to see even the fence that +bounded the railroad line on this side. The cars came together with a +slight shock and the three were thrown into a giggling, struggling heap on +the platform.</p> + +<p>"Lemme go!" gasped Izzy.</p> + +<p>"Sure we will!" giggled Heavy, and with a final push she sent him flying +down the steps. Then she shut the door.</p> + +<p>She did not know that every other door on that side of the long train was +locked. Almost immediately the train began to move forward. It swept away +from the Lumberton platform, and it was fully a minute before Heavy and +Ann realized what they had done.</p> + +<p>"Oh, oh, oh!" shrieked the plump girl, running down the aisle. "Busy Izzy +is left behind."</p> + +<p>"Stop your joking," exclaimed Tom, peering out of his berth, which was an +upper. "He's nothing of the kind."</p> + +<p>"He is! He is!"</p> + +<p>"Why, he's all ready for bed," declared one of the Tingley boys. "He +wouldn't dare——"</p> + +<p>"We threw him out!" wailed Heavy. "We didn't know the train was to start +so quickly."</p> + +<p>"Threw him off the train?" cried Mrs. Tingley, appearing in her boudoir +cap and gown. "What kind of a menagerie am I supposed to preserve order +in——?"</p> + +<p>"You can make bully good preserved ginger, Ma," said one of her sons, "but +you fall short when it comes to preserving <i>order</i>."</p> + +<p>Most of the crowd were troubled over Isadore's absence. Some suggested +pulling the emergency cord and stopping the train; others were for +telegraphing back from the next station. All were talking at once, indeed, +when the rear door opened and in came the conductor, escorting the +shivering Isadore.</p> + +<p>"Does this—this <i>tyke</i> belong in here?" demanded the man of brass +buttons, with much emphasis.</p> + +<p>They welcomed him loudly. The conductor shook his head. The flagman on the +end of the train had helped the boy aboard the last car as the train +started to move.</p> + +<p>"Keep him here!" commanded the conductor. "And I've a mind to have both +doors of the car locked until we reach Logwood. Don't let me hear anything +more from you boys and girls on this journey."</p> + +<p>He went away laughing, however, and bye and bye they quieted down. Madge +insisted upon making some hot composition, very strong, and dosing Isadore +with it. The drink probably warded off a cold. Izzy admitted to Bobbins +that a sister wasn't so bad to "have around" after all.</p> + +<p>While they slept, the car was shunted to the sidetrack at Logwood and the +western-bound train went hooting away through the forest. It was still +snowing heavily, there were not many trains passing through the Logwood +yard, and no switching during the early part of the day. The snow +smothered other sounds.</p> + +<p>Therefore, the party that had come to the lake for a vacation was not +astir until late. It was hunger that roused them to the realities of life +in the end. They had to dress and go to the one hotel of which the +settlement boasted for breakfast.</p> + +<p>"Can't cross to the island on the ice, they say," Ralph Tingley ran in to +tell his mother. "Weight of the snow has broken it up. One of the men says +he'll get a punt and pole us over to Cliff Island if the snow stops so +that he can see his way."</p> + +<p>"My! won't that be fun!" gasped Ann Hicks, who had overheard him.</p> + +<p>She had begun to enjoy herself the minute she felt that they were in rough +country. Some of the girls wished they hadn't come. Ruth and Helen were +already outside, snowballing with the boys.</p> + +<p>When Mrs. Tingley descended the car steps, ready to go to breakfast, her +other son appeared—a second Mercury.</p> + +<p>"Mother, Mr. Preston is here. Says he'd like to see you."</p> + +<p>Mr. Preston was the foreman to whom Jerry Sheming had been sent for a job. +Ruth, who overheard, remembered the man's name. Then she saw a man dressed +in Canadian knit cap, tall boots, and mackinaw, and carrying a huge +umbrella, with which he hurried forward to hold protectingly over Mrs. +Tingley's head.</p> + +<p>"Glad to see you, ma'am," said the foreman. Ruth was passing them on her +way to the hotel when she heard something that stayed her progress. "Sorry +to trouble you. Mr. Tingley ain't coming up to-day?"</p> + +<p>"Not until Christmas morning," replied the lady. "He cannot get away +before."</p> + +<p>"Well, I'll have to discharge that Jerry Sheming. Too bad, too. He's a +worker, and well able to guide the boys and girls around the island—knows +it like a book."</p> + +<p>"Why let him go, then?" asked the lady.</p> + +<p>"Blent says he's dishonest. An' I seen him snooping around rather funny, +myself. Guess I'll have to fire him, Mis' Tingley."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII" />CHAPTER XII</h2> + +<h2>RUFUS BLENT'S LITTLE WAYS</h2> + + +<p>The crowd waded through the soft snow to the inn. It was a small place, +patronized mainly by fishermen and hunters in the season. It was plain, +from the breakfast they served to the Tingley party, that if the +unexpected guests had to remain long, they would be starved to death.</p> + +<p>"And all the 'big eats' over on the Island," wailed Heavy. "I could swim +there, I believe."</p> + +<p>"I am afraid I could not allow you to do that," said Mrs. Tingley, shaking +her head. "It would be too absurd. We'd better take the train home again."</p> + +<p>"Never!" chorused Belle and her brothers. "We must get to Cliff Island in +some way—by hook or by crook," added the girl, who had set her heart upon +this outing.</p> + +<p>Ruth was rather serious this morning. She waited for a chance to speak +with Mrs. Tingley alone, and when it came, she blurted out what she wished +to say:</p> + +<p>"Oh, Mrs. Tingley! I couldn't help hearing what that man said to you. Must +he discharge Jerry because Rufus Blent says so?"</p> + +<p>"Why, my dear! Oh! I remember. You were the girl who befriended the boy in +the first place?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I did, Mrs. Tingley. And I hope you won't let your foreman turn him +off for nothing——"</p> + +<p>"Oh! I can't interfere. It is my husband's business, of course."</p> + +<p>"But let me tell you!" urged Ruth, and then she related all she knew about +Jerry Sheming, and all about the story of the old hunter who had lived so +many years on Cliff Island.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Tingley had a good deal of trouble over that squatter," said Belle's +mother, slowly. "He was crazy."</p> + +<p>"That might be. But Jerry isn't crazy."</p> + +<p>"But they made some claim to owning a part of the island."</p> + +<p>"And after the old man had lived there for fifty years, perhaps he thought +he had a right to it."</p> + +<p>"Why, my child, that sounds reasonable. But of course he didn't."</p> + +<p>"Just the same," said Ruth, "he maybe had the box of money and papers +hidden on the island, as he said. That is what Jerry has been looking for. +And I wager that man Blent is afraid he will find it."</p> + +<p>"How romantic!" laughed Mrs. Tingley.</p> + +<p>"But, do wait till Mr. Tingley comes and let him decide," begged Ruth.</p> + +<p>"Surely. And I will tell Mr. Preston to refuse any of Blent's demands. He +is a queer old fellow, I know. And, come to think of it, he told us he +wanted to make some investigations regarding the caves at the west end of +the island. He wouldn't sell us the place without reserving in the deed +the rights to all mineral deposits and to treasure trove."</p> + +<p>"What's 'treasure trove,' Mrs. Tingley?" asked Ruth, quickly.</p> + +<p>"Why—that would mean anything valuable found upon the land which is not +naturally a part of it."</p> + +<p>"Like a box of money, or papers?"</p> + +<p>"Yes! I see. I declare, child, maybe the boy, Jerry, has told you the +truth!"</p> + +<p>"I am sure he has. He seemed like a perfectly honest boy," declared Ruth, +anxiously.</p> + +<p>"I will see Mr. Preston again," spoke Mrs. Tingley, decisively.</p> + +<p>The storm continued through the forenoon. But the boys and girls waiting +for transportation to Cliff Island had plenty of fun.</p> + +<p>Behind the inn was an open field, and there they built a fort, the party +being divided into opposing armies. Tom Cameron led one and Ann Hicks was +chosen to head the other. Mercy could look at them from the windows, and +urge the girls on in the fray.</p> + +<p>The boys might throw straighter, but numbers told. The girls could divide +and attack the boy defenders of the fortress on both flanks. They came in +rosy and breathless at noon—to sit down to a most heart-breaking +luncheon.</p> + +<p>"Such an expanse of table and so little on it I never saw before," +grumbled Heavy, in a glum aside. "How long do you suppose we would exist +on these rations?"</p> + +<p>"We're not dead yet," said Ruth, cheerfully, "so you needn't become a +'gloom.'"</p> + +<p>"Jen ought to live on past meals—like a camel existing on its hump," +declared Madge.</p> + +<p>"I'm no camel," retorted the plump one, instantly. "And a meal to +me—after it has been digested—is nothing more than a beautiful dream; +and you can bet that I never gained my avoirdupois by dreaming!"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Tingley beckoned to Ruth after dinner. Together they went into the +general room, where there was a huge fire of logs. Mr. Preston, the +foreman, was there.</p> + +<p>"I have been making inquiries," the lady explained to Ruth, "and I find +that this Rufus Blent has not a very enviable reputation. At least, he is +considered, locally, a sharper."</p> + +<p>"Is this the girl who is interested in Jerry?" asked the foreman. "Well! +he ought to be all right if she sticks up for him."</p> + +<p>"I believe his story is true," Ruth said, shaking her head.</p> + +<p>"And if that's so, then the boss hasn't got a clear title to Cliff +Island—eh?" returned the big foreman, smiling at her quizzically.</p> + +<p>"That isn't Mr. Tingley's fault," cried Ruth, quickly.</p> + +<p>"He'd be the one to suffer, however, if it should be proved that old Pete +Tilton had any vested right in the island," said Preston. "You can bet +Blent is sharp enough to have covered his tracks if he has done anything +foxy. He was never caught yet in any legal tangle."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I hope Mr. Tingley won't have trouble up here," declared Mrs. +Tingley, quite disturbed.</p> + +<p>Ruth felt rather embarrassed. As much as she was interested in Jerry +Sheming, she did not like to think she was stirring up trouble for her +school-mate's father. Just then the outer door of the inn opened and a man +entered, stamping the snow from his boots upon the wire mat.</p> + +<p>"S-s-t!" said Preston, his eyes twinkling. "Here's Rufus Blent himself."</p> + +<p>It seemed that Mrs. Tingley had never seen the real estate man and she was +quite as much interested as Ruth in making his acquaintance. They both +eyed him with growing disapproval as the old man finished freeing his +feet of the clinging snow and then charged at Preston from across the big +room.</p> + +<p>"I say! I say, you, Preston!" he snarled. "Have you done what I tol' you? +Have you got that Jerry Sheming off the island? He'd never oughter been +let to git on there ag'in. I've been away, or I'd heard of it before. Is +he off?"</p> + +<p>"Not yet," replied Preston, smiling secretly.</p> + +<p>"I wanter know why not? I won't have him snoopin' around there. It was +understood when I sold Tingley that island that I reserved sartain +rights——"</p> + +<p>"This here is Mis' Tingley," interposed Preston, turning the old man's +attention to the lady.</p> + +<p>He was a brown, wrinkled old man, with sparse pepper-and-salt whiskers and +a parrot-like nose. "Sharper" was written all over his hatchet features; +but probably his provincialism and lack of book education had kept him +from being a very dangerous villain.</p> + +<p>"I wanter know!" exclaimed Rufus. "So you're Tingley's lady? Wal! do you +take charge here?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no," laughed Mrs. Tingley. "My husband will be up here Christmas +morning."</p> + +<p>"Goin' to have Preston send that boy back to the mainland?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, I shall not interfere. Mr. Tingley will attend to it when he +comes. I think that would be best."</p> + +<p>"Nothin' of the kind!" cried Blent, his little eyes snapping. "That boy's +got no business over there—snooping round."</p> + +<p>"What are you afraid of, Rufus? What do you think he'll find?" queried +Preston, who was evidently not above aggravating the old fellow.</p> + +<p>"Never you mind! Never you mind!" croaked Blent. "If you folks won't +discharge him and put him off the island, I'll do it, myself."</p> + +<p>"How can you, Mr. Blent?" asked Mrs. Tingley, feeling some disposition to +cross swords with him.</p> + +<p>"Never you mind. I'll do it. Goin' back to-day, of course, Preston; ain't +you?"</p> + +<p>"I'm hoping to get this crowd of young folk—and Mrs. Tingley—across to +the island. And I think the snow is going to stop soon."</p> + +<p>"I'll go with you," declared Blent, promptly. "Don't you go till I see you +again, Preston. I gotter ketch 'Squire Keller fust."</p> + +<p>He hurried out of the inn. Mrs. Tingley and Ruth looked at the foreman +questioningly. The girl cried:</p> + +<p>"Oh! what will he do?"</p> + +<p>"He's going to get a warrant for the boy," answered Preston, scowling.</p> + +<p>"How can he? What has Jerry done?"</p> + +<p>"That don't make no difference," said the woodsman. "Old Rufus just about +runs the politics of this town. Keller will do what he says. Rufus will +get the boy off the island by foul means if he can't by fair."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII" />CHAPTER XIII</h2> + +<h2>FIGHTING FIRE WITH FIRE</h2> + + +<p>Ruth felt her heart swell in anger against Rufus Blent, the Logwood real +estate man. If she had not been determined before to aid Jerry Sheming in +every way possible, she was now.</p> + +<p>If there was a box of money and papers hidden on Cliff Island, once +belonging to Pete Tilton, the old hunter, Ruth desired to keep Blent from +finding it.</p> + +<p>She believed Jerry's story—about the treasure box and all. Rufus Blent's +actions now seemed to prove the existence of such a box. He wanted to find +it. But if the money and papers in the box had belonged to old Pete +Tilton, surely Jerry, as his single living relative, should have the best +right to the "treasure trove."</p> + +<p>How to thwart Blent was the question disturbing Ruth Fielding's mind. Of +course, nobody but Jerry had as strong a desire as she to outwit the old +real estate man. The other girls and boys—even Mrs. Tingley—would not +feel as Ruth did about it. She knew that well enough.</p> + +<p>If anything was to be done to save Jerry from being arrested on a false +charge and dragged from Cliff Island by Blent, <i>she</i> must bring it about. +Ruth watched the last flakes of the snow falling with a very serious +feeling.</p> + +<p>The other young folk were delighted with the breaking of the weather. Now +they could observe Logwood better, and its surroundings. The roughly built +"shanty-town" was dropped down on the edge of the lake, in a clearing. +Much of the stumpage around the place was still raw. The only roads were +timber roads and they were now knee-deep in fresh snow.</p> + +<p>There was a dock with a good-sized steamer tied up at it, but there was +too much ice for it to be got out into the lake. The railroad came out of +the woods on one side and disappeared into just as thick a forest on the +other.</p> + +<p>The interest of the young people, however, lay in the bit of land that +loomed up some five miles away. Cliff Island contained several hundred +acres of forest and meadow—all now covered with glittering white.</p> + +<p>At the nearer end was the new hunting lodge of the Tingleys, with the +neighboring outbuildings. At the far end the island rose to a rugged +promontory perhaps a hundred and fifty feet high, with a single tall pine +tree at the apex.</p> + +<p>That western end of the island seemed to be built of huge boulders for the +most part. Here and there the rocks were so steep that the snow did not +cling to them, and they looked black and raw against the background of +dazzling white.</p> + +<p>The face of the real cliff—because of which the island had received its +name—was scarcely visible from Logwood. Jerry had told Ruth it was a very +wild and desolate place, and the girl of the Red Hill could easily believe +it.</p> + +<p>The crowd had left the inn as soon as the clouds began to break and a ray +or two of sunshine shone forth. Two ox teams were breaking the paths +through the town. The boys and girls went down to the dock, singing and +shouting. Mrs. Tingley and the foreman came behind.</p> + +<p>Three other men were making ready a huge punt in which the entire party +might be transported to the island. Later the punt would return for the +extra baggage.</p> + +<p>This vehicle for water-travel was a shallow, skiff-like boat, almost as +broad as it was long, and with a square bow and stern. There was a place +for a short mast to be stepped, but, with the lake covered with drifting +ice cakes, it was judged safer to depend upon huge sweeps for motive +power.</p> + +<p>With these sweeps, not only could the punt be urged forward at a speed of +perhaps two miles an hour, but the ice-cakes could be pushed aside and a +channel opened through the drifting mass for the passage of the awkward +boat.</p> + +<p>Mr. Preston had explained all this to Mrs. Tingley, who was used to +neither the woods nor the lake, and she had agreed that this means of +transportation to Cliff Island was sufficiently safe, though +extraordinary.</p> + +<p>"Let's pile in and make a start," urged Ralph Tingley, eagerly. "Why! we +won't get there by dark if we don't hurry."</p> + +<p>"And goodness knows we need to get somewhere to eat before long," cried +Jennie Stone. "I am willing to help propel the boat myself, if they'll +show me how."</p> + +<p>"You might get out and swim, and drag us behind you, Heavy," suggested one +of the girls. "You're so anxious to get over to the island."</p> + +<p>They all were desirous of gaining their destination—there could be no +doubt of that. As they were getting aboard, however, there came a hail +from up the main street of Logwood.</p> + +<p>"Hi, yi! Don't you folks go without me! Hi, Preston!"</p> + +<p>"Here comes that Blent man," said Mrs. Tingley, with some disgust. "I +suppose we must take him?"</p> + +<p>"Well, I wouldn't advise ye to turn him down, Mis' Tingley," urged the +foreman. "No use making him your enemy. I tell you he's got a big +political pull in these parts."</p> + +<p>"Is there room for him?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. And for the fellow with him. That's Lem Daggett, the constable. Oh, +Rufe is going over with all the legal right on his side. He'll bring Jerry +back here and shut him up for a few days, I suppose."</p> + +<p>"But on what charge?" Mrs. Tingley asked, in some distress.</p> + +<p>"That won't matter. Some trumped-up charge. Easy enough to do it when you +have a feller like 'Squire Keller to deal with. Oh," said Preston, shaking +his head, "Rufe Blent knows what he's about, you may believe!"</p> + +<p>"Who's the old gee-gee with the whiskers?" asked the disrespectful +Isadore, when the real estate man came down to the dock, with the +constable slouching behind him.</p> + +<p>"Hurry up, Grandpop!" shouted one of the Tingley boys. "This expedition is +about to start."</p> + +<p>Blent scowled at the hilarious crowd. It was plain to be seen that any +supply of milk of human kindness he may have had was long since soured.</p> + +<p>Ruth caught Tom Cameron's eye and nodded to him. Helen's twin was a very +good friend of the girl from the Red Mill and he quickly grasped her wish +to speak with him alone.</p> + +<p>In a minute he maneuvered so as to get into the stern with his sister's +chum, and there Ruth whispered to him her fears and desires regarding +Blent and Jerry Sheming.</p> + +<p>"Say! we ought to help that fellow. See what he did for Jane Ann," said +Tom. "And that old fellow looks so sour he sets my teeth on edge, anyway."</p> + +<p>"He is going to do a very mean thing," declared Ruth, decidedly. "Jerry +has done nothing wrong, I am sure."</p> + +<p>"We must beat the old fellow."</p> + +<p>"But how, Tom? They say he is all-powerful here at Logwood."</p> + +<p>"Let me think. I'll be back again," replied Tom, as the boys called him to +come up front.</p> + +<p>The punt was already under way. Preston and his three men worked the craft +out slowly into the drifting ice. The grinding of the cakes against the +sides of the boat did not frighten any of the passengers—unless perhaps +Mrs. Tingley herself. She felt responsible for the safety of this whole +party of her daughter's school friends.</p> + +<p>The wind was not strong and the drift of the broken ice was slow. +Therefore there was really no danger to be apprehended. The punt was +worked along its course with considerable ease.</p> + +<p>The boys had to take their turns at the sweeps; but Tom found time to slip +back to Ruth before they were half-way across to the island.</p> + +<p>"Too bad the old fellow doesn't fall overboard," he growled in Ruth's ear. +"Isn't he a snarly old customer?"</p> + +<p>"But I suppose the constable has the warrant," Ruth returned, smiling. "So +Mr. Blent's elimination from the scene would not help Jerry much."</p> + +<p>"I tell you what—you've got to fight fire with fire," observed Tom, after +a moment of deep reflection.</p> + +<p>"Well? What meanest thou, Sir Oracle?"</p> + +<p>"Why, they haven't any business to arrest Jerry."</p> + +<p>"Agreed."</p> + +<p>"Then let's tip him off so that he can run."</p> + +<p>"Where will he run to?" demanded Ruth, eagerly.</p> + +<p>"Say! that's a big island. And I bet he knows his way all over it."</p> + +<p>"Oh! the caves!" exclaimed Ruth.</p> + +<p>"What's that?"</p> + +<p>"He told me there were caves in it. He can hide in one. And we can get +food to him. Great, Tom—great!"</p> + +<p>"Sure it's great. When your Uncle Dudley——"</p> + +<p>"But how are we going to warn Jerry to run before this constable catches +him?" interposed Ruth, with less confidence.</p> + +<p>"How? You leave that to me," Tom returned, mysteriously.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV" />CHAPTER XIV</h2> + +<h2>THE HUE AND CRY</h2> + + +<p>Ruth and Tom Cameron had no further opportunity of speaking together until +the punt came very close to the island. Here the current ran more swiftly +and the ice-blocks seemed to have been cleared away.</p> + +<p>There was a new stone dock, and up the slight rise from it, about a +hundred yards back from the shore, was the heavily-framed lodge. It +consisted of two stories, the upper one extending over the lower. Big +beams crossed at the corners of this upper story and the outer walls were +of roughly hewn logs. The great veranda was arranged for screening, in the +summer, but now the west side was enclosed with glass. It was an expensive +and comfortable looking camp.</p> + +<p>There were several men on the dock as the punt came in, but Jerry Sheming +was not in sight. Tom had, from time to time, been seen whispering with +the boys. They all now gathered in the bow of the slowly moving punt, +ready to leap ashore the moment she bumped into the dock.</p> + +<p>"Do be careful, boys," begged Mrs. Tingley. "Don't fall into the water, or +get hurt. I certainly shall be glad when Mr. Tingley comes up for +Christmas and takes all this responsibility off my hands."</p> + +<p>"Don't have any fear for us, Mrs. Tingley, I beg," said Tom. "We're only +going to scramble ashore, and the first fellow who reaches the house is +the best man. Now, fellows!"</p> + +<p>The punt bumped. Such a scrambling as there was! Ann Hicks showed her +suppleness by being one of the first to land and beating some of the boys; +but she did not run with them.</p> + +<p>"They might have stayed and helped us girls—and Mrs. Tingley—to land," +complained Helen. "I don't see what Tom was thinking of."</p> + +<p>But all of a sudden Ruth had an idea that she understood Tom's lack of +gallantry. Jerry Sheming, not being at the dock to meet the newcomers, +must be at the house. The boys, it proved later, had agreed to help "tip" +Jerry. The first fellow to see him was to tell him of the approach of +Blent and the constable.</p> + +<p>Therefore, when Rufus Blent and Lem Daggett reached the lodge, nobody +seemed to know anything about Jerry. Tom winked knowingly at Ruth.</p> + +<p>"I tell ye, Preston, I gotter take that boy back to Logwood with me," +shouted Blent, who seemed greatly excited. "Where are you hidin' the +rascal?"</p> + +<p>"You know very well I came over with you in the boat and walked up here +with you, Blent," growled the foreman, in some anger. "How could I hide +him?"</p> + +<p>"But the cook, nor nobody, knows what's become of him. He was here peelin' +'taters for supper, cookie says, jest b'fore we landed. Now he's sloped."</p> + +<p>"He saw you comin', it's likely," rejoined Preston. "He suspected what you +was after."</p> + +<p>"Well, I'm goin' to leave Daggett. And, Lem!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir?" said that slouching person.</p> + +<p>"You got to get him. Now mind that. The boy's to 'pear in 'Squire Keller's +court to-morrow—or something will happen," threatened the real estate +man.</p> + +<p>"And if he don't appear, what then?" drawled Preston, who was more amused +by the old man than afraid of him.</p> + +<p>"You'd better not interfere with the course of the law, Preston," declared +Blent, shaking his head.</p> + +<p>"You bet I won't. Especially the brand of law that's handed a feller by +your man, Keller. But I don't know nothing about the boy nor where he's +gone. I don't wanter know, either.</p> + +<p>"And none of they rest o' you wanter harbor that thief," snarled Blent, +viciously, looking around at the gaping hired men and the boys who had +come to visit Cliff Island. "The law's got a long arm. 'Member that!"</p> + +<p>"Will we be breaking the law if we don't report this poor fellow to the +constable here, if we see him?" asked Tom Cameron, boldly.</p> + +<p>"You bet you will. And I'll see that you're punished if ye harbor or help +the rascal. Don't think because Tingley's a rich man, and your fathers +have probably more money than is good for them, that you will escape," +said Blent.</p> + +<p>"I don't believe he's so powerful as he makes out to be," grumbled Tom, +later, to Ruth. "<i>I</i> was the one who caught Jerry and whispered for him to +get out. I didn't have to say much to him. He was wise about Blent."</p> + +<p>"Where did he go?" asked the eager Ruth, quickly.</p> + +<p>"I don't know. I didn't want to know—and you don't, either."</p> + +<p>"But suppose something happens to him?" objected the girl, fearfully.</p> + +<p>"Why, he knows all about this island. You said so yourself. I just told +him we'd get some grub to him to-morrow."</p> + +<p>"How?"</p> + +<p>"Told him we'd leave it at the foot of that tall pine at the far end of +the island. Then he slipped out of the kitchen and disappeared."</p> + +<p>But Blent was a crafty old party and did not easily give up the pursuit of +the young fellow he had come to the island to nab. The coat of fresh snow +over everything made tracking the fugitive an easy task.</p> + +<p>After a few minutes of sputtering anger, the real estate man organized a +pursuit of Jerry. He made sure that the forest youth had run out of the +kitchen at about the time the visitors came up from the dock.</p> + +<p>"He ain't got a long start," said Blent to his satellite, the constable. +"Let's see if he didn't leave tracks."</p> + +<p>He had. There was still an hour of daylight, although the winter evening +was closing in rapidly. Jerry had left by the back door of the lodge and +had gone straight across the yard, through the unbroken snow, to the +bunkhouse used by the male help.</p> + +<p>There he had stopped for his rifle and shotgun, and ammunition. Indeed, he +had taken everything that belonged to him, and, loaded down with this +loot, had gone right up the hill, keeping in the scrub so as to be hidden +from the big house, and had so passed over the rising ground toward the +middle of the island.</p> + +<p>"The track is plain enough," Blent said. "Ain't ye got a dog, Preston? We +could foller him all night."</p> + +<p>"Not with our dogs," declared the foreman.</p> + +<p>"Why not?"</p> + +<p>"Don't think the boss would like it. We don't keep dogs to hunt men with."</p> + +<p>"You better take care how you try to block the law," threatened the old +man. "That boy's goin' to be caught."</p> + +<p>"Not with these dogs," grunted Preston. "You can put <i>that</i> in your pipe +and smoke it."</p> + +<p>Blent and the constable went off over the ridge. Ruth was so much +interested that she stole out to follow them, and Ann Hicks overtook her +before she had gotten far up the track.</p> + +<p>"Ruth Fielding! whatever are you doing?" demanded the girl from the +Montana ranch. "Don't you know it will soon be night? Mrs. Tingley says +for you to come back."</p> + +<p>"Do you suppose those horrid men will find Jerry?"</p> + +<p>"No, I don't," replied Ann, shortly. "And if they do——"</p> + +<p>"Oh! you're not as interested in him as I am," sighed Ruth. "I am sure he +is honest and that Mr. Blent is telling lies about him. I—I want to see +that they don't abuse him if they catch him."</p> + +<p>"Abuse him! And he a backwoods boy, with two guns?" snorted Ann. "Why, he +wouldn't even let them arrest him, I don't suppose. <i>I</i> wouldn't if I were +Jerry."</p> + +<p>"But that would be dreadful," sighed Ruth. "Let's go a little farther, +Ann."</p> + +<p>Dusk was falling, however, and when they got down the far side of the +ridge they came to a swift, open water-course. Blent and the constable +were evidently "stumped." Blent was snarling at their ill-luck.</p> + +<p>"He's took to the water—that's all <i>I</i> know," drawled Lem Daggett, the +constable. "Ye see, there ain't a mark in the snow on 'tother side."</p> + +<p>"Him wadin' in that ice-cold stream in mid-winter," grunted Blent. "Ain't +he a scoundrel?"</p> + +<p>"Can't do nothin' more to-night," announced the constable, who didn't like +the job any too well, it was evident. "And dorgs wouldn't do us no good."</p> + +<p>"Ha! ye know what ye gotter do," threatened Blent. "I'm goin' back to town +when the punt goes this evenin'. But you stay here, an' you git the hue +an' cry out after him to-morrer bright and early.</p> + +<p>"I don't want him rummagin' around this island at all. You understand? Not +at all! It's up to you to git him, Lem Daggett."</p> + +<p>Daggett grunted and followed his master back to the lodge. The girls went +on before and Ruth was delighted that, for a time, at least, Jerry was to +have his freedom.</p> + +<p>"If it froze over solid in the night he could get to the mainland from the +other end of the island, and then they'd never find him," she confided to +Tom.</p> + +<p>But when morning came the surface of the lake was still a mass of loose +and shifting ice. Lem demanded of Mrs. Tingley the help of all the men at +the camp, and they started right away after breakfast to "comb" the island +in a thorough manner.</p> + +<p>There wasn't a trace near the running stream to show in which direction +the fugitive had gone. Had Jerry gone up stream he could have reached the +very heart of the rough end of the island without leaving the water-trail.</p> + +<p>A party of the boys, with Ruth, Helen, and Ann Hicks, stole out of the +lodge after the main searching party, and struck off for the high point +where the lone pine tree grew.</p> + +<p>"I'd hate to think we'd draw that constable over there and help him to +catch Jerry," said Bobbins.</p> + +<p>"We won't," Tom replied. "We are just going to leave the tin box of grub +for him. He probably won't come out of hiding and try to get the food +until this foolish constable has given up the chase. And I put the food in +the tin box so that no prowling animal would get it instead of Jerry."</p> + +<p>It was hard traveling in the snow, for the party of young folk had not +thought to obtain snowshoes. "We'll string some when we go back," Tom +promised. "I know there are some frames all ready."</p> + +<p>"But no more such tobogganing as we had last winter up at Snow Camp," +declared Busy Izzy, with deep feeling. "Remember the spill I had with Ruth +and that Heavy girl? Gee! that was some spill."</p> + +<p>"The land here Is too rough for good sliding," said Tom. "But I wish the +lake would freeze hard again. Ralph says there are a couple of good +scooters, and we all have our skates."</p> + +<p>"And the fishing!" exclaimed Helen, eagerly. "I <i>do</i> so want to fish +through the ice again."</p> + +<p>"Oh! we're bound to have a bully good time," declared Bobbins. "But we'll +do this Jerry Sheming a good turn, too, if we can."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV" />CHAPTER XV</h2> + +<h2>OVER THE PRECIPICE</h2> + + +<p>Under the soft snow that had fallen the day before was a hard-packed layer +that had come earlier in the season and made a firm footing for the +explorers. Ruth and her chum, with Ann Hicks, were quite as good walkers +as the boys. At any rate, the three girls determined not to be at the end +of the procession.</p> + +<p>The constable and his unwilling helpers (for none of the men about the +Tingley camp cared to see Jerry Sheming in trouble) were hunting the banks +of the stream higher up for traces of the trail the boy had taken when he +ran away from Rufus Blent the previous afternoon.</p> + +<p>Therefore the girls and boys who had started for the rendezvous at the +lone pine, were able to put the wooded ridge between them and the +constable's party, and so make their way unobserved toward the western end +of Cliff Island.</p> + +<p>"They may come back and follow us," growled Tom. "But they'll be some way +behind, and we'll hurry. I have a note in this tin box warning Jerry what +he must look out for. As long as that Lem Daggett is on the island, I +suppose he will be in danger of arrest."</p> + +<p>"It is just as mean as it can be!" gasped Helen, plodding on.</p> + +<p>"The boys wouldn't leave much o' that constable if they caught him playin' +tag for such a man as Blent, at Bullhide," Ann Hicks declared, with +warmth.</p> + +<p>"This Blent," said Bobbins, seriously, "seems to have everybody about +Logwood buffaloed. What do you suppose your father will say to the +constable taking the men with him this morning to hunt Jerry down?"</p> + +<p>This question he put to Ralph Tingley and the latter flushed angrily.</p> + +<p>"You wait!" he exclaimed. "Father will be angry, I bet. I told mother not +to let the men have anything to do with the hunt, but you know how women +are. She was afraid. She said that if Blent and the constable were within +their legal rights——"</p> + +<p>"All bosh!" snapped Isadore Phelps.</p> + +<p>"I do not think Mrs. Tingley would have let them go with Daggett if she'd +had the least idea they would be able to find Jerry," observed Helen, +sagely.</p> + +<p>"And they won't," put in Ruth, with assurance. "I know he can hide away on +this island like a fox in a burrow."</p> + +<p>"But he'll find it mighty cold sleeping out, this weather," remarked +Bobbins.</p> + +<p>"He sure will!" agreed Tom.</p> + +<p>The party went ahead as rapidly as possible, but even the stronger of the +boys found it hard to climb the steeper ascents through the deep snow.</p> + +<p>"Crackey!" exclaimed Isadore. "I know I'm slipping back two steps to every +one I get ahead."</p> + +<p>"Nonsense, Izzy," returned Helen. "For if you did <i>that</i>, you had better +turn around and travel the other way; then you'd back up the hill!"</p> + +<p>They had to wait and rest every few yards. The rocks were so huge that +they often had to go out of the way for some distance to get around them. +Although it could not be more than five miles, as the crow flies, from the +lodge to the lone pine, in two hours they still had the hardest part of +the journey before them.</p> + +<p>"I had no idea we should be so long at it," Tom confessed.</p> + +<p>"It's lucky Heavy didn't come with us," chuckled Helen.</p> + +<p>"Why?"</p> + +<p>"She would have been starved to death before this, and the idea of going +the rest of the distance before turning back for home and luncheon would +have destroyed her reason, I am sure."</p> + +<p>"Then," said Ruth, amused by this extravagant language, "poor Heavy would +have been first dead and then crazy! Consider an insane corpse!"</p> + +<p>They came out at last upon the foot of the last ascent. The eminence +seemed to be a smooth, cone-shaped hill. On it grew a number of trees, but +the enormous old pine, lightning-riven and dead at the top, stood much +taller than any of the other trees.</p> + +<p>Here and there they caught glimpses of chasms and steep ravines that +seemed to split the rocky island to the edge of the water. When the snow +did not cover the ground there might be paths to follow, but at this time +the young explorers had to use their judgment in climbing the heights as +best they might.</p> + +<p>The boys had to help the girls up the steeper places, with all their +independence, and even Ann admitted that their male comrades were "rather +handy to have about."</p> + +<p>The old pine tree sprang out of a little hollow in the hill. Behind it was +the peak of the island, and from this highest spot the party obtained an +unobstructed view of the whole western end of Tallahaska.</p> + +<p>"It's one big old lake," sighed Isadore Phelps. "If it would only just +freeze over, boys, and give us a chance to try out the iceboats!"</p> + +<p>"If it keeps on being as cold as it was this morning, and the wind dies +down, there'll be all the ice you want to see to-morrow," declared Ralph +Tingley. "Goodness! let's get down from this exposed place. I'm 'most +frozen."</p> + +<p>"Shall we stop and make a fire here, girls, and warm up before we return?" +asked Tom Cameron.</p> + +<p>"And draw that constable right to this place where you want to leave +Jerry's tin box?" cried his sister. "No, indeed!"</p> + +<p>"We'd better keep moving, anyway," Ruth urged. "Less danger of frost-bite. +The wind <i>is</i> keen."</p> + +<p>Tom had already placed the box of food in a sheltered spot. "The meat will +be frozen as solid as a rock, I s'pose," he grumbled. "I hope that poor +fellow has some way of making a fire in his hide-out."</p> + +<p>They began to retrace their steps. Instead of following exactly the same +path they had used in climbing to the summit, Tom struck off at an angle, +believing he saw an easier way.</p> + +<p>His companions followed him in single file. Ruth happened to be the last +of all to come down the smooth slope. The seven ahead of her managed to +tramp quite a smooth track through the snow, and once or twice she slipped +in stepping in their footprints.</p> + +<p>"Look out back there, Ruthie!" called Tom, from the lead. "The snow must +have got balled on your boots. Knock it off——"</p> + +<p>His speech was halted by a startled cry from Ruth. She felt herself going +and threw out both hands to say her sudden slide.</p> + +<p>But there was nothing for her hands to seize save the unstable snow +itself. She fell on her side, and shot out from the narrow track her +companions had trod.</p> + +<p>"Ruth!" shrieked Helen, in the wildest kind of dismay.</p> + +<p>But the girl of the Red Mill was already out of reach. The drifting snow +had curled out over the brink of the tall rock across the brow of which +Tom had unwisely led the way. They had not realized they were so near the +verge of the precipice.</p> + +<p>Ruth's body was solid, and when she fell in the snow the undercrust broke +like an eggshell. Amid a cloud of snow-dust she shot over the yawning edge +of the chasm and disappeared.</p> + +<p>Several square yards of the snow-drift had broken away. At their very feet +fell the unexpected precipice. The boys and girls shrank back from the +peril with terrified cries, clinging to each other.</p> + +<p>"She is killed!" moaned Helen, and covered her face with her mittened +hands.</p> + +<p>"Ruth! Ruth!" called Tom, charging back toward the broken snow-drift.</p> + +<p>But Bobbins caught and held him. "Don't make a fool of yourself, old man!" +commanded the big fellow. "You can't help her by falling over the cliff +yourself."</p> + +<p>"Oh! how deep can that place be?" gasped Ralph Tingley.</p> + +<p>"What will mother say?" cried his brother.</p> + +<p>"Ruth! Ruth!" shouted Ann Hicks, and dropped on her knees to crawl to the +edge.</p> + +<p>"You'll be down there yourself, Ann!" exclaimed Helen, sobbing.</p> + +<p>"A couple of you useless boys grab me by the ankles," commanded the +western girl. "Come! take a good hold. Now let me see——"</p> + +<p>She hung half over the verge of the rock. The fall was sheer for fifty +feet at least. It was a narrow cut in the hill, with apparently unscalable +sides and open only toward the lake.</p> + +<p>"I—I don't see a thing," panted the girl.</p> + +<p>"Shout again," urged Helen.</p> + +<p>"Let's all shout together!" cried Isadore. "Now!"</p> + +<p>They raised their voices in a long, lingering yell. Again and again they +repeated it. They thought nothing now of the possibility of attracting the +constable and his companions to the scene.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile nothing but the echoes replied to their hail. Down there in the +chasm Ann Hicks saw no sign of the lost girl. The bottom of the place +seemed heaped high with snow.</p> + +<p>"She plunged right into the drift, and perhaps she's smothered down +there," gasped Ann. "Oh! what shall we do?"</p> + +<p>"If it's a deep drift Ruth may not be hurt at all," cried Tom. "Do let me +look, Ann. That's a good girl."</p> + +<p>The western girl was drawn back and the boy took her place. Bobbins and +Ralph Tingley let Tom slide farther over the verge of the precipice than +they had Ann.</p> + +<p>"She went down feet first," panted Tom. "There isn't an obstruction she +could have hit. She must have dropped right into the snowbank in the +bottom—Ruth! Ruth Fielding!"</p> + +<p>But even his sharp eyes could discover no mark in the snow. Nothing of the +lost girl appeared above the drift at the foot of this sheer cliff. She +might have been smothered under the snow, as Ann suggested. And yet, that +scarcely seemed probable.</p> + +<p>Surely the fall into the soft drift could not have injured Ruth fatally. +She must have had strength enough to struggle to the surface of the snow.</p> + +<p>Her disappearance was a most mysterious thing. When Tom crept back from +the brink of the precipice and stood on his feet again, they all stared +at one another in growing wonder.</p> + +<p>"What could have happened to her down there?" groaned Helen, her own +amazement stifling her sobs.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI" />CHAPTER XVI</h2> + +<h2>HIDE AND SEEK</h2> + + +<p>Ruth had fallen with but a single shriek. From top to bottom of the +precipice had been such a swift descent that she could not cry out a +second time. And the great bank of snow into which she had plunged did—as +Ann suggested—smother her.</p> + +<p>The shock of dropping fifty feet through the air, and landing without +experiencing anything more dangerous than a greatly accelerated +heart-action was enough, of itself, to make the girl of the Red Mill dumb +for the moment.</p> + +<p>She heard faintly the frightened cries of her companions, and she +struggled to get to the surface of the great, soft heap of snow that had +saved her from instant death.</p> + +<p>Then she heard a voice pronounce her name, and a hand was thrust into the +snow bank and seized her shoulder.</p> + +<p>"Ruth Fielding! Miss Ruth! That come nigh to being your last jump, that +did!"</p> + +<p>"Jerry Sheming!" gasped the girl, as he drew her out of the snow.</p> + +<p>"In here—quick! Are they after me?"</p> + +<p>Ruth shook the snow from her eyes. She was like a half-drowned person +suddenly coming to the surface.</p> + +<p>"Where—where are we?" she whispered.</p> + +<p>"All right! This is one of my hide-outs. Is that old Blent up yonder?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Jerry! he's not on the island to-day. He's left the constable——"</p> + +<p>"Lem Daggett?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. They are searching for you. But I was with Tom and Helen and the +others. We brought you some food——"</p> + +<p>He led her along a narrow shelf, which had been swept quite free of snow. +Now a hollow in the rock-wall opened before them, and there a little fire +of sticks burned, an old buffalo robe lay nearby, and there were other +evidences of the fugitive's camp.</p> + +<p>Ruth was shaking now, but not from the cold. The shock of her fall had +begun to awaken the nervous terror which is the afterclap of such an +adventure. So near she had been to death!</p> + +<p>"You are sick, Miss Ruth?" exclaimed Jerry.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no! Oh, no!" repeated the girl of the Red Mill. "But so—so +frightened."</p> + +<p>"Nothin' to be frightened over now," he returned, smiling broadly. "But +you <i>did</i> miss it close. If that pile of snow hadn't sifted down there +yesterday——"</p> + +<p>"I know!" burst out Ruth. "It was providential."</p> + +<p>"You girls and boys want to be careful climbing around these rocks," said +Jerry Sheming, gravely.</p> + +<p>At that moment the chorus of shouts from above reached their ears. Ruth +turned about and her lips opened. She would have replied, but the +backwoods boy leaped across the fire and seized her arm.</p> + +<p>"Don't make a sound!" he exclaimed.</p> + +<p>"Oh! Jerry——"</p> + +<p>"If that constable hears——"</p> + +<p>"He isn't with us, I tell you," said Ruth.</p> + +<p>"But wait. He might hear. I don't want him to find this place," spoke the +boy, eagerly. "He may be within hearing."</p> + +<p>"No. I think not," Ruth explained. Then she told Jerry of the morning's +hunt for him and the course followed by both parties. He shook his head +for a moment, and then ran to a shelf at the other side of the little +cavern.</p> + +<p>"I'll communicate with your friends. I'll make them understand. But we +mustn't shout. Lem Daggett may be within hearing."</p> + +<p>"But I can't stay with you here, Jerry," objected the girl.</p> + +<p>"Of course you can't, Miss. I will get you out—another way. You'll see. +But we'll explain to your friends above and they will stop yelling then. +If they keep on that way they'll draw Lem Daggett here, if he isn't +already snooping around."</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Jerry had found a scrap of paper and a pencil. He hurriedly +wrote a few lines upon the paper. Then he produced a heavy bow and a long +arrow. The message he tied around the shank of the arrow.</p> + +<p>"Oh! can you shoot with that?" cried Ruth, much interested.</p> + +<p>"Reckon so," grinned Jerry. "Uncle Pete wouldn't give me much powder and +shot when I was a kid. And finally I could bring home a bigger bag of wild +turkeys than he could, and all I had to get 'em with was this +bow'n'arrer."</p> + +<p>He strung the bow, and Ruth saw that it took all his strength to do it. +The boys and girls were still shouting for her in a desultory fashion. +Jerry laid his finger on his lips, nodded at his visitor, and stepped +swiftly out of sight along the cleared shelf of rock.</p> + +<p>Ruth left the fire to peer after him. She saw him bend the bow and saw the +swift flight of the arrow as it shot out of the chasm and curved out of +sight beyond the broken edge of the snow-wreath which masked the summit of +the cliff.</p> + +<p>She heard the clamor of her friends' voices as they saw the arrow shoot +over their heads. Then they were silent.</p> + +<p>Jerry ran back to her and unstrung the bow, putting it away in its niche. +But from the same place he produced a blue-barrelled rifle.</p> + +<p>"I know you won't tell Blent, or any of them, how to reach me, Miss Ruth," +he said, looking at her with a smile.</p> + +<p>"I guess not!" exclaimed the girl.</p> + +<p>"I am going to show you the way out—to the other end. I wish you were +wearing rubber boots like me."</p> + +<p>"Why?"</p> + +<p>"So you could wade in the stream when we come to it. That's how I threw +them off the track," explained Jerry, laughing. "Why, I know this old +island better than Uncle Pete himself knowed it."</p> + +<p>"And yet you haven't found the box you say your uncle hid?" asked Ruth, +curiously.</p> + +<p>"No. I never knowed anything about it until Blent came to drive us off and +swore that Uncle Pete had never had nothin' but 'squatter rights.' But I'm +not sure that I couldn't find that place where Uncle Pete hid his treasure +box—if I had time to hunt for it," added Jerry, gravely.</p> + +<p>"That's what Mr. Blent is afraid of," declared Ruth, with conviction. +"That's why he is afraid of your being here on the island."</p> + +<p>"You bet it is, Miss."</p> + +<p>"And we boys and girls will do everything we can to help you, Jerry," +Ruth assured him, warmly. "If you think you can find the place where your +uncle hid his papers——"</p> + +<p>"But suppose I find them and the papers show that this Mr. Tingley hasn't +a clear title to the island?" demanded the backwoods boy, looking at the +girl of the Red Mill sharply.</p> + +<p>"Why should <i>that</i> make a difference?" asked Ruth, coolly.</p> + +<p>"Well—you know how some of these rich folks be," returned the boy, +dropping his gaze. "When it comes to hittin' their pocketbooks——"</p> + +<p>"That has nothing to do with it. Right is right."</p> + +<p>"Uh-huh!" grunted Jerry. "But sometimes they don't want to lose money any +quicker than a poor man. If he's paid for the island——"</p> + +<p>"I don't see how he can lose," declared Ruth, quickly. "If Blent has +claimed a title that cannot be proved, Blent will have to lose."</p> + +<p>"I bet Mr. Tingley didn't buy without having the title searched," observed +Jerry. "Blent's covered his tracks. He'll declare he was within his +rights, probably having bought Uncle Pete's share of the island through +some dummy. You know, when deeds aren't recorded, it's mighty hard to +establish them as valid. I know. I axed our town clerk. And he is one man +that ain't under Blent's thumb."</p> + +<p>"I don't believe Mr. Tingley is a man who would stand idle and see you +cheated even if he lost money through defending you," said Ruth, firmly.</p> + +<p>"Do you know him?"</p> + +<p>"No. I have never met him," Ruth admitted. "But his wife is a very nice +lady. And Belle and the boys——"</p> + +<p>"Business is business," interrupted Jerry, shaking his head. "I don't want +Tingley to know where I be—yet awhile, anyway."</p> + +<p>"But may I talk with him about you?"</p> + +<p>"Why—if you care enough to, Miss Ruth."</p> + +<p>"Of course I do," cried the girl. "Didn't I tell you we all want to help +you?" and she stamped her foot upon the warm rock. "We'll bring you food, +too. We'll see that the constable doesn't get you."</p> + +<p>"Well, it's mighty nice of you," admitted the suspicious young woodsman. +"Now, come on. I'll take you through my hide-out to the creek. I told your +friends you'd meet 'em there, and we want to get there by the time they +arrive."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Jerry! that's a long way off," cried Ruth.</p> + +<p>"Not so very long by the way we'll travel," he returned, with a laugh.</p> + +<p>And this proved to be true. Jerry lighted a battered oil lantern and with +his rifle in the other hand led the way.</p> + +<p>A narrow passage opened out of the back of this almost circular cave. +Part of the time they traveled through a veritable tunnel. At other times +Ruth saw the clear sky far above them as they passed along deep cuts in +the hills.</p> + +<p>The descent was continuous, but gradual. Such a path wild animals might +have traveled in times past. Originally it was probably a water-course. +The action of the water had eaten out the softer rock until almost a +direct passage had been made from the bottom of the cliff where Ruth had +fallen to the edge of the swift stream that ran through the middle of the +island.</p> + +<p>They came out behind a screen of thick brush through which Ruth could see +the far bank of the brook, but through which nobody outside could see. +Jerry set down the lantern, and later leaned the rifle against the wall +when he had made sure that nobody was in sight.</p> + +<p>"I am going to carry you a ways, Miss Ruth," he said, "if you don't mind. +You see, I must walk in the stream or they will find this entrance to my +hide-out."</p> + +<p>"But—can you carry me?"</p> + +<p>"I bet you! If you only wore rubber boots I'd let you walk. Come on, +please."</p> + +<p>"Oh! I am not afraid," she told him, quietly, and allowed him to take her +into his arms after he had stepped down into the shallow, swiftly lowing +current.</p> + +<p>"This water-trail confuses men and dogs completely," said Jerry, with a +laugh. "That is—such men as Lem Daggett. If <i>I</i> was hunting a fellow who +took to the stream, with the water so shallow, I'd find which way he went +in a jiffy."</p> + +<p>"How would you?" demanded Ruth, feeling perfectly secure in the strong +arms of the young fellow.</p> + +<p>"That's telling," chuckled Jerry. "Mebbe—some time—I'll tell you. I +hoped I'd get the chance of showing you and your friends around this +island. But I guess I won't."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps you will. And if there is anything we can do to help you——"</p> + +<p>"Just one thing you might do," remarked Jerry, finally setting her upright +upon a flat rock on the side of the stream nearest the hunting camp, and +some distance away from the secret entrance to his hide-out.</p> + +<p>"Oh! what is that?" cried Ruth, eagerly.</p> + +<p>"Find me a pickax, or a mattock, and put it right here on this rock. Do it +at night, so no one will see you. Good bye, Miss!" he exclaimed, and +hurried away.</p> + +<p>In another minute he had disappeared behind the screen of bushes, and Ruth +heard the glad shouts of her friends as they came over the ridge and saw +her standing safe and sound beside the stream.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII" />CHAPTER XVII</h2> + +<h2>CHRISTMAS MORNING</h2> + + +<p>"How under the sun did you get here, Ruth?" Helen shouted the moment she +saw her chum.</p> + +<p>"Did that Jerry Sheming bring you?" demanded Ann.</p> + +<p>The other members of the party were quite as anxious to learn the +particulars of her adventure, and when they had crossed on the stepping +stones, they gathered about her eagerly.</p> + +<p>Ruth would tell just so much and no more. She explained how she had fallen +into the snow-drift at the foot of the cliff, how Jerry had heard her +scream and pulled her out. But beyond that she only said he had left her +here to wait their coming.</p> + +<p>"You needn't be so mysterious, Miss!" ejaculated Helen, rather piqued.</p> + +<p>"I guess she doesn't want to say anything about his hide-out that might +lead to his being hunted out by Lem Daggett," observed the wise Tom. "But +Jerry signed his name to the note he tied on the arrow."</p> + +<p>"And we sure were surprised when we saw that arrow shoot up from the +depths," said Isadore.</p> + +<p>"What do you suppose mother will say?" cried one of the Tingley boys.</p> + +<p>"Don't let's tell her," suggested Ruth, quickly. "There's no need. It will +only add to her worries and she will be troubled enough by us as it is."</p> + +<p>"But——"</p> + +<p>"You see, I'm not a bit hurt," insisted Ruth. "And the less we talk about +the matter the less likely we shall be to drop something that may lead to +the discovery of Jerry Sheming's hiding place."</p> + +<p>"Oh, well, if you put it that way," agreed Ralph. "I suppose mother will +have all the trouble she wants. And maybe if she knew, she'd keep you +girls away from this end of the island."</p> + +<p>They tramped home to a late luncheon. It was so very cold that afternoon +and evening that they were only too glad to remain in the house and "hug +the fire."</p> + +<p>The inclement weather drove Lem Daggett and the men indoors, too. The +constable had to go back to Logwood without his prisoner, and he evidently +feared the anger of Rufus Blent.</p> + +<p>"I want to warn ye, Mis' Tingley," he said to the lady of the lodge, +shaking his head, "that when Blent sets out ter do a thing, he does it. +That boy's got to be found, and he's got to be kep' off this island."</p> + +<p>"I will see what my husband says when he comes," replied Mrs. Tingley, +firmly. "I will not allow our men to chase the poor fellow further."</p> + +<p>"You'd better ketch him and signal us at Logwood. Run up that flag on the +pole outside. I'll know what you mean."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Tingley will decide when he comes," was all the satisfaction the lady +gave the constable.</p> + +<p>After he had gone, Mrs. Tingley told Ruth she hoped no harm would come to +the poor boy, "sleeping out in the cold alone."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Mrs. Tingley! I know he has a warm, dry place to sleep, and plenty of +firewood—heaps and heaps of it."</p> + +<p>"You seem to know a good deal about him," the lady commented.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I do," admitted Ruth, honestly. "More about him and where he is +hiding than he would care to have me tell you."</p> + +<p>So Mrs. Tingley did not catechise the girl further upon the subject of the +fugitive.</p> + +<p>Just because they were shut in was no reason why the house party on Cliff +Island should not have an extraordinarily good time. They played games and +had charades that evening. They had a candy pull, too, but unlike that +famous one at Snow Camp the winter before, Busy Izzy Phelps did not get a +chance to put the walnut shells into the taffy instead of the kernels.</p> + +<p>The wind died down and it grew desperately cold during the night. The +mercury soon left the zero point so far above that it threatened to be +lost for the rest of the winter.</p> + +<p>They awoke the next morning to find the island chained fast to the +mainland by old Jack Frost's fetters. A sheet of new ice extended for some +hundreds of yards all around Cliff Island. Farther out the ice was of +rougher texture, but that near at hand was clear and black.</p> + +<p>Out came the skates soon after breakfast, and everybody but Mercy went +down to the lake. Later the boys made the lame girl and Mrs. Tingley come, +too, and they arranged chairs in which the two non-skaters could be pushed +over the smooth surface.</p> + +<p>Hockey was the game for the afternoon, and two "sides" were chosen to +oppose each other, one of the boys and another of the girls. Although Ann +Hicks had never had a hockey stick in her hand before, she quickly got +into the game, and they all had a very merry time.</p> + +<p>The day before Ruth had not been able to find the implement that Jerry +Sheming had spoken about, nor could she find a mattock, or pickax, on this +second day. If she went to the toolshed and hunted for the thing herself +she was afraid her quest would be observed by some of the men.</p> + +<p>She located the place where the tools were kept, but the shed was locked. +However, there was a window, and that window could be easily slid back. +Ruth shrank from attempting to creep in by it.</p> + +<p>"Just the same, I told him I'd get it—at least, I told myself I'd get it +for him," thought the girl of the Red Mill. "And I will."</p> + +<p>Of course, Mrs. Tingley would have allowed her to borrow the tool, but it +would have aroused comment had it become known that Jerry wanted it.</p> + +<p>"It must be that he really thinks now he knows where his uncle hid the +treasure box. He wants to dig for it," was Ruth's thought.</p> + +<p>Yet she remembered that Jerry had said all along the old man had seemingly +gone mad because his treasure box was buried under a landslide. She asked +Mr. Preston, the foreman of the camp, where the landslide had occurred.</p> + +<p>"Why, right over yonder, little lady," explained the woodsman. "If the +snow wasn't on the ground, you could easy see the scar of it down that +hillside," and he pointed to a spot just beyond the secret opening of +Jerry's cave.</p> + +<p>"The dirt and rock was heaped up so at the foot of the slide that the +course of the brook was changed. That slide covered a monster lot of +little caves in the rock," pursued the man. "But I expect there's others +of 'em left and that Jerry's hidin' out in one now," he added, looking at +Ruth with shrewd gaze.</p> + +<p>Ruth took him no further into her confidence. She felt that she must have +somebody to help her, however, and naturally enough she chose Tom. Helen's +twin thought a great deal of Ruth Fielding, and was never ashamed of +showing this feeling before the other boys. On her side, Ruth felt that +Tom Cameron was just about right.</p> + +<p>Nor was she mistaken in him when she placed her difficulty before the lad. +Help her? Of course he would! They agreed to make the raid upon the +toolshed that evening when the others were busily filling stockings and +trimming the huge Christmas tree set up in the main hall of the hunting +lodge.</p> + +<p>Ruth beckoned to her fellow-conspirator and Tom slipped out of the hall by +one door while she made the outer air by another. The kitchen girls and +the men hired about the camp were all in the big hall watching the fun, or +aiding in decorating the lodge. Nobody saw Ruth and Tom.</p> + +<p>It was a very cold evening. There was a hazy moon and brilliant stars, but +they did not think anybody would see their efforts to aid Jerry Sheming.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, Ruth and Tom were very circumspect. They crept behind the +toolshed and looked all about to make sure that nobody was watching. There +was no light in the bunkhouse or in the cook's cabin.</p> + +<p>Although the toolshed was so carefully locked, Ruth knew that the window +could be opened. Tom quickly slipped back the sash, and then dived into +the dark interior of the place, head first.</p> + +<p>The moment he was on his feet, however, he drew from his pocket the +electric spotlight he had supplied himself with, and flashed the ray about +the shed.</p> + +<p>"Good! here's either one you want—pickax or mattock," were the words he +whispered to Ruth.</p> + +<p>"Which do you suppose he would like best?"</p> + +<p>"A mattock is more practical, I believe," said Tom. "'Maddox,' they call +it. We had a fellow working for us once who called it a 'mad-ax.' It has a +broad blade and can be used to chop as well as dig."</p> + +<p>"Never mind giving a lecture on it," laughed Ruth, very softly, "hand it +out."</p> + +<p>Tom chuckled and did as he was bid. In a minute he was with her and picked +up the heavy implement.</p> + +<p>"I hope they don't come hunting for us," said the girl of the Red Mill, +breathlessly.</p> + +<p>"We must take that risk. Come on, Ruth. Or do you want me to take it down +to the brookside alone?"</p> + +<p>"I want to go along, too. Oh, dear! I do hope he will find it."</p> + +<p>"I have another cracker box full of food for him," said Tom. "I reckon he +will be on the lookout for the pick, so he'll find the food, too."</p> + +<p>After a good deal of climbing, they reached the flat rock by the brookside +where Jerry Sheming had requested Ruth to leave the mattock. There was no +sign of the fugitive about. Ruth did not tell Tom where the mouth of the +secret tunnel lay—nor did Tom ask for information.</p> + +<p>As they hurried back, mounting the ridge that separated the lodge and its +outbuildings from the middle of the island, Ruth, looking back, suddenly +grabbed Tom's hand.</p> + +<p>"See! see there!" she cried.</p> + +<p>Tom looked in the direction to which she pointed. The stars gave light +enough for them to see miles across the ice. Several black figures were +hurrying toward the western end of the island from the direction of the +mainland—the southern shore of the lake.</p> + +<p>"Who do you suppose those men are?" asked Ruth, faintly.</p> + +<p>Tom shook his head slowly. "I expect it's Lem Daggett, the constable, and +others to hunt for poor Jerry. I feel almost sure that the man in the +lead is Daggett."</p> + +<p>"Isn't that mean?" exclaimed Ruth, her voice shaking.</p> + +<p>"It is. But I don't believe they will find Jerry very easily."</p> + +<p>Just the same, Ruth was not to be comforted. She was very quiet all the +rest of the evening. Her absence, and Tom's, had not been noticed. The +crowd went to bed before eleven, having spent a most delightful Christmas +Eve.</p> + +<p>Ruth sat at a window that overlooked a part of the island. Once she saw +the men who had crossed from the mainland climbing the hill toward the +lone pine.</p> + +<p>"I hope they won't find a trace of him!" she murmured as she popped into +bed.</p> + +<p>Ruth slept as soundly as any of her mates. A clanging bell at six o'clock +aroused the whole household. The sun was not yet up, but there was a +streak of gold across the eastern sky. It was Christmas morning.</p> + +<p>Ruth ran again to the west window. A pillar of smoke rose straight from a +hollow on the higher part of the island. The searching party was still +there.</p> + +<p>There was no time now to think of Jerry Sheming and his affairs. The girls +raced to see who should dress first. Downstairs there were "loads" of +presents waiting for them, so Belle declared.</p> + +<p>"Come on!" cried Heavy, leading the way. "Ready all? March!"</p> + +<p>The nine girls started through the hall and down the broad stairway in +single file. Heavy began to cheer and the others chimed in:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">"'S.B.—Ah-h-h!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">S.B.—Ah-h-h!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Sound our battle-cry</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Near and far!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">S.B.—All!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Briarwood Hall!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Sweetbriars, do or die—</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">This be our battle-cry—</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Briarwood Hall!</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;"><i>That's All</i>!'"</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>So sounding the Sweetbriars' challenge, they met the grinning boys at the +foot of the flight, before the huge, sparkling tree.</p> + +<p>"Gee!" exclaimed Tom. "I'm mighty glad I suggested that name for your +secret society, Ruth. 'Sweetbriars'—it just fits you."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII" />CHAPTER XVIII</h2> + +<h2>FUN ON THE ICE</h2> + + +<p>Of course, the girls had prepared one another's presents long before. Each +had been tied in a queer bundle so, in trimming the tree, the nature of +the contents could not be guessed.</p> + +<p>The oddest shaped things hung from the branches of the Christmas tree, and +the boys had excelled in making up these "surprise packages." Mrs. Tingley +handed the presents out, while the boys lifted them down for her. A long, +tightly rolled parcel, which looked as though it ought to contain an +umbrella, and was marked "To Helen from Tom," finally proved to contain a +jeweler's box, in which nestled a pretty ring, which delighted his twin.</p> + +<p>A large, flat package, big enough to hold a large kite, was carefully +opened by Belle, who finally found in it, among the many tissue wrappings, +a pretty set of hair combs set with stones. In a roughly-done-up parcel +was a most disreputable old shoe addressed to Lluella. She was going to +throw it out, but the boys advised her so strongly not to that she finally +burrowed to the toe and found, to her amazement, a gold bracelet.</p> + +<p>There was a good-sized box for Ann Hicks—just as it had come from the +express office at Lumberton a week before. Having been addressed in Mrs. +Tellingham's care, the western girl had known nothing about it.</p> + +<p>Now it was opened last. It had come all the way from Silver Ranch, of +course. Such a set of furs no girl at Briarwood possessed. There were a +number of other presents from the cowboys, from Mrs. Sally, and from +Bashful Ike himself. Ann was so pleased and touched that she ran away to +hide her tears.</p> + +<p>There were presents for each of the girls and boys who had been at +Bullhide the previous summer. Bill Hicks had forgotten nobody, and, as +Mrs. Tellingham had once said, the ranchman certainly was a generous man.</p> + +<p>No member of the house party was overlooked on this bright Christmas +morning. Mercy's presents were as costly and numerous as those of any +other girl. Besides, the lame girl had been able to give her mates +beautiful little keepsakes that expressed her love for them quite as much +as would have articles that cost more money.</p> + +<p>Her presents to the boys were funny, including a jumping jack on a stick +to Isadore, the face of which Mercy had whittled out and painted to look +a good deal like the features of that active youth.</p> + +<p>For two hours the young folk reveled in their presents. Then suddenly +Heavy smelled the breakfast coffee and she led the charge to the long +dining room. They were in the midst of the meal when Mr. Tingley himself +arrived, having reached Logwood on the early train and driven across the +ice in a sleigh.</p> + +<p>The Tingley young people met him hilariously. He was a big, bewhiskered +man, with a jolly laugh and amiable manner. His eye could flash, too, if +need be, Ruth judged. And almost at once she had an opportunity of seeing +him stern.</p> + +<p>"What crowd is that over at the west end of the island?" he asked his +wife. "I see they have a fire. There must be four or five men there. Is it +some of Blent's doings?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Dad!" cried Ralph Tingley, eagerly. "You ought to stop that. Those +fellows are hunting Jerry Sheming."</p> + +<p>"Who is Jerry Sheming?" he asked, quickly.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Tingley explained briefly.</p> + +<p>"I remember now," said her husband. "And this is the young lady who spoke +a good word for the boy in the first place?" and he beckoned the eager +Ruth to them. "What have you to say for your protégé now, Miss?"</p> + +<p>"Everything that is good," declared the girl of the Red Mill, quickly. "I +am sure he is not at all the sort of boy this man Blent would have you +believe. And perhaps, Mr. Tingley, his old uncle <i>may</i> have had some title +to a part of this island."</p> + +<p>"That puts <i>me</i> in bad, then—eh?" chuckled Mr. Tingley.</p> + +<p>"Unless Mr. Blent has cheated you, sir," suggested Ruth, hesitatingly.</p> + +<p>"He's a foxy old fellow. But I believe I have safeguarded myself. This +trouble about something being buried on the island—Well! I don't know +about that."</p> + +<p>"I believe Jerry really has some idea now where his uncle put the box. +Even if the old hunter <i>was</i> crazy, he might have had some valuables. And +surely Jerry has a better right to the box than Blent," Ruth said, +indignantly.</p> + +<p>"I'll see about that. Just as soon as I have had breakfast, I'll take +Preston and go over and interview this gang of Blent's henchmen. I am not +at all sure that he has any right to hunt the boy down, warrant or no +warrant!"</p> + +<p>That was when he looked grim and his eyes flashed. Ruth felt that her +friend's father was just the man to give Jerry Sheming a fair deal if he +had the chance.</p> + +<p>When the boys proposed getting out the two iceboats and giving the girls a +sail (for the wind was fresh), Ruth was as eager as the others to join in +the sport.</p> + +<p>Not all the girls would trust themselves to the scooters, but there were +enough who went down to the ice to make an exceedingly hilarious party.</p> + +<p>Ralph Tingley and Tom Cameron were the best pilots. The small iceboats +were built so that two passengers could ride beside the steersman and +sheet tender. So the girls took turns in racing up and down the smooth ice +on the south side of the island.</p> + +<p>Ruth and Helen liked to go together with Tom, who had Busy Izzy to tend +sheet. It was "no fair" if one party traveled farther than from the dock +to the mouth of the creek and back again.</p> + +<p>The four friends—Ruth and her chum, and Tom and Busy Izzy—were making +their second trip over the smooth course. Bobbins, with his sister and The +Fox, and Ralph Tingley, manned the other boat.</p> + +<p>The two swift craft had a splendid race to the mouth of that brook which, +because of its swiftness, still remained unshackled by the frost. The +shallow stream of water poured down over the rocks into the lake, but +there was only a small open place at the point where the brook emptied +into its waters into the larger and more placid body.</p> + +<p>When the two iceboats swung about, the one Bobbins manned got away at once +and swiftly passed down the lake. The sheet fouled in Tom's boat. Busy +Izzy had to drop the sail and the boat was brought to a halt.</p> + +<p>"There are Mr. Tingley and Preston going over to talk to the constable and +his crowd," remarked Isadore. "See yonder?"</p> + +<p>"I hope he sends those men off the island. I don't see what right they +have here, anyway," Helen exclaimed.</p> + +<p>"If only Jerry knows enough to keep under cover while they are here," said +Tom, looking meaningly at Ruth. They both wondered if the fugitive had +ventured out of his cave to find the mattock and box of food they had left +for him the evening before.</p> + +<p>The craft was under way again in a minute or two, and they swept down the +course in the wake of the other boat. Suddenly the sharp crack of a rifle +echoed across the island. Helen screamed. Ruth risked the boom and sat up +to look behind.</p> + +<p>"There's a fight!" yelled Busy Izzy. "I believe they're after Jerry."</p> + +<p>They saw Mr. Tingley and Preston hastening their steps toward the brook. +As the iceboat swept out farther from the shore, the four friends aboard +her could see several men running in the same direction. One bore a +smoking gun in his hand.</p> + +<p>"Right towards that rock, Ruthie!" gasped Tom, venturing a glance behind +him.</p> + +<p>"What rock do you mean?" demanded his sister.</p> + +<p>"The rock where you folks found me the other day. It's near the opening to +Jerry's cave. I see them!"</p> + +<p>"'Ware boom!" yelled Tom, and shifted his helm.</p> + +<p>The great sail went slowly over; the iceboat swooped around like a great +bird skimming the ice. Then, in a minute, it was headed back up the lake +toward the scene of the trouble.</p> + +<p>Another rifle shot echoed across the ice.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX" />CHAPTER XIX</h2> + +<h2>BLENT IS MASTER</h2> + + +<p>Ruth was truly frightened, and so was her chum. Could it be possible that +those rough men dared fire their guns at Jerry Sheming? Or was the poor +boy foolish enough to try to frighten his pursuers off with the weapons +which Ruth very well knew he had in the cave with him?</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'm glad Mr. Tingley's here to-day," cried Busy Izzy. "He'll give +that Lem Daggett what's coming to him—that's what <i>he'll</i> do!"</p> + +<p>"Hope so," agreed Tom, grimly.</p> + +<p>The latter brought the iceboat into the wind near the shore, and Isadore +dropped the sail again. They all tumbled out and ran up the bank. A little +climb brought them to the plateau where they could see all that was going +on near the rock on which Ruth and Tom had left the mattock the evening +before.</p> + +<p>Lem Daggett had four men with him—all rough-looking fellows, and armed +with rifles. Jerry Sheming was standing half-leg deep in the running +stream, his hands over his head, and the men were holding him under the +muzzles of their guns.</p> + +<p>"Why! it beats the 'wild and woolly'!" gasped Tom Cameron. "Silver Ranch +and Bullhide weren't as bad as this. The scoundrels!"</p> + +<p>"Come out o' that brook, Jerry, or it'll be the wuss for ye." Lem Daggett +drawled, standing on the flat rock and grinning at his captive.</p> + +<p>"What do you want of me?" demanded the fugitive, sullenly.</p> + +<p>"You know well enough. Oh, I got a warrant for ye, all right. Ev'rything's +all right an' proper. Ye know Rufe Blent don't make no mistakes. He's got +ye."</p> + +<p>"An' here he comes now!" ejaculated another of the rough men, looking +toward the east end of the island.</p> + +<p>The four hurrying young folk looked back. Driving hastily from the lodge, +and behind Mr. Tingley and Preston, came a heavy sleigh drawn by a pair of +horses. Rufus Blent and a driver were in it.</p> + +<p>But Mr. Tingley approached first, and it was plain by a single glance at +his face that he was angry.</p> + +<p>"What's all this shooting about?" he demanded. "Don't you men know that +Cliff Island is private property? You are trespassing upon it."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I guess we're within our rights, boss," said Lem Daggett, laughing. +"I'm the constable. And these here are helpers o' mine. We was arter a +bird, and we got him."</p> + +<p>"A warrant from a justice of the peace does not allow you to go out with +guns and rifles and shoot over private property," declared Mr. Tingley, +angrily. "Be off with you—and don't you dare come to this island again +without permission."</p> + +<p>"Hold on, thar!" yelled Rufus Blent, leaping from the sleigh with more +agility than one would have given him credit for. "You air oversteppin' +the line, Mr. Tingley. That officer's in the right."</p> + +<p>"No, he's not in the right. He'd never be in the right—hunting a boy with +an armed posse. I should think you and these other men would be ashamed of +yourselves."</p> + +<p>"You look out, Mr. Tingley," warned Blent, hotly. "You're a stranger in +these parts. You try to balk me and you'll be sorry."</p> + +<p>"Why?" demanded the city man, quite as angrily. "Are you the law and the +prophets here, Mr. Blent?"</p> + +<p>"I know my rights. And if you want to live in peace here, keep out o' my +way!" snarled the real estate man.</p> + +<p>"You old scoundrel!" exclaimed Mr. Tingley, stepping swiftly toward him. +"Get off Cliff Island—and get off quick. I'd spend a thousand dollars to +get a penny's worth of damages from you. I'll sue you in the civil courts +for trespass if you don't go—and go quick!</p> + +<p>"Don't think I went blindly into the transaction that gave me title to +this island. I know all about your withholding the right to 'treasure +trove,' and all that. But it doesn't give you the right to trespass here. +Get out—and take your gang with you—or I'll have suit begun against you +at once."</p> + +<p>Old Blent was troubled, but he had one good hold and he knew it. He +shouted to Lem Daggett:</p> + +<p>"Serve that warrant, Lem, and come along. Bring that young rascal. I'll +fix him."</p> + +<p>"Let me read that warrant!" exclaimed Mr. Tingley, suddenly.</p> + +<p>"No, ye don't!" yelled Blent. "Don't let him take it into his hand. Read +it aloud to him. But make that pesky young Sheming come ashore first. +Before ye know it, he'll be runnin' away ag'in."</p> + +<p>The men who "covered" Jerry motioned him to step up to the bank. They +looked so threatening that he obeyed. Daggett produced a legal looking +paper. He read this aloud, blunderingly, for he was an illiterate man.</p> + +<p>Its contents were easily gathered, however. Squire Keller had signed the +warrant on complaint of Rufus Blent. Jerry was accused of having stolen +several boxes of ammunition and a revolver. The property had been found in +an old shed at Logwood where the boy had slept for a few nights after he +had first been driven from Cliff Island.</p> + +<p>"Why, this is an old story, Blent," ejaculated Mr. Tingley, angrily. "The +boy left that shed months ago. He came directly to the island, when I +hired him, from the neighborhood of Lumberton, and Preston assures me he +hasn't been to Logwood since arriving."</p> + +<p>"You can tell all that in court," snarled Blent, waving his hand. "If he's +got witnesses to clear him, I guess they'll be given a chance to testify."</p> + +<p>"You're a villain!" declared the city man.</p> + +<p>"Lemme tell you something, Mr. Tingley. There's a law to punish callin' +folks out o' their names! I know the law, an' don't you forgit it. Come +here, you, Jerry Sheming! Git in this sleigh. And you, too, Lem. You other +fellers can come back to Logwood and I'll pay ye as I agreed."</p> + +<p>Ruth had, meanwhile, met Jerry when he came ashore. She seized his hand +and, almost in tears, told him how sorry she was he was captured.</p> + +<p>"Don't you mind, Miss Ruth. He's bound to git me out of the way if he +can," whispered Jerry. "Rufe Blent is <i>all</i> the law there is in Logwood, I +guess."</p> + +<p>"But Mr. Tingley will help you."</p> + +<p>"Maybe. But if Blent can't prove this hatched up business against me, +he'll keep right on persecuting me, if I don't light out. An' I believe I +found something, Miss Ruth."</p> + +<p>"Your uncle's money?"</p> + +<p>"I wouldn't say that. But I was goin' to break into another little cave if +I'd got hold of that mattock. The mouth is under the debris that fell with +the landslide. It was about where Uncle Pete said he hid his treasure box. +Poor Uncle Pete! Losin' that box was what sent him off his head complete, +like."</p> + +<p>This had been said too low for the others to hear. But now Daggett came +forward and clamped his big paw on Jerry's shoulder.</p> + +<p>"Come along, you!" commanded the constable, jerking his prisoner toward +the sledge.</p> + +<p>"Oh, isn't it a mean, mean shame?" cried Helen Cameron.</p> + +<p>"Wish that old Blent was my size," grumbled Busy Izzy, clenching his fists +and glaring at the real estate man.</p> + +<p>"I wish I could do something at the present moment to help you, Sheming," +said Mr. Tingley, his expression very angry. "But don't be afraid. You +have friends. I shall come right over to Keller's court, and I shall hire +a lawyer to defend you."</p> + +<p>"You kin do all ye like," sneered Blent, as the sledge started with the +prisoner. "But I'll beat ye. And ye'll pay for tryin' to balk me, too."</p> + +<p>"Don't you be too loose with your threats, Rufe," sang out Preston, the +foreman. "If anything happens over here on the island—any of Mr. +Tingley's property is destroyed—we'll know who to look to for damages."</p> + +<p>"Yah!" snarled Blent, and drove away.</p> + +<p>The fact remained, however, that, for the time being at least, Rufus Blent +was master of the situation.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX" />CHAPTER XX</h2> + +<h2>THE FISHING PARTY</h2> + + +<p>Ruth felt so unhappy she wept openly. It seemed too bad that Jerry Sheming +should be taken away to the mainland a prisoner.</p> + +<p>"They'll find some way of driving him out of this country again," remarked +Preston, the foreman. "You don't know Blent, Mr. Tingley, as well as the +rest of us do. Other city men have come up here and bucked against him in +times past—and they were sorry before they got through."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?" demanded the angry owner of Cliff Island.</p> + +<p>"Blent can hire those fellows from the lumber camps, and some of the +guides, to do his dirty work. That's all I've got to say. Hunting camps +have burned down in these woods before now," observed the foreman, +significantly.</p> + +<p>"Why! the scoundrel sold me this island himself!"</p> + +<p>"And he's sold other outsiders camp sites. But they have had to leave if +they angered Blent."</p> + +<p>"He is a dangerous man, then?"</p> + +<p>"Well—things just happen," returned Preston, shaking his head. "I'd keep +watch if I were you."</p> + +<p>"I will. I'll hire guards—and arm 'em, if need be," declared Mr. Tingley, +emphatically. "But take it from me—I am going to see that that boy Jerry +is treated right in these backwoods courts. That's the way I feel about +it."</p> + +<p>Ruth was glad to hear him say this. As she had decided when she first saw +him, Mr. Tingley could be very firm if he wished to be. At once he went +back to the house, had a team hitched to a sleigh, and drove over to the +mainland so as to be sure that Blent did not get ahead of him and have +court convened before the proper hour.</p> + +<p>The day was spoiled for Ruth and for some of the other young folk who had +taken such a deep interest in Jerry. The boy had been caught because he +tried to get the mattock Ruth and Tom had put out for him. Ruth wished now +that she and Tom had not gone down to the brook.</p> + +<p>There was too much going on at Cliff Island for even Ruth to mope long. +Mr. Tingley came back at dark and said he had succeeded in getting Jerry's +case put over until a lawyer could familiarize himself with the details. +Meanwhile Keller, Blent's man, had refused to accept bail. Jerry would +have to remain in jail for a time.</p> + +<p>A man came across from the town that evening and brought a telegram for +Mr. Tingley. That gentleman had without doubt shown his interest in Jerry +Sheming. Fearing that the local legal lights might be somewhat backward +about opposing Rufus Blent, he had telegraphed to his own firm of lawyers +in New York and they were sending him a reputable attorney from an +up-State city who would be at Logwood the next day.</p> + +<p>"Let's all go over to court to-morrow and see that lawyer get Jerry free," +suggested Belle Tingley, and the others agreed with enthusiasm. It would +be as much fun as snow-shoeing; more fun for those who had not already +learned that art.</p> + +<p>The day after Christmas, in the morning, the boys insisted that everybody +but Mercy Curtis should get out and try the shoes. Those who had been at +Snow Camp the year before were able to set out quite briskly—for it is an +art that, like swimming and skating, is not easily forgotten.</p> + +<p>There were some very funny spills and by luncheon they were all in a glow. +Later the big sledge was brought around and behind that the boys strung a +couple of bobs. The horses drew them down to the ice and there it was easy +for the team to pull the whole crowd across to Logwood.</p> + +<p>The town seemed to have turned out to meet the party from Cliff Island.</p> + +<p>Ruth and her friends noted the fact that many of the half-grown boys and +young men—those of the rougher class—seemed greatly amused by the +appearance of the city folk.</p> + +<p>"But what can you expect from a lot of rubes?" demanded Tom, rather +angrily. "See 'em snickering and grinning? What d'ye s'pose is the matter +with them?"</p> + +<p>"Whatever the joke is, it's on us and we don't know it," remarked Heavy, +who was easily angered by ridicule, too. "There! Mr. Tingley has gone off +with the lawyer. I guess we'll know what it's all about pretty soon."</p> + +<p>And <i>that</i> was true, sure enough. It came out that there would be no case +to try. Justice Keller announced that the accusation against Jerry Sheming +had been withdrawn. Mr. Blent had "considered Mr. Tingley's plea for +mercy," the old fox said, and there was nothing the justice could do but +to turn the prisoner loose.</p> + +<p>"But what's become of him?" Mr. Tingley wanted to know.</p> + +<p>"Oh, that does not enter into my jurisdiction," replied Keller, blandly. +"I am not his keeper. He was let out of jail early this morning. After +that I cannot say what became of him."</p> + +<p>Blent was not even at the court. It was learned that he had gone out of +town. Blent could always find somebody to handle pitch for him.</p> + +<p>It was later discovered that when Lem Daggett had opened the jail to +Jerry, several of Blent's ruffians had rushed the boy to the railroad +yard, put him aboard a moving freight, given a brakeman a two-dollar bill +as per instructions from the real estate man, and Jerry wasn't likely to +get off the train, unless he jumped while it was moving, until it was +fifty miles farther west.</p> + +<p>But, of course, this story did not come out right away. The whole town was +laughing at Mr. Tingley. Nobody cared enough about the city man, or knew +him well enough, to explain the details of Jerry's disappearance at that +time.</p> + +<p>Mr. Tingley looked very serious when he rejoined the young folk and he had +little to say on the way home, save to Ruth, whom he beckoned to the seat +beside him.</p> + +<p>"I am very sorry that the old fox got the best of us, Miss Fielding. As +Preston says, I must look out for him. He is sly, wicked, and powerful. My +Albany lawyer tells me that Blent is notorious in this part of the State, +and that he has great political influence, illiterate as he is.</p> + +<p>"But I am going to fight. I have bought Cliff Island, and paid a good +price for it. I have spent a good many thousand dollars in improvements +already. I'll protect myself and my investment if I can—and meanwhile +I'll do what I can for your friend, Jerry Sheming, too.</p> + +<p>"They've got the boy away from the vicinity for the time being, but I +reckon he'll find his way back. You think so, too, Miss Fielding?"</p> + +<p>"If he understands that we are trying to help him. And—yes!—I believe he +will come back anyway, for he is very anxious to find that treasure box +his Uncle Peter lost."</p> + +<p>"Oh—as to that—Well, there may be something in it. But Pete Tilton was +really insane. I saw him myself. The asylum is the place for him, poor +man," concluded Mr. Tingley.</p> + +<p>Ruth felt in secret very much worried over Jerry's disappearance. When she +once became interested in anybody, as Helen said, "she was interested all +the way through."</p> + +<p>The others could laugh a little about how the crafty real estate agent had +fooled Mr. Tingley and gotten Jerry out of the way, but not Ruth. She +could scarcely sleep that night for thinking of what might have happened +to the ill-used youth.</p> + +<p>But she tried to hide her anxiety from her companions the next morning +when plans were made for a fishing trip. All but Mercy joined in this +outing. They went on snowshoes to the far end of the island, keeping on +the beach under the huge cliffs, to a little cove where they would be +sheltered and where the fishing was supposed to be good.</p> + +<p>Preston, the foreman, went with them. He and the boys dragged a bobsled +well laden with the paraphernalia considered necessary for fishing through +the ice.</p> + +<p>First the holes were cut—thirteen of them. Then, near each hole, and on +the windward side, two stakes were set about four feet apart and a square +of canvas lashed between them for a wind-break. A folding campstool had +been brought for each fisherman and "fishergirl," and there were a lot of +old sacks for the latter, especially, to put under their feet as they +watched the "bobbers" in the little pool of water before which they sat.</p> + +<p>After Preston saw them well started, he went back to the house. The crowd +intended to remain until evening, and planned to make their dinner on the +shore of the cove, frying some of the fish they expected to catch, and +making coffee in a battered camp pot that had been brought along.</p> + +<p>The fish were there, as the foreman had assured them. Each member of the +party watched and baited two lines. At first some of the girls had +considerable trouble with the bait, and the boys had to show them how to +put it on the hook; but it was fun, and soon all were interested in +pulling out the flopping fish, vying with each other in the catch, +calling back and forth about their luck, and having a splendid time.</p> + +<p>It was so cold that the fish froze almost as soon as they were thrown upon +the ice. Had they been catching for shipment, the fish could have been +boxed and sent some distance by express without being iced.</p> + +<p>But the young folk did not mind the cold much, nor the fact that the sun +did not shine and the clouds grew thicker as the day advanced.</p> + +<p>"I'm going to beat you all!" declared The Fox, after a great run of luck, +in which she could scarcely bait rapidly enough to satisfy the ravenous +fish. "Might as well award me the laurel wreath right now."</p> + +<p>"Don't you be too sure," drawled Heavy. "You know, 'He laughs best who +laughs last.'"</p> + +<p>"Wrong!" returned Mary Cox. "The true quotation should be, 'He laughs best +whose laugh lasts.' And mine is going to last—oh-he! here comes another!"</p> + +<p>Tom and Ruth got the dinner. There was plenty of dry wood under the fir +trees. Tom cleaned the fish and Ruth fried them to a delicious brownness +and crispness. With the other viands brought from home and cups of good, +hot coffee, the thirteen friends made a hearty and hilarious meal.</p> + +<p>They were sheltered by the high cliff at their backs and did not notice +when the snow began to fall. But, after a time, they suddenly discovered +that the flakes were coming so thick and fast that it was all but +impossible to see the farthest fishing shelters.</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear me! we don't want to go back yet," wailed The Fox. "And we were +catching them so fast. Do, do let's wait a while longer."</p> + +<p>"Not much fun if it keeps on snowing this way," objected Bobbins.</p> + +<p>"Don't begin croaking, little boy," advised his sister. "A few flakes of +snow won't hurt us."</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, the storm did not hold up. It was more than a "flurry" and +some of the others, as well as Bob Steele, began to feel anxious.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI" />CHAPTER XXI</h2> + +<h2>JERRY'S CAVE</h2> + + +<p>For a while they tried to shelter themselves with the canvas, and shouted +back and forth through the falling snow that they were having a +"scrumptious" time. But some of the girls, as Isadore said, "began to +weaken."</p> + +<p>"We don't want to be lost in the snow as we were the time we went for +balsam at Snow Camp," said Helen.</p> + +<p>"How can you get lost—with us fellows along?" demanded Busy Izzy, in vast +disgust.</p> + +<p>"Can't a boy be lost?" demanded Ann Hicks, laughing.</p> + +<p>"Not on your life!" declared the irrepressible Isadore.</p> + +<p>But just then Madge Steele got up and declared she had had enough. "This +hole in the ice is filling up with snow. We'll lose the fish we've already +caught if we don't look out. Come on, Bobby, and get mine."</p> + +<p>So it was agreed to cut the fishing short for that day, although The Fox +declared she could have beaten them all in another hour.</p> + +<p>However, they had a great load of the frozen fish. Besides what they had +eaten for dinner, there were at least a hundred handsome fellows, and the +boys had strung each fisher's catch on a birch twig which they had cut and +trimmed while coming down to the lake that morning.</p> + +<p>Tom and Ruth, left at the campfire to clean up after the mid-day meal, +were shouting for them to come in. The girls left the boys to wind up the +fishlines and "strike camp," as Ralph called taking down the pieces of +canvas, and all hustled for the shore. They crowded around the fire, threw +on more fuel, danced to get their feet warm, and called to the boys to +hurry.</p> + +<p>The five boys had their hands full in retrieving all the chairs, and +canvas sheets, and fish lines, and sacks. When they got them all in and +packed upon the bobsled for transportation, the snow was a foot deep on +the ice and it was snowing so fast that one could not see ten feet into +the swirling heart of the storm.</p> + +<p>"I declare! it looks as though we were in a mess, with all this snow," +complained Tom Cameron.</p> + +<p>"And with all these girls," growled Ralph Tingley. "Wish we'd started an +hour ago."</p> + +<p>"I don't know about starting <i>at all</i>," observed Bobbins. "Don't you see +that the girls will give out before we're half-way there? We can't use +snowshoes with the snow coming down like this. They clog too fast."</p> + +<p>"Oh, they'll have to wade the same as we do," said Isadore.</p> + +<p>"Yah! Wade! And us pulling this sled, too? I wish Preston had stayed with +us. Don't you, Ralph?" asked his brother.</p> + +<p>"Hush! don't let the girls hear you," was the whispered reply.</p> + +<p>Already the girls were comparing notes in a group around the fire. Now +Madge turned and shouted for them:</p> + +<p>"Come here, boys! Don't be mumbling together there. We have an idea."</p> + +<p>"If it's any good, let's have it," answered Tom, cheerfully.</p> + +<p>"It is good. It was born of experience. Some of us got all the tramping in +a blinding snowstorm that we wanted a year ago. Never again! Eh, girls?"</p> + +<p>"Quite right, Madge," said Ralph. "It is foolish to run into danger. We +are all right here——"</p> + +<p>"Why, the snow will drown out your fire in half an hour," scoffed Isadore. +"And there isn't so much dry fuel."</p> + +<p>"I know where there is plenty of wood—and shelter, too!" cried Ruth, +suddenly.</p> + +<p>"So do I. At the lodge," scoffed Belle.</p> + +<p>"No. Nearby. Tom and I were just talking about it. Up that ravine yonder +is the place where I fell over the cliff. And Jerry's cave is right +there—one end of it."</p> + +<p>"A cave!" ejaculated Helen. "That would be bully."</p> + +<p>"If only we could have a good fire and get dry and warm again," quoth +Lluella, her teeth already chattering.</p> + +<p>"I believe that would be best," admitted Madge Steele. "We never could get +back to the lodge through this snow. The shore is so rough."</p> + +<p>"We can travel on the ice," ventured Ann Hicks, doubtfully.</p> + +<p>"And get turned around," put in Tom. "Easiest thing in the world to get +lost out there on that ice without a compass and in such a whirlwind of +snow. Ruth's right. Let's try to find the cave."</p> + +<p>"I'm game!" exclaimed Heavy. "Why, with all this fish we could live a week +in a cave. It would be bully."</p> + +<p>"'Charming' is the better word, Miss Stone," suggested The Fox.</p> + +<p>"Don't correct me when I'm on a vacation," exclaimed the plump girl. "I +won't stand for it——"</p> + +<p>Just then she slipped and sat down hard and they all laughed.</p> + +<p>"Lucky you weren't on the ice. You'd gone right through that time, +Jennie," declared The Fox. "Now, let's come on to the cave if we're all +agreed. I guess Ruth has the right idea."</p> + +<p>"We'll drag the sled and break a path for you girls," announced Tom. "All +ready, now! Bring your snowshoes. If it stops snowing, we can get home on +them to-night."</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear, me! I hope so," cried Belle Tingley. "What will mother and +father say if we're not home by dark?"</p> + +<p>"They'll be pretty sure we wouldn't travel far in this storm. Preston and +the other men will find us, anyway."</p> + +<p>"I expect that is so," admitted Ruth, thoughtfully, "And they'll find +Jerry's cave. I hope he won't be mad at me for taking you all there."</p> + +<p>However that might be, it seemed to the girl of the Red Mill, as well as +to Tom Cameron, that it was wisdom to seek the nearest shelter. The ravine +was steep, but it was sheltered. There were not many big drifts until they +reached that great one at the head of it, into which Ruth had fallen when +she slipped over the brink of the precipice.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, they were half an hour beating their way up the gully and +out upon that ledge which led to the mouth of Jerry's cave. The boys +found the laden sled a good deal of a load and the girls had all they +could do to follow in the track the sled made.</p> + +<p>"We never <i>could</i> have reached home safely through this storm," declared +Madge. "How clever of you to remember the cave, Ruthie."</p> + +<p>"Ruth is always doing something clever," said Helen, loyally. "Why, she +even falls over a cliff, so as to find a cave that, later, shelters us all +from the inclement elements."</p> + +<p>"Wow, wow, wow!" jeered Isadore. "You girls think a lot of each other; +don't you? Better thank that Jerry boy for finding the cave in the first +place."</p> + +<p>They were all crowding into the place by this time. It was not very light +in the cave, for the snow had already veiled the entrance. But there was a +great store of wood piled up along one side, and the boys soon had a fresh +fire built.</p> + +<p>The girls and boys stamped off the clinging snow and began to feel more +comfortable. The flames danced among the sticks, and soon an appreciable +sense of warmth stole through the cave. The crowd began to laugh and +chatter. The girls brushed out the cave and the boys rolled forward loose +stones for seats.</p> + +<p>Isadore found Jerry's shotgun, ammunition, bow and arrow, and other +possessions.</p> + +<p>"He must have taken the rifle with him when he went to the other end of +the tunnel," Ruth said.</p> + +<p>"Say!" exclaimed Ralph Tingley. "You could find the way through the hill +to where you came out of the cave with Jerry; couldn't you, Ruth?"</p> + +<p>"Oh! I believe so," cried Ruth.</p> + +<p>"Then we needn't worry," said the boy. "We can go home that way. Even if +the storm doesn't stop to-night, we ought to be able to find the lodge +from <i>that</i> end of the cave."</p> + +<p>"We've nothing to worry about, then," said Madge, cheerfully. "We're +supplied with all the comforts of home——"</p> + +<p>"And plenty to eat," sighed Heavy, with satisfaction.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII" />CHAPTER XXII</h2> + +<h2>SNOWED IN</h2> + + +<p>Naturally, thirteen young folk in a cave could not be content to sit +before the fire inactive. They played games, they sang songs, they made up +verses, and finally Madge produced a pencil and a notebook and they wrote +a burlesque history of "George Washington and the Cherry Tree."</p> + +<p>The first author wrote a page of the history and two lines on the second +page. Then the second read those last two lines and went on with the +story, leaving another two lines at the top of the next page, and so on. +It was a wonderful piece of literary work when it was finished, and Madge +kept it to read to the S.B.'s when they got back to Briarwood Hall.</p> + +<p>"For, of course," she said, "we're not going to be forever shut up in this +cave. I don't want to turn into a 'cave man'—nor yet a 'cave woman'!"</p> + +<p>"See if the snow has stopped—that's a good boy, Tommy," urged Helen.</p> + +<p>"Of course it hasn't. Don't you see how dark it is, sis?" returned her +twin.</p> + +<p>But he started toward the mouth of the cavern. Just then Bob looked at his +watch in the firelight, and exclaimed:</p> + +<p>"No wonder it seems dark—do you know it's half after four right now?"</p> + +<p>"Wow! mother will be scared," said Ralph Tingley.</p> + +<p>Just then there came a cry from Tom. Then followed a heavy, smothered +thud. The boys dashed to the entrance. It was pitch dark. A great mass of +hard packed snow filled the opening, and was being forced into the cave +itself. In this heap of snow struggled Tom, fairly smothered.</p> + +<p>They laid hold upon him—by a leg and an arm—and dragged him out. He +could not speak for a moment and he had lost his cap.</p> + +<p>"How did you do that?" demanded Bob. "What does it mean?"</p> + +<p>"Think—think I did it on purpose?" demanded the overwhelmed youth. "I'm +no Samson to pull down the pillars on top of me. Gee! that snow came +sudden."</p> + +<p>"Where—where did it all come from?" demanded his sister.</p> + +<p>"From the top of the cliff, of course. It must have made a big drift there +and tumbled down—regular avalanche, you know—just as I tried to look +out. Why! the place out there is filled up yards deep! We'd never be able +to dig out in a week."</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear me! what shall we do?" groaned Belle, who was beginning to get +nervous.</p> + +<p>"Have supper," suggested Heavy, calmly. "No matter what we have to face, +we can do it better after eating."</p> + +<p>They laughed, but took her advice. Nobody failed to produce an appetite at +the proper time.</p> + +<p>"Dear me!" exclaimed Belle, "if only mother knew we were safe I'd be +content to stay all night. It's fun."</p> + +<p>"And if we had some salt," complained Lluella. "I don't like fish without +salt—not much."</p> + +<p>"You're a fine female Robinson Crusoe," laughed Tom. "This is real +'roughing it.' I expect all you girls will weaken by morning."</p> + +<p>"Oh, oh!" cried his sister, "you talk as though you thought we would be +obliged to stay here, Tom."</p> + +<p>"I don't just see how we're to get out to-night," Tom returned, grimly. +"Not from this end of the cave, at any rate. I tell you, tons and <i>tons</i> +of snow fell into its mouth."</p> + +<p>"But you know the other way out, Ruthie?" urged Lluella, half inclined to +cry.</p> + +<p>"I think so," returned the girl of the Red Mill.</p> + +<p>"Then just hunt for the way," said Belle, firmly. "If it has stopped +snowing I want to go home."</p> + +<p>"Don't be a baby, Belle," advised her brother Ralph. "Nothing is going to +hurt us here."</p> + +<p>"Especially as we have plenty of fuel and grub," added Bobbins, +thoughtfully.</p> + +<p>But Ruth saw that it would be wiser to try to get through the tunnel to +the brookside. Nobody could dig them out at this end, that was sure. So +she agreed with Tom and Ralph Tingley to try to follow the same passages +that Jerry Sheming had taken her through upon the occasion of her first +visit.</p> + +<p>"How shall we find our way, though, if it's dark?" questioned Ralph, +suddenly. "<i>I</i> can't see in the dark."</p> + +<p>"Neither can the rest of us, I guess," said Tom. "Do you suppose we could +find torchwood in that pile yonder?"</p> + +<p>"Not much," Bobbins told them. "And a torch is a smoky thing, anyway."</p> + +<p>Ruth was hunting the dark corners of the big cavern in which they had +camped. Although Jerry had been at the far end of the tunnel when he was +captured by the constable and his helpers—outside that end of the tunnel, +in fact—she hoped that he had left his lantern at this end.</p> + +<p>As it proved, she was not mistaken. Here it was, all filled and cleaned, +hidden on a shelf with a half-gallon can of kerosene. Jerry had been in +the habit of coming to the cave frequently in the old days when his uncle +and he lived alone on the island.</p> + +<p>So Tom lit the lantern and the trio started. The opening of the tunnel +through the hill could not be missed; but farther along Ruth had a dim +recollection of passing cross galleries and passages. Should she know the +direct tunnel then?</p> + +<p>She put that anxiety aside for the present. At first it was all plain +traveling, and Tom with the lantern went ahead to illuminate the path.</p> + +<p>They came out into one of the narrow open cuts, but there was little snow +in it. However, a flake or two floated down to them, and they knew that +the storm still continued to rage. The moaning of the wind in the tree +tops far up on the hill reached their ears.</p> + +<p>"Some storm, this," observed Tom.</p> + +<p>"I should say it was! You don't suppose the folks will be foolish enough +to start out hunting for us till it's over; do you?" Ralph asked, +anxiously.</p> + +<p>"They would better not. We're safe. They ought to know that. Preston will +tell them about the caves in this end of the island and they ought to know +we'd find one of 'em."</p> + +<p>"It's a wild spot, just the same," remarked Ralph. "And I suppose mother +will be worried."</p> + +<p>"Ruth isn't afraid—nor Helen—nor the other girls," said Tom. "I think +these Briarwood girls are pretty plucky, anyway. Don't <i>you</i> get to +grouching, Rafe."</p> + +<p>They pursued their way, Tom ahead with the lantern, for some rods further. +Suddenly the leader stopped.</p> + +<p>"Now what, Ruthie?" he demanded. "Which way do we go?"</p> + +<p>The passage forked. Ruth was uncertain. She could not for the life of her +remember having seen this spot before.</p> + +<p>But, then, she and Jerry must have passed it. She had not given her +attention to the direction at that time, for she had been talking with the +backwoods boy.</p> + +<p>She took the lantern from Tom now, and walked a little way into first the +left-hand passage and then the right-hand one. It seemed to her as though +there were places in the sand on the floor of this latter tunnel which had +been disturbed by human feet.</p> + +<p>"<i>This</i> is the path, I guess," she said, laughing and so hiding her own +anxiety. "But let's take a good look at the place so we can find our way +back to it if we have to return."</p> + +<p>"Huh!" grumbled Ralph Tingley. "You're not so awfully sure; are you?"</p> + +<p>"That's all right. Ruth was only through here once," Tom spoke up, +loyally. "And we can't get really lost."</p> + +<p>In five minutes they came into a little circular room out of which no less +than four passages opened. Ruth was confident now that she was "turned +around." She had to admit it to her companions.</p> + +<p>"Well! what do you know about that?" cried Ralph. "I thought you said you +could find the way?"</p> + +<p>"I guess I can," said Ruth, cheerfully. "But we'll have to try each one of +these openings. I can't be sure which is the right one."</p> + +<p>Ralph sniffed, but Tom was unshaken in his confidence in his girl friend.</p> + +<p>"Let me have the lantern, Tom, and you boys stay here," Ruth said, +quickly. "I'll try them myself."</p> + +<p>"Say! don't you get lost," cried Tom.</p> + +<p>"And don't you leave us long in the dark," complained Ralph. "I don't +believe we ought to let her take that lantern, Tom——"</p> + +<p>"Aw, stop croaking!" commanded young Cameron. "You're worse than any girl +yourself, Tingley."</p> + +<p>Ruth hated to hear them quarrel, but she would not give up and admit that +she was beaten. She took the lantern and ventured into the first tunnel. +Her carriage was firmer than her mind, and before she had gone a dozen +steps she was nervously sobbing, but smothered the sounds with her +handkerchief.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII" />CHAPTER XXIII</h2> + +<h2>"A BLOW FOR LIBERTY"</h2> + + +<p>Ruth was a healthy girl and particularly free from "nerves"; but she <i>was</i> +frightened. She was so proud that she determined not to admit to her +companions that she was lost In the caves.</p> + +<p>Indeed, she was not entirely sure that she <i>was</i> lost. Perhaps this was +the way she had come with Jerry. Only, she did not remember passing the +little room with the four tunnels opening out of it.</p> + +<p>This first passage into which she had ventured with so much apparent +boldness proved to be the wrong one within a very few moments. She came to +the end of it—against an unbroken wall.</p> + +<p>There she remained until she had conquered her nervous sobbing and removed +as well as she could the traces of tears from her face. When she returned +to Tom and Ralph she held the lantern well down, so that the shadow was +cast upon her face.</p> + +<p>"How about it, Ruth?" demanded Tom, cheerfully, when she reappeared.</p> + +<p>"That's not the one. It is just a pocket," declared Ruth. "Wait till I try +another."</p> + +<p>"Well, don't be all night about it," growled Tingley, ungraciously. "We're +wasting a lot of time here."</p> + +<p>Ruth did not reply, but took the next tunnel. She followed this for even a +shorter distance before finding it closed.</p> + +<p>"Only two more. That's all right!" exclaimed Tom. "Narrows the choice +down, and we'll be surer of hitting the right one—eh, Ruthie?"</p> + +<p>She knew that he was talking thus to keep her courage up. Dear old Tom! he +was always to be depended upon.</p> + +<p>She gathered confidence herself, however, when she had gone some distance +into the third passage. There was a place where she had to climb upon a +shelf to get along, because the floor was covered with big stones, and she +remembered this place clearly.</p> + +<p>So she turned and swung her Tight, calling to the boys. Her voice went +echoing through the tunnel and soon brought a reply and the sound of +scrambling feet.</p> + +<p>"Hold up that lantern!" yelled Ralph, rather crossly. "How do you expect +us to see?"</p> + +<p>Young Tingley's nerves were "on edge," and like a good many other people +when they get that way, he was short-tempered.</p> + +<p>"Now we're all right, are we, Ruth?" cried Tom.</p> + +<p>"I remember this place," the girl of the Red Mill replied. "I couldn't be +mistaken. Now you take the lantern, Tom, and lead on."</p> + +<p>They pursued the tunnel to its very end. There it branched again and Ruth +boldly took the right hand passage. Whether it was right, or no, she +proposed to attack it firmly.</p> + +<p>After a time Tom exclaimed: "Hullo, Ruthie! do you really think this is +right?"</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?"</p> + +<p>He held up the lantern in silence. Ruth and Ralph crowded forward to look +over his shoulders.</p> + +<p>There was a heap of rubbish and earth half-filling the tunnel. It had not +fallen from the roof, although neither that nor the sides of the tunnel +were of solid rock.</p> + +<p>"You never came through this place, Ruth!" exclaimed Ralph, in that +"I-told-you-so" tone that is so hard to bear.</p> + +<p>"I—I didn't see this place—no," admitted Ruth.</p> + +<p>"Of course you didn't!" declared Ralph, crossly. "Why! it's right up +against the end of the tunnel."</p> + +<p>"It <i>does</i> look as though we were blocked, Ruthie," said Tom, with less +confidence.</p> + +<p>"Then we'll have to go back and try the other passage," returned the girl, +choking a little.</p> + +<p>"See here!" cried Tom, suddenly. "Somebody's been digging here. That's +where all this stuff comes from, underfoot."</p> + +<p>"Where?" asked the others, crowding forward to look closer. Tom set down +the lantern and picked up a broken spade. There was a cavity in the wall +of this pocket-like passage. With a flourish Tom dug the broken blade of +the spade into the gritty earth.</p> + +<p>"This is what Jerry wanted that mattock for, I bet!" he exclaimed.</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear, me! do you believe so?" cried Ruth. "Then, right here, is where +he thought he might find his uncle's treasure box."</p> + +<p>"Ho, ho!" ejaculated Ralph. "That old hunter was just as crazy as he could +be—father says so."</p> + +<p>"Well, that wouldn't keep him from having money; would it?—and might be a +very good reason for his burying it."</p> + +<p>"And the papers he declared would prove his title to a part of this +island," Ruth hastened to add.</p> + +<p>That didn't please Ralph any too well. "My father owns the island, and +don't you forget it!" he declared.</p> + +<p>"Well, we don't have to quarrel about it," snapped Tom, rather disgusted +with the way Ralph was behaving. "Come on! we might as well go back. But +here's one blow for liberty!" and he laughed and flung the spade forward +with all his strength.</p> + +<p>Jerry Sheming had never suspected it, or he would not have left the +excavation just as he had. There was but a thin shell beyond where he had +been digging, and the spade in Tom's hand went clear through.</p> + +<p>"For the goodness gracious grannies!" gasped Tom, scrambling off his +knees. "I—I came near losing that spade altogether."</p> + +<p>There was a fall of earth beyond the hole. They heard it rolling and +tumbling down a sharp descent.</p> + +<p>"Hold the lantern here, Ruth!" cried Tom, trying to peer into the opening.</p> + +<p>Ruth did so. The rays revealed a hole, big enough for a man to creep +through. It gave entrance, it seemed, to another cavern—and one of good +size.</p> + +<p>"Oh, my dear!" exclaimed Ruth, seizing Tom's arm. "I just know what this +means."</p> + +<p>"You may. <i>I</i> don't," laughed Tom Cameron.</p> + +<p>"Why, this other cavern is the one that was buried under the landslide. +Jerry said he knew about where it was, and he's been trying to dig into +it."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes; there was a landslide on this side of the cliff just about the +time father was negotiating for the purchase of the island last summer," +said Ralph. "We all came up here to look at the place a while afterward. +We camped in a tent about where the lodge now stands. That old crazy +hunter had just been taken away from here. They say he tried to kill +Blent."</p> + +<p>"And maybe he had good reason," said Tom. "Blent is without a doubt a +pretty mean proposition."</p> + +<p>"Just the same, the island is my father's," declared Ralph, with +confidence. "He bought it, right enough."</p> + +<p>"All right. But you think, Ruth, that perhaps it was in this buried cave +that old Mr. Tilton hid his money box?"</p> + +<p>"So Jerry said. It looks as though Jerry had been digging here——"</p> + +<p>"Let's have another crack at it!" cried Tom, and went to work with the +spade again.</p> + +<p>In ten minutes he had scattered considerable earth and made the hole much +larger. They held the lantern inside and saw that the floor of the other +cavity was about on a level with the one in which they stood. Tom slid the +old spade through the hole, and then went through himself.</p> + +<p>"Come on! let's take a look," he said, reaching up for Ruth and the +lantern.</p> + +<p>"But this isn't finding a way out," complained Ralph. "What will the other +folks say?"</p> + +<p>"We'll find the opening later. We couldn't venture outside now, anyway. It +is still storming, you can bet," declared the eager Tom.</p> + +<p>Ruth's sharp eyes were peering here and there. The cavern they had entered +was almost circular and had a dome-shaped roof. There were shelves all +around several feet above the floor. Some of these ledges slanted inward +toward the rock, and one could not see much of them.</p> + +<p>"Lift me up here, Tom!" commanded the girl. "I want to scramble up on the +ledge."</p> + +<p>"You'll hurt yourself."</p> + +<p>"Nonsense! Can't I climb a tree almost as well as Ann Hicks?"</p> + +<p>He gave her a lift and Ruth scrambled over the edge with a little squeal.</p> + +<p>"Oh, oh, oh!" she cried. "Here's something."</p> + +<p>"Must be," grunted Tom, trying to climb up himself. "Why, I declare, +Ruthie! that's a box."</p> + +<p>"It's a little chest. It's ironbound, too. My! how heavy. I can't lift +it."</p> + +<p>"Tumble it down and let's see," commanded Ralph, holding the lantern.</p> + +<p>Ruth sat down suddenly and looked at the boys.</p> + +<p>"I don't know," she said. "I don't know that we've got any right to touch +it. It's padlocked. Maybe it is old Mr. Tilton's treasure-box."</p> + +<p>"That would be great!" cried Tom.</p> + +<p>"But I don't know," continued Ruth, reflectively. "We would better not +touch it. I wouldn't undertake to advise Jerry what to do if <i>he</i> found +it. But this is what they call 'treasure trove,' I guess. At least, it was +what that Rufus Blent had in mind, all right, when he sold Mr. Tingley the +island with the peculiar reservation clause in the deed."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV" />CHAPTER XXIV</h2> + +<h2>A MIDNIGHT MARAUDER</h2> + + +<p>Meanwhile the boys and girls left behind in Jerry Sheming's old camp began +to find the absence of Ruth and her two companions rather trying. The time +which had elapsed since the three explorers started to find the eastern +outlet of the cave seemed much longer to those around the campfire than to +the trio themselves.</p> + +<p>Before the searching party could have reached the brookside, had the +tunnel been perfectly straight, the nervous Belle Tingley wanted to send +out a relief expedition.</p> + +<p>"We never should have allowed Ruthie to go," she wailed. "We all should +have kept together. How do we know but they'll find the cave a regular +labyrinth, and get lost in it, and wander around and around, and never +find their way out, or back, and——"</p> + +<p>"Oh, for the goodness sake!" ejaculated Mary Cox, "don't be such a +weeping, wailing Sister of Misery, Belle! You not only cross bridges +before you come to them, but, I declare, you build new ones!"</p> + +<p>"She's Old Man Trouble's favorite daughter," said Heavy. "Didn't you know +<i>that</i>? Now, Miss Fuss-Budget, stop croaking. Nothing's going to happen to +Ruthie."</p> + +<p>"Not with Tom on hand, you can wager," added Helen, with every confidence +in her twin brother.</p> + +<p>But at last the watches of the party could not be doubted. Two hours had +crept by and it was getting very late in the evening. Some of the party +were, as Ann said, "yawning their heads off." Lluella and Heavy had camped +down upon the old buffalo-robe before the fire and were already more than +half asleep.</p> + +<p>"I do wish they'd come back," muttered Bob Steele to Isadore Phelps. "We +can't tell in here whether the storm has stopped, or not. I don't just +fancy staying in this cave all night if there's any possible chance of +getting to Mr. Tingley's house."</p> + +<p>"Don't know what can be keeping those folks. I believe I could have crept +on my hands and knees through the whole hill, and back again, before this +time," returned Busy Izzy, in a very sleepy voice.</p> + +<p>"Now, you can talk as you please," said Ann Hicks, with sudden decision, +"but I'm going a short distance along that tunnel and see if the lantern +is in sight."</p> + +<p>"I'm with you!" exclaimed Bob.</p> + +<p>"Me, too," joined in Helen, jumping up with alacrity.</p> + +<p>"Now, some more of you will go off and get lost," cried Belle. "I—I wish +we were all home. I'm—I'm sorry we came to this old island."</p> + +<p>"Baby!" ejaculated her brother, poking her. "Do be still. Ralph isn't +going to get lost—what d'ye think he is?"</p> + +<p>"How'll we see our way?" Helen asked Bob and Ann.</p> + +<p>"Feel it. We'll go in the dark. Then we can see their lantern the +quicker."</p> + +<p>"There's no wood here fit for torches," Bob admitted. "And I have plenty +of matches. Come on! We sha'n't get lost."</p> + +<p>"What do you really suppose has happened to them?" demanded Helen of Bob, +as soon as they were out of hearing of the camp.</p> + +<p>"Give it up. Something extraordinary—that's positive," declared the big +fellow.</p> + +<p>They crept through the tunnel, Bob lighting a match occasionally, until +they reached the first crack in the roof, open to the sky. It was not +snowing very hard.</p> + +<p>"Of course they wouldn't have tried climbing up here to get out," queried +Helen.</p> + +<p>"Of course not!" exclaimed Ann. "What for?"</p> + +<p>"No," said Bobbins. "They kept straight ahead—and so will we."</p> + +<p>In five minutes, however, when they stopped, whispering, in a little +chamber, Ann suddenly seized her companions and commanded them to hold +their breath!</p> + +<p>"I hear something," she whispered.</p> + +<p>The others strained their ears to hear, too. In a moment a stone rattled. +Then there sounded an unmistakable footstep upon the rock. Somebody was +approaching.</p> + +<p>"They're coming back?" asked Helen, doubtfully.</p> + +<p>"Hush!" commanded Ann again. "Whoever it is, he has no light. It can't be +Ruth."</p> + +<p>Much heavier boots than those the girl of the Red Mill wore now rattled +over the loose stones. Ann pulled the other two down beside her where she +crouched in the corner.</p> + +<p>"Wait!" she breathed.</p> + +<p>"Can it be some wild animal?" asked Helen.</p> + +<p>"With boots on? I bet!" scoffed Bob.</p> + +<p>It was pitch dark. The three crouching together in the corner of the +little chamber were not likely to attract the attention of this marauder, +if all went well. But their hearts beat fast as the rustle of the +approaching footsteps grew louder.</p> + +<p>There loomed up a man's figure. It looked too big to be either Tom or +Ralph, and it passed on with an assured step. He needed no lamp to find a +path that seemed well known.</p> + +<p>"Who—what——"</p> + +<p>"Hush, Helen!" commanded Ann.</p> + +<p>"But he's going right to the cave—and he carried a gun."</p> + +<p>"I didn't see the gun," whispered Ann.</p> + +<p>"I did," agreed Bob, squeezing Helen's arm. "It was a rifle. Do you +suppose there is any danger?"</p> + +<p>"It couldn't be anybody hunting us, do you suppose?" queried Helen, in a +shaken voice. "Anybody from the house?"</p> + +<p>"Preston!" exclaimed Ann.</p> + +<p>"How would he know the way to get into this tunnel?" returned Bob. "Come +on! let's spy on him. I'm worried now about Tom and the others."</p> + +<p>"You don't suppose anything has happened to Ruthie?" whispered Helen. "Oh! +you don't believe <i>that</i>, Bobbins?"</p> + +<p>"Come on!" grunted the big fellow, and took the advance.</p> + +<p>They were careful of their own footsteps over the loose stones. The person +ahead acted as though he had an idea he was alone.</p> + +<p>Nor did they overtake him until they had passed the open crack in the roof +of the tunnel. Somebody laughed in the cavern ahead—then the girls all +shouted.</p> + +<p>The marauder stopped, uttering an astonished ejaculation. Bob and the two +girls halted, too, but in a moment the person ahead turned, and came +striding toward them, evidently fleeing from the sound of the voices.</p> + +<p>Ann and Helen were really frightened, and with faint cries, shrank back. +Bob <i>had</i> to be brave. He leaped forward to meet the person with the +rifle, crying:</p> + +<p>"Hold on, there!"</p> + +<p>"Ha!" exclaimed the other and advanced the rifle until the muzzle touched +Bob Steele's breast. The boy was naturally frightened—how could he help +being? But he showed pluck. He did not move.</p> + +<p>"What do you want in here? Who are you?" asked Bob, quietly.</p> + +<p>"Goodness me!" gasped the other, and dropped the butt of his rifle to the +ground. "You sure did startle me. You're one of those boys staying with +the Tingleys?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"And here's a couple of the girls. Not Ruth Fielding?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Jerry Sheming!" cried Ann, running forward. "You might have shot him +with that gun."</p> + +<p>"Not unless I'd loaded it first," replied Jerry, with a quiet chuckle. +"But you folks scared me quite as much as I did you—Why, it's Miss Hicks +and Miss Cameron."</p> + +<p>"Where is Ruth?" demanded Ann, anxiously.</p> + +<p>"And Tom?" joined in Helen.</p> + +<p>"And how did you get back here to Cliff Island?" asked Bob. "We understood +that you'd been railroaded out of the country."</p> + +<p>"Hold on! hold on!" exclaimed Jerry. "Let's hear first about Miss +Fielding. Where's she gone? How came you folks in this cave?"</p> + +<p>Helen was the one who told him. She related all the circumstances very +briefly, but in a way to give Jerry a clear understanding of the +situation.</p> + +<p>"They've wandered off to the right. I know where they must be," said +Jerry, decidedly. "I'll go find them. And then I'll get you all out of +here. It has almost stopped snowing now."</p> + +<p>"But how did you find your way back here to the island?" Bob demanded +again.</p> + +<p>"I ain't going to be beat by Blent," declared Jerry Sheming, doggedly. "I +am going to have another look through the caves before I leave for good, +and don't you forget it.</p> + +<p>"The engine on that train yesterday morning broke a piston rod and had to +stop down the lake shore. I hopped off and hid on the far bank, watching +the island. If you folks hadn't come over this way to fish this morning, +I'd been across before the storm began.</p> + +<p>"I was pretty well turned around in the storm, and have been traveling a +long time. But I got to the brook at last, and then worked my way up it +and into the other end of this cave. I was going up there after my +lantern——"</p> + +<p>"Ruth and the others have it," explained Helen, quickly.</p> + +<p>"Then I'll go find them at once. I know my way around pretty well in the +dark. I couldn't get really lost in this cave," and Jerry laughed, +shortly.</p> + +<p>"I've got matches if you want them," said Bob.</p> + +<p>"Got a plenty, thanks. You folks go back to your friends, and I'll hunt +out Miss Fielding in a jiffy."</p> + +<p>Jerry turned away at once, and soon passed out of their sight in the +gloom. As Helen and the others hurried back to the anxious party at the +campfire, Jerry went straightway to the most satisfactory discovery of all +his life.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV" />CHAPTER XXV</h2> + +<h2>THE TREASURE BOX</h2> + + +<p>When Jerry met Ruth and her companions coming slowly from the little cave, +the boys bearing the heavy, ironbound box between them, he knew instantly +what it was—his uncle's chest in which he had kept his money and papers.</p> + +<p>"It's yours to hide again if you want to, Jerry," Ruth told him, when the +excitement of the meeting had passed, and explanations were over. "It was +what both you and Rufus Blent have been looking for, and I believe you +have the best right to it"</p> + +<p>"It belongs to Uncle Pete. And Uncle Pete shall have it," declared the +backwoods boy. "Why, do you know, I believe if Uncle Pete once had this +box in his possession again that he might recover his mind?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I hope so!" Ruth cried.</p> + +<p>First, however, the crowd of young folk had to be led through the long +tunnel and out into the open air. It was agreed that nothing was to be +said to anybody but Mr. Tingley about the treasure box. And the boys and +girls, too, agreed to say nothing at the house about Jerry's having +returned to his cave.</p> + +<p>When they reached the brook, there were lights about the island, and guns +being fired. The entire household of Tingley Lodge was out on the hunt for +the lost ones.</p> + +<p>The boys and girls were home and in bed in another hour, and Mrs. Tingley +was vastly relieved.</p> + +<p>"Never again will I take the responsibility of such a crowd!" declared the +harassed lady. "My own children are enough; a dozen and a half active +young ones like these would send me to the madhouse in another week!"</p> + +<p>But the girls from Briarwood and their boy friends continued to have a +delightful time during the remainder of their stay at Cliff Island, +although their adventures were less strenuous than those that have been +related. They went away, in the end, to take up their school duties, +pronouncing their vacation on the island one of the most enjoyable they +had ever experienced.</p> + +<p>"Something to keep up our hearts for the rest of the school year," +declared Heavy. "And you'll like us better, too, when we're gone, Mrs. +Tingley. We <i>all</i>—even The Fox, here—have a good side to our +characters."</p> + +<p>Even Ann Hicks went back to Briarwood with pleasant expectations. She had +learned to understand her mates better during this holiday, and all the +girls at Briarwood were prepared to welcome the western girl now with more +kindness than before.</p> + +<p>We may believe that Ruth and her girl friends were all busy and happy +during that next half-year at Briarwood, and we may meet them again in the +midst of their work and fun in the next volume of the series, entitled +"Ruth Fielding at Sunrise Farm; Or, What Became of the Raby Orphans."</p> + +<p>Ruth Fielding, however, did not leave Cliff Island before being assured +that the affairs of Jerry Sheming and his uncle would be set right. As it +chanced, the very day the crowd had gone fishing Mr. Tingley had received +a letter from the head doctor of the hospital, to whom the gentleman had +written inquiring about old Peter Tilton.</p> + +<p>The patient had improved immensely. That he was eccentric was true, but he +had probably always been so, the doctor said. The old man was worrying +over the loss of what he called his treasure box, and when Ruth confided +to Mr. Tingley the truth about Jerry's return and the discovery of the +ironbound box, Mr. Tingley determined to take matters into his own hands.</p> + +<p>He first went to the cave and had a long talk with Jerry. Then he had his +team of horses put to the sledge, and he and Jerry and the box drove the +entire length of Lake Tallahaska, struck into a main road to the county +asylum, and made an unexpected call upon the poor old hunter, who had been +so long confined in that institution.</p> + +<p>"It was jest what Uncle Pete needed to wake him up," Jerry declared to +Ruth, when he saw her some weeks later. "He knowed the box and had always +carried the key of it about his neck on a string. They didn't know what it +was at the 'sylum, but they let him keep the key.</p> + +<p>"And when he opened it, sure enough there was lots of papers and a couple +of bags of money. I don't know how much, but Mr. Tingley got Uncle Pete to +trust a bank with the money, and it'll be mine some day. Uncle Pete's +going to pay my way through school with some of it, he says."</p> + +<p>"But the title to the island?" demanded the excited girl of the Red Mill. +"How did that come out? Did your uncle have any deed to it? What of that +mean old Rufus Blent?"</p> + +<p>"Jest you hold your hosses, Miss Ruth," laughed Jerry. "I'm comin' to +that."</p> + +<p>"But you are coming to it awfully slow, Jerry," complained the eager girl.</p> + +<p>"No. I'll tell you quick's I can," he declared. "Uncle Pete had papers. He +had been buying a part of the island from Blent on installments, and had +paid the old rascal a good part of the price. But when Blent found out +that uncle's papers were buried under the landslide he thought he could +play a sharp trick and resell to Mr. Tingley. You see, the installment +deeds were not recorded.</p> + +<p>"However, Mr. Tingley's lawyers made old Blent get right down and howl for +mercy—yes, they did! There was a strong case of conspiracy against him. +That's still hanging fire.</p> + +<p>"But Mr. Tingley says he will not push that, considering Rufus did all he +was told to about the title money. He gave Uncle Pete back every cent he +had paid in on the Cliff Island property, with interest compounded, and a +good lump sum of money beside as a bonus.</p> + +<p>"Then Uncle Pete made Mr. Tingley's title good, and we're going to live at +the lodge during the closed season, as caretakers. That pleases Uncle +Pete, for he couldn't be very well content anywhere else but on Cliff +Island."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Jerry! I am so glad it has come out all right for you," cried the +girl of the Red Mill. "And so will all the other girls be when I tell +them. And Uncle Jabez and Aunt Alvirah—for <i>they</i> are interested in your +welfare, too."</p> + +<p>"You're mighty kind, Miss Ruth," said the backwoods boy, bashfully. +"I—I'm thinking I've got a lot more to thank <i>you</i> for than I ever can +express right proper."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no! no more to me than to other folks," cried Ruth Fielding, +earnestly, for it had always been her natural instinct to help people, and +she did not wish to be thanked for it.</p> + +<p>That being the case, neither Jerry nor the writer must say anything more +about the matter.</p> + + +<h3>THE END</h3> + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14630 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/14630-h/images/1-tb.jpg b/14630-h/images/1-tb.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d0f6035 --- /dev/null +++ b/14630-h/images/1-tb.jpg diff --git a/14630-h/images/1.jpg b/14630-h/images/1.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1401d91 --- /dev/null +++ b/14630-h/images/1.jpg diff --git a/14630-h/images/emblem.jpg b/14630-h/images/emblem.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8a7bad8 --- /dev/null +++ b/14630-h/images/emblem.jpg |
