diff options
Diffstat (limited to '22652.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 22652.txt | 5070 |
1 files changed, 5070 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/22652.txt b/22652.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0547dd5 --- /dev/null +++ b/22652.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5070 @@ +Project Gutenberg's A Campfire Girl's Test of Friendship, by Jane L. Stewart + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Campfire Girl's Test of Friendship + +Author: Jane L. Stewart + +Release Date: September 17, 2007 [EBook #22652] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TEST OF FRIENDSHIP *** + + + + +Produced by Mark C. Orton, Linda McKeown, Jacqueline Jeremy +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + +THE CAMPFIRE GIRLS SERIES + + A CAMPFIRE GIRL'S FIRST COUNCIL FIRE + A CAMPFIRE GIRL'S CHUM + A CAMPFIRE GIRL IN SUMMER CAMP + A CAMPFIRE GIRL'S ADVENTURE + A CAMPFIRE GIRL'S TEST OF FRIENDSHIP + A CAMPFIRE GIRL'S HAPPINESS + + + + + +[Illustration: "Keep still, and you won't be hurt," commanded the man.] + + + + + A Campfire Girl's + Test of Friendship + + + By + JANE L. STEWART + + + CAMPFIRE GIRLS SERIES + VOLUME V + + + THE + SAALFIELD PUBLISHING COMPANY + AKRON, OHIO NEW YORK + + Made in U.S.A. + + + + + COPYRIGHT, MCMXIV + BY + THE SAALFIELD PUBLISHING CO. + + + + +The Camp Fire Girls On the March + + + + +CHAPTER I + +AN UNEXPECTED VISITOR + + +"Oh, what a glorious day!" cried Bessie King, the first of the members +of the Manasquan Camp Fire Girls of America to emerge from the sleeping +house of Camp Sunset, on Lake Dean, and to see the sun sparkling on the +water of the lake. She was not long alone in her enjoyment of the scene, +however. + +"Oh, it's lovely!" said Dolly Ransom, as, rubbing her eyes sleepily, +since it was only a little after six, she joined her friend on the +porch. "This is really the first time we've had a chance to see what the +lake looks like. It's been covered with that dense smoke ever since +we've been here." + +"Well, the smoke has nearly all gone, Dolly. The change in the wind not +only helped to put out the fire, but it's driving the smoke away from +us." + +"The smoke isn't all gone, though, Bessie. Look over there. It's still +rising from the other end of the woods on the other side of the lake, +but it isn't bothering us over here any more." + +"What a pity it is that we've got to go away just as the weather gives +us a chance to enjoy it here! But then I guess we'll have a good time +when we do go away, anyhow. We thought we weren't going to enjoy it +here, but it hasn't been so bad, after all, has it?" + +"No, because it ended well, Bessie. But if those girls in the camp next +door had had their way, we wouldn't have had a single pleasant thing to +remember about staying here, would we?" + +"They've had their lesson, I think, Dolly. Perhaps they won't be so +ready to look down on the Camp Fire Girls after this--and I'm sure they +would be nice and friendly if we stayed." + +"I wouldn't want any of their friendliness. All I'd ask would be for +them to let us alone. That's all I ever did want them to do, anyhow. If +they had just minded their own affairs, there wouldn't have been any +trouble." + +"Well, I feel sort of sorry for them, Dolly. When they finally got into +real trouble they had to come to us for help, and if they are the sort +of girls they seem to be, they couldn't have liked doing that very +well." + +"You bet they didn't, Bessie! It was just the hardest thing they could +have done. You see, the reason they were so mean to us is that they are +awfully proud, and they think they're better than any other people." + +"Then what's the use of still being angry at them? I thought you weren't +last night--not at Gladys Cooper, at least." + +"Why, I thought then that she was in danger because of what I'd done, +and that made me feel bad. But you and I helped to get her back to their +camp safely, so I feel as if we were square. I suppose I ought to be +willing to forgive them for the way they acted, but I just can't seem to +do it, Bessie." + +"Well, as long as we're going away from here to-day anyhow, it doesn't +make much difference. We're not likely to see them again, are we?" + +"I don't know why not--those who live in the same town, anyhow. Marcia +Bates and Gladys Cooper--the two who were lost on the mountain last +night, you know--live very close to me at home." + +"You were always good friends with Gladys until you met her up here, +weren't you?" + +"Oh, yes, good friends enough. I don't think we either of us cared +particularly about the other. Each of us had a lot of friends we liked +better, but we got along well enough." + +"Well, don't you think she just made a mistake, and then was afraid to +admit it, and try to make up for it? I think lots of people are like +that. They do something wrong, and then, just because it frightens them +a little and they think it would be hard to set matters right, they +make a bad thing much worse." + +"Oh, you can't make me feel charitable about them, and there's no use +trying, Bessie! Let's try not to talk about them, for it makes me angry +every time I think of the way they behaved. They were just plain snobs, +that's all!" + +"I thought Gladys Cooper was pretty mean, after all the trouble we had +taken last night to help her and her chum, but I do think the rest were +sorry, and felt that they'd been all wrong. They really said so, if you +remember." + +"Well, they ought to have been, certainly! What a lot of lazy girls they +must be! Do look, Bessie. There isn't a sign of life over at their camp. +I bet not one of them is up yet!" + +"You're a fine one to criticise anyone else for being lazy, Dolly +Ransom! How long did it take me to wake you up this morning? And how +many times have you nearly missed breakfast by going back to bed after +you'd pretended to get up?" + +"Oh, well," said Dolly, defiantly, "it's just because I'm lazy myself +and know what a fault it is that I'm the proper one to call other people +down for it. It's always the one who knows all about some sin who can +preach the best sermon against it, you know." + +"Turning preacher, Dolly?" asked Eleanor Mercer. Both the girls spun +around and rushed toward her as soon as they heard her voice, and +realized that she had stepped noiselessly out on the porch. They +embraced her happily. She was Guardian of the Camp Fire, and no more +popular Guardian could have been found in the whole State. + +"Dolly's got something more against the girls from Halsted Camp!" +explained Bessie, with a peal of laughter. "She says they're lazy +because they're not up yet, and I said she was a fine one to say +anything about that! Don't you think so too, Miss Eleanor?" + +"Well, she's up early enough this morning, Bessie. But, well, I'm afraid +you're right. Dolly's got a lot of good qualities, but getting up early +in the morning unless someone pulls her out of bed and keeps her from +climbing in again, isn't one of them." + +"What time are we going to start, Miss Eleanor?" asked Dolly, who felt +that it was time to change the topic of conversation. Dolly was usually +willing enough to talk about herself, but she preferred to choose the +subject herself. + +"After we've had breakfast and cleaned things up here. It was very nice +of the Worcesters to let us use their camp, and we must leave it looking +just as nice as when we came." + +"Are they coming back here this summer?" + +"The Worcesters? No, I don't think so. I'm pretty sure, though, that +they have invited some friends of theirs to use the camp next week and +stay as long as they like." + +"I hope their friends will please the Halsted Camp crowd better than we +did," said Dolly, sarcastically. "The Worcesters ought to be very +careful only to let people come here who are a little better socially +than those girls. Then they'd probably be satisfied." + +"Now, don't hold a grudge against all those girls, Dolly," said +Eleanor, smiling. "Gladys Cooper was really the ringleader in all the +trouble they tried to make for us, and you've had your revenge on her. +On all of them, for that matter." + +"Oh, Miss Eleanor, if you could only have seen them when I threw that +basket full of mice among them! I never saw such a scared lot of girls +in my life!" + +"That was a pretty mean trick," said Eleanor. "I don't think what they +did to bother us deserved such a revenge as that, even if I believed in +revenge, anyhow. I don't because it usually hurts the people who get it +more than the victims." + +Bessie looked at Dolly sharply, but, if she meant to say anything, +Eleanor herself anticipated her remark. + +"Now come on, Dolly, own up!" she said. "Didn't you feel pretty bad when +you heard Gladys and Marcia were lost in the woods last night? Didn't +you think that it was because you'd got the best of the girls that they +turned against Gladys, and so drove her into taking that foolish night +walk in the woods?" + +"Oh, I did--I did!" cried Dolly. "And I told Bessie so last night, too. +I never would have forgiven myself if anything really serious had +happened to those two girls." + +"That's just it, Dolly. You may think that revenge is a joke, perhaps, +as you meant yours to be, but you never can tell how far it's going, nor +what the final effect is going to be." + +"I'm beginning to see that, Miss Mercer." + +"I know you are, Dolly. You were lucky--as lucky as Gladys and Marcia. +You were particularly lucky, because, after all, it was your pluck in +going into that cave, when you didn't know what sort of danger you might +run into, that found them. So you had a salve for your conscience right +then. But often and often it wouldn't have happened that way. You might +very well have had to remember always that your revenge, though you +thought it was such a trifling thing, had had a whole lot of pretty +serious results." + +"Well, I really am beginning to feel a little sorry," admitted Dolly, +"though Gladys acted just as if she was insulted because we found them. +She said she and Marcia would have been all right in that cave if they'd +stayed there until morning." + +"I think she'll have reason to change her mind," said Eleanor. "She'd +have found herself pretty uncomfortable this morning with nothing to +eat. And she's in for a bad cold, unless I'm mistaken, and it might very +well have been pneumonia if they'd had to stay out all night." + +"She's a softy!" declared Dolly, scornfully. "I'll bet Bessie and I +could have spent the night there and been all right, too, after it was +all over." + +"You and Bessie are both unusually strong and healthy, Dolly. It may not +be her fault that she's a softy, as you call her. The Camp Fire pays a +whole lot of attention to health. That's why Health is one of the words +that we use to make up Wo-he-lo. Work, and Health, and Love. Because +you can't work properly, and love properly, unless you are healthy." + +"I suppose what happened to Gladys last night was one of the things you +were talking about when you wanted us to be patient, wasn't it?" + +"What do you mean, Dolly?" + +"Why, when you said that pride went before a fall, and that she'd be +sure to have something unpleasant happen if we only let her alone, and +didn't try to get even ourselves?" + +"Well, it looks like it, doesn't it?" + +"I don't get much satisfaction out of seeing people punished that way, +though," admitted Dolly, after a moment's thought. "It seems to +me--well, listen, Miss Eleanor. Suppose someone did something awfully +nice for me. It wouldn't be right, would it, for me just to say to +myself, 'Oh, well, something nice will happen to her.' She might have +some piece of good fortune, but I wouldn't have anything to do with it. +I'd want to do something nice myself to show that I was grateful." + +"Of course you would," said Eleanor, who saw the point Dolly was trying +to make and admired her power of working out a logical proposition. + +"Well, then, if that's true, why shouldn't it be true if someone does +something hateful to me? I don't take any credit for the pleasant things +that happen to people who are nice to me, so why should I feel satisfied +because the hateful ones have some piece of bad luck that I didn't have +anything to do with, either?" + +"That's a perfectly good argument as far as it goes, Dolly. But the +trouble is that it doesn't go far enough. You've got a false step in it. +Can't you see where she goes wrong, Bessie?" + +"I think I can, Miss Eleanor," said Bessie. "It's that we ought not to +be glad when people are in trouble, even if they are mean to us, isn't +it? But we are glad, and ought to be, when nice people have good luck. +So the two cases aren't the same a bit, are they?" + +"Right!" said Eleanor, heartily. "Think that over a bit, Dolly. You'll +see the point pretty soon, and then maybe you'll understand the whole +business better." + +Just then the girls whose turn it had been to prepare breakfast came to +the door of the Living Camp, which contained the dining-room and the +kitchen, and a blast on a horn announced that breakfast was ready. + +"Come on! We'll eat our next meal sitting around a camp fire in the +woods, if that forest fire has left any woods where we're going," +announced Eleanor. "So we want to make this meal a good one. No telling +what sort of places we'll find on our tramp." + +"I bet it will be good fun, no matter what they're like," said Margery +Burton, one of the other members of the Camp Fire. She was a Fire-Maker, +the second rank of the Camp Fire. First are the Wood-Gatherers, to which +Bessie and Dolly belonged; then the Fire-Makers, and finally, and next +to the Guardian, whom they serve as assistants, the Torch-Bearers. +Margery hoped soon to be made a Torch-Bearer, and had an ambition to +become a Guardian herself as soon as Miss Eleanor and the local council +of the National Camp Fire decided that she was qualified for the work. + +"Oh, you'd like any old thing just because you had to stand for it, +Margery, whether it was any good or not," said Dolly. + +"Well, isn't that a good idea? Why, I even manage to get along with you, +Dolly! Sometimes I like you quite well. And anyone who could stand for +you!" + +Dolly laughed as loudly as the rest. She had been pretty thoroughly +spoiled, but her association with the other girls in the Camp Fire had +taught her to take a joke when at was aimed at her, unlike most people +who are fond of making jokes at the expense of others, and of teasing +them. She recognized that she had fairly invited Margery's sharp reply. + +"We'll have to hurry and get ready when breakfast is over," said Eleanor +as they were finishing the meal. "You girls whose turn it is to wash up +had better get through as quickly as you can. Then we'll all get the +packs ready. We have to take the boat that leaves at half past nine for +the other end of Lake Dean." + +"Why, there's someone coming! It's those girls from the other camp!" +announced Dolly, suddenly. She had left the table, and was looking out +of the window. + +And, sure enough, when the Camp Fire Girls went out on the porch in a +minute, they saw advancing the private school girls, whose snobbishness +had nearly ruined their stay at Camp Sunset. Marcia Bates, who had been +rescued with her friend, Gladys Cooper, acted as spokesman for them. + +"We've come to tell you that we've all decided we were nasty and acted +like horrid snobs," she said. "We have found out that you're nice +girls--nicer than we are. And we're very grateful--of course I am, +especially--for you helping us. And so we want you to accept these +little presents we've brought for you." + + + + +CHAPTER II + +TROUBLE SMOOTHED AWAY + + +Probably none of the Camp Fire Girls had ever been so surprised in their +lives as when they heard the object of this utterly unexpected visit. +Marcia's eyes were rather blurred while she was speaking, and anyone +could see that it was a hard task she had assumed. + +It is never easy to confess that one has been in the wrong, and it was +particularly hard for these girls, whose whole campaign against the Camp +Fire party had been based on pride and a false sense of their own +superiority, which, of course, had existed only in their imaginations. + +For a moment no one seemed to know what to do or say. Strangely enough, +it was Dolly, who had resented the previous attitude of the rich girls +more than any of her companions, who found by instinct the true +solution. + +She didn't say a word; she simply ran forward impulsively and threw her +arms about Marcia's neck. Then, and not till then, as she kissed the +friend with whom she had quarreled, did she find words. + +"You're an old dear, Marcia!" she cried. "I knew you wouldn't keep on +hating us when you knew us better--and you'll forgive me, won't you, for +playing that horrid trick with the mice?" + +Dolly had broken the ice, and in a moment the stiffness of the two +groups of girls was gone, and they mingled, talking and laughing +naturally. + +"I don't know what the presents you brought are--you haven't shown them +to us yet," said Dolly, with a laugh. "But I'm sure they must be lovely, +and as for accepting them, why, you just bet we will!" + +"You know," said Marcia a little apologetically, "there aren't any real +stores up here, and we couldn't get what we would really have liked, but +we just did the best we could. Girls, get those things out!" + +And then a dozen blankets were unrolled, beautifully woven Indian +blankets, such as girls love to use for their dens, as couch covers and +for hangings on the walls. Dolly exclaimed with delight as she saw hers. + +"Heavens! And you act as if they weren't perfectly lovely!" she cried. +"Why, Marcia, how can you talk as if they weren't the prettiest things! +If that's what you call just doing the best you can, I'm afraid to think +of what you'd have got for us if you'd been able to pick out whatever +you wanted. It would have been something so fine that we'd have been +afraid to take it, I'm sure." + +"Well, we thought perhaps you'd find them useful if you're going on this +tramp of yours," said Marcia, blushing with pleasure. "And I'm ever so +glad you like them, if you really do, because I helped to pick them out. +There's one for each of you, and then we've got a big Mackinaw jacket +for Miss Mercer, so that she'd have something different." + +"I can't tell you how happy this makes me!" said Eleanor, swallowing a +little hard, for she was evidently deeply touched. "I don't mean the +presents, Marcia, though they're lovely, but the spirit in which you all +bring them." + +"We--we wanted to show you we were sorry, and that we understood how +mean we'd been," said Marcia. + +"Oh, my dear, do let's forget all that!" said Eleanor, heartily. "We +don't want to remember anything unpleasant. Let's bury all that, and +just have the memory that we're all good friends now, and that we'd +never have been anything else if we'd only understood one another in the +beginning as well as we do now. + +"That's the reason for most of the quarrels in this world; people don't +understand one another, that's all. And when they do, it's just as it is +with us--they wonder how they ever could have hated one another!" + +"Why, where's Gladys Cooper?" asked Dolly, suddenly. She had been +looking around for the girl who had been chiefly responsible for all the +trouble, and who had been, before this meeting, one of Dolly's friends +in the city from which she and Marcia, as well as the Camp Fire Girls, +came. And Gladys was missing. + +"She--why--she--she isn't feeling very well," stammered Marcia +unhappily. But a look at Dolly's face convinced her that she might as +well tell the truth. "I'm awfully sorry," she went on shamefacedly, "but +Gladys was awfully silly." + +"You mean she hasn't forgiven us?" said Eleanor gently. + +"She's just stupid," flashed Marcia. "What has she got to forgive? She +ought to be here, thanking Dolly and Bessie King for finding us, just as +I am. And she's sulking in her room, instead!" + +"She'll change her mind, Marcia," said Eleanor, "just as the rest of you +have done. I'm dreadfully sorry that she feels that way, because it must +make her unhappy. But please don't be angry with her if you really want +to please us. We're just as ready and just as anxious to be friends +with her as with all the rest of you, and some time we will be, too. +I'm sure of that." + +"We'll make her see what a fool she is!" said Marcia, hotly. "If she'd +only come with us, she'd have seen it for herself. She said all the +girls here would crow over us, and act as if we were backing down, and +had done this because someone made us." + +Eleanor laughed heartily. + +"Well, that is a silly idea!" she said. "Just explain to her that we +were just as pleased and as surprised to see you as we could be, Marcia. +You didn't need to come here this way at all, and we know it perfectly +well. You did it just because you are nice girls and wanted to be +friendly, and we appreciate the way you've come a good deal more than we +do the lovely presents, even." + +"Well, I hope we'll see you again," said Marcia. "If you're going on +that half past nine boat we'll go back now, and let you pack, unless we +can help you?" + +"No, you can't help us. We've really got very little to do. But don't +go. Stay around, if you will, and we'll all talk and visit with you +while we do what there is to be done." + +"I'm awfully sorry Gladys is cutting up so. It makes me feel ashamed, +Dolly," said Marcia, when she and Dolly were alone. "But you know how +she is. I think she's really just as sorry as the rest of us, but--" + +"But she's awfully proud, and she won't show it, Marcia. I know, for I'm +that way myself, though I really do think I've been behaving myself a +little better since I've belonged to the Camp Fire. I wish you'd join, +Marcia." + +"Maybe I will, Dolly." + +"Oh, that would be fine! Shall I speak to Miss Eleanor? She'd be +perfectly delighted, I know." + +"No, don't speak to her yet. I've got a plan, or some of us have, +rather, but it's still a secret so I can't tell you anything about it. +But maybe I'll have a great surprise for you the next time I see you." + +The time passed quickly and pleasantly, and all too soon Miss Eleanor +had to give the word that it was time to start for the landing if they +were to catch the little steamer that was to take them to the other end +of the lake. + +"I tell you what! We'll all go with you as far as you go on the boat, +and come back on her," said Marcia. "That will be good fun, won't it? +I've got plenty of money for the fares, and those who haven't their +money with them can pay me when we get back to camp." + +All the girls from Camp Halsted fell in with her suggestion, delighted +by the idea of such an unplanned excursion. It was easy enough to +arrange it, too, for the little steamer would be back on her return trip +early in the afternoon, even though she did not make very good speed and +had numerous stops to make, since Lake Dean's shores were lined with +little settlements, where camps and cottages and hotels had been built +at convenient spots. + +"We've heard you singing a lot of songs we never heard before," said +Marcia to Bessie, as they took their places on the boat. "Won't you +teach us some of them? They were awfully pretty, we thought." + +"You must mean the Camp Fire songs," said Bessie, happily. "We'll be +glad to teach them to you--and they're all easy to learn, too. I think +Dolly's got an extra copy of one of the song books and I know she'll be +glad to let you have it." + +And so, as soon as Bessie explained what Marcia wanted, the deck of the +steamer was turned into an impromptu concert hall, and she made her +journey to the strains of the favorite songs of the Camp Fire, the +Wo-he-lo cheer with its lovely music being, of course, sung more often +than any of the others. + +"We were wondering so much about that," said Marcia. "We could make out +the word Wo-he-lo, but we couldn't understand it. It sounded like an +Indian word, but the others didn't seem to fit in with that idea." + +"It's just made up from the first syllables of work and health and love, +you see," said Eleanor. "We make up a lot of the words we use. A good +many of the ceremonial names that the girls choose are made that way." + +"Then they have a real meaning, haven't they?" + +"Yes. You see, one of the things that we preach and try to teach in the +Camp Fire is that things ought to be useful as well as beautiful. And +it's very easy to be both." + +"But tell me about the Indian sound of Wo-he-lo. Was that just an +accident, or was it chosen that way on purpose?" + +"Both, I think, Marcia. You see, the Indians in this country had a lot +of good qualities that a great many people have forgotten or overlooked +completely. Of course they were savages, in a way, but they had a +civilization of their own, and a great many of their practices are +particularly well adapted to this country." + +"Oh, I see! You don't want them to be forgotten." + +"That's just it. It's a good way to keep the memory of earlier times +alive, and there seems to be something romantic and picturesque about +the Indian names and the Indian things." + +"That's one of the things I like best that I've found out about the Camp +Fire since you came to Camp Sunset. We used to think the Camp Fire meant +being goody-goody and learning to sew and cook and all sorts of things +like that. But you have a lot of fun and good times, too, don't you?" + +"Yes, and there really isn't anything goody-goody about us, Marcia. +You'd soon find that out if you were with us." + +"Well, I'm very glad that so many people have been led to know the truth +about us," said Eleanor, with a smile. "If everyone knew the truth about +the Camp Fire, it would soon be as big and as influential as even the +most enthusiastic of us hope it will be. And I'm sure that we'll grow +very fast now, because when girls understand us they see that we simply +help them to have the sort of good times they enjoy most. Having a good +time is a pretty important thing in this life." + +"I--I rather thought you would think that we spent too much time just +having a good time," said Marcia, plainly rather surprised by this +statement. + +"I don't say anything about you girls in particular, because I don't +know enough about you," replied Eleanor. "Of course, it's easy to get to +be so bound up in enjoying yourself that you don't think of anything +else. But people who do that soon get tired of just amusing themselves, +so, as a rule, there's no great harm done. They get so that everything +they do bores them, and they turn to something serious and useful, for a +change." + +"But you just said having a good time was important--" + +"And I meant it," said Eleanor, with a smile. "Because it's just as bad +to go to one extreme as to the other, and that's true in about +everything. People who never work, but spend all their time playing +aren't happy, as a rule, or healthy, either. And people who reverse +that, and work all the time without ever playing, are in just about the +same boat, only they're really worse off than the others, because it's +harder for them to change." + +"I think I'm beginning to see what you mean, Miss Mercer." + +"Why, of course you are, Marcia! It's in the middle ground that the +right answer lies. Work a little, and play a little, that's the way to +get on and be happy. When you've worked hard, you need some sort of +relaxation, and it's pretty important to know how to enjoy yourself, and +have a good time." + +"And you certainly can have bully good times in the Camp Fire," said +Dolly, enthusiastically. "I've never enjoyed myself half so much as I +have since I've belonged. Why, we have bacon bats, and picnics, and all +sorts of things that are the best fun you ever dreamed of, Marcia. Much +nicer than those stiff old parties you and I used to go to all the time, +when we always did the same things, and could tell before we went just +what was going to happen." + +"And the regular camp fires, the ceremonial ones, Dolly," reminded +Bessie. "Don't you think Marcia would enjoy that?" + +"Oh, I know she would! Couldn't I bring her to one some time?" Dolly +asked Eleanor. + +"She'll be very welcome, any time," said Eleanor with a smile. "There's +nothing secret about the Camp Fire meetings," she went on. "They're not +a bit like high school and private school fraternities or +sororities--whichever you call them." + +"Why, look where we are!" said Marcia suddenly. "We'll be at the dock +pretty soon." + +"Why, so we will!" Eleanor said. "That's Cranford, sure enough, girls! +We get off here, and begin our real tramp." + +"I wish we were going with you," said Marcia, with a sigh of regret. +"But we can't, of course. Well, I told Dolly we might have a surprise +for her pretty soon, and we will if I've got anything to say about it, +too. This has been awfully jolly! I guess I know a lot more about your +Camp Fire now than I ever expected to. And I've enjoyed hearing every +word, too." + +Soon the little steamer was made fast to the dock, and the Camp Fire +Girls streamed off, lining up on the dock. On the steamer the girls from +Camp Halsted--all but Gladys Cooper, who had not made the trip--lined +up, leaning over the rail. + +"We'll see them off as the boat goes right back again," said Eleanor. +"And let's give them the Wo-he-lo cheer for good-bye, girls." + +So their voices rose on the quiet air as the steamer's whistle shrieked, +and she began to pull out. + +"Good-bye! Good luck!" cried Marcia and all the Halsted girls. "And come +back whenever you can! We'll have a mighty different sort of welcome for +you next time!" + +"Good-bye! And thank you ever so much for the blankets!" called the Camp +Fire Girls. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE WORK OF THE FIRE + + +At Cranford began the road which the Camp Fire Girls were to follow +through Indian Notch, the gap between the two big mountains, Mount Grant +and Mount Sherman. Then they were to travel easily toward the seashore, +since the Manasquan Camp Fire, ever since it had been organized, had +spent a certain length of time each summer by the sea. + +The Village of Cranford had been saved from the fire only by a shift of +the wind. The woods to the west and the north had been burning briskly +for several days, and every able-bodied man in the village had been out, +day and night, with little food and less rest, trying to turn off the +fire. In spite of all their efforts, however, they would have failed in +their task if the change in the weather had not come to their aid. As a +consequence, everyone in the village, naturally enough, was still +talking about the fire. + +"It isn't often that a village in this part of the country has such a +narrow escape," said Eleanor, looking around. "See, girls, you can see +for yourselves how close they were to having to turn and run from the +fire." + +"It looks as if some of the houses here had actually been on fire," said +Dolly, as they passed into the outskirts of the village. + +"I expect they were. You see, the wind was very high just before the +shift came, and it would carry sparks and blazing branches. It's been a +very hot, dry summer, too, and so all the wooden houses were ready to +catch fire. The paint was dry and blistered. They probably had to watch +these houses very carefully, to be ready to put out a fire the minute it +started." + +"It didn't look so bad from our side of the lake, though, did it?" + +"The smoke hid the things that were really dangerous from us, but here +they could see all right. I'll bet that before another summer comes +around they'll be in a position to laugh at a fire." + +"How do you mean? Is there anything they can do to protect +themselves--before a fire starts, I mean?" + +"That's the time to protect themselves. When people wait until the fire +has actually begun to burn, it's almost impossible for them to check it. +It would have been this time, if the wind had blown for a few hours +longer the way it was doing when the fire started." + +"But what can they do?" + +"They can have a cleared space between the town and the forest, for one +thing, with a lot of brush growing there, if they want to keep that. +Then, if a fire starts, they can set the brush afire, and make a back +fire, so that the big fire will be checked by the little one. The fire +has to have something to feed on, you see, and if it comes to a cleared +space that's fairly wide, it can't get any further. + +"Oh, a cleared space like that doesn't mean that the village could go +to sleep and feel safe! But it's a lot easier to fight the fire then. +All the men in town could line up, with beaters and plenty of water, and +as soon as sparks started a fire on their side of the clearing, they +could put it out before it could get beyond control." + +"Oh, I see! And being able to see the fire as soon as it started, they +wouldn't have half so much trouble fighting it as if they had to be +after the really big blaze." + +"Yes. The fire problem in places like this seems very dreadful, but when +the conditions are as good as they are here, with plenty of water, all +that's needed is a little forethought. It's different in some of the +lumber towns out west, because there the fires get such a terrific start +that they would jump any sort of a clearing, and the only thing to do +when a fire gets within a certain distance of a town is for the people +who live in the town to run." + +Soon the road began to pass between desolate stretches of woods, where +the fire had raged at its hottest. Here the ground on each side of the +road was covered with smoking ashes, and blackened stumps stood up from +the barren, burnt ground. + +"It looks like a big graveyard, with those stumps for headstones," said +Dolly, with a shudder. + +"It is a little like that," said Eleanor, with a sigh. "But if you came +here next year you wouldn't know the place. All that ash will fertilize +the ground, and it will all be green. The stumps will still be there, +but a great new growth will be beginning to push out. Of course it will +be years and years before it's real forest again, but nature isn't dead, +though it looks so. There's life underneath all that waste and +desolation, and it will soon spring up again." + +"I hope we'll get out of this burned country soon," said Dolly. "I think +it's as gloomy and depressing as it can be. I'd like to have seen this +road before the fire--it must have been beautiful." + +"It certainly was, Dolly. And all this won't last for many miles. We +really ought to stop pretty soon to eat our dinner. What do you say, +girls? Would you like to wait, and press on until we come to a more +cheerful spot, where the trees aren't all burnt?" + +"Yes, oh, yes!" cried Margery Burton. "I think that would be ever so +much nicer! Suppose we are a little hungry before we get our dinner? We +can stand that for once." + +"I think we'll enjoy our meal more. So we'll keep on, then, if the rest +of you feel the same way." + +Not a voice dissented from that proposition, either. Dolly was not the +only one who was saddened by the picture of desolation through which +they were passing. The road, of course, was deep in dust and ashes, and +the air, still filled with the smoke that rose from the smouldering +woods, was heavy and pungent, so that eyes were watery, and there was a +good deal of coughing and sneezing. + +"It's a lucky thing there weren't any houses along here, isn't it?" +said Margery. "I don't see how they could possibly have been saved, do +you, Miss Eleanor?" + +"There's no way that they could have saved them, unless, perhaps, by +having a lot of city fire engines, and keeping them completely covered +with water on all sides while the fire was burning. They call that a +water blanket, but of course there's no way that they could manage that +up here." + +"What do you suppose started this fire, Miss Eleanor?" + +"No one will ever know. Perhaps someone was walking in the woods, and +threw a lighted cigar or cigarette in a pile of dry leaves. Perhaps some +party of campers left their camp without being sure that their fire was +out." + +"Just think of it--that all the trouble could be started by a little +thing like that! It makes you realize what a good thing it is that we +have to be careful never to leave a single spark behind when we're +leaving a fire, doesn't it?" + +"Yes. It's a dreadful thing that people should be so careless with +fire. Fire, and the heat we get from it, is responsible for the whole +progress of the race. It was the discovery that fire could be used by +man that was back of every invention that has ever been made." + +"That's why it's the symbol of the Camp Fire, isn't it?" + +"Yes. And in this country people ought to think more of fire than they +do. We lose more by fire every year than any other country in the world, +because we're so terribly careless." + +"What is that there, ahead of us, in the road?" asked Bessie, suddenly. +They had just come to a bend in the road, and about a hundred yards away +a group of people stood in the road. + +Eleanor looked grave. She shaded her eyes with her hand, and stared +ahead of her. + +"Oh," she cried, "what a shame! I remember now. There was a farm house +there! I'm afraid we were wrong when we spoke of there being no houses +in the path of this fire!" + +They pressed on steadily, and, as they approached the group forlorn, +distressed and unhappy, they saw that their fears were only too well +grounded. The people in the road were staring, with drawn faces, at a +scene of ruin and desolation that far outdid the burnt wastes beside the +road, since what they were looking at represented human work and the +toil of hands. + +The foundations of a farm house were plainly to be seen, the cellar +filled with the charred wood of the house itself, and in what had +evidently been the yard there were heaps of ashes that showed where the +barns and other buildings had stood. + +In the road, staring dully at the girls as they came up, were two women +and a boy about seventeen years old, as well as several young children. + +Eleanor looked at them pityingly, and then spoke to the older of the two +women. + +"You seem to be in great trouble," she said. "Is this your house?" + +"It was!" said the woman, bitterly. "You can see what's left of it! +What are you--picnickers? Be off with you! Don't come around here +gloating over the misfortunes of hard working people!" + +"How can you think we'd do that?" said Eleanor, with tears in her eyes. +"We can see that things look very bad for you. Have you any place to +go--any home?" + +"You can see it!" said the woman, ungraciously. + +Eleanor looked at her and at the ruined farm for a minute very +thoughtfully. Then she made up her mind. + +"Well, if you've got to start all over again," she said, "you are going +to need a lot of help, and I don't see why we can't be the first to help +you! Girls, we won't go any further now. We'll stay here and help these +poor people to get started!" + +"What can people like you do to help us?" asked the woman, scornfully. +"This isn't a joke--'t ain't like a quiltin' party!" + +"Just you watch us, and see if we can't help," said Eleanor, sturdily. +"We're not as useless as we look, I can tell you that! And the first +thing we're going to do is to cook a fine dinner, and you are all going +to sit right down on the ground and help us eat it. You'll be glad of a +meal you don't have to cook yourselves, I'm sure. Where is your well, or +your spring for drinking water? Show us that, and we'll do the rest!" + +Only half convinced of Eleanor's really friendly intentions, the woman +sullenly pointed out the well, and in a few moments Eleanor had set the +girls to work. + +"The poor things!" she said to Margery, sympathetically. "What they need +most of all is courage to pick up again, now that everything seems to +have come to an end for them, and make a new start. And I can't imagine +anything harder than that!" + +"Why, it's dreadful!" said Margery. "She seems to have lost all +ambition--to be ready to let things go." + +"That's just the worst of it," said Eleanor. "And it's in making them +see that there's still hope and cheer and good friendship in the world +that we can help them most. I do think we can be of some practical use +to them, too, but the main thing is to brace them up, and make them want +to be busy helping themselves. It would be so easy for me to give them +the money to start over again or I could get my friends to come in with +me, and make up the money, if I couldn't do it all myself." + +"But they ought to do it for themselves, you mean?" + +"Yes. They'll really be ever so much better off in the long run if it's +managed that way. Often and often, in the city, I've heard the people +who work in the charity organizations tell about families that were +quite ruined because they were helped too much." + +"I can see how that would be," said Margery. "They would get into the +habit of thinking they couldn't do anything for themselves--that they +could turn to someone else whenever they got into trouble." + +"Yes. You see these poor people are in the most awful sort of trouble +now. They're discouraged and hopeless. Well, the thing to do is to make +them understand that they can rise superior to their troubles, that they +can build a new home on the ashes of their old one." + +"Oh, I think it will be splendid if we can help them to do that!" + +"They'll feel better, physically, as soon as they have had a good +dinner, Margery. Often and often people don't think enough about that. +It's when people feel worst that they ought to be fed best. It's +impossible to be cheerful on an empty stomach. When people are well +nourished their troubles never seem so great. They look on the bright +side and they tell themselves that maybe things aren't as bad as they +look." + +"How can we help them otherwise, though?" + +"Oh, we'll fix up a place where they can sleep to-night, for one thing. +And we'll help them to start clearing away all the rubbish. They've got +to have a new house, of course, and they can't even start work on that +until all this wreckage is cleared away." + +"I wonder if they didn't save some of their animals--their cows and +horses," said Bessie. "It seems to me they might have been able to do +that." + +"I hope so, Bessie. But we'll find out when we have dinner. I didn't +want to bother them with a lot of questions at first. Look, they seem to +be a little brighter already." + +The children of the family were already much brighter. It was natural +enough for them to respond more quickly than their elders to the +stimulus of the presence of these kind and helpful strangers, and they +were running around, talking to the girls who were preparing dinner, and +trying to find some way in which they could help. + +And their mother began to forget herself and her troubles, and to watch +them with brightening eyes. When she saw that the girls seemed to be +fond of her children and to be anxious to make them happy, the maternal +instinct in her responded, and was grateful. + +"Oh, we're going to be able to bring a lot of cheer and new happiness to +these poor people," said Eleanor, confidently. "And it will be splendid, +won't it, girls? Could anything be better fun than doing good this way? +It's something we'll always be able to remember, and look back at +happily. And the strange part of it is that, no matter how much we do +for them, we'll be doing more for ourselves." + +"Isn't it fine that we've got those blankets?" said Dolly. "If we camp +out here to-night they'll be very useful." + +"They certainly will. And we shall camp here, though not in tents. Later +on this afternoon, we'll have to fix up some sort of shelter. But that +will be easy. I'll show you how to do it when the time comes. Now we +want to hurry with the dinner--that's the main thing, because I think +everyone is hungry." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +GETTING A START + + +Often people who have been visited by great misfortunes become soured +and suspect the motives of even those who are trying to help them. +Eleanor understood this trait of human nature very well, thanks to the +fact that as a volunteer she had helped out the charity workers in her +own city more than once. And as a consequence she did not at all resent +the dark looks that were cast at her by the poor woman whose every +glance brought home to her more sharply the disaster that the fire had +brought. + +"We've got to be patient if we want to be really helpful," she explained +to Dolly Ransom, who was disposed to resent the woman's unfriendly +aspect. + +"But I don't see why she has to act as if we were trying to annoy her, +Miss Eleanor!" + +"She doesn't mean that at all, Dolly. You've never known what it is to +face the sort of trouble and anxiety she has had for the last few days. +She'll soon change her mind about us when she sees that we are really +trying to help. And there's another thing. Don't you think she's a +little softer already?" + +"Oh, she is!" said Bessie, with shining eyes. "And I think I know why--" + +"So will Dolly--if she will look at her now. See, Dolly, she's looking +at her children. And when she sees how nice the girls are to them, she +is going to be grateful--far more grateful than for anything we did for +her. Because, after all, it's probably her fear for her children, and of +what this will mean to them, that is her greatest trouble." + +Dinner was soon ready, and when it was prepared, Eleanor called the +homeless family together and made them sit down. + +"We haven't so very much," she said. "We intended to eat just this way, +but we were going on a little way. Still, I think there's plenty of +everything, and there's lots of milk for the children." + +"Why are you so good to us?" asked the woman, suddenly. It was her first +admission that she appreciated what was being done, and Eleanor secretly +hailed it as a prelude to real friendliness. + +"Why, you don't think anyone could see you in so much trouble and not +stop to try to help you, do you?" she said. + +"Ain't noticed none of the neighbors comin' here to help," said the +woman, sullenly. + +"I think they're simply forgetful," said Eleanor. "And you know this +fire was pretty bad. They had a great fight to save Cranford from +burning up." + +"Is that so?" said the woman, showing a little interest in the news. "My +land, I didn't think the fire would get that far!" + +"They were fighting night and day for most of three days," said Eleanor. +"And now they're pretty tired, and I have an idea they're making up for +lost sleep and rest. But I'm sure you'll find some of them driving out +this way pretty soon to see how you are getting on." + +"Well, they won't see much!" said the woman, with a despairing laugh. +"We came back here, 'cause we thought some of the buildings might be +saved. But there ain't a thing left exceptin' that one barn a little way +over there. You can't see it from here. It's over the hill. We did save +our cattle and a good many chickens and ducks. But all our crops is +ruined--and how we are ever goin' to get through the winter I declare I +can't tell!" + +"Have you a husband? And, by the way, hadn't you better tell me your +name?" said Eleanor. + +"My husband's dead--been dead nearly two years," said the woman. "I'm +Sarah Pratt. This here's my husband's sister, Ann." + +"Well, Mrs. Pratt, we'll have to see if we can't think of some way of +making up for all this loss," said Eleanor, after she had told the woman +her own name, and introduced the girls of the Camp Fire. "Why--just a +minute, now! You have cows, haven't you? Plenty of them? Do they give +good milk?" + +"Best there is," said the woman. "My husband, he was a crank for buyin' +fine cattle. I used to tell him he was wastin' his money, but he would +do it. Same way with the chickens." + +"Then you sold the milk, I suppose?" + +"Yes, ma'am, and we didn't get no more for it from the creamery than the +farmers who had just the ornery cows." + +"Well, I've got an idea already. I'm going back to Cranford as soon as +we've had dinner to see if it will work out. I suppose that's your son?" + +She looked with a smile at the awkward, embarrassed boy who had so +little to say for himself. + +"Well, while the girls fix you up some shelters where you can sleep +to-night, if you stay here, I'm going to ask you to let him drive me +into Cranford. I want to do some telephoning--and I think I'll have +good news for you when I come back." + +Strangely enough, Mrs. Pratt made no objection to this plan. Once she +had begun to yield to the charm of Eleanor's manner, and to believe that +the Camp Fire Girls meant really to help and were not merely stopping +out of idle curiosity, she recovered her natural manner, which turned +out to be sweet and cheerful enough, and she also began to look on +things with brighter eyes. + +"Makes no difference whether you have good news or not, my dear," she +said to Eleanor. "You've done us a sight of good already. Waked me up +an' made me see that it's wrong to sit down and cry when it's a time to +be up an' doin'." + +"Oh, you wouldn't have stayed in the dumps very long," said Eleanor, +cheerfully. "Perhaps we got you started a little bit sooner, but I can +see that you're not the sort to stay discouraged very long." + +Then, while a few of the girls, with the aid of the Pratt children, +washed dishes and cleared up after the meal, Eleanor took aside Margery +and some of the stronger girls, like Bessie and Dolly, to show them what +she wanted done while she was away. + +"There's plenty of wood around here," she said. "A whole lot of the +boards are only a little bit scorched, and some of them really aren't +burned at all. Now, if you take those and lay them against the side of +that steep bank there, near where the big barn stood, you'll have one +side of a shelter. Then take saplings, and put them up about seven feet +away from your boards." + +She held a sapling in place, to show what she meant. + +"Cut a fork in the top of each sapling, and dig holes so that they will +stand up. Then lay strips of wood from the saplings to the tops of your +boards, and cover the space you've got that way with branches. If you go +about half a mile beyond here, you'll be able to get all the branches +you want from spots where the fire hasn't burned at all." + +"Why, they'll be like the Indian lean-tos I've read about, won't they?" +exclaimed Margery. + +"They're on that principle," said Eleanor. "Probably we could get along +very well without laying any boards at all against that bank, but it +might be damp, and there's no use in taking chances. And--" + +"Oh, Miss Eleanor," Dolly interrupted, "excuse me, but if it rained or +there were water above, wouldn't it leak right down and run through from +the top of the bank?" + +"That's a good idea, Dolly. I'll tell you how to avoid that. Dig a +trench at the top of the bank, just as long as the shelter you have +underneath, and the water will all be caught in that. And if you give +the trench a little slope, one way or the other, or both ways from the +centre, not much, just an inch in ten feet--the water will all be +carried off." + +"Oh, yes!" said Dolly. "That would fix that up all right." + +"Get plenty of branches of evergreens for the floor, and we'll cover +those with our rubber blankets," Eleanor went on. "Then we'll be snug +and dry for to-night, anyhow, and for as long as the weather holds +fine." + +"You mean it will be a place where the Pratts can sleep?" said Margery. +"Of course, it would be all right in this weather, but do you think it +will stay like this very long?" + +"Of course it won't, Margery, but I don't expect them to have to live +this way all winter. If it serves to-night and to-morrow night I think +it will be all that's needed. Now you understand just what is to be +done, don't you? If you want to ask any questions, go ahead." + +"No. We understand, don't we, girls?" said Margery. + +"All right, then," said Eleanor. "Girls, Margery is Acting Guardian +while I'm gone. You're all to do just as she tells you, and obey her +just as if she were I. I see that Tom's got the buggy all harnessed up. +It's lucky they were able to save their wagons and their horses, isn't +it?" + +"What are you going to do in Cranford?" asked Dolly. "Won't you tell us, +Miss Eleanor?" + +"No, I won't, Dolly," said Eleanor, laughing. "If I come back with good +news--and I certainly hope I shall--you'll enjoy it all the more if it's +a surprise, and if I don't succeed, why, no one will be disappointed +except me." + +And then with a wave of her hand, she sprang into the waiting buggy and +drove off with Tom Pratt holding the reins, and looking very proud of +his pretty passenger. + +"Well, I don't know what it's all about, but we know just what we're +supposed to do, girls," said Margery. "So let's get to work. Bessie, you +and Dolly might start picking out the boards that aren't too badly +burned." + +"All right," said Dolly. "Come on, Bessie!" + +"I'll pace off the distance to see how big a place we need to make," +said Margery. "Mrs. Pratt, how far is it to a part of the woods that +wasn't burned? Miss Mercer thought we could get some green branches +there for bedding." + +"Not very far," said Mrs. Pratt, with a sigh. "That's what seemed so +hard! When we drove along this morning we came quite suddenly to a patch +along the road on both sides where the fire hadn't reached, and it made +us ever so happy." + +"Oh, what a shame!" said Margery. "I suppose you thought you'd come to +the end of the burned part?" + +"I hoped so--oh, how I did hope so!" said poor Mrs. Pratt. "But then, +just before we came in sight of the place, we saw that the fire had +changed its direction again, and then we knew that our place must have +gone." + +"That's very strange, isn't it?" said Margery. "I wonder why the fire +should spare some places and not others?" + +"It seems as if it were always that way in a big fire," said Mrs. Pratt. +"I suppose there'd been some cutting around that patch of woods that +wasn't burned. And only last year a man was going to buy the wood in +that wood lot of ours on the other side of the road, and clear it. If he +had, maybe the fire wouldn't ever have come near us, at all." + +"Well, we'll have to think about what did happen, not what we wish had +happened, Mrs. Pratt," said Margery, cheerfully. "The thing to do now is +to make the best of a bad business. I'm going to send four or five of +the girls to get branches. Perhaps you'll let one of the children go +along to show them the way?" + +"You go, Sally," said Mrs. Pratt to the oldest girl, a child of +fourteen, who had been listening, wide-eyed, to the conversation. "Now, +ain't there somethin' Ann an' I can do to help?" + +"Why, yes, there is, Mrs. Pratt. I think it's going to be dreadfully +hot. Over there, where we unpacked our stores, you'll find a lot of +lemons. I think if you'd make a couple of big pails full of lemonade +we'd all enjoy them while we were working, and they'd make the work go +faster, too." + +"The water won't be very cold," suggested Ann. + +"Pshaw, Ann! Why not use the ice?" said Mrs. Pratt, whose interest in +small things had been wonderfully revived. "The ice-house wasn't burned. +Do you go and get a pailful of ice, and we'll have plenty for the girls +to drink. They surely will be hot and tired with all they're doing for +us." + +"I'm sorry I ever said Mrs. Pratt wasn't nice," said Dolly to Bessie, +when they happened to overhear this, and saw how Mrs. Pratt began +hustling to get the lemonade ready. + +"I knew she'd be all right as soon as she began to be waked up a +little," said Bessie. "This is more fun than one of our silly +adventures, isn't it, Dolly? Because it's just as exciting, but there +isn't the chance of things going wrong, and we're doing something to +make other people happy." + +"You're certainly right about that, Bessie. And it makes you think of +how much hard luck people have, and how easy it would be for people who +are better off to help them, doesn't it?" + +"It _is_ easy, Dolly. You know, I think Miss Eleanor must help an awful +lot of people. It seems to be the first thing she thinks of when she +sees any trouble." + +"She makes one understand what Wo-he-lo really means," said Dolly. +"She's often explained that work means service--doing things for other +people, and not just working for yourself." + +"That's one of the things I like best about the Camp Fire," said Bessie, +thoughtfully. "Everyone in it seems to be unselfish and to think about +helping others, and yet there isn't someone to preach to you all the +time--they just do it themselves, and make you see that it's the way to +be really happy." + +"I wouldn't have believed that I could enjoy this sort of work if anyone +had told me so a year ago. But I do. I haven't had such a good time +since I can remember. Of course, I feel awfully sorry for the Pratts, +but I'm glad that, if it had to happen to them, we came along in time to +help them." + +They hadn't stopped working while they talked, and now they had brought +as many boards as Margery wanted. + +"There are lots more boards, Margery," said Dolly. "Why shouldn't we +make a sort of floor for the lean-to? If we put up a couple of planks +for them to rest on, every so often, we could have a real floor, and +then, even if the ground got damp, it would be dry inside." + +"Good idea! We'll do that," said Margery, who was busy herself, flying +here, there, and everywhere to direct the work. "Go ahead!" + +And so, when the sound of wheels in the road heralded the return of Miss +Eleanor in the buggy, the work was done, and the lean-to was completed, +a rough-and-ready shelter that was practical in the extreme, though +perhaps it was not ornamental. + +"Splendid!" cried Eleanor. "But I knew you girls would do well. And +I've got the good news I hoped to bring, too!" + + + + +CHAPTER V + +GOOD NEWS FROM TOWN + + +Everyone rushed eagerly forward, and crowded around Miss Mercer as she +descended from the buggy, smiling pleasantly at the bashful Tom Pratt, +who did his best to help her in her descent. And not the least eager, by +any means, was Tom Pratt's mother, whose early indifference to the +interest of these good Samaritans in her misfortunes seemed utterly to +have vanished. + +"Oh, these girls of yours!" cried Mrs. Pratt. "You've no idea of how +much they've done--or how much they've heartened us all up, Miss Mercer! +I don't believe there were ever so many kind, nice people brought +together before!" + +Eleanor laughed, as if she were keeping a secret to herself. And her +words, when she spoke, proved that that was indeed the case. + +"Just you wait till you know how many friends you really have around +here, Mrs. Pratt!" she said. "Well, I told you I hoped to bring back +good news, and I have, and if you'll all give me a chance, I'll tell you +what it is." + +"You've found a place for all the Pratts to go!" said Dolly. + +"You've arranged something so that they won't have to stay here!" agreed +Margery. + +"I don't know whether Mrs. Pratt would agree that that was such good +news," she said. "Tell me, Mrs. Pratt--you are still fond of this place, +aren't you?" + +"Indeed, and I am, Miss Mercer!" she said, choking back a sob. "When I +first saw how it looked this morning, I thought I only wanted to go away +and never see it again, if I only knew where to go. But I feel so +different now. Why, all the time we've been working around here, it's +made me think of how Tom--I mean my poor husband--and I came here when +we were first married. Tom had the land, you see, and he'd built a +little cabin for us with his own hands." + +"And all the farm grew from that?" + +"Yes. We worked hard, you see, and the children came, but we had a +better place for each one to be born in, Miss Mercer--we really did! It +was our place. We've earned it all, with the help from the place itself, +and before the fire--" + +She broke down then, and for a moment she couldn't go on. + +"Of course you love it!" said Eleanor, heartily. "And I don't think it +would be very good news for you to know that you had a chance to go +somewhere else and make a fresh start, though I could have managed that +for you." + +"I'd be grateful, though, Miss Mercer," said Mrs. Pratt. "I don't want +you to think I wouldn't. It'll be a wrench, though--I'm not saying it +wouldn't. When you've lived anywhere as long as I've lived here, and +seen all the changes, and had your children born in it, and--" + +"I know--I know," interrupted Eleanor, sympathetically. "And I could see +how much you loved the place. So I never had any idea at all of +suggesting anything that would take you away." + +"Do you really think we can get a new start here?" asked Mrs. Pratt, +looking up hopefully. + +"I don't only believe it, I know it, Mrs. Pratt," said Eleanor, +enthusiastically. "And what's more, you're going to be happier and more +prosperous than you ever were before the fire. Not just at first, +perhaps, but you're going to see the way clear ahead, and it won't be +long before you'll be doing so well that you'll be able to let my friend +Tom here go to college." + +Mrs. Pratt's face fell. It seemed to her that Eleanor was promising too +much. + +"I don't see how that could be," she said. "Why, his paw and I used to +talk that over. We wanted him to have a fine education, but we didn't +see how we could manage it, even when his paw was alive." + +"Well, you listen to me, and see if you don't think there's a good +chance of it, anyhow," said Eleanor. "In the first place, none of the +people in Cranford knew that you'd had all this trouble. It was just as +I thought. Their own danger had been so great that they simply hadn't +had time to think of anything else. They were shocked and sorry when I +told them." + +"There's a lot of good, kind people there," said Mrs. Pratt, brightening +again. "I'm sure I didn't think anything of their not having come out +here to see how we were getting along." + +"Some of them would have been out in a day or two, even if I hadn't told +them, Mrs. Pratt. As it is--but I think that part of my story had better +wait. Tell me, you've been selling all your milk and cream to the big +creamery that supplies the milkmen in the city, haven't you?" + +"Yes, and I guess that we can keep their trade, if we can get on our +feet pretty soon so that they can get it regular again." + +"I've no doubt you could," said Eleanor, dryly. "They make so much money +buying from you at cheap prices and selling at high prices that they +wouldn't let the chance to keep on slip by in a hurry, I can tell you. +But I've got a better idea than that." + +Mrs. Pratt looked puzzled, but Tom Pratt, who seemed to be in Eleanor's +secret, only smiled and returned Eleanor's wise look. + +"When you make butter you salt it and keep it to use here, don't you?" +Eleanor asked next. + +"Yes, ma'am, we do." + +"Well, if you made fresh, sweet butter, and didn't salt it at all, do +you know that you could sell it to people in the city for fifty cents a +pound?" + +Mrs. Pratt gasped. + +"Why, no one in the world ever paid that much for butter!" she said, +amazed. "And, anyhow, butter without salt's no good." + +"Lots of people don't agree with you, and they're willing to pay pretty +well to have their own way, too," she said, with a laugh. "In the city +rich families think fresh butter is a great luxury, and they can't get +enough of it that's really good. And it's the same way, all summer +long, at Lake Dean. + +"The hotel there will take fifty pounds a week from you all summer long, +as long as it's open, that is. And I have got orders for another fifty +pounds a week from the people who own camps and cottages. And what's +more, the manager of the hotel has another house, in Lakewood, in the +winter time, and when he closes up the house at Cranford, he wants you +to send him fifty pounds a week for that house, too." + +"Why, however did you manage to get all those orders?" asked Margery, +amazed. + +"I telephoned to the manager of the hotel," said Eleanor. "And then I +remembered the girls at Camp Halsted, and I called up Marcia Bates and +told her the whole story, and what I wanted them to do. So she and two +or three of the others went out in that fast motor boat of theirs and +visited a lot of families around the lake, and when they told them about +it, it was easy to get the orders." + +"Well, I never!" gasped Mrs. Pratt. "I wouldn't ever have thought of +doin' anythin' like that, Miss Mercer, and folks around here seem to +think I'm a pretty good business woman, too, since my husband died. Why, +we can make more out of the butter than we ever did out of a whole +season's crops, sellin' at such prices!" + +"You won't get fifty cents a pound from the hotel," said Eleanor. +"That's because they'll take such a lot, and they'll pay you every week. +So I told them they could have all they wanted for forty cents a pound. +But, you see, at fifty pounds a week, that's twenty dollars a week, all +the year round, and with the other fifty pounds you'll sell to private +families, that will make forty-five dollars a week. And you haven't even +started yet. You'll have lots more orders than you can fill." + +"I'm wonderin' right now, ma'am, how we'll be able to make a hundred +pounds of butter a week." + +"I thought of that, too," said Eleanor, "and I bought half a dozen more +cows for you, right there in Cranford. They're pretty good cows, and if +they're well fed, and properly taken care of, they'll be just what you +want." + +"But I haven't got the money to pay for them now, ma'am!" said Mrs. +Pratt, dismayed. + +"Oh, I've paid for them," said Eleanor, "and you're going to pay me when +you begin to get the profits from this new butter business. I'd be glad +to give them to you, but you won't need anyone to give you things; +you're going to be able to afford to pay for them yourself." + +Mrs. Pratt broke into tears. + +"That's the nicest thing you've said or done yet, Miss Mercer," she +sobbed. "I just couldn't bear to take charity--" + +"Charity? You don't need it, you only need friendly help, Mrs. Pratt, +and if I didn't give you that someone else would!" + +"And eggs! They'll be able to sell eggs, too, won't they?" said Dolly, +jumping up and down in her excitement. + +"They certainly will! I was coming to that," said Eleanor. "You know, +this new parcel post is just the thing for you, Mrs. Pratt! Just as soon +as a letter I wrote is answered, you'll get a couple of cases of new +boxes that are meant especially for mailing butter and eggs and things +like that from farmers to people in the city. + +"You'll be able to sell eggs and butter cheaper than people in the city +can buy things that are anything like as good from the stores, because +you won't have to pay rent and lighting bills and all the other +expensive things about a city store. I'm going to be your agent, and I +do believe I'll make some extra pocket money, too, because I'm going to +charge you a commission." + +Mrs. Pratt just laughed at that idea. + +"Well, you wait and see!" said Eleanor. "I'm glad to be able to help, +Mrs. Pratt, but I know you'll feel better if you think I'm getting +something out of it, and I'm going to. I think my running across you +when you were in trouble is going to be a fine thing for both of us. +Why, before you get done with us, you'll have to get more land, and a +lot more cows and chickens, because we're going to make it the +fashionable thing to buy eggs and butter from you!" + +Mrs. Pratt seemed to be overwhelmed, and Eleanor, in order to create a +diversion, went over to inspect the lean-to. + +"It's just right," she said. "Having a floor made of those boards is a +fine idea; I didn't think of that at all. Good for you, Margery!" + +"That was Dolly's idea, not mine," said Margery. + +"You were perfectly right, too. Well, it's getting a little late and I +think it's time we were thinking about dinner. Margery, if you'll go +over to the buggy you'll find quite a lot of things I bought in +Cranford. We don't want to use up the stores we brought with us before +we get away from here. And--here's a secret!" + +"What?" said Margery, leaning toward her and smiling. And Eleanor +laughed as she whispered in Margery's ear. + +"There are going to be some extra people--at least seven or eight, and +perhaps more--for dinner, so we want to have plenty, because I think +they're going to be good and hungry when they sit down to eat!" + +"Oh, do tell me who they are," cried Margery, eagerly. "I never saw you +act so mysteriously before!" + +"No, it's a surprise. But you'll enjoy it all the more when it comes for +not knowing ahead of time. Don't breathe a word, except to those who +help you cook if they ask too many questions." + +Dinner was soon under way, and those who were not called upon by Margery +busied themselves about the lean-to, arranging blankets and making +everything snug for the night. + +The busy hands of the Camp Fire Girls had done much to rid the place of +its look of desolation, and now everything spoke of hope and renewed +activity instead of despair and inaction. A healthier spirit prevailed, +and now the Pratts, encouraged as to their future, were able to join +heartily in the laughter and singing with which the Camp Fire Girls made +the work seem like play. + +"Why, what's this?" cried Bessie, suddenly. She had gone toward the +road, and now she came running back. + +"There are four or five big wagons, loaded with wood and shingles and +all sorts of things like that coming in here from the road," she cried. +"Whatever are they doing here?" + +"That's my second surprise," laughed Eleanor. "It's your neighbors from +Cranford, Mrs. Pratt. Don't you recognize Jud Harkness driving the first +team there?" + +"Hello, folks!" bellowed Jud, from his seat. "How be you, Mis' Pratt? +Think we'd clean forgot you? We didn't know you was in such an all-fired +lot of trouble, or we'd ha' been here before. We're come now, though, +and we ain't goin' away till you've got a new house. Brought it with +us, by heck!" + +He laughed as he descended, and stood before them, a huge, black-bearded +man, but as gentle as a child. And soon everyone could see what he +meant, for the wagons were loaded with timber, and one contained all the +tools that would be needed. + +"There'll be twenty of us here to-morrow," he said, "and I guess we'll +show you how to build a house! Won't be as grand as the hotel at +Cranford, mebbe, but you can live in it, and we'll come out when we get +the time and put on the finishing touches. To-night we'll clear away all +this rubbish, and with sun-up in the morning we'll be at work." + +Eleanor's eyes shone as she turned to Mrs. Pratt. + +"Now you see what I meant when I told you there were plenty of good +friends for you not far from here!" she cried. "As soon as I told Jud +what trouble you were in he thought of this, and in half an hour he'd +got promises from all the men to put in a day's work fixing up a new +house for you." + +Mrs. Pratt seemed too dazed to speak. + +"But they can't finish a whole house in one day!" declared Margery. + +"They can't paint it, and put up wall paper and do everything, Margery," +said Eleanor. "That's true enough. But they can do a whole lot. You're +used to thinking of city buildings, and that's different. In the country +one or two men usually build a house, and build it well, and when there +are twenty or thirty, why, the work just flies, especially when they're +doing the work for friendship, instead of because they're hired to do +it. Oh, just you wait!" + +"Have you ever seen this before?" + +"I certainly have! And you're going to see sights to-morrow that will +open your eyes, I can promise you. You know what it's like, Bessie, +don't you? You've seen house raisings before?" + +"I certainly have," said Bessie. "And it's fine. Everyone helps and +does the best he can, and it seems no time at all before it's all done." + +"Well, we'll do our share," said Eleanor. "The men will be hungry, and +I've promised that we'll feed them." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE GOOD SAMARITANS + + +"Well, I certainly have got a better opinion of country people than I +ever used to have, Bessie," said Dolly Ransom. "After the way those +people in Hedgeville treated you and Zara, I'd made up my mind that they +were a nasty lot, and I was glad I'd always lived in the city." + +"Well, aren't you still glad of it, Dolly? I really do think you're +better off in the city. There wouldn't be enough excitement about living +in the country for you, I'm afraid." + +"Of course there wouldn't! But I think maybe I was sort of unfair to all +country people because the crowd at Hedgeville was so mean to you. And I +like the country well enough, for a little while. I couldn't bear living +there all the time, though. I think that would drive me wild." + +"The trouble was that Zara and I didn't exactly belong, Dolly. They +thought her father was doing something wrong because he was a foreigner +and they couldn't understand his ways." + +"I suppose he didn't like them much, either, Bessie." + +"He didn't. He thought they were stupid. And, of course, in a way, they +were. But not as stupid as he thought they were. He was used to entirely +different things, and--oh, well, I suppose in some places what he did +wouldn't have been talked about, even. + +"But in the country everyone knows the business of everyone else, and +when there is a mystery no one is happy until it's solved. That's why +Zara and her father got themselves so disliked. There was a mystery +about them, and the people in Hedgeville just made up their minds that +something was wrong." + +"I feel awfully sorry for Zara, Bessie. It must be dreadful for her to +know that her father is in prison, and that they are saying that he was +making bad money. You don't think he did, do you?" + +"I certainly do not! There's something very strange about that whole +business, and Miss Eleanor's cousin, the lawyer, Mr. Jamieson, thinks so +too. You know that Mr. Holmes is mighty interested in Zara and her +father." + +"He tried to help to get Zara back to that Farmer Weeks who would have +been her guardian if she hadn't come to join the Camp Fire, didn't he?" + +"Yes. You see, in the state where Hedgeville is, Farmer Weeks is her +legal guardian, and he could make her work for him until she was +twenty-one. He's an old miser, and as mean as he can be. But once she is +out of that state, he can't touch her, and Mr. Jamieson has had Miss +Eleanor appointed her guardian, and mine too, for that state. The state +where Miss Eleanor and all of us live, I mean." + +"Well, Mr. Holmes is trying to get hold of you, too, isn't he?" + +"Yes, he is. You ought to know, Dolly, after the way he tried to get us +both to go off with him in his automobile that day, and the way he set +those gypsies on to kidnapping us. And that's the strangest thing of +all." + +"Perhaps he wants to know something about Zara, and thinks you can tell +him, or perhaps he's afraid you'll tell someone else something he +doesn't want them to know." + +"Yes, it may be that. But that lawyer of his, Isaac Brack, who is so +mean and crooked that no one in the city will have anything to do with +him except the criminals, Mr. Jamieson says, told me once that unless I +went with him I'd never find out the truth about my father and mother +and what became of them." + +"Oh, Bessie, how exciting! You never told me that before. Have you told +Mr. Jamieson?" + +"Yes, and he just looked at me queerly, and said nothing more about it." + +"Bessie, do you know what I think?" + +"No. I'm not a mind reader, Dolly!" + +"Well, I believe Mr. Jamieson knows more than he has told you yet, or +that he guesses something, anyway. And he won't tell you what it is +because he's afraid he may be wrong, and doesn't want to raise your +hopes unless he's sure that you won't be disappointed." + +"I think that would be just like him, Dolly. He's been awfully good to +me. I suppose it's because he thinks it will please Miss Eleanor, and he +knows that she likes us, and wants to do things for us." + +"Oh, I know he likes you, too, Bessie. He certainly ought to, after the +way you brought him help back there in Hamilton, when we were there for +the trial of those gypsies who kidnapped us. If it hadn't been for you, +there's no telling what that thief might have done to him." + +"Oh, anyone would have done the same thing, Dolly. It was for my sake +that he was in trouble, and when I had a chance to help him, it was +certainly the least that I could do. Don't you think so?" + +"Well, maybe that's so, but there aren't many girls who would have known +how to do what you did or who would have had the pluck to do it, even +if they did. I'm quite sure I wouldn't, and yet I'd have wanted to, just +as much as anyone." + +"I wish I did know something about my father and mother, Dolly. You've +no idea how much that worries me. Sometimes I feel as if I never would +find out anything." + +"Oh, you mustn't get discouraged, Bessie. Try to be as cheerful as you +are when it's someone else who is in trouble. You're the best little +cheerer-up I know when I feel blue." + +"Oh, Dolly, I do try to be cheerful, but it's such a long time since +they left me with the Hoovers!" + +"Well, there must be some perfectly good reason for it all, Bessie, I +feel perfectly sure of that. They would never have gone off that way +unless they had to." + +"Oh, it isn't that that bothers me. It's feeling that unless something +dreadful had happened to them, I'd have heard of them long ago. And +then, Maw Hoover and Jake Hoover were always picking at me about them. +When I did something Maw Hoover didn't like, she'd say she didn't +wonder, that she couldn't expect me to be any good, being the child of +parents who'd gone off and left me on her hands that way." + +"That's all right for her to talk that way, but she didn't have you on +her hands. She made you work like a slave, and never paid you for it at +all. You certainly earned whatever they spent for keeping you, Miss +Eleanor says so, and I'll take her word any time against Maw Hoover or +anyone else." + +"I've sometimes thought it was pretty mean for me to run off the way I +did, Dolly. If it hadn't been for Zara, I don't believe I'd have done +it." + +"It's a good thing for Zara that you did. Poor Zara! They'd taken her +father to jail, and she was going to have to stay with Farmer Weeks. +She'd never have been able to get along without you, you know." + +"Well, that's one thing that makes me feel that perhaps it was right +for me to go, Dolly. That, and the way Miss Eleanor spoke of it. She +seemed to think it was the right thing for me to do, and she knows +better than I do, I'm sure." + +"Certainly she does. And look here, Bessie! It's all coming out right, +sometime, I know. I'm just sure of that! You'll find out all about your +father and mother, and you'll see that there was some good reason for +their not turning up before." + +"Oh, Dolly dear, I'm sure of that now! And it's just that that makes me +feel so bad, sometimes. If something dreadful hadn't happened to them, +they would have come for me long ago. At least they would have kept on +sending the money for my board." + +"How do you know they didn't, Bessie? Didn't Maw Hoover get most of the +letters on the farm?" + +"Yes, she did, Dolly. Paw Hoover couldn't read, so they all went to her, +no matter to whom they were addressed." + +"Why, then," said Dolly, triumphantly, "maybe your father and mother +were writing and sending the money all the time!" + +"But wouldn't she have told me so, Dolly?" + +"Suppose she just kept the money, and pretended she never got it at all, +Bessie? I've heard of people doing even worse things than that when they +wanted money. It's possible, isn't it, now? Come on, own up!" + +"I suppose it is," said Bessie, doubtfully. "Only it doesn't seem very +probable. Maw Hoover was pretty mean to me, but I don't think she'd ever +have done anything like that." + +"Well, I wouldn't put it above her! She treated you badly enough about +other things, heaven knows!" + +"I'd hate to think she had done anything quite as mean as that, though, +Dolly. I do think she had a pretty hard time herself, and I'm quite sure +that if it hadn't been for Jake she wouldn't have been so mean to me." + +"Oh, I know just the sort he is. I've seen him, remember, Bessie! He's a +regular spoiled mother's boy. I don't know why it is, but the boys +whose mothers coddle them and act as if they were the best boys on earth +always seem to be the meanest." + +"Yes, you did see him, Dolly. Still, Jake's very young, and he wouldn't +be so bad, either, if he'd been punished for the things he did at home. +As long as I was there, you see, they could blame everything that was +done onto me. He did, at least, and Maw believed him." + +"Didn't his father ever see what a worthless scamp he was?" + +"Oh, how could he, Dolly? He was his own son, you see, and then there +was Maw Hoover. She wouldn't let him believe anything against Jake, any +more than she would believe it herself." + +"I'm sorry for Paw Hoover, Bessie. He seemed like a very nice old man." + +"He certainly was. Do you remember how he found me with you girls the +day after Zara and I ran away? He could have told them where we were +then, but he didn't do it. Instead of that, he was mighty nice to me, +and he gave me ten dollars." + +"He said you'd earned it, Bessie, and he was certainly right about that. +Why, in the city they can't get servants to do all the things you did, +even when they're well paid, and you never were paid at all!" + +"Well, that doesn't make what he did any the less nice of him, Dolly. +And I'll be grateful to him, because he might have made an awful lot of +trouble." + +"Oh, I'll always like him for that, too. And I guess from what I saw of +him, and all I've heard about his wife, that he doesn't have a very +happy time at home, either. Maw Hoover must make him do just about what +she wants, whether he thinks she's right or not." + +"She certainly does, Dolly, unless she's changed an awful lot since I +was there." + +"Well, I suppose the point is that there really must be more people like +him in the country than like his wife and Farmer Weeks. These people +around here are certainly being as nice as they can be to the poor +Pratts. Just think of their coming here to-morrow to build a new house +for them!" + +"There are more nice, good-hearted people than bad ones all over, Dolly. +That's true of every place, city or country." + +"But it seems to me we always hear more of the bad ones, and those who +do nasty things, than we do of the others, in the newspapers." + +"I think that's because the things that the bad people do are more +likely to be exciting and interesting, Dolly. You see, when people do +nice things, it's just taken as a matter of course, because that's what +they ought to do. And when they do something wicked, it gets everyone +excited and makes a lot of talk. That's the reason for that." + +"Still, this work that the men from Cranford are going to do for the +Pratts is interesting, Bessie. I think a whole lot of people would like +to know about that, if there was any way of telling them." + +"Yes, that's so. This isn't an ordinary case, by any means. And I guess +you'll find that we'll do plenty of talking about it. Miss Eleanor will, +I know, because she thinks they ought to get credit for doing it." + +"So will Mrs. Pratt and the children, too. Oh, yes, I was wrong about +it, Bessie. Lots of people will know about this, because the Pratts will +always have the house to remind them of it, and people who go by, if +they've heard of it, will remember the story when they see the place. I +do wonder what sort of a house they will put up?" + +"It'll have to be very plain, of course. And it will look rough at +first, because it won't be painted, and there won't be any plaster on +the ceilings and there won't be any wall paper, either." + +"Oh, but that will be easy to fix later. They'll have a comfortable +house for the winter, anyhow, I'm sure. And if they can make as much +money out of selling butter and eggs as Miss Eleanor thinks, they'll +soon be able to pay to have it fixed up nicely." + +"Dolly, I believe we'll be able to help, too. If those girls at Camp +Halsted could go around and get so many orders just in an hour or so, +why shouldn't we be able to do a lot of it when we get back to the +city?" + +"Why, that's so, Bessie! I hadn't thought of that. My aunt would buy her +butter and eggs there, I know. She's always saying that she can't get +really fresh eggs in the city. And they are delicious. That was one of +the things I liked best at Miss Eleanor's farm. The eggs there were +delicious; not a bit like the musty ones we get at home, no matter how +much we pay for them." + +"I think it's time we were going to bed ourselves, Dolly. This is going +to be like camping out, isn't it?" + +"Yes, and we'll be just as comfortable as we would be in tents, too. The +Boy Scouts use these lean-tos very often when they are in the woods, +you know. They just build them up against the side of a tree." + +"I never saw one before, but they certainly are splendid, and they're +awfully easy to make." + +"We'll have to get up very early in the morning, Bessie. I heard Miss +Eleanor say so. So I guess it's a good idea to go to bed, just as you +say." + +"Yes. The others are all going. We certainly are going to have a busy +day to-morrow." + +"I don't see that we can do much, Bessie. I know I wouldn't be any good +at building a house. I'd be more trouble than help, I'm afraid." + +"That's all you know about it! There are ever so many things we can do." + +"What, for instance?" + +"Well, we'll have to get the meals for the men, and you haven't any idea +what a lot of men can eat when they're working hard! They have appetites +just like wolves." + +"Well, I'll certainly do my best to see that they get enough. They'll +have earned it. What else?" + +"They'll want people to hand them their tools, and run little errands +for them. And if the weather is very hot, they'll be terribly thirsty, +too, and we'll be able to keep busy seeing that they have plenty of +cooling drinks. Oh, we'll be busy, all right! Come on, let's go to bed." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE HOUSE RAISING + + +The sun was scarcely up in the morning when Eleanor turned out and +aroused the girls. + +"We've got to get our own breakfast out of the way in a hurry, girls," +she said. "When country people say early, they mean early--EARLY! And we +want to have coffee and cakes ready for these good friends of ours when +they do come. A good many of them will come from a long way off and I +think they'll all be glad to have a little something extra before they +start work. It won't hurt us a bit to think so, and act accordingly +anyhow." + +So within half an hour the Pratts and the Camp Fire Girls had had their +own breakfasts, the dishes were washed, and great pots of coffee were +boiling on the fires that had been built. And, just as the fragrant +aroma arose on the cool air, the first of the teams that brought the +workers came in sight, with jovial Jud Harkness driving. + +"My, but that coffee smells good, Miss Mercer!" he roared. "Say, I'm not +strong for all these city fixin's in the way of food. Plain home cookin' +serves me well enough, but there's one thing where you sure do lay all +over us, and that's in makin' coffee. Give me a mug of that, Mis' Pratt, +an' I'll start work." + +And from the way in which the coffee and the cakes, the latter spread +with good maple syrup from trees that grew near Cranford, began to +disappear, it was soon evident that Eleanor had made no mistake, and +that the breakfast that she had had prepared for the workers would by no +means be wasted. + +"It does me good to see you men eat this way," she said, laughing. +"That's one thing we don't do properly in the city--eat. We peck at a +lot of things, instead of eating a few plain ones, and a lot of them. +And I'll bet that you men will work all the harder for this extra +breakfast." + +"Just you watch and see!" bellowed Jud. "I'm boss here to-day, ma'am, +and I tell you I'm some nigger driver. Ain't I, boys?" + +But he accompanied the threat with a jovial wink, and it was easy to see +that these men liked and respected him, and were only too willing to +look up to him as a leader in the work of kindness in which they were +about to engage. + +"I don't know why all you boys are so good to me, Jud," said Mrs. Pratt, +brokenly. "I can't begin to find words to thank you, even." + +"Don't try, Mis' Pratt," said Jud, looking remarkably fierce, though he +was winking back something that looked suspiciously like a tear. "I +guess we ain't none of us forgot Tom Pratt--as good a friend as men ever +had! Many's the time he's done kind things for all of us! I guess it'd +be pretty poor work if some of his friends couldn't turn out to help his +wife and kids when they're in trouble." + +"He knows what you're doing, I'm sure of that," she answered. "And God +will reward you, Jud Harkness!" + +Heartily as the men ate, however, they spent little enough time at the +task. Jud Harkness allowed them what he thought was a reasonable time, +and then he arose, stretched his great arms, and roared out his +commands. + +"Come on, now, all hands to work!" he bellowed. "We've got to get all +this rubbish cleared out, then we'll have clean decks for building." + +And they fell to with a will. In a surprisingly short space of time the +men who had plunged into the ruined foundations of the house had torn +out the remaining beams and rafters, and had flung the heap of rubbish +that filled the cellar on to the level ground. While some of the men did +this, others piled the rubbish on to wagons, and it was carted away and +dumped. The fire, however, had really lightened their task for them. + +"That fire was so hot and so fierce," said Eleanor, as she watched them +working, "that there's less rubbish than if the things had been only +half burned." + +"I've seen fires in the city," said Margery, "or, at least, houses after +a fire. And it really looked worse than this, because there'd be a whole +lot of things that had started to burn. Then the firemen came along, to +put out the fire, and though the things weren't really any good, they +had to be carted away." + +"Yes, but this fire made a clean sweep wherever it started at all. Ashes +are easier to handle than sticks and half ruined pieces of furniture. As +long as it had to come, I guess it's a good thing that it was such a hot +blaze." + +The work of clearing away, therefore, which had to be done, of course, +before any actual building could be begun, was soon accomplished. + +"We're going to build just the way Tom Pratt did," said Jud Harkness. He +was the principal carpenter and builder of Lake Dean, and a master +workman. Many of the camps and cottages on the lake had been built by +him, and he was, therefore, accustomed to such work. + +"You mean you're going to put up a square house?" said Eleanor. + +"Yes, ma'am, just a square house, with a hall running right through from +the front to the back, and an extension in the rear for a kitchen--just +a shack, that will be. Two floors--two rooms on each side of the hall on +each floor. That'll give them eight rooms to start with, beside the +kitchen." + +"That'll be fine, and it will really be the easiest thing to do, too." + +"That's what we're figuring, ma'am. You see, it'll be just as it was +when Tom Pratt first built here, except that he only put up one story at +first. Then, as Mis' Pratt gets things going again, she can add to it, +and if she don't get along as fast as she expects, why, we'll lend her a +hand whenever she needs it." + +"How on earth could you get all the lumber you need ready so quickly? +That's one thing I couldn't understand. The work is not so difficult to +manage, of course. But the wood--that's what's been puzzling me." + +Jud grinned. + +"Well, the truth is, ma'am, I expect to have a little argument about +that yet with a city chap that's building a house on the lake. I've got +the job of putting it up for him, and if it hadn't been for this fire +coming along, I'd have started work day before yesterday." + +"Oh, and this is the lumber for his house?" + +"You guessed it right, ma'am! He'll be wild, I do believe, because +there's no telling when I'll get the next lot of lumber through." + +"You say the fire stopped you from going ahead with his house?" + +"Yes. You see all of us had to turn out when it got so near to Cranford. +My house is safe, I do believe. I'm mighty scared of fire, ma'am, and +I've always figured on having things fixed so's a fire would have a +pretty hard time reaching my property. But of course I had to jump in to +help my neighbors--wouldn't be much profit about having the only house +left standing in town, would there?" + +Eleanor laughed. + +"I guess not!" she said. "But what a lucky thing for Mrs. Pratt that you +happened to have just the sort of wood she needed!" + +"Oh, well, we'd have managed somehow. Of course, it makes it easier, but +we'd have juggled things around some way, even if this chap's plans +didn't fit her foundations. As it happens, though, they do. Old Tom +Pratt had a mighty well-built house here." + +"Well, I'm quite sure that just as good a one is going up in its place." + +Jud Harkness watched the work of getting out the last of the rubbish. +Then he went over to the cleared foundations, and in a moment he was +putting up the first of the four corner posts, great beams that looked +stout enough to hold up a far bigger house than the one they were to +support. + +All morning the work went on merrily. As Eleanor had predicted, and +Bessie, too, there was plenty for the girls to do. The sun grew hotter +and hotter, and the men were glad of the cooling drinks that were so +liberally provided for them. + +"This is fine!" said Jud Harkness, as he quaffed a great drink of +lemonade, well iced. "My, but it's a pleasure to work when it's made so +nice for you! I tell you, having these cool drinks here is worth an +extra hour's work, morning and afternoon. And what's that--just the +nails I want? I'll give you a job as helper, young woman!" + +That remark was addressed to Bessie, who flushed with pleasure at the +thought that she was playing a part, however small, in the building of +the house. And, indeed, the girls all did their part, and their help was +royally welcomed by the men. + +Quickly the skeleton of the house took form, and by noon, when work was +to be knocked off for an hour, the whole framework was up. + +"I simply wouldn't have believed it, if I hadn't seen it with, my own +eyes!" said Eleanor. "It's the most wonderful thing I ever saw!" + +"Oh, shucks!" said Jud, embarrassed by such praise. "There's lots of +us--I don't think we've done so awful well. But it does look kind of +nice, don't it?" + +"It's going to be a beautiful house," said Mrs. Pratt. "And to think of +what the place looked like yesterday! Well, Jud Harkness, I haven't any +words to tell you what I really think, and that's all there is to it!" + +For an hour or more Margery and her helpers had been busy at the big +fire. At Eleanor's suggestion two of the men had stopped work on the +house long enough to put up a rough, long table with benches at the +sides, and now the table was groaning with the fine dinner that Margery +had prepared. + +"Good solid food--no fancy fixings!" Eleanor had decreed. "These men +burn up a tremendous lot of energy in work, and we've got to give them +good food to replace it. So we don't want a lot of trumpery things, +such as we like!" + +She had enforced a literal obedience, too. There were great joints of +corned beef, red and savory; pots of cabbage, and huge mounds of boiled +potatoes. Pots of mustard were scattered along the table, and each man +had a pitcher of fine, fresh milk, and a loaf of bread, with plenty of +butter. And for dessert there was a luxury--the only fancy part of the +meal. + +Eleanor had had a whispered conference with Tom Pratt early in the day, +as the result of which he had hitched up and driven into Cranford, to +return with two huge tubs of ice-cream. He had brought a couple of boxes +of cigars, too, and when the meal was over, and the men were getting out +their pipes, Eleanor had gone around among them. + +"Try one of these!" she had urged. "I know they're good--and I know that +when men are working hard they enjoy a first-class smoke." + +The cigars made a great hit. + +"By Golly! There's nothing she don't think of, that Miss Mercer!" said +Jud Harkness appreciatively, as he lit up, and sent great clouds of blue +smoke in the air. "Boys, if we don't do a tiptop job on that house to +finish it off this afternoon we ought to be hung for a lot of ungrateful +skunks. Eh?" + +There was a deep-throated shout of approval for that sentiment, and, +after a few minutes of rest, during which the cigars were enjoyed to the +utmost, Jud rose and once more sounded the call to work. + +"I've heard men in the city say that after a heavy meal in the middle of +the day, they couldn't work properly in the afternoon," said Eleanor, as +she watched the men go about their work, each seeming to know his part +exactly. "It doesn't seem to be so with these men, though, does it? I +guess that in the city men who work in offices don't use their bodies +enough--they don't get enough exercise, and they eat as much as if they +did." + +"I love cooking for men who enjoy their food the way these do," said +Margery happily. "They don't have to say it's good--they show they think +so by the way they eat. It's fine to think that people really enjoy what +you do. I don't care how hard I work if I think that." + +"Well, you certainly had an appreciative lot of eaters to-day, Margery." + +As the shadows lengthened and the sun began to go down toward the west +the house rapidly assumed the look it would have when it was finished. A +good deal of the work, of course, was roughly done. There was no +smoothing off of rough edges, but all that could be done later. + +And then, as the end of the task drew near, so that the watchers on the +ground could see what the finished house would be like, Mrs. Pratt, +already overwhelmed by delight at the kindness of her neighbors, had a +new surprise that pleased and touched her, if possible, even more than +what had gone before. A new procession of wagons came into sight in the +road, and this time each was driven by a woman. + +And what a motley collection of stuff they did bring, to be sure! Beds +and mattresses, bedding, chairs, tables, a big cook stove for the +kitchen, pots and pans, china and glass, knives and forks--everything +that was needed for the house. + +"We just made a collection of all the things we could spare, Sarah +Pratt," said sprightly little Mrs. Harkness, a contrast indeed to her +huge husband, who could easily lift her with one hand, so small was she. +"They ain't much on looks, but they're all whole and clean, and you can +use them until you have a chance to stock up again. Now, don't you go +trying to thank us--it's nothing to do!" + +"Nothing?" exclaimed Mrs. Pratt. "Sue Harkness, don't you dare say that! +Why, it means that I'll have a real home to-night for my children--we'll +be jest as comfortable as we were before the fire! I don't believe any +woman ever had such good neighbors before!" + +Long before dark the house was finished, as far as it was to be finished +that day. And, as soon as the men had done their work, their wives and +the Camp Fire Girls descended on the new house with brooms and pails, +and soon all the shavings and the traces of the work had been banished. +Then all hands set to work arranging the furniture, and by the time +supper was ready the house was completely furnished. + +"Well," said Eleanor, standing happily in the parlor, "this certainly +does look homelike!" + +There was even an old parlor organ. Pictures were on the wall; a good +rag carpet was on the floor, and, while the furniture was not new, and +had seen plenty of hard service, it was still good enough to use. The +Pratt home had certainly risen like a Phoenix from its ashes. And +tired but happy, all those who had contributed to the good work sat down +to a bountiful supper. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +ON THE MARCH AGAIN + + +After supper, when the others who had done the good work of rebuilding +were ready to go, all the girls of the Camp Fire lined up in front of +the new house and sped them on their way with a cheer and the singing of +the Wo-he-lo cry. + +"Listen to that echo!" said Dolly, as their song was brought back to +them. "I didn't notice that last night. Is it always that way?" + +"Always," said Tom Pratt. "Folks come here sometimes to yell and hear +the echo shout back at them." + +"Good!" cried Eleanor. "That supplies a need I've been thinking of all +day!" + +"What's that, Miss Mercer?" asked Mrs. Pratt. + +"Why, if you are going into the business of supplying eggs and butter to +the summer folk at the lake and to others in the city, you'll need a +name for your farm. Why not call it Echo Farm? That's a good name, and +in your case it means something, you see." + +"Whatever you say, Miss Mercer! Though I'd never thought of having a +name for the place before." + +"Lots of things are going to be different for you now, Mrs. Pratt. +You're going to be a business woman, and to make a lot of money, you +know. Yes, that will look well on your boxes. When I get back to the +city I'll have a friend of mine make a drawing and put that name with +it, to be put on your boxes, and on all the paper you will use for +writing letters." + +"Dear me, it's going to be splendid, Miss Mercer! Why, that fire is +going to turn out to be the best thing that ever happened to us, I'm +sure!" + +"I think we can often turn our misfortunes into blessings if we take +them the right way, Mrs. Pratt. The thing to do is always to try to look +on the bright side, and, no matter how black things seem, to try to see +if there isn't some way that we can turn everything to account." + +"Well, I would never have done it if you hadn't come along, Miss Mercer. +You gave us all courage in the first place, and then you got Jud +Harkness and all the others to come and help me this way." + +"Oh, they'd have done it themselves, as soon as they heard. I didn't +suggest a thing--I just told them the news, and they thought of +everything else all by themselves. The only thing I thought of was using +your farm so that it would really pay you." + +"Now that you've told us how, it seems so easy that I wonder I never +thought of it myself." + +"Well, lots and lots of farmers just waste their land and themselves, +Mrs. Pratt. You're not the only one. My father has a farm, and in his +section he's done his level best to make the regular farmers see that +there are new ways of farming, just as there are new ways of doing +everything else." + +"That's what my poor husband always said. He had all sorts of +new-fangled ideas, as I used to call them. Maybe he was right, too. But +he didn't have money enough to try them and see how they'd do, though we +always made a good living off this place." + +"Well, the advantage of my idea is that you don't need much money to +give it a trial, and if you don't succeed, you won't lose much." + +"I think we'd be pretty stupid if we didn't succeed, after the fine +start you've given us, and the way you've told me what to do." + +"Well, I think so myself," said Eleanor, with a frank laugh. "And I know +you're not stupid--not a bit of it! It's going to be hard work, but I'm +sure you'll succeed. You'll be able to hire someone to do most of the +work for you before long, I think, and then you'll have to have a rest, +and come down to visit me in the city." + +"Well, well, I do hope so, Miss Mercer! I ain't been in the city since I +don't know when. Tom--my husband--took me once, but that was years and +years ago, and I expect there's been a lot of changes since then." + +"I'm going to keep an eye on you, Mrs. Pratt. And I feel as if I were a +sort of partner in this business, so if you don't make as much money as +I think you ought to, why, you'll hear from me. I can promise you that! +Girls, we'll sleep in the lean-to to-night, and in the morning we'll be +off, bright and early." + +"Oh," said Mrs. Pratt, "have you really got to go? And you'll not sleep +out to-night! You'll take the house, and we'll be the ones to sleep +outside." + +"Nonsense, Mrs. Pratt! Who should be the ones to sleep in this fine new +house the first night but you? We love to sleep in the open air, really +we do! It's no hardship, I can tell you." + +And, despite all of Mrs. Pratt's protests, it was so arranged. + +"I'll hate to go away from here--really I will!" said Dolly, to Bessie. +"It's been perfectly fine, helping these people. And I feel as if we'd +really done something." + +"Well, we certainly have, Dolly," said Bessie. + +"I do hope that butter and egg business will do well." + +"I _know_ it's going to do well," said Eleanor, who had overheard. "And +one reason is that you girls are going to help. Now we must all get to +sleep, or we'll never get started in the morning. I think we'll have to +ride part of the way to the seashore in the train, after all. We don't +want to be too late in getting there, you know." + +And in a few minutes silence reigned over the place. It was a picture of +peace and content--a vast contrast to the scene of the previous night, +when desolation and gloom seemed to dominate everything. + +Parting in the morning brought tears alike to the eyes of those who +stayed behind and those who were going on. The experience of the last +two days had brought the Pratts and the girls of the Camp Fire very +close together, and the Pratt children--the younger ones at least--wept +and refused to be comforted when they learned that their new friends +were going away. + +"Cheer up," said Eleanor. "We'll see you again, you know. Maybe we'll +all come up next summer. And we've had a good time, haven't we?" + +"We certainly have!" said Mrs. Pratt, and there was sincerity, as well +as pleasure, in her tone. "I've often heard that good came out of evil, +and joy out of sorrow, but I never had any such reason to believe it +before this!" + +Before the final parting, Eleanor had shown Mrs. Pratt exactly what she +meant about the new way in which the butter was to be made. + +"Of course, as your business grows, you will want to get better +machinery," she had said. "That will make the work much easier, and you +will be able to do it more quickly too, and with less help than if you +stuck to the old-fashioned way." + +"I'm going to take your advice in everything about running this farm, +Miss Mercer," Mrs. Pratt had replied. "You've certainly shown that you +know what you're talking about so far." + +"Take a trip down to my father's farm some time, Mrs. Pratt, and they'll +be glad to show you everything they have there, I know. My father is +very anxious for all the farmers in his neighborhood to profit by any +help they can get. The only trouble is that a good many of them seem to +feel that he is interfering with them." + +"Well, if they're as stupid as that, it serves them right to keep on +losing money, Miss Mercer." + +"But it's natural, after all. You see they've run their farms their own +way all their lives, and it's the way they learned from their fathers. +So it isn't very strange that they're apt to feel that they know more, +from all that practice and experiment, than city people who are farming +scientifically." + +"Does your father enjoy farming?" + +"He says he does--and it's a curious thing that he makes that farm pay +its way, even allowing for a whole lot of things he does that aren't +really necessary. That's what proves, you see, that his theories are +right--they pay. + +"Of course, he could afford to lose money on it, and you can't make a +whole lot of those farmers in our neighborhood believe that he doesn't. +So now he is having the books of the farm fixed up so that any of the +farmers around can see them, and find out for themselves how things are +run." + +Tired as the girls of the Camp Fire had been, the night before, they +were wonderfully refreshed by their night's sleep. The weather was much +more pleasant than it had been, and a brisk wind had driven off much of +the smoke that still remained when they reached the Pratt farm as a +reminder of the scourge of fire. So the conditions for walking were +good, and Eleanor Mercer set a round, swinging pace as they started off. + +"I'll really be glad to get out of this burned district. It's awfully +gloomy, isn't it, Bessie?" said Dolly. + +"Yes, especially when you realize what it means to the people who live +in the path of the fire," answered Bessie. "Seeing the Pratts as they +were when we came up has given me an altogether new idea of these forest +fires." + +"Yes. That's what I mean. It's bad enough to see the forest ruined, but +when you think of the houses, and all the other things that are burned, +too, why, it seems particularly dreadful." + +"Tom Pratt told me that a whole lot of animals were caught in the fire, +too--chipmunks, and squirrels, and deer. That seems dreadful." + +"Oh, what a shame! I should think they could manage to get away, Bessie. +Don't you suppose they try?" + +"Oh, yes, but you see they can't reason the way human beings do, and a +lot of these fires burn around in a circle, so that while they were +running away from one part of the fire they might very easily be heading +straight for another, and get caught right between two fires." + +Soon, however, they passed a section where the land had been cleared of +trees for a space of nearly a mile, and, once they had travelled through +it, they came to the deep green woods again, where no marring traces of +the fire spoiled the beauty of their trip. + +"Ah, don't the woods smell good!" said Dolly. "So much nicer than that +old smoky smell! I never smelt anything like that! It got so that +everything I ate tasted of smoke. I'm certainly glad to get to where the +fire didn't come." + +Now the ground began to rise, and before long they found themselves in +the beginning of Indian Gap. The ground rose gradually, and when they +stopped for their midday meal, in a wild part of the gap, none of the +girls were feeling more than normally and healthfully tired. + +"Do many people come through here, Miss Eleanor?" asked Margery. + +"At certain times, yes. But, you, see, the forest fires have probably +made a lot of people who intended to take this trip change their minds. +In a way it's a good thing, because we will be sure to find plenty of +room at the Gap House. That's where we are to spend the night. Sometimes +when there's a lot of travel, it's very crowded there, and +uncomfortable." + +"Is it a regular hotel?" + +"No, it's just a place for people to sleep. It's where the trail starts +up Mount Sherman, and it's the station of the railroad that runs to the +top of the mountain, too, for people who are too lazy to climb. There's +a gorgeous view there in the mornings, when the sun rises. You can see +clear to the sea." + +"Oh, can't we stop and see that?" + +"We haven't time to climb the mountain. If you want to go up on the +incline railway, though, we can manage it. You get up at three o'clock +in the morning, and get to the top while it's still dark, so that you +can see the very beginning of the sunrise." + +There was not a dissenting voice to the plan to make the trip, and it +was decided to take the little extra time that would be required. + +"After all," said Eleanor, "we can get such an early start afterward +that it won't take very much time. And to-morrow we'll finish our tramp +through the gap, and stop at Windsor for the night. Then the next day +we'll take the train straight through to the seashore. I think really +we'll have more fun, and get more good out of it if we spend the time +there than if we go through with our original plan of doing more walking +before getting on the train." + +"Yes. We've lost quite a little time already, haven't we?" said Margery. + +"Two whole days at Lake Dean, and two days more staying with the +Pratts," said Eleanor. "That's four days, and one can walk quite a long +distance in four days if one sets one's mind and one's feet to it." + +"Well, we certainly couldn't help the delay," said Margery. "At Lake +Dean the fire held us--and I wouldn't think very much of any crowd that +could see the trouble those poor people were in and not stay to help +them." + +They slept well in the early part of that night in the rough quarters +at the Gap House, and, while it was still dark, they were routed out to +catch the funicular railway on its first trip of the day up Mount +Sherman. + +At first, when they were at the top of the mountain, there was nothing +to be seen. But soon the sky in the east began to lighten and grow pink, +then the fog that lay below them began to melt away, and, as the sun +rose, they saw the full wonder of the spectacle. + +"I never saw anything so beautiful in all my life!" exclaimed Bessie +with a sigh of delight. "See how it seems to gild everything as the +light rises, Dolly!" + +"Yes, and you can see the sea, way off in the distance! How tiny all the +towns and villages look from here! It's just like looking at a map, +isn't it?" + +"Well, it was certainly worth getting up in the middle of the night to +see it, Bessie. And I do love to sleep, too!" + +"I'd stay up all night to see this, any time. I never even dreamed of +anything so lovely." + +"We were very fortunate," said Eleanor, with a smile. "I've been up here +when the fog was so thick that you couldn't see a thing, and only knew +the sun had risen because it got a little lighter. I've known it to be +that way for a week at a time, and some people would stay, and come up +here morning after morning, and be disappointed each time!" + +"That's awfully mean," said Dolly. "I suppose, though, if they had never +seen it, they wouldn't mind so much, because they wouldn't know what +they were missing." + +"They never seemed very happy about it, though," laughed Eleanor. "Well, +it's time to go down again, and be off for Windsor. And then to-morrow +morning we'll be off for the seashore. We're to camp there, right on the +beach, instead of living in a house. That will be much better, I +think." + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +A STARTLING DISCOVERY + + +"Bessie, why are you looking so glum?" asked Dolly, as they started on +the last part of their walk, taking the Windsor road. + +"Am I? I didn't realize I was, Dolly. But--well, I suppose it's because +I'm rather sorry we're leaving the mountains." + +"I think the seashore is every bit as nice as the mountains. There are +ever so many things to do, and I know you'll like Plum Beach, where +we're going. It's the dandiest place--" + +"It couldn't be as nice as this, Dolly." + +"Oh, that seems funny to me, Bessie. I've always loved the seashore, +ever since I can remember. And, of course, since I've learned to swim, +I've enjoyed it even more than I used to." + +"You can't swim much in the sea, can you? Isn't the surf too heavy?" + +"The surf's good fun, even if you don't do any swimming in it, Bessie. +It picks you up and throws you around, and it's splendid sport. But down +at Plum Beach you can have either still water or surf. You see, there's +a beach and a big cove--and on that beach the water is perfectly calm, +unless there's a tremendous storm, and we're not likely to run into one +of those." + +"How is that, Dolly? I thought there was always surf at the seashore." + +"There's a sand bar outside the cove, and it's grown so that it really +makes another beach, outside. And on that there is real surf. So we can +have whichever sort of bathing we like best, or both kinds on the same +day, if we want." + +"Maybe I'll like it better when I see it, then. Because I do love to +swim, and I don't believe I'd enjoy just letting the surf bang me +around." + +"Why, Bessie, you say you may like it better when you see it? Haven't +you ever been to the seashore?" + +"I certainly never have, Dolly! You seem to forget that I've spent all +the time I can remember in Hedgeville." + +"I do forget it, all the time. And do you know why? It's because you +seem to know such an awful lot about other places and things you never +saw there. I suppose they made you read books." + +"Made me! That was one of the things Maw Hoover used to get mad at me +for doing. Whenever she saw me reading a book it seemed to make her mad, +and she'd say I was loafing, and find something for me to do, even if +I'd hurried through all the chores I had so that I could get at the book +sooner." + +"Then you used to like to read?" + +"Oh, yes, I always did. The Sunday School had a sort of library, and I +used to be able to get books from there. I love to read, and you would, +too, Dolly, if you only knew how much fun you have out of books." + +Dolly made a face. + +"Not the sort of books my Aunt Mabel wants me to read," she said +decidedly. "Stupid old things they are! It's just like going to school +all over again. I get enough studying at school, thanks!" + +"But you like to know about people and places you've never seen, don't +you?" + +"Yes, but all the books I've ever seen that tell you about things like +that are just like geographies. They give you a lot of things you have +to remember, and there's no fun to that." + +"You haven't read the right sort of books, that's all that's the matter +with you, Dolly. I tell you what--when we get back to the city, we'll +get hold of some good books, and take turns reading them aloud to one +another. I think that would be good fun." + +"Well, maybe if they taught me as much as you seem to know about places +you've never seen I wouldn't mind reading them. Anyhow, books or no +books, you're going to love the seashore. Oh, it is such a delightful +place--Plum Beach." + +"Tell me about it, Dolly." + +"Well, in the first place, it isn't a regular seaside place at all. I +mean there aren't any hotels and boardwalks and things like that. It's +about ten miles from Bay City, and there they do have everything like +that. But Plum Beach is just wild, the way it always has been. And I +don't see why, because it's the best beach I ever saw--ever so much +finer than at Bay City." + +"I'll like the beach." + +"Yes, I know you will. And because it's sort of wild and desolate, and +off by itself that way, you can have the best time there you ever +dreamed of. Last year we put on our bathing suits when we got up, and +kept them on all day. You go in the water, you see, and then, if you lie +down on the beach for half an hour, you're dry. The sun shines right +down on the sand, and it's as warm as it can be." + +"I suppose that's why you like it so much--because you don't have the +trouble of dressing and undressing." + +"It's one reason," said Dolly, who never pretended about anything, and +was perfectly willing to admit that she was lazy. "But it's nice to have +the beach to yourselves, too, the way we do. You see, when we get there +we'll find tents all set up and ready for us." + +"Is there any fishing?" + +Dolly smacked her lips. + +"You bet there is!" she said. "Best sea bass you ever tasted, and about +all you can catch, too! And it tastes delicious, because the fish down +there get cooked almost as soon as they're caught. And there are +lobsters and crabs--and it's good fun to go crabbing. Then at low tide +we dig for clams, and they're good, too--I'll bet you never dreamed how +good a clam could be!" + +"How about the other things--milk, and eggs, and all those?" + +"Oh, that's easy! There are a lot of farms a little way inland, and we +get all sorts of fine things from them." + +"I wonder if Mr. Holmes will try to play any tricks on us down there, +Dolly. He has about everywhere we've been since Zara and I joined the +Camp Fire Girls, you know." + +"I'm hoping he won't find out, Bessie. That would be fine. I certainly +would like to know why he is so anxious to get hold of you and Zara. I +bet it's money, and that there's some secret about you." + +"Money? Why, he's got more than he can spend now! Even if there is a +secret, I don't see how money can have anything to do with it." + +"Well, you remember this, Bessie: the more money people have, the more +they seem to want. They're never content. It's the people who only have +a little who seem to be happy, and willing to get along with what they +have. How about your old Farmer Weeks?" + +"That's so, Dolly. He certainly was that way. He had more money than +anyone in Hedgeville or anywhere near it, and yet he was the stingiest, +closest fisted old man in town." + +"There you are!" + +"Still I think Mr. Holmes must be a whole lot richer than Farmer Weeks, +or than all the other people in Hedgeville put together. And it doesn't +seem as if there was any money he could make out of Zara or me that +would tempt him to do what he's done." + +"Do you know what I've noticed most, Bessie, about the way he's gone to +work?" + +"No. What?" + +"The way he has spent money. He's acted as if he didn't care a bit how +much it cost him, if only he got what he wanted. And people in the city +never spend money unless they expect to get it back." + +"Who's the detective now? You called me one a little while ago, but it +seems to me that you're doing pretty well in that line yourself." + +"Oh, it's all right to laugh, but, just the same, I'll bet that when we +get at the bottom of all this mystery, we'll find that the chief reason +Mr. Holmes was in it was that he wanted to get hold of some information +that would make it easy for him to get a whole lot more than it cost +him." + +"Well, maybe you're right, Dolly. But I'd certainly like to know just +what he has got up his sleeve." + +"I think he'll be careful for a little while now, Bessie. He never knew +that Miss Eleanor had that letter he'd written to the gypsy. And it must +have damaged him a lot to have as much come out about that as did." + +"I expect a lot of people who heard it didn't believe it." + +"Even if that's so, I guess there were plenty who did believe it, and +who think now that Mr. Holmes is a pretty good man to leave alone. You +see, that proved absolutely that he had really hired that gypsy to carry +you off, and that is a pretty mean thing to do. And people must know by +this time that if there was any legal way of getting you and Zara away +from the Camp Fire and Miss Mercer, he would do it." + +"But he didn't get into any trouble for doing it, Dolly." + +"He's got so much money that he could hire lawyers to get him out of +almost any scrape he got in, Bessie. That's the trouble. Those people at +Hamilton were afraid of him. They know how rich he is, and they didn't +want to take any chance of making him angry at them." + +"Yes, that's just it. And I'm afraid he's got so much money that a whole +lot of people who would say what they really thought if they weren't +afraid of him, are on his side. You see, he says that I'm a runaway, +just because I didn't stay any longer with the Hoovers. And probably he +can make a whole lot of people think that I was very ungrateful, and +that he is quite right in trying to get me back into the same state as +Hedgeville." + +"They'd better talk to Miss Eleanor, if he makes them think that. +They'll soon find out which is right and which is wrong in that +business. And if she doesn't tell them, I guess Mr. Jamieson will--and +he'd be glad of the chance, too!" + +"Let's not worry about him, anyhow. I hope he won't find out where we +are, too. We haven't seen or heard anything of him since we went back to +Long Lake from Hamilton, so I don't see why there isn't a good chance of +his letting us alone for a while now." + +They reached Windsor, the little town at the other end of Indian Gap, +late in the afternoon, having cooked their midday meal in the gap. + +"I know the people in a big boarding-house here," said Eleanor, "and +we'll be very comfortable. In the morning we'll take an early train, so +that we can get to Plum Beach before it's too late to get comfortably +settled. I've sent word on ahead to have the tents ready for us, but, +even so, there will be a good many things to do." + +"There always are," sighed Dolly. "That's the one thing I don't like +about camping out." + +"I expect really, if you only knew the truth, Dolly, it's the one thing +you like best of all," smiled Eleanor. "That's one of the great +differences between being at home, where everything is done for you, +and camping out, where you have to look after yourself." + +"Well, I don't like work, anyhow, and I don't believe I ever shall, Miss +Eleanor, no matter what it's called. Some of it isn't as bad as some +other kinds, that's all." + +Eleanor laughed to herself, because she knew Dolly well enough not to +take such declarations too seriously. + +"I've got some work for you to-night," she said. "I want you and Bessie +to go to a meeting of the girls that belong to one of the churches here, +and tell them about the Camp Fire. They found out we were coming, and +they would like to know if they can't start a Camp Fire of their own. + +"And I think they'll get a better idea of things, and be less timid and +shy about asking questions if two of you girls go than if I try to +explain. I will come in later, after they've had a chance to talk to you +two, but by that time they ought to have a pretty clear idea." + +"That's not work, that's fun," declared Dolly. + +"I'm glad you think so, because you will be more likely to be +successful." + +And so after supper Bessie and Dolly went, with two girls who called for +them, to the Sunday School room of one of the Windsor churches, ready to +do all they could to induce the local girls to form a Camp Fire of their +own. And, being thoroughly enthusiastic, they soon fired the desire of +the Windsor girls. + +"They won't have just one Camp Fire; they'll have two or three," +predicted Dolly, when she and Bessie were walking back to the +boarding-house later with Eleanor Mercer. "They asked plenty of +questions, all right. Nothing shy about them, was there, Bessie?" + +Bessie laughed. + +"Not if asking questions proves people aren't shy," she admitted. "I +thought they'd never stop thinking of things to ask." + +"That's splendid," said Eleanor. "The Camp Fire is the best thing these +girls could have. It will do them a great deal of good, and I was sure +that the way to make them see how much they would enjoy it was to let +them understand how enthusiastic you two were. That meant more to them +than anything I could have said, I'm sure." + +"I don't see why," said Dolly. + +"Because they're girls like you, Dolly, and it's what you like, and show +you like, that would appeal to them. I'm older, you see, and they might +think that things that I would expect them to like wouldn't really +please them at all." + +"What's the matter with you, Bessie?" asked Dolly suddenly, as they +reached the house. She was plainly concerned and surprised, and Eleanor, +rather startled, since she had seen nothing in Bessie to provoke such a +question, looked at her keenly. + +"Nothing, except that I'm a little tired, I think." + +But Dolly wasn't satisfied. She knew her chum too well. + +"You've got something on your mind, but you don't want to worry us," she +said. "Better own up, Bessie!" + +Bessie, however, would not answer. And in the morning she seemed to be +her old self. Just as they were starting for the train, though, Bessie +suddenly hung back at the door of the boarding-house. + +"Wait for me a minute, Dolly," she said. "I left a handkerchief in our +room. I'll be right down. Go on, the rest of you; we'll soon catch up." + +She ran upstairs for the handkerchief. + +"I left it behind on purpose, Dolly," she explained, when she came down. +"I wanted them to go ahead. Ah, look!" + +As they went along, with most of the girls fully a hundred yards ahead +of them, a lurking figure was plainly to be seen following the girls. + +"It's Jake Hoover!" said Dolly excitedly. + +"I thought I saw him last night. That was why you thought something was +wrong, Dolly," said Bessie. "But I wanted to make sure before I said +anything." + +"That means trouble," said Dolly. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +A MEETING--AND A CONVERSION + + +"Trouble--he's always meant that every time we've seen him!" said Bessie +bitterly. + +"How do you suppose he has managed to be away from home so much, +Bessie?" + +"I don't know, Dolly, but I'm afraid he's got into some sort of trouble. +I'm quite sure that Mr. Holmes and that lawyer, Mr. Brack, have got +something against him--that they know something he's afraid they will +tell." + +"Say, I'll bet you're right! You know, he must be an awful coward--and +yet, the way he goes after you, he takes a lot of chances, doesn't he? +It does look as if, no matter how much it may frighten him to do what he +does, he's still more afraid not to do it." + +"Look out--get behind this tree! I don't want him to see us here if we +can help it. It would be better if he thought he hadn't been noticed at +all, don't you think?" + +"Yes. And it's a very good thing we saw him, Bessie. Now we know that we +must look out for squalls at Plum Beach, and they don't know we're +warned at all. So maybe it will be easier to beat them." + +"Look here, Dolly, isn't there another train to Plum Beach? A later one, +that would get us there an hour or so after the other girls, if they go +on this one?" + +"There certainly is, Bessie; but how can we wait for it? Miss Eleanor +would be worried." + +"Oh, we'll have to let her know what we're going to do, of course. How +soon does that train go?" + +"Not for half an hour yet. Miss Mercer wanted to be at the station very +early so that all the baggage would surely be checked in time to go on +the same train with us." + +"Well, that makes it easy, Dolly. I tell you what. I'll stay here, and +follow very slowly, when Jake gets out of sight, so that he won't see +me. And if you go right across the street, and cut across the lots +there, you can get to the railroad station from the other side." + +"I know the way--I saw that last night, though not because I expected to +do it." + +"All right, then. You take that way, and get hold of Miss Eleanor +quietly. Better not let the others hear what you're saying, and keep +your eyes open for Jake, too. But I don't believe he'll show himself in +the station." + +"Do you think she'll let us do it?" + +"I don't see why not. We'll be perfectly safe. I'm sure Jake is here +alone, and he wouldn't dare try to do anything to stop us here. He knows +that he'd get into trouble if he did, and I don't think he's very brave, +even in this new fashion of his unless some of the people he's afraid of +are right around to spur him on. You remember how Will Burns thrashed +him? He didn't look very brave then, did he?" + +"I should say not! All right, I'll tell her and see what she says. Then +I'll get back to the boarding-house. You'll go there, won't you?" + +"No, I don't think that would be a good idea at all. The best thing for +you to do is to wait for me right there in the station. The ticket agent +is a woman, and I'm sure she'll let you stay with her until I come, if +you get Miss Eleanor to speak to her. Miss Eleanor knows all the people +here, and they all like her, and would do anything she asked them to do, +if they could. + +"And it's easier for me to get to the station without being seen than to +the boarding-house. Besides, I think it's right around the station that +we'll have the best chance of finding out what they mean to do." + +"All right! I'll obey orders," said Dolly. "You're right, too, I think, +Bessie." + +Jake Hoover, creeping along, was out of sight when Dolly made a swift +dash across the street, and in a minute she had disappeared. Bessie knew +that Dolly's movements, always rapid, were likely to prove altogether +too elusive for Jake's rather slow mind to follow, and, moreover, she +was not much afraid of detection, even should Jake catch a glimpse of +her chum. Jake was sure that all the Camp Fire Girls were in front of +him; he would not, therefore, be looking in the rear for any of them, +especially for those he wanted to track down. + +Bessie had the harder task. She had to keep herself from Jake's +observation until after the train had gone, in any case, and as much +longer as possible. As she had told Dolly, she was not very much afraid +of anything he might attempt against them, but she saw no use in running +any avoidable risks. + +Once Jake was out of sight, she made her way slowly toward the station, +prepared to make an instant dash for cover should she see Jake +returning. + +The one thing that was likely to cause him to come back toward her, she +figured, was the presence of Holmes or one of the other men who were +behind him in the conspiracy, and she was taking the chance, of course, +that one of these men was behind her, and a spectator of her movements. + +But she could not avoid that. If one of them was there he was, that was +all, and she felt that by acting as she had decided to do, she had, at +all events, everything to gain and nothing to lose. + +The road from the boarding-house to the station was perfectly straight +for about three-quarters of a mile, and parallel with the railroad +tracks. Then, when the road came to a point opposite the station, it +came also to a crossroad, and, about a hundred yards down this crossroad +was the station itself. + +Bessie reached that point without anything to alarm her or upset her +plans, and there she was lucky enough to find a big billboard at the +corner, which happened to be a vacant lot. Behind this billboard she +took shelter thankfully, feeling sure that it would enable her to see +what Jake was doing without any danger of being discovered by him. + +As she had expected, Jake did not enter the station. She had no sooner +taken up her position in the shelter of the billboard than she was able +to single him out from the men who were lounging about, waiting for the +train. His movements were still furtive and sly, and Bessie had to +repress a shudder of disgust. Such work seemed to bring out everything +small and mean and sly in Jake's nature, and Bessie's thoughts were full +of sympathy for his father. After all, Paw Hoover had always been good +to her, and when she and Zara had run away from Hedgeville, he had +helped them instead of turning them back, as he might so easily have +done. It seemed strange to Bessie that so good and kind a man should +have such a worthless son. + +Twice, as Bessie looked, she saw Jake approach one of the windows of the +station building furtively, but each time he was scared away from it +before he had a chance to look in. + +"Trying to make sure that I'm in there, and afraid of being seen at his +spying," decided Bessie. "That's great! If he doesn't see me, he'll +just decide that I must be there anyhow, and take a chance. It's a good +thing he's such a coward. But I wonder what he thinks we'd do to him, +even if we did see him?" + +She laughed at the thought. Never having had a really guilty conscience +herself, Bessie had no means of knowing what a torturing, weakening +thing it is. She could not properly imagine Jake's mental state, in +which everything that happened alarmed him. Having done wrong, he +fancied all the time that he was about to be haled up, and made to pay +for his wrongdoing. And that, of course, was the explanation of his +actions, when, as a matter of fact, he could have walked with entire +safety into the station and the midst of the Camp Fire Girls. + +Soon the whistle of the train that was to carry the Camp Fire Girls to +Plum Beach was heard in the distance, and a minute later it roared into +the station, stopped, and was off again. Seeing a great waving of +handkerchiefs from the last car, Bessie guessed what they meant. Miss +Eleanor had agreed to her plan, and this was the way the girls took of +bidding her good-bye and good luck. + +As soon as the train had gone Jake rushed into the station, and Bessie +walked boldly toward it, a new idea in her mind. She had made up her +mind that to be afraid of Jake Hoover was a poor policy. If the guess +she and Dolly had made concerning his relations with those who were +persecuting her was correct, Jake must be a good deal more afraid of +them, or of what he had done, than she could possibly be of him, and +Bessie knew that there should be no great difficulty in dealing very +much as she liked with a coward. + +Moreover, the presence of a policeman at the station gave her assurance +that she need fear no physical danger from Jake, and she felt that was +the only thing that need check her at all. + +When she reached the station she looked in the window first, and saw +Jake standing by the ticket agent's window. The ticket agent was also +the telegraph operator, and Bessie saw that she was writing something +on a yellow telegraph blank. Evidently Jake was sending a message, and +Bessie knew that, while he could read a very little, Jake had always +been so stupid and so lazy that he had never learned to write properly. +The sight made her smile, because, unless her plans had miscarried +completely, Dolly was inside the little ticket office, and must be +hearing every word of that message! + +So she waited until Jake, satisfied, turned from the window, and then +she walked boldly in. For a minute Jake, who was looking out of one of +the windows in front toward the track, did not see her at all. In that +moment Bessie got in line with the ticket window and, seeing Dolly, +waved to her to come out. Then she walked over to Jake, smiled at his +amazed face as he turned to her, and saluted him cheerfully. + +"Hello, Jake Hoover," she said. "Were you looking for me?" + +Jake's face fell, and he stared at her in comical dismay. + +"Well, I snum!" he said. "How in tarnation did you come to git off that +there train, hey?" + +"I never was on it, Jake," said Bessie, pleasantly. "You just thought I +was, you see. You don't want to jump to a conclusion so quickly." + +Jake was petrified. When he saw Dolly come out of the ticket office, +puzzled by Bessie's action, but entirely willing to back her up, his +face turned white. + +"You're a pretty poor spy, Jake," said Dolly, contemptuously. "I guess +Mr. Holmes won't be very pleased when he gets your message at Canton, +telling him Bessie went on that train and then doesn't find her aboard +at all." + +"What's that?" asked Bessie, suddenly. "Is that the message he sent, +Dolly?" + +"It certainly is," said Dolly. "Why, what's the matter, Bessie?" + +But Bessie didn't answer her. Instead she had raced toward a big +railroad map that hung on the wall of the station, and was looking for +Canton on it. + +"I thought so!" she gasped. Then she ran over to the ticket window, and +spoke to the agent. + +"If I send a telegram right now, can it be delivered to Miss Mercer, on +that train that just went out, before she gets to Canton?" she asked. + +The agent looked at her time-table. + +"Oh, yes," she said, cheerfully. "That's easy. I'll send it right out +for you, and it will reach her at Whitemarsh which is only twenty-five +miles away." + +"Good!" said Bessie, and wrote out a long telegram. In a minute she +returned to Jake and Dolly, and the sound of the ticking telegraph +instrument filled the station with its chatter. + +"He wanted to run away, Bessie," said Dolly. "But I told him it wasn't +polite to do that when a young lady wanted to talk to him, so he stayed. +That was nice of him, wasn't it?" + +"Very," said Bessie, her tone as sarcastic as Dolly's own. "Now, look +here, Jake, what have you done that makes you so afraid of Mr. Holmes +and these other wicked men?" + +Jake's jaw fell again, but he was speechless. He just stared at her. + +"There's no use standing there like a dying calf, Jake Hoover!" said +Bessie, angrily. "I know perfectly well you've been up to some dreadful +mischief, and these men have told you that if you don't do just as they +tell you they'll see that you're punished. Isn't that true?" + +"How--how in time did you ever find that out?" stammered Jake. + +"I've known you a long time, Jake Hoover," said Bessie, crisply. "And +now tell me this. Haven't I always been willing to be your friend? +Didn't I forgive you for all the mean things you did, and help you every +way I could? Did I ever tell on you when you'd done anything wrong, and +your father would have licked you?" + +Bessie's tone grew more kindly as she spoke to him, and Jake seemed to +be astonished. He hung his head, and his look at her was sheepish. + +"No, I guess you're a pretty good sort, Bessie," he said. "Mebbe I've +been pretty mean to you--" + +"It's about time you found it out!" said Dolly, furiously. "Oh, I'd like +to--" + +"Let him alone, Dolly," said Bessie. "I'm running this. Now, Jake, look +here. I want to be your friend. I'm very fond of your father, and I'd +hate to see him have a lot of sorrow on your account. Don't you know +that these men would sacrifice you and throw you over in a minute if +they thought they couldn't get anything more out of you? Don't you see +that they're just using you, and that when they've got all they can, +they'll let you get into any sort of trouble, without lifting a finger +to save you?" + +"Do you think they'd do that, Bessie? They promised--" + +"What are their promises worth, Jake? You ought to know them well enough +to understand that they don't care what they do. If you're in trouble, I +know someone who will help you. Mr. Jamieson, in the city." + +"He--why, he would like to get me into trouble--" + +"No, he wouldn't. And if I ask him to help you, I know he'll do it. He +can do more for you than they can, too. You go to him, and tell him the +whole story, and you'll find he will be a good friend, if you make up +your mind to behave yourself after this. We'll forget all the things +you've done, and you shall, too, and start over again. Don't you want to +be friends, Jake?" + +"Sure--sure I do, Bessie!" said Jake, looking really repentant. "Do you +mean you'd be willing--that you'd be friends with me, after all the mean +things I've done to you?" + +Bessie held out her hand. + +"I certainly do, Jake," she said. "Now, you go to Mr. Jamieson, and tell +him everything you know. Everything, do you hear? I can guess what this +latest plot was, but you tell him all you know about it. And you'll find +that they've told you a great many things that aren't so at all. Very +likely they've just tried to frighten you into thinking you were in +danger so that they could make you do what they wanted." + +"I'll do it, Bessie!" said Jake. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +A NARROW ESCAPE + + +Despite Dolly's frantic curiosity, Bessie drew Jake aside where there +was no danger of their being overheard by any of the others in the +station, and talked to him earnestly for a long time. Jake seemed to +have changed his whole attitude. He was plainly nervous and frightened, +but Dolly could see that he was listening to Bessie with respect. And +finally he threw up his head with a gesture entirely strange to him, +and, when Bessie held out her hand, shook it happily. + +"Here's Mr. Jamieson's address," said Bessie, writing on a piece of +paper which she handed to him. "Now you go straight to him, and do +whatever he tells you. You'll be all right. How soon will you start?" + +"There's a train due right now," said Jake, excitedly. "I'll get aboard, +and as soon as I get to town I'll do just as you say, Bessie. +Good-bye." + +"Good-bye, Jake--and good luck!" said Bessie warmly. "We're going to be +good friends, now." + +"Well, I never!" gasped Dolly. She stared at Jake's retreating form, and +then back to Bessie, as if she were paralyzed with astonishment. +"Whatever does this mean, Bessie? I should think you would be pretty +hard up for friends before you'd make one of Jake Hoover!" + +"Jake's been more stupid than mean, Dolly. And he's found out that he's +been wrong, I'm sure. From this time he's going to do a whole lot for +us, unless I'm badly mistaken. I'm sure it's better to have him on our +side than against us." + +"I'm not sure of anything of the sort, Bessie. But do tell me what +happened. Why did you send that telegram to Miss Eleanor? And what was +in it?" + +"I sent it because if I hadn't she would have walked right into a +trap--she and Zara. Maybe it was too late, but I hope not. And our +staying behind here was a mighty lucky thing. If we hadn't had some +warning of what Mr. Holmes and the others were planning, I don't know +what would have happened! Zara and I would have been caught, I'm quite +sure." + +"Don't be so mysterious, Bessie," begged Dolly. "Tell me what you found +out, can't you? I'm just as excited and interested as you are, and I +should think you would know it, too." + +"You'll see it all soon enough, Dolly. Let's find out how soon the next +train comes." + +"In twenty minutes," said the ticket agent, in answer to the question. + +"And is it a through train--an express?" asked Bessie. "Have you a +time-table? I'd like to see just where it stops." + +She got the time-table, and, after she had examined it carefully, heaved +a sigh of relief. + +"The train doesn't stop at any place that isn't marked down for it on +the time-table, does it?" she said, as she bought the tickets. + +"No, indeed. That's a limited train, and it's almost always on time. +They wouldn't stop that except at the regular places for anyone." + +"That's all right, then," said Bessie. "Dolly, can't you see the point +yet for yourself? Go and look at the map, and if you can't see then, +why, I'm not going to tell you! If you're as stupid as all that, you +deserve to wait!" + +Bessie laughed, but Dolly understood that the laugh was not one of +amusement alone, but that Bessie was undergoing a reaction after some +strain that had worried her more than she was willing to admit or to +show. + +"I guess I'm stupid all right," she said, after she had looked at the +map. "I don't know what you're driving at, but I suppose you do, and +that makes it all right. I'm willing to do whatever you say, but I do +like to know why and how things like that are necessary. And I don't +think I'm unreasonable, either." + +"You're not," said Bessie, suddenly contrite. "But, Dolly dear, I don't +want everyone here to know all about us, and the things that are +happening to us. You won't mind waiting a little for an explanation, +will you?" + +"Not when you ask that way," said Dolly, loyally. "But I don't like to +have you act as if it were stupid of me not to be able to guess what it +is. You wouldn't have known yourself, would you, if Jake Hoover hadn't +told you when you two were whispering together?" + +"I knew it before that. That's one reason I was able to make Jake tell +me what he did, Dolly. I suppose you don't like my making up with him, +either, do you?" + +"Oh, no, I don't like it. But that doesn't make any difference. I +daresay you've got some very good reason." + +"I certainly have, Dolly, and you shall know it soon, too. Listen, +there's our train whistling now! We'll start in a minute or two." + +"Well, that's good. I hate mysteries. Do you know, Bessie, that if this +train only makes one or two stops, we shall be at Plum Beach very soon +after Miss Eleanor and the other girls get there?" + +"I'm glad of it, Dolly. Tell me, there isn't any station at Plum Beach, +is there?" + +"No, we'll go to Bay City, and then go back on another train to a little +station called Green Cove, and that's within a mile of the beach. It's +on a branch railroad that runs along the coast from Bay City." + +Then the train came along, and they climbed aboard, happy in having +outwitted the enemies of Bessie and Zara. Dolly did not share Bessie's +enthusiasm over the conversion of Jake Hoover, though. + +"I don't trust him, Bessie," she said. "He may have really meant to turn +around and be friends with us, but I don't think he can stick to a +promise. I don't know that he means to break them, but he just seems to +be helpless. You think he's afraid of Mr. Holmes and those men, don't +you?" + +"Yes, and he as good as admitted it, too, Dolly." + +"Well, what I'm afraid of is that he will see them again, and that he'll +do whatever the people he happens to be with tell him." + +"I suppose we've got to take that much of a chance, Dolly. We really +haven't much choice. My, how this train does go!" + +"Why are you looking at your map and your time-table so carefully, +Bessie?" + +"I want to be sure to know when we're getting near Canton, Dolly. When +we do, you must keep your eyes open. You'll see something there that may +explain a whole lot of things to you, and make you understand how silly +you were not to see through this plot." + +Canton was a town of considerable size, and, though the train did not +stop there, it slowed down, and ran through the streets and the station +at greatly reduced speed. And as the car in which they were sitting went +through the station Bessie clutched Dolly's arm, and spoke in her ear. + +"Look!" she said. "There on the platform! Did you ever see those men +before?" + +Dolly gave a startled cry as her eyes followed Bessie's pointing finger. + +"Mr. Holmes!" she exclaimed. "And that's that little lawyer, Mr. Brack. +And the old man with the whiskers--" + +"Is Farmer Weeks, of course! Do you see the fourth man standing with +them? See how he pushes his coat back! He's a constable and he's so +proud of it he wants everyone to see his badge!" + +"Bessie! Do you mean they were waiting here for you?" + +"For me and Zara, Dolly! If I had been on a train that stopped here--but +I wasn't! And I guess Miss Eleanor must have got my telegram in time to +hide Zara so that they didn't find her on the other train, too, or else +we'd see something of her." + +Dolly laughed happily. Then she did a reckless thing, showing herself at +the window, and shaking her fist defiantly as the car, with rapidly +gathering speed, passed the disconsolate group on the station platform. +Holmes was the first to see her, and his face darkened with a swift +scowl. Then he caught sight of Bessie, and, seizing Brack's arm, pointed +the two girls out to him, too. But there was nothing whatever to be +done. + +The train, after slowing down, was already beginning to move fast again, +and there was no way in which it could be stopped, or in which the group +of angry men on the platform could board it. They could only stand in +powerless rage, and look after it. Bessie and Dolly, of course, could +not hear the furious comments that Holmes was making as he turned +angrily to old Weeks. But they could make a guess, and Dolly turned an +elfin face, full of mischievous delight, to Bessie. + +"That's one time they got fooled," she exclaimed. + +"I'm sorry they found out we were on this train, though," said Bessie, +gravely. "It means that we'll have trouble with them after we get to +Plum Beach, I'm afraid." + +"Who cares?" said Dolly. "If they can't do any better there than they've +done so far on this trip, we needn't worry much, I guess." + +"Well, do you see what they were up to, now, Dolly?" + +Dolly wrinkled her brows. + +"I guess so," she said. "They meant to come aboard the train at Canton +and try to get hold of you and Zara. But I don't see why--" + +"Why they should pick out Canton rather than any other station where the +trains stop along the line?" + +"That's just it, Bessie. Why should they?" + +"That's the whole point, Dolly. Look at this map. Do you see the state +boundaries? For just a little way this line is in the state Canton is +in--and Canton is in the same state as Hedgeville!" + +"Oh!" gasped Dolly. "You were right, Bessie, I _was stupid_! I might +have thought of that! That's why they had Jake there, and what his +telegram was. But how clever of you to think of it! How did you ever +guess it?" + +"I just happened to think that if we did go into that state, it would be +easy for them to get hold of Zara and me, if they only knew about it +beforehand. Because, you see, in that state Farmer Weeks is legal +guardian for both of us, and he could make us come with him if he caught +us there." + +"Well, I think it was mighty clever of you. Of course, when you had the +idea, it was easy to see it, once you had the map so that you could make +sure. But I never would have thought of it, so I couldn't have looked it +up to make sure, because I wouldn't have thought there was anything to +look up." + +"What I'm wondering," said Bessie, "is what Miss Eleanor did to keep +them from getting Zara. If you ask me, that's the really clever thing +that's been done to-day. I was dreadfully frightened when I decided that +was what they were up to." + +"Well, your telegram helped," said Dolly. "If it hadn't been for that, +they'd have been taken completely by surprise. Just imagine how they +would have felt, if they'd looked up when their train stopped at Canton, +and had seen Farmer Weeks coming down the aisle." + +"It would have been dreadful, wouldn't it, Bessie? Do you know, Miss +Eleanor wasn't a bit anxious to have us stay behind? She was afraid +something would happen, I believe. But it's certainly a good thing that +you thought of doing it, and had your way." + +"I was afraid they'd try to play some sort of a trick, Dolly. That's why +I wanted to wait. I couldn't tell what it would be, but I knew that if +Jake was there it wouldn't do any harm to watch him and see what he did. +I didn't expect to get him on our side, though. Before I talked to him, +of course, I was really only guessing, but he told me all he knew about +the plan. They hadn't told him everything, but with what I had guessed +it was enough." + +"No one trusts him, you see, Bessie. It's just as I said." + +"Well, do you know, I shouldn't wonder if that was one reason for his +being so untrustworthy, Dolly. Maybe if he finds that we are going to +trust him, it will change him, and make him act very differently." + +"I certainly hope so, Bessie, but I'm afraid of him. I'm afraid that +they will find out what we've done, and try to use him to trick us, now +that we think he's on our side." + +"We'll have to look out for that, Dolly, of course. But I don't believe +he's as black as he's painted. He must have some good qualities. Perhaps +they'll begin to come out now." + +At Bay City, where they arrived comparatively early in the afternoon, +they had a surprise, for Miss Eleanor and all the girls were at the +station to meet them, including Zara, who looked nervous and frightened. + +"Oh, I'm so glad you've come here safely, Bessie," said Eleanor, +flinging her arms about Bessie's neck. "Your train came right through, +didn't it?" + +"Yes, and we saw Mr. Holmes and the rest of them on the platform at +Canton," said Bessie, laughing. "Did they get aboard your train?" + +"Did they?" cried Eleanor. "They most certainly did, and when they +couldn't find either you or Zara, they were so angry that I was afraid +they were going to burst! I don't believe I ever saw men so dreadfully +disappointed in my life." + +"How did you manage to hide Zara?" + +"That was awfully funny, Bessie. I found some friends of mine were on +the train, travelling in a private car. As soon as I got your telegram, +I went back to see them. They had a boy with them, who is just about +Zara's size. So Zara dressed up in a suit of his clothes, and she was +sitting in their car, with him, when they came aboard to look for her." + +"Did they look in that car?" + +"Yes. They had a warrant, or something, so they had a right to go +everywhere on the train--and they did!" + +"I should think the people who didn't have anything to do with us must +have been furious." + +"Oh, they were, but it didn't do them any good. They searched through +the whole train, but Zara looked so different in boy's clothes that they +never even seemed to suspect her at all. She kept perfectly still, you +see, and after they had held us up for nearly an hour, we came on." + +"Oh, how mad they must have been!" + +"You ought to have seen them! It made us very late getting here, of +course, and we missed the train we were to take to Green Cove. But I +think we would have waited here, anyhow, until you came. I was very +anxious about you, Bessie. What a clever trick that was! If it hadn't +been for you, we would have been caught without a chance to do anything +at all." + +"Bessie's made friends with Jake Hoover, too," said Dolly, disgustedly. +"Tell Miss Eleanor about that, Bessie." + +"You did exactly the right thing," said Eleanor, when she had heard the +story, much to Dolly's disgust. "I agree with Dolly that we will have to +look out for him, just the same, but there is a chance that he may do +what he promised. Anyhow, there's a lot to gain and very little to +lose." + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +PLUM BEACH + + +On the way to Plum Beach, on the little branch line that carried the +girls from Bay City to Green Cove, Eleanor was very thoughtful, and +Bessie and Dolly were kept busy in telling the other girls of their +experiences. They wanted to hear from Zara, too, just how she had +escaped. + +"I don't see how you kept your face straight," said Dolly. "I know I +would have burst right out laughing, Zara." + +"You wouldn't think so if you knew Farmer Weeks," said Zara, making a +wry face. "I can tell you I didn't want to laugh, Dolly. Why, he was +within a few feet of me, and looking straight at me! I was sure he'd +guess that it was I." + +"He always looks at everyone that way--just as if they owed him money," +said Bessie. "Nasty old man! I don't blame you for being nervous, +Zara." + +"Oh, neither do I," said Dolly. "But it was funny to think of his being +so near you and having no idea of it. That's what would have made me +laugh." + +"It seems funny enough, now," admitted Zara, with a smile. "But, you +see, I was perfectly certain that he did have a very good idea of where +I was. I was expecting him to take hold of me any moment, and tell the +constable to take me off the train." + +"I wonder how long this sort of thing is going to keep up," said Margery +Burton, angrily. "Until you two girls are twenty-one?" + +"I hope not," laughed Bessie, and then she went on, more seriously, "I +really do think that if Jake Hoover sticks to what he said, and takes +our side, Mr. Jamieson is likely to find out something that will give +him a chance to settle matters. You see, we've been fighting in the dark +so far." + +"I don't see that we've been fighting at all, yet," said Margery. "They +keep on trying to do something, and we manage to keep them from doing +it. That's not my idea of a fight. I wish we could do some of the +hitting ourselves." + +"So do I, Margery. And that's just what I think we may be able to do +now, if we have Jake on our side. He must know something about what +they've been doing. They couldn't keep him from finding out, it seems to +me." + +"But will he tell? That seems to be the question." + +"Yes, that's it, exactly. Well, if he does, then we'll know why they're +doing all this. You see, Mr. Jamieson can't figure on what they're going +to do next, or how to beat them at their own game, simply because he +doesn't know what their game is. They know just what they want to do, +while we haven't any idea, except that they're anxious to have Zara and +myself back where Farmer Weeks can do as he likes with us." + +"Well, it would be fine to be able to beat them, Bessie, but right now +I'm more worried about what they will try to do next. This is a pretty +lonely place we're going to, and they're so bold that there's no telling +what they may try next." + +"That's so--and they know we're coming here, too. Jake told them that." + +"They would probably have found it out anyhow," said Dolly. "And there's +one thing--he didn't try to warn them that you knew about what they +meant to do at Canton, Bessie." + +"No, he didn't. And he could have done it very easily, too. Oh, I think +we can count on Jake now, all right. He's pretty badly frightened, and +he's worried about himself. He'll stick to the side that seems the most +likely to help him. All I hope is that he will go to see Mr. Jamieson." + +"Do you think he will?" + +"Why not? Even if they get hold of him again, I think there will be time +enough for him to see Mr. Jamieson first. And I've got an idea that Mr. +Jamieson will be able to scare him pretty badly." + +"All out for Green Cove," called the conductor just then, appearing in +the doorway, and there was a rush for the end of the car. + +"Well, here we are," said Eleanor. "This isn't much of a city, is it?" + +It was not. Two or three bungalows and seashore cottages were in sight, +but most of the traffic for the Green Cove station came from scattered +settlements along the coast. It was a region where people liked to live +alone, and they were willing to be some distance from the railroad to +secure the isolation that appealed to them. A little pier poked its nose +out into the waters of the cove, and beside this pier was a gasoline +launch, battered and worn, but amply able, as was soon proved, to carry +all the girls and their belongings at a single load. + +"Thought you wasn't coming," said the old sailor who owned the launch, +as he helped them to get settled aboard. + +"We missed the first connecting train and had to wait, Mr. Salters," +said Eleanor. "I hope you didn't sell the fish and clams you promised +us to someone else?" + +"No, indeed," said old Salters. "They're waitin' for you at the camp, +ma'am, and I fixed up the place, too, all shipshape. The tents is all +ready, though why anyone should sleep in such contraptions when they can +have a comfortable house is more'n I can guess." + +"Each to his taste, you know," laughed Eleanor. "I suppose we'll be able +to get you to take us out in the launch sometimes while we're here?" + +"Right, ma'am! As often as you like," he answered. "My old boat here +ain't fashionable enough for some of the folk, but she's seaworthy, and +she won't get stuck a mile an' a half from nowhere, the way Harry Semmes +and that new fangled boat of his done the other day when he had a load +of young ladies aboard." + +He chuckled at the recollection. But while he had been talking he had +not been idle, and the _Sally S._, as his launch was called, had been +making slow but steady progress until she was outside the cove and +headed north. Soon, too, he ran her inside the protecting spot of land +of which Dolly had spoken to Bessie, and they were in such smooth water +that, even had any of them had any tendency toward seasickness, there +would have been no excuse for it. + +In half an hour he stopped the engine, and cast his anchor overboard. He +wore no shoes and stockings, and now, rolling up his trousers, he jumped +overboard. + +"Hand me the dunnage first," he said. "I'll get that ashore, and then +I'll take the rest of you, one at a time." + +"Indeed you won't," laughed Eleanor. "We're not afraid of getting our +feet wet. Come on, girls, it's only two feet deep! Roll up your skirts +and take off your shoes and stockings, and we'll wade ashore." + +She set the example, and in a very short time they were all safely +ashore, with much laughter at the splashing that was involved. + +"Mr. Salters could run the _Sally S._ ashore, but it would be a lot of +trouble to get her afloat again, and this is the way we always do here. +It's lots of fun really," Eleanor explained. + +Soon they were all ashore, and inspecting the camp which had been laid +out in preparation for them. + +"Real army tents, with regular floors and cots, these are," said +Eleanor. "Sleeping on the ground wouldn't be very wise here. And there's +no use taking chances. I'm responsible to the mothers and fathers of all +you girls, after all, and I'm bound to see that you go home better than +when you started, instead of worse." + +"I think they're fine," said Margery. "Oh, I do love the seashore! How +long shall we stay, Miss Eleanor?" + +"I don't know," said the Guardian, a shade of doubt darkening her eyes. +"You know, Margery"--she spoke in a low tone--"that seems to depend +partly on things we can't really control. There seems to me to be +something really quite desperate about the way Mr. Holmes and his +friends are going for Bessie and Zara. + +"Maybe they will make trouble for us here. It is rather isolated, you +know, and I can't help remembering that we're on the coast, and that a +few miles away the coast is that of Bessie's state--the state she +mustn't be in." + +"That's so," said Margery, gravely. "You mean that if they managed to +get hold of Bessie or Zara, and took them out to sea and then landed +them in that state they'd be able to hold them there?" + +"It worries me, Margery. The trouble is, you see, that once they're in +that state, it doesn't matter how they were taken there, but they can be +held. If Zara's father gets free, why, he would be able to get her back, +I suppose. Mr. Jamieson says so. But there's no one with a better right +to Bessie, so far as we know. I'm really more worried about her than +about Zara." + +"We'll all be careful," promised Margery, with fire in her eye. "And I +guess they'll have to be pretty smart to find any way of getting her +away from us. I'll talk to the girls, and I'll try to be watching myself +all the time." + +"I'm hungry," announced Dolly. "Just as hungry as a bear! Can't we have +supper pretty soon, Miss Eleanor?" + +"Supper?" scoffed Miss Eleanor. "Why, we haven't had our dinner yet! But +we'll have that just as soon as it's cooked. I've just been waiting for +someone to say they were hungry. Dolly, you're elected cook. Since +you're the hungry one, you can cook the dinner." + +"I certainly will! I'll get it all the sooner that way. May I pick out +who's to help me, Miss Eleanor?" + +"That's the rule. You certainly can." + +"Then I pick out all the girls," announced Dolly. "Every one of you--and +no shirking, mind!" + +She laughed merrily, and in a moment she had set every girl to some +task. Even Margery obeyed her orders cheerfully, for the rule was +there, and, even though Dolly had twisted it a bit, it was recognized +as a good joke. Moreover, everyone was hungry and wanted the meal to be +ready as soon as possible. + +"There's good water at the top of that path," said Eleanor, pointing to +a path that led up a bluff that backed against the tents. "I think maybe +we'll build a wooden pipe-line to bring the water right down here, but +for to-day we'll have to carry it from the spring there." + +"Is there driftwood here for a camp fire, do you suppose, the way there +was last year, Miss Eleanor?" asked one of the other girls. "I'll never +forget the lovely fires we had then!" + +"There's lots of it, I'm afraid," said Eleanor, gravely. + +"Why are you 'afraid'?" asked Bessie, wonderingly. + +"Because all the driftwood, or most of it, comes from wrecked ships, +Bessie. This beach looks calm and peaceful now, but in the winter, when +the great northeast storms blow, this is a terrible coast, and lots and +lots of ships are wrecked. Men are drowned very often, too." + +"Oh, I never thought of that!" + +"Still, some of the wood is just lost from lumber schooners that are +loaded too heavily," said Eleanor. "And it certainly does make a +beautiful fire, all red and green and blue, and oh, all sorts of colors +and shades you never even dreamed of! We'll have a ceremonial camp fire +while we're here, and it is certainly true that there is no fire half so +beautiful as that we get when we use the wood that the sea casts up." + +"Don't they often find lots of other things beside wood along the coast +after a great storm, Miss Eleanor?" + +"Yes, indeed! There are people who make their living that way. Wreckers, +they call them, you know. Of course, it isn't as common to find really +valuable things now as it was in the old days." + +"Why not? I thought more things were carried at sea than ever," said +Dolly. + +"There aren't so many wrecks, Dolly, for one thing. And then, in the +old days, before steam, and the great big ships they have now, even the +most valuable cargoes were carried in wooden ships that were at the +mercy of these great storms." + +"Oh, and now they send those things in the big ships that are safer, I +suppose?" + +"Yes. You very seldom hear of an Atlantic liner being wrecked, you know. +It does happen once in a great while, of course, but they are much more +likely to reach the port they sail for than the old wooden ships. In the +old days many and many a ship sailed that was never heard of, but you +could count the ships that have done that in the last few years on the +fingers of one hand." + +"But there was a frightful wreck not so very long ago, wasn't there? The +Titanic?" + +"Yes. That was the most terrible disaster since men have gone to sea at +all. You see, she was so much bigger, and could carry so many more +people than the old ships, that, when she did go down, it was naturally +much worse. But the wreckers never made any profit out of her. She went +down in the middle of the ocean, and no one will ever see her again." + +"Couldn't divers go down after her?" + +"No. She was too deep for that. Divers can only go down a certain +distance, because, below that, the pressure is too great, and they +wouldn't live." + +"Stop talking and attend to your dinner, Dolly," said Margery, suddenly. +"You pretended you were hungry, and now you're so busy talking that +you're forgetting about the rest of us. We're hungry, too. Just remember +that!" + +"I can talk and work at the same time," said Dolly. "Is everything +ready? Because, if it is, so is dinner. Come on, girls! The clams first. +I've cooked it--I'm not going to put it on the table, too." + +"No, we ought to be glad to get any work out of her at all," laughed +Margery, as she carried the steaming, savory clams to the table. "I +suppose every time we want her to do some work the rest of the time +we're here, she'll tell us about this dinner." + +"I won't have to," boasted Dolly. "You'll all remember it. All I'm +afraid of is that you won't be satisfied with the way anyone else cooks +after this. I've let myself out this time!" + +It _was_ a good dinner--a better dinner than anyone had thought Dolly +could cook. But, despite her jesting ways, Dolly was a close observer, +and she had not watched Margery, a real genius in the art of cooking, in +vain. Everyone enjoyed it, and, when they had eaten all they could, +Dolly lay back in the sand with Bessie. + +"Well, wasn't I right? Don't you love this place?" she asked. + +"I certainly think I do," said Bessie. "It's so peaceful and quiet. I +didn't believe any place could be as calm as the mountains, but I really +think this is." + +"I love to hear the surf outside, too," said Dolly. "It's as if it were +singing a lullaby. I think the surf, and the sighing of the wind in the +trees is the best music there is." + +"Those noises were the real beginning of music, Dolly," said Eleanor. +"Did you know that? The very first music that was ever written was an +attempt to imitate those songs of nature." + +After the dishes were washed and put away, everyone sat on the beach, +watching the sky darken. First one star and then another came out, and +the scene was one of idyllic beauty. And then, as if to complete it, a +yacht appeared, small, but beautiful and graceful, steaming toward them. +Its sides were lighted, and from its deck came the music of a violin, +beautifully played. + +"Oh, how lovely that is!" said Eleanor. "Why, look! I do believe it is +going to anchor!" + +And, sure enough, the noise of the anchor chains came over the water. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE MYSTERIOUS YACHT + + +But, beautiful as the yacht undoubtedly was, the sight of it and the +sound of the slipping anchor chains brought a look of perplexity and +even of distress to Eleanor's eyes. + +"That's very curious," she said, thoughtfully. "There are no cottages or +bungalows near here. Those people can't be coming here just for a visit, +or they would take another anchorage. And it's a strange thing for them +to choose this cove if they are just cruising along the coast." + +"There weren't any yachts here last year when we were camping," said +Margery. "But it is a lovely spot, and it's public land along here, +isn't it?" + +"No, not exactly. It won't be used for a long time, I expect, but it has +an owner. An old gentleman in Bay City owns all the shore front along +here for half a mile, and he has been holding on to it with the idea +that it would get more valuable as time went on. Probably it will, too." + +"Well, he lets people come here to camp, doesn't he?" + +"Oh, yes. He's glad to have people here, I think, because he thinks that +if they see how lovely it is, they will want to buy the land. I suppose +perhaps these people on the yacht have permission from him to come here, +just as we have. But I do wish they had waited until we had gone, or +else that they had come and gone before we got here at all." + +"Perhaps they will just stay for the night," said Margery. "I should +think that a small boat like that would be very likely to put in +overnight, and do its sailing in the daytime. Probably the people on +board of her aren't in a hurry, and like to take things easily." + +"Well, we won't find out anything about her to-night, I imagine," said +Eleanor. "In the morning we'll probably learn what their plans are, and +then it will be time to make any changes that are necessary in our own +arrangements." + +"Do you mean you wouldn't stay here if they did, Miss Eleanor?" + +"I won't say that, Margery. We don't know who they are yet. They may be +very nice people--there's no way of telling to-night. But if they turn +out to be undesirable, we can move quite easily, I think. There are +plenty of other beaches nearby where we'll be just as comfortable as we +are here." + +"Oh, but I don't believe any of them are as beautiful as this one, Miss +Eleanor." + +"Neither do I, Margery. Still, we can't always pick and choose the +things we do, or always do what pleases us best." + +On the yacht everything seemed to be quiet. When the anchor had gone +down, the violin playing ceased, and, though the girls strained their +ears to listen, there was no sound of conversation, such as might +reasonably have been expected to come across the quiet water. Still +there was nothing strange about that. It might well be that everyone on +board was below, eating supper, and in that case voices would probably +not come to them. + +"I'd like to own that yacht," said Dolly, gazing at her enviously. "What +a lot of fun you could have with her, Bessie! Think of all the places +one could see. And you wouldn't have to leave a place until you got +ready. Steamers leave port just as railroad trains pull out of a +station, and you may have to go away when you haven't half finished +seeing all the things you want to look at." + +"Maybe they'll send a boat ashore soon," said Margery, hopefully. "I +certainly would like to see the sort of people who are on board." + +"So would I," said Eleanor, but with a different and a more anxious +meaning in her tone. + +"I wish that man with the violin would start playing again," said Dolly. +"I love to hear him, and it seems to me it's especially beautiful when +the sound comes to you over the water that way." + +"Music always sounds best over the water," said Eleanor. "He does play +well. I've been to concerts, and heard famous violin players who didn't +play a bit better--or as well, some of them." + +And just at that moment the music came to them again, wailing, mournful, +as if the strings of the violin were sobbing under the touch of the bow, +held in the fingers of a real master. The music blended with the night, +and the listening girls seemed to lose all desire to talk, so completely +did they fall under the spell of the player. + +But after a little while a harsh voice on the deck of the yacht +interrupted the musician. They could not distinguish the words, but the +speaker was evidently annoyed by the music, for it stopped, and then, +for a few minutes, there was an argument in which the voices of two men +rose shrilly. + +"Well, I guess the concert is over," said Dolly, getting up. "Who wants +a drink? I'm thirsty." + +"So am I!" came in chorus from half a dozen of those who were sitting on +the sands. + +"Serve you right if you all had to go after your own water," said +Dolly. "But I'm feeling nice to-night. I guess it's the music. Come on, +Bessie--feel like taking a little walk with me?" + +"I don't mind," said Bessie, rising, and stretching her arms +luxuriously. "Where are you going?" + +"Up the bluff first, to get a pail of water from that spring. After +that--well, we'll see." + +"Just like Jack and Jill," said Bessie, as they trudged up the path, +carrying a pail between them. + +"I hope we won't be like them and fall down," said Dolly. "I suppose I'd +be Jack--and I don't want to break my crown." + +"It's an easy path. I guess we're safe enough," said Bessie. "It really +hardly seems worth while to fix up that pipe-line Miss Eleanor spoke +about." + +"Oh, you'll find it's worth while, Bessie. The salt air makes everyone +terribly thirsty, and after you've climbed this path a few times it +won't seem so easy to be running up and down all the time. There are so +many other things to do here that it's a pity to waste time doing the +same thing over and over again when you don't really need to." + +"I suppose that's so, too. It's always foolish to do work that you don't +need to do--I mean that can be done in some easier way. If your time's +worth anything at all, you can find some better use for it." + +"That's what I say! It would be foolish and wasteful to set a hundred +men to digging when one steam shovel will do the work better and quicker +than they can. And it's the same way with this water here. If we can put +up a pipe in about an hour that will save two or three hours of chasing +every day, whenever water is needed, it must be sensible to do it." + +They got the water down without any mishap, however, and it was eagerly +welcomed. + +"It's good water," said Margery. "But not as good as the water at Long +Lake and in the mountains." + +"That's the best water in the world, Margery," said Eleanor. "This is +cold, though, and it's perfectly healthy. And, after all, that is as +much as we can expect. Are you and Bessie going for a walk, Dolly?" + +"We thought we would, if you don't mind." + +"I don't mind, of course. But don't go very far. Stay near enough so +that you can hear if we call, or for us to hear you if you should happen +to call to us." + +Dolly looked startled. + +"Why should we want to call you?" she asked. + +"No reason that I can think of now, Dolly. But--well, I suppose I'm +nervous. The way they tried to get hold of Bessie and Zara at Canton +to-day makes me feel that we've got to be very careful. And there is no +use taking unnecessary chances." + +"All right," said Dolly, with a laugh. "But I guess we're safe enough +to-night, anyhow. They haven't had time to find out yet how Bessie +fooled them. My, but they'll be mad when they do find out what +happened!" + +"They certainly will," laughed Margery. "I wouldn't want to be in Jake +Hoover's shoes." + +"I hope nothing will happen to him," said Eleanor, anxiously. "It would +be a great pity for him to get into trouble now." + +"I think he deserves to get into some sort of trouble," said Dolly, +stoutly. "He's made enough for other people." + +"That's true enough, Dolly. But it wouldn't do us any good if he got +into trouble now, you know." + +"No, but it might do him some good--the brute! You haven't seen him when +he was cutting up, the way I have, Miss Eleanor." + +"No, and I'm glad I didn't. But you say it might do him some good. +That's just what I think it would not do. He has just made up his mind +to be better, and suppose he sees that, as a reward, he gets himself +into trouble. What is he likely to do, do you think?" + +"That's so," said Margery. "You're going off without thinking again, +Dolly, as usual. He'd cut loose altogether, and think there wasn't any +sort of use in being decent." + +"Well, I haven't much faith in his having reformed," said Dolly. "It may +be that he has, but it seems too good to be true to me. I bet you'll +find that he'll be on their side, after all, and that he'll just spend +his time thinking up some excuse for having put them on the wrong track +to-day." + +"I think that's likely to keep him pretty busy, Dolly," said Eleanor, +dryly. "And that's one reason I really am inclined to believe that he'll +change sides, and go to Charlie Jamieson, as Bessie advised him to do." + +"Well, if he does, it won't be because he's sorry, but because he's +afraid," said Dolly. "If he can be of any use to us, why, I hope he's +all right. I don't like him, and I never will like him, and there isn't +any use in pretending about it!" + +Everyone laughed at that. + +"You're quite right, Dolly," said Margery. "When you dislike a person +anyone who can see you or hear you knows about it. I'll say that for +you--you don't pretend to be friends with people when you really hate +them." + +"Why should I? Come on, Bessie, if we're going for a walk. If we stay +here much longer Margery'll get so dry from talking that we'll have to +go and get her some more water." + +"Let's go up the path and get on the bluff again," said Bessie. "I like +it up there, because you seem to be able to see further out to sea than +you can here." + +"All right. I don't care where we go, anyhow, and it is more interesting +up there than on the beach, I think." + +The night was a beautiful one, and walking was really delightful. Below +them the beach stretched, white and smooth, as far as the cove itself. +At each end of the cove the bluff on which they were walking curved and +turned toward the sea, stretching out to form two points of land that +enclosed the cove. + +"They say this would be a perfect harbor if there was a bigger channel +dredged in," said Dolly. "Of course it's very small, but I guess it was +used in the old days. There are all sorts of stories about buried +treasure being hidden around here." + +"Do you believe those stories, Dolly?" + +"Not I! If there was any treasure around here it would have been found +ever so long ago. They're just stories. I guess those pirates spent most +of the money they stole, and I guess they didn't get half as much as +people like to pretend, anyhow." + +"It would be fun to find something like that, though, Dolly." + +"Well, Bessie King, you're the last person I would ever have expected +even to think of anything so silly! You'd better get any nonsense of +that sort out of your head right away. There's nothing in those old +stories." + +"I suppose not," said Bessie, and sighed. "But in a place like this it +doesn't seem half so hard to believe that it's possible, somehow. It +looks like just the sort of place for romance and adventure. But--oh, +well, I guess I'm just moonstruck. Dolly, look at that!" + +Her eyes had wandered suddenly toward the yacht, and now, from their +higher elevation, they were able to see a small boat drawing away from +her, on the seaward side, and so out of sight of the girls on the beach. + +"That's funny," said Dolly, puzzled. "I should think that if they were +going to send a boat ashore she'd come straight in." + +"Let's watch and see what happens, Dolly." + +"You bet we will! I wouldn't go now until I knew what they were up to +for anything!" + +"It's going straight out to sea, Dolly, and it's keeping so that the +yacht is between it and the shore. It does look as if they didn't want +to be seen, doesn't it?" + +"It certainly does! Look, there it goes through the little gap in the +bar! See? Now it will be hidden from the people on shore--and it's going +toward West Point, too. See, I'll bet they're going to make a landing +there!" + +They hurried along the bluff, and in a few minutes they saw the boat +graze the beach at the end of West Point. Three men jumped out and +hauled the little craft up on the shore, and then they began to move +inland, toward Bessie and Dolly. + +"We'd better work back toward the camp," said Dolly, excitedly. "It +wouldn't do to have them see us--not until we know more about them." + +"I wonder if they'll come back this way, toward the camp? And why do you +suppose they're acting that way? It seems very funny to me." + +"It does to me, too. I'm beginning to think Miss Eleanor had a good +reason for being nervous, Bessie. I don't believe that yacht is here for +any good purpose." + +"It's a good thing we came up this way, isn't it?" + +"It certainly is, if we can manage to find out something about them. I +say, do you remember where the spring is? Well, right by it there's a +mound, with a whole lot of bushes. I believe we could hide there, and be +waiting as they come along." + +"Let's try it, anyhow. Maybe there's something we ought to know." + +They found it easy to hide themselves, and when, a few minutes later, +the three men came along, they were secure from observation. + +"Do you think it's Mr. Holmes?" whispered Bessie, voicing the thought +both of them had had. + +"It's just as likely as not! It's the sneaky way he would act," said +Dolly, viciously. "They're pretty careful about the way they walk--see?" + +But then the men came into the range of their eyes, and the sigh of +disappointment that rose from them was explained by Dolly's disgusted, +"It's not Mr. Holmes, or anyone else I ever saw before." + +The men came nearer, and seemed to be looking down at the camp. + +"They're the ones! That's the outfit, all right," said one of them. +"Well, it's easy to keep an eye on them." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +A NIGHT ALARM + + +Bessie and Dolly looked at one another. Holmes wasn't there, but who but +Holmes or someone working for him could have any such sinister interest +in keeping an eye on the camp as was implied by that sly remark? +Evidently luck had favored them once more, and they had stumbled again +on early evidence of another coming attack. + +But they took little time--could take little time, indeed--to think of +the meaning of what they had heard. It was too important for them to +find out as much as possible from these men. They dared not speak to one +another; the men were so close that they were almost afraid that the +sound of their own breathing would betray them. + +And, dark as it was, they could see that these were men of a type who +would stop at little if they felt they were in danger of failure. They +were big, burly, ugly-looking men, rough in speech and manner, and, +though they masked their movements, and went about their business, +whatever it might be, as quietly as possible, their quietness was +furtive and assumed and by no means natural to them. + +"They won't run away to-night, Jeff," grumbled one of the men. "You +ain't a-goin' to stay here and watch them, are you?" + +"No, I'm not--but you are," growled the one addressed as Jeff. "See +here, my buck, the boss don't want any slip-up on this job--see? He's +been stung once too often. I'm goin' back to the boat, but you and Tim +will stay here till daylight--right here, mind you!" + +"Aw, shucks, that's a fine job to give us!" growled Tim. "Larry's got +the right dope, Jeff. They won't run away to-night." + +"Listen here--who's giving orders here? What I say goes--do you get +that? If you don't, I'll find a way to make you, and pretty quick, too. +I don't want none of your lip, Tim." + +"What's the game, Jeff?" asked the man Larry, in milder tones. "We'll +do as you say, all right, all right, but can't you tell a guy what's +doin'?" + +"I don't know myself, boys, and that's a fact," said Jeff, seemingly +mollified by this submission to his orders. "But the boss wants them two +gals--and what he wants he gits, sooner or later." + +"Guess he does!" laughed Tim. "You said something that time, Jeff!" + +"There's money in it, I know that," Jeff went on. "Big money--though I'm +blowed if I see where! But we'll get our share if we do our part." + +"I can use any that comes my way, all right," said Larry, with a +smothered laugh. "Always broke--that's what I am!" + +"How about the morning, Jeff?" asked Tim. "We can't stay here when it +gets to be light. They'd spot us in a minute." + +"Won't be any need then, Tim. We can keep an eye on them from the +yacht. And the boss is apt to turn up here himself most any time." + +"Why not pull it off to-night, Jeff?" asked Larry. "It's a good chance, +I'd say." + +"Ain't got my orders yet, Larry. As soon as the boss turns up there'll +be plenty doing. Keep an eye out for a red light from the deck. That'll +be a sign to watch out for anything that comes along. We may show it--we +may not. But if we do, be lively." + +"All right," growled Tim. "But let's quit this nursemaid job as soon as +we can, Jeff. We're good pals of yours--and this ain't no game for a +grown man, you know that." + +"'Twon't be so bad," said Jeff, comfortingly. "Nights ain't so long--and +you can take turns sleeping. It's all right as long as one of you stays +awake." + +"So long, Jeff," said both the men who were to stay behind, then, in +unison. + +"Good-night," answered Jeff. "I'll have a boat at the point for you at +daylight. Good luck!" + +And he went off, quietly, walking easily, so that the noise of his +footsteps would not reach those on the beach below. + +From the beach the voices of the girls rose faintly. Words could not be +distinguished, but Bessie and Dolly could both guess that their +prolonged absence must be beginning to give Miss Eleanor and the others +some uneasiness. + +They were trapped, however, although they were in no real danger. The +men who had been left on guard were between them and the path; they +could not possibly pass them without arousing them, and they did not +care to take the chance of making a wild dash for freedom unless it +became absolutely necessary. + +Bessie weighed the chances. It seemed likely to her that she and Dolly, +taking the two men by surprise, could slip by them and reach the beach +safely. But if they did that, the men would know that their plans were +known, and that their talk had been overheard, and that would be to +throw away half of the advantage they had gained. It would be better a +thousand times, Bessie felt, to wait, and take the faint chance that +both men might go to sleep together, and so give them the chance to +escape unseen. + +For some minutes the silence was unbroken save for the faint murmur of +the voices from the beach. Then Larry spoke to his companion. + +"Say, Tim, don't think much of this game, do you?" he said. + +"Sure don't!" grunted Tim. "Just like Jeff, though. Takes the easy lay +himself and don't care what he puts up to us." + +"Got any money?" + +"About five dollars. Why? Want to borrow it? Just as soon you had it as +me! Can't spend it here, anyhow." + +"No. Wouldn't do me any good. Got lots of my own out on the yacht." + +"Wish there was a place near here where I could get a drink. Seems like +I was choking to death." + +"Lots of water right by you," said Larry, with a hoarse laugh. "Help +yourself--it's free!" + +"Water--pah!" snorted Tim. "That's not what I want, and you know it, +Larry." + +"Say, come to think of it, there's an elegant little roadhouse a ways +back in the country here, Tim. About half an hour there and back, I +judge." + +Tim grunted uneasily. + +"Think it's safe?" he queried. "If Jeff got on to us--" + +"Shucks! What could he do? We ain't his hired hands." + +"The boss, though--suppose Jeff told him?" + +"He wouldn't, and how's he goin' to find out, anyhow? Nothin's goin' to +happen to-night, you can bet on that. Come on, be a sport, Tim! We've +got as much on Jeff as he's got on us, if it comes down to that, ain't +we?" + +"I dunno. I'm kind of leery, when he told us to stick, Larry." + +"I thought you had more nerve, Tim. Didn't ever think you'd stand for +no game like this. But, if you're afraid--" + +"Come on!" said Tim, angrily. "I'll show you if I'm afraid! I guess it's +safe enough." + +"That's more like my old pal Tim. I knew you had nerve enough. Let's be +movin'. The sooner we go, the sooner we'll be back. And we'll show who's +afraid--eh, old sport?" + +"That's the stuff, Larry! Guess there ain't no one big enough to tell us +what to do." + +And, with linked arms, they moved off. Bessie and Dolly, hardly able to +believe in the good luck that left the way to the beach clear, held +their breath for a moment. Then Bessie, seeing that Dolly was about to +rise, whispered to her. + +"Not yet, Dolly," she said, tensely. "Wait till we're sure they can't +see us. No use taking chances now." + +"All right, Bessie, but what luck! I was afraid we'd have to stay here +until daylight, and I was wondering what Miss Eleanor and the girls +would think!" + +"So was I. I'm afraid they're worried about us already. But it wasn't +our fault, and it really is a good thing we heard them, isn't it? The +'boss' they're talking about must be Mr. Holmes, don't you think?" + +"I don't see who else it could possibly be. Come on, Bessie. I think +it's time now, they're out of sight." + +Slowly and carefully, to take into account the off chance that Jeff, the +other man, might have come back to see if his sentinels were faithful, +they slipped across the path and made their way down. And at the bottom, +as they reached the beach, Eleanor Mercer spied them, with a glad cry. + +"Oh, whatever kept you so long?" she exclaimed. "How glad I am to see +you back safely! We couldn't imagine what on earth was keeping you." + +"You shouldn't have stayed so long," said Margery Burton. "We were just +going to start out to look for you." + +"You wouldn't have had very far to go. We've been right at the top of +the path for three-quarters of an hour," said Dolly, excitedly. + +"It wasn't our fault, really! We couldn't get here any sooner," said +Bessie. "You see--" + +And, quietly, being less excited and hysterical than Dolly, she +explained what they had discovered, and the trap in which they had +allowed themselves to be caught. + +"We thought it was better to wait there than to let them know we had +heard them," she ended. "You see, they think now that we haven't any +suspicions at all, and that we'll be off our guard. Don't you suppose +Mr. Holmes must be coming on board that yacht, Miss Eleanor?" + +"I certainly do," said Eleanor, her lips firmly set, and an angry gleam +in her eyes. "You did exactly the right thing. It was better for us to +be worried for a few minutes than to take any chance of spoiling all +you'd found out." + +"What do you suppose they'll try to do now?" wondered Margery. "Oh, I'd +like to find some way to beat them, so that they'd have to stop this +altogether." + +"They'll go too far, some time," said Eleanor, indignantly. "Mr. Holmes +seems to forget there is such a thing as the law, but if he doesn't look +out he'll find that all his money won't save him from it. And I think +the time is coming very soon. My father has some money, too, and I'm +pretty sure he'll spend as much as he needs to to beat these criminals." + +"Can't we go away from here to-night, Miss Eleanor?" asked Dolly. "They +said we'd never do that, and it might fool them." + +Everyone looked at Dolly in astonishment. It was a strange proposition +to come from her, since she usually was the one who wanted to fight if +there seemed to be any possibility of success. Now, however, she looked +nervous. + +"I don't see how we can, Dolly," said Eleanor. "And, really, I don't +believe there's any danger here. Mr. Holmes isn't on the yacht, and +these men won't do anything until he is there to direct them. I shall +telegraph to Mr. Jamieson in the morning, and he will probably come +here. He can reach here by noon, and I think we will be all right here +until then." + +Dolly said nothing more to her, but when she was alone with Bessie she +expressed herself more freely. + +"I'm afraid of those men," she said, with a shiver. "I think they're far +more dangerous than the gypsies were. Didn't you think, from the way +they talked, that they would do anything if they thought they would get +well paid for it?" + +"Yes, but we're warned, Dolly. It isn't as if we didn't have any idea, +as they believe, that there is danger here. So I don't think we need to +be afraid." + +On the beach, between the sea and the tents, the blaze of the camp fire +flickered in the darkness, casting an uneven light on the beach. On the +yacht all was still and peaceful. One by one her lights had gone out, +until only the anchor lights, which she was required by law to show, +remained. + +"They've gone to sleep on board the yacht," whispered Bessie. "That +looks as if they didn't mean to do anything to-night, doesn't it, +Dolly?" + +"I suppose so, Bessie. But I'm not satisfied." + +Neither, wholly, in spite of her reassuring words, was Eleanor. Had +there been any way of moving from the camp that night, she would +probably have taken it. But there seemed to be nothing for it but to +wait there until morning, at least. + +"We'll stay here," she said, as good-nights were being exchanged, "but +we'll set a guard for the night. Margery, I wish you and Mary King would +take the first watch. You'll be relieved at one o'clock. You're not too +tired, are you?" + +"No, indeed," said both girls. + +"I think I ought to take the watch. This is partly on my account," said +Bessie. + +"Sleep first, and perhaps you can take the second spell, with Dolly," +said Eleanor. "You've had a harder day than the rest of us, and you must +be tired now." + +Bessie and Dolly were, indeed, very tired. The fact that the camp was +not to be left unguarded while they slept seemed to reassure Dolly, and +she and Bessie were soon sound asleep. Only the noise of the light surf +disturbed the intense stillness, and that had a soothing, musical +quality that made it far from a disturbance to those who slept. + +But that peace was to be rudely shattered before the first watch was +over. It was just after midnight when a wild tumult aroused the camp, +and Bessie and Dolly, springing to their feet, saw that the beach was as +light as day--and that the light did not come from the camp fire. +Confused and sleepy as they were, they saw the cause in a moment--the +big living tent, in which meals were to be eaten in case of rainy +weather, was all ablaze, and the wind that had sprung up during the +night was blowing the sparks to the other tents, which caught fire as +the girls, frightened and almost panic stricken, rushed out. + +For a moment there was no concerted effort, but then Eleanor took +command of the situation, and in a moment a line had been formed, and +pails full of water from the sea were being handed from one girl to +another. + +The yacht had sprung into life at the first sign of the fire, and now, +as the girls worked, they heard the sound of oars, as boats were +hurriedly pushed ashore. In a minute a dozen men had joined them in +their fight against the fire, and, thanks to this unexpected aid, one or +two of the tents, which had been furthest from the one in which the +blaze had started, were saved. + +The men from the yacht worked heroically, but their presence and their +shouts created a new confusion. And in the midst of it Bessie, a pail of +water in her hand, saw a man seize Zara and carry her, struggling, +toward a boat. She was just about to cry out when a hand covered her +mouth, and the next instant she was lifted in strong arms, carried to +the boat, and pushed in. Then two men sprang aboard, and one held the +girls, while the other pulled quickly toward the yacht. They were +prisoners! + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +DOLLY RANSOM MAKES GOOD + + +"Keep still, and you won't be hurt!" commanded the man who held them. +Bessie had no choice in the matter for his hand covered her mouth, and, +even had she wished to do so, she could not have cried out. + +In a moment, too, looking toward Zara, she saw that she had fainted, and +her own predicament was made worse than ever, since the ruffian who held +her could now devote all his attention to her. So, utterly helpless, and +almost ready to despair, Bessie had to submit to being carried up the +little companion ladder that ran to the yacht's deck. + +As soon as she was on deck a handkerchief was slipped over her eyes, +and, though she could hear the low murmur of voices, and was almost sure +that one was that of Mr. Holmes, her arch enemy, she could not be +positive. Her one hope now was that Dolly or some one of the others on +the beach would have seen her abduction. But, even if they had, what +could they do? + +"Suppose they did see," poor Bessie thought to herself; "they couldn't +do anything. It would take a lot of strong men to come on board this +yacht and get us off, and the girls wouldn't be able to do anything at +all." + +She was not left long on the yacht's deck. Almost at once she was +carried below, and in a few minutes she found herself in a cabin, where +the handkerchief was taken from her eyes. The cabin was a pretty one, +but Bessie was in no mood to appreciate that. She hated the sight of its +luxury; all she wanted was to be back with the girls on the beach, no +matter how great the discomfort after the fire might be. + +Zara, who had not yet revived, was brought down after her and laid on a +sofa. Then she and Bessie were left alone with the big man who had +carried Bessie from the beach. She thought that he was Jeff, the man who +had left the two faithless sentinels to watch the path from the cliff. +And she noticed, to her surprise, that, though his speech and manners +were rough, there was a look about him that was not unkindly. + +"Now, see here, sis," he said, gently enough, "we don't aim to treat you +badly here. You've run away from home, and that's not right. We're going +to see that you get back to them as has the best right to look after +you, but we don't want you to be uncomfortable." + +"How can I help it?" asked Bessie, indignantly. + +"Just you behave yourself and keep quiet, and you'll be all right," said +Jeff. Bessie was sure of his identity now. "You'll have this pretty room +here to yourselves, and you'll have lots to eat. It'll be better food +than you got with that pack of chattering girls, too. We'll up anchor +and be off pretty soon, and then you can come up on deck and have a good +time. But as long as we're here, why, you'll have to stay below." + +Bessie got her first gleam of hope from that speech. If they stayed in +Green Cove a little while, there was always the chance that something +might happen. + +"You see, sis," said Jeff, with a grin, "after a while your folks there +will find you're missing, and, like enough, they'll suspicion that we +done it; took you off, I mean. 'Twouldn't make no great difference if +they did know it," Jeff went on. "But the boss thinks it's just as well +if we throw them off a bit--guess he wants to have some fun with them." + +"Who is your 'boss'?" asked Bessie, quickly. "I should think you would +be ashamed of yourself, treating girls who can't fight back this way! Do +you call yourself a man?" + +"Easy there, sis!" said Jeff, with a roar of laughter. "You can't make +me mad. Orders is orders, you know, and you did wrong when you run away +like you did. And I ain't tellin' you who the boss is. What you don't +know won't hurt you--and that goes for your friends, too." + +He left them alone then, and a faint hope was left behind him. Now that +she had the chance, Bessie turned her attention to Zara. There was +water in the cabin, and in a few minutes she had revived her chum, and +was able to tell her what had happened. Poor Zara seemed to be +completely overcome. + +"Oh, Bessie, we haven't got a chance this time!" she said. "I'll have to +go back and work for Farmer Weeks, and you--will they make you go back +to Maw Hoover?" + +"Never say die, Zara! As long as the yacht stays in the cove there is a +chance that we'll be rescued. That man didn't know it, but he'll never +be able to make Miss Eleanor believe we're not on this yacht. +Listen--what's that?" + +There was a sound of hasty footsteps outside, and Jeff came in +hurriedly. He slipped back a panel at one side of the cabin, and +revealed a little closet. + +"In there with you--both of you!" he said. "And I'm sorry, but you'll +have to be quiet, and there's only one way." + +In a trice their hands and feet were bound, and handkerchiefs were +stuffed into their mouths. Then they were pushed into the closet and the +panel was slipped back into place. They were helpless. Unable to speak, +or to beat hands or feet against the thin wood, there was no way in +which they could make their presence known. And in a moment they knew +the reason for this precaution. For, through the wood of the panel, +wafer thin, they heard Miss Eleanor's voice. + +"You can't deceive me, sir!" they heard her say. "Those girls must be on +this yacht, and I warn you that you had better give them up. Kidnapping +is a serious offence in this state." + +"You can see for yourself they're not here, ma'am," said Jeff. "And I +don't take this kindly at all, ma'am. Why, when I saw the fire in your +camp, I went ashore with my men to try to help you--and now you make +this charge against us." + +"I certainly do!" said Eleanor, with spirit. "I am quite sure that this +is the only place where my girls can be, and I mean to have them back. +As to the fire, you helped us, it is true. But I am as certain as I can +be of anything that you had something to do with starting it before you +tried to put it out!" + +"There's no use talking to you, ma'am, and I won't try it," said Jeff. +"If you're crazy enough to believe anything like that, I could talk all +day and you'd still believe it. Here's the yacht--you're welcome to go +over her and see for yourself. You won't find the girls, because they're +not aboard. That's a good reason, I guess." + +"Then let me see Mr. Holmes." + +"There you go again, ma'am! Didn't I tell you on deck that there's no +such party aboard, and that I never even heard of him? If you're +satisfied now, we'll be glad to have you go ashore, because I want to +sail. I've got business down the coast." + +"I shall not go ashore until I have found my girls," said Eleanor. There +were tears of baffled anger in her voice, and Bessie thrilled with +indignant sympathy at the idea that she was within a few feet of her +best friend without being able to let her know that she was there. + +"Then you'll be put ashore--gently, but firmly, as the books say," said +Jeff. "You're dead right, ma'am, kidnappin' is a bad sort of business in +this state, and I don't aim to give you a chance to say we carried you +off with us against your will. Sail we will--and you'll stay behind. +This is my boat, and I've got a right to put off anyone that is +trespassin'." + +"You brute!" gasped Eleanor. "Don't you dare to touch me!" + +"Will you go of your own accord, then?" + +"I suppose I must," gasped Eleanor tearfully. "But you shall pay for +this, you scoundrel! You're tricking me in some fashion, but you can't +deceive me, and you can't keep the truth quiet forever." + +Then there was the sound of retreating footsteps, and a few minutes +later Bessie and Zara were released by Jeff, who was grinning as if it +had been a great joke. + +"Well, sis, we're off now!" he said. "Come on! I don't want to be hard +on you. Come out here in the passageway, and you can have a look at the +shore as we go off." + +He led them to the stern, and to the little cabin, in which was a +porthole. Looking out, Bessie saw the beach indistinctly. The ruined +tents were there, and several of the girls, in bathing suits. And, +swimming slowly to the shore she saw a girl in a red cap, which, as she +knew, belonged to Dolly. How she longed to be able to call to her! But +Jeff was at her side, and she knew that the attempt would be useless, +since he was watching her as if he had been a cat and she a mouse. + +A bell clanged somewhere below them, and the next moment there was a +rumbling sound as the machinery was started. At the same moment there +came the grinding of the anchor chains as they were raised. But the +yacht did not move! Even after the anchor was up there was no movement +except the throbbing of the whole vessel as the engines raced in the +hold! Jeff's face grew black, and he turned toward the passage with a +scowl. + +"What's wrong here?" he shouted, going to the door. At the same moment, +seizing her brief chance, Bessie gave a wild scream, and saw, to her +delight, that those on shore had heard it. In a moment she was pulled +roughly from the porthole, and Jeff, his face savage and all the +kindness gone out of it, scowled down at her. + +"Keep quiet, you little vixen!" he shouted. "Here, come with me!" + +At the foot of some steps that led up to the deck he left the two girls +in the care of Larry, one of the two men she had seen the night before. + +"Keep them quiet," he commanded, as he sprang up the steps. "What's +wrong, Larry; do you know?" + +"Something the matter with the propeller. Can't tell what," said Larry. + +And above, on the deck, there was a wild rushing about now. Orders were +shouted to the engineers below; hoarse answers came back. The engines +were stopped and started again. But still the yacht did not move. A +grimy engineer came up and stood beside her. + +"Propeller's fouled," he said to Jeff. "We'll have to send a man +overboard to clear it." + +"How long will that take?" roared Jeff. + +"Maybe an hour--if we're lucky." + +"You're a fine engineer, not to have the boat ready to start!" screamed +Jeff, mad with rage. "You'll lose your berth for this!" + +"Guess I can get another," replied the engineer calmly. "It's been done +on purpose and it's the business of the deck watch to keep the stern +clear, not mine." + +With frantic haste a man was sent overboard. He dived and found the +propeller. Bessie heard his report. The screw was twisted around with +rope--knotted and tied so that, even with a knife he would have to make +many descents to clear it. Without a diving suit it was impossible for +the man to stay under water more than half a minute at a time, and, as +it turned out, he was the only man on board who could dive at all. + +Jeff raged in vain. The work of clearing the propeller could not be +hastened for all his bellowing, and the precious minutes slipped by +while the diver worked. Each time that he came up for rest and air he +reported a little more progress, but each time, too, as he grew tired, +his period of rest was lengthened, while his time below the water was +cut shorter. + +And then, when he had reported that two more trips would mend the +trouble, there was a sudden bumping of boats against the yacht, on the +shoreward side, which had been left without watchers, it seemed, and +there was a rush of feet overhead. Bessie cried out in joy, and the next +instant a dozen men tumbled down the steps and overpowered Larry. + +"Are you Bessie King?" asked their leader. "I've got a search warrant +empowering me to search this yacht for you and one Zara Doe and take you +ashore." + +"We're the ones! Take us!" pleaded Bessie. + +And, sobbing with joy, she went up the steps to the deck. There Jeff, +furious but powerless in the grip of two men, watched her go over the +side and into a small boat in which sat Eleanor, who threw her arms +joyously about the recovered captives. Dolly was there, too, and she +kissed and hugged Bessie as soon as Eleanor was done. + +"The men got here in time from Bay City," said Eleanor. "Thank Heaven! A +few minutes more, and they would have been too late. I telephoned as +soon as I could, and I knew the district attorney there was a friend of +Charlie Jamieson. He came at once with his men." + +"The propeller was fouled. That's why they couldn't get away," said +Bessie. "Wasn't that lucky?" + +Dolly snorted. + +"Luck nothing!" she said, perkily. "I swam out with a rope, and they +never saw me! I was there, diving up and down, for half an hour. I +thought they'd have a lovely time getting it clear when the knots I +made had swollen up!" + +"Yes, it was Dolly who saved the day," said Eleanor. + +"Shall we row you ashore, ma'am, or do you want to see the rest of the +fun on board?" asked one of the oarsmen. + +"Take us ashore, please. I'll hear all about it later," said Eleanor. + +And in five minutes the Camp Fire Girls were reunited. + + ++---------------------------------------------------+ +| Transcriber's Note | +| | +| Campfire as one word appears in the list of books | +| and title page, whereas two words have been used | +| throughout the rest of the book. Similar usage | +| has been retained in this e-book. | ++---------------------------------------------------+ + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Campfire Girl's Test of Friendship, by +Jane L. Stewart + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TEST OF FRIENDSHIP *** + +***** This file should be named 22652.txt or 22652.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/2/6/5/22652/ + +Produced by Mark C. Orton, Linda McKeown, Jacqueline Jeremy +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. |