diff options
Diffstat (limited to '23645-h')
| -rw-r--r-- | 23645-h/23645-h.htm | 6881 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 23645-h/images/illus-037.png | bin | 0 -> 11847 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 23645-h/images/illus-076.jpg | bin | 0 -> 61843 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 23645-h/images/illus-136.jpg | bin | 0 -> 65313 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 23645-h/images/illus-212.jpg | bin | 0 -> 61208 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 23645-h/images/illus-fpc.jpg | bin | 0 -> 42091 bytes |
6 files changed, 6881 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/23645-h/23645-h.htm b/23645-h/23645-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7aadc69 --- /dev/null +++ b/23645-h/23645-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,6881 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Motor Maids at Sunrise Camp, by Katherine Stokes</title> + <style type="text/css"> + /*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ + <!-- + p {margin-top: 0.5em; text-align: justify; margin-bottom: 0.5em;} + body {margin-left: 11%; margin-right: 10%;} + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; clear: both;} + h1 {text-align: center; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em; clear: both;} + h2 {text-align: center; margin-top: 3em; margin-bottom: 2em; clear: both;} + h3 {text-align: center; margin-top: 2em; font-weight: normal; clear: both;} + h3.pg {text-align: center; margin-top: 2em; font-weight: bold; clear: both;} + a {text-decoration: none;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + .blockquot {margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 5%;} + table p {text-align: center; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0;} + td.tdright {vertical-align: top; text-align: right;} + td.tdleft {vertical-align: top; text-align: left;} + .caption {font-size: 80%;} + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + .center {text-align:center;} + .pagenum {display: inline; font-size: x-small; text-align: right; + position: absolute; right: 2%; border:1px solid #eee; + padding: 1px 3px; font-style: normal; + font-variant:normal; font-weight:normal; text-decoration: none; + color: silver; background-color: inherit;} + hr.major {width: 65%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em;} + hr.dashed {width: 100%; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; border:none; border-bottom:1px dashed;} + a.pagenum:after {border: 1px solid silver; padding: 1px 3px; content: attr(title);} + hr.full { width: 100%; + margin-top: 3em; + margin-bottom: 0em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + height: 4px; + border-width: 4px 0 0 0; /* remove all borders except the top one */ + border-style: solid; + border-color: #000000; + clear: both; } + pre {font-size: 85%;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Motor Maids at Sunrise Camp, by Katherine +Stokes, Illustrated by Charles L. Wrenn</h1> +<pre> +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 <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: The Motor Maids at Sunrise Camp</p> +<p>Author: Katherine Stokes</p> +<p>Release Date: November 28, 2007 [eBook #23645]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MOTOR MAIDS AT SUNRISE CAMP***</p> +<p> </p> +<h3 class="pg">E-text prepared by Roger Frank<br /> + and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br /> + (http://www.pgdp.net)</h3> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p> </p> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width:370px'> +<a name='illus-000' id='illus-000'></a> +<img src='images/illus-fpc.jpg' alt='Presently Mr. Lupo came in with a tray of cups and saucers and a pot of steaming hot coffee.' title='' width='370' /><br /> +<span class='caption'>Presently Mr. Lupo came in with a tray of cups and saucers<br />and a pot of steaming hot coffee.—<i>Page</i> 29.</span> +</div> + +<hr class='dashed' /> + +<table style='margin: auto; border: black 1px solid; width:25em' summary=''><tr><td> +<p style=' font-size:2em; margin-top:1em;'>THE MOTOR MAIDS</p> +<p style=' font-size:2em; margin-bottom:2em;'>AT SUNRISE CAMP</p> +<p style=' font-size:1em;'>BY</p> +<p style=' font-size:1.3em; margin-bottom:1em;'>KATHERINE STOKES</p> +<p style=' font-size:0.6em;'>AUTHOR OF “THE MOTOR MAIDS’ SCHOOL DAYS,” “THE MOTOR MAIDS</p> +<p style=' font-size:0.6em;'>BY PALM AND PINE,” “THE MOTOR MAIDS ACROSS THE CONTINENT,”</p> +<p style=' font-size:0.6em;'>“THE MOTOR MAIDS BY ROSE, SHAMROCK AND THISTLE,”</p> +<p style=' font-size:0.6em; margin-bottom:6em;'>“THE MOTOR MAIDS IN FAIR JAPAN,” ETC.</p> +<p style=' font-size:1.0em;'>WITH FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS</p> +<p style=' font-size:1.0em; margin-bottom:8em;'>BY CHARLES L. WRENN</p> +<p style=' font-size:1.2em;'>M. A. DONOHUE & COMPANY</p> +<p style=' font-size:1.2em; margin-bottom:2em;'>CHICAGO NEW YORK</p> +</td></tr></table> + +<hr class='dashed' /> + +<p style='text-align:center; margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:2em; font-size:smaller;'>Copyright, 1914,<br /> +BY<br /> +HURST & COMPANY<br /><br /> +Made in U. S. A.</p> + +<hr class='dashed' /> + +<h3>CONTENTS</h3> +<table border='0' cellpadding='2' cellspacing='0' summary='Contents' style='margin: auto; font-variant: small-caps;'> +<col style='width:3em;' /> +<col style='width:1em;' /> +<col style='width:20em;' /> +<col style='width:3em;' /> +<tr> +<td align='right'><span style='font-size:x-small'>CHAPTER</span></td> +<td></td> +<td></td> +<td align='right'><span style='font-size:x-small'>PAGE</span></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='tdright'>I.</td> + <td></td> + <td class='tdleft'>Off For the Mountains.</td> + <td class='tdright'><a href='#OFF_FOR_THE_MOUNTAINS_73'>5</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='tdright'>II.</td> + <td></td> + <td class='tdleft'>The Camp.</td> + <td class='tdright'><a href='#THE_CAMP_347'>19</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='tdright'>III.</td> + <td></td> + <td class='tdleft'>Rules and Regulations.</td> + <td class='tdright'><a href='#RULES_AND_REGULATIONS_635'>34</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='tdright'>IV.</td> + <td></td> + <td class='tdleft'>Table Top.</td> + <td class='tdright'><a href='#TABLE_TOP_956'>50</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='tdright'>V.</td> + <td></td> + <td class='tdleft'>In the Bog.</td> + <td class='tdright'><a href='#IN_THE_BOG_1308'>67</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='tdright'>VI.</td> + <td></td> + <td class='tdleft'>The Doctor.</td> + <td class='tdright'><a href='#THE_DOCTOR_1633'>83</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='tdright'>VII.</td> + <td></td> + <td class='tdleft'>Phoebe.</td> + <td class='tdright'><a href='#PHOEBE_1988'>101</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='tdright'>VIII.</td> + <td></td> + <td class='tdleft'>The Gypsy Cooks.</td> + <td class='tdright'><a href='#THE_GYPSY_COOKS_2232'>114</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='tdright'>IX.</td> + <td></td> + <td class='tdleft'>A Lesson By the Wayside.</td> + <td class='tdright'><a href='#A_LESSON_BY_THE_WAYSIDE_2583'>132</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='tdright'>X.</td> + <td></td> + <td class='tdleft'>Alberdina Schoenbachler</td> + <td class='tdright'><a href='#ALBERDINA_SCHOENBACHLER_2881'>146</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='tdright'>XI.</td> + <td></td> + <td class='tdleft'>A Comedy of Errors.</td> + <td class='tdright'><a href='#A_COMEDY_OF_ERRORS_3192'>162</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='tdright'>XII.</td> + <td></td> + <td class='tdleft'>The Return.</td> + <td class='tdright'><a href='#THE_RETURN_3471'>177</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='tdright'>XIII.</td> + <td></td> + <td class='tdleft'>Billie and the Doctor.</td> + <td class='tdright'><a href='#BILLIE_AND_THE_DOCTOR_3736'>190</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='tdright'>XIV.</td> + <td></td> + <td class='tdleft'>Chance News.</td> + <td class='tdright'><a href='#CHANCE_NEWS_4018'>204</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='tdright'>XV.</td> + <td></td> + <td class='tdleft'>A Warning.</td> + <td class='tdright'><a href='#A_WARNING_4377'>221</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='tdright'>XVI.</td> + <td></td> + <td class='tdleft'>The Attack.</td> + <td class='tdright'><a href='#THE_ATTACK_4626'>234</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='tdright'>XVII.</td> + <td></td> + <td class='tdleft'>The Force of Eloquence.</td> + <td class='tdright'><a href='#THE_FORCE_OF_ELOQUENCE_4903'>249</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='tdright'>XVIII.</td> + <td></td> + <td class='tdleft'>The Morning After.</td> + <td class='tdright'><a href='#THE_MORNING_AFTER_5168'>262</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='tdright'>XIX.</td> + <td></td> + <td class='tdleft'>The Mills of God.</td> + <td class='tdright'><a href='#THE_MILLS_OF_GOD_5389'>273</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='tdright'>XX.</td> + <td></td> + <td class='tdleft'>A Long Sleep.</td> + <td class='tdright'><a href='#A_LONG_SLEEP_5643'>286</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td class='tdright'>XXI.</td> + <td></td> + <td class='tdleft'>Comrades of the Road.</td> + <td class='tdright'><a href='#COMRADES_OF_THE_ROAD_6032'>304</a></td> +</tr> +</table> + +<hr class='dashed' /> + +<h1>The Motor Maids in Sunrise Camp.</h1> + +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_5' id='pg_5'>5</a></span> +<a name='OFF_FOR_THE_MOUNTAINS_73' id='OFF_FOR_THE_MOUNTAINS_73'></a> +<h2>CHAPTER I.</h2> +<h3>OFF FOR THE MOUNTAINS.</h3> +</div> + +<p>“Sunrise Camp! What next, pray tell me?” sighed Miss Helen Campbell.</p> + +<p>“But it doesn’t mean getting up at sunrise, Cousin Helen,” Billie +Campbell assured her. “Although Papa says we would like it, once we got +started. Campers always do rise with the sun. It’s the proper thing to +do.”</p> + +<p>“But why do they give it that uncivilized name?” continued Miss Campbell +in an injured tone of voice. “Why not Sunset Camp or Meridian Camp or +even Moonrise Camp? There is nothing restful to me in the name of +‘Sunrise.’”</p> + +<p>“It will be restful, indeed it will, dear cousin, once you are used to +the life, and it couldn’t be <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_6' id='pg_6'>6</a></span>called any of those other names because +they would not be appropriate. You see there is a wonderful view of the +sunrise from the camp, and every morning if you wake early enough you +see a beautiful pink light all over the sky and you wonder where the sun +is; and suddenly he comes shooting up from behind the tallest mountain +in the range across the valley, and it’s really quite late by then. He +has been up ever so long, but he’s been hiding behind the mountains.”</p> + +<p>“And we are to sleep on the ground under those flimsy tents, I suppose?” +asked Miss Campbell, who was not taking very kindly to the camping +proposition.</p> + +<p>“No, no,” protested her young cousin, laughing, “you’re thinking of +soldiers, and they do have cots. This camp is a log house, a really +beautiful log house. There is one immense room without any ceiling, and +you look straight up through the beams into the roof. Papa says it’s +splendid.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_7' id='pg_7'>7</a></span>Miss Campbell bestowed upon Billie a tolerant, suffering smile.</p> + +<p>“And back of that room,” continued Billie, speaking quickly, “is a long +sleeping porch that can be partitioned off into bedrooms——”</p> + +<p>“No protection from rain and wild animals, I suppose?” put in Miss +Campbell sadly.</p> + +<p>“Oh, yes. There is a roof overhead and a floor underneath, and it’s all +enclosed with wire netting to keep out mosquitoes. It can’t rain in far +enough to wet the beds and, of course, nothing else matters——”</p> + +<p>“Clothes?” groaned the little lady.</p> + +<p>“But khaki skirts, cousin, and rubber-soled shoes and pongee +blouses,—water couldn’t injure things like that.”</p> + +<p>“I went camping once forty years ago,” went on Miss Campbell, without +seeming to notice Billie’s reply. “It was terrible, I assure you, it was +quite too dreadful. One night there was a storm, and the tents that were +not blown away <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_8' id='pg_8'>8</a></span>by the high winds were swamped by rain. Our clothes all +mildewed, and the flies! I shall never forget the disgusting +flies,—they were everywhere.”</p> + +<p>“This camp couldn’t possibly be blown away even by the strongest wind,” +broke in Billie, ready to refute every argument, “and the screens make +it just as comfortable as your own home would be.”</p> + +<p>“How far is it from anywhere?” demanded Miss Campbell suddenly.</p> + +<p>Billie hesitated.</p> + +<p>“It’s twenty-five miles, but there is a good road from the railroad +station and the ‘Comet’ can take us across in no time. You see, there is +a little village in the valley at the foot of our mountain, and in +summer a ’bus runs twice a day with passengers and the mail, so the road +must be fairly good. Papa says lots of automobiles go over it.”</p> + +<p>“Twenty-five miles,” groaned Miss Campbell.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_9' id='pg_9'>9</a></span>“Twenty-five miles from a telegraph station——”</p> + +<p>“But there is no one for you to telegraph to if Papa and I are with you, +dear Cousin, is there?” asked Billie ingenuously.</p> + +<p>Miss Campbell’s expression softened. Nothing pleased her so much as for +Billie to make one family of the three. The young cousin had become such +a fixture in her home that she had grown quite jealous of Duncan +Campbell’s possessive airs with his daughter.</p> + +<p>“One would think she really belonged to him more than to me,” she would +exclaim at such times, with some unreasonableness it must be admitted.</p> + +<p>But it was plain that the little spinster’s resolutions against camping +were beginning to crumble.</p> + +<p>“We are not to eat on the ground, then, or drink coffee from tin cups, +or sleep in our clothes, or be bitten to death by mosquitoes, and +finally exterminated by wild animals?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_10' id='pg_10'>10</a></span>Billie laughed joyously. She knew by these extravagant remarks that her +cousin had been won over.</p> + +<p>“None of those things,” she cried. “We are to lead a comfortable, +beautiful rustic life, and I know you’ll just love it. There are lakes, +cousin, exquisite, beautiful little gems of lakes; and trails all +through the pine forests, and the walking isn’t a bit difficult——”</p> + +<p>“Khaki skirts, did you say?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, and sneakers.”</p> + +<p>“What are they, child?”</p> + +<p>“Rubber-soled shoes to keep you from slipping.”</p> + +<p>Miss Campbell sighed.</p> + +<p>“And at my age!” she said aloud, answering some unspoken thought. “Tell +your father I accept, but it’s the last straw, and I may never see my +comfortable old home again.”</p> + +<p>Billie did not pause to disprove this dejected statement. She kissed her +relative with the wild <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_11' id='pg_11'>11</a></span>abandon of eighteen, rushed from the room and +was down the stairs in a breathlessly short space of time.</p> + +<p>“She’s going! She’s going!” she cried, rushing into the drawing-room, +where her three friends were anxiously awaiting news, and Mr. Campbell, +almost as anxious himself, was pacing the floor, his hands thrust deep +into his pockets.</p> + +<p>“Good work, little daughter!” he said, pausing in his walk. “I knew you +could win her over if anybody could, although last night I was afraid we +hadn’t the ghost of a show. She was dead set against it. The word ‘camp’ +alone seemed to make her wild.”</p> + +<p>“But, you see, she thought it was tents and flies and mosquitoes and tin +cups.”</p> + +<p>Mr. Campbell smiled.</p> + +<p>“I think we won’t tell her any more, now that she has made up her mind. +We’ll give her a little surprise. Call the camp a log hut and let it go +at that.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_12' id='pg_12'>12</a></span>“Now, about clothes——” began Nancy Brown, and her friends all smiled. +“Well, one must have clothes, even on a camping trip. Don’t you think a +blue corduroy would be attractive, with a touch of coral pink in the +silk tie, say; and high russet walking boots—the kind that lace, you +know——”</p> + +<p>“They must have rubber soles,” put in Billie, “no matter what the tops +are.”</p> + +<p>“And a straw hat in the natural color, with a brim that droops slightly, +and a pheasant’s tail feather, slightly at one side——”</p> + +<p>There was another burst of laughter at this juncture, and Mr. Campbell +joined in.</p> + +<p>“Miss Nancy,” he said, “I’m afraid you’ll have everything from hedge +hogs to wood choppers at your feet if you make yourself so attractive in +silks and velvets and russets——”</p> + +<p>“Nothing perishable,” protested Nancy. “It will be quite suitable, of +course. It’s a mountain costume I saw in a French fashion magazine, <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_13' id='pg_13'>13</a></span>and +it was really intended for an Alpine climber; only it was much fancier. +The French lady in the picture wore a lace jabot and high-heeled shoes, +and she carried an Alpine stock with a pink bow tied just below the +crook.”</p> + +<p>“Was the skirt hobble?” demanded Billie.</p> + +<p>“It sounds to me like a Little Bo-Peep costume,” put in Mary Price.</p> + +<p>“I think one should dress quite quietly on a camping party,” observed +Elinor Butler.</p> + +<p>Mr. Campbell seized his hat.</p> + +<p>“My only advice to you, ladies,” he announced as he reached the door, +“is to wear shoes that won’t turn your ankles; skirts that give you +plenty of leeway for climbing, and shirts that may be easily washed, +because laundries are not abundant in those regions. As for hats,” he +finished, “you’ll probably not wear any after the first day, even the +latest thing from the Alps trimmed with the tail feather of a pheasant. +As for colors, the first time you go camping you’ll <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_14' id='pg_14'>14</a></span>probably let your +fancy run riot and wear Assyrian purple or crushed strawberry. But the +next time, you’ll pass right down the line until you get to brown, +because you will know by that time that brown fades brown. If campers +had been born wild animals instead of human beings, Nature would surely +have provided them with brown coats for utilitarian as well as +protective purposes.”</p> + +<p>“I thought we could just wear old clothes,” put in Mary Price, +doubtfully. “I didn’t know people had costumes made for camping.”</p> + +<p>Mr. Campbell thrust his genial, handsome face back into the room.</p> + +<p>“Camping clothes are like bathing suits,” he remarked. “After the first +wetting or so, they all look alike.”</p> + +<p>“I’m sure blue corduroy will last,” cried Nancy. “The man at the store +said it was unfadeable.”</p> + +<p>“You mean that curly-haired clerk who wears <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_15' id='pg_15'>15</a></span>the ruby scarf pin?” +laughed Billie. “What’s his name?”</p> + +<p>“Delosia Moxley,” answered Elinor. “He is always giving Nancy pointers +about the latest modes. He was responsible for that Spanish veil she +would wear last winter——”</p> + +<p>“He was not,” interrupted Nancy. “He merely told me they were the +fashion in New York. I needn’t have bought it if I hadn’t wanted to.”</p> + +<p>“I suppose he furnished that French lady’s Alpine costume, too, didn’t +he, Nancy Bell?”</p> + +<p>Nancy smiled good-naturedly. She never really minded being teased about +her elaborate taste in dress.</p> + +<p>“His taste is extremely good,” she said. “He expects to run a millinery +shop in a year or so. He says he can trim hats charmingly.”</p> + +<p>“My word!” exclaimed Billie. “I suppose his mother will make your suit +and he’ll pin the feather on the hat, and between them they will <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_16' id='pg_16'>16</a></span>equip +you to climb the Adirondacks. But, oh, Nancy, I implore you to explain +to Mrs. Moxley that hobbles don’t go in the mountains.”</p> + +<p>“She understands,” replied Nancy with much dignity. “She is going to +make me the very latest thing in mountain-climbing suits, and she gets +all her fashions straight from New York.”</p> + +<p>Her friends exchanged covert glances and said nothing. Nancy’s +conferences with Mrs. Moxley, the dressmaker, were a source of endless +amusement to them. It was Mrs. Moxley who had made Nancy’s graduating +costume that June, and never had been seen on the platform of West Haven +High School such a fashionable <i>toilette</i>. It had a hobble skirt and a +fancy little train that flopped about Nancy’s feet like a beaver’s tail, +and at the reception afterwards the boys had teased her until she left +in tears.</p> + +<p>Two weeks had passed since graduation and our Motor Maids were just +beginning to feel the results of their hard winter’s work. It had been +<span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_17' id='pg_17'>17</a></span>a tough pull to catch up with their classes after the return from +Japan. There had been no gayeties for them during the Christmas +holidays, only continuous hard study, and for weeks afterwards Billie +and Nancy and Elinor were tutored every afternoon. Mary Price, the best +student of the three, had outstripped them, and in the end had carried +off first honors and a scholarship besides. But after the excitement of +finals, the four friends had collapsed like pricked balloons. Billie, +mortified at what she considered a weakness in her character, had not +been able to throw off a deep cold contracted in the spring. Mary Price +was limp and white; Elinor had grown mortally thin, and even Nancy had +lost her roundness, and her usually plump face was peaked and pale.</p> + +<p>“My child needs mountain air!” said Mr. Campbell on one of his flying +trips to West Haven. “She must not be in a hotel, and she must have her +friends with her.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_18' id='pg_18'>18</a></span>With characteristic energy he had set to work to find a place somewhere +in the mountains, and he had made three trips before he satisfied +himself that “Sunrise Camp” in the Adirondacks, to let furnished, was +exactly what he had been searching for. The owners had gone abroad and +were glad to rent it at a low price.</p> + +<p>To “Sunrise Camp” therefore, after due preparation, Miss Helen Campbell, +the Motor Maids and Mr. Campbell, who went up to install them, departed. +At the station next day they found the “Comet,” still attired in his +blue suit acquired in Japan, in charge of a chauffeur from a nearby +hotel. Along twenty-five miles of mountainous road the faithful car +carried them, patiently climbing the last steep grade which led to a +kind of shelf in the mountain whereon stood “Sunrise Camp.”</p> + +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_19' id='pg_19'>19</a></span> +<a name='THE_CAMP_347' id='THE_CAMP_347'></a> +<h2>CHAPTER II.</h2> +<h3>THE CAMP.</h3> +</div> + +<p>“Hurrah!” cried Billie, trying to pretend that she was not at all tired +after the interminable hot journey on the train and across the +mountains.</p> + +<p>But her enthusiasm was not echoed by the others. Even Mr. Campbell, who +always felt the heat, sat silent and dejected. Billie, however, usually +endeavored to live up to her theories, and she had believed that pure +mountain air would act as an instantaneous tonic on their jaded spirits. +She was trying now to persuade herself that she was not hot and dusty +and excessively weary.</p> + +<p>They had drawn up in front of a rustic hut built of logs with the bark +left on. The roof had a graceful slant from the central peak, and over +the gallery in front was another low-hanging <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_20' id='pg_20'>20</a></span>roof like the visor of a +cap. On one side of the camp, at no great distance from the house, a +majestic army of pine trees had ranged itself in the manner of a silent +and faithful guard. At the other side, the ledge sloped down in natural, +uneven terraces to the valley far below. From the sleeping porches in +the back could be seen a broad vista of low country encircled by a wall +of mountains, now clothed in a mantle of purple shadows as the sun sank +behind the crests of the opposite range. The air was hot and sweet and +very dry, and the atmosphere vibrated with the hum of insects like the +low, steady accompaniment of stringed instruments in a great orchestra. +But at close view, it must be confessed, Nature was very dingy. The pine +trees had a rusty look and the parched earth cried out for rain.</p> + +<p>“Well, ladies, we are here,” remarked Mr. Campbell, “and I hope you’ll +find it to your several tastes.”</p> + +<p>“I am sure we will,” answered Mary politely, <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_21' id='pg_21'>21</a></span>while the others moved in +a silent procession toward the house.</p> + +<p>Miss Campbell was already wondering how long they could endure this +crude and lonely existence a hundred miles from anywhere. The contagion +of doubt had indeed spread like a plague over the entire company, and +all for the want of a bath, a supper and a good night’s rest.</p> + +<p>“Ah, here are Mr. and Mrs. Lupo,” exclaimed Mr. Campbell in a tone of +relief, as a man and woman approached down the gallery. “They are half +Indians,” he added in a low voice. “Mrs. Lupo will be cook and her +husband, guide, protector and man of all work.”</p> + +<p>Miss Campbell turned reproachful eyes upon her relative.</p> + +<p>So then they were to be left in charge of two half-breed Indians in this +wild mountainous place, while he was away. Really, men were too +incorrigible. But Mr. and Mrs. Lupo, at first glimpse, were far removed +from savages. They <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_22' id='pg_22'>22</a></span>were, apparently, like two shy, gentle animals with +dark, shining eyes, and when they spoke, which was seldom, it was almost +as if they had broken a vow of silence. Winter and summer they lived in +these high places, and only occasionally did Mrs. Lupo descend to the +valley to visit the little shops in the village and look upon the +vanities of life.</p> + +<p>“Well, Mrs. Lupo,” said Mr. Campbell, after shaking hands with the +husband and wife and properly introducing them to the others, “I trust +you have some food ready for a crowd of very hungry people. It was too +hot this afternoon to be enthusiastic about lunch at the Valley Inn and +hunger has overtaken us.”</p> + +<p>Mrs. Lupo looked gravely from one face to another but said nothing.</p> + +<p>“Supper will be ready in fifteen minutes,” answered her husband, and the +strange pair promptly and quietly disappeared.</p> + +<p>“She reminds me,” said Mary to Billie, “of one <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_23' id='pg_23'>23</a></span>of those genii in fairy +tales that appear when you want them and melt away when you have +finished with them.”</p> + +<p>“I wonder if she can cook,” was Billie’s unpoetic reply.</p> + +<p>During these brief moments they had lingered on the dusty gallery, and +now Mr. Campbell, eager as a boy for their approval, led them through +the broad opening into the only room of the camp, of which they had +caught glimpses as they waited outside. But they were quite unprepared +for its vast size, capped by the unceiled roof now fast filling with +shadows.</p> + +<p>“Why, it’s really grand,” cried Miss Campbell, with a sudden spurt of +enthusiasm. “It’s like a cathedral.”</p> + +<p>“Isn’t it fine?” answered Mr. Campbell. “I think the primeval huts must +have looked like this, and when it came time to build churches it wasn’t +a very far cry.”</p> + +<p>“I expect Mr. Primeval Man would have been <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_24' id='pg_24'>24</a></span>mighty glad to have had one +of those nice Morris chairs,” observed Billie.</p> + +<p>“It would have been good-by to cathedrals then,” answered her father. +“Mr. Primeval Man would have passed so much of his time in the easy +chair that he would never have got beyond the age of dull-edged tools.”</p> + +<p>And in this thoroughly modern primeval hut there were plenty of +inducements to be lazy. Grouped about the stone chimney of an immense +open fire-place were numerous easy chairs, and ranged against the dim +confines of the walls were quite half a dozen cots to be used by people +who might prefer to sleep indoors, Mr. Campbell explained.</p> + +<p>The heads of several deer with branching antlers looked down at them +from the walls, and on the floor in front of the fire-place was +stretched the skin of a great black bear.</p> + +<p>“Papa, I think it’s really beautiful,” exclaimed Billie, rubbing her +cheek against her father’s shoulder.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_25' id='pg_25'>25</a></span>“So do we all, Mr. Campbell,” cried the other Motor Maids.</p> + +<p>“I am delighted and relieved,” he answered, rubbing his hands together +with pleasure over their pleasure. “Better introduce Cousin Helen to +her—er bedroom now, and wash up before supper,” he added, winking and +grinning behind that little lady’s back.</p> + +<p>Anybody would approve of the big room of the camp. It was indeed a +splendid place, but how was Miss Campbell going to take to the +dormitory? A flight of rustic steps at one end led to a gallery opening +on this doubtful territory.</p> + +<p>“Oh, how delightful,” cried Billie, rushing through the door with a +great show of enthusiasm. “I have always wanted to sleep in the open and +never had a chance except that one night on the plains. Remember, Cousin +Helen? And how you did enjoy it, too!”</p> + +<p>“One night, yes, my dear, but this is for some sixty nights or more,” +answered Miss Campbell, <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_26' id='pg_26'>26</a></span>surveying a row of cots placed at intervals +along the porch. “I never slept in the room with anybody in my life +before.”</p> + +<p>“But this is not sleeping in a room. This is sleeping in the world, +under the great dome of heaven,” exclaimed Billie, laughing uneasily.</p> + +<p>“If you want privacy, you can draw a veil,” remarked Elinor, pointing to +denim curtains on poles between some of the beds.</p> + +<p>“And be alone in the world, under the great dome of heaven? Never!” +cried Miss Campbell. “But do we dress out here in sight of the entire +range of mountains? I should feel that each mountain had an eye turned +on me.”</p> + +<p>“Really, cousin, you remind me of the old lady from Skye,” ejaculated +Billie:</p> + +<p style='margin-left:2em;'>“‘There was an old lady from Skye<br /> +Who was so exceedingly shy,<br /> +When she undressed at night,<br /> +She put out the light,<br /> +For fear of the all-seeing eye.’”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_27' id='pg_27'>27</a></span>Miss Campbell so far forgot her objections as to burst out laughing, +and she was still further placated by finding at one end of the porch a +good-sized locker room, and adjoining that a bathroom.</p> + +<p>“The water comes from the top of the mountain,” announced Billie. “It’s +just piped in and doesn’t have to be pumped. Think of bathing in such +clear pure water as that. Oh, I know camping like this will be perfect!”</p> + +<p>“It may and it may not be,” observed Miss Campbell, bathing her hands +and face in some of the crystal water. “Good heavens, what’s that?” she +demanded, startled by the sound of a bugle in the twilight stillness. +The call was loud and clear, reverberating among the mountains and +coming back to them in a softened, muffled echo.</p> + +<p>“That’s Mr. Lupo blowing the supper horn,” called Mr. Campbell from the +sleeping porch below. Down they all filed and seated themselves anywhere +around a long rustic table apparently <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_28' id='pg_28'>28</a></span>loaded with food, for all the +meal had been placed upon it regardless of ceremony, and people were +expected to help themselves.</p> + +<p>“Fall to, fall to, ladies,” said Mr. Campbell, serving slices of broiled +ham until the pile of plates in front of him was reduced to one.</p> + +<p>“Let’s introduce scientific management into this business,” suggested +Billie. “With one deft movement of the arm, I’ll help each plate to +creamed potatoes, passing them along in order to Nancy, who can dish out +the baked omelette. While we are doing that Mary can serve the butter +and Elinor can pass around the biscuits. There is no labor wasted and +the food is distributed in the quickest possible time.”</p> + +<p>“What shall I be doing?” asked Miss Campbell. “I don’t see that I am +being scientifically managed.”</p> + +<p>“Yes you are,” answered Mr. Campbell with a mischievous glance at the +pretty little lady. “You are being scientifically managed by not being +allowed to do anything.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_29' id='pg_29'>29</a></span>There was a chorus of drowsy, good-natured laughter. The leavening +influence of food at a journey’s end was already beginning to take +effect. Presently Mr. Lupo came in with a tray of cups and saucers and a +pot of steaming hot coffee, and Mrs. Lupo, silent and soft of foot, +placed four tall wooden candlesticks on the table, the light from the +tallow candles shedding a yellow glow on their faces.</p> + +<p>“Excuse me,” said Mary, rising, after the hungry company had cleared up +everything before them, “I want to go to the end of the room and see +what we look like. I feel as if we were making a picture somebody ought +to see. We are,” she called presently from the far end of the vast +apartment. “You’ve no idea how picturesque you look around that dark +wooden table with those candles and the blue water pitcher and the +pewter coffee pot.”</p> + +<p>“And the empty omelette dish,” called Billie.</p> + +<p>“And only one biscuit left,” added Elinor.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_30' id='pg_30'>30</a></span>“I’ve no doubt Mr. Rembrandt would have painted us just so,” said Mr. +Campbell.</p> + +<p>“And called it ‘The Guild of The Globe Trotters’,” Miss Campbell was +saying, when Mary gave a low exclamation of surprise. In order not to +obstruct the beautiful view across the valley, the rustic porch had not +been enclosed with screens, but the openings into the living room were +screened, and, standing just outside the broad door, Mary saw a man +peering into the room.</p> + +<p>“I beg your pardon,” he said, “I am afraid I frightened you. I was lost +on the side of the mountain, and when I saw the light in the camp I +thought I would stop and ask the way.”</p> + +<p>“Come in, won’t you?” said Mr. Campbell hospitably. “Have you had your +supper?”</p> + +<p>“I am afraid not,” answered the stranger with a short laugh.</p> + +<p>“Mrs. Lupo, will you get this gentleman some supper?” called Mr. +Campbell, while Miss Campbell, <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_31' id='pg_31'>31</a></span>almost lost in one of the big chairs, +was wondering if this were the etiquette of campers, and if they would +be expected to take in strangers after Duncan had departed.</p> + +<p>“Sit down,” went on the incorrigible Duncan. “We only arrived ourselves +an hour ago, and we are hardly familiar with the house yet, but there is +plenty of room. Won’t you stop over night? My name is Campbell.”</p> + +<p>“My name is St. Clair,” answered the stranger. “I live in a place called +West Haven. Ever hear of it?”</p> + +<p>“Percy St. Clair!” cried the girls and Miss Helen. “Where did you come +from?”</p> + +<p>“The scheme worked pretty well, eh, Percy?” laughed Mr. Campbell, after +the young man, their old friend and playmate, had shaken hands all +around and insisted on hugging Miss Campbell. “I thought I would keep +you as a surprise. Where’s the motor cycle?”</p> + +<p>“It’s outside. I walked it up the last climb.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_32' id='pg_32'>32</a></span>“Did you have any trouble finding the way?”</p> + +<p>“Considerable. That’s why I’m so late. A fellow told me the wrong road, +and I was lost for a while and had a foolish adventure besides.”</p> + +<p>“What was it? What was it?” they demanded.</p> + +<p>Percy seated himself at the supper table, while Nancy poured out his +coffee and Billie served him with ham and eggs.</p> + +<p>“Well, I asked a man the way and he said, ‘Are you a doctor?’ I said, +‘Not yet, but soon.’ Then he showed me a road and told me there was a +very sick woman in a house at the top, and would I call and see what +could be done. You may imagine my feelings when I found that the road +led straight to an old ruined hotel, and there wasn’t a human being in +it as far as I could see nor any sign of one. So I got on my cycle and +went back down the mountain until I found a sign board that put me on +the right track again. But it was queer, wasn’t it, and rather uncanny, +too.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_33' id='pg_33'>33</a></span>It was a strange experience, and after supper they sat under the stars +discussing it until bedtime, and came to the conclusion that Percy had +met a crazy man.</p> + +<p>Never had Miss Helen Campbell slept so well as she did that night on the +sleeping porch. Toward morning there came a quiet life-giving rain that +freshened the parched earth and brought out the pungency of the pine +trees. Only Mary knew of the shower and of the soft wind that followed +just before dawn, bearing with it the fragrance of the wet woods. Only +Mary saw the miracle of the dawn; first the faint flush of pink; then a +deep rosy blush; next, rays of orange and gold, and at last the sun +bursting into view. It was Mary who softly let down the bamboo blinds to +keep out the sunlight and who finally slipped back to bed and went to +sleep with the songs of innumerable forest birds in her ears.</p> + +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_34' id='pg_34'>34</a></span> +<a name='RULES_AND_REGULATIONS_635' id='RULES_AND_REGULATIONS_635'></a> +<h2>CHAPTER III.</h2> +<h3>RULES AND REGULATIONS.</h3> +</div> + +<p>At six o’clock they were awakened by a long, melodious trumpet call. The +vigorous tripping melody drove the sleep from their brains like a dash +of cold water. Billie found herself sitting up in bed humming:</p> + +<p style='margin-left:2em;'>“‘Oh, come to the stable,<br /> +As soon as you’re able<br /> +And feed the horses grain.<br /> +If you don’t do it<br /> +The Captain will know it<br /> +And raise particular Cain.’”</p> + +<p>It was an energetic summons to rise and view a fresh and beautiful +world, and Billie, glancing at her watch, was aware that, as a +concession to new arrivals, the summons had come half an <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_35' id='pg_35'>35</a></span>hour later +than scheduled. Half-past five was to be the hour for rising in camp, +provided the ladies were willing. And certainly they showed no signs of +unwillingness at the six o’clock call. Miss Campbell glanced placidly +down the line of white cots. Then she inhaled a breath of the delicious +air.</p> + +<p>“In all my life I never slept as I did last night,” she announced. “Did +somebody put sleeping drops in my coffee, I wonder?”</p> + +<p>“I fancy the sleeping drops fell in the night in the form of showers,” +observed Mary from her cot at the end of the line. “There was no storm, +just one of those quiet steady rains, and I never saw people sleep so +hard. I thought you were all dead until I heard Miss Campbell——” Mary +paused and blushed. “That is, until I heard some one breathing very +heavily.”</p> + +<p>“Now, Mary Price, don’t tell me you heard me snore. I never did such a +thing in my life,” cried Miss Campbell.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_36' id='pg_36'>36</a></span>With a laugh, Billie leapt from her bed and ran to take a cold plunge +in the mountain water which gurgled from the faucet with the pleasant +song it had not left off singing when it leaped out of the side of the +rock into the pipe.</p> + +<p>At seven o’clock came the clarion call for breakfast: inviting and +persuasive it was, with a lingering last note that fell softly on the +ear and gradually died into discreet silence.</p> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width:354px'> +<a name='illus-001' id='illus-001'></a> +<img src='images/illus-037.png' alt='' title='' width='354' /><br /> +</div> + +<p>“Mr. Lupo blows the horn with so much expression,” said Elinor. “I +really think he must have had long experience in summoning people to +breakfast who were never ready. He’ll be giving ‘Weber’s Invitation to +the Dance’ for dinner, I suppose.”</p> + +<p>They had finished their morning toilets in the locker room, and were +about to go downstairs <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_37' id='pg_37'>37</a></span>when something tapped against one of the bamboo +blinds. Billie promptly drew it up and looked into the clearing below.</p> + +<p>“Who’s tapping at our chamber door?” she demanded.</p> + +<p>A long fishing pole on which dangled five little nosegays made of ferns +and grasses and wild asters was thrust at her. “Why, Algernon Percival,” +she called. “I never dreamed you were so energetic.”</p> + +<p>“Not guilty,” answered that young man’s voice from the lower porch. +“When the bugle sounded just now, I was taking a shower bath. I’m still +busy, but it doesn’t take long to get into camping clothes. Who is the +only person we know who would get up at dawn and go tramping off for +wild flowers?”</p> + +<p>A tall, lanky figure stepped out from the shadow of the gallery and +lifted his handsome, thoughtful face up to the girls leaning over the +railing.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_38' id='pg_38'>38</a></span>“Why, it’s Ben Austen,” they cried. “Dear old Ben, when did you come?”</p> + +<p>“Last night at ten o’clock,” he answered. “The ’bus wouldn’t come up +from the village at that hour, so I walked. It was great. How are all of +you?” he added, wiggling the nosegays in front of their noses.</p> + +<p>“We’re as fine as silk,” answered Billie, with a happy laugh. “And it’s +such fun that you and Percy are here. Papa kept it a secret so as to +surprise us, I suppose.”</p> + +<p>“I hope it’s a pleasant surprise.”</p> + +<p>“The jolliest kind,” they cried, running downstairs at the second call +to breakfast.</p> + +<p>Those of you who have read the first volume of this series, “The Motor +Maids’ School Days,” will recall Percy St. Clair and Ben Austen, two +West Haven boys who were great friends of the girls during that winter +when Billie Campbell and her red car first made their appearance in the +town. Percy, in the transition from boyhood <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_39' id='pg_39'>39</a></span>to manhood, has changed +very little. He is of medium height, and his handsome fair face still +flushes like a schoolgirl’s, to his great annoyance. Ben, at nineteen, +is six feet tall. His face has developed since we knew him some years +ago. His features are large and regular, his dark eyes filled with +serious intent, and a mop of curly black hair covers his head like a +thick cap.</p> + +<p>Downstairs they found Mr. Campbell pouring for himself a cup of coffee. +The camp table was never to be set for breakfast, but the dishes were to +be piled at one end and the food at the other, and each camper was to +help himself to what he chose. There was a good deal of laughing and +scrambling at this morning meal. It started everybody off in a good +humor, and in time it became the hour for jokes and absurdities that +will never die out as long as there are boys and girls enough to keep +them alive.</p> + +<p>After they had disposed of quantities of very good food, at least it +seemed good to mountain <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_40' id='pg_40'>40</a></span>appetites, Mr. Campbell took a sheet of letter +paper from his pocket and rapped for quiet.</p> + +<p>“Young people, I want to read you a few rules which must be obeyed if +camp is to be run on a military basis, the only way a camp can be +successfully conducted. Here they are:</p> + +<p class='center'>“‘RULES FOR SUNRISE CAMP.</p> + +<div style='font-style: italic'> +<p>“‘Unless physically unable, all persons must appear at breakfast +promptly at six-thirty. Penalty for not appearing—general housework for +a day.</p> + +<p>“‘Every camper, except Captain Helen E. Campbell, must make his own bed +and keep his part of the dormitory in first rate order.</p> + +<p>“‘There will be inspection twice a week by Captain H. E. Campbell.’”</p> +</div> + +<p>Miss Campbell bowed her head in acknowledgment of the honor.</p> + +<div style='font-style: italic'> +<p>“‘Dinner at twelve-thirty, unless picnics interfere.</p> + +<p>“‘Supper at six.</p> +</div> + +<div><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_41' id='pg_41'>41</a></span></div> +<p class='smcap center'>“‘Sub-rules for Women Members.</p> + +<div style='font-style: italic'> +<p>“‘Females unattended or with each other are expressly forbidden to +wander off bounds; that is, off the three trails which pass near this +camp.</p> + +<p>“‘Picnics are forbidden without male attendants.’”</p> +</div> + +<p>“Dear me,” interrupted Billie, “aren’t there any laws for the men to +follow? These are all against women.”</p> + +<p>“They are merely for your protection, my dear.”</p> + +<p>“That’s what the men always say when they begin to trample on women’s +rights,” declared Billie.</p> + +<p>“All right, Miss Suffragette, just wait a minute. There’ll be a few for +the men.</p> + +<p class='center'><span class='smcap'>“‘Sub-rules for Women Members</span>—<i>Continued</i>.</p> + +<p><i>“‘Hobble skirts are forbidden.’”</i> Mr. Campbell gave a jovial wink and +glanced at Nancy.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_42' id='pg_42'>42</a></span><i>“‘Any individual who introduces a Parisian Alpine climbing suit into +camp must pay the penalty by being made to climb a mountain in it.’”</i></p> + +<p>“Now, you know that’s not on the list. You’re making it up,” exclaimed +Nancy, blushing.</p> + +<p><i>“‘The tail feather of a pheasant is not recommended as trimming for a +camp hat,’”</i> he went on blandly.</p> + +<p><i>“‘No woman member is permitted to wear a lavender silk polonaise with +lace ruffles.’”</i></p> + +<p>“<i>Polonaise?</i>” cried Miss Campbell. “What on earth are you talking +about, Duncan? Do you mean negligée?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, excuse my ignorance. I thought it was called <i>polonaise</i>,” he +answered humbly.</p> + +<p>“Polonaise,” exclaimed the little lady, amid a wild whoop of laughter. +“It’s a good thing you brought your daughter to a woman member to have +her education finished. Goodness me!”</p> + +<p>“Dearest Papa,” said Billie, kissing him, “don’t you wear negligée +shirts most all the time? It’s the same thing.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_43' id='pg_43'>43</a></span>“I thought all ladies wore <i>polonaises</i>,” insisted Mr. Campbell. “It +certainly was the fashion in my youth, at any rate.”</p> + +<p>“Fashions change with the times and manners, my boy,” said Miss +Campbell. “But do give us the rules for the men of this household before +you forget it.”</p> + +<p class='smcap center'>“‘Sub-rules for Men Members.</p> + +<p><i>“‘Men are required to look after the wants of the ladies and see that +they obey their set of rules to the letter.’”</i></p> + +<p>“And is that all?” demanded the women members with a great show of +indignation. “Why, we have no rights at all and they have everything!”</p> + +<p>“No indeed, children,” answered Mr. Campbell. “When a man is required to +look after the wants of five ladies, he at once gives up all rights of +his own and becomes a slave. There is no need of making any more rules +for the men, but there is one more rule for general obedience.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_44' id='pg_44'>44</a></span><i>“‘All questions and disputes arising shall be settled by Helen Eustace +Campbell, Captain of Sunrise Camp.’”</i></p> + +<p>“Three cheers for Captain Campbell,” cried Percy.</p> + +<p>Miss Campbell rose and lifted her little crinkled hand for silence.</p> + +<p>“I accept the responsibility of Sunrise Camp,” she said, “under the +conditions I am about to state: that I am not asked to go canoeing in +one of those tippy little boats without seats; that I am not persuaded +against my better judgment to climb to the top of a mountain, for I +simply won’t, I tell you beforehand; and that nothing shall interfere +with my afternoon nap.”</p> + +<p>“I am sure that these mild requests will be agreeable to all concerned,” +said Mr. Campbell. “Will the company state objections, if any?”</p> + +<p>There was a dead silence.</p> + +<p>“Captain Campbell, consider yourself installed as absolute ruler in this +camp.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_45' id='pg_45'>45</a></span>“Papa, why be so businesslike?” asked Billie.</p> + +<p>“Because there must always be a certain amount of system in a camp or it +won’t run. I’ve lived in camp so much more than in houses that I know, +and since I can’t be with you until later, I think it wise to get things +started in this way before I go——”</p> + +<p>“The car is ready, sir,” said the village chauffeur at the door.</p> + +<p>The Motor Maids had begun to learn by this time that it was invariably +Mr. Campbell’s way to leave his guests in a cheerful frame of mind, and +they all knew perfectly well that “Rules for Sunrise Camp” had been +prepared chiefly for Billie’s sake, that she would be still laughing +when her father kissed her good-by and still smiling when he turned to +wave his hat for the last time. She had been very homesick for him +lately during his absences from West Haven, perhaps because she had been +run down in health and tired out. And to-day, in spite of all the +<span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_46' id='pg_46'>46</a></span>laughing and joking, her eyes filled with tears as she watched the car +creep down the mountain road to the valley.</p> + +<p>For a little while the camp seemed lonely and remote.</p> + +<p>“The truth is,” thought Mary, wandering down the path to look at the +view, “Mr. Campbell is so splendid that when he goes away he always +leaves a big empty space that doesn’t seem to fill up. And Billie is +just like him. Nobody ever could fill the emptiness she would leave.”</p> + +<p>As if drawn by these loyal and devoted thoughts, Billie had followed +Mary, and the two girls stood with clasped hands watching the distant +motor, now a black speck in the valley.</p> + +<p>“Dearest, dearest Papa,” exclaimed Billie under her breath, as the tears +welled into her eyes and slipped down her cheeks.</p> + +<p>Mary pressed close to her side with silent sympathy.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_47' id='pg_47'>47</a></span>Presently Billie wiped her eyes and began to smile.</p> + +<p>“Don’t tell on me, Mary dear. I’m just like a foolish little girl. But I +do love Papa so, and sometimes I can’t bear to have him leave me. Then I +wish I had been born his twin brother and we never could be separated.”</p> + +<p>Mary was about to dispute this argument on the grounds that marriage +would have separated them, when they noticed coming up the steep road a +small bony horse drawing a little cart. A girl was walking at one side, +holding the reins. She wore a broad-brimmed jimmy hat and an old gingham +dress faded to a soft mellowed pink. The two girls watched her with +admiration as she swung along the road, swaying slightly at the waist +like one who had adopted the easiest way of walking up hill. They were +so intent upon her that they hardly noticed the blackberries and +vegetables in the back of the cart.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_48' id='pg_48'>48</a></span>Presently the girl paused and turned her beautiful dark blue eyes on +them without any embarrassment.</p> + +<p>“Want to buy any vegetables?” she asked.</p> + +<p>“Perhaps they will up at the camp,” said Billie. “Ask Mrs. Lupo.”</p> + +<p>The mountain girl looked at her strangely and shook her head.</p> + +<p>“Do you know Mrs. Lupo?” asked Billie.</p> + +<p>“Yes, but I will not ask her.”</p> + +<p>“Very well, I’ll buy something myself. What have you got?”</p> + +<p>“Blackberries, onions and beets.”</p> + +<p>Billie bought a pail of berries.</p> + +<p>“You had better come up to the camp and let me empty them,” she said.</p> + +<p>“Keep the pail,” answered the mountain girl, and swung on up the road, +flicking the little old horse with a long switch.</p> + +<p>Billie and Mary followed with the berries, which they presently left in +the kitchen where Mrs. Lupo was working.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_49' id='pg_49'>49</a></span>“I bought these from a mountain girl, Mrs. Lupo,” said Billie.</p> + +<p>The woman went on working without looking up. Billie repeated what she +had said. There was still no answer, and the girls went out of the +kitchen somewhat disconcerted.</p> + +<p>“She’s a queer, shy creature,” said Billie, and thought no more about +it.</p> + +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_50' id='pg_50'>50</a></span> +<a name='TABLE_TOP_956' id='TABLE_TOP_956'></a> +<h2>CHAPTER IV.</h2> +<h3>TABLE TOP.</h3> +</div> + +<p>Miss Campbell was quite willing to trust her brood with Ben Austen.</p> + +<p>“He was always reliable,” she remarked. “When he was a baby, his mother +could depend on him not to cry at the wrong time, although, of course, +he was only human.”</p> + +<p>On the whole, she was relieved that her cousin had asked Ben to make +them a visit. Mr. Lupo was all very well and had guided their walking +parties up the trails, or, seated beside Billie in the “Comet,” had +pointed out good roads for motoring; but Miss Campbell did not consider +him as entirely to be trusted, because, as you probably recall, she +never liked mixed bloods nor mixed colors, either.</p> + +<p>Some days after their arrival, when they had <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_51' id='pg_51'>51</a></span>quite recovered from that +unconquerable disposition to sleep, which always attacks lowlanders +visiting the mountains, Billie proposed that they take a walking trip +across a tableland which separated their mountain from the one behind, +and finally scale the peak beyond, where the view, it was said, was +magnificent.</p> + +<p>“Let’s go to-day while the spirit moves us and it’s so delightfully +cool,” she suggested at breakfast.</p> + +<p>“But Mr. Lupo isn’t here,” objected Miss Campbell. “He’s gone to the +village.”</p> + +<p>“We know the way, don’t we, Ben? Mr. Lupo showed us the trail yesterday. +Most of it goes through the woods. It’s only two miles across ‘Table +Top’ and then we get to the other mountain. I’m wild to go. I’m +beginning to feel shut in, and I want to see what’s on the other side of +this Chinese wall.”</p> + +<p>“More Chinese walls,” observed Ben gravely.</p> + +<p>“Mr. Lupo is such a restraining influence,” put <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_52' id='pg_52'>52</a></span>in Nancy. “When he’s +along, we have no real conversation.”</p> + +<p>“He is a kind of a wet blanket,” observed Percy. “You never know whether +he has heard you or not. You generally have a feeling he has, but that +your remarks are too trivial for comment.”</p> + +<p>“All of which means,” said Miss Campbell, “that you want to go off for +the day without a guide.”</p> + +<p>“Please, Cousin Helen,” pleaded Billie.</p> + +<p>“Dear Miss Campbell, won’t you let us?” cried the other Motor Maids.</p> + +<p>“Not because that feather-top Percy is with you, but because Ben is +here, I suppose I might as well consent,” said Miss Campbell.</p> + +<p>“Old Ben is just as much of a feather-top as I am, Miss Campbell,” +protested Percy. “He deceives people because he looks like an Indian. +I’ve got a serious mind underneath all this curl and color.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_53' id='pg_53'>53</a></span>“I don’t believe it,” answered Miss Campbell. “But I wouldn’t have you +changed, my boy. I like you as you are.”</p> + +<p>After this two-sided compliment, they took it for granted that consent +had been given and Billie rushed off to see Mrs. Lupo about the lunch.</p> + +<p>They had come to learn during that first week in camp that Mrs. Lupo was +a law unto herself. For one thing, the blackberries that Billie had +purchased of the mountain girl had never come to the table, although the +girls kept looking for them to appear in the form of a cobbler or a +roly-poly pudding. What had become of them they never learned, but +Billie had an uncomfortable suspicion that they had been tossed into the +garbage pail.</p> + +<p>“We can’t do anything about it, my dear,” Miss Campbell had informed +Billie. “The woman certainly holds us in the hollow of her hand unless +we want to do our own cooking.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_54' id='pg_54'>54</a></span>Billie smiled. Miss Campbell was never known to boil a kettleful of +water, let alone cook a meal. If there was any culinary work to be done +the Motor Maids would do it, and Miss Campbell might possibly arrange +the salt cellars or offer to go over the silver with a polishing cloth.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Lupo dumbly acquiesced to the lunch.</p> + +<p>“We will be glad to make the sandwiches, Mrs. Lupo,” said Billie +timidly. “Please let us have some cold meat. I suppose there is plenty +of bread? Will you hard-boil a dozen eggs?”</p> + +<p>Mrs. Lupo rarely replied to any question addressed to her, but she went +about getting the things for the lunch and Billie breathed a sigh of +silent thanks.</p> + +<p>“It’s really terrible to be a slave to one’s cook,” she thought. “But I +know perfectly well that if I ever tried to subjugate Mrs. Lupo I’d get +mad, and she would just fold her tent like the Arab and silently steal +away, and one morning there would be no breakfast.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_55' id='pg_55'>55</a></span>Billie had tried several methods with Mrs. Lupo. She had said good +morning with a polite smile, but received no response. Once she had +added:</p> + +<p>“How do you feel this morning, Mrs. Lupo?”</p> + +<p>A dead silence had followed this courteous inquiry.</p> + +<p>“Wires crossed,” Percy had cried. “Try again, Central.”</p> + +<p>They had all laughed at this witticism and Billie had hoped Mrs. Lupo +had not understood.</p> + +<p>“If you had lived in the mountains all your life I guess you wouldn’t be +very communicative, either,” she had admonished Percy, after Mrs. Lupo +had glided noiselessly out of the room.</p> + +<p>“I guess I wouldn’t miss a call,” answered Percy. “If there was any one +to call, I wouldn’t hang up the receiver.”</p> + +<p>There were times, however, when Billie could scarcely conceal her +irritation, and this morning nothing went quite as she had planned.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_56' id='pg_56'>56</a></span>There was only enough bread for a dozen sandwiches and there were only +six eggs.</p> + +<p>“But I said a dozen eggs, Mrs. Lupo,” she said, after she had sliced and +buttered the bread and glancing up saw six eggs cooling in a pan. “You +know we are going to take a long walk across Table Top to Indian Head.”</p> + +<p>The silence was profound.</p> + +<p>“And we need more bread. Will you get me another loaf, please?”</p> + +<p>No reply. Mrs. Lupo was quietly stringing beans on a bench by the door +of the lean-to which served the camp as a kitchen.</p> + +<p>“Did you hear what I asked?” demanded Billie.</p> + +<p>Nancy and Mary, placing ham between the slices of bread, looked up +quickly, half amused and half frightened.</p> + +<p>“Did you hear me ask you a question, Mrs. Lupo?” repeated Billie, +exasperated beyond endurance.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Lupo went on stringing beans.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_57' id='pg_57'>57</a></span>Brandishing the long carving knife, Billie went over and stood in front +of the strange woman. Percy, peeping through the half open door, was +grinning, and Nancy stifled a giggle.</p> + +<p>“When I speak to you I expect an answer, Mrs. Lupo,” said Billie, trying +to keep her voice smooth and even. “Now, answer me at once.”</p> + +<p>Mrs. Lupo looked up mildly surprised.</p> + +<p>“There ain’t no more bread and there ain’t no more eggs,” she said, in a +voice that sounded like an echo.</p> + +<p>Billie went back to her work without a word, and later, when they had +started on the walk with the small allowance of lunch packed in a candy +box, Percy teased her and called her the javelin thrower.</p> + +<p>“I <i>was</i> almost tempted to pitch it at her,” said Billie. “She is the +most aggravating human being I ever saw. I’ll certainly never address +another word to her, but it’s so hard to remember not to be agreeable.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_58' id='pg_58'>58</a></span>The placid depths of Billie’s amiable nature had been so stirred by the +incident that it took her some time to calm down, and she went blindly +along the trail following Ben without seeing anything or anybody.</p> + +<p>“Don’t let her jar you, Billie,” said Ben, soothingly. “If you want to +forget your troubles, just have a look at Nancy-Bell. She looks like a +fashion plate lady standing on the top of Mont Blanc.”</p> + +<p>Nancy had disappeared just when they were ready to start and kept them +waiting fifteen minutes, which had also served to aggravate Billie’s +ruffled temper.</p> + +<p>“Goodness me,” exclaimed Billie, laughing, “the child has put on her new +walking costume made by Delosia Moxley’s mother! When the climbing part +comes, what will she do, Ben?”</p> + +<p>Ben shook his head doubtfully.</p> + +<p>“How do you like it, Billie dear?” asked Nancy in a honeyed tone, +noticing her friend’s backward glances.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_59' id='pg_59'>59</a></span>“It’s awfully pretty, Nancy. Lovely color, but——”</p> + +<p>“You see, the skirt’s quite broad,” interrupted Nancy, anticipating +objections and endeavoring to spread the skirt to the full limit of its +yard and a quarter.</p> + +<p>“Just about as broad as one trouser leg,” teased Ben.</p> + +<p>Nancy ignored the remark, and the pheasant’s feather in her hat seemed +to quiver with indignation.</p> + +<p>“Where’s the crook?” asked Mary politely.</p> + +<p>“I’m her crook,” put in Percy. “You’ll find she’ll be using me as a +staff presently when she has to take a step six inches instead of five.”</p> + +<p>“We’ll be carrying her yet,” Ben predicted.</p> + +<p>“I think you are all perfectly horrid,” ejaculated Nancy, who indeed +looked as pretty as a picture in the blue velveteen. There was the coral +tie at her throat, as she had planned, and perched on her curls was the +jauntiest little hat <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_60' id='pg_60'>60</a></span>imaginable that served only to keep the sun off +the top of her head and was no protection whatever to her tip-tilted +freckled nose. Mary and Elinor wore jimmies bought in the village, and +Billie wore no hat at all.</p> + +<p>“No, we aren’t, Nancy dear. We’re just teasing,” said Billie. “You look +sweet, but why have you never worn it before?”</p> + +<p>“To tell the truth, I was afraid of the scorn of Mr. Lupo,” said Nancy. +“All of you are just like a family, so it didn’t matter, but Mr. Lupo +might have thought me, well—an amateur. I’ve been dying to wear it,” +she added, giving a dance step and looking down with pride at the +snug-fitting skirt. “Of course, I know the skirt is a bit narrow. You +know how Mrs. Moxley is,—just determined to have her own way. It was +all I could do to get her to put the extra quarter of a yard in the +skirt. But I think I can manage it if we don’t walk too fast. There is +so much level ground on this walk, too,—all that table land, you know.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_61' id='pg_61'>61</a></span>Ben gave a covert smile and the others laughed openly.</p> + +<p>“You funny child,” said Billie. “It’s really beautiful to see a person +enjoy clothes like that. You look sweet enough to charm a snake, and if +the walking is too stiff, we’ll just carry you.”</p> + +<p>“So far so good,” said Ben, “but on the other side of Table Top there’ll +be some climb.”</p> + +<p>Nancy did not hear this prediction.</p> + +<p>So far, indeed, the trail was a broad and honest path leading through +the pine forest; but after a while, as it descended toward the +tableland, it grew so narrow as to be imperceptible to everybody but +Ben, whose eyes, trained by long months of camping and vacation walking +trips, could pick out the faintest indication of a path where the others +saw nothing at all.</p> + +<p>It was well past noon when at last they arrived at a scooped out area of +land between the two mountains, connecting them half way to their +summit, like the web foot of a duck.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_62' id='pg_62'>62</a></span>Here, hungry and tired, they paused for lunch, and somehow, two +sandwiches and a boiled egg apiece didn’t seem to go very far.</p> + +<p>“I have to apologize,” said Billie. “There was nothing in the camp to +eat. I suppose that’s why Mr. Lupo made his mysterious visit to the +village: to get supplies.”</p> + +<p>“I’m thankful it’s all gone and there is no more,” announced Percy. +“It’s something less to carry,” he added, tying a cord around Nancy’s +coat and his own and hanging them over his back like a peddler’s pack.</p> + +<p>“Be still,” whispered Elinor, raising a warning hand, “I was certain I +heard music off in that direction.”</p> + +<p>The six friends sat silently listening for strains of music. In the +stillness of the forest they heard nothing but the songs of the birds, +broken occasionally by the caw of a crow or the tapping of a woodpecker. +But it was good to stop chattering for a while in this peaceful place, +and <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_63' id='pg_63'>63</a></span>Billie, lying on her back looking up into the interlacing branches +of the trees, smiled happily.</p> + +<p>How could she have been out of humor when just at their very doorstep +lay the most wonderful enchanted forest? It would not be easy to recall +silly domestic troubles in the midst of all this beauty.</p> + +<p>“Curious. I was certain I heard the sound of some instrument like a +mandolin or a zither,” said Elinor. “It was just one strain, almost as +if the wind had blown over an aeolian harp.”</p> + +<p>“It was fairy music,” put in Mary.</p> + +<p>“Like enough,” said Ben; “and we had better be moving on,” he added, +rising and leading the way. “The fairies don’t like human ears to hear +their music and they might be playing tricks on us. Then we’d be in the +deuce of a fix out in the wilderness.”</p> + +<p>“They don’t mind at all,” said Mary. “You’re entirely mistaken, Ben. You +are thinking of elves. The fairies are kind little people who never harm +anyone.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_64' id='pg_64'>64</a></span>They had been walking for some time when they heard cries behind them.</p> + +<p>“Help! Help!” screamed the voice of Nancy from around a curve in the +trail.</p> + +<p>“What did I tell you,” said Ben, running back with the others to see +what had happened, and then bursting into a perfect roar of laughter.</p> + +<p>There was Percy in the act of killing a long black snake, which was +curled up with head thrust out in an attitude of defence, and there was +Nancy, who had evidently started to run and, missing the trail, had +rushed into a tall clump of bramble bushes. The brambles had wrapped +themselves about her like the tentacles of an octopus, and the jaunty +feather was caught in an overhanging branch.</p> + +<p>“Don’t kill the snake, Percy,” objected Ben. “There are lots more just +like him, and it won’t help any to kill one. Besides, they never start a +quarrel.”</p> + +<p>“All right, old S. P. C. A.,” said Percy, as <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_65' id='pg_65'>65</a></span>relieved as the snake, +which immediately glided off into the bushes as if it had actually +understood that Ben was making a plea for its life.</p> + +<p>With subdued giggles they released Nancy from the clutches of the +brambles. The feather was broken in half and dragged dejectedly over the +crown of her hat, and there was a long scratch across her left cheek.</p> + +<p>“Do you remember Jim Phipps in the Fourth Grade, Ben,” began Percy, +pointing to Nancy’s hat. “Do you remember the poem called ‘Absalom’ he +recited? That is, he began it but he never got any farther than the +first line, because he started out by saying, ‘Abalsom, my son +Abalsom.’”</p> + +<p>The laugh was against Nancy, but she took it good-naturedly and joined +in, while she broke the feather in half and left the lower end standing +up in the band in a straight cockade.</p> + +<p>And now the path, although it was on level ground, seemed to grow more +and more difficult. <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_66' id='pg_66'>66</a></span>Ben, glancing behind him, doubtfully remarked:</p> + +<p>“As long as there are only two miles of this, I suppose we can stand it, +but if any person feels tired, sing out and we’ll start back without +trying to make Indian Head.”</p> + +<p>“We are all right,” they assured him.</p> + +<p>For a long time they walked on in silence. The ground was soft and +squashy under foot, and Billie privately believed that the trail lay +only in Ben’s imagination.</p> + +<p>“Ben,” she said at last. “I think maybe we had better start back. We +don’t seem to be getting anywhere, and this ground is like a sponge.”</p> + +<p>Silently they turned their faces in the other direction, feeling all at +once chilled and tired and hungry. Ben, leading the way with Billie, +began to look serious.</p> + +<p>“Billie,” he said in a low voice after a while, “I am afraid I am not +worthy the confidence Miss Campbell has placed in me. I am afraid I’ll +have to confess that we are lost.”</p> + +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_67' id='pg_67'>67</a></span> +<a name='IN_THE_BOG_1308' id='IN_THE_BOG_1308'></a> +<h2>CHAPTER V.</h2> +<h3>IN THE BOG.</h3> +</div> + +<p>It was not an unique experience to Billie to be lost. She had once known +what it was to be out of sight of every human habitation on a Western +plain, and furthermore half dead with hunger and thirst. You will recall +how the “Comet” once carried the Motor Maids safely over an old wagon +trail through a tropical forest in Florida, and perhaps also you have +not forgotten how Billie and Mary Price were lost in the sacred groves +of Nikko in Japan. Therefore, Billie was not in the least frightened +when Ben confided to her private ear that he had missed the trail.</p> + +<p>“We can’t be very much lost,” she answered. “‘Table Top’ is only two +miles broad, and we’ll have to reach one side or the other pretty soon.”</p> + +<p>“I hope so,” said Ben, “but don’t tell the others <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_68' id='pg_68'>68</a></span>yet. If they lose +confidence in me, it will only make matters worse. I wasn’t prepared for +this bog. I should think Mr. Lupo might have mentioned it.”</p> + +<p>“There couldn’t be a trail through a bog anyhow, could there?”</p> + +<p>“Sometimes there is. I’ve seen a swamp with just a narrow path running +through it. But a swamp path is the sneakiest kind of a trail. It hides +itself wherever it can under tall grasses and bushes. Of course, Mr. +Lupo didn’t know we were going, or he would certainly have stopped us, +but do you suppose Mrs. Lupo understood we were taking this particular +trail?”</p> + +<p>“She certainly did. I told her myself just before I drew the knife on +her.”</p> + +<p>Ben smiled at the mental picture of Billie brandishing a carving knife.</p> + +<p>“Hey, Ben,” called Percy. “Is this a trail? I think it’s a channel. I’m +up to my knees.”</p> + +<p>Ben made no reply. He was deeply mortified, <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_69' id='pg_69'>69</a></span>and hung his head with a +kind of animal-like humiliation.</p> + +<p>“What’s the matter, old man?” demanded Percy, putting his arm +affectionately on his friend’s shoulder. “You look like my collie did +when I caught him sucking eggs.”</p> + +<p>“I’ve missed the trail,” Ben burst out with a choke in his voice.</p> + +<p>The others had gathered around now. Their shoes were wet, their +stockings torn with brambles, and their skirts splattered and stained +with grasses and the juices of wild berries. But they were a valiant +little company, even Mary Price, the weakest and frailest among them, +and the sight of Ben’s unhappiness and remorse only added to their +courage.</p> + +<p>“It’s all right, Ben,” said Elinor. “We’ll find the trail again. We’re +obliged to. There is the mountain right over there. Why not walk until +we get to it?”</p> + +<p>“I’m afraid it looks nearer than it is,” said <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_70' id='pg_70'>70</a></span>Ben, “and besides, it’s +not Sunrise Mountain. It’s Indian Head. I thought some time ago we were +getting well away from it, but these infernal bogs are so deceiving.”</p> + +<p>“I move we start on,” put in Billie, briskly. “We’re obliged to get +somewhere some time.”</p> + +<p>“I’ll put it to the vote, then,” announced Ben. “Shall we go toward +Indian Head or Sunrise? We are nearer to Indian Head, and we may strike +a farm and hire a horse and wagon to take us home.”</p> + +<p>This seemed a good suggestion, and they accordingly turned their faces +toward the mountain, the rugged outline of which resembled the profile +of an Indian.</p> + +<p>Anything to get on solid dry land again was the unspoken thought of the +six friends. Once on dry surfaces and out of the level treacherous +monotony of the bog, they felt they might be equal to anything. For +nearly two hours they worked their way through the morass without +<span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_71' id='pg_71'>71</a></span>making any apparent progress toward the mountain. And now the sun was +sinking behind the Western range. Ben watched the lessening rays with +feelings very much like despair.</p> + +<p>“If I had been alone or with some of the fellows it wouldn’t have +mattered,” he thought, “but with the girls——”</p> + +<p>In a little while Table Top took on the appearance of a vast plain shut +in by high walls. It was a weird, lonely place.</p> + +<p>“It reminds me of the Valley of the Shadow of Death in ‘Pilgrim’s +Progress’,” Mary whispered to Ben, who was helping her over the rough, +uneven ground. “Don’t you remember the Wilderness that Christian had to +pass through before he reached the Celestial City?”</p> + +<p>“I’m afraid I never read ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’,” Ben confessed in +grief-stricken tones, “but I can see what you mean, and the white mist +that’s rolling in looks like a troop of spirits.”</p> + +<p>“Would any person or persons care to hear me <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_72' id='pg_72'>72</a></span>sing some cheerful ditty?” +asked Percy, and he forthwith began to sing in a rollicking tenor voice:</p> + +<p style='margin-left:2em;'>“‘It was a robber’s daughter and her name was Alice Brown;<br /> +Her father was the terror of a small Italian town,<br /> +Her mother was a foolish, weak, but amiable old thing,<br /> +But it isn’t of her parents that I’m going for to sing.</p> + +<p style='margin-left:2em;'>“‘As Alice was a-sitting at her window sill one day,<br /> +A beautiful young gentleman he chanced to pass that way,<br /> +She cast her eyes upon him and he looked so good and true<br /> +That she thought, “I could be happy with a gentleman like you.”’”</p> + +<p>“Help! Help!” screamed Nancy. “Oh, Ben, Oh, Percy, Oh, Billie, save me!”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_73' id='pg_73'>73</a></span>“What is the matter?” they cried.</p> + +<p>“Don’t come near me,” she interrupted. “Don’t, don’t! Keep away. They’ll +kill you, too.”</p> + +<p>Nancy was jumping up and down in a perfect agony of fear, wringing her +hands one moment and tearing at her skirts the next.</p> + +<p>“It’s a hornet’s nest,” exclaimed Ben. “Keep still, Nancy. Don’t run. +They won’t sting you if you are perfectly still.”</p> + +<p>But it was needless to tell Nancy not to run. What with her narrow skirt +and the spongy ground she could scarcely walk.</p> + +<p>“There are dozens of them crawling inside my skirt,” she sobbed, “and +you tell me to keep still.”</p> + +<p>“Don’t be frightened, Nancy-Bell. I’ll stand with you,” announced Percy, +boldly offering himself as a sacrifice to hornets, as he drew Nancy’s +arm through his.</p> + +<p>“Come on, hornets,” he cried. “Sting a man. Don’t attack a helpless +girl.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_74' id='pg_74'>74</a></span>The others could not keep from laughing at the picture of Nancy and +Percy standing arm in arm in the wilderness.</p> + +<p>“You remind me of a bridal couple walking up the aisle,” exclaimed +Billie. But Nancy was too frightened to withdraw her arm from Percy’s +even at this witticism. She leaned on him in an attitude of relief and +extreme confidence.</p> + +<p>“Didn’t I tell you I would be her staff before the day was over?” he +remarked with a grin.</p> + +<p>“I’ve been stung in a dozen different places,” sobbed Nancy.</p> + +<p>“Stand still,” ordered Ben. “They will leave you and go back to their +nest if you are quiet.”</p> + +<p>And as he had predicted, the hornets did leave off their attack and +return to their home, but not until Percy had been stung several times +without a murmur. For the sake of Nancy Brown, he would voluntarily have +stepped into any number of hornets’ nests.</p> + +<p>At last the procession started on. In the misty <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_75' id='pg_75'>75</a></span>twilight, they were a +company of gray shadows moving silently along. When people are lost, +really and unquestionably lost, their true natures rise to the surface: +if there is any selfishness hidden away, it develops into complainings +and reproaches; the faint-hearted make unhappy predictions; the lazy +ones get tired before they have any right to. Ben had always admired the +Motor Maids, but never more than now when he saw them quiet and +courageous in the face of a night in the swamp. Nancy might shriek over +hornets and snakes, but she would never confess to being tired or +frightened. Not once had they complained or reproached him, and now when +the will-o’-the-wisps began their ghostly dance through the mists, and +the great wall of mountain loomed up in front of them black and +threatening, it seemed to poor Ben that it would make it easier for him +to bear his sorrows if some one would only make one little complaint.</p> + +<p>It was Mary who gave out first. She was just <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_76' id='pg_76'>76</a></span>sinking to her knees when +Billie called out cheerfully:</p> + +<p>“I see a light and it’s not a will-o’-the-wisp.”</p> + +<p>There indeed was a light sending out a kindly beam in the darkness, and +while they watched it, it went out.</p> + +<p>“Listen,” exclaimed Elinor, “I hear the music again.” There came to them +the sweet fairy notes of the zither.</p> + +<p>“Halloo!” called Ben again and again, and presently the others joined in +the chorus.</p> + +<p>“What is it?” answered a voice quite near, and a figure bounded toward +them through the mists.</p> + +<p>“We have been lost,” answered Ben. “Do you think you could let these +young ladies rest in your cabin while we get a vehicle and drive them +home?”</p> + +<p>“Yes,” answered the voice, and Billie then recognized the mountain girl +who had sold them the blackberries that Mrs. Lupo had pitched out.</p> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width:359px'> +<a name='illus-002' id='illus-002'></a> +<img src='images/illus-076.jpg' alt='After a stiff climb up a rocky path, they reached a little cabin.' title='' width='359' /><br /> +<span class='caption'>After a stiff climb up a rocky path, they reached<br />a little cabin.—<i>Page</i> 77.</span> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_77' id='pg_77'>77</a></span>“Come this way,” she added, and they presently realized they were on +rising ground and that the morass with its glimmering will-o’-the-wisps +and its floating veils of thin mist was now well below them. After a +stiff climb up a rocky path they reached a little cabin built in a +clearing, commanding a wide vista of the treacherous Table Top and the +mountains beyond. At the door of the cabin sat the zither player, his +hands traveling aimlessly over the strings while he listened to the +approaching footsteps.</p> + +<p>“Father,” called the girl, “visitors!”</p> + +<p>“Eh? Eh?” answered the man. “Physicians, with medicines? Will they save +her? Come in! Come in!”</p> + +<p>They filed slowly into the cabin wondering what sort of a person it was +sitting in the darkness and calling for physicians. The girl struck a +match and lighted two candles, and at least three of the visitors +noticed that the candlesticks were of silver, tall and graceful in +design, and as bright as rubbing could make them.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_78' id='pg_78'>78</a></span>The father like the daughter was tall and slender, with the same dark +blue eyes, although his had a strange unseeing look in them. His hair +was very thick and almost white, his frame spare to emaciation, but he +carried himself erect and his shoulders were broad and well developed.</p> + +<p>“Make a fire, father,” the girl ordered, and he obediently left the +room, presently returning with an armful of wood.</p> + +<p>Oh, the joy of sinking to the floor in front of that warm blaze! Ben +consulted with the girl at the door of the cabin, and the strange +father, rubbing his hands and smiling absently, remarked with an accent +that was very different from Mr. Lupo’s or any of the natives +thereabouts:</p> + +<p>“Not half bad, this fire, eh? Rather cheerful on a dull night.”</p> + +<p>Presently his daughter began preparing supper on a little wood stove in +the lean-to back of the house. Swiftly and silently, with Ben’s +assistance, she made coffee, scrambled eggs and fried bacon.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_79' id='pg_79'>79</a></span>“You may set the table,” she said to Percy, pointing to some shelves at +one end of the cabin.</p> + +<p>Percy obediently placed on the plain deal table six blue plates, nicked +and cracked in a dozen places, but undoubtedly of Canton; also in a tin +box he found knives and forks and spoons, all shining as brightly as the +candlesticks, and, he felt perfectly certain, all of silver. It was +necessary to revive Mary with some hot coffee before she could eat a +mouthful, and after she had taken a little food, Ben hoisted her in his +arms and carried her into a small adjoining room where he laid her on a +cot; all this under the supervision of the young mistress of the cabin.</p> + +<p>There was no attempt at conversation while they satisfied their ravenous +appetites, but later, when the wanderers had risen and Billie was +consulting with Ben and Percy what was best to do, the father pointed to +Nancy sitting in the darkest corner of the room in a small huddled heap.</p> + +<p>“Rosalind has come out of the Forest of Arden,” he said.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_80' id='pg_80'>80</a></span>All eyes were turned on Nancy who shrank into the shadow. Suddenly +Percy seized one of the tall candlesticks and held it over her head.</p> + +<p>“Why, Nancy-Bell,” he cried, “what has happened to your——”</p> + +<p>Nancy spread her hands over her lap and turned her large blue eyes to +them with a piteous expression.</p> + +<p>“I took it off and threw it away in the swamp,” she said tremulously. “I +did hate the thing so, and it was full of hornets and not big enough to +take a decent step in anyhow. I hoped no one would notice.”</p> + +<p>They were tired, but not too tired to laugh.</p> + +<p>“If I had been dying, I should have died laughing,” Billie often +afterwards remarked in telling of this incident.</p> + +<p>Nancy, minus her narrow velveteen skirt, was really a beguiling figure +in blue pongee knickerbockers. The straight velveteen jacket reached +just below her waist, and with her rumpled curls <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_81' id='pg_81'>81</a></span>and weary expression +she might easily have been taken for Rosalind, just arrived at the +Forest of Arden with Celia and Touchstone.</p> + +<p>But the wonder of it was how a half-crazed mountaineer could know +anything about the greatest comedy in the world. This did not trouble +them until afterwards, however.</p> + +<p>“Billie,” observed Ben presently, “I’ve been consulting with—with this +young lady here. She knows the trail through the swamp and has consented +to guide me back to the camp to-night. We may be able to make it in less +than two hours by a short cut, she says, and we ought to start at once. +Miss Campbell will be half wild with uneasiness. As soon as it’s +daylight, I’ll come back by the road in the ‘Comet.’ There are some +bearskins and blankets. You can all put up here for the night. Percy +will stay of course.”</p> + +<p>“But isn’t that a great deal to ask of you, to take that long trip +to-night?” asked Billie gratefully, turning to the girl.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_82' id='pg_82'>82</a></span>“It is nothing,” she answered shortly and set about lighting a lantern. +Then she beckoned to Ben and they silently left the cabin.</p> + +<p>In a few moments, the father, who had been smoking a pipe at the cabin +door, took one of the silver candlesticks from the mantel.</p> + +<p>“Good night,” he said courteously. “I trust you will have a pleasant +rest after your journey. I presume you have been shown your rooms?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, sir,” answered Percy.</p> + +<p>The man paused at the door of his bedroom at the other side of the +cabin.</p> + +<p>“I trust the physician will come soon,” he said. “With luck he may reach +there before I do.”</p> + +<p>“That’s the man who sent me to the old ruined hotel,” whispered Percy. +“He’s certainly touched, but he’s harmless.”</p> + +<p>They found two steamer rugs and several blankets in a heap on a bench, +left there by the mountain girl for their comfort; and it was not long +before they lay in a circle around the fire, sound asleep.</p> + +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_83' id='pg_83'>83</a></span> +<a name='THE_DOCTOR_1633' id='THE_DOCTOR_1633'></a> +<h2>CHAPTER VI.</h2> +<h3>THE DOCTOR.</h3> +</div> + +<p>After the young people had departed on the morning of that eventful day, +Miss Helen Campbell settled herself in a hammock on the upper porch with +a novel and two new magazines. She loved the “children,” as she called +them, and the sound of their voices and laughter was as music to her +ears, but occasionally she enjoyed a peaceful morning to herself without +any chatter to disturb her quietude.</p> + +<p>Who would have imagined as she sat there idly swinging in the hammock, +that the dainty little lady was all the way to sixty years old? Her eyes +were as blandly blue and clear as a child’s; her complexion had never +lost its peach blossom glow, and the fine network of wrinkles around her +eyes <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_84' id='pg_84'>84</a></span>and at the corners of her mouth was only faintly visible.</p> + +<p>“But I’m getting old,” she thought. “Those long trips have rejuvenated +my spirits but my body is tired. I haven’t the physique for adventuring +any longer. I don’t think I could stand a shock of any kind, great or +small.”</p> + +<p>Her thoughts broke off at this point and she idly touched the railing of +the porch with one of her little feet and set the hammock to a gentle +motion like a rocking cradle.</p> + +<p>“No, I shall not put myself in the way of shocks. I am glad we are not +touring this summer; just taking life peacefully——”</p> + +<p>Again her thoughts broke off. Her eyes wandered across the wide vista of +valley flanked by a range of mountains. The landscape was flecked by +great shadows cast by lazily moving ribbons of cloud. The foliage of the +trees and the undergrowth on the opposite mountains were like rugs of +velvet. One might imagine a gigantic figure <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_85' id='pg_85'>85</a></span>stretched out on the soft +green patches of forest. There were no harsh outlines to the mountains. +Their rugged edges were veiled and softened by the shadows of the +passing clouds. Miss Campbell closed her eyes.</p> + +<p>“Life is very pleasant,” she thought, “even at sixty.”</p> + +<p>After a long dreamy period as untroubled as a summer sea, some instinct +compelled her to open her eyes, and she found herself looking straight +into the eyes of Mrs. Lupo who was standing at the foot of the hammock. +Mrs. Lupo held her hands behind her back. Miss Campbell noticed at once +that the woman’s expression had changed. She had lost that look of a shy +gentle animal. Her eyes had narrowed into little slits and her upper lip +was drawn back showing an even row of glistening teeth. Without taking +her eyes off Mrs. Lupo’s, Miss Campbell sat up very straight and stiff.</p> + +<p>“Well, what do you want?” she demanded, always holding the woman’s gaze +with hers.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_86' id='pg_86'>86</a></span>Mrs. Lupo moved a step nearer, still with her hands behind her back.</p> + +<p>“Stand where you are,” ordered Miss Campbell, fired with superhuman +courage and never once shifting her gaze. “Stand where you are,” she +repeated. There was not a tremor in her voice. “Now, give me what you +are hiding behind you.”</p> + +<p>For at least a moment the two women stood looking at each other. If Miss +Campbell had flinched, there is no telling what the half-savage +creature, insane with rage, might have done.</p> + +<p>And even now, with a swift movement, Mrs. Lupo brandished a long carving +knife in Miss Campbell’s face.</p> + +<p>“Drop that instantly,” thundered Miss Campbell in a voice that did not +seem to be her own.</p> + +<p>But the force of her splendid will and courage struck home. The carving +knife slipped from Mrs. Lupo’s hand and stood upright between them in +the board floor of the porch.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_87' id='pg_87'>87</a></span>“Get down on your knees,” ordered Miss Campbell, and all this time she +had never taken her eyes off Mrs. Lupo’s.</p> + +<p>The knife was still swaying on the point of its blade, as the woman sank +to the floor in a quivering, sobbing heap.</p> + +<p>“What do you mean by coming to me like this?” demanded Miss Campbell.</p> + +<p>“Your daughter, she try cut my throat this morning with same. I take +revenge,” answered Mrs. Lupo between her sobs.</p> + +<p>“Nonsense! Absurd!”</p> + +<p>“She have dislike me from first,” went on Mrs. Lupo, who seemed to +eliminate all articles from her conversation. “She joke at me. She buy +berries of girl I hate.”</p> + +<p>Miss Campbell leaned against the rail and watched the woman crouched at +her feet like a whipped dog. Only an instant did she allow the thought +to come to her that she was alone in camp with a half-crazed savage.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_88' id='pg_88'>88</a></span>“She is a very weak, pitiable object,” she said to herself. “I must +manage her and I shall. I am not afraid.”</p> + +<p>Suddenly she leaned over and put her hand very softly on the woman’s +shoulder.</p> + +<p>“I am so sorry for you,” she said. “Won’t you let me help you? I think +you are much too fine and capable to fly into rages like this. What is +the reason of it?”</p> + +<p>“Not know,” answered Mrs. Lupo. “When they come, I see red. I wish to +break up—kill.”</p> + +<p>“Do you love your husband?”</p> + +<p>“Yes,” answered the other with so much eloquence of expression that Miss +Campbell knew she spoke the truth.</p> + +<p>“And he loves you?”</p> + +<p>“He loves me, but not so much. He leaves me for long time,—alone.”</p> + +<p>“Has he ever seen you in a rage?”</p> + +<p>“Yes,” answered Mrs. Lupo in a low voice, her head sinking on her +breast.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_89' id='pg_89'>89</a></span>“Of course, then, that is why he leaves you. Men like gentleness in a +woman. A violent-tempered wife never keeps her husband’s love. If you +were gentle and quiet, your husband would take you with him to the +village. But you are jealous and uncontrolled. You make a spectacle of +yourself and of him. You look very ugly as you looked a while ago, like +an angry animal instead of a handsome young woman. Try being gentle and +always looking pretty and see how it works.”</p> + +<p>Mrs. Lupo looked up. Miss Campbell had captured her interest and she was +listening to that sage spinster’s advice with entire attention.</p> + +<p>“You think me handsome woman?”</p> + +<p>“Very, when you are in a good temper.”</p> + +<p>“Suppose I can’t keep back anger?”</p> + +<p>“The next time your eyes see red, make a little prayer. It will always +be answered.”</p> + +<p>“To Christ?” asked Mrs. Lupo, who had been to a mission school as a +girl.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_90' id='pg_90'>90</a></span>“Yes, to Christ, who never spoke a harsh word even when He was struck +in the face and spit upon and finally nailed to a cross.”</p> + +<p>“What shall I say?” asked the other, as interested as a child.</p> + +<p>“When you feel the rage coming on, say over and over: ‘Oh, Christ, take +my anger from me and make me gentle and kind.’”</p> + +<p>Mrs. Lupo repeated the prayer several times.</p> + +<p>“And it will come true?” she asked.</p> + +<p>“Always, always. Try it and see.”</p> + +<p>At last the half-breed rose to her feet. The knife stood upright between +them swaying on its blade.</p> + +<p>“You forgive?” she asked.</p> + +<p>“I forgive.”</p> + +<p>“I will go away. I am afraid yet when the daughter comes. There is still +hate here,” she pointed to her temples. “But it will be gone if I stay +away. When Lupo goes to village he stays long time. It is better for me +not to see <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_91' id='pg_91'>91</a></span>him when he comes back. Until I learn, I will not see him no +more. Good-by. I’m thankful to you.”</p> + +<p>Mrs. Lupo departed, leaving the knife where it had fallen. It was on the +tip of Miss Campbell’s tongue to say:</p> + +<p>“You must not leave me alone.” But she checked herself. She doubted if +she could exert her will another time like that. Already beads of +perspiration stood out on her brows. A feeling of extreme lassitude +crept over her and she slipped back into the hammock with a sensation of +nausea. Then unconsciousness bound her with invisible cords and the +brave little woman fainted dead away.</p> + +<p>As Mrs. Lupo turned into the gallery, she glanced back but she only saw +the train of Miss Campbell’s white wrapper fluttering from the hammock +in the breeze.</p> + +<p>There had been several loud raps downstairs, but to Miss Campbell, +fighting her way slowly <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_92' id='pg_92'>92</a></span>back to consciousness, it sounded hundreds of +miles away, like spirit rapping; or perhaps it was the pounding of her +own pulses. A man entered the living room. He was of medium height and +spare with a lean brown face, and he was dressed as men usually dress +for walking trips, in knickerbockers, heavy shoes laced well up the leg, +a gray flannel shirt open at the neck with a brown silk tie. He wore a +pith helmet; on his back was strapped a flat knapsack, and he carried a +cane and a telescope. As he hurried through the living room, he tossed +his helmet into a chair. There was a bald spot on his head fringed with +reddish hair turning gray. His features were distinguished and because +of a certain dignity with which he carried himself, a certain air of +command and confidence, people were apt to wonder who he was.</p> + +<p>“It was upstairs, I am certain,” the visitor remarked to himself, +glancing into the empty kitchen and then mounting the rustic steps to +the <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_93' id='pg_93'>93</a></span>upper sleeping porch. With quick, comprehensive eyes he took in the +five white cots standing in a row, on the porch the group of wicker +chairs, the murderous looking knife, swaying on the tip of its shining +blade, and lastly the high-backed canvas sleeping hammock from which +trailed the train of a white muslin dress.</p> + +<p>“Whew!” he exclaimed, under his breath.</p> + +<p>For a moment it looked as if something unspeakably dreadful had happened +that beautiful morning, and his fears were not set at rest even when he +bounded past the knife and stood leaning over Miss Campbell’s half +conscious form.</p> + +<p>“Water,” she gasped faintly.</p> + +<p>“I wonder if there’s a bathroom,” he thought, running along the porch to +the nearest door after the one leading to the passage. “Of course they +always have them in these so-called camps,” he added, catching the flash +of a porcelain tub beyond. In another moment he had wet Miss Campbell’s +lips from a glass of water and was <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_94' id='pg_94'>94</a></span>dabbing her temples with the end of +a wet towel. “Better now?” he asked, as she opened her heavenly blue +eyes.</p> + +<p>She nodded with a faint smile and closed them again.</p> + +<p>“Curious how a doctor is always finding work to do even in the +wilderness,” he thought, feeling Miss Helen’s pulse. With an +exclamation, he hurried back to the bathroom, and among a perfect army +of tooth powder and talcum powder boxes,—“enough for half a dozen +people,” he thought,—he spied a bottle of aromatic spirits of ammonia. +He mixed a dose in the glass with professional dexterity and hurried +back.</p> + +<p>“Just as well I happened along,” he thought, moistening her lips with +the mixture. “That does the trick,” he added, as she presently opened +her eyes again and swallowed a little of the ammonia and water.</p> + +<p>The white, pinched look left her face, the color crept back to her +cheeks, and she gave a sigh of <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_95' id='pg_95'>95</a></span>relief as she shifted her position in +the hammock.</p> + +<p>“My pillows?” she asked, feeling for the pillows which he had slipped +from under her head to the floor.</p> + +<p>“Better lie flat for a while,” he ordered in a tone of authority. “I +wonder where her people are?” the doctor added to himself, glancing +again at the five cot beds. Then he drew up a chair and watched Miss +Helen Campbell as she dropped into a doze.</p> + +<p>In a little while she exclaimed in a much stronger tone of voice:</p> + +<p>“Please take me out of this wobbly thing; I want to lie on my own bed.” +The walking-doctor promptly lifted her in his arms like a little child +and deposited her on one of the cots. Her hands were cold, and he +covered her with a Roman blanket that lay on the foot of the bed. Then +he found two hot water bottles, marched down stairs, heated a kettle of +water on the kerosene stove, searched for beef tea in the ice chest and +<span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_96' id='pg_96'>96</a></span>by good luck found half a jar. With the water bottles at her feet and a +little beef tea to nourish her, Miss Campbell at last fell into a deep +sleep, while the doctor, sitting near at hand, read one of the magazines +and, occasionally tip-toeing to her bedside, listened to her breathing +and felt her pulse.</p> + +<p>Toward late afternoon, he descended into the lower regions of the log +house and foraged for food. He found crackers and cheese, a tin of beans +and a bottle of ginger ale. Having refreshed himself, he was about to +return to his patient when Mr. Lupo staggered into the kitchen with a +market basket on his arm.</p> + +<p>“Where is my wife?” he asked in a thick voice.</p> + +<p>“She is not here and you’d better go, too, quick,” answered the doctor.</p> + +<p>Mr. Lupo looked at him with an ugly expression, his eyes narrowing, as +his wife’s had done when she had approached Miss Campbell with the +carving knife.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_97' id='pg_97'>97</a></span>“Who are you?” he asked.</p> + +<p>“I am a doctor.”</p> + +<p>“Has anything happened? My wife, she is crazy when she is mad. Is that +the reason why she ran away?”</p> + +<p>“Does your wife flourish carving knives?”</p> + +<p>Mr. Lupo retreated with a terrified expression.</p> + +<p>“She has—?” he was too frightened to finish.</p> + +<p>“No,” replied the doctor. “The lady was too strong for her here.” He +touched his forehead with his finger.</p> + +<p>“She was not touched—the lady?”</p> + +<p>“No, but she has collapsed from fright,—she is very ill,—I could not +answer for her recovery if you gave her another shock.”</p> + +<p>Without a word, Mr. Lupo rushed out of doors, jumped into a rickety +wagon drawn by an old mountain-climbing horse and in another instant was +clattering down the road.</p> + +<p>Toward evening Miss Campbell grew stronger. The doctor raised her head +and fed her by the <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_98' id='pg_98'>98</a></span>spoonful a cup of malted milk, also found in the ice +chest.</p> + +<p>“Billie?” she said.</p> + +<p>“That’s my name,” answered the doctor. “William for long.”</p> + +<p>“Nice boy,” she added, patting him on the shoulder, with a very small +limp hand. “Have the children got back?”</p> + +<p>“They will be here pretty soon, now,” he answered, frowning and glancing +at his watch.</p> + +<p>“Ben is a safe guide. They are safe with him. Wake me when they arrive,” +and turning over on her side, Miss Campbell went back to sleep.</p> + +<p>Occasionally the doctor scanned the side of the mountain with his +telescope.</p> + +<p>“The children are taking a long time,” he said to himself. “They had +better look alive, if they want to make it before nightfall.”</p> + +<p>But night fell and there was no sign of the wanderers. The doctor lit a +cigar and watched the shadows creep up the side of the mountains. <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_99' id='pg_99'>99</a></span>He +listened to the last twittering of the birds and then a silence, +profound and deep, settled on the camp.</p> + +<p>Again he descended to the living room of the camp now in darkness. +Presently he lighted the green shaded lamp and two lanterns, hanging one +at the front of the house and the other at the back. He unpacked the +market basket and cooked himself some supper, and finally with a glass +of milk and a slice of bread for Miss Campbell when she waked, returned +to the upper sleeping porch.</p> + +<p>“A telescope is an excellent thing,” he observed, settling himself in a +steamer chair, a lamp on the floor beside him with a tin protector to +keep draughts from the flame. “I saw the woman plainly enough +flourishing the carving knife. It must have been sheer force of will on +the part of this little lady that made her drop it.”</p> + +<p>And now the darkness had indeed fallen, a black, impenetrable curtain. +Only the outline of <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_100' id='pg_100'>100</a></span>the opposite range could be seen. It seemed to have +closed in on the camp, and like a gigantic wall, to shut it off from the +outer world. An owl hooted in a tree not far away and from a cleft in +the mountains came the weird song of the whippoorwill.</p> + +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_101' id='pg_101'>101</a></span> +<a name='PHOEBE_1988' id='PHOEBE_1988'></a> +<h2>CHAPTER VII.</h2> +<h3>PHOEBE.</h3> +</div> + +<p>Fate had chosen a very simple way of bringing about events of great +importance to persons in this history. A doctor off on a walking trip +had idly lifted his telescope to scan the village in the valley. As he +swept his glass over the country, it had brought near to him glimpses of +white farmhouses, men working in the fields and then looming quite close +and unexpectedly large to his eye, a woman brandishing a long knife over +the head of a person in white.</p> + +<p>The doctor lost no time in idle speculation.</p> + +<p>“It’s in that camp on the lower ledge,” he said to himself as he dashed +down the path, and in some twenty minutes or more entered the living +room of Sunrise Camp.</p> + +<p>It is not pleasant to think of what might have <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_102' id='pg_102'>102</a></span>happened to Miss Helen +Campbell if the doctor’s alert, intelligent eyes had not caught and +instantly comprehended the significance of the picture brought to him by +the telescope. How long might she have lain there unconscious, or how +dealt with the half-intoxicated Lupo if he had mounted the steps in +search of his wife? Then, as the hours slipped on and no human soul came +near to minister to her and comfort her, and she had finally realized +that her young people had never returned, how would she have endured +that second shock?</p> + +<p>Fate had brought the doctor in the nick of time to perform an +inestimable service to the Motor Maids and to all those who knew and +loved Miss Helen Campbell.</p> + +<p>And through this service to the friends of Miss Campbell, another was to +follow,—one filled with danger and interest, which would require all +the skill of his profession.</p> + +<p>About ten o’clock Miss Campbell awoke, refreshed <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_103' id='pg_103'>103</a></span>and rested. She took +the milk and bread with an appetite. Then she examined the stranger at +her bedside with some curiosity.</p> + +<p>“I suppose they sent for you from the village?” she asked.</p> + +<p>“I happened to be nearer than that,” he answered.</p> + +<p>Memory was returning by slow degrees.</p> + +<p>“I had a shock of some sort; or was it a fall? I remember fainting and +the next thing I recall was aromatic ammonia and you.” The doctor +smiled. “I suppose they are all in bed now. They were too tired to sit +up.”</p> + +<p>“It was so late, you see,” he said apologetically.</p> + +<p>“They needn’t have left me this enormous porch to myself. I know they +will hate sleeping down there. Can’t Billie come and speak to me?”</p> + +<p>“I am afraid he’s sound asleep by now.”</p> + +<p>“He?” ejaculated the patient. “But, of course, how could you be expected +to know my young cousin by name. She is the tall girl with the gray +<span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_104' id='pg_104'>104</a></span>eyes. I think she is beautiful. Perhaps you might not—but you would—”</p> + +<p>The doctor started. He had heard a stealthy step on the porch below.</p> + +<p>“You will not think me impertinent if I ask you not to talk?” he said. +“Just a few more hours’ quiet and you’ll be quite fit. I’m going to +leave you a moment.”</p> + +<p>Miss Campbell gave him a good natured smile. She liked his fine face and +his clear brown eyes.</p> + +<p>“Very well, doctor,” she said. “I see you know your business. I’ll be +obedient.”</p> + +<p>Taking the lamp he went downstairs.</p> + +<p>It could hardly be the gray-eyed Billie and her friends returning, he +argued. They would never come creeping back in that stealthy manner.</p> + +<p>“Well, who is it?” he called in a low voice.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Lupo came out of the shadows and stood before him.</p> + +<p>“Lady going die?” she asked in a terrified whisper.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_105' id='pg_105'>105</a></span>“Pretty ill, but she’s coming around.”</p> + +<p>The woman looked vastly relieved.</p> + +<p>“Young lady know?”</p> + +<p>“She has never come back.”</p> + +<p>Mrs. Lupo raised both hands in a gesture of despair.</p> + +<p>“The marsh—I never told—I’m wicked woman!” she exclaimed.</p> + +<p>“Good heavens!” said the doctor, “you mean to say you sent them through +that bog? It’s full of suck holes. You have done enough wickedness for +one day. Where is your husband? Hurry up, quick. Wake up the villagers. +Get lanterns. Go find them!”</p> + +<p>Mrs. Lupo seized a lantern from the gallery.</p> + +<p>“I go myself,” she said, and disappeared. All that night Mrs. Lupo +searched Table Top. She knew the trail as intimately as the mountain +girl, but at dawn she had found nothing. But as the light spread over +the marsh, she saw something lying on the very edge of the most +dangerous <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_106' id='pg_106'>106</a></span>quicksand in the place. It was Nancy’s hobble skirt.</p> + +<p>“Oh, oh!” groaned the poor woman over and over with a kind of savage +chant. “Oh, oh! I’m punished now.”</p> + +<p>Rolling the skirt into a bundle she turned her face from Sunrise Camp +and disappeared in the pine forests.</p> + +<p>About an hour after Mrs. Lupo had left the camp, the doctor heard the +noise of hurrying footsteps on the gallery at the front and hastening +downstairs he found Ben Austen and his guide.</p> + +<p>“Miss Campbell—how has she stood it? Is she all right?” demanded Ben +breathlessly.</p> + +<p>“Not so loud,” answered the doctor. Then he told Ben in a few words what +had happened. “She doesn’t even know you have been lost,” he said.</p> + +<p>While the two men were talking together in whispers, the girl looked +about her with much <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_107' id='pg_107'>107</a></span>curiosity. Was she in a palace? The high roof, the +rugs and chairs were things new to her. And this was called a “camp”! +What was the inside of a real house like, she wondered.</p> + +<p>“That virago!” she heard Ben say. “No wonder she drives Lupo to drink. +This young lady here has saved us all and guided me back through the +swamp.” He indicated the barefooted girl. “I suppose we would have been +there yet if she hadn’t heard us call.”</p> + +<p>“You must sit down,” said the doctor kindly. “I’ll just have a look at +my patient and then help this young man get some supper. Your name +is—?”</p> + +<p>“Phoebe,” she answered, shrinking with shyness.</p> + +<p>“Phoebe what?”</p> + +<p>“I have no other name.”</p> + +<p>Phoebe had been accustomed all her life to the courtesy and gentleness +of one man, her father. The few others she had known were rough +mountaineers, <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_108' id='pg_108'>108</a></span>and here was she, barefooted and ragged, treated like a +princess by two men.</p> + +<p>While the doctor fried ham and eggs, the staple of every camp, Ben made +a pot of tea, and presently drew up a table in front of her and placed +on it a tray set as neatly as he knew how. Phoebe watched the +proceedings with wide frightened eyes. She tried to hide her bare feet +under her ragged dress and to draw down the sleeves over her hands, +brown and stained with blackberry juice. Later, when they had made her a +bed on one of the divans and left her to sleep until daylight, she was +too bewildered to say good-night.</p> + +<p>All her life Phoebe had lived in the little mountain cabin. She had +never known a mother and she had never had a friend. Her father had +taught her many things, however, and one was to read from the books on +the shelf. There were several books on astronomy; Pilgrim’s Progress; +the Bible; a volume of Shakespeare; a history of <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_109' id='pg_109'>109</a></span>England; a translation +of the “Iliad”, and some volumes of poetry:—Keats, Tennyson and +Browning. Where her father had got these books and the silver and the +blue china, she knew no more than he. He had tried and tried to +remember, but he had forgotten. He had no identity, no past. His name, +his family, everything connected with his early life had gone. His past +life had stopped when he had gone for a physician. He had taught his +little girl to read, as we have said, and when old enough she had often +read aloud in the long winter evenings. He had seemed to listen with +absorbed interest, but it is difficult to say how much he grasped of the +words he heard, or whether they were mere words to him with no +collective significance.</p> + +<p>With a certain instinct left to him from that mysterious dead past, he +had imparted to his daughter an unmistakable refinement of speech and +manner. About some things he was even fastidious,—her way of eating, +the appearance <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_110' id='pg_110'>110</a></span>of the table and the silver. He himself was excessively +neat and orderly and had periods of great industry, weaving baskets of +sweet grass and carving wood, not crudely, but with unusual taste, boxes +and chalets, napkin rings and figures of animals. Where he had learned +these arts his daughter never knew, but she imagined from an old Indian +who had lived in the little cabin in the early days and had died when +Phoebe was still quite small. As far as a man may be sane whose memory +extends back only some eighteen years and who has only one illusion, +Phoebe’s father was sane. The baskets and woodcarving he and his +daughter peddled through the country with success, because they were +exceedingly well done, and the money earned was sufficient for their +small needs.</p> + +<p>Too excited from the unusual events of the night to sleep, Phoebe lay on +the divan in the living room and reviewed the mysteries that filled her +life. She had a strange smattering of knowledge <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_111' id='pg_111'>111</a></span>for a girl of eighteen. +It would seem that she had been gifted with a memory for two since her +father had none, and whatever she learned from the row of books on the +shelves she remembered. That is, whatever interested her.</p> + +<p>She knew the constellations and the planets, and on summer nights had +located them in the heavens by means of the book chart. She would point +them out to her father, who glanced at them vaguely, smiled and went on +playing the zither, his consolation in idle moments.</p> + +<p>She had read and re-read the history of England so many times that some +of the chapters she could repeat word for word. She understood little of +the poetry, but the rhythm of the lines sang in her head, and without +knowing the meaning she could repeat in a sing-song voice long poems and +sonnets. “Pilgrim’s Progress” and the “Iliad” and the New Testament with +the Psalms were her solace on the long winter evenings. One after the +other she read them with unending <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_112' id='pg_112'>112</a></span>pleasure. She would read slowly so as +not to finish too soon, as a child nibbles at her sweet cake to make it +last the longer, and having finished one volume she would take up +another with all the eagerness of one about to plunge into a new book. +Just how much she had gained from the teachings of Christ was hidden +deep in her own soul, but we will find later that Phoebe had learned a +secret which those who have had the advantage of broad education have +often passed by.</p> + +<p>When at last the first pipings of the birds came to herald the dawn, she +rose and went out to the gallery. The last star was fading into the +grayness of the sky and already morning was at hand. In the growing +light it might be seen that Phoebe had an unusually beautiful face. Her +eyes, of very dark blue, were almost black at times; her reddish brown +hair, coiled into a thick knot on her neck, grew low on her forehead. +Her features were well molded, her mouth fine and <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_113' id='pg_113'>113</a></span>strong, and a full, +rounded chin added sweetness to her expression.</p> + +<p>Standing in the very spot where she had first seen Billie and Mary, she +turned her face toward the east and watched for the sun.</p> + +<p>“I believe my prayers are answered,” she said.</p> + +<p>Some twenty minutes later, seated by Ben in the motor car, she guided +him along a mountain road, which led at last to a point near her +father’s cabin.</p> + +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_114' id='pg_114'>114</a></span> +<a name='THE_GYPSY_COOKS_2232' id='THE_GYPSY_COOKS_2232'></a> +<h2>CHAPTER VIII.</h2> +<h3>THE GYPSY COOKS.</h3> +</div> + +<p>“Dearest Papa:” (wrote Billie) “Cousin Helen has entirely recovered from +her fright,—anger she calls it. She is not afraid of either of the +Lupos, although the dent in the plank where the knife was still standing +when we finally did get home will always make me feel trembly. Dr. Hume +is making us a visit. Cousin Helen will not hear of his leaving us. She +says she will certainly have another attack of heart failure if he goes +away, but that it’s of a different variety from the last. I think we all +have a touch of that kind of heart disease as a matter of fact, boys and +girls. He is a wonderful man and has taken us on some beautiful walks +over the mountain. Nancy and Percy always stay behind with Cousin Helen, +and we are finally beginning to <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_115' id='pg_115'>115</a></span>understand that it’s as much preference +as self-denial. Nancy and I are doing the cooking with some help from +Ben and Dr. Hume. It’s great fun. We cook on a camp fire outside and not +on that wretched little stove, which is like a bad child and never +behaves when it is expected to. Ben and Percy wash the dishes. Thank +heavens for that. I could never make a living as a scullery maid. It’s a +dog’s life. Elinor and Mary make up our cots and keep things tidy. It is +really and truly camping now, and such a relief not to have those Lupos. +But there is trouble about the laundry. Nobody in these high places will +stoop to wash clothes. If you could send us up a strong, fearless girl, +it doesn’t matter how little she knows, it would be fine. We want her +strong to scour pans and wash clothes, and fearless enough to be left at +the camp alone when we all go off in the ‘Comet’ on a picnic.</p> + +<p>“The mountain girl who saved us is named Phoebe. Her father is not +insane, but he has <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_116' id='pg_116'>116</a></span>no memory. His accent might be English. At any rate +it’s better than ours. Nobody on the mountain knows anything about them. +An old Indian brought them to the cabin when Phoebe was a baby and took +care of them both for several years. The people call the man ‘Frenchy,’ +why I’m sure I can’t imagine, perhaps because he seems foreign. He does +really beautiful wood carving and basket weaving and he seemed quite +pleased over getting orders from us. We all of us want to do something +for Phoebe but she is not the kind you can approach easily. I would not +dare even offer her a pair of shoes, and she’s generally barefooted. +Cousin Helen thought perhaps she might like to work for us, but I would +as soon think of asking our dear cousin herself. I’m the best coffee +maker in the compound and I’ve learned by the cookbook how to poach +eggs, after breaking six to get the hang of it. Dr. Hume knows a Scotch +dish that’s a dream and so easy to make. Nancy and I are <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_117' id='pg_117'>117</a></span>going to give +them a surprise. It’s ‘Mock Duck,’ made of beefsteak stuffed with many +things, and then rolled up like a mummy and tied with strings. We shall +roast it over hot embers on a spit Ben has rigged up, with a thing he +calls a ‘gutter’ to catch the juices. Good-by, dearest Papa. Don’t +forget the strong, fearless girl.</p> + +<p style='text-align: right'>Your devoted daughter, <br /> +Billie.”</p> + +<p>In due time a telegram was telephoned from the railroad station to the +nearest hotel and from thence to the postoffice in the village at the +foot of Sunrise Mountain. Here it was written down on a scrap of paper +and in the course of events reached Billie Campbell. It said:</p> + +<p>“Meet Alberdina, fearless Swiss-German. 4.30 train Saturday. Father.”</p> + +<p>Ben brought the message with the evening mail Friday afternoon while +Nancy and Billie, much heated and excited, were in the act of cooking +the mock duck.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_118' id='pg_118'>118</a></span>“What are you roasting? An Indian papoose?” he demanded, after they had +laughed over the name of the new, fearless maid.</p> + +<p>The spurious fowl made of a large flat piece of meat stuffed out to +plump proportions and tied at each end did resemble a fat little Indian +baby.</p> + +<p>“Don’t worry us,” exclaimed Nancy. “We have enough to bother us now. The +potatoes are taking forever to cook and the beans are almost done.”</p> + +<p>“The onions are just as bad,” put in Billie.</p> + +<p>“Why don’t you put the onions and potatoes in the same pot with the +beans? Maybe it will bring them luck,” suggested Ben.</p> + +<p>“Do you think it would affect the flavor?” Billie asked eagerly.</p> + +<p>But Nancy, of a more adventurous spirit in cooking, recklessly dumped +all the vegetables together into one pot and set it on the kerosene +stove, which had been carried out by the ever-useful Ben and placed at +no great distance from the open fire.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_119' id='pg_119'>119</a></span>Percy came up just then.</p> + +<p>“How are the Gypsy cooks? Is the pot boiling? What’s that thing that +looks like a pig in a blanket? Or is this a cannibal feast?”</p> + +<p>“Run away, Algernon Percival, and don’t ask so many questions,” replied +Billie, stirring the pot.</p> + +<p>“I’ve brought the dinner horn along,” said Percy in an insinuating tone +of voice.</p> + +<p>Even the Gypsy cooks laughed at this. Percy was the last person to rise +in the morning. He usually appeared with the coffee and eggs, but the +moment he waked up, he seized the trumpet from a nail in the wall at the +side of his bed and blew a long triumphant aria with variations. Then +from the camp fire at a safe distance from the log hut would come shouts +of derision from the others who had been up quite an hour. The table had +been carried out under the trees, and here in the early morning they had +their breakfast. Here also, they had their supper if it was ready +<span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_120' id='pg_120'>120</a></span>before dark and there were no lights to attract the myriads of +night-flying insects. But it did look this evening as if they would be +obliged to transfer all dishes and stools, table and eatables into the +house, unless the potatoes and onions could be impressed with the +importance of submitting to the inevitable.</p> + +<p>Dr. Hume, just in from a long walk, tired and mortally hungry, now made +his appearance, and Miss Helen Campbell in dainty white, and without any +traces whatever of her recent experience with Mrs. Lupo, came trailing +across the clearing. There was an expectant expression on her face, as +of one who is thinking with inward pleasure of dinner. Elinor came with +a bowl of Michaelmas daisies and Mary brought up the procession, +carrying a platter of bread sliced so as not to destroy the shape of the +loaf, an accomplishment she was proud of.</p> + +<p>Percy, seeing the gathering of the company, promptly lifted the trumpet +to his lips and blew a <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_121' id='pg_121'>121</a></span>blast so startling and unexpected that Mary gave +a nervous shriek and dropped the bread to the ground.</p> + +<p>“Oh, you wretch,” she cried, “see what you have done! And what was the +use anyway, since dinner isn’t ready and we are all here?”</p> + +<p>“Don’t be so hasty in your judgments, Lady Mary,” answered Percy, +composedly gathering up the slices of bread. “That was a song of joy +because a beautiful damozel approached with bread for the hungry.”</p> + +<p>“Hungry?” repeated Miss Campbell, watching, unmoved, the process of +shaking the pine needles from the bread. “Starving, rather. If I don’t +have my dinner in a minute, I shall be light enough to float away like a +thistledown.”</p> + +<p>“Who said starving?” cried Dr. Hume, joining the circle. “If there were +a stronger word, I’d use it.”</p> + +<p>“Famished?” suggested Ben.</p> + +<p>“Perishing for want of food,” added Elinor.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_122' id='pg_122'>122</a></span>Nancy and Billie exchanged glances of dismay and Billie impotently +poked the pot of vegetables with a long peeled wand.</p> + +<p>“What’s that thing that looks like an emigrant’s roll?” demanded the +doctor.</p> + +<p>“It won’t explode, I hope,” remarked Miss Campbell, noticing that the +roll of meat seemed to be bursting its bonds in the process of roasting.</p> + +<p>“Poor thing, it does seem to be suffering,” said Dr. Hume gravely. +“There is some enlargement taking place in its internal organs, due to +heat expansion, I judge.”</p> + +<p>“I guess that animal, whatever it is, feels something like an early +Christian martyr,” put in Percy.</p> + +<p>“What is the creature?” inquired Miss Campbell, raising her tortoise +shell lorgnette in order the better to see the writhing form over the +flames.</p> + +<p>“It’s a duck,” answered Billie, desperately stirring the kettle of +vegetables.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_123' id='pg_123'>123</a></span>“Duck?” they shouted in a loud chorus.</p> + +<p>“There never was a duck on land or sea that looked like that.”</p> + +<p>“Where are its legs?”</p> + +<p>“Was it a winged duck?”</p> + +<p>“Perhaps it’s a species of wingless, legless mountain duck, unknown to +low countries?”</p> + +<p>“Well, if you must know,” cried Billie, now very hot and red over the +fire, and wishing devoutly that that brutally truthful speech about +watched pots had never been made, “if you demand the truth, it’s mock +duck——”</p> + +<p>“It sounds like the name of a Chinese laundry-man,” put in Percy.</p> + +<p>“Made by a famous Southern recipe. We didn’t know it would take so long +to cook.” She was ashamed to mention the potatoes and onions. “If you +are all so famished, you might start on the bread and butter.”</p> + +<p>Instantly they gathered around the table and Percy passed around the +bread tray. From bread <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_124' id='pg_124'>124</a></span>they turned to the salad of tomatoes and +cucumbers. Lettuce did not seem to flourish in that country. They drank +the ginger ale and ate all the olives, and still the spurious fowl +remained a mockery to cooks. It sent forth rivulets of juices and made a +great to do over the fire, like people who are all promises and talk and +no action, but it would not get done. Then the doctor slipped away and +presently returned with his contribution to the supper. He had made it +in the morning and it had been standing in the ice chest all day.</p> + +<p>“I thought we might help this so as there would be no delays after we +had dispatched that talkative fat person in the blanket,” he said. “I +hope you will like it. My mother used to call it ‘piddling.’ It was a +wash-day dessert and we always had it Mondays, made from Sunday’s cake.”</p> + +<p>Elinor busied herself serving the wash-day dessert into china saucers. +It was made of slices of cake soaked in fruit juice and spread with jam.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_125' id='pg_125'>125</a></span>“When there is cream in the house, it adds of course,” observed the +doctor with some pride over his success as a cook.</p> + +<p>“The flavor’s delicious,” observed Miss Campbell, testing a small piece +daintily on the edge of her spoon.</p> + +<p>“It’s bully,” exclaimed Ben.</p> + +<p>The doctor was really vain over his efforts.</p> + +<p>“And I made it from memory,” he informed them, “without any recipe. I +call that pretty good for a first attempt.”</p> + +<p>They wondered if he had ever done anything in his profession that gave +him as much childish delight as making this simple dessert of his +boyhood.</p> + +<p>After a brief silence, broken only by the tinkle of spoons against +saucers, the campers around the table glanced at each other guiltily. +Except for the portions reserved for the two cooks, there was not a +crumb of piddling left.</p> + +<p>“Better hide the plates and cover the dish,” <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_126' id='pg_126'>126</a></span>said the doctor in a +conspirator’s whisper. “It’s enough to provoke them into a mutiny. Time +enough to break the news after they have eaten their mock turtle.”</p> + +<p>“Duck,” choked Percy.</p> + +<p>But the Gypsy cooks had noticed nothing. They were too absorbed with +straining the beans and the onions now cooked to shreds, from the +adamantine potatoes. The cooked vegetables they arranged in the bottom +of a large meat platter as a becoming bed for the mock duck which +Billie, with mingled feelings of fear and triumph, now prepared to loose +from his fastenings with a long fork and the historic carving knife. But +Mock Duck to the end was a rogue and a trickster. The poor little cook +had just loosened him from the spit and was holding him precariously on +the prong of a fork, when he gave a malicious leap into the air and +plunged into the very centre of the hot embers. Instantly a circle of +flames rose high about him and the air was charged with the fumes of +burning flesh.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_127' id='pg_127'>127</a></span>“Oh, oh!” shrieked Billie. “Help! Help!”</p> + +<p>They did what they could to save the remnants of Mock Duck. Ben singed +his eyebrows in an effort to spear him on a fork and raise him from his +fiery bed. They were all very quick but the flames were quicker, and +when at last Mock Duck was lifted from the embers his form was no longer +recognizable and the surface of his outer covering was burned to a +cinder.</p> + +<p>The two little Gypsy cooks wept with disappointment. They had worked so +hard and were so hot and tired and hungry.</p> + +<p>Their friends were consumed with pity.</p> + +<p>“There, there,” cried Dr. Hume, too tender hearted to look upon tears +without being moved. “Don’t cry, little cooks. Look at all this nice +gravy and these delicious vegetables.”</p> + +<p>“Why, my dearest children, you mustn’t mind,” exclaimed Miss Campbell. +“See what a beautiful mixture we can have. Pour the gravy right into the +platter with the beans and onions. We’ll eat it on bread.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_128' id='pg_128'>128</a></span>How callous do the most fastidious become after a few weeks in camp!</p> + +<p>“Come, come, there’s no time to be lost,” exclaimed the starving Percy.</p> + +<p>But the two disappointed cooks had nothing to say. They choked back +their tears and fell to with an appetite on beans and onions +ingloriously mixed with bread and gravy. And as a final delicacy, the +campers, who had commenced with dessert and salad, finished off with two +very delicious mealy potatoes apiece.</p> + +<p>“If we stayed in this wilderness long, we’d revert to savages,” Miss +Campbell remarked, stirring a large cup of black coffee. “But on the +whole, I think I am enjoying the reversion and my appetite is getting +better every day.”</p> + +<p>“If I were starving in the wilderness and somebody offered me Mock Duck, +I’d refuse it,” ejaculated Billie irrelevantly, for nobody had mentioned +mock duck for a long time.</p> + +<table summary='poem'> + +<tr><td align='center'>THE BALLAD OF MOCK DUCK.<br /> +(Poem by Percy.)<br /><br /></td></tr> + +<tr><td>There was a haughty animal,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1em;'>Lived in a meadow fine;</span><br /> +A domesticated lady<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1em;'>Of the genus called bovine.</span><br /> +<br /> +Like many other females,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1em;'>Beast or human or divine,</span><br /> +This domesticated lady<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1em;'>Of the family of kine</span><br /> +<br /> +Gazed with rapture at her features,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1em;'>As reflected in a brook,</span><br /> +When with unblushing ecstasy<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1em;'>Each morn she took a look.</span><br /> +<br /> +As she smiled at her reflection<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1em;'>In the mirror of the stream,</span><br /> +She indulged in gentle rev’ries<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1em;'>Of complacency supreme.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_130' id='pg_130'>130</a></span> +“Besides my gift of beauty<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1em;'>And my cultivated mind,</span><br /> +I have other choice attractions<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1em;'>Of a very varied kind.</span><br /> +<br /> +”My roasts and steaks are luscious,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1em;'>On my hash all have relied,</span><br /> +My youthful veal’s delicious,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1em;'>And my milk is certified.“</span><br /> +<br /> +On these pleasing meditations<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1em;'>Broke a mother with her brood,</span><br /> +Sailing o’er that calm reflection<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1em;'>In a most ungracious mood.</span><br /> +<br /> +”You may be steaks and roast beef<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1em;'>And hash of quality,</span><br /> +But you stoop to imitations<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1em;'>Of poor humble little me.</span><br /> +<br /> +“You may be a benefactor,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1em;'>But I’ll just remind you, ma’am,</span><br /> +That in one small particular<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1em;'>You are a blooming sham.</span><br /> +<br /> +”Don’t let your sweet milk curdle<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1em;'>And don’t let it sour your luck,</span><br /> +If I make so bold to mention<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1em;'>That imposture called ‘Mock Duck’!“</span><br /> +<br /> +So this web-footed lady,<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1em;'>With a malice quite feline,</span><br /> +Disturbed the calm reflections<br /> +<span style='margin-left: 1em;'>Of that innocent bovine.</span><br /> +</td></tr> +</table> + +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_132' id='pg_132'>132</a></span> +<a name='A_LESSON_BY_THE_WAYSIDE_2583' id='A_LESSON_BY_THE_WAYSIDE_2583'></a> +<h2>CHAPTER IX.</h2> +<h3>A LESSON BY THE WAYSIDE.</h3> +</div> + +<p>Promptly at nine o’clock Saturday morning the “Comet” might have been +seen crawling down the side of the mountain with Billie at the wheel. +Dr. Hume sat beside her and Elinor and Ben were in the back seat. It was +with something of a holiday feeling that they went forth to meet +Alberdina, the new maid, whose presence was becoming a pressing +necessity.</p> + +<p>“I don’t mind the cooking a bit, Doctor,” Billie was saying. “Especially +with Nancy, although I suppose I am really her assistant. She makes +things exciting enough. I think she’s a kind of culinary speculator and +takes a lot of chances, but she’s awfully lucky. She takes all sorts of +rag-tag ends of things, chops them into bits and turns out what she +calls <i>ragouts</i>.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_133' id='pg_133'>133</a></span>“They’re mighty good,” said the doctor. “Experimenting cooks generally +have a sub-conscious instinct that carries them along when they seem to +be going blindly. But it’s difficult to work with them. They are always +dictatorial and inclined to treat the assistant as a scullery maid.”</p> + +<p>Billie groaned.</p> + +<p>“I hope Alberdina, strong and fearless, will relieve us of that awful +scullery work. I have a feeling it would be a reflection on my character +and on the Campbell family if I didn’t leave every pan bright and +shining, but oh, dear, it’s work! I think if I had to keep it up I +should cook everything together, vegetables and meat, in one big kettle +full of boiling water.”</p> + +<p>“That wouldn’t be such a bad mess,” laughed the doctor. “The vegetable +and meat juices would make a rich broth and you could serve soup, meat +and vegetables all in one plate. Think of the saving of that.”</p> + +<p>“As Cousin Helen said, it wouldn’t take campers <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_134' id='pg_134'>134</a></span>long to revert to +savagery,” ejaculated Billie. “We are already as brown as Indians. We +keep our sleeves rolled up and our collars turned in and wear creepers +instead of shoes, and always khaki skirts, and never dress for supper. +Even Cousin Helen has slipped back a peg—”</p> + +<p>“It’s the only possible way to enjoy camping,” broke in the doctor. “But +you would never get to be an all the way savage. Look at that remarkable +young woman, Miss Phoebe, who has never had anything else in all her +life,—she is far from being a savage.”</p> + +<p>“Indeed she is,” said Billie. “She has never been to school in her life, +but she knows a great deal more about some things than I do—astronomy, +for instance, and English history.”</p> + +<p>“There is more than that,” put in Elinor, leaning over to join in the +conversation. “Phoebe has learned something else that keeps her from +ever being ill or tired or unhappy. I asked her what it was and she said +it was a secret.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_135' id='pg_135'>135</a></span>“Speaking of angels,” remarked Ben, “there is Phoebe in front of us +now, carrying a basket. I suppose she is going to the Antler’s Inn to +sell some of her father’s work.”</p> + +<p>Far ahead of them, swinging along the dusty road, was Phoebe. Her tall, +slender figure swayed gracefully with the movement of the walk, but her +shoulders did not bend under the burden of the large basket. A hot, dry +wind blew her skirts about her and flapped the brim of her jimmie hat. +Since the night at Sunrise Camp, Phoebe had never gone barefooted +again, and she now wore a pair of canvas creepers that gave a spring to +her step as she hurried along.</p> + +<p>Keeping time to the rhythm of her steps, Phoebe chanted softly in a +rich, clear voice:</p> + +<p style='margin-left:2em;'>“‘The Lord is my shepherd: I shall not want.<br /> +“‘He maketh me to lie down in the green pastures: he leadeth me beside +the still waters.’”</p> + +<p>The whir of the motor car interrupted the chanting, and, with an +absent-minded glance over <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_136' id='pg_136'>136</a></span>her shoulder, she stepped to the side of the +road to wait for it to pass.</p> + +<p>But the “Comet” stopped short and all the occupants called out, “Good +morning,” with an especial cordiality.</p> + +<p>Phoebe bowed her head gravely. Her eyes had a remote expression as if +she had been awakened from a dream. Ben opened the door of the car and +jumped out, while Billie exclaimed:</p> + +<p>“I am so glad we met you, Phoebe, because now you will let us give you a +lift.”</p> + +<p>Phoebe looked into Billie’s kind gray eyes for a moment and then smiled +as if she had found something there that pleased her.</p> + +<p>“I will come,” she said, as Ben took the basket from her arm and helped +her into the car.</p> + +<p>“Have you walked across the mountain this morning?” he asked, when they +had started on their way again.</p> + +<p>“I started early,” she said, “when it was cool.”</p> + +<p>“And you are not tired?” asked the doctor.</p> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width:372px'> +<a name='illus-003' id='illus-003'></a> +<img src='images/illus-136.jpg' alt='Her eyes had a remote expression as if she had been awakened from a dream.' title='' width='372' /><br /> +<span class='caption'>Her eyes had a remote expression as if she had<br />been awakened from a dream.—<i>Page</i> 136.</span> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_137' id='pg_137'>137</a></span>“No, no, I am not tired. Why should I be? This was my work for to-day. +If I had been tired, I could not have done it.”</p> + +<p>The doctor looked at her curiously.</p> + +<p>“You believe, then, you are given strength for each day’s task?”</p> + +<p>Phoebe did not reply. She was not accustomed to conversation and it was +impossible to find words in which to express herself.</p> + +<p>She turned her dark beautiful eyes on him with a gaze that was almost +disconcerting while searching her mind for an answer.</p> + +<p>The doctor put his question in a different way.</p> + +<p>“When it’s your day’s work to take a long walk across the mountain in +the hot sun, what keeps you from getting tired?”</p> + +<p>“I sing,” answered Phoebe, and settled back in the seat between Elinor +and Ben, her brown hands folded loosely in her lap.</p> + +<p>The ride over to meet the new maid was intended to be something in the +nature of a picnic, and <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_138' id='pg_138'>138</a></span>they had made an early start in order to eat +lunch in the woods after the first stage of the journey. And now, as the +sun crept up toward the meridian, their appetites began to clamor for +food. About that time, too, they came near to the road which led to the +Antlers, where Phoebe hoped to sell some of her baskets. She lifted the +big basket into her lap and touched Billie on the shoulder as a dumb +signal to stop.</p> + +<p>“But we are not going to let you go, Phoebe,” exclaimed Billie. “You +must lunch with us in the woods. Then we’ll have time I think to drop +you at the Antlers and stop for you again on the way back.”</p> + +<p>“I do not see why Miss Phoebe needs to visit the inn at all,” put in Dr. +Hume. “I wanted to get presents for my nieces and nephews. I will buy +the basketful and that will save me no end of trouble searching for +things in the village.”</p> + +<p>Phoebe thoughtfully considered these generous and hospitable +propositions before she replied with great seriousness of tone and +manner:</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_139' id='pg_139'>139</a></span>“Thank you, but it is too much; I cannot accept. It is too much.”</p> + +<p>“But it is not, Phoebe,” protested Billie. “We want you. We like to have +you with us.”</p> + +<p>“And I want the baskets, too,” went on the doctor. “It will save me a +hot, stupid journey to the village.”</p> + +<p>Phoebe looked from one to the other. Her pride was struggling with her +yearning to be with these new and wonderful friends.</p> + +<p>“We won’t take ‘No’,” cried Billie. “We are depending on you to show us +a good place for our picnic and you can guide us over the last of the +road to the station. You see, we have a reason for asking you. We want +your help.”</p> + +<p>The mountain-girl was therefore persuaded to remain with them for the +rest of the trip, and presently they drew up near a pine forest where +there was a little stream. Ben lifted out the luncheon hamper and the +tea basket, and while the girls unpacked the food, Phoebe stood shyly by +and watched the proceedings. With a heightened <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_140' id='pg_140'>140</a></span>color she glanced from +Billie’s and Elinor’s neat skirts and pongee blouses to her own faded +calico dress. She spread out her brown fingers stained with berry juice, +and looked at them sadly. Then her face brightened.</p> + +<p>“I was almost forgetting,” she said out loud, but to no one. “I am +always in too great a hurry. I have waited a long time and now it is +beginning to come. It was too soon last summer, but now at last it is +time.”</p> + +<p>Dr. Hume noticed Phoebe talking to herself and shook his head.</p> + +<p>“Too much alone,” he thought.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, Billie, piling sandwiches on the lunch cloth, was busy +thinking of something far different. Her glance shifted from Dr. Hume to +Phoebe and back again. She closed her eyes and the thought which at +first she saw dimly in the dark recesses of her mind advanced to the +open, took form and shape and presently boldly showed itself as a +full-grown plan. Billie, sitting abstractedly on the ground, piling and +re-piling <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_141' id='pg_141'>141</a></span>the sandwiches, was startled by Ben’s rather impatient voice.</p> + +<p>“I’ll have to fall-to unless you give the word, Billie; I’m famished.”</p> + +<p>“Excuse my absent-mindedness, Ben,” laughed Billie. “I had just thought +up a wild, though perfectly feasible scheme, and I couldn’t turn my mind +to mere food for a moment.”</p> + +<p>“And the scheme is?” demanded Elinor, seating herself at the lunch table +while she waited for the water to boil.</p> + +<p>“I shall have to wait to tell you until it’s ready to serve up,” +answered Billie, “nice and brown and done through.”</p> + +<p>“Why, Billie, what kind of kitchen talk is that?” exclaimed Elinor, +laughing. “You’ll be seeing with the eyes of a cook next. Sunsets will +remind you of tomato soup and clouds will make you think of meringues +and—”</p> + +<p>Elinor broke off, her eyes wide with astonishment, and the others +following the direction of her gaze saw that she was looking at a man +who <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_142' id='pg_142'>142</a></span>had crept into their midst so silently that no one had noticed him. +In that haggard and unshaved face they recognized Mr. Lupo.</p> + +<p>“Something to eat,” he demanded fiercely. “I’m almost starved.”</p> + +<p>Without a word Billie handed him several sandwiches and some fruit.</p> + +<p>“Eat it over there,” she ordered, pointing to a distant tree, “and +afterwards you can tell us what is the matter.”</p> + +<p>The others admired her calm assurance with the half-breed, but Billie +was tired of the Lupos. The wife had come near being the death of her +beloved cousin, and the husband was a lazy, loafing fellow. Such was her +judgment of them.</p> + +<p>“Come, Phoebe. Come, Dr. Hume,” she said, and the others gathered around +the lunch cloth. Mr. Lupo lifted his sodden, bloodshot eyes at the word +“Phoebe,” and saw with astonishment the young girl, whom Billie knew the +couple hated, now drinking tea and mingling on equal terms with the +people of Sunrise Camp.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_143' id='pg_143'>143</a></span>His eyes narrowed into little slits. After choking down the sandwiches +greedily, he stalked over into their midst.</p> + +<p>“What have you done with my wife?” he demanded.</p> + +<p>“We know nothing of your wife, Lupo,” answered Dr. Hume, who knew all +about the couple by this time. “You had better go on now, if you have +had enough food.”</p> + +<p>“I don’t want any more of your cursed food,” answered Lupo, looking very +much like his namesake, the wolf, at that moment. “But I tell you if +you’ve given my wife money to leave me, you will have to pay for it in +another coin.”</p> + +<p>“Nobody has ever given your wife any money. She has never been back +since the day she threatened Miss Campbell with a carving knife. If +anybody has driven her away, it’s you, with your drunken, low habits.”</p> + +<p>Lupo moved a step nearer and pointed his thumb at Phoebe.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_144' id='pg_144'>144</a></span>“So you’re trying to make a lady of her, are you?”</p> + +<p>Phoebe took not the slightest notice. She was watching the antics of a +squirrel leaping in the branches of a giant oak tree, but she turned her +eyes gratefully toward Billie, when that young woman burst out with:</p> + +<p>“She is a lady and my friend. I think you’d better go now, Mr. Lupo.”</p> + +<p>“Whoever meddles with those two shall pay for it,” cried the man +fiercely, just as Ben seized him by the collar and flung him into a +thicket of bushes, from where he presently crawled away out of sight, +occasionally pausing to shake his fist in their direction.</p> + +<p>“A nice return for hospitality,” exclaimed Billie.</p> + +<p>“He’s a dangerous fellow,” said the doctor. “But I imagine he’s mostly +talk. What do you know of him, Miss Phoebe?”</p> + +<p>“I only know that years ago they tried to drive us away from our house. +But an old man who <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_145' id='pg_145'>145</a></span>lived with us, protected us. He owned the cabin and +he left it to father and me. There was a will that made it ours. It +became a home.” They smiled at her quaint expression. “And the Lupos +have been turned against us always, but God has protected us from our +enemies.”</p> + +<p>They looked at her silently. It was impossible not to feel deeply +impressed with the earnestness of her tone. Billie felt ashamed. With +all her advantages and the opportunities money and travel had brought +her, Phoebe, raised in a cabin on the mountain side, had learned +something she had not.</p> + +<p>Presently she went over and sat beside the mysterious girl.</p> + +<p>“I wish you would teach me a few things, Phoebe. I feel that I am very +ignorant.”</p> + +<p>“But I have never been to school,” replied Phoebe in astonishment.</p> + +<p>“There are some things one doesn’t learn at school,” answered Billie.</p> + +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_146' id='pg_146'>146</a></span> +<a name='ALBERDINA_SCHOENBACHLER_2881' id='ALBERDINA_SCHOENBACHLER_2881'></a> +<h2>CHAPTER X.</h2> +<h3>ALBERDINA SCHOENBACHLER</h3> +</div> + +<p>“You no lig I shall dos clothes coog?” asked Alberdina, the Monday after +her arrival.</p> + +<p>“Boil, you mean?” corrected Miss Campbell. “Certainly. There is a +clothes boiler, and goodness knows the things need it, and a good +bleaching afterwards in the sun. They are as yellow as gold.”</p> + +<p>When Alberdina, the new German-Swiss maid, had alighted from the train +with her absurd little iron-bound trunk, about as big as a bread basket, +Billie had felt no misgivings. Here, indeed, was a creature too healthy +to know the name of fear, and too good-natured to object to hard work. +The brilliant red cheeks and broad engaging smile immediately decided +Billie to put all her accumulated linen in wash at once.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_147' id='pg_147'>147</a></span>On top of Alberdina’s large peasant head was perched a small round hat, +positively the most ludicrous thing ever seen in the shape of millinery. +With its band of red satin ribbon and tiny bunch of field flowers, it +seemed to defy the world to find anything funnier.</p> + +<p>“It’s a real comedy hat,” Dr. Hume observed. “The kind they wear when +they sing:</p> + +<p style='margin-left: 2em'>“‘Hi-lee-hi-lo-hi-lee-hi-lo,<br /> +I joost come over; I joost come over.’”</p> + +<p>“But she’s really a ministering angel, you know,” said Billie, “sent to +do the washing and ironing and scullery work. Except for cooking meals, +we expect to take life easy from now on.”</p> + +<p>And so, right gladly, they had carried Alberdina Schoenbachler over the +twenty-five miles of mountain road and established her in Sunrise Camp.</p> + +<p>“I think she is the very person we needed, Cousin Helen,” Billie said. +“Not accomplished, you know, or trained in any way, but good <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_148' id='pg_148'>148</a></span>enough for +camping. And there is no reason now why we shouldn’t take the trip to +the lower lake if you feel well enough. The weather is perfect.”</p> + +<p>“Do you think we ought to leave her on the first day?” Miss Campbell +replied somewhat doubtfully.</p> + +<p>“Why not? She has enough to occupy her, goodness knows, with all that +washing.”</p> + +<p>“But suppose she should get lonely or frightened—?”</p> + +<p>Just then a melodious Swiss yodel broke the stillness of the early +morning and Billie laughed.</p> + +<p>“She isn’t going to be lonesome. She is accustomed to the mountains. Do +let’s take a holiday, Cousin Helen, please,” and with Miss Helen’s +assent, Billie rushed off to find the others and tell the good news.</p> + +<p>Perhaps some people would regard it as a fault in Billie’s character +that, having formed a plan, she was always filled with wild impatience +to carry <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_149' id='pg_149'>149</a></span>it out. But when we consider that Billie’s plans concerned the +pleasure and entertainment of other people and that her impatience was +only another form of earnest enthusiasm, it would be difficult to +criticise her.</p> + +<p>While three of the Motor Maids busied themselves preparing the luncheon, +Billie and Ben worked over the motor car, putting it in condition for a +long trip, and Percy, in blue overalls, washed the body of the car.</p> + +<p>“I am so glad to save you this drudgery,” he observed, with an +ingratiating smile.</p> + +<p>“You’re not half as glad as we are, Percival Algernon,” answered Ben. +“It’s a double blessing, because it’s good discipline for you and it +gives us a chance to show how much we know about machinery.”</p> + +<p>“Don’t boast, my son. You may have a sure enough chance before the sun +sets,” remarked Percy in the tone of a prophet.</p> + +<p>“After you have washed him off well, rub him <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_150' id='pg_150'>150</a></span>down with those cloths,” +ordered Billie from under the car. “Then stow the rubber curtains inside +and see to the lights. It may be late before we get back.”</p> + +<p>“All right, Captain,” answered Percy respectfully.</p> + +<p>It was still not nine o’clock when the “Comet,” polished and oiled and +looking as neat in his dark blue and buff uniform as a soldier on +parade, stood ready for departure. The hamper of luncheon was strapped +on behind, and underneath the middle seats in a pan of ice were bottles +of root beer and ginger ale. Presently he started down the steep road +with his load. The rustic camp, perched on the ledge in the side of the +mountain, with its guard of pine trees crowding almost to its doors, +never looked more alluring.</p> + +<p>“I declare I hate to leave the place,” said Miss Campbell, peeping +through the glass window in the back curtain of the car.</p> + +<p>“It’s in good hands,” laughed the doctor, as <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_151' id='pg_151'>151</a></span>the voice of Alberdina +floated to them, singing in fulsome tones:</p> + +<p>“Ach, mein lieber Augustine, Augustine, Augustine!”</p> + +<p>But the motor car with its load of campers had not been long gone when +Alberdina withdrew her arms, elbow deep in soapsuds, from the wash tub, +and looked around her.</p> + +<p>“Ach, mein lieber Gott,” she said turning her large cow-like eyes on the +pile of linen, “I dis worg nod much lige. It is too many. I mag to coog +dos clothes and rest. Dis life it all hard worg ees.”</p> + +<p>She lifted an armful of linen garments from the tub and stuffed them +into the clothes boiler which she filled with water and set on the coal +oil stove. Then drawing up a steamer chair, she settled herself +comfortably and closed her eyes, not noticing that in the boilerful of +white things she had plunged a red silk handkerchief of Percy’s. Nearly +an hour had passed when Alberdina <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_152' id='pg_152'>152</a></span>awoke from her healthy, +conscienceless slumber with a start. Turning her head lazily, she +noticed that the clothes were boiling and the water was running over the +sides of the boiler.</p> + +<p>“Mein Gott!” she said in German. “That little mistress will make of me +the Hamburger. I must do some work.”</p> + +<p>But to her horror and astonishment, when Alberdina made an effort to +rise from the low, easy chair, she could not move. She had been bound to +the chair with a stout rope, the clothes line in fact. Each fat red hand +was secured to an arm of the chair, her feet tied together and her body +strapped to the seat and back.</p> + +<p>Alberdina groaned and her stupid eyes became humid with terror.</p> + +<p>“Helb! Helb!” she called. “Helb bring. Mein Gott in himmel, helb!”</p> + +<p>No answer came from the silent camp.</p> + +<p>“Ees it for dis, den, I haf to you come?” she cried, addressing the +circle of mountains shimmering <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_153' id='pg_153'>153</a></span>in opalescent light. Far down from the +valley below came the long clear note of a bugle, probably of some +coaching party. An impudent woodpecker seated on a limb above her +commenced an insistent, aggravating tapping.</p> + +<p>Alberdina made another struggle to loose her bonds and then settled back +weeping. At last merciful sleep brought her oblivion. The mountains +shimmered in the heat waves. The sunlight slanting through the trees +cast flickering golden shadows on the carpet of pine needles. The tinkle +of a cowbell broke the stillness. In her dreams the Swiss girl was +reminded of her own cherished uplands, where in the festive +cheese-making time she had gathered with other maids and youths and +danced to the music of the zither. Zither, did she say? But, had she +been dreaming then, all the while? Was not that a zither now mingling +its fairy music with the notes of the cow bell? Alberdina opened her +eyes.</p> + +<p>“Helb! Helb! I asg you helb!” she called.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_154' id='pg_154'>154</a></span>The music stopped instantly and a man, tall, slender, with an +indescribably distinguished air, approached, carrying the zither under +his arm.</p> + +<p>“You called?” he asked courteously.</p> + +<p>Alberdina burst into a torrent of excited German. She rolled her +prominent eyes to indicate her bonds. Streams of tears flowed down her +cheeks, or taking a short cut, ran over the bridge of her nose and +dropped down a precipice to her heaving bosom. Phoebe’s father watched +her with an expression of gentle bewilderment. He seemed to be trying to +recall something an infinite distance away, like one of those +inexplicable reminiscences that flash through our minds and are gone +before we can grasp their significance.</p> + +<p>“It’s useless,” he said, shaking his head. “But something has happened +to you? Oh, yes, you have been tied up.”</p> + +<p>Taking a bone-handled clasp knife from his pocket, he carefully cut the +ropes wound about her. Alberdina bounded out of the chair like a big, +fleshy catapult.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_155' id='pg_155'>155</a></span>“Ach, himmel, I thangs mag to you, sir,” she cried respectfully, for +there was something in this wanderer which commanded deference, although +he did wear a threadbare suit and mountain brogans.</p> + +<p>“You know who did this, my girl?” he asked.</p> + +<p>She shook her head and ran into the camp beyond. The locker rooms on the +two sleeping porches were in confusion. The contents of drawers and +trunks had been dumped to the floor and writing portfolios overhauled. +But, apparently, nothing had been taken, because there was nothing +valuable enough to tempt the most eager burglar. What little ready money +they had the campers had carried with them, and there was no jewelry to +steal. Only Alberdina had been robbed. With many deep guttural +exclamations she found that her own little emigrant trunk had not been +overlooked in the pillage and her purse, containing ten dollars, was +gone.</p> + +<p>The gentleman with the zither turned to go.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_156' id='pg_156'>156</a></span>“I came to find a physician,” he said. “Is there none here?”</p> + +<p>“I know nod,” answered the girl, shaken with sobs.</p> + +<p>He lifted his old slouch hat.</p> + +<p>“I bid you good day,” he said, and started away, then turning back, he +exclaimed: “Perhaps I ought not to leave you here alone. But I must not +stay away so long. Phoebe will be frightened. Will you come with me to +my home?”</p> + +<p>Alberdina shook her head. She was half afraid of the strange man. Who +knows but it might have been this stranger, himself, who had robbed her +of her savings?</p> + +<p>“No, no; I vill stay here. The vorst is over yet already. Dey haf me +robbed of my moneys. I no more haf. Dey vill not come bag.”</p> + +<p>Having so spoken, she returned to her labors and was presently hanging +on the line a long row of deep pink clothing, headed by the red silk +<span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_157' id='pg_157'>157</a></span>handkerchief, the iniquitous author of the wicked deed.</p> + +<p>In the meantime the motorists had proceeded joyfully on their way. They +sang and joked and made so merry that Dr. Hume felt that he had gone +back fifteen years in his busy life and was a boy himself. The road as +indicated on the map in the road book was cut through forests of +primeval growth. Sometimes it descended into the valley past villages +and farm houses. Once it took them through a splendid tract of land +dedicated with its club house to St. Hubert, patron saint of the hunt. +At last it began by degrees to climb upward, and with a sudden turn +around the mountain side, they came into view of an exquisite little +lake, reflecting in its mirrored depths the peaks of the high mountains +encircling it. Hundreds of silver birches, slender and elegant, fringed +its edges, gleaming white against a background of impenetrable green.</p> + +<p>At one corner of the lake were a small boathouse <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_158' id='pg_158'>158</a></span>and restaurant, where +customers are perpetually served with tea and maple cake. Long ago they +had eaten lunch and were quite ready for more refreshments. Then +everybody but Miss Campbell took a dip in the lake. The hours sped past +and the sun was well on its downward grade before they realized it was +time to return.</p> + +<p>In the meantime, Billie, always eager to find out about new roads and +new trails, had been questioning one of the guides at the boathouse.</p> + +<p>“He says there’s a walk called the ‘river trail’ only two miles long +that we could take, and meet the ‘Comet’ at a bridge at the end. Don’t +you think some of us could take it, Dr. Hume? It’s right through the +most wonderful pine forests,—one of the most beautiful walks in the +Adirondacks, he says.”</p> + +<p>“But who will run the motor car?” asked the doctor, beetling his shaggy +eyebrows.</p> + +<p>“I will,” Ben volunteered, and it was accordingly arranged that Dr. Hume +and Percy should <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_159' id='pg_159'>159</a></span>conduct the girls along the river trail while Miss +Campbell and Ben proceeded by the road in the car.</p> + +<p>It was all very simple. Miss Campbell was to take a nap while Ben looked +after the “Comet’s” needs and in the course of half an hour, or at their +leisure, they were to take the road. In the meantime, the others, with +good walking, would have ample time to make the two miles through the +forest. They bade each other a casual farewell since they were to meet +again so soon, and led by the doctor, plunged into the forest.</p> + +<p>The ground had been cleared of undergrowth, so that looking up the side +of the mountain, at the foot of which gurgled a little river, one could +see a vast multitude of tall straight pine trees and occasionally the +flash of a silver birch. Rank on rank they stood in infinite +perspective; and sometimes an aged beech tree generalled their march and +sometimes a magnificent oak spread out his venerable arms with a gesture +of <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_160' id='pg_160'>160</a></span>command. But the rank and file were pines; gray grenadiers, still +upright with the years; young stripling pines, eager to be on the march. +And always they seemed to be going the same way over the mountains to +the frontiers of the world, and always through their branches came the +murmur of their martial song.</p> + +<p>Nowhere had Billie seen so impressive, so magnificent a forest. She +thought of the cryptomerias in Japan, but they were more like the +gigantic pillars of a cathedral, while these hurrying hordes of pines +and birches were like human beings. They suggested romances: lovers in +the forests; knights in armor; wicked enchantresses.</p> + +<p>Once Dr. Hume paused and pointed to a cleared space beyond. There, +standing under a great pine tree looking at them with startled eyes were +a doe and her young. In another instant they were gone, leaving the +campers holding their breath.</p> + +<p>In a little more than an hour they reached the end of the trail, where a +foot bridge made of <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_161' id='pg_161'>161</a></span>two logs took them over the turbulent little river. +But no “Comet” stood waiting for them at the rendezvous with Ben at the +wheel and Miss Campbell on the back seat. To be sure the road was twice +as long, as the trail had wound around the side of the mountain for some +five miles, but that was nothing to a motor car.</p> + +<p>“Might as well sit down and wait,” suggested the doctor.</p> + +<p>They seated themselves in a row on a log expecting every minute to see +the familiar blue car loom into sight.</p> + +<p>But the lagging moments dragged themselves into half an hour and still +the “Comet” lingered.</p> + +<p>“I think we’d better walk back,” said Billie, beginning to feel just a +tinge of uneasiness.</p> + +<p>“Perhaps it would be as well,” echoed the doctor. “They have had a +breakdown, no doubt.”</p> + +<p>The band of wayfarers feeling very weary after the rough walk along the +river trail began their march back toward the lake.</p> + +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_162' id='pg_162'>162</a></span> +<a name='A_COMEDY_OF_ERRORS_3192' id='A_COMEDY_OF_ERRORS_3192'></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XI.</h2> +<h3>A COMEDY OF ERRORS.</h3> +</div> + +<p>The original lake party might have served as an excellent illustration +of the history of many principalities and nations. Having suffered a +division and then a subdivision and finally a breaking up into +fractional groups, it became as a weakened and shattered government, +powerless to help itself.</p> + +<p>It soon became evident that Mary Price was too weary to take the long +walk back to the lake.</p> + +<p>She was left therefore by the roadside with Percy and Elinor, while Dr. +Hume, Nancy and Billie went on.</p> + +<p>“It will probably be no time at all before we pick them up,” said the +doctor cheerfully, but they made the entire walk to the lake house and +there was no “Comet” to be seen.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_163' id='pg_163'>163</a></span>“It left here two hours ago,” the boatman informed them. “Maybe they +went on to the second bridge. That’s half a mile beyond the first one. +They’ll tell a person anything, these people here will.”</p> + +<p>“I suppose that’s exactly what happened,” Billie exclaimed, much +relieved. “They have been waiting at the second bridge and will be on +their way back by this time. But I think they will have to come all the +way. Nancy has a blister on her heel.”</p> + +<p>“Now, don’t blame it all on me, Billie,” said Nancy. “You know you are +dead tired yourself.”</p> + +<p>Billie smiled guiltily.</p> + +<p>“I am played out,” she said.</p> + +<p>“I wouldn’t think of allowing either of you young ladies to start on +another tramp,” put in Dr. Hume. “I am too good a doctor for that. You +must stay right here and rest and I’ll start back. I may meet the whole +party any time, now.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_164' id='pg_164'>164</a></span>Billie and Nancy, therefore, settled themselves to rest on two benches +near the lake while the good doctor trudged off along the dusty road.</p> + +<p>In the meantime, Mary, who had more than overtaxed her strength that +day, gave Percy and Elinor a bad fright by toppling over in a faint. +They brought her to with water which Percy carried from a brook in his +hat, and then carried her into the wood a bit where she could lie on the +pine needles and rest her head in Elinor’s lap. But Percy hurried back +to the road to keep watch, and seeing a motor car broken down in the +distance hastened to catch up with it. It was a strange car, however, +and the chauffeur had not seen the “Comet.”</p> + +<p>And all this while, Ben and Miss Campbell, having waited an incalculable +time at the second bridge, had gone on for half a mile. Few people can +stand the test of being kept waiting. Their patience may be +inexhaustible but their judgments are apt to take a bad twist and bring +them right about face in the wrong direction.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_165' id='pg_165'>165</a></span>It is true that Ben had yielded to Miss Campbell in going beyond the +supposed meeting place, and now to make matters worse, the “Comet” came +to an inexplicable standstill. Poor Ben, with small knowledge of what to +do, began a long and wearisome investigation of unfamiliar machinery.</p> + +<p>There was something of the dumb driven animal in Ben when he entered +unfamiliar territory, and his slow plodding methods had been known to +irritate Miss Campbell profoundly.</p> + +<p>And now, one more separation remained to complete the disbandment of +this innocent party of pleasure. Ben, shamefaced and very humble, was +obliged to confess to Miss Campbell that he could not locate the trouble +with the “Comet.” Deeply he regretted his inefficiency, but there was +nothing to do but give up.</p> + +<p>“I’m thinking,” he said, “that maybe I had better walk back a little +ways and see if the others aren’t coming up behind us.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_166' id='pg_166'>166</a></span>“Very well,” answered Miss Campbell with dignity. “You may go. I +suppose nobody would wish to harm an old woman.”</p> + +<p>Presently, therefore, she found herself alone in the wilderness. There +was something almost human and comforting about the “Comet,” however, +that faithful mechanism that had borne them on so many pilgrimages, and +Miss Campbell addressed herself to him as to a human companion.</p> + +<p>“I just believe you had more sense than that stupid Ben Austen,” she +said. “You wouldn’t go on because you knew perfectly well that your +mistress was behind you. You’re a nice, good old thing.”</p> + +<p>She paused and peered out of the car. Darkness was falling and the road +was filled with somber shadows cast by the far-reaching branches of the +trees on either side. As far as she could see along the white strip of +road there was no human soul behind her. Her eyes swept <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_167' id='pg_167'>167</a></span>the road in +front. It was criss-crossed with light and shadow and it was difficult +to make out anything moving, but Miss Campbell thought she saw an object +approaching. Yes, it was unquestionably an object. Something large and +white—a van. Great heavens, it was a Gypsy van!</p> + +<p>“Ben!” she called, but Ben was quite a quarter of a mile away by now.</p> + +<p>The only thing to do was to get out and hide behind a tree in the woods. +She could not bring herself to face a band of Gypsies. Hurriedly +climbing down from the car, Miss Campbell concealed herself in a thicket +of trees near the road.</p> + +<p>Presently the van drew up alongside the empty car.</p> + +<p>“By Jove, here’s an abandoned motor. Where do you suppose the people +are?” said a man walking at one side of the van and driving the horse.</p> + +<p>Two women were comfortably seated in rocking chairs in the little front +compartment of the vehicle.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_168' id='pg_168'>168</a></span>“How strange!” said one of them. “It’s like finding a derelict at sea. +Where are the Captain and the crew? Where are the passengers?”</p> + +<p>“Where indeed?” thought the lady behind the tree.</p> + +<p>“It’s like the mystery of the ‘Maria Theresa,’” pursued the man. “A +perfectly good ship abandoned in mid-ocean without the slightest +explanation and all on board lost forever.”</p> + +<p>This gruesome comparison made Miss Campbell decidedly uncomfortable.</p> + +<p>“Shall we leave her to drift, ladies?” he asked affably.</p> + +<p>“I will protect the ‘Comet’ with my life,” she thought. “I don’t believe +they are Gypsies anyhow. Their accent is too good, and a Gypsy would +never address the women of his family as ‘ladies.’”</p> + +<p>“I am afraid I am at present the sole survivor of the crew,” she said +politely to the young man. “If you would be kind enough to advise me, +sir, I should be greatly indebted.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_169' id='pg_169'>169</a></span>Immediately the man lifted his broad-brimmed hat and the women in the +rocking chairs leaned forward in order the better to see this dainty, +mysterious little lady in gray who had emerged apparently from a +primeval forest.</p> + +<p>“With the greatest pleasure, ma’am,” answered the young man, filled with +curiosity, and they all listened with courteous attention while she +related the history of the afternoon’s mishaps.</p> + +<p>“And now that stupid Ben, who is really a very nice boy under ordinary +circumstances, has gone off and left me and almost anything could have +happened,—wolves, Indians, half-breeds—” she added, thinking of the +treacherous Lupos.</p> + +<p>After she had finished, the young man stood for a moment thinking.</p> + +<p>“My name is Richard Hook, ma’am, at your service,” he said. “The only +thing I could suggest is for me to unhitch Dobbin here and ride him down +the road to look for your party and <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_170' id='pg_170'>170</a></span>leave you with my sister, Maggie, +and her friend. This is as good a place as any other for us to put up +for the night. You might as well start supper, girls. Perhaps this lady +is hungry.”</p> + +<p>“I am,” interjected Miss Campbell fervently.</p> + +<p>So it happened that Richard Hook went ambling off into the twilight on +old Dobbin while Maggie Hook and her friend, Amy Swinnerton, made Miss +Campbell comfortable in the van and prepared to cook supper.</p> + +<p>“And you are not Gypsies after all?” asked the little lady, watching one +of the girls light a bracket lamp on the wall of the van.</p> + +<p>“No, indeed,” laughed Maggie Hook. “Not by birth at least, but I think +we have something of the Gypsy spirit because we love to spend our +summers in this way. Have you never seen a van?”</p> + +<p>Miss Campbell could not say that she had and looked about her with much +interest.</p> + +<p>“These are our beds, you see,” Amy explained. <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_171' id='pg_171'>171</a></span>“The top one folds up and +we use the lower one for a divan. Richard sleeps in a tent. This is the +dressing room,” she continued with as much pride as a custodian showing +a sightseer over an ancient castle.</p> + +<p>A little space had been curtained off in the back and behind this hung a +mirror over a small dressing table, and a row of hooks for clothes.</p> + +<p>“And this is your kitchen?” asked Miss Campbell, indicating a row of +plates and cups on a plate rack and a small kerosene stove, at one side +opposite the beds.</p> + +<p>“That and a chafing dish and a camp fire,” answered Maggie Hook. “But we +mostly prefer the fire. I’ll get things started here to-night and when +Richard comes he can make us a fire if he dares. I believe the laws +around here are pretty strict about fires.”</p> + +<p>“Well, my dears, it is assuredly the most complete and delightful little +traveling home I ever saw,” exclaimed Miss Campbell, after she had +<span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_172' id='pg_172'>172</a></span>looked over the entire van and then seated herself in a rocking chair +to watch preparations for supper. It did not take long for her to make +friends with these nice young girls who were indeed about the age of her +own charges.</p> + +<p>“How many are in your party, Miss Campbell?” asked Maggie, in the act of +breaking eggs into a bowl.</p> + +<p>“There are eight of us, but I hope you aren’t thinking——”</p> + +<p>“Oh, but I am,” insisted Maggie. “I am sure they will be very tired and +hungry, and, besides, we have plenty in the larder for everyone,—a +whole ham!” she added archly.</p> + +<p>“Dear me, I wish Billie were here,” said Miss Campbell. “I believe she +always keeps things stored away in the ‘Comet’ for an emergency.”</p> + +<p>“I’ll beat up some Johnnie cakes,” announced Amy. “We can cook those on +the wood fire later.”</p> + +<p>In the meantime, the waiters who had waited <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_173' id='pg_173'>173</a></span>in vain and the wanderers +who had wandered fruitlessly, began to realize that the situation was +serious. Billie grew desperately impatient. At last she succeeded in +engaging a carry-all and two horses from a man at the moat house and +soon she and Nancy, seated face to face, were hurrying along the road. +Dr. Hume had met Percy. Ben had discovered Elinor and Mary standing +fearfully on the edge of the forest. By the time that Richard Hook had +got anywhere at all with his old nag, the lake-party, with the exception +of Miss Campbell, was re-united in Billie’s carry-all and driving +comfortably in the direction of the “Comet.”</p> + +<p>They were very tired and hungry but a graven image would have melted to +laughter over this comedy of errors, and Richard Hook, hearing the gay +chorus of voices approaching, was quite sure it was another picnic +party. But he was not a young man to take chances, and having taken his +position across the middle of the road, he waved his arms and yelled, +“Stop!”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_174' id='pg_174'>174</a></span>“Do you know anything about a little lady in gray and an abandoned +automobile?” he asked.</p> + +<p>“Cousin Helen and the ‘Comet,’” cried Billie, consumed with anxiety. +“Oh, Ben, how could you have left them?”</p> + +<p>“But——” began Ben.</p> + +<p>“I assure you the lady is in good hands,” interrupted Richard. “My +sister is looking after her.”</p> + +<p>There were more explanations and presently they started on their way +again, and in a little while drew up beside the Gypsy van and the +abandoned motor car. And the upshot of the whole adventure was that the +two parties joined forces and provisions.</p> + +<p>The boys built a fire against a great boulder on the river bank and +there was a wonderful supper. All the very best of everything was +brought out for the occasion. They ate Johnnie cakes from wooden +platters and drank black coffee from glasses, Russian fashion. Later +they <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_175' id='pg_175'>175</a></span>sang songs and told stories around the camp fire. Never did people +commingle so agreeably as the caravanners and the motorists. Somehow +Sunrise Camp and Alberdina Schoenbachler faded into the dim recesses of +their memories.</p> + +<p>“Of course you can’t go home,” Richard Hook remarked to Billie. “We’ll +camp out to-night. You’ll never be able to mend that car in all this +blackness, and it would be a pretty hard road to follow at night anyhow. +We’ve just come over it. Dobbin can pull the car over to one side of the +road, and Miss Campbell and Miss Price can sleep in the van.”</p> + +<p>“And we’ll show you what a bed really is,” Ben went on eagerly. “Not a +motor car cushion affair either.”</p> + +<p>To their surprise, Miss Campbell was agreeable to the plan.</p> + +<p>“There’s nobody at home to worry but Alberdina,” she said, “and it won’t +hurt her to lose a little flesh, anyhow.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_176' id='pg_176'>176</a></span>The boys worked hard over the beds. Springy couches they made of spruce +branches, covered with blankets, and, at last as care-free as a lot of +Gypsies, they all slept as soundly as they had ever slept in their own +beds at home.</p> + +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_177' id='pg_177'>177</a></span> +<a name='THE_RETURN_3471' id='THE_RETURN_3471'></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XII.</h2> +<h3>THE RETURN.</h3> +</div> + +<p>With the exception of her three best friends, Billie Campbell had never +met people who pleased her so much on short acquaintance as the Hooks +and their guest. It had not taken them half an hour to bridge over the +gap of unfamiliarity.</p> + +<p>“What is it?” she asked of Maggie Hook, Richard’s small, whimsical +sister, black haired, black eyed, with quick alert movements like a +bird’s.</p> + +<p>“I can tell you exactly the reason,” replied Maggie. “It’s because we +all belong to the road. There is a bond between us. We go Gypsying in +our van and you go Gypsying in your car. We be all of one blood like +Kipling’s Mowgli and the animals in the jungle.”</p> + +<p>“Only we aren’t the real thing as much as <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_178' id='pg_178'>178</a></span>you,” said Billie modestly. +“The ‘Comet’ is a dear old thing, but he’s not a house.”</p> + +<p>“You wouldn’t enjoy it if he were,” said Maggie. “A motor traveling van +would never do. You see the point of this kind of life is that it’s lazy +and contemplative. We just amble along and it doesn’t matter whether we +make ten miles or five. We are not attempting long distance records. We +are just getting intimate with the ups and downs of the country; the +streams and rivers; the little valleys and bits of green by the +roadside. Sometimes, if we find a place that’s secluded enough, a little +glen or a grove that screens off the road, we stay there for several +days.”</p> + +<p>“But what do you do?”</p> + +<p>“We all do the things we like best. Richard reads and takes long walks +or fishes, if there is a stream. I clean the van from top to bottom and +polish everything up and bake a cake in the little oven. Then I darn all +the stockings and mend the clothes.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_179' id='pg_179'>179</a></span>Billie laughed.</p> + +<p>“You’re not a Gypsy,” she said, “if you are a black-eyed wanderer. They +never mend or clean anything. But what does Miss Swinnerton like to do? +Is she fond of housework, too?”</p> + +<p>“Amy? No, not specially. She sketches and paints in water colors, and +botanizes, and looks for bits of stones and rocks which she examines +through a glass, and translates French and generally potters around. +She’s always busy. She can do anything from making an omelette to +painting a picture.”</p> + +<p>Billie turned her eyes half wistfully toward the plump brown-haired Amy +Swinnerton. She felt suddenly very inefficient and worthless.</p> + +<p>“I can’t do anything,” she said, frowning. “I’m ashamed of myself.”</p> + +<p>“You can run a motor car and keep it in order,” answered the new friend. +“I never knew another girl who could.”</p> + +<p>“That’s ground into me by experience. But <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_180' id='pg_180'>180</a></span>I hate sewing. I’m not a good +cook and I can’t draw or paint or play the piano. We met a girl this +summer who has been brought up in a cabin on the mountain and has never +been to school in her life, who knows a lot more than I do.”</p> + +<p>Billie told what little she knew of the strange history of Phoebe.</p> + +<p>“It would make a wonderful story,” observed Maggie. “I should like to +put it into a book.”</p> + +<p>“Do you write, too?” asked Billie eagerly.</p> + +<p>Maggie blinked her dark, bright eyes.</p> + +<p>“When you see my name appear in book reviews and magazines and things, +then you’ll know I write,” she replied.</p> + +<p>This conversation occurred the next morning at breakfast. Billie had +risen at dawn and repaired the “Comet” and the motor party was soon now +to start on its homeward journey.</p> + +<p>Richard Hook presently joined his sister and Billie. Sitting +cross-legged on the ground at <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_181' id='pg_181'>181</a></span>their feet, he munched a bacon sandwich +and sipped black coffee from a tin cup. He reminded Billie of one of +Shakespeare’s wise fools. All he lacked were the cap and bells. His +whimsical, humorous eyes were rather far apart; his dark hair, cropped +close, stood up straight over his forehead. His nose was distinguished +in shape and his flexible mouth turned up at the corners. He talked +slowly with a sort of twang like a farmer from the east coast and there +was a kind of hidden humor under whatever he said. He had charming +old-world manners, and an old-fashioned way of saying “I thank you,” or +“Permit me, ma’am,” or “At your service, ma’am.” He was really quite a +delightful person, they unanimously decided; and so was his sister and +so was her friend.</p> + +<p>Billie wondered what Richard Hook’s work was; or whether perhaps he was +still in college. She wondered a great many things about him, and she +felt quite sure that he was not well off. Presently she said:</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_182' id='pg_182'>182</a></span>“It’s too bad when we are all just beginning to be friends that we must +part so soon. Why can’t you turn old Dobbin right about face and come +back and see us at Camp Sunrise?”</p> + +<p>“Why not, indeed?” answered Richard.</p> + +<p>“Do come,” urged Billie, never dreaming that in giving this invitation +she had been moved by something stronger than her own friendly wish to +know more of these nice people, and that destiny itself had a hand in +the business.</p> + +<p>Richard Hook took a little calendar from his pocket and contemplated it +gravely.</p> + +<p>“Another month has perished with her moon,” he remarked. “We’re in +August, little sister. Did you realize that? I see no reason why we +shouldn’t travel toward Sunrise Camp before——”</p> + +<p>“Before——” repeated Maggie, and the brother and sister exchanged a +swift glance.</p> + +<p>“Then you do accept,” exclaimed Billie joyfully.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_183' id='pg_183'>183</a></span>“With the greatest pleasure,” answered Richard, “if you think old +Dobbin can climb the hill.”</p> + +<p>“Of course he can,” replied Billie.</p> + +<p>“But, Richard, do you think we dare?” asked Maggie in a low voice.</p> + +<p>Richard’s mouth turned up at the corners and his eyes gave a humorous +blink.</p> + +<p>“We dare anything,” he said. “Pray excuse this little aside, Miss +Billie. It’s only that we are obliged to consider certain complications +that arise to vex us at times. I think we can easily arrange to go to +Camp Sunrise.”</p> + +<p>Billie was more certain than ever that money was the complication. But +surely that was an inexpensive way of spending one’s vacation, provided +one owned the van and the horse.</p> + +<p>“How much longer does your vacation last, Mr. Hook?” she asked.</p> + +<p>“It depends. My boss is a very notionate old party. He might let me go +wandering on like this for several weeks longer or he might suddenly +<span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_184' id='pg_184'>184</a></span>decide to send for me, and I should have to go hiking back in the midst +of my holiday.”</p> + +<p>Maggie laughed, and Billie wondered what kind of work this unusual young +man did that sent out sudden calls in the very middle of hard-earned +vacations.</p> + +<p>However, it was arranged that the caravanners should meander back toward +Sunrise Camp and in the course of time stop there for a visit.</p> + +<p>“They are delightful young people,” Miss Campbell said. “I don’t know +who they are, I’m sure, nor what the young man does, but I find them +quite the most charming young people with the exception of my own that I +ever met.”</p> + +<p>“It’s rather strange about his work,” remarked Dr. Hume. “I don’t know +what he does now, but he wishes above all things to be a farmer, he +informed me. He’s always looking for farms as he journeys along the +road. That’s one of the reasons why he got the van, in order to see <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_185' id='pg_185'>185</a></span>the +country and decide where he’d like best to locate.”</p> + +<p>They were not so merry on the journey back as they had been on the trip +of the morning before. For one reason those who had slept in open camp +had not had off their clothes for twenty-four hours, and all of them +felt the crying need of baths after the two dusty journeys. But there +was another reason besides these physical ones. They were beginning to +feel conscience-stricken about Alberdina. How had she taken their long, +unexplained absence? Would she still be singing “Ach, mein lieber +Augustine!” when they returned, and would there be a long clothes line +bowed under the weight of clean white linen bleaching in the sun ready +to be ironed? So restless did they grow under these speculations, that +they did not pause for lunch and, urging the “Comet” to the limit of his +speed, they reached home a little before noon. Alberdina was there. +Thank heavens for that. They <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_186' id='pg_186'>186</a></span>could see her plainly as they turned the +curve in the road. But her appearance was not promising. Perched on her +head was that absurd comedy hat. She was sitting down, quite low, on the +iron-bound trunk, in fact, leaning on her large cotton umbrella, as one +prepared to depart on a journey.</p> + +<p>If you have ever lived in a remote spot with an uncertain maid, you will +recall how apologetic you were to her for your own shortcomings.</p> + +<p>“Oh, dear, what shall I say to her?” exclaimed Miss Campbell. “She looks +as if she were ready to go this minute.”</p> + +<p>“Why can’t we tell her the truth? We simply couldn’t help it,” said +Billie. “She ought not to be angry over something we couldn’t control.”</p> + +<p>“You don’t know them, but I’ll just brazen it out. I know we’re entirely +dependent on the creature for the comforts of life, but I won’t let her +bully me. Well, Alberdina,” she called, as the car drew up at the camp +door, “have you been lonesome?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_187' id='pg_187'>187</a></span>“Lonesome?” repeated Alberdina, not moving from her ridiculous trunk. +“I no time haf had for lonesomes. Many peoples to dis house come—crazy +peoples—men and vimmen, hein? They haf my moneys took already +yesterday! Ach, Gott! They haf me tied wid ropes. They have nogged and +nogged in the night times. Dos vimmens, I hear the boice already yet. I +no lig dees place. I to my home go bag to-day. Dey have robbed dis +house. Dey haf made to turn red dos vite clothes.”</p> + +<p>In dead silence they descended from the motor car and filed into the +house to investigate Alberdina’s wild, incoherent story.</p> + +<p>There were certainly signs of an invasion in the locker rooms, +everything tipsy turvy on the floor. Alberdina showed them the ropes +that had bound her. With rivers of tears she mentioned her loss of ten +dollars.</p> + +<p>“And the red clothes?” asked Billie doubtfully.</p> + +<p>This had been reserved to the last by the wily-innocent <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_188' id='pg_188'>188</a></span>Swiss girl. +With cries of sorrow they beheld their underclothing and blouses all +tinged a deep pink.</p> + +<p>Suddenly Miss Campbell marched up and stood in front of the girl with a +very cold steely look in her cerulean eyes.</p> + +<p>“Answer me this instant,” she said, “and speak the truth. You boiled +those clothes with a red silk handkerchief?”</p> + +<p>Alberdina broke down and wept copiously.</p> + +<p>“I knew not about dos red,” she exclaimed.</p> + +<p>“But when you saw the clothes were turning red, why didn’t you take them +off the fire?” asked Billie.</p> + +<p>“I did nod see.”</p> + +<p>“Not see? And why not, pray?” demanded Miss Campbell.</p> + +<p>“I was asleeb and when I wog, I was wit rope tied.”</p> + +<p>“Who cut the rope?” asked Dr. Hume, beginning to doubt the whole story.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_189' id='pg_189'>189</a></span>“A gentlemans who mag to play music on the zither.”</p> + +<p>“Phoebe’s father!” exclaimed the girls.</p> + +<p>They glanced at each other with a wild surmise.</p> + +<p>“It couldn’t have been——”</p> + +<p>“No, no, I’m sure he never would——”</p> + +<p>“Hush,” said Ben, “here comes Phoebe.”</p> + +<p>The mountain girl, looking pale and distraught, her hair flying, her +face and hands scratched from contact with brambles, rushed into their +midst.</p> + +<p>“My father,” she cried. “He has been lost all night. I have looked and +looked and I cannot find him. Oh, if he should be in the marshes——”</p> + +<p>She fell on her knees at Billie’s feet and broke into sobbing.</p> + +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_190' id='pg_190'>190</a></span> +<a name='BILLIE_AND_THE_DOCTOR_3736' id='BILLIE_AND_THE_DOCTOR_3736'></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XIII.</h2> +<h3>BILLIE AND THE DOCTOR.</h3> +</div> + +<p>Several things had to be done before any steps could be taken to find +Phoebe’s father. First Alberdina must be roundly scolded for her +carelessness about the clothes and then placated with a ten dollar bill +to compensate her for her loss. There must be lunch prepared for hungry +travelers, and Phoebe, herself, must be given food and made to rest. In +the meantime they questioned her concerning her father’s movements. He +had left the cabin with his zither the morning of the day before and had +not been seen since, except when he had appeared at the camp and cut +Alberdina’s bonds.</p> + +<p>“Has he ever stayed away before at night?” asked Dr. Hume.</p> + +<p>“No, never. When he is not weaving baskets <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_191' id='pg_191'>191</a></span>or carving, he is very +restless and often is away for hours, but he always comes back before +bed time. He never forgets me. That is why I am so uneasy now,” she went +on, clasping and unclasping her hands in the agony of her uncertainty.</p> + +<p>“Phoebe,” said the doctor, “what is it that gives you strength to do +your day’s work, even if it means walking across a mountain in the hot +sun carrying a heavy basket?”</p> + +<p>Phoebe lowered her eyes and a flush spread over her sunburned face.</p> + +<p>“I forgot,” she said. “I was so unhappy that I forgot. It has helped me, +oh, so many times when we have had no money. Many times we have been +snowed in on the mountain without food and it has always come. It saved +us from the Lupos. I was lonesome and it brought me friends.” She +glanced at the girls busily preparing lunch and at Ben and Percy talking +in low voices on the porch.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_192' id='pg_192'>192</a></span>“Don’t you think it will help you now?”</p> + +<p>“It has left me. I can’t find it,” replied poor Phoebe. “It is because I +am so frightened. It never comes if you are frightened.”</p> + +<p>“My child,” said the good doctor, “you are worn out. You must have lunch +and take a good rest. In the meantime we will do everything we can to +find your father. Perhaps he has lost his way and is wandering in the +woods somewhere.”</p> + +<p>“No,” said Phoebe, shaking her head miserably, “he never loses his way. +He knows the trails better than I do myself.”</p> + +<p>The doctor himself brought Phoebe a tray of lunch. She was ravenously +hungry.</p> + +<p>“The poor little thing hasn’t eaten for hours,” he thought, glancing at +her covertly, as he returned with a basin of water, a soft towel and +Miss Campbell’s private bottle of eau de cologne. When she had finished +eating, he made her stretch out on the divan while he gave her face <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_193' id='pg_193'>193</a></span>and +hands and wrists an aromatic bath. Never before had Phoebe been +ministered to and waited on. She smiled at the doctor with dumb +gratitude.</p> + +<p>“When people are hungry and tired and discouraged, they have a pretty +hard time holding on to their faith, Phoebe,” he said. “Even when they +haven’t anything to worry about, it’s hard enough. You go to sleep now +and I promise you we will start on the search for your father at once.”</p> + +<p>Phoebe raised her eyes gratefully to his. In those clear brown depths +she read strength, gentleness and sympathy. She felt she was looking +into the face of an angel with a shiny bald head and shaggy red-gray +eyebrows.</p> + +<p>“I believe God sent you,” she said, and in a few moments dropped off +into a deep exhausted sleep.</p> + +<p>After luncheon or dinner, whatever that meal might be called in camp, +Percy got out his motor <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_194' id='pg_194'>194</a></span>cycle and proceeded to the Antler’s Inn to ask +for news of Phoebe’s father. Ben took the trail to Indian Head and +Billie and Dr. Hume went down to the village in the motor car to drum up +a search party or find guides to help them scour the mountains. In +neither attempt were they in the least successful.</p> + +<p>On the way down the mountain, Billie decided to unburden herself of +something that had been on her mind for a long time.</p> + +<p>“You have never seen Phoebe’s father, have you, Dr. Hume?”</p> + +<p>The doctor shook his head.</p> + +<p>“Have you ever heard of a case like his? I mean forgetting one’s past.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, yes. I have seen a number of cases. The patient usually loses his +memory altogether in time and goes insane.”</p> + +<p>“But he’s not insane, doctor. He’s not even going insane. Really and +truly, except about always trying to find a physician, his brain is as +clear as anybody’s.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_195' id='pg_195'>195</a></span>The doctor smiled. He liked this earnest, enthusiastic girl who was +always doing things for other people and modestly disclaiming credit. +There was something masculine in her disregard for small things and the +largeness of her views.</p> + +<p>“A very nice man has instilled her with extremely big ideas about life,” +he reflected. “She is furthermore a wholesome, healthy young creature +with a high order of intelligence and a very warm, tender heart.”</p> + +<p>So much engaged was he in his diagnosis of Billie’s character that he +had almost forgotten the subject of the conversation when she spoke up +again rather timidly.</p> + +<p>“What I’m driving at is this, doctor, and I’ve been thinking about it +for days. Don’t you think you could operate on Phoebe’s father, put a +silver plate on his skull or lift whatever’s pressing on his memory +bump? Don’t you think you could undertake it, doctor? I know you are a +famous surgeon. Papa wrote that to <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_196' id='pg_196'>196</a></span>me long ago, but I knew it before he +told me. I could tell just from seeing and being with you that you were +a great man.”</p> + +<p>The doctor laughed over these artless compliments.</p> + +<p>“Are you a mind reader, Miss Billie?”</p> + +<p>“But you will undertake it, doctor?” she urged.</p> + +<p>“We must first catch our man, my child, and then have a look at him. A +good many things would have to be considered: whether he would consent +himself; whether he would be able to stand the shock of a serious +operation, and whether he may not have some disease an operation +wouldn’t help; paralysis or softening of the brain.”</p> + +<p>“At any rate, you will undertake it?” cried Billie joyfully.</p> + +<p>“Do you wish it so much?” he asked, watching her face as she guided the +car down the steep road.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_197' id='pg_197'>197</a></span>“I do, I do! Think what it would mean to Phoebe to have this mystery +cleared; think what it would mean to him, too!”</p> + +<p>“I was thinking of it,” answered the doctor gravely. “That’s just the +point. Suppose Phoebe’s father would not thank me for bringing his past +back? Suppose, after all, he would be happier in this state than with +his memory restored. Do you realize that a man like that, a man of +education and refinement, I mean, must have had some very good reason +for hiding himself away in these mountains? That he may have been flying +from something?”</p> + +<p>The enthusiasm died out of Billie’s face.</p> + +<p>“Oh, Dr. Hume,” she began, “I hadn’t thought of that. Indeed, I couldn’t +connect anything of the sort with Phoebe and her father. They are not a +bit like that.”</p> + +<p>“You never can tell. The people who have given way to some wild impulse +that will cause them everlasting regret are not always bad people by any +means. His reasons for hiding himself <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_198' id='pg_198'>198</a></span>and his wife in a cabin in these +mountains of course may have been entirely innocent; or he may have +hoped to find oblivion and forgetfulness up here out of the world. If I +give him back his memory, providing of course I can do it, I may give +him the very thing he is running away from.”</p> + +<p>“Don’t you think he has been punished enough and that Phoebe ought to +have a chance?” argued Billie.</p> + +<p>“Is there anything to prevent Phoebe’s having a chance without knowing +her father’s past?” asked the doctor.</p> + +<p>“Nothing, except there would always be that mystery hanging over her. +Don’t you think it would be very unpleasant not to know who you were or +even your father’s name?”</p> + +<p>“I am a living example to the contrary,” said the doctor with a laugh. +“My father and mother were really my adopted parents. They took me out +of an orphan asylum when I was a little lad about five years old. I +remember it vividly. <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_199' id='pg_199'>199</a></span>Afterwards they had other children, but they +always treated me like a beloved eldest son. I never knew any difference +and I never bothered my head about my real parents. Whoever they were, +they had died or shuffled me off on an institution. My adopted mother +was the finest woman I have ever known and if Hume isn’t my real name, +it doesn’t matter. I shall do everything I can to make it an honored +one.”</p> + +<p>“You are a wonderful man, doctor,” exclaimed Billie, quite overcome by +this bit of confidence about his past. “It was because you were so fine +that they were good to you. Perhaps God picked you out from all the +other orphans to have a good home because he saw what fine material +there was in you.”</p> + +<p>“No indeed, my dear young lady,” laughed the doctor. “It was just a +matter of chance. The little orphans were like the two women sitting in +the market place. The one was taken and the other left. If they chose me +for anything, it was solely and entirely because I had brown eyes.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_200' id='pg_200'>200</a></span>“You may say what you please,” protested Billie. “They looked deeper +than that, I am certain.”</p> + +<p>“Simply luck, Miss Billie. I have always been lucky. The fellows at +college called me ‘Lucky Bill.’ But to return to the original subject of +the discussion: I don’t want to disappoint an unselfish, fine young +woman like you,—you see I can pay compliments, too,——” he added, +watching the flush of pleasure mount to Billie’s face; “I don’t want to +make any promises about this man I can’t carry out, but I promise this +much: I will do what I can.”</p> + +<p>“Thank you a thousand times, Dr. Hume,” said Billie gratefully. “I would +just like to shake hands with you if I could, but you see I have to +guide the ‘Comet.’ It will be a wonderful thing to give a man back his +senses after eighteen years.”</p> + +<p>“Maybe so; maybe not,” answered the doctor as the car turned into the +village street.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_201' id='pg_201'>201</a></span>They stopped in front of the only hostelry in the place, a cheap +two-story wooden house with a horse trough in front of it. Here usually +could be found several guides for camping trips and driving parties, and +here Dr. Hume looked for help in rescuing Phoebe’s father.</p> + +<p>The owner of the house, a thin sallow-faced man with pale shifting eyes +came out to speak to them.</p> + +<p>“You ain’t meanin’ it’s old crazy Frenchy you’re after?” he asked. “I +don’t wonder he’s lost if it’s him.”</p> + +<p>“That’s the man,” answered Dr. Hume, “but I don’t understand what you +mean.”</p> + +<p>“I guess he’s got wind he’s suspected of settin’ Razor Back Mountain on +fire and he’s vamoosed. He ought to be shut up anyhow. He’s a dangerous +character runnin’ around the country.”</p> + +<p>Billie was shocked and angry.</p> + +<p>“He is not,” she burst out. “I know Mr.—Mr. French quite well——”</p> + +<p>The man broke into a loud rasping laugh.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_202' id='pg_202'>202</a></span>“Mr. French!” he repeated.</p> + +<p>“He’s incapable of setting a mountain on fire and he is as gentle and +courteous as possible.”</p> + +<p>There was another laugh. This time it came from within the house and +Billie and the doctor recognized the voice of Mr. Lupo.</p> + +<p>“You’re a friend of Lupo, I see,” remarked the doctor looking very hard +at the man.</p> + +<p>“I guess that’s none of your affair,” answered the other angrily. “And +nothin’ agin’ him nor me either, for the matter o’ that.”</p> + +<p>The doctor lifted his eyebrows.</p> + +<p>“I’d like to hire two or three guides. Are there any about?”</p> + +<p>“There ain’t no guides connected with this here establishment goin’ to +go huntin’ for crazy Frenchy,” announced the man roughly, “if that’s +what you’re wantin’ with them. Most of ’em is fightin’ the flames +anyhow.”</p> + +<p>The doctor sat silently for a moment looking at the mountaineer, whose +eyes shifted uneasily under his steady gaze.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_203' id='pg_203'>203</a></span>“I would advise you and your friend, Lupo, not to meddle too much in +this affair,” he said, as the inn keeper with a snarling laugh shuffled +back into the house.</p> + +<p>Billy turned the automobile and they went slowly down the street.</p> + +<p>“If we were in the Kentucky or the Virginia mountains, I should call +this a feud,” remarked the doctor, “but up here there is something more +than a revenge for a quarrel two generations old that creates a +situation of this kind. That man has got some ugly reason for +withholding his guides. He’s a sinister looking wretch, and no man with +a shifting pair of eyes can be trusted around the corner.”</p> + +<p>“But what are we to do?” asked Billie.</p> + +<p>“If we can’t get guides,—we’ll just go alone,” answered Dr. Hume. “I +think we’ll have to find your Mr. French, Miss Billie, seeing that a lot +of cut-throats are trying to keep us from doing it.”</p> + +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_204' id='pg_204'>204</a></span> +<a name='CHANCE_NEWS_4018' id='CHANCE_NEWS_4018'></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XIV.</h2> +<h3>CHANCE NEWS.</h3> +</div> + +<p>Billie and the doctor were indeed in something of a quandary as to what +to do about Phoebe’s father. It was evident from further inquiry that +the tide of general opinion had been turned against Crazy Frenchy; not +one soul could be interested in the search for him, not even after an +offer of liberal pay.</p> + +<p>“He ain’t no good anyhow,” one man said. “He and his daughter holds +themselves above common people even when they don’t have enough to keep +body and soul together. They lives on property that ain’t theirs by +rights, and they don’t belong in this section of the country. The +father’s crazy and the neighborhood will be glad to git rid of him.”</p> + +<p>“An’ I’d jes’ like to mention,” added another <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_205' id='pg_205'>205</a></span>man, “the people as takes +up for ’em ain’t goin’ to find it no ways a easy proposition.”</p> + +<p>Certainly Lupo had enlisted the sympathies of the entire village in his +own behalf.</p> + +<p>“I told your friend at the hotel a moment ago,” said the doctor, “that +he and Lupo had better be careful how they meddled in this business. If +you don’t want to engage yourself to me to find this unfortunate man, +you have a perfect right to refuse. It’s only a common act of kindness +at any rate. But I would warn you that if you and your friends intend to +make trouble, you will get into trouble. That’s all.”</p> + +<p>The mountaineer scowled.</p> + +<p>“We can prove he set Razor Back on fire,” he said. “He was seen in the +neighborhood prowling about with a can of oil yesterday morning.”</p> + +<p>“At what time?” demanded Billie quickly.</p> + +<p>“I don’t know the exact hour, lady, but it was some time in the +forenoon.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_206' id='pg_206'>206</a></span>“Well,” ejaculated Billie angrily, “that shows how much evidence you +have to go upon. There’s not a word of truth in it and you have no right +to spread that wicked report founded on a falsehood. Mr. French was at +Sunrise Camp just about that time and he couldn’t have got anywhere near +Razor Back Mountain in hours. We have a witness to prove what we say.”</p> + +<p>“It may not have been forenoon, come to think of it,” said the man +doggedly.</p> + +<p>“Nonsense,” exclaimed the exasperated Billie, as the “Comet” dashed away +with a contemptuous honk-honk, leaving the defeated mountaineer standing +in the middle of the road.</p> + +<p>Only one person was awake in all the camp when the doctor and Billie +returned: Alberdina, busy ironing pink-tinted clothes in the lean-to. +Miss Campbell and the girls were napping on the upper porch and Phoebe +still slept on a couch in the living room, while Ben and Percy had not +<span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_207' id='pg_207'>207</a></span>returned from their search for news of her father.</p> + +<p>“Miss Billie,” remarked the doctor, “if you will be kind enough to fix +me up a lunch, I think I’ll pack my knapsack and start on the road +again. I can’t say how long I shall be gone, but you mustn’t be uneasy +if I don’t get back for a day or two. The boys will look after you and +if you have any real trouble, you had better telegraph your father. If +possible, try and keep Phoebe right here. Those men will go no further +than threats in regard to us. They know we are too powerful for them, +but I couldn’t say the same for that poor girl and her father. I suppose +jealousy and Lupo’s treachery are the motives behind it. The father does +better work than any of them can do and the mountaineers resent the +difference between them, whatever it is, birth, breeding, education. But +we can’t judge them by the usual standards, of course. They have never +had any chances, these people, <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_208' id='pg_208'>208</a></span>shut in by this wall of mountains. There +is not much inspiration to be charitable and kind, living in one of +these little shanties during the long cold winters. It’s a pretty fine +nature that doesn’t get warped and narrowed by the life.”</p> + +<p>“Phoebe’s didn’t,” thought Billie, while she sliced bread for the +doctor’s lunch.</p> + +<p>After he had departed with his staff and his telescope and his knapsack, +Billie sat down in a steamer chair under the trees and began to think. +She lifted her eyes to the wall of mountains now mystical and unreal +under their mantle of blue shadow. How could treachery and hatred and +jealousy exist where there was so much beauty? It seemed to her that she +had only to look about her to be inspired and uplifted; but Billie was +too young to realize that it takes more than scenery to furnish that +kind of inspiration.</p> + +<p>“I am not tired and I am not sleepy,” she thought. “Must I sit here all +the afternoon waiting for the others to wake?” She glanced at her +<span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_209' id='pg_209'>209</a></span>watch. “Only a quarter to three. Why can’t I take a walk? It’s against +the rules as laid down by papa for women members, but that was only a +joke anyhow and I shan’t go far.”</p> + +<p>Billie chose a trail they often took after supper for the reason that it +was brought to an early finish by the bed of a creek dry in summer, +though probably a brave stream in the spring after the thaws. But it was +a pretty walk, tunneled through the forest, carpeted with dried pine +needles and bordered on either side by ferns.</p> + +<p>Strolling along, Billie thought of many things; of the mountain on the +other side of Indian Head on which fires had started and where bands of +men were now fighting the flames. That was a dreadful thing to do, to +set a forest on fire; a crime against nature as well as against man. She +thought of Phoebe’s father, perhaps injured, or worse, who could tell? +Then with a mental leap she thought of Richard Hook and his sister +<span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_210' id='pg_210'>210</a></span>Maggie; the charm of their personalities; their simplicity; their joy +in living. Billie wondered if she could be happy if she were poor, +really quite poor. It was rather fun cooking, with Alberdina to clean up +after them. It was only for a little while and it was just a sort of +game.</p> + +<p>“It would be a dog’s life to keep up forever,” thought Billie, “but +Richard and Maggie Hook would never admit it. They make the best of +being poor and pretend that living like Gypsies is the most delightful +way of spending one’s vacation. I think they are just fine. There is +Phoebe, too. How well she has got on without anything, education, money, +friends. She is wonderful.”</p> + +<p>Who was Phoebe? Who was her father? Were they not mysterious people? +When the veil was lifted at last, Billie felt convinced that it would +disclose no ordinary identity. They had the marks of distinguished +people in exile. There was a look of family about them both that no +ragged attire could disguise.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_211' id='pg_211'>211</a></span>Toward the end of the trail, Billie saw an old woman hobbling toward +her, leaning on a stout stick. She looked remarkably like one of the +aged forest trees unexpectedly come to life. A gnarled, brown, +weather-beaten old creature she was, who reminded Billie of a dwarfed +apple tree she had seen in Japan, a little old bent thing said to have +been over two hundred years old. Attached to the woman’s waist was a +pocket apron bulging with herbs, camomile and catnip, wood sorrel and +sassafras root.</p> + +<p>“Now, if Mary were here,” thought Billie, “she would at once make a +story of this: ‘The Princess and the Old Witch.’ I am sure Mary would +call me a princess,” she added modestly.</p> + +<p>When the young girl and the old witch met, they paused without exactly +knowing why. The herb gatherer had a strange, small, yellow face, +crossed and re-crossed with wrinkles.</p> + +<p>“Good afternoon,” said Billie politely, not knowing what else to say.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_212' id='pg_212'>212</a></span>The old woman waved aside this greeting with her stick.</p> + +<p>“You come from Sunrise Camp?” she asked in a voice as cracked as her +face was wrinkled.</p> + +<p>Billie nodded.</p> + +<p>“I bring message. You look for somebody?”</p> + +<p>“Yes,” replied Billie eagerly.</p> + +<p>“You not find him now. Too much enemies.”</p> + +<p>“Where is he?” she demanded.</p> + +<p>No answer came to this question.</p> + +<p>“You will not tell me?”</p> + +<p>“No tell,” answered the old creature.</p> + +<p>“Is he ill or hurt?”</p> + +<p>The herb gatherer touched her forehead.</p> + +<p>“He safe,” she answered. “But people not safe who look for him. Too much +enemies.”</p> + +<p>After that not another word could Billie get out of the obstinate old +creature.</p> + +<p>Who had sent her? Who was looking after Phoebe’s father, if he were hurt +or a prisoner? Could not Phoebe see him? Nothing would she reply to all +these questions.</p> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width:356px'> +<a name='illus-004' id='illus-004'></a> +<img src='images/illus-212.jpg' alt='The old woman waved aside this greeting with her stick.' title='' width='356' /><br /> +<span class='caption'>The old woman waved aside this greeting<br />with her stick.—<i>Page</i> 212.</span> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_213' id='pg_213'>213</a></span>“I’m much obliged for that much anyhow,” said Billie at last. “You +must be tired and hungry. Won’t you come back to the camp and let me +give you——” she paused to consider. What could an old stunted apple +tree like? Somehow it didn’t seem as if she could live on real food. +“Will you drink a cup of tea?” she added hastily.</p> + +<p>The wrinkled face remained inscrutable.</p> + +<p>“Or coffee?”</p> + +<p>“Coffee?” repeated the old soul, and suddenly without the faintest +warning, smiled and Billie smiled back.</p> + +<p>“I can make delicious strong coffee,” announced the girl proudly. “You +will come, won’t you?”</p> + +<p>“I come,” answered the herb-gatherer. “Coffee? I come!”</p> + +<p>They walked briskly back to camp, this ill-assorted couple, and it was +not long before Billie had established her companion in a chair under +the trees and the coffee pot on the kerosene <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_214' id='pg_214'>214</a></span>stove, where it was soon +sending out a fragrant aroma.</p> + +<p>“Don’t you get very tired gathering herbs on the mountains?” asked +Billie, by way of making conversation.</p> + +<p>“When I tired, I rest,” answered the other briefly.</p> + +<p>Presently Billie brought out a tray with a cup and saucer, sugar and +cream and some thin slices of buttered bread. From the upper gallery +there came to her the low hum of conversation. The sleepers had awakened +and were getting bathed and dressed.</p> + +<p>“Do you know Phoebe?” she asked, while she poured the coffee.</p> + +<p>The herb-gatherer smacked her lips and sniffed the air expectantly. +“I’ve seen her.”</p> + +<p>“Don’t you feel sorry for her to lose her father? She is very unhappy.”</p> + +<p>“No sugar,” exclaimed the old woman, ignoring the question. “Good!” she +exclaimed. “Fine coffee!”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_215' id='pg_215'>215</a></span>Presently Billie poured out another cup and finally another.</p> + +<p>“You like coffee, don’t you?” she said.</p> + +<p>“This fine coffee.”</p> + +<p>“We send away for it. The village coffee is not good.”</p> + +<p>“I never tasted the like before.”</p> + +<p>“If you will answer me a question,” said Billie suddenly, “I will get my +father to send you enough of this coffee to last all winter.”</p> + +<p>The old woman picked up the coffee pot and drained it to the last drop.</p> + +<p>“If I tell,” she said, warmed and stimulated by the hot drink, “it make +lot trouble.”</p> + +<p>“Trouble for whom?”</p> + +<p>“Much trouble for all.”</p> + +<p>“All I am to say to Phoebe then is that her father is in good hands and +she is not to look for him?”</p> + +<p>The herb-gatherer nodded.</p> + +<p>“How soon will he be coming back?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_216' id='pg_216'>216</a></span>She shook her head and seizing her staff, rose to go.</p> + +<p>“Are you a friend of the Lupos?”</p> + +<p>There was no answer. Billie tried again.</p> + +<p>“Did Mrs. Lupo ever go back to her husband?”</p> + +<p>“Lupo very angry. She not go back.”</p> + +<p>“She needn’t stay away on our account. My cousin forgave her long ago.”</p> + +<p>“I go now,” announced the old woman, not taking the slightest notice of +Billie’s remarks.</p> + +<p>“I am very much obliged to you for the news of Phoebe’s father. Every +time you bring us any news, you may have coffee, and if you show us +where he is,—quite secretly, you know,—you shall have a great deal of +coffee and money, too.”</p> + +<p>“I go now,” repeated the strange old creature, pretending not to +understand Billie’s offer, and she promptly took her leave without +another word.</p> + +<p>Billie gathered up the tray and the coffee things and carried them into +the kitchen.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_217' id='pg_217'>217</a></span>“It looks like rain, Alberdina. I think we had better eat indoors +to-night,” she said.</p> + +<p>Something, perhaps the east wind charged with wet, had made her feel +dispirited and uneasy. She was homesick for her father and she wished +that Dr. Hume had not gone away. She almost wished they had never set +eyes on Phoebe and her father at all. How complicated life had suddenly +become! They were just a party of well-meaning campers taking a summer +holiday on the mountainside, meaning no harm to anybody on earth; and +having done a little kindness to a poor girl and her half-crazed father, +they had obtained the enmity of an entire village. How cruel and +ignorant these people were! How warped and uncharitable!</p> + +<p>“Have Percy and Ben got back yet?” asked Nancy, appearing at the door of +the lean-to in a fresh blue linen dress, her hair all dewy from her +bath, her eyes bright and clear from the long rest.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_218' id='pg_218'>218</a></span>“Heavens, Nancy, you make me feel like a dusty old shoe,” exclaimed +Billie, realizing for the first time that she was tired and hot and +crushed. “No, no one has come and Dr. Hume has gone to look for Phoebe’s +father.” Then she told Nancy of the experiences of the afternoon.</p> + +<p>“If the old woman spoke the truth all we have to do is to lie low and +say nothing, like Br’er Rabbit,” said Nancy.</p> + +<p>“Do you know what I intend to do, Nancy,” announced Billie, glancing +through the open door at Phoebe in the distance on the divan. “Phoebe’s +awake. You see she’s sitting up. I am going to set her fears at rest +about her father first. Then I’m going to take her upstairs and after +she’s bathed, I’ll dress her in some of my things. She shall swallow her +pride. Cousin Helen shall ask her to visit us until her father is able +to come back, and to-morrow I mean to take her down to the village in +the ‘Comet.’ She shall wear my best and only pink linen. Won’t she be +stunning? <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_219' id='pg_219'>219</a></span>I’m glad I took your advice and brought it along now, and +we’ll just show these people that Phoebe is not a poor ragged mountain +girl.”</p> + +<p>“Take anything of mine you want,” said Nancy generously. “Phoebe’s +taller than I am, but she can wear my ‘undies,’ I suppose.”</p> + +<p>“I think I have plenty,” replied Billie, “that is, if Alberdina +Schoenbachler ever gets through ironing the pink wash.”</p> + +<p>Phoebe was a good deal cheered by the message of the old herb gatherer.</p> + +<p>“Oh, yes, I know her quite well. She likes me. Once when I had a fever +she came and nursed me for several days and gave me herb tea.”</p> + +<p>Phoebe also submitted to being dressed up, after a good deal of +persuasion.</p> + +<p>“You know we are under a great obligation to you and you must give us a +chance to get rid of a little of it,” Billie said. “Besides, Dr. Hume +said that on no account were you to leave the <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_220' id='pg_220'>220</a></span>camp. You wouldn’t like +to disobey him, would you?”</p> + +<p>“No, no,” Phoebe answered, and finally permitted herself to be led to +the women’s quarter of the camp, where for the first time in her life +she bathed in a porcelain bath tub, with scented soap and toilet water +and sweet smelling talcum powder and violet ammonia and all kinds of +women’s luxuries at her service on a hand shelf by the tub.</p> + +<p>When Billie proudly led Phoebe downstairs that evening, the others, +already gathered around the supper table, were filled with amazement. +Instead of the ragged, disheveled mountain girl, they saw a beautiful +young woman in a white duck skirt and a muslin blouse. Her throat rose +like a slender column from the lace yoke of the blouse and her soft hair +was rolled into a loose knot on her neck.</p> + +<p>“I know now she is a princess,” said Mary.</p> + +<p>Ben and Percy, returned from their search, had brought no news.</p> + +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_221' id='pg_221'>221</a></span> +<a name='A_WARNING_4377' id='A_WARNING_4377'></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XV.</h2> +<h3>A WARNING.</h3> +</div> + +<p>The next day Billie had much difficulty in persuading Phoebe to put on +the beautiful pink linen.</p> + +<p>“It is not right,” Phoebe kept saying, although her eyes shone with a +new luster when she gazed at the pretty frock. “I am very grateful for +what you have done but you must not do too much. I am sure my father +would not approve of my accepting so many favors.”</p> + +<p>“Nonsense,” exclaimed Billie. “Can’t one girl lend another a few clothes +without its being called ‘favors’? I shouldn’t hesitate to borrow from +you, Phoebe, if I were—well—in your situation. And it seems to me that +this dress would be very becoming to you. It suits your complexion +better than mine because it matches <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_222' id='pg_222'>222</a></span>your cheeks. I usually wear blue +but I was over-persuaded by Nancy-Bell to get pink.”</p> + +<p>In the end, Phoebe was induced to put on the pink dress. It had been +wonderful enough to wear a neatly fitted duck skirt and a lace-trimmed +blouse, but in this embroidered linen frock the color of wild roses +Phoebe was in a dream.</p> + +<p>“Oh,” she exclaimed, glancing at her flushed image in the mirror, “I +never understood that clothes would make so much difference. I feel like +someone else.” She looked down at her white canvas pumps, which were, as +a matter of fact, a shade too long for her, although she had run +barefoot over the mountains. “And my feet look really small.”</p> + +<p>When Billy placed on her head a white Panama hat trimmed with a broad +band of black velvet, Phoebe’s eyes filled with tears.</p> + +<p>“Am I Phoebe?” she ejaculated. “Phoebe without a name, who lives in a +log house? Oh, Miss Campbell——”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_223' id='pg_223'>223</a></span>“Not Miss Campbell,” interrupted Billie. “You must call me Billie. +Aren’t you my guest and almost the same age? Besides, I never recognize +myself with ‘Miss’ tucked on before my name.”</p> + +<p>“Billie, then,” went on Phoebe, blushing because she had never known a +girl before to call by the first name. “Do you think it is right that I +should dress up so beautifully when—when my father is hidden away +somewhere?”</p> + +<p>“But I feel perfectly sure he is safe,” said Billie. “Perhaps someone +has told him it would be safer to keep away for a while.”</p> + +<p>“But why? He has never injured anyone in his life.”</p> + +<p>“It is all Lupo’s doings and that is one reason why we want you to go +with us down to the village and show yourself, so that they can see you +have a number of very good friends to look after your interests.”</p> + +<p>The girls all left off their khaki camping <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_224' id='pg_224'>224</a></span>clothes and attired +themselves in light summer frocks that morning. There was a reason for +this unusual “hike” as Percy called it, and it pleased Nancy extremely, +who took that opportunity to wear her best blue batiste and her +prettiest hat. Billie wore no hat. It annoyed her when she drove the +car, she said; but as a matter of fact she had lent her only hat to +Phoebe.</p> + +<p>From time to time, as the car went down the mountain road, Miss Campbell +glanced admiringly at the mountain girl beside Billie in front.</p> + +<p>“Dear, dear,” she exclaimed in a low voice, “what clothes will do for +one. And how well the child wears them. She might have been accustomed +to pretty things all her life.”</p> + +<p>“She puts us all in the shade,” whispered Nancy.</p> + +<p>If Billie had intended to create a sensation in the village, she +succeeded beyond her wildest hopes. At first Phoebe was not recognized, +but <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_225' id='pg_225'>225</a></span>at the village store where everything was sold from groceries to +Indian moccasins, a man loafing at the door exclaimed:</p> + +<p>“By golly, that there’s Phoebe from up on the mountains!”</p> + +<p>Phoebe blushed scarlet and then smiled.</p> + +<p>“I suppose it will be a surprise to them,” she said.</p> + +<p>They waited some time at the general store for purchases and letters, +and by the time the “Comet” had borne them slowly onward to the small +hotel, the news had spread down the street. At the water trough, they +came to a full stop. They had no errands at the hotel, but Billie +pretended to examine the “Comet’s” interior mechanism with careful +interest. Pretty soon, nearly two dozen people had gathered at the +trough. The innkeeper himself appeared, pale-eyed and sly; and Lupo made +bold to show his face.</p> + +<p>“Look at Crazy Frenchy’s gal diked out in all them duds,” one of the +company exclaimed.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_226' id='pg_226'>226</a></span>“She do look good, crazy or no crazy,” remarked a swarthy-faced guide +eying Phoebe with admiration.</p> + +<p>The young girl seemed entirely unconscious of all the attention she was +attracting. She looked straight ahead down the village street and never +even glanced at the group of rough men gathered near the car.</p> + +<p>“How do we know but she didn’t aid and abet Frenchy?” burst out the +innkeeper. “How do we know but she didn’t help him start them fires on +Razor Back? The two is always together, ’ceptin’ now when he’s a-hidin’ +and she’s put on fine clothes to drive around with her rich friends.”</p> + +<p>Phoebe turned her startled gaze on the man. Her lips parted.</p> + +<p>“Don’t answer them,” whispered Billie, and with a grand flourish she +swept the “Comet” around in a circle and turned his nose up the street.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_227' id='pg_227'>227</a></span>“Do they accuse my father of setting Razor Back on fire?” asked Phoebe, +tremulously.</p> + +<p>“They tried to, but they couldn’t prove it,” answered Billie.</p> + +<p>“My father loves the mountains,” protested poor Phoebe. “He loves the +forests. He wouldn’t harm even one tree. How cruel these people are! +Always they have hated us and we have never injured any of them. Oh, +Billie, I feel that I must go to my father. I know he needs me.”</p> + +<p>“You remember the doctor’s message,” answered Billie; “that it would be +dangerous for you to leave camp. I am certain he knew what he was +saying. Besides, didn’t you say the old herb woman was a friend? She +would not have deceived you, would she?”</p> + +<p>“No,” answered Phoebe, half smiling. “Once I pulled a thorn out of old +Granny’s foot and washed and bound it, and she has been good to me ever +since. The time she nursed me, she never left me day or night until I +was well.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_228' id='pg_228'>228</a></span>“So you see,” said Billie, “it would be foolish for you to start out to +hunt your father when you know old Granny can be depended upon and Dr. +Hume, too.”</p> + +<p>Phoebe was not the only one who felt restless in camp that afternoon. +All of them had the sensation of waiting for something. Only Alberdina +seemed placidly content. Having been forgiven the pink clothes and +having had her stolen money refunded, she went about her work, singing +and yodelling in a melodious voice, and for lunch surprised them with a +German cinnamon cake she had made during their absence in the village.</p> + +<p>“Why, you can cook, Alberdina?” exclaimed Billie, on whom cooking was +beginning to pall.</p> + +<p>“I can a leedle coog.”</p> + +<p>“Then you shall cook the dinner,” announced Billie firmly, and +Alberdina, who had not mentioned cooking in the bond, quailed before her +stern gray eye and consented.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_229' id='pg_229'>229</a></span>The afternoon dragged slowly along. It was very hot and the women +members of the camp lay on their cots in kimonos reading and napping. +Percy, underneath, snored lustily, and Ben chopped wood and piled up the +logs scientifically for a fire that evening.</p> + +<p>Alberdina’s supper was distinctly German in flavor, but it was good and +Billie and Nancy enjoyed freedom from the bondage of cooking the evening +meal. After supper the wind freshened and it grew much cooler.</p> + +<p>“It’s going to be a dark night. There’s no moon,” remarked Ben, +wistfully. “Shall I light the camp fire? And then we can sit around and +tell stories and sing songs,” and because no one either assented or +objected, owing to the peculiar restlessness that possessed them, he put +a match to the pile of logs and presently the clearing was illuminated. +The camp house stood out in bold relief against the background of the +mountains. Little clouds were scurrying across the sky like <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_230' id='pg_230'>230</a></span>schools of +fish, and an occasional flash of heat lightning lit up the mountains and +valley with strange distinctness. Elinor had brought out her guitar and +they had just begun one of the old familiar songs, when a ragged boy +appeared in their midst so suddenly that he might have sprung up full +grown from the earth.</p> + +<p>He faced Ben without looking at the others.</p> + +<p>“The doctor wants both gem’man to come. I show the way. Quick.”</p> + +<p>Phoebe sat up very straight and looked at the boy.</p> + +<p>“I don’t know you,” she said. “Who are you?”</p> + +<p>“I come from that away,” answered the boy, pointing with his thumb +toward Indian Head. “The doctor said you would know it was all right by +this here,” he added, unbuttoning his coat and taking out the doctor’s +well remembered cane. “An’ he don’t want none of the ladies to come. +Jes’ the men.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_231' id='pg_231'>231</a></span>“But I will go,” exclaimed Phoebe. “My father——”</p> + +<p>“Is your father Frenchy?”</p> + +<p>“Yes,” answered the girl, lowering her eyes.</p> + +<p>“The doctor says Frenchy’s gal was not to be skeered. Frenchy is safe +and well.”</p> + +<p>“Are you sure?” demanded Phoebe.</p> + +<p>“So help me,” answered the boy, raising his hand to heaven.</p> + +<p>“But what does it mean?” broke in Miss Campbell. “I don’t like the sound +of it at all. Why has the doctor sent for both of you boys? Why should +we be left alone? It’s not like the doctor at all.”</p> + +<p>“They ain’t got to go no distance much, lady,” the boy assured her. +“They’ll be back inside of fifteen minutes,” and being the prince of +liars and an actor of precocious ability, he succeeded in persuading +them that Ben and Percy must follow him without delay.</p> + +<p>The girls were still gathering up the rugs and <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_232' id='pg_232'>232</a></span>cushions preparatory to +going into the house, when there came another interruption that +frightened Miss Campbell so much that she gave a little cry and seized +Billie’s arm.</p> + +<p>“It’s only old Granny, the herb-woman,” Billie assured her. “What is it, +Granny?”</p> + +<p>“Phoebe! They gona’ tar and feather Phoebe an’ her father if they can +find him. Go, quick. Lupo an’ his men comin’ up mountain. Hurry and shut +house.”</p> + +<p>“But I don’t want to bring this danger on my friends,” exclaimed Phoebe. +“I will go with you, Granny.”</p> + +<p>“No, no, too dangerous,” answered the old woman. “Lupo, he see in dark.”</p> + +<p>“Indeed, you shall not go,” broke in Miss Campbell indignantly. “You’ll +stay right here and they shall not tar and feather you or anybody else. +The low wretches!”</p> + +<p>“Shut up house, quick,” was Granny’s last piece of advice as she melted +away in the darkness.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_233' id='pg_233'>233</a></span>Nobody paused to beat down the camp fire or gather up the rugs and +cushions. Into the house they scurried and lost no time in drawing the +great iron-bound winter doors across the openings into the living room, +and bolting them. The doors to the sleeping porches were all carefully +closed and locked from the inside. Then they sat down in the immense +vaulted room and waited.</p> + +<p>Phoebe, sitting apart from the others, seemed very quiet and calm in the +face of the danger which threatened her, and Billie knew she was calling +on the faith which had never failed her.</p> + +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_234' id='pg_234'>234</a></span> +<a name='THE_ATTACK_4626' id='THE_ATTACK_4626'></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XVI.</h2> +<h3>THE ATTACK.</h3> +</div> + +<p>They were filled with hot indignation over the situation. They felt sure +now that Ben and Percy had been lured away, but they were not uneasy for +their safety. Billie had told them what Dr. Hume had said: that the +mountaineers would not dare injure any of the campers. But all of them +realized that Phoebe might be treated with cruel indignities. Only a few +weeks before, Billie had read an account in a newspaper of how a pretty +young school teacher had been tarred and feathered by a mob of people +who were jealous of her beauty and refinement. If Lupo could persuade +the villagers that Phoebe and her father were responsible for the forest +fires, Billie felt certain they would have a very unreasonable lot of +visitors to deal with that <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_235' id='pg_235'>235</a></span>night. She wished with all her heart that +someone with an eloquent tongue would appear and address these narrow, +stupid men, someone who understood their natures and knew how to deal +with them. She believed that violence would only aggravate their rage. +Someone would have to talk to them.</p> + +<p>The other Motor Maids sat on a divan whispering together, and Miss +Campbell, calm as was her wont in the presence of danger, paced up and +down the room, examining the bolts of the heavy shutters. Alberdina, +with her little iron bound trunk beside her, sat grumbling in a corner.</p> + +<p>“Is it for thees I haf gome?” she murmured. “I to New Yorg return +to-morrow. They will keel me already yet.”</p> + +<p>“You are perfectly safe, Alberdina,” said Miss Campbell, “and you are +not to go back to New York to-morrow. You are to stay with us and see +this thing through. I shall telegraph Mr. <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_236' id='pg_236'>236</a></span>Campbell in the morning and +have the law on these people. I am sick and tired of their savagery and +injustice. The cruel wretches! I——”</p> + +<p>A long shrill whistle interrupted her outburst. It penetrated the stout +walls of their fortress so unexpectedly that it brought them all to +their feet with low exclamations.</p> + +<p>“There they are,” whispered Mary.</p> + +<p>Alberdina groaned, “Mein lieber Gott,” and sank upon a couch with the +expression of a condemned man about to be executed.</p> + +<p>It was some moments after the whistle before the enemy made its next +advance. That also was unexpected and terrifying,—loud knocks on the +wooden shutters of the large entrance.</p> + +<p>Nobody moved or spoke. Again the knocks came and a voice called:</p> + +<p>“We want that gal and her father. You ain’t got no right to shelter +criminals. Open in the name of the law. I reckon a sheriff will make you +listen to reason.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_237' id='pg_237'>237</a></span>“Break the door down, Lupo,” said another voice. “The law’s in its +right to git what it wants. They ain’t nobody that kin refuse the law +without payin’ for it.”</p> + +<p>Although they were so confident of the law, the girls felt sure the +mention of a sheriff was a blind, and that the mountaineers were not +going to do anything so incriminating as to break in the doors. Then +there followed a period of consultation outside. Footsteps could be +heard along the galleries; the stout shutters on all the openings were +shaken and pounded upon; but Sunrise Camp was indeed as strong as a +fortress when it was closed. Storms had beaten against it in vain, and +unless the mob outside resorted to hatchets and saws, it would not be +easy to break in.</p> + +<p>At last the voice of Lupo spoke from the front gallery.</p> + +<p>“Ladies, I’m only askin’ justice. You got two dangerous people in this +here house. The law <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_238' id='pg_238'>238</a></span>wants ’em. We don’t mean no harm to you an’ we’ll +leave peaceable if you’ll hand over the prisoners. I’m goin’ to give you +five minutes to decide in an’ if you don’t open the door, we’re goin’ to +break it open with this here axe.”</p> + +<p>“You’ll do nothing of the sort, Lupo,” cried Miss Campbell, her voice +ringing with indignation. “And I warn you that unless you wish to serve +a long term in the penitentiary, you’d better leave this place at once +with your friends. Mr. Campbell would never stop until he saw all of you +well punished for this night’s work. You’ve already broken into the +house and robbed our maid——”</p> + +<p>“Who said I did?” shouted Lupo. “It was Frenchy done that, too. He’s a +dangerous man to live in a peaceable place. We’ve been puttin’ up with +him and his daughter for too long, and we citizens ain’t goin’ to put up +with ’em no longer. They gona’ be punished first, and then they gona’ +give up that there home that ain’t <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_239' id='pg_239'>239</a></span>theirs by rights and leave this here +part of the country forever.”</p> + +<p>Miss Campbell decided not to reply to Lupo’s outburst. It only excited +him and it was evident her arguments had no effect.</p> + +<p>And now, after what seemed an interminable time, the door resounded with +the blows of a woodman’s axe.</p> + +<p>“Go up into the gallery, Phoebe,” ordered Miss Campbell, trembling in +spite of her determination not to be frightened.</p> + +<p>Phoebe rose and walked to the middle of the room. Her face was +transfigured and she looked almost unearthly.</p> + +<p>“I am not afraid,” she said. “I believe that I will be saved from my +enemies. God is sending someone to save me.”</p> + +<p>But the Motor Maids and Miss Campbell had no such faith to bolster up +their faltering courage. During the long, lonely evenings on the +mountainside when Phoebe had read aloud to her <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_240' id='pg_240'>240</a></span>father from the New +Testament, which he seemed to like best, there had grown in her mind a +belief as strong as it was simple. There had never been any people to +shake her convictions with arguments, nor books to suggest doubts. And +now in her soul she had called for help and she believed it would come +even at the eleventh hour.</p> + +<p>Billie, whose faith in prayer was not unmixed with a desire for action +of a very vigorous and immediate variety, seized an old rifle hung from +a nail on the wall. She had no idea whether there were any loads in it, +but she had made up her mind to use the butt-end on the first man who +entered the room. In the meantime, the axe had crashed through one of +the thick, hardwood panels, making a slit broad enough to see through.</p> + +<p>“I’ll shoot any man who comes into this room,” called Billie. “Keep +out.”</p> + +<p>An eye was placed at the hole in the door. Billie felt instinctively it +was Lupo’s.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_241' id='pg_241'>241</a></span>“That there old rusty gun ain’t got no loads in it, Miss. You kin shoot +all you like.”</p> + +<p>There was another pause, and the blows began again. Alberdina gave +evidence of wishing to speak, but Miss Campbell interrupted her.</p> + +<p>“Never mind, Alberdina,” she said impatiently. “You may go up into the +gallery if you like. You are quite safe. They only want Miss Phoebe.”</p> + +<p>But Alberdina would not be silenced. Perhaps somewhere in the remote +history of her ancestors there had been a warrior who had ranged the +German forests dressed in the skins of wild beasts, his helmet decorated +with a pair of fierce upstanding horns. Who knows but a drop of his +fighting blood had come down through the generations to stir this +sluggish descendant into action just at this particular moment when +something had to be done?</p> + +<p>“Come,” she called, with unexpected energy. “I asg you, come. We will a +high wall mag already. You will see. Hein?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_242' id='pg_242'>242</a></span>Again the axe crashed through the door and without a word they followed +her into the gallery, Billie carrying the rifle and Elinor the breakfast +horn. Alberdina hurried into the locker room and presently returned with +a trunk hoisted on her shoulders. This she placed at the top of the +stairs.</p> + +<p>“Good,” exclaimed Billie. “Why didn’t we think of that before? It will +keep them off for a little longer, at any rate.”</p> + +<p>Alberdina did not listen to these honeyed words of praise, however. She +never paused until she had piled three trunks, one on top of the other +in a very effective barricade. At the far end of the gallery, Elinor and +Mary appeared to be very much occupied at a little window placed in the +roof for ventilation, but now closed. Finding the bolt rusty, Elinor +took off her slipper and broke a pane of glass. Mary, her lieutenant, +then handed her the breakfast horn. It was like Elinor to wipe off the +mouth piece carefully with her <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_243' id='pg_243'>243</a></span>handkerchief before she placed it to her +lips. But the blast she blew must have startled the mountaineers +outside, for the blows on the door ceased for a moment. Again and again +she signaled, always the same long agitated note.</p> + +<p>“I think anybody would recognize that as a call for help,” she said, +pausing for breath; and while the axe crashed through the door, she +continued to blow the bugle with all her strength.</p> + +<p>Billie, however, felt fairly certain that a trunk barricade and a bugle +blast for help would not keep off the savages long.</p> + +<p>“We need some kind of ammunition, Nancy,” she said. “If only this rifle +was loaded.”</p> + +<p>“Did you look through the barrel?” asked Nancy, slightly more +experienced with firearms than Billie. She seized the rifle and held it +up before a lamp that Alberdina had set in a corner of the gallery, +cocked it and looked through with one eye professionally squinted.</p> + +<p>“Why, it is loaded,” she announced. “It only <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_244' id='pg_244'>244</a></span>has two empty what do you +call them—chambers?”</p> + +<p>“Must I shoot at somebody?” asked Billie.</p> + +<p>“You could try and I could try,” answered Nancy, “but I don’t think +either one of us would hit an elephant.”</p> + +<p>Just then Miss Campbell put out the light. At the same moment the axe +made a breach in the door and a man crawled through. Billie lifted the +rifle and, taking a long breath, aimed at his foot. The man was looking +about him in a bewildered way. It was the innkeeper, second leader of +the gang. Billie pulled and pulled, but nothing happened, and in another +moment a dozen mountaineers had crawled through the opening. The one +lamp cast a small circle of light near the fire-place. The rest of the +room was in darkness. In the gallery the anxious watchers were invisible +to the band of men, but the watchers themselves could see the outlaws +plainly now gathered in a group in the center of the room, rather uneasy +<span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_245' id='pg_245'>245</a></span>after breaking down the door of Sunrise Camp.</p> + +<p>“Ladies, I’d advise you to give up the prisoners,” called Lupo, +addressing the darkness. “We ain’t goner touch none of you, but we wants +them two furriners right away.”</p> + +<p>“Git some torches,” ordered the innkeeper, who seemed really to be the +boldest man in the lot.</p> + +<p>Several men disappeared and in a moment returned with pitch torches +which cast a lurid, flickering light through the room. It was a weird +scene, looking down from the gallery. All of the men wore masks except +Lupo and the innkeeper, who were boldly undisguised. They peered about +the room. Suddenly Lupo’s eye caught a corner of the staircase at the +far end.</p> + +<p>“They’re upstairs. Come on, men,” he called.</p> + +<p>Billie raised the shotgun to her shoulder.</p> + +<p>“I’ll shoot the old thing off this time if it flies to pieces,” she +said, and pulled the trigger with all her might.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_246' id='pg_246'>246</a></span>“Bang!” went the gun, and down she sat very hard, not knowing where she +had aimed. There was a great confusion of voices below and she thought +she heard someone cry out with pain.</p> + +<p>“Could I have shot anyone?” she asked herself tremulously as she picked +herself up from the floor. Her shoulder ached and her finger was +bruised, but she put the gun into position again.</p> + +<p>“I’ll shoot any man who comes up those steps,” she called.</p> + +<p>The outlaws had gathered under the gallery now, holding their torches +high and gazing with some curiosity at the women grouped above them. +Miss Campbell stood with her arm around Phoebe’s waist. Elinor and Mary +were still at the window. Nancy was with Billie, and Alberdina crouched +behind the barricade.</p> + +<p>Lupo fell back angrily.</p> + +<p>“I guess you ain’t got but one load in your old shotgun,” he called. +“Come on, men. We’ll make a run for it.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_247' id='pg_247'>247</a></span>Billie turned the gun straight on him. She felt almost more afraid of +the unwieldy thing than she did of the man himself.</p> + +<p>“If it jumps again,” she thought, “it’ll break my shoulder. And it’s so +undignified to have to sit down every time I shoot it off.”</p> + +<p>The innkeeper made a leap for the steps and Lupo followed him. Billie +ran to the other end of the gallery so as to get a better aim, and +pulled at the trigger. The trunks were swaying and Alberdina had rushed +from behind them.</p> + +<p>“Oh, Nancy, I can’t make it go off,” Billie sobbed under her breath.</p> + +<p>“Give it to me,” whispered Nancy, seizing the gun and leveling it with +trembling hands at Lupo.</p> + +<p>“Look out, Lupo,” called a man below, as the barricade went down with a +crash.</p> + +<p>But Lupo was in no mood to listen to warnings. Bounding over a fallen +trunk, he wrenched the gun from Nancy’s hand.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_248' id='pg_248'>248</a></span>At this moment, a man walked into the room and marched straight up to +the group of mountaineers.</p> + +<p>“I beg your pardon, gentlemen,” he said in a voice loud enough to be +heard by everybody, “is this Sunrise Camp?”</p> + +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_249' id='pg_249'>249</a></span> +<a name='THE_FORCE_OF_ELOQUENCE_4903' id='THE_FORCE_OF_ELOQUENCE_4903'></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XVII.</h2> +<h3>THE FORCE OF ELOQUENCE.</h3> +</div> + +<p>Phoebe gazed at the newcomer as if she were seeing a visitor from +heaven. All the women in the gallery experienced enormous sensations of +relief and Alberdina smiled down at him broadly.</p> + +<p>“Mein lieber Gott, helb has gome already yet,” she exclaimed.</p> + +<p>They hardly seemed to comprehend in their relief that one man had to +deal with a dozen or more.</p> + +<p>“Who are you?” demanded Lupo, roughly, coming to the top of the stairs.</p> + +<p>“My name is Hook, at your service. May I ask if you are giving a +performance of private theatricals? The scene is a good deal like a band +of highwaymen attacking a number of helpless women.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_250' id='pg_250'>250</a></span>“We’re in the rights of the law,” put in the innkeeper.</p> + +<p>“Why wear masks then?” asked Richard Hook.</p> + +<p>There was no answer to this pointed question and three of the maskers +slunk toward the door.</p> + +<p>“We’ve come here to git two criminals hiding illegally in this here +camp,” burst out Lupo.</p> + +<p>“Have you a warrant for their arrest?”</p> + +<p>“We don’t need no warrants in these here mountains.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, yes you do,” insisted Richard politely. “Law and order must be +respected just as much on the mountains as in the valleys. People who +don’t respect them soon find out what happens.”</p> + +<p>Two more men slunk toward the door.</p> + +<p>“I think,” went on Richard, “that you had better follow your friends out +quietly and go to your homes. I am certain most of you have wives who +would be glad to see you again after this dangerous little adventure. +Jail isn’t a pleasant <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_251' id='pg_251'>251</a></span>place, you know, especially to people who are in +the habit of breathing mountain air.”</p> + +<p>Only six men remained now of the original number. Even Lupo had been +silenced, but at the mention of wives he flared up again.</p> + +<p>“They have taken my wife away from me,” he cried, shaking his fist at +the women in the gallery. “They have given her money to leave me. I +ain’t so forgivin’.”</p> + +<p>“Do you want to know the real reason why your wife left you?” said +Richard in a tone of such conviction that Lupo was deceived into +thinking this perfect stranger knew all about him. “She was afraid of +you and your lawless ways. When you have been drinking, as you have +to-night, you’re a dangerous man. You begin by breaking into private +houses. You’re disorderly and violent. Men like you end in the +penitentiary. You hide yourselves perhaps for a while, but these +mountains are difficult to hide in nowadays. You would be caught sooner +or later, and <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_252' id='pg_252'>252</a></span>do you think you’ll get much sympathy with the court +after one of these ladies, perhaps, has told the history of to-night’s +work? Fifteen years would be a short sentence. Your wife is right, I +think. You’re not a very safe companion.”</p> + +<p>Lupo looked about him bewildered. Only one of the band remained: the +watery-eyed innkeeper.</p> + +<p>“I was in the rights of the law,” exclaimed Lupo, half-crying as he +crept down the gallery steps.</p> + +<p>“I am afraid not,” said Richard gently. “But you take a little trip to +another county and get some good honest work, and you will soon find out +how much happier and safer it is to be within the limits of the law. +Decidedly more agreeable than being hunted through the mountains by a +sheriff with his bloodhounds, sleeping out in the cold, going hungry, +slinking around the edges of villages when everybody is asleep for a +chance piece of bread. Earning honest money with your wife happy beside +you is heaven in comparison, I assure you.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_253' id='pg_253'>253</a></span>Lupo hung his head until his eyes were hidden by the brim of his felt +hat.</p> + +<p>“I’m goin’,” he said sullenly. “I guess your argyments is too good for +the likes of me to try an’ answer. I wants my wife back more’n I wants +to git even with Frenchy and his gal. They done me a injury once, but +I’m willin’ to call it square if you are.”</p> + +<p>“Call it square,” said Richard, and the two mountaineers slunk out of +the room and disappeared in the night.</p> + +<p>And now the ladies of Sunrise Camp and Richard Hook found themselves +quite alone in the vast living room. The danger was over and the last +and most impious of the outlaws departed. Miss Campbell and her girls +standing in a row in the gallery looked down into the whimsical face of +their deliverer. Billie recalled that only a little while before she had +wished for someone with a persuasive tongue to appear and address the +outlaws. Phoebe, too, had believed <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_254' id='pg_254'>254</a></span>that God would send a deliverer. +Whose prayer had brought the young man to Sunrise Camp in the nick of +time? Hers or Phoebe’s, Billie wondered. Perhaps it was their combined +wishes. She understood little about the psychology of wishes. At any +rate, here they all stood, safe and sound, and presently they found +themselves laughing at the ludicrous thing that might have turned into a +tragedy but for Richard Hook’s persuasive tongue.</p> + +<p>Already Alberdina was removing the barriers.</p> + +<p>“Whose idea was that? Yours, Miss Billie?” asked Richard.</p> + +<p>“No, no. We really owe our temporary safety to Alberdina, there. She +thought of it herself.”</p> + +<p>The German girl was well pleased over the fame the one intelligent act +of her life had brought her. She smiled broadly at Richard as she +cleared the way for the ladies to descend.</p> + +<p>“Before we settle down to talk,” remarked the young man, “suppose we +open the doors and windows <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_255' id='pg_255'>255</a></span>and light the lights. This room is fairly +close and it would be a good idea to illuminate for the sake of your +friends who might happen to be returning. By the way, where are the +criminals?”</p> + +<p>“Here is one of them,” answered Miss Campbell, smiling. “This is our +friend, Miss Phoebe—” she hesitated, “Miss Phoebe French. Does she look +like a criminal?”</p> + +<p>Phoebe, who all this time had been watching Richard with a sort of rapt +expression, was startled out of her dream. She blushed and looked down +at the floor. The girls had never seen her so shy.</p> + +<p>“This is Mr. Hook, Phoebe,” continued Miss Campbell. “I think we ought +all to offer him our united thanks for his courage.”</p> + +<p>“I do thank you, sir, with all my heart,” said Phoebe fervently, timidly +offering her hand.</p> + +<p>Richard stretched out his left hand.</p> + +<p>“I—I ask your pardon for giving you my left hand,” he said, and for the +first time they noticed <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_256' id='pg_256'>256</a></span>that his right arm was hanging limply at his +side.</p> + +<p>“Oh, Rich—Oh, Mr. Hook,” cried Billie, as red as a beet. “What have I +done—I shot you—Oh, dear, I am so sorry!”</p> + +<p>“Don’t you worry, Miss Billie. It’s just a coat sleeve wound. The bullet +cut through the cloth and scratched my arm. It’s lodged there in the +wall now, I suppose, as a memento of your nerve.”</p> + +<p>“Why, boy, your sleeve is soaked in blood,” exclaimed Miss Campbell. +“And you’re as white as a ghost. Sit down here quick. Alberdina, a basin +of water. Billie, some bandages. Hurry, all of you. Why are you standing +around like a lot of wooden images?”</p> + +<p>Phoebe was too inexperienced to join in the general rush for bandages, +peroxide of hydrogen, absorbent cotton and witch hazel: all the +first-aid-to-the-injured the camp afforded. She stood at the foot of the +couch and watched Richard Hook with large innocent eyes. His own eyes, +very dark gray, wide apart and extremely intelligent, <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_257' id='pg_257'>257</a></span>returned her gaze +with a kind of amused admiration.</p> + +<p>In the meanwhile, Miss Helen Campbell snipped up his shirt sleeve with a +pair of small scissors and Billie, overwhelmed with contrition, stood +ready to bathe the wound, which was more bloody than serious.</p> + +<p>“I call this pretty nice,” remarked Richard, glancing at the circle of +anxious faces leaning over him. “It’s worth being shot to have so many +ministering angels about one; and a Seraph with a flaming sword at the +foot of my couch to guard me,” he added, glancing again at Phoebe, now +holding a lamp high with a perfectly steady arm, so that the others +could see to work.</p> + +<p>Having washed and bound the wound, they propped his head on two pillows +and drew their chairs about the couch. Never was a young man so coddled +before.</p> + +<p>“You haven’t explained to us yet, Mr. Hook, <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_258' id='pg_258'>258</a></span>how you happened to drop +down from the skies,” said Miss Campbell.</p> + +<p>“I dropped up and not down, on the contrary, Miss Campbell. The van +isn’t so very far away. The girls wanted to put up for the night at the +foot of the mountain, but I was stubborn for once and we worked old +Dobbin until his limbs refused to go any farther. After they had got +settled for the night, I thought I’d take a stroll. I supposed you would +all have gone to bed but I had a feeling I’d like to see Sunrise Camp by +starlight. I wouldn’t have found it, however, if I had not heard the +calls for help on the bugle. There wasn’t a light to be seen from the +road.”</p> + +<p>Elinor felt a secret pride at this statement. It was she, then, who had +brought the rescuer! Billie felt sure it was her own strong wish that +had drawn Richard to them in their great need, while Phoebe, filled with +the conviction of her faith, believed he had been sent in answer to her +fervent prayers.</p> + +<p>If Richard had been consulted about this and <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_259' id='pg_259'>259</a></span>had spoken the truth from +his heart, could he have explained the irresistible impulse that had +urged him to climb the steep road up the mountain on that dark night?</p> + +<p>At this juncture, Ben and Percy, more dead than alive from running, +almost fell into the room.</p> + +<p>“Great Caesar’s ghost,” Percy ejaculated in a weak voice, “but we have +had a fright about you, and here you are giving an evening reception!”</p> + +<p>“Nothing has happened, then?” Ben managed to gasp.</p> + +<p>“That little arch fiend led us into a jungle and lost us,” went on +Percy. “We heard the bugle calls for help. Gee! But we have had a run.”</p> + +<p>“And you’re all right? You’re safe?” cried Ben, counting them over. “And +Mr. Hook has been protecting you? Thank heavens for that.”</p> + +<p>“My dear young man,” observed Miss Campbell with some irritation, “will +you please to turn around and look at that front door or slide or +whatever you call the thing? I wish you to know <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_260' id='pg_260'>260</a></span>that we have had one of +the most exciting evenings of our lives. This house was attacked and +broken into by a dozen ruffians and if it hadn’t been for Alberdina, +there, who has the mind of a general and knew exactly how to build a +barricade with trunks, Phoebe would certainly have been tarred and +feathered, even before Mr. Hook came to our rescue——”</p> + +<p>“He heard my bugle,” announced Elinor.</p> + +<p>“I wished for him,” thought Billie.</p> + +<p>“I prayed for him,” said Phoebe in a low voice.</p> + +<p>“If Richard Hook had not appeared and permitted himself to be shot by +Billie without uttering a sound——”</p> + +<p>“Oh, I let out a yell,” broke in Richard.</p> + +<p>“We would have all been murdered, like enough.”</p> + +<p>“But where are your sister and Miss Swinnerton?” asked Ben.</p> + +<p>“I suppose I had better be getting back to them,” said Richard, who had +quite forgotten that he had left two unprotected maidens asleep <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_261' id='pg_261'>261</a></span>in a +traveling van on a ledge half a mile below.</p> + +<p>Percy and Ben offered to go back for him, but he would not consent, and +Billie, solicitous and full of contrition for her reckless shooting, had +the “Comet” out in a jiffy although Richard had asked to be allowed to +walk. They found the van dark and quiet. Evidently the girls had heard +nothing of the rumpus on the mountain and had felt no uneasiness about +Richard, who was accustomed to taking strolls at untimely hours.</p> + +<p>It did not take long to bring the motor car back to camp and before +midnight a peaceful calm had settled over the log hut.</p> + +<p>Phoebe, stretched on her cot in the living room, lay staring up into the +darkness of the unceiled roof. She tried to think of her father +somewhere out on the mountain, but always her thoughts reverted to the +new young man with the kind, smiling eyes. Once she chanted in a low +voice:</p> + +<p>“‘How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth +good tidings!’”</p> + +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_262' id='pg_262'>262</a></span> +<a name='THE_MORNING_AFTER_5168' id='THE_MORNING_AFTER_5168'></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XVIII.</h2> +<h3>THE MORNING AFTER.</h3> +</div> + +<p>Miss Campbell felt no ill effects from the visit of the mountaineers. +She had not even thought of ill effects, in fact. Somehow, the presence +of Phoebe, unruffled and calm through all the danger, had had its +influence on all of them. Even Alberdina’s emotions had been hushed by +contact with that peaceful nature.</p> + +<p>It was well past six o’clock before the exhausted household awakened +next morning at Percy’s trumpet call. Hurrying down before the others, +Billie was amazed to see the traveling van drawn up in a clearing at the +edge of the grove. Old Dobbin, tethered to a rope, stood nearby +peaceably munching his breakfast from a wooden pail. Amy Swinnerton was +seated in front of an easel sketching the log cabin and from inside of +the <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_263' id='pg_263'>263</a></span>van came the crisp voice of Maggie Hook, singing:</p> + +<p style='margin-left:2em'>“‘I loved a lass, a fair one,<br /> +As fair as e’er was seen;<br /> +She was indeed a rare one,<br /> +Another Sheba Queen:<br /> +But, fool as then I was,<br /> +I thought she loved me, too:<br /> +But, now alas! she’s left me,<br /> +Falero, lero, loo!’”</p> + +<p>“Good morning!” cried Billie, running over to the van. “You must have +muffled old Dobbin’s feet to have crept in so quietly. How is Ri—Mr. +Hook?” she added, all in one breath.</p> + +<p>Maggie popped her head out of the front of the van. She reminded Billie +of a little bird peeping from a bird house.</p> + +<p>“Not ‘Mister,’” she called, smiling brightly. “Remember, Billie, that we +brothers and sisters of the road never use titles.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_264' id='pg_264'>264</a></span>“Oh, yes, I mustn’t forget that I’m one of the fraternity,” answered +Billie, smiling.</p> + +<p style='margin-left:2em'>“‘—Gypsy blood to the Gypsy blood<br /> +Ever the wide world over,’”</p> + +<p>called Maggie, with much animation, from the top step of the van.</p> + +<p>“You’ll have to know her better to understand her dual nature, Billie,” +observed Amy Swinnerton, glancing up from her easel. “After she’s been a +good housewife and got things shipshape and free from the dust of the +road she loves so much, she’s ready to turn Gypsy and muss them all up +again.”</p> + +<p>“I never mussed anything up in my life,” broke in Maggie. “I only clean +up other people’s musses.”</p> + +<p>“But how is your brother Richard?” persisted Billie. “You see I feel +some natural anxiety because I was the one who shot him last night. Has +the wound been dressed?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_265' id='pg_265'>265</a></span>“Shot him?” repeated the other girls.</p> + +<p>“That was why he made me drive old Dobbin this morning,” said Amy.</p> + +<p>“And to think he never told,” broke in Maggie, “and he’s gone off now, +goodness only knows where.”</p> + +<p>“And he didn’t tell you about the attack and how he saved us?” demanded +Billie.</p> + +<p>“Not a word.”</p> + +<p>Billie gave them an account of what had happened the evening before. It +was exciting enough to tell about and the girls listened breathlessly. +Richard’s courage and tact with the outlaws when all the time his sleeve +was soaked with blood from the wound in his arm, fired her with unusual +eloquence.</p> + +<p>“I don’t think they intended to harm any of us,” she finished. “It was +Phoebe they wanted, and her father, who is hiding somewhere on the +mountain. But we shall be thankful to him all our lives for what he did. +Why didn’t he tell you?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_266' id='pg_266'>266</a></span>“It’s too like him,” said Maggie. “I don’t know whether it’s modesty or +indifference, but he never, never tells stories where he figures as a +hero.”</p> + +<p>“Do you wish us to stop here now after so much excitement?” Amy asked. +“I don’t think it’s any time for outsiders to intrude in spite of +Maggie’s rhymes about Gypsy blood and brothers of the road.”</p> + +<p>“Indeed, we wouldn’t think of letting you go,” cried Billie hospitably. +“You are not strangers to us, I assure you, after all your kindness. But +I do wish I could find your brother. The place on his arm bled a lot +last night. I am certain a wound like that should be washed and dressed +every few hours. Do you think he could have gone very far away?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, dear,” exclaimed Maggie. “Richard is incorrigible. He does make me +so uneasy sometimes.”</p> + +<p>“There is nothing to do but wait patiently until <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_267' id='pg_267'>267</a></span>the spirit moves him +to come back,” put in Amy calmly. “He is so strong and well that perhaps +his wounds don’t have to be dressed as often as other people’s. There +seems to be a special Providence that looks after him anyhow. It would +be foolish to worry.”</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, Billie did worry considerably in her heart, and even +Phoebe, who presently joined them and was introduced to the girls, +looked startled and uneasy when she heard that Richard Hook, her +deliverer, had gone away without having his wound dressed.</p> + +<p>The caravanners were greatly interested in seeing Phoebe, whose history +they had heard.</p> + +<p>“She is very beautiful,” Amy observed, “but she doesn’t look human, +somehow. She has the expression of a person who sees visions, air +pictures invisible to other people.”</p> + +<p>“She is very religious,” Billie replied. “Not like the religious people +we know, but—well like people in the time of Christ might have been. +<span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_268' id='pg_268'>268</a></span>You see she got it all herself without any outside teaching. She just +learned it out of the New Testament mostly, and she practices it all the +time. It’s part of her life. Sometimes, I think it would be a pity to +interfere with it.”</p> + +<p>“How can you interfere with it, Billie?” asked Nancy.</p> + +<p>“By taking her back to wicked West Haven with all its temptations,” +laughed Billie.</p> + +<p>“But shall you?” they asked in a chorus.</p> + +<p>“We can’t leave her in this wild place.”</p> + +<p>“And her father?” put in Mary.</p> + +<p>“You’ll have to ask Dr. Hume about that,” answered Billie, and not +another word would she say on the subject.</p> + +<p>That morning the “Comet” conveyed a load of young people down to the +village. Miss Campbell ordered a telegram to be sent to her cousin, +demanding his immediate presence at the camp. Also a carpenter was +secured to build a new door for the living room. This time the village +street <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_269' id='pg_269'>269</a></span>was singularly empty. No faces peeped from the half opened doors +and no crowd gathered at the town pump. The rickety old wooden hotel was +closed and the blinds drawn at every window. Evidently Richard Hook had +frightened Lupo and the innkeeper very effectually.</p> + +<p>“I don’t think they will ever trouble us again, Phoebe,” Billie remarked +as they circled the pump and started home.</p> + +<p>“They are sorry,” said Phoebe compassionately. “They are like children, +and Mr. Hook understood that when he spoke to them as children. He is +very wonderful and very good.”</p> + +<p>“He is indeed,” agreed Billie. “He is a very remarkable young man.”</p> + +<p>Phoebe seemed about to speak again, but kept silent. It was difficult +for her to carry on a conversation.</p> + +<p>“I love him,” she said at last, so simply and innocently that Billie +smiled in spite of the earnestness of Phoebe’s expression.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_270' id='pg_270'>270</a></span>“You love everyone, do you not, Phoebe? It is what you have learned by +yourself up here in the mountain.”</p> + +<p>“I cannot do that,” answered Phoebe. “I have tried but I cannot. But I +love Mr. Hook. May God protect him always and reward him for his +kindness.”</p> + +<p>Billie looked away abashed. She had never heard anyone speak like that +before outside of a church. She, too, hoped that God would protect +Richard, but she would not have said it for worlds. She hoped also that +Richard would be waiting for them at Sunrise Camp when they returned. He +was not there, however. Miss Campbell, with Nancy and Percy, had looked +for him in vain.</p> + +<p>“No, he has not come back,” said the little lady. “And neither has Dr. +Hume. Where is that foolish man? He shouldn’t have left us without news +all this time.”</p> + +<p>“Richard should remember that he is a guest <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_271' id='pg_271'>271</a></span>and not an independent +traveler,” exclaimed Maggie Hook. “I don’t think he has any right to go +off and stay like this.”</p> + +<p>“Now, Maggie, you are worrying and it’s very foolish,” put in practical +Amy Swinnerton. “You know perfectly well he’ll be back by nightfall.”</p> + +<p>Nobody felt quite in the humor to do anything. The day was exceedingly +hot and the sun on its downward course in the heavens was like a red +ball. Most of the party scattered for naps and letter writing and did +not meet again until sunset.</p> + +<p>That afternoon as they gathered around the supper table, Alberdina +brought a note to Miss Campbell, written in a strange, old-fashioned +handwriting on a scrap of paper. It read:</p> + +<div class='blockquot'> +<p style='margin-bottom: 0;'>“Do not be uneasy. I have gone in search of Mr. Hook.</p> +<p style='margin-top: 0; text-align:right'>Phoebe.”</p> +</div> + +<p>Miss Campbell groaned as she read the message aloud.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_272' id='pg_272'>272</a></span>“Really, Billie,” she exclaimed reproachfully, “you and your father +between you induced me to come to this place for peace and rest——”</p> + +<p>Billie’s eyes filled with tears.</p> + +<p>“Never mind, child,” added the distracted lady. “It’s not your fault.”</p> + +<p>“It all came about,” remarked Mary, who was fond of tracing things to +their beginnings, “because Billie bought a pail of blackberries from +Phoebe one morning and Mrs. Lupo was angry.”</p> + +<p>This might be considered an interesting and perfectly true statement, +but nobody heard it, because they were busy organizing a search party. A +few moments later Billie and Ben went down to the village in the motor +car for guides, and this time guides were forthcoming.</p> + +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_273' id='pg_273'>273</a></span> +<a name='THE_MILLS_OF_GOD_5389' id='THE_MILLS_OF_GOD_5389'></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XIX.</h2> +<h3>THE MILLS OF GOD.</h3> +</div> + +<p>It was not often that Billie lost a night’s rest from anxiety, but that +night her eyes refused to close and she lay staring into the darkness, +straining her ears for sounds in the forest. Even Richard’s sister, +Maggie, was not so abjectly miserable as Billie. She tried to explain to +herself that it was all because she had been the one to shoot the young +man in the arm.</p> + +<p>“I’d much rather have shot that horrid Lupo,” she sobbed under her +breath. “Suppose I’ve killed Richard? The wound may be much worse than +we thought it was.” She wiped her eyes on the sheet and lay very still +listening. Away off on the mountain somewhere a dog began to howl. The +weird sound made her shiver and hide her face in the pillow.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_274' id='pg_274'>274</a></span>“Oh, God protect him,” she whispered, and then blushed furiously. “I +suppose I have a perfect right to pray for a friend?” she thought in +reply to some unspoken thought.</p> + +<p>Besides the anxiety she felt, all sorts of new and unusual sensations +were disturbing her peace of mind that wakeful night. She experienced a +kind of irritation against Phoebe, which she could not explain to +herself.</p> + +<p>“He’ll think she’s lots braver than I am,” she thought, naming no names, +“because I wouldn’t dare go out in the woods alone at night to hunt for +him. She is braver and better than I am. She is wonderful and—and so +beautiful. I—I wish my hair wasn’t so straight,” she added to the +pillow into which she had poured these girlish secrets.</p> + +<p>At last when the first gray streaks of dawn appeared, Billie rose and, +quietly dressing, crept downstairs.</p> + +<p>“How silly I have been,” she was admonishing <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_275' id='pg_275'>275</a></span>herself, irritably, when +she saw Phoebe run around the side of the house and stand looking up at +the sleeping porch.</p> + +<p>Billie dashed across the clearing.</p> + +<p>“Phoebe, have you found him? Is he all right?” she demanded, grasping +the girl’s shoulders and shaking her in her impatience.</p> + +<p>“Yes. I found him and took him to my home,” answered Phoebe proudly. “He +was lost in the marsh just as you were. His arm was bleeding and he was +very weak.”</p> + +<p>“He is very ill?”</p> + +<p>“No, no. It was from losing so much blood, they said.”</p> + +<p>“They?”</p> + +<p>“Old Granny and Dr. Hume. My father is there, too.” Phoebe clasped her +hands. “Oh, God is good to me,” she cried. “That I should find my father +and Mr. Hook on the same day.”</p> + +<p>Billie felt strangely irritated, and then reproachful of herself.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_276' id='pg_276'>276</a></span>“And your father, Phoebe,” she asked kindly. “What happened to him?”</p> + +<p>“On the day he came to the camp, he said, the language of the German +girl stirred up something in his mind. After he went away he must have +been very confused and he only remembers walking for a long time and +then falling. You would not guess who found and has cared for him all +this time? Old Granny and Mrs. Lupo. They brought him to Granny’s cabin, +where Mrs. Lupo has been hiding. Then the doctor came, and they got a +wagon and moved him down the mountain to our home. That was yesterday.”</p> + +<p>“I am so glad,” said Billie, endeavoring to be sympathetic, but feeling +really much more relieved over the safety of Richard Hook.</p> + +<p>“The doctor has sent you some written messages,” went on Phoebe, giving +Billie a little note book. “They are inside.”</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>“My dear Miss Billie,” the note read, “not long ago you asked me to +restore the sleeping <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_277' id='pg_277'>277</a></span>memory of our friend and I told you it was +sometimes best to let sleeping memories lie. Since that time I have +become deeply interested in the personality of Phoebe’s father. He is a +gentleman, undoubtedly, in birth and breeding. He is perfectly aware +that he has lost his memory and has discussed the mystery of his +identity with me so intelligently that I may say I feel it my duty to do +what I can. Even his illusion regarding the physician is more in the +nature of a deep and lasting impression evidently made just before he +took the plunge into forgetfulness. I have mentioned that to him, too. +He has never talked to people before on these subjects because there has +never been anyone to talk to, but I have suggested the operation and he +is keen to have it done. I must confess I am filled with curiosity about +him. Who knows what distinguished niche he may have occupied once +somewhere? I may be restoring—well, never mind. There is no use making +guesses now. In spite of his broken leg, <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_278' id='pg_278'>278</a></span>he is in good physical +condition and I am going to have the thing over with. I am therefore +asking you to send the telegrams you will find further over, to two +young surgeons I know who will be interested enough in the case to put +up with the inconvenience of the place. I would not risk exciting this +mysterious person by moving him to a hospital. Mrs. Lupo appears anxious +to make amends and will remain to cook and help generally. I think you +had better bring over the ‘Comet’ to take back your friend, Mr. R. Hook, +who seems strangely eager to return, although I have done my best to +entertain him. I wonder if it could be a princess disguised as a beggar +girl or a princess undisguised, who has so stirred young Richard’s soul. +I need not say which princess has stirred mine.</p> + +<p>“Faithfully, William Hume.”</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Now, what did the doctor mean by all this nonsense, Billie asked +herself. It was true that <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_279' id='pg_279'>279</a></span>Phoebe, when she had gone in search of +Richard had put on her old faded gingham, and certainly Richard owed a +great deal to the beggar maid in disguise, but she—Billie—did wish the +doctor wouldn’t tease.</p> + +<p>Billie blessed the “Comet” that morning from the bottom of her heart. It +was a busy time and the swift, faithful machine enabled them to +accomplish in a few hours what with a horse and wagon might have taken +them at least a day to do. After breakfast he carried them down to the +village, where Dr. Hume’s telegrams were sent, and where something +happened that set Billie wondering about the identity of Phoebe and her +father.</p> + +<p>While Ben sent the telegrams and Maggie Hook and Mary looked over the +souvenir post cards in the general store, Billie sat on the steps +outside reading a letter from her father. Only Phoebe, once more attired +in the white blouse and duck skirt, remained in the car. A big touring +<span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_280' id='pg_280'>280</a></span>car containing two men and a chauffeur drew up alongside the “Comet,” +and while one of the men went into the store, the other paced up and +down outside. He was a man about Mr. Campbell’s age, tall and foreign +looking with a soldierly bearing. Billie glanced at him only once and +went on reading her letter. Presently she noticed that he was standing +in front of her, his hat in his hand.</p> + +<p>“Will you pardon me if I interrupt you?” he asked in good English with +an accent. “May I take the liberty of asking you a question?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, certainly,” answered Billie politely.</p> + +<p>“May I inquire the name of the young lady in the motor car, if it is not +too great an impertinence? I ask not from curiosity, but because I +perceive a strong likeness.”</p> + +<p>“Her name is ‘Phoebe,’” Billie answered.</p> + +<p>“And her surname?”</p> + +<p>Billie hesitated. After all it was absurd to assert that Phoebe’s last +name was “French.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_281' id='pg_281'>281</a></span>“You do not know her last name?”</p> + +<p>“Well,—you see—she hasn’t any,” Billie stammered. “She—her father has +forgotten who he was.”</p> + +<p>“So?” ejaculated the stranger. “And they live?”</p> + +<p>“They live on Indian Head Mountain in a little cabin.”</p> + +<p>“Will you pardon me if again I seem inquisitive? The young lady—you say +she lives in what you call a <i>cabeen</i> and yet she seems not to be +poor—that is, in appearance, I mean.”</p> + +<p>Billie flushed again. It did seem very much like gossiping to answer all +these questions, but this stranger was commanding,—rather elegant in +his manner.</p> + +<p>“The young lady has friends, perhaps? People who have helped her?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, that is it,” said Billie.</p> + +<p>“Another question and I shall not trouble you further. Where is +this—er—<i>cabeen</i>?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_282' id='pg_282'>282</a></span>“It is on a ledge over ‘Table Top’ on ‘Indian Head Mountain,’” answered +Billie promptly, having good reason to remember that location. “Take the +road to the right at the end of this street and it takes you straight +there. It’s called ‘Indian Head Road.’”</p> + +<p>The stranger took a notebook and pencil from his pocket and wrote down +the names. When he closed the book, Billie saw that it was of Russian +leather with a coat of arms in dull gilt embossed on the back. The +pencil fitted into a flat gold case on which also was the coat of arms. +She glanced quickly at Phoebe and her heart gave a leap. It was not +difficult to connect coats of arms and grand things with Phoebe. Billie +could easily picture her in the midst of fine surroundings.</p> + +<p>“She is a princess,” she thought wistfully. “And beautiful and good.”</p> + +<p>The stranger also was watching Phoebe. His face worked with emotion and +he said something in German in a low voice.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_283' id='pg_283'>283</a></span>“And her father?” he asked suddenly. “Where is he?”</p> + +<p>“At the cabin,” answered Billie.</p> + +<p>“You are indeed very kind,” and the stranger, making a low foreign bow, +joined his companion in the touring car and in two minutes the great +machine was lost in the distance.</p> + +<p>Billie’s mind was filled with conjectures on the journey to Phoebe’s +home a little later. When they left the car to climb the path to the +cabin, she lingered behind the others, thinking deeply, although she had +seen Richard from below standing on the very edge of a rocky shelf +scanning the road with the doctor’s telescope.</p> + +<p>With a shy obstinacy new to her candid nature she pretended not to +notice him or to mind that Phoebe with ingenuous joy had run ahead to +speak to him first.</p> + +<p>“I’ve been waiting for you a long time, Miss Billie,” he exclaimed, +having left the others and run down the path to meet her.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_284' id='pg_284'>284</a></span>“We had to go to the village first,” answered Billie.</p> + +<p>“No, no. I mean it has seemed an infernal long time since the ‘Comet’ +pulled up down there in the road and you lagged behind.”</p> + +<p>“Not ten minutes.”</p> + +<p>“I guess it would have seemed long to you if you had been sitting here +since eight <span class='smcap'>a. m.</span> watching every vehicle that passed. Not long ago a big +black car stopped down there and I was pretty sure it had come to fetch +me.”</p> + +<p>He gave her one of his ingratiating smiles.</p> + +<p>“Who was it?” asked Billie.</p> + +<p>“I don’t know. They saw the doctor for a minute and then went on. But I +don’t want to talk about them. Why didn’t you hurry?”</p> + +<p>“I always heard that sick men were children,” laughed Billie, “and I can +see that you are quite ill because you are such a child. We shall take +you home now and feed you up on cream and eggs, providing we can get +any.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_285' id='pg_285'>285</a></span>Billie was glad to see Dr. Hume again. They clasped hands like old +comrades. There was a peculiar radiance in his brown eyes as he looked +at her.</p> + +<p>“You’ve had a great honor paid you, Miss Billie,” he said.</p> + +<p>“What in the world?”</p> + +<p>“The gods have chosen you to turn their mills a while and you are +turning them pretty fast, I can tell you.”</p> + +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_286' id='pg_286'>286</a></span> +<a name='A_LONG_SLEEP_5643' id='A_LONG_SLEEP_5643'></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XX.</h2> +<h3>A LONG SLEEP.</h3> +</div> + +<p>The song of the “Comet’s” motor broke the stillness of the afternoon +some ten days later as he cheerfully pushed upward on the Indian Head +road. Mr. Campbell was at the wheel and beside him sat Billie, glancing +up at him from time to time with eyes full of loving devotion. On the +back seat was Phoebe, silently contented beside Richard Hook, and the +other occupant was Alberdina Schoenbachler, that absurd little hat +perched atop her big smiling face.</p> + +<p>There had been many days of anxiety and suspense for the people at +Sunrise Camp. It was impossible not to feel deeply interested in the +strange things that were transpiring in the little cabin on Indian Head. +The two young surgeons had arrived; a tent had been pitched alongside +<span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_287' id='pg_287'>287</a></span>the cabin, and one morning early the operation was performed. Since +that time the patient had lain in a stupor. And now Dr. Hume had sent +Mrs. Lupo, tamed and domestic, to take Alberdina’s place at the camp, +and Alberdina was to come at once to the cabin. Mrs. Lupo could give no +reason; that was all the message stated, except that the patient was +doing well.</p> + +<p>The doctor went down the path to meet them, when the car stopped under +the brow of the hill. He shook hands with Richard Hook, patted Phoebe on +the cheek, and said:</p> + +<p>“Hang on to your faith, little girl. It’s a wonderful reservoir to draw +on.”</p> + +<p>Then he grasped hands with Mr. Campbell, whom he had met several times +now and liked immensely, nodded to Alberdina, and drawing Billie’s arm +through his, marched on ahead.</p> + +<p>“Anybody might think my little girl was a consulting physician,” +remarked Mr. Campbell, amused at the earnest conversation the young girl +<span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_288' id='pg_288'>288</a></span>and the great surgeon had plunged into,—and proud, too, that it should +be so.</p> + +<p>“Oh, they have lots of secrets from us, Mr. Campbell,” replied Richard +Hook. “Miss Billie is confidential adviser to the doctor. I don’t +believe he takes a step without consulting her first.”</p> + +<p>“Wise man,” answered Billie’s father. “He’ll get some good sound advice, +if not entirely professional.”</p> + +<p>In the meantime, Billie was saying:</p> + +<p>“Oh, doctor, what has happened? Is he conscious? Has he spoken? Does he +recognize anyone?”</p> + +<p>“How could he, child, when there is no one for him to recognize? +Recollect that in coming to, the man has taken up the thread of his life +of eighteen or twenty years ago. I would not trust him to see Phoebe at +this point. Only the faces of strangers are safe for him for the time +being.”</p> + +<p>“And the stranger never came back who inquired about him that day?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_289' id='pg_289'>289</a></span>“No. I told him two weeks would be safer. There is no doubt the man was +a personage of some sort. His companion said, ‘Yes, Excellency,’ as they +went down the path. I suppose he’s got some kind of a title.”</p> + +<p>“Did he seem excited?” asked Billie.</p> + +<p>“I could hardly say excited. He appeared a good deal moved by the story +of Phoebe and her father. He asked me if any money was needed.”</p> + +<p>“Of course you said ‘no’?” observed Billie.</p> + +<p>“I did. It’s my turn now. His turn may come later. I explained to him +that any excitement or sudden recognition immediately after the +operation might prove fatal or disastrous, and he took himself off. But +I consider that Phoebe’s father is practically identified.”</p> + +<p>“Is he conscious?” asked Billie with subdued excitement.</p> + +<p>“Not only conscious, but, my dear child, what do you think? Speaking +German; not English.”</p> + +<p>Billie gasped.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_290' id='pg_290'>290</a></span>“That’s why you wanted Alberdina.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, I needed someone who could speak with him, and a servant would be +excellent; better, really, than an educated German. Just now the man’s +mind is in terrible confusion. He is back in another country somewhere, +but he is holding his own, and if he can get over the shock which must +come when he links his past with his present, I believe we need have no +fear for his reason; but it will be a pretty ticklish moment.”</p> + +<p>The doctor looked down into Billie’s eager, earnest face, and his eyes +were filled with admiration.</p> + +<p>“Oh, doctor,” she exclaimed, “you are so wonderful. Next to Papa, the +most wonderful man I have ever met. Richard and I——”</p> + +<p>“What!” interrupted the doctor, smiling, “do you mean to say that that +young whipper snapper, with his Gypsy notions and his clever tongue, has +already photographed himself on your mind? I should never have bathed +and bound his wounds if I had guessed it.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_291' id='pg_291'>291</a></span>“You know you would,” laughed Billie, blushing a little. “But he’s only +a comrade.”</p> + +<p>The doctor looked into her eyes again.</p> + +<p>“That’s what they all should be, Miss Billie,” he said. “Comrades. And +if I were only fifteen years younger, I should be looking for just such +a comrade as you.”</p> + +<p>“But I am your comrade,” protested the young girl. “Just as much as +Richard’s. I’m proud to be. It’s the greatest honor that’s ever been +paid to me.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, to be young again,” sighed the doctor with a humorous lift to his +eyebrows. “Oh, to be young, like young Richard, there. But I must +remember that I am a very busy middle-aged person with an extremely +interesting patient to pull through. I trust he’ll thank me for the +job.”</p> + +<p>“Don’t you honestly believe he is some distinguished person?”</p> + +<p>“I couldn’t say, little comrade, but I could guess that he’s no ordinary +one.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_292' id='pg_292'>292</a></span>They had reached the cabin now. The others had come up, and they all +stood outside talking in low voices. After a brief word with Alberdina, +Dr. Hume conducted her into the little room where the Motor Maids and +their friends had once found refuge. From the doorway, Billie could see +the silver candlesticks on the mantel shelf. Mrs. Lupo had kept them +brightly polished and they lent a strange charm and refinement to the +bare apartment. Phoebe crept in and knelt outside her father’s door.</p> + +<p>“Now, Alberdina,” said the doctor as a last caution, “you understand +that you are not to speak unless the gentleman inside asks you a +question in German. Answer him in three words if you can. Then come out +quietly. If he calls, you may go back.”</p> + +<p>Alberdina laid aside her comedy hat and followed the doctor into the +sick room. The others gathered noiselessly outside the window and +listened. There was a long silence. Then the man <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_293' id='pg_293'>293</a></span>on the bed spoke in a +low, weak voice. It was only a mumble of sounds to Billie and Richard, +but Mr. Campbell understood German and listened intently.</p> + +<p>Alberdina replied not in three words but in a long voluble speech.</p> + +<p>They held their breath.</p> + +<p>“Come out,” called the doctor softly.</p> + +<p>The sick man had begun to speak again. He seemed to be giving orders.</p> + +<p>At the door Phoebe was weeping softly. Her father, restored to himself, +was a stranger who spoke in a foreign tongue. Billie was fairly shaking +with excitement.</p> + +<p>“Do you suppose he’s forgotten English?” she whispered to Richard, who +made the most absurd reply that had nothing whatever to do with Phoebe’s +father and lost memories.</p> + +<p>“I think the doctor had better take you in hand,” said Billie.</p> + +<p>“I have an incurable disease,” answered the young man, not in the least +ashamed.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_294' id='pg_294'>294</a></span>Mr. Campbell had joined the doctor and Alberdina at the other end of +the house where their voices could not be heard in the sick room. The +young surgeons were also in the group. When Billie and Richard came up, +the German girl was saying:</p> + +<p>“I cannot from the German English mag. He is a German already yet?”</p> + +<p>“Of course,” answered the doctor impatiently, “but what did he ask you?”</p> + +<p>Alberdina broke into German.</p> + +<p>“No, no. In English.”</p> + +<p>“He very sig yet ees——”</p> + +<p>The doctor gave poor Alberdina a withering glance.</p> + +<p>“I think I can tell you most of the conversation, Doctor,” put in Mr. +Campbell. “The patient asked Alberdina if she were one of the maids at +the palace. She answered at great length that she was laundress at +Sunrise Camp. ‘This was not a palace,’ she explained, ‘but a hut.’</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_295' id='pg_295'>295</a></span>“‘I have been in an accident?’” the sick man asked, as Mr. Campbell +translated it.</p> + +<p>“When Alberdina acquiesced, he told her to call Franz or Karl.</p> + +<p>“Seeing her shake her head, he said:</p> + +<p>“‘The Baron von Metz is here?’</p> + +<p>“‘No,’ answered Alberdina.</p> + +<p>“‘None of the household?’”</p> + +<p>Then he gave her orders to telegraph the Baron von Metz at an address in +Dresden and sign it A. J. Mr. Campbell had failed to catch the telegram, +although he distinctly heard the second telegram to a “Miss Phoebe +Jones,” at an address in England. It said she was not to worry. He had +been detained by illness. Twice he made the blundering maid repeat the +telegram, and finally exhausted with the mental effort, dropped into +unconsciousness.</p> + +<p>Was it not strange and terrible to take up the thread of one’s life +where it had been so ruthlessly snapped off some two decades ago?</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_296' id='pg_296'>296</a></span>Richard and Billie, seated on a rock out of hearing distance of the +cabin, discussed the anomaly together.</p> + +<p>“It’s like Rip Van Winkle,” Billie observed, “only worse because there +have been so many inventions.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, there are motor cars, for instance. They were only on trial then; +and flying machines.”</p> + +<p>“And hobble skirts,” added Billie with an inward laugh, remembering +Nancy’s.</p> + +<p>“It’s very interesting,” said Richard, “a good deal like missing the +middle act of a drama.”</p> + +<p>“Don’t you imagine that Phoebe’s father belonged to a noble family? +Perhaps he was a younger son, and fell in love with a pretty English +girl named Phoebe Jones. They eloped to America and hid themselves in +the mountains, and the old Archduke or Prince or Baron who was the +father perhaps gave it out that his son was insane. They always do that, +you know.”</p> + +<p>“Very romantic,” said Richard, “but why has he been speaking only +English all these years?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_297' id='pg_297'>297</a></span>“Don’t ask me anything so scientific, please.”</p> + +<p>“It would go hard with me,” pursued Richard, “if I got a blow on the +head over my English-language bump, because I wouldn’t have any other to +take its place.”</p> + +<p>Having arranged the history of the sick man to their own satisfaction, +and as a matter of fact, to the doctor’s and Mr. Campbell’s also, they +returned to Sunrise Camp, leaving Alberdina and Phoebe behind them.</p> + +<p>Poor Phoebe had watched Billie and Richard together from the doorstep of +the cabin. Then she had folded her hands with a gesture of resignation +and closed her eyes. Something had hurt her. She still felt the pain and +not all her faith nor prayers could ease it.</p> + +<p>That night the campers gathered around the fire and discussed the +mystery of the “Prince in Exile,” as they had named Phoebe’s father. +They told stories of similar cases, of men with double identities who +had been lost for years, of men <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_298' id='pg_298'>298</a></span>who had made new lives for themselves +and even earned fortunes.</p> + +<p>“I knew he was a prince the first time I saw him,” Mary exclaimed.</p> + +<p>“And now Phoebe will be a princess and perhaps very rich,” observed +Elinor.</p> + +<p>“Think of stepping from a cabin to a palace,” went on Amy Swinnerton. +“From being a barefooted girl selling blackberries on the mountain to +being a noble lady with a retinue of servants.”</p> + +<p>And so they all talked and discussed and enjoyed themselves immensely +until a motor horn interrupted them. A car had evidently stopped in +front and someone now hurried over to the group around the fire.</p> + +<p>“Well, children,” called Dr. Hume, “I daresay you’ll be interested in +the news I am bringing you.”</p> + +<p>“Wasn’t I right?” cried Billie.</p> + +<p>“He was a prince?”</p> + +<p>“Or a duke, perhaps?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_299' id='pg_299'>299</a></span>“Even a baron is pretty good.”</p> + +<p>There was a long pause.</p> + +<p>“You are wonderful guessers,” said the doctor. “He lived in a palace.”</p> + +<p>“I knew it,” cried Mary.</p> + +<p>“Would it disappoint you very much if I were to tell you that the +gentleman without a memory who lived in a palace was not a prince, nor a +duke, nor a baron, but at one time a clergyman?”</p> + +<p>“Oh!” they exclaimed in varying tones of surprise and disappointment.</p> + +<p>“Then how the palace?” asked Maggie Hook.</p> + +<p>“The Rev. Archibald Jones, a highly educated English gentleman of no +means to speak of, was tutor in a noble family in Germany.”</p> + +<p>“But his wife? She was a princess?” cried Mary, almost weeping.</p> + +<p>“Every woman is a princess, my dear young lady,” replied the gallant +doctor.</p> + +<p>“But a real one, Doctor? One who lived in a palace?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_300' id='pg_300'>300</a></span>“She lived in the palace, yes. She was attached to the household as +English governess. The tutor and the governess met, as well they might +even in a grand castle, and being in the same boat as regards teaching +and birth, they fell in love. The lady was very beautiful, I +understand.”</p> + +<p>“And then?” demanded the chorus.</p> + +<p>“Then they came to America where the field was larger even than in a +palace with the <i>noblesse</i>. The young wife fell sick and the young +husband, having saved a bit of money, brought her up into the mountains. +The night Phoebe was born he tried to take a short cut down the +mountainside to get a doctor who was stopping at a hotel now in +ruins——”</p> + +<p>Percy bowed his head.</p> + +<p>“I recognize the spot,” he said.</p> + +<p>“And the young tutor husband not of the nobility fell and hit his head +against a rock. He was brought back insensible by an old Indian +grandfather <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_301' id='pg_301'>301</a></span>of Mrs. Lupo. The beautiful young wife only lived a few +days, and when the father was better and the baby stronger the Indian +took them and their belongings across the valley to Indian Head, where +they have lived ever since.”</p> + +<p>“Poor things,” exclaimed Miss Campbell. “What a pitiful, sad story!”</p> + +<p>“And the wife’s name was Phoebe Jones?” asked Billie.</p> + +<p>“Wrong again,” replied the doctor. “Would you have a Jones marry a +Jones?”</p> + +<p>“Then who, pray, was Miss Phoebe Jones?”</p> + +<p>“Aunt of the Rev. Archibald. For some reason he remembered the name and +I suppose gave it to the child.”</p> + +<p>“Then who was the German gentleman who recognized Phoebe?”</p> + +<p>“Now you are getting down to real romance,” replied the doctor.</p> + +<p>“He was the young noble for whom the Rev. Archibald acted as tutor.” +Here the doctor spoke <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_302' id='pg_302'>302</a></span>slowly and impressively. “He loved the English +governess and when she married the poor tutor, his noble heart was +broken and never has been mended.”</p> + +<p>“And he never married another?” piped up Mary’s small voice.</p> + +<p>“Oh yes, my dear. The nobility always marries. Singleness is against the +rules. He married and has a family of six.”</p> + +<p>“And is that the end of the story?” asked Billie.</p> + +<p>“No, there is a sequel. It seems that when the Rev. and Mrs. Archibald +Jones disappeared from the stage of life without explanation only one +person, after a decade or more, still clung to the belief that they were +not dead. None other than Miss Phoebe Jones herself, spinster, living in +Surrey, England. She recently died leaving her property to her nephew, +his wife or possible heirs. It seems that the gentlemen who just now +dropped me at your door——”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_303' id='pg_303'>303</a></span>“The disappointed lover?”</p> + +<p>“Yes. The broken-hearted noble with a wife and six children, knew about +this will because the lawyers in trying to trace Mr. Jones and his wife +had got into communication with him.”</p> + +<p>“And so they won’t be poor,” said Nancy. “I’m glad of that. Phoebe +looked beautiful in good clothes.”</p> + +<p>Everybody laughed, and then the doctor remarked:</p> + +<p>“And so the story has a plain ending, after all. Phoebe is not a +princess and you are all disappointed.”</p> + +<p>“No, no, no,” they protested, but the doctor knew better.</p> + +<hr class='major' /> +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em'> +<span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_304' id='pg_304'>304</a></span> +<a name='COMRADES_OF_THE_ROAD_6032' id='COMRADES_OF_THE_ROAD_6032'></a> +<h2>CHAPTER XXI.</h2> +<h3>COMRADES OF THE ROAD.</h3> +</div> + +<p>Already the scarlet sumac lit the road with its flaming torch, and here +and there on the mountainside a flash of scarlet like a redbird’s wing +appeared among the masses of foliage. Autumn was at hand, the autumn of +the Adirondacks, when the evening air is nipped with the hint of frosts +to come and the sky is a deeper blue than ever it is at mid-summer.</p> + +<p>Summer comrades of the road may not linger in the hills at this +enchanting season. There is work to be done in the valleys where the +busy people live. In a few days now the shutters of log cabin camps will +be closed and traveling vans will be sent to winter quarters.</p> + +<p>The boys and girls who have lingered around the campfire, singing songs +and telling stories <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_305' id='pg_305'>305</a></span>under the great harvest moon, all comrades of the +road, must turn their thoughts to soberer things than roasting apples +and school day reminiscences. The grown people, too, stretched out in +their steamer chairs, have been idling away the hours. Vaguely, as in a +mist, a great surgeon recalls that there is a hospital somewhere he has +been neglecting for weeks. An engineer is thinking of his tunnel only +just started through the heart of a mountain. A little old spinster, +fair and fresh as a rose, recalls with a start that for many weeks she +has been sleeping under the stars and eating strange food on a bare deal +table; and down in the valley her beautiful old home, filled with +memories of her girlhood, is waiting to shelter her.</p> + +<p>Near the spinster sits a tall man with a delicate, nervous face. He sits +with folded arms, his eyes fixed on the back wall of mountains across +the valley. He is thinking not of the future of the little home in +Surrey that awaits <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_306' id='pg_306'>306</a></span>him, but of the twenty black years behind him, as +blank and empty as the years of a prisoner spent in solitary +confinement. Sometimes, with a curious, startled gaze, he turns his eyes +toward his daughter, seated in the circle with the young people.</p> + +<p>While we have been taking this leisurely view of our friends, Alberdina +has approached, smiling broadly over a great tray of cakes and ginger +ale. Mrs. Lupo is hovering in the background.</p> + +<p>“It was that skirt of the young lady’s that brought me really back to my +senses,” Mrs. Lupo had confessed to Miss Campbell. “I thought the young +lady had sunk in the mire. The misery that come to me then made me see +things different; that and the prayer you taught me. Lupo, he’s workin’ +now in the valley and when the camp is broke up, I guess we’ll forgive +and forgit.”</p> + +<p>Miss Campbell, glancing at Mrs. Lupo now in the background, wondered if +that awful memory of the carving knife was not a dream.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_307' id='pg_307'>307</a></span>“Papa,” Billie called from her place near the campfire, “you mustn’t +forget to send pounds and pounds of really good coffee to old Granny, +the herb gatherer, enough to last her all winter.”</p> + +<p>“I’ll make a note of it, daughter. Are there any other old parties you +wish to pension off with coffee or tea this winter?”</p> + +<p>“No, papa. But I’d like to keep old Granny in coffee for the rest of her +life because she loves it so.”</p> + +<p>“Ladies and gentlemen,” called Percy, rising and flourishing an apple on +the end of a long stick, “I made a discovery this morning through a +letter from a friend, and I’ve been saving it until this moment to +spring it on the Motor Maids and company.”</p> + +<p>“About whom is this discovery?” asked Richard uneasily, raising his +eyebrows and blinking his humorous eyes.</p> + +<p>“It’s about two impostors who travel around in a little wooden house on +wheels and live like Gypsies——”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_308' id='pg_308'>308</a></span>“Oh, dear,” cried Maggie, “now what have you been finding out about us, +pray?”</p> + +<p>“I know,” said Richard. “You’ve found that we are really Gypsies and +only pretending to be amateurs.”</p> + +<p>“Nothing of the sort. I’ve discovered that you have been traveling under +a disguise——”</p> + +<p>“My name is certainly ‘Hook,’” put in Richard.</p> + +<p>“And mine is Maggie,” piped his sister.</p> + +<p>“Maybe so,” went on Percy. “That’s not the disguise. You’ve been wearing +the cloak of poverty, when you are really as rich as cream, the pair of +you, with an old grandfather in England who has a title and castles and +much pleasing property; and every now and then the old grandpapa sends +for you and you have to give up Gypsying and fly.”</p> + +<p>“And <i>he’s</i> your boss who’s always interfering with your vacations?” +interrupted Billie.</p> + +<p>“And you just <i>pretend</i> to be poor for the novelty <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_309' id='pg_309'>309</a></span>of the experience?” +asked Nancy. “I wish I could pretend to be rich in the same way.”</p> + +<p>“But we are Gypsies at heart,” put in Maggie, “and I do love to scrub +and cook. Grandpapa’s is so dull.”</p> + +<p>“And where does Grandpapa think you are now? Not in a traveling van, +I’ll wager,” said Miss Campbell.</p> + +<p>Maggie laughed.</p> + +<p>“We are supposed to be visiting Aunt Lucretia. She’s our American aunt, +Papa’s sister, who brought us up, before Grandpapa decided to recognize +us. You see Mamma would marry Papa, who was poor then, and came from +Maine. He looked just like Richard and I don’t blame her. Grandpapa lets +us come every summer to visit Aunt Lucretia now.”</p> + +<p>“And where does Aunt Lucretia think you are?”</p> + +<p>“Why, visiting Amy Swinnerton.”</p> + +<p>Who could keep from laughing over this <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_310' id='pg_310'>310</a></span>brother and sister who loved the +life on the road and the campfire?</p> + +<p>“Thank fortune, I’m not in line for the title,” Richard whispered to +Billie under cover of the conversation of the others, “and Grandpapa or +no Grandpapa, I shall buy that farm,—do you guess where?”</p> + +<p>“I can’t imagine,” answered Billie.</p> + +<p>“In West Haven. I’ve never seen it, but that is the place you like best, +isn’t it?”</p> + +<p>“I think I like the traveling van best,” answered Billie +irrelevantly,—“that is, next to the ‘Comet,’” she added with a sudden +feeling of loyalty toward the faithful motor car.</p> + +<p>“The traveling van would be a part of it and the ‘Comet,’ too, for that +matter.”</p> + +<p>Then he calmly slipped his hand over hers under the folds of her scarlet +cape.</p> + +<p>“Shall we be comrades of the road?” he whispered.</p> + +<p>“Some day, perhaps,” Billie answered, not <span class='pagenum'><a name='pg_311' id='pg_311'>311</a></span>taking her hand away, but +glancing shyly at her father, who was watching her face in the fire +light.</p> + +<p>Then she smiled at Richard. After all, she was past eighteen and +Richard,—well, Richard was the most delightful person she had ever met +in all her life.</p> + +<p>Let us take leave of our young people before they go back to the valleys +where work is waiting for them. Brown and strong and happy, they sit in +a circle talking and laughing, as boys and girls will, under the light +of the harvest moon.</p> + +<p>While they are still comrades of the road, we will bid them good-night.</p> + +<p>Good-night, little Mary, calm and sweet, watching the stars twinkling +through the tree tops. Good-night to you, Nancy, dimpling and smiling, +while Percy whispers in your ear; and Elinor, too, talking quietly and +happily to Ben. And now a last good-night to Billie, best of comrades, +kindest and truest of friends.</p> + +<p style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:3em; text-align:center;'>THE END</p> + +<hr class='dashed' /> + +<p style='text-align:center'>THE “HOW-TO-DO-IT” BOOKS</p> + +<p style='text-align:center;'>By J. S. ZERBE</p> + +<p style='text-align:center; font-size:x-large;'>Carpentry for Boys</p> + +<p>A book which treats, in a most practical and fascinating manner all +subjects pertaining to the “King of Trades”; showing the care and use of +tools; drawing; designing, and the laying out of work; the principles +involved in the building of various kinds of structures, and the +rudiments of architecture. It contains over two hundred and fifty +illustrations made especially for this work, and includes also a +complete glossary of the technical terms used in the art. The most +comprehensive volume on this subject ever published for boys.</p> + +<p style='text-align:center; font-size:x-large;'>Electricity for Boys</p> + +<p>The author has adopted the unique plan of setting forth the fundamental +principles in each phase of the science, and practically applying the +work in the successive stages. It shows how the knowledge has been +developed, and the reasons for the various phenomena, without using +technical words so as to bring it within the compass of every boy. It +has a complete glossary of terms, and is illustrated with two hundred +original drawings.</p> + +<p style='text-align:center; font-size:x-large;'>Practical Mechanics for Boys</p> + +<p>This book takes the beginner through a comprehensive series of practical +shop work, in which the uses of tools, and the structure and handling of +shop machinery are set forth; how they are utilized to perform the work, +and the manner in which all dimensional work is carried out. Every +subject is illustrated, and model building explained. It contains a +glossary which comprises a new system of cross references, a feature +that will prove a welcome departure in explaining subjects. Fully +illustrated.</p> + +<p style='text-align:center;'>For sale by all Booksellers, or sent postpaid on receipt of $1.00.</p> + +<p class='center'>M. A. DONOHUE & COMPANY<br /> +711 S. DEARBORN STREET :: CHICAGO</p> + +<hr class='dashed' /> + +<p style='text-align:center; font-size:x-large;'>THE VICTORY BOY SCOUTS</p> + +<p style='text-align:center;'>BY<br /> +CAPTAIN ALAN DOUGLAS<br /> +SCOUTMASTER</p> + +<p>Stories from the pen of a writer who possesses a thorough knowledge of +his subject. In addition to the stories there is an addenda in which +useful boy scout nature lore is given, all illustrated. There are the +following twelve titles in the series:</p> + +<ol> +<li>The Campfires of the Wolf Patrol.</li> +<li>Woodcraft; or, How a Patrol Leader Made Good.</li> +<li>Pathfinder; or, the Missing Tenderfoot.</li> +<li>Great Hike; or, the Pride of Khaki Troop.</li> +<li>Endurance Test; or, How Clear Grit Won the Day.</li> +<li>Under Canvas; or, the Search for the Carteret Ghost.</li> +<li>Storm-bound; or, a Vacation Among the Snow-Drifts.</li> +<li>Afloat; or, Adventures on Watery Trails.</li> +<li>Tenderfoot Squad; or, Camping at Raccoon Lodge.</li> +<li>Boy Scout Electricians; or, the Hidden Dynamo.</li> +<li>Boy Scouts in Open Plains; or, the Round-up not Ordered.</li> +<li>Boy Scouts in an Airplane; or, the Warning from the Sky.</li> +</ol> + +<p style='text-align:center;'>12mo. Lintex. Postpaid, Price each 50c</p> + +<p class='center'>M. A. DONOHUE & COMPANY<br /> +711 S. DEARBORN STREET :: CHICAGO</p> + +<hr class='dashed' /> + +<p style='text-align:center; font-size:x-large;'>THE BOYS’ ELITE SERIES</p> + +<p style='text-align:center; font-style:italic;'>12mo, cloth. Price 75c each.</p> + +<p>Contains an attractive assortment of books for boys by standard and +favorite authors. Printed from large, clear type on a superior quality +of paper, bound in a superior quality of binders’ cloth, ornamented with +illustrated original designs on covers stamped in colors from unique and +appropriate dies. Each book wrapped in attractive jacket.</p> + +<table summary='booklist'> +<tr><td>1.</td><td>Cudjo’s Cave</td><td>Trowbridge</td></tr> +<tr><td>2.</td><td>Green Mountain Boys</td><td> </td></tr> +<tr><td>3.</td><td>Life of Kit Carson</td><td>Edward L. Ellis</td></tr> +<tr><td>4.</td><td>Tom Westlake’s Golden Luck</td><td>Perry Newberry</td></tr> +<tr><td>5.</td><td>Tony Keating’s Surprises</td><td>Mrs. G. R. Alden (Pansy)</td></tr> +<tr><td>6.</td><td>Tour of the World in 80 Days</td><td>Jules Verne</td></tr> +</table> + +<p style='text-align:center; font-size:x-large;'>THE GIRLS’ ELITE SERIES</p> + +<p style='text-align:center; font-style:italic;'>12mo, cloth. Price 75c each.</p> + +<p>Contains an assortment of attractive and desirable books for girls by +standard and favorite authors. The books are printed on a good quality +of paper in large clear type. Each title is complete and unabridged. +Bound in clothene, ornamented on the sides and back with attractive +illustrative designs and the title stamped on front and back.</p> + +<table summary='booklist'> +<tr><td>1.</td><td>Bee and the Butterfly</td><td>Lucy Foster Madison</td></tr> +<tr><td>2.</td><td>Dixie School Girl</td><td>Gabrielle E. Jackson</td></tr> +<tr><td>3.</td><td>Girls of Mount Morris</td><td>Amanda Douglas</td></tr> +<tr><td>4.</td><td>Hope’s Messenger</td><td>Gabrielle E. Jackson</td></tr> +<tr><td>5.</td><td>The Little Aunt Marion</td><td>Ames Taggart</td></tr> +<tr><td>6.</td><td>A Modern Cinderella</td><td>Amanda Douglas</td></tr> +</table> + +<p style='text-align:center;'>12mo. Lintex. Postpaid, Price each 50c</p> + +<p class='center'>M. A. DONOHUE & COMPANY<br /> +711 S. DEARBORN STREET :: CHICAGO</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MOTOR MAIDS AT SUNRISE CAMP***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 23645-h.txt or 23645-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/3/6/4/23645">http://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/6/4/23645</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<pre> +*** 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 +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/license">http://www.gutenberg.org/license)</a>. + + +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 http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf. + + +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. 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 http://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact + +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 http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf + +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 checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is 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. + +Each eBook is in a subdirectory of the same number as the eBook's +eBook number, often in several formats including plain vanilla ASCII, +compressed (zipped), HTML and others. + +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks replace the old file and take over +the old filename and etext number. The replaced older file is renamed. +VERSIONS based on separate sources are treated as new eBooks receiving +new filenames and etext numbers. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org">http://www.gutenberg.org</a> + +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. + +EBooks posted prior to November 2003, with eBook numbers BELOW #10000, +are filed in directories based on their release date. If you want to +download any of these eBooks directly, rather than using the regular +search system you may utilize the following addresses and just +download by the etext year. + +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext06/">http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext06/</a> + + (Or /etext 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00, 99, + 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90) + +EBooks posted since November 2003, with etext numbers OVER #10000, are +filed in a different way. The year of a release date is no longer part +of the directory path. The path is based on the etext number (which is +identical to the filename). The path to the file is made up of single +digits corresponding to all but the last digit in the filename. For +example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at: + +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/0/2/3/10234 + +or filename 24689 would be found at: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/4/6/8/24689 + +An alternative method of locating eBooks: +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/GUTINDEX.ALL">http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/GUTINDEX.ALL</a> + +*** END: FULL LICENSE *** +</pre> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/23645-h/images/illus-037.png b/23645-h/images/illus-037.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c227f17 --- /dev/null +++ b/23645-h/images/illus-037.png diff --git a/23645-h/images/illus-076.jpg b/23645-h/images/illus-076.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6411f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/23645-h/images/illus-076.jpg diff --git a/23645-h/images/illus-136.jpg b/23645-h/images/illus-136.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..093507d --- /dev/null +++ b/23645-h/images/illus-136.jpg diff --git a/23645-h/images/illus-212.jpg b/23645-h/images/illus-212.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6b08888 --- /dev/null +++ b/23645-h/images/illus-212.jpg diff --git a/23645-h/images/illus-fpc.jpg b/23645-h/images/illus-fpc.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..16787d0 --- /dev/null +++ b/23645-h/images/illus-fpc.jpg |
