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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Corner House Girls Snowbound + +Author: Grace Brooks Hill + +Illustrator: Thelma Gooch + +Release Date: December 28, 2011 [EBook #38431] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CORNER HOUSE GIRLS SNOWBOUND *** + + + + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + +<div style='text-align:center'> +<img id='ilink01' src='images/illus-001.jpg' alt=''/> +<p class='caption'>“The bobsled bumped over these hammocks, gathering speed.”</p> +</div> +<hr style='border:none; border-bottom:1px solid silver; width:70%; margin:2em auto' /> + +<p class='center' style='font-size:1.4em;margin-top:0em;margin-bottom:1em;'>THE CORNER HOUSE GIRLS SNOWBOUND</p> + +<table style='margin:auto' summary=''> +<tr><td> +HOW THEY WENT AWAY<br/> +WHAT THEY DISCOVERED<br/> +AND HOW IT ENDED<br/> +</td></tr> +</table> + +<p class='center' style='font-size:1.2em;margin-top:1em;margin-bottom:1em;'>BY GRACE BROOKS HILL</p> + +<p class='center' style='font-size:0.8em;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>Author of “The Corner House Girls,” “The Corner</span></p> +<p class='center' style='font-size:0.8em;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;'><span style='font-variant:small-caps'>House Girls on a Tour,” Etc.</span></p> + +<p class='center' style='font-size:1.1em;margin-top:1em;margin-bottom:1em;'><i>ILLUSTRATED BY THELMA GOOCH</i></p> + +<p class='center' style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;'>NEW YORK</p> + +<p class='center' style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;'>BARSE & HOPKINS</p> + +<p class='center' style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;'>PUBLISHERS</p> +<hr style='border:none; border-bottom:1px solid silver; width:70%; margin:2em auto' /> + +<p class='center' style='font-size:1.2em;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;'>BOOKS FOR GIRLS</p> + +<p class='center' style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;'>By Grace Brooks Hill</p> + +<p class='center' style='margin-top:1em;margin-bottom:0;'>The Corner House Girls Series</p> + +<p class='center' style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;'><i>12mo. Cloth. Illustrated.</i></p> + +<table style='margin:auto' summary=''> +<tr><td> +THE CORNER HOUSE GIRLS<br/> +THE CORNER HOUSE GIRLS AT SCHOOL<br/> +THE CORNER HOUSE GIRLS UNDER CANVAS<br/> +THE CORNER HOUSE GIRLS IN A PLAY<br/> +THE CORNER HOUSE GIRLS’ ODD FIND<br/> +THE CORNER HOUSE GIRLS ON A TOUR<br/> +THE CORNER HOUSE GIRLS GROWING UP<br/> +THE CORNER HOUSE GIRLS SNOWBOUND<br/> +</td></tr> +</table> + +<p class='center' style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;'>BARSE & HOPKINS</p> + +<p class='center' style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;'>PUBLISHERS—NEW YORK</p> +<hr style='border:none; border-bottom:1px solid silver; width:70%; margin:2em auto' /> + +<p class='center' style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;'>Copyright, 1919, by Barse & Hopkins</p> + +<p class='center' style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;'><i>The Corner House Girls Snowbound</i></p> + +<p class='center' style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;'>Printed in U. S. A.</p> +<hr style='border:none; border-bottom:1px solid silver; width:70%; margin:2em auto' /> + +<p class='center' style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;'>CONTENTS</p> + +<table id='toc' style='margin:auto' summary='TOC'> +<tr><td> + <a href='#clink01'>I—A Ghost and a Goat</a><br/> + <a href='#clink02'>II—The Straw Ride</a><br/> + <a href='#clink03'>III—Twins—And Trouble</a><br/> + <a href='#clink04'>IV—Anticipations</a><br/> + <a href='#clink05'>V—Merry Times</a><br/> + <a href='#clink06'>VI—On the Wings of the Wind</a><br/> + <a href='#clink07'>VII—The Scooter</a><br/> + <a href='#clink08'>VIII—The Village on the Ice</a><br/> + <a href='#clink09'>IX—A Cold Scent</a><br/> + <a href='#clink10'>X—Into the Wilderness</a><br/> + <a href='#clink11'>XI—Embers in the Grate</a><br/> + <a href='#clink12'>XII—Mystery and Fun</a><br/> + <a href='#clink13'>XIII—The Timber Cruiser</a><br/> + <a href='#clink14'>XIV—By the Light of the Moon</a><br/> + <a href='#clink15'>XV—A Variety of Happenings</a><br/> + <a href='#clink16'>XVI—The Key</a><br/> + <a href='#clink17'>XVII—All Down Hill</a><br/> + <a href='#clink18'>XVIII—Figure It Out</a><br/> + <a href='#clink19'>XIX—Sammy Takes the Bit in His Teeth</a><br/> + <a href='#clink20'>XX—Following Another Trail</a><br/> + <a href='#clink21'>XXI—Rowdy</a><br/> + <a href='#clink22'>XXII—In the Cave</a><br/> + <a href='#clink23'>XXIII—Anxiety</a><br/> + <a href='#clink24'>XXIV—Rafe Is Cross</a><br/> + <a href='#clink25'>XXV—Holidays—Conclusion</a><br/> +</td></tr> +</table> +<hr style='border:none; border-bottom:1px solid silver; width:70%; margin:2em auto' /> + +<p class='center' style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;'>ILLUSTRATIONS</p> + +<table id='loi' style='margin:auto' summary=''> +<tr><td> + <a href='#ilink01'>The bobsled bumped over these hummocks, gathering speed</a><br/> + <a href='#ilink02'>Even Ruth could scarcely keep a sober face</a><br/> + <a href='#ilink03'>He fairly dragged her from under the flapping sail</a><br/> + <a href='#ilink04'>The housekeeping arrangements of the cave were primitive</a> +</td></tr> +</table> +<hr style='border:none; border-bottom:1px solid silver; width:70%; margin:2em auto' /> + +<p class='center' style='font-size:1.4em;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;'>THE CORNER HOUSE GIRLS SNOWBOUND</p> + +<h2 class='chapter' id='clink01'><a href='#toc'>CHAPTER I—A GHOST AND A GOAT</a></h2> + +<p>There was a vast amount of tramping up and +down stairs, and little feet, well shod, are noisy. +This padding up and down was by the two flights +of back stairs from the entry off the kitchen porch +to the big heated room that was called by the older +folks who lived in the old Corner House, “the +nursery.”</p> + +<p>“But it isn’t a nursery,” objected Dot Kenway, +who really was not yet big enough to fit the name +of “Dorothy.” “We never had a nurse, did we, +Tess? Ruthie helped bring us up after our own +truly mamma died. And, then, ‘nursery’ sounds +so <i>little</i>.”</p> + +<p>“Just as though you were kids,” put in Master +Sammy Pinkney, who lived in the house across +the street, and nearest, on Willow Street, from +the Kenway sisters’ beautiful home in Milton, but +who felt that he, too, “belonged” in the old Corner +House.</p> + +<p>“No. It should be called ‘the playroom,’” +agreed Tess, who was older than Dot, and considerably +bigger, yet who no more fitted the name +she was christened with than the fairylike Dot +fitted hers. Nobody but Aunt Sarah Maltby—and +she only when she was in a most severe mood—called +the next-to-the-youngest Corner House +girl “Theresa.”</p> + +<p>It was Saturday morning, and it had begun to +snow; at first in a desultory fashion before Tess +and Dot—or even Sammy Pinkney—were out of +bed. Of course, they had hailed the fleecy, drifting +snow with delight; it looked to be the first real +snowstorm of the season.</p> + +<p>But by the time breakfast was well over (and +breakfast on Saturday morning at the old Corner +House was a “movable feast,” for the Kenway +sisters did not all get up so promptly as they did +on school days) Sammy Pinkney waded almost to +the top of his rubber boots in coming from his +house to play with the two younger Kenway sisters.</p> + +<p>Of course, Sammy had picked out the deepest +places to wade in; but the snow really was gathering +very fast. Mrs. MacCall, the Kenways’ dear +friend and housekeeper, declared that it was gathering +and drifting as fast as ever she had seen +it as a child “at home in the Hielands,” as she +expressed it.</p> + +<p>“’Tis stay-in-the-hoose weather,” the old +Scotch woman declared. “Roughs and toughs, +like this Sammy Pinkney boy, can roll in the snow +like porpoises in the sea; but little girls would +much better stay indoor and dance ‘Katie +Beardie.’”</p> + +<p>“Oh, Mrs. Mac!” cried Dot, “what is ‘dancing +Katie Beardie’?”</p> + +<p>So the housekeeper stopped long enough in her +oversight of Linda, the Finnish girl, to repeat the +old rhyme one hears to this day amid the clatter +of little clogs upon the pavements of Edinburgh.</p> + +<p> +     “‘Katie Beardie had a grice,<br/> +       It could skate upon the ice;<br/> +     Wasna that a dainty grice?<br/> +       Dance, Katie Beardie!<br/> +     Katie Beardie had a hen,<br/> +       Cackled but and cackled ben;<br/> +     Wasna that a dainty hen?<br/> +       Dance, Katie Beardie!’<br/> +</p> + +<p>“and you little ones have been ‘cackling but and +cackling ben’ ever since breakfast time. Do, +children, go upstairs, like good bairns, and stay +awhile.”</p> + +<p>Tess and Dot understood a good deal of Mrs. +MacCall’s Scotch, for they heard it daily. But +now she had to explain that a “grice” was a pig +and that “but” and “ben” meant in and out. +But even Sammy knew how to “count out” in +Scotch, for they had long since learned Mrs. MacCall’s +doggerel for games.</p> + +<p>Now they played hide and seek, using one of +the counting-out rhymes the housekeeper had +taught them:</p> + +<p> +     Eenerty, feenerty, fickerty, faig,<br/> +     Ell, dell, domen, aig.<br/> +     Irky, birky, story, rock,<br/> +     Ann, tan, touzelt Jock.<br/> +</p> + +<p>And then Sammy disappeared! It was Dot’s +turn to be “it,” and she counted one hundred five +times by the method approved, saying very rapidly: +“Ten, ten, double-ten, forty-five and fifteen!” +Then she began to hunt.</p> + +<p>She found Tess in the wardrobe in the hall +which led to the other ell of the big house. But +Sammy! Why, it was just as though he had flown +right out of existence!</p> + +<p>Tess was soon curious, too, and aided her sister +in the search, and they hunted the three floors +of the old Corner House, and it did not seem as +though any small boy could be small enough to +hide in half the places into which the girls looked +for Sammy Pinkney!</p> + +<p>Dot was a persistent and faithful searcher after +more things than one. If there was anything she +really wanted, or wanted to know, she always +stuck to it until she had accomplished her end—or +driven everybody else in the house, as Agnes +said, into spasms.</p> + +<p>With her Alice-doll hugged in the crook of one +arm—the Alice-doll was her chiefest treasure—Dot +hunted high and low for the elusive Sammy +Pinkney. Of course, occasional household happenings +interfered with the search; but Dot took +up the quest again as soon as these little +happenings were over, for Sammy still remained in hiding.</p> + +<p>For instance, Alfredia Blossom and one of her +brothers came with the family wash in a big basket +with which they had struggled through the +snowdrifts. Of course they had to be taken into +the kitchen and warmed and fed on seed cookies. +The little boy began to play with Mainsheet, one +of the cats, but Alfredia, the little girls took upstairs +with them in their continued hunt for +Sammy.</p> + +<p>“Wha’ fur all dis traipsin’ an’ traipsin’ up +dese stairs?” demanded a deep and unctuous voice +from the dark end of the hall where the uncarpeted +stairs rose to the garret landing.</p> + +<p>“Oh, Uncle Rufus!” chorused the little white +girls, and:</p> + +<p>“Howdy, Gran’pop?” said Alfredia, her face +one broad grin.</p> + +<p>“Well, if dat ain’ de beatenes’!” declared the +aged negro who was the Kenways’ man-of-all-work. +“Heah you chillen is behin’ me, an’ I sho’ +thought yo’ all mus’ be on ahaid of me. I sho’ +did!”</p> + +<p>“Why, no, Uncle Rufus; <i>here</i> we are,” said +Dot.</p> + +<p>“I see yo’ is, honey. I see yo’,” he returned, +chuckling gleefully. “How’s Pechunia, Alfredia? +Spry?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, sir,” said his grandchild, bobbing her +head on which the tightly braided “pigtails” stood +out like the rays of a very black sun. “Mammy’s +all right.”</p> + +<p>“But who’s been trackin’ up all dese stairs, if +’twasn’t yo’ chillen?” demanded the negro, returning +to the source of his complaint. “Snow +jes’ eberywhere! Wha’s dat Sam Pinkney?” he +added suddenly.</p> + +<p>“We don’t know, Uncle Rufus,” said Tess +slowly.</p> + +<p>“Sammy went and hid from us, and we can’t +find him,” explained Dot.</p> + +<p>Uncle Rufus pointed a gnarled finger dramatically +at a blob of snow on the carpet at the foot +of the garret stairs.</p> + +<p>“Dah he is!” he exclaimed.</p> + +<p>“Oh!” gasped Tess.</p> + +<p>“Where, Uncle Rufus?” begged Dorothy, somewhat +startled.</p> + +<p>“Fo’ de lan’s sake!” murmured Alfredia, her +eyes shining. “He mus’ a done melted most +away.”</p> + +<p>“Dah’s his feetsteps, chillen,” declared the old +man. “An’ dey come all de way up de two flights +from de back do’. I been gadderin’ up lumps o’ +snow in dis here shovel—”</p> + +<p>He halted with a sharp intake of breath, and +raised his head to look up the garret stairs. It +was very dark up there, for the door that opened +into the great, open room extending the full width +of the main part of the old Corner House was +closed. In winter the children seldom went up +there to play; and Uncle Rufus never mounted +to the garret at all if he could help it.</p> + +<p>“What’s dat?” he suddenly whispered.</p> + +<p>“Tap, tap, tap; tap, tap, tap!” went the sound +that had caught the old man’s attention. It receded, +then drew nearer, then receded. Uncle +Rufus turned a face that had suddenly become +gray toward the three little girls.</p> + +<p>“Dat’s—dat’s de same noise used to be up in +dat garret befo’ your Unc’ Stower die, chillen. +Ma mercy me!”</p> + +<p>“Oh!” squealed Alfredia, turning to run. +“Dat’s de garret ghos’! I’s heard ma mammy +tell ’bout dat ol’ ha’nt.”</p> + +<p>But Tess seized her and would not let her go.</p> + +<p>“That is perfect nonsense, Alfredia!” she said +very sternly. “There is no such thing as a +ghost.”</p> + +<p>“Don’ you be too uppity, chile!” murmured +Uncle Rufus.</p> + +<p>“A ghost!” cried Dot, coming nearer to the +attic stairs. “Oh, my! What I thought was a +goat when I was a very little girl? I remember!”</p> + +<p>“Dat’s jest de same noise,” murmured Uncle +Rufus, as the tapping sound was repeated.</p> + +<p>“But Ruthie laid that old ghost,” said Tess +with scorn. “And it wasn’t anything—much. +But this—”</p> + +<p>Dot, who had examined the wet marks and +lumps of snow on the lower treads of the garret +stairs, suddenly squealed:</p> + +<p>“Oh, looky here! ’Tisn’t a ghost, but ’tis a +goat! Those are Billy Bumps’ footsteps! Of +course they are!”</p> + +<p>“Sammy Pinkney!” was the chorus of voices, +even Uncle Rufus joining in. Then he added:</p> + +<p>“Dat boy is de beatenes’! How come he make +dat goat climb all dese stairs?”</p> + +<p>“Why,” said Dot, “Billy Bumps can climb right +up on the roof of the hen houses. He can climb +just like a—a—well, just like a goat! Coming upstairs +isn’t anything hard for Billy Bumps.”</p> + +<p>“Sammy Pinkney, you come down from there +with that goat!” commanded Tess sternly. +“What do you suppose Ruthie or Mrs. MacCall +will say?”</p> + +<p>The door swung open above, and the wan daylight +which entered by the small garret windows +revealed Sammy Pinkney, plump, sturdy and +freckled, stooping to look down at the startled +group at the top of the stairs.</p> + +<p>“I spy Sammy!” cried Dot shrilly, just remembering +that they were playing hide and seek—or +had been.</p> + +<p>But somebody else spied Sammy at that moment, +too. The mischievous boy had led Billy +Bumps, the goat, up three long flights of stairs +and turned him loose to go tap, tap, tapping about +the bare attic floor on his hard little hoofs.</p> + +<p>Billy spied Sammy as the youth stooped to grin +down the stairs at Uncle Rufus and the little girls. +Billy had a hair-trigger temper. He did not +recognize Sammy from the rear, and he instantly +charged.</p> + +<p>Just as Sammy was going to tell those below +how happy he was because he had startled them, +Billy Bumps dashed out of the garret and butted +the unsuspicious boy. Sammy sailed right into +the air, arms and legs spread like a jumping frog, +and dived down the stairway, while Billy stood +blatting and shaking his horns at the head of the +flight.</p> + +<h2 class='chapter' id='clink02'><a href='#toc'>CHAPTER II—THE STRAW RIDE</a></h2> + +<p>Uncle Rufus and Alfredia had fallen back from +the foot of the stairs under the impression that +it was the garret ghost, rather than the garret +goat, that was charging the mischievous Sammy +Pinkney. And the two smallest Corner House +girls were much too small to catch Sammy in full +flight.</p> + +<p>So it certainly would have gone hard with that +youngster had not other and more able hands intervened. +There was a shout from behind Uncle +Rufus, an echoing bark, and a lean boy with a +big dog dashed into the forefront of this exciting +adventure.</p> + +<p>The boy, if tall and slender, was muscular +enough. Indeed, Neale O’Neil was a trained +athlete, having begun his training very young +indeed with his uncle, Mr. William Sorber, of +Twomley and Sorber’s Herculean Circus and +Menagerie. As the big Newfoundland dog +charged upstairs to hold back the goat, Neale, +with outspread arms, met Sammy in mid-air.</p> + +<p>Neale staggered back, clutching the small boy, +and finally tripped and fell on the carpet of the +hall. But he was not hurt, nor was Sammy.</p> + +<p>“Fo’ de good lan’ sake!” gasped Uncle Rufus, +“what is we a-comin’ to? A goat in de attic, an’—Tessie! +yo’ call off dat dog or he’ll eat Billy +Bumps, complete an’ a-plenty!”</p> + +<p>The big dog was barking vociferously, while +the goat stamped his hoofs and shook his horns +threateningly at the head of the flight of stairs. +Tom Jonah and Billy Bumps never had been +friends.</p> + +<p>Tess called the old dog down while Sammy and +Neale O’Neil scrambled up from the hall floor. +Two older girls appeared, running from the front +of the house—a blonde beauty with fluffy, braided +hair, and a more sedate brunette who was older +than her sister by two years or more.</p> + +<p>“What <i>is</i> the matter?” demanded the blonde +girl. “If this Corner House isn’t the noisiest +place in Milton—Ruth, see that goat!”</p> + +<p>“Well, Sammy!” exclaimed Ruth Kenway, severely, +“why didn’t you bring Scalawag, the pony, +into the house as well? That goat!”</p> + +<p>“I was goin’ to,” confessed the rather abashed +Sammy. “But I didn’t have time.”</p> + +<p>“Don’t you ever do such a thing again, Sammy +Pinkney!” ordered Ruth, severely.</p> + +<p>She had to be severe. Otherwise the younger +ones would have completely overrun the old Corner +House and made it unlivable for more sedate +and quiet folk.</p> + +<p>The responsibility for the welfare of her three +sisters and that of Aunt Sarah Maltby, who lived +with them, had early fallen on Ruth Kenway’s +shoulders. In a much larger city than Milton +the Kenways had lived in a very poor tenement +and had had a hard struggle to get along on a +small pension, their mother and father both being +dead, until Mr. Howbridge, administrator of +Uncle Peter Stower’s estate, had looked the sisters +up.</p> + +<p>At that time there was some uncertainty as to +whom the old Corner House, standing opposite the +Parade Ground in Milton, and the rest of the +Stower property belonged; for Uncle Peter +Stower had died, and his will could not be found. +That there was a will, Mr. Howbridge knew, for +he had drawn it for the miserly old man who had +lived alone with his colored servant, Uncle Rufus, +in the old Corner House for so long.</p> + +<p>The surrogate, however, finally allowed the +guardian of the Kenway sisters to place them in +the roomy old house, with their aunt and with +Mrs. MacCall as housekeeper, while the court +tangle was straightened out. This last was satisfactorily +arranged, as related in the first book of +this series, entitled “The Corner House Girls.”</p> + +<div style='text-align:center'> +<img id='ilink02' src='images/illus-002.jpg' alt=''/> +<p class='caption'>“Even Ruth could scarcely keep a sober face.”</p> +</div> + +<p>In successive volumes are related in detail the +adventures of the four sisters and their friends +since their establishment in the old Corner House, +telling of their adventures at school, in a summer +camp at the seashore, of their taking part in a +school play, of the odd find made in the old +Corner House garret, and on an automobile tour +through the State.</p> + +<p>In that sixth volume of the series the Kenways +met Luke and Cecile Shepard, brother and sister, +who prove to be delightful friends, especially to +Ruth. Agnes, the second Kenway, already had +a faithful chum and companion in Neale O’Neil. +But in Luke, Ruth found a most charming acquaintance, +and in the seventh book, “The Corner +House Girls Growing Up,” the friendship of +Ruth and Luke is cemented by a series of incidents +that try both of their characters.</p> + +<p>Of course, each month saw the four sisters that +many days older. They were actually growing up—“growing +out of aye ken!” Mrs. MacCall often +said. Just the same, they still liked fun and +frolic and, especially the younger ones, were just +as likely to play pranks as ever.</p> + +<p>Even Ruth could scarcely keep a sober face +when she looked now from Sammy Pinkney’s rueful +countenance to the goat shaking his head at +the top of the garret stairs.</p> + +<p>“Now,” she said as severely as possible, “I +would like to know how you intend to get him +down again.”</p> + +<p>“More than that, Sam,” said Neale: “How +did you ever get him up there?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, that was easy!” declared the small boy, +his confident grin returning to his freckled face. +“I got a stick and tied to it one of those old +cabbages that Uncle Rufus has got packed away +under the shed. Then,” went on the inventive +genius, “I went behind Billy and pushed, holding +the cabbage ahead of his nose. Say, that goat +would walk up the side of a house, let alone three +flights of stairs, for a cabbage!”</p> + +<p>“Can you beat him?” murmured Neale, vastly +delighted by this confession.</p> + +<p>“I feel sometimes as though I would like to +beat him,” answered Ruth. “See if you can get +Billy Bumps out to his proper quarters, Neale.”</p> + +<p>But that was not easy, and it took an hour’s +work and finally the tying of Billy Bumps “hand +and foot” before the sturdy goat was overcome +and returned to his pen.</p> + +<p>By this time, however, the snow had stopped. +Lunch was served in the big Corner House dining-room, +Neale and Sammy being guests.</p> + +<p>It was an hilarious meal, of course. With such +a crowd of young folks about the table—and on +Saturday, too!—a sedate time was not possible. +But Ruth tried to keep the younger ones from +talking too loud or being too careless in their table +manners.</p> + +<p>Aunt Sarah Maltby, sitting at one end of the +table, shook her head solemnly about midway of +the meal at Sammy Pinkney.</p> + +<p>“Young man,” she said in her severest way, +“what do you suppose will become of you? You +are the most mischievous boy I have ever seen—and +I have seen a good many in my time.”</p> + +<p>“Yes’m,” said Sammy, hanging his head, for +he was afraid of Aunt Sarah.</p> + +<p>“You should think of the future,” admonished +the old lady. “There is something besides fun +in this world.”</p> + +<p>“Yes’m,” again came from the abashed, if not +repentant, Sammy.</p> + +<p>“Think what you might make of yourself, young +man, if you desired. Do you realize that every +boy born in this country has a chance to be president?”</p> + +<p>“Huh!” ejaculated Sammy, suddenly looking +up. “Be president, Miss Maltby? Huh! I tell +you what: I’ll sell you my chance for a quarter.”</p> + +<p>The irrepressible laugh from the other young +folks that followed might have offended Aunt +Sarah had not the front door bell rung at that +very moment. Agnes, who was nearest, and much +quicker than rheumatic Uncle Rufus, ran to answer +the summons.</p> + +<p>“Oh, Ruthie!” her clear voice instantly sounded +as far as the dining-room, “here’s Mr. Howbridge’s +man, and he’s got a great big sleigh at +the gate, and—Why, there’s Mr. Howbridge +himself!”</p> + +<p>Not only the oldest Kenway ran to join her sister +at the door, but all the other young folks +trooped out. They forgot their plates at the announcement +of the appearance of the girls’ guardian.</p> + +<p>“Did you e’er see such bairns before?” +demanded the housekeeper of Aunt Sarah. “They +have neither appetite nor manners on a Saturday!”</p> + +<p>In the big front hall the girls and boys were delightedly +greeting Mr. Howbridge, while the +coach-man plowed back to the gate through the snow +to hold the frisky pair of bay horses harnessed +to the big pung. Bits of straw clung to the lawyer’s +clothing, and he was rosy and smiling.</p> + +<p>“I did not know but what you would already +be out, young folks,” Mr. Howbridge announced. +“Although I had John harness up just as soon +as the weather broke.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, Mr. Howbridge,” Ruth said, remembering +her “manners” after all, “won’t you come +in?”</p> + +<p>“Won’t you come out, Miss Ruth?” responded +the man, laughing.</p> + +<p>“Oh! <i>Oh!</i> OH!” cried Tess, in crescendo, +peering out of the open door. “That sleigh of +Mr. Howbridge’s is full of straw.”</p> + +<p>“A straw-ride!” gasped Agnes, clasping her +hands. “Oh, Mr. Howbridge! have you come to +take us out?”</p> + +<p>“Of course. All of you. The more the merrier,” +said their guardian, who was very fond +indeed of his wards and their young friends, and +missed no chance to give them pleasure.</p> + +<p>At that statement there was a perfect rout +while the young people ran for their wraps and +overshoes. The dessert was forgotten, although +it was Mrs. MacCall’s famous “whangdoodle pudding +and lallygag sauce.”</p> + +<p>“Never mind the eats now, Mrs. Mac!” cried +Agnes, struggling into her warm coat. “Have +an extra big dinner. We’ll come home tonight as +hungry as crows—see if we don’t!”</p> + +<p>In ten minutes the whole party, the four Kenway +sisters, Neale, and Sammy, and Tom Jonah, +had tumbled into the body of the big sleigh which +was so heaped with clean straw that they burrowed +right into it just like mice! The big bay +horses were eager to start, and tossed their heads +and made the little silver bells on the harness +jingle to a merry tune indeed.</p> + +<p>Mr. Howbridge and Ruth sat up on the wide +front seat—the only seat—with the driver, John. +The guardian wished to talk in private with the +oldest Kenway girl. He considered her a very +bright girl, with a very well-balanced mind.</p> + +<p>While the younger folks shouted and joked and +snowballed each other as the horses sped along the +almost unbroken track, Ruth and her guardian +were quite seriously engaged in conversation.</p> + +<p>“I want to get some good advice from you, Miss +Ruth Kenway,” said the lawyer, smiling sideways +at her. “I know that you have an abundant +supply.”</p> + +<p>“You are a flatterer,” declared the girl, her +eyes sparkling nevertheless. She was always +proud to be taken into his confidence. “Is it +something about the estate?”</p> + +<p>“No, my dear. Nothing about the Stower estate.”</p> + +<p>“I was afraid we might be spending too much +money,” said the girl, laughing. “You know, I +do think we are extravagant.”</p> + +<p>“Not in your personal expenditures,” answered +their guardian. “Only in the Kenways’ charities +do I sometimes feel like putting on the brake. +But this,” he added, “is something different.”</p> + +<p>“What is it, Mr. Howbridge? I am sure I shall +be glad to help you if I can,” Ruth said earnestly.</p> + +<p>“Well, now, Miss Ruth,” said the lawyer, a quizzical +smile wreathing his lips. “What would you +do, for instance, if a pair of twins had been left +to you?”</p> + +<h2 class='chapter' id='clink03'><a href='#toc'>CHAPTER III—TWINS—AND TROUBLE</a></h2> + +<p>Sometimes Mr. Howbridge called her “Martha,” +because she was so cumbered with family +cares. Sometimes he called her “Minerva,” and +acclaimed her to be wise. He so frequently joked +with her in this way that Ruth Kenway was not +at all sure the lawyer was in earnest on this occasion.</p> + +<p>“Twins?” she repeated, smiling up at him over +the top of her muff. “Twin <i>what</i>? Twin puppies, +or kittens, or even fish? I suppose there are +twin fish?”</p> + +<p>“You joke me, and I am serious,” he said, while +the younger ones shouted and sang amid the straw +behind. “I really have had a pair of twins given +to me. I am their guardian, the administrator of +their estate, just as I was made administrator of +the Stower estate and guardian of you girls. It +is no joke, I assure you,” and he finished rather +ruefully.</p> + +<p>“Goodness me! you don’t mean it?” cried Ruth.</p> + +<p>“Yes, I do. I mean it very much. I do, indeed, +think it rather mean. If all my friends who +die and go to a better world leave me their children +to take care of, I shall be in a worse pickle +than the Little Old Woman Who Lived in the +Shoe.”</p> + +<p>“Like old Mrs. Bobster at Pleasant Cove,” +laughed Ruth. “But even she did not have twins. +And if your new family is as troublesome as the +Corner House crowd, what will you ever do?”</p> + +<p>“That is what I am asking you, Minerva,” he +said seriously. “What would you do if you had +had twins left to you?”</p> + +<p>“What are they, Mr. Howbridge? Boys or +girls?”</p> + +<p>“Both.”</p> + +<p>“Both? Oh! You mean one is a boy and one is +a girl.”</p> + +<p>“Ralph and Rowena Birdsall.”</p> + +<p>“That is better than having two of either sex, +I should say,” Ruth observed with more gravity. +“They sort of—sort of balance each other.”</p> + +<p>“I guess they are ‘some kids,’ as our friend +Neale would say,” suddenly laughed Mr. Howbridge. +“I knew Birdsall very well. I might +say we were very close friends, both socially and +in business. Poor fellow! The last two years +of his life were very sad indeed.”</p> + +<p>“Has he left plenty for the twins?” asked Ruth.</p> + +<p>“More than ‘plenty,’” said Mr. Howbridge. +“He was very, very wealthy. Ralph and Rowena +will come into very large fortunes when they are +of age. The money is well invested.”</p> + +<p>“Then you need not worry about that,” Ruth +said sedately.</p> + +<p>“No? The more money, the more worry for +the administrator and guardian,” Mr. Howbridge +said succinctly. “I can assure you that is true. +But it is what to do for, and with, the twins themselves +that bothers me most just at first.”</p> + +<p>“How old are they?”</p> + +<p>“About twelve. Nice age! All legs and arms +and imagination.”</p> + +<p>“Dear me! Do you know them well?”</p> + +<p>“Haven’t seen them since they were two little +red mites in their cradle.”</p> + +<p>“Then you merely imagine they are so very terrible.”</p> + +<p>“I heard enough about them from Frank, Frank +Birdsall. That was their father’s name. He +used to be very fond of talking about them. Proud +as Lucifer, he was, of Ralph and Rowena. And +his wife—”</p> + +<p>“Oh! Of course, the mother is dead, too.”</p> + +<p>“That was what killed Frank, I verily believe,” +said Mr. Howbridge gravely. “She died two +years ago at a camp he owned up near the Canadian +border. Red Deer Lodge it is called. Mrs. +Birdsall was flung from her horse.</p> + +<p>“It crushed her husband. He brought the children +away from there (they had spent much of +their time up in the wilderness, for they loved it) +and never went back again.</p> + +<p>“That’s another piece of work he’s left me. +Because he did not want ever to see the Lodge +again, I have to go up there—now, in mid-winter—and +attend to something that’s been hanging +fire too long already. It is a nuisance.”</p> + +<p>“A camp in the woods in mid-winter must be +an enjoyable place,” Ruth said thoughtfully. +“You can take your guns; and you can snowshoe; +can skate; maybe—”</p> + +<p>“And, as our good Mrs. Mac would say, eat +fried snowballs and icicle soup!” finished Mr. +Howbridge. “Ugh! It’s a fine place, Red Deer +Lodge, but I shall take only my man and we’ll +have to depend on some old guide or trapper to +do for us. No, I look forward to no pleasant +time at Red Deer Lodge, I assure you.”</p> + +<p>This conversation was not carried on in sequence. +The party in the body of the sleigh frequently +interrupted. Sammy managed to dance +all over the sleigh, and half a dozen times he was +on the point of pitching out into the drifts.</p> + +<p>“Let him!” snapped Agnes at last. “Let him +be buried in the snow, and we won’t stop for him—not +until we come back.”</p> + +<p>“The poor kid would be an icicle then,” objected +Neale O’Neil.</p> + +<p>“And he’d miss the nice hot chocolate and buns +Mr. Howbridge says we are to have at Crowder’s +Inn,” put in Tess, the thoughtful.</p> + +<p>Dot squeezed her Alice-doll close to her little +bosom and made up her mind that that precious +possession should not pop out by accident into a +drift and be left behind.</p> + +<p>“I don’t suppose I should have brought her,” +Dot confessed to Tess. “I should have given the +sailor-boy baby an airing instead.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, yes! Nosmo King Kenway,” murmured +her sister.</p> + +<p>Dot hurried on, ignoring the suggestive name of +the sailor-boy baby who had been inadvertently +christened after a sign on a barn door.</p> + +<p>“You know,” the smallest Corner House girl +said, “Alice’s complexion is so delicate. Of +course, Neale had her all made over in the doll’s +hospital; but I am always afraid that the wind +will crack it.”</p> + +<p>“I wouldn’t worry so about her, Dot,” advised +Tess.</p> + +<p>“You would if Alice were your baby,” declared +Dot. “And you know she is delicate. She’s +never been the same since Lillie Treble buried +her with the dried apples in our back yard.”</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Neale O’Neil had caught a sentence +or two flung back by the wind from the high front +seat. He bobbed up between Mr. Howbridge and +Ruth.</p> + +<p>“What’s all this about red deer, and snowshoes, +and eating icicle soup?” he asked. “Sounds awfully +interesting. Are you planning to go hunting, +Mr. Howbridge?”</p> + +<p>“I’ve got to go to a hunting lodge, clear up +state, my boy,” said the lawyer. “And I dread +it just as much as you young folks would enjoy +it.”</p> + +<p>“It would be fine, I think,” murmured Ruth.</p> + +<p>“Oh, bully!” shouted Agnes, suddenly standing +up in the straw and clinging to Neale for support. +“To a regular, sure-enough winter camp? +Then Carrie and Lucy Poole, and Trix Severn +can’t crow over us any more! They went, last +year, to Letterbeg Camp, up beyond Hoosac.”</p> + +<p>“But, goodness, Agnes, wait till we are asked, +do!” admonished Ruth. “I never saw or heard of +such precipitate young ones.”</p> + +<p>“Young one yourself!” grumbled Agnes.</p> + +<p>“It’s my fault,” said the good-natured Neale. +“Aggie misunderstood what I said.”</p> + +<p>“No need to worry about it,” said Mr. Howbridge +cheerfully. “If you young folks really +want to come with me—”</p> + +<p>“Oh, Mr. Howbridge!” exclaimed Ruth, in a +tone that showed she, herself, had been much +taken with the idea.</p> + +<p>“Why, I hate to go alone. I can send up some +servants to open the Lodge. Frank was always +begging me to make use of it. After Mrs. Birdsall +was killed he never would go near the place, as I +said. Though I believe the twins, Ralph and +Rowena, have been up there with a caretaker and +a governess, or somebody to look out for them.”</p> + +<p>“Where are they now?” asked Ruth.</p> + +<p>“The Birdsall place in Arlington was closed +soon after Frank died, three months ago. His old +butler and his wife live in a nice home near by, +and they have the children and their governess +with them.”</p> + +<p>“With just servants?” murmured Ruth.</p> + +<p>“They are very suitable people,” declared Mr. +Howbridge, as though he felt the faint criticism +in the girl’s words. “I went myself and saw +Rodgers and Mrs. Rodgers. The governess and +the twins were out for a drive, so I did not see +them.”</p> + +<p>“The poor things!” sighed Ruth.</p> + +<p>“My!” exclaimed Agnes, “those children are +worse off than we Kenways were. They haven’t +got anybody like Ruth, Mr. Howbridge.”</p> + +<p>“That is true,” agreed the lawyer. “But what +am I to do? Separate them? Send them to +boarding school—the boy one way and the girl +another?”</p> + +<p>“Gee! that would be tough, Mr. Howbridge,” +declared Neale O’Neil, with considerable feeling +for the unfortunate twins.</p> + +<p>“I don’t see what I’m to do,” complained the +lawyer.</p> + +<p>“They should have a real home,” Ruth stated, +with some severity. “Sending them to boarding +school is dodging the issue. So is leaving them +wholly in the care of servants.”</p> + +<p>“Who would take in two tearing and wearing +children, twelve years old?” demanded Mr. Howbridge, +on the defensive.</p> + +<p>“Perhaps the fault does go back to the parents—to +the father, at least,” admitted Ruth. “He +should have made provision for his children before +he died.”</p> + +<p>“I suppose you think the duty devolves upon +me,” said Mr. Howbridge, rather grumpily. +“Should I take them into my house? Should I +break up the habits of years for two half-wild +children?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, I don’t know that,” Ruth told him brightly. +“It’s one of those things one must decide for oneself, +isn’t it?”</p> + +<p>There was not much more said after that during +the ride about the twins, Ralph and Rowena +Birdsall. But Red Deer Lodge!</p> + +<p>The idea of going to a real camp in winter was +taken up by everybody in the party, for even Tom +Jonah barked. In the depths of the wilderness, +with wild woods, and wild animals, and perhaps +wild men! (this in Sammy’s mind) all about the +Lodge! The freckled boy considered the idea even +superior to his long cherished desire to run away +to be a pirate.</p> + +<p>“I’ll get me a bow-arrer and learn to shoot before +we start,” Sammy declared, deluding himself, +as he always did, with the idea that he was to +be a member of the party in any case.</p> + +<p>“But you don’t even know if your mother’ll let +you go, Sammy Pinkney!” cried Tess.</p> + +<p>“She’ll let me go if Aggie says I may,” declared +Sammy. “I can, can’t I, Aggie?” grabbing +her by her plaid skirt and almost pulling her +over backwards.</p> + +<p>“Stop! You can can that!” declared the next-to-the-oldest +Corner House girl slangily. “What +do you think I am—a bell rope, that you yank me +that way?”</p> + +<p>“I can go to that Red Deer Lodge, can’t I?” +insisted the youngster.</p> + +<p>“You can start right now, for all I care,” said +Agnes, rather grumpily, and giving Sammy no +further attention.</p> + +<p>But that was enough for Sammy Pinkney. He +considered that he had a particular invitation to +accompany the party into the woods, and he would +tell his mother so when he reached home.</p> + +<p>But Dot began to be worried.</p> + +<p>“Just see here, Tess Kenway!” she exclaimed +suddenly. “Do you suppose my Alice-doll—or +any of the other dollies—can stand it?”</p> + +<p>“Stand what?” her sister, quite excited, asked.</p> + +<p>“Living in tents in winter?”</p> + +<p>“In what tents?” asked the amazed Tess.</p> + +<p>“Up there at Red Darling Camp—”</p> + +<p>“Red <i>Deer</i>!”</p> + +<p>“Well, I knew it was some nice word,” Dot, undisturbed, +said. “But Alice is so delicate.”</p> + +<p>“Why, Dot Kenway! we won’t have to live in +tents,” said Tess.</p> + +<p>“We did in that other camp we went to,” said +the smaller girl. “Don’t you ’member? And +the tent ’most blowed over one night, and you +and I and Tom Jonah went sailing in a boat? +And that clam man—”</p> + +<p>“But, Dot!” cried Tess, “that was a summer +camp. This is a winter one. And it’s all made +of logs, and there are doors and windows and fireplaces +and—and everything!”</p> + +<p>“Oh!” murmured Dot. “I wondered how +they’d keep Jack Frost out. And he’s stinging +my ears right now, Tess Kenway.”</p> + +<p>The roadside inn was in sight now, and presently +the big sleigh pulled up before it with the +bells jangling and the horses steaming, as Dot +remarked, “just as though they had boiling water +in ’em and the smoke was leaking out.”</p> + +<p>The whole party ran into the grillroom and +chased Jack Frost away with hot chocolate and +cakes. There the idea of going to Red Deer +Lodge for the Christmas holidays was well +thrashed out.</p> + +<p>“Of course, I will send up my own servants and +supplies. Being administrator of the estate, there +will be no question of my using the Lodge as I see +fit,” Mr. Howbridge said cheerfully. “And I +shall be delighted to have you young folks with me.</p> + +<p>“I am really going to confer with an old timber +cruiser about the standing timber contracted for +by the Neven Lumber Company before Frank +Birdsall died. This timber cruiser—”</p> + +<p>“It sounds like a sea-story!” interrupted Agnes, +roguishly.</p> + +<p>“What is a timber cruiser?” demanded Ruth, +quite as puzzled as her sister.</p> + +<p>“It is not a ‘what’ but a ‘who,’” laughed Mr. +Howbridge. “In his way, Ike M’Graw is quite +a famous character up there. A timber cruiser +is a man who knows timber so well that just by +walking through a wood lot and looking he can +number and mark down the trees that are sound +and will make good timber.</p> + +<p>“Ike has written me through a friend (for the +old man cannot use a pen himself, save to make +his cross) that he has been over the entire Birdsall +estate and that his figures and the figures of the +Nevens people are too far apart. I fear that the +lumber company is trying to put something over +on me, and as administrator of the estate I must +look out for the twins’ interests.”</p> + +<p>“You are more careful of their money, Mr. Howbridge, +than you are of the twins themselves, are +you not?” Ruth suggested, in a low voice.</p> + +<p>“Now, don’t tell me that!” he cried. “I really +cannot take those children into my house.”</p> + +<p>“Well, you know,” she told him, smiling, “you +brought this on yourself by asking my advice. +And you intend to fill that Lodge up there with us +‘young ones.’”</p> + +<p>“But I shall have you to manage for me, Miss +Ruth,” declared the lawyer. “That is different.”</p> + +<p>“Perhaps we might take the twins along with +us, and you’d get used to them,” Ruth said. +“You say they like it up there in the wilderness.”</p> + +<p>“Frank said they were crazy about it.”</p> + +<p>“Well?”</p> + +<p>“You don’t know what you are letting yourselves +in for. Ralph and Rowena are young savages.”</p> + +<p>“Can’t be much worse than Sammy, yonder,” +chuckled Neale, who, with Agnes, was much interested +in this part of the planning.</p> + +<p>“Oh, Ruthie!” exclaimed the second Kenway +sister suddenly, clasping her hands. “There’s +Cecile and Luke!”</p> + +<p>“Where—what—?”</p> + +<p>“I mean we invited them to come to the Corner +House for the holidays.”</p> + +<p>“Ah-ha!” exclaimed Mr. Howbridge promptly. +“The Shepards? Of course! I had already included +them—in my mind.”</p> + +<p>“Mr. Howbridge! It will be more than a party. +It will be a convention,” gasped Ruth.</p> + +<p>“It’s such a lonely place that we’ll need a big +crowd to make it worth while going at all,” the +lawyer laughed. “Yes. Cecile and Luke are invited. +I will have them written to at once—in +addition to your own invitation to them, Miss +Ruth.”</p> + +<p>“Dear me! you are just the best guardian, Mr. +Howbridge,” sighed Agnes ecstatically.</p> + +<p>“And I think,” Ruth added, “that you ought +to think seriously of taking the Birdsall twins +with us.”</p> + +<p>That was not decided at that time, however. +And when the party got back to the old Corner +House, just across from the Parade Ground at +the head of Main Street, Mr. Howbridge was met +with a piece of news that shocked him much more +than had the thought of the twins making their +home with him in his quiet bachelor residence.</p> + +<p>A clerk from the lawyer’s office awaited Mr. +Howbridge. There was a telegram from Rodgers, +the Birdsalls’ ex-butler. It read:</p> + +<div class='bq'> +<p>“Ralph and Rowena away since yesterday noon. Hospitals searched. +Cannot have pond dragged. Two feet of ice. Wire instructions.</p> +<p style='text-align:right; margin:0 0ex 0 auto'>—Rodgers.”</p> +</div> + +<h2 class='chapter' id='clink04'><a href='#toc'>CHAPTER IV—ANTICIPATIONS</a></h2> + +<p>Mr. Howbridge, before he hurried away to his +office, asked Ruth:</p> + +<p>“What do you think of that? And you suggest +my keeping those twins—those two wild youngsters—in +my home!”</p> + +<p>“I will tell you what I think of that telegram,” +said the oldest Kenway girl, handing the yellow +sheet of paper back to him. “I think that man +Rodgers is not a fit person to have charge of the +boy and girl.”</p> + +<p>“Why not?” he asked in surprise.</p> + +<p>“Imagine thinking of dragging a pond in mid-winter—or +at any other time of the year—for two +healthy children! First idea the man seems to +have. I guess the twins had reason for running +away.”</p> + +<p>“Hear! Hear!” cried Agnes, who deliberately +listened.</p> + +<p>“Why, they have known Rodgers all their +lives!”</p> + +<p>“Perhaps that is why they have run away,” +said Ruth, smiling. “Rodgers sounds to me—from +his telegram—as though he had one awful +lack.”</p> + +<p>“You frighten me. What lack?”</p> + +<p>“Lack of a sense of humor. And that is fatal +in the character of anybody who has a pair of twins +on his hands.”</p> + +<p>Mr. Howbridge threw up his own hands in +amazement. “I must lack that myself,” he said. +“I see nothing funny, at least, in the idea of having +Ralph and Rowena Birdsall in my house.”</p> + +<p>“It helps,” said Ruth. “A sense of humor is +what has kept me going all these years,” she +added demurely. “If you think a pair of twins +can be compared to Tess and Dot and Sammy +Pinkney—to say nothing of Aggie and Neale—”</p> + +<p>“Oh! Oh!” shouted the two latter in chorus.</p> + +<p>“You have a mean mind, Ruthie Kenway,” declared +the blonde beauty.</p> + +<p>“I knew I wasn’t much liked,” admitted Neale +O’Neil. “But that is the unkindest cut of all.”</p> + +<p>“You have had experience, I grant you,” said +Mr. Howbridge, about to take his departure. +“But I foresee much trouble in the case of these +Birdsall twins.”</p> + +<p>And he was a true prophet there. The twins +had utterly disappeared. The Arlington police—indeed, +all the county officers together—could find +no trace of the orphaned brother and sister.</p> + +<p>Mr. Howbridge put private detectives on the +case. The twins seemed to have disappeared as +utterly as though they really were under the two +feet of ice on Arlington Pond.</p> + +<p>The lawyer searched personally, advertised in +the newspapers, and even offered a reward for the +apprehension of the children. A fortnight passed +without success.</p> + +<p>The governess, Miss Mason, was discharged, +for it seemed unnecessary to pay her salary when +there were no children for her to teach. Rodgers +and his wife could give no aid in the search. They +were rather relieved, if the truth were told, to be +free of the twins.</p> + +<p>“Master Ralph was hard enough to get along +with,” the ex-butler admitted. “But Miss Rowena +was worse. They wanted to go back into +their own house to live. They could not understand +why it was shut up, sir,” and the old serving +man shook his head.</p> + +<p>“They seemed to have taken a dislike to you, +sir,” he added to Mr. Howbridge. “They said +you ‘hadn’t any right to boss.’ That is the way +they put it.”</p> + +<p>“But I never even saw them,” returned the +lawyer. “I didn’t try ‘to boss’ them.”</p> + +<p>“Well, you know, sir,” Rodgers explained, “I +had to give ’em reasons for things. You have to +with children like Master Ralph and Miss Rowena. +So I had to tell ’em you said they were to do this +and that.”</p> + +<p>“Oh! Ah! I see!” muttered the guardian.</p> + +<p>He began to believe that perhaps Ruth Kenway +was right. He should have taken more of +a personal interest in Ralph and Rowena. They +had evidently gained from the ex-butler an +entirely wrong impression of what a guardian was.</p> + +<p>But the disappearance of the Birdsall twins did +not make any change in the plans for the mid-winter +visit to Red Deer Lodge. Mr. Howbridge +had to go there in any case, and he would not +disappoint the Kenways and their friends.</p> + +<p>As it chanced, full three weeks were given the +Milton schools at the Christmas Holiday time. +There were repairs to make in the heating arrangements +of both high and grammar school +buildings. The schools would close the week before +Christmas and not open again until the week +following New Year’s Day.</p> + +<p>If Sammy Pinkney had had his way, the schools +would never have opened again!</p> + +<p>“I don’t see what they have to learn you things +for, anyway,” complained the youngster. “You +can find things out for yourself.”</p> + +<p>“That’s rather an expensive way to learn, I’ve +always heard,” said Ruth, admonishingly.</p> + +<p>“Huh!” grumbled Sammy, “teachers don’t +know much, anyway. Look! There’s what Miss +Grimsby told us in physics the other day—all +about what you’re made of, and how you’re made, +and the names you can call yourself—if you want +to.</p> + +<p>“You know: Your legs and arms are <i>limbs</i>—and +all that. She told us the middle part of our +bodies is the <i>trunk</i>, and she asked us all if we understood +that. Some said ‘yes,’ and some didn’t +say nothing,” went on the excited boy.</p> + +<p>“‘Don’t you know the middle of the body is +the trunk?’ she asked Patsy Roach. And what do +you suppose he told Miss Grimsby?”</p> + +<p>“I can’t imagine,” said Agnes, for this was in +the evening and the young people were gathered +about the sitting-room table with their lesson +books.</p> + +<p>“He told her: ‘You ought to go to the circus, +Miss Grimsby, and see the elephant,’” giggled +Sammy. “And I guess Patsy was right. Huh! +<i>Trunk!</i>” he added with scorn.</p> + +<p>“Association of ideas,” chuckled Neale O’Neil, +who was likewise present as usual during home +study hour. “I heard that one of the kids in +Dot’s grade gave Miss Andrews an extremely +bright answer the other day.”</p> + +<p>“What was that, Neale?” asked Agnes, who +would rather talk than study at any time.</p> + +<p>“History. Miss Andrews asked one little girl +who discovered America, and the answer was, +‘Ohio’!”</p> + +<p>“Oh! Oh!” murmured Agnes, while even Ruth +smiled.</p> + +<p>“Yes,” chuckled Neale. “Miss Andrews said, +‘No; Columbus discovered America,’ and the kid +said: ‘Yes’m. That was his first name.’”</p> + +<p>“She got her geography and history mixed,” +said Ruth, smiling.</p> + +<p>“That was Sadie Goronofsky’s half-sister, +Becky,” explained Dot. “She isn’t very bright.”</p> + +<p>“You bet she isn’t bright!” snorted Sammy +Pinkney. “Her pop’s got a little tailor shop with +another man down on Meadow Street, and they +are always fighting.”</p> + +<p>“Who are always fighting?” asked Neale quizzically. +“Becky and her father or Becky and her +father’s partner?”</p> + +<p>“Smartie! Becky’s pop and the other man,” +answered Sammy. “And their landlord was putting +in a new store-front, and Becky’s father put +out a sign telling folks they were still working—<i>you</i> +know. Becky said it read: ‘Business going +on during altercations,’ instead of ‘alterations.’ +And ‘altercations’ means fights,” concluded the +wise Sammy.</p> + +<p>“Just see,” remarked Ruth quietly, “how satisfied +you children should be that you know so much +more than your little mates. You so frequently +bring home tales about them.”</p> + +<p>“Aw, now, Ruth,” mumbled Sammy, who was +bright enough to note her characteristic criticism.</p> + +<p>“I would try,” the oldest Kenway said admonishingly, +“to bring home only the pleasant stories +about my little school friends.”</p> + +<p>“Oh! <i>I</i> know a nice story about Allie Newman’s +little brother,” declared Dot eagerly.</p> + +<p>“That little terror!” murmured Agnes.</p> + +<p>“He is one tough little kid,” admitted Neale +O’Neil, in an undertone.</p> + +<p>“What about the little Newman boy?” asked +Ruth indulgently. “And then we must all study.”</p> + +<p>“Why,” said Dot, big-eyed and very much in +earnest, “you know Robbie Newman doesn’t go to +school yet; and he’s an awful trial to his mother.”</p> + +<p>“That is gossip, Dot,” Tess interposed severely.</p> + +<p>But the smallest Corner House girl was not to +be derailed from the main line of her story, and +went right on:</p> + +<p>“He was naughty the other day and his mamma +told him she’d shut him up somewhere all by himself. +‘If you do, Mamma,’ he said, ‘I’ll just smash +ev’rything in the room.’”</p> + +<p>“Oh-oo!” gasped Tess, proving herself to be +quite as much interested in the “gossip” as the +others around the evening lamp. “What a wicked +boy!”</p> + +<p>“But he didn’t smash anything,” Dot was quick +to explain. “For his mother put him right out +in the henhouse.”</p> + +<p>“The henhouse! Fancy!” said Agnes.</p> + +<p>“There wasn’t anything for him to smash +there,” said Dot. “But when she had locked him +in, Robbie put his head out of the little door +where the hens go in and out, and he called after +her:</p> + +<p>“‘Mamma, you can lock me in here all you want +to; but I won’t lay any eggs!’”</p> + +<p>“I am not sure that it isn’t gossip,” chuckled +Agnes, when the general laugh had subsided.</p> + +<p>“That will be all now,” Ruth said with severity. +“Study time is here.”</p> + +<p>But there was another and more important +subject in all their minds than either school happenings, +the eccentricities of their friends, or the lesson +books themselves.</p> + +<p>The holidays! The thought of going to Red +Deer Lodge! A winter vacation in the deep +woods, and to live in “picnic” fashion, as they +supposed, lent a charm to the plan that delighted +every member of the Corner House party.</p> + +<p>Ruth and Agnes wrote to the Shepards—to Cecile +at home with her Aunt Lorena, and to Luke +at college—and they were immediately enamored +of the plan and returned enthusiastic acceptances +of the invitation, thanking Mr. Howbridge, of +course, as well.</p> + +<p>The lawyer was having a great deal to do at this +time, and he came to the old Corner House more +than once to talk about the Birdsall twins to Ruth +and the others. As he said, it gave him comfort +to talk over something he did not know anything +about with the oldest Corner House sister.</p> + +<p>He sat one stormy day in the cozy sitting-room, +with Dot and the Alice-doll on one knee and Tess +and Almira, who was now a quite grown-up cat +and had kittens of her own, on his other knee. +All the Corner House cats were pets, no matter +how grown-up they were.</p> + +<p>“It is worrying me a great deal, Ruthie,” he +said to the sympathetic girl. “Look at a day like +this. We don’t know where those poor children +are. Rodgers says they could have had but little +money. In fact, they scarcely knew what money +was for, having always had everything needful +supplied them.”</p> + +<p>“Twelve-year-old children nowadays, Mr. Howbridge,” +said Ruth, “are usually quite capable of +looking after themselves.”</p> + +<p>“You think so?” queried the worried guardian.</p> + +<p>“You remember what Agnes was at twelve. +And look at our Tess.”</p> + +<p>The lawyer pinched Tess’ cheek. “I see what +she is. And she is going to be twelve some day, +I suppose,” he agreed. “But what would she +and—say—Sammy Pinkney do, turned out alone +into the world?”</p> + +<p>“Oh!” cried Dot, the little pitcher with the big +ears, “Sammy and I went off alone to be pirates. +And I’m younger than Tess.”</p> + +<p>“I hope I shouldn’t run away with Sammy!” +said Tess, in some disdain.</p> + +<p>“Why,” Dot put in, “suppose Sammy was your +brother? I felt quite sisterly to him that time +we were hid in the canalboat.”</p> + +<p>“I guess that we all feel ‘sisterly’ to Sammy,” +laughed Ruth. “And I am sure, Tess, you would +know what to do if you were away from home +with him.”</p> + +<p>“I guess I would,” agreed Tess severely. “I’d +march him right back again.”</p> + +<p>The lawyer joined in the laugh. But he was +none the less anxious about Ralph and Rowena +Birdsall. There was an undercurrent of feeling +in his mind, too, that he had been derelict in his +duty toward his wards.</p> + +<p>“Three months after their father died, and I +had not seen them,” he said more than once. “I +blame myself. As you say, Ruth, I should have +won their confidence in that time.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, Mr. Howbridge, you are not to blame for +that! You are unused to children, anyway.”</p> + +<p>“But it was selfishness on my part—arrant selfishness, +Frank’s children should have been my +personal care. But, twins!” and he groaned.</p> + +<p>One might have been amused by his bachelor +horror of the thought of two children in his quiet +home; only the situation was really too serious +to breed laughter. Two twelve-year-old children +striking out into the world for themselves might +get into all sorts of mischief and trouble.</p> + +<p>The lawyer had done all he could, however, toward +recovering the runaways. The police of two +States were on the watch for them, and private detectives +were likewise hunting for them. The advertisements +Mr. Howbridge put in the papers +brought no helpful replies. There seemed to be +many children wandering about the country, singly +and in pairs, but none of them answered at +all the description of the Birdsall twins.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the Christmas holidays were approaching. +Cecile Shepard arrived at the old +Corner House a week ahead of the date set for +the closing of school. Luke, however, would join +the party at Culberton, at the foot of Long Lake, +nearly at the far end of which, and deep in the +woods, was Red Deer Lodge.</p> + +<p>Cecile was a very pretty girl, as dark as Agnes +was light. She went to school every day with +Agnes and sat beside her as a “visitor” during +the remainder of the term.</p> + +<p>Of course, there was much to do to prepare for +this mid-winter venture into the woods. And, +too, there were certain plans for Christmas to be +carried out by the Corner House girls, whether +they were to be at home on Christmas Day or not.</p> + +<p>The Stower estate tenants on Meadow Street +must not be forgotten.</p> + +<h2 class='chapter' id='clink05'><a href='#toc'>CHAPTER V—MERRY TIMES</a></h2> + +<p>Uncle Peter Stower, in dying and leaving his +four grandnieces the Milton property, had left +them, in addition (or so Ruth Kenway and her +sisters concluded), the duty of overlooking the +welfare of certain poor people who occupied the +Stower tenements on Meadow Street, over toward +the canal.</p> + +<p>These tenants were mostly poor people; but Mrs. +Kranz, who kept a delicatessen store and grocery, +and Joe Maroni, whom Dot said was “both an ice +man and a nice man” were two of the tenants +who were well-to-do.</p> + +<p>Joe Maroni, whose family lived in the corner +cellar under Mrs. Kranz’s store, sold coal and +wood, as well as ice, and had a vegetable and +fruit stand on the sidewalk. Mrs. Kranz, the +large German woman, was one of the Kenway +girls’ staunchest friends. Both these shopkeepers +were sure to aid the Corner House sisters in their +plans for Christmas.</p> + +<p>The year before the children of the Stower estate +tenants had appeared under the bedroom windows +of the old Corner House early on Christmas +morning and sung Christmas chants.</p> + +<p>“Agnes said, just as though it was in old fuel +times,” Dot eagerly told Cecile Shepard. “And +Aggie wanted to throw large yeast cakes among +’em. You know, like Lady Bountiful did, and—”</p> + +<p>“Oh! <i>Oh!</i> OH!” gasped Tess, in horror and +amazement. “Why will you, Dot, mix up your +words so? It wasn’t fuel times, it was feudal +times.”</p> + +<p>“And why throw away the yeast cakes?” demanded +Cecile, in amused wonder.</p> + +<p>“Dear me!” exclaimed Tess, with vast disdain. +“She means <i>largess</i>. That means gifts. Dot +thought it was ‘large yeast.’ I never did hear +of such a child!”</p> + +<p>“Well, I don’t care!” wailed Dot, who did not +like to be taken to task for mispronouncing words, +or for other mistakes in English. “I don’t think +you are at all polite, Tessie Kenway, and I’m going +to tell Ruth—so now!”</p> + +<p>Which proved that even the little Corner House +girls had their little spats. Everything did not +always go smoothly.</p> + +<p>However, the plans for the entertainment of the +Meadow Street families were made without any +trouble. It was decided to have a great tree for +the whole crowd, and to set it up in a small hall +on Meadow Street, where certain lodges held their +meetings, the date set for the entertainment being +a week in advance of Christmas Eve—the night before +the Corner House party was to start for Red +Deer Lodge.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Kranz took charge of the dressing of the +tree, for when she was a child in the old country +a Christmas tree was the great annual feast. Not +a child among those belonging in the Stower tenements +was forgotten—nor the grown folk, either, +for that matter.</p> + +<p>Tess and Dot did their share in the purchasing +of the presents and preparing them for the tree. +They both delighted in shopping, and their favorite +mart of trade was the five and ten cent +store on Main Street.</p> + +<p>Such a jumble of things as they bought! The +beauty of buying in the five and ten cent store is +(or so the children declared) that one can get so +much for a dollar.</p> + +<p>Every afternoon for a week before the day set +for the pre-Christmas celebration, the little folks +trudged down to their favorite emporium and +came back with their arms laden with a variety +of articles to delight the hearts and eyes of the +Meadow Street children.</p> + +<p>Dolls and dolls’ toys were of course Dot’s favorite +purchases. Tess went in for the more practical +things—some to be hung on the tree marked +with her own private card for the grown-up members +of the expected audience.</p> + +<p>In any case, and altogether, there was gathered +at the old Corner House to be hung on the Christmas +tree for the Meadow Street people a two-bushel +basket of little packages, mostly from the +five and ten cent store.</p> + +<p>Ruth and Agnes saw to it that there were plenty +of practical things for the poor children, too: warm +coats, caps, leggings, shoes, mittens—a dozen +other useful things which would be needed by the +younger Goronofskys, the Pedermans, the O’Harras, +and all the rest of the conglomerate crew occupying +the Stower tenements.</p> + +<p>And they had <i>four</i> “Santa Clauses”! Although, +more properly speaking, they were “the +Misses Santa Claus.” The Kenway sisters, in the +prescribed uniforms of the good St. Nicholas, presided +over the distribution of the presents from +the illuminated tree.</p> + +<p>Dot had every faith in the reality of Santa +Claus, nor would her sisters disabuse her of that +cheerful belief.</p> + +<p>“But, of course,” the smallest Corner House +girl said, “I know Santa can’t be everywhere at +once. And this is a week too early for him, +anyway. And on Christmas Eve he does +have to rush around so to get to everybody’s +house!</p> + +<p>“We’re just going to make believe to be Santa, +Sammy,” she explained to that small boy. “And +we’re not going to be like you were last Christmas, +Sammy, and fall down the chimney and +frighten everybody so.”</p> + +<p>“Huh!” grumbled Sammy, to whom his fiasco +as a Santa Claus in the old Corner House chimney +was a sore subject. “If that old brick hadn’t +fallen I wouldn’t have come down so sudden. +And my mom burned my Santa Claus suit up in +the furnace because it was all over soot.”</p> + +<p>This night in the Meadow Street hall was long +to be remembered. Mr. Howbridge made a +speech. It was a winter when work was hard to +get, and at Ruth’s personal request he announced +that a dollar a month would be taken off every +tenant’s rent during the “hard times.”</p> + +<p>Mrs. Kranz and Joe Maroni, being in so much +better circumstances than the majority of the +Stower estate tenants, gave many things for the +Christmas tree, too. There was candy, and cakes, +and popcorn, and nuts for the little folk, and hot +drinks and cake and sandwiches for the adults.</p> + +<p>Altogether it was a night long to be remembered +by the Corner House girls. Even the little +ones had begun to understand their duty toward +these poor people who helped swell the Kenway +family bank account. The estate might not now +draw down the fifteen per cent. that Uncle Peter +Stower always demanded; but the income from +the Meadow Street tenements was considerable, +and the tenants were now happier and more content.</p> + +<p>“It must be lovely,” Cecile Shepard confessed +to Ruth and Agnes, “to have so many folks to +look out for, and be kind to, and who like you. +And Ruthie has such a way with her. I can see +the women all admire her.”</p> + +<p>Agnes began to giggle. “Who wouldn’t admire +her?” she said. “Ruth believes in helping folks +just the way they want to be helped. She doesn’t +furnish only flannels and cough sirup to the poor. +Oh, no!”</p> + +<p>“Now, Agnes!” admonished the older girl, +blushing.</p> + +<p>“I don’t care! It’s too good a joke, and it +shows just why those people over on Meadow +Street worship Ruth,” went on the younger sister. +“Did you see that biggest Pederman girl? +Olga, the one with the white eyebrows and no +lashes?”</p> + +<p>“Yes,” said Cecile. “Her face looks almost +like a blank wall.”</p> + +<p>“And a white-washed wall at that,” went on +Agnes. “She’s a grown woman, but she hasn’t +any too much intelligence. She was awfully sick +with diphtheria last spring, and Ruth went to see +her—carrying gifts, of course.”</p> + +<p>“Things to eat don’t much appeal to you when +you have diphtheria and can’t swallow,” put in +Ruth.</p> + +<p>“I know that,” chuckled Agnes. “And what +do you think, Cecile? Ruthie asked Olga what +she would like to have—if she could get her anything +special?</p> + +<p>“‘Yes, Miss Wuth,’ she croaked. Olga can’t +pronounce her ‘R’s’ very well. ‘Yes, Miss Wuth, +I’ve been wantin’ a pair of them dangly jet eawin’s +for so long!’ And what do you suppose?” Agnes +exploded in conclusion. “Ruth went and bought +them for her! She had them on tonight.”</p> + +<p>“I don’t care,” Ruth said, with conviction. +“The earrings came nearer to curing Olga than +all Dr. Forsyth’s medicine. He said so himself.”</p> + +<p>“What do you think of that?” giggled Agnes.</p> + +<p>“I think it was awfully sweet of our Ruth,” +declared Cecile, hugging the oldest Kenway sister.</p> + +<p>Mrs. MacCall, for her part, was not at all sure +that the Kenway sisters did not “encourage pauperism” +in thus helping their tenants. Mrs. MacCall +was conservative in the extreme.</p> + +<p>“No,” Ruth said earnestly, “the dear little babies, +and the little folks with empty ‘tummies,’ +are not paupers, Mrs. MacCall. Nor are their +parents such. We haven’t a lazy tenant family in +the Stower houses.”</p> + +<p>“That may be as may be,” said the housekeeper, +shaking her head. “But they are too frequently +out o’ work to suit me. And guidness knows +there’s plenty to do in the world.”</p> + +<p>“They’re just unfortunate,” reiterated Ruth. +“We have been lucky. We never did a thing, we +Kenways, to get Uncle Peter’s wealth. We’ve +had better luck than the Pedermans and Goronofskys.”</p> + +<p>“Hush, my lassie! If you undertake to level +things in this world for all, you’ve a big job cut +out for you. Nae doot of that.”</p> + +<p>Although the housekeeper was often opposed +both in opinion and practice to Ruth and her sisters, +the latter were eager to have Mrs. MacCall +go with the vacation party as chaperone and +manager. And, indeed, had Mrs. MacCall not agreed, +it is doubtful if Ruth would have accepted Mr. +Howbridge’s invitation to go into the North +Woods to Red Deer Lodge.</p> + +<p>Mrs. MacCall sacrificed her own desires and +some comfort to accompany the young folks; but +she did it cheerfully because of her love for the +Corner House girls.</p> + +<p>Aunt Sarah Maltby would remain at home to +oversee things at the Corner House; and of course +Linda and Uncle Rufus would be with her.</p> + +<p>Trunks had been packed the day before the +early celebration of Christmas in the Meadow +Street lodge room, and had been sent on by train +with the serving people that Hedden, Mr. Howbridge’s +butler and factotum, had engaged to go +ahead of the vacation party and prepare Red Deer +Lodge for occupancy over the holidays.</p> + +<p>Of course, Neale O’Neil and the older girls had +their bags to carry with them, and Sammy Pinkney +came over to the old Corner House bright and +early on the morning of departure, lugging his +bulging suitcase.</p> + +<p>“And I hope,” Agnes said with severity, “that +you haven’t worms in that suitcase, with a lot of +other worthless truck, as you had when you went +on our automobile tour, Sammy.”</p> + +<p>“Huh! where’d I dig fishworms this time of +year?” responded the boy with scorn. “Besides, +mom packed this bag, and she’s left out a whole +lot of things I’ll need up there in the woods. She +won’t even let me take my bow-arrer and a steel +trap I got down at the blacksmith shop by the +canal. Of course, the latch of the trap was broke, +but we might have fixed it and used it to catch +wolves with.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, my!” squealed Dot. “<i>Wolves?</i> Why, +they are savage!”</p> + +<p>“Course they are savage,” said Sammy.</p> + +<p>“But—but Mr. Howbridge, our guardian, +wouldn’t let any wolves stay around that Darling +Lodge. They might eat my Alice-doll!”</p> + +<p>“Sure,” agreed the boy, as Agnes was not +within hearing. “Like enough the wolf pack will +chase us when we are sleighing, and you’ll have +to throw that doll over to pacificate ’em so we +can escape with our lives. They do that in +Russia. Throw the babies away to save folks’ +lives.”</p> + +<p>“Well!” exclaimed Tess, half doubting this +bold statement. “Babies must be awful cheap in +Russia. Cheaper than they are here. You know +we can’t get a baby in this house, and we all would +like to have one.”</p> + +<p>But Dot had been stricken dumb by Sammy’s +wild statement. She hugged the Alice-doll to her +breast, and her eyes were wide with fear.</p> + +<p>“Do you suppose that may happen, Tess?” she +whispered.</p> + +<p>“What may happen?”</p> + +<p>“That we get chased by wolfs and—and have +to throw somebody overboard to ’em?”</p> + +<p>“I don’t believe so,” said Tess, after all somewhat +impressed by Sammy’s assurance.</p> + +<p>“Well, anyway,” said Dot, “I was only going +to take Alice up there to that Lodge; but I’ll take +the sailor-doll, too. He can stand being thrown +to the wolves better than Alice. He’s tougher.”</p> + +<p>If it had not already been decided to take Tom +Jonah, the big Newfoundland, along on this winter +trip, Dot might really have balked at going.</p> + +<h2 class='chapter' id='clink06'><a href='#toc'>CHAPTER VI—ON THE WINGS OF THE WIND</a></h2> + +<p>However, aside from Dot’s disturbance of mind +over the trip into the deep woods where, on occasion, +babies had to be flung to wolves, there was +something that disturbed Ruth on this morning +which almost made her doubt the advisability of +starting for Red Deer Lodge.</p> + +<p>Ruth had been up as early as Linda, the Finnish +maid. There was still much to do, and the sleigh +would be at the door at eight-thirty. When +Linda came down, however, she stopped at Ruth’s +door and said she had heard Uncle Rufus groaning +most of the night. The old colored man was +undoubtedly suffering from one of his recurrent +rheumatic attacks.</p> + +<p>Ruth hurried up to the third story of the house +and to Uncle Rufus’ room.</p> + +<p>“Yes’m, Missie Ruth,” groaned the old man. +“Ah’s jes’ knocked right down ag’in. Ah don’ +believe Ah’s goin’ to be able to git up a-tall to +see yo’ off dis mawnin’.”</p> + +<p>“Poor Uncle Rufus!” said the oldest Corner +House girl, commiseratingly. “I believe I’d better +telephone to Dr. Forsyth and let him come—”</p> + +<p>“No’m. Ah don’ want dat Dr. Forsyth to come +a-near me, Missie Ruth,” interrupted Uncle Rufus.</p> + +<p>“Why, of course you do,” said the girl. “He +gave you something before that helped you. +Don’t you remember?”</p> + +<p>“Ah don’ say he don’ know he’s business, Missie +Ruth,” said the old man, shaking his head. +“Mebbe his med’cine’s jest as good as de nex’ +doctor’s med’cine. But Ah don’ want Dr. Forsyth +no mo’.”</p> + +<p>“Why not?”</p> + +<p>“Dr. Forsyth done insulted me,” said the old +man, with rising indignation. “He done talk +about me.”</p> + +<p>“Why, Uncle Rufus!”</p> + +<p>“Sho’ has!” repeated the black man. “An’ +Ah nebber did him a mite o’ harm. He done say +things about me dat I can’t nebber overlook—no, +ma’am!”</p> + +<p>“Why, Uncle Rufus!” murmured the worried +Ruth, “I think you must be mistaken. I can’t +imagine Dr. Forsyth being unkind, or saying unkind +things about one.”</p> + +<p>“He sho’ did,” declared the obstinate old man. +“And he done put it in writin’. You jes’ reach +me ma best coat, Missie Ruth. It’s all set down +dar on ma burial papers.”</p> + +<p>Of course, Uncle Rufus, like most frugal colored +people, belonged to a “burial association”—an +insurance scheme by which one must die to win.</p> + +<p>“What could Dr. Forsyth have said about you +that you think is unkind, Uncle Rufus?” repeated +Ruth, as she came into the room to get the coat.</p> + +<p>“Ah tell yo’ what he done said!” exclaimed the +old man, indignantly. “Dr. Forsyth say Ah was +a drunkard an’ a joy-rider! Dat’s what he say! +An’ de goodness know, Missie Ruth, I ain’t tetch +a drap of gin fo’ many a long year, and I ain’t +nebber step foot in even your automobile. No’m! +He done insulted me befo’ de members of ma +burial lodge, an’ I don’ want nothin’ mo’ to do +wid dat white man—no’m!”</p> + +<p>He spread out the insurance policy with a flourish +and pointed to the examining doctor’s notation +regarding Uncle Rufus’ former illness: “Autotoxication.”</p> + +<p>“Ah’s a respectable man,” urged Uncle Rufus, +evidently hurt to the quick by what he thought was +Dr. Forsyth’s uncalled-for criticism. “Ah don’t +get drunk in no auto—no’m! An’ I don’t go +scootin’ roun’ de country in one o’ dem ’bominations. +Dere is niggers w’at owns one o’ dem flivvers +an’ drinks gin wid it. But not Unc’ Rufus—no’m!”</p> + +<p>“I never would accuse you of such reprehensible +habits,” Ruth assured him, having considerable +difficulty in suppressing after all a desire to +laugh. “Nor does Dr. Forsyth mean anything +like that.”</p> + +<p>She explained carefully to the old negro that +“autotoxication” meant “self-poisoning”—the +poisoning of the body by unexpelled organic +matter. This poison, in the form of an acid in the +blood, was the cause of Uncle Rufus’ pains and +aches.</p> + +<p>“Fo’ de lan’s sake!” murmured Uncle Rufus. +“Is dat sho’ ’nough so, Missie Ruth?”</p> + +<p>“You know I would not mislead you, Uncle Rufus.”</p> + +<p>“Dat’s right. You would not,” agreed the old +man. “An’ is dat what dat fool white doctor +mean? Ah jes’ got rheumatics, like Ah always +has?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, Uncle Rufus.”</p> + +<p>“Tell me, Missie Ruth,” he asked, “what do +dem doctors want to use sech wo’ds fo’, when dere +is common wo’ds to use dat a pusson kin understan’?”</p> + +<p>“Just for that reason, I fancy,” laughed Ruth. +“So the patient cannot understand. The doctors +think it isn’t well for the patient to know too much +about what ails him, so they call ordinary illnesses +by hard names.”</p> + +<p>“Ain’t it a fac’? Ain’t it a fac’?” repeated +Uncle Rufus, shaking his head. “Ah reckon if we +knowed too much, we wouldn’t want doctors a-tall, +eh? Well, now, Missie Ruth, you let dat Lindy +gal git ma’ medicine bottle filled down to de drug +store, and Ah’ll dose up like Ah done befo’. If +dat white doctor’s medicine was good fo’ one time, +it ought to be good fo’ another time.”</p> + +<p>Uncle Rufus remained in bed, however, and the +little girls and Sammy, as well as Neale and Agnes, +trooped up to say good-bye to him before they +started for the railway station.</p> + +<p>The north-bound express train halted at Milton +at three minutes past nine, and the Corner House +party were in good season for it. Mr. Howbridge +joined them on the station platform. Hedden, the +lawyer’s man, having gone ahead to make the path +smooth for his employer and his friends, Mr. Howbridge +and Neale attended to getting the tickets +and to the light baggage; and they made the three +older girls, Mrs. MacCall, and the children comfortable +in the chair car. Tom Jonah, of course, +rode in the baggage car.</p> + +<p>It was two hundred miles and more to Culberton, +at the foot of Long Lake. The train made +very good time, but it was past one o’clock when +they alighted at the lake city. There was a narrow +gauge road here that followed the line of the +lake in a northerly direction; but it was little more +than a logging road and the trains were so slow, +and the schedule so poor, that Mr. Howbridge had +planned for other and more novel means of transportation +up the lake to the small town from which +they would have to strike back into the wilderness +by “tote-road” to Red Deer Lodge. But this new +means of transportation, he told the young people, +depended entirely upon the wind.</p> + +<p>“Goodness!” gasped Agnes, “are we going up +the lake by kite?”</p> + +<p>“In a balloon, maybe?” Cecile laughed.</p> + +<p>“Oh!” murmured Tess, who was much +interested in air traffic, “I hope it’s a big aeroplane.”</p> + +<p>“Nothing like that,” Neale assured her. “But +if we have a good wind you’ll think we’re flying, +Tess.”</p> + +<p>Mr. Howbridge had taken the ex-circus boy into +his confidence; but the rest of the party were so +busy greeting Luke Shepard, who was waiting for +them at this point, that they did not consider much +how they were to get up the lake. There was no +train leaving Culberton over the Lake Branch +until evening. Neale disappeared immediately +after greeting Luke, and took Tom Jonah with +him.</p> + +<p>In a few minutes Neale returned to the waiting +room of the Culberton railroad station, and said +to Mr. Howbridge:</p> + +<p>“They are about ready. Man says the wind is +good, and likely to be fresher, if anything. Favorable +time. He’s making ’em ready.”</p> + +<p>“What’s going on?” asked Luke, who was a +handsome young collegian particularly interested +in Ruth Kenway, and not too serious to be enthusiastic +over the secret the lawyer and Neale had +between them.</p> + +<p>“Come on and we’ll show you,” Neale said, +grinning.</p> + +<p>“No, no!” exclaimed Mr. Howbridge. “Let us +have lunch first. We have a long, cold ride before +us.”</p> + +<p>“In what?” Agnes asked. “We don’t take to +the sleigh yet, do we?”</p> + +<p>“Aren’t the cars on the branch line heated?” +Ruth asked. “You know, we must not let the +children get cold—and Mrs. MacCall.”</p> + +<p>“Don’t mind about me, lassie,” returned the +Scotchwoman. “I’ll trust myself to Mr. Howbridge.”</p> + +<p>“We’ll go to the hotel first of all,” said the +lawyer. “Hedden will have arranged for our +comfort there—and other things, as well. Do not +be afraid for the children, Martha.”</p> + +<p>But “Martha” could not help being a bit worried, +even if Mrs. MacCall was along. And +Neale’s grin was too impish to be comforting.</p> + +<p>“I know you men folks are cooking up something,” +she sighed. “And I am not at all sure, +Mr. Howbridge, that you consider the needs of +small children like Tess and Dot and Sammy.”</p> + +<p>“Huh!” grunted Sammy, who overheard this.</p> + +<p>“I suppose if I had taken my twins home three +months ago when Frank Birdsall died, you think +I would have learned something about the needs +and care of young persons by this time?” suggested +the lawyer.</p> + +<p>“Oh, I am sure you would have learned a great +deal,” agreed Ruth, unable to suppress a smile.</p> + +<p>“I wish I had!” groaned Mr. Howbridge.</p> + +<p>The mystery of the disappearance of Ralph and +Rowena Birdsall weighed on Mr. Howbridge’s +mind continually. He did not often let the trouble +come to the surface, however, being desirous of +giving the young people with him a good time.</p> + +<p>The surprise in store for them added zest to the +enjoyment of the nice luncheon at the Culberton +hotel. At half past two they all trooped out of +the hotel, bags in hand, and instead of returning +to the railway station, set off down the hill toward +the docks.</p> + +<p>“Are we going by steamer?” Agnes wanted to +know. “Is there a channel open through the ice? +I never <i>did</i>!”</p> + +<p>“If there were two feet of ice on the Arlington +Pond so that they could not drag it for the poor +Birdsall twins,” Ruth said, “surely this lake must +be frozen quite as thick.”</p> + +<p>“But there’s a sailboat! I see one!” cried Tess, +pointing between the buildings as they approached +the waterfront.</p> + +<p>“And there’s another,” said Sammy. “Oh, Je-ru-sa-<i>lem</i>! +Looky, Aggie! That boat’s sailing +on the ice!”</p> + +<p>“Oh-ee!” squealed Agnes, clasping her hands +and letting her bag fall to the ground. “Ice-boats! +Neale! Are they really ice-boats?”</p> + +<p>“And are we going to sail on them?” murmured +Ruth.</p> + +<p>“For mercy’s sake!” gasped the housekeeper. +“Here’s a fine thing! Have you gone daft, Mr. +Howbridge?”</p> + +<p>“It will be a new experience for you and me, +Mrs. MacCall,” said the lawyer calmly. “But +they tell me it is very invigorating.”</p> + +<p>“It’s the nearest thing to flying, as far as the +sensation goes, that there is, I guess,” Luke Shepard +put in.</p> + +<p>“I used to have a scooter when we were in +winter quarters,” said Neale O’Neil to Agnes. +“Don’t be afraid, Aggie.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, I won’t be afraid if you are along, Neale,” +promptly declared the little beauty. “I know you +will take care of me.”</p> + +<p>“You bet!” responded Neale, his eyes shining.</p> + +<p>As they came down to the big wharf the party +got a better view of the lake front. There were at +least a dozen ice-boats, large and small, in motion. +Those farthest out from the shore had caught the +full sweep of the wind and were darting about, as +Mrs. MacCall said, like water-bugs on the surface +of a pond.</p> + +<p>Ruth looked around keenly as they came out on +the wharf.</p> + +<p>“Why!” she said to Mr. Howbridge, “this is the +lumber company’s wharf. The company you said +had bought the timber on the Birdsall Estate.”</p> + +<p>“It is the Neven Lumber Company, as you can +see by the sign over the offices yonder,” agreed +their guardian. “And here comes Neven himself.”</p> + +<p>A red-faced man with a red vest on which were +small yellow dots and some grease spots, and who +chewed a big and black cigar and wore his hard +hat on one side of his head, approached the group +as Mr. Howbridge spoke. He hailed the latter +jovially.</p> + +<p>“Hey, Howbridge! Glad to see you. So these +are your folks, are they? Hope you’ll have a +merry Christmas up there in the woods. Nice +place, Birdsall’s Lodge.”</p> + +<p>“Thank you,” said the lawyer quietly.</p> + +<p>“Which of ’em’s Birdsall’s young ones?” continued +the lumber dealer, staring about with very +bold eyes, and especially at Ruth Kenway and +Cecile Shepard.</p> + +<p>“I am sorry to say, Mr. Neven,” said the lawyer, +“that the Birdsall twins are not with us. +The children have run away from their home—a +home with people who have known them since they +were born. It is a very strange affair, and is causing +me much worry.”</p> + +<p>“You don’t say!” exclaimed Neven. “Too +bad! Too bad! But they’ll turn up. Young +’uns always do. I ran away myself when I was a +kid; and look at me now,” and the lumberman +puffed out his chest proudly, as though satisfied +that Lem Neven was a good deal of a man.</p> + +<p>“I reckon,” pursued the lumberman, “that you +think it’s your duty to go up to the Birdsall place +and look over the piece I’ve got stumpage on. But +you don’t re’lly need to. My men are scientific, I +tell you. I don’t hire no old has-beens like Ike +M’Graw. Those old timber cruisers are a hundred +years behind the times.”</p> + +<p>“They have one very good attribute. At least, +Ike has,” Mr. Howbridge said quietly.</p> + +<p>“What’s that?” asked Neven.</p> + +<p>“He is perfectly honest,” was the dry response. +“I shall base my demands for the Birdsall estate +on Ike’s report. I assure you of that now, Mr. +Neven, so that you need build no false hopes upon +the reports of your own cruisers. As the contract +stands we can close it out and deal with another +company if it seems best to do so. And some company—either +yours or another—will go in there +right after New Year’s and begin to cut.”</p> + +<p>He turned promptly away from the red-faced +man and followed his party along the wharf to its +end. Here lay two large ice-boats. There was a +boxlike cockpit on each that would hold four passengers +comfortably, besides the tiller men and the +boy who “trimmed ship.” A crew of two went +with each boat.</p> + +<p>“How will the other two of our party travel?” +asked Ruth, when these arrangements were explained.</p> + +<p>Already Neale O’Neil had beckoned Agnes to +one side. There lay behind the two big boats a +skeleton-like arrangement, with a seat at the stern +no wider than a bobsled, and another on the “outrigger,” +or crossbeam. This scooter carried a +huge boom for a leg-o’-mutton sail, and it was a +type of the very fastest ice-boats on the lake.</p> + +<p>Neale helped the eager Agnes down a rude ladder +to the ice. She was just reckless enough to +desire to try the new means of locomotion. Her +exclamations of delight drew Ruth to the edge of +the wharf over their heads.</p> + +<p>“What are you two doing down there?” asked +the older girl.</p> + +<p>“Oh, now, Ruthie!” murmured Agnes, “do let +me go with Neale in this pretty boat. There isn’t +room for us in the bigger boats. Do!”</p> + +<p>Ruth knew very little about racing ice-boats. +The scooter looked no more dangerous to her than +did the lumbering craft that Hedden had engaged +for the rest of the party.</p> + +<p>These bigger boats, furnished with square sails +rather than the leg-o’-muttons they now flaunted, +were commonly used to transfer merchandise, or +even logs up and down the lake. They were lumbering +and slow.</p> + +<p>“Well, if Mr. Howbridge says you can,” the +oldest Corner House girl agreed, still somewhat +doubtful.</p> + +<p>Neale had already begged permission of Mr. +Howbridge. The lawyer was quite as ignorant regarding +ice-boating as Ruth herself. Neither of +them considered that any real harm could come to +Neale and Agnes in the smaller craft.</p> + +<p>The crews of the larger ice-boats were experienced +boatmen. They got their lumbering craft +under way just as soon as the passengers were +settled with their light baggage in the cockpits. +There were bear robes and blankets in profusion. +Although the wind was keen, the party did not +expect that Jack Frost would trouble them.</p> + +<p>“Isn’t this great?” cried Cecile, who was in one +of the boats with Ruth, her brother, and Sammy +Pinkney. “My! we always manage to have such +very nice times when we are with you Corner +House girls, Ruthie.”</p> + +<p>“This is all new to me,” admitted her friend. +“I hope nothing will happen to wreck us.”</p> + +<p>“Wreck us! Fancy!” laughed Cecile.</p> + +<p>“This wind is very strong, just the same,” said +Ruth.</p> + +<p>“Hold hard!” cried Luke, laughing. “Low +bridge!”</p> + +<p>The boom swung over, and they all stooped +quickly to avoid it. The next moment the big +sail filled, bulging with the force of the wind. +The heavy runners began to whine over the powdered +ice, and they went swiftly onward toward +the middle of the lake.</p> + +<p>“On the wings of the wind! How delightful!” +cried Cecile. Then she said again: “Isn’t this +great?”</p> + +<h2 class='chapter' id='clink07'><a href='#toc'>CHAPTER VII—THE SCOOTER</a></h2> + +<p>Sammy Pinkney had desired greatly to go with +Neale and Agnes on the smaller ice-boat; but they +would not hear to the proposal. He struck up an +acquaintance with the “crew” of the big boat to +which he was assigned, and gave Ruth and Luke +Shepard no trouble.</p> + +<p>In the other large boat Mr. Howbridge, Mrs. +MacCall and the two smallest Corner House girls, +as well as Tom Jonah, were very cozily ensconced. +Dot clutched the Alice-doll very tightly and Tom +Jonah barked loudly when the barge slithered out +upon the lake and began to gather speed as the +fresh wind filled the big sail.</p> + +<p>Mrs. MacCall continued to have her doubts regarding +the safety of this strange means of locomotion.</p> + +<p>“There’s one good thing about it,” she chattered, +as the sledge jarred over a few hummocks. +“There’s nae so far to fall if we do fall out.”</p> + +<p>“It’s perfectly safe, they tell me,” Mr. Howbridge +assured her.</p> + +<p>“Aye. It may look so,” the good woman admitted. +“But ’tis like Tam Taggart goin’ to +London.”</p> + +<p>“How was that?” the lawyer asked, smiling.</p> + +<p>“Tam was one o’ these canny Highlanders, and +he made up his mind after muckle thought to spend +a week in London. He went to ‘broaden his mind,’ +as they call it. Truly, to prove to himself that +London and the English were quite as bad as he’d +believed all his life.</p> + +<p>“So he goes to London, and he comes home +again—very solemn like. Nobody could get a +word out of him at first,” pursued Mrs. MacCall. +“Finally the folks, they gathered around him at +the post-office and one says:</p> + +<p>“‘What ails ye, Tam? Ye’ve no told us anything +aboot Lunnon. Is it nae the fine place +they’d have us believe?’</p> + +<p>“‘Oo, aye, ’tis nae so bad,’ says Tam. ‘But +they are nae honest up there.’</p> + +<p>“‘Whit way air they no honest, Tam?’ asks his +friends.</p> + +<p>“‘Weel,’ says Tam, ‘I aye had my doots all the +time; but I made sure the day I bought me a +penny-packet of needles. On the outside o’ it, it +said there was one thousand needles inside.’</p> + +<p>“‘Oh, aye?’</p> + +<p>“‘I coonted ’em,’ says Tam, ‘an’—wad ye believe +it?—there was only nine hundred and ninety-three!’ +And this boat-sliding may look all right,” +concluded the Corner House housekeeper, “but, +like Tam, ‘I have me doots!’”</p> + +<p>As the boat gathered speed, following the one +on which Ruth and her companions sailed out into +the open lake, the little girls squealed their delight. +Even Dot forgot her fears. And Tom +Jonah “smiled” just as broadly as he could.</p> + +<p>“Oh, Tessie!” Dot gasped. “It <i>is</i> like flying! +My breath’s too big for my mouth—just like I was +in a swing.”</p> + +<p>“I guess you must feel like poor Sandyface did +when Sammy sent her with her kittens from our +house to his in the fly-a-majig. You remember?” +said Tess.</p> + +<p>“I should say I did!” agreed Dot in her old-fashioned +way. “What an awful time that was, +wasn’t it? And Sammy got spanked.”</p> + +<p>“Sammy’s always getting spanked,” Tess said +coolly.</p> + +<p>“Ye-as. He is. But I guess he’s never got +used to it yet,” responded the smallest Corner +House girl thoughtfully.</p> + +<p>The wind, when they faced forward, almost took +their breath. The little girls cowered down under +the warm robes, looking astern. So their bright +eyes were the first to catch sight of the scooter +shooting out into the lake behind them.</p> + +<p>The wharves and dun-colored houses of Culberton +were already far astern. And how fast the +town was receding!</p> + +<p>The smaller ice-boat, however, overtook the big +boats almost as though the latter were standing +still! The others caught sight of the careening +ice-racer soon after Dot and Tess first shouted. +But neither of the little girls nor the other +members of the party realized that Neale and Agnes +were aboard the craft that came, meteor-like, up +the lake.</p> + +<p>They had started sedately enough, Neale O’Neil +at the stern with the tiller ropes in his mittened +hands and Agnes strapped into the seat on the outrigger, +with the bight of the running sheet in her +charge.</p> + +<p>Neale had told her plainly what to do ordinarily, +and had instructed her to look to him for orders +in any emergency. It looked to be very simple, +this working out an ice-scooter that had in it the +possibility of sailing at any speed up to a hundred +miles an hour!</p> + +<p>Somebody had started the creaking boat with +the purchase of a pike pole at the rear. The +peavy bit into the ice, and the scooter rocked out +from the wharf. The big sail was already spread. +They had wabbled out of the confinement of the +dock slowly and sedately enough.</p> + +<p>Suddenly the wind puffed into the sail and bellied +it. The stick bent and groaned. It seemed +as though the runners stuck to the surface of the +ice and the mast would be torn from the framework +of the craft.</p> + +<p>Then she really started!</p> + +<p>The powerful on-thrust of the wind in the sail +shot the scooter away from the shore. She +swooped like a gull across the ice. The whining +of steel on ice rose to a painful shriek in Agnes’ +ears.</p> + +<p>She was scared. Oh, yes, she was scared! But +she would not admit it—not for worlds! Faster +and faster the scooter moved. The girl looked +back once at Neale and caught a glimpse of his +confident smile. It heartened her wonderfully.</p> + +<p>“Hold hard, Aggie!” his strong voice shouted, +and she nodded, blinking the water out of her eyes.</p> + +<p>They had headed up Long Lake as they left the +shore, and they could travel on the wind, and without +tacking, for a long way. They overhauled the +two big barges in which the rest of the party +sailed, in a way that fairly made Agnes gasp. +She had never traveled so fast before in all her +life.</p> + +<p>The scooter struck a hummock in the ice. It +was not six inches above the general level of the +crystal surface of the lake. But the impetus it +gave the ice-boat sent that seemingly fragile craft +up into the air! She left the ice for a long, breathtaking, +humming jump. It seemed to Agnes as +though they were going right up into the air, very +much as an aeroplane soars from the earth.</p> + +<p>Indeed, had the ice-boat a movable tail like an +aeroplane, surely it would completely take to the +air. Next to piloting an aeroplane, ice-boat racing +is the greatest sport in the world.</p> + +<p>Spang! The scooter took to the ice again and +ran like a scared rabbit. The stays sang a new +tune. Had the sheet not had a simple cast about a +peg beside her, Agnes would surely have lost the +bight of it.</p> + +<p>But Neale had told her certain things to do, and +she would not fail him. Through half-blinded +eyes she cast another glance at him over her shoulder. +The boy showed no evidence of panic, and +Agnes was ashamed to display her own inner feelings.</p> + +<p>When Neale said, “You’re a regular little sport, +Aggie!” it was the finest tribute to character that +Agnes Kenway knew anything about. She was +determined to win his approval now, if never before.</p> + +<p>Ruth saw them coming, but had no idea at first +that the careening ice-racer was the small boat +that Neale and her sister had engaged for the run +up the lake. The schooner came on like, and with, +the wind!</p> + +<p>“See that boat, Cecile!” cried the oldest Corner +House girl. “How reckless it is to ride so fast. +Suppose the mast should snap or a skate should +break? My!”</p> + +<p>“But look how they fly!” agreed her friend.</p> + +<p>“Hey!” exclaimed Luke. “That’s Neale +O’Neil steering that thing.”</p> + +<p>“Oh! Mercy! <i>Agnes!</i>” shrieked Ruth, her +eyes suddenly opened to the identity of the two +on the scooter.</p> + +<p>“Hoorah!” yelled Luke. “What speed!”</p> + +<p>The party on the other big boat had recognized +the two on the scooter. The fur-trimmed coat and +brilliant-hued hood Agnes wore could not be mistaken.</p> + +<p>“Stop them! Stop them!” moaned Ruth, really +alarmed.</p> + +<p>It seemed to her that the boat she was riding in +was going much too fast for safety; but the scooter +flew up the lake at a pace that made the big boats +seem to stand still.</p> + +<p>Neale plainly knew how to handle the racer. He +passed the two barges and then tacked, aiming to +cross the bows of the bigger craft.</p> + +<p>Instantly, as the boom swung around, Agnes’ +end of the crossbeam went into the air! They saw +her sail upward, the flashing steel runners at least +four feet above the ice!</p> + +<p>The girl’s wind-whipped face was still smiling. +Indeed, that smile seemed frozen on. As the +racer rushed by Agnes looked down upon her sisters +and other friends and waved one hand to +them.</p> + +<p>Then, like a huge kite, the big-bellied sail raced +off across the lake, taking the reckless pair almost +instantly out of earshot.</p> + +<h2 class='chapter' id='clink08'><a href='#toc'>CHAPTER VIII—THE VILLAGE ON THE ICE</a></h2> + +<p>The wild plunge of the scooter across the lake +carried it, before a wind-squall, far out of hearing +of Ruth Kenway’s voice. Yet she shouted long +and loud after her sister. Luke pulled her back +into her seat when she would have stood up to +watch the careening scooter.</p> + +<p>“They are in no danger,” he urged. “Take it +easy, Ruth.”</p> + +<p>“Why, they must be in peril! Did you see +her—Agnes—up in the air?”</p> + +<p>“Well, she’s down again all right now, Ruthie,” +said Cecile Shepard soothingly.</p> + +<p>“Oh, if I had only known!”</p> + +<p>“Known what?” asked Luke, inclined to grin if +the truth was told.</p> + +<p>“That the small boat would sail like that. Why, +it is worse than a racing automobile!”</p> + +<p>“Faster, I guess. Almost as fast as a motorcycle,” +Luke agreed. “But Neale’s managed one +of those things before. He told me all about it.”</p> + +<p>“But why didn’t somebody tell me about it?” +demanded Ruth rather stormily.</p> + +<p>“Tell you about what?” asked Cecile.</p> + +<p>“About how fast that reckless thing would sail? +Why! I’d never have allowed Aggie to ride on it +in this world.”</p> + +<p>In the other big ice-boat there was much anxiety +as well. Mr. Howbridge and Mrs. MacCall would +have stopped the reckless ones could they have +done so, and Tom Jonah was barking his head off. +He, too, had recognized Agnes and Neale and believed +that all was not right with them.</p> + +<p>The scooter, however, was clear across the lake +again; they saw it tack once more, and this time, +because of the favoring breeze, Neale headed her +directly up the lake. Every minute he and Agnes +on their racer were leaving the rest of the party +behind.</p> + +<p>These scooters cannot be sailed at a slow pace. +The skeleton craft is so light, and the sail so big, +that the least puff of breeze drives it ahead at railroad +speed.</p> + +<p>Now with a pretty steady breeze behind them, +the scooter was bound to “show off.” Nor did the +young people realize just how fast they sailed, or +how perilous their course looked to their friends.</p> + +<p>“We’re running away from them!” Agnes managed +to throw back over her shoulder at Neale.</p> + +<p>“Can’t help it!” he cried in return. “This old +scooter has taken the bit in its teeth.”</p> + +<p>Agnes had begun to enjoy the speed to the full +now. Why! this was better than motoring over +the finest kind of oiled road. And the young girl +did like to travel fast.</p> + +<p>She began to see that the farther they went up +Long Lake the wilder the shores appeared to be +and the fewer houses there were visible. Here +and there was a little village, with a white-steepled +church pointing heavenward among the almost +black spruce and pine. Again, a cleared farm +showed forth, its fields sheeted with snow.</p> + +<p>The lake was quite ten miles broad in most +places, and occasionally it spread to a width of +more than twice that number of miles. Then they +could barely see the hazy shoreline at all.</p> + +<p>“We could not be lonesomer,” thought Agnes, +“if we were sailing on the ocean!”</p> + +<p>The sails behind them had all disappeared. +Once a squad of timber barges with square sails +was passed. The barges were going up empty to +the head of the lake there to be loaded and await +a favoring breeze to bring them back to Culberton +again. It was much cheaper for the lumber concerns +to sail the logs down the lake if they could, +than to load them on the narrow gauge railroad +and pay freight to Culberton. The sticks had to +be handled at the foot of the lake, anyway.</p> + +<p>The scooter went past these slowly sailing +barges almost as rapidly as they had passed the +two boats in which sailed the remainder of the +Corner House party. The stays creaked and the +steel whined on the ice, while the wind boomed in +the big sail like a muffled drum.</p> + +<p>The sun, hazy and red like the face of a haymaker +in harvest time, was going westward and +would soon disappear behind the mountain ridge +which followed the shoreline of the lake, but at a +distance. It was up in the foothills of those mountains +that Red Deer Lodge was located.</p> + +<p>After passing the empty barges the boy and girl +on the scooter saw no other sail nor anything +which excited their attention until Agnes suddenly +beheld a group of objects on the ice near the +western shore of the lake, not many miles ahead.</p> + +<p>She began almost immediately to wonder what +these things could be, but she could not make +Neale O’Neil understand the question she shouted +to him. By and by, however, she saw for herself +that the objects were a number of little huts, and +that they really were built upon the frozen surface +of the lake.</p> + +<p>Agnes was naturally very much interested in +this strange sight. A village on the ice was something +quite novel to her mind. She desired very +much to ask questions of Neale, but the wind was +too great and they were sailing too fast for her to +make her desire known to her boy friend.</p> + +<p>So she just used her eyes (when they did not +water too much) and stared at the strange collection +of huts and its vicinity with all her might. +Why! from lengths of stove pipe through some of +the slanting roofs, smoke was climbing into the +hazy atmosphere.</p> + +<p>Back of the ice-village, on the steep western +shore of the lake, was built a regular town of slab +shanties, with a slab church, stores, and the like. +Quite a village, this, and when Agnes looked back +at Neale questioningly and pointed to them, he +shouted: “Coxford.” So she knew it was their +destination.</p> + +<p>Mr. Howbridge had said they would disembark +from the ice-boats at Coxford, and there would +take sledges into the woods. It was fast growing +toward evening, however, and Agnes knew it would +be too late when they landed to continue the journey +to Red Deer Lodge before the next morning.</p> + +<p>The ice-village was about two miles out from the +shore. There were half a hundred huts, some a +dozen feet square. But for the most part they +were much smaller. They had doors, but no windows, +and, as the scooter drew swiftly nearer, +Agnes could see that the structures were little +more than wind-breaks.</p> + +<p>There were a number of people moving about +the settlement of huts, however, and not a few +children among them, as well as dogs. As the +scooter drew near she saw, too, a team of horses +drawing a sledge. This sledge was being loaded +with boxes, or crates; and what those boxes could +contain began to puzzle Agnes as much as anything +else she saw about the queer village.</p> + +<p>Neale steered outside the line of the ice settlement; +but once beyond it he brought the scooter up +into the wind and yelled at Agnes to let go the +sheet and falls. She loosened the lines from the +pegs and allowed them to slip. Down came the +shaking canvas, the wooden hoops clattering together +as they slid down the greased mast. In a +moment the speed of the scooter was lost and they +were all but smothered in the fallen canvas.</p> + +<p>“Get out from under!” Neale’s voice shouted.</p> + +<p>He dropped off at the stern and ran to the girl’s +aid. He unbuckled the belt that had secured +Agnes to her seat on the outrigger all this while, +and fairly dragged her from under the flapping +sail.</p> + +<p>“Fine work!” Neale shouted, his voice full of +laughter. “We made record time. But I’ll let +somebody else furl that sail.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, Neale!” gasped the girl, hobbling like a +cripple. “I ca—can’t walk. I’m frozen stiff!”</p> + +<p>“Come on to the shanties. We’ll get warm. +Take hold here, Aggie. You’ll be all right in a +few minutes.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, dear!” she said. “I did not know I was +so cold. But what a race it was, Neale! Ruth +will give us fits.”</p> + +<p>“Won’t she?” chuckled Neale.</p> + +<p>“But what is this place, Neale?” Agnes went +on. “What are these people doing here?”</p> + +<p>“Fishing. Those are frozen fish they are loading +on that sledge. Oh! There it goes! We +can’t get ashore on that, after all.”</p> + +<p>“‘Fishing’?” repeated the amazed girl. “How +do they fish through the ice? I don’t see any +holes.”</p> + +<div style='text-align:center'> +<img id='ilink03' src='images/illus-003.jpg' alt=''/> +<p class='caption'>“He fairly dragged her from under the flapping sail.”</p> +</div> + +<p>“No. The holes wouldn’t stay open long, as +cold as it is out here. It’s about twenty below +zero right now, my lady, and I’m keeping a sharp +eye on your nose.”</p> + +<p>“Oh! Oh!” gasped Agnes, putting her mittened +hand tentatively to her nose. “Is that why +you told me to keep my collar up over my mouth +and nose?”</p> + +<p>“It is!” declared the boy, rubbing his own face +vigorously. “If you see any white spot on anybody’s +face up here in this weather, grab a handful +of snow and begin rubbing the spot.”</p> + +<p>“Mercy!” Agnes murmured, with a gay little +laugh. “Lucky Trix Severn doesn’t come up +here. She uses rice powder dreadfully, and folks +would think she was being frost-bitten.”</p> + +<p>“Uh-huh!” agreed Neale.</p> + +<p>“But you haven’t told me how they fish,” said +the girl, as they approached nearer to the huts and +she was able to walk better.</p> + +<p>“Through the ice of course,” he laughed. +“Only you don’t see the holes. They are inside +the huts.”</p> + +<p>“You don’t mean it, Neale?”</p> + +<p>“To be sure I mean it! Some of those big +shanties house whole families. You see there are +children and dogs. They have pot stoves which +warm the huts to a certain degree, and on which +they cook. And they have bunks built against the +walls, with plenty of bedding.”</p> + +<p>“Why, I should think they would get their death +of cold!” gasped the girl.</p> + +<p>“That’s just what they don’t get,” Neale rejoined. +“You can bet there are no ‘white plague’ +patients here. This atmosphere will kill tubercular +germs like a hammer kills a flea.”</p> + +<p>“Goodness, Neale!” giggled Agnes. “Did you +ever kill a flea with a hammer?”</p> + +<p>“Yep. Sand-flea,” he assured her, grinning. +“Oh! I’m one quick lad, Aggie.”</p> + +<p>She really thought he was joking, however, until +she had looked into two or three of the huts. People +really did live in them, as she saw. In the +middle of the plank floors was a well, with open +water kept clear of frost. The set-lines were fastened +to pegs in the planks and the “flags” announced +when a fish was on the hook.</p> + +<p>A smiling woman, done up like an Eskimo, invited +them into one shack. She had evidently not +seen the scooter arrive from down the lake and +thought the boy and girl had walked out from +Coxford.</p> + +<p>“Hello!” she said. “Goin’ to try your hands +at fishin’? You’re town folks, ain’t you?”</p> + +<p>“Yes,” said Agnes, politely. “We come from +Milton.”</p> + +<p>“Lawsy! That’s a fur ways,” said the woman. +She was peeling potatoes, and a kettle was boiling +on the stove at one side. The visitors knew +by the odor that there was corned beef in the pot. +“You goin’ to try your hands?” the woman repeated.</p> + +<p>“No,” said Neale. “We are with a party that +is going up to Red Deer Lodge.”</p> + +<p>“Oh! That’s the Birdsall place. You can’t +git up there tonight. It’s too fur.”</p> + +<p>“I guess we shall stay in Coxford,” admitted +Neale.</p> + +<p>“Didn’t know but you an’ your sister wanted to +fish. Old Manny Cox got ketched with rheumatics +so that he had to give up fishin’ this season. I can +hire you his shanty.”</p> + +<p>“No, thank you!” murmured Agnes, her eyes +round with interest.</p> + +<p>“I let it for a week or more to two gals,” said +the woman complacently. “Got five dollars out of +’em for Manny. He’ll be needin’ the money. +Better stay awhile and try the fishin’.”</p> + +<p>“Goodness! Two girls alone?” asked Agnes.</p> + +<p>“Yes. Younger’n you are, too. But they +knowed their way around, I guess,” said the +woman. “Good lookin’ gals. Nice clo’es. Town +folks, I guess. Mebbe they wasn’t older’n my +Bob, and he’s just turned twelve.”</p> + +<p>“Twelve years old! And two girls alone?” +murmured Agnes.</p> + +<p>“Oh, there ain’t nobody to hurt you here. We +don’t never need no constable out here on the ice. +There’s plenty of women folks—Miz’ Ashtable, +and Hank Crummet’s wife, and Mary Boley and +her boys. Oh, lots o’ women here. We can help +make money in the winter.</p> + +<p>“There! See that set-line bob?”</p> + +<p>She dropped the potato she was paring and +crossed to the well. One of the flags had dipped. +With a strong hand she reeled in the wet line. At +its end was a big pickerel—the biggest pickerel +the visitors had ever seen.</p> + +<p>“There!” exclaimed the woman. “Sorry I +didn’t git that before Joe Jagson went with his +load of fish. That’s four pound if it weighs an +ounce.”</p> + +<p>She shook the flopping fish off the hook into a +basket and then hung the basket outside the door. +In the frosty air the fish did not need to be packed +in ice. It would literally be ice within a very +few minutes.</p> + +<p>“Got to hang ’em up to keep the dogs from +gettin’ them,” said the woman, rebaiting the hook +and then returning to her potato paring. “Can’t +leave ’em in a creel in the water, neither; pike +would come along an’ eat ’em clean to the bone.”</p> + +<p>“Oh!” gasped Agnes.</p> + +<p>“Yes. Regular cannibals, them pike,” said the +woman. “But all big fish will eat little ones.”</p> + +<p>“What kind of fish do you catch?” Neale asked.</p> + +<p>“Pickerel and pike, whitebait (we calls ’em +that), perch, some lake bass and once in a while +a lake trout. Trout’s out o’ season. We don’t +durst sell ’em. But we eat ’em. They ain’t no +‘season,’ I tell ’em, for a boy’s appetite; and I got +three boys and my man to feed.”</p> + +<p>At that moment there was a great shouting and +barking of dogs outside, and Neale and Agnes +went out of the hut to learn what it meant. The +Corner House girl whispered to the boy:</p> + +<p>“What do you think about those two twelve +year old girls coming here to stay and fish through +the ice?”</p> + +<p>“Great little sports,” commented Neale.</p> + +<p>“Well,” exclaimed Agnes, “that’s being too +much of a sport, if you ask me!”</p> + +<h2 class='chapter' id='clink09'><a href='#toc'>CHAPTER IX—A COLD SCENT</a></h2> + +<p>The barking of the dogs was in answer to the +booming note that Tom Jonah sent echoing across +the ice. Agnes and Neale found that the two big +ice-boats were near at hand.</p> + +<p>As one of the crew of Mr. Howbridge’s boat +owned the scooter that Neale and Agnes had come +up the lake on, that owner wished to recover his +abandoned ice-boat. Besides, it was not more +than two miles over the ice to Coxford, and the +wind was going down with the sun. The big boats +would have made slow work of it beating in to the +slab-town on the western shore of the lake.</p> + +<p>Neale and Agnes ran out across the ice to meet +their friends. Most of the party were glad indeed +to get on their feet, for the ride up the lake had +been a cold one.</p> + +<p>In fact, Tess could scarcely walk when she got +out of her seat, and Dot tumbled right down on the +ice, almost weeping.</p> + +<p>“I—I guess I haven’t got any feet,” the smallest +Corner House girl half sobbed. “I can’t feel +’em.”</p> + +<p>“Course you’ve got feet, Dot,” said Sammy, +staggering a good deal himself when he walked +toward her. “Just you jump up and down like +this,” and he proceeded to follow his own advice.</p> + +<p>“But won’t we break through the ice?” murmured +the smallest Corner House girl.</p> + +<p>“Why, Dot! do you s’pose,” demanded Tess, +“that you can jump hard enough to break through +two feet of ice?”</p> + +<p>“Well, I never tried it before, did I?” demanded +Dot. “How should <i>I</i> know what might happen to +the old ice?”</p> + +<p>Agnes hurried the little ones over to the shanty +of the friendly fisher-woman, where they could get +warm and be sheltered from the raw wind that still +puffed down in gusts from the hills.</p> + +<p>Tom Jonah had jumped out of the cockpit of the +ice-boat and found himself immediately in the +middle of what Luke Shepard called “a fine ruction.”</p> + +<p>“Canines to right of him, canines to left of +him, volleyed and thundered!” laughed the college +youth. “Hey! call off your fish-hounds, or Tom +Jonah will eat them up.”</p> + +<p>One cur was already running away yelping and +limping; the others took notice that the old dog +had powerful jaws. But Ruth insisted that Tom +Jonah be put on a leash, and Luke meekly obeyed. +Indeed, he was likely to do almost anything that +the oldest Corner House girl told him to do, “right +up to jumping through the ring of a doughnut!” +his sister whispered to Mrs. MacCall in great +glee.</p> + +<p>“Well, my lassie,” was the housekeeper’s comment, +“he might be mindin’ a much worse mistress +than our Ruthie.”</p> + +<p>Nothing that Ruth could or did do in most matters +was wrong in Mrs. MacCall’s opinion, even if +she did criticize the Kenways’ charity. If Luke +Shepard some day expected to get Ruth for his +wife, the housekeeper considered that it was only +right he should first learn to obey Ruth’s behests +in all things.</p> + +<p>Ruth had a word to say to Neale and Agnes at +this time. She pointed out to those two restless +and reckless younger ones that there must be no +such venturesome escapades during the remainder +of this winter vacation as that connected with the +ice-scooter.</p> + +<p>“If you have no respect for your own bones, +think of our feelings,” she concluded. “Why! I +almost had heart disease when I saw that horrid +scooter fly past with Agnes up in the air as though +she were on a flying trapeze.”</p> + +<p>“Shucks, Ruth!” said Neale, “you know I +wouldn’t let any harm come to Aggie.”</p> + +<p>“Now, Neale,” returned the older girl, “how +would you keep her from getting hurt if that ice-boat +broke in two, for instance?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, well—”</p> + +<p>“That’s what I thought!” snapped Ruth. +“You had not thought of that.”</p> + +<p>“Don’t scold him! Don’t scold Neale!” begged +Agnes. “He’s all right.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, no, he isn’t,” said Ruth grimly. “One +side of him is left! And you will promise to be +good or I’ll make Mr. Howbridge send Neale home, +right from here.”</p> + +<p>“Oh!” cried her sister. “You would not be so +mean, Ruthie Kenway.”</p> + +<p>“I don’t know but I would,” Ruth rejoined. “I +don’t think so much of boys, anyway—”</p> + +<p>“Not until they get to be collegians,” whispered +Neale shrilly from behind his hand.</p> + +<p>Ruth’s eyes snapped at that, and she marched +away without another word. Mr. Howbridge refrained +from commenting upon the incident, for +he saw that Ruth had said quite all that was necessary.</p> + +<p>Neale and Agnes were much abashed. They +followed the others slowly toward the village on +the ice. Neale said:</p> + +<p>“Well, if she says I can’t go any farther I’ll +stay right here and fish until you come back, +Aggie.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, Neale! You wouldn’t!”</p> + +<p>“Why not? Maybe I’d make a little money. If +two twelve year old girls could stand it for a week +here, I don’t see why I couldn’t stand it for three +weeks.”</p> + +<p>“I’ve been thinking about those two girls that +woman told us about,” said Agnes with sudden +eagerness.</p> + +<p>“What about ’em?”</p> + +<p>“Do you s’pose they were girls, Neale O’Neil?”</p> + +<p>“Why! what do you mean? How do I know? +The woman said they were.”</p> + +<p>“But two <i>girls</i>—and only twelve! It doesn’t +seem probable. I should think the police—”</p> + +<p>“Didn’t you hear that woman say there were no +constables out here on the ice?” said Neale.</p> + +<p>“I don’t care! I’m suspicious,” declared +Agnes.</p> + +<p>“Not of that fisher-woman?” asked the boy, +puzzled indeed.</p> + +<p>“No, no! But no two girls in this world would +ever have considered coming out here on the ice +to fish. How ridiculous!”</p> + +<p>“Say! what are you trying to get at, Agnes +Kenway?” demanded her friend. “You do have +the craziest ideas!”</p> + +<p>“Do I, Mr. Smartie?” she returned. “At least +they are ideas. You never seem to suspect a living +thing, Neale O’Neil.”</p> + +<p>“Oh! I give it up,” he groaned. “You are too +much for me. I’m lashed to the post and you have +left me behind.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, do come on!” exclaimed Agnes, hastily +dragging at his jacket sleeve. “If you don’t know +what I’m about, just keep still and listen.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, I’ll do that little thing for you,” returned +Neale. “I can be as dumb as a mute quahog with +the lockjaw—just watch me!”</p> + +<p>He tagged on behind Agnes with much interest. +The girl hurried to the shack into which the little +folks had been taken for warmth. Mrs. MacCall +was there with them, talking with the genial fisher-woman.</p> + +<p>“Hech!” exclaimed the housekeeper, warming +her blue hands, “but this is a strange way to live. +’Tis worse than sheep herding in the Highlands. +’Tis so!”</p> + +<p>“’Tain’t so bad,” said the woman. “And +there’s good money in the fish. We are mostly all +Coxford people here—or folks from back in the +hills. Few stragglers come here to bother us.”</p> + +<p>“But you said two strangers had been here this +winter,” Agnes interposed, eagerly.</p> + +<p>“I said so,” the woman agreed. “Two stragglers. +Two girls,” and she laughed. “But they +didn’t stay long. They kept to themselves like, +and never did us any harm.”</p> + +<p>“Say, Maw!” The voice came out of a shadowy +corner. It was gloomy in the shack, for the +sun had now dipped below the hills and twilight +had come.</p> + +<p>“That’s my Bob,” said the woman. “He’s +about the age of them two gals.”</p> + +<p>“They wasn’t two gals, Maw,” said Bob from +the darkness.</p> + +<p>“What d’you mean?”</p> + +<p>“One was a boy. Yes, she was—a boy! We +kids found it out, and that’s why them two lit out +over night.”</p> + +<p>“Good gracious, Bob! What are you sayin’?”</p> + +<p>“That’s right,” said the voice from the dark +corner, stubbornly. “They was brother and +sister. They owned up. Run away from somewhere, +I guess. And then they run away from +here.”</p> + +<p>Agnes pinched Neale’s arm. “What did I tell +you?” she whispered.</p> + +<p>“Ouch! I don’t know. You’ve told me so +many things, Aggie,” he complained.</p> + +<p>“Don’t you remember what Mr. Howbridge told +us about the Birdsall twins and the picture he sent +out to the police? He showed us that, too.”</p> + +<p>“Jumping Jupiter!” gasped the amazed Neale. +“Why—why, <i>she</i>,” pointing to the fisher-woman, +“didn’t say anything about the twins.”</p> + +<p>“Listen!” exclaimed Agnes again; and as Mrs. +MacCall had taken the three younger children out +of the shack, Agnes began to interrogate the +woman as to the appearance of the strange girls +who had remained for a week at the village on the +ice.</p> + +<p>Yes, they were both slim, and dark, and looked +boyish enough—both of them. They seemed well +behaved. She didn’t believe Bob—</p> + +<p>“I tell you I know,” put in Bob from his corner. +“One was a boy. He called the other by a +girl name all right. Rowly—or Rowny—or +sumpin’—”</p> + +<p>“Rowena!” cried Agnes.</p> + +<p>“Mebbe,” admitted Bob.</p> + +<p>“For the land of liberty’s sake!” exclaimed his +mother suddenly, “I’d like to know how you are so +sure ’bout one bein’ a boy?”</p> + +<p>“Well, I’ll tell you,” grumbled Bob. “’Cause +he licked me! Yes, he did. Licked me good and +proper. No girl could ha’ done that, you bet!” +said the disgruntled Bob.</p> + +<p>“Now, Bob! I am ashamed of you!” said his +mother.</p> + +<p>“You needn’t be. He could fight, that fellow!”</p> + +<p>“But did you think they were both girls till you +got into this fight?” Neale asked, now becoming +interested.</p> + +<p>“Bet you. We thought we could get some of +their lines. They had more’n enough. We went +over there to Manny Cox’s shack, and she that +was a girl was alone. So we took the lines.”</p> + +<p>“Now, Bob!” murmured his mother.</p> + +<p>“Guess a constable here wouldn’t be a bad thing +after all,” chuckled Neale.</p> + +<p>“Go on,” ordered Agnes.</p> + +<p>“Why, that girl just cried and scolded. But the +other one came back before me and Hank and +Buddie got away.”</p> + +<p>“The one you think was a boy?” asked Agnes.</p> + +<p>“One I know was a boy—since he fought me. +He didn’t do no cryin’. He squared right off, +skirts an’ all, and jest lambasted me. And when +Hank tried to put in an oar, he lambasted him. +Buddie run, or he’d ’ve been licked, too, I guess.”</p> + +<p>“Well!” exclaimed Bob’s mother. “I never +did! And you never said a word about it!”</p> + +<p>“What was the use?” asked her son. “We was +licked. And the next morning that boy-girl and +his sister was gone. We didn’t see ’em no more.”</p> + +<p>“That is right,” said the woman thoughtfully. +“They got away jest like that. I never did know +what become of ’em or what they went for.”</p> + +<p>Agnes dragged Neale out of the shack. She +was excited.</p> + +<p>“Let’s find Mr. Howbridge!” she cried. “He +ought to know about this. I just feel sure those +twins have been here in this fisher-town.”</p> + +<h2 class='chapter' id='clink10'><a href='#toc'>CHAPTER X—INTO THE WILDERNESS</a></h2> + +<p>But the lawyer and guardian of the runaway +Birdsall twins was not so easily convinced that +Agnes had found the trail of the lost Ralph and +Rowena. It seemed preposterous that the twins +should have joined these rough fisherfolk and lived +with them in the ice-village.</p> + +<p>The party from Milton waited at the village for +an hour while the lawyer cross-questioned the +inhabitants. It was not that any of these people +wished to hobble Mr. Howbridge’s curiosity regarding +the “stragglers,” as they called the +strangers who sometimes joined the community; +but nobody had considered it his or her business +to question or examine in any way the two unknown +girls (if they were girls) who had occupied +Manny Cox’s shack for a week.</p> + +<p>After all, the boy, Bob, and his mates, gave the +most convincing testimony regarding the strangers. +He was positive that one of the stragglers +had been a boy—a very sturdy and pugilistic one +for a twelve-year-old lad.</p> + +<p>“And that might fit young Ralph Birdsall’s +reputation, as I got it from Rodgers, the butler,” +said Mr. Howbridge. “Ralph has to be stirred +by Rowena to fight; but, once stirred, Rodgers +says he can fight like a wildcat.”</p> + +<p>“Why, what a horrid boy!” murmured Tess, +who heard this. “I guess I’m glad those twins +didn’t come with us after all.”</p> + +<p>“But, Mr. Howbridge,” asked Ruth, “does it +seem possible that they could get away up here +alone?”</p> + +<p>“That is difficult to say. Nobody knows how +much money they had when they left Arlington. +They might have come as far as this. If they had +wished to, I mean.”</p> + +<p>It was getting quite dark, now, and the children +were tired and hungry. The party could spend +no more time at the fishing village. They set out +across the ice for Coxford.</p> + +<p>Neale took Dot pick-a-pack and Luke shouldered +Tess, although the latter felt much embarrassed by +this proceeding. Ruth had to urge her to remain +upon the collegian’s shoulder.</p> + +<p>“Really, I’m quite too big to play this way,” she +objected.</p> + +<p>But she was tired—she had to admit that. +Sammy made no complaint; but his short legs +were weary enough before they reached the shore.</p> + +<p>Oil lamps on posts lit the few streets of Coxford. +Most of the slab houses looked as though +the wind, with a good puff, could blow them down. +The forest came down to the edge of the village. +If there should be a forest fire on this side of the +mountain range, the slab-town would surely be +destroyed.</p> + +<p>Hedden, Mr. Howbridge’s man, had prepared +things here for the party, as well as at Culberton. +On the main street of the little town was what +passed for a hotel. At this time of year it was +but little patronized.</p> + +<p>Therefore the lawyer’s man had chartered the +house, as well as the family that owned it, to make +the holiday vacation party comfortable over one +night.</p> + +<p>Roaring fires, hot supper, feather beds, and +plenty of woolen blankets awaited the crowd from +Milton at this backwoods hostelry. Mr. Dan Durkin, +who was the proprietor of the Coxford Hotel, +and his hospitable wife and daughters, could not +do too much for the comfort of Mr. Howbridge and +his friends.</p> + +<p>“We don’t have enough strangers here in winter +time to keep us in mind of what city folks are +like,” the hotel-keeper declared. “When Miz’ +Birdsall was alive, she and her man and the kids +used to come through here three-four times ’twixt +the first snow flurries an’ the spring break-up. +They liked to see their camp up there in the hills +durin’ the winter. But after Miz’ Birdsall died, +he never came.”</p> + +<p>“And the children?” asked Mr. Howbridge, +thoughtfully.</p> + +<p>“They did come in summer,” said Durkin; “but +not in the winter.”</p> + +<p>“You haven’t seen them of late, have you?” +questioned the lawyer.</p> + +<p>“Them twins? No. Nary hide nor hair of ’em. +I tell you, ain’t nobody—scurcely—gets up here +this time’ o’ year. ’Ceptin’ a few stragglers for +the fishin’, perhaps. But we don’t see them here +at the hotel. We don’t take in stragglers.”</p> + +<p>But he and his family, as has been said, did their +very best for the party from Milton. The young +folks slept soundly, and warmly, as well, and were +really sorry to crawl out of the feather beds at +seven o’clock the next morning when they were +called to get ready for breakfast.</p> + +<p>The cold and the long ride of the day before +seemed to have done nobody any harm. The balsam-laden +air, when they went to the hotel porch +for a breath of it before breakfast, seemed to +search right down to the bottom of their lungs and +invigorate them all. Surely, as Neale had told +Agnes, no tubercular germ could live in such an +atmosphere.</p> + +<p>“Just the same,” said Ruth, wisely, when +Agnes mentioned this scientific statement fathered +by the ex-circus boy, “you children keep well +wrapped up. What is one man’s medicine is another +man’s poison, Mrs. Mac often says. And +it is so with germs, I guess. What will kill one +germ, another germ thrives on. A bad cold up +here will be almost sure to turn into pneumonia. +So beware!”</p> + +<p>“Don’t keep talking about being sick,” cried +Cecile. “You are almost as bad as Neighbor.” +“Neighbor” Henry Northrup lived next door to +the Shepards and their Aunt Lorena, and was +Luke’s very good friend. “Neighbor is forever +talking about symptoms and diseases. After a +half hour visit with him I always go home feeling +as though I needed to call the doctor for some +complaint.”</p> + +<p>They made a hearty and hilarious breakfast of +country fare—fried pork and johnnycakes, with +eggs and baked beans for “fillers.” Mrs. MacCall +should not have tried to eat the crisply fried +“crackling” as the farmers call the pork-rind; +but she did. And one of the teeth on her upper +plate snapped right off!</p> + +<p>“Oh, dear me, Mrs. Mac!” gasped Agnes. +“And not a dentist for miles and miles, I suppose!”</p> + +<p>“Oh, well, I can get along without that one +tooth.”</p> + +<p>“My pop’s got a new set of false teeth,” Sammy +said soberly. “He’s just got ’em—all new and +shiny.”</p> + +<p>“What did he do with the old ones he had?” +asked Tess, interested.</p> + +<p>“Huh! I dunno. Throwed ’em away, I hope. +Anyway,” said Sammy, who had had much experience +in wearing made over clothing, “mom can’t +cut them down and make me wear ’em!”</p> + +<p>The jangling of sleighbells hurried the party +through breakfast. The little folks were first out +upon the porch to look at the two pungs, filled +with straw, and each drawn by a pair of heavy +horses. The latter did not promise from their +appearance a swift trip to Red Deer Lodge; but +they were undoubtedly able to draw a heavy load +through the deepest drifts in the forest.</p> + +<p>They set out very gayly from the little lakeside +town. It was not a brilliantly sunshiny day, for +a haze wrapped the mountain tops about and was +creeping down toward the ice-covered lake.</p> + +<p>“There’s a storm gathering,” declared one of +the men engaged to drive the Milton party into +the woods. “I reckon you folks will git about all +the snow you want for Christmas.”</p> + +<p>“At any rate, it won’t be a green Christmas up +here,” Agnes said to Neale, who sat beside her in +the second sled. “I don’t think it is nice at all +not to have plenty of snow over Christmas and +New Year’s.”</p> + +<p>“I’m with you there,” agreed the boy. “But +I’m glad I haven’t got to shovel paths through +these drifts,” he added, with a quick grin.</p> + +<p>They found the tote-road, as the path was called, +quite filled with snow in some places. There were +only the marks of the sleds that had gone up two +days before with the servants and baggage and +returned—these same two pungs in which the +party now rode.</p> + +<p>The drifts were packed so hard that the horses +drew the sleds right over the drifts, without breaking +through more than an inch or two with their +big hoofs. In some places they could trot heavily, +jerking the sleds along at rather a good pace; but +for most of the way the road was uphill, and the +horses plodded slowly.</p> + +<p>The boys got out now and then to stretch their +legs. Agnes, too, demanded this privilege, and +tramped along beside Neale after the sleds on the +uphill grades. Mainly the party was warm and +comfortable, and cheerful voices, laughter, and +song rang through the spruce woods as they traversed +the forest-clad hills.</p> + +<p>Red Deer Lodge, it proved, was a long day’s +journey from the lakeside into the wilderness. +Never before had the Corner House girls and their +friends visited so wild a place. But they foresaw +no trouble in store for them—not even from the +gathering storm.</p> + +<p>“Of course,” Agnes said, when she was tramping +on one occasion with the boys behind the second +sled, “there must be bears, and wolves, and +catamounts, and all those, in these woods in summer. +But they are all hidden away for the winter +now, aren’t they, Neale?”</p> + +<p>“The bears are holed up,” he granted. “But +the other varmints—”</p> + +<p>“What are those?”</p> + +<p>“That is what Uncle Bill Sorber calls most carnivorous +animals,” laughed Neale. “Creatures +that prey—”</p> + +<p>“Je-ru-sa-<i>lem</i>!” ejaculated the wide-eared +Sammy. “You don’t mean to say wild animals +pray, do you? I never knew they were that religious!”</p> + +<p>“Good-<i>night</i>!” laughed Neale. “I mean those +that prey on other animals—live on ’em, you know. +<i>Prey</i> on ’em.”</p> + +<p>“Je-ru-sa-<i>lem</i>!” murmured Sammy. “Just +like the fleas on my bulldog, Buster?”</p> + +<p>“That’s enough! That’s enough!” groaned +Neale. “No use trying to teach this boy anything.”</p> + +<p>“Huh!” grumbled Sammy Pinkney. “They +make me learn enough in school. Don’t you begin +to pick on me out here in the woods, Neale +O’Neil.”</p> + +<p>Just then Tom Jonah, who, his tongue hanging +out, had been padding on ahead, suddenly uttered +a loud bark and leaped out of the path. He went +tearing away across the tops of the drifts and +through the open wood through which the tote-road +then passed.</p> + +<p>Out of a close-branched spruce just ahead of the +big dog shot a tawny-gray body, and a fearsome +yowl drowned the barking of the dog. But the +creature that had created Tom Jonah’s excitement +was running away.</p> + +<p>“Call off that dog!” shouted the head driver. +“Want him all chawed up?”</p> + +<p>Tess stood up and began to scream for Tom +Jonah to return. The old dog would obey her +voice if no other.</p> + +<p>“Oh! What <i>is</i> that?” cried Ruth.</p> + +<p>“Link,” said the driver, succinctly, as the beast +uttered another angry howl which made the returning +Tom Jonah turn to snarl in the stranger’s +direction.</p> + +<p>“Oh!”</p> + +<p>“He means <i>lynx</i>,” said Mr. Howbridge.</p> + +<p>“Don’t, nuther,” snorted the driver. “There’s +only one of him, so he’s a link. If they was two +or more they’d be links.”</p> + +<p>“Oh! Ah!” chuckled Luke Shepard. “And +that one is now the ‘missing link.’ He was making +tracks for the port of ‘missing links’ when he +disappeared.”</p> + +<p>“He’s goin’ some. That dog give him a scare,” +admitted the driver, as a third and more distant +yowl floated back to them from the depths of the +forest.</p> + +<p>The whole party, however, was impressed by the +incident. More than Dot were disturbed by the +thought of danger.</p> + +<p>“Just the same,” the smallest Corner House +girl murmured in Tess’ ear. “I’m <i>not</i> going to +throw my Alice-doll overboard, either for wolfs +or linkses—so there!”</p> + +<h2 class='chapter' id='clink11'><a href='#toc'>CHAPTER XI—EMBERS IN THE GRATE</a></h2> + +<p>Mr. Durkin of the Coxford Hotel had furnished +the party with a hearty lunch to eat while they +were en route to Red Deer Lodge, and Ruth had +brought two big thermos bottles of hot tea, likewise +prepared at the hotel. The drivers had their +own lunches, and at noon the party halted in the +shelter of a windbreak to breathe the horses and +allow them to eat their oats.</p> + +<p>Mrs. MacCall and the older girls complained of +stiffness from sitting so long in the sledges. Riding +so far in the cold was not altogether pleasant; +there was no sunshine at all now. The gathering +storm had overcast the entire sky, and as they went +on after lunch a rising wind began moaning +through the forest.</p> + +<p>“I don’t see why the trees have to make such +a meachin’ noise,” sighed Dot, as they climbed a +steep hill so slowly that the rueful sound of the +rising gale was quite audible.</p> + +<p>“Where did you get such a word, Dot?” demanded +Ruth, smiling at her.</p> + +<p>“It is a good word. Uncle Rufus uses it,” declared +the smallest Corner House girl. “And +Uncle Rufus never uses bad words.”</p> + +<p>“Granted,” Ruth said. “But what does +‘meachin’ mean?”</p> + +<p>“Why, just as though the wind felt bad and was +whimpering about it,” said Dot, with assurance. +“It makes you all shivery to listen to it. And +after we heard that link, and know that there +are bears and wolfs about—O-o-oh! what’s that, +Ruthie?”</p> + +<p>Something white had flashed right up in front of +the noses of the first team of horses, and with +great leaps broke away from the road. Tom +Jonah was at the rear of the procession and did +not at first see this bounding shape.</p> + +<p>Neale stood up in the second sleigh and clapped +his hands sharply together. The white ball +stopped—halting right in a snow-patch; being so +much like the snow itself in color that those in +the sledges could scarcely see it. The sharp +crack of Neale’s ungloved palms seemed to make +the creature cower in the snow. It halted for a +moment only, however.</p> + +<p>“Oh! The bunny!” gasped Tess, standing up +to see.</p> + +<p>“A big white hare,” Mr. Howbridge said. “I +had no idea there were such big ones around here.”</p> + +<p>The hare burst into high speed again and disappeared, +almost before Tom Jonah set out for +him.</p> + +<p>“Come back, Tom Jonah!” shouted Tess. +“Why, you couldn’t catch that bunny if you had +started ahead of him.”</p> + +<p>“Wow! that’s a good one,” said Neale O’Neil. +“Tell you what, Aggie, those small sisters of yours +are right full of new ideas.”</p> + +<p>“That is what teacher says is the matter with +Robbie Foote,” remarked Sammy, thoughtfully.</p> + +<p>“How is that?” asked Agnes, expecting some +illuminating information from the standpoint of +a lower grade pupil.</p> + +<p>“Why,” Sammy explained, “teacher asked Rob +what was the plural of man. Rob told her ‘men.’ +Then, of course, she had to keep right on at it. If +you do answer her right she goes right at you +again,” scoffed Sammy. “That’s why I don’t +often answer her right if I can help it. It only +makes you trouble.”</p> + +<p>“Oh! Oh!” chuckled Neale. “A Daniel come +to judgment.”</p> + +<p>“Wait. Let’s hear the rest of Sam’s story,” +begged Agnes. “What was Robbie Foote’s +idea?”</p> + +<p>“That’s what teacher said—he was full of ideas, +only they were silly,” went on Sammy. “When +he’d told her ‘men’ was the plural of ‘man,’ she +said: ‘What is the plural of child?’ He told her +‘twins.’ What d’you know about that? She said +his ideas were silly.”</p> + +<p>“I’m not so sure he was silly,” laughed Neale.</p> + +<p>“I wonder what has become of those Birdsall +twins,” Agnes said thoughtfully. “Up here in +this wild country—”</p> + +<p>“Nonsense!” exclaimed Neale. “You don’t +know anything of the kind. Those two girls that +fisher-woman spoke about—”</p> + +<p>“One of them was a boy.”</p> + +<p>“Well, that doesn’t prove anything. We don’t +even know that the two at the fisher-village were +twins.”</p> + +<p>“But they were brother and sister roaming +about—runaways and alone.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, Aggie!” he cried, “don’t make up your +mind a thing is so without getting some real evidence +first. Mr. Howbridge asked, and he is not +at all sure those stragglers were the twins.”</p> + +<p>“Somehow I just feel that they were,” sighed +the second Corner House girl, with a confidence +that Neale saw it was useless to try to shake.</p> + +<p>When Agnes Kenway made up her mind to a +thing Neale wagged his head and gave it up.</p> + +<p>The party was quite too jolly, however, to bother +much about the lost Birdsall twins just then. +Even Mr. Howbridge had said nothing about them +since his cross-examination of the hotel-keeper +back at Coxford.</p> + +<p>If the twins had come this way, for instance, +attempting to reach Red Deer Lodge, surely some +of the people of Coxford or the woodsmen going +back and forth on the tote-road would have met +and recognized them. And if Ralph was dressed +in some of his sister’s clothing, they would have +been the more surely marked.</p> + +<p>Two girls of twelve or so traveling into the +woods? It seemed quite ridiculous.</p> + +<p>For this was indeed a wild country through +which the tote-road ran. The fact of its being a +wilderness was marked even to the eyes of those +so unfamiliar with such scenes.</p> + +<p>Now and then a fox barked from the brakes in +the lowland. Jays in droves winged across the +clearings with raucous cries. More than one +trampled place beside the thickets of edible brush +showed where the deer herd had browsed within +stone’s throw of the tote-road.</p> + +<p>And then, as the party came closer to the ridge +on which Red Deer Lodge was built, and the twilight +began to gather, the big white owls of these +northern forests went flapping through the tree-lanes, +skimming the snowcrust for the rabbits and +other small animals that might be afoot even this +early in the evening.</p> + +<p>The spread of the wings of the first of these +monster owls that they saw was quite six feet from +tip to tip, and it almost scared Dot Kenway. +With an eerie “Hoo! Hoo! Hoo-oo!” and a swish +of wings it crossed the road just ahead of the +horses, and made even those plodding beasts toss +their heads and prick up their ears.</p> + +<p>“Oh, look at that ’normous great white +chicken!” shouted Dot. “Did you ever?”</p> + +<p>“It is an owl, child,” said Tess.</p> + +<p>“An owl as big as <i>that</i>?” gasped the smaller +girl. “Why—why—it could carry you right off +like the eagle that Mr. Lycurgus Billet set his +Sue for bait! Don’t you ’member?”</p> + +<p>“I guess I do remember!” Tess declared. +“But an owl isn’t like an eagle. It isn’t so savage.”</p> + +<p>The party had come a long way, and the steaming +horses were now weary. As evening approached +the cold increased in intensity, while +the mournfully sounding wind promised stern +weather. The members of the party from Milton +began to congratulate each other that they were +arriving at the Lodge before a big storm should +sweep over this northern country.</p> + +<p>“And suppose we get snowed in and aren’t able +to get out of the woods till spring?” suggested +Cecile, not without some small fear that such +might be a possibility.</p> + +<p>“There goes little Miss Fidget!” cried her +brother. “Always worrying over the worst that +may happen.”</p> + +<p>“But I suppose we could be snowbound up +here?” suggested Ruth, although scarcely with +anxiety.</p> + +<p>“Yes!” agreed Luke, laughing. “And pigs +might fly. But they tell me they are awful uncertain +birds.”</p> + +<p>“Don’t listen to him, Ruthie,” said Cecile. +“We may have to stay here all winter long.”</p> + +<p>“Then I only hope Mr. Howbridge sent up grub +enough to see us through till spring,” put in the +collegian gayly. “For I can foresee right now +that this keen air is going to give me the appetite +of an Eskimo.”</p> + +<p>It was a long climb to the top of the ridge on +which the Birdsalls had built their rustic home. +When the party came in sight of it the lamps +were already lighted and these beckoned cheerfully +to the arrivals while they were still a long +way off.</p> + +<p>The private road which had branched off from +the regular tote-road at the foot of the ridge was +easy to ascend beside some of the hills they had +climbed. The teams, however, were not to be +urged out of a walk.</p> + +<p>There was a sudden flare of sulphurous light +over the wooded caps of the mountains to the west +of the ridge; but this lasted only a few minutes. +The sun was then smothered in the mists as it +sank to rest. Dusk almost at once filled the aisles +of the forest.</p> + +<p>On the summit of the ridge about the big, +sprawling, rustic house only shade trees had been +allowed to stand. The land was cleared and tilled +to some extent. At least, there was plenty of open +space around the Lodge and the log barns and the +outbuildings.</p> + +<p>Somebody was on watch, for the big entrance +door opened before the sleds reached the steps, +and yellow lamplight shone out across the porch. +Hedden stood in the doorway, while another man +ran down to assist with the bags and bundles.</p> + +<p>“Oh, what a homelike looking place!” Ruth +cried, quite as amazed as the other visitors by the +appearance of the Lodge.</p> + +<p>Aside from the fact that the house was built of +round logs with the bark peeled off, it did not seem +to be at all rough or of crude construction. There +were two floors and a garret. The entrance hall +seemed as big as a barn.</p> + +<p>It was cozy and warm, however, despite its size. +There was a gallery all around this hall at the +level of the second floor, and a stairway went up +on either side. At the rear was a huge fireplace, +and this was heaped with logs which gave off both +light and heat. There was a chandelier dropped +from the ceiling, however, and acetylene gas flared +from the burners of this fixture.</p> + +<p>The whole party crowded to the hearth where +benches and chairs were drawn up in a wide circle +before the flames. The maids relieved Mrs. MacCall +and the girls of their outer wraps and overshoes. +The boys had been shown where they were +to leave their caps and coats.</p> + +<p>Such a hilarious crowd as they were! Jokes +and cheerful gossip were the order of this hour of +rest. With all but one member of the party! +There was one very serious face, and this was the +countenance of the youngest of the four Kenway +sisters.</p> + +<p>“Dorothy Kenway! what is the matter with +you?” demanded Tess, at last seeing the expression +on the face of her little sister.</p> + +<p>Dot had been gazing all about the room with +amazed eyes until this question came. Then with +gravity she asked:</p> + +<p>“Tessie! didn’t Mr. Howbridge say this was a +lodge?”</p> + +<p>“Why, yes; this is Red Deer Lodge, child,” rejoined +Tess.</p> + +<p>“But—but, Tess! you know it isn’t a lodge, nor +a room where they have lodges! Now, is it?!”</p> + +<p>“Why—why—”</p> + +<p>“It can’t be!” went on the smaller girl with +great insistence. “You know that was a lodge +where we went night before last to have our +Christmas tree on Meadow Street.”</p> + +<p>“A <i>lodge</i>?” gasped Tess.</p> + +<p>“Yes. You know it was. And there was a +pulpit and chairs on a platform at both ends of +the lodge. And lodges are held there. I know, +’cause Becky Goronofsky’s father belongs to one +that meets there. She said so. And he wears a +little white apron with a blue border and a sash +over his shoulder.</p> + +<p>“Now,” said the earnest Dot, “there’s nothing +like that here, so it’s not a lodge at all. I don’t +see why they call it a red lodge for deers.”</p> + +<p>Tess would have been tempted to call on Mr. +Howbridge himself for an explanation of this +seeming mystery had the lawyer not been just +then in conference with Hedden in a corner of the +room. The butler had beckoned his employer +away from the others.</p> + +<p>“What is it, Hedden?” asked the lawyer. +“Has something gone wrong?”</p> + +<p>“Not with the arrangements for the comfort of +your party, Mr. Howbridge,” the man assured +him. “But when we came in here yesterday (and +I unlocked the door myself with the key you gave +me) I found that somebody had recently occupied +the Lodge.”</p> + +<p>“You don’t mean it! Somebody broken in! +Some thief?”</p> + +<p>“No, sir. I went around to all the windows and +doors. Nobody had broken in. Whoever it was +must have had a key, too.”</p> + +<p>“But who was it? What did the intruder do?”</p> + +<p>“I find nothing disturbed, sir. Nothing of importance. +But one room, at least, had been used +recently. It is a sitting-room upstairs—right +near this main hall. There had been a fire in the +grate up there. When we came in yesterday the +embers were still glowing. But I could find no +intruder anywhere about the Lodge, sir.”</p> + +<h2 class='chapter' id='clink12'><a href='#toc'>CHAPTER XII—MYSTERY AND FUN</a></h2> + +<p>Mr. Howbridge was evidently somewhat impressed +by Hedden’s report. He stared gravely +for a minute at his grizzled butler. Then he +nodded.</p> + +<p>“Take me upstairs and show me which room +you mean, Hedden,” he said.</p> + +<p>“Yes, sir. This way, sir.”</p> + +<p>He led the lawyer toward the nearest stairway. +They mounted to the gallery. Then the man led +his employer down a passage and turned short +into a doorway. The room they entered was +really on the other side of the chimney from the +big entrance hall.</p> + +<p>It was a small, cozy den. Mr. Howbridge looked +the place over keenly, scrutinizing the furnishings +before he glanced at the open coal grate to which +Hedden sought to draw his attention first of all.</p> + +<p>“Ah. Yes,” said the lawyer, thoughtfully. +“A work-basket. Low rocker. A dressing table. +Couch. This, Hedden, was Mrs. Birdsall’s private +sitting-room when she was alive. I never +saw the house before, but I have heard Birdsall +describe it.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, sir?”</p> + +<p>“Mrs. Birdsall spent a good deal of her time +indoors in this room, and the children with her. +So he said. And you found live embers in the +grate there?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, sir,” said the butler, his own eyes big +with wonder.</p> + +<p>“No other signs of anybody having been here?”</p> + +<p>“Not that I could see,” said Hedden.</p> + +<p>“Strange—if anybody had been in here who had +a key. Have you seen Ike M’Graw?”</p> + +<p>“No, sir. The men who brought us up here +said the man had gone away—had been away for +a week, sir—but would return tonight.”</p> + +<p>“Then he was not the person who built the fire +the embers of which you found. The coals would +not have burned for a week. He is the person +who has a key to the Lodge, and nobody else.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, sir.”</p> + +<p>“Whoever got in here, of course, either departed +when you came, Hedden, or before. Did +you notice any tracks about the house?”</p> + +<p>“Plenty, sir. But only of beasts and birds.”</p> + +<p>“Ah-ha! Are the animals as tame as that up +here?”</p> + +<p>“There were footprints that the men from town +assured me were those of a big cat of some kind, +and there were dog footprints; only the men said +they were those of wolves. They say the beasts +are getting hungry early in the season, because +of the deep and early snow, sir.”</p> + +<p>“Humph! Better say nothing to the children +about that,” said Mr. Howbridge. “Of course, +this party’s being here will keep any marauding +animals at a distance. We won’t care for that +sort of visitor.”</p> + +<p>“I think there is no danger, sir. I will tell the +chef to throw out no table-scraps, and to feed that +big dog we have brought in the back kitchen. +Then there will be nothing to attract the wild +creatures to the door.”</p> + +<p>“Good idea,” Mr. Howbridge said. “And I +will warn them all tomorrow not to leave the +vicinity of the Lodge alone. When Ike M’Graw +arrives we shall be all right. This vicinity is his +natural habitat, and he will know all that’s right +to do, and what not to do.”</p> + +<p>Mr. Howbridge still looked about the room. +The thing that interested him most was the mystery +of the intruder who had built the fire in the +grate. Mrs. Birdsall’s sitting-room! And the +lawyer knew from hearing the story repeated +again and again by the sorrowing widower, that +the woman had been brought in here after her +fall from the horse and had died upon the couch in +the corner of the room.</p> + +<p>He wondered.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the crowd of young people below +were comforted with tea and crackers before they +went to their bedrooms to change their clothes for +dinner. Mr. Howbridge had brought the customs +of his own formal household to Red Deer Lodge, +and, knowing how particular the lawyer was, Ruth +Kenway had warned the others to come prepared +to dress for dinner.</p> + +<p>Mrs. MacCall, after drinking her third cup of +tea, went off with the chief maid to view the house +and learn something about it. The Scotch woman +was very capable and had governed Mr. Howbridge’s +own home before she went to the old Corner +House to keep straight the household lines +there for the Kenways.</p> + +<p>Her situation here at the Lodge was one between +the serving people and the family; but the latter, +especially the smaller girls, would have been woeful +indeed had Mrs. MacCall not sat at the table +with them and been one of the family as she was +at home in Milton.</p> + +<p>The girls were shown to their two big rooms on +the second floor, and found them warm and cozy. +They were heated by wood fires in drum-stoves. +Ike M’Graw, general caretaker of the Lodge, had +long since piled each wood box in the house full +with billets of hard wood.</p> + +<p>Neale and Luke and Sammy were given another +room off the gallery above the main hall. There +they washed, and freshened up their apparel, and +otherwise made themselves more presentable. +Even Sammy looked a little less grubby than +usual when they came down to the big fire again.</p> + +<p>It was black dark outside by this time. The +wind was still moaning in the forest, and when +they went to the door the fugitive snowflakes +drifted against one’s cheek.</p> + +<p>“Going to be a bad night, I guess,” Neale said, +coming back from an observation, just as the girls +came down the stairway. “Oh, look! see ’em all +fussed up!”</p> + +<p>The girls had shaken out their furbelows, and +now came down smiling and preening not a little. +Mr. Howbridge appeared in a Tuxedo coat.</p> + +<p>“Wish I’d brought my ‘soup to nuts,’” admitted +Luke Shepard. “This is going to be a +dress-up affair. I thought we were coming into +the wilderness to rough it.”</p> + +<p>“All the roughing it will be done outside the +house, young man,” said Cecile to her brother. +“You must be on your very best behavior inside.”</p> + +<p>Hedden’s assistant announced dinner, and Mr. +Howbridge offered his arm to Mrs. MacCall, who +had just descended the stairway in old-fashioned +rustling black silk.</p> + +<p>Immediately Luke joined the procession with +Ruth on his arm, and Neale followed with Agnes, +giggling of course. Cecile made Sammy walk beside +her, and he was really proud to do this, only +he would not admit it. At the end of the procession +came the two little girls.</p> + +<p>They had not seen the dining-room before. It +was big enough for a banquet hall, and the table +without being extended would have seated a dozen. +There was an open fireplace on either side of this +room. The acetylene lamps gave plenty of light. +There were favors at each plate. There were +even flowers on the table. Aside from the +unplastered walls and raftered ceiling, one might have +thought this dinner served in Mr. Howbridge’s +own home.</p> + +<p>They all (the older ones at least) began to realize +how great a cross it would have been for the +lawyer to take into his home in Milton two harum-scarum +children like the Birdsall twins. If all +tales about them were true, they were what Neale +O’Neil called “terrors.”</p> + +<p>Such children would surely break every rule of +the lawyer’s well-ordered existence. And bachelors +of Mr. Howbridge’s age do not take kindly +to changes.</p> + +<p>“Think of bringing the refinements of his own +establishment away up here into the woods for a +three weeks’ vacation!” gasped Cecile afterwards +to Ruth.</p> + +<p>To-night at dinner every rule of a well-furnished +and well-governed household was followed. Hedden +and his assistant served. The food was deliciously +cooked and the sauce of a good appetite +aided all to enjoy the meal.</p> + +<p>And the fun and laughter! Mr. Howbridge and +Mrs. MacCall enjoyed the jokes and chatter as +much as the younger people themselves. Dot’s +discovery that this was not at all like the lodge +room on Meadow Street delighted everybody.</p> + +<p>“If you think that red deer ever held lodge +meetings in this house, you are much mistaken, +honey,” Agnes told the smallest Corner House +girl.</p> + +<p>Tom Jonah was allowed to come in and “sit up” +at table. The old dog was so well trained that his +table manners (and this was Ruth’s declaration) +were far superior to those of Sammy Pinkney. +But Sammy was on his best behavior this evening. +The grandeur of the table service quite overpowered +him.</p> + +<p>When they all filed back into the hall, which was +really the living-room and reception hall combined, +Tom Jonah went with them and curled down on a +warm spot on the hearth. One of the men staggered +in with a great armful of chunks for the +evening fire. Hedden found a popper and popcorn. +There was a basket of shiny apples, and +even a jug of sweet cider appeared, to be set down +near the fire to take the chill off it.</p> + +<p>“Now, this,” said Mr. Howbridge, sitting in +a great chair with his slippered feet outstretched +toward the fire, “is what I call country comfort.”</p> + +<p>“Whist, man!” exclaimed Mrs. MacCall. “’Tis +plain to be seen you ken little about country comforts, +or discomforts either. You were born in +the city, Mr. Howbridge, and you have lived in +the city most of your days. ’Tis little you know +what it means to live away from towns and from +luxuries.”</p> + +<p>“Why,” laughed the lawyer, “I always go away +for a vacation in the summer, and I usually choose +some rustic neighborhood.”</p> + +<p>“Aye. Where they have piped water in the +house, and electricity, an’ hair mattresses. Aye. +I know your kind of ‘country,’ too, Mr. Howbridge. +But when I was a child at home we lived +in the real country—only two farms in the vale +and the shepherds’ cots. My feyther was a shepherd, +you know.”</p> + +<p>“You must be some relation of ours, then, Mrs. +MacCall,” Luke said, smiling.</p> + +<p>“Oh, aye. By Adam,” said the housekeeper +coolly. “I’ve nae doot we sprang from the same +stock the Bible speaks of.”</p> + +<p>“Now will you be good?” cried Cecile, shaking +a finger at her brother. “Go on, Mrs. MacCall. +Tell us about your Highland home.”</p> + +<p>“Hech! There’s very little to tell,” said the +housekeeper, shaking her head, “save that ’twas +a very lonely vale we lived in, and forbye in winter. +Then we’d not see a strange body from end +to end of the snows. And the snow came early +and went late.</p> + +<p>“If we had not a grand oat bin and a cow in the +stable we bairns would oft go hungry. Why, our +mother would sometimes keep us abed in stormy +weather to save turf. A fire like yon,” she added, +nodding toward the blazing pile in the chimney, +“would have been counted a sin even in a laird’s +house.”</p> + +<p>“Ah, Mrs. MacCall,” said the lawyer, “we’re +all lairds over here.”</p> + +<p>“Aye, that can pay the price can have the luxuries. +’Tis so. But luxuries we knew naught +about where I was born and bred.”</p> + +<p>“I suppose the people right around us here—the +residents of this neighborhood—have few luxuries,” +Ruth said thoughtfully.</p> + +<p>“There aren’t many neighbors, I guess,” said +Neale, laughing.</p> + +<p>“But those people living in that fishing village—and +even at Coxford—never saw a tenth of the +things which we consider necessary at home,” +Ruth pursued.</p> + +<p>“Suppose!” exclaimed Cecile eagerly. “Just +suppose we were snowed in up here and could not +get out for weeks, and nobody could get to us. I +guess we would have to learn to go without luxuries! +Maybe without food.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, don’t suggest such a thing,” begged +Agnes. “And this cold air gives one such an +appetite!”</p> + +<p>“Don’t mention a shortage of food,” put in +Neale, chuckling, “or Aggie will be getting up in +the night and coming down to rob the pantry.”</p> + +<p>There might have been a squabble right then and +there had not Hedden appeared, and, in his grave +way, announced:</p> + +<p>“Mr. M’Graw has arrived, sir. Shall I bring +him in here?”</p> + +<p>“Ah!” exclaimed the lawyer, waking up from +a brown study. “Ike M’Graw? I understood +from Birdsall that he is a character. Has he had +supper, Hedden?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, sir. I knew that you would wish him +served. He has been eating in the servants’ dining-room, +sir.”</p> + +<p>“Send him in,” the lawyer said. “Now, young +folks, here is the man who can tell us more about +Red Deer Lodge and the country hereabout, and +all that goes on in it, than anybody else. Here—”</p> + +<p>The door opened again. Hedden announced +gravely:</p> + +<p>“Mr. Ike M’Graw, sir.”</p> + +<p>There strode over the threshold one of the tallest +men the young people, at least, had ever seen. +And he was so lean that his height seemed more +than it really was.</p> + +<p>“Why,” gasped Neale to Agnes, “he’s so thin +he doesn’t cast a shadow, I bet!”</p> + +<p>“Sh!” advised the girl warningly.</p> + +<p>They were all vastly interested in the appearance +of Mr. Ike M’Graw.</p> + +<h2 class='chapter' id='clink13'><a href='#toc'>CHAPTER XIII—THE TIMBER CRUISER</a></h2> + +<p>Mr. Howbridge got up from his chair and advanced +to meet the backwoodsman with hospitable +hand. The roughly dressed, bewhiskered +forester did not impress the young folks at first +as being different from the men who had driven +the sledges to the camp or those who had brought +the party up Long Lake in the ice-boats.</p> + +<p>Ike M’Graw had an enormous moustache (“like +that of a walrus,” Cecile whispered), but his iron-gray +beard was cropped close. His face was long +and solemn of expression, but his gray eyes, surrounded +by innumerable wrinkles, had a humorous +cast, and were as bright as the eyes of a much +younger person.</p> + +<p>He seized Mr. Howbridge’s hand and pumped it +warmly. His grip was strong, and Mr. Howbridge +winced, but he continued to smile upon the +old man.</p> + +<p>“Mr. Birdsall told me that if I wanted to know +anything up here, or wanted anything done, to +look to you, Mr. M’Graw,” said the lawyer, as +their hands fell apart.</p> + +<p>“I bet he didn’t say it jest that way, Mr. Howbridge,” +chuckled the man. “No. I reckon he +jest called me ‘Ike.’ Now, didn’t he? And ‘Old +Ike,’ at that!”</p> + +<p>Mr. Howbridge laughed. “Well, he did speak +of you in that way, yes,” he admitted.</p> + +<p>“I reckoned so,” M’Graw said. “Yep, I’m +‘Old Ike’ to my friends, and what my enemies +call me don’t matter at all—not at all.”</p> + +<p>“I fancy you don’t make many enemies up here +in the woods, M’Graw,” said Mr. Howbridge, waving +the visitor to a comfortable seat before the +fire.</p> + +<p>“Nor friends, nuther,” chuckled the man. +“No, sir, there ain’t sech a slather of folks up +here to mix in with, by any count.”</p> + +<p>Before the woodsman took his seat the lawyer +introduced him to Mrs. MacCall and to Ruth, individually, +and to the rest of the group in general.</p> + +<p>“Hi gorry!” exclaimed Ike M’Graw, “you’ve +got a right big fam’ly, haven’t you? You won’t +be lonesome up here—no, you won’t be lonesome.”</p> + +<p>“And that is what I should think you would +be,” Mr. Howbridge said. “Lonesome. If you +get snowed in you don’t see anybody for weeks, +I suppose?”</p> + +<p>“Better say ‘months,’ Mister,” declared +M’Graw. “I’ve been snowed into my cabin back +yonder in the valley from the day before Christmas +till come St. Patrick’s Day. That’s right.”</p> + +<p>“I understood you lived near the Lodge, here, +Ike?” said the lawyer.</p> + +<p>“Oh, I do in winter, since Mr. Birdsall asked +me to,” the man said. “But sometimes—’specially +when there was visitors up here—the population +of this here ridge got too thick for Old +Ike. Then I’d hike out for my old cabin in the +valley.”</p> + +<p>Quickly Mr. Howbridge put in a query that had +formed in his mind early in the evening:</p> + +<p>“Have you been troubled with visitors up here +this winter?”</p> + +<p>“No, sir! It’s been right quiet here, you might +say.”</p> + +<p>“Nobody here at all until my party came yesterday?”</p> + +<p>“Well, not many. Some timbermen went +through for Neven. His company’s got a camp +over beyond the Birdsall line. Yes, sir.”</p> + +<p>“Strangers have not been here, then?”</p> + +<p>“Why, no. Not to my knowledge,” said +M’Graw, with a keener look at the lawyer. “You +wasn’t meanin’ nothin’ special, was you? I’ve +been away over to Ebettsville for a week. Nothin’ +stirring here before I went.”</p> + +<p>The conversation had become general again +among the main party. Mr. Howbridge drew +his chair nearer to the old man’s ear.</p> + +<p>“Listen,” he said. “When my men came up +yesterday and opened the house with the key I +had given them, they found somebody had been +in here not many hours before they arrived.”</p> + +<p>“How’d they know?”</p> + +<p>“The fire had scarcely died out in one of the +grates upstairs.”</p> + +<p>“Hum! Fire, eh? And I hadn’t been inside +this Lodge since b’fore Thanksgiving. Kinder +funny, heh?”</p> + +<p>“Yes.”</p> + +<p>“Anything stole?”</p> + +<p>“Not a thing touched as far as we know. No +other traces but the embers in that grate—”</p> + +<p>“Hold on, Mister!” exclaimed M’Graw, but in +a low voice. “What grate are you referrin’ to? +Which room was this fire in?”</p> + +<p>Mr. Howbridge told him. The old man’s face +was curious to look upon. His brows drew down +into a frown. His sharp eyes lost their humorous +cast. Of a sudden he was very serious indeed.</p> + +<p>“That thar room,” he said slowly, and at +length, “was Miz’ Birdsall’s.”</p> + +<p>“So I believed from the way it was furnished +and from what Frank had told me of the house.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, Mister. That was her room. She +thought a heap of sittin’ in that room; ’specially +in stormy weather. And the little shavers used +to play there with her, too.”</p> + +<p>“Yes?”</p> + +<p>“Them little shavers thought a sight of their +mom,” pursued M’Graw.</p> + +<p>“I gathered as much from what Frank told +me,” Mr. Howbridge said seriously.</p> + +<p>“By the way, Mr. Howbridge,” said M’Graw +in a different tone, “where are the little shavers?”</p> + +<p>“You mean the twins, of course? Ralph and +Rowena?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, sir.”</p> + +<p>The guardian of the Birdsall twins rather hesitatingly +told the old man just why he had not +brought Ralph and Rowena to Red Deer Lodge +at this time.</p> + +<p>“Ran away? Now listen to that!” murmured +the old man. “That don’t sound right. Wasn’t +they with folks able to take keer of ’em?”</p> + +<p>“I thought they were,” said Mr. Howbridge. +“Rodgers, the butler, and his wife.”</p> + +<p>“Whoof!” exclaimed the backwoodsman, expelling +his breath in a great snort of disgust. +“That butler! Wal, what for a man wants to +buttle for, I don’t know. I never could make it +out that it was a real man’s job, anyway. And +that Rodgers was one useless critter. I don’t +blame them little shavers for runnin’ away from +Rodgers an’ that sour-apple wife of his. I know +’em both.”</p> + +<p>“If that is the case,” said the lawyer sadly, “I +wish I had known them as well as you appear to. +Then I should have made other provision for the +twins right at the start.”</p> + +<p>“But shucks!” said M’Graw, suddenly grinning. +“Them two little shavers will turn up all +right. Ralph and Roweny are right smart kids.”</p> + +<p>“That may be. But we don’t know where they +have gone to. Of course, Ike, they couldn’t have +got up here to Red Deer Lodge, could they?”</p> + +<p>“I don’t know ’bout that,” said the old man. +“I reckon they could have got here if they’d +wanted to. But I know well ’nough they didn’t—not +before I went away to Ebettsville a week +ago.”</p> + +<p>“Of course not! Somebody would have seen +them at Coxford. And then, if they had come +here, where are they now?”</p> + +<p>“That’s right, Mister,” agreed Ike M’Graw. +“But—but who started that fire in the grate?”</p> + +<p>“If it had been the children wouldn’t they have +been found here?”</p> + +<p>“Mebbe. Tell you the truth”—and the old +man’s weather-beaten face reddened a little. +“Well, to tell you the truth, when you spoke of +the fire in the grate, I was some took aback. Miz’ +Birdsall bein’ killed here. And she likin’ that +room so. And she finally dyin’ in it—well, I don’t +know—”</p> + +<p>“Ike! you are superstitious, I do believe,” said +the lawyer.</p> + +<p>“Mebbe. But that never killed nobody,” said +the man. “And funny things do happen. Howsomever—Say!” +he exclaimed suddenly, “how’d +these folks that made the fire get into the house +and out again?”</p> + +<p>“Hedden, my man, says he found nothing +broken or burst open. It must have been by the +use of a key. And the only key I knew of up +here was yours, Ike.”</p> + +<p>“That’s right,” said the backwoodsman, nodding. +“Mine’s the only key up here.”</p> + +<p>“But the intruders couldn’t have used that.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, they could, too! I didn’t take it with me +when I went away from here.”</p> + +<p>“Who would know where it was?”</p> + +<p>“Anybody might have seen it that looked into +my shack,” admitted the old man. “I ain’t in +the habit of hidin’ things. We don’t have burglars +up here, Mister. That key, and others, hung +right on a nail beside my chimley-place. Yes, +sir!”</p> + +<p>“Then any person passing by could have found +the key and entered the Lodge?” asked Mr. Howbridge.</p> + +<p>“Only we don’t have many folks passin’ by,” +returned Ike thoughtfully.</p> + +<p>“I can’t understand it.”</p> + +<p>“It is a puzzle,” admitted M’Graw. “Hi +gorry! I ain’t been to my shack yet since comin’ +back from Ebettsville. Mebbe the key ain’t thar +no more.”</p> + +<p>“To what door was it?” asked the lawyer.</p> + +<p>“This here,” replied M’Graw, jerking a thumb +toward the main entrance. “Padlock on the outside +of the door. All the other doors was barred +on the inside. Oh, she was locked up hard and +fast!”</p> + +<p>“I don’t understand it,” said the lawyer. +“You look when you go home and see if the key +is hanging where you left it.”</p> + +<p>“Hi gorry! I will,” promised the backwoodsman. +“I’d better bring the key over here tomorrow, +anyway. And I reckon you want them +figgers on the timber Neven wants to cut?”</p> + +<p>“Yes. Of course, Ike, you have made no mistake +in cruising the timberland?”</p> + +<p>“I never make mistakes, Mister,” said the old +man. “That wouldn’t do in the woods. The man +that’s brought up, as I was, with wildcats an’ +bears an’ sech, can’t afford to make mistakes. +This was a lots wilder country when I was a boy +from what ’tis now.”</p> + +<p>“I find that Neven’s figures are very different +from yours.”</p> + +<p>“Likely. And I reckon they’re in his favor, +ain’t they?” and M’Graw chuckled. “Ye-as? I +thought so. Well, you take it from me, Mister: +I’m working for Birdsall’s youngsters, not for +Neven.”</p> + +<p>“I believe that to be a fact,” the lawyer agreed +warmly. “I have already told Neven that there +are other companies that will make a contract +with us if he doesn’t care to accept your report.”</p> + +<p>“I b’lieve I know this Birdsall strip a leetle better’n +any other feller in these parts. I’ve lived +on it twenty year, and knowed it well before that +time. I’ve seen some o’ this timber grow. +Reckon I ain’t fooled myself none.”</p> + +<p>After that Mr. Howbridge drew the old +into the general conversation. Ike approved +vastly of the young people, it was evident. Agnes +and the smaller children were popping corn. +There were apples roasting on the hearth. The +cider was handed about in glasses which one of +the servants brought.</p> + +<p>“We shall look to you for help in amusing these +young people, Ike,” Mr. Howbridge said. “Is it +going to snow enough tonight to keep them indoors +tomorrow?”</p> + +<p>“No, no,” the old woodsman assured them. +“It’s snowing some, but not much yet awhile. +This here storm that’s comin’ has got to gather +fust. We’ll get a heavy fall, I don’t doubt, in the +end; but not yet. Like enough, ’twill be purty +fair tomorrow.”</p> + +<p>Reassured by this prophecy, the little folks soon +after went to bed. Nor were the older members +of the party long behind them. They had had a +long and wearying day, and the beds beckoned +them.</p> + +<h2 class='chapter' id='clink14'><a href='#toc'>CHAPTER XIV—BY THE LIGHT OF THE MOON</a></h2> + +<p>Ike M’Graw, the timber cruiser, was an excellent +weather prophet; and this was proved to be +a fact before all of those at Red Deer Lodge had +gone to bed on this first night.</p> + +<p>Neale O’Neil chanced to raise the shade of one +of the windows in the boys’ room before undressing, +and exclaimed to Luke:</p> + +<p>“Hey! who said it snowed? Look at that moon +up there!”</p> + +<p>Luke Shepard joined him and looked out, too, +at the rather misty orb of night that peered +through the breaking clouds. But little snow had +fallen during the evening.</p> + +<p>“Going to be a good day, just as that old codger +said it would,” agreed Luke. “My, how white +everything is—really, silver! And a lonely place, +isn’t it?”</p> + +<p>“You said it,” agreed Neale. He was feeling +in his pockets, and suddenly added: “Crackey! +I’ve lost my knife.”</p> + +<p>“You had it down there peeling apples for the +girls,” said Luke, who was beginning to undress.</p> + +<p>Sammy was already in bed and sound asleep. +Neale started for the door.</p> + +<p>“I don’t want to lose that knife,” he said. “I +am going to run down and get it.”</p> + +<p>The serving people had gone to bed, but there +were dim lights on the gallery and one below in +the big hall. Neale ran lightly down the carpeted +stairs on his side of the house. The light was +so dim that he fumbled around a good while hunting +for the missing knife.</p> + +<p>Suddenly something clattered about his ears—some +missiles that came from above, but were not +much heavier than snowflakes, it would seem. +Neale jumped, and then stared around.</p> + +<p>He could not see a thing moving or hear anything. +Where the white objects had come from +he could not understand. Finally he found one +that had rolled on the floor.</p> + +<p>“Popcorn! Say! it’s not snowing popcorn +in here—not by any natural means,” the boy told +himself, immediately suspicious.</p> + +<p>Suddenly he spied his knife, and he pocketed +that. As he did so there came another baptism +of popcorn. He dropped down below the edge of +a table which stood in the middle of the room under +the chandelier. All the light came from above, +and there was not much of that; so it was dark +under the table.</p> + +<p>He heard a faint giggle. “Ah-ha!” thought +Neale. “I smell a mouse! That is a girl’s giggle.”</p> + +<p>He saw that the way to the foot of the stairs +that were nearest the girls’ rooms, was quite dark. +He ran out from under the table, but softly and on +his hands and knees, and reached the stairway +without making a sound.</p> + +<p>The popcorn rattled again upon the table top, +and once more he heard the giggle. He wormed +his way up the stairs in the shadow and reached +the gallery. Here a jet of gas from the side wall +gave some light. He saw the robed figure hanging +over the bannister and in the act of throwing +another handful of popcorn at the spot where the +boy was supposed to be crouching.</p> + +<p>Neale O’Neil crept forward from the top of the +stairs, still on his hands and knees. He was likewise +in the shadow, although he could see the figure +ahead of him plainly.</p> + +<p>“Meow!” crooned the boy, imitating a cat with +remarkable ingenuity. “Meow!”</p> + +<p>“Oh, mercy!” hissed a startled voice.</p> + +<p>“Ma-ro-o-ow!” urged Neale O’Neil, repeating +his feline success.</p> + +<p>“Mercy!” ejaculated the whisperer. “That’s +a strange cat.”</p> + +<p>“Ma-row-ro-o-ow!” continued Neale, with a lingering +wail.</p> + +<p>“Here, kitty! kitty! kitty!” murmured the girl +crouching by the bannister. “Oh, where are you? +Poor kitty!”</p> + +<p>Immediately Neale changed his tone and produced +a growl that not only sounded savage but +seemed so near that the startled girl jumped up +with a cry:</p> + +<p>“Oh! Oh! Neale!”</p> + +<p>“Ma-row-ro-o-ow! Ssst!” continued what purported +to be a cat, and one that was very much annoyed.</p> + +<p>“Oh! <i>Oh!</i> OH!” shrieked Agnes, springing +up and leaning over the railing. “Neale! Come +quick!”</p> + +<p>And there Neale was right beside her! He appeared +so suddenly that she would have shrieked +again, and perhaps brought half the household +to the spot, had not the boy grabbed her quickly +and placed a hand over her mouth, stifling the cry +about to burst forth.</p> + +<p>“Hush!” he commanded. “Want to get Mrs. +Mac or Mr. Howbridge out here to see what is the +matter?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, Neale!” sputtered Agnes. “I thought +you were a cat.”</p> + +<p>“And I thought you were a hailstorm of popcorn.”</p> + +<p>“You horrid boy! To scare me so!”</p> + +<p>“You horrid girl! To shower me with popcorn!”</p> + +<p>“I don’t care—”</p> + +<p>“Neither do I.”</p> + +<p>Agnes began to giggle. “What were you doing +down there?” she asked.</p> + +<p>“I was looking for my pocketknife. Wouldn’t +lose it for a farm Down East with a pig on it!” +declared the boy. “What are you doing out +here?”</p> + +<p>“I went to Mrs. Mac’s room to give her her +nightcap. It was in my bag. Oh, Neale! do you +suppose it will be clear by morning, as that funny +old man says?”</p> + +<p>“It’s clear now.”</p> + +<p>“You don’t mean it?”</p> + +<p>“Come along here to the window and look for +yourself,” the boy said, and led her toward the +front of the house along the gallery.</p> + +<p>There was a broad and deep-silled window over +the front door of the Lodge. Neale drew back the +hangings. They could see out into the night which +was now all black and silver.</p> + +<p>The forest that edged the clearing in which +stood the Lodge was as black as ever an evergreen +forest could be. The tops of the trees were +silvered by the moonbeams, but the shadows at +the foot of the trees were like ink.</p> + +<p>In the open the new-fallen snow glittered as +though the moonlight fell on precious stones. It +was so beautiful a scene that for a moment Agnes +could only grip Neale O’Neil’s arm and utter an +ecstatic sigh.</p> + +<p>“Scrumptious, isn’t it?” said the boy, understanding +her mood.</p> + +<p>“Lovely!” sighed Agnes. “Ruth and Cecile +ought to see this.”</p> + +<p>“Hold on!” warned the boy. “Get them out +here and we’ll both be sent to bed in a hurry. +Ruth’s got her bossing clothes on—has had ’em +on ever since we left Milton.”</p> + +<p>“Te-he!” giggled Agnes suddenly. “She feels +her responsibility.”</p> + +<p>“Guess she does,” chuckled Neale. “But +there’s no need to add to her troubles. Believe +me! the less I am bossed around by her the better +I like it.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, Neale,” said Agnes, “she only does it for +your good.”</p> + +<p>“Don’t you fret,” returned the boy, with a +sniff. “I can get along without Ruth or anybody +else worrying about whether I’m good, or +not. Believe me!”</p> + +<p>“Oh!” squealed Agnes suddenly. “What’s +that?”</p> + +<p>“Huh! Seen a rat? Scared to death?” +scoffed Neale O’Neil.</p> + +<p>“Look at that thing out there! It’s no rat,” +declared the girl eagerly.</p> + +<p>Neale then looked in the direction she pointed. +Not twenty yards from the house, and sitting on +its haunches in the snow, was an object that at +first Neale thought was a dog. The shadow it +cast upon the moon-lit snow showed pointed ears, +however, and a bushy tail.</p> + +<p>“Crackey, Aggie!” gasped Neale, “that’s a +fox.”</p> + +<p>“A fox? Right here near the house? Just +like that?” gasped the girl. “Why—why, he +must be wild!”</p> + +<p>“Crackey!” returned Neale, smothering his +laughter, “you didn’t suppose he was tame, did +you?”</p> + +<p>“But—but,” stammered the girl, “if a wild fox +comes so near the house, one of those dreadful +lynxes may come—or a bear. I never! Why, we +might be besieged by wolves and bears and wildcats. +Did you ever?”</p> + +<p>“No, I never was,” scoffed Neale. “Not yet. +But, really, I am willing to be. I’ll try anything—once.”</p> + +<p>“I guess you wouldn’t be so smart, young man, +if the animals really did come here and serenade +us. Why—”</p> + +<p>“Listen! That fellow is serenading us now,” +declared Neale, much amused.</p> + +<p>The sharp, shrill yap of the fox reached their +ears. Then, from the rear of the house where +Tom Jonah was confined in the back kitchen, the +roar of the old dog’s bark answered the fox’s yapping.</p> + +<p>And then from somewhere—was it from above +and inside the house, or outside and in the black +woods?—there sounded a sharp explosion. Agnes +flashed a questioning glance at Neale; but the boy +pointed, crying:</p> + +<p>“Quick! Look! The fox!”</p> + +<p>The little animal with the bushy tail that had +raised its pointed nose to yap mournfully at the +moon, had suddenly sprung straight up into the +air. It cleared the snow at least four feet. One +convulsive wriggle it gave with its whole body, +and fell back, a black heap, on the snow.</p> + +<p>“Oh, Neale! what happened to it?” gasped +Agnes, amazed.</p> + +<p>“Shot,” said the youth, a curious note in his +voice.</p> + +<p>“Oh, who shot it?”</p> + +<p>“Ask me an easier one.”</p> + +<p>“Why—what—I think that was sort of cruel, +after all,” sighed the girl. “He wasn’t really doing +any harm.”</p> + +<p>“I thought you were afraid he might eat us all +up,” said Neale, dropping the curtain which he +had been holding back, and turning away from +the window.</p> + +<p>“Oh—but—I am serious now,” she said. +“Who do you suppose shot him?”</p> + +<p>“I could not say.”</p> + +<p>“That old woodsman, perhaps? There is none +of our party out there with a gun, of course. Oh, +dear! I hope I don’t dream of it. I don’t like +to see things killed.”</p> + +<p>But the thought of dreaming about seeing the +fox shot did not trouble Neale O’Neil when he +parted with Agnes and went back to his room. +Nor was it anything about the death of the creature +that absorbed his attention.</p> + +<p>It was who the huntsman was and from where +the shot was fired that puzzled Neale O ’Neil. Had +the shot been made from outside or inside the +house?</p> + +<p>For it seemed to the boy that the explosion had +been above their heads; and he chanced to know +that none of the party from Milton—not even the +servants—were quartered on the third floor of Red +Deer Lodge.</p> + +<p>Who, then, could be up there shooting out of one +of the small windows at the yapping fox? He +said nothing about this to Agnes; but he determined +to make inquiry regarding it the first thing +in the morning.</p> + +<h2 class='chapter' id='clink15'><a href='#toc'>CHAPTER XV—A VARIETY OF HAPPENINGS</a></h2> + +<p>They were near the shortest day of the year +and the sun rose very late indeed; so nobody at +Red Deer Lodge got up early, unless it was the +kitchen man who had to light the fires and bring +in much wood. He tramped paths through the +new-fallen snow to the outbuildings before sunrise. +By the time Neale O’Neil, his head filled with the +puzzling thoughts of the night before, reached the +rear premises, the yard of the Lodge was marked +and re-marked with footsteps.</p> + +<p>He sought Hedden, however, having seen that +the snow in front of the Lodge showed no footprint. +The fox lay just where it had been shot.</p> + +<p>“Does any of our party sleep in the garret, +Hedden?” Neale asked the butler.</p> + +<p>“No, young man. We all have rooms at the +back of the house.”</p> + +<p>The boy told the man about the shooting of the +fox. “Of course, one of the men was not out with +a small rifle, and plugged old Reynard when he +was howling at the moon, was he?”</p> + +<p>“No,” replied the butler. “Neither John nor +Lawrence knows how to use a gun, I’m sure. Perhaps +it was that tall man, Ike M’Graw.”</p> + +<p>“Well, seems to me he ought to have come and +got the pelt,” said Neale, ruminatingly. “It’s +worth something all right, when furs are so high. +Say, Hedden, how do you get upstairs into the +garret?”</p> + +<p>Hedden told him, presuming that it was merely +a boy’s curiosity that caused him to ask. But +Neale had a deeper reason than that for wishing +to find the way upstairs.</p> + +<p>He could not understand from what angle the +fox had been shot while he and Agnes were looking +out of the window, if the hunter had been in +the wood. There had been no flash or sign of +smoke from the edge of the forest, and Neale’s +vision swept the line of black shadow for hundreds +of yards at the moment of the report.</p> + +<p>“Smokeless powder is all right,” muttered the +boy. “But they can’t overcome the flash of the +exploding shell in the dark. No, sir! That +marksman was not in the wood. And the report +sounded right over our heads!”</p> + +<p>He said nothing more to Hedden, but found +the upper stairs at the rear of the house. At the +top was a heavy door, but it was not locked. He +thrust it open rather gingerly, and looked into the +great, raftered loft.</p> + +<p>The sun was above the treetops now and shone +redly into the front windows. There was light +enough for him to see that as far as human occupants +went, the garret of the Lodge was empty.</p> + +<p>There was not much up here, anyway. Several +boxes, some lumber, and a heap of rubbish in one +corner.</p> + +<p>Neale O’Neil stepped into the place and walked +to the front of the building. The windows were +square and swung inward on hinges. He knew +that this row of front windows was directly over +that at which he and Agnes stood looking out +upon the moon-lit lawn at bedtime.</p> + +<p>The windows were all fastened with buttons. +As far as he could see none gave evidence—at least +on the inside—of having been recently opened. +Neale shivered in the chill, dead air of the loft.</p> + +<p>If the marksman that had shot the fox was up +here, from which window did he shoot? Neale +could not find any mark along the window sill or +on the floor.</p> + +<p>Suddenly the boy began opening the windows, +one after the other. Some of them stuck, but he +persisted until each one swung open. Outside +the snow that had fallen the evening before lay +in a fluffy layer on the window sill.</p> + +<p>At the third window he halted. In this layer of +light snow was a mark. Neale uttered a satisfied +exclamation.</p> + +<p>It was the matrix of a round tube—the barrel +of the gun that had fired the shot which had finished +Reynard, the fox!</p> + +<p>“Can’t be anything else,” thought the boy. +“He knelt right here and rested his gun across the +sill. Yes! it points downward—pressed heavier +at the outer end than near the window. Yes!”</p> + +<p>The boy got down and squinted along the mark +in the snow. His keen eye easily brought the +huddled, sandy object on the snow down below into +range.</p> + +<p>“Now, what do you know about that?” Neale +O’Neil asked aloud. “Who was up here with a +gun last night and popped over that fox? I wonder +if I ought to tell Mr. Howbridge.”</p> + +<p>Had he done so the lawyer would quickly have +pieced together what Hedden had told him about +the live embers in the grate and Neale’s discovery. +Whether he would have arrived at a correct conclusion +in the matter, was another thing.</p> + +<p>However that might be, Neale O’Neil was sure +that somebody had access to the garret and had +shot the fox therefrom. After the rear premises +of the Lodge had been tracked up so before daylight, +half a dozen people might have left the +house by the rear door without their footprints +being seen. If the marksman had no business in +the Lodge he could easily have got away.</p> + +<p>Puzzling over these thoughts, Neale descended +to find most of the party before the fire in the +living-room, waiting for breakfast. Agnes was +eagerly telling of the fox she had seen shot at bedtime.</p> + +<p>Neale added no details to her story, save that +the fox still lay on the snow outside.</p> + +<p>“Whoever hit him didn’t care for the pelt,” +said the boy. “Now that it is frozen, it will be +hard to skin. A fox hide is worth something. +I’m going to thaw out the body and try to save +the skin—for Aggie, of course.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, my!” cried the beauty, “won’t it be fine +to have a collar or a muff made out of a fox that +I saw shot with my own eyes?”</p> + +<p>“Odd about that,” said Mr. Howbridge thoughtfully. +“I wonder who could have been so near +the Lodge last evening. And then, to have left +the fox there!”</p> + +<p>The breakfast call interrupted him. Neale said +nothing further about it. After the meal, however, +the young people all got into their warm +wraps and overshoes and went out of doors.</p> + +<p>Tom Jonah was turned loose, and he almost at +once dashed around the house to the spot where +the body of the fox lay. The children gathered +around the fuzzy animal in great excitement.</p> + +<p>“Oh, it looks like Mrs. Allen’s spitz dog—only +this is reddish and Sambo, the spitz, is white,” +Tess said. “The poor—little—thing!”</p> + +<p>“This is no ‘expectorates’ dog,” chuckled Neale, +grabbing the creature by the tail. “‘Expectorates’ +is a much better word than ‘spits,’ Tess. +Now, I am going to take this fellow and hang him +up in the back kitchen where he will thaw out. +No, Tom Jonah! you are not going to worry him.”</p> + +<p>“What lovely long fur!” murmured Agnes. +“Do you suppose you can really cure the skin for +me, Neale?” she demanded.</p> + +<p>“What’s the matter with the skin?” demanded +Sammy, in wonder. “Is it sick?”</p> + +<p>“Good gracious!” exclaimed Agnes. “These +children have to be explained to every minute. I +hope that fox skin has no disease, Sammy.”</p> + +<p>Luke and Ruth and Cecile had gone for a tramp +through the wood. The little folks set to work +building a snow man which was to be of wondrous +proportions when completed. Naturally Neale +and Agnes kept together.</p> + +<p>Agnes had been wandering along the edge of +the wood in front of the house while Neale carried +the fox indoors. Tom Jonah came back with Neale +and began snuffing about the spot where the fox +had laid.</p> + +<p>“See here, Neale O’Neil,” cried Agnes, “I can’t +find anybody’s footprints over here. Where do +you suppose that man shot the fox from?”</p> + +<p>“Humph!” grunted Neale noncommittally.</p> + +<p>“But here’s just the cunningest hoofprints! +See them!” cried Agnes.</p> + +<p>The boy joined her. Two rows of marks made +by split-hoofed animals ran along the edge of the +wood.</p> + +<p>“Crackey!” ejaculated the boy. “Those are +deer.”</p> + +<p>“You don’t mean it?”</p> + +<p>“Must be. Red deer, I bet. And right close +to the Lodge! How tame these creatures are.”</p> + +<p>“Well, deer won’t hurt us,” said Agnes, decidedly. +“Let’s see where they went to.”</p> + +<p>Neale was nothing loath. One direction was as +good as another. He wanted much to talk to +somebody about the discovery he had made in the +loft of the Lodge; but he did not wish to frighten +Agnes, so he did not broach the subject.</p> + +<p>The two rows of hoof marks went on, side by +side, along the edge of the clearing. They followed +them to the very end of the opening which +had been cleared about Red Deer Lodge—the +northern end.</p> + +<p>Here began a narrow path into the woods. The +spoor of the two animals led into this path, and +the boy and girl tramped along after them.</p> + +<p>“I guess nothing frightened them,” said Neale, +“for they appear to be trotting right along at an +easy gait. They must have passed this way in +the night. And that’s kind of funny, too.”</p> + +<p>“What is funny?” asked Agnes.</p> + +<p>“Why, deer—especially two, alone—ought to +have been hiding in some clump of brush during +the night. They don’t go wandering around much +unless they are hungry. And there is plenty of +brush fodder for them to eat along the edge of +the swamps, that is sure.”</p> + +<p>“Are you sure they are deer?” asked Agnes. +“They couldn’t be anything else, could they?”</p> + +<p>“I reckon not,” laughed Neale. “I say! who +lives here?”</p> + +<p>They caught a glimpse of an opening in the forest +ahead. Then a cabin appeared, from the chimney +of which a curl of blue smoke rose into the +air. There were several smaller buildings in the +clearing, too.</p> + +<p>“Guess we have struck that old timber cruiser’s +place,” Neale said, answering his own question.</p> + +<p>“Oh! Mr. Ike M’Graw!” cried Agnes. “Now +we can ask him if he shot the fox last night.”</p> + +<p>“But where did these deer go?” exclaimed +Neale, stopping on the edge of the little clearing +and staring all around.</p> + +<p>For here the tracks they had followed seemed +to cross and criss-cross all about the clearing. +That wild deer should frolic so about an occupied +house was indeed puzzling. He saw, too, that +there were human footprints over-running the +marks of the split hoofs.</p> + +<p>Suddenly from around the corner of the cabin +appeared the long, slablike figure of the woodsman. +He saw them almost immediately.</p> + +<p>“Hullo, there!” he cried. “Ain’t you out +early? I wouldn’t have been up near so early +myself, if it hadn’t been for those confounded +shoats of mine.”</p> + +<p>“What happened to the pigs?” asked Neale, +smiling.</p> + +<p>“They broke out o’ their pen. Always doin’ +that!” returned M’Graw. “Run off through the +woods somewhere, and then come back and made +sech a racket around my shanty that I can’t sleep. +Confound ’em!”</p> + +<p>Neale suddenly saw a great light. He seized +Agnes’ hand and squeezed it in warning. With +his other hand he pointed to the marks in the +snow.</p> + +<p>“Are those the pigs’ footprints?”</p> + +<p>“Yes. I just got ’em shut up again,” said the +woodsman. “Come in, won’t you? I guess my +coffee’s biled sufficient, and I’m about to fry me +a mess of bacon and johnnycake.”</p> + +<p>“What do you know about that?” murmured +Neale to the giggling Agnes. “We followed those +pig tracks for deer tracks. Aren’t we great hunters—I +don’t think!”</p> + +<h2 class='chapter' id='clink16'><a href='#toc'>CHAPTER XVI—THE KEY</a></h2> + +<p>The interior of Ike M’Graw’s cabin was a place +of interest to Neale and Agnes. There was not +much room, but it was neat and clean. There +were two bunks, one over the other at one end +of the room. At the other end was the big, open +fireplace.</p> + +<p>There were andirons, a chimney crane for a +pot, a dutch oven, and a sheet-iron shelf that could +be pushed over the coals, on which the old man +baked his johnnycake, or pan-bread.</p> + +<p>The coffee pot was already bubbling on this +shelf and gave off a strong odor of Rio. The +bacon was sliced, ready for the frying pan. Ike +wanted to cut more and give his two young visitors +a second breakfast; but they would not hear +to that.</p> + +<p>“We’ll take a cup of coffee with you,” Agnes +said brightly. “But I know I could not possibly +eat another thing. Could you, Neale?”</p> + +<p>“Not yet,” agreed the boy. “And anyway,” +he added, with a smile, “if we are going to have +a big storm as they say we are, Mr. M’Graw will +need to conserve his food.”</p> + +<p>“Don’t you fret, son,” said M’Graw; “I’ve got +enough pork and bacon, flour, meal and coffee, to +last me clean into spring. I never stint my stomach. +Likewise, as long as I can pull the trigger +of Old Betsey there, I shan’t go hungry in these +here woods. No, sir!”</p> + +<p>Neale stepped to the rack in the corner where +stood the brown-barreled rifle the woodsman called +“Old Betsey,” as well as a single and a double-barreled +shotgun.</p> + +<p>“Which of these did you use last night, Mr. M’Graw, +when you shot that fox?” Agnes asked.</p> + +<p>“Heh? What fox?”</p> + +<p>“Maybe it wasn’t you,” said the Corner House +girl. “But somebody shot a fox right up there +in front of the Lodge.”</p> + +<p>“When was this?” demanded the old man, looking +at her curiously.</p> + +<p>Neale told him the time. The woodsman shook +his head slowly.</p> + +<p>“I was buried in my blankets by that time,” he +declared. “Are you sure the fox was shot, young +feller?”</p> + +<p>“I’ve got it hung up to get the frost out so I +can skin it,” said Neale quietly.</p> + +<p>“Shot, eh?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, sir.”</p> + +<p>“What sort of a ball killed it?”</p> + +<p>“A small bullet. It was no large rifle bullet,” +said Neale confidently. “I should think it was +no more than a twenty-two caliber.”</p> + +<p>“Pshaw! that’s only a play-toy,” returned the +old man. “Who’d have a gun like that up here +in the woods? Guess you’re mistook, young feller.”</p> + +<p>“When you come up to the house you take a +look at the fox,” said Neale.</p> + +<p>“I’ll do that. Where’d the feller stand when +he shot the fox?”</p> + +<p>“Why,” put in Agnes, as Neale hesitated, “we +couldn’t find his footprints at all.”</p> + +<p>“Humph!” muttered the old fellow.</p> + +<p>He poured out the coffee. The cups were deep, +thick, and had no handles. He poured his own +into the deep saucer, blew it noisily, and sipped +it in great, scalding gulps. Agnes tried not to +give this operation any attention.</p> + +<p>Neale meanwhile was examining several fine +skins hung upon the log walls. There was a wolf +skin among them, and a big, black bear robe was +flung over the lower bunk for warmth.</p> + +<p>“I got him,” said the woodsman, “five year ago. +He was in a berry patch over against the mountain, +yonder. And he was as fat as butter.”</p> + +<p>“And the wolf?” asked Agnes, with considerable +interest.</p> + +<p>“I trapped him. Last winter. He was a tremendous +big feller,” said M’Graw, heaping a tin +plate with johnnycake and pouring bacon grease +over it. “There’s a small pack living up in the +hills, and I’m likely to get more this winter. +These heavy snows will no doubt be driving ’em +down.”</p> + +<p>“Oh! Wolves!” gasped the girl.</p> + +<p>“They won’t bother you none,” said M’Graw. +“Don’t go off by yourself, and if any of your +party takes a long tramp, carry a gun. Like +enough you’ll get a shot at something; but not +wolves. They’re too sly.”</p> + +<p>The conversation of the old backwoodsman was +both illuminating and amusing. And his hunting +trophies were vastly interesting, at least to Neale.</p> + +<p>There was a big photograph on the wall of Ike +and another man standing on either side of a +fallen moose. The great, spoon-shaped horns of +the creature were at least six feet across.</p> + +<p>“You’ll see that head up over the main mantelpiece +up to the Lodge,” said M’Graw. “That’s +Mr. Birdsall. He an’ me shot that moose over the +line in Canady. But we brought the head home.”</p> + +<p>Over his own fireplace was a handsome head—that +of a stag of the red deer.</p> + +<p>“Got him,” Ike vouchsafed between bites, +“down in the east swamp, ten year ago come +Christmas. Ain’t been a bigger shot in this part +of the country, I reckon, ’ceptin’ the ghost deer +Tom Lawrence shot three winters ago over towards +Ebettsville.”</p> + +<p>“Ghost deer!” exclaimed Neale and Agnes together.</p> + +<p>“What does that mean?” added the boy.</p> + +<p>“Surely you don’t believe there are spirits of +deer returned to earth, do you, Mr. M’Graw?” +asked Agnes, smiling.</p> + +<p>M’Graw grinned. “Ain’t no tellin’. Mebbe +there is. I’m mighty careful what I say about +ghosts,” he rejoined. “But this here ghost deer, +now—”</p> + +<p>He had finished breakfast and was filling his +pipe. “Lemme tell you about it,” he said. “I +will say, though, ’twasn’t no spirit, for I eat some +of the venison from that ghost deer.</p> + +<p>“But for two seasons the critter had had the +whole of Ebettsville by the ears. The hunters +couldn’t get a shot, and some folks said ’twas a +sure-enough ghost.</p> + +<p>“But if ’twas a ghost, it was the fust one that +ever left footprints in the snow. That’s sure,” +chuckled M’Graw. “I went over there with Old +Betsey once; but never got a shot at it. Jest the +same I seen the footprints, and I knowed what +it was.”</p> + +<p>“What was it?”</p> + +<p>“Looked like a ghost flying past in the twilight. +It was an albino—white deer. I told ’em so. And +fin’ly Tom Lawrence, as I said, shot it. Why they +hadn’t got it before, I guess, was because them +that shot at it shivered so for fear ’twas a ghost +they couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn!” +and M’Graw broke into a loud laugh.</p> + +<p>“I did not know that deer were ever white,” +Agnes said.</p> + +<p>“One o’ the wonders of nature,” Ike assured +her. “And not frequent seen. But that critter +was one—and a big one. Weighed upwards of +two hundred pound. Tom give me a haunch, and +when it was seasoned some, ’twasn’t much tougher +than shoe-leather. <i>Me</i>, I kill me a doe when I +want tender meat. My teeth is gettin’ kind of +wore down,” chuckled the old man.</p> + +<p>“Was it really all white?” asked Neale.</p> + +<p>“Well, that buck’s horns an’ hoofs was considerable +lighter in color than ordinary. With +them exceptions, and a few hairs on the forehead +and a tuft on the hind leg, that critter was perfectly +white. Queer. Jest an albino, as I said,” +M’Graw concluded between puffs.</p> + +<p>Beside the chimney on a big nail driven into a +log, hung a string of rusty keys, with one big shiny +brass one by itself. Agnes said:</p> + +<p>“I guess you have to lock everything up when +you leave home, don’t you, Mr. M’Graw?”</p> + +<p>“Me? Never lock a thing. We don’t have no +tramps. And if I leave home I always leave a +fire laid and everything so that a visitor can come +right in and go to housekeeping. It’s a purty +mean man that’ll lock up his cabin in the woods. +No, ma’am. I never lock nothin’.”</p> + +<p>“But those keys?” the Corner House girl suggested +curiously.</p> + +<p>“Oh! Them? Just spare keys I picked up. +All but this,” and he reached for the brass key +briskly. “This is the key to the Lodge padlock, +I’m goin’ to take it up to that Mr. Howbridge of +yours and tell him something about it. I’ll walk +back with you.”</p> + +<p>He slipped into his leather jacket and buckled +up his leggings. Then banking the fire on the +hearth, he said he was ready to go. He put the +big brass key in his pocket, but as he had intimated, +he left the cabin door unlocked.</p> + +<p>Once outside, they saw that the sun was clouded +over again. “That storm is surely a-coming,” +Ike observed. “I shouldn’t wonder, when it does +get here, if it turns out to be a humdinger. ‘Long +threaten, long last,’ they say.”</p> + +<p>When they arrived at the Lodge the old man +took a look at the fox Neale had hung up. He +examined the small hole under the ear where the +bullet had gone into the animal’s head.</p> + +<p>“Nice shot,” he muttered. “Dropped him +without a struggle, I reckon. And you sure are +right, boy,” he added to Neale. “It was a twenty-two. +Nothin’ bigger. Humph! mighty funny, +that.</p> + +<p>“Well, you let it hang here and I’ll skin it for +you before I go back home. Fust off I want to +see your Mr. Howbridge.”</p> + +<p>As M’Graw went through the hall to find the +lawyer, Neale and Agnes were called by Luke from +one of the sheds. His voice and beckoning hand +hurried them to the spot.</p> + +<p>“What do you know about this?” cried Luke. +“Here are two perfectly good sleds—a big one +and a smaller. And one of those drivers that +have just started back for Coxford, told me where +there was a dandy slide.”</p> + +<p>“Crackey, that’s fine!” agreed the eager Neale.</p> + +<p>Agnes, too, was delighted. The other girls were +eager to try the coasting.</p> + +<p>“But we must get away without the children. +It is too far for them to go,” Ruth said. “At +least, we must try it out before we let them join +us.”</p> + +<p>“They are all right at the front with their snow +man. I just saw them,” Agnes said. “Come +on!” Agnes was always ready for sport.</p> + +<p>They started away from the house, the two boys +dragging the bobsled. There were about four +inches of fluffy, dry snow on top, and under that +the drifts were almost ice-hard.</p> + +<p>“Ought to make the finest kind of sledding,” +Luke declared.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Ike M’Graw had found Mr. Howbridge +reading a book in a corner of one of the +comfortable settees in the big living-room. He +dropped the book and stood up to greet the woodsman +with a smile.</p> + +<p>“How are you, this morning, M’Graw?” asked +the lawyer. “How about the key?”</p> + +<p>“Here ’tis,” said the guide. “Found it just +where it should be. Looked as though it had +never been touched since I was gone. But, of +course, as I tell you, anybody might have been in +my cabin. I don’t lock nothin’ up.”</p> + +<p>“If the key was used, it was by somebody who +knew it was the key and where to find it,” Mr. +Howbridge said reflectively.</p> + +<p>“You struck it there,” agreed Ike. “And +there’s only two keys to that big padlock. Unless +there’s been one made since Mr. Birdsall +died,” he added.</p> + +<p>“If anybody borrowed the key and got in here, +they got out again and locked the front door and +returned the key.”</p> + +<p>“So ’twould seem. You say there wasn’t no +marks in the snow when your folks fust came?”</p> + +<p>“No.”</p> + +<p>“It snowed the day after I went away from here +to Ebettsville. They must have come here and +gone before that snow then. That snow covered +their tracks. How’s that?”</p> + +<p>“Not so good,” the lawyer promptly told him. +“You forget the live embers in the grate. Those +embers would not have stayed alive for five days.”</p> + +<p>“Ain’t that a fac’?” muttered the old man.</p> + +<p>They pondered in silence for a moment.</p> + +<p>Hedden suddenly entered the room. He seemed +flurried, and his employer knew that something of +moment had occurred.</p> + +<p>“What is the matter, Hedden?” the latter +asked.</p> + +<p>“I have to report, sir, that somebody has been +at the goods in the pantry—the canned food and +other provisions that we brought up.”</p> + +<p>“What do you mean?” asked Mr. Howbridge +curiously.</p> + +<p>“The chef, sir, says that quite a good deal of +food has been stolen. He put the stuff away. +There is a lot of it gone, sir—and that since last +night at dinner time.”</p> + +<p>“Humph! Isn’t that strange?” murmured the +lawyer.</p> + +<p>M’Graw grunted and started for the front door.</p> + +<p>“Where are you going, M’Graw?” asked Mr. +Howbridge.</p> + +<p>“I’m going to find out who shot that fox,” was +the woodsman’s enigmatical answer.</p> + +<h2 class='chapter' id='clink17'><a href='#toc'>CHAPTER XVII—ALL DOWN HILL</a></h2> + +<p>The party of young people with the bobsled +was very merry indeed just as soon as they got +out of hearing of the Lodge. By striking into a +path which opened into the wood right behind +the barns, they cut off any view the two little girls +and Sammy Pinkney might have caught of their +departure.</p> + +<p>“I feel somewhat condemned for leaving them +behind,” Ruth said. “Yet I know it is too far for +such little people to go along and get back for +lunch.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, they are having a good time,” Cecile said. +“You make yourself a slave to your young family, +Ruthie,” and she laughed.</p> + +<p>“We will make it up to the kids,” Luke joined +in. “After we have tried the slide they can have +a shot at it.”</p> + +<p>“That’s all right,” grinned Neale O’Neil. +“But if Tess Kenway thinks she has been snubbed +or neglected—well! you will not hear the last of +it in a hurry, believe me.”</p> + +<p>This part of the wood into which the young +people had entered was a sapling growth. Not +many years before the timber had been cut and +there were only brush clumps and small trees here +now.</p> + +<p>Flocks of several different kinds of birds—sparrows, +buntings, jays, swamp robins, and +others—flew noisily about. There were berries +and seeds to be found in the thickets. The birds +had begun to forage far from the swamps—a sign +that the snow was heavy and deep in their usual +winter feeding places.</p> + +<p>“The dear little birdies!” cooed Agnes, waving +her gloved hand at a flock that spread out fan-wise +in the covert, frightened by the approach of +the young people.</p> + +<p>Suddenly there arose a vast racket—a whirring +and trampling sound, as though it were of runaway +hoofs. Agnes shrieked and glanced about +her. The other girls looked startled.</p> + +<p>“That horse! It’s running away!” cried +Agnes. “Oh, Neale!”</p> + +<p>“Shucks!” said that youth, scornfully. “‘The +dear little birdies!’ Ho, ho! I thought you liked +’em, Aggie?”</p> + +<p>“Liked what?” she demanded, as the noise +faded away into the wood.</p> + +<p>“The birdies. That was a flock of partridges. +They can make some noise, can’t they? Food in +the swamps must be getting mighty scarce, or they +would not be away up here.”</p> + +<p>“Who ever would have thought it?” murmured +Cecile. “Partridges!”</p> + +<p>“Wish I had a gun,” said Luke.</p> + +<p>“Don’t be afraid. They won’t bite,” chuckled +Neale O’Neil. “And we won’t be likely to meet +anything much more dangerous than birds in the +day time.”</p> + +<p>“Yet we saw that big cat yesterday,” Ruth +said.</p> + +<p>“It ran all right. We might have brought Tom +Jonah; only he was playing with the kids,” said +Neale. “Anyway, the best he would do would +be to scare up creatures in the thickets that we +otherwise would not know were there.”</p> + +<p>“Now, stop that, Neale O’Neil!” cried Agnes. +“Are you trying to frighten us?”</p> + +<p>“Shucks, Aggie!” he returned. “You know the +kind of wild animal we scared up this morning +when we found Ike M’Graw’s place.”</p> + +<p>“Oh! Oh!” cried Agnes, with laughter.</p> + +<p>“What’s the joke?” asked Luke.</p> + +<p>So Neale told the rest of the party how he and +Agnes had followed the footprints of the “deer” +clear to the old man’s cabin.</p> + +<p>“And there we could hear them squealing in +their pen,” was the way Neale finished it.</p> + +<p>“Two mighty hunters, you!” chuckled Luke.</p> + +<p>The road over which they dragged the sled soon +became steep. They were now climbing a long hill +through heavier timber. It was a straight path, +and the crown of the ascent was more than a mile +from Red Deer Lodge.</p> + +<p>Half way up they passed a fork in the timber +road. The roads were not rutted at all, for they +were full of firm snow. This second road dipped +to the north, running down the steep hill and out +of sight.</p> + +<p>“That chap who told me about this slide told +me to ’ware that road,” Luke said. “Around that +curve he said it was steep and there’d be no stopping +the sled for a long way. If we stick to the +right track, we’ll slide back almost to the Lodge +itself.”</p> + +<p>“That’ll help some,” Cecile said. “I am getting +tired tramping over this snow. It’s a +harder pull than I imagined it would be.”</p> + +<p>“We were very wise not to let the children +come,” Ruth remarked.</p> + +<p>Uphill for all of a mile was, in truth, no easy +climb.</p> + +<p>Agnes and Neale O’Neil began to bicker.</p> + +<p>“I’m no horse,” said Neale rather grumpily, +when Agnes suggested that the boys could drag +the girls on the sled.</p> + +<p>“No; your ears are too long,” she retorted impishly.</p> + +<p>“Now, children!” admonished Ruth, “How is +it you two always manage to fight?”</p> + +<p>“They’re only showing off,” chuckled Luke +Shepard. “In secret they have a terrible crush +on each other.”</p> + +<p>“Such slang!” groaned his sister.</p> + +<p>“Real college brand,” said Agnes cheerfully. +“I do love slang, Luke. Tell us some more.”</p> + +<p>“I object! No, no!” cried Ruth. “She learns +quite enough high-school slang. Don’t teach her +any more of the college brand, Luke.”</p> + +<p>They puffed up the final rise and arrived at the +top of the ascent. This was the very peak of the +ridge on which Red Deer Lodge was built.</p> + +<p>Because it was winter and all but the evergreens +and oaks were denuded of leaves, they could see +much farther over the surrounding landscape than +would have been possible in the leafy seasons; +however, on all sides the forest was so thick at +a distance that a good view of the country was not +easily obtained.</p> + +<p>The valley toward the north was black with +spruce and hemlock. One could not see if there +were clearings in the valley. It seemed there to +be an unbroken and primeval forest.</p> + +<p>This valley was included in the Birdsall estate, +and the timber which the Neven Lumber Company +wished to cut practically lay entirely in that wild +valley.</p> + +<p>The hills to the west were plainly visible. Their +caps were either bald and snow covered, or +crowned with the black-green forest. Toward the +lakeside the slopes were alternately tree covered +and of raw stumpage where the timber had recently +been cut. These “slashes” were ugly looking +spots.</p> + +<p>“That is what all that part yonder of this estate +will look like when the lumbermen get through,” +said Ruth. “Isn’t it a shame?”</p> + +<p>“But trees have to be cut down some time. I +heard M’Graw say that much of the timber on this +place was beginning to deteriorate,” Luke said in +reply.</p> + +<p>“Shucks!” exclaimed Neale O’Neil, “if a tree +is beautiful, why not let it stand? Why slaughter +it?”</p> + +<p>“There speaks the altruistic spirit of the young +artist,” laughed Luke. “Ask Mr. Howbridge. +How about the money value of the tree?”</p> + +<p>“Shucks!” Neale repeated, but with his eyes +twinkling. “Is money everything?”</p> + +<p>“Let me tell you, boy,” said Luke a little bitterly; +“it buys almost everything that is worth +while in this world. I want beautiful things, too; +but I know it will cost a slew of money to buy +them. I am going to set out and try for money +first, then!”</p> + +<p>“Hear the practical youth!” said Cecile. +“That is what he learns at college. Say! aren’t +we going to slide downhill? Or did we come up +here to discuss political economy?”</p> + +<p>Luke, holding up his hand in affirmation, declared: +“I vow to discuss neither polit, bugs, +pills, psyche, trig—”</p> + +<p>“Oh, stop!” commanded Ruth, yet with curiosity. +“What are all those horrid sounding +things?”</p> + +<p>“Pshaw!” cried the collegian’s sister, “I +know that much of his old slang. ‘Trig’ is trigonometry, +of course; ‘psyche’ is psychology; +‘pills’ means physics; ‘bugs’ is biology; and +‘polit,’ of course, is political economy. Those college +boys are awfully smart, aren’t they?”</p> + +<p>“I want to sli-i-ide!” wailed Agnes, stamping +her feet in the snow. “I am turning into a lump +of ice, standing here.”</p> + +<p>“Get aboard, then,” answered Neale.</p> + +<p>She plumped herself on the sled. Luke straddled +the seat just behind the steering wheel. The +other girls took their places in rotation after +Agnes, while Neale made ready to push off and +then jump on himself at the rear.</p> + +<p>“Ready?” he cried.</p> + +<p>“Let her go!” responded the steersman.</p> + +<p>“Hang on, girls!” commanded Neale, as he +started the sled with a mighty shove.</p> + +<p>The bobsled moved slowly. The runners +grunted and strained over the soft snow that +packed under them and, at first, retarded the +movement of the sled. But soon the power of +gravitation asserted itself. Neale settled himself +on the seat. The wind began to whistle past their +ears. In front a fine mist of snow particles was +thrown up.</p> + +<p>Faster and faster they rushed down the descent. +The young people had thought this trail very +smooth as they climbed it; but now they found +there were plenty of “thank-you-ma’ams” in the +path. The bobsled bumped over these, gathering +speed, and finally began to leave the snow and +fairly fly into the air when it struck a ridge.</p> + +<p>The girls screamed when these hummocks +arrived. But they laughed between them, too! It +was a most exciting trip.</p> + +<p>Like an arrow the sled shot past the fork in the +road, keeping to the left. But it would have been +a very easy matter, as Luke Shepard saw, to turn +the sled into the steeper descent.</p> + +<p>They started up a gray and white rabbit beside +the path, and it raced them in desperate fright for +several hundred yards, before it knew enough to +turn off the road and leap into the brush. Luke’s +head was down and his eyes half closed as he +stared ahead. But Neale gave voice to his delight +in reëchoed shouts.</p> + +<p>There were slides in Milton. The selectmen +gave up certain streets to the young folk for coasting. +But those streets were nothing like this.</p> + +<p>On and on the bobsled flew, its pace increasing +with every length. Although this wood road was +in no place really steep, the hill was so long, and +its slant so continuous that the momentum the +sled gathered carried it over any little level that +there might be, and at the foot of the decline still +shot the merry crew over the snow at a swift pace +and for a long distance.</p> + +<p>Indeed, when the sled stopped they were almost +at the back of the Red Deer Lodge premises. A +mellow horn was calling them to lunch when they +alighted.</p> + +<p>“Oh! wasn’t it bully?” gasped the delighted +Agnes. “I never did have such a sled-ride!”</p> + +<p>“How about your trip up the lake!” Cecile +asked.</p> + +<p>“Oh! But that scooter was different.”</p> + +<p>The other girls were quite as pleased with the +slide as Agnes; and the three ran into the house +to dress for lunch, chattering like magpies, while +the boys put the sled away under the shed.</p> + +<p>When Luke and Neale went into the house they +found Ike M’Graw skinning the fox in the back +kitchen, Tom Jonah being a much interested spectator. +The woodsman beckoned Neale to him.</p> + +<p>“Look here, young feller,” he said. “You seen +this critter shot last night, you say?”</p> + +<p>“Yes,” replied the boy.</p> + +<p>“Where was it shot from? I’m derned if I can +find any place where the feller stood along the edge +of the woods to shoot him.”</p> + +<p>“No. I couldn’t find any footprints either,” +Neale confessed.</p> + +<p>“Not knowing from which direction the bullet +came—”</p> + +<p>“Oh, but I do know that, Mr. M’Graw. I am +pretty positive, at least. I have been doubtful +whether to say anything about it or not—and +that’s a fact.”</p> + +<p>“What d’you mean?” demanded the old man, +eyeing him shrewdly.</p> + +<p>“Well, I thought when I heard the shot and the +fox was killed that the explosion was right over +my head.”</p> + +<p>“What’s that? Over your head! In the attic?”</p> + +<p>“That is where the shot came from—yes.”</p> + +<p>“Air you positive?” drawled the old man.</p> + +<p>“I went up there this morning and saw the place +where the fellow had rested the barrel of his gun +across the window sill to shoot.”</p> + +<p>“My! My!” muttered Ike thoughtfully. +“And there wasn’t nobody up there this morning?”</p> + +<p>“No. And I asked Hedden, and he said neither +of the other men knew how to use a gun and that +they all were in bed at the time the fox was shot.”</p> + +<p>“Do tell!” muttered the woodsman. “Then +they—well, the feller that shot the fox was up +there in the attic about bedtime, was he?”</p> + +<p>“Yes. Who do you suppose he was, Mr. +M’Graw?” asked Neale curiously.</p> + +<p>“Well, I wouldn’t want to make a guess. This +here man workin’ in the kitchen tells me that there +wasn’t a foot mark in the snow at all when he +got up and went out of the back door here the +fust time this morning. And, of course, there +wasn’t no footprints at the front of the house, was +there?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, no! Not until after breakfast time.”</p> + +<p>“Uh-huh! Well, after this John had tramped +back an’ forth to the woodshed and the like half +a dozen times, anybody could have gone out of +here without their footprints being noticed. +Ain’t that a fac’?”</p> + +<p>He said this to himself more than to Neale, who +had become vastly interested in the subject. He +eagerly watched the old man’s weather-beaten +face.</p> + +<p>Suddenly the woodsman raised his head and +looked at Neale thoughtfully. He asked a question +that seemed to have nothing at all to do with +the subject in hand.</p> + +<p>“What kind of a dog is this here Tom Jonah?” +Ike demanded. “Ain’t he got no nose?”</p> + +<h2 class='chapter' id='clink18'><a href='#toc'>CHAPTER XVIII—FIGURING IT OUT</a></h2> + +<p>Of course Ike M’Graw could see for himself +very easily that Tom Jonah had a nose. It was +pointed just then at the fox pelt in the old woodsman’s +hands, and was wrinkled as the dog sniffed +at the skin.</p> + +<p>So Neale O’Neil knew that the man meant something +a little different from what he said. He, +in fact, wanted to know if Tom Jonah was keen +on the scent, and Neale answered him to that +end.</p> + +<p>“We think he’s got a pretty good nose, Mr. +M’Graw, for a Newfoundland. Of course, Tom +Jonah is not a hunting dog. If he runs a rabbit +he runs him by sight, not by scent. But give him +something that one of the children wears, and +he’ll hunt that child out, as sure as sure! They +play hide and seek with him just as though he +were one of themselves—only Tom Jonah is always +‘it.’”</p> + +<p>“Uh-huh?” grunted the old man. Then he +said: “Don’t seem as though any stranger could +have come down from the attic and got through +that hall yonder without this dog making some +sort of racket.”</p> + +<p>“I never thought of Tom Jonah,” admitted +Neale.</p> + +<p>“He was in here all night, they tell me,” went +on Ike.</p> + +<p>“Yes. But didn’t the kitchen man, John, let +him out when he first came downstairs this +morning?”</p> + +<p>“No. I asked him. He said the dog didn’t +seem to want to go out. He opened that door +yonder into this back kitchen and called the dog. +This here dog come to the door, but he did not +want to go out and turned away. So John shut +the door again.”</p> + +<p>“Crackey!” exclaimed Neale. “Then there +was somebody in here, and don’t you forget it, +Mr. M’Graw!”</p> + +<p>“Uh-huh? But why didn’t the dog give tongue? +Was it somebody the dog knowed? You see, son, +there’s been food stole from that pantry yonder +durin’ the night. Could it be the feller that shot +the fox from the attic winder was right in here +when John called the dog, loadin’ up his knapsack +with grub?”</p> + +<p>“Why—why—”</p> + +<p>“This dog must ha’ knowed him—eh?”</p> + +<p>“I—I suppose so. But who could it be?” +demanded Neale with wondering emphasis. +“Surely it was none of our servants. And Luke +Shepard and Sammy and I were in bed in one +room. The girls—Mr. Howbridge—Mrs. MacCall—”</p> + +<p>“I guess,” said the old man, grinning, “that +the lady and that lawyer man can be counted out +of it. None of you brought a twenty-two rifle with +you, anyway.”</p> + +<p>“No.”</p> + +<p>“That’s what the fox was shot with. Here’s +the pellet,” and Ike brought the little flattened +lead bullet out of his vest pocket. “If it hadn’t +been a good shot—spang through the brain—’twould +never have killed the fox. He had his +head on one side, yappin’, and that bullet took him +right.</p> + +<p>“Now, better keep still about this. No use +frightening the ladies. Girls an’ women is easy +frightened, I expect. I’ll speak again to Mr. Howbridge +about it. But this here dog—”</p> + +<p>He shook his head over Tom Jonah’s shortcomings, +while Neale ran away to wash his hands and +face before appearing at the lunch table.</p> + +<p>The children around the table were in something +of an uproar. Mrs. MacCall and Ruth were +obliged to be firm in order to quiet Sammy, and +Tess, and Dot.</p> + +<p>For Agnes, unable to keep anything to herself, +had blurted out all about the lovely sled-ride the +older ones had enjoyed. Immediately the three +younger children decided that they had been +cheated.</p> + +<p>“We wanted to go tobogganing, too,” Tess declared.</p> + +<p>“I just <i>love</i> sliding downhill,” wailed Dot.</p> + +<p>“Huh!” sniffed Sammy Pinkney. “A feller +can’t have no fun where there’s big fellers and +big girls. They always put you down, and leave +you out of the best things.”</p> + +<p>“You shall go sliding tomorrow if the snow +holds off,” Ruth promised.</p> + +<p>“Why not this afternoon, Ruthie?” begged +Tess.</p> + +<p>“Sister’s got something else to do this afternoon. +Wait until tomorrow,” the oldest Kenway +replied.</p> + +<p>“It’s snowing already,” muttered Sammy disconsolately.</p> + +<p>There were a few flakes in the air. But it did +not look as though any heavy fall had begun.</p> + +<p>“I don’t see why we need to have you go with +us to slide,” Tess said, pouting. “We go sliding +without you in Milton.”</p> + +<p>“This is different, Tess,” Ruth said firmly. +“Now, let us hear no more about it! You will +annoy Mr. Howbridge.”</p> + +<p>Sammy winked slyly at the two little girls. +“Just you wait!” he mouthed so that only Tess +and Dot heard him.</p> + +<p>“Oh, Sammy!” murmured Dot. “What’ll you +do?”</p> + +<p>“Just you wait!” repeated the boy, and that +mysterious statement comforted Dot a good deal, +if it did not Tess Kenway. Dot believed that +Sammy was fertile in expedient. She had run +away with him once “to be pirates.”</p> + +<p>Before the meal was over, Hedden came in and +bent beside Mr. Howbridge to whisper into his +ear.</p> + +<p>“Oh! Has he come back again? I wondered +where he went so suddenly,” said the lawyer. +“Yes. Tell him I’ll come out to see him as soon +as I am through.”</p> + +<p>Neale knew that he referred to M’Graw. +Bright-eyed and interested, he bent forward to +say to Mr. Howbridge:</p> + +<p>“I just told Mr. M’Graw something that I guess +you’d wish to know, too, Mr. Howbridge. May I +go with you when you speak to him?”</p> + +<p>“Certainly, my boy. There’s nothing secret +about it—not really. We are only puzzled about +a suspicion that we have—”</p> + +<p>“That there was somebody in the house that +ought not to be here,” whispered the boy.</p> + +<p>“That’s it. How did you know?”</p> + +<p>“I’ll tell you later,” returned Neale O’Neil.</p> + +<p>Agnes was glaring at him in a most indignant +fashion. It always angered the second Corner +House girl if Neale seemed to have any secret that +she did not share.</p> + +<p>“What’s the matter with you?” she hissed, +when Neale turned away from their host. “Don’t +you know it isn’t polite to whisper at table, Neale +O’Neil?”</p> + +<p>“What are you doing it for, then?” he asked +her, grinning, and would vouchsafe no further +explanation of the secret between Mr. Howbridge +and himself.</p> + +<p>As soon as the lawyer arose from the table to +go out to the kitchen to interview Ike, Neale +jumped up to go with him. Agnes saw him depart +with sparkling eyes and a very red face. +She was really angry with Neale O’Neil.</p> + +<p>The boy was too much interested in the mystery +of the shooter of the fox and how he had got in +and out of Red Deer Lodge to be much bothered +by Agnes’ vexation. He and the lawyer found the +old woodsman sitting in the servants’ dining-room +where he had been eating.</p> + +<p>“Well, sir,” he began, when Mr. Howbridge and +the boy entered, “’twixt us all, I reckon we’re +gettin’ to the bottom of this here mystery. Did +I tell you I couldn’t find no place where the feller +stood out there in the snow last evening to shoot +that fox from?”</p> + +<p>“No.”</p> + +<p>“But it’s a fac’. Now you tell him, sonny, what +you told me about what you found in the attic. +I’ve been up and made sure ’twas so.”</p> + +<p>Neale told the surprised Mr. Howbridge of the +proved fact that the fox was shot from one of the +attic windows.</p> + +<p>“And ’twas a play-toy rifle that done it—a +twenty-two,” said the woodsman, as though to +clinch some fact that had risen in his own mind, +if not in the minds of the others.</p> + +<p>“Now, let’s figger it out. We got enough fac’s +now to point purty conclusive to who done it. +Yes, sir.”</p> + +<p>“Why, Ike, I don’t see that,” observed Mr. +Howbridge.</p> + +<p>“But you will, Mister, in a minute or so,” declared +the old man, nodding with confidence. +“Now, look you: Whoever was in this here house +and made that fire in Miz’ Birdsall’s sittin’-room, +was here when your people came day before yesterday.”</p> + +<p>“No!” ejaculated Mr. Howbridge.</p> + +<p>“Yes!” repeated M’Graw with decision.</p> + +<p>“But you found that key in your cabin, did you +not?”</p> + +<p>“Yes. But I tell you I’ve figgered that out. +Whoever ’twas come here, got the key, come in +here, opened the back door, and then locked the +front door on the outside same as always.”</p> + +<p>“But—”</p> + +<p>“Wait! No buts about it,” interrupted the +woodsman. “I got it figgered to a fare-you-well, +I tell you. Now! The feller locked the front +door, went back to my shanty and hung up the key, +and then came back in by the rear door. See? +He—ahem!—was in here when that man, Hedden, +of yours, and the others, come.”</p> + +<p>“But there were no footprints of human beings +about the house in the snow.”</p> + +<p>“That’s all right. The feller that built the fire +upstairs had done all his walking around before +the snow fell the day after I went to Ebettsville. +Don’t you see? He didn’t leave here because his +footprints would be seen, and he couldn’t lock the +house up behind him if he did leave and make it +look as though it had never been opened.”</p> + +<p>“You are guessing at a lot of this!” exclaimed +the lawyer, not at all convinced.</p> + +<p>“No. I’m jest figgerin’. Now, this Neale boy +here heard that shot fired upstairs that killed the +fox. He went up this mornin’ and saw where the +shot was fired from. I seen it, too. So the feller +that opened the Lodge and that lit the fire was +up there at ten or half past last evening, for +sure.”</p> + +<p>“Well?” murmured the lawyer.</p> + +<p>“He didn’t go out during the night, or his footprints +would have been seen by John this morning +in the new-fallen snow.”</p> + +<p>“That sounds right.”</p> + +<p>“It is right!” said the old man vigorously. +“Now we come to this here dog you brought.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, yes!” cried Mr. Howbridge. “How about +Tom Jonah? Surely if there had been a stranger +about—one who stole food from the pantry—he +would have interfered.”</p> + +<p>“Mebbe he would. And mebbe again he +wouldn’t. He’s a mighty friendly dog.”</p> + +<p>“But he is a splendid watchdog,” interposed +Neale O’Neil.</p> + +<p>“That may be, too,” Ike said, quite unshaken +in his opinion. “If anybody had come in from +outside and undertaken to disturb anything, that +old dog would probably have been right on the +job.”</p> + +<p>“I see your point,” Mr. Howbridge admitted. +“But this person who came down from the garret +must have been a stranger.”</p> + +<p>“Now we’re gittin’ to it. Let’s figger some +more,” said M’Graw, with a chuckle. “If you +think hard, an’ figger close enough, I guess ’most +any puzzle can be solved.”</p> + +<h2 class='chapter' id='clink19'><a href='#toc'>CHAPTER XIX—SAMMY TAKES THE BIT IN HIS TEETH</a></h2> + +<p>M’Graw began slowly to fill his pipe. Mr. Howbridge +saw that it was useless to hurry him, so +he smiled at Neale and waited. When the tobacco +was alight to suit him, Ike continued his +“figgerin’.”</p> + +<p>“When this here dog,” he said, looking at Neale +in turn, “is at home, I guess he knows everybody +in the neighborhood, don’t he?”</p> + +<p>“Yes. But surely, you don’t think anybody +from Milton is up here at Red Deer Lodge, except +just these people that Mr. Howbridge brought?”</p> + +<p>“Hold on. I’m doin’ the askin’. You just answer +me, sonny,” chuckled Ike. “Now, let’s see. +He does know lots o’ folks—especially young +folks—around where he lives when he’s at home, +don’t he?”</p> + +<p>“Why, Tom Jonah,” said Neale, “knows every +boy and girl that comes past the old Corner +House. He’s a great friend of the kids.”</p> + +<p>“Jest so,” said M’Graw, as Mr. Howbridge +started and was about to speak. But the woodsman +put up a hand and said to the lawyer: +“Wait a minute. This man, Hedden, has looked +over the stuff you brought up here in the line of +canned goods and sech. He says what was stole +was mostly sweets—canned peaches, an’ pears, +an’ pineapple, an’ sugar-stuff, besides condensed +milk. Jest what children would like.”</p> + +<p>“The twins!” exclaimed Mr. Howbridge. “Do +you think it could be possible, after all, Ike?”</p> + +<p>“Goodness!” gasped Neale.</p> + +<p>“Looks mighty like children’s work,” said the +woodsman reflectively. “I knowed little Ralph +had a twenty-two rifle. I taught him to shoot with +it. He does me proud when it comes to shootin’. +Yes, sir.”</p> + +<p>“But to get clear up here—”</p> + +<p>“Them is purty smart children,” said the old +man. “And it looks, as I say, like their work. +Who else would give themselves dead away by +shootin’ that fox out of the winder? No grown +person would have done that if they didn’t want +to be caught in the house.</p> + +<p>“Then, Ralph and Rowena would have knowed +where that key hung. They’d be more’n likely to +build the fire in their ma’s sittin’-room. Now, +when they sneaked out o’ the house this mornin’, +they’d take just this kind of stuff that’s been took +from the pantry.”</p> + +<p>“I see. I see.”</p> + +<p>“And the dog clinches it. He’s a friend to all +children. He’d never have stopped them, especially +as they was in the house and didn’t come +from outside.”</p> + +<p>“I believe you are right,” admitted Mr. Howbridge.</p> + +<p>“I’m great on figgerin’,” said the woodsman. +“Now, let’s see what sort of a nose that there +dog’s got.”</p> + +<p>“You mean Tom Jonah?”</p> + +<p>“Yes. I ain’t got no dog. There ain’t none +nearer’n Sim Hackett’s beagle at Ebettsville that’s +wuth anything on the trail. Them youngsters +must have gone somewhere, Mr. Howbridge. And +they can’t be fur off. We’ve got to find ’em before +this here storm that’s breedin’ comes down +on us. There must be tracks somewheres, and +a trail a good dog can sniff.”</p> + +<p>“I understand what you mean. But how shall +we start the dog on their trail! We have nothing +the twins have worn,” said Mr. Howbridge.</p> + +<p>“Let’s look around,” suggested Ike. “Up-stairs +in that sittin’-room, where you found the +live coals—or, your man did—there’s a closet +where some of the twins’ clo’es used to hang. +Mebbe there’s some there now. If that there dog +has got a nose at all, an’ he sniffed them children +good this mornin’, he’ll know the smell of ’em +again. Yes, sir.”</p> + +<p>“That is a good idea,” admitted Mr. Howbridge. +“You go out and see if you can find any +impressions of the children’s feet in the snow, Ike. +I will hunt in the rooms upstairs for something +the twins may have worn.”</p> + +<p>“Stockin’s are best—stockin’s that ain’t been +washed,” said the woodsman. “Or mittens, or +gloves. Come on, sonny,” he added to Neale +O’Neil. “You come with me and we’ll try to +find some trail marks in the snow.” He glanced +at the window. “And we’ve got to hurry. It’s +snowin’ right hard now, and will smother marks +and everything if it keeps on this way for long.”</p> + +<p>Just then, while there was so much interest being +felt in the Birdsall twins and the possibility +of their having been at Red Deer Lodge, somebody +should have felt a revived interest in three +other children—Sammy Pinkney and the two +youngest Corner House girls.</p> + +<p>They had gone out after lunch, presumably to +continue the building of the snow man in front of +the Lodge. The older girls and Luke were engaged +in their own matters, and thought not at +all of the little folks. But Sammy, Tess and Dot +had quite tired of playing in the snow.</p> + +<p>“They’re awful mean not to have taken us +slidin’ with them,” declared Sammy, sitting on the +front step and making no effort to continue the +work of snow man building.</p> + +<p>“I love to slide,” repeated Dot, sadly.</p> + +<p>“And now it’s going to snow,” said Tess, biting +her lip. “If it snows a lot we can’t slide tomorrow.”</p> + +<p>“Awful mean,” reiterated Sammy. “Say! +Aggie said there was a small sled back there where +they found the big one. Let’s go and see it.”</p> + +<p>Any idea seemed good to the disappointed little +girls. Even just looking at the sled they could +use, if nothing happened, was interesting. They +followed Sammy.</p> + +<p>But Sammy had more in his mind than just the +idea of looking at the sled. Only, from past experience, +he knew that to get Tess and Dot Kenway +to leave the path of rectitude took some sharp +“figuring.” So he, like Ike M’Graw, was exercising +his faculties.</p> + +<p>They came to the shed.</p> + +<p>“Oh, what a nice sled!” cried Dot, as Sammy +drew out a shiny sled, big enough for three or four +little folks, and with a steering arrangement in +front.</p> + +<p>“It’s a better sled than the one I have at home,” +admitted Sammy.</p> + +<p>“I guess we could slide all right on that,” said +Tess slowly.</p> + +<p>“Guess we could!” agreed the boy.</p> + +<p>“I’d like a ride on it,” said Dot wistfully.</p> + +<p>“Get on, kid. Me and Tess will drag you,” said +Sammy.</p> + +<p>Dot overlooked the objectionable way in which +Sammy had addressed her and hurried to seat +herself on the sled. Sammy and Tess took hold of +the rope. It was not very hard to pull such a light +body as that of the fairylike Dot through the soft +snow.</p> + +<p>Sammy wisely turned away from the Lodge and +followed the tracks of the bobsled. In two minutes +they were out of sight of the Lodge, and even +of the sheds. At that time Neale and the old +woodsman had not come out for the purpose of +searching the vicinity of the Lodge for the footprints +of the Birdsall twins.</p> + +<p>Sammy and the two smallest Corner House girls +moved up the woods path which the other sledding +party had found and followed. If Ruth and the +others had gone this way, surely they could safely +follow the same route. Although the snow was +increasing, even the cautious Tess Kenway saw no +danger menacing the trio.</p> + +<p>But at first she had no idea just what Sammy +had determined upon. In fact, Sammy Pinkney +had taken the bit in his teeth, and he was determined +to do exactly what they had been forbidden +to do. If the older ones could slide downhill, why +could he and the little girls not have the same +pleasure?</p> + +<p>He and Tess drew Dot for a long way, much to +that little girl’s delight. Then the uphill grade +tired Tess so much that she had to stop.</p> + +<p>“Shift with Dot,” Sammy said. “Come on, +Dot. You and I will drag Tess a piece.”</p> + +<p>The little girl was willing, and she and her sister +changed places. Dot could not do much to aid +Sammy, but he buckled down to the work and +pulled manfully.</p> + +<p>When he had to stop, puffing, they were then so +far up the hill that his suggestion that they keep +on to the top and slide back, met with even Tess’ +approval.</p> + +<p>“We’ve come so far, we might’s well finish it,” +she said.</p> + +<p>“Well, I hope it isn’t much farther,” said Dot, +“for it’s awful hard walking in this snow. And +it’s snowing harder, too.”</p> + +<p>“Don’t be a ’fraid-cat, Dottie,” snorted Sammy. +“I never saw such a girl!”</p> + +<p>“Am not a ’fraid-cat!” declared the smallest +Corner House girl, prompt to deny such an impeachment. +“Snow don’t hurt. But you can’t +see where you are going when it snows so thick,”</p> + +<p>“Shucks!” said Sammy. “We can’t get lost +on this road, can we, Tess?”</p> + +<p>“No-o,” agreed Tess. “I guess we can’t. We +can’t get off the path, that’s sure. And we can +see the marks the big sled made all the way.”</p> + +<p>These tracks, however, were rapidly being effaced. +The children were not cold, for as the snow +increased it seemed to become warmer, and the +hard walking helped to keep them warm.</p> + +<p>They had to put Dot back on the sled and draw +her the final two or three hundred yards to the top +of the hill. There, fast as the snow was gathering, +they could see where the other coasters had turned +the bobsled around and prepared to launch themselves +from the top of the hill.</p> + +<p>“I guess they slid almost all the way home,” +said Tess, with some anxiety. “I hope we can do +as well, Sammy.”</p> + +<p>“Sure,” agreed Sammy. “Ain’t no need to +worry about that. Now I’m goin’ to lie right +down, and Dot can straddle me. Then you push +off and hang on at the back end of the sled, Tess. +Don’t you kids fall off.”</p> + +<p>“I wish you wouldn’t call me a kid, Sammy +Pinkney,” complained Dot. “And don’t wiggle +so if I’ve got to sit on you.”</p> + +<p>“Well, I got to get fixed,” Sammy rejoined. +“Hang on now. All ready, Tess?”</p> + +<p>“Yes. My! how the wind blows this snow into +your face.”</p> + +<p>“Put your head down when we get started. +I’ve got to keep lookin’ ahead. Bet this is a +dandy slide—and such a long one!”</p> + +<p>“Here we go!” cried Tess, pushing with vigor.</p> + +<p>The sled started. It seemed to slide over the +soft snow very nicely. She scrambled on, and, +sitting sideways, clung with both hands to the +rails. Dot was hanging to Sammy’s shoulders.</p> + +<p>“Choo! Choo! Choo! Here we go!” yelled +Sammy, wriggling with eagerness.</p> + +<p>“<i>Do</i> keep still, Sammy!” begged Dot.</p> + +<p>But the sled did not gain speed. The gathering +snow impeded the craft even on the down grade.</p> + +<p>“Kick! Kick behind, Tess!” yelled Sammy. +“Kick <i>hard</i>.”</p> + +<p>“I—I am kicking,” panted his friend. “Why +don’t the old thing go better?”</p> + +<p>“This snow is loadin’ right up in front of it,” +sputtered Sammy. “It’s too de-e-ep! Aw—shucks!”</p> + +<p>The sled almost stopped. Then it went over a +thank-you-ma’am and slid a little faster. The +slide was nowhere near as nice as they had expected. +Why! they were not going downhill much +faster than they had come up.</p> + +<p>The snow was sifting down now very thickly, +and in a very short time the trio was likely to have +to drag the empty sled through deep drifts. Even +Sammy was secretly sorry they had come such a +long way from the Lodge. Although it was barely +mid-afternoon, it seemed to be growing dark.</p> + +<p>They struggled to make the sled slide, however; +neither Sammy nor Tess was a child who easily +gave up when circumstances became obstinate. +Tess continued to dig her heels into the snow, and +when the sled almost stopped, Sammy plunged his +arms elbow deep into the snow to aid in its movement.</p> + +<p>But suddenly they went over a hummock. It +seemed a steep descent on the other side. In spite +of the gathering snow the sled got under better +headway.</p> + +<p>“Hurrah, Tess!” yelled Sammy. “We’re all +right now.”</p> + +<p>“I—I hope so!” gasped the older girl.</p> + +<p>“Oh! Oh!” shrieked Dot. “We’re going!”</p> + +<p>They really were going—or, so it seemed. +Faster and faster ran the sled, for the hill had +suddenly become steep. It was snowing too +thickly for any of them to notice that this part of +the track was entirely new to them.</p> + +<p>They shot around a turn and took another dip +toward the valley. Sammy did not mind the snow +beating into his face now. He yelled with pleasure. +The little girls hung on, delighted. The sled +sped downward.</p> + +<p>All marks of the bobsled’s runners were long +since lost under the new snow. The hill grew +steeper. Sammy’s yells were half stifled by the +wind and snow.</p> + +<p>It did seem as though that slide was a very long +one! In climbing the hill the trio had had no idea +they had walked so far. And how steep it was!</p> + +<p>Over a level piece the sled would travel at a +moderate rate, and then shoot down a sudden decline +that almost took their breath. Surely they +must have traveled almost to the Lodge from +which they had started.</p> + +<p>Finally the path became level. Great trees rose +all about them. They could see but a short distance +in any direction because of the falling snow.</p> + +<p>The sled stopped. The girls hopped off and +Sammy struggled to his feet and shook the snow +out of his eyes.</p> + +<p>“Je-ru-sa-<i>lem</i>!” he choked. “What a slide! +Did you ever, Tess?”</p> + +<p>“No, I never did,” admitted Tess quite seriously.</p> + +<p>“Oh!” cried Dot. “Let’s go home. I’m co-co-o-old. +Why—why—” she gasped suddenly, +looking about on all sides.</p> + +<p>“Well, don’t cry about it,” snorted Sammy. +“Of course we’ll go home. We must be almost +there now—we slid so far.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, yes. We <i>must</i> be near Red Deer Lodge,” +agreed Tess.</p> + +<p>It did not look like any place they had ever +seen before. The trees were much taller than any +they had noticed about the Lodge. Yet there was +the open path ahead of them. They set Dot upon +the sled again, and Tess helped Sammy drag it and +her sister straight ahead. Somewhere in that direction +they were all three sure Red Deer Lodge +was situated.</p> + +<h2 class='chapter' id='clink20'><a href='#toc'>CHAPTER XX—FOLLOWING ANOTHER TRAIL</a></h2> + +<p>After all the activities of the forenoon both by +the older boys and girls of the vacation party at +Red Deer Lodge, and by the children as well, the +soft snow was considerably marked up by footprints +around the premises.</p> + +<p>Ike M’Graw and Neale O’Neil, searching for +prints of the feet of those who they thought had +left the vicinity of the house early that morning, +struck directly off for the edge of the clearing.</p> + +<p>“The best we can do,” M’Graw declared, “is to +follow the line of the woods clean around the +clearing. Somewhere, whoever ’tis got that fox +and lifted the canned goods, must have struck into +the woods. They ain’t hidin’ in the barns or anywhere +here. I’ve been searchin’ them. That’s +certain.”</p> + +<p>Neale had very bright eyes, and not much could +escape them; but the snow was coming down fast +now and even he could not distinguish marks many +yards ahead.</p> + +<p>Here and there they beheld footprints; but always +examination proved them to be of somebody +who belonged at the Lodge. The prints in the +snow Luke and his sister and Ruth had made soon +after breakfast fooled Neale for a moment, but +not for long.</p> + +<p>They saw the woodsman’s big prints, too, where +he had been looking for the marks of the fox +hunter. There were the marks Neale himself and +Agnes had made when they had followed the +“deer.”</p> + +<p>All these various marks bothered the searchers; +and all the time, too, the snow was falling and +making the identification of the various prints of +feet the more difficult.</p> + +<p>“This here’s worse than nailing the animals +that they say went into the ark that time Noah +set sail for Ararat,” declared Ike, chuckling. +“Whoever followed them critters up to the gangplank +must have been some mixed up—</p> + +<p>“Hello! What’s this?”</p> + +<p>They had come around behind the sheds. Here +was the entrance to the road on which Neale and +Luke with the three older girls had coasted that +forenoon. The woodsman was pointing to marks +in the snow, now being rapidly filled in. Neale +said:</p> + +<p>“Oh, we were sliding on this hill, you know.”</p> + +<p>“Uh-huh? Who was?”</p> + +<p>“Five of us. With a big bobsled.”</p> + +<p>“Now, you don’t tell me that bobsled made them +marks,” interposed the old man. “I know that +bobsled.”</p> + +<p>“Why—I—”</p> + +<p>“Them runner marks was made by little Ralph +Birdsall’s scootin’ sled. I know that, too. Who’s +gone up to slide this afternoon?”</p> + +<p>“That must be the kids!” exclaimed Neale. “I +wonder if Ruth knows they are out here playing! +I remember now I didn’t see them at the front of +the house.”</p> + +<p>“You don’t suppose they’ve gone far?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, I guess they will come to no harm around +here. Ruth would not let them go away from the +Lodge to play.”</p> + +<p>“Humph!” muttered the old man.</p> + +<p>But he went on. There was really no reason +for Neale to be worried about the children. They +were almost always well behaved. At least, they +seldom disobeyed.</p> + +<p>Besides, it was only a few minutes later when +Mr. Howbridge, well muffled against the storm, appeared +with Tom Jonah on a leash. The old +woodsman had just got down on his knees in the +snow to examine two lines of faint impressions +that left the path John’s footprints had made to +the farther shed.</p> + +<p>“Now, what’s this? A deer jumped out here—or +what?”</p> + +<p>Neale waited and Mr. Howbridge held the dog +back. Ike got up and followed the half-filled impressions +a little farther. They headed directly +for the thicker woods to the north of the Lodge +premises.</p> + +<p>“Might have been feet—small feet. And two +sets of ’em,” said Ike. “Hi, Mister! did you find +anything up in that closet belongin’ to the twins?”</p> + +<p>“Here is a pair of bed slippers. Knitted ones. +They are much too small for a grown person,” the +lawyer declared.</p> + +<p>M’Graw took the articles thoughtfully into his +big hands. “Humph! Look like little Missie’s +slippers. Certainly do. Roweny, you know. +Wonder if this old dog knows anything.”</p> + +<p>He offered the slippers to Tom Jonah to sniff. +The dog had been used to following a scent in +times past; often they would send him after Dot +or Tess or Sammy. He snuffed eagerly at the +knitted shoes.</p> + +<p>“Don’t know how strong the scent is on ’em. +It’s been some time, p’r’aps, since little Roweny +wore ’em. But—”</p> + +<p>Tom Jonah whined, sniffed again, and then lifted +up his muzzle and barked, straining at the leash.</p> + +<p>“Looks like he understands,” said the old man, +reaching for the leash and taking the bight of it +from Mr. Howbridge’s hand. “Good dog! Now, +go to it. These here footprints—if that’s what +they are—are fillin’ in fast.”</p> + +<p>Tom Jonah put his nose to the marks in the +snow. He sniffed, threw some of the light snow +about with his nose, and started off. He followed +the faint trail into the woods. But Neale doubted +if the dog followed by scent.</p> + +<p>Once in the thicket the marks were only visible +here and there. The fresh snow was sifting down +faster and faster. The dog leaped from one spot +to another, whining, and eagerly seeking to pick +up the scent.</p> + +<p>“It’s awful unlucky this here snow commenced +as it has. Hi! I don’t see what we can do,” +sighed Ike.</p> + +<p>“Do you really believe those marks were the +twins’ footsteps?”</p> + +<p>“I do. I believe they was in the house when +your folks came, Mr. Howbridge,” M’Graw said. +“But now—”</p> + +<p>Tom Jonah halted, threw up his shaggy head, +and howled mournfully.</p> + +<p>“Oh, don’t, Tom Jonah!” cried Neale O’Neil. +“It sounds like—like somebody was dead!”</p> + +<p>“Or lost, eh?” suggested Ike. “Ain’t no use. +He—nor a better dog—couldn’t follow a scent +through such snow. We’re too late. But I’d like +to know where them children went, if these is +them!”</p> + +<p>They turned back toward the Lodge, rather disheartened. +If the two Birdsall children, who had +been left to the care of Mr. Howbridge, were really +up here alone in the wilderness—and perhaps shelterless +at this time—what might not happen to +them? What would be the end of this strange +and menacing situation?</p> + +<p>Nobody spoke after M’Graw expressed himself +until they came to the path on which they had +previously seen the marks of the small sled and +the footprints of Sammy and the two youngest +Corner House girls. These traces were now +entirely obliterated. It was snowing heavily and the +wind was rising.</p> + +<p>“Hi gorry!” ejaculated the old woodsman, +“how about those other children? Are they at +home where they ought to be?”</p> + +<p>“Whom do you mean?” asked the lawyer, rather +startled.</p> + +<p>But Neale understood. He looked sharply +about. Not an impression in the snow but that of +their own feet was visible.</p> + +<p>“I’ll go and see if the sled is returned to the +place they got it from,” he said, and dashed away +to the shed.</p> + +<p>Before Mr. Howbridge and M’Graw had reached +the Lodge Neale O’Neil came tearing after them.</p> + +<p>“Oh, wait! Wait!” he shouted. “They +haven’t come back with the sled. What do you +suppose can have happened to Sammy and Tess +and Dot?”</p> + +<h2 class='chapter' id='clink21'><a href='#toc'>CHAPTER XXI—ROWDY</a></h2> + +<p>About the time Neale O’Neil was asking his +very pertinent question about the whereabouts of +Sammy and Tess and Dot, that trio had stopped, +breathless and not a little frightened, in a big +drift at what seemed the bottom of a deep hole.</p> + +<p>The snow swirled about them so, and they +seemed to have come so far down from the place +where they had pushed off on the sled, that they +believed it was a deep hole; and there seemed no +possibility of getting out of it.</p> + +<p>“I—I guess,” quavered Dot, “that we’ll just +have to lie right down here and let the snow cover +us all—all up.”</p> + +<p>“I do wish, child, when you get into trouble that +you wouldn’t give up all hope, right first off!” +exclaimed Tess, rather exasperated at her sister. +“Of course we are not going to give up and lie +down in this snow.”</p> + +<p>“Of course not!” echoed Sammy Pinkney.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, Sammy experienced a chill up and +down his spine, and the short hairs at the back of +his neck stiffened. It was borne upon his mind +all of a sudden that they were lost—utterly lost! +He could not understand how they had got off of +the straight path to Red Deer Lodge; but he was +very sure that they had done so and, as far as he +knew, they were miles and miles away from that +shelter and from their friends.</p> + +<p>Yet there seemed nothing to do but keep on +through the snow—as long as they could press forward. +Tess was quite as plucky as he made believe +to be. And they could haul Dot a little way +at a time on the sled.</p> + +<p>“But we’re going on, Sammy, without getting +anywhere,” was Tess’ very wise observation. “I +think we ought to scrouge down under something +until the snow stops.”</p> + +<p>“Just like the Babes in the Woods,” wailed Dot, +who knew all the nursery stories.</p> + +<p>“Do be still!” cried her sister, quite tartly. +“Sammy and I are going to find you a nice place +to stop, Dot.”</p> + +<p>“Well, I hope it’s a place with a fire in it, ’cause +I’m cold,” complained the smallest Corner House +girl.</p> + +<p>They all wished for a fire and shelter, but the +older ones feared with reason that both comforts +would not be immediately found. Sammy had not +ventured forth this time prepared for all emergencies, +as he had the time that Dot and he ran +away to sail piratically the canal. He had no +means of making a fire, even if he could find fuel.</p> + +<p>Sammy was not without fertility of ideas, however; +and these to a practical end. It must never +be said of him, when the lost party got back to Red +Deer Lodge, that he had not done his duty toward +his companions.</p> + +<p>He saw that the lower branches of some of the +big spruce trees swept the snow—indeed, their +ends were drifted over in places. Under those +trees were shelters that would break both the wind +and the snow. He said this to Tess, and she +agreed.</p> + +<p>“But we must keep a hole open to look out of,” +she said. “Otherwise we won’t see the folks when +they come hunting for us.”</p> + +<p>“Je-ru-sa-<i>lem</i>! If they come along this road +while it’s snowing like this lookin’ for us, we’d +never see ’em,” muttered the boy.</p> + +<p>But he kept this opinion to himself. Vigorous +action claimed Sammy Pinkney almost immediately. +While Dot “sniffled,” as he called it, on the +half-buried sled, Sammy started to dig under the +boughs of a tree near at hand.</p> + +<p>The wind seemed to be less boisterous here, but +the snow was drifting rapidly. Back of the tree +the steep hillside rose abruptly, somewhat sheltering +the spot.</p> + +<p>Sammy burrowed through the drift like a dog +seeking a rabbit. He found a way between two +branches of the spruce, over which the snow had +packed hard at a previous fall. He had to break +away fronds of the tough branches to open a hole +into the dark interior.</p> + +<p>“Come on!” he shouted, half smothered by the +snow he was pawing out. “Here’s a hole.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, Sammy! suppose there should be something +in there?” gasped Tess, her lips close to his +ear.</p> + +<p>At this suggestion Master Sammy drew back +with some precipitation.</p> + +<p>“Aw, Tess! what d’you want to say such things +to a feller for?” he growled. “If there is anything +in there we’ll find it out soon enough.”</p> + +<p>Dot’s sharp ears had heard something of this. +She shrieked:</p> + +<p>“Oh! Is it mice? I am afraid of mice, and I +won’t go in there till you drive them all out, +Sammy.”</p> + +<p>“Je-ru-sa-<i>lem</i>!” murmured Sammy, with vast +disgust. “Don’t girls beat everything?”</p> + +<p>“I don’t care! I don’t like mice,” reiterated +the smallest Corner House girl.</p> + +<p>“Huh!” declared Sammy, wickedly, “maybe +there’ll be wolves under there.”</p> + +<p>“Wolfs? Well, I haven’t my Alice-doll here, +so I don’t care about wolfs. But mice I am afraid +of!”</p> + +<p>At that Sammy took a deep breath, gritted his +teeth, and dived out of sight. He found that there +was quite a sharp incline over hard snow to the +bottom of the hole. All around the trunk of the +tree, and next to it, was bare, hard ground. It +made a roomy shelter, and it was just as warm +as any house could be without a fire.</p> + +<p>There was a quantity of dry and dead branches +under here to scratch him and tear at his clothing. +Sammy broke these off as he crawled around the +tree, making the way less difficult for the little +girls when they should enter.</p> + +<p>A little light entered by the hole down which he +had plunged. It made the interior of the strange +shelter of a murky brownness, not at all helpful +in “seeing things.”</p> + +<p>Sammy was quite sure there was no wolf housed +in here; but about the mice or other small rodents +he was not so sure.</p> + +<p>However, he called to the little girls cheerfully +to come down, and Dot immediately scrambled in, +feet first. Tess followed her sister with less precipitation. +Like Sammy, she felt the burden of +their situation much more than did Dot. “Sufficient +unto the day is the evil thereof,” was Dot’s +opinion.</p> + +<p>Sammy crawled out again and rescued the sled +which was already buried in the snow. He +dragged it to the opening and left it right over +the hole so as to keep the snow from drifting in +upon them.</p> + +<p>“But it makes it so dark, Sammy!” said Tess, +a little sharply.</p> + +<p>“Wait a while. You can see better pretty soon. +Your eyes get used to the dark—just like you went +down cellar at night for a hod of coal.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, I wouldn’t!” declared Dot. “But I’m not +afraid of the dark. It’s nothing you can feel.”</p> + +<p>So they were very cozy and fairly warm under +the tree. Soon the snow had heaped so thickly +over the mouth of their shelter that they could +not even hear the wind.</p> + +<p>They had eaten a good lunch. Sammy had some +nuts in his pockets. It was now about four +o’clock. They were not likely to suffer for anything +needful for some time. And, of course, +neither of the three thought that their stay under +the spruce tree would be for long.</p> + +<p>“If the snow doesn’t stop pretty soon, and so +we can get out and find the way home, Neale +O’Neil and Aggie will come for us,” Dot said, with +considerable cheerfulness for her. “I’m all warm +now, and I don’t care.”</p> + +<p>Sammy did not feel altogether as sure that they +would escape from the difficulty so easily; but he +did not openly express his belief. He was, like +the little girls, glad to have found shelter. With +provisions and a fire, he said, they could stay here +like Crusoes.</p> + +<p>“You know, Robinson Crusoe lived in a cave, +and in a hut. And he was all alone till he got +some goats and a Man Friday.”</p> + +<p>“We might have brought Billy Bumps along,” +said Dot thoughtfully.</p> + +<p>“I guess I wouldn’t want to live with an old +goat,” Tess observed, with scorn.</p> + +<p>They had no means of measuring the passage of +time, and of course it seemed that “hours and +hours” must have passed before Sammy tried to +look out through the opening the first time.</p> + +<p>And this was no easy work. The snow had +gathered so quickly and packed down so hard upon +the sled that the boy could scarcely raise it. +Finally, by backing under the sled and rising up +with it on his shoulders, the sturdy little fellow +broke through the drift.</p> + +<p>“I got it!” he shouted back to Tess and Dot. +“But, oh, Je-ru-sa-<i>lem</i>! ain’t it snowin’ though? +Bet it never snowed so hard before. I guess we’ll +have to stay here till they dig us out.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, Sammy! All night?” gasped Dot.</p> + +<p>“Well, I don’t know about that. But until this +old snow stops, anyway.”</p> + +<p>He, nor the little girls, scarcely appreciated the +fact that the worst blizzard of the winter had +broken over that territory, and that trails and +paths were being utterly obliterated. The keenest +scented dog, and the most experienced woodsman, +could not have traced the three children to +their present shelter.</p> + +<p>Sammy came in and fixed the sled again to keep +out the snow. He felt pretty serious—for him. +Sammy Pinkney was not in the habit of looking +for the worst to happen. Quite the contrary.</p> + +<p>Yet he could not throw off anxiety as easily as +Dot could. As long as she was not hungry, and +was warm, the smallest Corner House girl felt +quite cheerful.</p> + +<p>They could see a little better in their cozy nest +now, and being assured that there were no mice, +thought of other wild creatures of the forest did +not disturb Dot Kenway.</p> + +<p>“Let’s play something,” said Dot. “Cum-ge-cum!”</p> + +<p>“What do you come by?” asked Tess quickly. +This was an old, old game of guessing that Aunt +Sarah Maltby had taught the little folks.</p> + +<p>“I come by the letter ‘S,’” declared Dot.</p> + +<p>“Snow,” guessed Sammy promptly.</p> + +<p>“No.”</p> + +<p>“It’s got to be the ’nitial of something in this—this +house,” Tess observed. “Shoes, Dottie?”</p> + +<p>“No. ’Tisn’t shoes. And ’tis in the house—if +you call this a house.”</p> + +<p>“Shirt,” Sammy declared.</p> + +<p>“Nopy!”</p> + +<p>“Sled?” guessed Tess.</p> + +<p>“No, it is not ‘sled,’” said the littlest girl.</p> + +<p>“Stockin’s?” suggested Sammy. “I’ve got a +hole in one o’ mine. Feels like my big toe was +stranglin’ to death, so it does.”</p> + +<p>“S-s-s—”</p> + +<p>“Oh, stop!” shrieked Dot suddenly. “What’s +that at the door?”</p> + +<p>The two little girls shrieked again and scrambled +behind the trunk of the tree. Sammy was +just as scared as a child could be, but he sat right +where he was and watched the dim light grow at +the hole over which he had pulled the sled.</p> + +<p>Something was scratching there, dragging the +sled away from over the hole in the snowdrift. +Sammy did not know that even the hungriest animal +in the forest was snugly housed during this +storm. The creatures of the wild do not hunt +when the weather is so boisterous.</p> + +<p>It might have been a wolf, or a bear, or a lynx, +<i>or a tiger</i>, as far as the small boy knew. Just the +same, having the responsibility of Tess and Dot +on his mind, he had to stay and face the unknown.</p> + +<p>Suddenly a voice spoke from without. It said +with much disgust:</p> + +<p>“Oh, shut up your squalling. I’m not going to +bite you.”</p> + +<p>“Je-ru-sa-<i>lem</i>!” murmured Sammy. “What’s +this?”</p> + +<p>In a minute he was reassured, for the sled was +torn away and a head and shoulders appeared +down the opening through the drift.</p> + +<p>“Hello!” exclaimed the voice again. “How +did you get here? How many of you are there?”</p> + +<p>“Two girls and a boy. And we slid here,” said +Sammy, gulping down a big lump in his throat.</p> + +<p>“<i>Girls?</i>” gasped the stranger, who seemed to be +very little older than Sammy himself. “Girls out +in this blizzard?”</p> + +<p>“No. We’re all safe in here under the tree,” +said Sammy, with some indignation. “I wouldn’t +let ’em stay out in the storm.”</p> + +<p>“Oh!” exclaimed the stranger. “And do you +intend to stay here till it stops snowing?”</p> + +<p>“Why not?” demanded Sammy.</p> + +<p>“That won’t be until tomorrow—maybe next +day,” was the cheerful response. “I guess you +don’t know much about storms up here in the +woods.”</p> + +<p>“Nope. We come from Milton.”</p> + +<p>“Oh!” exclaimed the other. “You’re some of +that bunch from Red Deer Lodge, aren’t you?”</p> + +<p>“Ye—yes, sir,” Tess interposed politely. “Do +you suppose you could show us the way home?”</p> + +<p>“Just now I couldn’t,” said the other, wriggling +his way into the shelter. “This is pretty good in +here. But you’d better come to my cave.”</p> + +<p>“Oh! do you live in a cave?” asked Sammy.</p> + +<p>“Isn’t it dark?” asked Tess.</p> + +<p>“Are there fishes in it with blind eyes?” demanded +Dot, who had heard something about the +fish of the streams in the Mammoth Cave, and +thought all caves were alike.</p> + +<p>“Fish?” snorted the newcomer. “I guess not! +Wish there were. We’d eat them. And we need +meat.”</p> + +<p>“Is—is your cave far?” asked Sammy, in some +doubt.</p> + +<p>“No. Just back of this tree. And we’d better +get back there quick, or the door will be all snowed +under. This is a big, big storm.”</p> + +<p>“Who are you?” Tess asked. “If you don’t +mind telling us. This is Sammy Pinkney; and +I’m Tess Kenway; and this is my sister, Dot.”</p> + +<p>“Huh!” said the stranger. “I—I’m Rowdy.”</p> + +<p>“Rowdy?” repeated Tess, wonderingly.</p> + +<p>“That’s what they call me,” said the other +hastily. “Just Rowdy. And we’d better go to +my cave.”</p> + +<p>“But you don’t live out here in the woods all +by yourself, do you?” asked Sammy, in much surprise.</p> + +<p>“No. But—but my father’s gone a long way +off.” The boy hesitated a moment, and then +added: “Gone to Canada—trapping. Won’t be +back for ever so long. So I live in the cave.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, my!” murmured Tess.</p> + +<p>“Je-ru-sa-<i>lem</i>!” exclaimed Sammy. “Ain’t +you afraid to live here alone?”</p> + +<p>“I’m not afraid,” said their new friend. “And +there’s nobody to boss you all the time here. +Come on. You follow me. Drag along the sled. +We might need that after the snow’s stopped.”</p> + +<p>He started to crawl out through the hole into the +storm again, and the trio from Red Deer Lodge +decided that there was nothing better to do than +to follow him.</p> + +<h2 class='chapter' id='clink22'><a href='#toc'>CHAPTER XXII—IN THE CAVE</a></h2> + +<p>The snow beat down upon them so when they +were outside of the shelter that the little girls +could scarcely get their breath. Dot clung to +Tess’ hand and bleated a few complaining words. +But the strange boy said sharply:</p> + +<p>“Don’t be blubbering. We’ll be all right in a +minute. I want to hunt for something around +here. That’s what I come out of the cave for.”</p> + +<p>“Am not blubbering!” muttered Dot, quite indignant. +“But this old snow—”</p> + +<p>“Oh, I’ve got it!” shouted the strange boy, +leaping ahead through the snow with great vigor. +“Come on! Don’t lose sight of me.”</p> + +<p>“You bet we won’t,” said Sammy, urging Tess +and Dot on ahead of him and dragging the sled +after.</p> + +<p>“What is it?” asked Tess, curiously.</p> + +<p>“A trap,” said the other.</p> + +<p>“Oh!”</p> + +<p>“What kind of a trap?” asked the eager +Sammy.</p> + +<p>“Rabbit trap. Box trap. Rafe and I brought +it down here with us and set it this morning. I +put a handful of corn in it and I saw rabbit tracks +all about just before it began to snow so hard. +Here it is.”</p> + +<p>The speaker had knelt down in the snow and was +uncovering some long, narrow object with his +hands.</p> + +<p>“It’s sprung, anyway. You see, the door’s +dropped,” he said. “The rabbit pokes right in +after the corn, and when he begins to eat the +bait clear at the end of the box, he trips the trigger +and the door falls. Yes! He’s here!”</p> + +<p>“Oh, Je-ru-sa-<i>lem</i>! A real rabbit?” gasped +Sammy Pinkney.</p> + +<p>“A poor little bunny?” murmured Tess, her +tender heart at once disturbed at the thought of +the trapped animal.</p> + +<p>“Huh! If we are snowed up in that cave for a +week or so,” said the boy called Rowdy, “you’ll +be mighty glad I caught this rabbit.”</p> + +<p>He had lifted the door and thrust in his left +hand to seize the animal.</p> + +<p>“Oh! Oh!” squealed Dot. “Won’t it bite +you?”</p> + +<p>“It doesn’t bite with its hind legs,” said Rowdy +with scorn. “Ah! I got him.”</p> + +<p>He drew forth the rabbit, kicking and squirming. +The little mouse-like cry the poor beast made +sounded very pitiful to Tess. She murmured:</p> + +<p>“Oh, don’t hurt him!”</p> + +<p>“Je-ru-sa-<i>lem</i>!” exclaimed Sammy to Rowdy. +“Ain’t girls the worst ever?”</p> + +<p>“Huh!” said the strange boy, suddenly glaring +at Sammy Pinkney, “what do you know about +girls?”</p> + +<p>He was a dark boy, with ragged black hair that +had evidently been sheared off roughly by an amateur +barber. He was dressed warmly and in good +clothes. He wore leggings that came up to his +hips. He was bigger, and must have been older +than Sammy.</p> + +<p>He stood up now, with the kicking rabbit held +by the hind legs. The trapped animal was fat and +was of good size.</p> + +<p>“Oh! Oh!” cried Dot. “He’ll get away from +you.”</p> + +<p>“Like fun he will.”</p> + +<p>“How are you going to kill him?” Sammy, the +practical, asked.</p> + +<p>“Break its neck,” was the prompt reply.</p> + +<p>“Oh! How awful!” gasped Tess. “Won’t it +hurt him?”</p> + +<p>“It won’t know anything about it,” said Rowdy.</p> + +<p>He was already holding the rabbit away from +him almost at arm’s length and poised his right +hand, edge out, for the blow that was to finish the +creature. Sharp and quick was the blow, the +outer edge of the boy’s hand striking across the +back of the rabbit’s neck just at the base of the +brain. The vertebra was snapped in this way and +the creature instantly killed—a merciful and sudden +death. The rabbit kicked but once, and then +was still.</p> + +<p>“Oh! Oh!” murmured Tess.</p> + +<p>“Oh, don’t worry,” said Rowdy. “Ike M’Graw +showed me how to do that.”</p> + +<p>“Oh!” cried Dot. “<i>We</i> know Mr. Ike M’Graw—so +we do.”</p> + +<p>“How did you come to know him?” demanded +Rowdy, quickly and suspiciously, it seemed. “He +isn’t at home now.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, he is,” said Sammy. “He was up at Red +Deer Lodge last night and he was there again this +morning.”</p> + +<p>“Oh!” ejaculated Rowdy, standing and holding +the rabbit as though the information gave him +considerable mental disturbance. “I—I thought +he’d gone away for good.”</p> + +<p>Then he turned suddenly and plunged into the +drifting snow. “Come on!” he exclaimed again. +“This snow is drifting awfully.”</p> + +<p>Sammy drove the little girls ahead of him +again. “Aw, go on!” he muttered. “He’s all +right. He’s got some kind of a hide-out.”</p> + +<p>“I don’t believe I like that Rowdy,” said Tess +softly. “He—he’s real cruel. All boys are, I +s’pose.”</p> + +<p>“They have to be,” returned Sammy.</p> + +<p>“Why?” demanded Tess, in wonder.</p> + +<p>“’Cause girls are such softies,” declared the +impolite Sammy.</p> + +<p>They plunged ahead, wading far above their +waists now. Behind the trees the hillside rose +abruptly. It towered so above their heads in the +snow that the children were almost scared. +Suppose that hill of snow should tumble right down on +top of them!</p> + +<p>“Goodness!” exclaimed Tess, with some exasperation. +“Where is your old cave?”</p> + +<p>“Come on,” said Rowdy, patiently. “It’s here +somewhere. But the old snow—Ye-e—yi, yi!” +he suddenly yelled.</p> + +<p>Faintly there came an answering voice—half +smothered, wholly eerie sounding.</p> + +<p>“Oh! Who’s that?” demanded Sammy.</p> + +<p>“Him,” said Rowdy shortly.</p> + +<p>“Then don’t you live alone?” Tess demanded.</p> + +<p>“I have my brother with me,” said Rowdy, +plunging on to the right.</p> + +<p>The snow beat into their faces and eyes, almost +blinding them and wholly stopping their chatter. +Above their heads the huge trees rocked, limbs +writhing as though they were alive and in pain. +And from these writhing limbs the snow was +shaken down in avalanches.</p> + +<p>One great blob of snow fell square on Sammy, +trudging on behind the procession, and he went +down with a howl like a wolf, buried to his ears.</p> + +<p>“Oh, Sammy! Sammy!” shrieked Tess, above +the wind. “Are you hurt?”</p> + +<p>“I—I’m smothered!” groaned the boy, struggling +to get out of the heap of snow. “Hey, you +Rowdy! Get us out of this, or we’ll be buried and +lost.”</p> + +<p>“Come on!” sang out the bigger boy from up +ahead. “O-ee! Rafe!” he shouted.</p> + +<p>A figure appeared before them—the figure of a +boy not much bigger than Rowdy.</p> + +<p>“What have you there?” a hoarse voice demanded.</p> + +<p>“A rabbit.”</p> + +<p>“I mean who are those behind you?” and the +hoarse voice was very tart now.</p> + +<p>“A couple of girls and a boy,” said Rowdy. “I +picked ’em up back there by the trap.”</p> + +<p>“Well! But we don’t keep a hotel,” said the +second boy.</p> + +<p>“Hush!” commanded Rowdy. “Where are +your manners? And they come from the Lodge,” +he added.</p> + +<p>“How are we going to feed so many people?” +was the rather selfish demand of the second boy +from the cave.</p> + +<p>“Mercy! you’re a regular pig, Rafe,” exclaimed +Rowdy. “Go on. Take this rabbit. I’ll help the +little girl. She’s almost done for.”</p> + +<p>Dot Kenway really was breathless and almost +exhausted. She was glad to be taken in the strong +arms of Rowdy. He staggered along behind the +one called Rafe, and so came to an opening behind +a bowlder which seemed to have been rolled by +nature against the hillside.</p> + +<p>The hole was sheltered from the direct effect of +the wind that was drifting the snow in a huge +mound against the bowlder. Rafe, with the rabbit, +dived first into the hole. Rowdy followed, with +Dot in his arms.</p> + +<p>“Oh! Oh!” cried the littlest girl with delight. +“Here’s a fire.”</p> + +<p>“Isn’t that splendid?” demanded Tess, who +came next and saw the blaze at the back of the +cave, between two stones. “Why! what a nice +cave you’ve got here.”</p> + +<p>The fire lit up the cave, for it was only about a +dozen feet square. Only, it was not really square, +being of a circular shape at the back. The smoke +from the fire rose straight up and disappeared +through a hole in the low roof through which there +must have been considerable draught.</p> + +<p>Of course, there was a strong smell of wood +smoke in the cave; but not enough smoke to make +one’s eyes smart. There were some old blankets +and rugs on the floor for carpet. Against one +side wall was a great heap of balsam boughs, over +which were flung robes.</p> + +<p>When Sammy came staggering in with the sled +he fairly shouted his approval of the cave.</p> + +<p>“Je-ru-sa-<i>lem</i>! what a jim-dandy place. Say! +I bet Neale O’Neil would like to see this.”</p> + +<p>“Well, you needn’t be bringing anybody here +and showing it. This is our own particular hideout—Rowdy’s +and mine. So now,” observed +Rafe, who seemed to be less friendly than his +brother.</p> + +<p>“Oh, hush,” pleaded the latter. “Do be hospitable, +Rafe. Don’t you know these kids are our +guests?”</p> + +<p>“‘Guests!’” snorted the other.</p> + +<p>“Yes, they are.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, please don’t quarrel about us,” urged Tess +Kenway gently. “We’ll go right away as soon as +it stops snowing, and we’ll never tell anybody +about this cave if you don’t want us to.”</p> + +<p>“Don’t mind him,” said Rowdy. “He’s got a +cold and a grouch. Come on, Rafe; help me pluck +this rabbit.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, I’ll do that!” cried the red-faced Sammy. +“Let me!”</p> + +<p>While the little girls were glad to sit before the +fire on the blankets, he wished to make himself +useful. Besides, to help skin a real rabbit was a +height of delight to which Sammy Pinkney had +never before risen.</p> + +<p>“All right,” said Rowdy. “You get the potatoes +and onions ready, Rafe. We have salt and +pepper and we can have a nice rabbit stew.”</p> + +<p>“Just fry it,” recommended the other cave +dweller. “That’s less trouble.”</p> + +<p>“You do as I say!” exclaimed Rowdy, sternly. +“There are five of us instead of two to eat, and +we’ve got to make this rabbit go a long way.”</p> + +<p>“Well, who brought them in? I didn’t,” said +Rafe, angrily. “You knew we didn’t have any +too much to eat.”</p> + +<p>“You are a nice one!” began Rowdy, when Tess +broke in with:</p> + +<p>“I’m awful sorry we came if we are going to +make trouble. We can go back under that tree—can’t +we, Sammy?”</p> + +<p>“I’m not going back there,” Dot said stubbornly. +“There’s no fire there. If this other +boy doesn’t like us because we are girls, can’t he +go out and live under the tree himself?”</p> + +<p>This idea seemed to amuse Rowdy a good deal. +He laughed aloud—and the laugh did not sound +just like a boy’s laugh, either. Tess stared at +him wonderingly.</p> + +<p>“If Rafe’s going to be so mean,” he said, “he +ought to be put out. Go ahead and peel the potatoes +and onions, Rafe.”</p> + +<p>“Sha’n’t. That’s girl’s work,” growled Rafe.</p> + +<p>“Oh! If you’ve got a knife I’ll peel them,” +said Tess. “I don’t mind.”</p> + +<p>“All right,” Rowdy said. “Give her the knife, +Rafe. Put over the pot with some snow in it. +The little girl can feed that till there is a lot of +water ready. We’ll want some for tea.”</p> + +<p>“Don’t want tea,” growled Rafe. “I want coffee.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, stop that, Rafe, or I’ll slap you good!” +promised Rowdy, his vexation finally boiling over. +“I never saw such a boy. Come on here, Sammy. +Hold this rabbit by the hind legs and I’ll skin it in +a jiffy.”</p> + +<p>With the help of a knife to start the rabbit’s +hide, Rowdy “plucked” the bunny very handily. +It was drawn and cleaned, too, and soon Rowdy +was disjointing it as one would a chicken, using a +flat stone for a butcher block.</p> + +<p>“It—it looks so much like a kitten,” murmured +Tess. “Do you suppose it is really good to eat?”</p> + +<p>“You wait till you taste it,” chuckled Rowdy, +who seemed to be a very practical boy indeed. +“I’m going to make dumplings with it, too. I +have flour and lard. We’ll have a fine supper by +and by. Then Rafe will feel better.”</p> + +<p>Rafe merely coughed and grunted. He seemed +determined not to be friendly, or even pleasant.</p> + +<p>Tess was an experienced potato peeler. She +often helped Linda or Mrs. MacCall at home in +Milton. In the matter of the onions she was quite +as successful, although she confessed that they +made her cry.</p> + +<p>“I don’t see why onions act so,” Dot said, wiping +her own eyes. “There ought to be some way +of smothering ’em while you take their jackets off. +Oh, Tess, that one squirted right into my face!”</p> + +<p>“You’ll have to take your face away from me, +then,” said her sister. “I can’t tell where the +onion’s going to squirt next. They are worse than +those clams we got down at Pleasant Cove, about +squirting.”</p> + +<p>“Goodness’ sake!” exclaimed Rowdy. “Clams +and onions! Never heard them compared before. +Did you, Rafe?”</p> + +<p>“Don’t bother me,” growled Rafe, from the bed +where he had lain down.</p> + +<p>Rowdy kept right on with his cooking. There +being plenty of snow melted, he put down the disjointed +rabbit with a little water and pepper and +salt to simmer. Later he put in the onions and +the potatoes. But they all had to simmer slowly +for some time before the dumplings were made and +put into the covered pot with the rabbit stew.</p> + +<p>The children were all very hungry indeed (all +save Rafe, the grouch) before Rowdy pronounced +the stew ready to be eaten. By that time it was +late in the evening. It seemed to the younger +children as though they had been living in the +cave already for a long, long time!</p> + +<h2 class='chapter' id='clink23'><a href='#toc'>CHAPTER XXIII—ANXIETY</a></h2> + +<p>In this valley into which Sammy and the two +youngest Corner House girls had coasted without +realizing their unfortunate change of direction, +the blizzard that had swept down from the north-east +upon the wilderness about Red Deer Lodge +did not reveal to the castaways its greatest velocity.</p> + +<p>The wind was mild in the valley compared to +the way it swept across the ridge on which the +Birdsalls’ home had been built. Already, when +Neale O’Neil discovered the absence of the small +sled Sammy and Tess and Dot had taken, the storm +was becoming threatening in the extreme.</p> + +<p>Urged by Mr. Howbridge, Neale ran into the +house to make sure that Sammy and the little girls +were really gone. Nobody indoors knew anything +about the trio. Instantly anxiety was aroused in +the minds of every one.</p> + +<p>Hedden, John and Lawrence, as well as Luke +Shepard, soon joined in the search. Ike M’Graw +of course took the lead. He knew the locality, and +he knew the nature of the storm that had now +developed after forty-eight hours of threatening.</p> + +<p>“No use lookin’ for them twins,” he had told +Mr. Howbridge bluntly. “If they got away from +here this mornin’ with grub and a gun, they’ll +likely be all right for a while. They know where +to hole up, it’s likely, over this storm. ’Tain’t as +though they hadn’t lived in the woods a good +deal, winter and summer. When this storm is +over I’ll have a look for them twins, and like +enough I’ll find ’em all right. They air smart +young shavers—’specially little Missie.</p> + +<p>“But these here young ones you brought with +you—well, they don’t know nothin’ about the +woods. If they started up that road to have a +slide, no knowin’ where they are now. They’ve +got to be found and brought home. Yes, sir!”</p> + +<p>Ruth and the other girls had come running to +the back kitchen where the party was making ready +for departure. Agnes and Cecile were in tears; +but although Ruth felt even more keenly that she +had neglected the little folks, and because of that +neglect they were lost, she kept her head.</p> + +<p>The oldest Kenway hurried matters in the +kitchen, and before Ike was ready to start with his +crew, she brought two big thermos bottles, one +with hot milk and the other with hot coffee.</p> + +<p>“That’s a good idee, Miss,” said the woodsman, +buttoning up his leather coat. “But we’ll probably +get them youngsters so quick they won’t be +much cold. Scared, mostly.”</p> + +<p>All the members of the searching party did not +feel so confident as Ike’s expression pictured his +feelings. And perhaps Ike said this only to help +ease the minds of those who remained at the +Lodge.</p> + +<p>Neale and Luke walked side by side as they set +forth against the wind that now blew so hard. +The snow sheeted them about so quickly that they +were lost to the vision of the girls and Mr. Howbridge +before they had gone twenty yards.</p> + +<p>The boys were right behind M’Graw. The other +men trailed them.</p> + +<p>“Don’t you fellers stray off the road we’re goin’ +to follow,” advised the old woodsman. “This is +a humdinger of a storm, and it’s goin’ to get worse +and worse from now on.”</p> + +<p>“Those poor kids will be buried in it,” Luke +shouted in Neale’s ear.</p> + +<p>“We’ll dig ’em out, then,” returned Neale, confidently. +“Don’t give up the ship before we’ve +even started.”</p> + +<p>But there was not much talk after getting into +the road up which they knew Sammy and the little +girls had started with the sled. In fact, they +could not talk. By this time the blizzard was at +its height, and it was blowing directly in their +faces as they advanced.</p> + +<p>Over boot-tops, over knees, even leg-deep where +the drifts were, the searchers pressed on. Hedden +overtook the backwoodsman and shouted:</p> + +<p>“Hadn’t we better separate, Mr. M’Graw, and +beat the bushes on either side of this road?”</p> + +<p>“No. Don’t believe it’s safe. And I don’t +think them little shavers separated. They’ve +holed-in together somewhere by this time, or—”</p> + +<p>He did not finish his remark, but plowed on. +He did not pass a hummock or snow-covered stump +beside the road that he did not kick into and quite +thoroughly examine. Every time Neale O’Neil +saw one of these drifts he felt suddenly ill. Suppose +the little folks should be under that heap of +snow? Nor did Luke bear the uncertainty in +lighter vein. There were tears frozen on his +cheeks as they pressed on.</p> + +<p>The falling snow and sleet, driven by the wind, +seemed like a solid wall ahead of them. This buffeted +the searchers with tremendous power. It +took all their individual force to stand against the +storm.</p> + +<p>When they finally reached the summit of the +road, where the young people had started the bobsled +for the long slide that forenoon, they had +found no sign of Sammy and the little girls.</p> + +<p>Lawrence, one of the men, was completely exhausted. +Ike made him sit down in the shelter of +a tree and dosed him with a big draught of the +hot coffee.</p> + +<p>“Don’t want to have to lug you back in our +arms, young man,” snorted the old woodsman. +“You city fellers ain’t got much backbone, I +allow.”</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the other members of the searching +party examined every brush pile and heap of snow +for a circle of twenty yards around the point +where Ike and Lawrence waited. Neale and Luke +shrieked themselves hoarse calling the names of +the trio of lost children.</p> + +<p>“Do you suppose any wild animal has attacked +them, or frightened them, Mr. M’Graw?” Hedden +asked.</p> + +<p>“Lynx and them is holed up, all right,” declared +the backwoodsman with conviction. +“Nothing would bother them while this storm +lasts. But I declare I don’t see why we ain’t +found ’em,” he added, shaking his head. “Not if +they come this way.”</p> + +<p>“I don’t think they would have gone beyond this +spot, do you?” Neale asked. “Here’s the top of +the hill. They must have started for this place +with the sled.”</p> + +<p>“’Twould seem so,” agreed Ike M’Graw.</p> + +<p>“I doubt if they could have walked so far from +the house,” said Luke.</p> + +<p>“’Twasn’t snowin’ like this when they was on +the way. But if they come up here and slid down +again, why didn’t we find ’em on our way up? +Beats me!”</p> + +<p>“Perhaps we should have brought Tom Jonah +with us,” Neale observed. “He might have nosed +them out.”</p> + +<p>“The old dog couldn’t scurcely git through this +here snow,” said M’Graw. “I don’t guess he can +help us much till the storm’s over. But let’s go +back. Them young ones must have turned out o’ +this road somewheres. Stands to reason the snow +scared ’em and they started back. They must +have got out o’ this woodroad, and then—”</p> + +<p>He slowly shook his head. His anxiety was +shared by all. Wherever the children had gone, +they were surely overtaken by the storm. If they +had found some shelter they might be safely +“holed up” till the storm stopped. But if not, +neither Ike M’Graw nor the others knew where to +look for them.</p> + +<p>And the blizzard was now sweeping so desperately +across the ridge that the sturdiest of the +party could scarcely stand against it. Had it not +been at their backs as they headed for Red Deer +Lodge again, it is doubtful if they would have got +to their destination alive.</p> + +<p>The last few hundred yards the party made by +holding hands and pulling each other through the +drifts. It was a tremendous task, and even +M’Graw was blown when Red Deer Lodge was +reached.</p> + +<p>Lawrence was the worst off of them all. Neale +and Luke literally dragged him through the storm +from the sheds to the rear door of the Lodge. He +would probably have died in the drifts had he +been alone.</p> + +<p>The girls and Mrs. MacCall, as well as Mr. Howbridge, +were awaiting the return of the searchers +with the utmost anxiety. Not only were they disturbed +over the loss of the three children, but the +possibility of the men themselves not returning +had grown big in their minds. The rapidity with +which the snow was gathering and the fierceness +of the gale threatened disaster to the searchers.</p> + +<p>When M’Graw fell against the storm door at +the rear of the house and burst it open, everybody +within hearing came running to the back kitchen. +When Ruth saw that they did not bring with them +the two little girls and Sammy, she broke down +utterly.</p> + +<p>Her despair was pitiful. She had held in +bravely until now. To think that they had come +up here to Red Deer Lodge for a jolly vacation +only to have this tragedy occur!</p> + +<p>For that it was tragedy even Ike M’Graw now +admitted. There was no knowing when the storm +would cease. If the children had not been providentially +sheltered before the gale reached this +high point, it was scarcely possible that they would +be found alive after the blizzard was over.</p> + +<p>At this hour no human being could live for long +exposed to the storm which gripped the whole +countryside.</p> + +<hr class='tb' /> + +<p>There was anxiety in the cave in the valley as +well as at Red Deer Lodge about this same hour. +But it must be confessed that the children who had +taken refuge in the cave were mostly anxious about +that rabbit stew!</p> + +<p>Was there going to be enough to go around? +And had Rowdy made the dumplings all right and +seasoned the stew so that it would be palatable?</p> + +<div style='text-align:center'> +<img id='ilink04' src='images/illus-004.jpg' alt=''/> +<p class='caption'>“The housekeeping arrangements of the cave were primitive.”</p> +</div> + +<p>“Why, you’re all sitting around here and +sniffing at that stew every time I lift the pot cover +like hungry dogs,” declared Rowdy. “I guess if +it doesn’t turn out right, you’ll eat me.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, no,” said Dot. “We wouldn’t like to do +that, for we aren’t cannon balls.”</p> + +<p>“You aren’t <i>what</i>?” cried the boy, amazed.</p> + +<p>“Oh, dear, Dot! Why <i>will</i> you get so mixed up +in your words?” Tess wailed. “She doesn’t +mean ‘cannon balls,’ Rowdy; she means cannibals. +And we aren’t. It is bad enough to have +to eat rabbit when it looks so much like a cat.”</p> + +<p>This very much amused Rowdy and Sammy +Pinkney; but Rafe, the grouchy brother, would +not be even friendly enough to laugh at the smallest +Corner House girl.</p> + +<p>“I don’t know what’s got into him,” said +Rowdy. “He never was this way before.”</p> + +<p>Rafe lay on the bed of balsam branches, and +when his brother tried to stir him up he growled +and said: “Let me alone!” But when the stew +was done he was ready for his share.</p> + +<p>The housekeeping arrangements of the cave +were primitive. There were a few odd plates and +dishes. But knives and forks were not plentiful, +and the tea had to be drunk out of tin cups, and +there were only three of them.</p> + +<p>There was condensed milk for the tea; and besides +the dumplings which Rowdy had made, there +were crackers and some cold cornbread left from +a previous meal.</p> + +<p>Rowdy seemed to be a pretty good cook for a boy +of his age. And he was just as handy with dishes +and in housekeeping matters as a girl.</p> + +<p>The visitors praised his rabbit stew. They +really had to do that because they ate so much +of it. Rafe grumbled that they took more than +their share.</p> + +<p>“I’d like to know what’s got into you!” Rowdy +said to his brother in great disgust. “You are +just as mean as poison ivy—so there!”</p> + +<p>“I am not!”</p> + +<p>“Yes, you are. And what are you scratching +that way for?”</p> + +<p>“Because my chest itches. What does anybody +scratch for?” growled Rafe.</p> + +<p>After eating, Rafe rolled up in a robe and went +to sleep at one end of the bed. The others helped +Rowdy clean up; and, as he said, “just to pay +Rafe off for being so mean,” they had dessert +which Rafe had no part in. Rowdy produced a +can of pears and they opened and ate them all!</p> + +<p>“Je-ru-sa-<i>lem</i>!” ejaculated Sammy, when this +was finished, “ain’t it fun living in a cave? I’d +rather be here than up to that Red Deer Lodge +place. Hadn’t you, Tess?”</p> + +<p>“No-o,” admitted the honest but polite little +girl. “I can’t say just that. But I think +Rowdy’s cave is very nice, and we are having a +very nice time here.”</p> + +<p>Dot frankly yawned. She had been doing that, +off and on, all through supper.</p> + +<p>“I’m afraid there won’t be anybody to put my +Alice-doll to bed tonight,” she said. “And I +haven’t any nightgown with me. Why, Tess! +what shall we do?”</p> + +<p>“I guess you wouldn’t want to take off your +clothes here. It isn’t warm enough,” said Rowdy.</p> + +<p>“But can’t we say our prayers?” murmured the +startled Dot. “Of course, Tess and I spent the +night once right out under a tree—didn’t we, Tessie? +Last summer, you know, when we went on +that tour in our automobile. But we said our +prayers first.”</p> + +<p>“I guess we’d all better say our prayers and go +to bed,” said Rowdy. “This is a pretty big storm, +and maybe it won’t stop snowing for ever so long. +The more we sleep, the less we’ll know about it.”</p> + +<p>Therefore, a little later, the four joined the already +slumbering Rafe upon the heaped up +branches; wrapping themselves as best they could +in the torn robes and pieces of carpet.</p> + +<p>It was not a very comfortable bed or very nice +bedding; but they were all too weary to criticize +the shortcomings of Rowdy’s cave. At least, it +was shelter from the storm.</p> + +<h2 class='chapter' id='clink24'><a href='#toc'>CHAPTER XXIV—RAFE IS CROSS</a></h2> + +<p>Sammy Pinkney awoke to hear barking. But it +was not Tom Jonah, as he had dreamed it was. +He was chilly, too, and when his eyes got +used to the semi-darkness of the cave he was sleeping +in, Sammy discovered that Rafe had deliberately +removed the share of the bedclothes that +had been over Sammy and spread them over himself.</p> + +<p>“Aw, say!” muttered Sammy. “Ain’t he +fresh?”</p> + +<p>Then Rafe barked again.</p> + +<p>“He certainly has one fierce cold!” muttered +Sammy. “I ain’t got the heart to start nothing +on him.”</p> + +<p>Instead he got up and crept over to the fireplace +where there were still some red embers. +Rowdy, or somebody, had evidently been up more +than once to put fuel on the fire, and now Sammy +did the same and blew the coals until the wood +caught and blazed.</p> + +<p>Beside the fireplace was a great stack of billets +of seasoned wood. Evidently this cave had been +used as a living place for a long time; or perhaps +it had merely been stocked with fuel for a long +time.</p> + +<p>Sammy hoped it was well stocked with food, too. +For Sammy was hungry, right then! It seemed +to him that the rabbit stew had been eaten a long +time before. There was no clock; but judging +from the way he felt he thought he must have +slept the clock around.</p> + +<p>He wondered if the storm had ceased. Was +there likelihood of their being able to get back to +Red Deer Lodge this morning (if it was morning), +or would they have to remain until some one came +to dig them out?</p> + +<p>The fire having sprung up now, and the flickering +light aiding him to see his way about the cavern, +Sammy moved toward the entrance. This +aperture beside the huge bowlder was scarcely +higher than Sammy himself. Before it Rowdy +and Rafe, the two strange boys, had hung a piece +of matting. When Sammy pulled this matting +away he saw snow—snow that filled the hole +“chock-er-block,” as he expressed it.</p> + +<p>“Je-ru-sa-<i>lem</i>!” muttered the startled Sammy, +“I guess it did snow some. How are we ever +going to dig out of here?”</p> + +<p>There was a slab of wood standing beside the +opening, leaning against the rock. Sammy seized +this and began to dig desperately at the snow.</p> + +<p>So interested did he become in digging through +the bank that filled the cave entrance that he did +not pay much attention to where he flung the snow +behind him. He was still digging like a woodchuck +when Rowdy’s voice reached him:</p> + +<p>“What are you trying to do? Going to fill this +cave with snow?”</p> + +<p>“Say!” said Sammy, “it’s getting-up time. +And there’s an awful lot of snow here. I guess +we’re buried alive, that’s what I guess!”</p> + +<p>Just then Rafe coughed again, and his brother +hopped up and went to him.</p> + +<p>“Don’t scatter that snow all about, Sammy,” +he commanded. Then to Rafe: “What’s the +matter, Rafe, dear? Don’t you feel any better?”</p> + +<p>“I’m—I’m chilly,” chattered the boy with the +cough.</p> + +<p>“I’ll cover you up better,” said Rowdy, getting +his own blanket. “And we’ll have more fire and +some breakfast. Are you hungry, Rafe?”</p> + +<p>“I’m thirsty,” said Rafe, rather whiningly. +“I want some—some coffee.”</p> + +<p>“I’ll make some right away. Don’t be sick, +now, Rafe. I don’t see what we should do for you +if you got sick. What <i>are</i> you scratching for?”</p> + +<p>“Because I itch,” replied Rafe drowsily.</p> + +<p>But he snuggled down under the coverings until +the coffee should be made. He seemed in a pleasanter +humor, at least, than on the evening before.</p> + +<p>Rowdy bustled about, making coffee and stirring +up some kind of bread by the light of the fire. +Soon the fuel heaped upon the blaze made the cave +warm again, although the smoke set them all to +coughing.</p> + +<p>The two little girls woke up. Dot demanded a +light.</p> + +<p>“I don’t like this old smoky fire to see by,” +she complained. “Why don’t you keep your fire +in a stove, Rowdy?”</p> + +<p>“Haven’t a stove,” replied Rowdy promptly. +“How did you girls sleep?”</p> + +<p>“All right, I guess,” Tess replied. “What are +you doing, Sammy? Can we go home this morning?”</p> + +<p>Sammy was still digging. He tramped the snow +into a corner behind him. But the more snow he +dug out of the hole the more there seemed to be. +He took a round stick as tall as he was himself and +pushed it up through the snowbank, and it let in no +light at all.</p> + +<p>“Je-ru-sa-<i>lem</i>!” he cried. “There’s all the +snow in the world blown into this hole, I guess. +We’ll never get out of here!”</p> + +<p>“Oh!” squealed Dot, “don’t say that, Sammy. +Of course we must get out. It’s coming Christmas, +you know, and I’ve got to finish my motto +that I’m making for Ruthie. It’s got to be done, +and I didn’t bring it with me.”</p> + +<p>“But,” said Tess, yet with some hesitation now, +“the folks will surely come to find us. Don’t you +say so, Rowdy?”</p> + +<p>“If they know where you are,” said Rowdy.</p> + +<p>“But we didn’t tell ’em,” growled Sammy, coming +to the fire to get warm.</p> + +<p>“That’ll be all right,” Dot declared, seeing no +difficulty. “Tom Jonah will find us. You know, +we never can hide from Tom Jonah.”</p> + +<p>Tess explained to Rowdy that Tom Jonah was a +dog, and a very good dog, too. But she secretly +had some doubts, as did Sammy, that the old dog +would be able to find them away down at the bottom +of this hole where they had coasted. She +was careful to say nothing to frighten Dot, or to +discourage her.</p> + +<p>They were all much interested in Rowdy’s preparations +for breakfast. He produced a strip of +bacon and he fried some of this in a pan while the +bread was cooking. There was no butter, and the +coffee was rather muddy; but not even Dot complained, +as long as she got her share.</p> + +<p>While they ate, they talked. At least, Rowdy +and the visitors talked. Rafe drank the coffee +and ate his share of the breakfast, and then went +back to the bed and heaped almost all the coverings +over him. He had little red specks on his +chest and arms, and he said he could not get warm.</p> + +<p>Sammy was desirous of getting out through the +cave entrance to see if it had stopped snowing +and what the prospect was for clear weather. But +he dug for an hour after breakfast without accomplishing +much. Then Rowdy came to help him.</p> + +<p>“I tell you what I think,” said the Milton boy, +in a low voice, so the girls would not hear. “I +b’lieve all that snow that was up on that hill has +just come tumbling down before this cave—so +there!”</p> + +<p>“An avalanche!” gasped Rowdy.</p> + +<p>“I don’t know what you call it. But that’s +what I think,” repeated Sammy. “We’ll never +dig out of here in this world.”</p> + +<p>“But I guess we’ve got to,” said Rowdy +sharply. “We can’t live here long.”</p> + +<p>“It ain’t a bad sort of a place,” said Sammy +cheerfully. “I guess Robinson Crusoe didn’t +have a better cave.”</p> + +<p>“He had more food than we have,” said Rowdy +thoughtfully. “And you kids do eat a lot. If I’d +known you were coming here to live I’d have +brought more stuff to eat—I surely would!”</p> + +<p>“Can’t we catch any more rabbits?” suggested +Sammy.</p> + +<p>“How are you going to catch rabbits when we +can’t get outside this cave?” returned Rowdy. “I +guess all boys are foolish. That sounds just like +Rafe.”</p> + +<p>“Say! You’re a boy yourself,” said Sammy, in +surprise. “You needn’t talk.”</p> + +<p>“Oh!” rejoined Rowdy, and said nothing more +for a time.</p> + +<p>But they gave up digging through the snowbank. +The snow seemed packed very hard, and it was difficult +to dig with a slab of wood. If there had +been an avalanche over the mouth of the cave +their chances for digging out were small, indeed. +Luckily none of the children realized just what +that meant.</p> + +<p>Living in the cave was some fun, as Sammy +declared. At least, it had the virtue of novelty. +The time did not drag. They played games, paid +forfeits, and Tess told stories, and Rowdy sang +songs. He had a very sweet voice, and Tess told +him that he sang almost as well as Agnes did.</p> + +<p>“And Agnes sings in the church chorus,” explained +Tess.</p> + +<p>“And I think you cook ’most as good as a girl,” +said Dot. “I guess you cook ’most as good as +our Linda, at home, in Milton.”</p> + +<p>If Rowdy considered these statements compliments +he did not say so. Indeed, he seemed to be +very silent after they were made. He sat beside +Rafe on the bed for some time, and they whispered +together. Rafe seemed to get no better, and he +slept a good deal.</p> + +<p>So did the other children sleep, after a while. +Having no means of telling whether one day or +two had passed, after eating a second time they all +curled down, covering themselves as best they +could, and found in slumber a panacea for their +anxiety.</p> + +<p>It was not Sammy who awoke the next time, but +Tess. She became wide awake in a moment, hearing +a sound from somewhere outside of the cave. +She sat up to hear it repeated.</p> + +<p>Something was scrambling and scratching in the +snow. She even heard a “woof! woof!” just as +though some animal tossed aside the snow and +blew through it. Tess was badly frightened.</p> + +<p>“Sammy! Rowdy! Oh, please!” she cried. +“Is it a bear?”</p> + +<p>“Is what a bear?” demanded Rowdy, waking +up in some confusion. “I guess you’ve been +dreaming, Tess.”</p> + +<p>“That isn’t any dream!” cried the Corner +House girl, and she sprang up, seizing Dot in her +arms.</p> + +<p>Rowdy screamed now; not at all like a boy would +cry out. He leaped from the bed and ran to the +other side of the room. There, hanging on two +pegs, was a small rifle. Sammy had eyed it with +longing. But Rafe, awakened as well, shouted:</p> + +<p>“No good taking that, Rowdy! It isn’t loaded. +You know I shot away the last cartridge at that +old fox.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, Rafe! I told you then you were foolish,” +said Rowdy. “What shall we do?”</p> + +<p>“What is it?” yelled Sammy, tumbling out of +bed.</p> + +<p>“It’s a wolf!” replied Rowdy. “I can hear +it! Listen!”</p> + +<p>Dot added her voice to the din. “Tell that wolf +we haven’t anything to throw to him, so he might’s +well go away,” she declared.</p> + +<p>Rowdy ran to the hole in the snow. It seemed +to be suddenly lighter there. Was the beast that +was scratching through letting daylight into the +cave?</p> + +<p>Rafe shrieked and leaped out from under his +coverings.</p> + +<p>“You’ll be killed, Rowdy! Don’t go there!” +he cried.</p> + +<p>Dashing across the floor of the cave, he seized +Rowdy and pulled him out of the way.</p> + +<p>“Give me the gun!” he ordered, wresting it +from Rowdy’s hands. He seized it by the barrel +and poised it as a club.</p> + +<p>“Get out, Rowdy!” he commanded. “This +isn’t any place for a girl!”</p> + +<p>At that amazing statement the little girls from +the old Corner House and Sammy Pinkney were +so utterly surprised that they quite forgot the +savage animal that seemed to be trying to dig +into the cave to attack them.</p> + +<h2 class='chapter' id='clink25'><a href='#toc'>CHAPTER XXV—HOLIDAYS—CONCLUSION</a></h2> + +<p>It was rather fortunate that Ralph Birdsall had +shot way his last cartridge in killing the fox three +nights before from the garret window of Red +Deer Lodge. Otherwise he might have hurt Tom +Jonah.</p> + +<p>For the old dog scrambled through the drift +ahead of the searching party that had started out +as soon as the gale ceased. Tom Jonah was pretty +near crazy—or he acted so.</p> + +<p>Barking and leaping, the dog threw himself upon +Ralph and tumbled him over. He was prodigal +with his expressions of joy and affection, going +from one to the other of the five children, and in +his boisterousness tumbling them in heaps.</p> + +<p>“I never did! Tom Jonah! why don’t you behave?” +demanded Tess. “And I have been telling +Rowdy and Rafe, these nice boys, just how +good and smart you are.”</p> + +<p>“Je-ru-sa-<i>lem</i>!” gasped Sammy, finally getting +his breath. “They ain’t boys!”</p> + +<p>“Who aren’t boys?” asked Tess, wonderingly.</p> + +<p>“Well—well, <i>this</i> one isn’t,” said Sammy, +pointing at Rowdy. “He’s a girl, that’s what +he is.”</p> + +<p>“Why, Rowdy! I <i>thought</i> there was something +funny about you,” Tess Kenway said. “You—you +were so much nicer than boys are. I declare!”</p> + +<p>But this point was discussed no further at the +time. For into the entrance to the cave came +tumbling Neale O’Neil and Luke Shepard, covered +with snow and shouting their joy, while behind +them was Ike M’Graw.</p> + +<p>“Ralph! Roweny!” shouted the old timber +cruiser. “Jest what sort of doin’s do you call +this?”</p> + +<p>Neale and Luke greeted the three lost Milton +children with vehemence. Afterward Sammy confessed +that maybe it was a good thing to get lost, +for then you found out how much folks thought of +you.</p> + +<p>These three, with Tom Jonah, made up the +searching party this time. They had come away +from Red Deer Lodge without letting the others +know where they were going.</p> + +<p>It was really Agnes who started them off on the +right trail. While the gale still rocked Red Deer +Lodge in its arms and nobody could go out of +doors, Agnes remembered about the fork in the +road where she and her friends had coasted.</p> + +<p>“If the little ones tried to slide, they might have +taken that wrong road,” she said. “They could +have slid right into it without knowing. Where +does it go, Mr. M’Graw?”</p> + +<p>It did not take Ike long to study out what she +meant. Then he did some more “figgering.” He +knew exactly where the branch road led to.</p> + +<p>He was so successful in this figuring that he +encouraged the young people from Milton to believe +as he did. He saw a chance for the three +little folks who had gone sliding to be safely +housed in the cave that he called “Ralph and little +Missie’s playhouse.”</p> + +<p>The Birdsall twins had often camped out in that +cave hollowed in the hillside at the bottom of the +valley. If Sammy and Tess and Dot had slid +down there, more than likely, so Ike said, they +had found the cave and had taken refuge there.</p> + +<p>In addition (but this was his own secret) the +timber cruiser believed that the twins, having been +in Red Deer Lodge, had started for that very cave +some hours before the gale broke.</p> + +<p>If the young Birdsalls were there, the lost children +would be safe enough. This had proved to be +the case.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, the old woodsman scolded Ralph +and Rowena heartily.</p> + +<p>“What d’you mean?” he demanded, “by running +way from your guardian! Mr. Howbridge is +as fine a man as ever stepped in shoe-leather. +I’m ashamed of you children. And when you did +come clean up here, why didn’t you come to my +shack and stay?”</p> + +<p>“We did go there; but you were away. Then +we thought we had a right to live in our own house. +You know papa built it,” said Rowena, bravely. +“We didn’t know anybody was coming there this +winter. And we brought some food with us from +Coxford. Then those people came, and we waited +till we could get out without being caught at it.”</p> + +<p>“Some young ones! Some young ones!” +groaned M’Graw. “Well, now, you’ll go back to +the Lodge and see what Mr. Howbridge has to say +to you. And you dressed like a boy, Roweny!”</p> + +<p>“I don’t care,” said “Rowdy.” “Ralph +dressed up like a girl at first. We came up here +that way. But other kids picked on us so that I +thought I’d better be a boy as well as Ralph. And +we had these clothes at Red Deer Lodge. I make +as good a boy as he does a girl.”</p> + +<p>“Say!” asked Neale O’Neil, vastly interested, +“you two stopped a week at the village on the ice +and fished, didn’t you?”</p> + +<p>“Yes,” said Rowena.</p> + +<p>“And you were girls there?”</p> + +<p>“Yes.”</p> + +<p>“Well,” said Neale, laughing now, “what I want +to know is, which of you it was that thrashed those +two boys that tried to steal your set-lines?”</p> + +<p>“That was Rowena!” croaked Ralph from the +bed. “I acted just like a girl ought to and let +them take the lines; but Rowena fought them, and +licked them good, too!”</p> + +<p>There was a deal of talk after that, but most of +it was done following the arrival of the party at +Red Deer Lodge. As soon as that had occurred, +however, and Mrs. MacCall had heard Ralph cough +and heard about the itching, she made an examination.</p> + +<p>“There!” she declared, half an hour later after +she had put the boy between blankets and given +him a hot drink, “I might have known something +would happen if we came up to this out-of-the-world +place.”</p> + +<p>“I should think something had happened!” +murmured Ruth, who still held Dot in her lap and +hugged her as though she could not let her go +again. “What is the matter with Ralph?”</p> + +<p>“Chickenpox. And it’s coming out thick on +him right this minute.”</p> + +<p>“Oh! Oh! <i>Chickens?</i>” gasped the smallest +Corner House girl. “Are they roosting on him? +No wonder Rafe scratched.”</p> + +<p>“And like enough you’ll be scratching my lassie,” +said the Scotch woman. “One an’ all of you. +I never knew it to fail. If one bairn gets it, all the +others in the neighborhood catches it.”</p> + +<p>Nor was she a poor prophet. All the little +folks, even Rowena, developed mild cases of chickenpox +and were kept in the house for most of the +holidays.</p> + +<p>Holidays they were, nevertheless. Perhaps the +little Corner House folk had never had so good a +time over Christmas and New Year’s. Ralph and +Rowena Birdsall proved to be rollicking, good-natured +children, and they felt themselves at home +at Red Deer Lodge and could entertain Tess and +Dot and Sammy Pinkney.</p> + +<p>“We won’t blame them for giving us chicken +scratches,” said Dot to Tess. “At least, Ralph +did. But he couldn’t help it. And mine’s most +gone, anyway.”</p> + +<p>The “older young folks,” as Mr. Howbridge +called them, had most delightful times out of +doors, as well as in. There was four or five feet +of snow on the ground, on the level, and it was +packed hard enough to make splendid snow-shoeing.</p> + +<p>Ike M’Graw had plenty of snowshoes, and he +taught them all how to use them. When they became +adept he led them in short jaunts all about +the section in which Red Deer Lodge was situated.</p> + +<p>The boys went out with him at night, hunting. +Neale and Luke both killed rabbits, and Neale shot +a bigger fox than the one Ralph Birdsall had +knocked over.</p> + +<p>Those were wonderful days; but the nights were +still more wonderful, for they were moon-lighted +for most of the holiday time.</p> + +<p>There is nothing better than coasting by moonlight, +and of that sport Ruth, Agnes and Cecile, +as well as the two boys, had their fill.</p> + +<p>Nor did they overlook the two holidays, Christmas +and New Year’s. Ike cut and trimmed a +huge Christmas tree and that was set up in the +main hall of the Lodge and decorated in a most +beautiful manner. Presents had been brought up +from Milton for everybody. And although Ralph +and Rowena Birdsall and Ike M’Graw were +“added entries,” as Luke said, they were not allowed +to feel slighted when the presents were +given out on Christmas night.</p> + +<p>A big sledge came through from Coxford two +days after Christmas, and this brought additional +supplies for the party at Red Deer Lodge. There +came on the sledge, too, the red-faced Mr. Neven +who wished to buy the standing timber on a part +of the Birdsall tract.</p> + +<p>There was much talk between the lumberman, +Mr. Howbridge and M’Graw regarding the timber. +But Ike proved himself a good “figgerer” +in more ways than one. The lawyer remained +determined to accept the old timber cruiser’s report +as correct and finally Neven came to their +terms.</p> + +<p>Before the holiday of the Milton party was +ended, a big gang of lumbermen came up the tote-road +from Coxford and the lake, ready to set up a +camp in the valley near the twins’ cave, and finish +the season by cutting over several acres of the +Birdsall piece.</p> + +<p>“I won’t want to see our place up here again +until the new timber is grown,” cried Rowena, +mournfully.</p> + +<p>“Then you’ll have to wait till we get through +college,” Ralph told her. “Mr. Howbridge is going +to have us live with him till we go to college. +But I expect he’ll bring us up here once in a +while if you change your mind, Rowdy, and want +to come.”</p> + +<p>“Don’t call me ‘Rowdy,’ Ralph,” said his sister. +“That was only for our trip up here. And, +anyhow, I am not going to be a boy—never—any +more!”</p> + +<p>“We’re going to have a lot to tell the kids back +home,” remarked Sammy Pinkney one day before +they left Red Deer Lodge. “Je-ru-sa-<i>lem</i>! think +of that long slide, Tess.”</p> + +<p>“But it ended bad,” said Tess.</p> + +<p>“It ended good!” cried the boy. “Didn’t we +find Ralph and Rowena, and live in a cave, and eat +rabbit stew, and—”</p> + +<p>“And get chicken scratches,” put in Dot. “But +mine don’t scratch any now. The chickens went +away quick.”</p> + +<p class='center' style='margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;'>THE END</p> +<hr style='border:none; border-bottom:1px solid silver; width:70%; margin:2em auto' /> + +<p>CHARMING STORIES FOR GIRLS</p> + +<p>(From eight to twelve years old)</p> + +<p>THE CORNER HOUSE GIRLS SERIES</p> + +<p>BY GRACE BROOKS HILL</p> + +<p>Four girls from eight to fourteen years of age receive word that a rich +bachelor uncle has died, leaving them the old Corner House he occupied. +They move into it and then the fun begins. What they find and do will +provoke many a hearty laugh. Later, they enter school and make many +friends. One of these invites the girls to spend a few weeks at a +bungalow owned by her parents; and the adventures they meet with make +very interesting reading. Clean, wholesome stories of humor and +adventure, sure to appeal to all young girls.</p> + +<p> +     1. CORNER HOUSE GIRLS.<br/> +     2. CORNER HOUSE GIRLS AT SCHOOL.<br/> +     3. CORNER HOUSE GIRLS UNDER CANVAS.<br/> +     4. CORNER HOUSE GIRLS IN A PLAY.<br/> +     5. CORNER HOUSE GIRLS’ ODD FIND.<br/> +     6. CORNER HOUSE GIRLS ON A TOUR.<br/> +     7. CORNER HOUSE GIRLS GROWING UP.<br/> +     8. CORNER HOUSE GIRLS SNOWBOUND.<br/> +     9. CORNER HOUSE GIRLS ON A HOUSEBOAT.<br/> +     10. CORNER HOUSE GIRLS AMONG THE GYPSIES.<br/> +     11. CORNER HOUSE GIRLS ON PALM ISLAND.<br/> +</p> + +<p>BARSE & HOPKINS, PUBLISHERS +NEWARK, N. J.—NEW YORK, N. Y.</p> +<hr style='border:none; border-bottom:1px solid silver; width:70%; margin:2em auto' /> + +<p>THE POLLY PENDLETON SERIES</p> + +<p>BY DOROTHY WHITEHILL</p> + +<p>Polly Pendleton is a resourceful, wide-awake American girl who goes to a +boarding school on the Hudson River some miles above New York. By her +pluck and resourcefulness, she soon makes a place for herself and this +she holds right through the course. The account of boarding school life +is faithful and pleasing and will attract every girl in her teens.</p> + +<p> +     1. POLLY’S FIRST YEAR AT BOARDING SCHOOL<br/> +     2. POLLY’S SUMMER VACATION<br/> +     3. POLLY’S SENIOR YEAR AT BOARDING SCHOOL<br/> +     4. POLLY SEES THE WORLD AT WAR<br/> +     5. POLLY AND LOIS<br/> +     6. POLLY AND BOB<br/> +</p> + +<p>Cloth, Large 12mo., Illustrated.</p> + +<p>BARSE & HOPKINS, PUBLISHERS</p> + +<p>NEWARK, N. J.—NEW YORK, N. Y.</p> +<hr style='border:none; border-bottom:1px solid silver; width:70%; margin:2em auto' /> + +<p>CHICKEN LITTLE JANE SERIES</p> + +<p>By LILY MUNSELL RITCHIE</p> + +<p>Chicken Little Jane is a Western prairie girl who lives a happy, outdoor +life in a country where there is plenty of room to turn around. She is a +wide-awake, resourceful girl who will instantly win her way into the +hearts of other girls. And what good times she has!—with her pets, her +friends, and her many interests. “Chicken Little” is the affectionate +nickname given to her when she is very, very good, but when she +misbehaves it is “Jane”—just Jane!</p> + +<p> +     Adventures of Chicken Little Jane<br/> +     Chicken Little Jane on the “Big John”<br/> +     Chicken Little Jane Comes to Town<br/> +</p> + +<p>With numerous illustrations in pen and ink</p> + +<p>By CHARLES D. HUBBARD</p> + +<p>BARSE & HOPKINS, PUBLISHERS</p> + +<p>NEWARK, N. J.—NEW YORK, N. Y.</p> +<hr style='border:none; border-bottom:1px solid silver; width:70%; margin:2em auto' /> + +<p>DOROTHY WHITEHILL SERIES FOR GIRLS</p> + +<p>Here is a sparkling new series of stories for girls—just what they will +like, and ask for more of the same kind. It is all about twin sisters, +who for the first few years in their lives grow up in ignorance of each +other’s existence. Then they are at last brought together and things +begin to happen. Janet is an independent go-ahead sort of girl; while +her sister Phyllis is—but meet the twins for yourself and be +entertained.</p> + +<p>6 Titles, Cloth, large 12mo.</p> + +<p>Covers in color.</p> + +<p> +     1. JANET, A TWIN<br/> +     2. PHYLLIS, A TWIN<br/> +     3. THE TWINS IN THE WEST<br/> +     4. THE TWINS IN THE SOUTH<br/> +     5. THE TWINS’ SUMMER VACATION<br/> +     6. THE TWINS AND TOMMY JR.<br/> +</p> + +<p>BARSE & HOPKINS, PUBLISHERS</p> + +<p>NEWARK, N. J.—NEW YORK, N. Y.</p> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Corner House Girls Snowbound, by +Grace Brooks Hill + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CORNER HOUSE GIRLS SNOWBOUND *** + +***** This file should be named 38431-h.htm or 38431-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/4/3/38431/ + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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