The Camp Fire Girls on the March
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Jane L. Stewart >> The Camp Fire Girls on the March
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She ran upstairs for the handkerchief.
"I left it behind on purpose, Dolly," she explained, when she came down.
"I wanted them to go ahead. Ah, look!"
As they went along, with most of the girls fully a hundred yards ahead
of them, a lurking figure was plainly to be seen following the girls.
"It's Jake Hoover!" said Dolly excitedly.
"I thought I saw him last night. That was why you thought something was
wrong, Dolly," said Bessie. "But I wanted to make sure before I said
anything."
"That means trouble," said Dolly.
CHAPTER X
A MEETING--AND A CONVERSION
"Trouble--he's always meant that every time we've seen him!" said Bessie
bitterly.
"How do you suppose he has managed to be away from home so much,
Bessie?"
"I don't know, Dolly, but I'm afraid he's got into some sort of trouble.
I'm quite sure that Mr. Holmes and that lawyer, Mr. Brack, have got
something against him--that they know something he's afraid they will
tell."
"Say, I'll bet you 're right! You know, he must be an awful coward--and
yet, the way he goes after you, he takes a lot of chances, doesn't he?
It does look as if, no matter how much it may frighten him to do what he
does, he's still more afraid not to do it."
"Look out--get behind this tree! I don't want him to see us here if we
can help it. It would be better if he thought he hadn't been noticed at
all, don't you think?"
"Yes. And it's a very good thing we saw him, Bessie. Now we know that we
must look out for squalls at Plum Beach, and they don't know we're
warned at all. So maybe it will be easier to beat them."
"Look here, Dolly, isn't there another train to Plum Beach? A later one,
that would get us there an hour or so after the other girls, if they go
on this one?"
"There certainly is, Bessie; but how can we wait for it? Miss Eleanor
would be worried."
"Oh, we'll have to let her know what we're going to do, of course. How
soon does that train go?"
"Not for half an hour yet. Miss Mercer wanted to be at the station very
early so that all the baggage would surely be checked in time to go on
the same train with us."
"Well, that makes it easy, Dolly. I tell you what. I'll stay here, and
follow very slowly, when Jake gets out of sight, so that he won't see
me. And if you go right across the street, and cut across the lots
there, you can get to the railroad station from the other side."
"I know the way--I saw that last night, though not because I expected to
do it."
"All right, then. You take that way, and get hold of Miss Eleanor
quietly. Better not let the others hear what you're saying, and keep
your eyes open for Jake, too. But I don't believe he'll show himself in
the station."
"Do you think she'll let us do it!"
"I don't see why not. We'll be perfectly safe. I'm sure Jake is here
alone, and he wouldn't dare try to do anything to stop us here. He knows
that he'd get into trouble if he did, and I don't think he's very brave,
even in this new fashion of his unless some of the people he's afraid of
are right around to spur him on. You remember how Will Burns thrashed
him? He didn't look very brave then, did he?"
"I should say not! All right, I'll tell her and see what she says. Then
I'll get back to the boarding-house. You'll go there, won't you?"
"No, I don't think that would be a good idea at all. The best thing for
you to do is to wait for me right there in the station. The ticket agent
is a woman, and I'm sure she'll let you stay with her until I come, if
you get Miss Eleanor to speak to her. Miss Eleanor knows all the people
here, and they all like her, and would do anything she asked them to do,
if they could.
"And it's easier for me to get to the station without being seen than to
the boarding-house. Besides, I think it's right around the station that
we'll have the best chance of finding out what they mean to do."
"All right! I'll obey orders," said Dolly. "You're right, too, I think,
Bessie."
Jake Hoover, creeping along, was out of sight when Dolly made a swift
dash across the street, and in a minute she had disappeared. Bessie knew
that Dolly's movements, always rapid, were likely to prove altogether
too elusive for Jake's rather slow mind to follow, and, moreover, she
was not much afraid of detection, even should Jake catch a glimpse of
her chum. Jake was sure that all the Camp Fire Girls were in front of
him; he would not, therefore, be looking in the rear for any of them,
especially for those he wanted to track down.
Bessie had the harder task. She had to keep herself from Jake's
observation until after the train had gone, in any case, and as much
longer as possible. As she had told Dolly, she was not very much afraid
of anything he might attempt against them, but she saw no use in running
any avoidable risks.
Once Jake was out of sight, she made her way slowly toward the station,
prepared to make an instant dash for cover should she see Jake
returning.
The one thing that was likely to cause him to come back toward her, she
figured, was the presence of Holmes or one of the other men who were
behind him in the conspiracy, and she was taking the chance, of course,
that one of these men was behind her, and a spectator of her movements.
But she could not avoid that. If one of them was there he was, that was
all, and she felt that by acting as she had decided to do, she had, at
all events, everything to gain and nothing to lose.
The road from the boarding-house to the station was perfectly straight
for about three-quarters of a mile, and parallel with the railroad
tracks. Then, when the road came to a point opposite the station, it
came also to a crossroad, and, about a hundred yards down this crossroad
was the station itself.
Bessie reached that point without anything to alarm her or upset her
plans, and there she was lucky enough to find a big billboard at the
corner, which happened to be a vacant lot. Behind this billboard she
took shelter thankfully, feeling sure that it would enable her to see
what Jake was doing without any danger of being discovered by him.
As she had expected, Jake did not enter the station. She had no sooner
taken up her position in the shelter of the billboard than she was able
to single him out from the men who were lounging about, waiting for the
train. His movements were still furtive and sly, and Bessie had to
repress a shudder of disgust. Such work seemed to bring out everything
small and mean and sly in Jake's nature, and Bessie's thoughts were full
of sympathy for his father. After all, Paw Hoover had always been good
to her, and when she and Zara had run away from Hedgeville, he had
helped them instead of turning them back, as he might so easily have
done. It seemed strange to Bessie that so good and kind a man should
have such a worthless son.
Twice, as Bessie looked, she saw Jake approach one of the windows of the
station building furtively, but each time he was scared away from it
before he had a chance to look in.
"Trying to make sure that I'm in there, and afraid of being seen at his
spying," decided Bessie. "That's great! If he doesn't see me, he'll
just decide that I must be there anyhow, and take a chance. It's a good
thing he's such a coward. But I wonder what he thinks we'd do to him,
even if we did see him?"
She laughed at the thought. Never having had a really guilty conscience
herself, Bessie had no means of knowing what a torturing, weakening
thing it is. She could not properly imagine Jake's mental state, in
which everything that happened alarmed him. Having done wrong, he
fancied all the time that he was about to be haled up, and made to pay
for his wrongdoing. And that, of course, was the explanation of his
actions, when, as a matter of fact, he could have walked with entire
safety into the station and the midst of the Camp Fire Girls.
Soon the whistle of the train that was to carry the Camp Fire Girls to
Plum Beach was heard in the distance, and a minute later it roared into
the station, stopped, and was off again. Seeing a great waving of
handkerchiefs from the last car, Bessie guessed what they meant. Miss
Eleanor had agreed to her plan, and this was the way the girls took of
bidding her good-bye and good luck.
As soon as the train had gone Jake rushed into the station, and Bessie
walked boldly toward it, a new idea in her mind. She had made up her
mind that to be afraid of Jake Hoover was a poor policy. If the guess
she and Dolly had made concerning his relations with those who were
persecuting her was correct, Jake must be a good deal more afraid of
them, or of what he had done, than she could possibly be of him, and
Bessie knew that there should be no great difficulty in dealing very
much as she liked with a coward.
Moreover, the presence of a policeman at the station gave her assurance
that she need fear no physical danger from Jake, and she felt that was
the only thing that need check her at all.
When she reached the station she looked in the window first, and saw
Jake standing by the ticket agent's window. The ticket agent was also
the telegraph operator, and Bessie saw that she was writing something
on a yellow telegraph blank. Evidently Jake was sending a message, and
Bessie knew that, while he could read a very little, Jake had always
been so stupid and so lazy that he had never learned to write properly.
The sight made her smile, because, unless her plans had miscarried
completely, Dolly was inside the little ticket office, and must be
hearing every word of that message!
So she waited until Jake, satisfied, turned from the window, and then
she walked boldly in. For a minute Jake, who was looking out of one of
the windows in front toward the track, did not see her at all. In that
moment Bessie got in line with the ticket window and, seeing Dolly,
waved to her to come out. Then she walked over to Jake, smiled at his
amazed face as he turned to her, and saluted him cheerfully.
"Hello, Jake Hoover," she said. "Were you looking for me!"
Jake's face fell, and he stared at her in comical dismay.
"Well, I snum!" he said. "How in tarnation did you come to git off that
there train, hey?"
"I never was on it, Jake," said Bessie, pleasantly. "You just thought
_I_ was, you see. You don't want to jump to a conclusion so quickly."
Jake was petrified. When he saw Dolly come out of the ticket office,
puzzled by Bessie's action, but entirely willing to back her up, his
face turned white.
"You're a pretty poor spy, Jake," said Dolly, contemptuously. "I guess
Mr. Holmes won't be very pleased when he gets your message at Canton,
telling him Bessie went on that train and then doesn't find her aboard
at all."
"What's that?" asked Bessie, suddenly. "Is that the message he sent,
Dolly!"
"It certainly is," said Dolly. "Why, what's the matter, Bessie?"
But Bessie didn't answer her. Instead she had raced toward a big
railroad map that hung on the wall of the station, and was looking for
Canton on it.
"I thought so!" she gasped. Then she ran over to the ticket window, and
spoke to the agent.
"If I send a telegram right now, can it be delivered to Miss Mercer, on
that train that just went out, before she gets to Canton?" she asked.
The agent looked at her time-table.
"Oh, yes," she said, cheerfully. "That's easy. I'll send it right out
for you, and it will reach her at Whitemarsh which is only twenty-five
miles away."
"Good!" said Bessie, and wrote out a long telegram. In a minute she
returned to Jake and Dolly, and the sound of the ticking telegraph
instrument filled the station with its chatter.
"He wanted to run away, Bessie," said Dolly. "But I told him it wasn't
polite to do that when a young lady wanted to talk to him, so he stayed.
That was nice of him, wasn't it?"
"Very," said Bessie, her tone as sarcastic as Dolly's own. "Now, look
here, Jake, what have you done that makes you so afraid of Mr. Holmes
and these other wicked men?"
Jake's jaw fell again, but he was speechless. He just stared at her.
"There's no use standing there like a dying calf, Jake Hoover!" said
Bessie, angrily. "I know perfectly well you've been up to some dreadful
mischief, and these men have told you that if you don't do just as they
tell you they'll see that you're punished. Isn't that true?"
"How--how in time did you ever find that out?" stammered Jake.
"I've known you a long time, Jake Hoover," said Bessie, crisply. "And
now tell me this. Haven't I always been willing to be your friend?
Didn't I forgive you for all the mean things you did, and help you every
way I could? Did I ever tell on you when you'd done anything wrong, and
your father would have licked you?"
Bessie's tone grew more kindly as she spoke to him, and Jake seemed to
be astonished. He hung his head, and his look at her was sheepish.
"No, I guess you're a pretty good sort, Bessie," he said. "Mebbe I've
been pretty mean to you--"
"It's about time you found it out!" said Dolly, furiously. "Oh, I'd
like to--"
"Let him alone, Dolly," said Bessie. "I'm running this. Now, Jake, look
here. I want to be your friend. I'm very fond of your father, and I'd
hate to see him have a lot of sorrow on your account. Don't you know
that these men would sacrifice you and throw you over in a minute if
they thought they couldn't get anything more out of you? Don't you see
that they're just using you, and that when they've got all they can,
they'll let you get into any sort of trouble, without lifting a finger
to save you?"
"Do you think they'd do that, Bessie? They promised--"
"What are their promises worth, Jake? You ought to know them well enough
to understand that they don't care what they do. If you're in trouble, I
know someone who will help you. Mr. Jamieson, in the city."
"He--why, he would like to get me into trouble--"
"No, he wouldn't. And if I ask him to help you, I know he'll do it. He
can do more for you than they can, too. You go to him, and tell him the
whole story, and you'll find he will be a good friend, if you make up
your mind to behave yourself after this. We'll forget all the things
you've done, and you shall, too, and start over again. Don't you want to
be friends, Jake?"
"Sure--sure I do, Bessie!" said Jake, looking really repentant. "Do you
mean you'd be willing--that you'd be friends with me, after all the mean
things I've done to you?"
Bessie held out her hand.
"I certainly do, Jake," she said. "Now, you go to Mr. Jamieson, and tell
him everything you know. Everything, do you hear? I can guess what this
latest plot was, but you tell him all you know about it. And you'll find
that they've told you a great many things that aren't so at all. Very
likely they've just tried to frighten you into thinking you were in
danger so that they could make you do what they wanted."
"I'll do it, Bessie!" said Jake.
CHAPTER XI
A NARROW ESCAPE
Despite Dolly's frantic curiosity, Bessie drew Jake aside where there
was no danger of their being overheard by any of the others in the
station, and talked to him earnestly for a long time. Jake seemed to
have changed his whole attitude. He was plainly nervous and frightened,
but Dolly could see that he was listening to Bessie with respect. And
finally he threw up his head with a gesture entirely strange to him,
and, when Bessie held out her hand, shook it happily.
"Here's Mr. Jamieson's address," said Bessie, writing on a piece of
paper which she handed to him. "Now you go straight to him, and do
whatever he tells you. You'll be all right. How soon will you start?"
"There's a train due right now," said Jake, excitedly. "I'll get aboard,
and as soon as I get to town I'll do just as you say, Bessie. Good-bye."
"Good-bye, Jake--and good luck!" said Bessie warmly. "We're going to be
good friends, now."
"Well, I never!" gasped Dolly. She stared at Jake's retreating form, and
then back to Bessie; as if she were paralyzed with astonishment.
"Whatever does this mean, Bessie? I should think you would be pretty
hard up for friends before you'd make one of Jake Hoover!"
"Jake's been more stupid than mean, Dolly. And he's found out that he's
been wrong, I'm sure. From this time he's going to do a whole lot for
us, unless I'm badly mistaken. I'm sure it's better to have him on our
side than against us."
"I'm not sure of anything of the sort, Bessie. But do tell me what
happened. Why did you send that telegram to Miss Eleanor? And what was
in it?"
"I sent it because if I hadn't she would have walked right into a
trap--she and Zara. Maybe it was too late, but I hope not. And our
staying behind here was a mighty lucky thing. If we hadn't had some
warning of what Mr. Holmes and the others were planning, I don't know
what would have happened! Zara and I would have been caught, I'm quite
sure."
"Don't be so mysterious, Bessie," begged Dolly. "Tell me what you found
out, can't you? I'm just as excited and interested as you are, and I
should think you would know it, too."
"You'll see it all soon enough, Dolly. Let's find out how soon the next
train comes."
"In twenty minutes," said the ticket agent, in answer to the question.
"And is it a through train--an express?" asked Bessie. "Have you a
time-table? I'd like to see just where it stops."
She got the time-table, and, after she had examined it carefully, heaved
a sigh of relief.
"The train doesn't stop at any place that isn't marked down for it on
the time-table, does it?" she said, as she bought the tickets.
"No, indeed. That's a limited train, and it's almost always on time.
They wouldn't stop that except at the regular places for anyone."
"That's all right, then," said Bessie. "Dolly, can't you see the point
yet for yourself? Go and look at the map, and if you can't see then,
why, I'm not going to tell you! If you're as stupid as all that, you
deserve to wait!"
Bessie laughed, but Dolly understood that the laugh was not one of
amusement alone, but that Bessie was undergoing a reaction after some
strain that had worried her more than she was willing to admit or to
show.
"I guess I'm stupid all right," she said, after she had looked at the
map. "I don't know what you're driving at, but I suppose you do, and
that makes it all right. I'm willing to do whatever you say, but I do
like to know why and how things like that are necessary. And I don't
think I'm unreasonable, either."
"You're not," said Bessie, suddenly contrite. "But, Dolly dear, I don't
want everyone here to know all about us, and the things that are
happening to us. You won't mind waiting a little for an explanation,
will you?"
"Not when you ask that way," said Dolly, loyally. "But I don't like to
have you act as if it were stupid of me not to be able to guess what it
is. You wouldn't have known yourself, would you, if Jake Hoover hadn't
told you when you two were whispering together?"
"I knew it before that. That's one reason I was able to make Jake tell
me what he did, Dolly. I suppose you don't like my making up with him,
either, do you?"
"Oh, no, I don't like it. But that doesn't make any difference. I
daresay you've got some very good reason."
"I certainly have, Dolly, and you shall know it soon, too. Listen,
there's our train whistling now! We'll start in a minute or two."
"Well, that's good. I hate mysteries. Do you know, Bessie, that if this
train only makes one or two stops, we shall be at Plum Beach very soon
after Miss Eleanor and the other girls get there!"
"I'm glad of it, Dolly. Tell me, there isn't any station at Plum Beach,
is there?"
"No, we'll go to Bay City, and then go back on another train to a little
station called Green Cove, and that's within a mile of the beach. It's
on a branch railroad that runs along the coast from Bay City."
Then the train came along, and they climbed aboard, happy in having
outwitted the enemies of Bessie and Zara. Dolly did not share Bessie's
enthusiasm over the conversion of Jake Hoover, though.
"I don't trust him, Bessie," she said. "He may have really meant to turn
around and be friends with us, but I don't think he can stick to a
promise. I don't know that he means to break them, but he just seems to
be helpless. You think he's afraid of Mr. Holmes and those men, don't
you?"
"Yes, and he as good as admitted it, too, Dolly."
"Well, what I'm afraid of is that he will see them again, and that he'll
do whatever the people he happens to be with tell him."
"I suppose we've got to take that much of a chance, Dolly. We really
haven't much choice. My, how this train does go!"
"Why are you looking at your map and your time-table so carefully,
Bessie?"
"I want to be sure to know when we're getting near Canton, Dolly. When
we do, you must keep your eyes open. You'll see something there that may
explain a whole lot of things to you, and make you understand how silly
you were not to see through this plot."
Canton was a town of considerable size, and, though the train did not
stop there, it slowed down, and ran through the streets and the station
at greatly reduced speed. And as the car in which they were sitting went
through the station Bessie clutched Dolly's arm, and spoke in her ear.
"Look!" she said. "There on the platform! Did you ever see those men
before!"
Dolly gave a startled cry as her eyes followed Bessie's pointing finger.
"Mr. Holmes!" she exclaimed. "And that's that little lawyer, Mr. Brack.
And the old man with the whiskers--"
"Is Farmer Weeks, of course! Do you see the fourth man standing with
them? See how he pushes his coat back! He's a constable and he's so
proud of it he wants everyone to see his badge!"
"Bessie! Do you mean they were waiting here for you?"
"For me and Zara, Dolly! If I had been on a train that stopped here--but
I wasn't! And I guess Miss Eleanor must have got my telegram in time to
hide Zara so that they didn't find her on the other train, too, or else
we'd see something of her."
Dolly laughed happily. Then she did a reckless thing, showing herself at
the window, and shaking her fist defiantly as the car, with rapidly
gathering speed, passed the disconsolate group on the station platform.
Holmes was the first to see her, and his face darkened with a swift
scowl. Then he caught sight of Bessie, and, seizing Brack's arm, pointed
the two girls out to him, too. But there was nothing whatever to be
done.
The train, after slowing down, was already beginning to move fast again,
and there was no way in which it could be stopped, or in which the group
of angry men on the platform could board it. They could only stand in
powerless rage, and look after it. Bessie and Dolly, of course, could
not hear the furious comments that Holmes was making as he turned
angrily to old Weeks. But they could make a guess, and Dolly turned an
elfin face, full of mischievous delight, to Bessie.
"That's one time they got fooled," she exclaimed.
"I'm sorry they found out we were on this train, though," said Bessie,
gravely, "It means that we'll have trouble with them after we get to
Plum Beach, I'm afraid."
"Who cares?" said Dolly. "If they can't do any better there than they've
done so far on this trip, we needn't worry much, I guess."
"Well, do you see what they were up to, now, Dolly?"
Dolly wrinkled her brows.
"I guess so," she said. "They meant to come aboard the train at Canton
and try to get hold of you and Zara. But I don't see why--"
"Why they should pick out Canton rather than any other station where the
trains stop along the line?"
"That's just it, Bessie. Why should they?"
"That's the whole point, Dolly. Look at this map. Do you see the state
boundaries? For just a little way this line is in the state Canton is
in--and Canton is in the same state as Hedgeville!"
"Oh!" gasped Dolly. "You were right, Bessie, I _was stupid_! I might
have thought of that! That's why they had Jake there, and what his
telegram was. But how clever of you to think of it! How did you ever
guess it?"
"I just happened to think that if we did go into that state, it would be
easy for them to get hold of Zara and me, if they only knew about it
beforehand. Because, you see, in that state Farmer Weeks is legal
guardian for both of us, and he could make us come with him if he caught
us there."
"Well, I think it was mighty clever of you. Of course, when you had the
idea, it was easy to see it, once you had the map so that you could make
sure. But I never would have thought of it, so I couldn't have looked it
up to make sure, because I wouldn't have thought there was anything to
look up."
"What I'm wondering," said Bessie, "is what Miss Eleanor did to keep
them from getting Zara. If you ask me, that's the really clever thing
that's been done to-day. I was dreadfully frightened when I decided that
was what they were up to."
"Well, your telegram helped," said Dolly. "If it hadn't been for that,
they'd have been taken completely by surprise. Just imagine how they
would have felt, if they'd looked up when their train stopped at Canton,
and had seen Farmer Weeks coming down the aisle."
"It would have been dreadful, wouldn't it, Bessie? Do you know, Miss
Eleanor wasn't a bit anxious to have us stay behind? She was afraid
something would happen, I believe. But it's certainly a good thing that
you thought of doing it, and had your way."
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