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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"I was afraid they'd try to play some sort of a trick, Dolly. That's why
I wanted to wait. I couldn't tell what it would be, but I knew that if
Jake was there it wouldn't do any harm to watch him and see what he did.
I didn't expect to get him on our side, though. Before I talked to him,
of course, I was really only guessing, but he told me all he knew about
the plan. They hadn't told him everything, but with what I had guessed
it was enough."
"No one trusts him, you see, Bessie. It's just as I said."
"Well, do you know, I shouldn't wonder if that was one reason for his
being so untrustworthy, Dolly. Maybe if he finds that we are going to
trust him, it will change him, and make him act very differently."
"I certainly hope so, Bessie, but I'm afraid of him. I'm afraid that
they will find out what we've done, and try to use him to trick us, now
that we think he's on our side."
"We'll have to look out for that, Dolly, of course. But I don't believe
he's as black as he's painted. He must have some good qualities. Perhaps
they'll begin to come out now."
At Bay City, where they arrived comparatively early in the afternoon,
they had a surprise, for Miss Eleanor and all the girls were at the
station to meet them, including Zara, who looked nervous and frightened.
"Oh, I'm so glad you've come here safely, Bessie," said Eleanor,
flinging her arms about Bessie's neck. "Your train came right through,
didn't it?"
"Yes, and we saw Mr. Holmes and the rest of them on the platform at
Canton," said Bessie, laughing. "Did they get aboard your train?"
"Did they?" cried Eleanor. "They most certainly did, and when they
couldn't find either you or Zara, they were so angry that I was afraid
they were going to burst! I don't believe I ever saw men so dreadfully
disappointed in my life."
"How did you manage to hide Zara?"
"That was awfully funny, Bessie. I found some friends of mine were on
the train, travelling in a private car. As soon as I got your telegram,
I went back to see them. They had a boy with them, who is just about
Zara's size. So Zara dressed up in a suit of his clothes, and she was
sitting in their car, with him, when they came aboard to look for her."
"Did they look in that car?"
"Yes. They had a warrant, or something, so they had a right to go
everywhere on the train--and they did!"
"I should think the people who didn't have anything to do with us must
have been furious."
"Oh, they were, but it didn't do them any good. They searched through
the whole train, but Zara looked so different in boy's clothes that they
never even seemed to suspect her at all. She kept perfectly still, you
see, and after they had held us up for nearly an hour, we came on."
"Oh, how mad they must have been!"
"You ought to have seen them! It made us very late getting here, of
course, and we missed the train we were to take to Green Cove. But I
think we would have waited here, anyhow, until you came. I was very
anxious about you, Bessie. What a clever trick that was! If it hadn't
been for you, we would have been caught without a chance to do anything
at all."
"Bessie's made friends with Jake Hoover, too," said Dolly, disgustedly.
"Tell Miss Eleanor about that, Bessie."
"You did exactly the right thing," said Eleanor, when she had heard the
story, much to Dolly's disgust. "I agree with Dolly that we will have to
look out for him, just the same, but there is a chance that he may do
what he promised. Anyhow, there's a lot to gain and very little to
lose."
CHAPTER XII
PLUM BEACH
On the way to Plum Beach, on the little branch line that carried the
girls from Bay City to Green Cove, Eleanor was very thoughtful, and
Bessie and Dolly were kept busy in telling the other girls of their
experiences. They wanted to hear from Zara, too, just how she had
escaped.
"I don't see how you kept your face straight," said Dolly. "I know I
would have burst right out laughing, Zara."
"You wouldn't think so if you knew Farmer Weeks," said Zara, making a
wry face. "I can tell you I didn't want to laugh, Dolly. Why, he was
within a few feet of me, and looking straight at me! I was sure he'd
guess that it was I."
"He always looks at everyone that way--just as if they owed him money,"
said Bessie. "Nasty old man! I don't blame you for being nervous,
Zara."
"Oh, neither do I," said Dolly. "But it was funny to think of his being
so near you and having no idea of it. That's what would have made me
laugh."
"It seems funny enough, now," admitted Zara, with a smile. "But, you
see, I was perfectly certain that he did have a very good idea of where
I was. I was expecting him to take hold of me any moment, and tell the
constable to take me off the train."
"I wonder how long this sort of thing is going to keep up," said Margery
Burton, angrily. "Until you two girls are twenty-one?"
"I hope not," laughed Bessie, and then she went on, more seriously, "I
really do think that if Jake Hoover sticks to what he said, and takes
our side, Mr. Jamieson is likely to find out something that will give
him a chance to settle matters. You see, we've been fighting in the dark
so far."
"I don't see that we've been fighting at all, yet," said Margery. "They
keep on trying to do something, and we manage to keep them from doing
it. That's not my idea of a fight. I wish we could do some of the
hitting ourselves."
"So do I, Margery. And that's just what I think we may be able to do
now, if we have Jake on our side. He must know something about what
they've been doing. They couldn't keep him from finding out, it seems to
me."
"But will he tell? That seems to be the question."
"Yes, that's it, exactly. Well, if he does, then we'll know why they're
doing all this. You see, Mr. Jamieson can't figure on what they're going
to do next, or how to beat them at their own game, simply because he
doesn't know what their game is. They know just what they want to do,
while we haven't any idea, except that they're anxious to have Zara and
myself back where Farmer Weeks can do as he likes with us."
"Well, it would be fine to be able to beat them, Bessie, but right now
I'm more worried about what they will try to do next. This is a pretty
lonely place we're going to, and they're so bold that there's no telling
what they may try next."
"That's so--and they know we're coming here, too. Jake told them that."
"They would probably have found it out anyhow," said Dolly. "And there's
one thing--he didn't try to warn them that you knew about what they
meant to do at Canton, Bessie."
"No, he didn't. And he could have done it very easily, too. Oh, I think
we can count on Jake now, all right. He's pretty badly frightened, and
he's worried about himself. He'll stick to the side that seems the most
likely to help him. All I hope is that he will go to see Mr. Jamieson."
"Do you think he will?"
"Why not? Even if they get hold of him again, I think there will be time
enough for him to see Mr. Jamieson first. And I've got an idea that Mr.
Jamieson will be able to scare him pretty badly."
"All out for Green Cove," called the conductor just then, appearing in
the doorway, and there was a rush for the end of the car.
"Well, here we are," said Eleanor. "This isn't much of a city, is it?"
It was not. Two or three bungalows and seashore cottages were in sight,
but most of the traffic for the Green Cove station came from scattered
settlements along the coast. It was a region where people liked to live
alone, and they were willing to be some distance from the railroad to
secure the isolation that appealed to them. A little pier poked its nose
out into the waters of the cove, and beside this pier was a gasoline
launch, battered and worn, but amply able, as was soon proved, to carry
all the girls and their belongings at a single load.
"Thought you wasn't coming," said the old sailor who owned the launch,
as he helped them to get settled aboard.
"We missed the first connecting train and had to wait, Mr. Salters,"
said Eleanor. "I hope you didn't sell the fish and clams you promised
us to someone else?"
"No, indeed," said old Salters. "They're waitin' for you at the camp,
ma'am, and I fixed up the place, too, all shipshape. The tents is all
ready, though why anyone should sleep in such contraptions when they can
have a comfortable house is more'n I can guess."
"Each to his taste, you know," laughed Eleanor. "I suppose we'll be able
to get you to take us out in the launch sometimes while we're here?"
"Right, ma'am! As often as you like," he answered. "My old boat here
ain't fashionable enough for some of the folk, but she's seaworthy, and
she won't get stuck a mile an' a half from nowhere, the way Harry Semmes
and that new fangled boat of his done the other day when he had a load
of young ladies aboard."
He chuckled at the recollection. But while he had been talking he had
not been idle, and the _Sally S._, as his launch was called, had been
making slow but steady progress until she was outside the cove and
headed north. Soon, too, he ran her inside the protecting spot of land
of which Dolly had spoken to Bessie, and they were in such smooth water
that, even had any of them had any tendency toward seasickness, there
would have been no excuse for it.
In half an hour he stopped the engine, and cast his anchor overboard. He
wore no shoes and stockings, and now, rolling up his trousers, he jumped
overboard.
"Hand me the dunnage first," he said. "I'll get that ashore, and then
I'll take the rest of you, one at a time."
"Indeed you won't," laughed Eleanor. "We're not afraid of getting our
feet wet. Come on, girls, it's only two feet deep! Roll up your skirts
and take off your shoes and stockings, and we'll wade ashore."
She set the example, and in a very short time they were all safely
ashore, with much laughter at the splashing that was involved.
"Mr. Salters could run the _Sally S._ ashore, but it would be a lot of
trouble to get her afloat again, and this is the way we always do here.
It's lots of fun really," Eleanor explained.
Soon they were all ashore, and inspecting the camp which had been laid
out in preparation for them.
"Real army tents, with regular floors and cots, these are," said
Eleanor. "Sleeping on the ground wouldn't be very wise here. And there's
no use taking chances. I'm responsible to the mothers and fathers of all
you girls, after all, and I'm bound to see that you go home better than
when you started, instead of worse."
"I think they're fine," said Margery. "Oh, I do love the seashore! How
long shall we stay, Miss Eleanor!"
"I don't know," said the Guardian, a shade of doubt darkening her eyes.
"You know, Margery"--she spoke in a low tone--"that seems to depend
partly on things we can't really control. There seems to me to be
something really quite desperate about the way Mr. Holmes and his
friends are going for Bessie and Zara.
"Maybe they will make trouble for us here. It _is_ rather isolated, you
know, and I can't help remembering that we're on the coast, and that a
few miles away the coast is that of Bessie's state--the state she
mustn't be in."
"That's so," said Margery, gravely. "You mean that if they managed to
get hold of Bessie or Zara, and took them out to sea and then landed
them in that state they'd be able to hold them there?"
"It worries me, Margery. The trouble is, you see, that once they're in
that state, it doesn't matter how they were taken there, but they can be
held. If Zara's father gets free, why, he would be able to get her back,
I suppose. Mr. Jamieson says so. But there's no one with a better right
to Bessie, so far as we know. I'm really more worried about her than
about Zara."
"We'll all be careful," promised Margery, with fire in her eye. "And I
guess they'll have to be pretty smart to find any way of getting her
away from us. I'll talk to the girls, and I'll try to be watching myself
all the time."
"I'm hungry," announced Dolly. "Just as hungry as a bear! Can't we have
supper pretty soon, Miss Eleanor!"
"Supper?" scoffed Miss Eleanor. "Why, we haven't had our dinner yet! But
we'll have that just as soon as it's cooked. I've just been waiting for
someone to say they were hungry. Dolly, you're elected cook. Since
you're the hungry one, you can cook the dinner."
"I certainly will! I'll get it all the sooner that way. May I pick out
who's to help me, Miss Eleanor?"
"That's the rule. You certainly can."
"Then I pick out all the girls," announced Dolly. "Every one of you--and
no shirking, mind!"
She laughed merrily, and in a moment she had set every girl to some
task. Even Margery obeyed her orders cheerfully, for the rule was
there, and, even though Dolly had twisted it a bit, it was recognized as
a good joke. Moreover, everyone was hungry and wanted the meal to be
ready as soon as possible.
"There's good water at the top of that path," said Eleanor, pointing to
a path that led up a bluff that backed against the tents. "I think maybe
we'll build a wooden pipe-line to bring the water right down here, but
for to-day we'll have to carry it from the spring there."
"Is there driftwood here for a camp fire, do you suppose, the way there
was last year, Miss Eleanor?" asked one of the other girls. "I'll never
forget the lovely fires we had then!"
"There's lots of it, I'm afraid," said Eleanor, gravely.
"Why are you 'afraid'?" asked Bessie, wonderingly.
"Because all the driftwood, or most of it, comes from wrecked ships,
Bessie. This beach looks calm and peaceful now, but in the winter, when
the great northeast storms blow, this is a terrible coast, and lots and
lots of ships are wrecked. Men are drowned very often, too."
"Oh, I never thought of that!"
"Still, some of the wood is just lost from lumber schooners that are
loaded too heavily," said Eleanor. "And it certainly does make a
beautiful fire, all red and green and blue, and oh, all sorts of colors
and shades you never even dreamed of! We'll have a ceremonial camp fire
while we're here, and it is certainly true that there is no fire half so
beautiful as that we get when we use the wood that the sea casts up."
"Don't they often find lots of other things beside wood along the coast
after a great storm, Miss Eleanor!"
"Yes, indeed! There are people who make their living that way.
Wreckers, they call them, you know. Of course, it isn't as common to
find really valuable things now as it was in the old days."
"Why not? I thought more things were carried at sea than ever," said
Dolly.
"There aren't so many wrecks, Dolly, for one thing. And then, in the old
days, before steam, and the great big ships they have now, even the most
valuable cargoes were carried in wooden ships that were at the mercy of
these great storms."
"Oh, and now they send those things in the big ships that are safer, I
suppose?"
"Yes. You very seldom hear of an Atlantic liner being wrecked, you know.
It does happen once in a great while, of course, but they are much more
likely to reach the port they sail for than the old wooden ships. In the
old days many and many a ship sailed that was never heard of, but you
could count the ships that have done that in the last few years on the
fingers of one hand."
"But there was a frightful wreck not so very long ago, wasn't there? The
Titanic?"
"Yes. That was the most terrible disaster since men have gone to sea at
all. You see, she was so much bigger, and could carry so many more
people than the old ships, that, when she did go down, it was naturally
much worse. But the wreckers never made any profit out of her. She went
down in the middle of the ocean, and no one will ever see her again."
"Couldn't divers go down after her?"
"No. She was too deep for that. Divers can only go down a certain
distance, because, below that, the pressure is too great, and they
wouldn't live."
"Stop talking and attend to your dinner, Dolly," said Margery, suddenly.
"You pretended you were hungry, and now you're so busy talking that
you're forgetting about the rest of us. We're hungry, too. Just remember
that!"
"I can talk and work at the same time," said Dolly. "Is everything
ready? Because, if it is, so is dinner. Come on, girls! The clams first.
I've cooked it--I'm not going to put it on the table, too."
"No, we ought to be glad to get any work out of her at all," laughed
Margery, as she carried the steaming, savory clams to the table. "I
suppose every time we want her to do some work the rest of the time
we're here, she'll tell us about this dinner."
"I won't have to," boasted Dolly. "You'll all remember it. All I'm
afraid of is that you won't be satisfied with the way anyone else cooks
after this. I've let myself out this time!"
It _was_ a good dinner--a better dinner than anyone had thought Dolly
could cook. But, despite her jesting ways, Dolly was a close observer,
and she had not watched Margery, a real genius in the art of cooking, in
vain. Everyone enjoyed it, and, when they had eaten all they could,
Dolly lay back in the sand with Bessie.
"Well, wasn't I right? Don't you love this place?" she asked.
"I certainly think I do," said Bessie. "It's so peaceful and quiet. I
didn't believe any place could be as calm as the mountains, but I really
think this is."
"I love to hear the surf outside, too," said Dolly. "It's as if it were
singing a lullaby. I think the surf, and the sighing of the wind in the
trees is the best music there is."
"Those noises were the real beginning of music, Dolly," said Eleanor.
"Did you know that? The very first music that was ever written was an
attempt to imitate those songs of nature."
After the dishes were washed and put away, everyone sat on the beach,
watching the sky darken. First one star and then another came out, and
the scene was one of idyllic beauty. And then, as if to complete it, a
yacht appeared, small, but beautiful and graceful, steaming toward them.
Its sides were lighted, and from its deck came the music of a violin,
beautifully played.
"Oh, how lovely that is!" said Eleanor. "Why, look! I do believe it is
going to anchor!"
And, sure enough, the noise of the anchor chains came over the water.
CHAPTER XIII
THE MYSTERIOUS YACHT
But, beautiful as the yacht undoubtedly was, the sight of it and the
sound of the slipping anchor chains brought a look of perplexity and
even of distress to Eleanor's eyes.
"That's very curious," she said, thoughtfully. "There are no cottages or
bungalows near here. Those people can't be coming here just for a visit,
or they would take another anchorage. And it's a strange thing for them
to choose this cove if they are just cruising along the coast."
"There weren't any yachts here last year when we were camping," said
Margery. "But it is a lovely spot, and it's public land along here,
isn't it?"
"No, not exactly. It won't be used for a long time, I expect, but it has
an owner. An old gentleman in Bay City owns all the shore front along
here for half a mile, and he has been holding on to it with the idea
that it would get more valuable as time went on. Probably it will, too."
"Well, he lets people come here to camp, doesn't he?"
"Oh, yes. He's glad to have people here, I think, because he thinks that
if they see how lovely it is, they will want to buy the land. I suppose
perhaps these people on the yacht have permission from him to come here,
just as we have. But I do wish they had waited until we had gone, or
else that they had come and gone before we got here at all."
"Perhaps they will just stay for the night," said Margery. "I should
think that a small boat like that would be very likely to put in
overnight, and do its sailing in the daytime. Probably the people on
board of her aren't in a hurry, and like to take things easily."
"Well, we won't find out anything about her to-night, I imagine," said
Eleanor. "In the morning we'll probably learn what their plans are, and
then it will be time to make any changes that are necessary in our own
arrangements."
"Do you mean you wouldn't stay here if they did, Miss Eleanor?"
"I won't say that, Margery. We don't know who they are yet. They may be
very nice people--there's no way of telling to-night. But if they turn
out to be undesirable, we can move quite easily, I think. There are
plenty of other beaches nearby where we'll be just as comfortable as we
are here."
"Oh, but I don't believe any of them are as beautiful as this one, Miss
Eleanor."
"Neither do I, Margery. Still, we can't always pick and choose the
things we do, or always do what pleases us best."
On the yacht everything seemed to be quiet. When the anchor had gone
down, the violin playing ceased, and, though the girls strained their
ears to listen, there was no sound of conversation, such as might
reasonably have been expected to come across the quiet water. Still
there was nothing strange about that. It might well be that everyone on
board was below, eating supper, and in that case voices would probably
not come to them.
"I'd like to own that yacht," said Dolly, gazing at her enviously. "What
a lot of fun you could have with her, Bessie! Think of all the places
one could see. And you wouldn't have to leave a place until you got
ready. Steamers leave port just as railroad trains pull out of a
station, and you may have to go away when you haven't half finished
seeing all the things you want to look at."
"Maybe they'll send a boat ashore soon," said Margery, hopefully. "I
certainly would like to see the sort of people who are on board."
"So would I," said Eleanor, but with a different and a more anxious
meaning in her tone.
"I wish that man with the violin would start playing again," said Dolly.
"I love to hear him, and it seems to me it's especially beautiful when
the sound comes to you over the water that way."
"Music always sounds best over the water," said Eleanor. "He does play
well. I've been to concerts, and heard famous violin players who didn't
play a bit better--or as well, some of them."
And just at that moment the music came to them again, wailing, mournful,
as if the strings of the violin were sobbing under the touch of the bow,
held in the fingers of a real master. The music blended with the night,
and the listening girls seemed to lose all desire to talk, so completely
did they fall under the spell of the player.
But after a little while a harsh voice on the deck of the yacht
interrupted the musician. They could not distinguish the words, but the
speaker was evidently annoyed by the music, for it stopped, and then,
for a few minutes, there was an argument in which the voices of two men
rose shrilly.
"Well, I guess the concert is over," said Dolly, getting up. "Who wants
a drink? I'm thirsty."
"So am I!" came in chorus from half a dozen of those who were sitting on
the sands.
"Serve you right if you all had to go after your own water," said Dolly.
"But I'm feeling nice to-night. I guess it's the music. Come on,
Bessie--feel like taking a little walk with me?"
"I don't mind," said Bessie, rising, and stretching her arms
luxuriously. "Where are you going?"
"Up the bluff first, to get a pail of water from that spring. After
that--well, we'll see."
"Just like Jack and Jill," said Bessie, as they trudged up the path,
carrying a pail between them.
"I hope we won't be like them and fall down," said Dolly. "I suppose I'd
be Jack--and I don't want to break my crown."
"It's an easy path. I guess we're safe enough," said Bessie. "It really
hardly seems worth while to fix up that pipe-line Miss Eleanor spoke
about."
"Oh, you'll find it's worth while, Bessie. The salt air makes everyone
terribly thirsty, and after you've climbed this path a few times it
won't seem so easy to be running up and down all the time. There are so
many other things to do here that it's a pity to waste time doing the
same thing over and over again when you don't really need to."
"I suppose that's so, too. It's always foolish to do work that you don't
need to do--I mean that can be done in some easier way. If your time's
worth anything at all, you can find some better use for it."
"That's what I say! It would be foolish and wasteful to set a hundred
men to digging when one steam shovel will do the work better and quicker
than they can. And it's the same way with this water here. If we can put
up a pipe in about an hour that will save two or three hours of chasing
every day, whenever water is needed, it must be sensible to do it."
They got the water down without any mishap, however, and it was eagerly
welcomed.
"It's good water," said Margery. "But not as good as the water at Long
Lake and in the mountains."
"That's the best water in the world, Margery," said Eleanor. "This is
cold, though, and it's perfectly healthy. And, after all, that is as
much as we can expect. Are you and Bessie going for a walk, Dolly?"
"We thought we would, if you don't mind."
"I don't mind, of course. But don't go very far. Stay near enough so
that you can hear if we call, or for us to hear you if you should happen
to call to us."
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