Tabitha\'s Vacation

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"I should think there would be plenty of gold nuggets," answered
Gloriana in surprise.

"Not many in Silver Bow houses, I reckon," Tabitha placidly replied,
"But if you are afraid to go to bed alone, you better wait for me.
I'll be ready in a minute."

She did not mean to speak scornfully, for she sympathized heartily with
the sensitive gain remembering with what horror the desert nights used
to fill her when Silver Bow first became her home. But Gloriana
thought she detected a hint of ridicule in her companion's voice, and
hurriedly departed for their room once more, saying with a great show
of bravado, "Oh, I'm not afraid! Come to think of it, I believe I left
my slippers at the foot of the bed, and that is probably what I hit."

The door closed behind her again, and Tabitha, smiling sympathetically
at the girl's attempt at bravery, began to cover the mound of soft,
white dough in the huge pan, when a wild, unearthly shriek echoed
through the house, followed by the sharp crack of a pistol, and the
muffled fall of a body.

For one brief instant Tabitha stood rooted to the spot, fairly
paralyzed with horror. Then the thought of Glory gave wings to her
feet, and, heedless of her own danger, she flew for the scene of
disaster, whispering to herself, "Oh, why did I leave the house
unlocked all the evening while we were gone?"

As the door of her room swung back on its hinges, the first thing her
eyes fell upon was the flickering, smoking, chimneyless lamp standing
on the low dresser; and even in her terror she wondered how it chanced
that careful Glory had neglected to protect the light properly. The
next object that met her gaze was Glory herself, leaning white and limp
against the closet door, holding a battered, smoking pistol at arm's
length from her.

"Glory, are you hurt?" she gasped.

"No!"

"But the gun--the shot----"

"No one's shot--only the lamp chimney! I aimed at the--the burglars
under the bed, and shot off the lamp chimney," she panted, beginning to
laugh hysterically, and tightening her grasp on the rusty gun.

"Where is the burglar?" Intrepidly she stooped and peered under the
bed, half expecting to see the disturber of their peace still hiding
there.

"In the closet,---both of them!"

"Two?"

"Yes."

"Oh, Glory!"

"They are locked in. Here is the key."

"I must go for the constable."

A scuffling sound suddenly issued from the closet, and Gloriana cried
in terror, "And leave me here alone with them?"

"There is no other way. I'll be gone but a minute. They surely can't
get loose in that time!" And she darted from the room without giving
Gloriana opportunity for further objections.

Hardly had the sound of her racing footsteps died away in the distance,
however, when the red-haired guard, leaning against the door, half dead
with fear, was electrified at hearing a muffled voice call through the
keyhole, "I say, Glory, let us out, do! We were just a-foolin'.
Didn't you know 'twas us? Please don't turn us over to the sheriff!"

"'Twas Tabitha's story about the Ivy Hall ghost that made us think of
it," pleaded Toady. "We ain't sure-enough burglars. We just meant to
scare you a little bit."

"And you sure scared _us_ enough to make up," coaxed Billiard. "Please
let us out before Tabitha gets back. She said she'd write Uncle Hogan
the next time we got into trouble."

"And that will mean he will take us away from here," wheedled Toady.
"He's awful hard on a fellow."

"You deserve it!" suddenly answered Glory, with a grimness that
startled even the girl herself.

"Then you won't let us out?" cried the boys in great dismay.

"I--I haven't decided yet," Gloriana was forced to admit.

"But Tabitha will be back directly."

"Yes, she's a swift runner. I don't think she will be gone long."
Glory was beginning to enjoy the strange situation.

"Oh, Glory, don't keep us here, please! prayed Billiard desperately.

"We'll _never_ play burglar again!" promised repentant Toady.

"No, it will be something else the next time," said their jailer
heartlessly.

"If you'll just set us free this time, we'll be reg'lar sissy girls all
the rest of the summer," they cried.

"You have promised so many times--" Glory began wearily.

"Oh, I can hear her coming!" cried Toady, half frantic at thought of
the constable whom Tabitha had gone to summon.

Gloriana thought she could, also, and swiftly turning the key in the
lock, she let the quaking prisoners out, urging them on with a violent
push as they scurried past her, and hissing in their ears, "Scamper!
If you aren't in bed when she gets here, she'll know you did it."

But they needed no urging. Their feet scarcely touched the floor, it
seemed to Gloriana, as they made a mad rush for their room; and when
Tabitha returned a moment later, alone, they lay tense and breathless
under the coverlets of the cot.

"Glory!" they heard her ejaculate. "You let them get away from you!"

"I couldn't help it," replied the red-haired girl in excited tones.
"Couldn't you get anyone? Wasn't the constable at home?"

"No, but he'll investigate as soon as----"

The rest of the sentence was lost in the slamming of a door; but the
two culprits lay and quaked with fear long after the rest of the
household was fast asleep, little dreaming that as soon as the door was
tightly closed so they could no longer distinguish the voices, Glory
had wheeled on Tabitha and giggled accusingly, "You knew all the time!"

"Not until I ran past their door and saw their bed was empty,"
whispered the black-haired girl with her hand over her mouth to stifle
the laughter she could no longer suppress.

"What possessed you to keep on, then?'

"I surmised what would happen, and decided to scare _them_ a little,
too. So I crept around the house and listened to you talking with
them. When they thought they heard me coming back, I concluded it was
time I did put in appearance again; but I thought I'd die laughing to
hear them scuttling into bed. Now I reckon the score is even!"

"Then you won't tell their Uncle this time?"

"I ought to."

"They've had a big punishment already, Puss."

"They deserve it."

"I--I scared them stiff when I shot."

"Poor girlie, and you were as badly scared yourself. My brave Glory!"

"Don't praise me, Kitty. I'm an awful coward. My teeth are chattering
yet."

"And you are trembling as if you had the ague. Are you sure you're not
hurt? I thought I heard something fall."

"The gun kicked and knocked me over," Gloriana admitted. "That is what
gave the boys a chance to scramble into the closet. I didn't know it
was Billiard and Toady then, because the bullet splintered the lamp
chimney and I couldn't see real well."

"But you locked them in."

"Oh, that was easy! They were holding the door shut with all their
might, and the only thing left to do was to turn the key in the lock.
I am so thankful it was only a prank!"

"So am I," Tabitha admitted grudgingly. "But I can't say I relish that
class of pranks."

"Give them another chance, Tabitha. I think they really are trying to
be good."

"Well, I'll--see. We'll forget all about it now and go to sleep.
Morning can't be very far off."

CHAPTER VII

TOADY AND THE CASTOR BEANS

But when morning dawned, Gloriana lay flushed and feverish upon her
pillow, her head throbbing until she could scarcely open her eyes.
Tabitha was alarmed, and between her worry over the sick girl lying in
their darkened room, and her ministrations to croupy Janie, who had
caught cold sleeping in the night air on the mountain top, the poor
housekeeper was so nearly distracted that she had little time to devote
to the rest of her large family, and they wandered about the premises
like so many disconsolate chicks who had lost their mother. It was an
ideal time to get into mischief, and yet something restrained them.

The girls, it seemed, had slept through all the racket of the previous
night, and were not aware that anything out of the ordinary had
occurred, but they could not understand the tense atmosphere; and when
Mercedes heroically tried to fill Tabitha's place the other members of
the brood resented her authority, frankly found fault with her badly
cooked oatmeal and unsalted potatoes, and insulted her attempts at
housekeeping in such a heartless, unfeeling manner that she finally
dissolved in tears and refused to do anything further toward their
comfort. Susie and Inez quarreled over the dishes and had the sulks
all day. The boys, still fearful of the consequences of their latest
prank, and somewhat remorseful at having frightened Gloriana into a
fever, wandered aimlessly away toward town, glad to escape from
Tabitha's watchful eye, and greatly relieved to think no mention had
been made by anyone of the burglars' visit.

"Guess the girls couldn't have heard the noise last night," ventured
Toady, when they had left the house far enough behind to make it
impossible for anyone to overhear their conversation.

"The girls?" repeated Billiard blankly, his thoughts on another phase
of the situation.

"Mercedes and Susie and the twins, I mean."

"Oh! P'r'aps Tabitha's making 'em keep still."

"Do you think Tabitha knows we did it?" cried Toady in alarm.

"Naw, you ninny! That is, not 'nless Glory's gone and squealed."

"But----"

"I meant she'd prob'ly try to hush them up if they had heard our
racket, so's the whole town wouldn't know about the burglars."

"Why? That's just what is worrying me. If she has hushed them up,
it's just to make us believe she doesn't suspect. I'll bet the
constable will be up there bright and early with his d'tectives, asking
all sorts of questions, and everyone in Silver Bow will join in the
hunt."

"Then we'll be found out even if Glory doesn't tell."

Toady nodded gloomily.

"It'll go hard with us if the _constable_ should find out who did it."

Again Toady nodded.

"We--better--light--out--now."

Toady stopped stock-still in the roadway. "Why?" he demanded.

"Do you want to go to jail?"

"Naw, but they don't put _kids_ in jail here. I s'pose likely we'd get
a good thrashing----"

"Would you rather stay here and take a whaling than skip while you've
got the chance?" cried Billiard, turning pale at the mere thought of
such a punishment at the hands of a desert constable, who, somehow, in
his imagination, had assumed the proportions and disposition of a
monster.

"We--we deserve a sound licking," bravely replied Toady, whose
conscience was troubling him sorely.

It was Billiard's turn to halt in the rocky road and stare with
unbelieving eyes at his brother, finally finding vent for his feelings
by hissing the single word, "Coward!"

"No more coward than you!" Toady denied. "We have been as mean as dirt
ever since we came here, and if Tabitha had been as hateful as most
girls are, she'd have written Uncle Hogan long ago."

"So you're fishing to get her to write, are you?"

"No, I ain't, but I believe she'd--like it--better--if we told her
ourselves, instead of getting found out by someone else."

"Oh! Going to turn goody-goody, are you?" sneered Billiard, not
willing to admit that he had been thinking similar thoughts.

Toady bristled. "I hate goody-goodies as bad as you do," he said, with
eyes flashing. "But I'm going to own up to my part in last night's
racket. We might have scared Glory to death."

"Pooh! You make me sick! Suppose you think she'll let you off easy if
you squeal. Well, go ahead, tattler! You will change your mind maybe,
when she writes to Uncle Hogan."

"If she wants to write Uncle Hogan, let her write!" screamed the
exasperated Toady, stung by his brother's taunts. "I'm going to quit
bothering them right here and now; and what's more, I'm going to own
up, too."

"Tattler!"

Toady turned on his heel and strode haughtily away, not daring to trust
himself to further speech.

"Coward! 'Fraid cat! Sissy girl!" jeered Billiard.

That was the last straw. The younger boy wheeled about and retraced
his steps in a slow, ominous manner. Thrusting his angry face close to
Billiard's, and shaking his clenched fist under his nose, he said
quietly, "Say that again if you dare, Williard McKittrick!"

Billiard was delighted. He had succeeded in making Toady mad, and now
he would have the pleasure of thrashing him. He felt just like
pounding someone.

"Coward! 'Fraid cat! Sis----"

A white fist shot out with accurate aim, striking the bully squarely
between the eyes. A shower of stars danced merrily about him, blood
spurted from his nose, and the next thing he knew, he was stretched
flat on the rocky ground, with a grim-faced Toady bending over him.

"Do you take it back?" a menacing voice was asking.

"You--you--" spluttered the angry victim, mopping his streaming nose
with his coat sleeve.

"Or do you want some more?" The doubled-up fist drew perilously near
the disfigured face in the gravel.

"That's it! Hit a fellow when he's down!" taunted the fallen bully,
still unable to realize just what had happened.

"I shan't hit you while you're down," said Toady calmly but decisively.
"I'll let you get onto your pins and then I'll knock them from under
you again."

And Billiard, looking up into the determined face above him, knew that
it was no idle threat. Toady was in deadly earnest, but still the
older boy temporized. It would never do to give in to Toady. If he
took such a step as that, his leadership was gone forever. "Aw, come
off!" he began, in what he meant to be jocular tones. "Quit your
fooling and let me up! I've swallowed a bucket of blood already!"

"Will you take it back, or shall I pummel the stuffing out of you?"

Billiard capitulated. "I take it back," he said sullenly, "but,"--as
Toady removed his knees from his chest and allowed him to rise--"I'll
get even with you for this."

"All right," responded the younger boy cheerfully. "But don't forget
that you will get what's coming to you, too."

"Don't be so sure, sonny! You took me off guard; you know you did, or
you'd never have laid me out. You weren't fair."

Toady, tasting his first victory over his bully brother, and finding it
very sweet, suggested casually, "I'll scrap _you_ any time you say.
Now, if you like."

"My head aches too bad," said the other hastily. "That was a nasty
place to fall. It's a wonder it didn't fracture my skull."

Toady looked back at the spot which Billiard had adorned a moment
before, and remorse overtook him. "I'm sorry, old chap, if I hurt
you," he said contritely. "I wasn't aiming to put you out of business,
but you made me so all-fired mad----"

"Aw, forget it! I was just fooling," protested Billiard, shamed by
Toady's frank and manly confession. "Say, ain't that the haunted house
the girls are always talking about?"

"Which? Maybe 'tis. It's the last one in town, they said. Mercy
promised to point it out the next time we climbed the trail behind the
house. Do you s'pose it really is haunted?"

"I dunno," Billiard answered indifferently.

Haunted houses in his opinion were things to be avoided. He had merely
sought to distract Toady's thoughts from their fistic encounter by
mentioning the place. But the younger boy's curiosity was aroused, and
as they neared the deserted, unpainted, dilapidated hut, he studied it
closely. To him it looked like any other untenanted shack in the
mining town, and so he said musingly, "I wonder if that man really did
kill himself there, or was he murdered?"

Billiard shivered. "Mercedes said he _died_ there. That's all I know."

"She told me he was _found_ dead, with all his pockets turned inside
out, and----"

"Oh, Toady," interrupted Billiard again, "here's a plant just like
those mamma always has in her garden. I didn't s'pose things like that
would grow here on the desert."

"That's a castor bean."

"Like they make castor oil of?"

"Sure! At least, I guess so. Glory told me it's the only thing green
on the desert that the burros won't eat. Folks could have flowers here
the same as back home if water didn't cost so much, and the burros
didn't eat the plants as fast as they came up."

"It's the first castor bean _I've_ seen here."

"Why, there's a whole bunch down by the drug-store! We've passed them
dozens of times. Where are your eyes?"

Billiard's face flushed wrathfully. Toady's recent victory had made
him suddenly very important and domineering, but his fists were
certainly hard enough to deal a telling blow; so the older boy, still
caressing his swollen, aching nose, thought it wise to overlook such
sarcastic flings, and, pretending to be deeply interested in the
queer-leaved plant, he casually asked, "Do they all have such funny
burrs on them?"

"When they're big enough. That's where the castor beans themselves
grow."

Billiard gingerly picked one of the strange balls and minutely examined
the hooked prickles of the reddish covering. Then with his jack-knife
he proceeded to investigate the inside. "Do you s'pose they really
make castor oil out of these? I don't see how they can."

"Glory says they do."

"The insides _smell_ something like castor oil, but they don't look at
all oily."

"I'll bet they taste oily."

"Stump you to eat one!"

"Huh! It doesn't bother me to take castor oil. I can eat anything!"
To prove his boast, he plumped one white bean into his mouth, and
chewed it down with apparent relish.

Billiard watched him with eagle eyes to see that he actually did
swallow it, then held out another, and Toady obediently munched it.
Three, four, five,--bean by bean they disappeared down his throat; but
at last he rebelled.

"You hain't tasted one, Billiard McKittrick! How many do you think you
are going to feed _me_?"

The brother laughed derisively. "Wanted to see how big a fool you
was," he jeered. "Thought you were going to eat all there were on the
bush."

Toady made no reply. The beans tasted anything but appetizing, and
already the boy was beginning to feel queer.

"Sure you don't want some more?" teased Billiard.

"No. Guess I'll go home."

"And tat--tell about last night?" Billiard remembered all at once the
reason they were so far from the Eagles' Nest, and was alarmed lest
Toady's threatened confession should involve him also.

"Y-e-s."

"I think you're downright mean, Toady McKittrick!"

"I shan't tell on you."

"Might as well! They will know I was in it."

"And you know you ought to own up, too."

"Cut it out, good--Toady. If you won't tell, I'll not plague them--nor
you--any more."

Toady silently plodded on, and in exasperation Billiard caught him by
the shoulder and shook him roughly.

"Le' go!" muttered the boy. "I'm going home, I tell you! Ge' out my
way!"

The white misery of that round, freckled face as it turned toward him
struck terror to the older brother's heart, and he excitedly demanded,
"What's the matter, kid? Are you sick?"

"Feel funny," panted the castor-bean victim. "I--want--to--lie--down."

"Let's hurry then. We'll soon be home." Billiard was genuinely
alarmed now, and seizing the other's cold hand, he tried to hasten the
lagging steps up the rocky trail. But Toady was really too ill to care
what happened or where he went, and he stumbled blindly on, tripping
over a loose pebble here, or bruised by staggering into a boulder
there, protesting one minute that he could go no further, and the next
instant begging Billiard to hurry faster.

At length, however, the house was reached, and Toady drifted like a
crumpled leaf across the threshold and lay down in the middle of the
floor. Irene had seen them coming, and rushed pell-mell for Tabitha,
shrieking in horrified accents, "Kitty, oh, Kitty, they've been to a
s'loon and got drunk!"

So Tabitha was somewhat prepared for their dramatic entrance; but one
glance at the livid lips, pinched nose and heavy, lusterless eyes would
have convinced her that Irene was mistaken, even if Billiard had not
caught the words and indignantly denied it. However, recalling a
certain episode in Jerome Vane's life in Silver Bow, she demanded
severely, "How many cigarettes has he smoked, Billiard McKittrick?"

"He hain't been smoking at all!" declared that young gentleman, more
ruffled at Tabitha's tone than at her accusation. "He--he--I dared him
to eat some castor-beans, and I guess they made him sick."

"Castor-beans!" shrieked Tabitha in wild alarm. "Go for the doctor at
once. Dr. Hayes at the drug-store! Tell him it's castor-beans. He
worked all night to save the Horan children who ate them once."

Billiard had shot out of the door before the words were out of her
mouth and was half-way down the trail before the dazed girl awoke with
a start to the realization that something must be done at once for the
suffering boy on the floor, or it might be too late. "We must make him
vomit," she said to red-eyed Mercedes, who had come out of her
hiding-place to see what was the cause of all the commotion.

"But how?"

"I don't know myself what emetic would be best. They use mustard and
warm water for some poisons, and--oh, I remember! Bring me that
three-cornered, blue bottle from the cupboard, Susie. Hurry! Your
mother told me to use plenty of that if any of you got poisoned.
Mercedes, light the stove and set on the tea kettle. Inez, get the
boy's bed ready, and Irene, bring some clean towels from the closet."

Tabitha had suddenly grown calm again, and as she issued orders to the
panic-stricken sisters, she was deftly at work herself, pouring the
vile-tasting emetic down poor, unresisting Toady's throat. She worked
hard and furiously, fearful that her efforts might fail, and her heart
sank within her as she watched the white face grow whiter and listened
to the weak moans which escaped his lips with every breath.

Would the doctor never come? The suspense was horrible. When it
seemed as if she must scream with frenzy, the five watchers on the
door-step shouted wildly, "He's coming, he's coming! Billiard found
him and he's got his v'lise!"

Another instant and he was in the kitchen kneeling beside the limp form
on the floor, and working as he questioned. It was over at last, the
boy was pronounced out of danger, and Tabitha, weak and trembling, felt
her strength suddenly ooze from her limbs.

"Here, here, none of that!" commanded the physician in gruff but kindly
tones. "There is no use of fainting now, my girl, when you have done
your work so well. But for your efforts before I got here, the chap
might have been--well, he can thank his lucky stars that he is in the
land of the living."

Perhaps Toady heard, for when Tabitha bent over him a few moments
later, the brown eyes fluttered weakly open, and the repentant sinner
murmured, "How is Glory?"

"Better. She will be well by morning. But you mustn't talk now."

"Yes, I must, 'cause I made her sick. I burgled--that is, I pretended
I was a burglar last night and hid under your bed. I only meant to
scare you, though. Honest!"

"Sh! I know all about it. Go to sleep now, Toady." When seeing an
unspoken question in his eyes, she answered, "No, Glory didn't give you
away. I found it out myself."

"The constable----"

"I never went for him at all. He doesn't know a thing about it."

"Uncle Hogan--I expect you'd better write him. It was awful mean of
me, and I'm sorry, but he ought to know."

"Not this time, Toady. I am sure you will not forget again."

A great light of relief crept into the big, brown eyes, and Toady
answered with all the vim he could muster, "You are right, I won't."

CHAPTER VIII

BILLIARD RUNS AWAY

Billiard, white, scared, remorseful, had crept away up the mountainside
the minute he had seen Dr. Hayes bending beside the still form on the
kitchen floor, and remained in his retreat, watching the house with
frightened eyes, until the physician's bulky figure strode down the
path toward town again. Then, flinging himself face down in the
gravel, he sobbed in unrestrained relief, until, exhausted by the
strain of his recent fearful experience, he fell asleep in the shadow
of a ragged boulder, where late that afternoon Tabitha found him, after
a vain search about house and yard.

Surprised at having caught a glimpse of this unsuspected side of the
bully's character, she beat a hasty retreat, and with the tact of a
diplomat, sent one of the younger girls in quest of him, feeling that
he might resent being awakened by her while the trace of tears still
showed on his face. Nor was she mistaken in this surmisal, for the
instant the boy's eyes unclosed in response to Susie's energetic
shaking, he demanded, "Does Tabitha--know where I am?"

"She wouldn't have set the rest of us to hunting if she had, would she?"

"Well, 'tain't necessary for you to tell her I was asleep. The sun was
so hot it made my head ache, and I guess it has burned my face to a
blister," cautiously touching his puffed, smarting cheeks.

Susie eyed the swollen lids and scarlet visage suspiciously, but for
once held her tongue, only announcing briefly as she started on a trot
down the trail, "We're waiting supper for you."

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