CHAPTER IVIN THE HEART OF THE BERKSHIRES
A crimson automobile was climbing the steep inclines of the Berkshire Hills. Now it rose to the crest of a road. Again it dipped into a valley. It looked like a scarlet autumn leaf blown down from one of the giant forest trees that guarded the slopes of the mountains.
Mollie Thurston stood up in the back of the motor car, waving a long green veil.
“Isn’t the scenery just too perfect for words?” she called to Ruth.
The day was wonderful; the September sun shone warm and golden through the shadows of dancing, many-colored leaves. “The Automobile Girls” had left summer behind them in Kingsbridge. Three days of traveling found them in the early autumn glory of the Berkshire woods.
Ruth did not answer Mollie’s question.
“My dear child, wake up!” commanded Miss Sallie, leaning over to give her niece a gentle poke with her violet parasol. “Have you grown suddenly deaf? Can you not hear when you are spoken to?”
Ruth glanced up from her steering wheel. “Did some one speak to me?” she queried. “I am so sorry I did not hear. I am afraid I am both deaf and dumb to-day. But we simply must get to our mountain by noon. Driving a car over these mountain roads isn’t the easiest task in the world.”
Barbara laughed back over her shoulder at the occupants of the end seat in the car. “Miss Sallie Stuart,” she said in solemn tones, “please, let our chauffeur alone! Suppose the dark descends upon us in the woods and you have ‘nary’ a place to lay your head!”
“Then I should immediately find a hotel and ask for a room and a bath,” protested Miss Stuart, who did not favor the idea of the log cabin in the woods. “Remember, children, you may pretend as hard as you like that we are a thousand miles from civilization; but, unless we are perfectly comfortable in the woods, I shall take you to the best hotel in Lenox. From there you may do your mountaineering in a respectable way.”
“All the more need for you to hurry, Ruth,” whispered Bab in her friend’s ear. “I feel sure we shall find the guides and wagons waiting for us at the foot of the hill. If we get an early enough start up the mountain we can get fairly settled by night time.”
Ruth nodded with her eyes straight in front of her. She kept her car moving swiftly ahead.
“Barbara, it is quite idle to talk to Ruth,” broke in Miss Sallie, who had not heard just what Bab had said. “She is her father’s daughter. Once her mind is made up to accomplish a thing, she will do it or die! So we might as well resign ourselves to our fate. She will reach ‘her mountain,’ as she calls it, by noon, even if we have to jump a few of these embankments to succeed.”
Miss Sallie was growing tired.
“Why did I ever allow myself to be brought on such a wild expedition after the experiences you girls led me into in Newport!” she said.
“Now, Miss Sallie!” said Grace Carter gently—Grace was always the peacemaker—“you know you love these glorious woods as much as we do. Think how jolly things will be when we go down into Lenox after it grows too cold to stay in camp. Who knows but you will turn out the best sportsman in the lot? And we shall probably have our guide teach you to shoot before we are through this trip.”
Miss Stuart sniffed indignantly. Then she laughed at the thought of her plump fingers pulling the trigger of a gun. “What is our guide’s outlandish name?” she inquired in milder tones.
“Naki, and his wife is called Ceally,” Graceanswered. “You remember Mr. Stuart explained they were originally French Canadians, but they have been living in these mountains for a number of years. Because they used to be guides up in the Canadian forests they don’t know any other trade to follow in these peaceful woods.”
“These woods were by no means always peaceful, my lady Grace!” asserted Bab. “You can’t even be perfectly sure they are peaceful now. Why,” she went on in thrilling tones, “these hillsides once ran red with the blood of our ancestors and of the friendly Indian tribes who fought with them against the French.”
“Oh, come! come! No more American history!” remarked Mollie. “Beg pardon, but I do object to Bab’s school-teacher manner. Did you ever see anything so lovely as these hills are now? The scenery around here is like the enchanted forests of Arcady.”
“Oh, Miss Sallie, girls, look!” called Grace. From the high crest of a hill “The Automobile Girls” gazed down upon one of the loveliest valleys in the Berkshires. Afar off they could see the narrow Housatonic River winding its way past villages and fields, from the hillsides, which gave it the Indian name; for Housatonic means “a stream over the mountains.” Nestling in the valleys lay a chain of silver lakes.
Ruth paused an instant. “Over there ahead of us is ‘our mountain.’ I think we can reach it in an hour or so.”
While they were pursuing their journey, another small party was gathering on the slope of the hill opposite. A long, lean man burned to the color and texture of leather sat on the front seat of a wagon drawn by two strong mountain horses. By his side was his wife, almost as thin and brown; behind them, piled up in the wagon, were trunks, rolls of steamer rugs, kitchen utensils, making altogether as odd an assortment of goods as if the couple were peddlers.
Strolling around near them was a younger man, evidently the driver of a well filled grocery wagon. His horse stood patiently cropping the fine, hillside grass. Farther up the roadside a chauffeur nibbled a spear of mint. He had no car near him, but his costume was unmistakable. Evidently something was in the air. Somebody or something was being waited for.
Soon after twelve o’clock, there was a whirr along the road. The cart horses raised their ears, and without a motion from their drivers, moved farther to the right side of the path. Berkshire Hills horses, in whatever station of life, needed no further notice. An automobile was approaching!
“Here they come!” cried the grocer’s boy,jumping back into his wagon. The chauffeur dropped his piece of mint and gazed down the road. Now at least there was something worth seeing!
“Hip! hip! hurrah!” “The Automobile Girls” landed with a flourish beside the wagons. Their laughter woke the sleeping echoes in the hills.
“Are you Naki and Ceally?” cried Ruth, jumping out of the car and running forward with her hand extended. “And are these our things you have in the wagon? I am so sorry we are a few minutes late; but these mountain roads take longer to drive over than I had expected. I hope I haven’t kept you waiting very long.”
“No’m,” said the guide, sliding slowly down from his perch on the camping outfit. He emptied the pipe he had been comfortably smoking. “Time enough,” he answered. Naki was a man of few words.
The chauffeur had walked over to Ruth’s car and was assisting Miss Sallie to descend. “You are to take this car into Lenox, I believe,” Miss Stuart began. “My niece will explain matters to you more fully. I am told we cannot take the car any further up this side of the hill. Where is the carriage in which we are to drive?”
“Oh, Aunt Sallie!” cried Ruth in consternation.“What are we to do? When Naki wrote there would be seats in his wagon for those of us who wished to drive up the hill, I am afraid he meant those seats in front by him and his wife.”
The guide looked perfectly solemn, even when he beheld Miss Sallie’s face. Imagine, if you can, Miss Sallie Stuart, nervous, as she was, perched on top of a rickety wagon! Add the fact that she was to be driven up an unexplored hillside by the side of the two queer, brown people to whom they were confiding their fates!
“We don’t ride ’longside of you, Miss,” explained Naki to Ruth. “I leads the horses up and my wife walks by their side. There’s room for three of you up there on the front seat. It’s more comfortable than it looks. The other two of you had better walk or you can ride in the grocery wagon. The man’s coming along behind us with the provisions.”
Miss Sallie had not spoken again. Her expression was that of a martyr.
“Do you think you can manage, Miss Sallie?” Bab pleaded.
Ruth was explaining matters to the chauffeur. He was to take the car to Lenox. Every afternoon at one o’clock he was to return with it to this fork in the road and wait for half an hour. If “The Automobile Girls” decided on a trip to one of the nearby towns, they would join him atthis place; for here the good road ended and the trail up the hillside began. The camp was a long way from any town, but an automobile defies distance.
Miss Stuart looked truly miserable when she saw their car disappear down the foot of the hill. Then she looked around her carefully. The place was entirely deserted.
“Very well,” she declared, resignedly. “I suppose there is nothing for me to do but to climb up into that wretched wagon.”
Ruth, Barbara, Grace, Mollie, Naki and his wife all assisted her to mount over the wheel to the seat of honor. Violet cushions were piled back of her, Grace sat on one side of her, Mollie on the other. Ruth and Barbara were determined to walk.
“We are dreadfully tired sitting still, Aunt Sallie,” Ruth begged. “Please let us follow the wagon!”
“Certainly, you can walk if you are able. In fact, you have no way to ride except in the grocery wagon, where you would probably get mixed up with the pickles and preserves,” responded Miss Stuart. “Walk by all means!”
The cavalcade started.
“Let’s pretend,” proposed Bab to Ruth, “that we are starting out on what the Indians called ‘the long walk.’”
“Surely, Bab, it’s a long walk, all right. But why introduce the Indians?”
The girls were climbing up the steep path ahead of the wagon. Bab laughed. “Oh, I read somewhere,” she explained, “that the Indians used to sell their land that way. Suppose you and I were early settlers, who were trying to purchase this hillside from the Indians. They would tell us we could have, for a fixed sum, as much land as we could cover in the ‘long walk.’ That would mean that we were to walk along quietly from sunrise to sunset, sitting down occasionally to smoke a pipe of peace, to break bread, and to drink water. That reminds me, are we ever going to break bread again? I am starving!”
But Ruth was not sympathetic at the moment. “It is curious,” she replied. “These mountains are so full of Indian legends, we shall think, hear and dream of nothing but Indians in the next few weeks. The names of all the places around were once Indian. I suppose we shall do almost everything except see an Indian. The last of them has vanished from here. Oh, Bab, do look at Aunt Sallie!”
Miss Stuart had forgotten her fright. Fortunately, she did not realize how absurd she appeared.
“Ruth!” she called from her throne on thewagon seat. “Here is a perfectly good place for our lunch. There is water near and view enough, I am sure. I must be given food before I am taken another step up these hills. I am famished!”
The party found a clear space in the woods. In a short time Naki had built a fire of pine twigs, and Ceally had a giant pot of coffee boiling over it. Its delicious perfume mingled with the fresh mountain air.
“I declare I haven’t been so hungry since I was a girl,” Miss Sallie avowed. She was seated on a log, with a sandwich in one hand and a cup of coffee on the ground by her. Her hat was on one side of her head, and her pompadour drooped dejectedly, but Miss Sallie was blissfully unconscious. The color in her cheeks shone as fresh and rosy as the tints in the cheeks of any other of “The Automobile Girls.”
Mollie flitted around like the spirit of the woods. Nothing could induce her to keep still. “Do let me get the water,” she coaxed the guide. Like a flash she was off and back bearing a heavy bucket. “Here, Ruth,” she volunteered, pouring a stream of water into the tiny silver cup that Ruth always carried. Ruth was just in time. With a jump to one side, she escaped, but the splash descended on unsuspecting Bab, who Was nibbling a doughnut.
In her ardor at playing waitress in the woods Mollie had turned her bucket upside down. Instead of dispensing nectar, this little cup-bearer to “The Automobile Girls” had nearly drowned one of them.
“It’s a blessed thing you are my sister,” cried Bab.
Mollie apologized, dabbing at Bab with her small pocket handkerchief. “You can tell me exactly what you think of me. Ruth and Grace might be too polite. I am so sorry; I was trying to be useful.”
“Go over to the fire, Barbara, and dry your dress,” advised Miss Sallie. “It is just as well you have on a thick suit. We must learn to expect occasional mishaps.”
Barbara winked solemnly at Ruth as she arose from the table. Miss Sallie was sure to be in a good humor when she talked in this philosophical fashion.
For an hour after luncheon the camping party continued their climb. Finally Ruth and Bab, who were in front, came to a sudden stop. “Hurrah!” they shouted, turning to wave their handkerchiefs to the occupants of the wagon.
Mollie nearly pitched out of the wagon in her excitement, but Grace and Miss Sallie clutched at her skirts in time.
“Have we arrived?” Mollie cried. “Oh, dostop the wagon!” The little log cabin in the woods was now plainly in view.
“It’s the gingerbread house, I know it is,” exclaimed Grace, making a flying leap over the wheel of the cart. “The logs are the soft, brown color of good gingerbread, and the little windows must be made of sugar frosting.”
In a clearing on top of a hillside stood the “hut,” as the girls christened it in an instant. A circle of pine and cedar trees hid it from sight. All around it were thick woods. Higher hills rose at the back of it. A roaring brook tumbled down the hillside fifty feet from their cabin door.
By nightfall the little house in the woods was made thoroughly livable. The girls hammered and worked, assisted by Naki and his wife. Miss Sallie sat by the big fire in the living room and gave directions. Adjoining this big room, which ran across one side of the cabin, were two bedrooms. Farther back Naki and Ceally shared a small chamber that connected with the kitchen.
Just before supper time Ruth took Miss Sallie by the arm; Grace, Barbara and Mollie followed them; around and around their new home “The Automobile Girls” marched.
“See your elegance!” said Ruth to her aunt, pointing to a mirror, which hung by a nail over Miss Sallie’s rough pine wood dressing table. Her favorite toilet articles were already laid outupon it, her wrapper hung over the back of a chair.
“Most noble lady,” continued Ruth, “behold what miracles your willing slaves have performed for your comfort! Everything is here for your convenience except your perfumed bath.”
“Don’t speak of a bath, child!” cried Miss Sallie, with a real shudder of horror. “It is the lack of a proper bathtub that makes this camping business truly awful!”
“Come, Miss Sallie,” called Barbara, quick to change the subject. “I want you to see the wonderful sunset.” Overhead Miss Sallie beheld a golden radiance that bathed the hilltop in a wonderful light. In the west the sun was sinking behind a line of blue mountains.
That evening the girls sat around an open campfire piled high with pine logs. It was a cool night, and although they were tired, no one would suggest going in to bed. Every now and then Mollie would tumble forward and awake with a start. She was half listening, half dreaming as Grace’s lovely voice floated out through the still night air, singing, while she strummed idly her guitar:
“Lovely moon that softly glides,
Through the realms where God abides.”
“I wonder,” said Mollie to Grace, as she finally followed her into bed, “what wonderful adventures we shall have in this forest? Perhaps we shall awaken a wood nymph and teach her to become a mortal maid. Do you suppose she would like the change?”
CHAPTER VA DAY IN THE WOODS
Mollie crept to the door of their hut at sunrise next morning. She thought she heard light footfalls outside their door. The other girls were fast asleep, worn out by the long trip of the day before. Yet when Mollie peeped outside no one was in sight; all was silence.
Only the birds had begun to stir in their nests and call their morning greetings across from one tree top to another. As far as Mollie could see stretched the unbroken forest. A narrow path ran down the hill between the trees. A steeper incline rose back of them and this was broken with deep ravines. Mollie could neither see nor hear anyone. Yet it seemed to her that she was not alone. She had a sense of some unknown presence.
She crept back into the room and put on hercrimson dressing gown and slippers. She was bent on making a discovery. It could not be Naki or his wife, whose light footfalls she had heard moving swiftly around the house. They were nowhere to be seen. She was nervous about going out, as Miss Sallie had made dreadful suggestions about wolves and wild cats, yet she slipped out on the tiny porch. Far away through the trees and up the steep hillside she saw flying like a deer, a thin, brown creature. Was it human or a sprite? Mollie could not guess. She caught a glimpse of it, but it had been impossible to observe it accurately, so fast it flew. There was only a whirr of flying feet, and a flash of brown and scarlet to be seen. Could it be the famous ghost of Lost Man’s Trail?
At this same moment Naki came around from the back of the house. “I thought I heard some one,” he grumbled, looking suspiciously at Mollie.
“Yes, so did I,” she answered. “And I saw some one or something fly up the steep side of that hill.”
Naki did not answer. Mollie thought he looked at her queerly.
“You must have been mistaken, Miss,” he declared. “Nothing could have gone up that ravine over yonder. There’s only an Indiantrail back there. Nobody travels much over that hill. It’s all cliffs and dangerous.”
Mollie shook her pretty head. She did not argue, but she knew what she had seen.
“I am going to try climbing it, some day, just the same,” she thought to herself, “but of course, I must get used to finding my way about first. I must find out just what I saw this morning.”
“Where have you been, Mollie?” asked Grace, opening her eyes as Mollie came back to bed.
“What’s up?” called Ruth from the next room, where she slept with Miss Sallie.
“Oh, nothing,” Mollie answered, fearful of being thought superstitious. “I thought I heard a sound at the door, but I was mistaken.”
“Girls,” Ruth demanded later, as they sat over their breakfast, “is there anything in the world so good to eat as bacon fried by Ceally over an open fire?” Ruth helped herself to all that was left on the dish.
“Ruth Stuart!” called Barbara. “How dare you take all the bacon, when you have just declared it was so delicious? Miss Sallie, make her divide with me.”
Miss Stuart looked up from her eggs and toast: “What are you children quarreling about?” she asked placidly. “Suppose youbring us another dish of bacon, Ceally. The mountain air certainly creates an appetite. I am sure I don’t see what benefit I am to get from ‘roughing it!’ The one thing I hoped to do by living outdoors was to reduce my figure, but, if my appetite continues at the present rate, I shall certainly not lose an ounce.”
“Don’t you be too sure, auntie,” Ruth demurred. “Wait till we get through with you to-day. Think you can climb the hill back of us?”
Mollie interrupted. “Naki warns us against that particular hill. He says it is unpopular for climbing because of its cliffs and ravines. But he hints that there is an Indian trail over it, so I am dying to explore it. Aren’t you, Bab?”
“Well, it’s not for me!” laughed Ruth hastily. “I am not any too devoted to scaling cliffs, you may remember.”
“What’s the programme for to-day?” Grace asked.
“Somebody must go down the hill with me this afternoon,” Ruth answered. “The automobile is to meet us there you know, to take us to a postoffice to mail our letters to our beloved families. This morning we can just poke round the camp. I want Naki to teach us how to make a camp fire.”
Mollie looked down at her dainty hands. “It is rather dirty work, isn’t it?” she asked.
“Not a bit of it, Mollie,” put in Bab. “Don’t be finicky, or we shall put you out of camp. It’s a good thing to know how to build a first-class fire. Suppose one of us should be lost in the woods some day!”
“We will suppose no such thing,” protested Miss Stuart.
Early in the afternoon Miss Sallie and the four girls started down the hill. Bab, Mollie and Miss Stuart were to go only a part of the way with Ruth and Grace, the two girls continuing their walk until they met the chauffeur, who was to bring the motor car up to the point of the road where Ruth had told him to meet her.
Mollie and Bab begged off from the excursion. “I don’t want to know,” Bab argued, “how near we still are to civilization. If I go to town with you to-day, no matter how long the drive is, it will take away a part of the romance of living in the hills.”
Miss Stuart was not much of a walker. Before they had gone half a mile she decided that it was high time to turn back.
“Good-bye girls,” she called to Ruth and Grace, who were hurrying on. “Do not stay too late. You must be back by dusk, or I shallbe most uneasy. At five-thirty I shall expect you in camp. These are my orders.” Miss Sallie turned to Bab and Mollie. “Seriously, children,” she explained, “I think I shall establish military rules. If one of you stays out after dusk, I believe I shall shut you up in the guard house for twenty-four hours.”
“But where is the guard house please, Miss Sallie?” inquired Mollie meekly.
Miss Sallie laughed. “In this case the guard house means only the cabin. The girl who fails to appear when the roll is called in the evening must remain within the limits of the camp all the following day.”
Bab and Mollie left Miss Stuart before the log fire in the living room of their hut. Miss Sallie, who had a taste for romance in the lives of other people, was deep in the reading of a new novel. A part of the camping supplies had been a collection of new books for her.
“Come on, Mollie,” cried Bab gayly. “Let’s go over in the woods and gather some pine and cedar branches for our fire this evening.” Barbara walked ahead, pulling a small wagon behind her with all the ardor of a young boy. “You see,” she avowed to Mollie, “I don’t have to remember I am sixteen, or a girl, while we are living in the woods. I can be just as independent as I like.”
The two sisters were deep in their task. The little wagon was piled high with evergreens. Suddenly Mollie started. She thought she heard a voice calling from somewhere above their heads. “Hi, there! Hello! Hello!”
“Did you hear some one calling?” asked Mollie.
“Why, no,” responded Barbara. “What is the matter with you, Mollie? This morning you heard a ‘spook’ outside the door, this afternoon you believe you hear a voice calling you. Beware, child! Perhaps you are already afflicted with the wood madness, and may see that wonderful ghost.”
“Hi, there! Hi, there!” A voice was surely floating down from the sky.
This time Bab stared. Mollie looked triumphant. As far as they could see around them, there was no other human creature. And the sound did not come from the ground. Mollie was right. The noise was from overhead. But it was so far off and faint, it could not come from the trees above them.
Bab and Mollie ran out into an open space. There was a strange, rattling, swinging noise above their heads, as though a pair of mammoth wings were beating in the sky. The two girls looked up. There, about twenty yards abovethe tops of the highest trees was the strangest object ever seen by Mollie and Bab!
“What on earth is it?” Bab breathed faintly. The voice sounded more distinctly this time. “Is there some one down there in the woods?”
Bab caught the words. The sound was coming from a megaphone from the strange ship in the air. But Mollie and Bab had no megaphone at their command through which to answer back—only two frightened girl voices.
“Yes, yes!” they called together as loud as they could shout. The sound was ridiculous even to their own ears, and was lost in the vast spaces of the forest. The strange vehicle over their heads was gliding a little closer to the ground. Bab and Mollie could faintly see the figure of a man—two men—when they looked again.
This time the voice came through the megaphone: “Can you get me help? I have broken the rudder of my balloon. We cannot alight without assistance. If we come too close to the ground we will catch in the trees. I want some one to pull us down with ropes.”
“Well,” Mollie spoke to herself, “it is a relief to know that that object is an airship, not some hideous hobgoblin. I would like to know, Bab, how you and I are to get the thing to the ground?”
“Run, fly, Molliekins!” cried Bab, whose mind was always quick in action. “Go to the cabin for Naki and Ceally. Tell them to come here as fast as they can tear. We can manage together.”
Mollie was off in a flash.
Barbara’s voice could now be heard by the men in the balloon above her. “Drop me a line,” she called to them, “before you float too far away. I will tie you to a tree.”
Bab had realized that with a broken rudder it was impossible for the dirigible balloon to remain poised in the air.
A long coil of rope floated down from the sky. Barbara caught it and ran to a tree which was bare of branches. Then she knotted the rope with all her skill and strength. There was nothing to do, now, but wait. Bab fastened her gaze upon the strange white bird she had captured, which hung fluttering and quivering in the sky above her.
CHAPTER VI“THE GREAT WHITE ALSO”
Two minutes later Naki came running along the path. Even his solemn face was aglow with excitement. Ceally was close behind him. Just after them danced Mollie, who was followed by Miss Sallie. The latter had deserted her novel at the critical moment of the story. She must discover what Mollie was talking about. The child was too excited to explain.
A Long Coil of Rope Floated Down from the Sky.
When the little party reached the clearing where Bab stood it was easy to see what had happened. An aerial navigator had come to grief and was calling for assistance.
As Naki joined Bab, the aeronauts dropped more ropes from their basket, which hung beneath the great balloon. The big guide seized hold of one; his wife grabbed another; before Miss Sallie could stop her, Bab was swinging on a third.
“Great heavens child, let go!” Miss Sallie called out in tones of intense alarm. “You will be rising up in the air in another moment!”
“Oh, no!” laughed Bab out of breath. “There’s no danger now. Don’t you smell something horrible?”
The delicious air of the woods was being permeated with a detestable odor. The great balloon above their heads was shrinking. It was growing smaller and smaller. The gas was being allowed slowly to escape from it.
“Why, it looks like an enormous slug,” cried Mollie, “now that we can see the thing closely.”
By this time the balloon had neared the ground. Two men sprang over the sides of thebasket, both alighting on their feet. Half a moment later the older of the two was bowing politely to Miss Sallie and wiping his glasses. Landing from a balloon on top of a mountain was apparently an ordinary occurrence with him. His companion was busy with the airship, which now lay on one side on the ground. It was shuddering and exhaling deep breaths.
“Madam,” said the aeronaut addressing Miss Sallie, but looking at Barbara, who stood by her side. “More than I can express I thank you for your assistance. We were, I think, in rather a dangerous position and we might very easily have been killed. At best, in trying to alight without help, I should have torn my balloon in the branches of the trees. Perhaps you ladies would like to examine the balloon more thoroughly. This is my nephew, Reginald Latham.”
A young man arose from the ground. He wore a close fitting tan costume, a cap with a visor and short trousers.
He brought his heels together with a click, and bowed low to Miss Sallie. Then he extended his hand to Mollie and Barbara. “It was immensely clever of you,” he spoke, with a slightly foreign accent, “to have helped us out of our difficulty. Tying us to the tree, while we were obliged to wait, really saved the situation. I donot think the balloon is injured at all, except for the broken rudder.”
The young man spoke of his balloon as tenderly as though it were a cherished friend. He looked about twenty-three or four years old. He was thin and dark, with clever eyes; but an expression of restlessness and discontent spoiled an otherwise interesting face.
“I am Winthrop Latham,” his uncle continued. “I have a summer place down here, but my nephew and I spend most of our time, both summer and winter in Lenox. We have a house in my grounds where we are both working on models for airships.”
Mr. Latham paused. It was natural that he should expect some explanation. What was a handsome, middle-aged woman doing on top of a mountain? Why were her only companions two charming young girls and a rough looking man and his wife?
“I suppose,” Miss Stuart replied, laughing, “that you are almost as much surprised at our appearance as we are at yours! I am sure no thanks are necessary for our part in your rescue! We were delighted to assist in such a novel and up-to-date adventure.” Miss Sallie looked smilingly at Mollie and Barbara. She was rather enjoying their unusual experience. Moreover, she had heard of Mr. Latham’s beautifulhome in Lenox. And was assured they were in the best of company.
“We are camping on this hill for a few weeks,” she continued. “I am Miss Stuart, of Chicago. My niece and I, and three girl friends, are the entire camping party, except for our guide and his wife. Won’t you come to our hut? Can we be of any assistance to you?”
“Indeed, you can!” heartily declared Mr. Latham, who was evidently an old bachelor of about fifty-five years of age, with charming manners. “I wonder if you will take care of my balloon for me until my nephew can get down the hill to send a wagon up for it. That very inferior looking object you now see collapsed on the ground is really my latest treasure. It is one of the best dirigible balloons invented up to the present time.”
Barbara was already down on her hands and knees beside the balloon. As her new acquaintance explained the details of its construction to her, his face burned with enthusiasm. Mollie, watching him, thought he looked almost handsome. Nevertheless she didn’t like Reginald Latham. Bab, however, was delighted. She had a thirst for information and here was a young man who could intelligently talk to her about the most marvelous inventions of the century, the airship and the aeroplane.
“I think,” Bab volunteered, “if the balloon can be folded without harming it, we might carry it to the house in our small express wagon. We could each hold up a side of it, and it would be better than carrying it altogether.”
The queer procession started for the cabin. Miss Sallie and Mollie walked on in front. Mr. Latham, Reginald Latham, Naki and Ceally, each supported a corner of the balloon, while Bab solemnly dragged the express wagon. Her pile of evergreens had been rudely dumped out on the ground.
“Well, for goodness sake!” Ruth and Grace stood at the door of their cabin, transfixed with surprise. “What on earth has happened this time?”
“Let nothing surprise you, girls, in this world of strange adventure,” called Barbara. She had forgotten the strangers when she saw the amazed faces of Ruth and Grace. “Sometimes it is the stay-at-homes who have the exciting experiences come to them.”
“Do come in and have tea with us, Mr. Latham!” urged Miss Stuart. “Naki will go down to a farmhouse, only a mile or so away, where he keeps his horses, and will bring up his wagon to take your balloon home for you. You really must explain matters to my niece and her friend, Miss Carter, or they will perish withcuriosity! If traveling in the air makes one as hungry as living on a hilltop, the tea may be acceptable for its own sake.”
“Of course I want to come into your castle,” laughed Mr. Latham. “I feel so certain I have run across a party of fairies that I must peep into your dwelling to see if you are real people.”
“You are not ahead of us, Mr. Latham,” laughed Barbara, “Mollie and I thought you were angels calling down to us from the sky.”
“I hope, Miss Stuart,” begged their visitor, as he was making his adieus, “that you will soon come down from your high retreat and bring these young ladies to see my place in Lenox. Reginald and I promise not to talk airships incessantly. But, if you refuse to descend the hill very soon, my nephew and I shall climb up to see you. Next time I promise to appear in a more conventional fashion.”
That night, when the girls were undressing, Mollie announced unexpectedly: “I don’t like that Reginald Latham.”
“Why not, Mollie?” asked Bab. “He is a very interesting fellow. His mother is a German and he has been educated in Germany. His father, who was Mr. Latham’s younger brother, is dead. I think Reginald is his uncle’s heir. He told me he and his uncle mean to devote all their time to inventing airships. He studiedabout them in Germany, even before he came to live with his uncle three years ago.”
“Mercy!” Mollie ejaculated. “Then he is even more queer than I thought him. What a useless life for a man of his age. I don’t like him even if he is ever so clever, and though his uncle is a dear. Girls, if I tell you something will you promise me not to laugh? Cross your heart and body. I won’t tell you unless you do.”
“Oh, then we have no choice, Mollie,” laughed Grace.
“You may laugh a little,” relented Mollie, who was giggling softly to herself. “Do you know what I suddenly thought, when Bab and I saw that great white object come sailing over our heads this afternoon? Like a flash it popped into my mind. Here comes ‘The Great White Also!’”
Barbara shrieked with laughter in spite of her promise. “Oh, you funny Mollie!” she exclaimed.
“What is the child talking about?” inquired the puzzled Ruth. “The Great White Also! What utter nonsense!”
Mollie blushed. “Do you remember,” she asked, “a paragraph in the first geography you studied at school? It read: ‘The brown bear, the black bear, and the great white also inhabitthe northern regions of North America.’ Well, when I was small child I always thought ‘the great white also’ was some strange kind of animal. For a long time I wondered and wondered what it could be. Finally I asked mother and Bab to explain the sentence to me. Of course they thought it a lovely joke; but, just the same, I never could get over my first impression. It flashed into my head this afternoon, when I saw that strange white thing struggling in the air—at last here comes ‘The Great White Also!’ Wasn’t it too absurd? I have been laughing to myself ever since.”
“Children, what on earth is the matter?” inquired Miss Sallie, appearing at the bedroom door in her dressing gown. “You will waken the dead with your racket. Ruth, come to bed, at once, and tell me what you are laughing about.”
CHAPTER VIIMOLLIE FOLLOWS THE TRAIL
“Mollie have you seen my red sweater?” called Grace a few days later. “I can’t find it anywhere; yet I am sure I left it out here on this bench last night. Naki and Ceally haven’t seen it. Horrid thing! It has taken wings and flown away just when Iwanted it. Do come with us. Ruth, Bab and I are going over into the forest to try to learn to shoot. Naki is to teach us.”
“Does Miss Sallie know?” asked Mollie, who was not in a good humor. Bab had been lecturing her for her sudden dislike of Reginald Latham. It seemed to Mistress Barbara unreasonable that Mollie had taken such an unaccountable prejudice against a young man whom they had barely met.
“You talk, Mollie, as if he were a villain in a play,” Bab protested.
Mollie knew she had been obstinate. All she had answered was: “Well, he would probably be a villain, if he had the opportunity. I hope I shan’t see him again. I don’t see, Bab, why you should be so interested in him. He’s lots older than you are.”
“I am not interested in him,” Bab retorted indignantly. And the two sisters had separated.
“Of course, Miss Sallie knows we are going to practise shooting?” mimicked Grace. “What is the matter with Miss Mollie Thurston this morning? Don’t you know Mr. Stuart sent us a rifle. He told us learning to shoot might prove a useful part of our education.Docome on with us Mollie.”
“No, thank you,” Mollie declared. “I hate the noise of a gun. Oh, I am not afraid, GraceCarter, so you needn’t tease; but I prefer more ladylike amusements. I am going for a walk.”
“Don’t go too far by yourself, Mollie,” pleaded Grace, who didn’t mind Mollie’s tantrums. “You don’t know your way about these hills, yet, and it isn’t safe to wander any distance. How I wish I could find my coat.”
“Here, take Aunt Sallie’s,” cried Ruth, appearing suddenly in the doorway. “It is not such a charming color as your scarlet one, and it may be a trifle large, but it will keep you warm. Coming, child?” she asked Mollie.
Mollie shook her head. Without waiting for Bab to join them she started on her walk. The child wanted to be alone. Besides being in a bad humor she had several things to think about. She certainly would not tell Bab and the other girls, just to be laughed at; but again that morning she had heard a light noise outside their window. It didn’t sound like an animal. Mollie wrinkled her pretty forehead, and a puzzled expression crept into her blue eyes. How absurd even to dream of a thief, here on their beautiful hillside far away from the rest of the world. And, she, a great girl of fourteen, knew better than to believe in ghosts.
Mollie slipped down the path and crossed the gully that divided the nearer hill from the higher one back of it. Already her bad humorwas disappearing. She had no idea of going far from their cabin; another day she might persuade the girls to explore this mysterious hill, with its lost Indian trail; but she should not attempt it alone. This morning she wanted only to creep away for an hour or so into the woodland quiet.
Mollie Thurston had a curious passion for the woods. When she was alone in them she would stand still a long time, calling to the birds, and she delighted in having them steal near and shyly listen to the sweet sounds she made in return for theirs. No one knew of this accomplishment of Mollie’s, not even Bab.
Up the steep hillside Mollie clambered. Below her she could hear the pop, pop, pop, of a rifle. The girls were evidently taking their lesson in target practice from Naki.
“I suppose I am fairly safe up here,” Mollie chuckled, “but I wouldn’t care to be too near those shooting experts. I know they will hit everything near them except their target.”
She sat down on the root of an old tree that jutted out from an overhanging bank, and drew a sheet of paper from her pocket. She would write to her mother of their rescue of an airship. Mollie bit the end of her pencil—she was not in a writing mood. Why had she taken such a dislike to Reginald Latham? He had beenpolite enough, and was rather good-looking. It was Bab’s habit to feel prejudices, not hers. She wouldn’t say anything to her mother about him, but certainly Bab seemed to like him unusually well.
Crack! Crack! The sound came from the bushes! She looked quickly around. It must have been a gust of wind that stirred. In another minute there tumbled over her head a shower of leaves and acorns, that for an instant blinded her. But she could hear plainly this time; light feet were running along the bank above the ravine where she sat.
Without pausing a moment she jumped to her feet and ran up the path that led from the bottom of the ravine to the hilltop. Nothing was in sight; but further on through a thicket of trees, she caught the distant sound of flying footsteps. She could see the underbrush move, as though shaken by something in passing.
A shivering sense of mystery possessed the girl. Could it be the ghost?
Without stopping to think Mollie flew in pursuit; determined to discover what had disturbed her. Once she saw a bright object flash ahead of her, brown and scarlet, through the trees. It was gone in an instant. Surely it was but a shadow from the autumn leaves.
For some distance Mollie had been followingwhat seemed to be a pathway through a tangled thicket of bushes and trees. Suddenly she stopped. So far as she could see the path ended abruptly. Yet, at this very moment, she heard a faint hallo!
It was the voice of temptation to Mollie, and she let her curiosity get the better of her. Without in the least knowing where she was going she pushed on. Ducking her head through an opening in one place, turning and twisting wherever she found it possible to make her way, the child came at last into a thick forest. On every side of her stretched endless avenues of trees. Now no sound of flying feet urged her on; no voice called her.
Poor Mollie was entirely alone.
“What an utter goose I am!” she declared out loud. “I don’t believe I ever heard anyone, or saw anything. It was just my imagination that led me on. Now, I hope,” Mollie gave a rueful smile and sat down to pull the brambles out of her dress, “I hope my imagination will kindly show me the way home again!”
Which way should she go? There were half a dozen different directions open to her. Which was the right one?
“I wonder,” thought Mollie, “if, somehow, I have struck the famous ‘Lost Man’s Trail?’ It is a lost girl’s trail all right!”
She turned this way, then that. In front of her between the sumach and the holly trees was an open space, which might lead somewhere toward home. Mollie pushed her way through. There were trees, trees, trees! No path was visible between them.
For half a mile Mollie walked on blindly, feeling sure that, at any minute, she would catch a glimpse of their familiar hillside. A sense of sinking warned her that luncheon time had passed. High overhead she could see by the sun that noon had passed.
Several times she called aloud. But Naki had warned her. This hill was entirely deserted. No one ever walked or rode over it.
“I don’t wonder,” the little girl thought, with a lump in her throat. “No one except myself would be such a goose as to try to find her way about up here, or be silly enough to go on a ghost hunt.”
She called again. “Hello! hello! I am lost! Is anyone near?” There was no answer. Once Mollie thought she heard a strange sound, half-wild, half-human, and called more loudly. This time there was no reply.
After several hours of walking, Mollie found her way out of the woods. As she came again to an open hilltop she thought she could see the smoke curling out of the chimney of their little,brown cabin, but far and near, there was no familiar object. She had followed the wrong trail, and was in an entirely different part of the country. There was nothing to do but to return to the woods.
Wearily she walked back. “I am sure the girls must be looking for me,” she said, trying to revive her courage. “When I wasn’t home in time for lunch Bab would know I was lost.”
On and on, Mollie wandered. Finally, toward dusk, she found herself again in the heart of the forest where she had lost her way in the morning. She was so tired, there was nothing to do but to sit down and rest, but she had not given up. Of course, she would find her way out of this labyrinth of trees somehow. However, just for the time, she must wait.
Mollie sank down on a pile of leaves that had been blown in a heap under the shelter of a great cedar tree. It was growing cold, and the September day was closing. All morning and afternoon the little girl had wandered alone in the woods. How many miles she had traveled she did not know.
The child shivered, as she dropped on the ground. Tired as she was, she had plenty of courage left. Not a tear had been shed in these miles of weary tramping; indeed she had often laughed at her own mistakes, though the laughterhad sometimes been close to tears; but Mollie knew that she must not lose her head.
“Suppose, I do have to stay in the woods all night?” she reflected. “It wouldn’t kill me. I have wanted to have adventures in a forest; here is my opportunity. I wish, though, I knew how to make a fire; I’m so cold and hungry; but I haven’t a sign of a match, so there is no use of thinking about it.”
If Mollie could but have kept awake a little longer! No sooner had she dropped on the soft leaves than fatigue overcame her, and she was fast asleep.
Suddenly a figure came out of the underbrush—a strange young figure all brown and scarlet. It moved so softly that scarcely a leaf trembled. For a minute it paused and gazed down on the sleeping child. The little girl stirred in her sleep. With a bound the wood sprite vanished. It need not have hurried; Mollie was too utterly weary to awaken soon.
What had happened at the log cabin, meantime?
All morning Ruth, Bab and Grace had been practising under the instruction of Naki. Bab was growing into a clever shot, and Ruth was playing her a close second, when the luncheon gong sounded. The girls had given no further thought to Mollie, supposing she had growntired of her walk, and was at home with Miss Sallie. The latter naturally was not worried, as she thought Mollie was with Naki and the others.
When the girls filed into the living room for their lunch Bab asked carelessly: “Where’s Mollie?”
“Where’s Mollie?” repeated Miss Sallie. “Hasn’t she been shooting with you? Perhaps she is somewhere near. Here is Ceally; I will ask her.”
At this moment Ceally entered with a great bowl of vegetable soup that looked most inviting to the hungry girls.
“I haven’t seen Miss Mollie all morning,” she explained. “Not since she started for a walk up that hill over ‘yond’.”
Barbara, Grace and Ruth stared at each other with white, frightened faces. They remembered Mollie had gone off for a walk early that morning; but she had promised not to go far up the hill.
“Call Naki, at once,” said Miss Stuart hurriedly. “He will probably know where Mollie is.”
“No, auntie.” Ruth shook her head. “Naki doesn’t know. He has been teaching us to shoot all the forenoon.”
Bab jumped up from the table. “Please, Miss Sallie,” she cried hastily, “may Naki and I goout to look for Mollie? I am afraid she is lost on the hill.”
“Sit down, Bab,” quietly said Miss Sallie, in the voice the girls recognized as final. “You and the other girls must each eat a plate of this soup. You are not to start out to look for Mollie when you are tired and hungry. Ceally, see that Naki has some food at once, and bring the coffee to me.”
Barbara was almost crying. “Oh, Miss Sallie,” she pleaded, “I can’t eat. Don’t make me wait. I must go at once.”
“Eat your soup, Barbara,” was Miss Sallie’s reply.
Poor Bab obediently choked it down, while Ruth and Grace followed her example. Then they each drank a cup of coffee.
It was Miss Sallie who ate nothing. She was more frightened than the girls; for the woods were more terrible to her than to the young people. Then, Mollie was the youngest of the party, and Miss Stuart felt she was less able to look after herself. Besides, Ceally had hinted strange tales of the haunted mountain back of them. At the time, Miss Sallie had refused to listen; it had seemed utter nonsense, that tale of a ghost which haunted a lost Indian trail. Now, the idea came to Miss Stuart, that perhaps the ghost on the mountain was some criminal, afugitive from justice, who made his home on the deserted hill.
It was Bab who led the way up to the top of the ravine. But there she stopped and waited for Naki and the girls to join her.
Looking for lost people in the woods was an old business with the guide. He did not take the fact of disobedient Mollie’s disappearance any too seriously. Once up the hill, he blew on a great horn which he carried. Once, twice, thrice! There was no response. He blew again, then waited. Evidently the young lady was out of earshot.
Then Naki made a mistake. Instead of going into the woods, where Mollie had pursued her will-o’-the-wisp, he turned in the opposite direction. It did not dawn on him that she had been led astray by a forgotten Indian trail.
“You must keep close to me, young ladies,” Naki insisted. “None of ye know your way about up here. If we should separate, I should soon be searching for the whole lot of ye, instead of just one.”
All afternoon they searched and searched for the lost one, yet all in vain.
If Mollie shed no tears while she was lost, Barbara shed plenty in the effort to find her. Poor Grace and Ruth tried vainly to comfort her.
“If only we hadn’t quarreled this morning over that horrid Reginald Latham!” Bab sobbed, running on ahead of the others. “I told Mollie she was foolish to say she hated anyone whom she did not know. Yet I do it all the time myself.”
“Oh, do cheer up, Bab,” said Grace, choking back her own tears. “You didn’t quarrel with Mollie. I never saw two sisters who fussed so little. I know we shall find her soon.”
“There’s nothing up here can harm your sister, Miss,” Naki explained to frightened Bab. “The country around here is perfectly peaceful.”
At dusk Naki and his searching party returned alone to the top of the ravine from whence they had started. Looking down, they could see their log cabin, where Miss Sallie and Ceally stood at the open door. There was no sign of Mollie.
“It is harder work than I expected to find the young lady,” Naki apologized to Ruth. “I am sorry, but you had better go back to your aunt. I must go down to the farm for help. It will take a number of people to make a thorough search of this place to-night. The underbrush is so thick that it is hard work traveling about.”
“Oh, I can’t go home without Mollie!” sobbed Bab. “I am not a bit afraid to stay up here alone. Leave me, Ruth, you and Grace.I’ll just sit at the top of this ravine and call and call! Then, if Mollie comes anywhere near me, she will hear. You and Grace go and have supper with Miss Sallie. You can bring me something to eat afterwards, if you like.” Barbara smiled feebly.
Ruth and Grace both turned on her indignantly. It was a relief to pretend to be offended. “Oh, yes, Bab, we are both delighted to go down and comfortably eat our supper! It is so pleasant to think of your sitting up here alone, like a stone image, and poor little Mollie lost—goodness knows where!”
Ruth kissed Bab for comfort. Then she turned to Grace. “Grace,” she asked, “will you be a perfect dear? I know Naki is right; he must get some one to help him search for Mollie, and one of us must go to Aunt Sallie, who is terribly worried. See! she has already seen us, and is waving her hand. But if you will go tell her what has happened, I shall stay up here with Bab, and Ceally can bring us some dinner. You can come back afterwards. By that time Naki will have returned with assistance and we can go on with our search again.”
“I hate to leave you,” Grace protested, “but I will go.”
“Wait for me,” Naki cautioned. Both girls nodded. They were too tired to speak.