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