Safeonce more in their camp, the children ate the waffles which Nora made nice and crisp again over the fire. Trouble was comforted and made happy by two of the sugar-covered cakes, and then everyone told his or her share in what had just happened.
"So you think there are gold-hunting tramps here?" asked the lollypop man, just before he got ready to go back to the mainland where he had left his red wagon and white horse.
"Well, there are ragged men here—tramps I suppose you could call them," answered Grandpa Martin. "But I don't know anything about gold. That's one of Hal's ideas."
"I couldn't think of anything else they'd be looking for," explained Ted's friend."Don't you think it might be gold, Mr. Martin?"
"Hardly—on this island. Anyhow we haven't seen the ragged men lately, so they may have gone. Perhaps they were only stray fishermen. We would like to thank one for having pulled Trouble out of the spring, only we haven't had the chance."
"No. He ran away without stopping for thanks," said Baby William's mother. "He must be a kind man, even if he is a tramp."
After a little more talk while they were seated about the campfire Grandpa Martin built in front of the tents, during which time the lollypop man told of his travels since he had helped sell the cherries for the chewing candy, Mr. Sander rowed back to the main shore to sleep in his red wagon, which was like a little house on wheels.
"Come again!" invited Mrs. Martin.
"I will when any more goats fall into gold mines," he promised with a laugh.
The next day Grandpa Martin filled up the hole Ted, Jan and Hal had dug, thus making sure that neither Trouble nor anyone else, not even Nicknack the goat, would again fall down into it. For when the sand slid into the "gold mine," carrying the goatwith it, the hole was not altogether filled. Then Grandpa Martin brought away the hoe and shovels, and told the children they must play at some other game.
"Where are you going now?" called Mrs. Martin to the two Curlytops, as they started away from camp one morning. Hal stayed in the tent, as he was tired.
"Oh, we're just going for a walk," answered Teddy.
"We want to have some fun," added his sister.
"Well, don't go digging any more gold mines," warned Grandpa Martin, with a laugh. "All the fun of camping will be spoiled if you get into that sort of trouble again."
"We won't," promised Janet, and Teddy nodded his head to show that he, too, would at least try to be good.
It was not that the Curlytops were bad—that is, any worse than perhaps you children are sometimes, or, perhaps, some boys or girls you know of. They were just playful and full of life, and wanted to be doing something all the while.
"Do you want to take Trouble with you?" asked Mrs. Martin, as Ted and Janet startedaway from camp, and down a woodland path.
"Yes, we'll take him," said Janet. "Come on, little brother," she went on. "Come with sister and have some fun."
"Only I can't play in de dirt 'cause I got on a clean apron," said Baby William.
"No, we won't let you play in the dirt," Teddy remarked. "But don't fall down, either. That's where he gets so dirty," Teddy told his mother. "He's always falling down, Trouble is."
"It—it's so—s'ippery in de woods!" said the little fellow.
"So it is—on the pine needles," laughed Grandpa Martin, who was going to the mainland in the boat. But this time he did not want to take the children with him. "It is slippery in the woods, Trouble, my boy. But keep tight hold of Jan's hand, and maybe you won't fall down."
"Me will," said Trouble, but he did not mean that he would fall down. He meant he would keep tight hold of Jan's hand. Then he started off by her side, with Ted walking on ahead, ready for anything he might see that would make fun for him and his sister.
Through the woods they wandered, now and then stopping to gather some pretty flowers, on graceful, green ferns, and again waiting to listen to the song of some wild bird, which flitted about from branch to branch, but which seemed always to keep out of sight amid the leaves of the forest trees.
"Oh, isn't it just lovely here!" said Janet, as they came to a little grassy dell, around which the trees grew in a sort of circle, or magic, fairy ring. "It's just like in a picture book, Teddy!"
"Yes, it is," agreed her brother.
"I don't see any pisshures," complained Trouble.
"No, there aren'trealpictures here," explained Janet; "only make-believe ones. But you can sit down on the grass and roll, Trouble. The grass is so clean I guess it won't make your apron dirty. Roll on the grass."
Trouble liked nothing better than this, and he was soon sitting on the soft, green grass, pulling bits and tossing them in the air like a shower. The grass was soft and thick, and did not soil his clean clothes at all.
"Exceptin' maybe a little stain," explainedJanet to Teddy; "and Nora can get that out in the wash."
After they had sat in the shade for a while, in the green, grassy place, Ted and Janet wandered off among the trees, leaving Trouble by himself. But they were not going far.
"He'll be all right for a little while," said Teddy, "and maybe we can find some sassafras or wintergreen."
"But we mustn't eat anything we find in the woods, lessen we show it to grandpa or mother," returned Janet.
"No, that's so," agreed her brother. They had been told, as all children should be who live near the woods or fields, never to eat any strange berries or plants unless some older person tells them it is all right to do so.
But Teddy and Janet could easily tell sassafras and wintergreen by the pleasant smell of the leaves. They did not find any, however. They found a bird's empty nest, though, with broken egg shells in it, showing that the little birds had been hatched out and had flown away.
All at once, as the Curlytops were wondering what else they could do, they heardTrouble calling, and his voice sounded very strange.
"Oh, what has happened to him now?" cried Janet.
"We'd better go to see!" exclaimed Teddy.
They ran back to where they had left their little brother. All they could see of him was his back and legs. He did not seem to have any head.
"Oh! Oh!" gasped Janet. "Where is Trouble's head?"
Ted did not know, and said so, and then the little fellow cried:
"Tum an' det me out! Tum an' det me out!"
Then Janet saw what had happened. Trouble had thrust his head between the crotch, or the Y-shaped part, of a tree, and had become so tightly wedged that he could not get out.
"Oh, what shall we do?" cried Janet.
"I'll show you," answered Teddy. "You can help me." Then he pushed on the little boy's head, and Janet pulled, and he was soon free again, a little scratched about the neck, and frightened, but not hurt.
"You must never do such a thing again,"said Mrs. Martin, when the children reached camp and told her what had happened.
"No, we won't do it any more," promised Trouble, feeling of his neck, where he had thrust it between the parts of the tree.
"And you mustn't go off again, and leave him by himself," said their mother to the Curlytops. "There is no telling what he'll do."
"That's right," said Grandpa Martin with a laugh. "You may go away, leaving Trouble standing on his feet, but when you come back he's standing on his head. Oh, you're a great bunch of trouble!" and he caught the little fellow up in his arms and kissed him.
For several days Teddy and Janet and Hal had many good times on Star Island. Then they wanted something new for amusement.
"Let's make a trap and catch something," said Ted, after he and Jan had spoken of several ways of having fun.
"How can you make a trap?" Hal asked.
"I'll show you," offered Ted. "You just take a box, turn it upside down, and raise one end by putting a stick under it. Then you tie a string to the stick, and when youpull the string the stick is yanked out and the box falls down and you catch something."
"What do you catch?" Hal asked.
"Oh, birds, or an animal—maybe a fox or a muskrat—whatever goes under the box when it's raised up."
"But what makes them go under?" Hal inquired.
"To get something to eat. You see you put some bait under the box—some crumbs for birds or pieces of meat for a fox or a muskrat. Then you hide in the bushes, with the end of the string in your hand and when you see anything right under the box you pull it and catch 'em!"
"Oh, but doesn't it hurt them?" asked Hal, who had a very kind heart.
"Maybe it might, Ted," put in Jan.
"No. It doesn't hurt 'em a bit," declared Ted. "They just stay under the box, you know, like in a cage."
"I wouldn't like to catch a bird," said Hal softly. "You see the birds are friends of Princess Blue Eyes. She wouldn't like to have them caught."
"Oh, well, we could let them go again," Ted decided, after a little thought.
"Does Princess Blue Eyes like foxes and muskrats too?" Jan asked softly.
"I guess she likes everything—birds, animals and flowers. Anyway I make-believe she does," and Hal smiled. "Of course she's only a pretend-person, but I like to think she's real. I like to dream of her."
"I would, too," said Janet softly. "We mustn't catch any birds, Ted, nor animals, either."
"Not if we let them go right off quick?" Ted asked.
"No," and Janet shook her head. "It might scare 'em you know. And the box might fall on their legs, or their wings, if it's a bird, and hurt them."
"Well, then, we won't do it!" decided Ted. "I wouldn't want to hurt anything, and I wouldn't want to make your friend, Princess Blue Eyes, feel bad," he added to Hal. He remembered the story Hal had told about the make-believe Princess, when they sat in the green meadow studded with yellow buttercups and white daisies.
"Let's play store!" suggested Jan. "There's lots of pretty stones and shells on the shore, and we can use them for money."
"What'll we sell?" asked Hal.
"Oh, we can sell other stones—big ones—for bread, and sand for sugar and leaves for cookies and things like that," Janet proposed.
"I wish we had something real to eat, and then we could sell that and it would be some good," remarked Ted. "I'm going to ask Nora."
"Oh, that'll be fun!" cried Jan. "Come on, Hal. We'll get the store ready and Ted can go in and ask Nora for some real cookies and maybe a piece of cake."
Nora, good-natured as she always was, gave Ted a nice lot of broken cookies, some crackers and some lumps of sugar so the children could play store and really eat the things they sold. Hal gathered some mussel shells and colored stones on the shore of the lake, and these were money.
The store counter was made by putting a board across two boxes and they took turns being the storekeeper. Trouble wanted to play, too. But he only wanted to buy bits of molasses cookies, and he ate the pieces as fast as he got them, without pretending to go out of the store to take them home.
"Me buy more tookie!" he would say, swallowing the last crumb and hurrying upto the board counter with another "penny," which was a shell or a stone.
"You mustn't eat them up so fast, Trouble," said Janet. "Else we won't have any left to play store with."
"Oh, well, we can get more from Nora," said Ted. "And the cookies taste awful good."
They played store until there were no more good things left to eat and Nora would not hand out any others from her boxes and pans in the kitchen tent. Then the Curlytops and Hal got in the rowboat and paddled about in the shallow cove.
Trouble did not go with them, his mother saying he must have a little sleep so he would not be so cross in the afternoon. And when Jan, her brother and Hal came up from the lake they found the little fellow making what he called a "playhouse."
"Oh, what funny stones Trouble has!" cried Ted as he saw them. "They're blue."
"They're pretty," decided Janet. "Where'd you get them, Trouble?"
"Over dere," and he pointed to a spot some distance from the camp.
"He found them himself and brought them here in his apron," said Mrs. Martin."He's been piling them up into what I called a castle, but he says it's a playhouse. He's been very good playing with the blue stones."
"Let's get some too, and see who can build the biggest castle!" cried Janet. "Show us where you got them, Trouble."
But when Baby William toddled to the place where he had picked up the blue stones there were no more. He had gathered them all, it seemed, and now would not let his brother or sister take any from his pile.
However they found other stones which did as well, though they were not blue in color, and soon the Curlytops and Hal, as well as Trouble, were making a little house of stones.
"This is more fun than playing store!" cried Janet, as she made a little round tower as part of her castle.
"Are you making a palace for Princess Blue Eyes, Hal?" asked Ted.
"Yes," he answered, for his stone castle was rather a large one. "But I can't be sure she'll like it. She doesn't want to stay in one place very long. She's like a firefly—always dancing about."
And so they pretended and played, havinga very good time, while Mother Martin watched them and smiled. The children were having great fun camping with grandpa.
The castles finished—Trouble's being the prettiest because of the blue stones, though not as large or fancy as the others—the Curlytops, Hal and Baby William went on a little picnic in the woods that afternoon, taking Nicknack with them. Or rather, the goat took them, for he pulled them in the cart along the forest path.
When Jan, Hal and Ted were eating breakfast the next morning they heard a cry from Trouble, who had toddled out of the tent as soon as he had finished his meal.
"Oh, what has happened to him now?" exclaimed Mother Martin. "Run and see, Jan, dear, that's a good girl!"
Janet found her little brother at the place where they had made the castles the night before. Trouble's eyes were filled with tears.
"My p'ayhouse all gone!" he cried. "Trouble's house all goned away!"
It was true. Not a trace of his playhouse was left! In the night someone or something had taken the blue stones away.
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Troublefelt very bad about his playhouse of blue stones which had been taken away. He was only a little fellow, and when he had gone to so much work, building up what looked like a fairy castle, he surely thought he would find it where he left it at night to have it to play with the next morning. But it was gone.
"All goned," sobbed Trouble.
"Isn't it funny, though?" said Teddy. "Mine is all right, and so is yours, Jan, and Hal's, too. They just spoiled Trouble's."
"Maybe it was Nicknack," suggested Jan. "He might have got loose in the night and knocked it down. But he didn't mean to I guess, for he's a good goat."
"It couldn't have been Nicknack," declared Hal.
"Why not?" asked Ted. "Didn't he falldown into the big hole when Trouble led him to it?"
"Yes, but Nicknack is there in his stable. He isn't loose at all, and he'd have to be loose to come here and knock over Trouble's playhouse. The goat is tied fast just where he was last night."
So Nicknack was; and Grandpa Martin, who was the first one up in the camp that morning, said the goat was lying quietly down in his stable when he went to give him a drink of water. So it couldn't have been Nicknack.
"Anyhow, Trouble's blue-stone castle wasn't just knocked down," went on Hal, "it's gone—every stone is gone. Somebody took 'em!"
Jan and Ted noticed this for the first time. When Trouble had called out that his playhouse was gone they had thought he meant it was just knocked over. But, instead, it was gone completely. Not a blue stone was left.
And, strangely enough, none of the other three castles was touched. Hal had built quite a large one, but not a stone had been taken from it.
"Where my p'ayhouse?" asked Trouble,looking all about. "I want my p'ayhouse."
"We'll find it for you," promised Jan, though she did not know how she was going to do it. Perhaps Hal could think of a way. Hal was older than Jan and Ted.
"What's the matter, Curlytops?" asked Mother Martin as she came out of the tent. "Has anything happened? Why is Trouble crying? Did he get hurt?"
"No, but someone took away his nice blue stone castle," explained Jan, and she and the others took turns telling what had happened.
"It is queer," said Grandpa Martin, when he came up and heard what had taken place. "I wonder if any of those——"
Then he stopped talking and looked at the children's mother in a queer way. She nodded her head, glanced down at the Curlytops and Hal, and put her finger across her lips as your teacher does in school when she wants someone to stop whispering.
Hal saw what Mrs. Martin did, but neither Jan nor Ted noticed, for they were running around looking for any of the blue stones that might have been scattered from Trouble's playhouse.
"Never mind," said Mother Martin. "I'llfind you something else to play with, Trouble. You shall have a nice ride with Nicknack. You'll take him, won't you, Jan and Ted?"
"Yes," they answered.
"I want my p'ayhouse!" sobbed Baby William, and for a time he made a fuss about his missing blue stones.
"I guess I know what happened to them," said Hal in a whisper to Jan and Ted when their mother had taken Trouble into the tent to find something with which to amuse him.
"What?" asked Ted in a whisper.
"The tramps!" exclaimed Hal, looking over his shoulder to make sure no one but his two little friends heard him. "That's what your grandfather was going to say the time he stopped so quick. Your mother didn't want him to speak of them. But I'm sure the tramps took the blue stones from Trouble's castle."
"What would they do with 'em?" Ted demanded.
"There's gold in 'em!" whispered Hal, more excited than ever now. "There's gold in those blue stones, and the tramps know it. That's what they've been looking for, and when Trouble had 'em all in a nice pilemade into a playhouse, the tramps came along in the night and took 'em away."
"Oh, do you s'pose it could happen that way, really?" asked Jan, her eyes big with wonder.
"Course it could!" said Hal, growing more excited all the while. "I remember now, gold doesn't always look yellow when you find it, the way it does in a watch or a ring. Sometimes gold is inside stones and they have to melt 'em in the fire to get the gold out. My nurse at the Crippled Home read me about it. And there was gold in the blue stones. That's why the tramps came and got 'em—I meanthem," and he corrected himself. "They told me not to say 'em,'" he added with a smile.
"Do you really think the blue stones had gold in 'em—them?" asked Ted.
"Yes, I do! Else why would the tramps want them? They came last night and took Trouble's castle—every stone, and now they've hid the gold away."
"Where?" asked Jan, as excited as the boys.
"I think it must be up in the cave," went on Hal. "If we could only go there and look we could find it too. Let's go."
"Maybe mother wouldn't let us," suggested Ted.
"We don't have to tell her," said Jan.
"I don't mean to do anything bad, nor have you," went on Hal. "But wouldn't it be great if we could go up to the cave, without anybody knowing it, and get the gold? Then your mother would be glad, and your grandpa, too."
"Maybe they would—if there was gold in the blue stones," agreed Ted.
"We could pretend there was," said Janet. "Wouldn't that be fun? But I don't want to go into that dark cave 'cept maybe grandpa goes, too, with a light."
"You wouldn't be afraid with us, would you?" asked Hal.
"Hal and I would be with you," added Ted.
"Well, maybe I wouldn't be afraid if you took hold of my hands. But it's dark there—awful dark."
"I've got one of those little electric lights," Hal said. "My father sent it to me for my birthday when I was in the Home, and I didn't use it hardly at all, 'cause I wasn't up nights. It flashes bright. I brought it with me when I came to visit you,and I can get it and take it to the cave with us."
"That'll be fun!" cried Ted. "Let's go, Jan!" he pleaded.
"Well, maybe I will. But hadn't we better ask mother?"
"Maybe she'd say we couldn't," suggested her brother, speaking very slowly. "We'll tell her when we come back."
Of course this was not just the right thing to do, especially after Ted and his sister had been told not to go to the cave alone. But they forgot all about that when Hal spoke about gold being in the blue stones. Ted and Jan thought it would be wonderful if they could get some gold for their mother and grandfather, who was not as rich as he had been, even if he did sell a lot of cherries.
"We can't take Trouble along," said Jan, as she saw her little brother coming out of the tent. "We've got to leave him here."
"Yes," agreed Hal. "But we don't need to go right away. We can play with him awhile. You and Ted take care of Trouble and I'll go to get my flashlight. I put it under my pillow last night."
"And I'll get something to eat from Nora," added Ted. "We'll make-believewe're going on a little picnic in the woods."
"Oh, that'll be fun!" cried Jan. She was not afraid to think of the dark cave now.
"Trouble want p'ayhouse!" cried Baby William, as he toddled up to his sister. "Want b'ue stones."
"I can't get you the blue stones—not now," said Janet. "But I guess Teddy will let you knock down his playhouse and build up another one. And you can knock down my playhouse, too. Come on, Trouble!"
Knocking over the playhouses of stone which his brother and sister had built the night before seemed such great fun to the little boy, and he had such a good time doing this and, with Jan's help, making another and larger house of his own, that he forgot all about his blue stones.
Ted and Hal did not forget them, though, and the more they thought of the queer way they had been taken away in the night, the more they felt sure that the stones must have gold in them, or, at least, something that the tramps wanted badly enough to come and take it.
And that it was the tramps, or some man, or men, who had taken the blue stones, Hal and Ted felt certain.
"For no dog or other animal could carry away every stone," said Hal. "Anyhow a dog wouldn't want them, nor a fox either. It was the tramps all right."
"Maybe they wouldn't like us to go to the cave and get the stones back," suggested Ted.
"Well, the tramps can't have the blue stones," said Hal, shaking his head. "We found 'em, and they're Trouble's. But he's so little he don't want any gold, so we'll give it to your grandfather and grandmother."
"Don't you want any?" asked Ted.
"No. My father's got lots of money. I just want to find some gold for you. I got my light from under my pillow," and Hal showed it to Ted. They were out behind the sleeping tent talking, and Ted had his pockets full of cookies and little cakes he had begged from Nora.
"Though what in the world the child is going to do with them all, is more than I can guess," laughed the maid. "But I s'pose the children are always hungry."
Ted and Hal were now ready to go to the cave. They looked around the corner of the tent and saw Janet still playing with Trouble. He had gotten over crying for his bluestones, and was now busy making a playhouse of the rocks and pebbles his brother and sister had used.
"Come on, Janet! We're going!" called Ted in a loud whisper, as his sister looked at him. He also made motions with his hands to show that he and Hal were ready to start for the cave.
Janet saw that her little brother was too busy playing to need her to stay with him—at least for a time. Still she could not leave him alone without calling her mother or Nora to watch what he did.
Very quietly, while Baby William was trying to make one stone stay on top of another in one side of the castle he was making, Janet stepped up to the flap of the tent, inside which her mother was sitting sewing.
"I'm going with Ted and Hal into the woods," said the little girl. "Will you watch Trouble, Mother?"
"Yes, Janet. But be careful, and don't go too far."
Janet did not answer but hurried away. Of course she did not do just right, for she knew her mother would not want her to go to the cave, nor would Mrs. Martin have let Ted and Hal go had she known it. But theCurlytops and Hal were very desirous of finding the blue stones and of seeing if there was any gold in them, and they did not stop to think of what was right and what was wrong.
"Hurry up now!" exclaimed Hal as he went on ahead up the path that led from behind the tents to the queer cave. "We want to get there before anybody knows it."
"What'll we do if the tramps are there?" asked Ted.
"They won't be there," said Hal, though how he could tell that he did not say.
"I've got a little hatchet and we can cut down some clubs," said Ted. He had brought with him a little Boy Scout hatchet, with a covering over the sharp blade. His grandfather had given it to Ted, but had told him never to take it out alone. But Ted did, and this was another wrong thing.
I'm afraid if I speak of all the wrong things the Curlytops did that day I'd never finish with this story. But it wasn't often they did so many acts they ought not to have done.
On they hurried through the woods, the boys hurrying ahead of Janet. She did her best to keep up with them, but her legs wereshorter than Ted's or Hal's and it was hard work for the little girl.
"Oh, wait for me!" she called at last. "I'm awful tired."
"Hurry up!" begged Ted. "We want to get the blue stones before the tramps take 'em away!"
"Are they going to?" asked Janet, sitting down on a stone to rest, after she had caught up to the boys.
"Well, they might," answered Hal. "We've got to hurry."
They went on again, walking a little more slowly this time, and when they came to a muddy puddle in the middle of the woodland path, Ted tried to jump over it. But he slipped on the edge and one leg, from his foot to above his knee, got very wet and muddy.
"Oh, wow!" he cried. "Now I've got to stop and clean this off."
He began to wipe off the worst of the mud on bunches of grass, while Janet sat down on a log near by.
"I'm sorry you fell in the mud, Teddy," she said, "but I'm glad I can rest, for I'm awful tired. You go so fast!"
HAL WALKED BOLDLY INTO THE DARK CAVE.Page224
"Come on, hurry up!" called Hal, as Ted still brushed away with the bunch of grass. "Let it dry and it will come off easier."
"I guess it will," agreed Ted, looking at his muddy stocking. "It won't come off this way."
However, the accident had given his sister a little chance to rest, and now Janet was able to keep up with the boys. Pretty soon they were near the hole into which Ted had fallen, and out of which the cave opened.
"Now be careful!" whispered Hal, as he got out his flashlight. "Maybe the tramps are there!"
"I've got my hatchet!" exclaimed Ted.
"I'm not going in if the tramps are there," declared Janet.
"We'll look first, and see," offered Hal.
"But I don't want to stay here alone!" objected Janet, as her brother and Hal slid down into the hole and looked into the black opening of the cave.
"We won't go very far," promised Ted. "We'll be back in a minute. Don't be afraid."
Then he and Hal went into the cave, while Jan, half wanting to cry, waited outside.
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Flashinghis light about,Hal walked boldly into the dark cave. Ted followed, just a little bit afraid, though he did not want to say so.
"Don't go too far," begged Janet's brother. "Jan'll be afraid if we leave her alone."
"I won't go far," promised Hal. "I just want to see if there're any tramps in here."
"Listen an' maybe you can hear them talking," suggested Ted.
Hal, though larger and older than Ted, was not quite brave enough to go very far into the dark cave, even if he did have his light with him. So, after taking a few steps, he stopped and listened. So did Ted.
They could hear nothing but the voice of Janet calling to them from outside.
"Ted! Hal!" cried the little girl."Where are you? I'm going back to camp!"
"We're coming!" answered Ted. "Come on back and get her," he added to his chum. "Then we'll look for the blue rocks."
"I guess we can't find them unless they're right around here," returned Hal, as he moved his light about in a circle.
"Why not?" asked Ted.
"Because this cave is so dark, and my flashlamp doesn't give much light. We could hardly see the stones if they were here."
"Then how are we going to get 'em?" Ted demanded.
"I guess we'll have to bring a big lantern. Maybe we ought to bring your grandfather along."
"I guess we had better," agreed Ted. "But we can look a little bit when we're here. Let's go for Janet. She's crying."
Janet was crying by this time, not liking to be left alone outside while the boys were in the cave. They ran back to her and her tears were soon dried.
"Will you come in a little way with us?" asked her brother. "There isn't anything to be afraid of. Is there, Hal?"
"No, not a thing. We won't go in veryfar, Jan. And maybe you can see the blue stones. We couldn't, but sometimes girls' eyes are better than boys. Come on!"
So with Hal holding a hand on one side, and Ted on the other, Janet went slowly into the cave with her brother and his chum. Hal flashed his light, and by its gleam the Curlytops could see that the cave was large, larger even than it had seemed when they were in it with their grandfather.
"Look on the floor for the rocks," suggested Hal. "That's where the tramp-man would put 'em if he brought 'em here."
But they did not see the blue rocks, nor any others. The floor of the cave seemed to be of stone or hard clay, and there was nothing on it. They did not go in far enough to see the sacks which Grandpa Martin said someone had used for a bed, nor did the children see the bread and other bits of food which might have meant that someone had had a picnic in the cave.
"I guess the rocks aren't here," said Hal, in disappointed tones as Janet said she wanted to turn back, for she did not like it in the cave. "Or else maybe they're away at the far end."
"I'm not going there!" exclaimed Ted.
"No, I guess we won't go," agreed Hal. "We'll go and tell your grandfather and have him come with a big lantern."
"Hark! What's that?" suddenly called Jan, taking a tighter hold of her brother's hand.
From the back part of the cave came a noise. It was as though a rock had fallen—probably it had—from the roof of the cavern.
"Someone's throwing stones at us!" cried Ted.
"Who? Who? Who?" a voice seemed to ask.
"Oh, dear! We don't know who it was!" cried Janet. "Come on out of here! I'm afraid!"
"That was only an owl," said Hal with a laugh. "Owls live in dark caves in the daytime and when it's dark they hoot and call 'who!' I've heard 'em lots of times around the Home."
"There isn't any cave at the Home," objected Ted, who was as frightened as Janet was.
"No, but there were owls in the trees. I heard 'em lots of times. But we'll go out. I guess maybe that was a loose stone that felldown and made the first noise. But we don't want any to fall on our heads. Come on!" called Hal.
Together he and Ted led Janet back to the mouth of the cave, where they could see the sunshine. And even Hal, who was not so frightened as the Curlytops had been, was glad to get out.
"It's too bad we couldn't find the blue gold-stones," he said. "But maybe the tramps didn't hide them there, anyhow. We'll look around some more."
"Let's eat," suggested Ted. "I'm hungry, and I've got a lot of cookies in my pockets."
So they sat down on a stone in a shady place not far from the cave and ate the things Nora had given Ted. They then got a drink from a bubbling spring not far away, and pretended they were on a picnic.
Ted's muddy stocking had dried by this time, and he and Jan, using sticks, scraped most of the dirt off.
"Now we'd better be going home," Jan suggested after a bit. "There isn't any fun here."
"Yes, we might as well go," agreed Hal. "And I'll tell you what let's do!"
"What?" demanded Ted.
"Let's look in the place where Trouble found those blue stones and see if we can find any more."
"Oh, yes, let's!" cried Janet. She was happy again, now that she was out in the bright sunshine.
The children remembered where Baby William had found the pretty rocks from which he had made his castle, but when they reached the place not a one was to be had, though they searched all about.
"I guess Trouble took them all," said Janet. "I remember now, I helped him look for more and we couldn't find any."
"Well, maybe there'll be some more somewhere else," suggested Hal hopefully. "Let's look."
So they looked, wandering about in the woods not far from camp, until they heard Nora ringing the bell for dinner.
"Well, where have you children been?" asked Mrs. Martin as they came trooping up to the tent, tired, hungry and dirty.
"Oh, we've been looking for gold," explained Ted, but he did not say they had visited the cave, where they had been told not to go.
"You didn't dig any more deep holes, did you?" asked his grandfather.
"No, sir," answered Ted.
After dinner Ted asked Hal why he didn't speak of having Grandpa Martin go to the cave with the big lantern.
"I thought you were going to do that," he said to Hal.
"Well, I was. But maybe we can find some more of the blue stones for ourselves. We'll look around before we ask your grandpa to help."
Janet wanted to stay around camp and play with her dolls that afternoon, and she took care of Trouble.
"Then we'll go for a goat ride," said Ted. "Come on, Hal."
The two boys hitched Nicknack to the wagon, and set off down the island.
"We'll look for some more blue rocks," suggested Hal, and Ted was willing.
On and on the two boys rode, now stopping to look at some pretty flower, again waiting to hear the finish of some bird's song. They looked on both sides of the woodland path for some of the blue rocks, but, though they saw some of other colors, there were none like those they wanted.
"Whoa there, where are you going now?" Ted suddenly called to Nicknack, and the little boy pulled on the reins by which he guided the goat—or "steered" it, as he sometimes called it.
"What's the matter?" asked Hal.
"Nicknack wants to go over that way and I want him to go straight ahead," answered Ted.
"Maybe he sees some of those blue rocks the way he wants to go," suggested Hal.
"Oh, I don't guess so," replied his chum. "I guess he just wants to get some new kind of grass to eat. Whoa, Nicknack, I tell you!" and Teddy pulled as hard as he could on the reins, without hurting his goat, for he never wanted to do that.
But the goat would not go straight down the island path. He kept pulling off to one side, and at last Ted cried:
"Here, Hal, you take hold of the lines and pull with me. Maybe we can steer him around then."
"Can we pull real hard—I mean will the lines break?" asked Hal.
"Oh, no, they're good and strong," answered Ted.
So he and his chum both pulled on the onerein—the one to get Nicknack's head pointed straight down the path instead of off to one side, but it did no good. The goat knew what he wanted to do, and he was going to do it.
"Look out!" suddenly cried Teddy. "We're going to tip over!"
The next minute the front wheels of the wagon ran up on a little pile of dirt at one side of the path, and the cart gently tilted to one side and then went over with a rattle and a bang.
"There!" laughed Hal, as he rolled out on some soft grass. "We are over, Ted."
"I knew we were going," said Teddy as he, too, laughed and got up. "Whoa there, Nicknack!" he shouted, for the goat was still going on, dragging the overturned wagon after him.
But Nicknack did not stop until he reached a little bush, on which were some green leaves that he seemed to like very much, for he began to chew them.
"That's what he wanted all the while," said Teddy.
"Well, let him eat all he wants, and then he won't be hungry any more and he'll pull us where we want to go," advised Hal.
They did this, after setting the cart up onits wheels. When Nicknack turned away from the bush, and looked at the two waiting boys, Ted said:
"Well, I guess we can go on now."
"Yes," added Hal, "and I hope well find those blue rocks. But I don't believe we're ever going to."
At last, however, when it was getting rather late in the afternoon and Ted had said it was time to go back, Hal, who was driving the goat through a part of the woods they never before had visited, pointed to a big stone buried in the side of a hill and cried:
"Look! Isn't that rock blue, Ted?"
"It does look kind of blue, yes."
"Then it's just what we're looking for. See, there's lots of little blue rocks, too. Let's take some back to camp. Maybe they're the same kind Trouble had, and there may be gold in 'em! Come on."
They piled the rocks, which were certainly somewhat blue in color, into the wagon, and started back with them.
"We found 'em! We found 'em!" they called as they came within sight of the tents. "We got the blue rocks!"
"Well, they're pretty, certainly," saidGrandpa Martin, as he picked up one from the wagon, "but they're no better than any other rocks around here, as far as I can see."
"They've got gold in 'em, Hal says," Ted stated.
"Gold? Oh, no, Curlytop!" laughed his grandfather. "I've told you there is no gold on this island."
"There'ssomethingin the blue rocks," declared Hal. "Feel how heavy they are—lots heavier than any other stones around here."
"Yes, they are," agreed Grandpa Martin, as he weighed one of the stones in his hand. "There might be some iron in them, but not gold. Look out!" he suddenly called as the stone slipped from his hand. "Look out for your toes!"
Laughing, the Curlytops and Hal jumped back. The blue stone which Grandpa Martin dropped, struck on the edge of the shovel which was out in front of the tent. As the rock hit the steel tool with a clang, something queer happened.
At once the rock began to burn with a curious blue flame, and a yellowish smoke curled up.
"Oh, the rock's on fire!" cried Janet. "The rock's on fire!"
"Yes, and look!" added Ted. "It's burning blue, just like the light we saw on the island one night."
"And how queer it smells!" exclaimed Hal.
"Sulphur!" ejaculated Grandpa Martin.
He and the children looked at the queer blue fire that seemed to come from inside the rock. What could it mean?
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Grandpa Martinstood looking down at the queer, burning rock. The blue fire was flaming up brighter now, and it made a strange light on the faces of the Curlytops and Hal as they gathered about. The sky was cloudy and it was getting dark.
"Oh, what is it? What is it?" asked Ted and Jan.
"It smells just like old-fashioned sulphur matches that my grandmother used to light," said Nora, who had come out, having seen the queer light from the cook-tent.
"And itissulphur that is burning," said Grandpa Martin. "That rock has sulphur in it, not gold, Hal. And it is the sulphur that is burning with the blue fire."
"But what makes it?" asked the children.
Grandpa Martin did not answer for a few seconds. He stood again looking down atthe flaming blue rock. Mrs. Martin, who had started to put Trouble to bed early, came out and looked.
"It's like something I once saw in the theater," said the maid. "I don't like it—that blue light. It reminds me of the time our house was struck by lightning—that sulphur smell."
"It is the same smell," said Mr. Martin. "Curlytops, I think you have found something very queer in this blue rock. I don't know just what it is, but we'll find out. See, the stone is burning like a lump of coal now, but with a blue flame instead of red."
"Just like the night we saw the blue fire on the island before we came camping here," said Ted. "Is it the same thing, Grandpa?"
"I don't know. Perhaps it is. Where did you get the blue rocks?"
"Over in the woods," answered Hal. "There's a great big one there. As big as this tent."
"Is there?" some one suddenly asked. "Then please show me where it is! Oh, can it be that at last I have found what I have been looking for so long?"
The Curlytops and the others turned at the sound of this new and strange voice. Aman seemed to spring out of the bushes back of the tent. By the light of the blue fire Ted and Jan saw that his clothes were ragged and torn in many places.
"Oh! Oh!" gasped Jan. "That's the tramp!"
"Well, I guess maybe I do look like a tramp, all ragged and dirty as I am," laughed the man, and his voice sounded pleasant. "But I am not a regular tramp. I am Mr. Weston—Alfred Weston," he went on, speaking to Grandpa Martin. "I haven't a card with me, but when I get washed and dressed and shaved I'll look more like what I am. Excuse me for intruding this way, but I could not keep from speaking when I heard what you were talking about."
"Then aren't you a tramp?" asked Ted.
"No, though I have beentrampingall over this island looking for the very blue rock you children seem to have found. I wear my oldest clothes, just as my friend Professor Anderson does, for we have been going through briar bushes, into caves and mud holes and our clothes are a sad sight. But we are not tramps."
"Is there someone with you?" askedGrandpa Martin, looking over the man's head toward the bushes, out of which he had come.
"There was another. Anderson is his name. But he has gone to the village, and I was on my way to row across the lake to join him when I happened to pass by your tent, saw the blue light, and heard what your children said. Do you really know where there is a big blue rock like this little one that is on fire?" he asked as he pointed to the flaming blue light.
"Yes, we found a big one," said Hal.
"If you will show me where it is you will get a lot of money," said Mr. Weston. "That is, if you will sell me the meteor," he went on to Grandpa Martin. "I understand you own part of this island," he added.
"About half of it, yes. But are you looking for a meteor?"
"Yes, for a meteor, or fallen star, and the blue rock your children found is part of it. We have been looking for it a long time, my friend and myself, and we had about given up. Now we may get it. Will you sell me the fallen star?" he asked.
"I'll see about it," promised Mr. Martin with a smile. "Perhaps you will come intoour tent and tell us about it. Are you—well, I was going to say the tramp—but are you the man we saw before, wandering about our camp?"
"I presume I am. I don't mind being called a tramp, for I certainly look like one. However, now that the fallen star is found I don't need to be so ragged."
"Are you the ragged man that pulled Trouble out of the spring?" asked Ted, as they watched the blue light die away.
"I did pull a little boy out of the spring," answered Mr. Weston, "though I didn't know his name was Trouble."
"That's only his pet name," laughed Grandpa Martin. "But come and sit down and tell us your story. The children have been wondering a long while what the blue light meant, and who the ragged man was. And, to-day, they've been trying to find what became of the blue rocks that Trouble made into a playhouse."
"I took those rocks, I'm sorry to say," answered the ragged man. "I'm sorry to have spoiled Trouble's playhouse. I wanted those pieces of rock, for I thought perhaps they were all I would ever be able to get of the fallen star."
"Was the blue rock really once a star?" asked Hal.
"Well, yes, a part of one, or at least part of a meteor, or shooting star, as they are called. Now I'll tell you all that happened, and I'm sorry if I have frightened you. My friend and I didn't mean to.
"Some time ago," went on Mr. Weston, "we heard about Star Island—this place that was so named because it was said a big meteor had landed here many years back. Professor Anderson and I decided to come here and see if we could find it for the museum which is connected with the college in which Anderson teaches.
"For we knew that, though most meteors are burned up as they shoot through the air before they strike the earth, yet some come down in big chunks, and we wanted such a one if we could get it. So we hunted for it all over this island. We saw you, but you were never very near. Sometimes we stayed in the cave at night, but usually went back to the mainland. All the while we were hunting for the blue rocks, for that is the color of this particular meteor.
"A few nights before you folks came here to camp, when we were digging in theground hoping to find what we wanted, our shovel must have struck a piece of the meteor, for there was a flash of blue fire that burned for quite a while."
"We saw it," cried Ted, "and we didn't know what it was!"
"Teddy and me—we saw it!" added Jan.
"Well, that was all of the meteor we could find for some time," went on Mr. Weston. "And as that burned up—was consumed—we didn't have any. Then, the other night through the bushes we happened to come upon some blue stones, and I took them away.
"Then my friend and I hunted again to find the big piece of the fallen star, but we could not come across it. I was about to give up, but now we are all right. I am so glad! Can you take me to the big blue rock?"
"We will to-morrow," answered Hal. "It's too dark to find it now."
"You had better stay in our camp until morning," was Grandpa Martin's kindly invitation, and Mr. Weston did so.
"This meteor is a good bit like a sulphur match," said Mr. Weston. "When anything hard, like iron or steel, strikes it, blue firestarts and burns up the rock. The big piece will be very valuable.
"But we'll have to be careful not to set it ablaze. We picked up a lot of different rocks on the island, hoping some of them might be pieces of the meteor. But none was. Once I saw your little girl picking flowers, as I was gathering rocks. I guess she thought I was a tramp. Did I scare you?" he asked Janet.
"A little," she answered with a smile.
"Sometimes we stayed in a cave we found on the island," went on Mr. Weston. "I thought once the meteor might be there, but it was not."
The next day Ted, Janet and Hal, followed by all the others in camp, even down to Trouble, whose mother carried him, went to the place where the big blue rock was buried in the side of the hill. As soon as he had looked at it Mr. Weston said it was the very meteor for which he and Professor Anderson had been looking so long. They seemed to have missed coming to the hill.
The museum directors bought the fallen star from Grandpa Martin, on whose part of the island it had fallen many years before, and so the owner of Cherry Farm hadas much money as before the flood spoiled so many of his crops.
Thus the story of the fallen star, after which the island was named, was true, you see, though it had happened so many years ago that most folk had forgotten about it.
A few days after Mr. Weston had been led to the queer blue rock, he and Professor Anderson, no longer dressed like tramps, brought some men to the island and the big rock was carefully dug out with wooden shovels, as the wood was soft and could not strike sparks and make blue fire.
"For a time," said Mr. Weston to Grandpa Martin, after the meteor had been taken to the mainland in a big boat, "I thought you were a scientist."
"Me—a scientist!" laughed the children's grandfather.
"Yes. I thought maybe you had heard about the fallen star and had come here and were trying to find it, too."
"No, I haven't any use for fallen stars," said Mr. Martin. "I had heard the story about one being on this island, but I never quite believed it. I just came here to give the children a good time camping."
"Well, I think they had it—every one ofthem," laughed Mr. Weston, as he looked at the brown Curlytops, who were tanned like Indians.
"Oh, we've had the loveliest time in the world!" cried Jan, as she held her grandfather's hand. "We're going to stay here a long while yet. Aren't we, Grandpa?"
"Well, I'm afraid not much longer," said Grandpa Martin. "The days are getting shorter and the nights longer. It will soon be too cold to live in a tent on Star Island."
"Oh, Grandpa!" And Jan looked sad.
"But we want to have fun!" cried Ted.
"Oh, I guess you'll have fun," said his mother. "You always do every winter."
And the children did. In the next volume of this series, to be called "The Curlytops Snowed In; or, Grand Fun with Skates and Sleds," you may read about the good times they had when they went back home.
"Come on, Jan, we'll have a last ride with Nicknack!" called Ted to his sister about a week after the meteor had been dug up. In a few days the Curlytops were to leave their camp on Star Island. Hal Chester had gone back to his home, promising to visit his friends again some day.
"I'm coming!" cried Jan.
"Me, too!" added Trouble. "I wants a wide!"
Into the goat cart they piled and off started Nicknack, waggling his funny, stubby tail, for he enjoyed the children as much as they did him.
"Hurray!" yelled Ted. "Isn't this fun?" and he cracked the whip in the air.
"Hurray!" yelled Jan and Trouble.
"Baa-a-a-a!" bleated Nicknack. That was his way of cheering.
And so we will leave the Curlytops and say good-bye.
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