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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/8211-8.txt b/8211-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8f49dab --- /dev/null +++ b/8211-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5481 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Outdoor Girls at Wild Rose Lodge, by Laura Lee Hope + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Outdoor Girls at Wild Rose Lodge + or, The Hermit of Moonlight Falls + +Author: Laura Lee Hope + +Posting Date: September 26, 2012 [EBook #8211] +Release Date: June, 2005 +First Posted: July 2, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OUTDOOR GIRLS AT WILD ROSE LODGE *** + + + + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + + + + + +The Outdoor Girls +at +Wild Rose Lodge +or +The Hermit of Moonlight Falls + +by +Laura Lee Hope + +Author of "The Outdoor Girls of Deepdale," "The +Outdoor Girls at Bluff Point," "The Moving +Picture Girls," "The Bobbsey Twins," +"Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue," +"Six Little Bunkers at Grandma +Bell's," Etc. + + + + +Contents + + + + I Just Fun. + II The Falling Tree. + III The Queer Little Man. + IV Good News. + V Betty Takes a Dare. + VI Nearly Wrecked. + VII Bad Tidings Confirmed. + VIII Premonitions. + IX A Visitor. + X Hurrah for Allen. + XI The Hold-Up. + XII Sheep! + XIII The Enemy Routed. + XIV Nothing Human. + XV Wild Roses. + XVI The Whirlpool. + XVII The "Thing". +XVIII Surprised. + XIX Like Old Times. + XX Very Much Alive. + XXI Out of the Dark. + XXII Tragedy. +XXIII A Moonlight Apparition. + XXIV Recovered. + XXV The Old Crowd Again. + + + + + +The Outdoor Girls at Wild Rose Lodge + + + + +Chapter I + +Just Fun + + +"Did you ever see a more wonderful day?" + +The four Outdoor Girls, in Mollie Billette's touring car and with Mollie +herself at the wheel, were at the present moment rushing wildly over a +dusty country road at the rate of thirty miles an hour. + +Grace Ford was sitting in front with Mollie, while Betty Nelson and Amy +Blackford "sprawled," to use Mollie's sarcastic and slightly exaggerated +description, "all over the tonneau." + +"You look as if you had never done a real day's work in your life," said +Mollie, with a disapproving glance over her shoulder at the girls in the +tonneau. + +"We never have," returned quiet Amy, with a grin. + +"And we are proud of it," added Betty, as she defiantly settled her feet +still more comfortably on the foot rail. "Why should we be energetic when +it is so much easier to be lazy?" + +"There the proper spirit speaks," applauded Grace Ford from the front. "I +think I shall have to change places with you, Betty. It's far too exciting +up here with Mollie. She insists upon staging near collisions every few +feet--thus keeping me awake!" + +"Great heavens!" cried Mollie, pressing an impatient foot upon the +accelerator to which the great car responded with an eager purring, "did +any one ever give us the mistaken title of Outdoor Girls, I wonder? They +should have called us the Rip Van Winkle club, instead." + +"Now she's getting sour-castic," commented Grace lazily. "Have some candy, +honey, and sweeten up." + +She passed the ever-present box of delicacies over to Mollie, to which +overture the young driver responded with so indignant a stare that Grace +quickly withdrew the box, tucked it behind her, and strove to look +unconscious. + +"Please, ma'am, I didn't mean to do it," she said meekly. + +"Well, don't do it again, that's all," returned Mollie, uncompromisingly, +her eyes once more on the road ahead, "I've eaten so many chocolates this +week that I've had indigestion and mother threatened to cut down my +allowance." + +"Goodness, it's my allowance that suffers," retorted Grace, ruefully, +"since it is my candy that you eat." + +"Stop quarreling, girls, and answer my question." said Betty, sitting up +straight and regarding delightedly a vista of flying hills and woodland +greenery. "I asked you a few minutes ago if you had ever seen so wonderful +a day?" + +"Yes, plenty of 'em," returned Mollie, as she took a sharp curve on two +wheels. "If you weren't too lazy to notice anything, Betty Nelson, you +would see that there is a storm coming up. Look at those clouds over there +in the east." + +"Oh, you're a kill-joy!" cried Betty, cocking an optimistic eye up at the +sky. "It's only one teeny little cloud anyway, and who cares for clouds +when the boys are coming home?" + +Both Amy and Grace felt a breathless little tug at their hearts at the +joyful challenge in Betty's words, but Mollie, with a perverseness that +was sometimes characteristic of her, refused to be too happy. + +"Who says they're coming home?" she asked. "Now you're only guessing." + +"Guessing!" cried Betty indignantly. "What do you mean--guessing? The war +is over, isn't it?" + +"Yes; and has been for quite a while," Mollie responded dryly. "But that +doesn't say that the boys are coming home right away." + +"We don't care about the right away," interrupted Amy, with a quiet +happiness in her face that made Betty hug her impulsively. "We can wait +patiently, now that we know they are safe." + +"It's all right for you to talk about patience, Amy," retorted Mollie, +throttling her engine and sliding at breakneck speed down a long hill +without the thought of using a brake. A brake to Mollie meant something to +be used at the last minute when she couldn't think of anything else to do. +"You're an angel, but I'm not----" + +"No, indeed!" said Grace, so emphatically that the girls in the tonneau +chuckled and Mollie looked at her threateningly. + +"For goodness' sake, don't waste time looking at me," Grace pleaded, as +they bounced into a hole in the road and out again, fairly jouncing the +breath from the girls' bodies. "Keep your eyes on the road, Mollie dear. +We're not ready to die yet." + +"Well, look out, or you may--ready or not," threatened Mollie darkly, as +the car skidded around another precipitous turn and the girls saw with +relief a long stretch of flat road before them. + +"Just the same the boys must be coming home before very long," said Amy, +quietly returning to the subject. "And when they do come we'll have to +give them some sort of big party or something, girls." + +"Of course we will," said Grace, munching contentedly on a chocolate. +"Something that will make the people in Deepdale sit up and take notice." + +"We-el--I don't know," objected Betty thoughtfully. "They say that the few +soldier boys who have come home object to any sort of fuss being made over +them. They seem to want to forget everything that has happened 'over +there,' and any sort of celebration brings the whole thing vividly before +them again." + +"Yes, that's true, too," Mollie agreed. "I remember our doctor telling +mother that if people only wouldn't try to force confidences from the boys +and would try to keep all thought of the awful things they had been +through out of their minds, there would be fewer cases of nervous +breakdowns." + +"Pop!" said Grace, snapping her finger resignedly. "There go all our hopes +of a good time, Amy. When the boys come home all we shall be allowed to do +will be to smooth their fevered brows and hold their hands." + +"Well, we might do worse things even than that," said Betty, with a light +laugh, and Mollie shot her a malicious glance. + +"Just watch Betty objecting to that" she said wickedly. "Before we know it +she will be sighing that Allen has only one fevered brow to smooth!" + +Amy and Grace looked at Betty mischievously--at Betty who could not for +the life of her look as unconcerned as she would have liked. + +"Don't be so foolish" she said hastily, at which the girls only laughed +the more. + +"Never mind, honey," said Amy, putting an arm fondly about her chum. "I +guess we will all be crazy with joy to get the boys home again." + +"Well, you needn't think you can hold hands with Will and smooth his +fevered brow all the time," said Grace unexpectedly. "Because I really +have some share in him myself, you know. Remember, mine was one of the +three pictures he kept under his pillow." + +Readers of previous volumes in this series may recall that joyful letter +written to Betty not so long ago in which Sergeant Allen Washburn--now +Lieutenant Allen Washburn--had spoken of the three pictures which Will +Ford had kept under his pillow during his long convalescence in one of the +army hospitals over there. These readers may also remember that one of the +pictures was of the boy's mother, another of his sister, Grace, and the +third of shy little Amy Blackford, who now was blushing so furiously at +the mere mention of it. + +"How about poor Frank and Roy?" asked Mollie, mentioning the other two +boys who made up the quartette of the girls' boy chums. "Who will attend +to their fevered brows?" + +"Oh, you and Grace can take turns at that," said Betty, lightly adding, +with a little sigh: "Try as we can, Amy and I never know quite how to pair +you four off. We can't for the life of us find out which of you likes +Frank best and which inclines to Roy." + +"That's right, kid--keep 'em guessing," said Mollie slangily, as she +turned on power and challenged a steep grade. "Grace and I believe in +scattering our favors--as 'twere. See that hill just ahead of us? What do +you bet I make it without changing gears?" + +"If you make it without changing our looks, I'll be happy," said Grace +ruefully, as they bumped and rumbled to the top of the steep grade. "Look +out, Mollie!" she added suddenly, indicating a big pile of brushwood that +jutted out almost into the center of the road. "For goodness' sake, slow +down!" + +But Mollie did more than slow down. She stopped--and with such suddenness +that the girls were all but thrown out of the car and Betty bumped her +nose on the seat in front. + +They had scarcely regained their poise when they were startled by a shrill +cry from Amy. + +"Girls!" she almost screamed, clutching Betty's arm in a grip that hurt, +"look at that tree. It's going to fall! Oh, we'll be killed!" + +The girls followed the direction of her pointing finger and looks of +horror sprang to their eyes. Slowly, its descent retarded somewhat by the +branches of other trees, a towering giant of the forest tottered and +crashed its destructive way downward. And they were directly in its path! + + + + +Chapter II + +The Falling Tree + + +For a moment the Outdoor Girls sat fascinated, paralyzed, without the +power to move a muscle. Then suddenly Grace seemed galvanized to action. +She leaned toward Mollie, grasping the steering wheel of the motionless +car frantically. + +"For heaven's sake, Mollie, get out of the way! Start the car!" she +screamed. + +"I can't!" Mollie answered, tight-lipped. "Something's wrong. The motor's +dead." + +But with Grace's scream, Betty had come to her senses and had scrambled +out of the car, dragging the still paralyzed Amy after her. + +"Grace, get out! Mollie, are you crazy?" she shouted wildly. "You'll be +killed--" + +Automatically Grace started to clamber to the road, but Mollie still +fussed with brakes and levers, her lips in a tight line, her eyes blazing. + +"Something's wrong--but I'll get her started," she muttered over and over +to herself while Betty raged at her from the road. + +"Get out! get out!" fumed the Little Captain. "Jump, or I'll come after +you and we'll both be killed. Mollie!" + +Luckily for Mollie's suicidal stubbornness, the great tree had been halted +for a moment in its downward plunge by some particularly heavy foliage and +branches, but the girls could see that it was only a matter of seconds +until the giant should tear itself loose and come plunging down upon them. + +And still Mollie fumbled with levers in a vain and foolish attempt to save +her beloved car at the risk of her own life. + +Betty had just jumped upon the running board in a wild attempt to drag her +chum from the car when suddenly help came to them from an unexpected +quarter. + +An elderly man came running from the woods, evidently attracted by their +excited cries. He gave one look at the toppling tree, even now tearing +itself loose from the impeding branches, another at the machine with the +two girls still in it, and then, with a speed and decision which seemed to +belie his age, went to the rescue. + +"Come--help me push!" he cried to Amy and Grace, who were still standing +dumbly in the middle of the road. A moment later he had thrown himself +with all his might against the machine, striving to push it out of the +path of the falling tree. + +In an instant of time the girls had added their strength to his and the +automobile was moving slowly down the road. Luckily the car was on a down +grade or they never could have managed it. As it was, there was just time +to get out of the way when the great tree came crashing down, its +outermost branches just brushing Amy's skirt. The giant had fallen on the +very spot where the car had been only a moment before! + +"Girls," breathed Betty, with a shaky little attempt at a laugh, "I guess +we've never in our lives been nearer death than we were just then." + +And while the girls are marveling at their almost miraculous escape from a +terrible death, time will be taken to introduce the Outdoor Girls to those +readers who have not yet met them and also to review briefly a few of the +exciting and interesting adventures they have had up to the time of this +present narrative. + +There were four of them. Betty Nelson, or the "Little Captain" as the +girls often called her because she had such a decided talent for knowing +just the right thing to do at just the right moment, was eighteen, +dark-haired and dark-eyed. She had a fund of vitality and more than her +share of sense and good judgment--all of which went toward making her what +she was, the most popular girl in Deepdale. + +Grace Ford, tall, slender and willowy, was almost the same age as Betty, +but that fact and her love of the outdoors were the only things she had in +common with the "Little Captain." Her father, James Ford, was a lawyer, +and her mother, Mrs. Margaret Ford, a rather dressy lady who spent a good +deal of her time at clubs, was quite a figure in the society of Deepdale. +However, all through the war Mrs. Ford had worked with an untiring +enthusiasm for the "cause," a fact which had made her many more friends +than her social popularity could ever have done. + +Next in the little quartette came Mollie Billette. Mollie was seventeen, +French-American, and impulsive, with a quick temper that made more trouble +for herself than for any one else. She and Betty were alike in their +splendid vigor and vitality. Mollie, or "Billy" as she was sometimes +called by her chums, had a very lovely widowed mother and an extremely +mischievous young brother and sister, Paul and Dora (nicknamed "Dodo"), +who were twins and six. Although the twins were pretty nearly always in +trouble, they were really adorable children, whom everybody loved. + +Amy Blackford, shy, sweet, pretty, completed the quartette. There had been +a mystery about her past which had recently been cleared up, and it may +have been this mystery that caused the girls to treat her with a little +more consideration and gentleness than they did each other. Her guardian +was a broker in the city who knew very little of the past except through +letters. + +The four boys who were close chums of the girls and had added to the +interest and excitement of more than one of their adventures were Allen +Washburn, who was very much interested in Betty, and in whom Betty was +very much interested; Will Ford, Grace's brother, who had carried Amy +Blackford's picture all through the war; Frank Haley, Will Ford's closest +chum, and Roy Anderson who had not much distinction of any kind except +that he was "lots of fun" and a chum of the other three boys. + +In the first volume of this series the girls went on a camping and +tramping tour, tramping for miles over the country and meeting with many +adventures on the way. + +Later they had more fun at Rainbow Lake, in a motor car, in a winter camp, +in Florida, at Ocean View, then at Pine Island where the girls and boys +together had cleared up a mystery surrounding a gypsy cave. + +Later the girls and boys found themselves caught in the meshes of the +great war, as many hundreds of thousands of others had been. The boys +responded eagerly to the bugle call, and the girls, too, were eager for +Army service and finally went to a hostess house at Camp Liberty. Though +the girls had never worked harder in their lives, they found that the task +had a stirringly romantic side as well. + +Then in the volume directly preceding this, entitled "The Outdoor Girls at +Bluff Point" the girls had had perhaps the most exciting adventure of all. + +The Hostess House at Camp Liberty having burnt down, the chums found +themselves forced to take a much-needed, although not entirely welcome, +vacation and had decided to spend it at a romantic spot near the ocean +called Bluff Point. The cottage on the bluff had been loaned to the girls +by Grace's patriotic Aunt Mary, who declared that she owed something to +the chums for having worked so hard for the good old Stars and Stripes. +Mrs. Ford, worn out with war work, had gone with the girls to chaperon +them. + +Bad tidings at first threatened to overwhelm the chums. The Fords received +word that Will was seriously wounded "somewhere in France" and later +Mollie received a telegram from her mother saying that the twins, Dodo and +Paul, had disappeared. Still later, while everything was at its blackest, +Betty read Allen Washburn's name among the missing. However, everything +cleared up later when the twins, who had been kidnapped, were recovered +and their kidnapper sent to justice. Still later Allen proved that the +report that he had been missing was an error by writing to Betty himself +and in the letter he also spoke of Will Ford and the fact that he was +getting over his wound splendidly. Of course there had been great +rejoicing and the vacation had proved a happy one after all. + +And now, at the time of this story, the war was over and the first +regiments of soldiers had arrived from the other side and the girls were +expecting a joyful reunion with the boys at any time. + +They had not yet made definite plans for the summer and were just in the +position of waiting for something to happen when something had happened +with a vengeance--but not at all the kind of something which the four +girls had expected. + +"I think you are right, my dear," said the man who had saved the lives of +at least two of the girls, rubbing his hands fussily together and peering +out of small, near-sighted eyes, first at the tree and then at the girls. +"It was a close call--a very close call. I declare, it was very nearly the +closest call I ever saw!" + +For the first time the girls really looked at him. He was a rather small +man, slenderly built, with long sensitive hands and a very bald head, in +the center of which a tuft of hair stood comically upright. These +characteristics, coupled to the squinting eyes, gave the man a very odd +appearance. + +He was so queer a figure standing there in the center of the road that the +girls found themselves staring unduly. Realizing something of this, Betty +jumped down from the running board where she was still standing and held +out her hand to the little man, thanking him in a voice that still +trembled a little for the great service he had done them. The other girls +followed suit and so overwhelmed their rescuer that he seemed quite +embarrassed and looked around nervously as if for some means of escape. + +Betty, seeing his embarrassment, was about to take pity upon him when +something happened that they had not bargained for. It began to rain, not +gently, but in a deluge, taking the girls completely by surprise. + +Instinctively they turned toward the car, but Mollie suddenly began to +laugh in a half-hysterical manner. + +"This is what I call fun" she said. "Engine dead, caught in the rain, and +I've even left the side curtains at home! I guess we're in for it, girls." + + + + +Chapter III + +The Queer Little Man + + +While the girls stood looking wildly at each other their unknown rescuer +seemed suddenly galvanized to action. + +"This won't do at all!" he cried, raising both hands to his bald head +which was by this time very wet and more shiny than ever. "You will get +your death of cold, young ladies, you surely will. You must come with me. +Here, right along this path I have a cottage--" All the time he was +talking he was hustling them fussily ahead of him, for all the world like +some old hen with a brood of chickens. + +The girls, not knowing what else to do and being in rather a bewildered +frame of mind, allowed themselves to be hustled. The rain was sheeting +down in a terrific cloud burst, so that their clothes clung to them damply +and they began to shiver. + +They circled the fallen tree which had so nearly been their undoing, and a +moment later found themselves upon a narrow footpath which seemed to lead +into the very heart of the woods. + +"I wonder where he is taking us," whispered Grace in Betty's ear. "Maybe +he's a murderer or something." + +In spite of her discomfort, Betty giggled. + +"Did you ever see a murderer with a bald head like that?" she asked. + +It seemed to the girls as if the path must be at least a mile long, but +just as they were despairing of ever reaching the end of it, they came out +into a partially cleared space and through the trees caught a glimpse of +something that looked like a house. + +Their new acquaintance, who up to this time had been bringing up the rear, +now took the lead and led them over tangled underbrush, stones and +foot-bruising rocks, to his strange little dwelling. + +"It's a house, it's a house!" cried Grace thankfully, as they hurried +after the little man. "I guess somebody will have to wring me out when we +get inside. I'm soaked through!" + +"Goodness, why don't you tell us something we don't know?" grumbled +Mollie, but nobody was listening to her. They had reached the house and +the man had swung the door open hospitably. + +"Step inside, step inside, do," he urged with a nervous gesture that +reminded the girls once more of the proverbial hen. "You will find it dry +at least, and I will have a fire for you in a hurry. Just a moment till I +get some wood--just a moment--" + +And while he rambled on, suiting his words with quick nervous action, the +girls crowded inside the cottage and looked about them curiously. + +The room they had entered was large and scrupulously neat. At first glance +it seemed a queer combination of hunting lodge and museum of natural +history. The rough clapboards and beams of the ceiling and walls had never +been plastered, and this very crudity seemed somehow to give the room an +air of warmth and home-likeness that was very inviting. + +Hung on the walls were several fairly large skins of animals, a gun or +two, and over the huge open fireplace, which very nearly covered one end +of the room, hung the magnificent head of a buck. + +On the wall opposite the fireplace was a set of rudely-erected shelves, +one beneath the other, and these shelves were covered with specimens of +butterflies, beetles and other bugs of every size and description. That +the specimens had been mounted by an expert even an inexperienced eye +could see. + +The girls, who had been regarding the oddities of the room with growing +interest, were brought back to a realization of the discomfort of wet +clothes by the owner of the place himself. + +The latter had brought firewood from somewhere, and, with the aid of half +a dozen matches, had succeeded in getting a fairly good blaze. + +Then with a smile of satisfaction he turned to the girls, rubbing his +hands together genially. + +"Come nearer to the fire--come closer--do," he urged in his quick nervous +way. "I am sure you are chilled through--quite chilled through. I will +bring chairs." He stopped abruptly and looked about him with an +embarrassed air, his gaze coming to rest on the only chair which adorned +the room. + +Betty, seeing his confusion, was trying to think of something helpful to +say, when the little man suddenly found a way out of his quandary. + +"Ah, I have it!" he cried, seizing enthusiastically upon a long bench that +stood on one side of the room. "Four can sit upon this quite easily, I am +sure. A happy thought--a very happy thought--" and he pulled and tugged at +the bench until he succeeded in moving it close to the fire. + +Afterward it occurred to the girls that they might have helped him, for it +was a very heavy bench and he was rather a frail old man. But at the time +they were too interested in this unusual place and their rather +extraordinary host to think of anything very rational. + +However, they seated themselves dutifully in a row upon the bench, "for +all the world like an orphan asylum out for an airing," as Mollie said +later, and gratefully stretched out their sodden shoes to the blaze. + +They were cold and they were wet and they were fast becoming very hungry, +all of which might have been expected to form a very good reason why they +should have been miserable. But they weren't miserable--not at all. To the +Outdoor Girls the thrill of an adventure always more than counterbalanced +the possible discomforts attending it. + +Their host started to draw up the one chair in the room, hesitated a +moment then, as though he had just thought of something, turned and darted +through the door, closing it with a little click behind him. + +For the space of half a second the girls looked after him. Then they +looked at each other. Then they drew a long breath and let loose the flood +of curious questions which had been struggling for expression for the past +twenty minutes. + +"Well, isn't this a lark?" cried Mollie, her eyes dancing, "Half an hour +ago we were awfully bored, and now look at us." + +"Yes, look at us," said Grace with a little sniff. "I'm sure we're not +very much to look at right now with our hair wet, and our clothes--" + +"Oh, for goodness' sake, who cares about such things?" cried Betty gaily. +"I think this is a darling place and I'm having the time of my life. I +wonder who he is?" + +"He seemed kind of scared just now, didn't he?" chuckled Mollie, feeling +her shoe to see if it was drying out any. "It was funny the way he bolted +out of the room." + +"Poor old dear--no wonder he was scared," commented Grace, as she took off +her hat and tried to do something with her hopelessly bedraggled locks. +"The way we look we're enough to scare anybody. Oh, dear, hasn't any one a +comb?" + +"Why, of course, we carry a complete beauty parlor outfit just for your +benefit, dear," giggled Mollie. "The rest of us don't need it though, We +are too beautiful naturally." + +"You know I like him a lot, the queer little man, I mean," said Amy, +evidently following out her own train of thought. "He seems kind of fussy +and peculiar but he has an awfully nice smile." + +"Trust Amy to find the smile," said Betty, putting an arm fondly about the +younger girl. "And of course we all like him," she added seriously. "If it +hadn't been for him we probably wouldn't be feeling so happy right now." + +"Yes, we would probably be in some hospital with our unhappy relatives +weeping over our mangled remains," said the irrepressible Mollie, and +laughed at the shriek that went up at her gruesome remark. "There probably +wouldn't have been enough of us left to recognize," she added by way of +good measure, and they shrieked again. + +"For goodness' sake, let's talk of something pleasant," said Grace, rising +suddenly and going over to the window. "If you want to sit on that old +bench all day, you can." + +It appeared that the girls had no intention of sitting on the bench all +day. They got up and sauntered about the room, examining the skins on the +walls and looking, but without much curiosity, at the rifles. They +lingered longest before the shelves of butterflies and beetles, for some +of the specimens were really beautiful and very rare. + +After they had examined everything in sight they began to grow restive. +They must have been in the place nearly an hour and it suddenly occurred +to them to wonder where their host had been keeping himself all this time. + +"I wish we could get started," worried Mollie, looking out upon the sodden +landscape. The rain was apparently coming down just as hard as ever. "I +hate to leave the car all by itself out there. Somebody might steal it." + +"I wish I knew where that man was," said Grace nervously. "I never trust +strange men. He may set the house on fire for all we know." + +The words were hardly out of her mouth when the door opened and the topic +of conversation himself entered, carrying a tray so big and heaped so high +with sandwiches that one could scarcely discover the man behind it. + +Betty and Amy ran to his assistance, and between them they got the tray +safely to the bench. In one delighted glance the girls saw that not only +sandwiches, but a steaming pot of coffee and the remains of what had been +a great, three-layer chocolate cake were on the tray. + +At thought of the fussy little man taking all this time and trouble, for +it must have taken a good deal of work to make all that formidable array +of sandwiches--the girls were sincerely touched and regarded their host +with a new interest. + +"There, there," he was saying, regarding the heaped-up tray with evident +pleasure, "you must sit down and eat at once. You must be nearly +starved--famished. I hope this will be enough." + +He looked at them so anxiously that Betty felt like hugging him--and +nearly did it. + +"Enough! Well, I guess it is enough," she said heartily, as the other +girls seated themselves on the bench either side of the tempting tray and +began enthusiastically to help themselves. "It would be plenty for an +army. We can't thank you enough." + +"Indeed we can't," added Mollie. + +"It's awfully good of you," said Grace, as she took a bite of her ham +sandwich. + +"Awfully good," added Amy, like an echo. + +The little man waved aside their thanks and drew up the one chair in the +room, talking all the time in his quick, jerky fashion. + +"It was no trouble, I am sure,--no trouble whatever," he said, adding as +though he wished to change the subject: "You didn't tell me your name--" +he hesitated, looking at Betty, who of course did tell him her name on the +spot. This proved a signal for mutual introductions, and the girls learned +that their new friend was a college professor, Arnold Dempsey by name. +They also learned that he had taken up woodcraft in the hope of recovering +his health. + +And while they contentedly munched sandwiches and sipped steaming coffee +the girls learned a good deal more about Arnold Dempsey, and the more they +learned of him the more they felt drawn to him. + +And when he started to tell them of his two sons who had fought so nobly +in the army of democracy, their eyes began to shine and they leaned toward +him with an interest that was intensely real. + +"Oh, it must be wonderful to have two big soldier sons," cried Amy, +forgetting her shyness in her enthusiasm. "Aren't you dreadfully proud?" + +A gleam came into Professor Dempsey's eyes and his thin shoulders +straightened. + +"Yes, yes," he said. "Of course I'm proud of my boys--very proud. And I +hope," a look of absolute happiness came into his eyes and he smiled +contentedly, "that before very long I shall see them." + +"Oh, I'm sure you will!" cried Betty eagerly. + +"That's what we are all hoping for, anyway," said Grace, adding with a +sigh: "The boys have been gone so _dreadfully_ long." + +"Look," cried Mollie presently, rising suddenly to her feet and pointing +toward the window. "We have been so busy talking that we never noticed the +sun had come out." + +"And doesn't it look good!" exulted Betty. + +In spite of their reluctance to leave their new-found friend, the girls +were anxious to be off, for they knew their parents would be worrying +about them. + +Professor Dempsey insisted on seeing them safely back to the road although +they protested that there was absolutely no need of it. + +"There are two or three paths that lead to the road," he explained, as he +flung wide the door, letting in a flood of sunshine, "and I wouldn't have +you lose your way for the world--not for the world!" + +The woodland was beautiful after the rain, and the girls sniffed the +fragrant air eagerly as they followed Professor Dempsey along the path. It +was not till they had almost reached the road that Mollie had a +disquieting thought. + +"How do we know but what we're stuck here for good?" she asked the girls. +"The car stopped dead, you remember, just under that horrible tree, and +I'm sure I don't know what in the world made it. If I can't find out the +trouble--" + +"Oh, but you've got to find it," protested Grace, while Betty and Amy +looked worried. "We can't stay here all night, and it may be a dozen miles +to the nearest garage." + +"I know that just as well as you do," grumbled Mollie. "But if I can't, I +can't, that's all." + +By this time they had reached the road and Mollie went straight to the +car. While she and Betty were trying to find out what was wrong the other +two girls and Professor Dempsey looked on anxiously. + +"Well, as far as I can see there is absolutely nothing wrong with it," +snapped Mollie at last, lifting a face flushed with exertion. "Get in, +girls, and I'll start the engine--or try to. Then if she won't go we'll +have to make up our minds to stay here all night or walk to the next +garage." + +Accordingly the girls got in and Mollie pressed the self-starter. To her +great surprise, the engine purred a response, and as she shifted her gears +the car moved slowly forward. + +"Oh, goodie, we're going," cried Amy, and the faces of the other girls +showed relief. + +"Must have been a drop of water in the gasoline," hazarded Mollie, and +then she throttled the engine once more while she and her chums turned to +say good-bye to Professor Dempsey. The latter was still standing in the +road, looking up at them rather wistfully. + +"I'm glad that I had an opportunity of helping you, young ladies--very +glad," he answered, in response to their repeated thanks. "You conferred a +great favor on me also, for I have little company. Good-bye--and good luck +to you." + +The girls responded gayly, and as they started forward Betty leaned far +out of the machine to call back an encouraging: "Keep hoping hard for your +boys to come home. I am sure they will be back soon." + +"Thank you, young lady, thank you," said Professor Dempsey, but the words +were too low for Betty to catch and she was too far away to see the mist +that sprang suddenly to his eyes. + + + + +Chapter IV + +Good News + + +Deepdale, the home of the four Outdoor Girls, is a thriving little city +with a population of about fifteen thousand people. It is situated on the +Argono River, a pleasant stream where a great many of the young folk of +Deepdale, and some of the older ones too, keep motor boats and canoes and +various other types of pleasure craft. + +Farther on, the Argono empties into Rainbow Lake, which is picturesque in +the extreme. It has several pretty and romantic looking islands, chief of +which is Triangle Island--so called because of its shape. + +There is a boat running from Deepdale to Clammerport at the foot of +Rainbow Lake, and this boat is almost always crowded with pleasure +seekers. In addition to this Deepdale is situated in the heart of New York +state and is only a hundred-and-fifty-mile run from the city of that name. +Thus one can easily see that Deepdale is a very desirable place in which +to live. + +At least that is what the four Outdoor Girls thought. And since they had +spent most of their lives there, they certainly ought to know! + +On the morning of this day, some ten days or so after their strange +encounter with Professor Dempsey, the girls were gathered on Betty's +porch, talking over their plans for the summer. + +"I am only waiting to hear from Uncle John," Mollie was saying, as she +swung lazily back and forth in the couch swing. "The last time I saw him +he said that he was almost sure to go north this summer and he told me +that as soon as he made definite plans he would let me know." + +"You told us that two weeks ago," Grace reminded her. "And we haven't +heard from him yet." + +"It does seem to take him a long time to make up his mind," sighed Amy. + +Betty, who had been trying to read a novel, closed the book and turned to +them with a laugh. + +"Goodness, you all sound doleful," she told them. "It seems to me that we +ought to be able to live through it, even if we don't get Wild Rose Lodge +for the summer. There are plenty of other things we can do." + +Mollie turned upon her indignantly. + +"How you talk, Betty Nelson," she scolded her. "As if we could possibly +have as good a time anywhere else as we could at Wild Rose Lodge. Think of +being in a real hunting lodge out in the woods away from everybody! Why, +it will be a real adventure--" + +"All right. I surrender--don't shoot," laughed Betty, coming over and +perching on the railing beside Mollie. "I admit we should probably have +more fun at the lodge than we could anywhere else. I was only trying to +look on the bright side of things in case our plans should fall through. +Hello--who's this?" + +"This" proved to be Mollie's little sister Dora, or "Dodo," as she was +called by almost everybody. With a sigh of relief, the girls saw that +Dodo's twin brother, Paul, was not with her, for together the children +were a simply unconquerable pair. + +The twins had been spoiled by their widowed mother, Mrs. Billette, even +before the time when they had been kidnapped and spirited off by a hideous +Spaniard. But since their recovery, their joyful mother had indulged them +in every way until they had become well nigh unmanageable. + +Yet in spite of everything, the twins were very lovable, and every one +loved them, even those whom they annoyed most. + +And now as Dodo tore up the street toward them, waving something white in +her hand, the girls instinctively glanced about to see what they ought to +put out of sight before the cyclone struck them. + +"Thank goodness, Paul isn't with her," murmured Grace. "Then we would be +in for it." + +"Dodo," cried Mollie as the child started up the walk, "scrape some of +that mud off your feet before you come up. You will get Betty's porch all +dirty." + +"Name's Dora--not Dodo," the little girl answered, paying not the +slightest heed to Mollie's caution about the mud. "Dodo's a baby's +name--don't like it. Got something for you." + +She stumbled heedlessly up the steps, leaving a trail of mud behind her, +and almost breaking her neck in the bargain. + +"Now just look at Betty's porch," Mollie was beginning in exasperation +when Betty laughingly interfered. + +"Oh, let her alone, Mollie," she coaxed. "The porch was dirty anyway +and--what's that you have in your hand, Dodo?" + +"Sumfin' for Mollie," answered Dodo, leaning sulkily against the rail +while the girls regarded her anxiously. "An' if Mallie aren't nice to me +she can't have it." + +"Oh, for goodness' sake be nice to her and get it over with, Mollie," +urged Grace, uneasily conscious of the candy box she had shoved hastily +behind her. She was afraid one corner of it might show. + +So Mollie got down from her perch on the railing and went over coaxingly +to the little girl. + +"Give it to Mollie, honey," she begged. "I'll even call you Dora, if you +will." + +"_Always_ Dora--_never_ Dodo?" asked Dodo eagerly, for she was +growing out of babyhood just enough to resent being called by her baby +name. + +"Always Dora," Mollie promised. + +For answer Dodo held out the white thing she had waved at them from the +street, and with a little cry of excitement Mollie saw that it was a +letter addressed to her in her Uncle John's firm hand. + +At her exclamation the girls crowded round her eagerly. She hastily tore +open the envelope and devoured the contents. Then she turned to the girls +with a glowing face. + +"It's all right, it's all right!" she cried, waving the letter round her +head like a flag and nearly upsetting her chums. "Uncle John says it is +settled. He is going to Canada for a couple of months and we can have the +lodge for the whole time he is away or a part of it, just as we wish. +Hooray! How's that for luck?" + +The girls were so excited over their good fortune that they forgot all +about Dodo. She, finding herself unobserved, had slipped around the girls +to the swing, snatched the box of candy which Grace had exposed when she +got up, had taken the steps two at a time and was flying off down the +street before the girls saw what she was up to. + +Then it was Grace who, with a dreadful premonition, thought of her candy. +She turned quickly, saw that the box was gone, and uttered a wail of woe. + +"That little Turk of a sister of yours has done it again," she cried, +turning to Mollie, while Betty and Amy began to laugh. "You just wait till +I catch her. I'll get my candy back if I have to--spank her," this last +with a fierce scowl. + +Betty put an arm about her excited chum, led her over to the swing and put +her down in it. + +"By the time you caught Dodo there wouldn't be any of your candy left," +she said, adding soothingly: "Never mind, honey. We will get you some more +if we have to take up a collection." + +"Makes me feel like an orphan's home," grumbled Grace, but she laughed +nevertheless with the rest and immediately forgot both her candy and Dodo +in renewed excitement over Wild Rose Lodge. + +"Just where is this place, Mollie?" asked Amy. "What is it called?" + +"Oh, that's the very best part of it," said Mollie, with a mysterious +smile. "It has the most wonderful, most romantic name. Come closer while I +whisper it--Moonlight Falls. There, isn't that a real name for a place?" + +"Wild Rose Lodge at Moonlight Falls," sighed Grace ecstatically. "If we +don't have a wildly romantic time in a place with a name like that, it +will be our own fault." + +"But we will have to have a chaperon--" Amy was beginning when Betty +interrupted her eagerly. + +"I have fixed that," she said, and while they all looked in astonishment +she went on quickly to explain. "I met Mrs. Irving in the street the other +day--you know she has been away ever since that last time she was with us +on Pine Island--and I asked her then if she would chaperon us this +summer." + +"But you didn't even know then that we were going to Wild Rose Lodge, +Betty," Mollie interrupted. + +"I knew we were sure to go somewhere. We always--" Betty was arguing when +Grace cut in impatiently. + +"Never mind about that," she said. "Did Mrs. Irving say she would go?" + +"She said she was very sure she could manage it," Betty answered. "She +seemed awfully surprised and said it would be great fun to be with us +girls again." + +"It will be great fun for all of us," said Amy happily. "I'll never forget +the wonderful time we had on Pine Island with Mrs. Irving and the boys." + +"Yes--and the boys," Betty repeated a little wistfully. She was thinking +of Allen Washburn and the wonderful time they had had that +never-to-be-forgotten summer--before the war had come to separate them +and make their hearts ache. Oh, it would be unbelievably happy to have +the boys back again--Will, Roy, Frank and--her Allen. The old crowd +together once more. She looked around at the girls, who had also fallen +into a thoughtful mood, and suddenly she smiled, the old bright, happy +smile that was peculiarly Betty's own. + +"Oh, cheer up, everybody," she cried gayly. "How do we know but what the +boys will be home in time to join us at Wild Rose Lodge? Then think of the +fun!" + +"Oh, Betty, if we could only believe that!" they cried. + +"Well," said the Little Captain stoutly, "you never can tell. Stranger +things have happened, you know." + +"But nothing so joyful," added Mollie. + + + + +Chapter V + +Betty Takes a Dare + + +It would be a week or two before Wild Rose Lodge would be ready for the +girls' occupancy, and as a relief for their impatience they filled in the +time in hiking, motoring and put-putting up and down the Argono in their +natty little motor boat. + +But whatever it was they were doing, their conversation almost invariably +returned to one of two subjects--the return of the boys and the good time +they would have at Moonlight Falls. + +They spoke often of Professor Arnold Dempsey. They took a real interest in +the queer little old man, both because of the service he had done them and +the fact that he was watching and waiting for his two big sons, even as +they were anxiously awaiting the return of their boys. + +"It must be dreadfully lonely for him in that little cabin or house or +whatever you call it in the woods," Amy said one day as she and the girls +sauntered down to the dock where their motor boat was anchored. "And he +said he hardly ever had company." + +"Goodness, I should think he would go crazy," Mollie commented. "Why, I go +almost mad when I don't have any one to talk to for an _hour_." + +"I wonder if he lived in that little house all during the war," said Betty +thoughtfully. They had reached the dock and were walking slowly out upon +it. "If he did, it must have been dreadfully hard for him. It makes me +shiver to think of him sitting there all alone, reading the casualty list, +terrified for fear the next name would be that of his son----" + +"Oh, Betty," cried gentle Amy, all her sympathy quickly roused by the +picture Betty had drawn, "what a dreadful thing to think of!" + +"But he never did find their names among the missing or killed," Mollie +reminded them soberly. "We know that because he said he expected to see +them soon." + +"Of course. And all we can do is hope with all our hearts that he gets his +wish," said Betty brightly, adding with a sudden change of subject: "But +away with dull care. The sun is shining and here's our fairy ship waiting +to carry us off to fresh adventure. What more could any one want, I'd like +to know." + +"Humph," grunted Mollie, eyeing critically the trim little boat in which +they had had so much fun and adventure, as the other girls tumbled aboard. +"I'd say she didn't look very much like a fairy boat just now. She needs +considerable polishing and scrubbing. Why don't you girls get busy, +anyhow?" + +"Just hear who's talking," yawned Grace, disposing herself lazily in a +comfortable chair on deck. "I haven't noticed you waving a broom and mop +frantically around these parts lately, Mollie dear." + +"In fact," Betty added with a mischievous twinkle in her eye, "I think I +remember suggesting that the _Gem_ needed grooming the other day. +Whereupon some one who shall be nameless suggested a motor ride instead." + +"She's got you there, old dear," drawled Grace, taking the inevitable box +of chocolates from her pocket and opening it lovingly. "I remember the +incident pre-zactly as it has been described." + +Mollie, who was still standing on the dock, regarding them frowningly, +started to reply but Betty interrupted her with a shout. She had started +the engine and the boat began to move slowly away from the dock. + +"Better hurry up," suggested the Little Captain wickedly. "We'd rather not +leave you behind, but if you insist--" + +However, Mollie had not the slightest intention in the world of being left +behind. With a gasp of mingled surprise and dismay she made a jump for it, +cleared the foot of space between the dock and the boat and landed square +in the middle of Grace's astonished and outraged lap. She would have sat +on the candy box, too, and would, in all probability, have ruined it and +her dress as well, had not Grace, with rare presence of mind, whipped the +box out of danger just in the nick of time. + +"Well," said Mollie, too surprised and indignant to move for a moment, +while, at the comical picture she made, both Betty and Amy laughed +merrily, "I surely like this!" + +"You do, do you? Well, I don't!" cried Grace, recovering both her breath +and her dignity at the same moment. "If you don't stop sitting on my lungs +this minute, Mollie Billette, I'll--I'll--stick this pin into you." + +With a yell Mollie stumbled to her feet and shook out her dress +belligerently. + +"You had better not. I'm stronger than you, Grace Ford, and I've a good +mind to let you see what the bottom of the river looks like." + +She advanced toward her prospective victim, and Betty stopped laughing +long enough to call to her. + +"You'd better change your mind, Mollie," she cautioned merrily. "You can't +give Gracie a ducking without ruining her dress and she might charge you +damages. Reconsider--I beg of you, reconsider!" + +Mollie condescended to reconsider and plumped herself down cross-legged on +the deck, disdaining a chair. + +"Oh, very well," she said, adding as she glared darkly at Grace: "You will +probably never know, woman, how near to death you were." + +To which Grace replied with unexpected ferocity. + +"And you may never know, woman, just how near to death you are this +minute. Look at what you have done to my best sport skirt. I don't believe +I will ever be able to get those wrinkles out." + +"If you two will stop quarreling just long enough to tell me where you +want to go," Betty requested, "I should be very much obliged. Up or down +the river?" + +"Anywhere," answered Grace, still regarding her crumpled sport skirt +gloomily. "We are just trying to kill time this afternoon anyway, so I +don't see that it makes much difference where we go." + +"Suppose we take her up to the Point," suggested Mollie, getting up from +the deck and going over to Betty who still had the wheel. "Maybe we can +get some ice-cream and a drink of ice water. I am getting dreadfully +thirsty already." + +Betty looked tempted but a little doubtful. + +"You know it is pretty dangerous to run in there, Mollie," she protested. +"There are so many other boats driven by Percy Falconer's crazy lot who +don't care whether they capsize you or not--" + +"Goodness, Betty, it isn't like you to be afraid," Mollie started, but +stopped at the look in the "Little Captain's" eye. + +"I'd rather you didn't ever say that again, Mollie," she said. "I'll take +you in there since you want it, but if anything should happen remember +that I warned you." + +"Goodness, Mollie, I don't see why you ever wanted to go and suggest that +for," said Grace nervously. "We all know there is danger of a collision +over at the Point, and I'm sure I don't want to spoil my clothes, even if +you do." + +"Your father said that he would rather we kept to this side of the river, +Betty," urged Amy. "Please don't go over to the Point now." + +"There's no use talking to her," snapped Grace. "You ought to know Betty +well enough by this time to know that she would take us over to the Point +now, after what Mollie said, if she knew we would all die of it. Might as +well save your breath." + +Mollie said nothing, but down in her heart she was more than a little bit +anxious and was beginning to regret that she had deliberately egged Betty +on. + +Percy Falconer, of whom Betty had spoken, had once been a rather dudish, +affected boy and had later developed into an exceedingly fast young man. +He had an immensely rich father and a mother who denied him nothing so +that he had been able to gather together a few kindred spirits among whom +he was the leader. All the regular boys and girls in town thoroughly +disliked "the set," but there were a few girls who were willing to put up +with Percy Falconer and his crowd for sake of the long motor rides, +dances, dinners and motorboat picnics that the boys were able to give +them. + +There were always some of this wild crowd over at the "Point," and it was +for this reason as well as the very real danger of a collision with a +recklessly driven boat that Betty's father had rather discouraged the +chums going over to that side of the river. + +However the day was fine, the water of the river was as calm as a lake and +the _Gem_ flew across the sparkling water like a gull, bringing a +flush of pure excitement and pleasure to the faces of the girls. +Danger--what danger could there be in this staunch little craft, with +Betty at the wheel? + +They were half way across the river, now--three quarters. The gay pleasure +craft flaunting up and down the river were becoming more numerous and +Betty slackened speed. Her breath came more quickly and her hands +tightened on the wheel. She could drive a boat as well as any boy, but +here, she knew, was a situation to test her greatest skill. + +Craft of all sizes and descriptions seemed to the excited girls to be +piling up about them. Most of the boats were being navigated carefully, +but now and then a small, fast speed-craft would shoot out from behind +another so suddenly that Betty would be forced to swerve sharply to one +side, fairly grazing the stern of the racing boat. + +On one of these occasions, when it had seemed impossible to avoid a +collision, Amy called out sharply: + +"Oh, Betty, don't you think we had better go back?" + +And Betty replied with a queer little laugh: + +"Might just as well go ahead as back now. We'll be there in a minute. +Don't worry." + +The words were scarcely out of her mouth when two craft running neck and +neck and driven recklessly slipped out from behind a sailboat and drove +directly down upon the _Gem_. It seemed impossible that the Outdoor +Girls could escape disaster. + + + + +Chapter VI + +Nearly Wrecked + + +The girls did not scream. Perhaps they were too frightened or perhaps it +was just natural pluck. + +They did jump to their feet though as if with some wild thought of leaping +overboard. But there they remained, staring with fascinated eyes at the +fate that was bearing down upon them. + +As for Betty, after one breath-taking minute when all the blood in her +body seemed to rush to her head, she simply sat there and tried in the +second that was given her to think what to do. + +Almost automatically, she wrenched the wheel around, nearly capsizing the +boat with the sudden turn. At almost the same second, as though the thing +had been prearranged, the boys in the racing craft swung around in the +opposite direction. + +A slight scraping as the side of the _Gem_ slid along the side of the +nearer of the racing craft, and they were safe, with no harm done with the +exception of a little paint scraped from the side of the boat. + +It was a moment before the girls could realize what had happened to them. +Then a voice hailed them from the boat alongside. In a glance the girls +perceived that the voice belonged to no other than Percy Falconer himself. + +"Hello," called Percy, adding boisterously as he recognized the girls: +"Well, by all that's holy, if it isn't the Outdoor Girls! Thought you +never came over to this side of the river." + +"We don't," Betty answered, the hand that still gripped the wheel shaking +nervously now that the danger was over. "And I don't believe we ever will +again, either!" + +"I say, your teeth are chattering," cried Percy, looking at Betty in open +admiration. In the old days, Percy had tried hard to win favor in Betty's +eyes, but the latter had always treated him with a good-natured +indifference not unmixed with contempt that had been very hard for the +young dude to bear. During the years he had still admired Betty from afar +and hated Allen Washburn for being the "lucky one." So now he hastened to +make the most of what he thought was an opportunity. + +"Come on over to the Point with me and Derby here," indicating the young +fellow in the other racing craft who had drawn his boat up close to them +and was looking on with interest. "We will get you something to steady +your nerves a bit. We had a pretty narrow squeak that time, and it's no +wonder it upset you a little." + +He was supposedly addressing all the girls, but his eyes were only for +Betty. As for her, she suddenly had a startlingly clear mental picture of +what her father would think were some one to tell him that his daughter +and her chums had been seen at the "Point" with Percy Falconer and a +friend of his. + +In days gone by Percy had been very insipid, his mind entirely on his +clothes; now he had become a sport, and the report was that he caroused +around not a little. + +Betty turned to the youth with a decided little shake of her head, though +her eyes were smiling. + +"I think we shall have to go right back," she said. "It looks as though it +were going to rain. Thank you just as much," and she began to ease her +motor boat gently away from the other craft. + +"Oh, I say," Percy cried, disappointedly and a little angrily, for out of +the corner of his eye he could see that his friend was laughing at him, +"we would only keep you for a moment or two. You needn't be afraid of us. +We won't bite, you know." + +"We don't know you well enough to be sure even of that," said Mollie, +coming suddenly and flippantly into the conversation. + +But Percy took not the slightest notice of her and, as Betty was slowly +but surely widening the distance between the _Gem_ and his boat, he +leaned forward eagerly. + +"Betty, let me see you some time. How about to-morrow night?" + +And because Betty was always kind to every one and was sorry for Mollie's +flippant speech, she said, quite unexpectedly, even to herself, "All +right." + +Then she turned the _Gem_ around and started for home, conscious that +her chums were gazing at her in speechless amazement. + +"Betty!" cried Grace, horrified. "You are never going to let Percy +Falconer come to see you, are you?" + +But Betty turned on her irritably. She was tired and nervous and angry at +herself for having anything to do with that conceited dude, Percy +Falconer. + +"You heard me say he could come, didn't you?" she said in response to +Grace's incredulous question, Amy's wide-eyed stare, and Mollie's grin. +"And if you are going to ask me why I said so," she added desperately, +"I'm not going to tell you. And if anybody speaks to me before I get back +to the dock, I'll--wreck 'em, that's all." + +The girls exchanged glances and wisely decided to change the subject, for +the present at least. For the time they had plenty to do anyway, just +watching out that somebody else did not run into them! + +By the time they reached comparatively clear water they were all tired and +they were glad for once when the _Gem_ scraped against the home dock +and the "cruise" was over. + +"Well," said Mollie as they climbed on to the dock, "we surely did have +some excitement, but we didn't get what we started out for after all." + +"What's that?" asked Grace, as she tied the ribbon round her candy box and +adjusted her hat at a more becoming angle. + +"Ice-cream and a drink of ice water," said Mollie ruefully. "I've just +remembered that I am dying of thirst." + +"Come on around to my house," Betty invited. Her wrist was lame from +gripping the wheel so hard and she felt it gingerly. "Mother said she +would make a big pitcher of lemonade for us and leave it in the +refrigerator." + +"Whew," whistled Mollie, taking Betty's arm and hurrying her forward. "By +any chance did you girls hear what I heard? _Me_ for _it_, Betty +Nelson." + +The girls talked little on their way to Betty's house, but they thought a +good deal. They were tired and disgruntled, and it seemed to them in their +pessimistic mood that everything they had tried to do that day had gone +wrong. And the climax of it all was their meeting--if it could be called a +meeting--with Percy Falconer. Worst of all, Betty was going to allow him +to call! + +With something of this in her mind, Mollie glanced sideways at her chum +and, curiosity getting the better of her discretion, ventured to remark +upon it. + +"I wonder what Allen will say," she said, "when he learns about Percy." + +It was an unfortunate remark, as Betty very soon showed by turning upon +her chum angrily. + +"I don't know that Allen has a right to say anything at all about what I +do," she said. "And as I don't intend ever to see Percy Falconer after +to-morrow, I think we had better forget about him. But there," she added, +bringing herself up short and giving Mollie's hand a little conciliatory +squeeze, "I didn't mean to be cross. I'm just kind of mad about the whole +thing--and tired, and hot--" + +"I know," said Mollie generously. "I guess we all are--tired and hot, I +mean. We will feel better after we have had something cold to drink." + +Betty's mother had left not only the lemonade but some sandwiches of +chopped nuts and cream cheese. Jubilantly the girls carried these +delicacies out on the front porch and proceeded to devour them without +further delay. + +As they ate and drank, their ill-humor vanished and they began to feel +once more like their cheerful, optimistic selves. They even began to laugh +a little about the close shave they had had with Percy and his friend. + +"It was mighty clever work of yours, Betty, swerving around like that," +Mollie said reminiscently, as she patted the Little Captain's hand +approvingly. "I'm sure I would have been so scared I'd have gone right +ahead and then there would have been a nasty smash." + +"I do hope the folks don't hear about it," worried Grace. "It would only +make them nervous and they might even refuse to let us go out in the +_Gem_ any more." + +"I don't see how the folks are going to know anything about it," said Amy +calmly. + +"Unless our dear friend Percy blabs it all over town," added Grace. + +"I think we ought to tell the folks," Betty spoke up suddenly. "I know +they would rather hear about it from us than from any one else. Hello," +she broke off, as her eye lighted on a newspaper lying on the table, "this +looks like the evening edition. Maybe it has some news of Allen's +division." + +"My, just listen to her," yawned Grace. "Allen's division, indeed. As +though he were the only one we were interested in--" + +But her words were cut short by a startled exclamation from Betty. + +"Oh, girls, look here!" she cried. "Look at these names. Oh, I hope it +isn't true! I hope it isn't!" + + + + +Chapter VII + +Bad Tidings Confirmed + + +"I wish I knew what you were talking about," said Mollie, pausing with a +sandwich half-way to her mouth, while Amy and Grace regarded the Little +Captain with astonishment. "What names? Where?" + +But Betty was paying no attention to them. She was reading hastily the +column that had caught her startled attention. + +"Listen to this," she said, reading out loud. "Among those who were killed +in the last great Allied offensive are the names of these brave soldiers. +James Browning of Columbus, Ohio--No, that isn't what I mean--Look, here +they are--James Dempsey and Arnold Dempsey, Junior. Girls, do you suppose +--" and she looked at them with widening eyes. + +"Arnold Dempsey, Arnold Dempsey," repeated Mollie, searching in her +memory, but Amy interrupted excitedly. + +"That was Professor Dempsey's name, wasn't it?" she asked. "Oh, Betty, do +you suppose it could be his son?" + +"Why, of course it is his son--how could it be any one else?" cried Grace, +the excitement beginning to communicate itself to her. "Arnold Dempsey, +Junior--and the professor said his sons were over there." + +"Didn't it say something about James Dempey, too, Betty?" asked Mollie, +fairly snatching the paper from her chum. "Yes, here it is. Do you suppose +that can be his other son?" + +Betty shook her head soberly. + +"I don't know," she said. "Of course he didn't tell us the name of his +other son, but it might easily be James. Oh, I hope it isn't so!" she +added, her heart aching for the lonely old man whose one big interest in +life was his boys. "I do hope there has been some mistake." + +"I guess we all do," said Amy gently, adding with a sigh: "But I'm afraid +there isn't very much hope of it. The Government is usually right when it +comes to things like that." + +"Not always," Mollie retorted quickly. "Look at the time they reported +that Alien was among the missing and he wasn't at all. That is the only +mistake we happen to know about, but I fancy there are plenty of others." + +At mention of that dreadful time when she had read Alien's name in the +long list of the missing, Betty experienced again something of the emotion +she had felt at that time. + +She saw again in imagination the dark room where she had gone to be by +herself, she heard the thunder of the surf on the rocks outside and the +rumble of the thunder overhead. She saw once more the vision of Alien as +she had seen it then. Allen stretched out cold and dead perhaps on some +shell-ridden battlefield or perhaps, more terrible still, a prisoner in +the hands of the Hun, suffering unspeakable torture-- + +"But this is not as bad as though the boys were missing," she said +suddenly, speaking her thought aloud. "At least the professor will know +that his sons are dead." + +The girls started and looked at Betty queerly. + +"I was thinking of Allen," she explained in response to their rather +startled glances, "and the time when we thought he was missing. If this +thing is true about Professor Dempsey's sons I think I shall be able to +sympathize with him, almost better than any of you." + +"I guess you will, honey," said Mollie soberly, putting an arm about her +chum. "It was a terrible time for us all--there at Bluff Point. But it was +almost worth the suffering when we found out that Allen was alive and well +and never had been missing at all Do you remember how happy we all were +then?" + +"Happy," Betty repeated, shaking off her depression and smiling at the +memory. "I'll say we were the happiest girls on earth--especially after we +recovered the twins. But what," she said, coming back to the present +subject, "are we going to do about Professor Dempsey? We ought to do +something, you know." + +"I suppose we ought," said Grace, a little vaguely, "but I'm sure I don't +know just what." + +"I think," suggested Amy practically, "that the best thing would be to try +to find out first of all whether these poor boys who were killed are +really Professor Dempsey's sons or not." + +"Humph, that sounds all right," observed Mollie. "But has any one here any +suggestion as to just how we will go about it? I'm sure I don't know any +one who is acquainted with Professor Dempsey--or his family either." + +"I've got it," said Betty, leaning forward eagerly. "It may not be much of +an idea, but then again it may." + +"Speak up, speak up, what's on your mind?" urged Mollie slangily. + +"Well," said Betty, "there is Mr. Haig, principal of Deepdale High. He +knows pretty nearly every one at the university where Professor Dempsey +used to teach and he is more than likely to know whether the professor has +any sons and what their names are." + +"Yes, that is all right as far as it goes," broke in Mollie impatiently. + +"We all know Mr. Haig--" Amy began, but this time it was Grace who +interrupted. + +"Yes, we all know him," she said. "But I'd like to know if there is any +one of us--except Betty perhaps--who would have the nerve to go to him and +ask him a question like that--" + +"Say, who's telling this story I'd like to know," broke in Betty +impatiently. "I'm not asking any one to go to Mr. Haig with that question +or any other--although I would be perfectly willing to brave the lion in +his den if there were no other way. My plan is this. Dad knows Mr. Haig, +you know--went to school with him--old college chums and all that. I'm +sure that if we asked him real pretty he would go to Mr. Haig and find out +about Professor Dempsey for us." + +"Then suppose we find out that Professor Dempsey hasn't any sons by the +name of James and Arnold?" suggested Grace. + +"Then we shall be mighty glad we took the trouble to find out and set our +minds at rest," answered Betty soberly. + +"And if we find out that they are really his sons, what then?" queried +Grace, and this time Betty looked puzzled and Mollie and Amy completely +beyond their depth. + +"Why then," said Betty hesitatingly, "I'm sure I don't just know what we +ought to do. But don't you think," she added, brightening, "that it might +be a good idea to wait until we have found out definite facts before we +try to solve any more problems?" + +Rather reluctantly the girls agreed and, after making Betty promise that +she would let them know the very first minute she found out the names of +Arnold Dempsey's sons, they said good-bye and started for home. + +Of course Betty had already told her father and mother about Professor +Dempsey and the part he had played in actually saving their lives; so when +she told them that night of what she had read in the paper and begged her +father to help her find out whether the dead soldiers were really Arnold +Dempsey's sons or not, he readily consented to do what he could. + +"I'll drop in and see Haig to-morrow," he promised. "I have often heard +him speak of Professor Dempsey as being one of the best professors of +zoölogy up at the university and I am sure I will be able to find out what +you want to know. I hope you have been mistaken in your conclusions, for +it would be a horrible blow to a man to lose both his grown sons at once +and like that. Now run off to bed and tomorrow I may have some news for +you." + +With this Betty was forced to be content. She went to bed of course, there +was nothing else to do, but she tossed restlessly all night and what sleep +she got was checkered with horrid dreams and she woke up in the morning +feeling as though she had not been to sleep at all. + +The next day was a long one to live through, even though the girls did +keep calling her up at frequent intervals to see if she had any news for +them yet. She became so tired of hearing the telephone bell ring at last +that she stuffed a handkerchief between the bell and the clapper and sat +down to read a novel and while away the time as best she could till her +father came home. + +Luckily for her--and him too, perhaps--Mr. Nelson did get home early, and +he was no sooner inside the door than Betty grabbed him by the arm, led +him over to a divan in the corner of the living room, and let loose upon +him a flood of questions. + +"Did you see him? What did he say? Why didn't you let me know sooner?" + +These and various other queries were hurled at Mr. Nelson so fast that it +is no wonder the poor gentleman appeared slightly bewildered. But knowing +his impetuous young daughter of old, he merely pinched her cheek fondly +and waited for her to give him a chance to speak. + +"If you will wait just a moment I will try to tell you about it," he said +at last, mildly. + +"There's only one thing I really want to know, Dad," said Betty soberly. +"And that is the name of Professor Dempsey's sons." + +Her father shook his head slowly, regretfully. + +"I am afraid it is as you have feared, dear," he said. "Professor Dempsey +has two sons--or rather, had--and their names were James and Arnold." + +"Oh, Daddy!" Betty was quiet for a minute, letting the full consciousness +of what her father had said sink into her heart. Then her lips trembled +and her eyes filled with tears. "I--I was pretty sure it was true. But, +oh, I was hoping so hard that it wouldn't be!" + + + + +Chapter VIII + +Premonitions + + +Betty kept her promise and called up the girls to tell them the news. Like +the Little Captain, they had felt almost sure of the identity of the two +Dempsey boys who had been killed in France, yet the confirmation of their +fears came as a distinct shock. + +They waited for a couple of days, undecided what to do, if indeed it was +their place to do anything at all. Vaguely they felt the need of +comforting the queer little professor in his hour of greatest trouble, and +yet they were at a loss to know just how to go about it. + +Meanwhile, the occupations that had ordinarily filled their days to +overflowing with fun, seemed dull and uninteresting and they found their +thoughts reverting again and again to the bereaved father in his lonely +little cabin in the woods. + +Percy Falconer had called at Betty's house the day after the incident on +the river as had been arranged, and Betty had conceived the plan of having +all her chums there to meet him. + +Her hope was that the gay Percy, seeing four, where he had expected only +one, would be overwhelmed with numbers and would flee the premises +early--to return no more. + +Her faith in her plan was more than justified. Percy had always been a +little afraid of the Outdoor Girls--Betty in particular--but it is +probable that if he had been able to meet them one at a time, he might +have come off victorious. As it was, he was routed, completely and +ignominiously, leaving the girls to laugh at his discomfiture. + +"There, I guess that is the end of _that_ pest," Mollie had said when +she had recovered a little from her mirth. "I imagine we won't see him +around these parts again." + +"I hope not," Betty had answered with a satisfied little yawn. "Wasn't he +too funny in that checked suit and awful green necktie? Poor old Percy! I +suppose he can't help it. He probably just grew that way." + +She had been comparing him all evening with her splendid, upstanding +Allen, and poor Percy had certainly not gained by the comparison. + +The amusing incident served to divert their minds somewhat from the +thought of Professor Dempsey, but the picture of him haunted their minds +so continually day and night that the Outdoor Girls finally decided that +something must be done about it. + +"I can't stand it any longer," Betty confided to them one morning when +they stood on Mollie's porch discussing what course of action it would be +best to take. "I have a queer feeling that the poor professor is in +desperate need of friends, and I don't believe I'll be able to sleep +another night until I find out something definite about him." + +"Won't he think we are sort of 'butting in'?" asked Grace, hesitating a +little. "He might think we came just out of curiosity." + +"I don't think he would," said Mollie. "You know he invited us to come +back some time when we could stay long enough for him to tell us something +about those bugs and butterflies and things he sticks pins into--" + +"That's the idea!" exclaimed Betty quickly. "We won't have to tell him we +know anything about his trouble. If he tells us--why, all right, but if he +doesn't, of course we won't try to force a confidence. Anyway," she +finished soberly, "we'll have the satisfaction of knowing we have done our +best for him whether it really helps him any or not." + +"And we owe him a very great deal," spoke tip Amy softly. "He really saved +our lives, you know." + +So it was settled, and while the other three girls ran home to put on +coats and hats and get ready for the drive, Mollie ran around to the +garage and brought her big car to the front of the house. + +She waved good-bye to her mother, who was trying rather wildly to keep +Dodo and Paul from running under the wheels of the car and getting killed, +and purred off down the street in the direction of Betty's house. + +When she arrived there she was a little surprised to see that Betty was +backing her fast little roadster down the drive. + +To Betty the little car was almost alive, and she talked to it as she +would have to some loved horse or dog. She scrubbed it and scoured it and +shined it so that it always looked like a brand new car. + +"Hey, look out!" cried Mollie, for Betty, not noticing her and being a +little worried about the sound of the engine, had backed the small car +down the drive and almost into Mollie's big one. "What kind of driving do +you call that? Do you want to buy me a new mudguard?" + +"Oh, pardon me," said Betty, laughing back at her. "You were so small and +insignificant, I came near not seeing you." + +"Well, you would have _felt_ me in another minute," grumbled Mollie, +as she shut off the engine and got out of the car. "What's the idea of +your little peanut, anyway? Thought you were going to ride in a regular +car." + +"That's why I chose mine," Betty laughed back impishly, still intent on +the sound of the engine. + +It was part of their fun to be always throwing insults at each other's car +but the thrusts were invariably good-natured. + +Only once had there threatened to be any trouble between the chums on +account of rivalry over the cars. That had been when Mollie had taken +Betty's "dare" to a race and Betty's little roadster had won the day, +racing like a streak of light along the country road and leaving Mollie's +high-powered but more clumsy car far behind. + +But Mollie had taken her defeat like the little sport she was--even though +it must be admitted she had been considerably disappointed and taken aback +by her failure--and in her ever since there had been a great respect for +Betty's car. + +But now she eyed with impatience the bent figure of the Little Captain as +she still leaned over the wheel, her ear tuned to the purr of the engine. + +"For goodness' sake, what's the matter with you?" she cried. "I thought +you were the one who was in a hurry to be off and now look at you--sitting +there like--" + +"Engine is missing," Betty informed her briskly. "Guess I had better have +a look--" + +"If you start fussing with bolts and screws now, you can count me out," +said Mollie, resolutely climbing back into her car. "It is ten o'clock +already, and we won't be home before night if we don't hurry." + +"Oh, all right," laughed Betty. "But if the car gives out before we get +back don't blame me, that's all." + +"It would give me the greatest of pleasure," said Mollie with a diabolical +chuckle as her machine moved off down the street, "to have everyone in +Deepdale see me towing your poor little flivver through the town." + +"Huh," sang back Betty scornfully as the roadster responded eagerly to her +touch, "they will have a great deal better chance of seeing me in the lead +with your great big jumbo tottering feebly at the end of a rope." + +They picked up Amy and Grace on the way and were soon flying swiftly down +the road in the direction of Professor Dempsey's tree-surrounded home. + +They were in rather good spirits at first, for now that they were really +on the way to doing something, though they were not quite sure what, they +felt relieved and almost gay. + +But as the distance shortened between them and their destination, a +strange depression that they could neither explain nor brush away settled +down over them. + +Once, Grace, who sat beside the Little Captain in the roadster, sighed +rather dolefully and Betty looked at her out of the corner of her eye. + +"Do you feel that way too, Grade?" the latter asked. + +"What way?" asked Grace uncertainly. "That sigh, do you mean?" + +"Yes," nodded Betty. "You sounded rather mournful and that is exactly the +way I feel. What's the matter with us, anyway? Where are our spirits?" + +"I suppose we couldn't expect to feel joyful," said Grace after a little +pause. "We aren't going, so far as I can see, on a very happy errand, you +know." + +"But I don't think it is that alone," said Betty, with a shake of her +head. "I feel as if we were going to see something perfectly dreadful--" + +"Betty," Grace looked at her in sudden alarm, her eyes wide, "you don't +suppose that the professor could have done anything--anything rash, do +you?" + +"You mean--" said Betty, hesitating before the ugly word. "Oh, Grace, you +don't mean--suicide, do you?" + +Grace nodded and tried hard not to look as frightened as she felt. + +"No, I--I don't think so," said Betty, grasping the wheel with hands that +somehow seemed suddenly weak. "If I thought anything like that had +happened I wouldn't have the courage to go on." + +"Well, I don't believe I have--the courage, I mean," said Grace, +irresolutely. "Don't you think we had better go back, Betty? It's so +lonesome here and--and--everything--" + +Her voice was rising to something like a wail, and Betty, striving to +throttle her own misgivings, spoke in a voice that was intended to be +reassuring. + +"We wouldn't think very much of ourselves if we turned back now," she +said. "And probably we are worrying a great deal about nothing. He didn't +seem like the kind of man who would do a thing like that." + +Grace said no more about turning back, and they were silent for the rest +of the way. But instead of lightening, the cloud of depression became +deeper and more foreboding until even the stout Little Captain began, +almost to wish that they had not come. + + + + +Chapter IX + +A Visitor + + +When they came to the scene of what was so nearly a terrible accident a +week or so before they found that the big tree which had extended clear +across the road was gone and that the underbrush also had been cleared +away. + +They stopped the cars a little the other side of the path that led into +the woods and slowly stepped down into the road. + +When they caught sight of each other's faces they began to laugh shakily. + +"We certainly look as if we were going on a ghost hunt," Mollie said. At +this Grace uttered a little cry of protest. The thought had struck too +near her own disquieting thoughts to be comfortable. + +"For goodness' sake, somebody say something cheerful," she begged. "I've +got to get up my courage some way." + +"Well, I haven't any to lend you," grumbled Mollie, as she linked her arm +in Betty's and the two went along toward the path. "I don't like this job +a little bit." + +"Don't you think," suggested Amy, holding back a little, "that somebody +ought to stay here and take care of the cars?" + +"No, you don't!" said Mollie, catching her by the hand and pulling her +along after them. "If one of us goes we are all going." + +"Oh, come along," urged Betty, eager to get the thing over with. "I think +we are all acting like a lot of geese. It might help some if we tried to +remember that we are Outdoor Girls." + +This challenge did a great deal toward bolstering up the girls' courage +and they hurried along the path more confidently. + +Their pace slowed a bit, however, when they reached the cleared space +where the little cottage stood and they paused for a moment in the shelter +of the trees to discuss what to do next. + +"Do you think we had all better go?" asked Grace nervously. "Perhaps the +four of us would frighten him--" + +"No, we will all go together," said Betty decidedly. "There is nothing to +be gained by standing here talking about it. Come on, girls." + +She started across the cleared space and the girls followed slowly. The +little cottage looked deserted and forlorn and the dreary aspect of it +served to increase the girls' uneasy sense of disaster. + +Betty knocked gently on the door which had, upon that other occasion not +so very long ago, been hospitably opened to them. But, though they waited +breathlessly for a response, none came--the house was as silent as a tomb. + +"Do it again, Betty. He might be asleep or something." suggested Mollie, +with a glance over her shoulder at the quiet woodland. "Knock harder this +time." + +Betty obeyed, but with no better success than the first time. Everything +was as silent as before. + +"Isn't there a bell, I wonder?" suggested Amy, wishing ardently that they +were back on the road once more. "Perhaps your knock isn't loud enough for +him to hear." + +"We might tap on the window," suggested Grace. "If I use my ring on the +window pane he surely ought to hear that." + +She started to suit her action to the words when an exclamation from Betty +made her pause. The latter had tried the door and found to her surprise +that it gave to her touch. + +"The door is unlocked," she said. "I don't believe the professor is in +here at all and if he has gone into the woods to hunt his butterflies and +beetles I am sure he wouldn't mind our going inside. What do you think?" + +She was about to push the door open, but Grace detained her with a nervous +hand on her arm. + +"Oh, I don't think we had better go in, Betty!" she cried. "You know what +we were speaking of in the car. Suppose we should find that he has--that +he has--" + +"That he has what?" asked Amy, her eyes wide. "For goodness' sake, what do +you mean, Grace?" + +Betty tried to stop her, but Grace hurried on heedlessly. + +"He may have committed suicide," she cried, adding, in response to +Mollie's and Amy's cry of horror: "You know he must have been desperate +enough to do anything, poor old man, out here all alone." + +At the conviction in Grace's tone, Betty felt her own nerve slipping. She +did not want to go into that silent house any more than the other girls +did. Every instinct in her commanded that she run from the place to the +commonplace safety of the road. She was afraid of what she might find on +the other side of that unlocked door. And yet-- + +"I'm going in," she cried, and, suiting the action to the word, pushed the +door quickly open and stepped over the threshold. + +Emboldened by her example, the other girls followed and stopped short with +a cry of dismay. They had not found what they feared--but something almost +as bad. + +The room, which had been so neat and orderly when they had last seen it, +was now the scene of such utter confusion as one might only hope to see +depicted in a cubist's nightmare. + +The animal skins which had adorned the walls had been torn down and lay in +a tattered heap upon the floor. The shelves upon which had rested the +professor's botanical specimens had been swept clean and their contents +also were scattered about the floor. + +The bench upon which the girls had sat and partaken of the queer little +man's hospitality was overturned and the one chair in the room was upside +down on top of it. The whole room looked as though a cyclone--or a maniac +--had been at work. + +The girls stared for a minute and then drew closer together as if seeking +protection from some unseen menace. They had some vague conception of what +had taken place here in this lonely little cottage. The elderly and +already nervous professor, reading the tragedy of his sons' death, all +alone perhaps, with no one to comfort or restrain him, had lost his mind, +temporarily at least, and had found an outlet in ruthlessly destroying +everything which came within reach of his hand. + +And if this were so, might he not even now be hiding about somewhere, +watching them, perhaps? + +This thought seemed to strike the girls at the same time, for after +peering for a second about the room, they turned and made a concerted dash +for the door. + +Once outside the room, in the reassuring sunshine, they turned and looked +at each other sheepishly. Then Betty wheeled about and started for the +door again. + +"Betty, you are never going back into that place again?" cried Amy wildly, +holding to her skirt. "I won't let you! Do you hear me? Come back here!" + +But Betty had no intention of coming back. She turned and faced the girls +calmly, though inwardly she was trembling. + +"Of course I am going back," she said. "Professor Dempsey may be in one of +the other rooms and he may be sick. If nobody will go with me, I'm going +in alone." + +Of course the three girls could not let her go in alone, so they trailed +back at her heels into the house, being very careful, however, to leave +the door wide open behind them, in case a hasty retreat became necessary. + +Cautiously Betty opened the door at the other end of the room and stepped +into what had evidently been a sort of rough kitchen. Now it was nothing +but a nightmare like the other room, and she shuddered as she looked about +at the desolate confusion. + +There was a door at the farther end of this room, and after some +hesitation and an inward struggle Betty crossed hastily to it and flung it +wide open. + +What she half expected and feared to find there nobody but Betty herself +ever knew, but whatever it was, she gave a great sigh of relief at not +finding it there. The room was upset, though not quite as badly as the +other two, but there was no sign of human occupancy anywhere. + +She turned to the girls who had come up behind her and were eagerly and +half shudderingly peering over her shoulder. + +"There's nothing here," she announced, the relief she felt showing in her +voice, "and as there doesn't seem to be any other room in the place, I +suppose we might as well go back." + +Echoing her suggestion heartily, me girls started to retrace their steps +when a slight sound in the other room made them stop short in a panic. + +"What was that?" Amy questioned, but Mollie held up her hand impatiently. + +There came the sound of some one stumbling over something. This was +followed by a muttered exclamation. + +While the girls looked about them wildly for a means of escape Mollie +began to laugh hysterically. + +"We have a visitor," she announced in a strangled voice. "And he is +between us and the only door in the place. Come on, girls, let's see who +it is." + +They stepped out into the cluttered living room and came face to face with +a young man who seemed more startled at seeing them than they had been at +sight of him. + +"Well, I'll be jiggered!" he exclaimed, and at sound of the commonplace +phrase the girls could have hugged the speaker in relief. Also they felt a +rather hysterical desire to laugh long and foolishly. + +As it was, the stranger stood staring at the girls and the girls at him so +long that the funny side of the situation struck Betty and she really did +begin to laugh. + +"We haven't the slightest idea who you are," she told the astonished young +man. "But I am sure of one thing, and that is that we were never so glad +to see any one in all our lives as we are to see you." + + + + +Chapter X + +Hurrah for Allen + + +The young man stared for a moment longer. Then the humor of the situation +seemed to strike him too, and he smiled pleasantly. + +"It surely is a pleasure to be as welcome as all that," he said +pleasantly, and the girls noticed that he was a well set up young fellow +and that he wore his uniform easily, as if he had been used to wearing it +for a long, long time. "I am Wesley Travers," he went on. "I live in a +cottage down the road and I came over this way to see if the old professor +had come back yet. I saw the door open--came in--and found you." + +He smiled again pleasantly and looked as though he considered that he had +fallen into rather good luck. But at his mention of the professor Betty +had sobered instantly. + +"Oh, then you know something about Professor Dempsey?" she questioned +eagerly. + +"Please tell us what happened to him," added Amy breathlessly. + +"Did he do this?" asked Mollie, with a comprehensive sweep of her hand +about the cluttered room. + +"I'm afraid he did," answered the young fellow, sobering instantly. "You +see, I just returned from overseas about a week ago and a couple of days +later my dad read in the paper about the death of this queer old man's two +sons. The pater had always been interested in the lonely old boy, so he +sent me over to see if I could do anything for him. I found the place like +this and--the bird had flown. Went dopy I suppose about the bad news and +tore things up a bit." + +Though the boy's words were slangy, there was real sympathy in his tone +and the girls liked him the better for it. + +"And you haven't heard anything from him since?" asked Betty softly. + +"Not a word or a sign," answered the boy, with a shake of his head. "Just +clean cleared out, that's all. Pretty hard luck, I call it. Just at the +end of things too--when he had a right to expect the fellows home. Pretty +tough luck. I wish I could find the poor old duffer and do something for +him." + +The girls heartily echoed the wish. Before leaving the place for good, +they looked about the rooms once more for some sign or message that might +give them a clue to the whereabouts of the professor. They found nothing, +however, and finally were forced to give up the search. + +As the young people stepped outside once more and closed the door after +them upon the desolate house a great wave of pity swept over Betty. +Somehow it did not seem right to go off like this as though they were +abandoning the old man to his fate. Yet what could they do more than they +had done? + +"Girls," she said, a little quiver in her voice, "I would give almost +everything I own to find the poor old professor and help him back to +happiness. If I only could," she added after a pause. "Well," said Wesley +Travers, as he looked admiringly at Betty's flushed, sympathetic little +face, "I imagine if any one could find him and bring him happiness, you +would be that one." + +The young soldier accompanied them back to the road. After thanking him +for the information he had given them, the girls climbed into their cars +and headed toward home, leaving Wesley Travers still standing in the road +and looking after them thoughtfully. + +"A mighty nice bunch of girls," thought the latter. "Especially the little +brown-haired one. They seemed rather interested in that dotty old +professor too. Lucky fellow to have four girls like that interested in +him!" After this remark he started off toward home. + +Luckily for the girls, the next few days were so crowded with preparations +for the trip to Wild Rose Lodge that they had not much time to dwell on +the poor old professor and his misfortunes. + +Only at night would they sometimes dream queer dreams in which wild-eyed +men went around smashing everything in sight and a little cottage stood +lonely and desolate and ghostlike amid a silent forest of trees. + +After a night like this the girls were always glad to awake and find the +sunshine streaming cheerfully in their windows. And they would throw +themselves with more than usual energy into the activities of the day. Yet +try as they would, they could never quite blot the tragedy from their +minds. + +On the afternoon of the day before they were to start for Moonlight Falls, +the girls were gathered in Betty's garage at the back of the house, where +the Little Captain was giving her car one last overhauling to make sure +that it was in perfect condition for the trip. Mollie suddenly espied the +postman coming down the street. + +Now the postman was a very popular man with the girls, for the reason that +he brought almost daily some message from the boys on the other side. He +sympathized with the chums so fully in their desire for letters with the +red triangle in one corner that he actually confessed to a guilty feeling +when he had no missive of the sort for them. + +So now, as Mollie ran toward him with outstretched hand, he held up to her +delighted gaze not only one letter, but four. + +"One for each of you," he said beamingly, as Mollie reached him. "I +thought that probably I would find all four of you at one place, so I kept +the letters together." + +"Oh, thanks, it is awfully good of you," said Mollie absent-mindedly, as +she took the welcome letters and hurried with them back to the garage. +"One for each of us, just think of that!" she cried to the questioning +girls. "It looks as if the boys had all written at the same time. Put down +your duster, Betty, for goodness' sake, and read what Alien has to say. +Maybe," she added hopefully, as she ripped her envelope open, "they will +tell us something definite about coming home." + +So down the girls sat in the midst of dust cloths and more or less dirt to +find what the boys had written. For a moment only the crackling of paper +broke the silence. Then Grace gave a little joyful cry. + +"Will says he is almost sure to be home soon--" + +"And he has been made a sergeant," Amy interrupted, or rather added, her +eyes shining with pride. "Just think of that--Will, a sergeant!" + +"I was just going to tell them that if you had waited a minute," said +Grace, rather crossly. There was quite a little jealousy between Grace and +Amy over Will. Grace had declared more than once that whereas she had +known her brother all her life, Amy had only known him for a couple of +years--or--or more. Grace loved her brother devotedly and once in a while +she resented Amy's place in his affections. + +So now to change the subject and avert a possible quarrel, Mollie jumped +into the breach. + +"Listen to this," she said. "Roy and Frank have been made corporals and +Allen--oh, look at Betty blush!" She looked gleefully across at the Little +Captain and Amy and Grace followed her glance. + +Betty was not blushing, but she felt as uncomfortable as though she had +been. + +"Tell us what Allen says," Mollie dared her wickedly. "Come on, +honey--dare you to." + +"You can go on daring all you like," said Betty defiantly. This time she +was blushing--from the fact that she knew she could not, or would not, +tell the girls what Allen had said in his letter. Not for anything in this +world! + +"I don't mean what you mean," said Mollie, enjoying her confusion +immensely, while Grace and Amy looked on laughingly. "I just thought that +maybe you would like to be the one to tell us about his promotion." + +"His promotion!" cried Amy and Grace together, and Betty looked quite as +bewildered as any of them. + +"Mollie, for goodness' sake tell us what you mean," she demanded. + +"But didn't he tell you about it, Betty?" Mollie insisted. + +"Wait a minute," said the Little Captain as she hastily scanned the pages +of her long letter. Then, down near the end of the last page she found it, +just a little paragraph, put in as though it had been an afterthought. +"Why," cried Betty, her eyes beginning to shine with excitement, "girls, +listen to this. Allen has been promoted. He's an officer now--a +lieutenant! Think of it--leather leggings and all!" + +It was too much for the girls. They laughed and cried and hugged each +other and tried to imagine Allen in his new uniform to their hearts' +content, for the young new-made officer was a favorite with them all. + +"Goodness," said Amy happily, "I suppose when he gets home he will be +altogether too high-toned to notice common folk like us." + +"Oh, I don't know," said Grace happily, adding with a sly little glance at +Betty, "I imagine he will make an exception of one of us at least." + +"I wonder," drawled Mollie as she picked up her unfinished letter, "which +one of us you can mean." + + + + +Chapter XI + +The Hold-Up + + +The girls were glad that the letters had come from the boys just as they +had, for it helped them to bridge over the tediously long wait till the +next morning. + +They read the missives with the little red triangles in the left hand +corner over and over again and--whisper it!--at least two of them slept +with the precious letters under their pillows. + +And then--the morning was upon them. It was a beautiful morning too, and +as the girls dressed hurriedly they were glad that they had arranged to +start early. In that way they could take their time and enjoy to the full +the glorious ride to Moonlight Falls. It was only fifty-five miles, but by +driving slowly they could make it seem like twice that. + +It was barely half past nine when Betty, having finished breakfast and put +the last finishing touches to her new white hat, ran around to the garage +to get the car out. + +Ten minutes later she had drawn up in front of Mollie's house, her ears +still ringing with the hundred and one instructions of her anxious mother, +and was tooting the horn of her little car furiously. + +The summons had the desired effect. Mollie came running from the house, +straightening her hat with one hand and lugging a valise in the other +while the twins trailed at her skirts. + +"For goodness' sake, let go of me, Paul. Dodo, if you touch that bag +again, I'll spank you. Mother," she wailed, looking back pleadingly over +her shoulder, "won't you please make these little pests go into the +house?" + +Whereupon Mrs. Billette suddenly appeared at the door, smiled at Betty, +grabbed Paul with one hand, Dodo with the other, while the twins roared a +protest. + +Released, Mollie dropped her bag, sped round to the garage, and in a +moment more was backing the big car round to the road. + +The girls had decided to about live in their khaki tramping suits on this +trip, merely packing in a good dress or two to wear on dress-up occasions. +In this way they had to take less luggage and could have more space to +"spread out" as Mollie said. + +"Put your grip in here, Betty," Mollie suggested, as she slung her own +grip into the tonneau of the big machine. "There is more room, and Mrs. +Irving said she wouldn't mind in the least being entirely surrounded by +suitcases." + +Betty laughed, did as she was bid, and a moment later they were off, +speeding down the road to Grace's house where they were to pick up the +other two girls and Mrs. Irving. + +They found the three waiting for them, and it took scarcely any time at +all to add the extra grips to the growing pile in the tonneau of Mollie's +car. Amid great fun, Mrs. Irving, who was rosy-cheeked and matronly and as +jolly as the girls, was wedged into the remaining space, Amy climbed to +the front seat beside Mollie and Grace took her seat with Betty. + +They were off! The sting of the wind was in their faces, and the sun beat +warmly down upon them as they rolled along, passing familiar houses, and +sometimes familiar people, to whom they waved, and so on and on till they +left the town behind them and started out on the open road. + +"My, this is something like," commented Grace, stretching her feet out +before her for all the world like a lazy, comfortable cat. "I feel awfully +sorry for all the poor people who haven't cars to ride in to-day and Wild +Rose Lodges to visit. By the way, why is it called Wild Rose Lodge, +Betty?" + +"Because they say there are lots of wild roses around it, of course," +Betty responded, her hands resting easily on the wheel, her eyes bright +with the joy of the moment. Grace, stealing a sideways glance at her, +could not help thinking that Betty looked not unlike a wild rose herself. + +"You look awfully pretty, honey," she said then, for Grace was always +generous with praise where her friends were concerned. "I would give the +world to have a color like yours." + +"Goodness," remarked Betty, turning to look at her chum, her face a little +brighter pink because of the honest compliment, "you have a lovely +color--as you very well know. Mine is too red sometimes." + +"Nobody thinks that but you," said Grace, squeezing Betty's hand +affectionately while she dived down in her pocket for some candy. "The +only time I have noticed you get very red," she added, "is when some one +happens to mention a certain young gentleman by the name of Lieutenant +Allen Washburn." + +Betty could feel that her face was burning, but she did not care. She was +awfully proud of Allen and desperately fond of him and for the moment she +did not care if the whole world knew about it. + +"Isn't it wonderful, Grade?" she cried, her heart pounding joyously. +"About Allen being an officer, I mean. I have to pinch myself several +times a minute to make myself realize that it is really true." + +"It surely is great," Grace answered slowly, adding after a moment, while +a faraway expression crept into her eyes, "I don't blame you for being +crazy about him, honey. I could almost be foolish myself. Oh, don't +worry," she went on quickly as Betty turned amazed and rather startled +eyes upon her. "I'm no fonder of Allen than I am of any of the other boys. +I just said that I didn't blame you, that's all." + +Betty turned her eyes to the road once more, but in her heart she was +troubled. There had been a note in Grace's voice that she had never heard +before. Could it be possible that she really cared for Allen? But she +pushed the thought from her mind resolutely. If such a thing could have +been possible, she certainly would have discovered it before this. The +mere thought was nonsense of course. And yet she was troubled. + +"Have some candy," Grace invited, breaking in upon her thoughts. "You +needn't stick up your nose at it to-day for I bought this fresh from the +store this morning." + +"Who said I was going to stick up my nose?" said Betty, helping herself to +a chocolate that looked as if it might contain a nut and thankful for the +break in her not-too-pleasant reflections. "If you will think back just a +little, I think you will admit that I have been guilty very seldom of +sticking up my nose at anything--" + +"Except Percy Falconer," finished Grace drolly, and they both laughed +merrily. + +"Poor Percy!" said Betty, chewing her candy contentedly. "I suppose he +will hate us more heartily than ever now." + +They were running some eight or ten miles from the town along a quiet +stretch of road, never dreaming of danger, when Betty's little racer nosed +around a bend in the road and came smack into it! Not twenty feet ahead of +them a man sprang into the middle of the road and leveled a revolver at +them! In one electrified instant they saw that the fellow wore a mask and +a slouch hat and looked for all the world like a brigand straight out of +some sensational moving picture. + +Betty, more surprised at first than alarmed, put on her brakes and came to +a standstill, at the same time putting out a hand to warn the car behind +them. + +"Oh, Betty, we are being held up!" moaned Grace, who evidently was +frightened enough for both of them. "For goodness' sake, hold up your +hands. He may shoot." + +Still feeling rather dazed with the suddenness of the thing, Betty raised +both hands above her head, at the same time feeling a rather hysterical +desire to laugh. It was so absurd, being held up by a masked stranger in +broad daylight. + +Nevertheless, she gave a little gasp of fright as the man waved his big +revolver menacingly and came close to the car. She wished frantically that +he would not point that firearm at her. Suppose it should go off! + +"Come on, hand over what you got," the robber demanded in a gruff +threatening voice. "The quicker you move, the better it will be for you." + +"Wh--what do you want?" asked Betty, in a weak little voice that did not +sound like her own at all. She had thought of her pocketbook beside her in +the pocket of the car. The purse contained a whole month's allowance. She +was sparring desperately for time--help in some form or other might come +at any moment. But the ruffian in the road was evidently in no frame of +mind to be fooled with. + +He waved his revolver once more, eliciting a terrified gurgle from Grace +and commanded roughly that they get out of the car. + +"No funny business," he snarled. "Get out!" + +Betty was about to obey when she had a brilliant thought. Her pepper gun! +She had bought it the day before from the son of her father's chauffeur, +thinking it was an undesirable plaything for a nine-year-old boy and had +put it, as the most convenient place, in her car. And the pepper gun was +filled--as it should have been--with good red cayenne pepper! + + + + +Chapter XII + +Sheep! + + +For a moment Betty hesitated, almost afraid of what she was going to do. +The pepper gun might work, but if she were not quick enough or clever +enough, her little trick might also result in a tragedy. + +Her hesitation was only momentary, however, for Betty was a born fighter. +Suddenly she cried out as if in joyful greeting to an unexpected arrival. + +"Here they come! here they come!" she called, and in the moment that their +captor turned his startled eyes from her to the road ahead, Betty acted. + +She snatched the pepper gun from its hiding place in the car and as the +man once more turned furiously upon her let him have the full contents +directly in the face. + +It was a dreadful thing to do. Choking and sputtering, the ruffian dropped +his revolver and raised both fists to his tortured eyes. + +"I'll get you for this!" he cried between great sneezes that threatened to +tear him apart. "You just wait--" + +But Betty refused to wait. As soon as the fellow had dropped his weapon +she had started the engine, and now she guided the car past the stuttering +robber and raced off down the road. + +Mollie, who had only half understood what was going on but who had caught +enough of it to be considerably alarmed did not stop to ask questions, but +sped off down the road after Betty. + +It was half a dozen miles farther on that Betty finally slowed the car and +waited for Mollie and the others to catch up with her. Grace, who had been +gradually recovering from her fright, had not yet recovered enough to ask +any questions. She had been too much concerned in putting miles between +them and the scene of their adventure. + +As Mollie came up alongside, Betty drew her first free breath. + +Of course Mollie and Amy and Mrs. Irving wanted to hear all about it, and +Betty told them what had happened, her account interrupted by hysterical +laughter. + +But when she came to the pepper gun, the girls' expression of utter +bewilderment changed to admiration of Betty's quick thought and quicker +action. + +"Why, Betty," cried Amy, incredulously, "I don't see how you ever had the +courage to do it. Why, that man might have shot you!" + +"He probably would have if I hadn't got him first," said Betty, half-way +between laughter and tears. "It was taking an awfully big chance, but," +with a flash of spirit, "I wasn't going to sit there calmly and have him +take away all our money. Not if I could help it." + +"Betty, I think you were simply wonderful," said Mollie in heart-felt +admiration. "Why, if he had taken our money it would have completely +spoiled our trip." + +"How they talk," said Grace hysterically. "Any one would think it was only +the trip that mattered when we might very easily have been _killed._" + +This remark served to bring Mrs. Irving to a realization of the present, +and she suggested that they start on again. + +"Not that I am particularly nervous," she hastily added, as the girls +looked at her suspiciously. "Only I will feel just as well when we have +put a dozen miles between us and that highway robber, instead of only half +that. I wish there was a town handy where we could notify the +authorities." + +They started on again, and as the miles slid past them they became less +nervous and even began to laugh a little at thought of the robber's +consternation when he received the contents of Betty's pepper gun full in +his face. + +"He was probably the most surprised crook ever," commenced Grace with a +chuckle. "He never will get over cursing you, Betty. How did you ever +happen to have it? The pepper gun, I mean," she added curiously. + +Betty explained how the gun had come into her possession. "I didn't know," +she added ruefully, her foot on the accelerator as they sped up a steep +hill, "when I bought it, that it would come in so handy. How much further +do you suppose we have to go?" she asked, changing the subject abruptly. + +"Why," said Grace, looking at her wrist watch and realizing suddenly that +she was getting rather hungry, "we have been riding since ten o'clock and +it is now after noon. We must be very nearly there by this time. Goodness, +I hope there will be something to eat around Wild Rose Lodge. I'm getting +famished." + +"Mollie's Uncle John said he would attend to that--stocking the cabin with +good things, I mean," said Betty, herself suddenly conscious of a +disturbingly hungry feeling. "He said we would find enough canned things +to last us at least a week." + +"Canned things, yes," pouted Grace. "But who in the world wants to live on +canned things? I don't see why we didn't bring a chicken along, at least." + +"Well, maybe we can manage to run over one," chuckled Betty, as they +passed a farmhouse and several chickens scuttled squawking across the +road. "Then we can have one good and fresh. For goodness' sake, what is +Mollie tooting that horn for?" she added, as the raucous signal came from +the car behind them, "Has she stopped the car, Grace? Look and see." + +"It's stopped deader than a door nail," said Grace, obligingly screwing +about in her seat and fixing on the road behind them a disapproving eye. +"Now what do you suppose can be the trouble this time? If she has had a +blowout or something, I'm not going to help fix the old thing--" + +"You couldn't fix the blowout, dear, but you might help with the tire," +Betty said, with a laugh, as she stopped the roadster and jumped to the +road. "Come on, she seems to be excited about something--" + +"Goodness, I hope it isn't another highway robber," said Grace anxiously, +stopping in the middle of the road at the dreadful thought. "I don't see +any, but--" + +"You don't see any because there _isn't_ any," Betty assured her, +taking her by the arm and leading her decidedly forward. "You don't +suppose there is a whole Robin Hood's band in this woods, do you?" + +Mollie and Amy and Mrs. Irving came running to meet them excitedly--or at +least, Mollie and Amy did the running, while their chaperon followed more +slowly. + +"There are blackberries in there, whole bushels and bushels of them!" +Mollie called. "You could see them from the road, and there you girls +passed right by them without even looking." + +"Blackberries!" repeated Grace resignedly, as she felt in her pocket to +see if she had any candy left. "Just listen to her speaking of +blackberries when what I'm dying for is a good big steak with onions on +top of it--" + +"Stop it," cried Mollie indignantly, while the others felt their mouths +begin to water. "The idea of mentioning steak--But here," she broke off, +seizing Grace's hand and dragging her toward the woods, "come with me and +pick berries if you value your life. Lucky we brought those tin pails +along." + +"But why," protested Grace patiently, as she was dragged along, "should we +want to pick berries?" + +"To eat," replied Mollie, attacking a bush that was fairly black with the +luscious ripe fruit. "And besides," she added, lowering her voice to a +confidential pitch, "Mrs. Irving said that if she could find some flour +and baking powder in the lodge she would make us a steamed blackberry +pudding for supper." + +Grace stared for a moment then, without another word, set to work on the +loaded bush. + +"You might have told me that before," she grumbled, her mouth full of +berries. "You always did have a mean disposition, Mollie." + +To which Mollie's only reply was a chuckle and a sly wink at Betty, who +was working close at her side. + +They worked on happily for a few minutes, then suddenly Amy straightened +up and stood quiet as though she were listening to something. + +The girls, whose nerves were still a little on edge from their recent +adventure, demanded to know in no uncertain tones what was the matter with +her. + +"N-nothing," Amy answered a little sheepishly. "I thought I heard a little +rustling among the leaves, that's all." + +"Probably a breeze coming up," said Betty matter-of-factly, and they went +on with their berry picking. + +But it was not long before a second disturbance came, and this time they +all heard it. It was, as Amy had said, a rustling sound. However, it was +louder this time, as though several heavy bodies were pushing through the +underbrush on the other side of the road. + +"Perhaps we had better go and see what is making all the noise," said Mrs. +Irving, her light tone successfully hiding an undercurrent of nervousness. +"I guess we have picked enough berries for our pudding, anyway." + +The girls picked up their pails and started for the road, Betty in the +lead. But when the latter reached the outer fringe of bushes she started +back, almost treading on Mollie's toes and causing her to drop her pail in +alarm. + +"It's sheep!" cried the Little Captain. "Dozens and dozens of them! Come +and look!" + + + + +Chapter XIII + +The Enemy Routed + + +Mrs. Irving pushed forward beside Betty, and the girls stared +unbelievingly over her shoulder. Then they saw that she was right. + +While they had been picking berries in the woods a flock of sheep had +wandered down to the road from the other direction and had completely +surrounded their two cars. + +The big-eyed, innocent looking animals were circling around and around the +machines as if examining them with a sort of ovine interest and curiosity. + +But to the girls the sheep had a rather terrifying aspect. There were so +many of them and they had so completely taken possession of their +automobiles! How in the world were they ever to get back their property? + +"Goodness!" Grace whispered plaintively in Betty's ear, "I expect they +will try to climb into the cars next. What ever are we going to do?" + +"Sh," cautioned Amy fearfully, as some of the flock, attracted by the +noise in the bushes, turned their heads in the direction of it. "Suppose +they should come in here?" + +"Well, they are not lions, you goose," said Mollie, coming out of the +trance into which surprise had thrown her. "They are only sheep, and they +couldn't hurt you if they tried." + +"Not unless they stampeded," said Betty quietly. "In that case I wouldn't +care to be in the way." + +"But we can't stay here all night," Mollie protested impatiently. + +"Held up by a lot of silly old sheep," added Grace, still more +uncomfortably conscious of a growing appetite. + +"It must be almost two o'clock," added Amy with a sigh. + +"Yes, if things keep on this way it will be night before we reach the +lodge," said Mollie, adding with decision, "I vote that we get some sticks +and stones and scat 'em out of the way." + +"I think I have a better suggestion than that," put in Mrs. Irving, +speaking for the first time. "I think we had better wait for a short time +before we do anything. The sheep will probably get tired in a little while +and wander off of their own accord." + +"Oh, all right," said Mollie, with rather bad grace as she seated herself +on a convenient rock. "But all the time we are waiting for them to be +tired, we will be getting tired ourselves and, goodness, Mrs. Irving, I'm +being starved to death." + +At the desperation in her tones the girls had to laugh, though they were +as reluctant to sit with folded hands and wait as she was. Still, Mrs. +Irving was their chaperon and probably knew best. + +So with admirable resignation they disposed themselves beside Mollie on +the big rock and settled down to watch for developments. + +But after waiting for an everlasting five minutes they decided that there +were to be no developments. The foolish sheep continued to circle lazily +about the cars, nibbling now and then upon the grass by the roadside but +showing not the slightest intention in the world of moving from there for +some time to come. + +"Oh, what shall we do?" moaned Grace, moving restlessly on her +uncomfortable seat. "My foot is going to sleep and I'm trying to sit on a +pointed stone or something." + +"And it looks as though those crazy sheep were going to stay there all +night," added Betty, herself growing restive at the apparent futility of +waiting for something to happen. "Can't we do something, Mrs. Irving?" + +"Wait just a few minutes more," begged the lady, who was afraid of the +sheep, but was reluctant to confess her fear to her young charges. "Look, +there seems to be a movement among them now," she added hopefully, as one +sheep pressed against another and sent it scampering a few feet along the +road. "We won't have to wait much longer, I am sure." + +And so, both to break their chaperon's authority, the girls fidgeted and +fumed, getting more impatient and hungrier with every leaden minute that +dragged itself by until almost three-quarters of an hour had passed. + +Then, when they began to think that they must scream if they were forced +to wait another minute, their chaperon rose of her own accord and with a +decided movement flicked the dust from her skirt. + +"I think we have waited long enough," she hazarded, to which each girl +said a fervent though silent "amen." "I suppose we shall have to follow +Mollie's suggestion and gather sticks and stones. Perhaps we can scare +them away." + +"Hooray!" shouted Mollie, jumping to her feet with relief. At the +unexpected sound the sheep in the road started and looked about them +uneasily. "Come on, girls, I'm mad enough to attack Jem single-handed. All +who are with me, say Aye." + +"Aye!" they yelled, scurrying about to find sticks and stones. + +Betty, flourishing a branch at the frightened flock, yelled: "We are wild, +wild women, old sheep. You had better get out while the going's good. We +eat little fellers like you alive!" and with a whoop of wild spirits she +danced down to the edge of the wood waving her stick wildly about her +head. + +Her fun was contagious and, smothering their laughter, the girls waltzed +after her, throwing sticks and stones and all sorts of improvised weapons +into the midst of the now thoroughly frightened flock. + +Mrs. Irving strove to caution them, but her voice was lost in the babble, +and for once in her life at least she found herself utterly ignored. With +a little sigh she picked up a stick of her own and followed after the +girls. + +For a moment it looked as though the panic stricken sheep would rush +straight for the shouting girls, and in that moment what was little more +than an exciting game to the girls might have turned into a rather +dreadful tragedy. + +But, luckily, half a dozen sheep broke through and, led by an old ram, +started down the road and the rest of the flock, as is the habit of sheep, +followed after. + +In a moment the entire flock was galloping off down the road with the +excited girls in pursuit. There is no telling how far they might have +followed the sheep had not Betty become suddenly possessed of a grain of +common-sense. + +Panting and laughing, she came to a standstill while the girls rushed past +her. + +"Come back here!" she cried, her voice choked with laughter. "There's no +use of our being as silly as the sheep. Mrs. Irving will think we have +deserted her." + +So reluctantly the girls abandoned the chase and started back to rejoin +their much relieved but slightly dazed chaperon. + +"Now if we had only done that an hour ago," said Mollie, as they climbed +back into the machines determined to make up for lost time, "we would have +been that much nearer the lodge and--something to eat." + +"Goodness, it will be almost dark when we get there now," wailed Grace, as +she slipped into the seat beside Betty. "And we haven't had anything to +eat since breakfast." + +"What with highway robbers and sheep," laughed Betty, as she started the +engine, "we shall be lucky if we get there at all." + +"Oh, Betty, if you love me don't mention that awful highwayman again," +begged Grace, looking uneasily into the shadows of the wood. "I don't want +to have any more thrills like that as long as I live." + +"Let's hope we won't," said Betty fervently. + +"It's a pity there is no telephone along this road--we could notify the +folks at Deepdale," remarked Mollie. + +"Humph, if we did that they might get so scared that they'd send for us to +come home," came from Amy. + +"That's so!" came from the other Outdoor Girls quickly. + +"Well, as I said before, no more thrills like that for yours truly," +repeated Grace. + +But little did the girls know that in the weeks to follow they would have +more and more startling thrills than they had ever experienced before. + + + + +Chapter XIV + +Nothing Human + + +They might have reached Wild Rose Lodge before dusk, in spite of Grace's +gloomy prediction, if everything had gone well then. But it seemed that +the evil genius of bad luck was not yet through with them. + +They were scarcely five miles from their destination when, bang! went a +report that made the girls clutch at each other wildly. At first they +jumped to the conclusion that they were being held up again, but close on +the heels of the first thought came the conviction of the truth. Mollie +had had a blowout! + +Betty, looking behind, saw the big car stop and brought her own little +roadster to a standstill once more. "There is nothing wrong with our +tires, is there?" she asked of Grace. "Look over your side, Gracie, and +see." + +Finding nothing amiss, they jumped out and ran back to Mollie to offer +assistance. Mollie was eyeing the flat tire gloomily and saying things +under her breath that none of the girls could catch. Then as Betty spoke +to her she seemed to come to life and ran around to the back of the +machine. + +"Of course you can help," she answered, working to release the extra tire. +"I would like to see you get out of it. Lucky I bought an extra tire +before we started, though I did hope," here she glared at the girls as if +it were all their fault, "that I wouldn't have to use it so soon. We've +had more trouble on this ride than any I can remember. A hold-up, sheep +and--this!" + +"Well, there is no use talking about it," Betty reminded her cheerfully. +"The less we talk, the harder we can work and the sooner we shall get +started again." + +"Yes, that's all very well," grumbled Mollie, as she fumbled for her +tools; "but you don't know this place as well as I do." + +"You talk," said Amy, her eyes widening, "as though there were wild +animals or something in the woods. I didn't know they came as far east as +this." + +"They don't, goose," said Mollie grumpily, as she pulled at the tire. "I +didn't say anything about wild animals, did I? Only we have to ride about +two miles through the woods before we get to the lodge and I must say I +didn't want to do that in the dark." + +"But there is some sort of road, isn't there?" asked Grace. + +Mollie, bending over the lifting jack, shot her a withering glance. + +"Of course there's a road," she said shortly. "How else could we expect to +use the cars?" + +"It must be a sort of wagon road," suggested Betty as she deftly helped +her chum. "And I don't blame you for not wanting to try it at night, +Mollie. I don't much like the idea myself." + +"I believe if we hurry that we can get there before dusk," said Mrs. +Irving confidently, though it might have been noticed that she kept her +eyes rather anxiously on the fast sinking sun. + +At last, after what seemed an eternity to the impatient girls, the new +tire had replaced the old one, the old one was safely strapped on the back +of the car, the tools were put away, and they were ready to start once +more. + +"Give her plenty of gas this time, Betty," Mollie sung after her as the +Little Captain climbed into her car. "If we can manage to get to the woods +before dark we will be doing good work. Let her go." + +With which advice she settled herself behind the wheel of her own car and +they were off once more. + +Betty did "give her plenty of gas," the result being that they succeeded +in reaching the wagon road that led into the woods to the lodge just on +the edge of dusk. + +However, when they started along the road they were dismayed to find that +what was only dusk outside on the road became almost dark in here, and +Betty had all she could do to keep to the road at all. + +"Hadn't you better put on your lights?" Grace suggested uneasily. "We +might run into a ditch or something. Betty, I'm half scared." + +For answer Betty switched on the lights and the woods and the road ahead +of them were suddenly flooded with a weird radiance. It brought out +branches and leaves and stones in such sharp contrast to the dark +background that the effect was startling. + +"Oh," gasped Grace, "turn them off again, do, Betty. It is positively +ghastly." + +"Don't be foolish," said Betty, striving to make her voice sound +matter-of-fact, her eyes glued to the road ahead of them as it twisted and +turned through the woods. "I don't see why lights should make a perfectly +harmless wood look ghastly. And, anyway, I couldn't turn them out now. I +don't believe I could find my way. You don't want me to run into +something, do you?" + +"No, of course not," Grace said more firmly, rather ashamed of her fears. +"I didn't mean to act in a silly fashion. But," she turned to Betty +quickly, "that hold-up and all--don't you feel a little queer yourself, +Betty? Tell the truth." + +"Yes," said the Little Captain truthfully. "I feel," she added slowly, as +though searching for words, "I feel as though the woods belonged to +somebody and that we were sort of--sort of--intruding." + +"Why, Betty!" said Grace, staring at her, "what a funny thing to say." + +"I suppose it is," said Betty, shaking off the illusion with a shrug of +her shoulders. "I am getting foolish in my old age I guess. We shall all +feel better when we get something to eat." + +"If we ever do," said Grace gloomily, adding as a sudden turn in the woods +shot them deeper into the gloom of it: "Do be careful, Betty. I feel as +though we were going over a precipice." + +But Betty was too busy keeping the road to listen to her. + +"Look behind," she directed Grace, "and see if Mollie is following close +to us." + +"She is right behind," reported Grace, as two eyes of light shot their +glare in her eyes. "She is following us closer than a poor relation." + +Betty giggled at this, and then for a long time--or at least it seemed a +long time to their strained nerves--they went on in silence, following the +winding road wherever it led and getting deeper into the forest with every +moment. + +Then suddenly something loomed up dark against the shadows only a few +hundred feet ahead of them, and with a great feeling of thankfulness they +realized that they had reached their destination. Directly ahead of them +stood Wild Rose Lodge. They had arrived! + +But just as they were about to break into wild jubilation something +happened that tightened Betty's hand on the wheel and made Grace cry out +with dismay. + +Out from the shadow of the lodge a second shadow detached itself, a +hunched up, bulky, fearful shadow that seemed neither beast nor man, but a +combination of both of them. + +For a moment, while the girls watched, paralyzed with fright, the thing +seemed about to spring into the path of the moving car. But in another +instant it turned, wheeled, and disappeared into the thick bushes about +the house. + +Then and only then did Betty recover presence of mind enough to stop the +car. + +"Betty! Betty!" cried Grace in a horrified whisper, grasping Betty's hand +as it clung to the wheel. "What was it? Oh, what was it?" + +"I don't know," Betty answered mechanically. "I only know it was +horrible." + +Then quite suddenly and without warning Grace broke down and cried. + + + + +Chapter XV + +Wild Roses + + +"We will go into the house," Mrs. Irving answered to their concerted cry of +"What shall we do?" "Whatever it was that has frightened us has +disappeared now, and we shall certainly be safer inside the house than out +here. Come on, girls, I have the key." + +And so, leaving the cars where they were, the girls approached the house +with shaking knees and hearts that hammered their fear aloud. The Outdoor +Girls were ordinarily afraid of nothing real and human, but to be held up +at the point of a pistol would unnerve almost any one, and the struggle +the girls had made not to give way to their fears at the time had made +them more nervous still. And this thing that had startled them now, added +to what had gone before, seemed a little more than could be borne. It +seemed, in fact, like nothing human. + +Mrs. Irving turned the key in the lock, opened the door and stepped inside +the dark place, motioning to the girls to follow her. + +Fearfully the chums obeyed and Betty and Mollie pulled out their electric +pocket torches, filling the place with a weird light. Mollie, being +acquainted with the place, naturally took charge of the situation. + +"There are matches over there," she said, "and candles over the fireplace. +For goodness' sake, let's get a regular light, folks. Perhaps that will +make us feel more natural." + +"So say all of us," echoed Amy. "The dark makes everything worse, when you +are not well acquainted with a place." + +Mollie touched a match to the candles, and in the answering flare turned +to face her chums. + +"Girls," she said, determinedly, "I don't know how you feel about it, but +I vote that before we do anything else we get something to eat. We all +look like ghosts just now and I'm sure we feel much worse than that. But a +little food makes a monstrous lot of difference." + +"You know it does," cried Grace, relaxing into one of the big chairs that +were scattered about the room and covering her face with her hands. "I +think if I don't get something to eat soon, I'll die, that's all." + +"Well, we are none of us going to die," said Mrs. Irving vigorously, as +she threw aside her coat and hat. "Show us the way to the kitchen, Mollie, +and if there is anything there to eat, we will get it." + +Accordingly Mollie took one of the candles and led the way into a little +room beyond while all the girls but Betty crowded in after her. + +For the Little Captain slipped back for a moment and very quietly closed +the door, shutting out definitely the shadow beyond it. + +"I suppose it is foolish," she said to herself, "because if there is +anything out there that really wants to get in there are plenty of ways +that it can do it, without coming in through the door. But," and she +turned the key in the lock, "it certainly makes one feel more comfortable +to have the door closed." Then she followed the girls into the other room, +and the sight that met her eyes was certainly more cheering than anything +she could have imagined. + +Mollie's Uncle John had surprised them. In the exact center of a table set +for five lay a young pig, roasted whole and browned to a turn! Nor was +this all. The table was littered with covered dishes of all sizes and +descriptions, and as the contents of each one of these dishes was +disclosed, the girls became more and more excited and hilarious. + +There was apple sauce in one, salad in another, mashed potatoes that had +become quite cold in another, and a boat of gravy which had also become +quite cold. + +"But we don't mind," cried Mollie joyfully, as she took the gravy-boat in +one hand, the dish of potatoes in the other, and ran with them over to a +great stove in one corner of the room. "We need only some matches to have +this blazing hot in a minute. No, not that way, Grace," as the latter +tried to help by lighting the burner. "This isn't a gas stove, you know; +it's an oil stove and you had better look out or you will blow us all up." + +It is small wonder if Betty was so dazzled by this joyful scene that she +could neither move nor speak for the space of two seconds or so. Then, +recovering her powers of locomotion, she went over to the table and picked +up a note that, in their excitement, the girls had overlooked. + +"See what this says," she called to them, and they looked at her rather +impatiently. Just at that moment the only thing they cared to consider was +food--and more food--and then some more! + +But as Betty read they became more interested, and even stopped long +enough to hear her through. It was a brief note. This is what it said. + + "My dear young ladies: + + "I am a neighbor of Mr. Prendergast," (this was the dressed-up name + of Mollie's Uncle John) "and he axed me to get your dinner ready fer + you. I tried to keep it hot but you wus so long comin' I had to go + home to get dinner fer my old man. Hope things is all right. + + "Lizzie Davis." + +"So she is the one who has done all this," said Betty, looking around at +the good things with dancing eyes. "I bet she is nice and plump and has +rosy cheeks." + +"Lizzie Davis? Lizzie Davis?" repeated Mollie, bringing the steaming gravy +back and plumping the dish triumphantly down on the table. "Rather a funny +name for a fairy godmother, but she sure does know how to cook. Don't +forget the potatoes, Grace. Come on, girls--let's sit down." + +So down the girls sat and acted like ravenous pigs--or so Grace described +their conduct afterward. Mrs. Irving set to work carving the delicious +pork, but they could not wait for her. + +They seized slices of bread, spread apple sauce and butter on them, and +ate like what they were, four famished girls and one equally famished +chaperon who had been out in the open all day and had had nothing to eat +since morning. + +It was some time before they showed any considerable signs of slowing up. +Then Grace put down her fork, leaned back lazily, and called for dessert. +The latter was a huge cherry pie, and before the girls were through with +it there was not enough left to color a robin's egg. + +After the pangs of hunger had been satisfied they found to their great +surprise that they were dead tired and sleepy. + +"We will get the dishes out of the way and then Mollie can show us where +we sleep," said Betty. "Oh, girls, did you ever in your life taste such a +dinner?" + +It was not till the dishes had all been cleared away and Mollie took up +her candle to show them their quarters that the unwelcome thought of the +thing that had so frightened them again crept terrifyingly into their +minds. Try as they would to forget it, they could not. + +There were three small sleeping rooms in the lodge, but, small as they +were, they were comfortable and contained beds that seemed the height of +luxury to the tired girls. + +Because of the indistinct and flickering candle light the girls could make +out very little of what the rooms really looked like, and they postponed +any close examination until the morning. Back of the lodge was a shed for +the cars. + +The bedrooms were all joined by doors, which gave the girls a safe and +sociable feeling. Mrs. Irving, of course, had one room to herself, Betty +and Mollie slept together and Grace and Amy paired off. + +They wasted little time in getting ready--Betty and Mollie had appointed +themselves a committee of two to bring in the grips from Mollie's car--and +before long they tasted the exquisite restfulness of comfortable beds +after a long nerve-trying day in the out-of-doors. + +"I don't believe I shall close my eyes all night," said Amy with +conviction. "I'm too horribly nervous." + +But three minutes later she was sound asleep! + +The sun had been up a good two hours before any one stirred in Wild Rose +Lodge. Betty was the first to awake, and in fifteen minutes she had the +rest of the sleepy-eyed and protesting girls up and nearly dressed. + +"What's the idea, anyway?" yawned Grace lazily. "I could have slept at +least a good two hours more." + +"On a day like this?" sang Betty, breathing in deep breaths of the +wood-scented air. "And isn't this just the dearest room you ever saw?" +she added, wheeling about and regarding the apartment delightedly. They +were in Grace and Amy's room, for, as usual, Mollie and Betty had been +the first dressed and had gone into their churns' room to hurry them up +--if such a thing were possible. + +Betty's summing up of the room they were in was indeed well deserved, for +the place was charming. There was a dresser, a bed, and three chairs, and +all of these articles of furniture had been rough-hewed out of logs, +giving the place a delightfully rustic appearance. There was a grass rug +on the floor and in one corner a little table covered with books. + +"Isn't it darling?" cried Mollie, following Betty's glance about the +place. "Uncle John built the lodge and made all of the furniture himself, +you know. And he bought the grass rugs from the Indians." + +They were still exclaiming about the place when Mrs. Irving called to them +that breakfast was ready. With a whoop of delight they answered the +summons, and a moment later sat themselves down to a most satisfying meal +of omelet and toast and coffee with real cream in it. Also Mrs. Irving set +on the table a yellow-topped pitcher of milk fresh from the cow. + +"Our friend, Lizzie Davis, brought it," their chaperon answered with a +smile, in response to the girls' curious questions. "Also some fresh +butter and eggs. I have an idea," she added, as she got up to refill the +butter plate, "that we shall live on the fat of the land while we are +here." + +"Lizzie Davis," repeated Betty, pausing in the act of filling her glass +with fresh milk and regarding Mrs. Irving with dancing eyes. "Tell me, +chaperon dear. Didn't she have nice red cheeks, and wasn't she +delightfully plump?" + +"Yes," said Mrs. Irving, smiling at Betty's flushed prettiness. "She was +all of that, my dear. I don't believe I ever saw a more cozy looking +person in my life." + +"I knew it!" cried Betty triumphantly, adding with a suspicious eye on +Grace: "Hand over that plate of toast, Gracie. You needn't think you can +eat it all up!" + +After breakfast they sallied forth to "view the country o'er." They would +have stayed and helped Mrs. Irving clear up, but that good woman declared +that she could do better by herself on this first morning. After she had +become better acquainted with the place they could help her all they +liked. Finally, after some protest, they had to let her have her way. + +As they stepped out on the porch, Betty paused and held up her hand for +silence. + +"Listen," she said. "That murmuring sound and the splash of water--" + +"It's the river and the falls," explained Mollie. "Let's go down and have +a look at them." + +But Amy, giving a little gasp of delight, fairly tumbled down the steps +and into a riot of gorgeous pink wild roses. The lodge was fairly +surrounded by them. + +"Oh, you darlings!" cried Amy, putting both arms around a bush of the +fragrant flowers as though she would gather in all their beauty at once. +"I never saw anything so wonderful in all my life! Oh, girls, I'm glad I +came!" + + + + +Chapter XVI + +The Whirlpool + + +All the spirit and joy of the woods seemed to have entered into the +Outdoor Girls. For the next half hour they romped in the woods and the +beautiful flowers for all the world like little children whose first +glimpse it was of the country. + +They took down their hair and made wreaths of wild roses for crowns, and +when, faces flushed with exercise and fun, they had finished, one might +easily have mistaken them for real fairies come to life. + +"But I want to see the river," Betty called to them, stopping once more to +listen to the rhythmic sound of splashing water. "Come on, girls. It can't +be more than a few hundred feet away, even though we can't see it for the +bushes. Lead on, Mollie Billette, I wouldst hie me hence." + +But when Mollie laughingly obeyed and started into the woods, Amy held +back. + +"What's the matter?" Grace asked, turning to her curiously. + +"I--I was just thinking," stammered Amy, ashamed of her own weakness, +"about last night." + +"About last night," Betty prompted, still at a loss. + +"You haven't forgotten, have you?" she asked, incredulously. "That--thing +--on the porch." + +"Oh!" they said, and a shadow fell over their bright faces. + +"Why, yes," said Betty, slowly, adding as though she could not quite +explain the phenomenon herself: "I suppose we did forget all about it." + +"Or if we didn't, we should have," said Mollie, ungrammatically but +decidedly. "Come on, girls, we aren't going to let any silly old thing +like that frighten us out of a good time." + +"It seems," said Grace thoughtfully, while Amy still held back, "almost as +if we had dreamed the whole thing. The memory of it is so vague--and +indistinct." + +"Well, it isn't vague to me--or indistinct either," said Amy, feeling +rather abused because the girls did not seem to share her feelings. "I +hardly slept all night long just thinking about it." + +"Oh, Amy Blackford!" said Grace accusingly, while Mollie and Betty turned +twinkling eyes upon her. "If that isn't the biggest one I ever heard. Why, +I woke up once or twice in the night and each time I found you almost +snoring." + +"Oh, I did not," protested Amy, flushing indignantly, but here Mollie and +Betty stepped laughingly into the fray and peremptorily put an end to it. + +"Let's not fight about it," said Betty, when she could make herself heard. +"We don't care whether Amy snored or not. What we want to know is this: +Who is coming with us for a look at the falls?" + +"Now you're talking, Little Captain," said Mollie approvingly. "All in +favor please say Aye." Amy still showed some inclination to hold back, +but Mollie and Betty each took an arm and hurried her willy-nilly with +them into the woods. + +"You had better take the lead, Mollie," Betty suggested after they had +gone some little distance along the path. "I can manage Amy alone now, I +guess. She seems pretty well tamed." + +"Tamed, but scared to death," Amy came back, with a wry smile. "Really, +Betty," she turned to look at the Little Captain closely, "aren't you the +least little bit nervous about what happened last night?" + +"No, I don't think I am now," said Betty, adding candidly, "I must say I +was last night though--just frightened to death. It seemed so awfully +uncanny--coming upon that thing in the dark after what we had gone through +with that bandit. But then," she added more lightly, "everything seems so +much worse in the dark, you know." + +"Yes," said Amy slowly and looking very serious. "That all may be very +true. But I think that as long as we are sure we didn't dream it last +night and that the skulking thing really dodged out from the corner of our +porch that we ought to be on our guard against it. And how," she finished +most reasonably, "can we be on our guard in the woods?" + +Betty was at a loss to know just how to answer such a question. By this +time Mollie and Grace were some little distance ahead of them and Amy's +nervousness was beginning to communicate itself to her against her will. + +She felt again the creeping sensation that had traveled up and down her +spine at sight of that crouching, sinister figure that had sprung out from +the shadow of the porch. + +It had disappeared into the bushes last night, and, for all she knew--and +the thought made her tingle weirdly--it might still be hiding in them, +crouching, ready to spring-- + +With an effort she shook off the mood and turned to Amy brightly. + +"There is no use in our making a mountain out of a mole hill," she said, +plucking a wild rose as they swung by and smelling of its delicious +fragrance. "Last night, I admit, it seemed very terrifying to us, but that +was probably because we couldn't see what it was that frightened us. It +may just have been a large dog or something." + +"Humph," sniffed Amy, sceptically, "it must have been a monster dog. Sort +of a ghost hound." + +"Goodness, that's going from bad to worse," laughed Betty, as they +rejoined the other girls. "Let's hope it isn't anything like that, Amy +dear. Hello, what are you waiting for?" she hailed the girls cheerfully. +"We almost fell over you." + +"Watch your step," cautioned Mollie, adding as she cleared aside some +bushes and motioned Betty to a place beside her: "We've reached the river, +Betty, and a little farther up is the falls. Isn't it beautiful?" + +"Oh, it is beautiful," rejoined Betty, a sentiment which Amy heartily +echoed, and for a few minutes they stood there, drinking in the beauty of +the scene, entirely unmindful of the lovely picture they themselves made +with their loosened hair and wreaths of wild flowers. + +The river was not very wide, but the water was deep and clear and swift +and the continual swish-swish of its passage over rocks and between +foliage-laden banks made a pleasant, even sound that was deliciously +restful and refreshing. + +"Oh, if we could only get down right into the very middle of it and let +those little ripples wash over us forever and forever!" sighed Grace +ecstatically. + +"She would a little mermaid be!" sang Betty, as she slipped down to the +very edge of the water and leaned over to catch her reflection in the +bright depths of it. "But honestly, Mollie, isn't there any place in the +river where we can swim?" + +"It looks too swift for good swimming to me--" began Grace, but Mollie +stopped her with a mysterious finger to her lips. + +"Hush, my pretty one, not a word," said the latter, beginning to pick her +way daintily along the river bank. "Follow me and you will wear diamonds, +or seaweed, or whatever it is that mermaids wear. And don't fall over, +whatever you do," she turned around to caution them. "The river is so +swift here that I don't believe even the strongest swimmer would have a +chance." + +Accordingly the girls "watched their step," and for some distance followed +Mollie uncomplainingly. Then, as there seemed no sign of their getting +anywhere, Grace started to protest. + +"Say, do you suppose she has any idea where she is going?" the latter +asked of Betty in a tone that was designed to reach Mollie's ear. But +before she could say anything more, Mollie herself swung jubilantly round +upon them. + +"Here we are, girls!" she cried. "Now see if you ever saw anything so +pretty in all your lives." + +Once more the girls stood spellbound by the natural beauty of the scene. +As they walked they had become more and more conscious of the roaring +noise made by rushing water, and now, ascending a small rise of ground, +they came full upon the majestic beauty of Moonlight Falls. + +The falls fell full thirty feet, and at the foot of it the river was +churned into swirling, liquid foam that whirled around and around again in +a sort of mad race and then went rushing off down the river in a shower of +lacy spray. + +It was wildly inspiring, exhilarating, and the girls thrilled with a +strange new emotion as they watched. It was so free, so gloriously +unchained! + +"There is our swimming pool over there," Mollie said, raising her voice to +make it heard above the roar of the water. "You see there is a sort of +little back eddy below the falls and to one side of it, and right there +we'll find the best swimming of our lives. But," she added, and her voice +was impressively solemn, "heaven help any one of us who gets in the path +of the falls." + +"Look!" cried Amy suddenly, her voice ringing out full and clear and +startled above the uproar. "That--thing--over there. It is going into the +falls--no, under them!" + +"Where?" cried Mollie eagerly, leaning far forward. "Oh, yes, I see what +you mean. Oh, girls, I'm slipping!" Her voice rose to a terrified wail. +"Betty! Catch me!" + +But Betty was too late. She sprang forward just in time to see Mollie +slide down the slippery bank and plunge into the maddened water of the +river! + + + + +Chapter XVII + +The "Thing" + + +It took the girls a moment to realize the extent of the awful thing that +had happened. Then Betty, obeying her first impulse, raised her hands +above her head as though to dive, but Amy screamed to her to stop. + +"You will only be lost too!" she cried frantically. "Look--that flat +stick--the long one--" + +Instantly Betty saw what she meant and stooped to pick up a long broken +branch that was lying at her feet. At the same instant Mollie came to the +surface several feet away from the spot where she had fallen and threw her +strength desperately against the rushing might of the river. + +Betty ran along the river bank, Amy and Grace at her heels, shouting +encouragement to Mollie as she ran. + +"Hold tight!" she cried, adding with fresh dismay as she saw that the girl +was being swept further from the shore: "Over this way, honey. Swim to +your right--to your right--" + +Blinded, chilled to the bone with the cold water, her hair in her eyes and +her skirts clinging tight about her legs, Mollie struggled wildly, unable +to hear the shouts of her chums above the ringing in her ears. + +It was taking all her strength to hold her own against the rush of the +river--and now she was not even doing that! Slowly, very slowly, she was +being pushed backward; in a little while more she would be sucked +downward, and then-- + +She closed her eyes, and then, as though the obliteration of one sense +made more clear the other, she heard Betty calling to her above the roar +of the falls. + +"Mollie! Mollie!" it came, faint but distinct, "take hold of the stick and +we'll pull you in. Mollie, do you hear me?" + +The girl in the water was still struggling hard against the current that +was dragging at her cruelly, and at the sound of Betty's words she shook +the water from her eyes and looked about her dazedly. She had forgotten +the girls. + +Then she saw something that sent a tingle of renewed hope through her +tired body. What she saw was a long branch bobbing on the water not two +feet from her outstretched hand, and at the other end of the stick +was--Betty. + +With a sigh that was half a sob she struck out for it, reached it, and +clung to it as only the drowning know how to cling. + +Then she felt herself being drawn through the water, and once more she +closed her eyes. When she opened them again she was on a warm grassy bank +with Amy chafing one hand, Grace the other, while Betty was busy +unfastening the clothes about her waist. + +As Mollie was never under any circumstances expected to act as people +thought she should act, so this occasion was no exception to the rule. She +pushed Amy and Grace aside, glared at Betty, and sat up with a little +jerk. + +"For goodness' sake, stop undressing me, Betty Nelson!" she said. "I'm not +dead yet." + +"So we see," said Betty, while her eyes lost their anxious expression and +began to twinkle instead. "But you might have been, you know, if we had +left you to yourself." + +Mollie looked down at her dripping clothes ruefully and then out at the +rushing water. + +"I guess you are right," she said with a little grimace. "It wasn't very +pleasant while it lasted, either. Whew, but that water was cold!" She +shivered involuntarily and Betty sprang to her feet. + +"We had better be getting back to the lodge," she said. "You can put on +some dry things, Mollie, and we girls will get you some hot soup. You are +chilled to the bone." + +"Nonsense," denied Mollie grumpily. "I'm beginning to feel fine and warm. +Besides," she added, trying to cover a chill that fairly made her teeth +ache, "I want to stay and find out about that thing that got us into all +this fuss." + +"Nonsense," Grace put in. Up to this time Grace had been made speechless +by Mollie's sudden recovery. "You are shivering so you can't sit still." + +"It makes me cold just to look at you," added Amy. + +"Don't be foolish, honey," said Betty impatiently. "You can't sit there +all day in dripping clothes, and besides you will really get cold." + +"Humph," grunted Mollie, getting to her feet rather unsteadily and shaking +out her sodden skirts. "I guess this isn't the first time I have taken a +dip in cold water. And besides," she added impatiently: "I don't know +about you girls, but I would like to know just what that thing was that we +saw dart beneath the falls." + +"That was what made you fall into the water, wasn't it?" asked Betty, her +forehead wrinkling thoughtfully. "You leaned so far out to see--" + +"Yes, yes," Mollie interrupted impatiently, all her curiosity revived. +"That was what made me fall into the water all right. But what I want to +know is--what was it?" + +"I don't know," said Betty, shaking her head. "I didn't see it." + +"Neither did I," Grace added. + +Mollie looked from one to the other of them open-mouthed. Then she turned +to Amy. + +"You saw it, didn't you?" she asked. "You screamed, you know." + +"Yes," said Amy, nodding her head very solemnly. "And it looked to me a +lot like what we saw last night." + +"Thank goodness, you saw it too or the girls would surely think I had been +dreaming or was crazy," said Mollie, with relief. Then she suddenly turned +and started off into the woods. "I'm going all alone to find out what that +was," she told her stupefied chums. "I've got to clear up the mystery +before I'm an hour older." + +But this time Mollie found that there was some one stronger than she, and +that was Betty. The Little Captain ran after her and brought her back, +protesting but captive. + +"We are going back to the house now and get you something hot to eat," +said Betty, as they rejoined Amy and Grace and started off toward home. +"Afterwards if everybody's willing we will hunt this strange beast that +jumps out from porches and leaps into rivers just for the fun of the +thing. But just now, Billy Billette, you are going home." + +But Mollie had been more severely shocked than she was willing to admit by +her experience, and it was some time before the girls visited the falls or +the river again. Meanwhile they contented themselves with exploring the +country about the lodge, taking short trips in the cars and wondering +whether the boys would really be home before the summer was over. + +Their days were not altogether happy, however, for the thought of that +weird thing prowling around in the woods and ready, for all they knew, to +spring out at them at every turn, refused to be banished from their minds. + +Then, too, they thought a great deal about poor Professor Dempsey and the +little ruined cottage in the woods. Somehow, they had an uneasy feeling +that if they had gone to him at the very first minute they had heard of +his trouble they might have helped him. Whereas, they had waited and--he +had fled. + +For a while the idea of a dip in the swimming pool was naturally not very +attractive to Mollie, but at last there came a day when she herself +suggested it and the girls enthusiastically seconded the motion. + +More than the prospect of a good time, was the hope, unexpressed, that +they might see again that strange thing which Amy and Mollie had only +glimpsed the time before. Perhaps, they thought, if the mysterious thing +were faced in the open and in broad daylight, it might prove to be no +mystery at all but something ordinary and commonplace enough to do away +with all their vague and weird imaginings. + +But in this expectation they were most completely disappointed. Nothing at +all unusual occurred and although they enjoyed their swim in the warm back +eddy of the pool, they came away disgruntled and with a curious feeling +that they had been cheated out of something. + +"I only wish the boys would come," sighed Amy, as they turned in once more +at the lodge. + +After that the "Thing" became almost like an obsession with them. They +must find out definitely what it was that was spoiling all their fun. They +began to haunt the river, especially at the foot of the falls, in the hope +of seeing something, anything that would put an end to their curiosity and +uneasiness. + +For a long time they had not got up courage enough to visit the place at +night, but at last they became curious enough to brave even that. + +"We have simply got to find out something," Mollie whispered to Betty as +on this particular night they stood on the porch and waited for Mrs. +Irving to join them. "We can't go on this way any longer, Betty. Why, I am +getting so nervous I jump if you look at me." + +"I know," said Betty soberly. "It really is getting on our nerves too +much. Amy and Grace are feeling it even worse than we are." + +"Yes," agreed Mollie grumpily. "Last night was the third night in +succession that Amy got us all out of bed to listen to some fool noise +outside. I'm just about sick of it." + +The other three came then and they had no further chance for conversation. +As a matter of fact, they talked surprisingly little on the walk to the +river. + +High above them a wonderful full moon sent its silvery light filtering +down through leaves and branches, making of the woods a fairyland. +Somehow, the very beauty of it filled the girls with a strange dread. To +them the patches of moonlight were weird, unreal, the shadowy woods held a +sinister menace. + +By the time they had reached the river's edge they were almost ready to +turn and run. But they conquered the impulse and pressed on. Then suddenly +they saw what they had hoped, yet dreaded, to see. + +On the opposite bank, staring down into the rapids with a terrible +intentness, stood a man, or something that resembled a man. In one awful, +breath-taking minute they realized that here at last was the "Thing." + +As they watched, the hunched-up crouching figure on the opposite bank made +a lumbering movement forward as though about to throw itself into the +water at the foot of the falls. + +"Oh!" screamed Betty, the words wrenched from her dry throat. "Don't do +that! You mustn't do that! Go back! For goodness' sake, go back!" + +With a hoarse cry that answered her own, the "Thing" flung back from the +water's edge and disappeared into the darkness! + + + + +Chapter XVIII + +Surprised + + +The Outdoor Girls could hardly have told how they got back to the lodge +after that. Blindly they stumbled through the underbrush, expecting they +knew not what horrible thing, thankful for the moonlight that made it +possible for them to hurry. + +They did reach home somehow and there they sat until late into the night, +trying to find some explanation for the thing they had seen, striving to +think up some plan for hunting it down until finally Mrs. Irving sent them +to bed. + +That did not do very much good, for they lay awake and talked until the +first rays of sunlight crept into the windows. Then they said goodnight +and sank into a sleep of exhaustion. + +For three days after the episode the girls never went far from the house +on foot. They would take the cars and spin down the open road, but a sort +of horror of the supernatural kept them from venturing into the woods +again. + +But when the fourth day dawned the fright of their moonlight experience +had begun to wear off and they were beginning to feel ashamed of their +fear. + +Having a little of this in her mind, Mollie gave voice to it at the +breakfast table. + +"I must say," she began, buttering a piece of bread energetically, "that +it isn't like us Outdoor Girls to let anything scare us into staying near +the house. Why, I declare, I don't believe there is one of us who would +dare poke her nose past that rose bush in front of the porch after +sundown. That's a pretty state of affairs, isn't it?" + +"Well, you needn't glare at me as if it were all my fault," retorted Amy +with spirit. "I'm sure I didn't wish the horrible old thing on us." + +"I only wish I knew who did," sighed Grace, adding, with a sudden burst of +ferocity: "I would wring his neck." + +"Suppose somebody suggests something we can do about it," said Betty +reasonably. "I'm sure that after the other night nobody could blame us for +being frightened." + +"No. But there is one thing I can blame you for," said Mollie, glaring +morosely at her chum. "And that is for not letting the horrible old thing +drown itself when it so very evidently wanted to. If that had happened all +our worries would have been over." + +"Goodness, Mollie, what a horrible idea!" Betty protested. + +"I don't think it was a horrible idea," Grace put in. "I think it was just +about the finest idea I ever heard of." + +"Yes," added Amy with a deceptive mildness, "if you hadn't called out just +then, Betty, the whole thing would have been over and the Thing would have +been drowned. And then," she added plaintively, "we would have been able +to enjoy our summer." + +"It really wasn't any of our business, you know," Grace finished, moodily. + +For a moment Betty sat and stared at them, undecided whether to be amused +or indignant. However, the latter emotion won and she turned upon the +girls with flashing eyes. + +"I think you are all perfectly horrid," she said. "And I would think you +were worse if I weren't perfectly sure that you don't really mean what you +say. Why, just suppose," she went on earnestly, "that we had willingly +permitted that man to commit suicide? Why, we would have been just as +guilty as if we had murdered him!" + +"But he may have done it since anyway," muttered Mollie stubbornly. "He +didn't have to wait to ask our permission, and there are plenty of times +that he can commit suicide when we are not around--if he really wants to +do it." + +"What he or anybody else does when we are not around, is not our +business," answered Betty. "We can't help what happens in our absence." + +"You seem to take it for granted that it is a man," Mollie continued, +still stubbornly argumentative. "But I am not so sure about that. The +several times that we have seen the--the--Thing--it has looked as much +animal as human to me." + +"Well, we won't argue that point," said Betty, rising and beginning to +clear away the dishes, "because we don't know anything about it." + +"That is just exactly what I am getting at," said Mollie earnestly, +leaning forward and resting her elbows on the table while the girls +watched her interestedly. "We don't know anything about it, but that is no +reason why we should sit back and twiddle our thumbs and start at +shadows." + +"Well, for goodness' sake, tell us what's on your mind," prompted Grace +impatiently. "We haven't sat back and twiddled our thumbs and started at +shadows because we enjoyed it, you know." + +"Now my plan is this," said Mollie, ignoring Grace, who shrugged her +shoulders and reached for her candy box. "Suppose we take a tramp through +the woods to the head of the falls? It is a beautiful hike and the scenery +at the falls is magnificent. But aside from that we will have a chance to +find out something about this thing that will do away with the mystery." + +"If it doesn't do away with us at the same time," said Amy so ruefully +that they had to laugh at her. + +"Well, what do you say?" asked Mollie, looking around the circle of +thoughtful faces--her glance a dare. + +For a moment it looked as if they all might refuse to go, but then their +sporting blood came to the fore and they decided for the adventure. + +But when they told Mrs. Irving about their project and begged her to say +yes to it, she looked very doubtful and only consented at last on the +proviso that she was to go with them. This they were only too glad to +have, and a few minutes later the lodge hummed with excitement and +preparation once more. To the Outdoor Girls, active and fun-loving by +nature, to be quiet for a few days was nothing short of torture. So now, +even though there was still more than a little fear of the "Thing" in +their hearts, they found relief in the promise of adventure. + +They put up some sandwiches and fruit in a basket in case they were not +able to get home by noon. Then they locked the door of the little lodge +and started down the steps. They hesitated before starting into the woods, +and Mollie had a happy thought. + +"We can go part of the way along the road," she said. "And then there is a +path that leads directly through to the head of the falls." + +The celerity with which they accepted this suggestion seemed funny to them +afterward, but at the time they had other things to think about. Mostly +they were wondering if they would really be able to hold on to their nerve +long enough to see the adventure through. + +"I wish," said Betty wistfully, as she had wished so many times of late, +"that the boys were here. They could help us out so beautifully." And she +sighed, for when she spoke of "the boys," she always thought of one boy +most--and that one was Allen. + +"Well, there's no use wishing for what can't possibly happen," Grace was +saying, when there came a whistle so clear and penetrating that it made +them jump--then another, and another. Was it just that they were nervous +or was there really something peculiarly familiar in the sound? At any +rate they stopped and turned around to see who the whistlers could be. + +There were three soldiers coming down the road, broad-shouldered, vital +looking fellows who swung along toward the astonished girls as though they +owned the world. + +"Betty, oh, Betty!" whispered Grace in a tense voice, grasping Betty's arm +so hard it hurt "It can't be, oh, it can't be the boys!" + +But Mollie had broken away from the group and was rushing toward the +soldier lads like the wild little tomboy she was. + +"Girls, it's the boys! it's the boys! it's the boys!" she yelled. "They're +all tanned and they're at least ten inches taller, but it's the boys just +the same." + +And before any of the other girls knew what she was about she had kissed +each one of them twice and was hanging on the tallest one's arm, who +happened to be Frank, laughing and crying at the same time. + +Then the girls seemed to decide that she had had the lads to herself long +enough, and they immediately entered the contest, all laughing at once, +all crying at once, and all talking at once, until it was a wonder the +boys did not lose their heads entirely. + +The only one who was not absolutely and completely and deliriously happy +was Betty. For the other three boys were there, but Allen had not come! + +As though reading her thought, Will, who was much handsomer and more manly +than when he went away, put an arm about the Little Captain's shoulder big +brother fashion and drew her aside from the rest. + +"You are wondering about Allen," he said, and Betty nodded eagerly. "You +see," continued Will, his face lighting up in a smile that would always be +boyish, "since Allen became one of the big bugs--which is another name for +officer, you understand--he had to pay the penalty and stay over there +with them for a little while longer. He will probably be over on the next +transport, although of course you can never be sure about that. Oh, and I +forgot," he put his hand in his pocket and drew forth a pocketknife, a wad +of string and--a little three-cornered note. "He asked me to give this to +you as soon as I saw you. So now you can tell him that 'I seen my duty and +I done it noble.'" + +With a twinkle in his eye Will turned back to the others and Betty was +left to open her note. This is what she read: + +"Gosh, some fellows do have all the luck, don't they? But never mind, +little girl. I'm coming to you by the very first boat, and when I get +there do you know what I'm going to do? Do you?" + +Betty wanted to run away by herself and read the note over and over again. +But she could not do that. With a sigh she hid the little message in a +pocket of her skirt and turned back to the others. + + + + +Chapter XIX + +Like Old Times + + +It was a long time before the boys and girls woke up to the fact that they +were still standing in the center of the road and that they might be ever +so much more comfortable on the porch of the lodge, if any one had had +sense enough to think that far. + +Mrs. Irving, who had been keeping herself rather in the background during +the first rapturous greetings, now came in for her share of salutations +and boyish greetings. The young soldiers crowded about her, patting her +hands and her shoulders and telling her how awfully fine she looked and +how glad they were to find her here until the lady actually blushed with +pleasure and begged them to stop their nonsense. In fact, it was she who +finally suggested that they go up to the lodge again. + +"I don't see why we didn't think of that before," said Mollie, joyfully +slipping an arm into Frank's and turning him right-about-face. "We are due +to talk all day anyway, so we might as well do it in comfort. Don't forget +the lunch basket, Betty," she called back to her chum. + +Betty would have forgotten the basket and left it where it stood just as +she had dropped it at the side of the road--and small wonder if she +had--but as she stooped to pick it up, Will's strong brown hand whipped +out in front of her nose and seized the handle firmly. + +"That's the idea," said Grace approvingly, adding with a sisterly pat on +his shoulder: "You run along with Amy and Mrs. Irving. I want to talk to +Betty." + +So Will, being a well-trained brother, did as he was told, and Grace drew +Betty behind the others. + +"What about Allen, honey?" she asked, her blue eyes honestly worried. "We +all missed him so, but we didn't like to say too much for fear--for fear--" + +"He's all right," said Betty, her heart glowing again at thought of the +little note hidden away in her pocket. "He has only been delayed a little, +that's all. Will says he will probably be over on the next transport." + +"Oh, I am relieved," said Grace with such fervor that Betty looked at her +quickly. Could it be, she wondered, that what she had half sensed before +could be really true? Was Grace fond of Allen? But because the idea made +her unhappy, she decided that she was just trying to think up trouble and +dismissed it from her mind. All the girls loved Allen of course--who could +help it?--but they couldn't any of them, she told herself fiercely, care +for him the way she did. + +"Well, what are you thinking about? You needn't look so fierce," she heard +Grace saying, and she forced a smile to her face. + +"I'm not looking fierce," Betty answered gayly. "Don't you know that that +is just my natural expression, Gracie dear? That's the way I make little +girls like you afraid of me." + +"Well, I'm not afraid of you, not one little bit," asserted Grace, +squeezing Betty's arm fondly. "Oh, Betty dear, isn't it wonderful having +the boys back and don't they look fine--especially Will?" + +"Don't they? Especially Will," agreed Betty with a sly little glance. "If +you don't look out you will give the impression that you're rather fond of +that worthless old brother of yours, honey." + +"I love him awfully," replied Grace, adding with a little puckering of her +forehead: "But I am going to tell you something, Betty, that I wouldn't +tell to any one else for the world. I'm jealous, actually jealous! of +Amy." + +Betty gave a merry little laugh and slipped an arm about her chum. + +"Gracie dear, we never would have known that if you hadn't told us," she +said dryly. "Don't you know," as Grace looked at her reproachfully, "that +we have all been perfectly well aware of that ever since Will first began +to make eyes at Amy?" + +"I can't help it," Grace retorted, while sudden tears sprang to her eyes. +"I've known him longer than she has, and we've loved each other ever since +he was two and I was two weeks! Did you see the way he looked at her?" she +finished dolefully. + +"Yes. But of course you couldn't see the way he looked at you," said Betty +quickly. "And I did." + +"Oh, did he look glad to see me? Did he?" demanded Grace with pathetic +eagerness. + +"Of course he did, you little goose," said Betty, adding with a chuckle: +"You've been spoiled, that's all. You've been so used to being the +_only_ pebble on the beach, dear, that you can't be content with +being just one of two." + +By this time they had reached the lodge and were greeted noisily by the +others, who had already seated themselves on the porch as though they +intended to stay all day. + +"Hello," called Frank. His handsome face, though somewhat thinner than the +girls remembered, was better looking than ever and he had developed a +trick of flinging the hair back from his forehead that the girls thought +immensely attractive. + +Roy, who had seated himself on the railing of the porch and was swinging +his feet, looked more unchanged than either of the boys, though the girls +were soon to find out that he had changed the most. + +Will, who had settled Amy in a chair and was sitting cross-legged on the +floor at her feet, was gazing up at the girl with his heart in his eyes. +As for Amy--well, the girls had never known she could look so radiant. + +"Have a seat," invited Roy, rising lazily to the dignity of his six feet +as Betty and Grace came up on the porch. "It would seem like old times to +see you girls perched on the railing." + +"I'll have you know, sir," said Betty very demurely, as she pulled Grace +down beside her on the top step of the porch, "that we have quite grown up +since you have been away. We will sit here where we can get a good view of +you all." + +"And we want to hear about everything you have done over there," broke in +Amy eagerly. "Please, everything--right from the beginning." + +The boys fidgeted, looked dismayed, and Roy burst forth in protest. + +"Oh, I say!" he cried. "We'll do anything else for you, but please don't +ask us to do that." + +"We don't want to talk about ourselves or the war," muttered Frank, almost +as if to himself. "We want to forget about it--if we can." + +"You see," Will explained, and there was a stern note in his young voice, +"we worked and we sweated and we fought. We lived under conditions week +after week and month after month that it makes us shudder even to think of +now. For months we lived in a perfect inferno--and do you know what our +idea of heaven was then?" + +They said nothing and he went on in a lighter tone. + +"It was just to get back alive and, well, to God's country and you +girls--to sit for hours, days if we could, where we could look at you +and listen to you and not do a thing but just be happy. I wonder if +you can understand that?" + +"Of course, we can, Will!" cried Betty, impulsively reaching over and +laying a hand on the boy's arm. "You have earned the right to sit and be +amused, and we'll do it till you cry aloud for mercy. And you needn't tell +us a single word about yourselves until you get good and ready." + +"You're a brick, Betty," said Will warmly, laying his hand over her little +one. "I might have known we could count on you." + +"By the way," Roy broke in suddenly, his eye on the basket of eatables +that the girls had prepared for their adventure, "what's in that hamper, +anyway? If it's anything to eat, let's have it." + +Betty pulled the basket over to her, lifted the cover and passed it over +to the ravenous one. + +"Eat while there is anything left," she commanded, adding with a chuckle: +"Our adventure seems to be over for to-day, at least." + +"Adventure?" repeated Frank inquiringly, as he reached for a sandwich. + +"Yes," said Mollie, adding with a sigh: "And you boys had to come along +just in time to spoil it all." + + + + +Chapter XX + +Very Much Alive + + +"That is complimentary, I must say," grinned Will, getting up from his +seat on the porch and going over to join Roy on the railing. "After being +away for months we are told the minute we get back that we've 'spoiled +everything.'" + +"'Tis rather hard lines," said Mollie with an answering grin. "But one must +tell the truth, you know." + +"By the way," put in Grace curiously, "I know Betty promised that we +wouldn't ask questions, but there is just one thing I want to know." + +"Speak, fair damsel," Roy replied, thinking meanwhile how much prettier +Grace had grown. "We will promise to answer faithfully anything that is +not connected with war." + +"When did you get in?" asked Grace, "and how did you get here?" + +"We came in yesterday," answered Roy, helping himself to another sandwich. +"And of course we beat it for headquarters right away." + +"Yes'm, and I'll tell you we were a disappointed lot when we found that +you girls had flown," added Frank ruefully. "We were all set for a jolly +reunion--" + +"But we wrote you about spending the summer here," Betty interrupted. "And +we were mourning because you couldn't be at the lodge with us." + +"We missed your letters, I guess," said Will. "We sailed very suddenly, +and there is probably a stack of them piled up there at the old service +station." + +"We found out where you were all rightie, though," Roy continued. "So we +took the first train out this morning, debarked at the nearest station +south of here, and proceeded to walk the rest of the way. It was thus that +you came upon us." + +"You came upon us, you mean," Amy corrected. "We ought to know well +enough, because you nearly gave us heart failure." + +Will looked at her as if he wanted to say something but did not quite dare +in public. However, she intercepted the look and with a little panicky +feeling turned her eyes away. + +"I imagine," said Grace softly, looking up at Will, "that mother wasn't +glad to see you or anything." + +"Not at all," returned Will, a soft light in his eyes as he remembered the +greeting between him and his parents. "I was a little afraid," he added +soberly, "that mother and dad wouldn't like my skipping off like this the +day after I'd got home. But they seemed to understand all right." + +"Gee, but this is great," said Frank, stretching contentedly and looking +about the group with happy eyes. "I wonder how many times we've seen this +all in our dreams, fellows. Only we couldn't have imagined it half as +perfect as this." + +"It sure is like old times," agreed Roy, adding with a smile as he turned +to their chaperon, who had been quietly enjoying herself: "We even have +Mrs. Irving with us. Gee, it's just like that summer at Pine Island! All +the old crowd together--" + +"Except Allen," put in Will, frowning a little. "Gosh, it didn't seem +right at all to leave the old fellow behind. You wouldn't know him," he +added, his face flushing enthusiastically, "I've never seen a fellow +change the way Allen has--for the better." + +"Was there so much room for improvement?" asked Betty demurely, and they +looked at her laughingly. + +"Nobody would expect you to think so," Will replied, his eyes twinkling, +then added seriously: + +"Of course we all know that Allen was the finest kind even before the war, +but, gosh! I wish you could just see how all the fellows love him and how +even his superior officers consult him and seem to value his judgment. I +tell you, I'm glad to have him call me his friend." + +"You bet!" exclaimed Frank, nodding soberly. + +"Allen sure has come out strong," Roy agreed; and at this glowing praise +of the only absent one Betty felt her heart swell with pride and she +wanted to hug the boys for being so loyal to her Allen. Also, deep down in +her heart, she began to feel a little trepidation about the homecoming of +this hero. Who was she, Betty Nelson, to call this glorious Lieutenant +Allen Washburn, _her_ Allen? + +So engrossed was she in these and other absorbing thoughts that it was +some time before she noticed that the conversation had taken another turn. +Also that the boys and girls were becoming rather excited. + +"I didn't say it was a ghost," Mollie was declaring hotly. "In fact I have +always thought of a ghost as wearing a sheet and pillow case sort of garb. +And this thing certainly wore nothing of the sort." + +"Tell us all about it," said Frank, leaning forward. + +"Yes, it sounds as if it might prove interesting," added Roy. + +So the girls told them all about it from that first night when they had +been so badly frightened by the "Thing" that had hidden in the shadows of +the porch. The boys listened with scarcely an interruption till they were +through. + +"Gosh, I don't like the sound of that at all," said Will, when they had +finished. "It isn't a pleasant thing to have a lunatic roaming the woods +while you girls are all alone here in this place. Could you possibly put +us up for the night?" he asked, turning abruptly to Mrs. Irving. + +"Why, there isn't any room," said the latter slowly, frowning a little as +she tried to think up ways and means. "There aren't any extra beds, but +there is a large settee in the living room and a couple of you can sleep +on that. I found plenty of blankets stowed away." + +"Fine!" cried Will enthusiastically. "Just the very thing! One of us can +take turns sleeping on the floor. It won't be the first time we've slept +on harder things." + +"Goodness, any one would think they were going to stay a month," said +Mollie in dismay. + +"No, we won't stay a month," Will went on. "But we are going to stay until +we find out what it is that has been bothering you girls. Do you suppose +we would leave you unprotected here? I should say not!" Grace noticed that +when he said this his glance was first for Amy, and, afterward, for her. + +So it was settled. Mrs. Irving went inside to see about getting lunch. +"Though how the boys can find any room for lunch after eating all those +sandwiches, I don't know," Amy had commented wonderingly. + +Mrs. Irving had refused absolutely to let any of the girls even so much as +help with this lunch, saying they must stay outside and visit with the +boys on this momentous occasion. + +"Since you are convinced that this thing is not a ghost," Will went on, +while appetizing odors began to waft toward them from the open kitchen +windows, "we will take it for granted that it is a man, and a man who has, +presumably, lost his mind." + +"A crazy man," murmured Betty. "Worse and worse--and more of it." + +"Girls," cried Amy, jumping suddenly to her feet, "I have an idea." + +"Impossible!" drawled Grace. + +"Why," went on Amy, unheeding Grace's remark and growing visibly more +excited as she talked, "you know, Professor Dempsey went crazy--or at +least we supposed he did--and ran away into the woods. Now since Will +thinks this man is crazy too, why, they may be one and the same--" + +"Amy!" cried Mollie, her eyes beginning to shine as she realized the +possibility of what the girl had said. "You are a wonder, child! Why +didn't any of us think of that before?" + +"Because it is rather far-fetched and absurd, I suppose," said Grace, the +suggestion of a sneer in her voice bringing a quick flush to Amy's face. + +"I don't see that it is so far-fetched--or absurd either," Betty broke in +quietly. "Remember, we are only a little over fifty miles from the place +where Professor Dempsey had his cottage, and it would be easy for him to +wander this far." + +Here Frank broke in on behalf of the very much mystified boys. + +"Before you stage the hair-pulling contest," he said, "would you mind +telling us poor benighted males what it is all about?" + +So the girls told them all about Professor Dempsey, and while they talked +the boys became more and more excited. Finally Will could keep quiet no +longer. + +"Say," he asked, leaning forward, "did the two sons of the cracked old +professor happen to bear the names of James and Arnold?" + +The girls gaped at him. "Yes," they breathed. "How did you know?" + +"Because," said Will, "those very same fellows were in our regiment. In +fact, I was beside Arnold when he was wounded in that last engagement. +Strange thing that James was wounded at the same time." + +"Wounded?" repeated Betty, who like all the girls was feeling rather dazed +at this new development. "Then they weren't killed?" + +"Not a bit of it," Will replied vehemently. "Why, even their wounds +weren't serious enough to lay them up for long. The last I heard of them +they were coming over on a hospital ship and expected to be here almost as +soon as we were. For all I know, they may have landed by this time." + +"Oh," said Amy, still too dazed to take it all in. "Then all this time we +have thought of them as dead, they were alive--" + +"Very much so," said Will, with a grin, "and probably kicking too--just +like us!" + + + + +Chapter XXI + +Out of the Dark + + +It took the Outdoor Girls a moment or two to digest this rather startling +information. And when it did finally seep into their consciousness, their +first feeling was one of joy for the poor professor whose sons would be +restored to him after all. + +But quick on the heels of this thought came another. How could the sons be +restored to their father, if the father were nowhere to be found? + +"You say the old chap skipped out, decamped?" Will broke in on their +meditations. "That sort of complicates matters, doesn't it?" + +"Rather," agreed Roy, frowning. "It is going to be rather tough on those +fellows, James and Arnold, to come home, expecting to be welcomed by a +rejoicing parent, only to find said parent missing." + +"Humph, that's the first time I've thought of the boys' side of it," said +Betty. "We have been too much occupied right along in being sorry for the +poor old professor." + +"Well, if you had known the boys, you would have thought of their side of +it all right," said Frank seriously. "They are mighty good scouts, both of +them, and they think a lot of their old dad, too, I can tell you. Why, +many a night"--his voice took on a reminiscent note and the girls felt +once again that they were privileged in having a brief glimpse of the life +"over there"--"when a surprise attack was scheduled for the next morning +or we were waiting for some such manoeuvre from the enemy, Arnold would +talk to me about his dad--that was the time when fellows got chummy, you +know, and got to know each other's souls--and once he gave me a note for +the old chap and asked me to deliver it if I came through and he didn't. I +think I have it about me somewhere." He fumbled about in his pockets while +the girls waited silently. + +Presently he drew forth a little slip of paper, muddy and worn and +dust-stained from being carried about for a long, long time in a khaki +pocket. + +"He told me," Frank went on, still holding the slip of paper in his hand +but making no attempt to open it, "that his mother had died when he and +Jimmy were young and that since then his dad had been father and mother +both to them and that he had worked himself nearly to death to give them a +chance for the college education that he had had. He said that the one +thing that had always threatened to floor the old boy was when either he +or Jim got mad and threatened to give up school and go to work so as to +take some of the load from the old pater's shoulders. So they were glad, +actually glad, when the war came along and gave them a chance not only to +serve their country and earn some money--even if it was only a miserable +pittance--so that they could send some home to their dad and feel that +they had stopped being a drag upon him. He used to tell me," Frank went +on, for the spell of those old thrilling times was strong upon him again, +"with tears in his eyes--and I'll tell you there was no braver man in all +the American army than Arnold Dempsey; he was good for two Boches any day +--that it would be the happiest moment of his life when he got back to the +old country and announced to his proud and admiring pater that he had come +home to turn the tables; that Jimmy and he were going to make the old +fellow take a rest and do the work themselves for a change. And he asked +me, in case anything did happen to him and Jimmy, to be kind to his dad +and try to make up to him as much as I could. I gave him my promise that +night." Frank looked about the intent group of faces soberly. "In case the +boys had been killed, I would have regarded it as a sacred trust." + +Something swelled in the girls' hearts and for; a moment they could not +speak. Then, + +"I guess we all love you for that, Frank," said Betty simply. With a +little nod of her head toward the slip of paper he still held, she added: +"What about that--now?" + +Frank looked down at the slip of paper for a moment uncomprehendingly, for +his thoughts had been far away. + +"Oh, the note," he said. "Why, that was only to be given to his father in +case anything happened, you know. But now that the boys are coming back to +him themselves, I suppose the thing is worthless." He made a motion as +though to tear the note up, but Grace stopped him with a quick +exclamation. + +"Don't!" she cried, adding as they all looked at her in surprise: "Don't +you suppose there might be something in it that would give us a clue to +the professor's whereabouts now, perhaps? Don't you think it would be wise +to look, at least?" + +But Frank slowly shook his head. + +"Arnold Dempsey's message, written to his dad when he thought he might +never see him again, doesn't belong to us," he said decidedly. "The note +was given in trust to me, and since I can't deliver it--or at least, since +there is now no reason for delivering it--the only thing I can honorably +do is this." And very slowly and very decidedly he tore the note into +little bits and threw the pieces among the wild roses at the side of the +porch. + +It was the first real glimpse the girls had had of the man who had come +back in the old Frank's place, and with all their hearts they admired him. + +Even Grace, who had seemed inclined to pout a little, could not but admit +that the action was splendid in him. + +"And now," said Will, "after all that, the boys will come back to find +their dad gone, heaven knows where, dead perhaps--" + +"Oh, I wonder if there isn't some way we can follow him and find out at +least what has happened to him?" broke in Amy earnestly. "It seems +dreadful just to sit back and not even try to help." + +"I don't see what we can do," said Will judicially, just as Mrs. Irving +appeared in the doorway. "We will postpone the discussion for the present +anyway," he added, in a different tone, rising with alacrity and dusting +off his uniform. "Something tells me that lunch is waiting. Come, let us +eat!" + +So ended all serious discussion for that day, and the girls and boys gave +themselves up to the delight of being together again. Only Betty's +thoughts seemed to wander at times and she had to be brought back by +sundry mischievous and significant remarks from the young folks. + +Worn out with fun, the young soldiers slept like tops that night in their +improvised beds and rose the next morning professing to feel like "two +year olds" and ready for whatever new fun and adventure the day might +bring them. + +And for the first night since their arrival at Wild Rose Lodge the girls +slept soundly without being bothered by the haunting fear of the +"Thing"--at least, so they said. + +That day they wandered through the woods together, searching for some sign +of their strange visitor, but found not a trace of anything unusual and +alarming. + +"I'm really beginning to believe that you girls have let your imaginations +run away from you," Will remarked, when they sat about the living-room +after a satisfying supper, just luxuriating in idleness. + +"Or perhaps the gentleman has been frightened away by our coming," Roy +suggested in a superior tone that made the girls want to throw something +at him. "Perhaps he is afraid of the uniform of the U.S.A." + +"He may be afraid of the uniform," sniffed Mollie scathingly. "But he +certainly couldn't be afraid of _you_." + +"Now you don't mean that, you know you don't," laughed Roy, drawing her +down beside him on the couch and holding her there with an iron grip of +his brown fingers. "Say you didn't, like a pretty little girl, and I'll +let you go." + +"I won't say any such--" Mollie began, then suddenly her gaze stiffened +into such a stare of wonder, and even alarm, that it made the girls fairly +hold their breath. + +"Mollie, what is it?" demanded Roy commandingly. + +"Over there!" she shrieked. "At the window, Roy! Do you see it?" + + + + +Chapter XXII + +Tragedy + + +There, pressed so close to the pane of the window that the nose was +flattened grotesquely, eyes wildly staring, hair disheveled, was a face +that even in that tense moment the girls recognized--the face of Professor +Dempsey! + +It took the boys perhaps a second to fling out of the room, jump down the +steps of the porch and circle the house to the window. + +And yet, in that second, the man was gone, leaving no more trace than if +the earth had opened and swallowed him up. For almost an hour the boys +searched the woods about the lodge, refusing to allow the girls to +accompany them, saying truly that they would hamper them more than they +could help. + +"You see, I was right after all," Amy stated for at least the tenth time. +"From the moment the idea came to me, I felt almost sure that poor crazy +Professor Dempsey was this thing that was frightening us." + +"But did you ever see such an awful face in all your life?" said Mollie, +shuddering at the recollection. + +"And the look in his eyes as he stared at Roy," Grace added in a hushed +voice. "I shouldn't wonder if--if we hadn't been there, he might have +murdered him." + +"Oh, Gracie, don't!" Amy clapped her hands to her ears. "We are frightened +enough without having you say things like that." + +"Suppose," said Mollie, in a sepulchral voice, "he should come back before +the boys do?" + +"That's just what I was thinking," said a quiet voice behind them, and +they jumped and cried out in alarm. The next moment they saw it was Mrs. +Irving and felt ashamed of themselves. + +"I think you had all better come into the house till the boys come back," +their chaperon continued. "I shall feel safer when we are behind locked +doors." + +The girls shivered, but Mollie protested. + +"Suppose anything should happen to the boys?" she asked, but here Mrs. +Irving chose to exercise her authority. + +"We will talk about that when we are inside the house," she said very +firmly, and Mollie had nothing else to do but obey. + +The girls did breathe a little more freely when the door was locked, but +they found themselves wishing even more ardently that the boys would come +back. + +The window against which the horribly distorted face had been pressed +seemed to hold a peculiar fascination for the Outdoor Girls and they found +themselves unable to turn their eyes away from it. + +"Oh, I wish the boys would come back," moaned Amy, after a few moments +more had passed in strained silence. "If anything should happen to them +I'm sure I would die." + +"Nonsense, Amy," snapped Mollie. "What could one little mad old man do to +three big husky soldier boys?" + +The words had hardly been spoken when the sound of voices could be heard +coming toward the house, and a moment later the boys themselves stamped up +on the porch. + +"Not a sign of him," said Will in response to the girls' eager questions. +"I don't see how he could have disappeared so completely in such a short +time." + +"We all took different directions, too," said Roy, taking a seat on the +couch again and staring fascinatedly at the window. "If all the rest of +you hadn't seen it too, I should certainly think I had been mistaken." + +"You weren't mistaken," Mollie assured him grimly. "I can vouch for that." + +"Didn't one of you girls call out something about Professor Dempsey?" +asked Frank, abruptly. + +"Yes," said Betty, going over to him and putting an excited hand on his +shoulder. "That's the thing that startled us so, Frank. We are sure it was +Professor Dempsey's face. But, still, it was so wild and distorted that we +really wouldn't feel like contradicting any one who told us it wasn't he," +she added slowly. "Do you understand what I mean?" + +Frank nodded, and Will broke in excitedly: + +"But the poor old codger's looks would naturally be changed," he argued, +"after he had spent all this time wandering around the woods--out of his +mind at that. I am inclined to think that the girls are right and that it +is really Professor Dempsey." + +"If only I could have gotten my hands on him!" mourned Roy. "We wouldn't +have been in any further doubt." + +"There is really no doubt, boys. We just want--oh, I don't know what we +want!" exclaimed Mollie, who was excited and unstrung and nervous. + +Soon after that they all went to bed, having first decided to make a more +thorough search of the woods in the morning and take the postponed trip to +the head of the falls. + +They slept fitfully and were glad when at last they woke to find the sun +shining in their windows. For once Amy and Grace did not have to be coaxed +or wheedled or forced to get out of bed, but dressed quickly and were +ready almost as soon as Mollie and Betty. + +"You know I rather hated to leave the boys in that room last night," Betty +confided to Grace, stopping before the mirror for one final little pat of +her hair. "I was afraid that--he--might come back--" + +"Oh, Betty, what a horrid idea," said Grace. "Come on, let's see if +everything is all right." + +But they found that their fears had been wasted. The boys were in the +kitchen hilariously helping Mrs. Irving get the breakfast to the +accompaniment of continual good-natured scolding from that flushed and +perspiring lady. It was Amy's day to get the breakfast, but, as usual, she +was late in getting down. + +"You make a good deal more trouble than you mend," Mrs. Irving was saying +as the girls came to the door, then added relievedly as she caught sight +of them: "For goodness' sake, get these young ruffians out of the kitchen, +my dears, or we'll not have any breakfast until noon." + +So amid much fun and nonsense the boys were shooed forth into the bright +sunshine of the out-of-doors, and all the girls fell to to help their +chaperon, not wanting to put the extra work the boys made entirely on +Amy's shoulders. + +Breakfast was good, but they ate hurriedly, anxious to get at the business +of the day. They wanted more than they had wanted anything in a very long +time to find Professor Dempsey and tell him the joyful news that his sons +were alive. + +"I'm horribly afraid of him at night," Mollie confided, as they started +out at last, "but in the daytime I am only sorry for him." + +"Do you think we shall find him, Will?" asked Amy, with a helpless little +look into Will's self-reliant young face. "I do want to so much." + +Will looked down at her with an expression that said to any one who would +read it: "I would give you anything in the world you asked for, if I only +could." + +But all he really said was: "That remains to be seen. He proved himself a +rather slippery customer last night, and the chase we put up may only +serve to put him on his guard. Crazy people are tricky, you know." + +"Goodness," said Grace, looking fearfully over her shoulder. "There is +nothing in the world I am so afraid of as a crazy person." + +"That's why she has always been so afraid of me, I suppose," grinned +Mollie. + +"Afraid of you," said Grace, her eyebrows raised in mock surprise. "Little +shrimp--who are you?" There followed a characteristic scene that somewhat +lifted the oppression they had all been feeling, and it was not till they +had nearly reached the river at the head of the falls that they became +serious again. + +"It was right about here," said Betty soberly, "that we saw him the night +that he started to jump into the river--or I suppose it was the same one," +she added. + +"Let us hope so," said Mollie fervently. "I wouldn't like to think that +there were two lunatics wandering round these woods. One is quite enough." + +As they came closer to the river they became more and more conscious that +they were not alone, that some one, hidden in the bushes, was craftily +watching them. + +So strong did this feeling finally become that once the boys separated, +thrashing the bushes in all directions. They did not find anything, and +finally continued along the path, a little ashamed of what they thought +was an attack of nerves. + +"Phew, this is getting a little hot for me," said Frank, running his hand +through his shock of fair hair. "I don't mind fighting anything in the +open--" He left the sentence unfinished, for at that moment they broke +through the bushes at the river's edge upon a sight that struck them +speechless. + +Not twenty yards down the bank stood a ragged scarecrow of a man, so +unkempt, so wild, so abandoned in its crouching attitude as to appear +hardly human. + +Before they had time to utter a word or move a muscle, the man threw up +his arms in a gesture indescribably terrible, and with a hoarse shout +disappeared in the swirling waters. + +It all happened so quickly that for the space of a dazed second they +wondered if they had really seen it at all. Then they recovered their +powers of motion and rushed to the spot where the man had disappeared. + +Though they leaned far out over the water they could see no sign of +anything human, and with a creeping feeling of horror they began to speak +of what had probably already happened. + +"It's certain death down there," Roy muttered, as though to himself, +gazing into the rushing river. "The poor old fellow! He has got his, I +guess." + +"Look here, fellows, here are some clothes," Will called out suddenly, and +the boys rushed over to where he stood, a tattered old hat and an equally +ragged coat in his hands. "Maybe there will be something in the jacket to +tell us where the poor fellow has been staying and what he has been up +to." + +They searched through the coat and finally pulled out a wallet. + +"Now if it only has some writing in it," said Mollie breathlessly. + +There was a card, and the card bore the words which they expected, yet +dreaded, Arnold Dempsey, Ph. D. But there was nothing else, and suddenly +tears dimmed their eyes and they had to turn away. + +"It will be mighty hard on Jimmy and Arnold," muttered Roy, gazing +somberly at the fast-flowing river. "To have their dad go that way! +They'll take it mighty hard--those boys." + + + + +Chapter XXIII + +A Moonlight Apparition + + +"Let's look around a little anyway," Betty suggested. "He may possibly +have been swept up on the shore farther down the river." + +"If such a thing were possible he would probably be dead anyway," Frank +protested, but the girls paid no attention to him. The mere suggestion +that the professor might still be alive and in need of assistance was +enough for them, and they set about feverishly to scour the woods on both +sides of the river and for a considerable distance down its shores. + +After an hour of vain search, however, they were forced to conclude that +the old man was indeed dead, and so reluctantly and with heavy hearts they +turned their steps back toward Wild Rose Lodge. + +They talked very little on the way back, for they were too occupied with +their own gloomy thoughts. Only once Betty spoke what was in the minds of +all of them. + +"It seems such a terrible waste--such a pity," she said. "Just a mistake +on the part of the Government to have resulted in this tragedy. Arnold and +James Dempsey coming home, safe and well and hopeful to find their father +--dead!" + +The boys stayed on for several days at the lodge, and for all the Outdoor +Girls but Betty their stay was unmitigated joy. But in the heart of the +Little Captain, hard as she tried to fight against it, was a little sense +of injury to think that her chums had got their boys back and she had been +denied hers. + +To be sure, all the boys made much of her and petted her--for there was +not one of them who had not competed for her favor in the old days before +Allen had shouldered them all out--but no amount of attention from any one +else could make up for one little word from Allen. + +At each sunrise she awoke thrilling with the thought that perhaps Allen +would be with her before the sun went down. And as each evening came +without him she sighed and thought, "Perhaps to-morrow." + +Since the tragic death of Professor Dempsey they felt that they need no +longer fear the woods, although they never ventured near the river or the +falls without a heartache and the fervent wish that they might have +reached the poor demented man with the glad news of his sons' safety in +time to avert the tragedy. + +However, they did enjoy their liberty, and took long tramps with the boys +through the woods and picnicked with them beside little unexpected brooks +and streams, quite in the nature of old days. + +Then at last came the day when the boys announced that they would have to +return to town and to the military camp to obtain their formal discharge +from the army. + +"We may surprise you by coming back in 'civies' a week or two from now," +Will laughed, as the girls prepared to spin them to the railroad station +in the cars. "So you had better be prepared for the shock." + +"Maybe they won't care for us any more when they see us out of uniform," +grinned Roy, as he shook hands with Mrs. Irving. "You know the old saying +that a uniform has made many a hero of a bootblack." + +"Goodness, I hope you aren't a bootblack," said Mollie from her car, where +she was "doing things" with the engine. + +"I'm not," answered Roy, adding with a grin, "Nothing half so honest." + +Although the girls knew that they were only saying good-bye to the boys +for a few days, the parting was hard just the same, and half an hour later +they watched the train wind serpent-like down the shining track with a +sinking feeling at their hearts. + +"Aren't we a lot of geese?" said Grace impatiently, as they climbed back +into the cars. "We have done without the boys for a couple of years, and +now when they have just gone as far as Deepdale for a couple of weeks, we +are almost crying about it." + +"I suppose it is just because we have had so much separation that we can't +bear any more of it--even a little," suggested gentle Amy, feeling as if +she had just awakened from a blissful dream. + +"Never mind," said Mollie, putting an arm about Betty's waist and giving +it a little squeeze. "Just think how lovely it will be to see the boys in +regular clothes again, and maybe," with a sly glance at Betty, "by the +time they come back they will have added one to their number." + +"Goodness, I hope so!" said Betty, unashamed. + +In spite of some regret at not having the boys, the girls managed to enjoy +themselves in the days that followed. They motored and swam and fished and +hiked, and got as becomingly sun-burned and tanned as young Indians. It +was not until two or three days before the boys returned that anything +untoward happened to disturb their peace of mind. + +Then one night the moon came out with such dazzling brilliance that Betty +was seized with a strong desire to be out in it. + +"Let's go for a moonlight swim," she suggested excitedly, as they all +stood on the porch of the lodge staring up through the trees to where the +moon shone glitteringly down. "We haven't done it since we came, and +surely our vacation wouldn't be complete without one." + +"Or more," said Mollie, seconding the plan with enthusiasm. "Come on. +Let's tell Mrs. Irving where we are going. Maybe she will wish to go +along, but I doubt it." + +Mollie was right: Mrs. Irving did not wish to go, and the girls rushed +upstairs to don bathing suits in preparation for the lark. + +A few minutes later they were racing like slim young ghosts through the +woods, laughing and calling to each other and entirely abandoned to the +joy of the moment. + +"Race you to the old swimming hole," Mollie called out, as they neared the +river; and away they all raced in response to the challenge. + +Betty won, in spite of the fact that Mollie had had a short head start, +and the girls, wild in their exuberance, would have lifted her to their +shoulders had not Betty herself laughingly fought them off. + +"I have another challenge," she cried. "My fresh box of candy to whoever +swims to the other side of the swimming hole first. Are you on?" + +"We're on!" yelled Grace enthusiastically, adding: "I'd swim from here to +Jericho for that box of candy, Betty." + +As a matter of fact, whether it was really the thought of the candy or +whether it was because the other girls were tired from the last spurt, +Grace really did get to the other side of the swimming pool first, and, +pulling herself up on the other bank, dripping and triumphant, demanded +the prize. + +"You surely did win it, and you shall have that box of candy--much as I +hoped to keep it in the family," laughed Betty, shaking the water from her +eyes and drawing herself up beside her chum. "Goodness, isn't that water +delicious to-night?" she added, wriggling her toes luxuriously in the +rippling wavelets. "Just cool enough to be refreshing and not cold enough +to chill you----" She broke off suddenly and sat staring, her eyes +widening and her body tense. + +"Girls," she said in a queer voice, for Mollie and Amy had also drawn +themselves up on the bank, "have I gone crazy, or what is the matter with +me? Do you see--what--I see--up there?" + +Alarmed, the girls followed the direction of her strained gaze, and +suddenly they seemed to feel themselves congeal with momentary horror. + +Far above them on the bank near the falls and on the other side of the +river, stood the crouched-up, animal-like figure of--the "Thing!" + + + + +Chapter XXIV + +Recovered + + +The sight was almost too much for the girls. What they felt was sheer +animal panic and they wanted to run away--anywhere--just so they put +distance enough between them and that figure on the bank. + +"Sit still," Betty commanded them, recovering her presence of mind. "That +is Professor Dempsey up there, and if we make any sudden sound we are sure +of frightening him away." + +"But he was killed--we saw it," moaned Amy. "That must be his g-ghost." + +"Don't be ridiculous," snapped Mollie, her thoughts working along with +Betty's. "You know you don't believe in ghosts." + +"But how----" Amy was beginning when Betty interrupted sharply. + +"Listen," she said. "I came across an old derelict of a rowboat the other +day when we were exploring the upper river, but I didn't say anything to +you girls about it because I thought it was too much of a wreck to bother +with. For all I know it isn't even water tight--" + +"Betty," Mollie broke in excitedly, "I see what you mean! We can row +across the upper river to where Professor Dempsey is--Were there oars in +the boat?" she broke off to ask. + +"A couple of old sticks that would serve for oars," Betty answered. "Of +course it's taking a big chance--" + +"Say no more," cried Mollie, jumping to her feet and wringing out her +bathing suit. "Big chance is our middle name anyway. Lead on, Betty. Where +do we find this craft?" + +"I'm not quite sure that I can find it," said Betty, leading the way into +the woods, "but it was down this way somewhere. Don't make any noise, +girls, and let's hurry, or we won't get there before he disappears again." + +Grace and Amy were now entering into the spirit of the thing, and they +followed at Betty's heels eagerly, careful not to step on stick or stone +that might betray their presence. + +Luckily Betty managed to stumble directly on the old derelict rowboat +where it lay in ancient helplessness in the concealment of a thick grove +of bushes along the upper reach of the stream. + +"Goody! This is almost too much luck," cried Betty exultantly. "You get in +the stern, Amy, and Grace in the bow. Mollie and I will do the rowing." + +"I only hope the old thing doesn't take in too much water," said Amy, as +she and Grace got gingerly into the rickety old craft and Betty and Mollie +pushed it off from the shore. + +"That remains to be seen," answered the Little Captain as she handed one +of the ancient oars to Mollie. "There is one thing we shall have to +remember, Mollie," she said, as they pushed clear of the bank and glided +out into the swift water of the river, "and that is to keep far enough +this side of the falls to guard against being swept over it. Bear hard on +your right hand, Mollie honey. It wouldn't be much fun if we upset here, +you know." + +"Oh!" gasped Grace, holding fast to the side of the boat and noting with +dismay how plainly the roar of the falls came to them. "I wish we had +another oar, I'd help----" + +"You can help most, Grade," cut in the Little Captain briskly, "by keeping +your nerve and helping us to keep ours. Mollie," she called in a whisper +that carried the length of the boat, "can you see--It--yet?" + +"Yes," Mollie telegraphed back in the same tense whisper. "It's got its +back to us, I think." + +"Good," said Betty softly, adding as she threw all her weight against her +oar, "now let's keep still and work." + +It was queer how they referred to that presence at the head of the falls +as "It." Some way, in the weird moonlight, under the more than unusual +circumstances, it seemed almost impossible to give the thing a name. + +"Was it Professor Dempsey?" they kept asking themselves over and over +again. But he had committed suicide. Or at least they had seen him fall +into the river, and they could have vowed that he did not come out again. +They had searched both sides of the river. How could they have missed him? +And yet, if that motionless figure at the head of the falls was really +Professor Dempsey, he must have been washed ashore that day and evaded +them as he had succeeded in evading them so many times before. + +And all the time the roar of the falls was growing louder and louder in +their ears and they knew that theirs was a race with life and death. + +Could they succeed in reaching the opposite bank before the deadly current +of the river should suck them over the falls, to almost certain +annihilation? + +The answer to the question came a moment: later when, without warning, the +prow of the little boat struck on an unexpected projection of the shore +and they came to a standstill. + +"Thank heaven!" said Betty under her breath as Mollie jumped out and +pulled the craft further in to shore. "That was nearly the riskiest thing +you ever did, Betty Nelson." + +Once on shore again, the girls' confidence returned and they hurried +silently through the woods toward the spot where they had seen the figure. +Then Betty, who had taken the lead, suddenly motioned to them to stop. + +She had caught a glimpse through the trees of the man, who resembled more +than ever a scarecrow in his crazy makeshift garments--and at the sight of +him her heart unaccountably skipped a beat. + +Her thoughts had not gone beyond this moment. Strangely enough all her +energy had been concentrated upon reaching the man before he disappeared. +But now that they had succeeded so far she was at a loss what to do next. + +But at that moment she inadvertently stepped on a dry twig that snapped +sharply under her foot, and at the sound the man had turned fiercely, like +an animal at bay. Then he wheeled about and made as though to flee for the +shelter of the woods. + +In this emergency Betty followed impulse. She ran out into the open, +calling to him wildly that his sons were alive. Not to run away, because +his sons were safe and well. They were coming to him---- + +The pitiful wreck of a man paused in his flight as the import of the words +seemed to sink into his befuddled brain, but he turned upon the Little +Captain a look of ferocious hatred that would have terrified a less +courageous girl than Betty. But her whole heart was in her mission, and +she had utterly forgotten herself. + +"Won't you please believe me?" she said, advancing toward him, hands +outstretched pleadingly. "I know what I'm talking about. Your sons, Arnold +and Jimmy----" + +As though the names of his boys had released some cord in his brain, the +man cried out hoarsely: + +"Jimmy and Arnold--my sons, my little boys!" Then, turning fiercely to +Betty, he cried: "You're not lying to me, are you? Because I'll throw you +into the river! I'll cut you into little pieces!" + +As the man advanced menacingly, Grace screamed and Mollie ran forward with +some wild idea of protecting her chum, but Betty waved them back. + +"I'm not lying to you," she told the crazy man, looking straight into his +glaring eyes. "Your boys were wounded, but not seriously, and they sailed +a few days ago for this country on a hospital ship. They want to see you +more than anything else in the world," she added, playing on the sudden +softness that had crept into his wild eyes. "And they sent their love to +their dad." + +At sound of the old loving name all the fight went out of the old man and +he sank to his knees on the grass, sobbing horribly. + +They let him alone for a moment, then Betty motioned to Mollie, and +together they lifted him to his feet. The sight of his tear-stained, +unkempt old face, creased and lined with suffering, but with the wildness +gone out of the eyes, stirred a profound pity in the girls and they wished +more than anything in the world to make him happy again. + +"We are going to take you home, Professor Dempsey," Betty told him +soothingly, as with Mollie's help she half led, half carried, him through +the woods toward the spot where they had left the boat, Amy and Grace +following awed and silent behind them. "And as soon as your boys reach +home we will bring them to you. Be careful of this big rock. Ah, here's +the boat." And talking all the time, softly and soothingly as one would to +a child, Betty at last succeeded in seating the derelict old man in the +equally derelict old boat. + +The girls tumbled in after him, and with a prayer in her heart Betty +pushed off from shore. + +That ride back across the river was as weird and unreal as any nightmare +the girls had ever lived through. Their queer passenger, seeming the most +unreal of all, was quiet for the most part but occasionally he would sit +up and look about him wildly and could only be soothed back to reason by +Betty's sweet voice telling him of his boys--Jimmy and Arnold. + +Somehow they reached the opposite shore, and, after pulling the boat up +among the bushes once more, they started back, the old man with them, to +Wild Rose Lodge. + + + + +Chapter XXV + +The Old Crowd Again + + +Mrs. Irving, who had been worried by their prolonged absence, met the +girls at the door as they stumbled with the almost exhausted old man up +the steps of the porch. + +At sight of the latter she grew deathly pale, and leaned against the door +for support. She felt that all the world was growing black---- + +"Oh, please, please don't faint!" she heard Betty's young voice calling to +her desperately as it seemed from a long distance. "We've depended upon +you to help us." + +With a great effort she fought off the dizziness and drew herself away +from Betty's supporting arm. + +"It's all right," she said dazedly. "The shock, I guess. Betty +what--who--is that----" + +"Oh, please don't ask any questions now," Betty begged feverishly. "Just +help us, and we will tell you all about it later. This is Professor +Dempsey," she added, turning to the broken old man who stood staring at +them uncomprehendingly. "He can have Mollie's and my room, can't he, Mrs. +Irving? and we will bunk somewhere else." + +Mrs. Irving nodded automatically, still too dazed by the suddenness of the +thing even to think, and they helped the old man into Betty's room and +laid him on the bed. The tired, ragged, unkempt old head had hardly +touched the pillow before its owner had sunk into a heavy sleep. + +For a moment the girls were startled, for it almost seemed as though he +were dead, but Betty put her hand on the ragged old shirt above the heart +and found that the action was strong and regular. + +"Perhaps it is the very best thing that could happen to him," she said +softly, and, laying a light cover over him, tip-toed from the room, +followed quietly by Mrs. Irving and the other girls. + +Once in the other room, with the need for action over, the girls felt weak +and spent, and it was only then that they realized that they had been +through a terrible ordeal. + +In broken sentences they told Mrs. Irving all that had happened and as she +listened she more and more appalled at the risk they had run and the +danger they had gone through. + +"Girls, girls," she cried when they had finished, "I was half wild about +you as it was. But if I had known the truth I think I should have gone +crazy. Just the same," she added and her eyes shone with pride in them, +"it was a glorious thing for you to do--an unselfish, wonderfully +courageous thing. I'm proud of you!" + +In spite of the fact that they were tired out, the girls insisted upon +standing watch and watch that night. They felt that some one should be +with Professor Dempsey all the time in case he should wake in the night +with his old madness upon him. It was the longest night any of them had +ever spent, and the morning dawned upon a hollow-eyed, worn-out set of +Outdoor Girls. + +"I never," said Betty, looking around at her white-faced chums wearily, +"spent such a terrible night in my life. How is the patient?" she added, +taking up the subject that had not left their minds for a minute. "Who was +in there last?" + +"I," said Grace, brushing out her hair, listlessly. "He is still asleep." + +That report continued good all morning, and it was almost noon before the +ragged, unbelievably unkempt old man on the bed opened his eyes. + +The girls had been looking forward to, yet dreading, this minute. It had +been decided that only one of them should be in the room with him when he +awoke, but the rest were hovering close to the door ready to give +assistance if it should become necessary. + +But they need not have worried. The magic of his long sleep, together with +the glad news he had heard the night before, seemed to have transformed +the man overnight to his old gentle self. + +To be sure, he was amazed at his strange surroundings, and looked +uncomprehendingly into Betty's face as she bent compassionately over him. +But all he said was: + +"I declare, this is all very strange, young lady--very strange. Would you +mind--er--telling me where I am?" + +At the tone, even more than the words, the girls felt a wild desire to +shout aloud their relief. For the tone was the same, gentle, polite one +that they remembered hearing that day when the little man had entertained +them in his cabin in the woods. + +Then Betty, as gently as she knew how, told him a little of what had +happened to him, and the girls could see by the surprise on his face that +he had no recollection whatever of the matters of which she was speaking. + +"I declare it is most strange--most strange," he declared when she had +finished, adding as he looked down and plucked distastefully at his +tattered shirt: "And this is the result of my--er--temporary aberration, +is it? Ah, but I remember," he sat up suddenly, a gleam of fear in his +eyes. "It was when I read of the death of my boys. Something snapped in my +brain, I think. You say"--he turned to Betty, grasping her hand +imploringly--"you say that my sons are well--that they are coming to me?" + +"Yes," said Betty soothingly, pressing him back upon the pillow. "They are +well and safe and will be with you soon--in a few days, perhaps." + +"Ah," said the little man, submitting to Betty's touch, a happy smile on +his lips, "that is good. That is very--very--good--" and with a sigh like +a tired child's, he fell asleep again! + +"Did you hear what he said?" whispered Betty, her eyes shining as she +tip-toed from the room, closed the door softly behind her and faced her +awed and incredulous chums. "He's well, girls. He's completely sane +again." + +"It's a miracle," said Mollie breathlessly. + +And so it came to pass that some little time later four good-looking young +fellows, recently in the service of the greatest country on the earth, and +one of them still wearing his regimentals, saw a rather unexpected sight +as they swung down the path toward Wild Rose Lodge. + +On the porch sat an elderly, contented looking man, clad in garments that +would easily have accommodated two men of his size--garments belonging to +Mollie's Uncle John, and seated about him in attitudes of lazy comfort +were four young girls. + +These young girls--who were, at least from the standpoint of the four +young men, exceedingly good to look upon, were engaged in doing some sort +of fancy work. All but one of them, that is; for the fourth, a girl with +wavy brown hair and bright brown eyes, pink cheeks, and a dream of a +mouth, was reading to the elderly man who sat in the chair of state. + +"Gee, Allen," whispered one of the tall youths to the one who still wore +the uniform of his country's service, "I feel as though we were crabbing +your act. Can't we fellows do the disappearing act----" + +But just at the moment the girl with the brown eyes and the pink cheeks +looked up, gave one little startled cry, and dropped the book to the +porch. + +The other girls looked up and then followed a scene that very nearly made +the temporarily forgotten and neglected old man on the porch drop out of +his chair in surprise. + +"Allen!" screamed the girls, all except the brown-haired, pink-cheeked +one, who, for some unaccountable reason hung back behind the others. "You +perfect angel!" + +"Why didn't you let us know you were coming so that we could have been +prepared?" + +"Oh, isn't your uniform lovely!" + +"And look at the dressed-up leggings!" + +These and various other exclamations like them, coupled to the fact that +all the girls, except the one that he wanted to most, had kissed him, +rather overwhelmed young Lieutenant Washburn and took his breath away. + +His three companions, however, finding themselves neglected and out in the +cold, interfered at this point and saved his life. + +"Betty, what are you hiding away back there for?" cried Mollie to the +Little Captain, whose cheeks were pinker than ever and whose eyes were +shining very brightly with a sort of mixture of joy and fright. "Don't you +know Allen in his uniform?" + +"Aren't you going to kiss him?" chimed in Grace wickedly. + +"We all did," added Amy. + +But Betty had no intention of kissing Allen, although he begged her to +with his laughing eyes and she continued backing into the doorway, until +Mrs. Irving, coming up behind her, caught her up and pushed her out upon +the porch again. + +However, the chaperon monopolized Allen for a few minutes and gave Betty +time to catch her breath. She found Mollie introducing Professor Dempsey +to the astonished boys. These young soldiers wanted to ask a hundred +questions, but, catching a warning look from Betty, decided to wait till +later, when the little man himself was not present. + +Frank, who was perhaps more glad than any of them to see the father of his +chums alive and well, settled himself near the man and began to pour into +his starved and eager ears news of his sons and tales of adventures in +which they had figured. + +And while Betty was still smiling in sympathy with the look of absolute +happiness on Professor Dempsey's face, Allen dragged himself away from the +group of his admirers and came over to her. + +Boldly he pulled her hand through his arm and led her past the laughing +boys and girls, down the steps, and along the path that led into the +woods. + +"Be back in time for supper," Will called after them. "Something tells me +we are going to have some feed." + +"Oh, don't bother them," they heard Mollie's voice in laughing reproof. +"Remember, you were young yourself, once!" + +"And now," said Allen, when they had gone just far enough for the trees +and bushes to screen them from the view of the people on the porch, "I +want you to look at me, Betty. You haven't yet, you know." + +"I c-can't," said Betty in a muffled voice. "I guess--" she added +whimsically, "I guess I'm a little afraid of you, Lieutenant Allen +Washburn." + +With a glad laugh Allen put his strong young arms about her. + +"Do you think you can keep on all your life being afraid of me--like +that?" he asked. "Little Betty?" + +And Betty, with the radiant joy of all youth in her heart, slowly nodded. + + * * * * * + +And what glorious days followed! The young folks never tired of their +tramps through the woods and walks in the vicinity of Moonlight Falls. +They gave themselves up to a good time and had it in full measure. + +"Gee, what an improvement over the trenches in France!" remarked Will one +day. "No more wars for me!" + +"So say we all of us!" sang out Frank. + +When they had to return to Deepdale the boys took Professor Dempsey with +them and Frank saw to it that the old man was made comfortable until his +wounded sons returned to him. Both of the hurt soldiers were recovering, +and the reunion of father and sons was most affecting. + +"Now for a final swim below the falls!" cried Mollie one day, when the +outing was coming to an end. + +"We ought to have a good time--now there is no ghost to disturb us," put +in Amy. + +"A chocolate for the first one to enter the water!" exclaimed Grace, +waving her ever-present candy box in the air. + +"That settles it--I'm off!" burst out Betty; and then all made a wild dash +for the swimming pool. And here let us say good-bye to the Outdoor Girls. + + + +THE END + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Outdoor Girls at Wild Rose Lodge, by +Laura Lee Hope + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OUTDOOR GIRLS AT WILD ROSE LODGE *** + +***** This file should be named 8211-8.txt or 8211-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/8/2/1/8211/ + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/8211-8.zip b/8211-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0b726d7 --- /dev/null +++ b/8211-8.zip diff --git a/8211-h.zip b/8211-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c6d7bab --- /dev/null +++ b/8211-h.zip diff --git a/8211-h/8211-h.htm b/8211-h/8211-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..555d29f --- /dev/null +++ b/8211-h/8211-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,5540 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?> +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + +<head> +<title>The Outdoor Girls at Wild Rose Lodge, by Laura Lee Hope</title> + +<style type="text/css"> + <!-- + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5 { text-align: center; font-weight: bold; font-variant: small-caps } + h1 { margin-top: 2em } + .smallcaps { font-variant: small-caps } + img { border-style: none } + --> +</style> +</head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's The Outdoor Girls at Wild Rose Lodge, by Laura Lee Hope + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Outdoor Girls at Wild Rose Lodge + or, The Hermit of Moonlight Falls + +Author: Laura Lee Hope + +Posting Date: September 26, 2012 [EBook #8211] +Release Date: June, 2005 +First Posted: July 2, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OUTDOOR GIRLS AT WILD ROSE LODGE *** + + + + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + +</pre> + + + + +<h1>The Outdoor Girls +at +Wild Rose Lodge</h1> +<p align="center" class="smallcaps">or</p> +<h2>The Hermit of Moonlight Falls</h2> + +<p align="center" class="smallcaps">by</p> +<h3>Laura Lee Hope</h3> + +<h4>Author of "The Outdoor Girls of Deepdale," "The<br /> +Outdoor Girls at Bluff Point," "The Moving<br /> +Picture Girls," "The Bobbsey Twins,"<br /> +"Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue,"<br /> +"Six Little Bunkers at Grandma<br /> +Bell's," Etc.</h4> + + + + +<h1>Contents</h1> + + +<ol style="list-style-type: upper-roman"> + <li><a href="#ch_01">Just Fun.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch_02">The Falling Tree.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch_03">The Queer Little Man.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch_04">Good News.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch_05">Betty Takes a Dare.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch_06">Nearly Wrecked.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch_07">Bad Tidings Confirmed.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch_08">Premonitions.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch_09">A Visitor.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch_10">Hurrah for Allen.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch_11">The Hold-Up.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch_12">Sheep!</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch_13">The Enemy Routed.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch_14">Nothing Human.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch_15">Wild Roses.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch_16">The Whirlpool.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch_17">The "Thing".</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch_18">Surprised.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch_19">Like Old Times.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch_20">Very Much Alive.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch_21">Out of the Dark.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch_22">Tragedy.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch_23">A Moonlight Apparition.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch_24">Recovered.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch_25">The Old Crowd Again.</a></li> +</ol> + + + + +<h1>The Outdoor Girls at Wild Rose Lodge</h1> + + + + +<h1><a name="ch_01"></a>Chapter I</h1> + +<h2>Just Fun</h2> + + + +<p>"Did you ever see a more wonderful day?"</p> + +<p>The four Outdoor Girls, in Mollie Billette's touring car and with Mollie +herself at the wheel, were at the present moment rushing wildly over a +dusty country road at the rate of thirty miles an hour.</p> + +<p>Grace Ford was sitting in front with Mollie, while Betty Nelson and Amy +Blackford "sprawled," to use Mollie's sarcastic and slightly exaggerated +description, "all over the tonneau."</p> + +<p>"You look as if you had never done a real day's work in your life," said +Mollie, with a disapproving glance over her shoulder at the girls in the +tonneau.</p> + +<p>"We never have," returned quiet Amy, with a grin.</p> + +<p>"And we are proud of it," added Betty, as she defiantly settled her feet +still more comfortably on the foot rail. "Why should we be energetic when +it is so much easier to be lazy?"</p> + +<p>"There the proper spirit speaks," applauded Grace Ford from the front. "I +think I shall have to change places with you, Betty. It's far too exciting +up here with Mollie. She insists upon staging near collisions every few +feet--thus keeping me awake!"</p> + +<p>"Great heavens!" cried Mollie, pressing an impatient foot upon the +accelerator to which the great car responded with an eager purring, "did +any one ever give us the mistaken title of Outdoor Girls, I wonder? They +should have called us the Rip Van Winkle club, instead."</p> + +<p>"Now she's getting sour-castic," commented Grace lazily. "Have some candy, +honey, and sweeten up."</p> + +<p>She passed the ever-present box of delicacies over to Mollie, to which +overture the young driver responded with so indignant a stare that Grace +quickly withdrew the box, tucked it behind her, and strove to look +unconscious.</p> + +<p>"Please, ma'am, I didn't mean to do it," she said meekly.</p> + +<p>"Well, don't do it again, that's all," returned Mollie, uncompromisingly, +her eyes once more on the road ahead, "I've eaten so many chocolates this +week that I've had indigestion and mother threatened to cut down my +allowance."</p> + +<p>"Goodness, it's my allowance that suffers," retorted Grace, ruefully, +"since it is my candy that you eat."</p> + +<p>"Stop quarreling, girls, and answer my question." said Betty, sitting up +straight and regarding delightedly a vista of flying hills and woodland +greenery. "I asked you a few minutes ago if you had ever seen so wonderful +a day?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, plenty of 'em," returned Mollie, as she took a sharp curve on two +wheels. "If you weren't too lazy to notice anything, Betty Nelson, you +would see that there is a storm coming up. Look at those clouds over there +in the east."</p> + +<p>"Oh, you're a kill-joy!" cried Betty, cocking an optimistic eye up at the +sky. "It's only one teeny little cloud anyway, and who cares for clouds +when the boys are coming home?"</p> + +<p>Both Amy and Grace felt a breathless little tug at their hearts at the +joyful challenge in Betty's words, but Mollie, with a perverseness that +was sometimes characteristic of her, refused to be too happy.</p> + +<p>"Who says they're coming home?" she asked. "Now you're only guessing."</p> + +<p>"Guessing!" cried Betty indignantly. "What do you mean--guessing? The war +is over, isn't it?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; and has been for quite a while," Mollie responded dryly. "But that +doesn't say that the boys are coming home right away."</p> + +<p>"We don't care about the right away," interrupted Amy, with a quiet +happiness in her face that made Betty hug her impulsively. "We can wait +patiently, now that we know they are safe."</p> + +<p>"It's all right for you to talk about patience, Amy," retorted Mollie, +throttling her engine and sliding at breakneck speed down a long hill +without the thought of using a brake. A brake to Mollie meant something to +be used at the last minute when she couldn't think of anything else to do. +"You're an angel, but I'm not----"</p> + +<p>"No, indeed!" said Grace, so emphatically that the girls in the tonneau +chuckled and Mollie looked at her threateningly.</p> + +<p>"For goodness' sake, don't waste time looking at me," Grace pleaded, as +they bounced into a hole in the road and out again, fairly jouncing the +breath from the girls' bodies. "Keep your eyes on the road, Mollie dear. +We're not ready to die yet."</p> + +<p>"Well, look out, or you may--ready or not," threatened Mollie darkly, as +the car skidded around another precipitous turn and the girls saw with +relief a long stretch of flat road before them.</p> + +<p>"Just the same the boys must be coming home before very long," said Amy, +quietly returning to the subject. "And when they do come we'll have to +give them some sort of big party or something, girls."</p> + +<p>"Of course we will," said Grace, munching contentedly on a chocolate. +"Something that will make the people in Deepdale sit up and take notice."</p> + +<p>"We-el--I don't know," objected Betty thoughtfully. "They say that the few +soldier boys who have come home object to any sort of fuss being made over +them. They seem to want to forget everything that has happened 'over +there,' and any sort of celebration brings the whole thing vividly before +them again."</p> + +<p>"Yes, that's true, too," Mollie agreed. "I remember our doctor telling +mother that if people only wouldn't try to force confidences from the boys +and would try to keep all thought of the awful things they had been +through out of their minds, there would be fewer cases of nervous +breakdowns."</p> + +<p>"Pop!" said Grace, snapping her finger resignedly. "There go all our hopes +of a good time, Amy. When the boys come home all we shall be allowed to do +will be to smooth their fevered brows and hold their hands."</p> + +<p>"Well, we might do worse things even than that," said Betty, with a light +laugh, and Mollie shot her a malicious glance.</p> + +<p>"Just watch Betty objecting to that" she said wickedly. "Before we know it +she will be sighing that Allen has only one fevered brow to smooth!"</p> + +<p>Amy and Grace looked at Betty mischievously--at Betty who could not for +the life of her look as unconcerned as she would have liked.</p> + +<p>"Don't be so foolish" she said hastily, at which the girls only laughed +the more.</p> + +<p>"Never mind, honey," said Amy, putting an arm fondly about her chum. "I +guess we will all be crazy with joy to get the boys home again."</p> + +<p>"Well, you needn't think you can hold hands with Will and smooth his +fevered brow all the time," said Grace unexpectedly. "Because I really +have some share in him myself, you know. Remember, mine was one of the +three pictures he kept under his pillow."</p> + +<p>Readers of previous volumes in this series may recall that joyful letter +written to Betty not so long ago in which Sergeant Allen Washburn--now +Lieutenant Allen Washburn--had spoken of the three pictures which Will +Ford had kept under his pillow during his long convalescence in one of the +army hospitals over there. These readers may also remember that one of the +pictures was of the boy's mother, another of his sister, Grace, and the +third of shy little Amy Blackford, who now was blushing so furiously at +the mere mention of it.</p> + +<p>"How about poor Frank and Roy?" asked Mollie, mentioning the other two +boys who made up the quartette of the girls' boy chums. "Who will attend +to their fevered brows?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, you and Grace can take turns at that," said Betty, lightly adding, +with a little sigh: "Try as we can, Amy and I never know quite how to pair +you four off. We can't for the life of us find out which of you likes +Frank best and which inclines to Roy."</p> + +<p>"That's right, kid--keep 'em guessing," said Mollie slangily, as she +turned on power and challenged a steep grade. "Grace and I believe in +scattering our favors--as 'twere. See that hill just ahead of us? What do +you bet I make it without changing gears?"</p> + +<p>"If you make it without changing our looks, I'll be happy," said Grace +ruefully, as they bumped and rumbled to the top of the steep grade. "Look +out, Mollie!" she added suddenly, indicating a big pile of brushwood that +jutted out almost into the center of the road. "For goodness' sake, slow +down!"</p> + +<p>But Mollie did more than slow down. She stopped--and with such suddenness +that the girls were all but thrown out of the car and Betty bumped her +nose on the seat in front.</p> + +<p>They had scarcely regained their poise when they were startled by a shrill +cry from Amy.</p> + +<p>"Girls!" she almost screamed, clutching Betty's arm in a grip that hurt, +"look at that tree. It's going to fall! Oh, we'll be killed!"</p> + +<p>The girls followed the direction of her pointing finger and looks of +horror sprang to their eyes. Slowly, its descent retarded somewhat by the +branches of other trees, a towering giant of the forest tottered and +crashed its destructive way downward. And they were directly in its path!</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="ch_02"></a>Chapter II</h1> + +<h2>The Falling Tree</h2> + + + +<p>For a moment the Outdoor Girls sat fascinated, paralyzed, without the +power to move a muscle. Then suddenly Grace seemed galvanized to action. +She leaned toward Mollie, grasping the steering wheel of the motionless +car frantically.</p> + +<p>"For heaven's sake, Mollie, get out of the way! Start the car!" she +screamed.</p> + +<p>"I can't!" Mollie answered, tight-lipped. "Something's wrong. The motor's +dead."</p> + +<p>But with Grace's scream, Betty had come to her senses and had scrambled +out of the car, dragging the still paralyzed Amy after her.</p> + +<p>"Grace, get out! Mollie, are you crazy?" she shouted wildly. "You'll be +killed--"</p> + +<p>Automatically Grace started to clamber to the road, but Mollie still +fussed with brakes and levers, her lips in a tight line, her eyes blazing.</p> + +<p>"Something's wrong--but I'll get her started," she muttered over and over +to herself while Betty raged at her from the road.</p> + +<p>"Get out! get out!" fumed the Little Captain. "Jump, or I'll come after +you and we'll both be killed. Mollie!"</p> + +<p>Luckily for Mollie's suicidal stubbornness, the great tree had been halted +for a moment in its downward plunge by some particularly heavy foliage and +branches, but the girls could see that it was only a matter of seconds +until the giant should tear itself loose and come plunging down upon them.</p> + +<p>And still Mollie fumbled with levers in a vain and foolish attempt to save +her beloved car at the risk of her own life.</p> + +<p>Betty had just jumped upon the running board in a wild attempt to drag her +chum from the car when suddenly help came to them from an unexpected +quarter.</p> + +<p>An elderly man came running from the woods, evidently attracted by their +excited cries. He gave one look at the toppling tree, even now tearing +itself loose from the impeding branches, another at the machine with the +two girls still in it, and then, with a speed and decision which seemed to +belie his age, went to the rescue.</p> + +<p>"Come--help me push!" he cried to Amy and Grace, who were still standing +dumbly in the middle of the road. A moment later he had thrown himself +with all his might against the machine, striving to push it out of the +path of the falling tree.</p> + +<p>In an instant of time the girls had added their strength to his and the +automobile was moving slowly down the road. Luckily the car was on a down +grade or they never could have managed it. As it was, there was just time +to get out of the way when the great tree came crashing down, its +outermost branches just brushing Amy's skirt. The giant had fallen on the +very spot where the car had been only a moment before!</p> + +<p>"Girls," breathed Betty, with a shaky little attempt at a laugh, "I guess +we've never in our lives been nearer death than we were just then."</p> + +<p>And while the girls are marveling at their almost miraculous escape from a +terrible death, time will be taken to introduce the Outdoor Girls to those +readers who have not yet met them and also to review briefly a few of the +exciting and interesting adventures they have had up to the time of this +present narrative.</p> + +<p>There were four of them. Betty Nelson, or the "Little Captain" as the +girls often called her because she had such a decided talent for knowing +just the right thing to do at just the right moment, was eighteen, +dark-haired and dark-eyed. She had a fund of vitality and more than her +share of sense and good judgment--all of which went toward making her what +she was, the most popular girl in Deepdale.</p> + +<p>Grace Ford, tall, slender and willowy, was almost the same age as Betty, +but that fact and her love of the outdoors were the only things she had in +common with the "Little Captain." Her father, James Ford, was a lawyer, +and her mother, Mrs. Margaret Ford, a rather dressy lady who spent a good +deal of her time at clubs, was quite a figure in the society of Deepdale. +However, all through the war Mrs. Ford had worked with an untiring +enthusiasm for the "cause," a fact which had made her many more friends +than her social popularity could ever have done.</p> + +<p>Next in the little quartette came Mollie Billette. Mollie was seventeen, +French-American, and impulsive, with a quick temper that made more trouble +for herself than for any one else. She and Betty were alike in their +splendid vigor and vitality. Mollie, or "Billy" as she was sometimes +called by her chums, had a very lovely widowed mother and an extremely +mischievous young brother and sister, Paul and Dora (nicknamed "Dodo"), +who were twins and six. Although the twins were pretty nearly always in +trouble, they were really adorable children, whom everybody loved.</p> + +<p>Amy Blackford, shy, sweet, pretty, completed the quartette. There had been +a mystery about her past which had recently been cleared up, and it may +have been this mystery that caused the girls to treat her with a little +more consideration and gentleness than they did each other. Her guardian +was a broker in the city who knew very little of the past except through +letters.</p> + +<p>The four boys who were close chums of the girls and had added to the +interest and excitement of more than one of their adventures were Allen +Washburn, who was very much interested in Betty, and in whom Betty was +very much interested; Will Ford, Grace's brother, who had carried Amy +Blackford's picture all through the war; Frank Haley, Will Ford's closest +chum, and Roy Anderson who had not much distinction of any kind except +that he was "lots of fun" and a chum of the other three boys.</p> + +<p>In the first volume of this series the girls went on a camping and +tramping tour, tramping for miles over the country and meeting with many +adventures on the way.</p> + +<p>Later they had more fun at Rainbow Lake, in a motor car, in a winter camp, +in Florida, at Ocean View, then at Pine Island where the girls and boys +together had cleared up a mystery surrounding a gypsy cave.</p> + +<p>Later the girls and boys found themselves caught in the meshes of the +great war, as many hundreds of thousands of others had been. The boys +responded eagerly to the bugle call, and the girls, too, were eager for +Army service and finally went to a hostess house at Camp Liberty. Though +the girls had never worked harder in their lives, they found that the task +had a stirringly romantic side as well.</p> + +<p>Then in the volume directly preceding this, entitled "The Outdoor Girls at +Bluff Point" the girls had had perhaps the most exciting adventure of all.</p> + +<p>The Hostess House at Camp Liberty having burnt down, the chums found +themselves forced to take a much-needed, although not entirely welcome, +vacation and had decided to spend it at a romantic spot near the ocean +called Bluff Point. The cottage on the bluff had been loaned to the girls +by Grace's patriotic Aunt Mary, who declared that she owed something to +the chums for having worked so hard for the good old Stars and Stripes. +Mrs. Ford, worn out with war work, had gone with the girls to chaperon +them.</p> + +<p>Bad tidings at first threatened to overwhelm the chums. The Fords received +word that Will was seriously wounded "somewhere in France" and later +Mollie received a telegram from her mother saying that the twins, Dodo and +Paul, had disappeared. Still later, while everything was at its blackest, +Betty read Allen Washburn's name among the missing. However, everything +cleared up later when the twins, who had been kidnapped, were recovered +and their kidnapper sent to justice. Still later Allen proved that the +report that he had been missing was an error by writing to Betty himself +and in the letter he also spoke of Will Ford and the fact that he was +getting over his wound splendidly. Of course there had been great +rejoicing and the vacation had proved a happy one after all.</p> + +<p>And now, at the time of this story, the war was over and the first +regiments of soldiers had arrived from the other side and the girls were +expecting a joyful reunion with the boys at any time.</p> + +<p>They had not yet made definite plans for the summer and were just in the +position of waiting for something to happen when something had happened +with a vengeance--but not at all the kind of something which the four +girls had expected.</p> + +<p>"I think you are right, my dear," said the man who had saved the lives of +at least two of the girls, rubbing his hands fussily together and peering +out of small, near-sighted eyes, first at the tree and then at the girls. +"It was a close call--a very close call. I declare, it was very nearly the +closest call I ever saw!"</p> + +<p>For the first time the girls really looked at him. He was a rather small +man, slenderly built, with long sensitive hands and a very bald head, in +the center of which a tuft of hair stood comically upright. These +characteristics, coupled to the squinting eyes, gave the man a very odd +appearance.</p> + +<p>He was so queer a figure standing there in the center of the road that the +girls found themselves staring unduly. Realizing something of this, Betty +jumped down from the running board where she was still standing and held +out her hand to the little man, thanking him in a voice that still +trembled a little for the great service he had done them. The other girls +followed suit and so overwhelmed their rescuer that he seemed quite +embarrassed and looked around nervously as if for some means of escape.</p> + +<p>Betty, seeing his embarrassment, was about to take pity upon him when +something happened that they had not bargained for. It began to rain, not +gently, but in a deluge, taking the girls completely by surprise.</p> + +<p>Instinctively they turned toward the car, but Mollie suddenly began to +laugh in a half-hysterical manner.</p> + +<p>"This is what I call fun" she said. "Engine dead, caught in the rain, and +I've even left the side curtains at home! I guess we're in for it, girls."</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="ch_03"></a>Chapter III</h1> + +<h2>The Queer Little Man</h2> + + + +<p>While the girls stood looking wildly at each other their unknown rescuer +seemed suddenly galvanized to action.</p> + +<p>"This won't do at all!" he cried, raising both hands to his bald head +which was by this time very wet and more shiny than ever. "You will get +your death of cold, young ladies, you surely will. You must come with me. +Here, right along this path I have a cottage--" All the time he was +talking he was hustling them fussily ahead of him, for all the world like +some old hen with a brood of chickens.</p> + +<p>The girls, not knowing what else to do and being in rather a bewildered +frame of mind, allowed themselves to be hustled. The rain was sheeting +down in a terrific cloud burst, so that their clothes clung to them damply +and they began to shiver.</p> + +<p>They circled the fallen tree which had so nearly been their undoing, and a +moment later found themselves upon a narrow footpath which seemed to lead +into the very heart of the woods.</p> + +<p>"I wonder where he is taking us," whispered Grace in Betty's ear. "Maybe +he's a murderer or something."</p> + +<p>In spite of her discomfort, Betty giggled.</p> + +<p>"Did you ever see a murderer with a bald head like that?" she asked.</p> + +<p>It seemed to the girls as if the path must be at least a mile long, but +just as they were despairing of ever reaching the end of it, they came out +into a partially cleared space and through the trees caught a glimpse of +something that looked like a house.</p> + +<p>Their new acquaintance, who up to this time had been bringing up the rear, +now took the lead and led them over tangled underbrush, stones and +foot-bruising rocks, to his strange little dwelling.</p> + +<p>"It's a house, it's a house!" cried Grace thankfully, as they hurried +after the little man. "I guess somebody will have to wring me out when we +get inside. I'm soaked through!"</p> + +<p>"Goodness, why don't you tell us something we don't know?" grumbled +Mollie, but nobody was listening to her. They had reached the house and +the man had swung the door open hospitably.</p> + +<p>"Step inside, step inside, do," he urged with a nervous gesture that +reminded the girls once more of the proverbial hen. "You will find it dry +at least, and I will have a fire for you in a hurry. Just a moment till I +get some wood--just a moment--"</p> + +<p>And while he rambled on, suiting his words with quick nervous action, the +girls crowded inside the cottage and looked about them curiously.</p> + +<p>The room they had entered was large and scrupulously neat. At first glance +it seemed a queer combination of hunting lodge and museum of natural +history. The rough clapboards and beams of the ceiling and walls had never +been plastered, and this very crudity seemed somehow to give the room an +air of warmth and home-likeness that was very inviting.</p> + +<p>Hung on the walls were several fairly large skins of animals, a gun or +two, and over the huge open fireplace, which very nearly covered one end +of the room, hung the magnificent head of a buck.</p> + +<p>On the wall opposite the fireplace was a set of rudely-erected shelves, +one beneath the other, and these shelves were covered with specimens of +butterflies, beetles and other bugs of every size and description. That +the specimens had been mounted by an expert even an inexperienced eye +could see.</p> + +<p>The girls, who had been regarding the oddities of the room with growing +interest, were brought back to a realization of the discomfort of wet +clothes by the owner of the place himself.</p> + +<p>The latter had brought firewood from somewhere, and, with the aid of half +a dozen matches, had succeeded in getting a fairly good blaze.</p> + +<p>Then with a smile of satisfaction he turned to the girls, rubbing his +hands together genially.</p> + +<p>"Come nearer to the fire--come closer--do," he urged in his quick nervous +way. "I am sure you are chilled through--quite chilled through. I will +bring chairs." He stopped abruptly and looked about him with an +embarrassed air, his gaze coming to rest on the only chair which adorned +the room.</p> + +<p>Betty, seeing his confusion, was trying to think of something helpful to +say, when the little man suddenly found a way out of his quandary.</p> + +<p>"Ah, I have it!" he cried, seizing enthusiastically upon a long bench that +stood on one side of the room. "Four can sit upon this quite easily, I am +sure. A happy thought--a very happy thought--" and he pulled and tugged at +the bench until he succeeded in moving it close to the fire.</p> + +<p>Afterward it occurred to the girls that they might have helped him, for it +was a very heavy bench and he was rather a frail old man. But at the time +they were too interested in this unusual place and their rather +extraordinary host to think of anything very rational.</p> + +<p>However, they seated themselves dutifully in a row upon the bench, "for +all the world like an orphan asylum out for an airing," as Mollie said +later, and gratefully stretched out their sodden shoes to the blaze.</p> + +<p>They were cold and they were wet and they were fast becoming very hungry, +all of which might have been expected to form a very good reason why they +should have been miserable. But they weren't miserable--not at all. To the +Outdoor Girls the thrill of an adventure always more than counterbalanced +the possible discomforts attending it.</p> + +<p>Their host started to draw up the one chair in the room, hesitated a +moment then, as though he had just thought of something, turned and darted +through the door, closing it with a little click behind him.</p> + +<p>For the space of half a second the girls looked after him. Then they +looked at each other. Then they drew a long breath and let loose the flood +of curious questions which had been struggling for expression for the past +twenty minutes.</p> + +<p>"Well, isn't this a lark?" cried Mollie, her eyes dancing, "Half an hour +ago we were awfully bored, and now look at us."</p> + +<p>"Yes, look at us," said Grace with a little sniff. "I'm sure we're not +very much to look at right now with our hair wet, and our clothes--"</p> + +<p>"Oh, for goodness' sake, who cares about such things?" cried Betty gaily. +"I think this is a darling place and I'm having the time of my life. I +wonder who he is?"</p> + +<p>"He seemed kind of scared just now, didn't he?" chuckled Mollie, feeling +her shoe to see if it was drying out any. "It was funny the way he bolted +out of the room."</p> + +<p>"Poor old dear--no wonder he was scared," commented Grace, as she took off +her hat and tried to do something with her hopelessly bedraggled locks. +"The way we look we're enough to scare anybody. Oh, dear, hasn't any one a +comb?"</p> + +<p>"Why, of course, we carry a complete beauty parlor outfit just for your +benefit, dear," giggled Mollie. "The rest of us don't need it though, We +are too beautiful naturally."</p> + +<p>"You know I like him a lot, the queer little man, I mean," said Amy, +evidently following out her own train of thought. "He seems kind of fussy +and peculiar but he has an awfully nice smile."</p> + +<p>"Trust Amy to find the smile," said Betty, putting an arm fondly about the +younger girl. "And of course we all like him," she added seriously. "If it +hadn't been for him we probably wouldn't be feeling so happy right now."</p> + +<p>"Yes, we would probably be in some hospital with our unhappy relatives +weeping over our mangled remains," said the irrepressible Mollie, and +laughed at the shriek that went up at her gruesome remark. "There probably +wouldn't have been enough of us left to recognize," she added by way of +good measure, and they shrieked again.</p> + +<p>"For goodness' sake, let's talk of something pleasant," said Grace, rising +suddenly and going over to the window. "If you want to sit on that old +bench all day, you can."</p> + +<p>It appeared that the girls had no intention of sitting on the bench all +day. They got up and sauntered about the room, examining the skins on the +walls and looking, but without much curiosity, at the rifles. They +lingered longest before the shelves of butterflies and beetles, for some +of the specimens were really beautiful and very rare.</p> + +<p>After they had examined everything in sight they began to grow restive. +They must have been in the place nearly an hour and it suddenly occurred +to them to wonder where their host had been keeping himself all this time.</p> + +<p>"I wish we could get started," worried Mollie, looking out upon the sodden +landscape. The rain was apparently coming down just as hard as ever. "I +hate to leave the car all by itself out there. Somebody might steal it."</p> + +<p>"I wish I knew where that man was," said Grace nervously. "I never trust +strange men. He may set the house on fire for all we know."</p> + +<p>The words were hardly out of her mouth when the door opened and the topic +of conversation himself entered, carrying a tray so big and heaped so high +with sandwiches that one could scarcely discover the man behind it.</p> + +<p>Betty and Amy ran to his assistance, and between them they got the tray +safely to the bench. In one delighted glance the girls saw that not only +sandwiches, but a steaming pot of coffee and the remains of what had been +a great, three-layer chocolate cake were on the tray.</p> + +<p>At thought of the fussy little man taking all this time and trouble, for +it must have taken a good deal of work to make all that formidable array +of sandwiches--the girls were sincerely touched and regarded their host +with a new interest.</p> + +<p>"There, there," he was saying, regarding the heaped-up tray with evident +pleasure, "you must sit down and eat at once. You must be nearly +starved--famished. I hope this will be enough."</p> + +<p>He looked at them so anxiously that Betty felt like hugging him--and +nearly did it.</p> + +<p>"Enough! Well, I guess it is enough," she said heartily, as the other +girls seated themselves on the bench either side of the tempting tray and +began enthusiastically to help themselves. "It would be plenty for an +army. We can't thank you enough."</p> + +<p>"Indeed we can't," added Mollie.</p> + +<p>"It's awfully good of you," said Grace, as she took a bite of her ham +sandwich.</p> + +<p>"Awfully good," added Amy, like an echo.</p> + +<p>The little man waved aside their thanks and drew up the one chair in the +room, talking all the time in his quick, jerky fashion.</p> + +<p>"It was no trouble, I am sure,--no trouble whatever," he said, adding as +though he wished to change the subject: "You didn't tell me your name--" +he hesitated, looking at Betty, who of course did tell him her name on the +spot. This proved a signal for mutual introductions, and the girls learned +that their new friend was a college professor, Arnold Dempsey by name. +They also learned that he had taken up woodcraft in the hope of recovering +his health.</p> + +<p>And while they contentedly munched sandwiches and sipped steaming coffee +the girls learned a good deal more about Arnold Dempsey, and the more they +learned of him the more they felt drawn to him.</p> + +<p>And when he started to tell them of his two sons who had fought so nobly +in the army of democracy, their eyes began to shine and they leaned toward +him with an interest that was intensely real.</p> + +<p>"Oh, it must be wonderful to have two big soldier sons," cried Amy, +forgetting her shyness in her enthusiasm. "Aren't you dreadfully proud?"</p> + +<p>A gleam came into Professor Dempsey's eyes and his thin shoulders +straightened.</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes," he said. "Of course I'm proud of my boys--very proud. And I +hope," a look of absolute happiness came into his eyes and he smiled +contentedly, "that before very long I shall see them."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'm sure you will!" cried Betty eagerly.</p> + +<p>"That's what we are all hoping for, anyway," said Grace, adding with a +sigh: "The boys have been gone so <i>dreadfully</i> long."</p> + +<p>"Look," cried Mollie presently, rising suddenly to her feet and pointing +toward the window. "We have been so busy talking that we never noticed the +sun had come out."</p> + +<p>"And doesn't it look good!" exulted Betty.</p> + +<p>In spite of their reluctance to leave their new-found friend, the girls +were anxious to be off, for they knew their parents would be worrying +about them.</p> + +<p>Professor Dempsey insisted on seeing them safely back to the road although +they protested that there was absolutely no need of it.</p> + +<p>"There are two or three paths that lead to the road," he explained, as he +flung wide the door, letting in a flood of sunshine, "and I wouldn't have +you lose your way for the world--not for the world!"</p> + +<p>The woodland was beautiful after the rain, and the girls sniffed the +fragrant air eagerly as they followed Professor Dempsey along the path. It +was not till they had almost reached the road that Mollie had a +disquieting thought.</p> + +<p>"How do we know but what we're stuck here for good?" she asked the girls. +"The car stopped dead, you remember, just under that horrible tree, and +I'm sure I don't know what in the world made it. If I can't find out the +trouble--"</p> + +<p>"Oh, but you've got to find it," protested Grace, while Betty and Amy +looked worried. "We can't stay here all night, and it may be a dozen miles +to the nearest garage."</p> + +<p>"I know that just as well as you do," grumbled Mollie. "But if I can't, I +can't, that's all."</p> + +<p>By this time they had reached the road and Mollie went straight to the +car. While she and Betty were trying to find out what was wrong the other +two girls and Professor Dempsey looked on anxiously.</p> + +<p>"Well, as far as I can see there is absolutely nothing wrong with it," +snapped Mollie at last, lifting a face flushed with exertion. "Get in, +girls, and I'll start the engine--or try to. Then if she won't go we'll +have to make up our minds to stay here all night or walk to the next +garage."</p> + +<p>Accordingly the girls got in and Mollie pressed the self-starter. To her +great surprise, the engine purred a response, and as she shifted her gears +the car moved slowly forward.</p> + +<p>"Oh, goodie, we're going," cried Amy, and the faces of the other girls +showed relief.</p> + +<p>"Must have been a drop of water in the gasoline," hazarded Mollie, and +then she throttled the engine once more while she and her chums turned to +say good-bye to Professor Dempsey. The latter was still standing in the +road, looking up at them rather wistfully.</p> + +<p>"I'm glad that I had an opportunity of helping you, young ladies--very +glad," he answered, in response to their repeated thanks. "You conferred a +great favor on me also, for I have little company. Good-bye--and good luck +to you."</p> + +<p>The girls responded gayly, and as they started forward Betty leaned far +out of the machine to call back an encouraging: "Keep hoping hard for your +boys to come home. I am sure they will be back soon."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, young lady, thank you," said Professor Dempsey, but the words +were too low for Betty to catch and she was too far away to see the mist +that sprang suddenly to his eyes.</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="ch_04"></a>Chapter IV</h1> + +<h2>Good News</h2> + + + +<p>Deepdale, the home of the four Outdoor Girls, is a thriving little city +with a population of about fifteen thousand people. It is situated on the +Argono River, a pleasant stream where a great many of the young folk of +Deepdale, and some of the older ones too, keep motor boats and canoes and +various other types of pleasure craft.</p> + +<p>Farther on, the Argono empties into Rainbow Lake, which is picturesque in +the extreme. It has several pretty and romantic looking islands, chief of +which is Triangle Island--so called because of its shape.</p> + +<p>There is a boat running from Deepdale to Clammerport at the foot of +Rainbow Lake, and this boat is almost always crowded with pleasure +seekers. In addition to this Deepdale is situated in the heart of New York +state and is only a hundred-and-fifty-mile run from the city of that name. +Thus one can easily see that Deepdale is a very desirable place in which +to live.</p> + +<p>At least that is what the four Outdoor Girls thought. And since they had +spent most of their lives there, they certainly ought to know!</p> + +<p>On the morning of this day, some ten days or so after their strange +encounter with Professor Dempsey, the girls were gathered on Betty's +porch, talking over their plans for the summer.</p> + +<p>"I am only waiting to hear from Uncle John," Mollie was saying, as she +swung lazily back and forth in the couch swing. "The last time I saw him +he said that he was almost sure to go north this summer and he told me +that as soon as he made definite plans he would let me know."</p> + +<p>"You told us that two weeks ago," Grace reminded her. "And we haven't +heard from him yet."</p> + +<p>"It does seem to take him a long time to make up his mind," sighed Amy.</p> + +<p>Betty, who had been trying to read a novel, closed the book and turned to +them with a laugh.</p> + +<p>"Goodness, you all sound doleful," she told them. "It seems to me that we +ought to be able to live through it, even if we don't get Wild Rose Lodge +for the summer. There are plenty of other things we can do."</p> + +<p>Mollie turned upon her indignantly.</p> + +<p>"How you talk, Betty Nelson," she scolded her. "As if we could possibly +have as good a time anywhere else as we could at Wild Rose Lodge. Think of +being in a real hunting lodge out in the woods away from everybody! Why, +it will be a real adventure--"</p> + +<p>"All right. I surrender--don't shoot," laughed Betty, coming over and +perching on the railing beside Mollie. "I admit we should probably have +more fun at the lodge than we could anywhere else. I was only trying to +look on the bright side of things in case our plans should fall through. +Hello--who's this?"</p> + +<p>"This" proved to be Mollie's little sister Dora, or "Dodo," as she was +called by almost everybody. With a sigh of relief, the girls saw that +Dodo's twin brother, Paul, was not with her, for together the children +were a simply unconquerable pair.</p> + +<p>The twins had been spoiled by their widowed mother, Mrs. Billette, even +before the time when they had been kidnapped and spirited off by a hideous +Spaniard. But since their recovery, their joyful mother had indulged them +in every way until they had become well nigh unmanageable.</p> + +<p>Yet in spite of everything, the twins were very lovable, and every one +loved them, even those whom they annoyed most.</p> + +<p>And now as Dodo tore up the street toward them, waving something white in +her hand, the girls instinctively glanced about to see what they ought to +put out of sight before the cyclone struck them.</p> + +<p>"Thank goodness, Paul isn't with her," murmured Grace. "Then we would be +in for it."</p> + +<p>"Dodo," cried Mollie as the child started up the walk, "scrape some of +that mud off your feet before you come up. You will get Betty's porch all +dirty."</p> + +<p>"Name's Dora--not Dodo," the little girl answered, paying not the +slightest heed to Mollie's caution about the mud. "Dodo's a baby's +name--don't like it. Got something for you."</p> + +<p>She stumbled heedlessly up the steps, leaving a trail of mud behind her, +and almost breaking her neck in the bargain.</p> + +<p>"Now just look at Betty's porch," Mollie was beginning in exasperation +when Betty laughingly interfered.</p> + +<p>"Oh, let her alone, Mollie," she coaxed. "The porch was dirty anyway +and--what's that you have in your hand, Dodo?"</p> + +<p>"Sumfin' for Mollie," answered Dodo, leaning sulkily against the rail +while the girls regarded her anxiously. "An' if Mallie aren't nice to me +she can't have it."</p> + +<p>"Oh, for goodness' sake be nice to her and get it over with, Mollie," +urged Grace, uneasily conscious of the candy box she had shoved hastily +behind her. She was afraid one corner of it might show.</p> + +<p>So Mollie got down from her perch on the railing and went over coaxingly +to the little girl.</p> + +<p>"Give it to Mollie, honey," she begged. "I'll even call you Dora, if you +will."</p> + +<p>"<i>Always</i> Dora--<i>never</i> Dodo?" asked Dodo eagerly, for she was +growing out of babyhood just enough to resent being called by her baby +name.</p> + +<p>"Always Dora," Mollie promised.</p> + +<p>For answer Dodo held out the white thing she had waved at them from the +street, and with a little cry of excitement Mollie saw that it was a +letter addressed to her in her Uncle John's firm hand.</p> + +<p>At her exclamation the girls crowded round her eagerly. She hastily tore +open the envelope and devoured the contents. Then she turned to the girls +with a glowing face.</p> + +<p>"It's all right, it's all right!" she cried, waving the letter round her +head like a flag and nearly upsetting her chums. "Uncle John says it is +settled. He is going to Canada for a couple of months and we can have the +lodge for the whole time he is away or a part of it, just as we wish. +Hooray! How's that for luck?"</p> + +<p>The girls were so excited over their good fortune that they forgot all +about Dodo. She, finding herself unobserved, had slipped around the girls +to the swing, snatched the box of candy which Grace had exposed when she +got up, had taken the steps two at a time and was flying off down the +street before the girls saw what she was up to.</p> + +<p>Then it was Grace who, with a dreadful premonition, thought of her candy. +She turned quickly, saw that the box was gone, and uttered a wail of woe.</p> + +<p>"That little Turk of a sister of yours has done it again," she cried, +turning to Mollie, while Betty and Amy began to laugh. "You just wait till +I catch her. I'll get my candy back if I have to--spank her," this last +with a fierce scowl.</p> + +<p>Betty put an arm about her excited chum, led her over to the swing and put +her down in it.</p> + +<p>"By the time you caught Dodo there wouldn't be any of your candy left," +she said, adding soothingly: "Never mind, honey. We will get you some more +if we have to take up a collection."</p> + +<p>"Makes me feel like an orphan's home," grumbled Grace, but she laughed +nevertheless with the rest and immediately forgot both her candy and Dodo +in renewed excitement over Wild Rose Lodge.</p> + +<p>"Just where is this place, Mollie?" asked Amy. "What is it called?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, that's the very best part of it," said Mollie, with a mysterious +smile. "It has the most wonderful, most romantic name. Come closer while I +whisper it--Moonlight Falls. There, isn't that a real name for a place?"</p> + +<p>"Wild Rose Lodge at Moonlight Falls," sighed Grace ecstatically. "If we +don't have a wildly romantic time in a place with a name like that, it +will be our own fault."</p> + +<p>"But we will have to have a chaperon--" Amy was beginning when Betty +interrupted her eagerly.</p> + +<p>"I have fixed that," she said, and while they all looked in astonishment +she went on quickly to explain. "I met Mrs. Irving in the street the other +day--you know she has been away ever since that last time she was with us +on Pine Island--and I asked her then if she would chaperon us this +summer."</p> + +<p>"But you didn't even know then that we were going to Wild Rose Lodge, +Betty," Mollie interrupted.</p> + +<p>"I knew we were sure to go somewhere. We always--" Betty was arguing when +Grace cut in impatiently.</p> + +<p>"Never mind about that," she said. "Did Mrs. Irving say she would go?"</p> + +<p>"She said she was very sure she could manage it," Betty answered. "She +seemed awfully surprised and said it would be great fun to be with us +girls again."</p> + +<p>"It will be great fun for all of us," said Amy happily. "I'll never forget +the wonderful time we had on Pine Island with Mrs. Irving and the boys."</p> + +<p>"Yes--and the boys," Betty repeated a little wistfully. She was thinking +of Allen Washburn and the wonderful time they had had that +never-to-be-forgotten summer--before the war had come to separate them and make their +hearts ache. Oh, it would be unbelievably happy to have the boys back +again--Will, Roy, Frank and--her Allen. The old crowd together once more. +She looked around at the girls, who had also fallen into a thoughtful +mood, and suddenly she smiled, the old bright, happy smile that was +peculiarly Betty's own.</p> + +<p>"Oh, cheer up, everybody," she cried gayly. "How do we know but what the +boys will be home in time to join us at Wild Rose Lodge? Then think of the +fun!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Betty, if we could only believe that!" they cried.</p> + +<p>"Well," said the Little Captain stoutly, "you never can tell. Stranger +things have happened, you know."</p> + +<p>"But nothing so joyful," added Mollie.</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="ch_05"></a>Chapter V</h1> + +<h2>Betty Takes a Dare</h2> + + + +<p>It would be a week or two before Wild Rose Lodge would be ready for the +girls' occupancy, and as a relief for their impatience they filled in the +time in hiking, motoring and put-putting up and down the Argono in their +natty little motor boat.</p> + +<p>But whatever it was they were doing, their conversation almost invariably +returned to one of two subjects--the return of the boys and the good time +they would have at Moonlight Falls.</p> + +<p>They spoke often of Professor Arnold Dempsey. They took a real interest in +the queer little old man, both because of the service he had done them and +the fact that he was watching and waiting for his two big sons, even as +they were anxiously awaiting the return of their boys.</p> + +<p>"It must be dreadfully lonely for him in that little cabin or house or +whatever you call it in the woods," Amy said one day as she and the girls +sauntered down to the dock where their motor boat was anchored. "And he +said he hardly ever had company."</p> + +<p>"Goodness, I should think he would go crazy," Mollie commented. "Why, I go +almost mad when I don't have any one to talk to for an <i>hour</i>."</p> + +<p>"I wonder if he lived in that little house all during the war," said Betty +thoughtfully. They had reached the dock and were walking slowly out upon +it. "If he did, it must have been dreadfully hard for him. It makes me +shiver to think of him sitting there all alone, reading the casualty list, +terrified for fear the next name would be that of his son----"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Betty," cried gentle Amy, all her sympathy quickly roused by the +picture Betty had drawn, "what a dreadful thing to think of!"</p> + +<p>"But he never did find their names among the missing or killed," Mollie +reminded them soberly. "We know that because he said he expected to see +them soon."</p> + +<p>"Of course. And all we can do is hope with all our hearts that he gets his +wish," said Betty brightly, adding with a sudden change of subject: "But +away with dull care. The sun is shining and here's our fairy ship waiting +to carry us off to fresh adventure. What more could any one want, I'd like +to know."</p> + +<p>"Humph," grunted Mollie, eyeing critically the trim little boat in which +they had had so much fun and adventure, as the other girls tumbled aboard. +"I'd say she didn't look very much like a fairy boat just now. She needs +considerable polishing and scrubbing. Why don't you girls get busy, +anyhow?"</p> + +<p>"Just hear who's talking," yawned Grace, disposing herself lazily in a +comfortable chair on deck. "I haven't noticed you waving a broom and mop +frantically around these parts lately, Mollie dear."</p> + +<p>"In fact," Betty added with a mischievous twinkle in her eye, "I think I +remember suggesting that the <i>Gem</i> needed grooming the other day. +Whereupon some one who shall be nameless suggested a motor ride instead."</p> + +<p>"She's got you there, old dear," drawled Grace, taking the inevitable box +of chocolates from her pocket and opening it lovingly. "I remember the +incident pre-zactly as it has been described."</p> + +<p>Mollie, who was still standing on the dock, regarding them frowningly, +started to reply but Betty interrupted her with a shout. She had started +the engine and the boat began to move slowly away from the dock.</p> + +<p>"Better hurry up," suggested the Little Captain wickedly. "We'd rather not +leave you behind, but if you insist--"</p> + +<p>However, Mollie had not the slightest intention in the world of being left +behind. With a gasp of mingled surprise and dismay she made a jump for it, +cleared the foot of space between the dock and the boat and landed square +in the middle of Grace's astonished and outraged lap. She would have sat +on the candy box, too, and would, in all probability, have ruined it and +her dress as well, had not Grace, with rare presence of mind, whipped the +box out of danger just in the nick of time.</p> + +<p>"Well," said Mollie, too surprised and indignant to move for a moment, +while, at the comical picture she made, both Betty and Amy laughed +merrily, "I surely like this!"</p> + +<p>"You do, do you? Well, I don't!" cried Grace, recovering both her breath +and her dignity at the same moment. "If you don't stop sitting on my lungs +this minute, Mollie Billette, I'll--I'll--stick this pin into you."</p> + +<p>With a yell Mollie stumbled to her feet and shook out her dress +belligerently.</p> + +<p>"You had better not. I'm stronger than you, Grace Ford, and I've a good +mind to let you see what the bottom of the river looks like."</p> + +<p>She advanced toward her prospective victim, and Betty stopped laughing +long enough to call to her.</p> + +<p>"You'd better change your mind, Mollie," she cautioned merrily. "You can't +give Gracie a ducking without ruining her dress and she might charge you +damages. Reconsider--I beg of you, reconsider!"</p> + +<p>Mollie condescended to reconsider and plumped herself down cross-legged on +the deck, disdaining a chair.</p> + +<p>"Oh, very well," she said, adding as she glared darkly at Grace: "You will +probably never know, woman, how near to death you were."</p> + +<p>To which Grace replied with unexpected ferocity.</p> + +<p>"And you may never know, woman, just how near to death you are this +minute. Look at what you have done to my best sport skirt. I don't believe +I will ever be able to get those wrinkles out."</p> + +<p>"If you two will stop quarreling just long enough to tell me where you +want to go," Betty requested, "I should be very much obliged. Up or down +the river?"</p> + +<p>"Anywhere," answered Grace, still regarding her crumpled sport skirt +gloomily. "We are just trying to kill time this afternoon anyway, so I +don't see that it makes much difference where we go."</p> + +<p>"Suppose we take her up to the Point," suggested Mollie, getting up from +the deck and going over to Betty who still had the wheel. "Maybe we can +get some ice-cream and a drink of ice water. I am getting dreadfully +thirsty already."</p> + +<p>Betty looked tempted but a little doubtful.</p> + +<p>"You know it is pretty dangerous to run in there, Mollie," she protested. +"There are so many other boats driven by Percy Falconer's crazy lot who +don't care whether they capsize you or not--"</p> + +<p>"Goodness, Betty, it isn't like you to be afraid," Mollie started, but +stopped at the look in the "Little Captain's" eye.</p> + +<p>"I'd rather you didn't ever say that again, Mollie," she said. "I'll take +you in there since you want it, but if anything should happen remember +that I warned you."</p> + +<p>"Goodness, Mollie, I don't see why you ever wanted to go and suggest that +for," said Grace nervously. "We all know there is danger of a collision +over at the Point, and I'm sure I don't want to spoil my clothes, even if +you do."</p> + +<p>"Your father said that he would rather we kept to this side of the river, +Betty," urged Amy. "Please don't go over to the Point now."</p> + +<p>"There's no use talking to her," snapped Grace. "You ought to know Betty +well enough by this time to know that she would take us over to the Point +now, after what Mollie said, if she knew we would all die of it. Might as +well save your breath."</p> + +<p>Mollie said nothing, but down in her heart she was more than a little bit +anxious and was beginning to regret that she had deliberately egged Betty +on.</p> + +<p>Percy Falconer, of whom Betty had spoken, had once been a rather dudish, +affected boy and had later developed into an exceedingly fast young man. +He had an immensely rich father and a mother who denied him nothing so +that he had been able to gather together a few kindred spirits among whom +he was the leader. All the regular boys and girls in town thoroughly +disliked "the set," but there were a few girls who were willing to put up +with Percy Falconer and his crowd for sake of the long motor rides, +dances, dinners and motorboat picnics that the boys were able to give +them.</p> + +<p>There were always some of this wild crowd over at the "Point," and it was +for this reason as well as the very real danger of a collision with a +recklessly driven boat that Betty's father had rather discouraged the +chums going over to that side of the river.</p> + +<p>However the day was fine, the water of the river was as calm as a lake and +the <i>Gem</i> flew across the sparkling water like a gull, bringing a +flush of pure excitement and pleasure to the faces of the girls. +Danger--what danger could there be in this staunch little craft, with +Betty at the wheel?</p> + +<p>They were half way across the river, now--three quarters. The gay pleasure +craft flaunting up and down the river were becoming more numerous and +Betty slackened speed. Her breath came more quickly and her hands +tightened on the wheel. She could drive a boat as well as any boy, but +here, she knew, was a situation to test her greatest skill.</p> + +<p>Craft of all sizes and descriptions seemed to the excited girls to be +piling up about them. Most of the boats were being navigated carefully, +but now and then a small, fast speed-craft would shoot out from behind +another so suddenly that Betty would be forced to swerve sharply to one +side, fairly grazing the stern of the racing boat.</p> + +<p>On one of these occasions, when it had seemed impossible to avoid a +collision, Amy called out sharply:</p> + +<p>"Oh, Betty, don't you think we had better go back?"</p> + +<p>And Betty replied with a queer little laugh:</p> + +<p>"Might just as well go ahead as back now. We'll be there in a minute. +Don't worry."</p> + +<p>The words were scarcely out of her mouth when two craft running neck and +neck and driven recklessly slipped out from behind a sailboat and drove +directly down upon the <i>Gem</i>. It seemed impossible that the Outdoor +Girls could escape disaster.</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="ch_06"></a>Chapter VI</h1> + +<h2>Nearly Wrecked</h2> + + + +<p>The girls did not scream. Perhaps they were too frightened or perhaps it +was just natural pluck.</p> + +<p>They did jump to their feet though as if with some wild thought of leaping +overboard. But there they remained, staring with fascinated eyes at the +fate that was bearing down upon them.</p> + +<p>As for Betty, after one breath-taking minute when all the blood in her +body seemed to rush to her head, she simply sat there and tried in the +second that was given her to think what to do.</p> + +<p>Almost automatically, she wrenched the wheel around, nearly capsizing the +boat with the sudden turn. At almost the same second, as though the thing +had been prearranged, the boys in the racing craft swung around in the +opposite direction.</p> + +<p>A slight scraping as the side of the <i>Gem</i> slid along the side of the +nearer of the racing craft, and they were safe, with no harm done with the +exception of a little paint scraped from the side of the boat.</p> + +<p>It was a moment before the girls could realize what had happened to them. +Then a voice hailed them from the boat alongside. In a glance the girls +perceived that the voice belonged to no other than Percy Falconer himself.</p> + +<p>"Hello," called Percy, adding boisterously as he recognized the girls: +"Well, by all that's holy, if it isn't the Outdoor Girls! Thought you +never came over to this side of the river."</p> + +<p>"We don't," Betty answered, the hand that still gripped the wheel shaking +nervously now that the danger was over. "And I don't believe we ever will +again, either!"</p> + +<p>"I say, your teeth are chattering," cried Percy, looking at Betty in open +admiration. In the old days, Percy had tried hard to win favor in Betty's +eyes, but the latter had always treated him with a good-natured +indifference not unmixed with contempt that had been very hard for the +young dude to bear. During the years he had still admired Betty from afar +and hated Allen Washburn for being the "lucky one." So now he hastened to +make the most of what he thought was an opportunity.</p> + +<p>"Come on over to the Point with me and Derby here," indicating the young +fellow in the other racing craft who had drawn his boat up close to them +and was looking on with interest. "We will get you something to steady +your nerves a bit. We had a pretty narrow squeak that time, and it's no +wonder it upset you a little."</p> + +<p>He was supposedly addressing all the girls, but his eyes were only for +Betty. As for her, she suddenly had a startlingly clear mental picture of +what her father would think were some one to tell him that his daughter +and her chums had been seen at the "Point" with Percy Falconer and a +friend of his.</p> + +<p>In days gone by Percy had been very insipid, his mind entirely on his +clothes; now he had become a sport, and the report was that he caroused +around not a little.</p> + +<p>Betty turned to the youth with a decided little shake of her head, though +her eyes were smiling.</p> + +<p>"I think we shall have to go right back," she said. "It looks as though it +were going to rain. Thank you just as much," and she began to ease her +motor boat gently away from the other craft.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I say," Percy cried, disappointedly and a little angrily, for out of +the corner of his eye he could see that his friend was laughing at him, +"we would only keep you for a moment or two. You needn't be afraid of us. +We won't bite, you know."</p> + +<p>"We don't know you well enough to be sure even of that," said Mollie, +coming suddenly and flippantly into the conversation.</p> + +<p>But Percy took not the slightest notice of her and, as Betty was slowly +but surely widening the distance between the <i>Gem</i> and his boat, he +leaned forward eagerly.</p> + +<p>"Betty, let me see you some time. How about to-morrow night?"</p> + +<p>And because Betty was always kind to every one and was sorry for Mollie's +flippant speech, she said, quite unexpectedly, even to herself, "All +right."</p> + +<p>Then she turned the <i>Gem</i> around and started for home, conscious that +her chums were gazing at her in speechless amazement.</p> + +<p>"Betty!" cried Grace, horrified. "You are never going to let Percy +Falconer come to see you, are you?"</p> + +<p>But Betty turned on her irritably. She was tired and nervous and angry at +herself for having anything to do with that conceited dude, Percy +Falconer.</p> + +<p>"You heard me say he could come, didn't you?" she said in response to +Grace's incredulous question, Amy's wide-eyed stare, and Mollie's grin. +"And if you are going to ask me why I said so," she added desperately, +"I'm not going to tell you. And if anybody speaks to me before I get back +to the dock, I'll--wreck 'em, that's all."</p> + +<p>The girls exchanged glances and wisely decided to change the subject, for +the present at least. For the time they had plenty to do anyway, just +watching out that somebody else did not run into them!</p> + +<p>By the time they reached comparatively clear water they were all tired and +they were glad for once when the <i>Gem</i> scraped against the home dock +and the "cruise" was over.</p> + +<p>"Well," said Mollie as they climbed on to the dock, "we surely did have +some excitement, but we didn't get what we started out for after all."</p> + +<p>"What's that?" asked Grace, as she tied the ribbon round her candy box and +adjusted her hat at a more becoming angle.</p> + +<p>"Ice-cream and a drink of ice water," said Mollie ruefully. "I've just +remembered that I am dying of thirst."</p> + +<p>"Come on around to my house," Betty invited. Her wrist was lame from +gripping the wheel so hard and she felt it gingerly. "Mother said she +would make a big pitcher of lemonade for us and leave it in the +refrigerator."</p> + +<p>"Whew," whistled Mollie, taking Betty's arm and hurrying her forward. "By +any chance did you girls hear what I heard? <i>Me</i> for <i>it</i>, Betty +Nelson."</p> + +<p>The girls talked little on their way to Betty's house, but they thought a +good deal. They were tired and disgruntled, and it seemed to them in their +pessimistic mood that everything they had tried to do that day had gone +wrong. And the climax of it all was their meeting--if it could be called a +meeting--with Percy Falconer. Worst of all, Betty was going to allow him +to call!</p> + +<p>With something of this in her mind, Mollie glanced sideways at her chum +and, curiosity getting the better of her discretion, ventured to remark +upon it.</p> + +<p>"I wonder what Allen will say," she said, "when he learns about Percy."</p> + +<p>It was an unfortunate remark, as Betty very soon showed by turning upon +her chum angrily.</p> + +<p>"I don't know that Allen has a right to say anything at all about what I +do," she said. "And as I don't intend ever to see Percy Falconer after +to-morrow, I think we had better forget about him. But there," she added, +bringing herself up short and giving Mollie's hand a little conciliatory +squeeze, "I didn't mean to be cross. I'm just kind of mad about the whole +thing--and tired, and hot--"</p> + +<p>"I know," said Mollie generously. "I guess we all are--tired and hot, I +mean. We will feel better after we have had something cold to drink."</p> + +<p>Betty's mother had left not only the lemonade but some sandwiches of +chopped nuts and cream cheese. Jubilantly the girls carried these +delicacies out on the front porch and proceeded to devour them without +further delay.</p> + +<p>As they ate and drank, their ill-humor vanished and they began to feel +once more like their cheerful, optimistic selves. They even began to laugh +a little about the close shave they had had with Percy and his friend.</p> + +<p>"It was mighty clever work of yours, Betty, swerving around like that," +Mollie said reminiscently, as she patted the Little Captain's hand +approvingly. "I'm sure I would have been so scared I'd have gone right +ahead and then there would have been a nasty smash."</p> + +<p>"I do hope the folks don't hear about it," worried Grace. "It would only +make them nervous and they might even refuse to let us go out in the +<i>Gem</i> any more."</p> + +<p>"I don't see how the folks are going to know anything about it," said Amy +calmly.</p> + +<p>"Unless our dear friend Percy blabs it all over town," added Grace.</p> + +<p>"I think we ought to tell the folks," Betty spoke up suddenly. "I know +they would rather hear about it from us than from any one else. Hello," +she broke off, as her eye lighted on a newspaper lying on the table, "this +looks like the evening edition. Maybe it has some news of Allen's +division."</p> + +<p>"My, just listen to her," yawned Grace. "Allen's division, indeed. As +though he were the only one we were interested in--"</p> + +<p>But her words were cut short by a startled exclamation from Betty.</p> + +<p>"Oh, girls, look here!" she cried. "Look at these names. Oh, I hope it +isn't true! I hope it isn't!"</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="ch_07"></a>Chapter VII</h1> + +<h2>Bad Tidings Confirmed</h2> + + + +<p>"I wish I knew what you were talking about," said Mollie, pausing with a +sandwich half-way to her mouth, while Amy and Grace regarded the Little +Captain with astonishment. "What names? Where?"</p> + +<p>But Betty was paying no attention to them. She was reading hastily the +column that had caught her startled attention.</p> + +<p>"Listen to this," she said, reading out loud. "Among those who were killed +in the last great Allied offensive are the names of these brave soldiers. +James Browning of Columbus, Ohio--No, that isn't what I mean--Look, here +they are--James Dempsey and Arnold Dempsey, Junior. Girls, do you suppose +--" and she looked at them with widening eyes.</p> + +<p>"Arnold Dempsey, Arnold Dempsey," repeated Mollie, searching in her +memory, but Amy interrupted excitedly.</p> + +<p>"That was Professor Dempsey's name, wasn't it?" she asked. "Oh, Betty, do +you suppose it could be his son?"</p> + +<p>"Why, of course it is his son--how could it be any one else?" cried Grace, +the excitement beginning to communicate itself to her. "Arnold Dempsey, +Junior--and the professor said his sons were over there."</p> + +<p>"Didn't it say something about James Dempey, too, Betty?" asked Mollie, +fairly snatching the paper from her chum. "Yes, here it is. Do you suppose +that can be his other son?"</p> + +<p>Betty shook her head soberly.</p> + +<p>"I don't know," she said. "Of course he didn't tell us the name of his +other son, but it might easily be James. Oh, I hope it isn't so!" she +added, her heart aching for the lonely old man whose one big interest in +life was his boys. "I do hope there has been some mistake."</p> + +<p>"I guess we all do," said Amy gently, adding with a sigh: "But I'm afraid +there isn't very much hope of it. The Government is usually right when it +comes to things like that."</p> + +<p>"Not always," Mollie retorted quickly. "Look at the time they reported +that Alien was among the missing and he wasn't at all. That is the only +mistake we happen to know about, but I fancy there are plenty of others."</p> + +<p>At mention of that dreadful time when she had read Alien's name in the +long list of the missing, Betty experienced again something of the emotion +she had felt at that time.</p> + +<p>She saw again in imagination the dark room where she had gone to be by +herself, she heard the thunder of the surf on the rocks outside and the +rumble of the thunder overhead. She saw once more the vision of Alien as +she had seen it then. Allen stretched out cold and dead perhaps on some +shell-ridden battlefield or perhaps, more terrible still, a prisoner in +the hands of the Hun, suffering unspeakable torture--</p> + +<p>"But this is not as bad as though the boys were missing," she said +suddenly, speaking her thought aloud. "At least the professor will know +that his sons are dead."</p> + +<p>The girls started and looked at Betty queerly.</p> + +<p>"I was thinking of Allen," she explained in response to their rather +startled glances, "and the time when we thought he was missing. If this +thing is true about Professor Dempsey's sons I think I shall be able to +sympathize with him, almost better than any of you."</p> + +<p>"I guess you will, honey," said Mollie soberly, putting an arm about her +chum. "It was a terrible time for us all--there at Bluff Point. But it was +almost worth the suffering when we found out that Allen was alive and well +and never had been missing at all Do you remember how happy we all were +then?"</p> + +<p>"Happy," Betty repeated, shaking off her depression and smiling at the +memory. "I'll say we were the happiest girls on earth--especially after we +recovered the twins. But what," she said, coming back to the present +subject, "are we going to do about Professor Dempsey? We ought to do +something, you know."</p> + +<p>"I suppose we ought," said Grace, a little vaguely, "but I'm sure I don't +know just what."</p> + +<p>"I think," suggested Amy practically, "that the best thing would be to try +to find out first of all whether these poor boys who were killed are +really Professor Dempsey's sons or not."</p> + +<p>"Humph, that sounds all right," observed Mollie. "But has any one here any +suggestion as to just how we will go about it? I'm sure I don't know any +one who is acquainted with Professor Dempsey--or his family either."</p> + +<p>"I've got it," said Betty, leaning forward eagerly. "It may not be much of +an idea, but then again it may."</p> + +<p>"Speak up, speak up, what's on your mind?" urged Mollie slangily.</p> + +<p>"Well," said Betty, "there is Mr. Haig, principal of Deepdale High. He +knows pretty nearly every one at the university where Professor Dempsey +used to teach and he is more than likely to know whether the professor has +any sons and what their names are."</p> + +<p>"Yes, that is all right as far as it goes," broke in Mollie impatiently.</p> + +<p>"We all know Mr. Haig--" Amy began, but this time it was Grace who +interrupted.</p> + +<p>"Yes, we all know him," she said. "But I'd like to know if there is any +one of us--except Betty perhaps--who would have the nerve to go to him and +ask him a question like that--"</p> + +<p>"Say, who's telling this story I'd like to know," broke in Betty +impatiently. "I'm not asking any one to go to Mr. Haig with that question +or any other--although I would be perfectly willing to brave the lion in +his den if there were no other way. My plan is this. Dad knows Mr. Haig, +you know--went to school with him--old college chums and all that. I'm +sure that if we asked him real pretty he would go to Mr. Haig and find out +about Professor Dempsey for us."</p> + +<p>"Then suppose we find out that Professor Dempsey hasn't any sons by the +name of James and Arnold?" suggested Grace.</p> + +<p>"Then we shall be mighty glad we took the trouble to find out and set our +minds at rest," answered Betty soberly.</p> + +<p>"And if we find out that they are really his sons, what then?" queried +Grace, and this time Betty looked puzzled and Mollie and Amy completely +beyond their depth.</p> + +<p>"Why then," said Betty hesitatingly, "I'm sure I don't just know what we +ought to do. But don't you think," she added, brightening, "that it might +be a good idea to wait until we have found out definite facts before we +try to solve any more problems?"</p> + +<p>Rather reluctantly the girls agreed and, after making Betty promise that +she would let them know the very first minute she found out the names of +Arnold Dempsey's sons, they said good-bye and started for home.</p> + +<p>Of course Betty had already told her father and mother about Professor +Dempsey and the part he had played in actually saving their lives; so when +she told them that night of what she had read in the paper and begged her +father to help her find out whether the dead soldiers were really Arnold +Dempsey's sons or not, he readily consented to do what he could.</p> + +<p>"I'll drop in and see Haig to-morrow," he promised. "I have often heard +him speak of Professor Dempsey as being one of the best professors of +zoölogy up at the university and I am sure I will be able to find out what +you want to know. I hope you have been mistaken in your conclusions, for +it would be a horrible blow to a man to lose both his grown sons at once +and like that. Now run off to bed and tomorrow I may have some news for +you."</p> + +<p>With this Betty was forced to be content. She went to bed of course, there +was nothing else to do, but she tossed restlessly all night and what sleep +she got was checkered with horrid dreams and she woke up in the morning +feeling as though she had not been to sleep at all.</p> + +<p>The next day was a long one to live through, even though the girls did +keep calling her up at frequent intervals to see if she had any news for +them yet. She became so tired of hearing the telephone bell ring at last +that she stuffed a handkerchief between the bell and the clapper and sat +down to read a novel and while away the time as best she could till her +father came home.</p> + +<p>Luckily for her--and him too, perhaps--Mr. Nelson did get home early, and +he was no sooner inside the door than Betty grabbed him by the arm, led +him over to a divan in the corner of the living room, and let loose upon +him a flood of questions.</p> + +<p>"Did you see him? What did he say? Why didn't you let me know sooner?"</p> + +<p>These and various other queries were hurled at Mr. Nelson so fast that it +is no wonder the poor gentleman appeared slightly bewildered. But knowing +his impetuous young daughter of old, he merely pinched her cheek fondly +and waited for her to give him a chance to speak.</p> + +<p>"If you will wait just a moment I will try to tell you about it," he said +at last, mildly.</p> + +<p>"There's only one thing I really want to know, Dad," said Betty soberly. +"And that is the name of Professor Dempsey's sons."</p> + +<p>Her father shook his head slowly, regretfully.</p> + +<p>"I am afraid it is as you have feared, dear," he said. "Professor Dempsey +has two sons--or rather, had--and their names were James and Arnold."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Daddy!" Betty was quiet for a minute, letting the full consciousness +of what her father had said sink into her heart. Then her lips trembled +and her eyes filled with tears. "I--I was pretty sure it was true. But, +oh, I was hoping so hard that it wouldn't be!"</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="ch_08"></a>Chapter VIII</h1> + +<h2>Premonitions</h2> + + + +<p>Betty kept her promise and called up the girls to tell them the news. Like +the Little Captain, they had felt almost sure of the identity of the two +Dempsey boys who had been killed in France, yet the confirmation of their +fears came as a distinct shock.</p> + +<p>They waited for a couple of days, undecided what to do, if indeed it was +their place to do anything at all. Vaguely they felt the need of +comforting the queer little professor in his hour of greatest trouble, and +yet they were at a loss to know just how to go about it.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, the occupations that had ordinarily filled their days to +overflowing with fun, seemed dull and uninteresting and they found their +thoughts reverting again and again to the bereaved father in his lonely +little cabin in the woods.</p> + +<p>Percy Falconer had called at Betty's house the day after the incident on +the river as had been arranged, and Betty had conceived the plan of having +all her chums there to meet him.</p> + +<p>Her hope was that the gay Percy, seeing four, where he had expected only +one, would be overwhelmed with numbers and would flee the premises +early--to return no more.</p> + +<p>Her faith in her plan was more than justified. Percy had always been a +little afraid of the Outdoor Girls--Betty in particular--but it is +probable that if he had been able to meet them one at a time, he might +have come off victorious. As it was, he was routed, completely and +ignominiously, leaving the girls to laugh at his discomfiture.</p> + +<p>"There, I guess that is the end of <i>that</i> pest," Mollie had said when +she had recovered a little from her mirth. "I imagine we won't see him +around these parts again."</p> + +<p>"I hope not," Betty had answered with a satisfied little yawn. "Wasn't he +too funny in that checked suit and awful green necktie? Poor old Percy! I +suppose he can't help it. He probably just grew that way."</p> + +<p>She had been comparing him all evening with her splendid, upstanding +Allen, and poor Percy had certainly not gained by the comparison.</p> + +<p>The amusing incident served to divert their minds somewhat from the +thought of Professor Dempsey, but the picture of him haunted their minds +so continually day and night that the Outdoor Girls finally decided that +something must be done about it.</p> + +<p>"I can't stand it any longer," Betty confided to them one morning when +they stood on Mollie's porch discussing what course of action it would be +best to take. "I have a queer feeling that the poor professor is in +desperate need of friends, and I don't believe I'll be able to sleep +another night until I find out something definite about him."</p> + +<p>"Won't he think we are sort of 'butting in'?" asked Grace, hesitating a +little. "He might think we came just out of curiosity."</p> + +<p>"I don't think he would," said Mollie. "You know he invited us to come +back some time when we could stay long enough for him to tell us something +about those bugs and butterflies and things he sticks pins into--"</p> + +<p>"That's the idea!" exclaimed Betty quickly. "We won't have to tell him we +know anything about his trouble. If he tells us--why, all right, but if he +doesn't, of course we won't try to force a confidence. Anyway," she +finished soberly, "we'll have the satisfaction of knowing we have done our +best for him whether it really helps him any or not."</p> + +<p>"And we owe him a very great deal," spoke tip Amy softly. "He really saved +our lives, you know."</p> + +<p>So it was settled, and while the other three girls ran home to put on +coats and hats and get ready for the drive, Mollie ran around to the +garage and brought her big car to the front of the house.</p> + +<p>She waved good-bye to her mother, who was trying rather wildly to keep +Dodo and Paul from running under the wheels of the car and getting killed, +and purred off down the street in the direction of Betty's house.</p> + +<p>When she arrived there she was a little surprised to see that Betty was +backing her fast little roadster down the drive.</p> + +<p>To Betty the little car was almost alive, and she talked to it as she +would have to some loved horse or dog. She scrubbed it and scoured it and +shined it so that it always looked like a brand new car.</p> + +<p>"Hey, look out!" cried Mollie, for Betty, not noticing her and being a +little worried about the sound of the engine, had backed the small car +down the drive and almost into Mollie's big one. "What kind of driving do +you call that? Do you want to buy me a new mudguard?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, pardon me," said Betty, laughing back at her. "You were so small and +insignificant, I came near not seeing you."</p> + +<p>"Well, you would have <i>felt</i> me in another minute," grumbled Mollie, +as she shut off the engine and got out of the car. "What's the idea of +your little peanut, anyway? Thought you were going to ride in a regular +car."</p> + +<p>"That's why I chose mine," Betty laughed back impishly, still intent on +the sound of the engine.</p> + +<p>It was part of their fun to be always throwing insults at each other's car +but the thrusts were invariably good-natured.</p> + +<p>Only once had there threatened to be any trouble between the chums on +account of rivalry over the cars. That had been when Mollie had taken +Betty's "dare" to a race and Betty's little roadster had won the day, +racing like a streak of light along the country road and leaving Mollie's +high-powered but more clumsy car far behind.</p> + +<p>But Mollie had taken her defeat like the little sport she was--even though +it must be admitted she had been considerably disappointed and taken aback +by her failure--and in her ever since there had been a great respect for +Betty's car.</p> + +<p>But now she eyed with impatience the bent figure of the Little Captain as +she still leaned over the wheel, her ear tuned to the purr of the engine.</p> + +<p>"For goodness' sake, what's the matter with you?" she cried. "I thought +you were the one who was in a hurry to be off and now look at you--sitting +there like--"</p> + +<p>"Engine is missing," Betty informed her briskly. "Guess I had better have +a look--"</p> + +<p>"If you start fussing with bolts and screws now, you can count me out," +said Mollie, resolutely climbing back into her car. "It is ten o'clock +already, and we won't be home before night if we don't hurry."</p> + +<p>"Oh, all right," laughed Betty. "But if the car gives out before we get +back don't blame me, that's all."</p> + +<p>"It would give me the greatest of pleasure," said Mollie with a diabolical +chuckle as her machine moved off down the street, "to have everyone in +Deepdale see me towing your poor little flivver through the town."</p> + +<p>"Huh," sang back Betty scornfully as the roadster responded eagerly to her +touch, "they will have a great deal better chance of seeing me in the lead +with your great big jumbo tottering feebly at the end of a rope."</p> + +<p>They picked up Amy and Grace on the way and were soon flying swiftly down +the road in the direction of Professor Dempsey's tree-surrounded home.</p> + +<p>They were in rather good spirits at first, for now that they were really +on the way to doing something, though they were not quite sure what, they +felt relieved and almost gay.</p> + +<p>But as the distance shortened between them and their destination, a +strange depression that they could neither explain nor brush away settled +down over them.</p> + +<p>Once, Grace, who sat beside the Little Captain in the roadster, sighed +rather dolefully and Betty looked at her out of the corner of her eye.</p> + +<p>"Do you feel that way too, Grade?" the latter asked.</p> + +<p>"What way?" asked Grace uncertainly. "That sigh, do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," nodded Betty. "You sounded rather mournful and that is exactly the +way I feel. What's the matter with us, anyway? Where are our spirits?"</p> + +<p>"I suppose we couldn't expect to feel joyful," said Grace after a little +pause. "We aren't going, so far as I can see, on a very happy errand, you +know."</p> + +<p>"But I don't think it is that alone," said Betty, with a shake of her +head. "I feel as if we were going to see something perfectly dreadful--"</p> + +<p>"Betty," Grace looked at her in sudden alarm, her eyes wide, "you don't +suppose that the professor could have done anything--anything rash, do +you?"</p> + +<p>"You mean--" said Betty, hesitating before the ugly word. "Oh, Grace, you +don't mean--suicide, do you?"</p> + +<p>Grace nodded and tried hard not to look as frightened as she felt.</p> + +<p>"No, I--I don't think so," said Betty, grasping the wheel with hands that +somehow seemed suddenly weak. "If I thought anything like that had +happened I wouldn't have the courage to go on."</p> + +<p>"Well, I don't believe I have--the courage, I mean," said Grace, +irresolutely. "Don't you think we had better go back, Betty? It's so +lonesome here and--and--everything--"</p> + +<p>Her voice was rising to something like a wail, and Betty, striving to +throttle her own misgivings, spoke in a voice that was intended to be +reassuring.</p> + +<p>"We wouldn't think very much of ourselves if we turned back now," she +said. "And probably we are worrying a great deal about nothing. He didn't +seem like the kind of man who would do a thing like that."</p> + +<p>Grace said no more about turning back, and they were silent for the rest +of the way. But instead of lightening, the cloud of depression became +deeper and more foreboding until even the stout Little Captain began, +almost to wish that they had not come.</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="ch_09"></a>Chapter IX</h1> + +<h2>A Visitor</h2> + + + +<p>When they came to the scene of what was so nearly a terrible accident a +week or so before they found that the big tree which had extended clear +across the road was gone and that the underbrush also had been cleared +away.</p> + +<p>They stopped the cars a little the other side of the path that led into +the woods and slowly stepped down into the road.</p> + +<p>When they caught sight of each other's faces they began to laugh shakily.</p> + +<p>"We certainly look as if we were going on a ghost hunt," Mollie said. At +this Grace uttered a little cry of protest. The thought had struck too +near her own disquieting thoughts to be comfortable.</p> + +<p>"For goodness' sake, somebody say something cheerful," she begged. "I've +got to get up my courage some way."</p> + +<p>"Well, I haven't any to lend you," grumbled Mollie, as she linked her arm +in Betty's and the two went along toward the path. "I don't like this job +a little bit."</p> + +<p>"Don't you think," suggested Amy, holding back a little, "that somebody +ought to stay here and take care of the cars?"</p> + +<p>"No, you don't!" said Mollie, catching her by the hand and pulling her +along after them. "If one of us goes we are all going."</p> + +<p>"Oh, come along," urged Betty, eager to get the thing over with. "I think +we are all acting like a lot of geese. It might help some if we tried to +remember that we are Outdoor Girls."</p> + +<p>This challenge did a great deal toward bolstering up the girls' courage +and they hurried along the path more confidently.</p> + +<p>Their pace slowed a bit, however, when they reached the cleared space +where the little cottage stood and they paused for a moment in the shelter +of the trees to discuss what to do next.</p> + +<p>"Do you think we had all better go?" asked Grace nervously. "Perhaps the +four of us would frighten him--"</p> + +<p>"No, we will all go together," said Betty decidedly. "There is nothing to +be gained by standing here talking about it. Come on, girls."</p> + +<p>She started across the cleared space and the girls followed slowly. The +little cottage looked deserted and forlorn and the dreary aspect of it +served to increase the girls' uneasy sense of disaster.</p> + +<p>Betty knocked gently on the door which had, upon that other occasion not +so very long ago, been hospitably opened to them. But, though they waited +breathlessly for a response, none came--the house was as silent as a tomb.</p> + +<p>"Do it again, Betty. He might be asleep or something." suggested Mollie, +with a glance over her shoulder at the quiet woodland. "Knock harder this +time."</p> + +<p>Betty obeyed, but with no better success than the first time. Everything +was as silent as before.</p> + +<p>"Isn't there a bell, I wonder?" suggested Amy, wishing ardently that they +were back on the road once more. "Perhaps your knock isn't loud enough for +him to hear."</p> + +<p>"We might tap on the window," suggested Grace. "If I use my ring on the +window pane he surely ought to hear that."</p> + +<p>She started to suit her action to the words when an exclamation from Betty +made her pause. The latter had tried the door and found to her surprise +that it gave to her touch.</p> + +<p>"The door is unlocked," she said. "I don't believe the professor is in +here at all and if he has gone into the woods to hunt his butterflies and +beetles I am sure he wouldn't mind our going inside. What do you think?"</p> + +<p>She was about to push the door open, but Grace detained her with a nervous +hand on her arm.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't think we had better go in, Betty!" she cried. "You know what +we were speaking of in the car. Suppose we should find that he has--that +he has--"</p> + +<p>"That he has what?" asked Amy, her eyes wide. "For goodness' sake, what do +you mean, Grace?"</p> + +<p>Betty tried to stop her, but Grace hurried on heedlessly.</p> + +<p>"He may have committed suicide," she cried, adding, in response to +Mollie's and Amy's cry of horror: "You know he must have been desperate +enough to do anything, poor old man, out here all alone."</p> + +<p>At the conviction in Grace's tone, Betty felt her own nerve slipping. She +did not want to go into that silent house any more than the other girls +did. Every instinct in her commanded that she run from the place to the +commonplace safety of the road. She was afraid of what she might find on +the other side of that unlocked door. And yet--</p> + +<p>"I'm going in," she cried, and, suiting the action to the word, pushed the +door quickly open and stepped over the threshold.</p> + +<p>Emboldened by her example, the other girls followed and stopped short with +a cry of dismay. They had not found what they feared--but something almost +as bad.</p> + +<p>The room, which had been so neat and orderly when they had last seen it, +was now the scene of such utter confusion as one might only hope to see +depicted in a cubist's nightmare.</p> + +<p>The animal skins which had adorned the walls had been torn down and lay in +a tattered heap upon the floor. The shelves upon which had rested the +professor's botanical specimens had been swept clean and their contents +also were scattered about the floor.</p> + +<p>The bench upon which the girls had sat and partaken of the queer little +man's hospitality was overturned and the one chair in the room was upside +down on top of it. The whole room looked as though a cyclone--or a maniac +--had been at work.</p> + +<p>The girls stared for a minute and then drew closer together as if seeking +protection from some unseen menace. They had some vague conception of what +had taken place here in this lonely little cottage. The elderly and +already nervous professor, reading the tragedy of his sons' death, all +alone perhaps, with no one to comfort or restrain him, had lost his mind, +temporarily at least, and had found an outlet in ruthlessly destroying +everything which came within reach of his hand.</p> + +<p>And if this were so, might he not even now be hiding about somewhere, +watching them, perhaps?</p> + +<p>This thought seemed to strike the girls at the same time, for after +peering for a second about the room, they turned and made a concerted dash +for the door.</p> + +<p>Once outside the room, in the reassuring sunshine, they turned and looked +at each other sheepishly. Then Betty wheeled about and started for the +door again.</p> + +<p>"Betty, you are never going back into that place again?" cried Amy wildly, +holding to her skirt. "I won't let you! Do you hear me? Come back here!"</p> + +<p>But Betty had no intention of coming back. She turned and faced the girls +calmly, though inwardly she was trembling.</p> + +<p>"Of course I am going back," she said. "Professor Dempsey may be in one of +the other rooms and he may be sick. If nobody will go with me, I'm going +in alone."</p> + +<p>Of course the three girls could not let her go in alone, so they trailed +back at her heels into the house, being very careful, however, to leave +the door wide open behind them, in case a hasty retreat became necessary.</p> + +<p>Cautiously Betty opened the door at the other end of the room and stepped +into what had evidently been a sort of rough kitchen. Now it was nothing +but a nightmare like the other room, and she shuddered as she looked about +at the desolate confusion.</p> + +<p>There was a door at the farther end of this room, and after some +hesitation and an inward struggle Betty crossed hastily to it and flung it +wide open.</p> + +<p>What she half expected and feared to find there nobody but Betty herself +ever knew, but whatever it was, she gave a great sigh of relief at not +finding it there. The room was upset, though not quite as badly as the +other two, but there was no sign of human occupancy anywhere.</p> + +<p>She turned to the girls who had come up behind her and were eagerly and +half shudderingly peering over her shoulder.</p> + +<p>"There's nothing here," she announced, the relief she felt showing in her +voice, "and as there doesn't seem to be any other room in the place, I +suppose we might as well go back."</p> + +<p>Echoing her suggestion heartily, me girls started to retrace their steps +when a slight sound in the other room made them stop short in a panic.</p> + +<p>"What was that?" Amy questioned, but Mollie held up her hand impatiently.</p> + +<p>There came the sound of some one stumbling over something. This was +followed by a muttered exclamation.</p> + +<p>While the girls looked about them wildly for a means of escape Mollie +began to laugh hysterically.</p> + +<p>"We have a visitor," she announced in a strangled voice. "And he is +between us and the only door in the place. Come on, girls, let's see who +it is."</p> + +<p>They stepped out into the cluttered living room and came face to face with +a young man who seemed more startled at seeing them than they had been at +sight of him.</p> + +<p>"Well, I'll be jiggered!" he exclaimed, and at sound of the commonplace +phrase the girls could have hugged the speaker in relief. Also they felt a +rather hysterical desire to laugh long and foolishly.</p> + +<p>As it was, the stranger stood staring at the girls and the girls at him so +long that the funny side of the situation struck Betty and she really did +begin to laugh.</p> + +<p>"We haven't the slightest idea who you are," she told the astonished young +man. "But I am sure of one thing, and that is that we were never so glad +to see any one in all our lives as we are to see you."</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="ch_10"></a>Chapter X</h1> + +<h2>Hurrah for Allen</h2> + + + +<p>The young man stared for a moment longer. Then the humor of the situation +seemed to strike him too, and he smiled pleasantly.</p> + +<p>"It surely is a pleasure to be as welcome as all that," he said +pleasantly, and the girls noticed that he was a well set up young fellow +and that he wore his uniform easily, as if he had been used to wearing it +for a long, long time. "I am Wesley Travers," he went on. "I live in a +cottage down the road and I came over this way to see if the old professor +had come back yet. I saw the door open--came in--and found you."</p> + +<p>He smiled again pleasantly and looked as though he considered that he had +fallen into rather good luck. But at his mention of the professor Betty +had sobered instantly.</p> + +<p>"Oh, then you know something about Professor Dempsey?" she questioned +eagerly.</p> + +<p>"Please tell us what happened to him," added Amy breathlessly.</p> + +<p>"Did he do this?" asked Mollie, with a comprehensive sweep of her hand +about the cluttered room.</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid he did," answered the young fellow, sobering instantly. "You +see, I just returned from overseas about a week ago and a couple of days +later my dad read in the paper about the death of this queer old man's two +sons. The pater had always been interested in the lonely old boy, so he +sent me over to see if I could do anything for him. I found the place like +this and--the bird had flown. Went dopy I suppose about the bad news and +tore things up a bit."</p> + +<p>Though the boy's words were slangy, there was real sympathy in his tone +and the girls liked him the better for it.</p> + +<p>"And you haven't heard anything from him since?" asked Betty softly.</p> + +<p>"Not a word or a sign," answered the boy, with a shake of his head. "Just +clean cleared out, that's all. Pretty hard luck, I call it. Just at the +end of things too--when he had a right to expect the fellows home. Pretty +tough luck. I wish I could find the poor old duffer and do something for +him."</p> + +<p>The girls heartily echoed the wish. Before leaving the place for good, +they looked about the rooms once more for some sign or message that might +give them a clue to the whereabouts of the professor. They found nothing, +however, and finally were forced to give up the search.</p> + +<p>As the young people stepped outside once more and closed the door after +them upon the desolate house a great wave of pity swept over Betty. +Somehow it did not seem right to go off like this as though they were +abandoning the old man to his fate. Yet what could they do more than they +had done?</p> + +<p>"Girls," she said, a little quiver in her voice, "I would give almost +everything I own to find the poor old professor and help him back to +happiness. If I only could," she added after a pause. "Well," said Wesley +Travers, as he looked admiringly at Betty's flushed, sympathetic little +face, "I imagine if any one could find him and bring him happiness, you +would be that one."</p> + +<p>The young soldier accompanied them back to the road. After thanking him +for the information he had given them, the girls climbed into their cars +and headed toward home, leaving Wesley Travers still standing in the road +and looking after them thoughtfully.</p> + +<p>"A mighty nice bunch of girls," thought the latter. "Especially the little +brown-haired one. They seemed rather interested in that dotty old +professor too. Lucky fellow to have four girls like that interested in +him!" After this remark he started off toward home.</p> + +<p>Luckily for the girls, the next few days were so crowded with preparations +for the trip to Wild Rose Lodge that they had not much time to dwell on +the poor old professor and his misfortunes.</p> + +<p>Only at night would they sometimes dream queer dreams in which wild-eyed +men went around smashing everything in sight and a little cottage stood +lonely and desolate and ghostlike amid a silent forest of trees.</p> + +<p>After a night like this the girls were always glad to awake and find the +sunshine streaming cheerfully in their windows. And they would throw +themselves with more than usual energy into the activities of the day. Yet +try as they would, they could never quite blot the tragedy from their +minds.</p> + +<p>On the afternoon of the day before they were to start for Moonlight Falls, +the girls were gathered in Betty's garage at the back of the house, where +the Little Captain was giving her car one last overhauling to make sure +that it was in perfect condition for the trip. Mollie suddenly espied the +postman coming down the street.</p> + +<p>Now the postman was a very popular man with the girls, for the reason that +he brought almost daily some message from the boys on the other side. He +sympathized with the chums so fully in their desire for letters with the +red triangle in one corner that he actually confessed to a guilty feeling +when he had no missive of the sort for them.</p> + +<p>So now, as Mollie ran toward him with outstretched hand, he held up to her +delighted gaze not only one letter, but four.</p> + +<p>"One for each of you," he said beamingly, as Mollie reached him. "I +thought that probably I would find all four of you at one place, so I kept +the letters together."</p> + +<p>"Oh, thanks, it is awfully good of you," said Mollie absent-mindedly, as +she took the welcome letters and hurried with them back to the garage. +"One for each of us, just think of that!" she cried to the questioning +girls. "It looks as if the boys had all written at the same time. Put down +your duster, Betty, for goodness' sake, and read what Alien has to say. +Maybe," she added hopefully, as she ripped her envelope open, "they will +tell us something definite about coming home."</p> + +<p>So down the girls sat in the midst of dust cloths and more or less dirt to +find what the boys had written. For a moment only the crackling of paper +broke the silence. Then Grace gave a little joyful cry.</p> + +<p>"Will says he is almost sure to be home soon--"</p> + +<p>"And he has been made a sergeant," Amy interrupted, or rather added, her +eyes shining with pride. "Just think of that--Will, a sergeant!"</p> + +<p>"I was just going to tell them that if you had waited a minute," said +Grace, rather crossly. There was quite a little jealousy between Grace and +Amy over Will. Grace had declared more than once that whereas she had +known her brother all her life, Amy had only known him for a couple of +years--or--or more. Grace loved her brother devotedly and once in a while +she resented Amy's place in his affections.</p> + +<p>So now to change the subject and avert a possible quarrel, Mollie jumped +into the breach.</p> + +<p>"Listen to this," she said. "Roy and Frank have been made corporals and +Allen--oh, look at Betty blush!" She looked gleefully across at the Little +Captain and Amy and Grace followed her glance.</p> + +<p>Betty was not blushing, but she felt as uncomfortable as though she had +been.</p> + +<p>"Tell us what Allen says," Mollie dared her wickedly. "Come on, +honey--dare you to."</p> + +<p>"You can go on daring all you like," said Betty defiantly. This time she +was blushing--from the fact that she knew she could not, or would not, +tell the girls what Allen had said in his letter. Not for anything in this +world!</p> + +<p>"I don't mean what you mean," said Mollie, enjoying her confusion +immensely, while Grace and Amy looked on laughingly. "I just thought that +maybe you would like to be the one to tell us about his promotion."</p> + +<p>"His promotion!" cried Amy and Grace together, and Betty looked quite as +bewildered as any of them.</p> + +<p>"Mollie, for goodness' sake tell us what you mean," she demanded.</p> + +<p>"But didn't he tell you about it, Betty?" Mollie insisted.</p> + +<p>"Wait a minute," said the Little Captain as she hastily scanned the pages +of her long letter. Then, down near the end of the last page she found it, +just a little paragraph, put in as though it had been an afterthought. +"Why," cried Betty, her eyes beginning to shine with excitement, "girls, +listen to this. Allen has been promoted. He's an officer now--a +lieutenant! Think of it--leather leggings and all!"</p> + +<p>It was too much for the girls. They laughed and cried and hugged each +other and tried to imagine Allen in his new uniform to their hearts' +content, for the young new-made officer was a favorite with them all.</p> + +<p>"Goodness," said Amy happily, "I suppose when he gets home he will be +altogether too high-toned to notice common folk like us."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't know," said Grace happily, adding with a sly little glance at +Betty, "I imagine he will make an exception of one of us at least."</p> + +<p>"I wonder," drawled Mollie as she picked up her unfinished letter, "which +one of us you can mean."</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="ch_11"></a>Chapter XI</h1> + +<h2>The Hold-Up</h2> + + + +<p>The girls were glad that the letters had come from the boys just as they +had, for it helped them to bridge over the tediously long wait till the +next morning.</p> + +<p>They read the missives with the little red triangles in the left hand +corner over and over again and--whisper it!--at least two of them slept +with the precious letters under their pillows.</p> + +<p>And then--the morning was upon them. It was a beautiful morning too, and +as the girls dressed hurriedly they were glad that they had arranged to +start early. In that way they could take their time and enjoy to the full +the glorious ride to Moonlight Falls. It was only fifty-five miles, but by +driving slowly they could make it seem like twice that.</p> + +<p>It was barely half past nine when Betty, having finished breakfast and put +the last finishing touches to her new white hat, ran around to the garage +to get the car out.</p> + +<p>Ten minutes later she had drawn up in front of Mollie's house, her ears +still ringing with the hundred and one instructions of her anxious mother, +and was tooting the horn of her little car furiously.</p> + +<p>The summons had the desired effect. Mollie came running from the house, +straightening her hat with one hand and lugging a valise in the other +while the twins trailed at her skirts.</p> + +<p>"For goodness' sake, let go of me, Paul. Dodo, if you touch that bag +again, I'll spank you. Mother," she wailed, looking back pleadingly over +her shoulder, "won't you please make these little pests go into the +house?"</p> + +<p>Whereupon Mrs. Billette suddenly appeared at the door, smiled at Betty, +grabbed Paul with one hand, Dodo with the other, while the twins roared a +protest.</p> + +<p>Released, Mollie dropped her bag, sped round to the garage, and in a +moment more was backing the big car round to the road.</p> + +<p>The girls had decided to about live in their khaki tramping suits on this +trip, merely packing in a good dress or two to wear on dress-up occasions. +In this way they had to take less luggage and could have more space to +"spread out" as Mollie said.</p> + +<p>"Put your grip in here, Betty," Mollie suggested, as she slung her own +grip into the tonneau of the big machine. "There is more room, and Mrs. +Irving said she wouldn't mind in the least being entirely surrounded by +suitcases."</p> + +<p>Betty laughed, did as she was bid, and a moment later they were off, +speeding down the road to Grace's house where they were to pick up the +other two girls and Mrs. Irving.</p> + +<p>They found the three waiting for them, and it took scarcely any time at +all to add the extra grips to the growing pile in the tonneau of Mollie's +car. Amid great fun, Mrs. Irving, who was rosy-cheeked and matronly and as +jolly as the girls, was wedged into the remaining space, Amy climbed to +the front seat beside Mollie and Grace took her seat with Betty.</p> + +<p>They were off! The sting of the wind was in their faces, and the sun beat +warmly down upon them as they rolled along, passing familiar houses, and +sometimes familiar people, to whom they waved, and so on and on till they +left the town behind them and started out on the open road.</p> + +<p>"My, this is something like," commented Grace, stretching her feet out +before her for all the world like a lazy, comfortable cat. "I feel awfully +sorry for all the poor people who haven't cars to ride in to-day and Wild +Rose Lodges to visit. By the way, why is it called Wild Rose Lodge, +Betty?"</p> + +<p>"Because they say there are lots of wild roses around it, of course," +Betty responded, her hands resting easily on the wheel, her eyes bright +with the joy of the moment. Grace, stealing a sideways glance at her, +could not help thinking that Betty looked not unlike a wild rose herself.</p> + +<p>"You look awfully pretty, honey," she said then, for Grace was always +generous with praise where her friends were concerned. "I would give the +world to have a color like yours."</p> + +<p>"Goodness," remarked Betty, turning to look at her chum, her face a little +brighter pink because of the honest compliment, "you have a lovely color--as +you very well know. Mine is too red sometimes."</p> + +<p>"Nobody thinks that but you," said Grace, squeezing Betty's hand +affectionately while she dived down in her pocket for some candy. "The +only time I have noticed you get very red," she added, "is when some one +happens to mention a certain young gentleman by the name of Lieutenant +Allen Washburn."</p> + +<p>Betty could feel that her face was burning, but she did not care. She was +awfully proud of Allen and desperately fond of him and for the moment she +did not care if the whole world knew about it.</p> + +<p>"Isn't it wonderful, Grade?" she cried, her heart pounding joyously. +"About Allen being an officer, I mean. I have to pinch myself several +times a minute to make myself realize that it is really true."</p> + +<p>"It surely is great," Grace answered slowly, adding after a moment, while +a faraway expression crept into her eyes, "I don't blame you for being +crazy about him, honey. I could almost be foolish myself. Oh, don't +worry," she went on quickly as Betty turned amazed and rather startled +eyes upon her. "I'm no fonder of Allen than I am of any of the other boys. +I just said that I didn't blame you, that's all."</p> + +<p>Betty turned her eyes to the road once more, but in her heart she was +troubled. There had been a note in Grace's voice that she had never heard +before. Could it be possible that she really cared for Allen? But she +pushed the thought from her mind resolutely. If such a thing could have +been possible, she certainly would have discovered it before this. The +mere thought was nonsense of course. And yet she was troubled.</p> + +<p>"Have some candy," Grace invited, breaking in upon her thoughts. "You +needn't stick up your nose at it to-day for I bought this fresh from the +store this morning."</p> + +<p>"Who said I was going to stick up my nose?" said Betty, helping herself to +a chocolate that looked as if it might contain a nut and thankful for the +break in her not-too-pleasant reflections. "If you will think back just a +little, I think you will admit that I have been guilty very seldom of +sticking up my nose at anything--"</p> + +<p>"Except Percy Falconer," finished Grace drolly, and they both laughed +merrily.</p> + +<p>"Poor Percy!" said Betty, chewing her candy contentedly. "I suppose he +will hate us more heartily than ever now."</p> + +<p>They were running some eight or ten miles from the town along a quiet +stretch of road, never dreaming of danger, when Betty's little racer nosed +around a bend in the road and came smack into it! Not twenty feet ahead of +them a man sprang into the middle of the road and leveled a revolver at +them! In one electrified instant they saw that the fellow wore a mask and +a slouch hat and looked for all the world like a brigand straight out of +some sensational moving picture.</p> + +<p>Betty, more surprised at first than alarmed, put on her brakes and came to +a standstill, at the same time putting out a hand to warn the car behind +them.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Betty, we are being held up!" moaned Grace, who evidently was +frightened enough for both of them. "For goodness' sake, hold up your +hands. He may shoot."</p> + +<p>Still feeling rather dazed with the suddenness of the thing, Betty raised +both hands above her head, at the same time feeling a rather hysterical +desire to laugh. It was so absurd, being held up by a masked stranger in +broad daylight.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, she gave a little gasp of fright as the man waved his big +revolver menacingly and came close to the car. She wished frantically that +he would not point that firearm at her. Suppose it should go off!</p> + +<p>"Come on, hand over what you got," the robber demanded in a gruff +threatening voice. "The quicker you move, the better it will be for you."</p> + +<p>"Wh--what do you want?" asked Betty, in a weak little voice that did not +sound like her own at all. She had thought of her pocketbook beside her in +the pocket of the car. The purse contained a whole month's allowance. She +was sparring desperately for time--help in some form or other might come +at any moment. But the ruffian in the road was evidently in no frame of +mind to be fooled with.</p> + +<p>He waved his revolver once more, eliciting a terrified gurgle from Grace +and commanded roughly that they get out of the car.</p> + +<p>"No funny business," he snarled. "Get out!"</p> + +<p>Betty was about to obey when she had a brilliant thought. Her pepper gun! +She had bought it the day before from the son of her father's chauffeur, +thinking it was an undesirable plaything for a nine-year-old boy and had +put it, as the most convenient place, in her car. And the pepper gun was +filled--as it should have been--with good red cayenne pepper!</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="ch_12"></a>Chapter XII</h1> + +<h2>Sheep!</h2> + + + +<p>For a moment Betty hesitated, almost afraid of what she was going to do. +The pepper gun might work, but if she were not quick enough or clever +enough, her little trick might also result in a tragedy.</p> + +<p>Her hesitation was only momentary, however, for Betty was a born fighter. +Suddenly she cried out as if in joyful greeting to an unexpected arrival.</p> + +<p>"Here they come! here they come!" she called, and in the moment that their +captor turned his startled eyes from her to the road ahead, Betty acted.</p> + +<p>She snatched the pepper gun from its hiding place in the car and as the +man once more turned furiously upon her let him have the full contents +directly in the face.</p> + +<p>It was a dreadful thing to do. Choking and sputtering, the ruffian dropped +his revolver and raised both fists to his tortured eyes.</p> + +<p>"I'll get you for this!" he cried between great sneezes that threatened to +tear him apart. "You just wait--"</p> + +<p>But Betty refused to wait. As soon as the fellow had dropped his weapon +she had started the engine, and now she guided the car past the stuttering +robber and raced off down the road.</p> + +<p>Mollie, who had only half understood what was going on but who had caught +enough of it to be considerably alarmed did not stop to ask questions, but +sped off down the road after Betty.</p> + +<p>It was half a dozen miles farther on that Betty finally slowed the car and +waited for Mollie and the others to catch up with her. Grace, who had been +gradually recovering from her fright, had not yet recovered enough to ask +any questions. She had been too much concerned in putting miles between +them and the scene of their adventure.</p> + +<p>As Mollie came up alongside, Betty drew her first free breath.</p> + +<p>Of course Mollie and Amy and Mrs. Irving wanted to hear all about it, and +Betty told them what had happened, her account interrupted by hysterical +laughter.</p> + +<p>But when she came to the pepper gun, the girls' expression of utter +bewilderment changed to admiration of Betty's quick thought and quicker +action.</p> + +<p>"Why, Betty," cried Amy, incredulously, "I don't see how you ever had the +courage to do it. Why, that man might have shot you!"</p> + +<p>"He probably would have if I hadn't got him first," said Betty, half-way +between laughter and tears. "It was taking an awfully big chance, but," +with a flash of spirit, "I wasn't going to sit there calmly and have him +take away all our money. Not if I could help it."</p> + +<p>"Betty, I think you were simply wonderful," said Mollie in heart-felt +admiration. "Why, if he had taken our money it would have completely +spoiled our trip."</p> + +<p>"How they talk," said Grace hysterically. "Any one would think it was only +the trip that mattered when we might very easily have been <i>killed.</i>"</p> + +<p>This remark served to bring Mrs. Irving to a realization of the present, +and she suggested that they start on again.</p> + +<p>"Not that I am particularly nervous," she hastily added, as the girls +looked at her suspiciously. "Only I will feel just as well when we have +put a dozen miles between us and that highway robber, instead of only half +that. I wish there was a town handy where we could notify the +authorities."</p> + +<p>They started on again, and as the miles slid past them they became less +nervous and even began to laugh a little at thought of the robber's +consternation when he received the contents of Betty's pepper gun full in +his face.</p> + +<p>"He was probably the most surprised crook ever," commenced Grace with a +chuckle. "He never will get over cursing you, Betty. How did you ever +happen to have it? The pepper gun, I mean," she added curiously.</p> + +<p>Betty explained how the gun had come into her possession. "I didn't know," +she added ruefully, her foot on the accelerator as they sped up a steep +hill, "when I bought it, that it would come in so handy. How much further +do you suppose we have to go?" she asked, changing the subject abruptly.</p> + +<p>"Why," said Grace, looking at her wrist watch and realizing suddenly that +she was getting rather hungry, "we have been riding since ten o'clock and +it is now after noon. We must be very nearly there by this time. Goodness, +I hope there will be something to eat around Wild Rose Lodge. I'm getting +famished."</p> + +<p>"Mollie's Uncle John said he would attend to that--stocking the cabin with +good things, I mean," said Betty, herself suddenly conscious of a +disturbingly hungry feeling. "He said we would find enough canned things +to last us at least a week."</p> + +<p>"Canned things, yes," pouted Grace. "But who in the world wants to live on +canned things? I don't see why we didn't bring a chicken along, at least."</p> + +<p>"Well, maybe we can manage to run over one," chuckled Betty, as they +passed a farmhouse and several chickens scuttled squawking across the +road. "Then we can have one good and fresh. For goodness' sake, what is +Mollie tooting that horn for?" she added, as the raucous signal came from +the car behind them, "Has she stopped the car, Grace? Look and see."</p> + +<p>"It's stopped deader than a door nail," said Grace, obligingly screwing +about in her seat and fixing on the road behind them a disapproving eye. +"Now what do you suppose can be the trouble this time? If she has had a +blowout or something, I'm not going to help fix the old thing--"</p> + +<p>"You couldn't fix the blowout, dear, but you might help with the tire," +Betty said, with a laugh, as she stopped the roadster and jumped to the +road. "Come on, she seems to be excited about something--"</p> + +<p>"Goodness, I hope it isn't another highway robber," said Grace anxiously, +stopping in the middle of the road at the dreadful thought. "I don't see +any, but--"</p> + +<p>"You don't see any because there <i>isn't</i> any," Betty assured her, +taking her by the arm and leading her decidedly forward. "You don't +suppose there is a whole Robin Hood's band in this woods, do you?"</p> + +<p>Mollie and Amy and Mrs. Irving came running to meet them excitedly--or at +least, Mollie and Amy did the running, while their chaperon followed more +slowly.</p> + +<p>"There are blackberries in there, whole bushels and bushels of them!" +Mollie called. "You could see them from the road, and there you girls +passed right by them without even looking."</p> + +<p>"Blackberries!" repeated Grace resignedly, as she felt in her pocket to +see if she had any candy left. "Just listen to her speaking of +blackberries when what I'm dying for is a good big steak with onions on +top of it--"</p> + +<p>"Stop it," cried Mollie indignantly, while the others felt their mouths +begin to water. "The idea of mentioning steak--But here," she broke off, +seizing Grace's hand and dragging her toward the woods, "come with me and +pick berries if you value your life. Lucky we brought those tin pails +along."</p> + +<p>"But why," protested Grace patiently, as she was dragged along, "should we +want to pick berries?"</p> + +<p>"To eat," replied Mollie, attacking a bush that was fairly black with the +luscious ripe fruit. "And besides," she added, lowering her voice to a +confidential pitch, "Mrs. Irving said that if she could find some flour +and baking powder in the lodge she would make us a steamed blackberry +pudding for supper."</p> + +<p>Grace stared for a moment then, without another word, set to work on the +loaded bush.</p> + +<p>"You might have told me that before," she grumbled, her mouth full of +berries. "You always did have a mean disposition, Mollie."</p> + +<p>To which Mollie's only reply was a chuckle and a sly wink at Betty, who +was working close at her side.</p> + +<p>They worked on happily for a few minutes, then suddenly Amy straightened +up and stood quiet as though she were listening to something.</p> + +<p>The girls, whose nerves were still a little on edge from their recent +adventure, demanded to know in no uncertain tones what was the matter with +her.</p> + +<p>"N-nothing," Amy answered a little sheepishly. "I thought I heard a little +rustling among the leaves, that's all."</p> + +<p>"Probably a breeze coming up," said Betty matter-of-factly, and they went +on with their berry picking.</p> + +<p>But it was not long before a second disturbance came, and this time they +all heard it. It was, as Amy had said, a rustling sound. However, it was +louder this time, as though several heavy bodies were pushing through the +underbrush on the other side of the road.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps we had better go and see what is making all the noise," said Mrs. +Irving, her light tone successfully hiding an undercurrent of nervousness. +"I guess we have picked enough berries for our pudding, anyway."</p> + +<p>The girls picked up their pails and started for the road, Betty in the +lead. But when the latter reached the outer fringe of bushes she started +back, almost treading on Mollie's toes and causing her to drop her pail in +alarm.</p> + +<p>"It's sheep!" cried the Little Captain. "Dozens and dozens of them! Come +and look!"</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="ch_13"></a>Chapter XIII</h1> + +<h2>The Enemy Routed</h2> + + + +<p>Mrs. Irving pushed forward beside Betty, and the girls stared +unbelievingly over her shoulder. Then they saw that she was right.</p> + +<p>While they had been picking berries in the woods a flock of sheep had +wandered down to the road from the other direction and had completely +surrounded their two cars.</p> + +<p>The big-eyed, innocent looking animals were circling around and around the +machines as if examining them with a sort of ovine interest and curiosity.</p> + +<p>But to the girls the sheep had a rather terrifying aspect. There were so +many of them and they had so completely taken possession of their +automobiles! How in the world were they ever to get back their property?</p> + +<p>"Goodness!" Grace whispered plaintively in Betty's ear, "I expect they +will try to climb into the cars next. What ever are we going to do?"</p> + +<p>"Sh," cautioned Amy fearfully, as some of the flock, attracted by the +noise in the bushes, turned their heads in the direction of it. "Suppose +they should come in here?"</p> + +<p>"Well, they are not lions, you goose," said Mollie, coming out of the +trance into which surprise had thrown her. "They are only sheep, and they +couldn't hurt you if they tried."</p> + +<p>"Not unless they stampeded," said Betty quietly. "In that case I wouldn't +care to be in the way."</p> + +<p>"But we can't stay here all night," Mollie protested impatiently.</p> + +<p>"Held up by a lot of silly old sheep," added Grace, still more +uncomfortably conscious of a growing appetite.</p> + +<p>"It must be almost two o'clock," added Amy with a sigh.</p> + +<p>"Yes, if things keep on this way it will be night before we reach the +lodge," said Mollie, adding with decision, "I vote that we get some sticks +and stones and scat 'em out of the way."</p> + +<p>"I think I have a better suggestion than that," put in Mrs. Irving, +speaking for the first time. "I think we had better wait for a short time +before we do anything. The sheep will probably get tired in a little while +and wander off of their own accord."</p> + +<p>"Oh, all right," said Mollie, with rather bad grace as she seated herself +on a convenient rock. "But all the time we are waiting for them to be +tired, we will be getting tired ourselves and, goodness, Mrs. Irving, I'm +being starved to death."</p> + +<p>At the desperation in her tones the girls had to laugh, though they were +as reluctant to sit with folded hands and wait as she was. Still, Mrs. +Irving was their chaperon and probably knew best.</p> + +<p>So with admirable resignation they disposed themselves beside Mollie on +the big rock and settled down to watch for developments.</p> + +<p>But after waiting for an everlasting five minutes they decided that there +were to be no developments. The foolish sheep continued to circle lazily +about the cars, nibbling now and then upon the grass by the roadside but +showing not the slightest intention in the world of moving from there for +some time to come. + +"Oh, what shall we do?" moaned Grace, moving restlessly on her +uncomfortable seat. "My foot is going to sleep and I'm trying to sit on a +pointed stone or something."</p> + +<p>"And it looks as though those crazy sheep were going to stay there all +night," added Betty, herself growing restive at the apparent futility of +waiting for something to happen. "Can't we do something, Mrs. Irving?"</p> + +<p>"Wait just a few minutes more," begged the lady, who was afraid of the +sheep, but was reluctant to confess her fear to her young charges. "Look, +there seems to be a movement among them now," she added hopefully, as one +sheep pressed against another and sent it scampering a few feet along the +road. "We won't have to wait much longer, I am sure."</p> + +<p>And so, both to break their chaperon's authority, the girls fidgeted and +fumed, getting more impatient and hungrier with every leaden minute that +dragged itself by until almost three-quarters of an hour had passed.</p> + +<p>Then, when they began to think that they must scream if they were forced +to wait another minute, their chaperon rose of her own accord and with a +decided movement flicked the dust from her skirt.</p> + +<p>"I think we have waited long enough," she hazarded, to which each girl +said a fervent though silent "amen." "I suppose we shall have to follow +Mollie's suggestion and gather sticks and stones. Perhaps we can scare +them away."</p> + +<p>"Hooray!" shouted Mollie, jumping to her feet with relief. At the +unexpected sound the sheep in the road started and looked about them +uneasily. "Come on, girls, I'm mad enough to attack Jem single-handed. All +who are with me, say Aye."</p> + +<p>"Aye!" they yelled, scurrying about to find sticks and stones.</p> + +<p>Betty, flourishing a branch at the frightened flock, yelled: "We are wild, +wild women, old sheep. You had better get out while the going's good. We +eat little fellers like you alive!" and with a whoop of wild spirits she +danced down to the edge of the wood waving her stick wildly about her +head.</p> + +<p>Her fun was contagious and, smothering their laughter, the girls waltzed +after her, throwing sticks and stones and all sorts of improvised weapons +into the midst of the now thoroughly frightened flock.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Irving strove to caution them, but her voice was lost in the babble, +and for once in her life at least she found herself utterly ignored. With +a little sigh she picked up a stick of her own and followed after the +girls.</p> + +<p>For a moment it looked as though the panic stricken sheep would rush +straight for the shouting girls, and in that moment what was little more +than an exciting game to the girls might have turned into a rather +dreadful tragedy.</p> + +<p>But, luckily, half a dozen sheep broke through and, led by an old ram, +started down the road and the rest of the flock, as is the habit of sheep, +followed after.</p> + +<p>In a moment the entire flock was galloping off down the road with the +excited girls in pursuit. There is no telling how far they might have +followed the sheep had not Betty become suddenly possessed of a grain of +common-sense.</p> + +<p>Panting and laughing, she came to a standstill while the girls rushed past +her.</p> + +<p>"Come back here!" she cried, her voice choked with laughter. "There's no +use of our being as silly as the sheep. Mrs. Irving will think we have +deserted her."</p> + +<p>So reluctantly the girls abandoned the chase and started back to rejoin +their much relieved but slightly dazed chaperon.</p> + +<p>"Now if we had only done that an hour ago," said Mollie, as they climbed +back into the machines determined to make up for lost time, "we would have +been that much nearer the lodge and--something to eat."</p> + +<p>"Goodness, it will be almost dark when we get there now," wailed Grace, as +she slipped into the seat beside Betty. "And we haven't had anything to +eat since breakfast."</p> + +<p>"What with highway robbers and sheep," laughed Betty, as she started the +engine, "we shall be lucky if we get there at all."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Betty, if you love me don't mention that awful highwayman again," +begged Grace, looking uneasily into the shadows of the wood. "I don't want +to have any more thrills like that as long as I live."</p> + +<p>"Let's hope we won't," said Betty fervently.</p> + +<p>"It's a pity there is no telephone along this road--we could notify the +folks at Deepdale," remarked Mollie.</p> + +<p>"Humph, if we did that they might get so scared that they'd send for us to +come home," came from Amy.</p> + +<p>"That's so!" came from the other Outdoor Girls quickly.</p> + +<p>"Well, as I said before, no more thrills like that for yours truly," +repeated Grace.</p> + +<p>But little did the girls know that in the weeks to follow they would have +more and more startling thrills than they had ever experienced before.</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="ch_14"></a>Chapter XIV</h1> + +<h2>Nothing Human</h2> + + + +<p>They might have reached Wild Rose Lodge before dusk, in spite of Grace's +gloomy prediction, if everything had gone well then. But it seemed that +the evil genius of bad luck was not yet through with them.</p> + +<p>They were scarcely five miles from their destination when, bang! went a +report that made the girls clutch at each other wildly. At first they +jumped to the conclusion that they were being held up again, but close on +the heels of the first thought came the conviction of the truth. Mollie +had had a blowout!</p> + +<p>Betty, looking behind, saw the big car stop and brought her own little +roadster to a standstill once more. "There is nothing wrong with our +tires, is there?" she asked of Grace. "Look over your side, Gracie, and +see."</p> + +<p>Finding nothing amiss, they jumped out and ran back to Mollie to offer +assistance. Mollie was eyeing the flat tire gloomily and saying things +under her breath that none of the girls could catch. Then as Betty spoke +to her she seemed to come to life and ran around to the back of the +machine.</p> + +<p>"Of course you can help," she answered, working to release the extra tire. +"I would like to see you get out of it. Lucky I bought an extra tire +before we started, though I did hope," here she glared at the girls as if +it were all their fault, "that I wouldn't have to use it so soon. We've +had more trouble on this ride than any I can remember. A hold-up, sheep +and--this!"</p> + +<p>"Well, there is no use talking about it," Betty reminded her cheerfully. +"The less we talk, the harder we can work and the sooner we shall get +started again."</p> + +<p>"Yes, that's all very well," grumbled Mollie, as she fumbled for her +tools; "but you don't know this place as well as I do."</p> + +<p>"You talk," said Amy, her eyes widening, "as though there were wild +animals or something in the woods. I didn't know they came as far east as +this."</p> + +<p>"They don't, goose," said Mollie grumpily, as she pulled at the tire. "I +didn't say anything about wild animals, did I? Only we have to ride about +two miles through the woods before we get to the lodge and I must say I +didn't want to do that in the dark."</p> + +<p>"But there is some sort of road, isn't there?" asked Grace.</p> + +<p>Mollie, bending over the lifting jack, shot her a withering glance.</p> + +<p>"Of course there's a road," she said shortly. "How else could we expect to +use the cars?"</p> + +<p>"It must be a sort of wagon road," suggested Betty as she deftly helped +her chum. "And I don't blame you for not wanting to try it at night, +Mollie. I don't much like the idea myself."</p> + +<p>"I believe if we hurry that we can get there before dusk," said Mrs. +Irving confidently, though it might have been noticed that she kept her +eyes rather anxiously on the fast sinking sun.</p> + +<p>At last, after what seemed an eternity to the impatient girls, the new +tire had replaced the old one, the old one was safely strapped on the back +of the car, the tools were put away, and they were ready to start once +more.</p> + +<p>"Give her plenty of gas this time, Betty," Mollie sung after her as the +Little Captain climbed into her car. "If we can manage to get to the woods +before dark we will be doing good work. Let her go."</p> + +<p>With which advice she settled herself behind the wheel of her own car and +they were off once more.</p> + +<p>Betty did "give her plenty of gas," the result being that they succeeded +in reaching the wagon road that led into the woods to the lodge just on +the edge of dusk.</p> + +<p>However, when they started along the road they were dismayed to find that +what was only dusk outside on the road became almost dark in here, and +Betty had all she could do to keep to the road at all.</p> + +<p>"Hadn't you better put on your lights?" Grace suggested uneasily. "We +might run into a ditch or something. Betty, I'm half scared."</p> + +<p>For answer Betty switched on the lights and the woods and the road ahead +of them were suddenly flooded with a weird radiance. It brought out +branches and leaves and stones in such sharp contrast to the dark +background that the effect was startling.</p> + +<p>"Oh," gasped Grace, "turn them off again, do, Betty. It is positively +ghastly."</p> + +<p>"Don't be foolish," said Betty, striving to make her voice sound +matter-of-fact, her eyes glued to the road ahead of them as it twisted and +turned through the woods. "I don't see why lights should make a perfectly +harmless wood look ghastly. And, anyway, I couldn't turn them out now. I +don't believe I could find my way. You don't want me to run into +something, do you?"</p> + +<p>"No, of course not," Grace said more firmly, rather ashamed of her fears. +"I didn't mean to act in a silly fashion. But," she turned to Betty +quickly, "that hold-up and all--don't you feel a little queer yourself, +Betty? Tell the truth."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said the Little Captain truthfully. "I feel," she added slowly, as +though searching for words, "I feel as though the woods belonged to +somebody and that we were sort of--sort of--intruding."</p> + +<p>"Why, Betty!" said Grace, staring at her, "what a funny thing to say."</p> + +<p>"I suppose it is," said Betty, shaking off the illusion with a shrug of +her shoulders. "I am getting foolish in my old age I guess. We shall all +feel better when we get something to eat."</p> + +<p>"If we ever do," said Grace gloomily, adding as a sudden turn in the woods +shot them deeper into the gloom of it: "Do be careful, Betty. I feel as +though we were going over a precipice."</p> + +<p>But Betty was too busy keeping the road to listen to her.</p> + +<p>"Look behind," she directed Grace, "and see if Mollie is following close +to us."</p> + +<p>"She is right behind," reported Grace, as two eyes of light shot their +glare in her eyes. "She is following us closer than a poor relation."</p> + +<p>Betty giggled at this, and then for a long time--or at least it seemed a +long time to their strained nerves--they went on in silence, following the +winding road wherever it led and getting deeper into the forest with every +moment.</p> + +<p>Then suddenly something loomed up dark against the shadows only a few +hundred feet ahead of them, and with a great feeling of thankfulness they +realized that they had reached their destination. Directly ahead of them +stood Wild Rose Lodge. They had arrived!</p> + +<p>But just as they were about to break into wild jubilation something +happened that tightened Betty's hand on the wheel and made Grace cry out +with dismay.</p> + +<p>Out from the shadow of the lodge a second shadow detached itself, a +hunched up, bulky, fearful shadow that seemed neither beast nor man, but a +combination of both of them.</p> + +<p>For a moment, while the girls watched, paralyzed with fright, the thing +seemed about to spring into the path of the moving car. But in another +instant it turned, wheeled, and disappeared into the thick bushes about +the house.</p> + +<p>Then and only then did Betty recover presence of mind enough to stop the +car.</p> + +<p>"Betty! Betty!" cried Grace in a horrified whisper, grasping Betty's hand +as it clung to the wheel. "What was it? Oh, what was it?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know," Betty answered mechanically. "I only know it was +horrible."</p> + +<p>Then quite suddenly and without warning Grace broke down and cried.</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="ch_15"></a>Chapter XV</h1> + +<h2>Wild Roses</h2> + + + +<p>"We will go into the house," Mrs. Irving answered to their concerted cry of +"What shall we do?" "Whatever it was that has frightened us has +disappeared now, and we shall certainly be safer inside the house than out +here. Come on, girls, I have the key."</p> + +<p>And so, leaving the cars where they were, the girls approached the house +with shaking knees and hearts that hammered their fear aloud. The Outdoor +Girls were ordinarily afraid of nothing real and human, but to be held up +at the point of a pistol would unnerve almost any one, and the struggle +the girls had made not to give way to their fears at the time had made +them more nervous still. And this thing that had startled them now, added +to what had gone before, seemed a little more than could be borne. It +seemed, in fact, like nothing human.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Irving turned the key in the lock, opened the door and stepped inside +the dark place, motioning to the girls to follow her.</p> + +<p>Fearfully the chums obeyed and Betty and Mollie pulled out their electric +pocket torches, filling the place with a weird light. Mollie, being +acquainted with the place, naturally took charge of the situation.</p> + +<p>"There are matches over there," she said, "and candles over the fireplace. +For goodness' sake, let's get a regular light, folks. Perhaps that will +make us feel more natural."</p> + +<p>"So say all of us," echoed Amy. "The dark makes everything worse, when you +are not well acquainted with a place."</p> + +<p>Mollie touched a match to the candles, and in the answering flare turned +to face her chums.</p> + +<p>"Girls," she said, determinedly, "I don't know how you feel about it, but +I vote that before we do anything else we get something to eat. We all +look like ghosts just now and I'm sure we feel much worse than that. But a +little food makes a monstrous lot of difference."</p> + +<p>"You know it does," cried Grace, relaxing into one of the big chairs that +were scattered about the room and covering her face with her hands. "I +think if I don't get something to eat soon, I'll die, that's all."</p> + +<p>"Well, we are none of us going to die," said Mrs. Irving vigorously, as +she threw aside her coat and hat. "Show us the way to the kitchen, Mollie, +and if there is anything there to eat, we will get it."</p> + +<p>Accordingly Mollie took one of the candles and led the way into a little +room beyond while all the girls but Betty crowded in after her.</p> + +<p>For the Little Captain slipped back for a moment and very quietly closed +the door, shutting out definitely the shadow beyond it.</p> + +<p>"I suppose it is foolish," she said to herself, "because if there is +anything out there that really wants to get in there are plenty of ways +that it can do it, without coming in through the door. But," and she +turned the key in the lock, "it certainly makes one feel more comfortable +to have the door closed." Then she followed the girls into the other room, +and the sight that met her eyes was certainly more cheering than anything +she could have imagined.</p> + +<p>Mollie's Uncle John had surprised them. In the exact center of a table set +for five lay a young pig, roasted whole and browned to a turn! Nor was +this all. The table was littered with covered dishes of all sizes and +descriptions, and as the contents of each one of these dishes was +disclosed, the girls became more and more excited and hilarious.</p> + +<p>There was apple sauce in one, salad in another, mashed potatoes that had +become quite cold in another, and a boat of gravy which had also become +quite cold.</p> + +<p>"But we don't mind," cried Mollie joyfully, as she took the gravy-boat in +one hand, the dish of potatoes in the other, and ran with them over to a +great stove in one corner of the room. "We need only some matches to have +this blazing hot in a minute. No, not that way, Grace," as the latter +tried to help by lighting the burner. "This isn't a gas stove, you know; +it's an oil stove and you had better look out or you will blow us all up."</p> + +<p>It is small wonder if Betty was so dazzled by this joyful scene that she +could neither move nor speak for the space of two seconds or so. Then, +recovering her powers of locomotion, she went over to the table and picked +up a note that, in their excitement, the girls had overlooked.</p> + +<p>"See what this says," she called to them, and they looked at her rather +impatiently. Just at that moment the only thing they cared to consider was +food--and more food--and then some more!</p> + +<p>But as Betty read they became more interested, and even stopped long +enough to hear her through. It was a brief note. This is what it said.</p> + +<blockquote> "My dear young ladies:</blockquote> + +<blockquote> "I am a neighbor of Mr. Prendergast," (this was the dressed-up name + of Mollie's Uncle John) "and he axed me to get your dinner ready fer + you. I tried to keep it hot but you wus so long comin' I had to go + home to get dinner fer my old man. Hope things is all right.</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="smallcaps"> "Lizzie Davis."</blockquote> + +<p>"So she is the one who has done all this," said Betty, looking around at +the good things with dancing eyes. "I bet she is nice and plump and has +rosy cheeks."</p> + +<p>"Lizzie Davis? Lizzie Davis?" repeated Mollie, bringing the steaming gravy +back and plumping the dish triumphantly down on the table. "Rather a funny +name for a fairy godmother, but she sure does know how to cook. Don't +forget the potatoes, Grace. Come on, girls--let's sit down."</p> + +<p>So down the girls sat and acted like ravenous pigs--or so Grace described +their conduct afterward. Mrs. Irving set to work carving the delicious +pork, but they could not wait for her.</p> + +<p>They seized slices of bread, spread apple sauce and butter on them, and +ate like what they were, four famished girls and one equally famished +chaperon who had been out in the open all day and had had nothing to eat +since morning.</p> + +<p>It was some time before they showed any considerable signs of slowing up. +Then Grace put down her fork, leaned back lazily, and called for dessert. +The latter was a huge cherry pie, and before the girls were through with +it there was not enough left to color a robin's egg.</p> + +<p>After the pangs of hunger had been satisfied they found to their great +surprise that they were dead tired and sleepy.</p> + +<p>"We will get the dishes out of the way and then Mollie can show us where +we sleep," said Betty. "Oh, girls, did you ever in your life taste such a +dinner?"</p> + +<p>It was not till the dishes had all been cleared away and Mollie took up +her candle to show them their quarters that the unwelcome thought of the +thing that had so frightened them again crept terrifyingly into their +minds. Try as they would to forget it, they could not.</p> + +<p>There were three small sleeping rooms in the lodge, but, small as they +were, they were comfortable and contained beds that seemed the height of +luxury to the tired girls.</p> + +<p>Because of the indistinct and flickering candle light the girls could make +out very little of what the rooms really looked like, and they postponed +any close examination until the morning. Back of the lodge was a shed for +the cars.</p> + +<p>The bedrooms were all joined by doors, which gave the girls a safe and +sociable feeling. Mrs. Irving, of course, had one room to herself, Betty +and Mollie slept together and Grace and Amy paired off.</p> + +<p>They wasted little time in getting ready--Betty and Mollie had appointed +themselves a committee of two to bring in the grips from Mollie's car--and +before long they tasted the exquisite restfulness of comfortable beds +after a long nerve-trying day in the out-of-doors.</p> + +<p>"I don't believe I shall close my eyes all night," said Amy with +conviction. "I'm too horribly nervous."</p> + +<p>But three minutes later she was sound asleep!</p> + +<p>The sun had been up a good two hours before any one stirred in Wild Rose +Lodge. Betty was the first to awake, and in fifteen minutes she had the +rest of the sleepy-eyed and protesting girls up and nearly dressed.</p> + +<p>"What's the idea, anyway?" yawned Grace lazily. "I could have slept at +least a good two hours more."</p> + +<p>"On a day like this?" sang Betty, breathing in deep breaths of the +wood-scented air. "And isn't this just the dearest room you ever saw?" +she added, wheeling about and regarding the apartment delightedly. They +were in Grace and Amy's room, for, as usual, Mollie and Betty had been +the first dressed and had gone into their churns' room to hurry them up +--if such a thing were possible.</p> + +<p>Betty's summing up of the room they were in was indeed well deserved, for +the place was charming. There was a dresser, a bed, and three chairs, and +all of these articles of furniture had been rough-hewed out of logs, +giving the place a delightfully rustic appearance. There was a grass rug +on the floor and in one corner a little table covered with books.</p> + +<p>"Isn't it darling?" cried Mollie, following Betty's glance about the +place. "Uncle John built the lodge and made all of the furniture himself, +you know. And he bought the grass rugs from the Indians."</p> + +<p>They were still exclaiming about the place when Mrs. Irving called to them +that breakfast was ready. With a whoop of delight they answered the +summons, and a moment later sat themselves down to a most satisfying meal +of omelet and toast and coffee with real cream in it. Also Mrs. Irving set +on the table a yellow-topped pitcher of milk fresh from the cow.</p> + +<p>"Our friend, Lizzie Davis, brought it," their chaperon answered with a +smile, in response to the girls' curious questions. "Also some fresh +butter and eggs. I have an idea," she added, as she got up to refill the +butter plate, "that we shall live on the fat of the land while we are +here."</p> + +<p>"Lizzie Davis," repeated Betty, pausing in the act of filling her glass +with fresh milk and regarding Mrs. Irving with dancing eyes. "Tell me, +chaperon dear. Didn't she have nice red cheeks, and wasn't she +delightfully plump?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Mrs. Irving, smiling at Betty's flushed prettiness. "She was +all of that, my dear. I don't believe I ever saw a more cozy looking +person in my life."</p> + +<p>"I knew it!" cried Betty triumphantly, adding with a suspicious eye on +Grace: "Hand over that plate of toast, Gracie. You needn't think you can +eat it all up!"</p> + +<p>After breakfast they sallied forth to "view the country o'er." They would +have stayed and helped Mrs. Irving clear up, but that good woman declared +that she could do better by herself on this first morning. After she had +become better acquainted with the place they could help her all they +liked. Finally, after some protest, they had to let her have her way.</p> + +<p>As they stepped out on the porch, Betty paused and held up her hand for +silence.</p> + +<p>"Listen," she said. "That murmuring sound and the splash of water--"</p> + +<p>"It's the river and the falls," explained Mollie. "Let's go down and have +a look at them."</p> + +<p>But Amy, giving a little gasp of delight, fairly tumbled down the steps +and into a riot of gorgeous pink wild roses. The lodge was fairly +surrounded by them.</p> + +<p>"Oh, you darlings!" cried Amy, putting both arms around a bush of the +fragrant flowers as though she would gather in all their beauty at once. +"I never saw anything so wonderful in all my life! Oh, girls, I'm glad I +came!"</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="ch_16"></a>Chapter XVI</h1> + +<h2>The Whirlpool</h2> + + + +<p>All the spirit and joy of the woods seemed to have entered into the +Outdoor Girls. For the next half hour they romped in the woods and the +beautiful flowers for all the world like little children whose first +glimpse it was of the country.</p> + +<p>They took down their hair and made wreaths of wild roses for crowns, and +when, faces flushed with exercise and fun, they had finished, one might +easily have mistaken them for real fairies come to life.</p> + +<p>"But I want to see the river," Betty called to them, stopping once more to +listen to the rhythmic sound of splashing water. "Come on, girls. It can't +be more than a few hundred feet away, even though we can't see it for the +bushes. Lead on, Mollie Billette, I wouldst hie me hence."</p> + +<p>But when Mollie laughingly obeyed and started into the woods, Amy held +back.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter?" Grace asked, turning to her curiously.</p> + +<p>"I--I was just thinking," stammered Amy, ashamed of her own weakness, +"about last night."</p> + +<p>"About last night," Betty prompted, still at a loss.</p> + +<p>"You haven't forgotten, have you?" she asked, incredulously. "That--thing +--on the porch."</p> + +<p>"Oh!" they said, and a shadow fell over their bright faces.</p> + +<p>"Why, yes," said Betty, slowly, adding as though she could not quite +explain the phenomenon herself: "I suppose we did forget all about it."</p> + +<p>"Or if we didn't, we should have," said Mollie, ungrammatically but +decidedly. "Come on, girls, we aren't going to let any silly old thing +like that frighten us out of a good time."</p> + +<p>"It seems," said Grace thoughtfully, while Amy still held back, "almost as +if we had dreamed the whole thing. The memory of it is so vague--and +indistinct."</p> + +<p>"Well, it isn't vague to me--or indistinct either," said Amy, feeling +rather abused because the girls did not seem to share her feelings. "I +hardly slept all night long just thinking about it."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Amy Blackford!" said Grace accusingly, while Mollie and Betty turned +twinkling eyes upon her. "If that isn't the biggest one I ever heard. Why, +I woke up once or twice in the night and each time I found you almost +snoring."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I did not," protested Amy, flushing indignantly, but here Mollie and +Betty stepped laughingly into the fray and peremptorily put an end to it.</p> + +<p>"Let's not fight about it," said Betty, when she could make herself heard. +"We don't care whether Amy snored or not. What we want to know is this: +Who is coming with us for a look at the falls?"</p> + +<p>"Now you're talking, Little Captain," said Mollie approvingly. "All in +favor please say Aye." Amy still showed some inclination to hold back, +but Mollie and Betty each took an arm and hurried her willy-nilly with +them into the woods.</p> + +<p>"You had better take the lead, Mollie," Betty suggested after they had +gone some little distance along the path. "I can manage Amy alone now, I +guess. She seems pretty well tamed."</p> + +<p>"Tamed, but scared to death," Amy came back, with a wry smile. "Really, +Betty," she turned to look at the Little Captain closely, "aren't you the +least little bit nervous about what happened last night?"</p> + +<p>"No, I don't think I am now," said Betty, adding candidly, "I must say I +was last night though--just frightened to death. It seemed so awfully +uncanny--coming upon that thing in the dark after what we had gone through +with that bandit. But then," she added more lightly, "everything seems so +much worse in the dark, you know."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Amy slowly and looking very serious. "That all may be very +true. But I think that as long as we are sure we didn't dream it last +night and that the skulking thing really dodged out from the corner of our +porch that we ought to be on our guard against it. And how," she finished +most reasonably, "can we be on our guard in the woods?"</p> + +<p>Betty was at a loss to know just how to answer such a question. By this +time Mollie and Grace were some little distance ahead of them and Amy's +nervousness was beginning to communicate itself to her against her will.</p> + +<p>She felt again the creeping sensation that had traveled up and down her +spine at sight of that crouching, sinister figure that had sprung out from +the shadow of the porch.</p> + +<p>It had disappeared into the bushes last night, and, for all she knew--and +the thought made her tingle weirdly--it might still be hiding in them, +crouching, ready to spring--</p> + +<p>With an effort she shook off the mood and turned to Amy brightly.</p> + +<p>"There is no use in our making a mountain out of a mole hill," she said, +plucking a wild rose as they swung by and smelling of its delicious +fragrance. "Last night, I admit, it seemed very terrifying to us, but that +was probably because we couldn't see what it was that frightened us. It +may just have been a large dog or something."</p> + +<p>"Humph," sniffed Amy, sceptically, "it must have been a monster dog. Sort +of a ghost hound."</p> + +<p>"Goodness, that's going from bad to worse," laughed Betty, as they +rejoined the other girls. "Let's hope it isn't anything like that, Amy +dear. Hello, what are you waiting for?" she hailed the girls cheerfully. +"We almost fell over you."</p> + +<p>"Watch your step," cautioned Mollie, adding as she cleared aside some +bushes and motioned Betty to a place beside her: "We've reached the river, +Betty, and a little farther up is the falls. Isn't it beautiful?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, it is beautiful," rejoined Betty, a sentiment which Amy heartily +echoed, and for a few minutes they stood there, drinking in the beauty of +the scene, entirely unmindful of the lovely picture they themselves made +with their loosened hair and wreaths of wild flowers.</p> + +<p>The river was not very wide, but the water was deep and clear and swift +and the continual swish-swish of its passage over rocks and between +foliage-laden banks made a pleasant, even sound that was deliciously +restful and refreshing.</p> + +<p>"Oh, if we could only get down right into the very middle of it and let +those little ripples wash over us forever and forever!" sighed Grace +ecstatically.</p> + +<p>"She would a little mermaid be!" sang Betty, as she slipped down to the +very edge of the water and leaned over to catch her reflection in the +bright depths of it. "But honestly, Mollie, isn't there any place in the +river where we can swim?"</p> + +<p>"It looks too swift for good swimming to me--" began Grace, but Mollie +stopped her with a mysterious finger to her lips.</p> + +<p>"Hush, my pretty one, not a word," said the latter, beginning to pick her +way daintily along the river bank. "Follow me and you will wear diamonds, +or seaweed, or whatever it is that mermaids wear. And don't fall over, +whatever you do," she turned around to caution them. "The river is so +swift here that I don't believe even the strongest swimmer would have a +chance."</p> + +<p>Accordingly the girls "watched their step," and for some distance followed +Mollie uncomplainingly. Then, as there seemed no sign of their getting +anywhere, Grace started to protest.</p> + +<p>"Say, do you suppose she has any idea where she is going?" the latter +asked of Betty in a tone that was designed to reach Mollie's ear. But +before she could say anything more, Mollie herself swung jubilantly round +upon them.</p> + +<p>"Here we are, girls!" she cried. "Now see if you ever saw anything so +pretty in all your lives."</p> + +<p>Once more the girls stood spellbound by the natural beauty of the scene. +As they walked they had become more and more conscious of the roaring +noise made by rushing water, and now, ascending a small rise of ground, +they came full upon the majestic beauty of Moonlight Falls.</p> + +<p>The falls fell full thirty feet, and at the foot of it the river was +churned into swirling, liquid foam that whirled around and around again in +a sort of mad race and then went rushing off down the river in a shower of +lacy spray.</p> + +<p>It was wildly inspiring, exhilarating, and the girls thrilled with a +strange new emotion as they watched. It was so free, so gloriously +unchained!</p> + +<p>"There is our swimming pool over there," Mollie said, raising her voice to +make it heard above the roar of the water. "You see there is a sort of +little back eddy below the falls and to one side of it, and right there +we'll find the best swimming of our lives. But," she added, and her voice +was impressively solemn, "heaven help any one of us who gets in the path +of the falls."</p> + +<p>"Look!" cried Amy suddenly, her voice ringing out full and clear and +startled above the uproar. "That--thing--over there. It is going into the +falls--no, under them!"</p> + +<p>"Where?" cried Mollie eagerly, leaning far forward. "Oh, yes, I see what +you mean. Oh, girls, I'm slipping!" Her voice rose to a terrified wail. +"Betty! Catch me!"</p> + +<p>But Betty was too late. She sprang forward just in time to see Mollie +slide down the slippery bank and plunge into the maddened water of the +river!</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="ch_17"></a>Chapter XVII</h1> + +<h2>The "Thing"</h2> + + + +<p>It took the girls a moment to realize the extent of the awful thing that +had happened. Then Betty, obeying her first impulse, raised her hands +above her head as though to dive, but Amy screamed to her to stop.</p> + +<p>"You will only be lost too!" she cried frantically. "Look--that flat +stick--the long one--"</p> + +<p>Instantly Betty saw what she meant and stooped to pick up a long broken +branch that was lying at her feet. At the same instant Mollie came to the +surface several feet away from the spot where she had fallen and threw her +strength desperately against the rushing might of the river.</p> + +<p>Betty ran along the river bank, Amy and Grace at her heels, shouting +encouragement to Mollie as she ran.</p> + +<p>"Hold tight!" she cried, adding with fresh dismay as she saw that the girl +was being swept further from the shore: "Over this way, honey. Swim to +your right--to your right--"</p> + +<p>Blinded, chilled to the bone with the cold water, her hair in her eyes and +her skirts clinging tight about her legs, Mollie struggled wildly, unable +to hear the shouts of her chums above the ringing in her ears.</p> + +<p>It was taking all her strength to hold her own against the rush of the +river--and now she was not even doing that! Slowly, very slowly, she was +being pushed backward; in a little while more she would be sucked +downward, and then--</p> + +<p>She closed her eyes, and then, as though the obliteration of one sense +made more clear the other, she heard Betty calling to her above the roar +of the falls.</p> + +<p>"Mollie! Mollie!" it came, faint but distinct, "take hold of the stick and +we'll pull you in. Mollie, do you hear me?"</p> + +<p>The girl in the water was still struggling hard against the current that +was dragging at her cruelly, and at the sound of Betty's words she shook +the water from her eyes and looked about her dazedly. She had forgotten +the girls.</p> + +<p>Then she saw something that sent a tingle of renewed hope through her +tired body. What she saw was a long branch bobbing on the water not two +feet from her outstretched hand, and at the other end of the stick +was--Betty.</p> + +<p>With a sigh that was half a sob she struck out for it, reached it, and +clung to it as only the drowning know how to cling.</p> + +<p>Then she felt herself being drawn through the water, and once more she +closed her eyes. When she opened them again she was on a warm grassy bank +with Amy chafing one hand, Grace the other, while Betty was busy +unfastening the clothes about her waist.</p> + +<p>As Mollie was never under any circumstances expected to act as people +thought she should act, so this occasion was no exception to the rule. She +pushed Amy and Grace aside, glared at Betty, and sat up with a little +jerk.</p> + +<p>"For goodness' sake, stop undressing me, Betty Nelson!" she said. "I'm not +dead yet."</p> + +<p>"So we see," said Betty, while her eyes lost their anxious expression and +began to twinkle instead. "But you might have been, you know, if we had +left you to yourself."</p> + +<p>Mollie looked down at her dripping clothes ruefully and then out at the +rushing water.</p> + +<p>"I guess you are right," she said with a little grimace. "It wasn't very +pleasant while it lasted, either. Whew, but that water was cold!" She +shivered involuntarily and Betty sprang to her feet.</p> + +<p>"We had better be getting back to the lodge," she said. "You can put on +some dry things, Mollie, and we girls will get you some hot soup. You are +chilled to the bone."</p> + +<p>"Nonsense," denied Mollie grumpily. "I'm beginning to feel fine and warm. +Besides," she added, trying to cover a chill that fairly made her teeth +ache, "I want to stay and find out about that thing that got us into all +this fuss."</p> + +<p>"Nonsense," Grace put in. Up to this time Grace had been made speechless +by Mollie's sudden recovery. "You are shivering so you can't sit still."</p> + +<p>"It makes me cold just to look at you," added Amy.</p> + +<p>"Don't be foolish, honey," said Betty impatiently. "You can't sit there +all day in dripping clothes, and besides you will really get cold."</p> + +<p>"Humph," grunted Mollie, getting to her feet rather unsteadily and shaking +out her sodden skirts. "I guess this isn't the first time I have taken a +dip in cold water. And besides," she added impatiently: "I don't know +about you girls, but I would like to know just what that thing was that we +saw dart beneath the falls."</p> + +<p>"That was what made you fall into the water, wasn't it?" asked Betty, her +forehead wrinkling thoughtfully. "You leaned so far out to see--"</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes," Mollie interrupted impatiently, all her curiosity revived. +"That was what made me fall into the water all right. But what I want to +know is--what was it?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know," said Betty, shaking her head. "I didn't see it."</p> + +<p>"Neither did I," Grace added.</p> + +<p>Mollie looked from one to the other of them open-mouthed. Then she turned +to Amy.</p> + +<p>"You saw it, didn't you?" she asked. "You screamed, you know."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Amy, nodding her head very solemnly. "And it looked to me a +lot like what we saw last night."</p> + +<p>"Thank goodness, you saw it too or the girls would surely think I had been +dreaming or was crazy," said Mollie, with relief. Then she suddenly turned +and started off into the woods. "I'm going all alone to find out what that +was," she told her stupefied chums. "I've got to clear up the mystery +before I'm an hour older."</p> + +<p>But this time Mollie found that there was some one stronger than she, and +that was Betty. The Little Captain ran after her and brought her back, +protesting but captive. + +"We are going back to the house now and get you something hot to eat," +said Betty, as they rejoined Amy and Grace and started off toward home. +"Afterwards if everybody's willing we will hunt this strange beast that +jumps out from porches and leaps into rivers just for the fun of the +thing. But just now, Billy Billette, you are going home."</p> + +<p>But Mollie had been more severely shocked than she was willing to admit by +her experience, and it was some time before the girls visited the falls or +the river again. Meanwhile they contented themselves with exploring the +country about the lodge, taking short trips in the cars and wondering +whether the boys would really be home before the summer was over.</p> + +<p>Their days were not altogether happy, however, for the thought of that +weird thing prowling around in the woods and ready, for all they knew, to +spring out at them at every turn, refused to be banished from their minds.</p> + +<p>Then, too, they thought a great deal about poor Professor Dempsey and the +little ruined cottage in the woods. Somehow, they had an uneasy feeling +that if they had gone to him at the very first minute they had heard of +his trouble they might have helped him. Whereas, they had waited and--he +had fled.</p> + +<p>For a while the idea of a dip in the swimming pool was naturally not very +attractive to Mollie, but at last there came a day when she herself +suggested it and the girls enthusiastically seconded the motion.</p> + +<p>More than the prospect of a good time, was the hope, unexpressed, that +they might see again that strange thing which Amy and Mollie had only +glimpsed the time before. Perhaps, they thought, if the mysterious thing +were faced in the open and in broad daylight, it might prove to be no +mystery at all but something ordinary and commonplace enough to do away +with all their vague and weird imaginings.</p> + +<p>But in this expectation they were most completely disappointed. Nothing at +all unusual occurred and although they enjoyed their swim in the warm back +eddy of the pool, they came away disgruntled and with a curious feeling +that they had been cheated out of something.</p> + +<p>"I only wish the boys would come," sighed Amy, as they turned in once more +at the lodge.</p> + +<p>After that the "Thing" became almost like an obsession with them. They +must find out definitely what it was that was spoiling all their fun. They +began to haunt the river, especially at the foot of the falls, in the hope +of seeing something, anything that would put an end to their curiosity and +uneasiness.</p> + +<p>For a long time they had not got up courage enough to visit the place at +night, but at last they became curious enough to brave even that.</p> + +<p>"We have simply got to find out something," Mollie whispered to Betty as +on this particular night they stood on the porch and waited for Mrs. +Irving to join them. "We can't go on this way any longer, Betty. Why, I am +getting so nervous I jump if you look at me."</p> + +<p>"I know," said Betty soberly. "It really is getting on our nerves too +much. Amy and Grace are feeling it even worse than we are."</p> + +<p>"Yes," agreed Mollie grumpily. "Last night was the third night in +succession that Amy got us all out of bed to listen to some fool noise +outside. I'm just about sick of it."</p> + +<p>The other three came then and they had no further chance for conversation. +As a matter of fact, they talked surprisingly little on the walk to the +river.</p> + +<p>High above them a wonderful full moon sent its silvery light filtering +down through leaves and branches, making of the woods a fairyland. +Somehow, the very beauty of it filled the girls with a strange dread. To +them the patches of moonlight were weird, unreal, the shadowy woods held a +sinister menace.</p> + +<p>By the time they had reached the river's edge they were almost ready to +turn and run. But they conquered the impulse and pressed on. Then suddenly +they saw what they had hoped, yet dreaded, to see.</p> + +<p>On the opposite bank, staring down into the rapids with a terrible +intentness, stood a man, or something that resembled a man. In one awful, +breath-taking minute they realized that here at last was the "Thing."</p> + +<p>As they watched, the hunched-up crouching figure on the opposite bank made +a lumbering movement forward as though about to throw itself into the +water at the foot of the falls.</p> + +<p>"Oh!" screamed Betty, the words wrenched from her dry throat. "Don't do +that! You mustn't do that! Go back! For goodness' sake, go back!"</p> + +<p>With a hoarse cry that answered her own, the "Thing" flung back from the +water's edge and disappeared into the darkness!</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="ch_18"></a>Chapter XVIII</h1> + +<h2>Surprised</h2> + + + +<p>The Outdoor Girls could hardly have told how they got back to the lodge +after that. Blindly they stumbled through the underbrush, expecting they +knew not what horrible thing, thankful for the moonlight that made it +possible for them to hurry.</p> + +<p>They did reach home somehow and there they sat until late into the night, +trying to find some explanation for the thing they had seen, striving to +think up some plan for hunting it down until finally Mrs. Irving sent them +to bed.</p> + +<p>That did not do very much good, for they lay awake and talked until the +first rays of sunlight crept into the windows. Then they said goodnight +and sank into a sleep of exhaustion.</p> + +<p>For three days after the episode the girls never went far from the house +on foot. They would take the cars and spin down the open road, but a sort +of horror of the supernatural kept them from venturing into the woods +again.</p> + +<p>But when the fourth day dawned the fright of their moonlight experience +had begun to wear off and they were beginning to feel ashamed of their +fear.</p> + +<p>Having a little of this in her mind, Mollie gave voice to it at the +breakfast table.</p> + +<p>"I must say," she began, buttering a piece of bread energetically, "that +it isn't like us Outdoor Girls to let anything scare us into staying near +the house. Why, I declare, I don't believe there is one of us who would +dare poke her nose past that rose bush in front of the porch after +sundown. That's a pretty state of affairs, isn't it?"</p> + +<p>"Well, you needn't glare at me as if it were all my fault," retorted Amy +with spirit. "I'm sure I didn't wish the horrible old thing on us."</p> + +<p>"I only wish I knew who did," sighed Grace, adding, with a sudden burst of +ferocity: "I would wring his neck." + +"Suppose somebody suggests something we can do about it," said Betty +reasonably. "I'm sure that after the other night nobody could blame us for +being frightened."</p> + +<p>"No. But there is one thing I can blame you for," said Mollie, glaring +morosely at her chum. "And that is for not letting the horrible old thing +drown itself when it so very evidently wanted to. If that had happened all +our worries would have been over."</p> + +<p>"Goodness, Mollie, what a horrible idea!" Betty protested.</p> + +<p>"I don't think it was a horrible idea," Grace put in. "I think it was just +about the finest idea I ever heard of."</p> + +<p>"Yes," added Amy with a deceptive mildness, "if you hadn't called out just +then, Betty, the whole thing would have been over and the Thing would have +been drowned. And then," she added plaintively, "we would have been able +to enjoy our summer."</p> + +<p>"It really wasn't any of our business, you know," Grace finished, moodily.</p> + +<p>For a moment Betty sat and stared at them, undecided whether to be amused +or indignant. However, the latter emotion won and she turned upon the +girls with flashing eyes.</p> + +<p>"I think you are all perfectly horrid," she said. "And I would think you +were worse if I weren't perfectly sure that you don't really mean what you +say. Why, just suppose," she went on earnestly, "that we had willingly +permitted that man to commit suicide? Why, we would have been just as +guilty as if we had murdered him!"</p> + +<p>"But he may have done it since anyway," muttered Mollie stubbornly. "He +didn't have to wait to ask our permission, and there are plenty of times +that he can commit suicide when we are not around--if he really wants to +do it."</p> + +<p>"What he or anybody else does when we are not around, is not our +business," answered Betty. "We can't help what happens in our absence."</p> + +<p>"You seem to take it for granted that it is a man," Mollie continued, +still stubbornly argumentative. "But I am not so sure about that. The +several times that we have seen the--the--Thing--it has looked as much +animal as human to me."</p> + +<p>"Well, we won't argue that point," said Betty, rising and beginning to +clear away the dishes, "because we don't know anything about it."</p> + +<p>"That is just exactly what I am getting at," said Mollie earnestly, +leaning forward and resting her elbows on the table while the girls +watched her interestedly. "We don't know anything about it, but that is no +reason why we should sit back and twiddle our thumbs and start at +shadows."</p> + +<p>"Well, for goodness' sake, tell us what's on your mind," prompted Grace +impatiently. "We haven't sat back and twiddled our thumbs and started at +shadows because we enjoyed it, you know."</p> + +<p>"Now my plan is this," said Mollie, ignoring Grace, who shrugged her +shoulders and reached for her candy box. "Suppose we take a tramp through +the woods to the head of the falls? It is a beautiful hike and the scenery +at the falls is magnificent. But aside from that we will have a chance to +find out something about this thing that will do away with the mystery."</p> + +<p>"If it doesn't do away with us at the same time," said Amy so ruefully +that they had to laugh at her.</p> + +<p>"Well, what do you say?" asked Mollie, looking around the circle of +thoughtful faces--her glance a dare.</p> + +<p>For a moment it looked as if they all might refuse to go, but then their +sporting blood came to the fore and they decided for the adventure.</p> + +<p>But when they told Mrs. Irving about their project and begged her to say +yes to it, she looked very doubtful and only consented at last on the +proviso that she was to go with them. This they were only too glad to +have, and a few minutes later the lodge hummed with excitement and +preparation once more. To the Outdoor Girls, active and fun-loving by +nature, to be quiet for a few days was nothing short of torture. So now, +even though there was still more than a little fear of the "Thing" in +their hearts, they found relief in the promise of adventure.</p> + +<p>They put up some sandwiches and fruit in a basket in case they were not +able to get home by noon. Then they locked the door of the little lodge +and started down the steps. They hesitated before starting into the woods, +and Mollie had a happy thought.</p> + +<p>"We can go part of the way along the road," she said. "And then there is a +path that leads directly through to the head of the falls."</p> + +<p>The celerity with which they accepted this suggestion seemed funny to them +afterward, but at the time they had other things to think about. Mostly +they were wondering if they would really be able to hold on to their nerve +long enough to see the adventure through.</p> + +<p>"I wish," said Betty wistfully, as she had wished so many times of late, +"that the boys were here. They could help us out so beautifully." And she +sighed, for when she spoke of "the boys," she always thought of one boy +most--and that one was Allen.</p> + +<p>"Well, there's no use wishing for what can't possibly happen," Grace was +saying, when there came a whistle so clear and penetrating that it made +them jump--then another, and another. Was it just that they were nervous +or was there really something peculiarly familiar in the sound? At any +rate they stopped and turned around to see who the whistlers could be.</p> + +<p>There were three soldiers coming down the road, broad-shouldered, vital +looking fellows who swung along toward the astonished girls as though they +owned the world.</p> + +<p>"Betty, oh, Betty!" whispered Grace in a tense voice, grasping Betty's arm +so hard it hurt "It can't be, oh, it can't be the boys!"</p> + +<p>But Mollie had broken away from the group and was rushing toward the +soldier lads like the wild little tomboy she was.</p> + +<p>"Girls, it's the boys! it's the boys! it's the boys!" she yelled. "They're +all tanned and they're at least ten inches taller, but it's the boys just +the same."</p> + +<p>And before any of the other girls knew what she was about she had kissed +each one of them twice and was hanging on the tallest one's arm, who +happened to be Frank, laughing and crying at the same time.</p> + +<p>Then the girls seemed to decide that she had had the lads to herself long +enough, and they immediately entered the contest, all laughing at once, +all crying at once, and all talking at once, until it was a wonder the +boys did not lose their heads entirely.</p> + +<p>The only one who was not absolutely and completely and deliriously happy +was Betty. For the other three boys were there, but Allen had not come!</p> + +<p>As though reading her thought, Will, who was much handsomer and more manly +than when he went away, put an arm about the Little Captain's shoulder big +brother fashion and drew her aside from the rest.</p> + +<p>"You are wondering about Allen," he said, and Betty nodded eagerly. "You +see," continued Will, his face lighting up in a smile that would always be +boyish, "since Allen became one of the big bugs--which is another name for +officer, you understand--he had to pay the penalty and stay over there +with them for a little while longer. He will probably be over on the next +transport, although of course you can never be sure about that. Oh, and I +forgot," he put his hand in his pocket and drew forth a pocketknife, a wad +of string and--a little three-cornered note. "He asked me to give this to +you as soon as I saw you. So now you can tell him that 'I seen my duty and +I done it noble.'"</p> + +<p>With a twinkle in his eye Will turned back to the others and Betty was +left to open her note. This is what she read:</p> + +<p>"Gosh, some fellows do have all the luck, don't they? But never mind, +little girl. I'm coming to you by the very first boat, and when I get +there do you know what I'm going to do? Do you?"</p> + +<p>Betty wanted to run away by herself and read the note over and over again. +But she could not do that. With a sigh she hid the little message in a +pocket of her skirt and turned back to the others.</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="ch_19"></a>Chapter XIX</h1> + +<h2>Like Old Times</h2> + + + +<p>It was a long time before the boys and girls woke up to the fact that they +were still standing in the center of the road and that they might be ever +so much more comfortable on the porch of the lodge, if any one had had +sense enough to think that far.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Irving, who had been keeping herself rather in the background during +the first rapturous greetings, now came in for her share of salutations +and boyish greetings. The young soldiers crowded about her, patting her +hands and her shoulders and telling her how awfully fine she looked and +how glad they were to find her here until the lady actually blushed with +pleasure and begged them to stop their nonsense. In fact, it was she who +finally suggested that they go up to the lodge again.</p> + +<p>"I don't see why we didn't think of that before," said Mollie, joyfully +slipping an arm into Frank's and turning him right-about-face. "We are due +to talk all day anyway, so we might as well do it in comfort. Don't forget +the lunch basket, Betty," she called back to her chum.</p> + +<p>Betty would have forgotten the basket and left it where it stood just as +she had dropped it at the side of the road--and small wonder if she had--but +as she stooped to pick it up, Will's strong brown hand whipped out in +front of her nose and seized the handle firmly.</p> + +<p>"That's the idea," said Grace approvingly, adding with a sisterly pat on +his shoulder: "You run along with Amy and Mrs. Irving. I want to talk to +Betty."</p> + +<p>So Will, being a well-trained brother, did as he was told, and Grace drew +Betty behind the others.</p> + +<p>"What about Allen, honey?" she asked, her blue eyes honestly worried. "We +all missed him so, but we didn't like to say too much for fear--for fear--"</p> + +<p>"He's all right," said Betty, her heart glowing again at thought of the +little note hidden away in her pocket. "He has only been delayed a little, +that's all. Will says he will probably be over on the next transport."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I am relieved," said Grace with such fervor that Betty looked at her +quickly. Could it be, she wondered, that what she had half sensed before +could be really true? Was Grace fond of Allen? But because the idea made +her unhappy, she decided that she was just trying to think up trouble and +dismissed it from her mind. All the girls loved Allen of course--who could +help it?--but they couldn't any of them, she told herself fiercely, care +for him the way she did.</p> + +<p>"Well, what are you thinking about? You needn't look so fierce," she heard +Grace saying, and she forced a smile to her face.</p> + +<p>"I'm not looking fierce," Betty answered gayly. "Don't you know that that +is just my natural expression, Gracie dear? That's the way I make little +girls like you afraid of me."</p> + +<p>"Well, I'm not afraid of you, not one little bit," asserted Grace, +squeezing Betty's arm fondly. "Oh, Betty dear, isn't it wonderful having +the boys back and don't they look fine--especially Will?"</p> + +<p>"Don't they? Especially Will," agreed Betty with a sly little glance. "If +you don't look out you will give the impression that you're rather fond of +that worthless old brother of yours, honey."</p> + +<p>"I love him awfully," replied Grace, adding with a little puckering of her +forehead: "But I am going to tell you something, Betty, that I wouldn't +tell to any one else for the world. I'm jealous, actually jealous! of +Amy."</p> + +<p>Betty gave a merry little laugh and slipped an arm about her chum.</p> + +<p>"Gracie dear, we never would have known that if you hadn't told us," she +said dryly. "Don't you know," as Grace looked at her reproachfully, "that +we have all been perfectly well aware of that ever since Will first began +to make eyes at Amy?"</p> + +<p>"I can't help it," Grace retorted, while sudden tears sprang to her eyes. +"I've known him longer than she has, and we've loved each other ever since +he was two and I was two weeks! Did you see the way he looked at her?" she +finished dolefully.</p> + +<p>"Yes. But of course you couldn't see the way he looked at you," said Betty +quickly. "And I did."</p> + +<p>"Oh, did he look glad to see me? Did he?" demanded Grace with pathetic +eagerness.</p> + +<p>"Of course he did, you little goose," said Betty, adding with a chuckle: +"You've been spoiled, that's all. You've been so used to being the +<i>only</i> pebble on the beach, dear, that you can't be content with +being just one of two."</p> + +<p>By this time they had reached the lodge and were greeted noisily by the +others, who had already seated themselves on the porch as though they +intended to stay all day.</p> + +<p>"Hello," called Frank. His handsome face, though somewhat thinner than the +girls remembered, was better looking than ever and he had developed a +trick of flinging the hair back from his forehead that the girls thought +immensely attractive.</p> + +<p>Roy, who had seated himself on the railing of the porch and was swinging +his feet, looked more unchanged than either of the boys, though the girls +were soon to find out that he had changed the most.</p> + +<p>Will, who had settled Amy in a chair and was sitting cross-legged on the +floor at her feet, was gazing up at the girl with his heart in his eyes. +As for Amy--well, the girls had never known she could look so radiant.</p> + +<p>"Have a seat," invited Roy, rising lazily to the dignity of his six feet +as Betty and Grace came up on the porch. "It would seem like old times to +see you girls perched on the railing."</p> + +<p>"I'll have you know, sir," said Betty very demurely, as she pulled Grace +down beside her on the top step of the porch, "that we have quite grown up +since you have been away. We will sit here where we can get a good view of +you all."</p> + +<p>"And we want to hear about everything you have done over there," broke in +Amy eagerly. "Please, everything--right from the beginning."</p> + +<p>The boys fidgeted, looked dismayed, and Roy burst forth in protest.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I say!" he cried. "We'll do anything else for you, but please don't +ask us to do that."</p> + +<p>"We don't want to talk about ourselves or the war," muttered Frank, almost +as if to himself. "We want to forget about it--if we can."</p> + +<p>"You see," Will explained, and there was a stern note in his young voice, +"we worked and we sweated and we fought. We lived under conditions week +after week and month after month that it makes us shudder even to think of +now. For months we lived in a perfect inferno--and do you know what our +idea of heaven was then?"</p> + +<p>They said nothing and he went on in a lighter tone.</p> + +<p>"It was just to get back alive and, well, to God's country and you +girls--to sit for hours, days if we could, where we could look at you +and listen to you and not do a thing but just be happy. I wonder if +you can understand that?"</p> + +<p>"Of course, we can, Will!" cried Betty, impulsively reaching over and +laying a hand on the boy's arm. "You have earned the right to sit and be +amused, and we'll do it till you cry aloud for mercy. And you needn't tell +us a single word about yourselves until you get good and ready."</p> + +<p>"You're a brick, Betty," said Will warmly, laying his hand over her little +one. "I might have known we could count on you."</p> + +<p>"By the way," Roy broke in suddenly, his eye on the basket of eatables +that the girls had prepared for their adventure, "what's in that hamper, +anyway? If it's anything to eat, let's have it."</p> + +<p>Betty pulled the basket over to her, lifted the cover and passed it over +to the ravenous one.</p> + +<p>"Eat while there is anything left," she commanded, adding with a chuckle: +"Our adventure seems to be over for to-day, at least."</p> + +<p>"Adventure?" repeated Frank inquiringly, as he reached for a sandwich.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Mollie, adding with a sigh: "And you boys had to come along +just in time to spoil it all."</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="ch_20"></a>Chapter XX</h1> + +<h2>Very Much Alive</h2> + + + +<p>"That is complimentary, I must say," grinned Will, getting up from his +seat on the porch and going over to join Roy on the railing. "After being +away for months we are told the minute we get back that we've 'spoiled +everything.'"</p> + +<p>"'Tis rather hard lines," said Mollie with an answering grin. "But one must +tell the truth, you know."</p> + +<p>"By the way," put in Grace curiously, "I know Betty promised that we +wouldn't ask questions, but there is just one thing I want to know."</p> + +<p>"Speak, fair damsel," Roy replied, thinking meanwhile how much prettier +Grace had grown. "We will promise to answer faithfully anything that is +not connected with war."</p> + +<p>"When did you get in?" asked Grace, "and how did you get here?"</p> + +<p>"We came in yesterday," answered Roy, helping himself to another sandwich. +"And of course we beat it for headquarters right away."</p> + +<p>"Yes'm, and I'll tell you we were a disappointed lot when we found that +you girls had flown," added Frank ruefully. "We were all set for a jolly +reunion--"</p> + +<p>"But we wrote you about spending the summer here," Betty interrupted. "And +we were mourning because you couldn't be at the lodge with us."</p> + +<p>"We missed your letters, I guess," said Will. "We sailed very suddenly, +and there is probably a stack of them piled up there at the old service +station."</p> + +<p>"We found out where you were all rightie, though," Roy continued. "So we +took the first train out this morning, debarked at the nearest station +south of here, and proceeded to walk the rest of the way. It was thus that +you came upon us."</p> + +<p>"You came upon us, you mean," Amy corrected. "We ought to know well +enough, because you nearly gave us heart failure."</p> + +<p>Will looked at her as if he wanted to say something but did not quite dare +in public. However, she intercepted the look and with a little panicky +feeling turned her eyes away.</p> + +<p>"I imagine," said Grace softly, looking up at Will, "that mother wasn't +glad to see you or anything."</p> + +<p>"Not at all," returned Will, a soft light in his eyes as he remembered the +greeting between him and his parents. "I was a little afraid," he added +soberly, "that mother and dad wouldn't like my skipping off like this the +day after I'd got home. But they seemed to understand all right."</p> + +<p>"Gee, but this is great," said Frank, stretching contentedly and looking +about the group with happy eyes. "I wonder how many times we've seen this +all in our dreams, fellows. Only we couldn't have imagined it half as +perfect as this."</p> + +<p>"It sure is like old times," agreed Roy, adding with a smile as he turned +to their chaperon, who had been quietly enjoying herself: "We even have +Mrs. Irving with us. Gee, it's just like that summer at Pine Island! All +the old crowd together--"</p> + +<p>"Except Allen," put in Will, frowning a little. "Gosh, it didn't seem +right at all to leave the old fellow behind. You wouldn't know him," he +added, his face flushing enthusiastically, "I've never seen a fellow +change the way Allen has--for the better."</p> + +<p>"Was there so much room for improvement?" asked Betty demurely, and they +looked at her laughingly.</p> + +<p>"Nobody would expect you to think so," Will replied, his eyes twinkling, +then added seriously:</p> + +<p>"Of course we all know that Allen was the finest kind even before the war, +but, gosh! I wish you could just see how all the fellows love him and how +even his superior officers consult him and seem to value his judgment. I +tell you, I'm glad to have him call me his friend."</p> + +<p>"You bet!" exclaimed Frank, nodding soberly.</p> + +<p>"Allen sure has come out strong," Roy agreed; and at this glowing praise +of the only absent one Betty felt her heart swell with pride and she +wanted to hug the boys for being so loyal to her Allen. Also, deep down in +her heart, she began to feel a little trepidation about the homecoming of +this hero. Who was she, Betty Nelson, to call this glorious Lieutenant +Allen Washburn, <i>her</i> Allen?</p> + +<p>So engrossed was she in these and other absorbing thoughts that it was +some time before she noticed that the conversation had taken another turn. +Also that the boys and girls were becoming rather excited.</p> + +<p>"I didn't say it was a ghost," Mollie was declaring hotly. "In fact I have +always thought of a ghost as wearing a sheet and pillow case sort of garb. +And this thing certainly wore nothing of the sort."</p> + +<p>"Tell us all about it," said Frank, leaning forward.</p> + +<p>"Yes, it sounds as if it might prove interesting," added Roy.</p> + +<p>So the girls told them all about it from that first night when they had +been so badly frightened by the "Thing" that had hidden in the shadows of +the porch. The boys listened with scarcely an interruption till they were +through.</p> + +<p>"Gosh, I don't like the sound of that at all," said Will, when they had +finished. "It isn't a pleasant thing to have a lunatic roaming the woods +while you girls are all alone here in this place. Could you possibly put +us up for the night?" he asked, turning abruptly to Mrs. Irving.</p> + +<p>"Why, there isn't any room," said the latter slowly, frowning a little as +she tried to think up ways and means. "There aren't any extra beds, but +there is a large settee in the living room and a couple of you can sleep +on that. I found plenty of blankets stowed away."</p> + +<p>"Fine!" cried Will enthusiastically. "Just the very thing! One of us can +take turns sleeping on the floor. It won't be the first time we've slept +on harder things."</p> + +<p>"Goodness, any one would think they were going to stay a month," said +Mollie in dismay.</p> + +<p>"No, we won't stay a month," Will went on. "But we are going to stay until +we find out what it is that has been bothering you girls. Do you suppose +we would leave you unprotected here? I should say not!" Grace noticed that +when he said this his glance was first for Amy, and, afterward, for her.</p> + +<p>So it was settled. Mrs. Irving went inside to see about getting lunch. +"Though how the boys can find any room for lunch after eating all those +sandwiches, I don't know," Amy had commented wonderingly.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Irving had refused absolutely to let any of the girls even so much as +help with this lunch, saying they must stay outside and visit with the +boys on this momentous occasion.</p> + +<p>"Since you are convinced that this thing is not a ghost," Will went on, +while appetizing odors began to waft toward them from the open kitchen +windows, "we will take it for granted that it is a man, and a man who has, +presumably, lost his mind."</p> + +<p>"A crazy man," murmured Betty. "Worse and worse--and more of it."</p> + +<p>"Girls," cried Amy, jumping suddenly to her feet, "I have an idea."</p> + +<p>"Impossible!" drawled Grace.</p> + +<p>"Why," went on Amy, unheeding Grace's remark and growing visibly more +excited as she talked, "you know, Professor Dempsey went crazy--or at +least we supposed he did--and ran away into the woods. Now since Will +thinks this man is crazy too, why, they may be one and the same--"</p> + +<p>"Amy!" cried Mollie, her eyes beginning to shine as she realized the +possibility of what the girl had said. "You are a wonder, child! Why +didn't any of us think of that before?"</p> + +<p>"Because it is rather far-fetched and absurd, I suppose," said Grace, the +suggestion of a sneer in her voice bringing a quick flush to Amy's face.</p> + +<p>"I don't see that it is so far-fetched--or absurd either," Betty broke in +quietly. "Remember, we are only a little over fifty miles from the place +where Professor Dempsey had his cottage, and it would be easy for him to +wander this far."</p> + +<p>Here Frank broke in on behalf of the very much mystified boys.</p> + +<p>"Before you stage the hair-pulling contest," he said, "would you mind +telling us poor benighted males what it is all about?"</p> + +<p>So the girls told them all about Professor Dempsey, and while they talked +the boys became more and more excited. Finally Will could keep quiet no +longer.</p> + +<p>"Say," he asked, leaning forward, "did the two sons of the cracked old +professor happen to bear the names of James and Arnold?"</p> + +<p>The girls gaped at him. "Yes," they breathed. "How did you know?"</p> + +<p>"Because," said Will, "those very same fellows were in our regiment. In +fact, I was beside Arnold when he was wounded in that last engagement. +Strange thing that James was wounded at the same time."</p> + +<p>"Wounded?" repeated Betty, who like all the girls was feeling rather dazed +at this new development. "Then they weren't killed?"</p> + +<p>"Not a bit of it," Will replied vehemently. "Why, even their wounds +weren't serious enough to lay them up for long. The last I heard of them +they were coming over on a hospital ship and expected to be here almost as +soon as we were. For all I know, they may have landed by this time."</p> + +<p>"Oh," said Amy, still too dazed to take it all in. "Then all this time we +have thought of them as dead, they were alive--"</p> + +<p>"Very much so," said Will, with a grin, "and probably kicking too--just +like us!"</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="ch_21"></a>Chapter XXI</h1> + +<h2>Out of the Dark</h2> + + + +<p>It took the Outdoor Girls a moment or two to digest this rather startling +information. And when it did finally seep into their consciousness, their +first feeling was one of joy for the poor professor whose sons would be +restored to him after all.</p> + +<p>But quick on the heels of this thought came another. How could the sons be +restored to their father, if the father were nowhere to be found?</p> + +<p>"You say the old chap skipped out, decamped?" Will broke in on their +meditations. "That sort of complicates matters, doesn't it?"</p> + +<p>"Rather," agreed Roy, frowning. "It is going to be rather tough on those +fellows, James and Arnold, to come home, expecting to be welcomed by a +rejoicing parent, only to find said parent missing."</p> + +<p>"Humph, that's the first time I've thought of the boys' side of it," said +Betty. "We have been too much occupied right along in being sorry for the +poor old professor."</p> + +<p>"Well, if you had known the boys, you would have thought of their side of +it all right," said Frank seriously. "They are mighty good scouts, both of +them, and they think a lot of their old dad, too, I can tell you. Why, +many a night"--his voice took on a reminiscent note and the girls felt +once again that they were privileged in having a brief glimpse of the life +"over there"--"when a surprise attack was scheduled for the next morning +or we were waiting for some such manoeuvre from the enemy, Arnold would +talk to me about his dad--that was the time when fellows got chummy, you +know, and got to know each other's souls--and once he gave me a note for +the old chap and asked me to deliver it if I came through and he didn't. I +think I have it about me somewhere." He fumbled about in his pockets while +the girls waited silently.</p> + +<p>Presently he drew forth a little slip of paper, muddy and worn and +dust-stained from being carried about for a long, long time in a khaki +pocket.</p> + +<p>"He told me," Frank went on, still holding the slip of paper in his hand +but making no attempt to open it, "that his mother had died when he and +Jimmy were young and that since then his dad had been father and mother +both to them and that he had worked himself nearly to death to give them a +chance for the college education that he had had. He said that the one +thing that had always threatened to floor the old boy was when either he +or Jim got mad and threatened to give up school and go to work so as to +take some of the load from the old pater's shoulders. So they were glad, +actually glad, when the war came along and gave them a chance not only to +serve their country and earn some money--even if it was only a miserable +pittance--so that they could send some home to their dad and feel that +they had stopped being a drag upon him. He used to tell me," Frank went +on, for the spell of those old thrilling times was strong upon him again, +"with tears in his eyes--and I'll tell you there was no braver man in all +the American army than Arnold Dempsey; he was good for two Boches any day +--that it would be the happiest moment of his life when he got back to the +old country and announced to his proud and admiring pater that he had come +home to turn the tables; that Jimmy and he were going to make the old +fellow take a rest and do the work themselves for a change. And he asked +me, in case anything did happen to him and Jimmy, to be kind to his dad +and try to make up to him as much as I could. I gave him my promise that +night." Frank looked about the intent group of faces soberly. "In case the +boys had been killed, I would have regarded it as a sacred trust."</p> + +<p>Something swelled in the girls' hearts and for; a moment they could not +speak. Then,</p> + +<p>"I guess we all love you for that, Frank," said Betty simply. With a +little nod of her head toward the slip of paper he still held, she added: +"What about that--now?"</p> + +<p>Frank looked down at the slip of paper for a moment uncomprehendingly, for +his thoughts had been far away.</p> + +<p>"Oh, the note," he said. "Why, that was only to be given to his father in +case anything happened, you know. But now that the boys are coming back to +him themselves, I suppose the thing is worthless." He made a motion as +though to tear the note up, but Grace stopped him with a quick +exclamation.</p> + +<p>"Don't!" she cried, adding as they all looked at her in surprise: "Don't +you suppose there might be something in it that would give us a clue to +the professor's whereabouts now, perhaps? Don't you think it would be wise +to look, at least?"</p> + +<p>But Frank slowly shook his head.</p> + +<p>"Arnold Dempsey's message, written to his dad when he thought he might +never see him again, doesn't belong to us," he said decidedly. "The note +was given in trust to me, and since I can't deliver it--or at least, since +there is now no reason for delivering it--the only thing I can honorably +do is this." And very slowly and very decidedly he tore the note into +little bits and threw the pieces among the wild roses at the side of the +porch.</p> + +<p>It was the first real glimpse the girls had had of the man who had come +back in the old Frank's place, and with all their hearts they admired him.</p> + +<p>Even Grace, who had seemed inclined to pout a little, could not but admit +that the action was splendid in him.</p> + +<p>"And now," said Will, "after all that, the boys will come back to find +their dad gone, heaven knows where, dead perhaps--"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I wonder if there isn't some way we can follow him and find out at +least what has happened to him?" broke in Amy earnestly. "It seems +dreadful just to sit back and not even try to help."</p> + +<p>"I don't see what we can do," said Will judicially, just as Mrs. Irving +appeared in the doorway. "We will postpone the discussion for the present +anyway," he added, in a different tone, rising with alacrity and dusting +off his uniform. "Something tells me that lunch is waiting. Come, let us +eat!"</p> + +<p>So ended all serious discussion for that day, and the girls and boys gave +themselves up to the delight of being together again. Only Betty's +thoughts seemed to wander at times and she had to be brought back by +sundry mischievous and significant remarks from the young folks.</p> + +<p>Worn out with fun, the young soldiers slept like tops that night in their +improvised beds and rose the next morning professing to feel like "two +year olds" and ready for whatever new fun and adventure the day might +bring them.</p> + +<p>And for the first night since their arrival at Wild Rose Lodge the girls +slept soundly without being bothered by the haunting fear of the "Thing"--at +least, so they said.</p> + +<p>That day they wandered through the woods together, searching for some sign +of their strange visitor, but found not a trace of anything unusual and +alarming.</p> + +<p>"I'm really beginning to believe that you girls have let your imaginations +run away from you," Will remarked, when they sat about the living-room +after a satisfying supper, just luxuriating in idleness.</p> + +<p>"Or perhaps the gentleman has been frightened away by our coming," Roy +suggested in a superior tone that made the girls want to throw something +at him. "Perhaps he is afraid of the uniform of the U.S.A."</p> + +<p>"He may be afraid of the uniform," sniffed Mollie scathingly. "But he +certainly couldn't be afraid of <i>you</i>."</p> + +<p>"Now you don't mean that, you know you don't," laughed Roy, drawing her +down beside him on the couch and holding her there with an iron grip of +his brown fingers. "Say you didn't, like a pretty little girl, and I'll +let you go."</p> + +<p>"I won't say any such--" Mollie began, then suddenly her gaze stiffened +into such a stare of wonder, and even alarm, that it made the girls fairly +hold their breath.</p> + +<p>"Mollie, what is it?" demanded Roy commandingly.</p> + +<p>"Over there!" she shrieked. "At the window, Roy! Do you see it?"</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="ch_22"></a>Chapter XXII</h1> + +<h2>Tragedy</h2> + + + +<p>There, pressed so close to the pane of the window that the nose was +flattened grotesquely, eyes wildly staring, hair disheveled, was a face +that even in that tense moment the girls recognized--the face of Professor +Dempsey!</p> + +<p>It took the boys perhaps a second to fling out of the room, jump down the +steps of the porch and circle the house to the window.</p> + +<p>And yet, in that second, the man was gone, leaving no more trace than if +the earth had opened and swallowed him up. For almost an hour the boys +searched the woods about the lodge, refusing to allow the girls to +accompany them, saying truly that they would hamper them more than they +could help.</p> + +<p>"You see, I was right after all," Amy stated for at least the tenth time. +"From the moment the idea came to me, I felt almost sure that poor crazy +Professor Dempsey was this thing that was frightening us."</p> + +<p>"But did you ever see such an awful face in all your life?" said Mollie, +shuddering at the recollection.</p> + +<p>"And the look in his eyes as he stared at Roy," Grace added in a hushed +voice. "I shouldn't wonder if--if we hadn't been there, he might have +murdered him."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Gracie, don't!" Amy clapped her hands to her ears. "We are frightened +enough without having you say things like that."</p> + +<p>"Suppose," said Mollie, in a sepulchral voice, "he should come back before +the boys do?"</p> + +<p>"That's just what I was thinking," said a quiet voice behind them, and +they jumped and cried out in alarm. The next moment they saw it was Mrs. +Irving and felt ashamed of themselves.</p> + +<p>"I think you had all better come into the house till the boys come back," +their chaperon continued. "I shall feel safer when we are behind locked +doors."</p> + +<p>The girls shivered, but Mollie protested.</p> + +<p>"Suppose anything should happen to the boys?" she asked, but here Mrs. +Irving chose to exercise her authority.</p> + +<p>"We will talk about that when we are inside the house," she said very +firmly, and Mollie had nothing else to do but obey.</p> + +<p>The girls did breathe a little more freely when the door was locked, but +they found themselves wishing even more ardently that the boys would come +back.</p> + +<p>The window against which the horribly distorted face had been pressed +seemed to hold a peculiar fascination for the Outdoor Girls and they found +themselves unable to turn their eyes away from it.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I wish the boys would come back," moaned Amy, after a few moments +more had passed in strained silence. "If anything should happen to them +I'm sure I would die."</p> + +<p>"Nonsense, Amy," snapped Mollie. "What could one little mad old man do to +three big husky soldier boys?"</p> + +<p>The words had hardly been spoken when the sound of voices could be heard +coming toward the house, and a moment later the boys themselves stamped up +on the porch.</p> + +<p>"Not a sign of him," said Will in response to the girls' eager questions. +"I don't see how he could have disappeared so completely in such a short +time."</p> + +<p>"We all took different directions, too," said Roy, taking a seat on the +couch again and staring fascinatedly at the window. "If all the rest of +you hadn't seen it too, I should certainly think I had been mistaken."</p> + +<p>"You weren't mistaken," Mollie assured him grimly. "I can vouch for that."</p> + +<p>"Didn't one of you girls call out something about Professor Dempsey?" +asked Frank, abruptly.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Betty, going over to him and putting an excited hand on his +shoulder. "That's the thing that startled us so, Frank. We are sure it was +Professor Dempsey's face. But, still, it was so wild and distorted that we +really wouldn't feel like contradicting any one who told us it wasn't he," +she added slowly. "Do you understand what I mean?"</p> + +<p>Frank nodded, and Will broke in excitedly:</p> + +<p>"But the poor old codger's looks would naturally be changed," he argued, +"after he had spent all this time wandering around the woods--out of his +mind at that. I am inclined to think that the girls are right and that it +is really Professor Dempsey."</p> + +<p>"If only I could have gotten my hands on him!" mourned Roy. "We wouldn't +have been in any further doubt."</p> + +<p>"There is really no doubt, boys. We just want--oh, I don't know what we +want!" exclaimed Mollie, who was excited and unstrung and nervous.</p> + +<p>Soon after that they all went to bed, having first decided to make a more +thorough search of the woods in the morning and take the postponed trip to +the head of the falls.</p> + +<p>They slept fitfully and were glad when at last they woke to find the sun +shining in their windows. For once Amy and Grace did not have to be coaxed +or wheedled or forced to get out of bed, but dressed quickly and were +ready almost as soon as Mollie and Betty.</p> + +<p>"You know I rather hated to leave the boys in that room last night," Betty +confided to Grace, stopping before the mirror for one final little pat of +her hair. "I was afraid that--he--might come back--"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Betty, what a horrid idea," said Grace. "Come on, let's see if +everything is all right."</p> + +<p>But they found that their fears had been wasted. The boys were in the +kitchen hilariously helping Mrs. Irving get the breakfast to the +accompaniment of continual good-natured scolding from that flushed and +perspiring lady. It was Amy's day to get the breakfast, but, as usual, she +was late in getting down.</p> + +<p>"You make a good deal more trouble than you mend," Mrs. Irving was saying +as the girls came to the door, then added relievedly as she caught sight +of them: "For goodness' sake, get these young ruffians out of the kitchen, +my dears, or we'll not have any breakfast until noon."</p> + +<p>So amid much fun and nonsense the boys were shooed forth into the bright +sunshine of the out-of-doors, and all the girls fell to to help their +chaperon, not wanting to put the extra work the boys made entirely on +Amy's shoulders.</p> + +<p>Breakfast was good, but they ate hurriedly, anxious to get at the business +of the day. They wanted more than they had wanted anything in a very long +time to find Professor Dempsey and tell him the joyful news that his sons +were alive.</p> + +<p>"I'm horribly afraid of him at night," Mollie confided, as they started +out at last, "but in the daytime I am only sorry for him."</p> + +<p>"Do you think we shall find him, Will?" asked Amy, with a helpless little +look into Will's self-reliant young face. "I do want to so much."</p> + +<p>Will looked down at her with an expression that said to any one who would +read it: "I would give you anything in the world you asked for, if I only +could."</p> + +<p>But all he really said was: "That remains to be seen. He proved himself a +rather slippery customer last night, and the chase we put up may only +serve to put him on his guard. Crazy people are tricky, you know."</p> + +<p>"Goodness," said Grace, looking fearfully over her shoulder. "There is +nothing in the world I am so afraid of as a crazy person."</p> + +<p>"That's why she has always been so afraid of me, I suppose," grinned +Mollie.</p> + +<p>"Afraid of you," said Grace, her eyebrows raised in mock surprise. "Little +shrimp--who are you?" There followed a characteristic scene that somewhat +lifted the oppression they had all been feeling, and it was not till they +had nearly reached the river at the head of the falls that they became +serious again.</p> + +<p>"It was right about here," said Betty soberly, "that we saw him the night +that he started to jump into the river--or I suppose it was the same one," +she added.</p> + +<p>"Let us hope so," said Mollie fervently. "I wouldn't like to think that +there were two lunatics wandering round these woods. One is quite enough."</p> + +<p>As they came closer to the river they became more and more conscious that +they were not alone, that some one, hidden in the bushes, was craftily +watching them.</p> + +<p>So strong did this feeling finally become that once the boys separated, +thrashing the bushes in all directions. They did not find anything, and +finally continued along the path, a little ashamed of what they thought +was an attack of nerves.</p> + +<p>"Phew, this is getting a little hot for me," said Frank, running his hand +through his shock of fair hair. "I don't mind fighting anything in the +open--" He left the sentence unfinished, for at that moment they broke +through the bushes at the river's edge upon a sight that struck them +speechless.</p> + +<p>Not twenty yards down the bank stood a ragged scarecrow of a man, so +unkempt, so wild, so abandoned in its crouching attitude as to appear +hardly human.</p> + +<p>Before they had time to utter a word or move a muscle, the man threw up +his arms in a gesture indescribably terrible, and with a hoarse shout +disappeared in the swirling waters.</p> + +<p>It all happened so quickly that for the space of a dazed second they +wondered if they had really seen it at all. Then they recovered their +powers of motion and rushed to the spot where the man had disappeared.</p> + +<p>Though they leaned far out over the water they could see no sign of +anything human, and with a creeping feeling of horror they began to speak +of what had probably already happened.</p> + +<p>"It's certain death down there," Roy muttered, as though to himself, +gazing into the rushing river. "The poor old fellow! He has got his, I +guess."</p> + +<p>"Look here, fellows, here are some clothes," Will called out suddenly, and +the boys rushed over to where he stood, a tattered old hat and an equally +ragged coat in his hands. "Maybe there will be something in the jacket to +tell us where the poor fellow has been staying and what he has been up +to."</p> + +<p>They searched through the coat and finally pulled out a wallet.</p> + +<p>"Now if it only has some writing in it," said Mollie breathlessly.</p> + +<p>There was a card, and the card bore the words which they expected, yet +dreaded, Arnold Dempsey, Ph. D. But there was nothing else, and suddenly +tears dimmed their eyes and they had to turn away.</p> + +<p>"It will be mighty hard on Jimmy and Arnold," muttered Roy, gazing +somberly at the fast-flowing river. "To have their dad go that way! +They'll take it mighty hard--those boys."</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="ch_23"></a>Chapter XXIII</h1> + +<h2>A Moonlight Apparition</h2> + + + +<p>"Let's look around a little anyway," Betty suggested. "He may possibly +have been swept up on the shore farther down the river."</p> + +<p>"If such a thing were possible he would probably be dead anyway," Frank +protested, but the girls paid no attention to him. The mere suggestion +that the professor might still be alive and in need of assistance was +enough for them, and they set about feverishly to scour the woods on both +sides of the river and for a considerable distance down its shores.</p> + +<p>After an hour of vain search, however, they were forced to conclude that +the old man was indeed dead, and so reluctantly and with heavy hearts they +turned their steps back toward Wild Rose Lodge.</p> + +<p>They talked very little on the way back, for they were too occupied with +their own gloomy thoughts. Only once Betty spoke what was in the minds of +all of them.</p> + +<p>"It seems such a terrible waste--such a pity," she said. "Just a mistake +on the part of the Government to have resulted in this tragedy. Arnold and +James Dempsey coming home, safe and well and hopeful to find their father +--dead!"</p> + +<p>The boys stayed on for several days at the lodge, and for all the Outdoor +Girls but Betty their stay was unmitigated joy. But in the heart of the +Little Captain, hard as she tried to fight against it, was a little sense +of injury to think that her chums had got their boys back and she had been +denied hers.</p> + +<p>To be sure, all the boys made much of her and petted her--for there was +not one of them who had not competed for her favor in the old days before +Allen had shouldered them all out--but no amount of attention from any one +else could make up for one little word from Allen.</p> + +<p>At each sunrise she awoke thrilling with the thought that perhaps Allen +would be with her before the sun went down. And as each evening came +without him she sighed and thought, "Perhaps to-morrow."</p> + +<p>Since the tragic death of Professor Dempsey they felt that they need no +longer fear the woods, although they never ventured near the river or the +falls without a heartache and the fervent wish that they might have +reached the poor demented man with the glad news of his sons' safety in +time to avert the tragedy.</p> + +<p>However, they did enjoy their liberty, and took long tramps with the boys +through the woods and picnicked with them beside little unexpected brooks +and streams, quite in the nature of old days.</p> + +<p>Then at last came the day when the boys announced that they would have to +return to town and to the military camp to obtain their formal discharge +from the army.</p> + +<p>"We may surprise you by coming back in 'civies' a week or two from now," +Will laughed, as the girls prepared to spin them to the railroad station +in the cars. "So you had better be prepared for the shock."</p> + +<p>"Maybe they won't care for us any more when they see us out of uniform," +grinned Roy, as he shook hands with Mrs. Irving. "You know the old saying +that a uniform has made many a hero of a bootblack."</p> + +<p>"Goodness, I hope you aren't a bootblack," said Mollie from her car, where +she was "doing things" with the engine.</p> + +<p>"I'm not," answered Roy, adding with a grin, "Nothing half so honest."</p> + +<p>Although the girls knew that they were only saying good-bye to the boys +for a few days, the parting was hard just the same, and half an hour later +they watched the train wind serpent-like down the shining track with a +sinking feeling at their hearts.</p> + +<p>"Aren't we a lot of geese?" said Grace impatiently, as they climbed back +into the cars. "We have done without the boys for a couple of years, and +now when they have just gone as far as Deepdale for a couple of weeks, we +are almost crying about it."</p> + +<p>"I suppose it is just because we have had so much separation that we can't +bear any more of it--even a little," suggested gentle Amy, feeling as if +she had just awakened from a blissful dream.</p> + +<p>"Never mind," said Mollie, putting an arm about Betty's waist and giving +it a little squeeze. "Just think how lovely it will be to see the boys in +regular clothes again, and maybe," with a sly glance at Betty, "by the +time they come back they will have added one to their number."</p> + +<p>"Goodness, I hope so!" said Betty, unashamed.</p> + +<p>In spite of some regret at not having the boys, the girls managed to enjoy +themselves in the days that followed. They motored and swam and fished and +hiked, and got as becomingly sun-burned and tanned as young Indians. It +was not until two or three days before the boys returned that anything +untoward happened to disturb their peace of mind.</p> + +<p>Then one night the moon came out with such dazzling brilliance that Betty +was seized with a strong desire to be out in it.</p> + +<p>"Let's go for a moonlight swim," she suggested excitedly, as they all +stood on the porch of the lodge staring up through the trees to where the +moon shone glitteringly down. "We haven't done it since we came, and +surely our vacation wouldn't be complete without one."</p> + +<p>"Or more," said Mollie, seconding the plan with enthusiasm. "Come on. +Let's tell Mrs. Irving where we are going. Maybe she will wish to go +along, but I doubt it."</p> + +<p>Mollie was right: Mrs. Irving did not wish to go, and the girls rushed +upstairs to don bathing suits in preparation for the lark.</p> + +<p>A few minutes later they were racing like slim young ghosts through the +woods, laughing and calling to each other and entirely abandoned to the +joy of the moment.</p> + +<p>"Race you to the old swimming hole," Mollie called out, as they neared the +river; and away they all raced in response to the challenge.</p> + +<p>Betty won, in spite of the fact that Mollie had had a short head start, +and the girls, wild in their exuberance, would have lifted her to their +shoulders had not Betty herself laughingly fought them off.</p> + +<p>"I have another challenge," she cried. "My fresh box of candy to whoever +swims to the other side of the swimming hole first. Are you on?"</p> + +<p>"We're on!" yelled Grace enthusiastically, adding: "I'd swim from here to +Jericho for that box of candy, Betty."</p> + +<p>As a matter of fact, whether it was really the thought of the candy or +whether it was because the other girls were tired from the last spurt, +Grace really did get to the other side of the swimming pool first, and, +pulling herself up on the other bank, dripping and triumphant, demanded +the prize.</p> + +<p>"You surely did win it, and you shall have that box of candy--much as I +hoped to keep it in the family," laughed Betty, shaking the water from her +eyes and drawing herself up beside her chum. "Goodness, isn't that water +delicious to-night?" she added, wriggling her toes luxuriously in the +rippling wavelets. "Just cool enough to be refreshing and not cold enough +to chill you----" She broke off suddenly and sat staring, her eyes +widening and her body tense.</p> + +<p>"Girls," she said in a queer voice, for Mollie and Amy had also drawn +themselves up on the bank, "have I gone crazy, or what is the matter with +me? Do you see--what--I see--up there?"</p> + +<p>Alarmed, the girls followed the direction of her strained gaze, and +suddenly they seemed to feel themselves congeal with momentary horror.</p> + +<p>Far above them on the bank near the falls and on the other side of the +river, stood the crouched-up, animal-like figure of--the "Thing!"</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="ch_24"></a>Chapter XXIV</h1> + +<h2>Recovered</h2> + + + +<p>The sight was almost too much for the girls. What they felt was sheer +animal panic and they wanted to run away--anywhere--just so they put +distance enough between them and that figure on the bank.</p> + +<p>"Sit still," Betty commanded them, recovering her presence of mind. "That +is Professor Dempsey up there, and if we make any sudden sound we are sure +of frightening him away."</p> + +<p>"But he was killed--we saw it," moaned Amy. "That must be his g-ghost."</p> + +<p>"Don't be ridiculous," snapped Mollie, her thoughts working along with +Betty's. "You know you don't believe in ghosts."</p> + +<p>"But how----" Amy was beginning when Betty interrupted sharply.</p> + +<p>"Listen," she said. "I came across an old derelict of a rowboat the other +day when we were exploring the upper river, but I didn't say anything to +you girls about it because I thought it was too much of a wreck to bother +with. For all I know it isn't even water tight--"</p> + +<p>"Betty," Mollie broke in excitedly, "I see what you mean! We can row +across the upper river to where Professor Dempsey is--Were there oars in +the boat?" she broke off to ask.</p> + +<p>"A couple of old sticks that would serve for oars," Betty answered. "Of +course it's taking a big chance--"</p> + +<p>"Say no more," cried Mollie, jumping to her feet and wringing out her +bathing suit. "Big chance is our middle name anyway. Lead on, Betty. Where +do we find this craft?"</p> + +<p>"I'm not quite sure that I can find it," said Betty, leading the way into +the woods, "but it was down this way somewhere. Don't make any noise, +girls, and let's hurry, or we won't get there before he disappears again."</p> + +<p>Grace and Amy were now entering into the spirit of the thing, and they +followed at Betty's heels eagerly, careful not to step on stick or stone +that might betray their presence.</p> + +<p>Luckily Betty managed to stumble directly on the old derelict rowboat +where it lay in ancient helplessness in the concealment of a thick grove +of bushes along the upper reach of the stream.</p> + +<p>"Goody! This is almost too much luck," cried Betty exultantly. "You get in +the stern, Amy, and Grace in the bow. Mollie and I will do the rowing."</p> + +<p>"I only hope the old thing doesn't take in too much water," said Amy, as +she and Grace got gingerly into the rickety old craft and Betty and Mollie +pushed it off from the shore.</p> + +<p>"That remains to be seen," answered the Little Captain as she handed one +of the ancient oars to Mollie. "There is one thing we shall have to +remember, Mollie," she said, as they pushed clear of the bank and glided +out into the swift water of the river, "and that is to keep far enough +this side of the falls to guard against being swept over it. Bear hard on +your right hand, Mollie honey. It wouldn't be much fun if we upset here, +you know."</p> + +<p>"Oh!" gasped Grace, holding fast to the side of the boat and noting with +dismay how plainly the roar of the falls came to them. "I wish we had +another oar, I'd help----"</p> + +<p>"You can help most, Grade," cut in the Little Captain briskly, "by keeping +your nerve and helping us to keep ours. Mollie," she called in a whisper +that carried the length of the boat, "can you see--It--yet?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," Mollie telegraphed back in the same tense whisper. "It's got its +back to us, I think."</p> + +<p>"Good," said Betty softly, adding as she threw all her weight against her +oar, "now let's keep still and work."</p> + +<p>It was queer how they referred to that presence at the head of the falls +as "It." Some way, in the weird moonlight, under the more than unusual +circumstances, it seemed almost impossible to give the thing a name.</p> + +<p>"Was it Professor Dempsey?" they kept asking themselves over and over +again. But he had committed suicide. Or at least they had seen him fall +into the river, and they could have vowed that he did not come out again. +They had searched both sides of the river. How could they have missed him? +And yet, if that motionless figure at the head of the falls was really +Professor Dempsey, he must have been washed ashore that day and evaded +them as he had succeeded in evading them so many times before.</p> + +<p>And all the time the roar of the falls was growing louder and louder in +their ears and they knew that theirs was a race with life and death.</p> + +<p>Could they succeed in reaching the opposite bank before the deadly current +of the river should suck them over the falls, to almost certain +annihilation?</p> + +<p>The answer to the question came a moment: later when, without warning, the +prow of the little boat struck on an unexpected projection of the shore +and they came to a standstill.</p> + +<p>"Thank heaven!" said Betty under her breath as Mollie jumped out and +pulled the craft further in to shore. "That was nearly the riskiest thing +you ever did, Betty Nelson."</p> + +<p>Once on shore again, the girls' confidence returned and they hurried +silently through the woods toward the spot where they had seen the figure. +Then Betty, who had taken the lead, suddenly motioned to them to stop.</p> + +<p>She had caught a glimpse through the trees of the man, who resembled more +than ever a scarecrow in his crazy makeshift garments--and at the sight of +him her heart unaccountably skipped a beat.</p> + +<p>Her thoughts had not gone beyond this moment. Strangely enough all her +energy had been concentrated upon reaching the man before he disappeared. +But now that they had succeeded so far she was at a loss what to do next.</p> + +<p>But at that moment she inadvertently stepped on a dry twig that snapped +sharply under her foot, and at the sound the man had turned fiercely, like +an animal at bay. Then he wheeled about and made as though to flee for the +shelter of the woods.</p> + +<p>In this emergency Betty followed impulse. She ran out into the open, +calling to him wildly that his sons were alive. Not to run away, because +his sons were safe and well. They were coming to him----</p> + +<p>The pitiful wreck of a man paused in his flight as the import of the words +seemed to sink into his befuddled brain, but he turned upon the Little +Captain a look of ferocious hatred that would have terrified a less +courageous girl than Betty. But her whole heart was in her mission, and +she had utterly forgotten herself.</p> + +<p>"Won't you please believe me?" she said, advancing toward him, hands +outstretched pleadingly. "I know what I'm talking about. Your sons, Arnold +and Jimmy----"</p> + +<p>As though the names of his boys had released some cord in his brain, the +man cried out hoarsely:</p> + +<p>"Jimmy and Arnold--my sons, my little boys!" Then, turning fiercely to +Betty, he cried: "You're not lying to me, are you? Because I'll throw you +into the river! I'll cut you into little pieces!"</p> + +<p>As the man advanced menacingly, Grace screamed and Mollie ran forward with +some wild idea of protecting her chum, but Betty waved them back.</p> + +<p>"I'm not lying to you," she told the crazy man, looking straight into his +glaring eyes. "Your boys were wounded, but not seriously, and they sailed +a few days ago for this country on a hospital ship. They want to see you +more than anything else in the world," she added, playing on the sudden +softness that had crept into his wild eyes. "And they sent their love to +their dad."</p> + +<p>At sound of the old loving name all the fight went out of the old man and +he sank to his knees on the grass, sobbing horribly.</p> + +<p>They let him alone for a moment, then Betty motioned to Mollie, and +together they lifted him to his feet. The sight of his tear-stained, +unkempt old face, creased and lined with suffering, but with the wildness +gone out of the eyes, stirred a profound pity in the girls and they wished +more than anything in the world to make him happy again.</p> + +<p>"We are going to take you home, Professor Dempsey," Betty told him +soothingly, as with Mollie's help she half led, half carried, him through +the woods toward the spot where they had left the boat, Amy and Grace +following awed and silent behind them. "And as soon as your boys reach +home we will bring them to you. Be careful of this big rock. Ah, here's +the boat." And talking all the time, softly and soothingly as one would to +a child, Betty at last succeeded in seating the derelict old man in the +equally derelict old boat.</p> + +<p>The girls tumbled in after him, and with a prayer in her heart Betty +pushed off from shore.</p> + +<p>That ride back across the river was as weird and unreal as any nightmare +the girls had ever lived through. Their queer passenger, seeming the most +unreal of all, was quiet for the most part but occasionally he would sit +up and look about him wildly and could only be soothed back to reason by +Betty's sweet voice telling him of his boys--Jimmy and Arnold.</p> + +<p>Somehow they reached the opposite shore, and, after pulling the boat up +among the bushes once more, they started back, the old man with them, to +Wild Rose Lodge.</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="ch_25"></a>Chapter XXV</h1> + +<h2>The Old Crowd Again</h2> + +<p> +Mrs. Irving, who had been worried by their prolonged absence, met the +girls at the door as they stumbled with the almost exhausted old man up +the steps of the porch.</p> + +<p>At sight of the latter she grew deathly pale, and leaned against the door +for support. She felt that all the world was growing black----</p> + +<p>"Oh, please, please don't faint!" she heard Betty's young voice calling to +her desperately as it seemed from a long distance. "We've depended upon +you to help us."</p> + +<p>With a great effort she fought off the dizziness and drew herself away +from Betty's supporting arm.</p> + +<p>"It's all right," she said dazedly. "The shock, I guess. Betty +what--who--is that----"</p> + +<p>"Oh, please don't ask any questions now," Betty begged feverishly. "Just +help us, and we will tell you all about it later. This is Professor +Dempsey," she added, turning to the broken old man who stood staring at +them uncomprehendingly. "He can have Mollie's and my room, can't he, Mrs. +Irving? and we will bunk somewhere else."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Irving nodded automatically, still too dazed by the suddenness of the +thing even to think, and they helped the old man into Betty's room and +laid him on the bed. The tired, ragged, unkempt old head had hardly +touched the pillow before its owner had sunk into a heavy sleep.</p> + +<p>For a moment the girls were startled, for it almost seemed as though he +were dead, but Betty put her hand on the ragged old shirt above the heart +and found that the action was strong and regular.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps it is the very best thing that could happen to him," she said +softly, and, laying a light cover over him, tip-toed from the room, +followed quietly by Mrs. Irving and the other girls.</p> + +<p>Once in the other room, with the need for action over, the girls felt weak +and spent, and it was only then that they realized that they had been +through a terrible ordeal.</p> + +<p>In broken sentences they told Mrs. Irving all that had happened and as she +listened she more and more appalled at the risk they had run and the +danger they had gone through.</p> + +<p>"Girls, girls," she cried when they had finished, "I was half wild about +you as it was. But if I had known the truth I think I should have gone +crazy. Just the same," she added and her eyes shone with pride in them, +"it was a glorious thing for you to do--an unselfish, wonderfully +courageous thing. I'm proud of you!"</p> + +<p>In spite of the fact that they were tired out, the girls insisted upon +standing watch and watch that night. They felt that some one should be +with Professor Dempsey all the time in case he should wake in the night +with his old madness upon him. It was the longest night any of them had +ever spent, and the morning dawned upon a hollow-eyed, worn-out set of +Outdoor Girls.</p> + +<p>"I never," said Betty, looking around at her white-faced chums wearily, +"spent such a terrible night in my life. How is the patient?" she added, +taking up the subject that had not left their minds for a minute. "Who was +in there last?"</p> + +<p>"I," said Grace, brushing out her hair, listlessly. "He is still asleep."</p> + +<p>That report continued good all morning, and it was almost noon before the +ragged, unbelievably unkempt old man on the bed opened his eyes.</p> + +<p>The girls had been looking forward to, yet dreading, this minute. It had +been decided that only one of them should be in the room with him when he +awoke, but the rest were hovering close to the door ready to give +assistance if it should become necessary.</p> + +<p>But they need not have worried. The magic of his long sleep, together with +the glad news he had heard the night before, seemed to have transformed +the man overnight to his old gentle self.</p> + +<p>To be sure, he was amazed at his strange surroundings, and looked +uncomprehendingly into Betty's face as she bent compassionately over him. +But all he said was:</p> + +<p>"I declare, this is all very strange, young lady--very strange. Would you +mind--er--telling me where I am?"</p> + +<p>At the tone, even more than the words, the girls felt a wild desire to +shout aloud their relief. For the tone was the same, gentle, polite one +that they remembered hearing that day when the little man had entertained +them in his cabin in the woods.</p> + +<p>Then Betty, as gently as she knew how, told him a little of what had +happened to him, and the girls could see by the surprise on his face that +he had no recollection whatever of the matters of which she was speaking.</p> + +<p>"I declare it is most strange--most strange," he declared when she had +finished, adding as he looked down and plucked distastefully at his +tattered shirt: "And this is the result of my--er--temporary aberration, +is it? Ah, but I remember," he sat up suddenly, a gleam of fear in his +eyes. "It was when I read of the death of my boys. Something snapped in my +brain, I think. You say"--he turned to Betty, grasping her hand +imploringly--"you say that my sons are well--that they are coming to me?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Betty soothingly, pressing him back upon the pillow. "They are +well and safe and will be with you soon--in a few days, perhaps."</p> + +<p>"Ah," said the little man, submitting to Betty's touch, a happy smile on +his lips, "that is good. That is very--very--good--" and with a sigh like +a tired child's, he fell asleep again!</p> + +<p>"Did you hear what he said?" whispered Betty, her eyes shining as she +tip-toed from the room, closed the door softly behind her and faced her +awed and incredulous chums. "He's well, girls. He's completely sane +again."</p> + +<p>"It's a miracle," said Mollie breathlessly.</p> + +<p>And so it came to pass that some little time later four good-looking young +fellows, recently in the service of the greatest country on the earth, and +one of them still wearing his regimentals, saw a rather unexpected sight +as they swung down the path toward Wild Rose Lodge.</p> + +<p>On the porch sat an elderly, contented looking man, clad in garments that +would easily have accommodated two men of his size--garments belonging to +Mollie's Uncle John, and seated about him in attitudes of lazy comfort +were four young girls.</p> + +<p>These young girls--who were, at least from the standpoint of the four +young men, exceedingly good to look upon, were engaged in doing some sort +of fancy work. All but one of them, that is; for the fourth, a girl with +wavy brown hair and bright brown eyes, pink cheeks, and a dream of a +mouth, was reading to the elderly man who sat in the chair of state.</p> + +<p>"Gee, Allen," whispered one of the tall youths to the one who still wore +the uniform of his country's service, "I feel as though we were crabbing +your act. Can't we fellows do the disappearing act----"</p> + +<p>But just at the moment the girl with the brown eyes and the pink cheeks +looked up, gave one little startled cry, and dropped the book to the +porch.</p> + +<p>The other girls looked up and then followed a scene that very nearly made +the temporarily forgotten and neglected old man on the porch drop out of +his chair in surprise.</p> + +<p>"Allen!" screamed the girls, all except the brown-haired, pink-cheeked +one, who, for some unaccountable reason hung back behind the others. "You +perfect angel!"</p> + +<p>"Why didn't you let us know you were coming so that we could have been +prepared?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, isn't your uniform lovely!"</p> + +<p>"And look at the dressed-up leggings!"</p> + +<p>These and various other exclamations like them, coupled to the fact that +all the girls, except the one that he wanted to most, had kissed him, +rather overwhelmed young Lieutenant Washburn and took his breath away.</p> + +<p>His three companions, however, finding themselves neglected and out in the +cold, interfered at this point and saved his life.</p> + +<p>"Betty, what are you hiding away back there for?" cried Mollie to the +Little Captain, whose cheeks were pinker than ever and whose eyes were +shining very brightly with a sort of mixture of joy and fright. "Don't you +know Allen in his uniform?"</p> + +<p>"Aren't you going to kiss him?" chimed in Grace wickedly.</p> + +<p>"We all did," added Amy.</p> + +<p>But Betty had no intention of kissing Allen, although he begged her to +with his laughing eyes and she continued backing into the doorway, until +Mrs. Irving, coming up behind her, caught her up and pushed her out upon +the porch again.</p> + +<p>However, the chaperon monopolized Allen for a few minutes and gave Betty +time to catch her breath. She found Mollie introducing Professor Dempsey +to the astonished boys. These young soldiers wanted to ask a hundred +questions, but, catching a warning look from Betty, decided to wait till +later, when the little man himself was not present.</p> + +<p>Frank, who was perhaps more glad than any of them to see the father of his +chums alive and well, settled himself near the man and began to pour into +his starved and eager ears news of his sons and tales of adventures in +which they had figured.</p> + +<p>And while Betty was still smiling in sympathy with the look of absolute +happiness on Professor Dempsey's face, Allen dragged himself away from the +group of his admirers and came over to her.</p> + +<p>Boldly he pulled her hand through his arm and led her past the laughing +boys and girls, down the steps, and along the path that led into the +woods.</p> + +<p>"Be back in time for supper," Will called after them. "Something tells me +we are going to have some feed."</p> + +<p>"Oh, don't bother them," they heard Mollie's voice in laughing reproof. +"Remember, you were young yourself, once!"</p> + +<p>"And now," said Allen, when they had gone just far enough for the trees +and bushes to screen them from the view of the people on the porch, "I +want you to look at me, Betty. You haven't yet, you know."</p> + +<p>"I c-can't," said Betty in a muffled voice. "I guess--" she added +whimsically, "I guess I'm a little afraid of you, Lieutenant Allen +Washburn."</p> + +<p>With a glad laugh Allen put his strong young arms about her.</p> + +<p>"Do you think you can keep on all your life being afraid of me--like +that?" he asked. "Little Betty?"</p> + +<p>And Betty, with the radiant joy of all youth in her heart, slowly nodded.</p> + +<hr width="80%" size="1" /> + +<p>And what glorious days followed! The young folks never tired of their +tramps through the woods and walks in the vicinity of Moonlight Falls. +They gave themselves up to a good time and had it in full measure.</p> + +<p>"Gee, what an improvement over the trenches in France!" remarked Will one +day. "No more wars for me!"</p> + +<p>"So say we all of us!" sang out Frank.</p> + +<p>When they had to return to Deepdale the boys took Professor Dempsey with +them and Frank saw to it that the old man was made comfortable until his +wounded sons returned to him. Both of the hurt soldiers were recovering, +and the reunion of father and sons was most affecting.</p> + +<p>"Now for a final swim below the falls!" cried Mollie one day, when the +outing was coming to an end.</p> + +<p>"We ought to have a good time--now there is no ghost to disturb us," put +in Amy.</p> + +<p>"A chocolate for the first one to enter the water!" exclaimed Grace, +waving her ever-present candy box in the air.</p> + +<p>"That settles it--I'm off!" burst out Betty; and then all made a wild dash +for the swimming pool. And here let us say good-bye to the Outdoor Girls.</p> + + + +<h1>The End</h1> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Outdoor Girls at Wild Rose Lodge, by +Laura Lee Hope + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OUTDOOR GIRLS AT WILD ROSE LODGE *** + +***** This file should be named 8211-h.htm or 8211-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/8/2/1/8211/ + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Outdoor Girls at Wild Rose Lodge + or, The Hermit of Moonlight Falls + +Author: Laura Lee Hope + +Posting Date: September 26, 2012 [EBook #8211] +Release Date: June, 2005 +First Posted: July 2, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OUTDOOR GIRLS AT WILD ROSE LODGE *** + + + + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + + + + + +The Outdoor Girls +at +Wild Rose Lodge +or +The Hermit of Moonlight Falls + +by +Laura Lee Hope + +Author of "The Outdoor Girls of Deepdale," "The +Outdoor Girls at Bluff Point," "The Moving +Picture Girls," "The Bobbsey Twins," +"Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue," +"Six Little Bunkers at Grandma +Bell's," Etc. + + + + +Contents + + + + I Just Fun. + II The Falling Tree. + III The Queer Little Man. + IV Good News. + V Betty Takes a Dare. + VI Nearly Wrecked. + VII Bad Tidings Confirmed. + VIII Premonitions. + IX A Visitor. + X Hurrah for Allen. + XI The Hold-Up. + XII Sheep! + XIII The Enemy Routed. + XIV Nothing Human. + XV Wild Roses. + XVI The Whirlpool. + XVII The "Thing". +XVIII Surprised. + XIX Like Old Times. + XX Very Much Alive. + XXI Out of the Dark. + XXII Tragedy. +XXIII A Moonlight Apparition. + XXIV Recovered. + XXV The Old Crowd Again. + + + + + +The Outdoor Girls at Wild Rose Lodge + + + + +Chapter I + +Just Fun + + +"Did you ever see a more wonderful day?" + +The four Outdoor Girls, in Mollie Billette's touring car and with Mollie +herself at the wheel, were at the present moment rushing wildly over a +dusty country road at the rate of thirty miles an hour. + +Grace Ford was sitting in front with Mollie, while Betty Nelson and Amy +Blackford "sprawled," to use Mollie's sarcastic and slightly exaggerated +description, "all over the tonneau." + +"You look as if you had never done a real day's work in your life," said +Mollie, with a disapproving glance over her shoulder at the girls in the +tonneau. + +"We never have," returned quiet Amy, with a grin. + +"And we are proud of it," added Betty, as she defiantly settled her feet +still more comfortably on the foot rail. "Why should we be energetic when +it is so much easier to be lazy?" + +"There the proper spirit speaks," applauded Grace Ford from the front. "I +think I shall have to change places with you, Betty. It's far too exciting +up here with Mollie. She insists upon staging near collisions every few +feet--thus keeping me awake!" + +"Great heavens!" cried Mollie, pressing an impatient foot upon the +accelerator to which the great car responded with an eager purring, "did +any one ever give us the mistaken title of Outdoor Girls, I wonder? They +should have called us the Rip Van Winkle club, instead." + +"Now she's getting sour-castic," commented Grace lazily. "Have some candy, +honey, and sweeten up." + +She passed the ever-present box of delicacies over to Mollie, to which +overture the young driver responded with so indignant a stare that Grace +quickly withdrew the box, tucked it behind her, and strove to look +unconscious. + +"Please, ma'am, I didn't mean to do it," she said meekly. + +"Well, don't do it again, that's all," returned Mollie, uncompromisingly, +her eyes once more on the road ahead, "I've eaten so many chocolates this +week that I've had indigestion and mother threatened to cut down my +allowance." + +"Goodness, it's my allowance that suffers," retorted Grace, ruefully, +"since it is my candy that you eat." + +"Stop quarreling, girls, and answer my question." said Betty, sitting up +straight and regarding delightedly a vista of flying hills and woodland +greenery. "I asked you a few minutes ago if you had ever seen so wonderful +a day?" + +"Yes, plenty of 'em," returned Mollie, as she took a sharp curve on two +wheels. "If you weren't too lazy to notice anything, Betty Nelson, you +would see that there is a storm coming up. Look at those clouds over there +in the east." + +"Oh, you're a kill-joy!" cried Betty, cocking an optimistic eye up at the +sky. "It's only one teeny little cloud anyway, and who cares for clouds +when the boys are coming home?" + +Both Amy and Grace felt a breathless little tug at their hearts at the +joyful challenge in Betty's words, but Mollie, with a perverseness that +was sometimes characteristic of her, refused to be too happy. + +"Who says they're coming home?" she asked. "Now you're only guessing." + +"Guessing!" cried Betty indignantly. "What do you mean--guessing? The war +is over, isn't it?" + +"Yes; and has been for quite a while," Mollie responded dryly. "But that +doesn't say that the boys are coming home right away." + +"We don't care about the right away," interrupted Amy, with a quiet +happiness in her face that made Betty hug her impulsively. "We can wait +patiently, now that we know they are safe." + +"It's all right for you to talk about patience, Amy," retorted Mollie, +throttling her engine and sliding at breakneck speed down a long hill +without the thought of using a brake. A brake to Mollie meant something to +be used at the last minute when she couldn't think of anything else to do. +"You're an angel, but I'm not----" + +"No, indeed!" said Grace, so emphatically that the girls in the tonneau +chuckled and Mollie looked at her threateningly. + +"For goodness' sake, don't waste time looking at me," Grace pleaded, as +they bounced into a hole in the road and out again, fairly jouncing the +breath from the girls' bodies. "Keep your eyes on the road, Mollie dear. +We're not ready to die yet." + +"Well, look out, or you may--ready or not," threatened Mollie darkly, as +the car skidded around another precipitous turn and the girls saw with +relief a long stretch of flat road before them. + +"Just the same the boys must be coming home before very long," said Amy, +quietly returning to the subject. "And when they do come we'll have to +give them some sort of big party or something, girls." + +"Of course we will," said Grace, munching contentedly on a chocolate. +"Something that will make the people in Deepdale sit up and take notice." + +"We-el--I don't know," objected Betty thoughtfully. "They say that the few +soldier boys who have come home object to any sort of fuss being made over +them. They seem to want to forget everything that has happened 'over +there,' and any sort of celebration brings the whole thing vividly before +them again." + +"Yes, that's true, too," Mollie agreed. "I remember our doctor telling +mother that if people only wouldn't try to force confidences from the boys +and would try to keep all thought of the awful things they had been +through out of their minds, there would be fewer cases of nervous +breakdowns." + +"Pop!" said Grace, snapping her finger resignedly. "There go all our hopes +of a good time, Amy. When the boys come home all we shall be allowed to do +will be to smooth their fevered brows and hold their hands." + +"Well, we might do worse things even than that," said Betty, with a light +laugh, and Mollie shot her a malicious glance. + +"Just watch Betty objecting to that" she said wickedly. "Before we know it +she will be sighing that Allen has only one fevered brow to smooth!" + +Amy and Grace looked at Betty mischievously--at Betty who could not for +the life of her look as unconcerned as she would have liked. + +"Don't be so foolish" she said hastily, at which the girls only laughed +the more. + +"Never mind, honey," said Amy, putting an arm fondly about her chum. "I +guess we will all be crazy with joy to get the boys home again." + +"Well, you needn't think you can hold hands with Will and smooth his +fevered brow all the time," said Grace unexpectedly. "Because I really +have some share in him myself, you know. Remember, mine was one of the +three pictures he kept under his pillow." + +Readers of previous volumes in this series may recall that joyful letter +written to Betty not so long ago in which Sergeant Allen Washburn--now +Lieutenant Allen Washburn--had spoken of the three pictures which Will +Ford had kept under his pillow during his long convalescence in one of the +army hospitals over there. These readers may also remember that one of the +pictures was of the boy's mother, another of his sister, Grace, and the +third of shy little Amy Blackford, who now was blushing so furiously at +the mere mention of it. + +"How about poor Frank and Roy?" asked Mollie, mentioning the other two +boys who made up the quartette of the girls' boy chums. "Who will attend +to their fevered brows?" + +"Oh, you and Grace can take turns at that," said Betty, lightly adding, +with a little sigh: "Try as we can, Amy and I never know quite how to pair +you four off. We can't for the life of us find out which of you likes +Frank best and which inclines to Roy." + +"That's right, kid--keep 'em guessing," said Mollie slangily, as she +turned on power and challenged a steep grade. "Grace and I believe in +scattering our favors--as 'twere. See that hill just ahead of us? What do +you bet I make it without changing gears?" + +"If you make it without changing our looks, I'll be happy," said Grace +ruefully, as they bumped and rumbled to the top of the steep grade. "Look +out, Mollie!" she added suddenly, indicating a big pile of brushwood that +jutted out almost into the center of the road. "For goodness' sake, slow +down!" + +But Mollie did more than slow down. She stopped--and with such suddenness +that the girls were all but thrown out of the car and Betty bumped her +nose on the seat in front. + +They had scarcely regained their poise when they were startled by a shrill +cry from Amy. + +"Girls!" she almost screamed, clutching Betty's arm in a grip that hurt, +"look at that tree. It's going to fall! Oh, we'll be killed!" + +The girls followed the direction of her pointing finger and looks of +horror sprang to their eyes. Slowly, its descent retarded somewhat by the +branches of other trees, a towering giant of the forest tottered and +crashed its destructive way downward. And they were directly in its path! + + + + +Chapter II + +The Falling Tree + + +For a moment the Outdoor Girls sat fascinated, paralyzed, without the +power to move a muscle. Then suddenly Grace seemed galvanized to action. +She leaned toward Mollie, grasping the steering wheel of the motionless +car frantically. + +"For heaven's sake, Mollie, get out of the way! Start the car!" she +screamed. + +"I can't!" Mollie answered, tight-lipped. "Something's wrong. The motor's +dead." + +But with Grace's scream, Betty had come to her senses and had scrambled +out of the car, dragging the still paralyzed Amy after her. + +"Grace, get out! Mollie, are you crazy?" she shouted wildly. "You'll be +killed--" + +Automatically Grace started to clamber to the road, but Mollie still +fussed with brakes and levers, her lips in a tight line, her eyes blazing. + +"Something's wrong--but I'll get her started," she muttered over and over +to herself while Betty raged at her from the road. + +"Get out! get out!" fumed the Little Captain. "Jump, or I'll come after +you and we'll both be killed. Mollie!" + +Luckily for Mollie's suicidal stubbornness, the great tree had been halted +for a moment in its downward plunge by some particularly heavy foliage and +branches, but the girls could see that it was only a matter of seconds +until the giant should tear itself loose and come plunging down upon them. + +And still Mollie fumbled with levers in a vain and foolish attempt to save +her beloved car at the risk of her own life. + +Betty had just jumped upon the running board in a wild attempt to drag her +chum from the car when suddenly help came to them from an unexpected +quarter. + +An elderly man came running from the woods, evidently attracted by their +excited cries. He gave one look at the toppling tree, even now tearing +itself loose from the impeding branches, another at the machine with the +two girls still in it, and then, with a speed and decision which seemed to +belie his age, went to the rescue. + +"Come--help me push!" he cried to Amy and Grace, who were still standing +dumbly in the middle of the road. A moment later he had thrown himself +with all his might against the machine, striving to push it out of the +path of the falling tree. + +In an instant of time the girls had added their strength to his and the +automobile was moving slowly down the road. Luckily the car was on a down +grade or they never could have managed it. As it was, there was just time +to get out of the way when the great tree came crashing down, its +outermost branches just brushing Amy's skirt. The giant had fallen on the +very spot where the car had been only a moment before! + +"Girls," breathed Betty, with a shaky little attempt at a laugh, "I guess +we've never in our lives been nearer death than we were just then." + +And while the girls are marveling at their almost miraculous escape from a +terrible death, time will be taken to introduce the Outdoor Girls to those +readers who have not yet met them and also to review briefly a few of the +exciting and interesting adventures they have had up to the time of this +present narrative. + +There were four of them. Betty Nelson, or the "Little Captain" as the +girls often called her because she had such a decided talent for knowing +just the right thing to do at just the right moment, was eighteen, +dark-haired and dark-eyed. She had a fund of vitality and more than her +share of sense and good judgment--all of which went toward making her what +she was, the most popular girl in Deepdale. + +Grace Ford, tall, slender and willowy, was almost the same age as Betty, +but that fact and her love of the outdoors were the only things she had in +common with the "Little Captain." Her father, James Ford, was a lawyer, +and her mother, Mrs. Margaret Ford, a rather dressy lady who spent a good +deal of her time at clubs, was quite a figure in the society of Deepdale. +However, all through the war Mrs. Ford had worked with an untiring +enthusiasm for the "cause," a fact which had made her many more friends +than her social popularity could ever have done. + +Next in the little quartette came Mollie Billette. Mollie was seventeen, +French-American, and impulsive, with a quick temper that made more trouble +for herself than for any one else. She and Betty were alike in their +splendid vigor and vitality. Mollie, or "Billy" as she was sometimes +called by her chums, had a very lovely widowed mother and an extremely +mischievous young brother and sister, Paul and Dora (nicknamed "Dodo"), +who were twins and six. Although the twins were pretty nearly always in +trouble, they were really adorable children, whom everybody loved. + +Amy Blackford, shy, sweet, pretty, completed the quartette. There had been +a mystery about her past which had recently been cleared up, and it may +have been this mystery that caused the girls to treat her with a little +more consideration and gentleness than they did each other. Her guardian +was a broker in the city who knew very little of the past except through +letters. + +The four boys who were close chums of the girls and had added to the +interest and excitement of more than one of their adventures were Allen +Washburn, who was very much interested in Betty, and in whom Betty was +very much interested; Will Ford, Grace's brother, who had carried Amy +Blackford's picture all through the war; Frank Haley, Will Ford's closest +chum, and Roy Anderson who had not much distinction of any kind except +that he was "lots of fun" and a chum of the other three boys. + +In the first volume of this series the girls went on a camping and +tramping tour, tramping for miles over the country and meeting with many +adventures on the way. + +Later they had more fun at Rainbow Lake, in a motor car, in a winter camp, +in Florida, at Ocean View, then at Pine Island where the girls and boys +together had cleared up a mystery surrounding a gypsy cave. + +Later the girls and boys found themselves caught in the meshes of the +great war, as many hundreds of thousands of others had been. The boys +responded eagerly to the bugle call, and the girls, too, were eager for +Army service and finally went to a hostess house at Camp Liberty. Though +the girls had never worked harder in their lives, they found that the task +had a stirringly romantic side as well. + +Then in the volume directly preceding this, entitled "The Outdoor Girls at +Bluff Point" the girls had had perhaps the most exciting adventure of all. + +The Hostess House at Camp Liberty having burnt down, the chums found +themselves forced to take a much-needed, although not entirely welcome, +vacation and had decided to spend it at a romantic spot near the ocean +called Bluff Point. The cottage on the bluff had been loaned to the girls +by Grace's patriotic Aunt Mary, who declared that she owed something to +the chums for having worked so hard for the good old Stars and Stripes. +Mrs. Ford, worn out with war work, had gone with the girls to chaperon +them. + +Bad tidings at first threatened to overwhelm the chums. The Fords received +word that Will was seriously wounded "somewhere in France" and later +Mollie received a telegram from her mother saying that the twins, Dodo and +Paul, had disappeared. Still later, while everything was at its blackest, +Betty read Allen Washburn's name among the missing. However, everything +cleared up later when the twins, who had been kidnapped, were recovered +and their kidnapper sent to justice. Still later Allen proved that the +report that he had been missing was an error by writing to Betty himself +and in the letter he also spoke of Will Ford and the fact that he was +getting over his wound splendidly. Of course there had been great +rejoicing and the vacation had proved a happy one after all. + +And now, at the time of this story, the war was over and the first +regiments of soldiers had arrived from the other side and the girls were +expecting a joyful reunion with the boys at any time. + +They had not yet made definite plans for the summer and were just in the +position of waiting for something to happen when something had happened +with a vengeance--but not at all the kind of something which the four +girls had expected. + +"I think you are right, my dear," said the man who had saved the lives of +at least two of the girls, rubbing his hands fussily together and peering +out of small, near-sighted eyes, first at the tree and then at the girls. +"It was a close call--a very close call. I declare, it was very nearly the +closest call I ever saw!" + +For the first time the girls really looked at him. He was a rather small +man, slenderly built, with long sensitive hands and a very bald head, in +the center of which a tuft of hair stood comically upright. These +characteristics, coupled to the squinting eyes, gave the man a very odd +appearance. + +He was so queer a figure standing there in the center of the road that the +girls found themselves staring unduly. Realizing something of this, Betty +jumped down from the running board where she was still standing and held +out her hand to the little man, thanking him in a voice that still +trembled a little for the great service he had done them. The other girls +followed suit and so overwhelmed their rescuer that he seemed quite +embarrassed and looked around nervously as if for some means of escape. + +Betty, seeing his embarrassment, was about to take pity upon him when +something happened that they had not bargained for. It began to rain, not +gently, but in a deluge, taking the girls completely by surprise. + +Instinctively they turned toward the car, but Mollie suddenly began to +laugh in a half-hysterical manner. + +"This is what I call fun" she said. "Engine dead, caught in the rain, and +I've even left the side curtains at home! I guess we're in for it, girls." + + + + +Chapter III + +The Queer Little Man + + +While the girls stood looking wildly at each other their unknown rescuer +seemed suddenly galvanized to action. + +"This won't do at all!" he cried, raising both hands to his bald head +which was by this time very wet and more shiny than ever. "You will get +your death of cold, young ladies, you surely will. You must come with me. +Here, right along this path I have a cottage--" All the time he was +talking he was hustling them fussily ahead of him, for all the world like +some old hen with a brood of chickens. + +The girls, not knowing what else to do and being in rather a bewildered +frame of mind, allowed themselves to be hustled. The rain was sheeting +down in a terrific cloud burst, so that their clothes clung to them damply +and they began to shiver. + +They circled the fallen tree which had so nearly been their undoing, and a +moment later found themselves upon a narrow footpath which seemed to lead +into the very heart of the woods. + +"I wonder where he is taking us," whispered Grace in Betty's ear. "Maybe +he's a murderer or something." + +In spite of her discomfort, Betty giggled. + +"Did you ever see a murderer with a bald head like that?" she asked. + +It seemed to the girls as if the path must be at least a mile long, but +just as they were despairing of ever reaching the end of it, they came out +into a partially cleared space and through the trees caught a glimpse of +something that looked like a house. + +Their new acquaintance, who up to this time had been bringing up the rear, +now took the lead and led them over tangled underbrush, stones and +foot-bruising rocks, to his strange little dwelling. + +"It's a house, it's a house!" cried Grace thankfully, as they hurried +after the little man. "I guess somebody will have to wring me out when we +get inside. I'm soaked through!" + +"Goodness, why don't you tell us something we don't know?" grumbled +Mollie, but nobody was listening to her. They had reached the house and +the man had swung the door open hospitably. + +"Step inside, step inside, do," he urged with a nervous gesture that +reminded the girls once more of the proverbial hen. "You will find it dry +at least, and I will have a fire for you in a hurry. Just a moment till I +get some wood--just a moment--" + +And while he rambled on, suiting his words with quick nervous action, the +girls crowded inside the cottage and looked about them curiously. + +The room they had entered was large and scrupulously neat. At first glance +it seemed a queer combination of hunting lodge and museum of natural +history. The rough clapboards and beams of the ceiling and walls had never +been plastered, and this very crudity seemed somehow to give the room an +air of warmth and home-likeness that was very inviting. + +Hung on the walls were several fairly large skins of animals, a gun or +two, and over the huge open fireplace, which very nearly covered one end +of the room, hung the magnificent head of a buck. + +On the wall opposite the fireplace was a set of rudely-erected shelves, +one beneath the other, and these shelves were covered with specimens of +butterflies, beetles and other bugs of every size and description. That +the specimens had been mounted by an expert even an inexperienced eye +could see. + +The girls, who had been regarding the oddities of the room with growing +interest, were brought back to a realization of the discomfort of wet +clothes by the owner of the place himself. + +The latter had brought firewood from somewhere, and, with the aid of half +a dozen matches, had succeeded in getting a fairly good blaze. + +Then with a smile of satisfaction he turned to the girls, rubbing his +hands together genially. + +"Come nearer to the fire--come closer--do," he urged in his quick nervous +way. "I am sure you are chilled through--quite chilled through. I will +bring chairs." He stopped abruptly and looked about him with an +embarrassed air, his gaze coming to rest on the only chair which adorned +the room. + +Betty, seeing his confusion, was trying to think of something helpful to +say, when the little man suddenly found a way out of his quandary. + +"Ah, I have it!" he cried, seizing enthusiastically upon a long bench that +stood on one side of the room. "Four can sit upon this quite easily, I am +sure. A happy thought--a very happy thought--" and he pulled and tugged at +the bench until he succeeded in moving it close to the fire. + +Afterward it occurred to the girls that they might have helped him, for it +was a very heavy bench and he was rather a frail old man. But at the time +they were too interested in this unusual place and their rather +extraordinary host to think of anything very rational. + +However, they seated themselves dutifully in a row upon the bench, "for +all the world like an orphan asylum out for an airing," as Mollie said +later, and gratefully stretched out their sodden shoes to the blaze. + +They were cold and they were wet and they were fast becoming very hungry, +all of which might have been expected to form a very good reason why they +should have been miserable. But they weren't miserable--not at all. To the +Outdoor Girls the thrill of an adventure always more than counterbalanced +the possible discomforts attending it. + +Their host started to draw up the one chair in the room, hesitated a +moment then, as though he had just thought of something, turned and darted +through the door, closing it with a little click behind him. + +For the space of half a second the girls looked after him. Then they +looked at each other. Then they drew a long breath and let loose the flood +of curious questions which had been struggling for expression for the past +twenty minutes. + +"Well, isn't this a lark?" cried Mollie, her eyes dancing, "Half an hour +ago we were awfully bored, and now look at us." + +"Yes, look at us," said Grace with a little sniff. "I'm sure we're not +very much to look at right now with our hair wet, and our clothes--" + +"Oh, for goodness' sake, who cares about such things?" cried Betty gaily. +"I think this is a darling place and I'm having the time of my life. I +wonder who he is?" + +"He seemed kind of scared just now, didn't he?" chuckled Mollie, feeling +her shoe to see if it was drying out any. "It was funny the way he bolted +out of the room." + +"Poor old dear--no wonder he was scared," commented Grace, as she took off +her hat and tried to do something with her hopelessly bedraggled locks. +"The way we look we're enough to scare anybody. Oh, dear, hasn't any one a +comb?" + +"Why, of course, we carry a complete beauty parlor outfit just for your +benefit, dear," giggled Mollie. "The rest of us don't need it though, We +are too beautiful naturally." + +"You know I like him a lot, the queer little man, I mean," said Amy, +evidently following out her own train of thought. "He seems kind of fussy +and peculiar but he has an awfully nice smile." + +"Trust Amy to find the smile," said Betty, putting an arm fondly about the +younger girl. "And of course we all like him," she added seriously. "If it +hadn't been for him we probably wouldn't be feeling so happy right now." + +"Yes, we would probably be in some hospital with our unhappy relatives +weeping over our mangled remains," said the irrepressible Mollie, and +laughed at the shriek that went up at her gruesome remark. "There probably +wouldn't have been enough of us left to recognize," she added by way of +good measure, and they shrieked again. + +"For goodness' sake, let's talk of something pleasant," said Grace, rising +suddenly and going over to the window. "If you want to sit on that old +bench all day, you can." + +It appeared that the girls had no intention of sitting on the bench all +day. They got up and sauntered about the room, examining the skins on the +walls and looking, but without much curiosity, at the rifles. They +lingered longest before the shelves of butterflies and beetles, for some +of the specimens were really beautiful and very rare. + +After they had examined everything in sight they began to grow restive. +They must have been in the place nearly an hour and it suddenly occurred +to them to wonder where their host had been keeping himself all this time. + +"I wish we could get started," worried Mollie, looking out upon the sodden +landscape. The rain was apparently coming down just as hard as ever. "I +hate to leave the car all by itself out there. Somebody might steal it." + +"I wish I knew where that man was," said Grace nervously. "I never trust +strange men. He may set the house on fire for all we know." + +The words were hardly out of her mouth when the door opened and the topic +of conversation himself entered, carrying a tray so big and heaped so high +with sandwiches that one could scarcely discover the man behind it. + +Betty and Amy ran to his assistance, and between them they got the tray +safely to the bench. In one delighted glance the girls saw that not only +sandwiches, but a steaming pot of coffee and the remains of what had been +a great, three-layer chocolate cake were on the tray. + +At thought of the fussy little man taking all this time and trouble, for +it must have taken a good deal of work to make all that formidable array +of sandwiches--the girls were sincerely touched and regarded their host +with a new interest. + +"There, there," he was saying, regarding the heaped-up tray with evident +pleasure, "you must sit down and eat at once. You must be nearly +starved--famished. I hope this will be enough." + +He looked at them so anxiously that Betty felt like hugging him--and +nearly did it. + +"Enough! Well, I guess it is enough," she said heartily, as the other +girls seated themselves on the bench either side of the tempting tray and +began enthusiastically to help themselves. "It would be plenty for an +army. We can't thank you enough." + +"Indeed we can't," added Mollie. + +"It's awfully good of you," said Grace, as she took a bite of her ham +sandwich. + +"Awfully good," added Amy, like an echo. + +The little man waved aside their thanks and drew up the one chair in the +room, talking all the time in his quick, jerky fashion. + +"It was no trouble, I am sure,--no trouble whatever," he said, adding as +though he wished to change the subject: "You didn't tell me your name--" +he hesitated, looking at Betty, who of course did tell him her name on the +spot. This proved a signal for mutual introductions, and the girls learned +that their new friend was a college professor, Arnold Dempsey by name. +They also learned that he had taken up woodcraft in the hope of recovering +his health. + +And while they contentedly munched sandwiches and sipped steaming coffee +the girls learned a good deal more about Arnold Dempsey, and the more they +learned of him the more they felt drawn to him. + +And when he started to tell them of his two sons who had fought so nobly +in the army of democracy, their eyes began to shine and they leaned toward +him with an interest that was intensely real. + +"Oh, it must be wonderful to have two big soldier sons," cried Amy, +forgetting her shyness in her enthusiasm. "Aren't you dreadfully proud?" + +A gleam came into Professor Dempsey's eyes and his thin shoulders +straightened. + +"Yes, yes," he said. "Of course I'm proud of my boys--very proud. And I +hope," a look of absolute happiness came into his eyes and he smiled +contentedly, "that before very long I shall see them." + +"Oh, I'm sure you will!" cried Betty eagerly. + +"That's what we are all hoping for, anyway," said Grace, adding with a +sigh: "The boys have been gone so _dreadfully_ long." + +"Look," cried Mollie presently, rising suddenly to her feet and pointing +toward the window. "We have been so busy talking that we never noticed the +sun had come out." + +"And doesn't it look good!" exulted Betty. + +In spite of their reluctance to leave their new-found friend, the girls +were anxious to be off, for they knew their parents would be worrying +about them. + +Professor Dempsey insisted on seeing them safely back to the road although +they protested that there was absolutely no need of it. + +"There are two or three paths that lead to the road," he explained, as he +flung wide the door, letting in a flood of sunshine, "and I wouldn't have +you lose your way for the world--not for the world!" + +The woodland was beautiful after the rain, and the girls sniffed the +fragrant air eagerly as they followed Professor Dempsey along the path. It +was not till they had almost reached the road that Mollie had a +disquieting thought. + +"How do we know but what we're stuck here for good?" she asked the girls. +"The car stopped dead, you remember, just under that horrible tree, and +I'm sure I don't know what in the world made it. If I can't find out the +trouble--" + +"Oh, but you've got to find it," protested Grace, while Betty and Amy +looked worried. "We can't stay here all night, and it may be a dozen miles +to the nearest garage." + +"I know that just as well as you do," grumbled Mollie. "But if I can't, I +can't, that's all." + +By this time they had reached the road and Mollie went straight to the +car. While she and Betty were trying to find out what was wrong the other +two girls and Professor Dempsey looked on anxiously. + +"Well, as far as I can see there is absolutely nothing wrong with it," +snapped Mollie at last, lifting a face flushed with exertion. "Get in, +girls, and I'll start the engine--or try to. Then if she won't go we'll +have to make up our minds to stay here all night or walk to the next +garage." + +Accordingly the girls got in and Mollie pressed the self-starter. To her +great surprise, the engine purred a response, and as she shifted her gears +the car moved slowly forward. + +"Oh, goodie, we're going," cried Amy, and the faces of the other girls +showed relief. + +"Must have been a drop of water in the gasoline," hazarded Mollie, and +then she throttled the engine once more while she and her chums turned to +say good-bye to Professor Dempsey. The latter was still standing in the +road, looking up at them rather wistfully. + +"I'm glad that I had an opportunity of helping you, young ladies--very +glad," he answered, in response to their repeated thanks. "You conferred a +great favor on me also, for I have little company. Good-bye--and good luck +to you." + +The girls responded gayly, and as they started forward Betty leaned far +out of the machine to call back an encouraging: "Keep hoping hard for your +boys to come home. I am sure they will be back soon." + +"Thank you, young lady, thank you," said Professor Dempsey, but the words +were too low for Betty to catch and she was too far away to see the mist +that sprang suddenly to his eyes. + + + + +Chapter IV + +Good News + + +Deepdale, the home of the four Outdoor Girls, is a thriving little city +with a population of about fifteen thousand people. It is situated on the +Argono River, a pleasant stream where a great many of the young folk of +Deepdale, and some of the older ones too, keep motor boats and canoes and +various other types of pleasure craft. + +Farther on, the Argono empties into Rainbow Lake, which is picturesque in +the extreme. It has several pretty and romantic looking islands, chief of +which is Triangle Island--so called because of its shape. + +There is a boat running from Deepdale to Clammerport at the foot of +Rainbow Lake, and this boat is almost always crowded with pleasure +seekers. In addition to this Deepdale is situated in the heart of New York +state and is only a hundred-and-fifty-mile run from the city of that name. +Thus one can easily see that Deepdale is a very desirable place in which +to live. + +At least that is what the four Outdoor Girls thought. And since they had +spent most of their lives there, they certainly ought to know! + +On the morning of this day, some ten days or so after their strange +encounter with Professor Dempsey, the girls were gathered on Betty's +porch, talking over their plans for the summer. + +"I am only waiting to hear from Uncle John," Mollie was saying, as she +swung lazily back and forth in the couch swing. "The last time I saw him +he said that he was almost sure to go north this summer and he told me +that as soon as he made definite plans he would let me know." + +"You told us that two weeks ago," Grace reminded her. "And we haven't +heard from him yet." + +"It does seem to take him a long time to make up his mind," sighed Amy. + +Betty, who had been trying to read a novel, closed the book and turned to +them with a laugh. + +"Goodness, you all sound doleful," she told them. "It seems to me that we +ought to be able to live through it, even if we don't get Wild Rose Lodge +for the summer. There are plenty of other things we can do." + +Mollie turned upon her indignantly. + +"How you talk, Betty Nelson," she scolded her. "As if we could possibly +have as good a time anywhere else as we could at Wild Rose Lodge. Think of +being in a real hunting lodge out in the woods away from everybody! Why, +it will be a real adventure--" + +"All right. I surrender--don't shoot," laughed Betty, coming over and +perching on the railing beside Mollie. "I admit we should probably have +more fun at the lodge than we could anywhere else. I was only trying to +look on the bright side of things in case our plans should fall through. +Hello--who's this?" + +"This" proved to be Mollie's little sister Dora, or "Dodo," as she was +called by almost everybody. With a sigh of relief, the girls saw that +Dodo's twin brother, Paul, was not with her, for together the children +were a simply unconquerable pair. + +The twins had been spoiled by their widowed mother, Mrs. Billette, even +before the time when they had been kidnapped and spirited off by a hideous +Spaniard. But since their recovery, their joyful mother had indulged them +in every way until they had become well nigh unmanageable. + +Yet in spite of everything, the twins were very lovable, and every one +loved them, even those whom they annoyed most. + +And now as Dodo tore up the street toward them, waving something white in +her hand, the girls instinctively glanced about to see what they ought to +put out of sight before the cyclone struck them. + +"Thank goodness, Paul isn't with her," murmured Grace. "Then we would be +in for it." + +"Dodo," cried Mollie as the child started up the walk, "scrape some of +that mud off your feet before you come up. You will get Betty's porch all +dirty." + +"Name's Dora--not Dodo," the little girl answered, paying not the +slightest heed to Mollie's caution about the mud. "Dodo's a baby's +name--don't like it. Got something for you." + +She stumbled heedlessly up the steps, leaving a trail of mud behind her, +and almost breaking her neck in the bargain. + +"Now just look at Betty's porch," Mollie was beginning in exasperation +when Betty laughingly interfered. + +"Oh, let her alone, Mollie," she coaxed. "The porch was dirty anyway +and--what's that you have in your hand, Dodo?" + +"Sumfin' for Mollie," answered Dodo, leaning sulkily against the rail +while the girls regarded her anxiously. "An' if Mallie aren't nice to me +she can't have it." + +"Oh, for goodness' sake be nice to her and get it over with, Mollie," +urged Grace, uneasily conscious of the candy box she had shoved hastily +behind her. She was afraid one corner of it might show. + +So Mollie got down from her perch on the railing and went over coaxingly +to the little girl. + +"Give it to Mollie, honey," she begged. "I'll even call you Dora, if you +will." + +"_Always_ Dora--_never_ Dodo?" asked Dodo eagerly, for she was +growing out of babyhood just enough to resent being called by her baby +name. + +"Always Dora," Mollie promised. + +For answer Dodo held out the white thing she had waved at them from the +street, and with a little cry of excitement Mollie saw that it was a +letter addressed to her in her Uncle John's firm hand. + +At her exclamation the girls crowded round her eagerly. She hastily tore +open the envelope and devoured the contents. Then she turned to the girls +with a glowing face. + +"It's all right, it's all right!" she cried, waving the letter round her +head like a flag and nearly upsetting her chums. "Uncle John says it is +settled. He is going to Canada for a couple of months and we can have the +lodge for the whole time he is away or a part of it, just as we wish. +Hooray! How's that for luck?" + +The girls were so excited over their good fortune that they forgot all +about Dodo. She, finding herself unobserved, had slipped around the girls +to the swing, snatched the box of candy which Grace had exposed when she +got up, had taken the steps two at a time and was flying off down the +street before the girls saw what she was up to. + +Then it was Grace who, with a dreadful premonition, thought of her candy. +She turned quickly, saw that the box was gone, and uttered a wail of woe. + +"That little Turk of a sister of yours has done it again," she cried, +turning to Mollie, while Betty and Amy began to laugh. "You just wait till +I catch her. I'll get my candy back if I have to--spank her," this last +with a fierce scowl. + +Betty put an arm about her excited chum, led her over to the swing and put +her down in it. + +"By the time you caught Dodo there wouldn't be any of your candy left," +she said, adding soothingly: "Never mind, honey. We will get you some more +if we have to take up a collection." + +"Makes me feel like an orphan's home," grumbled Grace, but she laughed +nevertheless with the rest and immediately forgot both her candy and Dodo +in renewed excitement over Wild Rose Lodge. + +"Just where is this place, Mollie?" asked Amy. "What is it called?" + +"Oh, that's the very best part of it," said Mollie, with a mysterious +smile. "It has the most wonderful, most romantic name. Come closer while I +whisper it--Moonlight Falls. There, isn't that a real name for a place?" + +"Wild Rose Lodge at Moonlight Falls," sighed Grace ecstatically. "If we +don't have a wildly romantic time in a place with a name like that, it +will be our own fault." + +"But we will have to have a chaperon--" Amy was beginning when Betty +interrupted her eagerly. + +"I have fixed that," she said, and while they all looked in astonishment +she went on quickly to explain. "I met Mrs. Irving in the street the other +day--you know she has been away ever since that last time she was with us +on Pine Island--and I asked her then if she would chaperon us this +summer." + +"But you didn't even know then that we were going to Wild Rose Lodge, +Betty," Mollie interrupted. + +"I knew we were sure to go somewhere. We always--" Betty was arguing when +Grace cut in impatiently. + +"Never mind about that," she said. "Did Mrs. Irving say she would go?" + +"She said she was very sure she could manage it," Betty answered. "She +seemed awfully surprised and said it would be great fun to be with us +girls again." + +"It will be great fun for all of us," said Amy happily. "I'll never forget +the wonderful time we had on Pine Island with Mrs. Irving and the boys." + +"Yes--and the boys," Betty repeated a little wistfully. She was thinking +of Allen Washburn and the wonderful time they had had that +never-to-be-forgotten summer--before the war had come to separate them +and make their hearts ache. Oh, it would be unbelievably happy to have +the boys back again--Will, Roy, Frank and--her Allen. The old crowd +together once more. She looked around at the girls, who had also fallen +into a thoughtful mood, and suddenly she smiled, the old bright, happy +smile that was peculiarly Betty's own. + +"Oh, cheer up, everybody," she cried gayly. "How do we know but what the +boys will be home in time to join us at Wild Rose Lodge? Then think of the +fun!" + +"Oh, Betty, if we could only believe that!" they cried. + +"Well," said the Little Captain stoutly, "you never can tell. Stranger +things have happened, you know." + +"But nothing so joyful," added Mollie. + + + + +Chapter V + +Betty Takes a Dare + + +It would be a week or two before Wild Rose Lodge would be ready for the +girls' occupancy, and as a relief for their impatience they filled in the +time in hiking, motoring and put-putting up and down the Argono in their +natty little motor boat. + +But whatever it was they were doing, their conversation almost invariably +returned to one of two subjects--the return of the boys and the good time +they would have at Moonlight Falls. + +They spoke often of Professor Arnold Dempsey. They took a real interest in +the queer little old man, both because of the service he had done them and +the fact that he was watching and waiting for his two big sons, even as +they were anxiously awaiting the return of their boys. + +"It must be dreadfully lonely for him in that little cabin or house or +whatever you call it in the woods," Amy said one day as she and the girls +sauntered down to the dock where their motor boat was anchored. "And he +said he hardly ever had company." + +"Goodness, I should think he would go crazy," Mollie commented. "Why, I go +almost mad when I don't have any one to talk to for an _hour_." + +"I wonder if he lived in that little house all during the war," said Betty +thoughtfully. They had reached the dock and were walking slowly out upon +it. "If he did, it must have been dreadfully hard for him. It makes me +shiver to think of him sitting there all alone, reading the casualty list, +terrified for fear the next name would be that of his son----" + +"Oh, Betty," cried gentle Amy, all her sympathy quickly roused by the +picture Betty had drawn, "what a dreadful thing to think of!" + +"But he never did find their names among the missing or killed," Mollie +reminded them soberly. "We know that because he said he expected to see +them soon." + +"Of course. And all we can do is hope with all our hearts that he gets his +wish," said Betty brightly, adding with a sudden change of subject: "But +away with dull care. The sun is shining and here's our fairy ship waiting +to carry us off to fresh adventure. What more could any one want, I'd like +to know." + +"Humph," grunted Mollie, eyeing critically the trim little boat in which +they had had so much fun and adventure, as the other girls tumbled aboard. +"I'd say she didn't look very much like a fairy boat just now. She needs +considerable polishing and scrubbing. Why don't you girls get busy, +anyhow?" + +"Just hear who's talking," yawned Grace, disposing herself lazily in a +comfortable chair on deck. "I haven't noticed you waving a broom and mop +frantically around these parts lately, Mollie dear." + +"In fact," Betty added with a mischievous twinkle in her eye, "I think I +remember suggesting that the _Gem_ needed grooming the other day. +Whereupon some one who shall be nameless suggested a motor ride instead." + +"She's got you there, old dear," drawled Grace, taking the inevitable box +of chocolates from her pocket and opening it lovingly. "I remember the +incident pre-zactly as it has been described." + +Mollie, who was still standing on the dock, regarding them frowningly, +started to reply but Betty interrupted her with a shout. She had started +the engine and the boat began to move slowly away from the dock. + +"Better hurry up," suggested the Little Captain wickedly. "We'd rather not +leave you behind, but if you insist--" + +However, Mollie had not the slightest intention in the world of being left +behind. With a gasp of mingled surprise and dismay she made a jump for it, +cleared the foot of space between the dock and the boat and landed square +in the middle of Grace's astonished and outraged lap. She would have sat +on the candy box, too, and would, in all probability, have ruined it and +her dress as well, had not Grace, with rare presence of mind, whipped the +box out of danger just in the nick of time. + +"Well," said Mollie, too surprised and indignant to move for a moment, +while, at the comical picture she made, both Betty and Amy laughed +merrily, "I surely like this!" + +"You do, do you? Well, I don't!" cried Grace, recovering both her breath +and her dignity at the same moment. "If you don't stop sitting on my lungs +this minute, Mollie Billette, I'll--I'll--stick this pin into you." + +With a yell Mollie stumbled to her feet and shook out her dress +belligerently. + +"You had better not. I'm stronger than you, Grace Ford, and I've a good +mind to let you see what the bottom of the river looks like." + +She advanced toward her prospective victim, and Betty stopped laughing +long enough to call to her. + +"You'd better change your mind, Mollie," she cautioned merrily. "You can't +give Gracie a ducking without ruining her dress and she might charge you +damages. Reconsider--I beg of you, reconsider!" + +Mollie condescended to reconsider and plumped herself down cross-legged on +the deck, disdaining a chair. + +"Oh, very well," she said, adding as she glared darkly at Grace: "You will +probably never know, woman, how near to death you were." + +To which Grace replied with unexpected ferocity. + +"And you may never know, woman, just how near to death you are this +minute. Look at what you have done to my best sport skirt. I don't believe +I will ever be able to get those wrinkles out." + +"If you two will stop quarreling just long enough to tell me where you +want to go," Betty requested, "I should be very much obliged. Up or down +the river?" + +"Anywhere," answered Grace, still regarding her crumpled sport skirt +gloomily. "We are just trying to kill time this afternoon anyway, so I +don't see that it makes much difference where we go." + +"Suppose we take her up to the Point," suggested Mollie, getting up from +the deck and going over to Betty who still had the wheel. "Maybe we can +get some ice-cream and a drink of ice water. I am getting dreadfully +thirsty already." + +Betty looked tempted but a little doubtful. + +"You know it is pretty dangerous to run in there, Mollie," she protested. +"There are so many other boats driven by Percy Falconer's crazy lot who +don't care whether they capsize you or not--" + +"Goodness, Betty, it isn't like you to be afraid," Mollie started, but +stopped at the look in the "Little Captain's" eye. + +"I'd rather you didn't ever say that again, Mollie," she said. "I'll take +you in there since you want it, but if anything should happen remember +that I warned you." + +"Goodness, Mollie, I don't see why you ever wanted to go and suggest that +for," said Grace nervously. "We all know there is danger of a collision +over at the Point, and I'm sure I don't want to spoil my clothes, even if +you do." + +"Your father said that he would rather we kept to this side of the river, +Betty," urged Amy. "Please don't go over to the Point now." + +"There's no use talking to her," snapped Grace. "You ought to know Betty +well enough by this time to know that she would take us over to the Point +now, after what Mollie said, if she knew we would all die of it. Might as +well save your breath." + +Mollie said nothing, but down in her heart she was more than a little bit +anxious and was beginning to regret that she had deliberately egged Betty +on. + +Percy Falconer, of whom Betty had spoken, had once been a rather dudish, +affected boy and had later developed into an exceedingly fast young man. +He had an immensely rich father and a mother who denied him nothing so +that he had been able to gather together a few kindred spirits among whom +he was the leader. All the regular boys and girls in town thoroughly +disliked "the set," but there were a few girls who were willing to put up +with Percy Falconer and his crowd for sake of the long motor rides, +dances, dinners and motorboat picnics that the boys were able to give +them. + +There were always some of this wild crowd over at the "Point," and it was +for this reason as well as the very real danger of a collision with a +recklessly driven boat that Betty's father had rather discouraged the +chums going over to that side of the river. + +However the day was fine, the water of the river was as calm as a lake and +the _Gem_ flew across the sparkling water like a gull, bringing a +flush of pure excitement and pleasure to the faces of the girls. +Danger--what danger could there be in this staunch little craft, with +Betty at the wheel? + +They were half way across the river, now--three quarters. The gay pleasure +craft flaunting up and down the river were becoming more numerous and +Betty slackened speed. Her breath came more quickly and her hands +tightened on the wheel. She could drive a boat as well as any boy, but +here, she knew, was a situation to test her greatest skill. + +Craft of all sizes and descriptions seemed to the excited girls to be +piling up about them. Most of the boats were being navigated carefully, +but now and then a small, fast speed-craft would shoot out from behind +another so suddenly that Betty would be forced to swerve sharply to one +side, fairly grazing the stern of the racing boat. + +On one of these occasions, when it had seemed impossible to avoid a +collision, Amy called out sharply: + +"Oh, Betty, don't you think we had better go back?" + +And Betty replied with a queer little laugh: + +"Might just as well go ahead as back now. We'll be there in a minute. +Don't worry." + +The words were scarcely out of her mouth when two craft running neck and +neck and driven recklessly slipped out from behind a sailboat and drove +directly down upon the _Gem_. It seemed impossible that the Outdoor +Girls could escape disaster. + + + + +Chapter VI + +Nearly Wrecked + + +The girls did not scream. Perhaps they were too frightened or perhaps it +was just natural pluck. + +They did jump to their feet though as if with some wild thought of leaping +overboard. But there they remained, staring with fascinated eyes at the +fate that was bearing down upon them. + +As for Betty, after one breath-taking minute when all the blood in her +body seemed to rush to her head, she simply sat there and tried in the +second that was given her to think what to do. + +Almost automatically, she wrenched the wheel around, nearly capsizing the +boat with the sudden turn. At almost the same second, as though the thing +had been prearranged, the boys in the racing craft swung around in the +opposite direction. + +A slight scraping as the side of the _Gem_ slid along the side of the +nearer of the racing craft, and they were safe, with no harm done with the +exception of a little paint scraped from the side of the boat. + +It was a moment before the girls could realize what had happened to them. +Then a voice hailed them from the boat alongside. In a glance the girls +perceived that the voice belonged to no other than Percy Falconer himself. + +"Hello," called Percy, adding boisterously as he recognized the girls: +"Well, by all that's holy, if it isn't the Outdoor Girls! Thought you +never came over to this side of the river." + +"We don't," Betty answered, the hand that still gripped the wheel shaking +nervously now that the danger was over. "And I don't believe we ever will +again, either!" + +"I say, your teeth are chattering," cried Percy, looking at Betty in open +admiration. In the old days, Percy had tried hard to win favor in Betty's +eyes, but the latter had always treated him with a good-natured +indifference not unmixed with contempt that had been very hard for the +young dude to bear. During the years he had still admired Betty from afar +and hated Allen Washburn for being the "lucky one." So now he hastened to +make the most of what he thought was an opportunity. + +"Come on over to the Point with me and Derby here," indicating the young +fellow in the other racing craft who had drawn his boat up close to them +and was looking on with interest. "We will get you something to steady +your nerves a bit. We had a pretty narrow squeak that time, and it's no +wonder it upset you a little." + +He was supposedly addressing all the girls, but his eyes were only for +Betty. As for her, she suddenly had a startlingly clear mental picture of +what her father would think were some one to tell him that his daughter +and her chums had been seen at the "Point" with Percy Falconer and a +friend of his. + +In days gone by Percy had been very insipid, his mind entirely on his +clothes; now he had become a sport, and the report was that he caroused +around not a little. + +Betty turned to the youth with a decided little shake of her head, though +her eyes were smiling. + +"I think we shall have to go right back," she said. "It looks as though it +were going to rain. Thank you just as much," and she began to ease her +motor boat gently away from the other craft. + +"Oh, I say," Percy cried, disappointedly and a little angrily, for out of +the corner of his eye he could see that his friend was laughing at him, +"we would only keep you for a moment or two. You needn't be afraid of us. +We won't bite, you know." + +"We don't know you well enough to be sure even of that," said Mollie, +coming suddenly and flippantly into the conversation. + +But Percy took not the slightest notice of her and, as Betty was slowly +but surely widening the distance between the _Gem_ and his boat, he +leaned forward eagerly. + +"Betty, let me see you some time. How about to-morrow night?" + +And because Betty was always kind to every one and was sorry for Mollie's +flippant speech, she said, quite unexpectedly, even to herself, "All +right." + +Then she turned the _Gem_ around and started for home, conscious that +her chums were gazing at her in speechless amazement. + +"Betty!" cried Grace, horrified. "You are never going to let Percy +Falconer come to see you, are you?" + +But Betty turned on her irritably. She was tired and nervous and angry at +herself for having anything to do with that conceited dude, Percy +Falconer. + +"You heard me say he could come, didn't you?" she said in response to +Grace's incredulous question, Amy's wide-eyed stare, and Mollie's grin. +"And if you are going to ask me why I said so," she added desperately, +"I'm not going to tell you. And if anybody speaks to me before I get back +to the dock, I'll--wreck 'em, that's all." + +The girls exchanged glances and wisely decided to change the subject, for +the present at least. For the time they had plenty to do anyway, just +watching out that somebody else did not run into them! + +By the time they reached comparatively clear water they were all tired and +they were glad for once when the _Gem_ scraped against the home dock +and the "cruise" was over. + +"Well," said Mollie as they climbed on to the dock, "we surely did have +some excitement, but we didn't get what we started out for after all." + +"What's that?" asked Grace, as she tied the ribbon round her candy box and +adjusted her hat at a more becoming angle. + +"Ice-cream and a drink of ice water," said Mollie ruefully. "I've just +remembered that I am dying of thirst." + +"Come on around to my house," Betty invited. Her wrist was lame from +gripping the wheel so hard and she felt it gingerly. "Mother said she +would make a big pitcher of lemonade for us and leave it in the +refrigerator." + +"Whew," whistled Mollie, taking Betty's arm and hurrying her forward. "By +any chance did you girls hear what I heard? _Me_ for _it_, Betty +Nelson." + +The girls talked little on their way to Betty's house, but they thought a +good deal. They were tired and disgruntled, and it seemed to them in their +pessimistic mood that everything they had tried to do that day had gone +wrong. And the climax of it all was their meeting--if it could be called a +meeting--with Percy Falconer. Worst of all, Betty was going to allow him +to call! + +With something of this in her mind, Mollie glanced sideways at her chum +and, curiosity getting the better of her discretion, ventured to remark +upon it. + +"I wonder what Allen will say," she said, "when he learns about Percy." + +It was an unfortunate remark, as Betty very soon showed by turning upon +her chum angrily. + +"I don't know that Allen has a right to say anything at all about what I +do," she said. "And as I don't intend ever to see Percy Falconer after +to-morrow, I think we had better forget about him. But there," she added, +bringing herself up short and giving Mollie's hand a little conciliatory +squeeze, "I didn't mean to be cross. I'm just kind of mad about the whole +thing--and tired, and hot--" + +"I know," said Mollie generously. "I guess we all are--tired and hot, I +mean. We will feel better after we have had something cold to drink." + +Betty's mother had left not only the lemonade but some sandwiches of +chopped nuts and cream cheese. Jubilantly the girls carried these +delicacies out on the front porch and proceeded to devour them without +further delay. + +As they ate and drank, their ill-humor vanished and they began to feel +once more like their cheerful, optimistic selves. They even began to laugh +a little about the close shave they had had with Percy and his friend. + +"It was mighty clever work of yours, Betty, swerving around like that," +Mollie said reminiscently, as she patted the Little Captain's hand +approvingly. "I'm sure I would have been so scared I'd have gone right +ahead and then there would have been a nasty smash." + +"I do hope the folks don't hear about it," worried Grace. "It would only +make them nervous and they might even refuse to let us go out in the +_Gem_ any more." + +"I don't see how the folks are going to know anything about it," said Amy +calmly. + +"Unless our dear friend Percy blabs it all over town," added Grace. + +"I think we ought to tell the folks," Betty spoke up suddenly. "I know +they would rather hear about it from us than from any one else. Hello," +she broke off, as her eye lighted on a newspaper lying on the table, "this +looks like the evening edition. Maybe it has some news of Allen's +division." + +"My, just listen to her," yawned Grace. "Allen's division, indeed. As +though he were the only one we were interested in--" + +But her words were cut short by a startled exclamation from Betty. + +"Oh, girls, look here!" she cried. "Look at these names. Oh, I hope it +isn't true! I hope it isn't!" + + + + +Chapter VII + +Bad Tidings Confirmed + + +"I wish I knew what you were talking about," said Mollie, pausing with a +sandwich half-way to her mouth, while Amy and Grace regarded the Little +Captain with astonishment. "What names? Where?" + +But Betty was paying no attention to them. She was reading hastily the +column that had caught her startled attention. + +"Listen to this," she said, reading out loud. "Among those who were killed +in the last great Allied offensive are the names of these brave soldiers. +James Browning of Columbus, Ohio--No, that isn't what I mean--Look, here +they are--James Dempsey and Arnold Dempsey, Junior. Girls, do you suppose +--" and she looked at them with widening eyes. + +"Arnold Dempsey, Arnold Dempsey," repeated Mollie, searching in her +memory, but Amy interrupted excitedly. + +"That was Professor Dempsey's name, wasn't it?" she asked. "Oh, Betty, do +you suppose it could be his son?" + +"Why, of course it is his son--how could it be any one else?" cried Grace, +the excitement beginning to communicate itself to her. "Arnold Dempsey, +Junior--and the professor said his sons were over there." + +"Didn't it say something about James Dempey, too, Betty?" asked Mollie, +fairly snatching the paper from her chum. "Yes, here it is. Do you suppose +that can be his other son?" + +Betty shook her head soberly. + +"I don't know," she said. "Of course he didn't tell us the name of his +other son, but it might easily be James. Oh, I hope it isn't so!" she +added, her heart aching for the lonely old man whose one big interest in +life was his boys. "I do hope there has been some mistake." + +"I guess we all do," said Amy gently, adding with a sigh: "But I'm afraid +there isn't very much hope of it. The Government is usually right when it +comes to things like that." + +"Not always," Mollie retorted quickly. "Look at the time they reported +that Alien was among the missing and he wasn't at all. That is the only +mistake we happen to know about, but I fancy there are plenty of others." + +At mention of that dreadful time when she had read Alien's name in the +long list of the missing, Betty experienced again something of the emotion +she had felt at that time. + +She saw again in imagination the dark room where she had gone to be by +herself, she heard the thunder of the surf on the rocks outside and the +rumble of the thunder overhead. She saw once more the vision of Alien as +she had seen it then. Allen stretched out cold and dead perhaps on some +shell-ridden battlefield or perhaps, more terrible still, a prisoner in +the hands of the Hun, suffering unspeakable torture-- + +"But this is not as bad as though the boys were missing," she said +suddenly, speaking her thought aloud. "At least the professor will know +that his sons are dead." + +The girls started and looked at Betty queerly. + +"I was thinking of Allen," she explained in response to their rather +startled glances, "and the time when we thought he was missing. If this +thing is true about Professor Dempsey's sons I think I shall be able to +sympathize with him, almost better than any of you." + +"I guess you will, honey," said Mollie soberly, putting an arm about her +chum. "It was a terrible time for us all--there at Bluff Point. But it was +almost worth the suffering when we found out that Allen was alive and well +and never had been missing at all Do you remember how happy we all were +then?" + +"Happy," Betty repeated, shaking off her depression and smiling at the +memory. "I'll say we were the happiest girls on earth--especially after we +recovered the twins. But what," she said, coming back to the present +subject, "are we going to do about Professor Dempsey? We ought to do +something, you know." + +"I suppose we ought," said Grace, a little vaguely, "but I'm sure I don't +know just what." + +"I think," suggested Amy practically, "that the best thing would be to try +to find out first of all whether these poor boys who were killed are +really Professor Dempsey's sons or not." + +"Humph, that sounds all right," observed Mollie. "But has any one here any +suggestion as to just how we will go about it? I'm sure I don't know any +one who is acquainted with Professor Dempsey--or his family either." + +"I've got it," said Betty, leaning forward eagerly. "It may not be much of +an idea, but then again it may." + +"Speak up, speak up, what's on your mind?" urged Mollie slangily. + +"Well," said Betty, "there is Mr. Haig, principal of Deepdale High. He +knows pretty nearly every one at the university where Professor Dempsey +used to teach and he is more than likely to know whether the professor has +any sons and what their names are." + +"Yes, that is all right as far as it goes," broke in Mollie impatiently. + +"We all know Mr. Haig--" Amy began, but this time it was Grace who +interrupted. + +"Yes, we all know him," she said. "But I'd like to know if there is any +one of us--except Betty perhaps--who would have the nerve to go to him and +ask him a question like that--" + +"Say, who's telling this story I'd like to know," broke in Betty +impatiently. "I'm not asking any one to go to Mr. Haig with that question +or any other--although I would be perfectly willing to brave the lion in +his den if there were no other way. My plan is this. Dad knows Mr. Haig, +you know--went to school with him--old college chums and all that. I'm +sure that if we asked him real pretty he would go to Mr. Haig and find out +about Professor Dempsey for us." + +"Then suppose we find out that Professor Dempsey hasn't any sons by the +name of James and Arnold?" suggested Grace. + +"Then we shall be mighty glad we took the trouble to find out and set our +minds at rest," answered Betty soberly. + +"And if we find out that they are really his sons, what then?" queried +Grace, and this time Betty looked puzzled and Mollie and Amy completely +beyond their depth. + +"Why then," said Betty hesitatingly, "I'm sure I don't just know what we +ought to do. But don't you think," she added, brightening, "that it might +be a good idea to wait until we have found out definite facts before we +try to solve any more problems?" + +Rather reluctantly the girls agreed and, after making Betty promise that +she would let them know the very first minute she found out the names of +Arnold Dempsey's sons, they said good-bye and started for home. + +Of course Betty had already told her father and mother about Professor +Dempsey and the part he had played in actually saving their lives; so when +she told them that night of what she had read in the paper and begged her +father to help her find out whether the dead soldiers were really Arnold +Dempsey's sons or not, he readily consented to do what he could. + +"I'll drop in and see Haig to-morrow," he promised. "I have often heard +him speak of Professor Dempsey as being one of the best professors of +zooelogy up at the university and I am sure I will be able to find out what +you want to know. I hope you have been mistaken in your conclusions, for +it would be a horrible blow to a man to lose both his grown sons at once +and like that. Now run off to bed and tomorrow I may have some news for +you." + +With this Betty was forced to be content. She went to bed of course, there +was nothing else to do, but she tossed restlessly all night and what sleep +she got was checkered with horrid dreams and she woke up in the morning +feeling as though she had not been to sleep at all. + +The next day was a long one to live through, even though the girls did +keep calling her up at frequent intervals to see if she had any news for +them yet. She became so tired of hearing the telephone bell ring at last +that she stuffed a handkerchief between the bell and the clapper and sat +down to read a novel and while away the time as best she could till her +father came home. + +Luckily for her--and him too, perhaps--Mr. Nelson did get home early, and +he was no sooner inside the door than Betty grabbed him by the arm, led +him over to a divan in the corner of the living room, and let loose upon +him a flood of questions. + +"Did you see him? What did he say? Why didn't you let me know sooner?" + +These and various other queries were hurled at Mr. Nelson so fast that it +is no wonder the poor gentleman appeared slightly bewildered. But knowing +his impetuous young daughter of old, he merely pinched her cheek fondly +and waited for her to give him a chance to speak. + +"If you will wait just a moment I will try to tell you about it," he said +at last, mildly. + +"There's only one thing I really want to know, Dad," said Betty soberly. +"And that is the name of Professor Dempsey's sons." + +Her father shook his head slowly, regretfully. + +"I am afraid it is as you have feared, dear," he said. "Professor Dempsey +has two sons--or rather, had--and their names were James and Arnold." + +"Oh, Daddy!" Betty was quiet for a minute, letting the full consciousness +of what her father had said sink into her heart. Then her lips trembled +and her eyes filled with tears. "I--I was pretty sure it was true. But, +oh, I was hoping so hard that it wouldn't be!" + + + + +Chapter VIII + +Premonitions + + +Betty kept her promise and called up the girls to tell them the news. Like +the Little Captain, they had felt almost sure of the identity of the two +Dempsey boys who had been killed in France, yet the confirmation of their +fears came as a distinct shock. + +They waited for a couple of days, undecided what to do, if indeed it was +their place to do anything at all. Vaguely they felt the need of +comforting the queer little professor in his hour of greatest trouble, and +yet they were at a loss to know just how to go about it. + +Meanwhile, the occupations that had ordinarily filled their days to +overflowing with fun, seemed dull and uninteresting and they found their +thoughts reverting again and again to the bereaved father in his lonely +little cabin in the woods. + +Percy Falconer had called at Betty's house the day after the incident on +the river as had been arranged, and Betty had conceived the plan of having +all her chums there to meet him. + +Her hope was that the gay Percy, seeing four, where he had expected only +one, would be overwhelmed with numbers and would flee the premises +early--to return no more. + +Her faith in her plan was more than justified. Percy had always been a +little afraid of the Outdoor Girls--Betty in particular--but it is +probable that if he had been able to meet them one at a time, he might +have come off victorious. As it was, he was routed, completely and +ignominiously, leaving the girls to laugh at his discomfiture. + +"There, I guess that is the end of _that_ pest," Mollie had said when +she had recovered a little from her mirth. "I imagine we won't see him +around these parts again." + +"I hope not," Betty had answered with a satisfied little yawn. "Wasn't he +too funny in that checked suit and awful green necktie? Poor old Percy! I +suppose he can't help it. He probably just grew that way." + +She had been comparing him all evening with her splendid, upstanding +Allen, and poor Percy had certainly not gained by the comparison. + +The amusing incident served to divert their minds somewhat from the +thought of Professor Dempsey, but the picture of him haunted their minds +so continually day and night that the Outdoor Girls finally decided that +something must be done about it. + +"I can't stand it any longer," Betty confided to them one morning when +they stood on Mollie's porch discussing what course of action it would be +best to take. "I have a queer feeling that the poor professor is in +desperate need of friends, and I don't believe I'll be able to sleep +another night until I find out something definite about him." + +"Won't he think we are sort of 'butting in'?" asked Grace, hesitating a +little. "He might think we came just out of curiosity." + +"I don't think he would," said Mollie. "You know he invited us to come +back some time when we could stay long enough for him to tell us something +about those bugs and butterflies and things he sticks pins into--" + +"That's the idea!" exclaimed Betty quickly. "We won't have to tell him we +know anything about his trouble. If he tells us--why, all right, but if he +doesn't, of course we won't try to force a confidence. Anyway," she +finished soberly, "we'll have the satisfaction of knowing we have done our +best for him whether it really helps him any or not." + +"And we owe him a very great deal," spoke tip Amy softly. "He really saved +our lives, you know." + +So it was settled, and while the other three girls ran home to put on +coats and hats and get ready for the drive, Mollie ran around to the +garage and brought her big car to the front of the house. + +She waved good-bye to her mother, who was trying rather wildly to keep +Dodo and Paul from running under the wheels of the car and getting killed, +and purred off down the street in the direction of Betty's house. + +When she arrived there she was a little surprised to see that Betty was +backing her fast little roadster down the drive. + +To Betty the little car was almost alive, and she talked to it as she +would have to some loved horse or dog. She scrubbed it and scoured it and +shined it so that it always looked like a brand new car. + +"Hey, look out!" cried Mollie, for Betty, not noticing her and being a +little worried about the sound of the engine, had backed the small car +down the drive and almost into Mollie's big one. "What kind of driving do +you call that? Do you want to buy me a new mudguard?" + +"Oh, pardon me," said Betty, laughing back at her. "You were so small and +insignificant, I came near not seeing you." + +"Well, you would have _felt_ me in another minute," grumbled Mollie, +as she shut off the engine and got out of the car. "What's the idea of +your little peanut, anyway? Thought you were going to ride in a regular +car." + +"That's why I chose mine," Betty laughed back impishly, still intent on +the sound of the engine. + +It was part of their fun to be always throwing insults at each other's car +but the thrusts were invariably good-natured. + +Only once had there threatened to be any trouble between the chums on +account of rivalry over the cars. That had been when Mollie had taken +Betty's "dare" to a race and Betty's little roadster had won the day, +racing like a streak of light along the country road and leaving Mollie's +high-powered but more clumsy car far behind. + +But Mollie had taken her defeat like the little sport she was--even though +it must be admitted she had been considerably disappointed and taken aback +by her failure--and in her ever since there had been a great respect for +Betty's car. + +But now she eyed with impatience the bent figure of the Little Captain as +she still leaned over the wheel, her ear tuned to the purr of the engine. + +"For goodness' sake, what's the matter with you?" she cried. "I thought +you were the one who was in a hurry to be off and now look at you--sitting +there like--" + +"Engine is missing," Betty informed her briskly. "Guess I had better have +a look--" + +"If you start fussing with bolts and screws now, you can count me out," +said Mollie, resolutely climbing back into her car. "It is ten o'clock +already, and we won't be home before night if we don't hurry." + +"Oh, all right," laughed Betty. "But if the car gives out before we get +back don't blame me, that's all." + +"It would give me the greatest of pleasure," said Mollie with a diabolical +chuckle as her machine moved off down the street, "to have everyone in +Deepdale see me towing your poor little flivver through the town." + +"Huh," sang back Betty scornfully as the roadster responded eagerly to her +touch, "they will have a great deal better chance of seeing me in the lead +with your great big jumbo tottering feebly at the end of a rope." + +They picked up Amy and Grace on the way and were soon flying swiftly down +the road in the direction of Professor Dempsey's tree-surrounded home. + +They were in rather good spirits at first, for now that they were really +on the way to doing something, though they were not quite sure what, they +felt relieved and almost gay. + +But as the distance shortened between them and their destination, a +strange depression that they could neither explain nor brush away settled +down over them. + +Once, Grace, who sat beside the Little Captain in the roadster, sighed +rather dolefully and Betty looked at her out of the corner of her eye. + +"Do you feel that way too, Grade?" the latter asked. + +"What way?" asked Grace uncertainly. "That sigh, do you mean?" + +"Yes," nodded Betty. "You sounded rather mournful and that is exactly the +way I feel. What's the matter with us, anyway? Where are our spirits?" + +"I suppose we couldn't expect to feel joyful," said Grace after a little +pause. "We aren't going, so far as I can see, on a very happy errand, you +know." + +"But I don't think it is that alone," said Betty, with a shake of her +head. "I feel as if we were going to see something perfectly dreadful--" + +"Betty," Grace looked at her in sudden alarm, her eyes wide, "you don't +suppose that the professor could have done anything--anything rash, do +you?" + +"You mean--" said Betty, hesitating before the ugly word. "Oh, Grace, you +don't mean--suicide, do you?" + +Grace nodded and tried hard not to look as frightened as she felt. + +"No, I--I don't think so," said Betty, grasping the wheel with hands that +somehow seemed suddenly weak. "If I thought anything like that had +happened I wouldn't have the courage to go on." + +"Well, I don't believe I have--the courage, I mean," said Grace, +irresolutely. "Don't you think we had better go back, Betty? It's so +lonesome here and--and--everything--" + +Her voice was rising to something like a wail, and Betty, striving to +throttle her own misgivings, spoke in a voice that was intended to be +reassuring. + +"We wouldn't think very much of ourselves if we turned back now," she +said. "And probably we are worrying a great deal about nothing. He didn't +seem like the kind of man who would do a thing like that." + +Grace said no more about turning back, and they were silent for the rest +of the way. But instead of lightening, the cloud of depression became +deeper and more foreboding until even the stout Little Captain began, +almost to wish that they had not come. + + + + +Chapter IX + +A Visitor + + +When they came to the scene of what was so nearly a terrible accident a +week or so before they found that the big tree which had extended clear +across the road was gone and that the underbrush also had been cleared +away. + +They stopped the cars a little the other side of the path that led into +the woods and slowly stepped down into the road. + +When they caught sight of each other's faces they began to laugh shakily. + +"We certainly look as if we were going on a ghost hunt," Mollie said. At +this Grace uttered a little cry of protest. The thought had struck too +near her own disquieting thoughts to be comfortable. + +"For goodness' sake, somebody say something cheerful," she begged. "I've +got to get up my courage some way." + +"Well, I haven't any to lend you," grumbled Mollie, as she linked her arm +in Betty's and the two went along toward the path. "I don't like this job +a little bit." + +"Don't you think," suggested Amy, holding back a little, "that somebody +ought to stay here and take care of the cars?" + +"No, you don't!" said Mollie, catching her by the hand and pulling her +along after them. "If one of us goes we are all going." + +"Oh, come along," urged Betty, eager to get the thing over with. "I think +we are all acting like a lot of geese. It might help some if we tried to +remember that we are Outdoor Girls." + +This challenge did a great deal toward bolstering up the girls' courage +and they hurried along the path more confidently. + +Their pace slowed a bit, however, when they reached the cleared space +where the little cottage stood and they paused for a moment in the shelter +of the trees to discuss what to do next. + +"Do you think we had all better go?" asked Grace nervously. "Perhaps the +four of us would frighten him--" + +"No, we will all go together," said Betty decidedly. "There is nothing to +be gained by standing here talking about it. Come on, girls." + +She started across the cleared space and the girls followed slowly. The +little cottage looked deserted and forlorn and the dreary aspect of it +served to increase the girls' uneasy sense of disaster. + +Betty knocked gently on the door which had, upon that other occasion not +so very long ago, been hospitably opened to them. But, though they waited +breathlessly for a response, none came--the house was as silent as a tomb. + +"Do it again, Betty. He might be asleep or something." suggested Mollie, +with a glance over her shoulder at the quiet woodland. "Knock harder this +time." + +Betty obeyed, but with no better success than the first time. Everything +was as silent as before. + +"Isn't there a bell, I wonder?" suggested Amy, wishing ardently that they +were back on the road once more. "Perhaps your knock isn't loud enough for +him to hear." + +"We might tap on the window," suggested Grace. "If I use my ring on the +window pane he surely ought to hear that." + +She started to suit her action to the words when an exclamation from Betty +made her pause. The latter had tried the door and found to her surprise +that it gave to her touch. + +"The door is unlocked," she said. "I don't believe the professor is in +here at all and if he has gone into the woods to hunt his butterflies and +beetles I am sure he wouldn't mind our going inside. What do you think?" + +She was about to push the door open, but Grace detained her with a nervous +hand on her arm. + +"Oh, I don't think we had better go in, Betty!" she cried. "You know what +we were speaking of in the car. Suppose we should find that he has--that +he has--" + +"That he has what?" asked Amy, her eyes wide. "For goodness' sake, what do +you mean, Grace?" + +Betty tried to stop her, but Grace hurried on heedlessly. + +"He may have committed suicide," she cried, adding, in response to +Mollie's and Amy's cry of horror: "You know he must have been desperate +enough to do anything, poor old man, out here all alone." + +At the conviction in Grace's tone, Betty felt her own nerve slipping. She +did not want to go into that silent house any more than the other girls +did. Every instinct in her commanded that she run from the place to the +commonplace safety of the road. She was afraid of what she might find on +the other side of that unlocked door. And yet-- + +"I'm going in," she cried, and, suiting the action to the word, pushed the +door quickly open and stepped over the threshold. + +Emboldened by her example, the other girls followed and stopped short with +a cry of dismay. They had not found what they feared--but something almost +as bad. + +The room, which had been so neat and orderly when they had last seen it, +was now the scene of such utter confusion as one might only hope to see +depicted in a cubist's nightmare. + +The animal skins which had adorned the walls had been torn down and lay in +a tattered heap upon the floor. The shelves upon which had rested the +professor's botanical specimens had been swept clean and their contents +also were scattered about the floor. + +The bench upon which the girls had sat and partaken of the queer little +man's hospitality was overturned and the one chair in the room was upside +down on top of it. The whole room looked as though a cyclone--or a maniac +--had been at work. + +The girls stared for a minute and then drew closer together as if seeking +protection from some unseen menace. They had some vague conception of what +had taken place here in this lonely little cottage. The elderly and +already nervous professor, reading the tragedy of his sons' death, all +alone perhaps, with no one to comfort or restrain him, had lost his mind, +temporarily at least, and had found an outlet in ruthlessly destroying +everything which came within reach of his hand. + +And if this were so, might he not even now be hiding about somewhere, +watching them, perhaps? + +This thought seemed to strike the girls at the same time, for after +peering for a second about the room, they turned and made a concerted dash +for the door. + +Once outside the room, in the reassuring sunshine, they turned and looked +at each other sheepishly. Then Betty wheeled about and started for the +door again. + +"Betty, you are never going back into that place again?" cried Amy wildly, +holding to her skirt. "I won't let you! Do you hear me? Come back here!" + +But Betty had no intention of coming back. She turned and faced the girls +calmly, though inwardly she was trembling. + +"Of course I am going back," she said. "Professor Dempsey may be in one of +the other rooms and he may be sick. If nobody will go with me, I'm going +in alone." + +Of course the three girls could not let her go in alone, so they trailed +back at her heels into the house, being very careful, however, to leave +the door wide open behind them, in case a hasty retreat became necessary. + +Cautiously Betty opened the door at the other end of the room and stepped +into what had evidently been a sort of rough kitchen. Now it was nothing +but a nightmare like the other room, and she shuddered as she looked about +at the desolate confusion. + +There was a door at the farther end of this room, and after some +hesitation and an inward struggle Betty crossed hastily to it and flung it +wide open. + +What she half expected and feared to find there nobody but Betty herself +ever knew, but whatever it was, she gave a great sigh of relief at not +finding it there. The room was upset, though not quite as badly as the +other two, but there was no sign of human occupancy anywhere. + +She turned to the girls who had come up behind her and were eagerly and +half shudderingly peering over her shoulder. + +"There's nothing here," she announced, the relief she felt showing in her +voice, "and as there doesn't seem to be any other room in the place, I +suppose we might as well go back." + +Echoing her suggestion heartily, me girls started to retrace their steps +when a slight sound in the other room made them stop short in a panic. + +"What was that?" Amy questioned, but Mollie held up her hand impatiently. + +There came the sound of some one stumbling over something. This was +followed by a muttered exclamation. + +While the girls looked about them wildly for a means of escape Mollie +began to laugh hysterically. + +"We have a visitor," she announced in a strangled voice. "And he is +between us and the only door in the place. Come on, girls, let's see who +it is." + +They stepped out into the cluttered living room and came face to face with +a young man who seemed more startled at seeing them than they had been at +sight of him. + +"Well, I'll be jiggered!" he exclaimed, and at sound of the commonplace +phrase the girls could have hugged the speaker in relief. Also they felt a +rather hysterical desire to laugh long and foolishly. + +As it was, the stranger stood staring at the girls and the girls at him so +long that the funny side of the situation struck Betty and she really did +begin to laugh. + +"We haven't the slightest idea who you are," she told the astonished young +man. "But I am sure of one thing, and that is that we were never so glad +to see any one in all our lives as we are to see you." + + + + +Chapter X + +Hurrah for Allen + + +The young man stared for a moment longer. Then the humor of the situation +seemed to strike him too, and he smiled pleasantly. + +"It surely is a pleasure to be as welcome as all that," he said +pleasantly, and the girls noticed that he was a well set up young fellow +and that he wore his uniform easily, as if he had been used to wearing it +for a long, long time. "I am Wesley Travers," he went on. "I live in a +cottage down the road and I came over this way to see if the old professor +had come back yet. I saw the door open--came in--and found you." + +He smiled again pleasantly and looked as though he considered that he had +fallen into rather good luck. But at his mention of the professor Betty +had sobered instantly. + +"Oh, then you know something about Professor Dempsey?" she questioned +eagerly. + +"Please tell us what happened to him," added Amy breathlessly. + +"Did he do this?" asked Mollie, with a comprehensive sweep of her hand +about the cluttered room. + +"I'm afraid he did," answered the young fellow, sobering instantly. "You +see, I just returned from overseas about a week ago and a couple of days +later my dad read in the paper about the death of this queer old man's two +sons. The pater had always been interested in the lonely old boy, so he +sent me over to see if I could do anything for him. I found the place like +this and--the bird had flown. Went dopy I suppose about the bad news and +tore things up a bit." + +Though the boy's words were slangy, there was real sympathy in his tone +and the girls liked him the better for it. + +"And you haven't heard anything from him since?" asked Betty softly. + +"Not a word or a sign," answered the boy, with a shake of his head. "Just +clean cleared out, that's all. Pretty hard luck, I call it. Just at the +end of things too--when he had a right to expect the fellows home. Pretty +tough luck. I wish I could find the poor old duffer and do something for +him." + +The girls heartily echoed the wish. Before leaving the place for good, +they looked about the rooms once more for some sign or message that might +give them a clue to the whereabouts of the professor. They found nothing, +however, and finally were forced to give up the search. + +As the young people stepped outside once more and closed the door after +them upon the desolate house a great wave of pity swept over Betty. +Somehow it did not seem right to go off like this as though they were +abandoning the old man to his fate. Yet what could they do more than they +had done? + +"Girls," she said, a little quiver in her voice, "I would give almost +everything I own to find the poor old professor and help him back to +happiness. If I only could," she added after a pause. "Well," said Wesley +Travers, as he looked admiringly at Betty's flushed, sympathetic little +face, "I imagine if any one could find him and bring him happiness, you +would be that one." + +The young soldier accompanied them back to the road. After thanking him +for the information he had given them, the girls climbed into their cars +and headed toward home, leaving Wesley Travers still standing in the road +and looking after them thoughtfully. + +"A mighty nice bunch of girls," thought the latter. "Especially the little +brown-haired one. They seemed rather interested in that dotty old +professor too. Lucky fellow to have four girls like that interested in +him!" After this remark he started off toward home. + +Luckily for the girls, the next few days were so crowded with preparations +for the trip to Wild Rose Lodge that they had not much time to dwell on +the poor old professor and his misfortunes. + +Only at night would they sometimes dream queer dreams in which wild-eyed +men went around smashing everything in sight and a little cottage stood +lonely and desolate and ghostlike amid a silent forest of trees. + +After a night like this the girls were always glad to awake and find the +sunshine streaming cheerfully in their windows. And they would throw +themselves with more than usual energy into the activities of the day. Yet +try as they would, they could never quite blot the tragedy from their +minds. + +On the afternoon of the day before they were to start for Moonlight Falls, +the girls were gathered in Betty's garage at the back of the house, where +the Little Captain was giving her car one last overhauling to make sure +that it was in perfect condition for the trip. Mollie suddenly espied the +postman coming down the street. + +Now the postman was a very popular man with the girls, for the reason that +he brought almost daily some message from the boys on the other side. He +sympathized with the chums so fully in their desire for letters with the +red triangle in one corner that he actually confessed to a guilty feeling +when he had no missive of the sort for them. + +So now, as Mollie ran toward him with outstretched hand, he held up to her +delighted gaze not only one letter, but four. + +"One for each of you," he said beamingly, as Mollie reached him. "I +thought that probably I would find all four of you at one place, so I kept +the letters together." + +"Oh, thanks, it is awfully good of you," said Mollie absent-mindedly, as +she took the welcome letters and hurried with them back to the garage. +"One for each of us, just think of that!" she cried to the questioning +girls. "It looks as if the boys had all written at the same time. Put down +your duster, Betty, for goodness' sake, and read what Alien has to say. +Maybe," she added hopefully, as she ripped her envelope open, "they will +tell us something definite about coming home." + +So down the girls sat in the midst of dust cloths and more or less dirt to +find what the boys had written. For a moment only the crackling of paper +broke the silence. Then Grace gave a little joyful cry. + +"Will says he is almost sure to be home soon--" + +"And he has been made a sergeant," Amy interrupted, or rather added, her +eyes shining with pride. "Just think of that--Will, a sergeant!" + +"I was just going to tell them that if you had waited a minute," said +Grace, rather crossly. There was quite a little jealousy between Grace and +Amy over Will. Grace had declared more than once that whereas she had +known her brother all her life, Amy had only known him for a couple of +years--or--or more. Grace loved her brother devotedly and once in a while +she resented Amy's place in his affections. + +So now to change the subject and avert a possible quarrel, Mollie jumped +into the breach. + +"Listen to this," she said. "Roy and Frank have been made corporals and +Allen--oh, look at Betty blush!" She looked gleefully across at the Little +Captain and Amy and Grace followed her glance. + +Betty was not blushing, but she felt as uncomfortable as though she had +been. + +"Tell us what Allen says," Mollie dared her wickedly. "Come on, +honey--dare you to." + +"You can go on daring all you like," said Betty defiantly. This time she +was blushing--from the fact that she knew she could not, or would not, +tell the girls what Allen had said in his letter. Not for anything in this +world! + +"I don't mean what you mean," said Mollie, enjoying her confusion +immensely, while Grace and Amy looked on laughingly. "I just thought that +maybe you would like to be the one to tell us about his promotion." + +"His promotion!" cried Amy and Grace together, and Betty looked quite as +bewildered as any of them. + +"Mollie, for goodness' sake tell us what you mean," she demanded. + +"But didn't he tell you about it, Betty?" Mollie insisted. + +"Wait a minute," said the Little Captain as she hastily scanned the pages +of her long letter. Then, down near the end of the last page she found it, +just a little paragraph, put in as though it had been an afterthought. +"Why," cried Betty, her eyes beginning to shine with excitement, "girls, +listen to this. Allen has been promoted. He's an officer now--a +lieutenant! Think of it--leather leggings and all!" + +It was too much for the girls. They laughed and cried and hugged each +other and tried to imagine Allen in his new uniform to their hearts' +content, for the young new-made officer was a favorite with them all. + +"Goodness," said Amy happily, "I suppose when he gets home he will be +altogether too high-toned to notice common folk like us." + +"Oh, I don't know," said Grace happily, adding with a sly little glance at +Betty, "I imagine he will make an exception of one of us at least." + +"I wonder," drawled Mollie as she picked up her unfinished letter, "which +one of us you can mean." + + + + +Chapter XI + +The Hold-Up + + +The girls were glad that the letters had come from the boys just as they +had, for it helped them to bridge over the tediously long wait till the +next morning. + +They read the missives with the little red triangles in the left hand +corner over and over again and--whisper it!--at least two of them slept +with the precious letters under their pillows. + +And then--the morning was upon them. It was a beautiful morning too, and +as the girls dressed hurriedly they were glad that they had arranged to +start early. In that way they could take their time and enjoy to the full +the glorious ride to Moonlight Falls. It was only fifty-five miles, but by +driving slowly they could make it seem like twice that. + +It was barely half past nine when Betty, having finished breakfast and put +the last finishing touches to her new white hat, ran around to the garage +to get the car out. + +Ten minutes later she had drawn up in front of Mollie's house, her ears +still ringing with the hundred and one instructions of her anxious mother, +and was tooting the horn of her little car furiously. + +The summons had the desired effect. Mollie came running from the house, +straightening her hat with one hand and lugging a valise in the other +while the twins trailed at her skirts. + +"For goodness' sake, let go of me, Paul. Dodo, if you touch that bag +again, I'll spank you. Mother," she wailed, looking back pleadingly over +her shoulder, "won't you please make these little pests go into the +house?" + +Whereupon Mrs. Billette suddenly appeared at the door, smiled at Betty, +grabbed Paul with one hand, Dodo with the other, while the twins roared a +protest. + +Released, Mollie dropped her bag, sped round to the garage, and in a +moment more was backing the big car round to the road. + +The girls had decided to about live in their khaki tramping suits on this +trip, merely packing in a good dress or two to wear on dress-up occasions. +In this way they had to take less luggage and could have more space to +"spread out" as Mollie said. + +"Put your grip in here, Betty," Mollie suggested, as she slung her own +grip into the tonneau of the big machine. "There is more room, and Mrs. +Irving said she wouldn't mind in the least being entirely surrounded by +suitcases." + +Betty laughed, did as she was bid, and a moment later they were off, +speeding down the road to Grace's house where they were to pick up the +other two girls and Mrs. Irving. + +They found the three waiting for them, and it took scarcely any time at +all to add the extra grips to the growing pile in the tonneau of Mollie's +car. Amid great fun, Mrs. Irving, who was rosy-cheeked and matronly and as +jolly as the girls, was wedged into the remaining space, Amy climbed to +the front seat beside Mollie and Grace took her seat with Betty. + +They were off! The sting of the wind was in their faces, and the sun beat +warmly down upon them as they rolled along, passing familiar houses, and +sometimes familiar people, to whom they waved, and so on and on till they +left the town behind them and started out on the open road. + +"My, this is something like," commented Grace, stretching her feet out +before her for all the world like a lazy, comfortable cat. "I feel awfully +sorry for all the poor people who haven't cars to ride in to-day and Wild +Rose Lodges to visit. By the way, why is it called Wild Rose Lodge, +Betty?" + +"Because they say there are lots of wild roses around it, of course," +Betty responded, her hands resting easily on the wheel, her eyes bright +with the joy of the moment. Grace, stealing a sideways glance at her, +could not help thinking that Betty looked not unlike a wild rose herself. + +"You look awfully pretty, honey," she said then, for Grace was always +generous with praise where her friends were concerned. "I would give the +world to have a color like yours." + +"Goodness," remarked Betty, turning to look at her chum, her face a little +brighter pink because of the honest compliment, "you have a lovely +color--as you very well know. Mine is too red sometimes." + +"Nobody thinks that but you," said Grace, squeezing Betty's hand +affectionately while she dived down in her pocket for some candy. "The +only time I have noticed you get very red," she added, "is when some one +happens to mention a certain young gentleman by the name of Lieutenant +Allen Washburn." + +Betty could feel that her face was burning, but she did not care. She was +awfully proud of Allen and desperately fond of him and for the moment she +did not care if the whole world knew about it. + +"Isn't it wonderful, Grade?" she cried, her heart pounding joyously. +"About Allen being an officer, I mean. I have to pinch myself several +times a minute to make myself realize that it is really true." + +"It surely is great," Grace answered slowly, adding after a moment, while +a faraway expression crept into her eyes, "I don't blame you for being +crazy about him, honey. I could almost be foolish myself. Oh, don't +worry," she went on quickly as Betty turned amazed and rather startled +eyes upon her. "I'm no fonder of Allen than I am of any of the other boys. +I just said that I didn't blame you, that's all." + +Betty turned her eyes to the road once more, but in her heart she was +troubled. There had been a note in Grace's voice that she had never heard +before. Could it be possible that she really cared for Allen? But she +pushed the thought from her mind resolutely. If such a thing could have +been possible, she certainly would have discovered it before this. The +mere thought was nonsense of course. And yet she was troubled. + +"Have some candy," Grace invited, breaking in upon her thoughts. "You +needn't stick up your nose at it to-day for I bought this fresh from the +store this morning." + +"Who said I was going to stick up my nose?" said Betty, helping herself to +a chocolate that looked as if it might contain a nut and thankful for the +break in her not-too-pleasant reflections. "If you will think back just a +little, I think you will admit that I have been guilty very seldom of +sticking up my nose at anything--" + +"Except Percy Falconer," finished Grace drolly, and they both laughed +merrily. + +"Poor Percy!" said Betty, chewing her candy contentedly. "I suppose he +will hate us more heartily than ever now." + +They were running some eight or ten miles from the town along a quiet +stretch of road, never dreaming of danger, when Betty's little racer nosed +around a bend in the road and came smack into it! Not twenty feet ahead of +them a man sprang into the middle of the road and leveled a revolver at +them! In one electrified instant they saw that the fellow wore a mask and +a slouch hat and looked for all the world like a brigand straight out of +some sensational moving picture. + +Betty, more surprised at first than alarmed, put on her brakes and came to +a standstill, at the same time putting out a hand to warn the car behind +them. + +"Oh, Betty, we are being held up!" moaned Grace, who evidently was +frightened enough for both of them. "For goodness' sake, hold up your +hands. He may shoot." + +Still feeling rather dazed with the suddenness of the thing, Betty raised +both hands above her head, at the same time feeling a rather hysterical +desire to laugh. It was so absurd, being held up by a masked stranger in +broad daylight. + +Nevertheless, she gave a little gasp of fright as the man waved his big +revolver menacingly and came close to the car. She wished frantically that +he would not point that firearm at her. Suppose it should go off! + +"Come on, hand over what you got," the robber demanded in a gruff +threatening voice. "The quicker you move, the better it will be for you." + +"Wh--what do you want?" asked Betty, in a weak little voice that did not +sound like her own at all. She had thought of her pocketbook beside her in +the pocket of the car. The purse contained a whole month's allowance. She +was sparring desperately for time--help in some form or other might come +at any moment. But the ruffian in the road was evidently in no frame of +mind to be fooled with. + +He waved his revolver once more, eliciting a terrified gurgle from Grace +and commanded roughly that they get out of the car. + +"No funny business," he snarled. "Get out!" + +Betty was about to obey when she had a brilliant thought. Her pepper gun! +She had bought it the day before from the son of her father's chauffeur, +thinking it was an undesirable plaything for a nine-year-old boy and had +put it, as the most convenient place, in her car. And the pepper gun was +filled--as it should have been--with good red cayenne pepper! + + + + +Chapter XII + +Sheep! + + +For a moment Betty hesitated, almost afraid of what she was going to do. +The pepper gun might work, but if she were not quick enough or clever +enough, her little trick might also result in a tragedy. + +Her hesitation was only momentary, however, for Betty was a born fighter. +Suddenly she cried out as if in joyful greeting to an unexpected arrival. + +"Here they come! here they come!" she called, and in the moment that their +captor turned his startled eyes from her to the road ahead, Betty acted. + +She snatched the pepper gun from its hiding place in the car and as the +man once more turned furiously upon her let him have the full contents +directly in the face. + +It was a dreadful thing to do. Choking and sputtering, the ruffian dropped +his revolver and raised both fists to his tortured eyes. + +"I'll get you for this!" he cried between great sneezes that threatened to +tear him apart. "You just wait--" + +But Betty refused to wait. As soon as the fellow had dropped his weapon +she had started the engine, and now she guided the car past the stuttering +robber and raced off down the road. + +Mollie, who had only half understood what was going on but who had caught +enough of it to be considerably alarmed did not stop to ask questions, but +sped off down the road after Betty. + +It was half a dozen miles farther on that Betty finally slowed the car and +waited for Mollie and the others to catch up with her. Grace, who had been +gradually recovering from her fright, had not yet recovered enough to ask +any questions. She had been too much concerned in putting miles between +them and the scene of their adventure. + +As Mollie came up alongside, Betty drew her first free breath. + +Of course Mollie and Amy and Mrs. Irving wanted to hear all about it, and +Betty told them what had happened, her account interrupted by hysterical +laughter. + +But when she came to the pepper gun, the girls' expression of utter +bewilderment changed to admiration of Betty's quick thought and quicker +action. + +"Why, Betty," cried Amy, incredulously, "I don't see how you ever had the +courage to do it. Why, that man might have shot you!" + +"He probably would have if I hadn't got him first," said Betty, half-way +between laughter and tears. "It was taking an awfully big chance, but," +with a flash of spirit, "I wasn't going to sit there calmly and have him +take away all our money. Not if I could help it." + +"Betty, I think you were simply wonderful," said Mollie in heart-felt +admiration. "Why, if he had taken our money it would have completely +spoiled our trip." + +"How they talk," said Grace hysterically. "Any one would think it was only +the trip that mattered when we might very easily have been _killed._" + +This remark served to bring Mrs. Irving to a realization of the present, +and she suggested that they start on again. + +"Not that I am particularly nervous," she hastily added, as the girls +looked at her suspiciously. "Only I will feel just as well when we have +put a dozen miles between us and that highway robber, instead of only half +that. I wish there was a town handy where we could notify the +authorities." + +They started on again, and as the miles slid past them they became less +nervous and even began to laugh a little at thought of the robber's +consternation when he received the contents of Betty's pepper gun full in +his face. + +"He was probably the most surprised crook ever," commenced Grace with a +chuckle. "He never will get over cursing you, Betty. How did you ever +happen to have it? The pepper gun, I mean," she added curiously. + +Betty explained how the gun had come into her possession. "I didn't know," +she added ruefully, her foot on the accelerator as they sped up a steep +hill, "when I bought it, that it would come in so handy. How much further +do you suppose we have to go?" she asked, changing the subject abruptly. + +"Why," said Grace, looking at her wrist watch and realizing suddenly that +she was getting rather hungry, "we have been riding since ten o'clock and +it is now after noon. We must be very nearly there by this time. Goodness, +I hope there will be something to eat around Wild Rose Lodge. I'm getting +famished." + +"Mollie's Uncle John said he would attend to that--stocking the cabin with +good things, I mean," said Betty, herself suddenly conscious of a +disturbingly hungry feeling. "He said we would find enough canned things +to last us at least a week." + +"Canned things, yes," pouted Grace. "But who in the world wants to live on +canned things? I don't see why we didn't bring a chicken along, at least." + +"Well, maybe we can manage to run over one," chuckled Betty, as they +passed a farmhouse and several chickens scuttled squawking across the +road. "Then we can have one good and fresh. For goodness' sake, what is +Mollie tooting that horn for?" she added, as the raucous signal came from +the car behind them, "Has she stopped the car, Grace? Look and see." + +"It's stopped deader than a door nail," said Grace, obligingly screwing +about in her seat and fixing on the road behind them a disapproving eye. +"Now what do you suppose can be the trouble this time? If she has had a +blowout or something, I'm not going to help fix the old thing--" + +"You couldn't fix the blowout, dear, but you might help with the tire," +Betty said, with a laugh, as she stopped the roadster and jumped to the +road. "Come on, she seems to be excited about something--" + +"Goodness, I hope it isn't another highway robber," said Grace anxiously, +stopping in the middle of the road at the dreadful thought. "I don't see +any, but--" + +"You don't see any because there _isn't_ any," Betty assured her, +taking her by the arm and leading her decidedly forward. "You don't +suppose there is a whole Robin Hood's band in this woods, do you?" + +Mollie and Amy and Mrs. Irving came running to meet them excitedly--or at +least, Mollie and Amy did the running, while their chaperon followed more +slowly. + +"There are blackberries in there, whole bushels and bushels of them!" +Mollie called. "You could see them from the road, and there you girls +passed right by them without even looking." + +"Blackberries!" repeated Grace resignedly, as she felt in her pocket to +see if she had any candy left. "Just listen to her speaking of +blackberries when what I'm dying for is a good big steak with onions on +top of it--" + +"Stop it," cried Mollie indignantly, while the others felt their mouths +begin to water. "The idea of mentioning steak--But here," she broke off, +seizing Grace's hand and dragging her toward the woods, "come with me and +pick berries if you value your life. Lucky we brought those tin pails +along." + +"But why," protested Grace patiently, as she was dragged along, "should we +want to pick berries?" + +"To eat," replied Mollie, attacking a bush that was fairly black with the +luscious ripe fruit. "And besides," she added, lowering her voice to a +confidential pitch, "Mrs. Irving said that if she could find some flour +and baking powder in the lodge she would make us a steamed blackberry +pudding for supper." + +Grace stared for a moment then, without another word, set to work on the +loaded bush. + +"You might have told me that before," she grumbled, her mouth full of +berries. "You always did have a mean disposition, Mollie." + +To which Mollie's only reply was a chuckle and a sly wink at Betty, who +was working close at her side. + +They worked on happily for a few minutes, then suddenly Amy straightened +up and stood quiet as though she were listening to something. + +The girls, whose nerves were still a little on edge from their recent +adventure, demanded to know in no uncertain tones what was the matter with +her. + +"N-nothing," Amy answered a little sheepishly. "I thought I heard a little +rustling among the leaves, that's all." + +"Probably a breeze coming up," said Betty matter-of-factly, and they went +on with their berry picking. + +But it was not long before a second disturbance came, and this time they +all heard it. It was, as Amy had said, a rustling sound. However, it was +louder this time, as though several heavy bodies were pushing through the +underbrush on the other side of the road. + +"Perhaps we had better go and see what is making all the noise," said Mrs. +Irving, her light tone successfully hiding an undercurrent of nervousness. +"I guess we have picked enough berries for our pudding, anyway." + +The girls picked up their pails and started for the road, Betty in the +lead. But when the latter reached the outer fringe of bushes she started +back, almost treading on Mollie's toes and causing her to drop her pail in +alarm. + +"It's sheep!" cried the Little Captain. "Dozens and dozens of them! Come +and look!" + + + + +Chapter XIII + +The Enemy Routed + + +Mrs. Irving pushed forward beside Betty, and the girls stared +unbelievingly over her shoulder. Then they saw that she was right. + +While they had been picking berries in the woods a flock of sheep had +wandered down to the road from the other direction and had completely +surrounded their two cars. + +The big-eyed, innocent looking animals were circling around and around the +machines as if examining them with a sort of ovine interest and curiosity. + +But to the girls the sheep had a rather terrifying aspect. There were so +many of them and they had so completely taken possession of their +automobiles! How in the world were they ever to get back their property? + +"Goodness!" Grace whispered plaintively in Betty's ear, "I expect they +will try to climb into the cars next. What ever are we going to do?" + +"Sh," cautioned Amy fearfully, as some of the flock, attracted by the +noise in the bushes, turned their heads in the direction of it. "Suppose +they should come in here?" + +"Well, they are not lions, you goose," said Mollie, coming out of the +trance into which surprise had thrown her. "They are only sheep, and they +couldn't hurt you if they tried." + +"Not unless they stampeded," said Betty quietly. "In that case I wouldn't +care to be in the way." + +"But we can't stay here all night," Mollie protested impatiently. + +"Held up by a lot of silly old sheep," added Grace, still more +uncomfortably conscious of a growing appetite. + +"It must be almost two o'clock," added Amy with a sigh. + +"Yes, if things keep on this way it will be night before we reach the +lodge," said Mollie, adding with decision, "I vote that we get some sticks +and stones and scat 'em out of the way." + +"I think I have a better suggestion than that," put in Mrs. Irving, +speaking for the first time. "I think we had better wait for a short time +before we do anything. The sheep will probably get tired in a little while +and wander off of their own accord." + +"Oh, all right," said Mollie, with rather bad grace as she seated herself +on a convenient rock. "But all the time we are waiting for them to be +tired, we will be getting tired ourselves and, goodness, Mrs. Irving, I'm +being starved to death." + +At the desperation in her tones the girls had to laugh, though they were +as reluctant to sit with folded hands and wait as she was. Still, Mrs. +Irving was their chaperon and probably knew best. + +So with admirable resignation they disposed themselves beside Mollie on +the big rock and settled down to watch for developments. + +But after waiting for an everlasting five minutes they decided that there +were to be no developments. The foolish sheep continued to circle lazily +about the cars, nibbling now and then upon the grass by the roadside but +showing not the slightest intention in the world of moving from there for +some time to come. + +"Oh, what shall we do?" moaned Grace, moving restlessly on her +uncomfortable seat. "My foot is going to sleep and I'm trying to sit on a +pointed stone or something." + +"And it looks as though those crazy sheep were going to stay there all +night," added Betty, herself growing restive at the apparent futility of +waiting for something to happen. "Can't we do something, Mrs. Irving?" + +"Wait just a few minutes more," begged the lady, who was afraid of the +sheep, but was reluctant to confess her fear to her young charges. "Look, +there seems to be a movement among them now," she added hopefully, as one +sheep pressed against another and sent it scampering a few feet along the +road. "We won't have to wait much longer, I am sure." + +And so, both to break their chaperon's authority, the girls fidgeted and +fumed, getting more impatient and hungrier with every leaden minute that +dragged itself by until almost three-quarters of an hour had passed. + +Then, when they began to think that they must scream if they were forced +to wait another minute, their chaperon rose of her own accord and with a +decided movement flicked the dust from her skirt. + +"I think we have waited long enough," she hazarded, to which each girl +said a fervent though silent "amen." "I suppose we shall have to follow +Mollie's suggestion and gather sticks and stones. Perhaps we can scare +them away." + +"Hooray!" shouted Mollie, jumping to her feet with relief. At the +unexpected sound the sheep in the road started and looked about them +uneasily. "Come on, girls, I'm mad enough to attack Jem single-handed. All +who are with me, say Aye." + +"Aye!" they yelled, scurrying about to find sticks and stones. + +Betty, flourishing a branch at the frightened flock, yelled: "We are wild, +wild women, old sheep. You had better get out while the going's good. We +eat little fellers like you alive!" and with a whoop of wild spirits she +danced down to the edge of the wood waving her stick wildly about her +head. + +Her fun was contagious and, smothering their laughter, the girls waltzed +after her, throwing sticks and stones and all sorts of improvised weapons +into the midst of the now thoroughly frightened flock. + +Mrs. Irving strove to caution them, but her voice was lost in the babble, +and for once in her life at least she found herself utterly ignored. With +a little sigh she picked up a stick of her own and followed after the +girls. + +For a moment it looked as though the panic stricken sheep would rush +straight for the shouting girls, and in that moment what was little more +than an exciting game to the girls might have turned into a rather +dreadful tragedy. + +But, luckily, half a dozen sheep broke through and, led by an old ram, +started down the road and the rest of the flock, as is the habit of sheep, +followed after. + +In a moment the entire flock was galloping off down the road with the +excited girls in pursuit. There is no telling how far they might have +followed the sheep had not Betty become suddenly possessed of a grain of +common-sense. + +Panting and laughing, she came to a standstill while the girls rushed past +her. + +"Come back here!" she cried, her voice choked with laughter. "There's no +use of our being as silly as the sheep. Mrs. Irving will think we have +deserted her." + +So reluctantly the girls abandoned the chase and started back to rejoin +their much relieved but slightly dazed chaperon. + +"Now if we had only done that an hour ago," said Mollie, as they climbed +back into the machines determined to make up for lost time, "we would have +been that much nearer the lodge and--something to eat." + +"Goodness, it will be almost dark when we get there now," wailed Grace, as +she slipped into the seat beside Betty. "And we haven't had anything to +eat since breakfast." + +"What with highway robbers and sheep," laughed Betty, as she started the +engine, "we shall be lucky if we get there at all." + +"Oh, Betty, if you love me don't mention that awful highwayman again," +begged Grace, looking uneasily into the shadows of the wood. "I don't want +to have any more thrills like that as long as I live." + +"Let's hope we won't," said Betty fervently. + +"It's a pity there is no telephone along this road--we could notify the +folks at Deepdale," remarked Mollie. + +"Humph, if we did that they might get so scared that they'd send for us to +come home," came from Amy. + +"That's so!" came from the other Outdoor Girls quickly. + +"Well, as I said before, no more thrills like that for yours truly," +repeated Grace. + +But little did the girls know that in the weeks to follow they would have +more and more startling thrills than they had ever experienced before. + + + + +Chapter XIV + +Nothing Human + + +They might have reached Wild Rose Lodge before dusk, in spite of Grace's +gloomy prediction, if everything had gone well then. But it seemed that +the evil genius of bad luck was not yet through with them. + +They were scarcely five miles from their destination when, bang! went a +report that made the girls clutch at each other wildly. At first they +jumped to the conclusion that they were being held up again, but close on +the heels of the first thought came the conviction of the truth. Mollie +had had a blowout! + +Betty, looking behind, saw the big car stop and brought her own little +roadster to a standstill once more. "There is nothing wrong with our +tires, is there?" she asked of Grace. "Look over your side, Gracie, and +see." + +Finding nothing amiss, they jumped out and ran back to Mollie to offer +assistance. Mollie was eyeing the flat tire gloomily and saying things +under her breath that none of the girls could catch. Then as Betty spoke +to her she seemed to come to life and ran around to the back of the +machine. + +"Of course you can help," she answered, working to release the extra tire. +"I would like to see you get out of it. Lucky I bought an extra tire +before we started, though I did hope," here she glared at the girls as if +it were all their fault, "that I wouldn't have to use it so soon. We've +had more trouble on this ride than any I can remember. A hold-up, sheep +and--this!" + +"Well, there is no use talking about it," Betty reminded her cheerfully. +"The less we talk, the harder we can work and the sooner we shall get +started again." + +"Yes, that's all very well," grumbled Mollie, as she fumbled for her +tools; "but you don't know this place as well as I do." + +"You talk," said Amy, her eyes widening, "as though there were wild +animals or something in the woods. I didn't know they came as far east as +this." + +"They don't, goose," said Mollie grumpily, as she pulled at the tire. "I +didn't say anything about wild animals, did I? Only we have to ride about +two miles through the woods before we get to the lodge and I must say I +didn't want to do that in the dark." + +"But there is some sort of road, isn't there?" asked Grace. + +Mollie, bending over the lifting jack, shot her a withering glance. + +"Of course there's a road," she said shortly. "How else could we expect to +use the cars?" + +"It must be a sort of wagon road," suggested Betty as she deftly helped +her chum. "And I don't blame you for not wanting to try it at night, +Mollie. I don't much like the idea myself." + +"I believe if we hurry that we can get there before dusk," said Mrs. +Irving confidently, though it might have been noticed that she kept her +eyes rather anxiously on the fast sinking sun. + +At last, after what seemed an eternity to the impatient girls, the new +tire had replaced the old one, the old one was safely strapped on the back +of the car, the tools were put away, and they were ready to start once +more. + +"Give her plenty of gas this time, Betty," Mollie sung after her as the +Little Captain climbed into her car. "If we can manage to get to the woods +before dark we will be doing good work. Let her go." + +With which advice she settled herself behind the wheel of her own car and +they were off once more. + +Betty did "give her plenty of gas," the result being that they succeeded +in reaching the wagon road that led into the woods to the lodge just on +the edge of dusk. + +However, when they started along the road they were dismayed to find that +what was only dusk outside on the road became almost dark in here, and +Betty had all she could do to keep to the road at all. + +"Hadn't you better put on your lights?" Grace suggested uneasily. "We +might run into a ditch or something. Betty, I'm half scared." + +For answer Betty switched on the lights and the woods and the road ahead +of them were suddenly flooded with a weird radiance. It brought out +branches and leaves and stones in such sharp contrast to the dark +background that the effect was startling. + +"Oh," gasped Grace, "turn them off again, do, Betty. It is positively +ghastly." + +"Don't be foolish," said Betty, striving to make her voice sound +matter-of-fact, her eyes glued to the road ahead of them as it twisted and +turned through the woods. "I don't see why lights should make a perfectly +harmless wood look ghastly. And, anyway, I couldn't turn them out now. I +don't believe I could find my way. You don't want me to run into +something, do you?" + +"No, of course not," Grace said more firmly, rather ashamed of her fears. +"I didn't mean to act in a silly fashion. But," she turned to Betty +quickly, "that hold-up and all--don't you feel a little queer yourself, +Betty? Tell the truth." + +"Yes," said the Little Captain truthfully. "I feel," she added slowly, as +though searching for words, "I feel as though the woods belonged to +somebody and that we were sort of--sort of--intruding." + +"Why, Betty!" said Grace, staring at her, "what a funny thing to say." + +"I suppose it is," said Betty, shaking off the illusion with a shrug of +her shoulders. "I am getting foolish in my old age I guess. We shall all +feel better when we get something to eat." + +"If we ever do," said Grace gloomily, adding as a sudden turn in the woods +shot them deeper into the gloom of it: "Do be careful, Betty. I feel as +though we were going over a precipice." + +But Betty was too busy keeping the road to listen to her. + +"Look behind," she directed Grace, "and see if Mollie is following close +to us." + +"She is right behind," reported Grace, as two eyes of light shot their +glare in her eyes. "She is following us closer than a poor relation." + +Betty giggled at this, and then for a long time--or at least it seemed a +long time to their strained nerves--they went on in silence, following the +winding road wherever it led and getting deeper into the forest with every +moment. + +Then suddenly something loomed up dark against the shadows only a few +hundred feet ahead of them, and with a great feeling of thankfulness they +realized that they had reached their destination. Directly ahead of them +stood Wild Rose Lodge. They had arrived! + +But just as they were about to break into wild jubilation something +happened that tightened Betty's hand on the wheel and made Grace cry out +with dismay. + +Out from the shadow of the lodge a second shadow detached itself, a +hunched up, bulky, fearful shadow that seemed neither beast nor man, but a +combination of both of them. + +For a moment, while the girls watched, paralyzed with fright, the thing +seemed about to spring into the path of the moving car. But in another +instant it turned, wheeled, and disappeared into the thick bushes about +the house. + +Then and only then did Betty recover presence of mind enough to stop the +car. + +"Betty! Betty!" cried Grace in a horrified whisper, grasping Betty's hand +as it clung to the wheel. "What was it? Oh, what was it?" + +"I don't know," Betty answered mechanically. "I only know it was +horrible." + +Then quite suddenly and without warning Grace broke down and cried. + + + + +Chapter XV + +Wild Roses + + +"We will go into the house," Mrs. Irving answered to their concerted cry of +"What shall we do?" "Whatever it was that has frightened us has +disappeared now, and we shall certainly be safer inside the house than out +here. Come on, girls, I have the key." + +And so, leaving the cars where they were, the girls approached the house +with shaking knees and hearts that hammered their fear aloud. The Outdoor +Girls were ordinarily afraid of nothing real and human, but to be held up +at the point of a pistol would unnerve almost any one, and the struggle +the girls had made not to give way to their fears at the time had made +them more nervous still. And this thing that had startled them now, added +to what had gone before, seemed a little more than could be borne. It +seemed, in fact, like nothing human. + +Mrs. Irving turned the key in the lock, opened the door and stepped inside +the dark place, motioning to the girls to follow her. + +Fearfully the chums obeyed and Betty and Mollie pulled out their electric +pocket torches, filling the place with a weird light. Mollie, being +acquainted with the place, naturally took charge of the situation. + +"There are matches over there," she said, "and candles over the fireplace. +For goodness' sake, let's get a regular light, folks. Perhaps that will +make us feel more natural." + +"So say all of us," echoed Amy. "The dark makes everything worse, when you +are not well acquainted with a place." + +Mollie touched a match to the candles, and in the answering flare turned +to face her chums. + +"Girls," she said, determinedly, "I don't know how you feel about it, but +I vote that before we do anything else we get something to eat. We all +look like ghosts just now and I'm sure we feel much worse than that. But a +little food makes a monstrous lot of difference." + +"You know it does," cried Grace, relaxing into one of the big chairs that +were scattered about the room and covering her face with her hands. "I +think if I don't get something to eat soon, I'll die, that's all." + +"Well, we are none of us going to die," said Mrs. Irving vigorously, as +she threw aside her coat and hat. "Show us the way to the kitchen, Mollie, +and if there is anything there to eat, we will get it." + +Accordingly Mollie took one of the candles and led the way into a little +room beyond while all the girls but Betty crowded in after her. + +For the Little Captain slipped back for a moment and very quietly closed +the door, shutting out definitely the shadow beyond it. + +"I suppose it is foolish," she said to herself, "because if there is +anything out there that really wants to get in there are plenty of ways +that it can do it, without coming in through the door. But," and she +turned the key in the lock, "it certainly makes one feel more comfortable +to have the door closed." Then she followed the girls into the other room, +and the sight that met her eyes was certainly more cheering than anything +she could have imagined. + +Mollie's Uncle John had surprised them. In the exact center of a table set +for five lay a young pig, roasted whole and browned to a turn! Nor was +this all. The table was littered with covered dishes of all sizes and +descriptions, and as the contents of each one of these dishes was +disclosed, the girls became more and more excited and hilarious. + +There was apple sauce in one, salad in another, mashed potatoes that had +become quite cold in another, and a boat of gravy which had also become +quite cold. + +"But we don't mind," cried Mollie joyfully, as she took the gravy-boat in +one hand, the dish of potatoes in the other, and ran with them over to a +great stove in one corner of the room. "We need only some matches to have +this blazing hot in a minute. No, not that way, Grace," as the latter +tried to help by lighting the burner. "This isn't a gas stove, you know; +it's an oil stove and you had better look out or you will blow us all up." + +It is small wonder if Betty was so dazzled by this joyful scene that she +could neither move nor speak for the space of two seconds or so. Then, +recovering her powers of locomotion, she went over to the table and picked +up a note that, in their excitement, the girls had overlooked. + +"See what this says," she called to them, and they looked at her rather +impatiently. Just at that moment the only thing they cared to consider was +food--and more food--and then some more! + +But as Betty read they became more interested, and even stopped long +enough to hear her through. It was a brief note. This is what it said. + + "My dear young ladies: + + "I am a neighbor of Mr. Prendergast," (this was the dressed-up name + of Mollie's Uncle John) "and he axed me to get your dinner ready fer + you. I tried to keep it hot but you wus so long comin' I had to go + home to get dinner fer my old man. Hope things is all right. + + "Lizzie Davis." + +"So she is the one who has done all this," said Betty, looking around at +the good things with dancing eyes. "I bet she is nice and plump and has +rosy cheeks." + +"Lizzie Davis? Lizzie Davis?" repeated Mollie, bringing the steaming gravy +back and plumping the dish triumphantly down on the table. "Rather a funny +name for a fairy godmother, but she sure does know how to cook. Don't +forget the potatoes, Grace. Come on, girls--let's sit down." + +So down the girls sat and acted like ravenous pigs--or so Grace described +their conduct afterward. Mrs. Irving set to work carving the delicious +pork, but they could not wait for her. + +They seized slices of bread, spread apple sauce and butter on them, and +ate like what they were, four famished girls and one equally famished +chaperon who had been out in the open all day and had had nothing to eat +since morning. + +It was some time before they showed any considerable signs of slowing up. +Then Grace put down her fork, leaned back lazily, and called for dessert. +The latter was a huge cherry pie, and before the girls were through with +it there was not enough left to color a robin's egg. + +After the pangs of hunger had been satisfied they found to their great +surprise that they were dead tired and sleepy. + +"We will get the dishes out of the way and then Mollie can show us where +we sleep," said Betty. "Oh, girls, did you ever in your life taste such a +dinner?" + +It was not till the dishes had all been cleared away and Mollie took up +her candle to show them their quarters that the unwelcome thought of the +thing that had so frightened them again crept terrifyingly into their +minds. Try as they would to forget it, they could not. + +There were three small sleeping rooms in the lodge, but, small as they +were, they were comfortable and contained beds that seemed the height of +luxury to the tired girls. + +Because of the indistinct and flickering candle light the girls could make +out very little of what the rooms really looked like, and they postponed +any close examination until the morning. Back of the lodge was a shed for +the cars. + +The bedrooms were all joined by doors, which gave the girls a safe and +sociable feeling. Mrs. Irving, of course, had one room to herself, Betty +and Mollie slept together and Grace and Amy paired off. + +They wasted little time in getting ready--Betty and Mollie had appointed +themselves a committee of two to bring in the grips from Mollie's car--and +before long they tasted the exquisite restfulness of comfortable beds +after a long nerve-trying day in the out-of-doors. + +"I don't believe I shall close my eyes all night," said Amy with +conviction. "I'm too horribly nervous." + +But three minutes later she was sound asleep! + +The sun had been up a good two hours before any one stirred in Wild Rose +Lodge. Betty was the first to awake, and in fifteen minutes she had the +rest of the sleepy-eyed and protesting girls up and nearly dressed. + +"What's the idea, anyway?" yawned Grace lazily. "I could have slept at +least a good two hours more." + +"On a day like this?" sang Betty, breathing in deep breaths of the +wood-scented air. "And isn't this just the dearest room you ever saw?" +she added, wheeling about and regarding the apartment delightedly. They +were in Grace and Amy's room, for, as usual, Mollie and Betty had been +the first dressed and had gone into their churns' room to hurry them up +--if such a thing were possible. + +Betty's summing up of the room they were in was indeed well deserved, for +the place was charming. There was a dresser, a bed, and three chairs, and +all of these articles of furniture had been rough-hewed out of logs, +giving the place a delightfully rustic appearance. There was a grass rug +on the floor and in one corner a little table covered with books. + +"Isn't it darling?" cried Mollie, following Betty's glance about the +place. "Uncle John built the lodge and made all of the furniture himself, +you know. And he bought the grass rugs from the Indians." + +They were still exclaiming about the place when Mrs. Irving called to them +that breakfast was ready. With a whoop of delight they answered the +summons, and a moment later sat themselves down to a most satisfying meal +of omelet and toast and coffee with real cream in it. Also Mrs. Irving set +on the table a yellow-topped pitcher of milk fresh from the cow. + +"Our friend, Lizzie Davis, brought it," their chaperon answered with a +smile, in response to the girls' curious questions. "Also some fresh +butter and eggs. I have an idea," she added, as she got up to refill the +butter plate, "that we shall live on the fat of the land while we are +here." + +"Lizzie Davis," repeated Betty, pausing in the act of filling her glass +with fresh milk and regarding Mrs. Irving with dancing eyes. "Tell me, +chaperon dear. Didn't she have nice red cheeks, and wasn't she +delightfully plump?" + +"Yes," said Mrs. Irving, smiling at Betty's flushed prettiness. "She was +all of that, my dear. I don't believe I ever saw a more cozy looking +person in my life." + +"I knew it!" cried Betty triumphantly, adding with a suspicious eye on +Grace: "Hand over that plate of toast, Gracie. You needn't think you can +eat it all up!" + +After breakfast they sallied forth to "view the country o'er." They would +have stayed and helped Mrs. Irving clear up, but that good woman declared +that she could do better by herself on this first morning. After she had +become better acquainted with the place they could help her all they +liked. Finally, after some protest, they had to let her have her way. + +As they stepped out on the porch, Betty paused and held up her hand for +silence. + +"Listen," she said. "That murmuring sound and the splash of water--" + +"It's the river and the falls," explained Mollie. "Let's go down and have +a look at them." + +But Amy, giving a little gasp of delight, fairly tumbled down the steps +and into a riot of gorgeous pink wild roses. The lodge was fairly +surrounded by them. + +"Oh, you darlings!" cried Amy, putting both arms around a bush of the +fragrant flowers as though she would gather in all their beauty at once. +"I never saw anything so wonderful in all my life! Oh, girls, I'm glad I +came!" + + + + +Chapter XVI + +The Whirlpool + + +All the spirit and joy of the woods seemed to have entered into the +Outdoor Girls. For the next half hour they romped in the woods and the +beautiful flowers for all the world like little children whose first +glimpse it was of the country. + +They took down their hair and made wreaths of wild roses for crowns, and +when, faces flushed with exercise and fun, they had finished, one might +easily have mistaken them for real fairies come to life. + +"But I want to see the river," Betty called to them, stopping once more to +listen to the rhythmic sound of splashing water. "Come on, girls. It can't +be more than a few hundred feet away, even though we can't see it for the +bushes. Lead on, Mollie Billette, I wouldst hie me hence." + +But when Mollie laughingly obeyed and started into the woods, Amy held +back. + +"What's the matter?" Grace asked, turning to her curiously. + +"I--I was just thinking," stammered Amy, ashamed of her own weakness, +"about last night." + +"About last night," Betty prompted, still at a loss. + +"You haven't forgotten, have you?" she asked, incredulously. "That--thing +--on the porch." + +"Oh!" they said, and a shadow fell over their bright faces. + +"Why, yes," said Betty, slowly, adding as though she could not quite +explain the phenomenon herself: "I suppose we did forget all about it." + +"Or if we didn't, we should have," said Mollie, ungrammatically but +decidedly. "Come on, girls, we aren't going to let any silly old thing +like that frighten us out of a good time." + +"It seems," said Grace thoughtfully, while Amy still held back, "almost as +if we had dreamed the whole thing. The memory of it is so vague--and +indistinct." + +"Well, it isn't vague to me--or indistinct either," said Amy, feeling +rather abused because the girls did not seem to share her feelings. "I +hardly slept all night long just thinking about it." + +"Oh, Amy Blackford!" said Grace accusingly, while Mollie and Betty turned +twinkling eyes upon her. "If that isn't the biggest one I ever heard. Why, +I woke up once or twice in the night and each time I found you almost +snoring." + +"Oh, I did not," protested Amy, flushing indignantly, but here Mollie and +Betty stepped laughingly into the fray and peremptorily put an end to it. + +"Let's not fight about it," said Betty, when she could make herself heard. +"We don't care whether Amy snored or not. What we want to know is this: +Who is coming with us for a look at the falls?" + +"Now you're talking, Little Captain," said Mollie approvingly. "All in +favor please say Aye." Amy still showed some inclination to hold back, +but Mollie and Betty each took an arm and hurried her willy-nilly with +them into the woods. + +"You had better take the lead, Mollie," Betty suggested after they had +gone some little distance along the path. "I can manage Amy alone now, I +guess. She seems pretty well tamed." + +"Tamed, but scared to death," Amy came back, with a wry smile. "Really, +Betty," she turned to look at the Little Captain closely, "aren't you the +least little bit nervous about what happened last night?" + +"No, I don't think I am now," said Betty, adding candidly, "I must say I +was last night though--just frightened to death. It seemed so awfully +uncanny--coming upon that thing in the dark after what we had gone through +with that bandit. But then," she added more lightly, "everything seems so +much worse in the dark, you know." + +"Yes," said Amy slowly and looking very serious. "That all may be very +true. But I think that as long as we are sure we didn't dream it last +night and that the skulking thing really dodged out from the corner of our +porch that we ought to be on our guard against it. And how," she finished +most reasonably, "can we be on our guard in the woods?" + +Betty was at a loss to know just how to answer such a question. By this +time Mollie and Grace were some little distance ahead of them and Amy's +nervousness was beginning to communicate itself to her against her will. + +She felt again the creeping sensation that had traveled up and down her +spine at sight of that crouching, sinister figure that had sprung out from +the shadow of the porch. + +It had disappeared into the bushes last night, and, for all she knew--and +the thought made her tingle weirdly--it might still be hiding in them, +crouching, ready to spring-- + +With an effort she shook off the mood and turned to Amy brightly. + +"There is no use in our making a mountain out of a mole hill," she said, +plucking a wild rose as they swung by and smelling of its delicious +fragrance. "Last night, I admit, it seemed very terrifying to us, but that +was probably because we couldn't see what it was that frightened us. It +may just have been a large dog or something." + +"Humph," sniffed Amy, sceptically, "it must have been a monster dog. Sort +of a ghost hound." + +"Goodness, that's going from bad to worse," laughed Betty, as they +rejoined the other girls. "Let's hope it isn't anything like that, Amy +dear. Hello, what are you waiting for?" she hailed the girls cheerfully. +"We almost fell over you." + +"Watch your step," cautioned Mollie, adding as she cleared aside some +bushes and motioned Betty to a place beside her: "We've reached the river, +Betty, and a little farther up is the falls. Isn't it beautiful?" + +"Oh, it is beautiful," rejoined Betty, a sentiment which Amy heartily +echoed, and for a few minutes they stood there, drinking in the beauty of +the scene, entirely unmindful of the lovely picture they themselves made +with their loosened hair and wreaths of wild flowers. + +The river was not very wide, but the water was deep and clear and swift +and the continual swish-swish of its passage over rocks and between +foliage-laden banks made a pleasant, even sound that was deliciously +restful and refreshing. + +"Oh, if we could only get down right into the very middle of it and let +those little ripples wash over us forever and forever!" sighed Grace +ecstatically. + +"She would a little mermaid be!" sang Betty, as she slipped down to the +very edge of the water and leaned over to catch her reflection in the +bright depths of it. "But honestly, Mollie, isn't there any place in the +river where we can swim?" + +"It looks too swift for good swimming to me--" began Grace, but Mollie +stopped her with a mysterious finger to her lips. + +"Hush, my pretty one, not a word," said the latter, beginning to pick her +way daintily along the river bank. "Follow me and you will wear diamonds, +or seaweed, or whatever it is that mermaids wear. And don't fall over, +whatever you do," she turned around to caution them. "The river is so +swift here that I don't believe even the strongest swimmer would have a +chance." + +Accordingly the girls "watched their step," and for some distance followed +Mollie uncomplainingly. Then, as there seemed no sign of their getting +anywhere, Grace started to protest. + +"Say, do you suppose she has any idea where she is going?" the latter +asked of Betty in a tone that was designed to reach Mollie's ear. But +before she could say anything more, Mollie herself swung jubilantly round +upon them. + +"Here we are, girls!" she cried. "Now see if you ever saw anything so +pretty in all your lives." + +Once more the girls stood spellbound by the natural beauty of the scene. +As they walked they had become more and more conscious of the roaring +noise made by rushing water, and now, ascending a small rise of ground, +they came full upon the majestic beauty of Moonlight Falls. + +The falls fell full thirty feet, and at the foot of it the river was +churned into swirling, liquid foam that whirled around and around again in +a sort of mad race and then went rushing off down the river in a shower of +lacy spray. + +It was wildly inspiring, exhilarating, and the girls thrilled with a +strange new emotion as they watched. It was so free, so gloriously +unchained! + +"There is our swimming pool over there," Mollie said, raising her voice to +make it heard above the roar of the water. "You see there is a sort of +little back eddy below the falls and to one side of it, and right there +we'll find the best swimming of our lives. But," she added, and her voice +was impressively solemn, "heaven help any one of us who gets in the path +of the falls." + +"Look!" cried Amy suddenly, her voice ringing out full and clear and +startled above the uproar. "That--thing--over there. It is going into the +falls--no, under them!" + +"Where?" cried Mollie eagerly, leaning far forward. "Oh, yes, I see what +you mean. Oh, girls, I'm slipping!" Her voice rose to a terrified wail. +"Betty! Catch me!" + +But Betty was too late. She sprang forward just in time to see Mollie +slide down the slippery bank and plunge into the maddened water of the +river! + + + + +Chapter XVII + +The "Thing" + + +It took the girls a moment to realize the extent of the awful thing that +had happened. Then Betty, obeying her first impulse, raised her hands +above her head as though to dive, but Amy screamed to her to stop. + +"You will only be lost too!" she cried frantically. "Look--that flat +stick--the long one--" + +Instantly Betty saw what she meant and stooped to pick up a long broken +branch that was lying at her feet. At the same instant Mollie came to the +surface several feet away from the spot where she had fallen and threw her +strength desperately against the rushing might of the river. + +Betty ran along the river bank, Amy and Grace at her heels, shouting +encouragement to Mollie as she ran. + +"Hold tight!" she cried, adding with fresh dismay as she saw that the girl +was being swept further from the shore: "Over this way, honey. Swim to +your right--to your right--" + +Blinded, chilled to the bone with the cold water, her hair in her eyes and +her skirts clinging tight about her legs, Mollie struggled wildly, unable +to hear the shouts of her chums above the ringing in her ears. + +It was taking all her strength to hold her own against the rush of the +river--and now she was not even doing that! Slowly, very slowly, she was +being pushed backward; in a little while more she would be sucked +downward, and then-- + +She closed her eyes, and then, as though the obliteration of one sense +made more clear the other, she heard Betty calling to her above the roar +of the falls. + +"Mollie! Mollie!" it came, faint but distinct, "take hold of the stick and +we'll pull you in. Mollie, do you hear me?" + +The girl in the water was still struggling hard against the current that +was dragging at her cruelly, and at the sound of Betty's words she shook +the water from her eyes and looked about her dazedly. She had forgotten +the girls. + +Then she saw something that sent a tingle of renewed hope through her +tired body. What she saw was a long branch bobbing on the water not two +feet from her outstretched hand, and at the other end of the stick +was--Betty. + +With a sigh that was half a sob she struck out for it, reached it, and +clung to it as only the drowning know how to cling. + +Then she felt herself being drawn through the water, and once more she +closed her eyes. When she opened them again she was on a warm grassy bank +with Amy chafing one hand, Grace the other, while Betty was busy +unfastening the clothes about her waist. + +As Mollie was never under any circumstances expected to act as people +thought she should act, so this occasion was no exception to the rule. She +pushed Amy and Grace aside, glared at Betty, and sat up with a little +jerk. + +"For goodness' sake, stop undressing me, Betty Nelson!" she said. "I'm not +dead yet." + +"So we see," said Betty, while her eyes lost their anxious expression and +began to twinkle instead. "But you might have been, you know, if we had +left you to yourself." + +Mollie looked down at her dripping clothes ruefully and then out at the +rushing water. + +"I guess you are right," she said with a little grimace. "It wasn't very +pleasant while it lasted, either. Whew, but that water was cold!" She +shivered involuntarily and Betty sprang to her feet. + +"We had better be getting back to the lodge," she said. "You can put on +some dry things, Mollie, and we girls will get you some hot soup. You are +chilled to the bone." + +"Nonsense," denied Mollie grumpily. "I'm beginning to feel fine and warm. +Besides," she added, trying to cover a chill that fairly made her teeth +ache, "I want to stay and find out about that thing that got us into all +this fuss." + +"Nonsense," Grace put in. Up to this time Grace had been made speechless +by Mollie's sudden recovery. "You are shivering so you can't sit still." + +"It makes me cold just to look at you," added Amy. + +"Don't be foolish, honey," said Betty impatiently. "You can't sit there +all day in dripping clothes, and besides you will really get cold." + +"Humph," grunted Mollie, getting to her feet rather unsteadily and shaking +out her sodden skirts. "I guess this isn't the first time I have taken a +dip in cold water. And besides," she added impatiently: "I don't know +about you girls, but I would like to know just what that thing was that we +saw dart beneath the falls." + +"That was what made you fall into the water, wasn't it?" asked Betty, her +forehead wrinkling thoughtfully. "You leaned so far out to see--" + +"Yes, yes," Mollie interrupted impatiently, all her curiosity revived. +"That was what made me fall into the water all right. But what I want to +know is--what was it?" + +"I don't know," said Betty, shaking her head. "I didn't see it." + +"Neither did I," Grace added. + +Mollie looked from one to the other of them open-mouthed. Then she turned +to Amy. + +"You saw it, didn't you?" she asked. "You screamed, you know." + +"Yes," said Amy, nodding her head very solemnly. "And it looked to me a +lot like what we saw last night." + +"Thank goodness, you saw it too or the girls would surely think I had been +dreaming or was crazy," said Mollie, with relief. Then she suddenly turned +and started off into the woods. "I'm going all alone to find out what that +was," she told her stupefied chums. "I've got to clear up the mystery +before I'm an hour older." + +But this time Mollie found that there was some one stronger than she, and +that was Betty. The Little Captain ran after her and brought her back, +protesting but captive. + +"We are going back to the house now and get you something hot to eat," +said Betty, as they rejoined Amy and Grace and started off toward home. +"Afterwards if everybody's willing we will hunt this strange beast that +jumps out from porches and leaps into rivers just for the fun of the +thing. But just now, Billy Billette, you are going home." + +But Mollie had been more severely shocked than she was willing to admit by +her experience, and it was some time before the girls visited the falls or +the river again. Meanwhile they contented themselves with exploring the +country about the lodge, taking short trips in the cars and wondering +whether the boys would really be home before the summer was over. + +Their days were not altogether happy, however, for the thought of that +weird thing prowling around in the woods and ready, for all they knew, to +spring out at them at every turn, refused to be banished from their minds. + +Then, too, they thought a great deal about poor Professor Dempsey and the +little ruined cottage in the woods. Somehow, they had an uneasy feeling +that if they had gone to him at the very first minute they had heard of +his trouble they might have helped him. Whereas, they had waited and--he +had fled. + +For a while the idea of a dip in the swimming pool was naturally not very +attractive to Mollie, but at last there came a day when she herself +suggested it and the girls enthusiastically seconded the motion. + +More than the prospect of a good time, was the hope, unexpressed, that +they might see again that strange thing which Amy and Mollie had only +glimpsed the time before. Perhaps, they thought, if the mysterious thing +were faced in the open and in broad daylight, it might prove to be no +mystery at all but something ordinary and commonplace enough to do away +with all their vague and weird imaginings. + +But in this expectation they were most completely disappointed. Nothing at +all unusual occurred and although they enjoyed their swim in the warm back +eddy of the pool, they came away disgruntled and with a curious feeling +that they had been cheated out of something. + +"I only wish the boys would come," sighed Amy, as they turned in once more +at the lodge. + +After that the "Thing" became almost like an obsession with them. They +must find out definitely what it was that was spoiling all their fun. They +began to haunt the river, especially at the foot of the falls, in the hope +of seeing something, anything that would put an end to their curiosity and +uneasiness. + +For a long time they had not got up courage enough to visit the place at +night, but at last they became curious enough to brave even that. + +"We have simply got to find out something," Mollie whispered to Betty as +on this particular night they stood on the porch and waited for Mrs. +Irving to join them. "We can't go on this way any longer, Betty. Why, I am +getting so nervous I jump if you look at me." + +"I know," said Betty soberly. "It really is getting on our nerves too +much. Amy and Grace are feeling it even worse than we are." + +"Yes," agreed Mollie grumpily. "Last night was the third night in +succession that Amy got us all out of bed to listen to some fool noise +outside. I'm just about sick of it." + +The other three came then and they had no further chance for conversation. +As a matter of fact, they talked surprisingly little on the walk to the +river. + +High above them a wonderful full moon sent its silvery light filtering +down through leaves and branches, making of the woods a fairyland. +Somehow, the very beauty of it filled the girls with a strange dread. To +them the patches of moonlight were weird, unreal, the shadowy woods held a +sinister menace. + +By the time they had reached the river's edge they were almost ready to +turn and run. But they conquered the impulse and pressed on. Then suddenly +they saw what they had hoped, yet dreaded, to see. + +On the opposite bank, staring down into the rapids with a terrible +intentness, stood a man, or something that resembled a man. In one awful, +breath-taking minute they realized that here at last was the "Thing." + +As they watched, the hunched-up crouching figure on the opposite bank made +a lumbering movement forward as though about to throw itself into the +water at the foot of the falls. + +"Oh!" screamed Betty, the words wrenched from her dry throat. "Don't do +that! You mustn't do that! Go back! For goodness' sake, go back!" + +With a hoarse cry that answered her own, the "Thing" flung back from the +water's edge and disappeared into the darkness! + + + + +Chapter XVIII + +Surprised + + +The Outdoor Girls could hardly have told how they got back to the lodge +after that. Blindly they stumbled through the underbrush, expecting they +knew not what horrible thing, thankful for the moonlight that made it +possible for them to hurry. + +They did reach home somehow and there they sat until late into the night, +trying to find some explanation for the thing they had seen, striving to +think up some plan for hunting it down until finally Mrs. Irving sent them +to bed. + +That did not do very much good, for they lay awake and talked until the +first rays of sunlight crept into the windows. Then they said goodnight +and sank into a sleep of exhaustion. + +For three days after the episode the girls never went far from the house +on foot. They would take the cars and spin down the open road, but a sort +of horror of the supernatural kept them from venturing into the woods +again. + +But when the fourth day dawned the fright of their moonlight experience +had begun to wear off and they were beginning to feel ashamed of their +fear. + +Having a little of this in her mind, Mollie gave voice to it at the +breakfast table. + +"I must say," she began, buttering a piece of bread energetically, "that +it isn't like us Outdoor Girls to let anything scare us into staying near +the house. Why, I declare, I don't believe there is one of us who would +dare poke her nose past that rose bush in front of the porch after +sundown. That's a pretty state of affairs, isn't it?" + +"Well, you needn't glare at me as if it were all my fault," retorted Amy +with spirit. "I'm sure I didn't wish the horrible old thing on us." + +"I only wish I knew who did," sighed Grace, adding, with a sudden burst of +ferocity: "I would wring his neck." + +"Suppose somebody suggests something we can do about it," said Betty +reasonably. "I'm sure that after the other night nobody could blame us for +being frightened." + +"No. But there is one thing I can blame you for," said Mollie, glaring +morosely at her chum. "And that is for not letting the horrible old thing +drown itself when it so very evidently wanted to. If that had happened all +our worries would have been over." + +"Goodness, Mollie, what a horrible idea!" Betty protested. + +"I don't think it was a horrible idea," Grace put in. "I think it was just +about the finest idea I ever heard of." + +"Yes," added Amy with a deceptive mildness, "if you hadn't called out just +then, Betty, the whole thing would have been over and the Thing would have +been drowned. And then," she added plaintively, "we would have been able +to enjoy our summer." + +"It really wasn't any of our business, you know," Grace finished, moodily. + +For a moment Betty sat and stared at them, undecided whether to be amused +or indignant. However, the latter emotion won and she turned upon the +girls with flashing eyes. + +"I think you are all perfectly horrid," she said. "And I would think you +were worse if I weren't perfectly sure that you don't really mean what you +say. Why, just suppose," she went on earnestly, "that we had willingly +permitted that man to commit suicide? Why, we would have been just as +guilty as if we had murdered him!" + +"But he may have done it since anyway," muttered Mollie stubbornly. "He +didn't have to wait to ask our permission, and there are plenty of times +that he can commit suicide when we are not around--if he really wants to +do it." + +"What he or anybody else does when we are not around, is not our +business," answered Betty. "We can't help what happens in our absence." + +"You seem to take it for granted that it is a man," Mollie continued, +still stubbornly argumentative. "But I am not so sure about that. The +several times that we have seen the--the--Thing--it has looked as much +animal as human to me." + +"Well, we won't argue that point," said Betty, rising and beginning to +clear away the dishes, "because we don't know anything about it." + +"That is just exactly what I am getting at," said Mollie earnestly, +leaning forward and resting her elbows on the table while the girls +watched her interestedly. "We don't know anything about it, but that is no +reason why we should sit back and twiddle our thumbs and start at +shadows." + +"Well, for goodness' sake, tell us what's on your mind," prompted Grace +impatiently. "We haven't sat back and twiddled our thumbs and started at +shadows because we enjoyed it, you know." + +"Now my plan is this," said Mollie, ignoring Grace, who shrugged her +shoulders and reached for her candy box. "Suppose we take a tramp through +the woods to the head of the falls? It is a beautiful hike and the scenery +at the falls is magnificent. But aside from that we will have a chance to +find out something about this thing that will do away with the mystery." + +"If it doesn't do away with us at the same time," said Amy so ruefully +that they had to laugh at her. + +"Well, what do you say?" asked Mollie, looking around the circle of +thoughtful faces--her glance a dare. + +For a moment it looked as if they all might refuse to go, but then their +sporting blood came to the fore and they decided for the adventure. + +But when they told Mrs. Irving about their project and begged her to say +yes to it, she looked very doubtful and only consented at last on the +proviso that she was to go with them. This they were only too glad to +have, and a few minutes later the lodge hummed with excitement and +preparation once more. To the Outdoor Girls, active and fun-loving by +nature, to be quiet for a few days was nothing short of torture. So now, +even though there was still more than a little fear of the "Thing" in +their hearts, they found relief in the promise of adventure. + +They put up some sandwiches and fruit in a basket in case they were not +able to get home by noon. Then they locked the door of the little lodge +and started down the steps. They hesitated before starting into the woods, +and Mollie had a happy thought. + +"We can go part of the way along the road," she said. "And then there is a +path that leads directly through to the head of the falls." + +The celerity with which they accepted this suggestion seemed funny to them +afterward, but at the time they had other things to think about. Mostly +they were wondering if they would really be able to hold on to their nerve +long enough to see the adventure through. + +"I wish," said Betty wistfully, as she had wished so many times of late, +"that the boys were here. They could help us out so beautifully." And she +sighed, for when she spoke of "the boys," she always thought of one boy +most--and that one was Allen. + +"Well, there's no use wishing for what can't possibly happen," Grace was +saying, when there came a whistle so clear and penetrating that it made +them jump--then another, and another. Was it just that they were nervous +or was there really something peculiarly familiar in the sound? At any +rate they stopped and turned around to see who the whistlers could be. + +There were three soldiers coming down the road, broad-shouldered, vital +looking fellows who swung along toward the astonished girls as though they +owned the world. + +"Betty, oh, Betty!" whispered Grace in a tense voice, grasping Betty's arm +so hard it hurt "It can't be, oh, it can't be the boys!" + +But Mollie had broken away from the group and was rushing toward the +soldier lads like the wild little tomboy she was. + +"Girls, it's the boys! it's the boys! it's the boys!" she yelled. "They're +all tanned and they're at least ten inches taller, but it's the boys just +the same." + +And before any of the other girls knew what she was about she had kissed +each one of them twice and was hanging on the tallest one's arm, who +happened to be Frank, laughing and crying at the same time. + +Then the girls seemed to decide that she had had the lads to herself long +enough, and they immediately entered the contest, all laughing at once, +all crying at once, and all talking at once, until it was a wonder the +boys did not lose their heads entirely. + +The only one who was not absolutely and completely and deliriously happy +was Betty. For the other three boys were there, but Allen had not come! + +As though reading her thought, Will, who was much handsomer and more manly +than when he went away, put an arm about the Little Captain's shoulder big +brother fashion and drew her aside from the rest. + +"You are wondering about Allen," he said, and Betty nodded eagerly. "You +see," continued Will, his face lighting up in a smile that would always be +boyish, "since Allen became one of the big bugs--which is another name for +officer, you understand--he had to pay the penalty and stay over there +with them for a little while longer. He will probably be over on the next +transport, although of course you can never be sure about that. Oh, and I +forgot," he put his hand in his pocket and drew forth a pocketknife, a wad +of string and--a little three-cornered note. "He asked me to give this to +you as soon as I saw you. So now you can tell him that 'I seen my duty and +I done it noble.'" + +With a twinkle in his eye Will turned back to the others and Betty was +left to open her note. This is what she read: + +"Gosh, some fellows do have all the luck, don't they? But never mind, +little girl. I'm coming to you by the very first boat, and when I get +there do you know what I'm going to do? Do you?" + +Betty wanted to run away by herself and read the note over and over again. +But she could not do that. With a sigh she hid the little message in a +pocket of her skirt and turned back to the others. + + + + +Chapter XIX + +Like Old Times + + +It was a long time before the boys and girls woke up to the fact that they +were still standing in the center of the road and that they might be ever +so much more comfortable on the porch of the lodge, if any one had had +sense enough to think that far. + +Mrs. Irving, who had been keeping herself rather in the background during +the first rapturous greetings, now came in for her share of salutations +and boyish greetings. The young soldiers crowded about her, patting her +hands and her shoulders and telling her how awfully fine she looked and +how glad they were to find her here until the lady actually blushed with +pleasure and begged them to stop their nonsense. In fact, it was she who +finally suggested that they go up to the lodge again. + +"I don't see why we didn't think of that before," said Mollie, joyfully +slipping an arm into Frank's and turning him right-about-face. "We are due +to talk all day anyway, so we might as well do it in comfort. Don't forget +the lunch basket, Betty," she called back to her chum. + +Betty would have forgotten the basket and left it where it stood just as +she had dropped it at the side of the road--and small wonder if she +had--but as she stooped to pick it up, Will's strong brown hand whipped +out in front of her nose and seized the handle firmly. + +"That's the idea," said Grace approvingly, adding with a sisterly pat on +his shoulder: "You run along with Amy and Mrs. Irving. I want to talk to +Betty." + +So Will, being a well-trained brother, did as he was told, and Grace drew +Betty behind the others. + +"What about Allen, honey?" she asked, her blue eyes honestly worried. "We +all missed him so, but we didn't like to say too much for fear--for fear--" + +"He's all right," said Betty, her heart glowing again at thought of the +little note hidden away in her pocket. "He has only been delayed a little, +that's all. Will says he will probably be over on the next transport." + +"Oh, I am relieved," said Grace with such fervor that Betty looked at her +quickly. Could it be, she wondered, that what she had half sensed before +could be really true? Was Grace fond of Allen? But because the idea made +her unhappy, she decided that she was just trying to think up trouble and +dismissed it from her mind. All the girls loved Allen of course--who could +help it?--but they couldn't any of them, she told herself fiercely, care +for him the way she did. + +"Well, what are you thinking about? You needn't look so fierce," she heard +Grace saying, and she forced a smile to her face. + +"I'm not looking fierce," Betty answered gayly. "Don't you know that that +is just my natural expression, Gracie dear? That's the way I make little +girls like you afraid of me." + +"Well, I'm not afraid of you, not one little bit," asserted Grace, +squeezing Betty's arm fondly. "Oh, Betty dear, isn't it wonderful having +the boys back and don't they look fine--especially Will?" + +"Don't they? Especially Will," agreed Betty with a sly little glance. "If +you don't look out you will give the impression that you're rather fond of +that worthless old brother of yours, honey." + +"I love him awfully," replied Grace, adding with a little puckering of her +forehead: "But I am going to tell you something, Betty, that I wouldn't +tell to any one else for the world. I'm jealous, actually jealous! of +Amy." + +Betty gave a merry little laugh and slipped an arm about her chum. + +"Gracie dear, we never would have known that if you hadn't told us," she +said dryly. "Don't you know," as Grace looked at her reproachfully, "that +we have all been perfectly well aware of that ever since Will first began +to make eyes at Amy?" + +"I can't help it," Grace retorted, while sudden tears sprang to her eyes. +"I've known him longer than she has, and we've loved each other ever since +he was two and I was two weeks! Did you see the way he looked at her?" she +finished dolefully. + +"Yes. But of course you couldn't see the way he looked at you," said Betty +quickly. "And I did." + +"Oh, did he look glad to see me? Did he?" demanded Grace with pathetic +eagerness. + +"Of course he did, you little goose," said Betty, adding with a chuckle: +"You've been spoiled, that's all. You've been so used to being the +_only_ pebble on the beach, dear, that you can't be content with +being just one of two." + +By this time they had reached the lodge and were greeted noisily by the +others, who had already seated themselves on the porch as though they +intended to stay all day. + +"Hello," called Frank. His handsome face, though somewhat thinner than the +girls remembered, was better looking than ever and he had developed a +trick of flinging the hair back from his forehead that the girls thought +immensely attractive. + +Roy, who had seated himself on the railing of the porch and was swinging +his feet, looked more unchanged than either of the boys, though the girls +were soon to find out that he had changed the most. + +Will, who had settled Amy in a chair and was sitting cross-legged on the +floor at her feet, was gazing up at the girl with his heart in his eyes. +As for Amy--well, the girls had never known she could look so radiant. + +"Have a seat," invited Roy, rising lazily to the dignity of his six feet +as Betty and Grace came up on the porch. "It would seem like old times to +see you girls perched on the railing." + +"I'll have you know, sir," said Betty very demurely, as she pulled Grace +down beside her on the top step of the porch, "that we have quite grown up +since you have been away. We will sit here where we can get a good view of +you all." + +"And we want to hear about everything you have done over there," broke in +Amy eagerly. "Please, everything--right from the beginning." + +The boys fidgeted, looked dismayed, and Roy burst forth in protest. + +"Oh, I say!" he cried. "We'll do anything else for you, but please don't +ask us to do that." + +"We don't want to talk about ourselves or the war," muttered Frank, almost +as if to himself. "We want to forget about it--if we can." + +"You see," Will explained, and there was a stern note in his young voice, +"we worked and we sweated and we fought. We lived under conditions week +after week and month after month that it makes us shudder even to think of +now. For months we lived in a perfect inferno--and do you know what our +idea of heaven was then?" + +They said nothing and he went on in a lighter tone. + +"It was just to get back alive and, well, to God's country and you +girls--to sit for hours, days if we could, where we could look at you +and listen to you and not do a thing but just be happy. I wonder if +you can understand that?" + +"Of course, we can, Will!" cried Betty, impulsively reaching over and +laying a hand on the boy's arm. "You have earned the right to sit and be +amused, and we'll do it till you cry aloud for mercy. And you needn't tell +us a single word about yourselves until you get good and ready." + +"You're a brick, Betty," said Will warmly, laying his hand over her little +one. "I might have known we could count on you." + +"By the way," Roy broke in suddenly, his eye on the basket of eatables +that the girls had prepared for their adventure, "what's in that hamper, +anyway? If it's anything to eat, let's have it." + +Betty pulled the basket over to her, lifted the cover and passed it over +to the ravenous one. + +"Eat while there is anything left," she commanded, adding with a chuckle: +"Our adventure seems to be over for to-day, at least." + +"Adventure?" repeated Frank inquiringly, as he reached for a sandwich. + +"Yes," said Mollie, adding with a sigh: "And you boys had to come along +just in time to spoil it all." + + + + +Chapter XX + +Very Much Alive + + +"That is complimentary, I must say," grinned Will, getting up from his +seat on the porch and going over to join Roy on the railing. "After being +away for months we are told the minute we get back that we've 'spoiled +everything.'" + +"'Tis rather hard lines," said Mollie with an answering grin. "But one must +tell the truth, you know." + +"By the way," put in Grace curiously, "I know Betty promised that we +wouldn't ask questions, but there is just one thing I want to know." + +"Speak, fair damsel," Roy replied, thinking meanwhile how much prettier +Grace had grown. "We will promise to answer faithfully anything that is +not connected with war." + +"When did you get in?" asked Grace, "and how did you get here?" + +"We came in yesterday," answered Roy, helping himself to another sandwich. +"And of course we beat it for headquarters right away." + +"Yes'm, and I'll tell you we were a disappointed lot when we found that +you girls had flown," added Frank ruefully. "We were all set for a jolly +reunion--" + +"But we wrote you about spending the summer here," Betty interrupted. "And +we were mourning because you couldn't be at the lodge with us." + +"We missed your letters, I guess," said Will. "We sailed very suddenly, +and there is probably a stack of them piled up there at the old service +station." + +"We found out where you were all rightie, though," Roy continued. "So we +took the first train out this morning, debarked at the nearest station +south of here, and proceeded to walk the rest of the way. It was thus that +you came upon us." + +"You came upon us, you mean," Amy corrected. "We ought to know well +enough, because you nearly gave us heart failure." + +Will looked at her as if he wanted to say something but did not quite dare +in public. However, she intercepted the look and with a little panicky +feeling turned her eyes away. + +"I imagine," said Grace softly, looking up at Will, "that mother wasn't +glad to see you or anything." + +"Not at all," returned Will, a soft light in his eyes as he remembered the +greeting between him and his parents. "I was a little afraid," he added +soberly, "that mother and dad wouldn't like my skipping off like this the +day after I'd got home. But they seemed to understand all right." + +"Gee, but this is great," said Frank, stretching contentedly and looking +about the group with happy eyes. "I wonder how many times we've seen this +all in our dreams, fellows. Only we couldn't have imagined it half as +perfect as this." + +"It sure is like old times," agreed Roy, adding with a smile as he turned +to their chaperon, who had been quietly enjoying herself: "We even have +Mrs. Irving with us. Gee, it's just like that summer at Pine Island! All +the old crowd together--" + +"Except Allen," put in Will, frowning a little. "Gosh, it didn't seem +right at all to leave the old fellow behind. You wouldn't know him," he +added, his face flushing enthusiastically, "I've never seen a fellow +change the way Allen has--for the better." + +"Was there so much room for improvement?" asked Betty demurely, and they +looked at her laughingly. + +"Nobody would expect you to think so," Will replied, his eyes twinkling, +then added seriously: + +"Of course we all know that Allen was the finest kind even before the war, +but, gosh! I wish you could just see how all the fellows love him and how +even his superior officers consult him and seem to value his judgment. I +tell you, I'm glad to have him call me his friend." + +"You bet!" exclaimed Frank, nodding soberly. + +"Allen sure has come out strong," Roy agreed; and at this glowing praise +of the only absent one Betty felt her heart swell with pride and she +wanted to hug the boys for being so loyal to her Allen. Also, deep down in +her heart, she began to feel a little trepidation about the homecoming of +this hero. Who was she, Betty Nelson, to call this glorious Lieutenant +Allen Washburn, _her_ Allen? + +So engrossed was she in these and other absorbing thoughts that it was +some time before she noticed that the conversation had taken another turn. +Also that the boys and girls were becoming rather excited. + +"I didn't say it was a ghost," Mollie was declaring hotly. "In fact I have +always thought of a ghost as wearing a sheet and pillow case sort of garb. +And this thing certainly wore nothing of the sort." + +"Tell us all about it," said Frank, leaning forward. + +"Yes, it sounds as if it might prove interesting," added Roy. + +So the girls told them all about it from that first night when they had +been so badly frightened by the "Thing" that had hidden in the shadows of +the porch. The boys listened with scarcely an interruption till they were +through. + +"Gosh, I don't like the sound of that at all," said Will, when they had +finished. "It isn't a pleasant thing to have a lunatic roaming the woods +while you girls are all alone here in this place. Could you possibly put +us up for the night?" he asked, turning abruptly to Mrs. Irving. + +"Why, there isn't any room," said the latter slowly, frowning a little as +she tried to think up ways and means. "There aren't any extra beds, but +there is a large settee in the living room and a couple of you can sleep +on that. I found plenty of blankets stowed away." + +"Fine!" cried Will enthusiastically. "Just the very thing! One of us can +take turns sleeping on the floor. It won't be the first time we've slept +on harder things." + +"Goodness, any one would think they were going to stay a month," said +Mollie in dismay. + +"No, we won't stay a month," Will went on. "But we are going to stay until +we find out what it is that has been bothering you girls. Do you suppose +we would leave you unprotected here? I should say not!" Grace noticed that +when he said this his glance was first for Amy, and, afterward, for her. + +So it was settled. Mrs. Irving went inside to see about getting lunch. +"Though how the boys can find any room for lunch after eating all those +sandwiches, I don't know," Amy had commented wonderingly. + +Mrs. Irving had refused absolutely to let any of the girls even so much as +help with this lunch, saying they must stay outside and visit with the +boys on this momentous occasion. + +"Since you are convinced that this thing is not a ghost," Will went on, +while appetizing odors began to waft toward them from the open kitchen +windows, "we will take it for granted that it is a man, and a man who has, +presumably, lost his mind." + +"A crazy man," murmured Betty. "Worse and worse--and more of it." + +"Girls," cried Amy, jumping suddenly to her feet, "I have an idea." + +"Impossible!" drawled Grace. + +"Why," went on Amy, unheeding Grace's remark and growing visibly more +excited as she talked, "you know, Professor Dempsey went crazy--or at +least we supposed he did--and ran away into the woods. Now since Will +thinks this man is crazy too, why, they may be one and the same--" + +"Amy!" cried Mollie, her eyes beginning to shine as she realized the +possibility of what the girl had said. "You are a wonder, child! Why +didn't any of us think of that before?" + +"Because it is rather far-fetched and absurd, I suppose," said Grace, the +suggestion of a sneer in her voice bringing a quick flush to Amy's face. + +"I don't see that it is so far-fetched--or absurd either," Betty broke in +quietly. "Remember, we are only a little over fifty miles from the place +where Professor Dempsey had his cottage, and it would be easy for him to +wander this far." + +Here Frank broke in on behalf of the very much mystified boys. + +"Before you stage the hair-pulling contest," he said, "would you mind +telling us poor benighted males what it is all about?" + +So the girls told them all about Professor Dempsey, and while they talked +the boys became more and more excited. Finally Will could keep quiet no +longer. + +"Say," he asked, leaning forward, "did the two sons of the cracked old +professor happen to bear the names of James and Arnold?" + +The girls gaped at him. "Yes," they breathed. "How did you know?" + +"Because," said Will, "those very same fellows were in our regiment. In +fact, I was beside Arnold when he was wounded in that last engagement. +Strange thing that James was wounded at the same time." + +"Wounded?" repeated Betty, who like all the girls was feeling rather dazed +at this new development. "Then they weren't killed?" + +"Not a bit of it," Will replied vehemently. "Why, even their wounds +weren't serious enough to lay them up for long. The last I heard of them +they were coming over on a hospital ship and expected to be here almost as +soon as we were. For all I know, they may have landed by this time." + +"Oh," said Amy, still too dazed to take it all in. "Then all this time we +have thought of them as dead, they were alive--" + +"Very much so," said Will, with a grin, "and probably kicking too--just +like us!" + + + + +Chapter XXI + +Out of the Dark + + +It took the Outdoor Girls a moment or two to digest this rather startling +information. And when it did finally seep into their consciousness, their +first feeling was one of joy for the poor professor whose sons would be +restored to him after all. + +But quick on the heels of this thought came another. How could the sons be +restored to their father, if the father were nowhere to be found? + +"You say the old chap skipped out, decamped?" Will broke in on their +meditations. "That sort of complicates matters, doesn't it?" + +"Rather," agreed Roy, frowning. "It is going to be rather tough on those +fellows, James and Arnold, to come home, expecting to be welcomed by a +rejoicing parent, only to find said parent missing." + +"Humph, that's the first time I've thought of the boys' side of it," said +Betty. "We have been too much occupied right along in being sorry for the +poor old professor." + +"Well, if you had known the boys, you would have thought of their side of +it all right," said Frank seriously. "They are mighty good scouts, both of +them, and they think a lot of their old dad, too, I can tell you. Why, +many a night"--his voice took on a reminiscent note and the girls felt +once again that they were privileged in having a brief glimpse of the life +"over there"--"when a surprise attack was scheduled for the next morning +or we were waiting for some such manoeuvre from the enemy, Arnold would +talk to me about his dad--that was the time when fellows got chummy, you +know, and got to know each other's souls--and once he gave me a note for +the old chap and asked me to deliver it if I came through and he didn't. I +think I have it about me somewhere." He fumbled about in his pockets while +the girls waited silently. + +Presently he drew forth a little slip of paper, muddy and worn and +dust-stained from being carried about for a long, long time in a khaki +pocket. + +"He told me," Frank went on, still holding the slip of paper in his hand +but making no attempt to open it, "that his mother had died when he and +Jimmy were young and that since then his dad had been father and mother +both to them and that he had worked himself nearly to death to give them a +chance for the college education that he had had. He said that the one +thing that had always threatened to floor the old boy was when either he +or Jim got mad and threatened to give up school and go to work so as to +take some of the load from the old pater's shoulders. So they were glad, +actually glad, when the war came along and gave them a chance not only to +serve their country and earn some money--even if it was only a miserable +pittance--so that they could send some home to their dad and feel that +they had stopped being a drag upon him. He used to tell me," Frank went +on, for the spell of those old thrilling times was strong upon him again, +"with tears in his eyes--and I'll tell you there was no braver man in all +the American army than Arnold Dempsey; he was good for two Boches any day +--that it would be the happiest moment of his life when he got back to the +old country and announced to his proud and admiring pater that he had come +home to turn the tables; that Jimmy and he were going to make the old +fellow take a rest and do the work themselves for a change. And he asked +me, in case anything did happen to him and Jimmy, to be kind to his dad +and try to make up to him as much as I could. I gave him my promise that +night." Frank looked about the intent group of faces soberly. "In case the +boys had been killed, I would have regarded it as a sacred trust." + +Something swelled in the girls' hearts and for; a moment they could not +speak. Then, + +"I guess we all love you for that, Frank," said Betty simply. With a +little nod of her head toward the slip of paper he still held, she added: +"What about that--now?" + +Frank looked down at the slip of paper for a moment uncomprehendingly, for +his thoughts had been far away. + +"Oh, the note," he said. "Why, that was only to be given to his father in +case anything happened, you know. But now that the boys are coming back to +him themselves, I suppose the thing is worthless." He made a motion as +though to tear the note up, but Grace stopped him with a quick +exclamation. + +"Don't!" she cried, adding as they all looked at her in surprise: "Don't +you suppose there might be something in it that would give us a clue to +the professor's whereabouts now, perhaps? Don't you think it would be wise +to look, at least?" + +But Frank slowly shook his head. + +"Arnold Dempsey's message, written to his dad when he thought he might +never see him again, doesn't belong to us," he said decidedly. "The note +was given in trust to me, and since I can't deliver it--or at least, since +there is now no reason for delivering it--the only thing I can honorably +do is this." And very slowly and very decidedly he tore the note into +little bits and threw the pieces among the wild roses at the side of the +porch. + +It was the first real glimpse the girls had had of the man who had come +back in the old Frank's place, and with all their hearts they admired him. + +Even Grace, who had seemed inclined to pout a little, could not but admit +that the action was splendid in him. + +"And now," said Will, "after all that, the boys will come back to find +their dad gone, heaven knows where, dead perhaps--" + +"Oh, I wonder if there isn't some way we can follow him and find out at +least what has happened to him?" broke in Amy earnestly. "It seems +dreadful just to sit back and not even try to help." + +"I don't see what we can do," said Will judicially, just as Mrs. Irving +appeared in the doorway. "We will postpone the discussion for the present +anyway," he added, in a different tone, rising with alacrity and dusting +off his uniform. "Something tells me that lunch is waiting. Come, let us +eat!" + +So ended all serious discussion for that day, and the girls and boys gave +themselves up to the delight of being together again. Only Betty's +thoughts seemed to wander at times and she had to be brought back by +sundry mischievous and significant remarks from the young folks. + +Worn out with fun, the young soldiers slept like tops that night in their +improvised beds and rose the next morning professing to feel like "two +year olds" and ready for whatever new fun and adventure the day might +bring them. + +And for the first night since their arrival at Wild Rose Lodge the girls +slept soundly without being bothered by the haunting fear of the +"Thing"--at least, so they said. + +That day they wandered through the woods together, searching for some sign +of their strange visitor, but found not a trace of anything unusual and +alarming. + +"I'm really beginning to believe that you girls have let your imaginations +run away from you," Will remarked, when they sat about the living-room +after a satisfying supper, just luxuriating in idleness. + +"Or perhaps the gentleman has been frightened away by our coming," Roy +suggested in a superior tone that made the girls want to throw something +at him. "Perhaps he is afraid of the uniform of the U.S.A." + +"He may be afraid of the uniform," sniffed Mollie scathingly. "But he +certainly couldn't be afraid of _you_." + +"Now you don't mean that, you know you don't," laughed Roy, drawing her +down beside him on the couch and holding her there with an iron grip of +his brown fingers. "Say you didn't, like a pretty little girl, and I'll +let you go." + +"I won't say any such--" Mollie began, then suddenly her gaze stiffened +into such a stare of wonder, and even alarm, that it made the girls fairly +hold their breath. + +"Mollie, what is it?" demanded Roy commandingly. + +"Over there!" she shrieked. "At the window, Roy! Do you see it?" + + + + +Chapter XXII + +Tragedy + + +There, pressed so close to the pane of the window that the nose was +flattened grotesquely, eyes wildly staring, hair disheveled, was a face +that even in that tense moment the girls recognized--the face of Professor +Dempsey! + +It took the boys perhaps a second to fling out of the room, jump down the +steps of the porch and circle the house to the window. + +And yet, in that second, the man was gone, leaving no more trace than if +the earth had opened and swallowed him up. For almost an hour the boys +searched the woods about the lodge, refusing to allow the girls to +accompany them, saying truly that they would hamper them more than they +could help. + +"You see, I was right after all," Amy stated for at least the tenth time. +"From the moment the idea came to me, I felt almost sure that poor crazy +Professor Dempsey was this thing that was frightening us." + +"But did you ever see such an awful face in all your life?" said Mollie, +shuddering at the recollection. + +"And the look in his eyes as he stared at Roy," Grace added in a hushed +voice. "I shouldn't wonder if--if we hadn't been there, he might have +murdered him." + +"Oh, Gracie, don't!" Amy clapped her hands to her ears. "We are frightened +enough without having you say things like that." + +"Suppose," said Mollie, in a sepulchral voice, "he should come back before +the boys do?" + +"That's just what I was thinking," said a quiet voice behind them, and +they jumped and cried out in alarm. The next moment they saw it was Mrs. +Irving and felt ashamed of themselves. + +"I think you had all better come into the house till the boys come back," +their chaperon continued. "I shall feel safer when we are behind locked +doors." + +The girls shivered, but Mollie protested. + +"Suppose anything should happen to the boys?" she asked, but here Mrs. +Irving chose to exercise her authority. + +"We will talk about that when we are inside the house," she said very +firmly, and Mollie had nothing else to do but obey. + +The girls did breathe a little more freely when the door was locked, but +they found themselves wishing even more ardently that the boys would come +back. + +The window against which the horribly distorted face had been pressed +seemed to hold a peculiar fascination for the Outdoor Girls and they found +themselves unable to turn their eyes away from it. + +"Oh, I wish the boys would come back," moaned Amy, after a few moments +more had passed in strained silence. "If anything should happen to them +I'm sure I would die." + +"Nonsense, Amy," snapped Mollie. "What could one little mad old man do to +three big husky soldier boys?" + +The words had hardly been spoken when the sound of voices could be heard +coming toward the house, and a moment later the boys themselves stamped up +on the porch. + +"Not a sign of him," said Will in response to the girls' eager questions. +"I don't see how he could have disappeared so completely in such a short +time." + +"We all took different directions, too," said Roy, taking a seat on the +couch again and staring fascinatedly at the window. "If all the rest of +you hadn't seen it too, I should certainly think I had been mistaken." + +"You weren't mistaken," Mollie assured him grimly. "I can vouch for that." + +"Didn't one of you girls call out something about Professor Dempsey?" +asked Frank, abruptly. + +"Yes," said Betty, going over to him and putting an excited hand on his +shoulder. "That's the thing that startled us so, Frank. We are sure it was +Professor Dempsey's face. But, still, it was so wild and distorted that we +really wouldn't feel like contradicting any one who told us it wasn't he," +she added slowly. "Do you understand what I mean?" + +Frank nodded, and Will broke in excitedly: + +"But the poor old codger's looks would naturally be changed," he argued, +"after he had spent all this time wandering around the woods--out of his +mind at that. I am inclined to think that the girls are right and that it +is really Professor Dempsey." + +"If only I could have gotten my hands on him!" mourned Roy. "We wouldn't +have been in any further doubt." + +"There is really no doubt, boys. We just want--oh, I don't know what we +want!" exclaimed Mollie, who was excited and unstrung and nervous. + +Soon after that they all went to bed, having first decided to make a more +thorough search of the woods in the morning and take the postponed trip to +the head of the falls. + +They slept fitfully and were glad when at last they woke to find the sun +shining in their windows. For once Amy and Grace did not have to be coaxed +or wheedled or forced to get out of bed, but dressed quickly and were +ready almost as soon as Mollie and Betty. + +"You know I rather hated to leave the boys in that room last night," Betty +confided to Grace, stopping before the mirror for one final little pat of +her hair. "I was afraid that--he--might come back--" + +"Oh, Betty, what a horrid idea," said Grace. "Come on, let's see if +everything is all right." + +But they found that their fears had been wasted. The boys were in the +kitchen hilariously helping Mrs. Irving get the breakfast to the +accompaniment of continual good-natured scolding from that flushed and +perspiring lady. It was Amy's day to get the breakfast, but, as usual, she +was late in getting down. + +"You make a good deal more trouble than you mend," Mrs. Irving was saying +as the girls came to the door, then added relievedly as she caught sight +of them: "For goodness' sake, get these young ruffians out of the kitchen, +my dears, or we'll not have any breakfast until noon." + +So amid much fun and nonsense the boys were shooed forth into the bright +sunshine of the out-of-doors, and all the girls fell to to help their +chaperon, not wanting to put the extra work the boys made entirely on +Amy's shoulders. + +Breakfast was good, but they ate hurriedly, anxious to get at the business +of the day. They wanted more than they had wanted anything in a very long +time to find Professor Dempsey and tell him the joyful news that his sons +were alive. + +"I'm horribly afraid of him at night," Mollie confided, as they started +out at last, "but in the daytime I am only sorry for him." + +"Do you think we shall find him, Will?" asked Amy, with a helpless little +look into Will's self-reliant young face. "I do want to so much." + +Will looked down at her with an expression that said to any one who would +read it: "I would give you anything in the world you asked for, if I only +could." + +But all he really said was: "That remains to be seen. He proved himself a +rather slippery customer last night, and the chase we put up may only +serve to put him on his guard. Crazy people are tricky, you know." + +"Goodness," said Grace, looking fearfully over her shoulder. "There is +nothing in the world I am so afraid of as a crazy person." + +"That's why she has always been so afraid of me, I suppose," grinned +Mollie. + +"Afraid of you," said Grace, her eyebrows raised in mock surprise. "Little +shrimp--who are you?" There followed a characteristic scene that somewhat +lifted the oppression they had all been feeling, and it was not till they +had nearly reached the river at the head of the falls that they became +serious again. + +"It was right about here," said Betty soberly, "that we saw him the night +that he started to jump into the river--or I suppose it was the same one," +she added. + +"Let us hope so," said Mollie fervently. "I wouldn't like to think that +there were two lunatics wandering round these woods. One is quite enough." + +As they came closer to the river they became more and more conscious that +they were not alone, that some one, hidden in the bushes, was craftily +watching them. + +So strong did this feeling finally become that once the boys separated, +thrashing the bushes in all directions. They did not find anything, and +finally continued along the path, a little ashamed of what they thought +was an attack of nerves. + +"Phew, this is getting a little hot for me," said Frank, running his hand +through his shock of fair hair. "I don't mind fighting anything in the +open--" He left the sentence unfinished, for at that moment they broke +through the bushes at the river's edge upon a sight that struck them +speechless. + +Not twenty yards down the bank stood a ragged scarecrow of a man, so +unkempt, so wild, so abandoned in its crouching attitude as to appear +hardly human. + +Before they had time to utter a word or move a muscle, the man threw up +his arms in a gesture indescribably terrible, and with a hoarse shout +disappeared in the swirling waters. + +It all happened so quickly that for the space of a dazed second they +wondered if they had really seen it at all. Then they recovered their +powers of motion and rushed to the spot where the man had disappeared. + +Though they leaned far out over the water they could see no sign of +anything human, and with a creeping feeling of horror they began to speak +of what had probably already happened. + +"It's certain death down there," Roy muttered, as though to himself, +gazing into the rushing river. "The poor old fellow! He has got his, I +guess." + +"Look here, fellows, here are some clothes," Will called out suddenly, and +the boys rushed over to where he stood, a tattered old hat and an equally +ragged coat in his hands. "Maybe there will be something in the jacket to +tell us where the poor fellow has been staying and what he has been up +to." + +They searched through the coat and finally pulled out a wallet. + +"Now if it only has some writing in it," said Mollie breathlessly. + +There was a card, and the card bore the words which they expected, yet +dreaded, Arnold Dempsey, Ph. D. But there was nothing else, and suddenly +tears dimmed their eyes and they had to turn away. + +"It will be mighty hard on Jimmy and Arnold," muttered Roy, gazing +somberly at the fast-flowing river. "To have their dad go that way! +They'll take it mighty hard--those boys." + + + + +Chapter XXIII + +A Moonlight Apparition + + +"Let's look around a little anyway," Betty suggested. "He may possibly +have been swept up on the shore farther down the river." + +"If such a thing were possible he would probably be dead anyway," Frank +protested, but the girls paid no attention to him. The mere suggestion +that the professor might still be alive and in need of assistance was +enough for them, and they set about feverishly to scour the woods on both +sides of the river and for a considerable distance down its shores. + +After an hour of vain search, however, they were forced to conclude that +the old man was indeed dead, and so reluctantly and with heavy hearts they +turned their steps back toward Wild Rose Lodge. + +They talked very little on the way back, for they were too occupied with +their own gloomy thoughts. Only once Betty spoke what was in the minds of +all of them. + +"It seems such a terrible waste--such a pity," she said. "Just a mistake +on the part of the Government to have resulted in this tragedy. Arnold and +James Dempsey coming home, safe and well and hopeful to find their father +--dead!" + +The boys stayed on for several days at the lodge, and for all the Outdoor +Girls but Betty their stay was unmitigated joy. But in the heart of the +Little Captain, hard as she tried to fight against it, was a little sense +of injury to think that her chums had got their boys back and she had been +denied hers. + +To be sure, all the boys made much of her and petted her--for there was +not one of them who had not competed for her favor in the old days before +Allen had shouldered them all out--but no amount of attention from any one +else could make up for one little word from Allen. + +At each sunrise she awoke thrilling with the thought that perhaps Allen +would be with her before the sun went down. And as each evening came +without him she sighed and thought, "Perhaps to-morrow." + +Since the tragic death of Professor Dempsey they felt that they need no +longer fear the woods, although they never ventured near the river or the +falls without a heartache and the fervent wish that they might have +reached the poor demented man with the glad news of his sons' safety in +time to avert the tragedy. + +However, they did enjoy their liberty, and took long tramps with the boys +through the woods and picnicked with them beside little unexpected brooks +and streams, quite in the nature of old days. + +Then at last came the day when the boys announced that they would have to +return to town and to the military camp to obtain their formal discharge +from the army. + +"We may surprise you by coming back in 'civies' a week or two from now," +Will laughed, as the girls prepared to spin them to the railroad station +in the cars. "So you had better be prepared for the shock." + +"Maybe they won't care for us any more when they see us out of uniform," +grinned Roy, as he shook hands with Mrs. Irving. "You know the old saying +that a uniform has made many a hero of a bootblack." + +"Goodness, I hope you aren't a bootblack," said Mollie from her car, where +she was "doing things" with the engine. + +"I'm not," answered Roy, adding with a grin, "Nothing half so honest." + +Although the girls knew that they were only saying good-bye to the boys +for a few days, the parting was hard just the same, and half an hour later +they watched the train wind serpent-like down the shining track with a +sinking feeling at their hearts. + +"Aren't we a lot of geese?" said Grace impatiently, as they climbed back +into the cars. "We have done without the boys for a couple of years, and +now when they have just gone as far as Deepdale for a couple of weeks, we +are almost crying about it." + +"I suppose it is just because we have had so much separation that we can't +bear any more of it--even a little," suggested gentle Amy, feeling as if +she had just awakened from a blissful dream. + +"Never mind," said Mollie, putting an arm about Betty's waist and giving +it a little squeeze. "Just think how lovely it will be to see the boys in +regular clothes again, and maybe," with a sly glance at Betty, "by the +time they come back they will have added one to their number." + +"Goodness, I hope so!" said Betty, unashamed. + +In spite of some regret at not having the boys, the girls managed to enjoy +themselves in the days that followed. They motored and swam and fished and +hiked, and got as becomingly sun-burned and tanned as young Indians. It +was not until two or three days before the boys returned that anything +untoward happened to disturb their peace of mind. + +Then one night the moon came out with such dazzling brilliance that Betty +was seized with a strong desire to be out in it. + +"Let's go for a moonlight swim," she suggested excitedly, as they all +stood on the porch of the lodge staring up through the trees to where the +moon shone glitteringly down. "We haven't done it since we came, and +surely our vacation wouldn't be complete without one." + +"Or more," said Mollie, seconding the plan with enthusiasm. "Come on. +Let's tell Mrs. Irving where we are going. Maybe she will wish to go +along, but I doubt it." + +Mollie was right: Mrs. Irving did not wish to go, and the girls rushed +upstairs to don bathing suits in preparation for the lark. + +A few minutes later they were racing like slim young ghosts through the +woods, laughing and calling to each other and entirely abandoned to the +joy of the moment. + +"Race you to the old swimming hole," Mollie called out, as they neared the +river; and away they all raced in response to the challenge. + +Betty won, in spite of the fact that Mollie had had a short head start, +and the girls, wild in their exuberance, would have lifted her to their +shoulders had not Betty herself laughingly fought them off. + +"I have another challenge," she cried. "My fresh box of candy to whoever +swims to the other side of the swimming hole first. Are you on?" + +"We're on!" yelled Grace enthusiastically, adding: "I'd swim from here to +Jericho for that box of candy, Betty." + +As a matter of fact, whether it was really the thought of the candy or +whether it was because the other girls were tired from the last spurt, +Grace really did get to the other side of the swimming pool first, and, +pulling herself up on the other bank, dripping and triumphant, demanded +the prize. + +"You surely did win it, and you shall have that box of candy--much as I +hoped to keep it in the family," laughed Betty, shaking the water from her +eyes and drawing herself up beside her chum. "Goodness, isn't that water +delicious to-night?" she added, wriggling her toes luxuriously in the +rippling wavelets. "Just cool enough to be refreshing and not cold enough +to chill you----" She broke off suddenly and sat staring, her eyes +widening and her body tense. + +"Girls," she said in a queer voice, for Mollie and Amy had also drawn +themselves up on the bank, "have I gone crazy, or what is the matter with +me? Do you see--what--I see--up there?" + +Alarmed, the girls followed the direction of her strained gaze, and +suddenly they seemed to feel themselves congeal with momentary horror. + +Far above them on the bank near the falls and on the other side of the +river, stood the crouched-up, animal-like figure of--the "Thing!" + + + + +Chapter XXIV + +Recovered + + +The sight was almost too much for the girls. What they felt was sheer +animal panic and they wanted to run away--anywhere--just so they put +distance enough between them and that figure on the bank. + +"Sit still," Betty commanded them, recovering her presence of mind. "That +is Professor Dempsey up there, and if we make any sudden sound we are sure +of frightening him away." + +"But he was killed--we saw it," moaned Amy. "That must be his g-ghost." + +"Don't be ridiculous," snapped Mollie, her thoughts working along with +Betty's. "You know you don't believe in ghosts." + +"But how----" Amy was beginning when Betty interrupted sharply. + +"Listen," she said. "I came across an old derelict of a rowboat the other +day when we were exploring the upper river, but I didn't say anything to +you girls about it because I thought it was too much of a wreck to bother +with. For all I know it isn't even water tight--" + +"Betty," Mollie broke in excitedly, "I see what you mean! We can row +across the upper river to where Professor Dempsey is--Were there oars in +the boat?" she broke off to ask. + +"A couple of old sticks that would serve for oars," Betty answered. "Of +course it's taking a big chance--" + +"Say no more," cried Mollie, jumping to her feet and wringing out her +bathing suit. "Big chance is our middle name anyway. Lead on, Betty. Where +do we find this craft?" + +"I'm not quite sure that I can find it," said Betty, leading the way into +the woods, "but it was down this way somewhere. Don't make any noise, +girls, and let's hurry, or we won't get there before he disappears again." + +Grace and Amy were now entering into the spirit of the thing, and they +followed at Betty's heels eagerly, careful not to step on stick or stone +that might betray their presence. + +Luckily Betty managed to stumble directly on the old derelict rowboat +where it lay in ancient helplessness in the concealment of a thick grove +of bushes along the upper reach of the stream. + +"Goody! This is almost too much luck," cried Betty exultantly. "You get in +the stern, Amy, and Grace in the bow. Mollie and I will do the rowing." + +"I only hope the old thing doesn't take in too much water," said Amy, as +she and Grace got gingerly into the rickety old craft and Betty and Mollie +pushed it off from the shore. + +"That remains to be seen," answered the Little Captain as she handed one +of the ancient oars to Mollie. "There is one thing we shall have to +remember, Mollie," she said, as they pushed clear of the bank and glided +out into the swift water of the river, "and that is to keep far enough +this side of the falls to guard against being swept over it. Bear hard on +your right hand, Mollie honey. It wouldn't be much fun if we upset here, +you know." + +"Oh!" gasped Grace, holding fast to the side of the boat and noting with +dismay how plainly the roar of the falls came to them. "I wish we had +another oar, I'd help----" + +"You can help most, Grade," cut in the Little Captain briskly, "by keeping +your nerve and helping us to keep ours. Mollie," she called in a whisper +that carried the length of the boat, "can you see--It--yet?" + +"Yes," Mollie telegraphed back in the same tense whisper. "It's got its +back to us, I think." + +"Good," said Betty softly, adding as she threw all her weight against her +oar, "now let's keep still and work." + +It was queer how they referred to that presence at the head of the falls +as "It." Some way, in the weird moonlight, under the more than unusual +circumstances, it seemed almost impossible to give the thing a name. + +"Was it Professor Dempsey?" they kept asking themselves over and over +again. But he had committed suicide. Or at least they had seen him fall +into the river, and they could have vowed that he did not come out again. +They had searched both sides of the river. How could they have missed him? +And yet, if that motionless figure at the head of the falls was really +Professor Dempsey, he must have been washed ashore that day and evaded +them as he had succeeded in evading them so many times before. + +And all the time the roar of the falls was growing louder and louder in +their ears and they knew that theirs was a race with life and death. + +Could they succeed in reaching the opposite bank before the deadly current +of the river should suck them over the falls, to almost certain +annihilation? + +The answer to the question came a moment: later when, without warning, the +prow of the little boat struck on an unexpected projection of the shore +and they came to a standstill. + +"Thank heaven!" said Betty under her breath as Mollie jumped out and +pulled the craft further in to shore. "That was nearly the riskiest thing +you ever did, Betty Nelson." + +Once on shore again, the girls' confidence returned and they hurried +silently through the woods toward the spot where they had seen the figure. +Then Betty, who had taken the lead, suddenly motioned to them to stop. + +She had caught a glimpse through the trees of the man, who resembled more +than ever a scarecrow in his crazy makeshift garments--and at the sight of +him her heart unaccountably skipped a beat. + +Her thoughts had not gone beyond this moment. Strangely enough all her +energy had been concentrated upon reaching the man before he disappeared. +But now that they had succeeded so far she was at a loss what to do next. + +But at that moment she inadvertently stepped on a dry twig that snapped +sharply under her foot, and at the sound the man had turned fiercely, like +an animal at bay. Then he wheeled about and made as though to flee for the +shelter of the woods. + +In this emergency Betty followed impulse. She ran out into the open, +calling to him wildly that his sons were alive. Not to run away, because +his sons were safe and well. They were coming to him---- + +The pitiful wreck of a man paused in his flight as the import of the words +seemed to sink into his befuddled brain, but he turned upon the Little +Captain a look of ferocious hatred that would have terrified a less +courageous girl than Betty. But her whole heart was in her mission, and +she had utterly forgotten herself. + +"Won't you please believe me?" she said, advancing toward him, hands +outstretched pleadingly. "I know what I'm talking about. Your sons, Arnold +and Jimmy----" + +As though the names of his boys had released some cord in his brain, the +man cried out hoarsely: + +"Jimmy and Arnold--my sons, my little boys!" Then, turning fiercely to +Betty, he cried: "You're not lying to me, are you? Because I'll throw you +into the river! I'll cut you into little pieces!" + +As the man advanced menacingly, Grace screamed and Mollie ran forward with +some wild idea of protecting her chum, but Betty waved them back. + +"I'm not lying to you," she told the crazy man, looking straight into his +glaring eyes. "Your boys were wounded, but not seriously, and they sailed +a few days ago for this country on a hospital ship. They want to see you +more than anything else in the world," she added, playing on the sudden +softness that had crept into his wild eyes. "And they sent their love to +their dad." + +At sound of the old loving name all the fight went out of the old man and +he sank to his knees on the grass, sobbing horribly. + +They let him alone for a moment, then Betty motioned to Mollie, and +together they lifted him to his feet. The sight of his tear-stained, +unkempt old face, creased and lined with suffering, but with the wildness +gone out of the eyes, stirred a profound pity in the girls and they wished +more than anything in the world to make him happy again. + +"We are going to take you home, Professor Dempsey," Betty told him +soothingly, as with Mollie's help she half led, half carried, him through +the woods toward the spot where they had left the boat, Amy and Grace +following awed and silent behind them. "And as soon as your boys reach +home we will bring them to you. Be careful of this big rock. Ah, here's +the boat." And talking all the time, softly and soothingly as one would to +a child, Betty at last succeeded in seating the derelict old man in the +equally derelict old boat. + +The girls tumbled in after him, and with a prayer in her heart Betty +pushed off from shore. + +That ride back across the river was as weird and unreal as any nightmare +the girls had ever lived through. Their queer passenger, seeming the most +unreal of all, was quiet for the most part but occasionally he would sit +up and look about him wildly and could only be soothed back to reason by +Betty's sweet voice telling him of his boys--Jimmy and Arnold. + +Somehow they reached the opposite shore, and, after pulling the boat up +among the bushes once more, they started back, the old man with them, to +Wild Rose Lodge. + + + + +Chapter XXV + +The Old Crowd Again + + +Mrs. Irving, who had been worried by their prolonged absence, met the +girls at the door as they stumbled with the almost exhausted old man up +the steps of the porch. + +At sight of the latter she grew deathly pale, and leaned against the door +for support. She felt that all the world was growing black---- + +"Oh, please, please don't faint!" she heard Betty's young voice calling to +her desperately as it seemed from a long distance. "We've depended upon +you to help us." + +With a great effort she fought off the dizziness and drew herself away +from Betty's supporting arm. + +"It's all right," she said dazedly. "The shock, I guess. Betty +what--who--is that----" + +"Oh, please don't ask any questions now," Betty begged feverishly. "Just +help us, and we will tell you all about it later. This is Professor +Dempsey," she added, turning to the broken old man who stood staring at +them uncomprehendingly. "He can have Mollie's and my room, can't he, Mrs. +Irving? and we will bunk somewhere else." + +Mrs. Irving nodded automatically, still too dazed by the suddenness of the +thing even to think, and they helped the old man into Betty's room and +laid him on the bed. The tired, ragged, unkempt old head had hardly +touched the pillow before its owner had sunk into a heavy sleep. + +For a moment the girls were startled, for it almost seemed as though he +were dead, but Betty put her hand on the ragged old shirt above the heart +and found that the action was strong and regular. + +"Perhaps it is the very best thing that could happen to him," she said +softly, and, laying a light cover over him, tip-toed from the room, +followed quietly by Mrs. Irving and the other girls. + +Once in the other room, with the need for action over, the girls felt weak +and spent, and it was only then that they realized that they had been +through a terrible ordeal. + +In broken sentences they told Mrs. Irving all that had happened and as she +listened she more and more appalled at the risk they had run and the +danger they had gone through. + +"Girls, girls," she cried when they had finished, "I was half wild about +you as it was. But if I had known the truth I think I should have gone +crazy. Just the same," she added and her eyes shone with pride in them, +"it was a glorious thing for you to do--an unselfish, wonderfully +courageous thing. I'm proud of you!" + +In spite of the fact that they were tired out, the girls insisted upon +standing watch and watch that night. They felt that some one should be +with Professor Dempsey all the time in case he should wake in the night +with his old madness upon him. It was the longest night any of them had +ever spent, and the morning dawned upon a hollow-eyed, worn-out set of +Outdoor Girls. + +"I never," said Betty, looking around at her white-faced chums wearily, +"spent such a terrible night in my life. How is the patient?" she added, +taking up the subject that had not left their minds for a minute. "Who was +in there last?" + +"I," said Grace, brushing out her hair, listlessly. "He is still asleep." + +That report continued good all morning, and it was almost noon before the +ragged, unbelievably unkempt old man on the bed opened his eyes. + +The girls had been looking forward to, yet dreading, this minute. It had +been decided that only one of them should be in the room with him when he +awoke, but the rest were hovering close to the door ready to give +assistance if it should become necessary. + +But they need not have worried. The magic of his long sleep, together with +the glad news he had heard the night before, seemed to have transformed +the man overnight to his old gentle self. + +To be sure, he was amazed at his strange surroundings, and looked +uncomprehendingly into Betty's face as she bent compassionately over him. +But all he said was: + +"I declare, this is all very strange, young lady--very strange. Would you +mind--er--telling me where I am?" + +At the tone, even more than the words, the girls felt a wild desire to +shout aloud their relief. For the tone was the same, gentle, polite one +that they remembered hearing that day when the little man had entertained +them in his cabin in the woods. + +Then Betty, as gently as she knew how, told him a little of what had +happened to him, and the girls could see by the surprise on his face that +he had no recollection whatever of the matters of which she was speaking. + +"I declare it is most strange--most strange," he declared when she had +finished, adding as he looked down and plucked distastefully at his +tattered shirt: "And this is the result of my--er--temporary aberration, +is it? Ah, but I remember," he sat up suddenly, a gleam of fear in his +eyes. "It was when I read of the death of my boys. Something snapped in my +brain, I think. You say"--he turned to Betty, grasping her hand +imploringly--"you say that my sons are well--that they are coming to me?" + +"Yes," said Betty soothingly, pressing him back upon the pillow. "They are +well and safe and will be with you soon--in a few days, perhaps." + +"Ah," said the little man, submitting to Betty's touch, a happy smile on +his lips, "that is good. That is very--very--good--" and with a sigh like +a tired child's, he fell asleep again! + +"Did you hear what he said?" whispered Betty, her eyes shining as she +tip-toed from the room, closed the door softly behind her and faced her +awed and incredulous chums. "He's well, girls. He's completely sane +again." + +"It's a miracle," said Mollie breathlessly. + +And so it came to pass that some little time later four good-looking young +fellows, recently in the service of the greatest country on the earth, and +one of them still wearing his regimentals, saw a rather unexpected sight +as they swung down the path toward Wild Rose Lodge. + +On the porch sat an elderly, contented looking man, clad in garments that +would easily have accommodated two men of his size--garments belonging to +Mollie's Uncle John, and seated about him in attitudes of lazy comfort +were four young girls. + +These young girls--who were, at least from the standpoint of the four +young men, exceedingly good to look upon, were engaged in doing some sort +of fancy work. All but one of them, that is; for the fourth, a girl with +wavy brown hair and bright brown eyes, pink cheeks, and a dream of a +mouth, was reading to the elderly man who sat in the chair of state. + +"Gee, Allen," whispered one of the tall youths to the one who still wore +the uniform of his country's service, "I feel as though we were crabbing +your act. Can't we fellows do the disappearing act----" + +But just at the moment the girl with the brown eyes and the pink cheeks +looked up, gave one little startled cry, and dropped the book to the +porch. + +The other girls looked up and then followed a scene that very nearly made +the temporarily forgotten and neglected old man on the porch drop out of +his chair in surprise. + +"Allen!" screamed the girls, all except the brown-haired, pink-cheeked +one, who, for some unaccountable reason hung back behind the others. "You +perfect angel!" + +"Why didn't you let us know you were coming so that we could have been +prepared?" + +"Oh, isn't your uniform lovely!" + +"And look at the dressed-up leggings!" + +These and various other exclamations like them, coupled to the fact that +all the girls, except the one that he wanted to most, had kissed him, +rather overwhelmed young Lieutenant Washburn and took his breath away. + +His three companions, however, finding themselves neglected and out in the +cold, interfered at this point and saved his life. + +"Betty, what are you hiding away back there for?" cried Mollie to the +Little Captain, whose cheeks were pinker than ever and whose eyes were +shining very brightly with a sort of mixture of joy and fright. "Don't you +know Allen in his uniform?" + +"Aren't you going to kiss him?" chimed in Grace wickedly. + +"We all did," added Amy. + +But Betty had no intention of kissing Allen, although he begged her to +with his laughing eyes and she continued backing into the doorway, until +Mrs. Irving, coming up behind her, caught her up and pushed her out upon +the porch again. + +However, the chaperon monopolized Allen for a few minutes and gave Betty +time to catch her breath. She found Mollie introducing Professor Dempsey +to the astonished boys. These young soldiers wanted to ask a hundred +questions, but, catching a warning look from Betty, decided to wait till +later, when the little man himself was not present. + +Frank, who was perhaps more glad than any of them to see the father of his +chums alive and well, settled himself near the man and began to pour into +his starved and eager ears news of his sons and tales of adventures in +which they had figured. + +And while Betty was still smiling in sympathy with the look of absolute +happiness on Professor Dempsey's face, Allen dragged himself away from the +group of his admirers and came over to her. + +Boldly he pulled her hand through his arm and led her past the laughing +boys and girls, down the steps, and along the path that led into the +woods. + +"Be back in time for supper," Will called after them. "Something tells me +we are going to have some feed." + +"Oh, don't bother them," they heard Mollie's voice in laughing reproof. +"Remember, you were young yourself, once!" + +"And now," said Allen, when they had gone just far enough for the trees +and bushes to screen them from the view of the people on the porch, "I +want you to look at me, Betty. You haven't yet, you know." + +"I c-can't," said Betty in a muffled voice. "I guess--" she added +whimsically, "I guess I'm a little afraid of you, Lieutenant Allen +Washburn." + +With a glad laugh Allen put his strong young arms about her. + +"Do you think you can keep on all your life being afraid of me--like +that?" he asked. "Little Betty?" + +And Betty, with the radiant joy of all youth in her heart, slowly nodded. + + * * * * * + +And what glorious days followed! The young folks never tired of their +tramps through the woods and walks in the vicinity of Moonlight Falls. +They gave themselves up to a good time and had it in full measure. + +"Gee, what an improvement over the trenches in France!" remarked Will one +day. "No more wars for me!" + +"So say we all of us!" sang out Frank. + +When they had to return to Deepdale the boys took Professor Dempsey with +them and Frank saw to it that the old man was made comfortable until his +wounded sons returned to him. Both of the hurt soldiers were recovering, +and the reunion of father and sons was most affecting. + +"Now for a final swim below the falls!" cried Mollie one day, when the +outing was coming to an end. + +"We ought to have a good time--now there is no ghost to disturb us," put +in Amy. + +"A chocolate for the first one to enter the water!" exclaimed Grace, +waving her ever-present candy box in the air. + +"That settles it--I'm off!" burst out Betty; and then all made a wild dash +for the swimming pool. And here let us say good-bye to the Outdoor Girls. + + + +THE END + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Outdoor Girls at Wild Rose Lodge, by +Laura Lee Hope + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OUTDOOR GIRLS AT WILD ROSE LODGE *** + +***** This file should be named 8211.txt or 8211.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/8/2/1/8211/ + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: The Outdoor Girls at Wild Rose Lodge + or, The Hermit of Moonlight Falls + +Author: Laura Lee Hope + +Release Date: June, 2005 [EBook #8211] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on July 2, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WILD ROSE LODGE *** + + + + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + +The Outdoor Girls +at +Wild Rose Lodge +or +The Hermit of Moonlight Falls + +by +Laura Lee Hope + +Author of "The Outdoor Girls of Deepdale," "The +Outdoor Girls at Bluff Point," "The Moving +Picture Girls," "The Bobbsey Twins," +"Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue," +"Six Little Bunkers at Grandma +Bell's," Etc. + + + + +Contents + + + + I Just Fun. + II The Falling Tree. + III The Queer Little Man. + IV Good News. + V Betty Takes a Dare. + VI Nearly Wrecked. + VII Bad Tidings Confirmed. + VIII Premonitions. + IX A Visitor. + X Hurrah for Allen. + XI The Hold-Up. + XII Sheep! + XIII The Enemy Routed. + XIV Nothing Human. + XV Wild Roses. + XVI The Whirlpool. + XVII The "Thing". +XVIII Surprised. + XIX Like Old Times. + XX Very Much Alive. + XXI Out of the Dark. + XXII Tragedy. +XXIII A Moonlight Apparition. + XXIV Recovered. + XXV The Old Crowd Again. + + + + + +The Outdoor Girls at Wild Rose Lodge + + + + +Chapter I + +Just Fun + + + +"Did you ever see a more wonderful day?" + +The four Outdoor Girls, in Mollie Billette's touring car and with Mollie +herself at the wheel, were at the present moment rushing wildly over a +dusty country road at the rate of thirty miles an hour. + +Grace Ford was sitting in front with Mollie, while Betty Nelson and Amy +Blackford "sprawled," to use Mollie's sarcastic and slightly exaggerated +description, "all over the tonneau." + +"You look as if you had never done a real day's work in your life," said +Mollie, with a disapproving glance over her shoulder at the girls in the +tonneau. + +"We never have," returned quiet Amy, with a grin. + +"And we are proud of it," added Betty, as she defiantly settled her feet +still more comfortably on the foot rail. "Why should we be energetic when +it is so much easier to be lazy?" + +"There the proper spirit speaks," applauded Grace Ford from the front. "I +think I shall have to change places with you, Betty. It's far too exciting +up here with Mollie. She insists upon staging near collisions every few +feet--thus keeping me awake!" + +"Great heavens!" cried Mollie, pressing an impatient foot upon the +accelerator to which the great car responded with an eager purring, "did +any one ever give us the mistaken title of Outdoor Girls, I wonder? They +should have called us the Rip Van Winkle club, instead." + +"Now she's getting sour-castic," commented Grace lazily. "Have some candy, +honey, and sweeten up." + +She passed the ever-present box of delicacies over to Mollie, to which +overture the young driver responded with so indignant a stare that Grace +quickly withdrew the box, tucked it behind her, and strove to look +unconscious. + +"Please, ma'am, I didn't mean to do it," she said meekly. + +"Well, don't do it again, that's all," returned Mollie, uncompromisingly, +her eyes once more on the road ahead, "I've eaten so many chocolates this +week that I've had indigestion and mother threatened to cut down my +allowance." + +"Goodness, it's my allowance that suffers," retorted Grace, ruefully, +"since it is my candy that you eat." + +"Stop quarreling, girls, and answer my question." said Betty, sitting up +straight and regarding delightedly a vista of flying hills and woodland +greenery. "I asked you a few minutes ago if you had ever seen so wonderful +a day?" + +"Yes, plenty of 'em," returned Mollie, as she took a sharp curve on two +wheels. "If you weren't too lazy to notice anything, Betty Nelson, you +would see that there is a storm coming up. Look at those clouds over there +in the east." + +"Oh, you're a kill-joy!" cried Betty, cocking an optimistic eye up at the +sky. "It's only one teeny little cloud anyway, and who cares for clouds +when the boys are coming home?" + +Both Amy and Grace felt a breathless little tug at their hearts at the +joyful challenge in Betty's words, but Mollie, with a perverseness that +was sometimes characteristic of her, refused to be too happy. + +"Who says they're coming home?" she asked. "Now you're only guessing." + +"Guessing!" cried Betty indignantly. "What do you mean--guessing? The war +is over, isn't it?" + +"Yes; and has been for quite a while," Mollie responded dryly. "But that +doesn't say that the boys are coming home right away." + +"We don't care about the right away," interrupted Amy, with a quiet +happiness in her face that made Betty hug her impulsively. "We can wait +patiently, now that we know they are safe." + +"It's all right for you to talk about patience, Amy," retorted Mollie, +throttling her engine and sliding at breakneck speed down a long hill +without the thought of using a brake. A brake to Mollie meant something to +be used at the last minute when she couldn't think of anything else to do. +"You're an angel, but I'm not----" + +"No, indeed!" said Grace, so emphatically that the girls in the tonneau +chuckled and Mollie looked at her threateningly. + +"For goodness' sake, don't waste time looking at me," Grace pleaded, as +they bounced into a hole in the road and out again, fairly jouncing the +breath from the girls' bodies. "Keep your eyes on the road, Mollie dear. +We're not ready to die yet." + +"Well, look out, or you may--ready or not," threatened Mollie darkly, as +the car skidded around another precipitous turn and the girls saw with +relief a long stretch of flat road before them. + +"Just the same the boys must be coming home before very long," said Amy, +quietly returning to the subject. "And when they do come we'll have to +give them some sort of big party or something, girls." + +"Of course we will," said Grace, munching contentedly on a chocolate. +"Something that will make the people in Deepdale sit up and take notice." + +"We-el--I don't know," objected Betty thoughtfully. "They say that the few +soldier boys who have come home object to any sort of fuss being made over +them. They seem to want to forget everything that has happened 'over +there,' and any sort of celebration brings the whole thing vividly before +them again." + +"Yes, that's true, too," Mollie agreed. "I remember our doctor telling +mother that if people only wouldn't try to force confidences from the boys +and would try to keep all thought of the awful things they had been +through out of their minds, there would be fewer cases of nervous +breakdowns." + +"Pop!" said Grace, snapping her finger resignedly. "There go all our hopes +of a good time, Amy. When the boys come home all we shall be allowed to do +will be to smooth their fevered brows and hold their hands." + +"Well, we might do worse things even than that," said Betty, with a light +laugh, and Mollie shot her a malicious glance. + +"Just watch Betty objecting to that" she said wickedly. "Before we know it +she will be sighing that Allen has only one fevered brow to smooth!" + +Amy and Grace looked at Betty mischievously--at Betty who could not for +the life of her look as unconcerned as she would have liked. + +"Don't be so foolish" she said hastily, at which the girls only laughed +the more. + +"Never mind, honey," said Amy, putting an arm fondly about her chum. "I +guess we will all be crazy with joy to get the boys home again." + +"Well, you needn't think you can hold hands with Will and smooth his +fevered brow all the time," said Grace unexpectedly. "Because I really +have some share in him myself, you know. Remember, mine was one of the +three pictures he kept under his pillow." + +Readers of previous volumes in this series may recall that joyful letter +written to Betty not so long ago in which Sergeant Allen Washburn--now +Lieutenant Allen Washburn--had spoken of the three pictures which Will +Ford had kept under his pillow during his long convalescence in one of the +army hospitals over there. These readers may also remember that one of the +pictures was of the boy's mother, another of his sister, Grace, and the +third of shy little Amy Blackford, who now was blushing so furiously at +the mere mention of it. + +"How about poor Frank and Roy?" asked Mollie, mentioning the other two +boys who made up the quartette of the girls' boy chums. "Who will attend +to their fevered brows?" + +"Oh, you and Grace can take turns at that," said Betty, lightly adding, +with a little sigh: "Try as we can, Amy and I never know quite how to pair +you four off. We can't for the life of us find out which of you likes +Frank best and which inclines to Roy." + +"That's right, kid--keep 'em guessing," said Mollie slangily, as she +turned on power and challenged a steep grade. "Grace and I believe in +scattering our favors--as 'twere. See that hill just ahead of us? What do +you bet I make it without changing gears?" + +"If you make it without changing our looks, I'll be happy," said Grace +ruefully, as they bumped and rumbled to the top of the steep grade. "Look +out, Mollie!" she added suddenly, indicating a big pile of brushwood that +jutted out almost into the center of the road. "For goodness' sake, slow +down!" + +But Mollie did more than slow down. She stopped--and with such suddenness +that the girls were all but thrown out of the car and Betty bumped her +nose on the seat in front. + +They had scarcely regained their poise when they were startled by a shrill +cry from Amy. + +"Girls!" she almost screamed, clutching Betty's arm in a grip that hurt, +"look at that tree. It's going to fall! Oh, we'll be killed!" + +The girls followed the direction of her pointing finger and looks of +horror sprang to their eyes. Slowly, its descent retarded somewhat by the +branches of other trees, a towering giant of the forest tottered and +crashed its destructive way downward. And they were directly in its path! + + + + +Chapter II + +The Falling Tree + + + +For a moment the Outdoor Girls sat fascinated, paralyzed, without the +power to move a muscle. Then suddenly Grace seemed galvanized to action. +She leaned toward Mollie, grasping the steering wheel of the motionless +car frantically. + +"For heaven's sake, Mollie, get out of the way! Start the car!" she +screamed. + +"I can't!" Mollie answered, tight-lipped. "Something's wrong. The motor's +dead." + +But with Grace's scream, Betty had come to her senses and had scrambled +out of the car, dragging the still paralyzed Amy after her. + +"Grace, get out! Mollie, are you crazy?" she shouted wildly. "You'll be +killed--" + +Automatically Grace started to clamber to the road, but Mollie still +fussed with brakes and levers, her lips in a tight line, her eyes blazing. + +"Something's wrong--but I'll get her started," she muttered over and over +to herself while Betty raged at her from the road. + +"Get out! get out!" fumed the Little Captain. "Jump, or I'll come after +you and we'll both be killed. Mollie!" + +Luckily for Mollie's suicidal stubbornness, the great tree had been halted +for a moment in its downward plunge by some particularly heavy foliage and +branches, but the girls could see that it was only a matter of seconds +until the giant should tear itself loose and come plunging down upon them. + +And still Mollie fumbled with levers in a vain and foolish attempt to save +her beloved car at the risk of her own life. + +Betty had just jumped upon the running board in a wild attempt to drag her +chum from the car when suddenly help came to them from an unexpected +quarter. + +An elderly man came running from the woods, evidently attracted by their +excited cries. He gave one look at the toppling tree, even now tearing +itself loose from the impeding branches, another at the machine with the +two girls still in it, and then, with a speed and decision which seemed to +belie his age, went to the rescue. + +"Come--help me push!" he cried to Amy and Grace, who were still standing +dumbly in the middle of the road. A moment later he had thrown himself +with all his might against the machine, striving to push it out of the +path of the falling tree. + +In an instant of time the girls had added their strength to his and the +automobile was moving slowly down the road. Luckily the car was on a down +grade or they never could have managed it. As it was, there was just time +to get out of the way when the great tree came crashing down, its +outermost branches just brushing Amy's skirt. The giant had fallen on the +very spot where the car had been only a moment before! + +"Girls," breathed Betty, with a shaky little attempt at a laugh, "I guess +we've never in our lives been nearer death than we were just then." + +And while the girls are marveling at their almost miraculous escape from a +terrible death, time will be taken to introduce the Outdoor Girls to those +readers who have not yet met them and also to review briefly a few of the +exciting and interesting adventures they have had up to the time of this +present narrative. + +There were four of them. Betty Nelson, or the "Little Captain" as the +girls often called her because she had such a decided talent for knowing +just the right thing to do at just the right moment, was eighteen, +dark-haired and dark-eyed. She had a fund of vitality and more than her +share of sense and good judgment--all of which went toward making her what +she was, the most popular girl in Deepdale. + +Grace Ford, tall, slender and willowy, was almost the same age as Betty, +but that fact and her love of the outdoors were the only things she had in +common with the "Little Captain." Her father, James Ford, was a lawyer, +and her mother, Mrs. Margaret Ford, a rather dressy lady who spent a good +deal of her time at clubs, was quite a figure in the society of Deepdale. +However, all through the war Mrs. Ford had worked with an untiring +enthusiasm for the "cause," a fact which had made her many more friends +than her social popularity could ever have done. + +Next in the little quartette came Mollie Billette. Mollie was seventeen, +French-American, and impulsive, with a quick temper that made more trouble +for herself than for any one else. She and Betty were alike in their +splendid vigor and vitality. Mollie, or "Billy" as she was sometimes +called by her chums, had a very lovely widowed mother and an extremely +mischievous young brother and sister, Paul and Dora (nicknamed "Dodo"), +who were twins and six. Although the twins were pretty nearly always in +trouble, they were really adorable children, whom everybody loved. + +Amy Blackford, shy, sweet, pretty, completed the quartette. There had been +a mystery about her past which had recently been cleared up, and it may +have been this mystery that caused the girls to treat her with a little +more consideration and gentleness than they did each other. Her guardian +was a broker in the city who knew very little of the past except through +letters. + +The four boys who were close chums of the girls and had added to the +interest and excitement of more than one of their adventures were Allen +Washburn, who was very much interested in Betty, and in whom Betty was +very much interested; Will Ford, Grace's brother, who had carried Amy +Blackford's picture all through the war; Frank Haley, Will Ford's closest +chum, and Roy Anderson who had not much distinction of any kind except +that he was "lots of fun" and a chum of the other three boys. + +In the first volume of this series the girls went on a camping and +tramping tour, tramping for miles over the country and meeting with many +adventures on the way. + +Later they had more fun at Rainbow Lake, in a motor car, in a winter camp, +in Florida, at Ocean View, then at Pine Island where the girls and boys +together had cleared up a mystery surrounding a gypsy cave. + +Later the girls and boys found themselves caught in the meshes of the +great war, as many hundreds of thousands of others had been. The boys +responded eagerly to the bugle call, and the girls, too, were eager for +Army service and finally went to a hostess house at Camp Liberty. Though +the girls had never worked harder in their lives, they found that the task +had a stirringly romantic side as well. + +Then in the volume directly preceding this, entitled "The Outdoor Girls at +Bluff Point" the girls had had perhaps the most exciting adventure of all. + +The Hostess House at Camp Liberty having burnt down, the chums found +themselves forced to take a much-needed, although not entirely welcome, +vacation and had decided to spend it at a romantic spot near the ocean +called Bluff Point. The cottage on the bluff had been loaned to the girls +by Grace's patriotic Aunt Mary, who declared that she owed something to +the chums for having worked so hard for the good old Stars and Stripes. +Mrs. Ford, worn out with war work, had gone with the girls to chaperon +them. + +Bad tidings at first threatened to overwhelm the chums. The Fords received +word that Will was seriously wounded "somewhere in France" and later +Mollie received a telegram from her mother saying that the twins, Dodo and +Paul, had disappeared. Still later, while everything was at its blackest, +Betty read Allen Washburn's name among the missing. However, everything +cleared up later when the twins, who had been kidnapped, were recovered +and their kidnapper sent to justice. Still later Allen proved that the +report that he had been missing was an error by writing to Betty himself +and in the letter he also spoke of Will Ford and the fact that he was +getting over his wound splendidly. Of course there had been great +rejoicing and the vacation had proved a happy one after all. + +And now, at the time of this story, the war was over and the first +regiments of soldiers had arrived from the other side and the girls were +expecting a joyful reunion with the boys at any time. + +They had not yet made definite plans for the summer and were just in the +position of waiting for something to happen when something had happened +with a vengeance--but not at all the kind of something which the four +girls had expected. + +"I think you are right, my dear," said the man who had saved the lives of +at least two of the girls, rubbing his hands fussily together and peering +out of small, near-sighted eyes, first at the tree and then at the girls. +"It was a close call--a very close call. I declare, it was very nearly the +closest call I ever saw!" + +For the first time the girls really looked at him. He was a rather small +man, slenderly built, with long sensitive hands and a very bald head, in +the center of which a tuft of hair stood comically upright. These +characteristics, coupled to the squinting eyes, gave the man a very odd +appearance. + +He was so queer a figure standing there in the center of the road that the +girls found themselves staring unduly. Realizing something of this, Betty +jumped down from the running board where she was still standing and held +out her hand to the little man, thanking him in a voice that still +trembled a little for the great service he had done them. The other girls +followed suit and so overwhelmed their rescuer that he seemed quite +embarrassed and looked around nervously as if for some means of escape. + +Betty, seeing his embarrassment, was about to take pity upon him when +something happened that they had not bargained for. It began to rain, not +gently, but in a deluge, taking the girls completely by surprise. + +Instinctively they turned toward the car, but Mollie suddenly began to +laugh in a half-hysterical manner. + +"This is what I call fun" she said. "Engine dead, caught in the rain, and +I've even left the side curtains at home! I guess we're in for it, girls." + + + + +Chapter III + +The Queer Little Man + + + +While the girls stood looking wildly at each other their unknown rescuer +seemed suddenly galvanized to action. + +"This won't do at all!" he cried, raising both hands to his bald head +which was by this time very wet and more shiny than ever. "You will get +your death of cold, young ladies, you surely will. You must come with me. +Here, right along this path I have a cottage--" All the time he was +talking he was hustling them fussily ahead of him, for all the world like +some old hen with a brood of chickens. + +The girls, not knowing what else to do and being in rather a bewildered +frame of mind, allowed themselves to be hustled. The rain was sheeting +down in a terrific cloud burst, so that their clothes clung to them damply +and they began to shiver. + +They circled the fallen tree which had so nearly been their undoing, and a +moment later found themselves upon a narrow footpath which seemed to lead +into the very heart of the woods. + +"I wonder where he is taking us," whispered Grace in Betty's ear. "Maybe +he's a murderer or something." + +In spite of her discomfort, Betty giggled. + +"Did you ever see a murderer with a bald head like that?" she asked. + +It seemed to the girls as if the path must be at least a mile long, but +just as they were despairing of ever reaching the end of it, they came out +into a partially cleared space and through the trees caught a glimpse of +something that looked like a house. + +Their new acquaintance, who up to this time had been bringing up the rear, +now took the lead and led them over tangled underbrush, stones and +foot-bruising rocks, to his strange little dwelling. + +"It's a house, it's a house!" cried Grace thankfully, as they hurried +after the little man. "I guess somebody will have to wring me out when we +get inside. I'm soaked through!" + +"Goodness, why don't you tell us something we don't know?" grumbled +Mollie, but nobody was listening to her. They had reached the house and +the man had swung the door open hospitably. + +"Step inside, step inside, do," he urged with a nervous gesture that +reminded the girls once more of the proverbial hen. "You will find it dry +at least, and I will have a fire for you in a hurry. Just a moment till I +get some wood--just a moment--" + +And while he rambled on, suiting his words with quick nervous action, the +girls crowded inside the cottage and looked about them curiously. + +The room they had entered was large and scrupulously neat. At first glance +it seemed a queer combination of hunting lodge and museum of natural +history. The rough clapboards and beams of the ceiling and walls had never +been plastered, and this very crudity seemed somehow to give the room an +air of warmth and home-likeness that was very inviting. + +Hung on the walls were several fairly large skins of animals, a gun or +two, and over the huge open fireplace, which very nearly covered one end +of the room, hung the magnificent head of a buck. + +On the wall opposite the fireplace was a set of rudely-erected shelves, +one beneath the other, and these shelves were covered with specimens of +butterflies, beetles and other bugs of every size and description. That +the specimens had been mounted by an expert even an inexperienced eye +could see. + +The girls, who had been regarding the oddities of the room with growing +interest, were brought back to a realization of the discomfort of wet +clothes by the owner of the place himself. + +The latter had brought firewood from somewhere, and, with the aid of half +a dozen matches, had succeeded in getting a fairly good blaze. + +Then with a smile of satisfaction he turned to the girls, rubbing his +hands together genially. + +"Come nearer to the fire--come closer--do," he urged in his quick nervous +way. "I am sure you are chilled through--quite chilled through. I will +bring chairs." He stopped abruptly and looked about him with an +embarrassed air, his gaze coming to rest on the only chair which adorned +the room. + +Betty, seeing his confusion, was trying to think of something helpful to +say, when the little man suddenly found a way out of his quandary. + +"Ah, I have it!" he cried, seizing enthusiastically upon a long bench that +stood on one side of the room. "Four can sit upon this quite easily, I am +sure. A happy thought--a very happy thought--" and he pulled and tugged at +the bench until he succeeded in moving it close to the fire. + +Afterward it occurred to the girls that they might have helped him, for it +was a very heavy bench and he was rather a frail old man. But at the time +they were too interested in this unusual place and their rather +extraordinary host to think of anything very rational. + +However, they seated themselves dutifully in a row upon the bench, "for +all the world like an orphan asylum out for an airing," as Mollie said +later, and gratefully stretched out their sodden shoes to the blaze. + +They were cold and they were wet and they were fast becoming very hungry, +all of which might have been expected to form a very good reason why they +should have been miserable. But they weren't miserable--not at all. To the +Outdoor Girls the thrill of an adventure always more than counterbalanced +the possible discomforts attending it. + +Their host started to draw up the one chair in the room, hesitated a +moment then, as though he had just thought of something, turned and darted +through the door, closing it with a little click behind him. + +For the space of half a second the girls looked after him. Then they +looked at each other. Then they drew a long breath and let loose the flood +of curious questions which had been struggling for expression for the past +twenty minutes. + +"Well, isn't this a lark?" cried Mollie, her eyes dancing, "Half an hour +ago we were awfully bored, and now look at us." + +"Yes, look at us," said Grace with a little sniff. "I'm sure we're not +very much to look at right now with our hair wet, and our clothes--" + +"Oh, for goodness' sake, who cares about such things?" cried Betty gaily. +"I think this is a darling place and I'm having the time of my life. I +wonder who he is?" + +"He seemed kind of scared just now, didn't he?" chuckled Mollie, feeling +her shoe to see if it was drying out any. "It was funny the way he bolted +out of the room." + +"Poor old dear--no wonder he was scared," commented Grace, as she took off +her hat and tried to do something with her hopelessly bedraggled locks. +"The way we look we're enough to scare anybody. Oh, dear, hasn't any one a +comb?" + +"Why, of course, we carry a complete beauty parlor outfit just for your +benefit, dear," giggled Mollie. "The rest of us don't need it though, We +are too beautiful naturally." + +"You know I like him a lot, the queer little man, I mean," said Amy, +evidently following out her own train of thought. "He seems kind of fussy +and peculiar but he has an awfully nice smile." + +"Trust Amy to find the smile," said Betty, putting an arm fondly about the +younger girl. "And of course we all like him," she added seriously. "If it +hadn't been for him we probably wouldn't be feeling so happy right now." + +"Yes, we would probably be in some hospital with our unhappy relatives +weeping over our mangled remains," said the irrepressible Mollie, and +laughed at the shriek that went up at her gruesome remark. "There probably +wouldn't have been enough of us left to recognize," she added by way of +good measure, and they shrieked again. + +"For goodness' sake, let's talk of something pleasant," said Grace, rising +suddenly and going over to the window. "If you want to sit on that old +bench all day, you can." + +It appeared that the girls had no intention of sitting on the bench all +day. They got up and sauntered about the room, examining the skins on the +walls and looking, but without much curiosity, at the rifles. They +lingered longest before the shelves of butterflies and beetles, for some +of the specimens were really beautiful and very rare. + +After they had examined everything in sight they began to grow restive. +They must have been in the place nearly an hour and it suddenly occurred +to them to wonder where their host had been keeping himself all this time. + +"I wish we could get started," worried Mollie, looking out upon the sodden +landscape. The rain was apparently coming down just as hard as ever. "I +hate to leave the car all by itself out there. Somebody might steal it." + +"I wish I knew where that man was," said Grace nervously. "I never trust +strange men. He may set the house on fire for all we know." + +The words were hardly out of her mouth when the door opened and the topic +of conversation himself entered, carrying a tray so big and heaped so high +with sandwiches that one could scarcely discover the man behind it. + +Betty and Amy ran to his assistance, and between them they got the tray +safely to the bench. In one delighted glance the girls saw that not only +sandwiches, but a steaming pot of coffee and the remains of what had been +a great, three-layer chocolate cake were on the tray. + +At thought of the fussy little man taking all this time and trouble, for +it must have taken a good deal of work to make all that formidable array +of sandwiches--the girls were sincerely touched and regarded their host +with a new interest. + +"There, there," he was saying, regarding the heaped-up tray with evident +pleasure, "you must sit down and eat at once. You must be nearly starved-- +famished. I hope this will be enough." + +He looked at them so anxiously that Betty felt like hugging him--and +nearly did it. + +"Enough! Well, I guess it is enough," she said heartily, as the other +girls seated themselves on the bench either side of the tempting tray and +began enthusiastically to help themselves. "It would be plenty for an +army. We can't thank you enough." + +"Indeed we can't," added Mollie. + +"It's awfully good of you," said Grace, as she took a bite of her ham +sandwich. + +"Awfully good," added Amy, like an echo. + +The little man waved aside their thanks and drew up the one chair in the +room, talking all the time in his quick, jerky fashion. + +"It was no trouble, I am sure,--no trouble whatever," he said, adding as +though he wished to change the subject: "You didn't tell me your name--" +he hesitated, looking at Betty, who of course did tell him her name on the +spot. This proved a signal for mutual introductions, and the girls learned +that their new friend was a college professor, Arnold Dempsey by name. +They also learned that he had taken up woodcraft in the hope of recovering +his health. + +And while they contentedly munched sandwiches and sipped steaming coffee +the girls learned a good deal more about Arnold Dempsey, and the more they +learned of him the more they felt drawn to him. + +And when he started to tell them of his two sons who had fought so nobly +in the army of democracy, their eyes began to shine and they leaned toward +him with an interest that was intensely real. + +"Oh, it must be wonderful to have two big soldier sons," cried Amy, +forgetting her shyness in her enthusiasm. "Aren't you dreadfully proud?" + +A gleam came into Professor Dempsey's eyes and his thin shoulders +straightened. + +"Yes, yes," he said. "Of course I'm proud of my boys--very proud. And I +hope," a look of absolute happiness came into his eyes and he smiled +contentedly, "that before very long I shall see them." + +"Oh, I'm sure you will!" cried Betty eagerly. + +"That's what we are all hoping for, anyway," said Grace, adding with a +sigh: "The boys have been gone so <i>dreadfully</i> long." + +"Look," cried Mollie presently, rising suddenly to her feet and pointing +toward the window. "We have been so busy talking that we never noticed the +sun had come out." + +"And doesn't it look good!" exulted Betty. + +In spite of their reluctance to leave their new-found friend, the girls +were anxious to be off, for they knew their parents would be worrying +about them. + +Professor Dempsey insisted on seeing them safely back to the road although +they protested that there was absolutely no need of it. + +"There are two or three paths that lead to the road," he explained, as he +flung wide the door, letting in a flood of sunshine, "and I wouldn't have +you lose your way for the world--not for the world!" + +The woodland was beautiful after the rain, and the girls sniffed the +fragrant air eagerly as they followed Professor Dempsey along the path. It +was not till they had almost reached the road that Mollie had a +disquieting thought. + +"How do we know but what we're stuck here for good?" she asked the girls. +"The car stopped dead, you remember, just under that horrible tree, and +I'm sure I don't know what in the world made it. If I can't find out the +trouble--" + +"Oh, but you've got to find it," protested Grace, while Betty and Amy +looked worried. "We can't stay here all night, and it may be a dozen miles +to the nearest garage." + +"I know that just as well as you do," grumbled Mollie. "But if I can't, I +can't, that's all." + +By this time they had reached the road and Mollie went straight to the +car. While she and Betty were trying to find out what was wrong the other +two girls and Professor Dempsey looked on anxiously. + +"Well, as far as I can see there is absolutely nothing wrong with it," +snapped Mollie at last, lifting a face flushed with exertion. "Get in, +girls, and I'll start the engine--or try to. Then if she won't go we'll +have to make up our minds to stay here all night or walk to the next +garage." + +Accordingly the girls got in and Mollie pressed the self-starter. To her +great surprise, the engine purred a response, and as she shifted her gears +the car moved slowly forward. + +"Oh, goodie, we're going," cried Amy, and the faces of the other girls +showed relief. + +"Must have been a drop of water in the gasoline," hazarded Mollie, and +then she throttled the engine once more while she and her chums turned to +say good-bye to Professor Dempsey. The latter was still standing in the +road, looking up at them rather wistfully. + +"I'm glad that I had an opportunity of helping you, young ladies--very +glad," he answered, in response to their repeated thanks. "You conferred a +great favor on me also, for I have little company. Good-bye--and good luck +to you." + +The girls responded gayly, and as they started forward Betty leaned far +out of the machine to call back an encouraging: "Keep hoping hard for your +boys to come home. I am sure they will be back soon." + +"Thank you, young lady, thank you," said Professor Dempsey, but the words +were too low for Betty to catch and she was too far away to see the mist +that sprang suddenly to his eyes. + + + + +Chapter IV + +Good News + + + +Deepdale, the home of the four Outdoor Girls, is a thriving little city +with a population of about fifteen thousand people. It is situated on the +Argono River, a pleasant stream where a great many of the young folk of +Deepdale, and some of the older ones too, keep motor boats and canoes and +various other types of pleasure craft. + +Farther on, the Argono empties into Rainbow Lake, which is picturesque in +the extreme. It has several pretty and romantic looking islands, chief of +which is Triangle Island--so called because of its shape. + +There is a boat running from Deepdale to Clammerport at the foot of +Rainbow Lake, and this boat is almost always crowded with pleasure +seekers. In addition to this Deepdale is situated in the heart of New York +state and is only a hundred-and-fifty-mile run from the city of that name. +Thus one can easily see that Deepdale is a very desirable place in which +to live. + +At least that is what the four Outdoor Girls thought. And since they had +spent most of their lives there, they certainly ought to know! + +On the morning of this day, some ten days or so after their strange +encounter with Professor Dempsey, the girls were gathered on Betty's +porch, talking over their plans for the summer. + +"I am only waiting to hear from Uncle John," Mollie was saying, as she +swung lazily back and forth in the couch swing. "The last time I saw him +he said that he was almost sure to go north this summer and he told me +that as soon as he made definite plans he would let me know." + +"You told us that two weeks ago," Grace reminded her. "And we haven't +heard from him yet." + +"It does seem to take him a long time to make up his mind," sighed Amy. + +Betty, who had been trying to read a novel, closed the book and turned to +them with a laugh. + +"Goodness, you all sound doleful," she told them. "It seems to me that we +ought to be able to live through it, even if we don't get Wild Rose Lodge +for the summer. There are plenty of other things we can do." + +Mollie turned upon her indignantly. + +"How you talk, Betty Nelson," she scolded her. "As if we could possibly +have as good a time anywhere else as we could at Wild Rose Lodge. Think of +being in a real hunting lodge out in the woods away from everybody! Why, +it will be a real adventure--" + +"All right. I surrender--don't shoot," laughed Betty, coming over and +perching on the railing beside Mollie. "I admit we should probably have +more fun at the lodge than we could anywhere else. I was only trying to +look on the bright side of things in case our plans should fall through. +Hello--who's this?" + +"This" proved to be Mollie's little sister Dora, or "Dodo," as she was +called by almost everybody. With a sigh of relief, the girls saw that +Dodo's twin brother, Paul, was not with her, for together the children +were a simply unconquerable pair. + +The twins had been spoiled by their widowed mother, Mrs. Billette, even +before the time when they had been kidnapped and spirited off by a hideous +Spaniard. But since their recovery, their joyful mother had indulged them +in every way until they had become well nigh unmanageable. + +Yet in spite of everything, the twins were very lovable, and every one +loved them, even those whom they annoyed most. + +And now as Dodo tore up the street toward them, waving something white in +her hand, the girls instinctively glanced about to see what they ought to +put out of sight before the cyclone struck them. + +"Thank goodness, Paul isn't with her," murmured Grace. "Then we would be +in for it." + +"Dodo," cried Mollie as the child started up the walk, "scrape some of +that mud off your feet before you come up. You will get Betty's porch all +dirty." + +"Name's Dora--not Dodo," the little girl answered, paying not the +slightest heed to Mollie's caution about the mud. "Dodo's a baby's name-- +don't like it. Got something for you." + +She stumbled heedlessly up the steps, leaving a trail of mud behind her, +and almost breaking her neck in the bargain. + +"Now just look at Betty's porch," Mollie was beginning in exasperation +when Betty laughingly interfered. + +"Oh, let her alone, Mollie," she coaxed. "The porch was dirty anyway and-- +what's that you have in your hand, Dodo?" + +"Sumfin' for Mollie," answered Dodo, leaning sulkily against the rail +while the girls regarded her anxiously. "An' if Mallie aren't nice to me +she can't have it." + +"Oh, for goodness' sake be nice to her and get it over with, Mollie," +urged Grace, uneasily conscious of the candy box she had shoved hastily +behind her. She was afraid one corner of it might show. + +So Mollie got down from her perch on the railing and went over coaxingly +to the little girl. + +"Give it to Mollie, honey," she begged. "I'll even call you Dora, if you +will." + +"<i>Always</i> Dora--<i>never</i> Dodo?" asked Dodo eagerly, for she was +growing out of babyhood just enough to resent being called by her baby +name. + +"Always Dora," Mollie promised. + +For answer Dodo held out the white thing she had waved at them from the +street, and with a little cry of excitement Mollie saw that it was a +letter addressed to her in her Uncle John's firm hand. + +At her exclamation the girls crowded round her eagerly. She hastily tore +open the envelope and devoured the contents. Then she turned to the girls +with a glowing face. + +"It's all right, it's all right!" she cried, waving the letter round her +head like a flag and nearly upsetting her chums. "Uncle John says it is +settled. He is going to Canada for a couple of months and we can have the +lodge for the whole time he is away or a part of it, just as we wish. +Hooray! How's that for luck?" + +The girls were so excited over their good fortune that they forgot all +about Dodo. She, finding herself unobserved, had slipped around the girls +to the swing, snatched the box of candy which Grace had exposed when she +got up, had taken the steps two at a time and was flying off down the +street before the girls saw what she was up to. + +Then it was Grace who, with a dreadful premonition, thought of her candy. +She turned quickly, saw that the box was gone, and uttered a wail of woe. + +"That little Turk of a sister of yours has done it again," she cried, +turning to Mollie, while Betty and Amy began to laugh. "You just wait till +I catch her. I'll get my candy back if I have to--spank her," this last +with a fierce scowl. + +Betty put an arm about her excited chum, led her over to the swing and put +her down in it. + +"By the time you caught Dodo there wouldn't be any of your candy left," +she said, adding soothingly: "Never mind, honey. We will get you some more +if we have to take up a collection." + +"Makes me feel like an orphan's home," grumbled Grace, but she laughed +nevertheless with the rest and immediately forgot both her candy and Dodo +in renewed excitement over Wild Rose Lodge. + +"Just where is this place, Mollie?" asked Amy. "What is it called?" + +"Oh, that's the very best part of it," said Mollie, with a mysterious +smile. "It has the most wonderful, most romantic name. Come closer while I +whisper it--Moonlight Falls. There, isn't that a real name for a place?" + +"Wild Rose Lodge at Moonlight Falls," sighed Grace ecstatically. "If we +don't have a wildly romantic time in a place with a name like that, it +will be our own fault." + +"But we will have to have a chaperon--" Amy was beginning when Betty +interrupted her eagerly. + +"I have fixed that," she said, and while they all looked in astonishment +she went on quickly to explain. "I met Mrs. Irving in the street the other +day--you know she has been away ever since that last time she was with us +on Pine Island--and I asked her then if she would chaperon us this +summer." + +"But you didn't even know then that we were going to Wild Rose Lodge, +Betty," Mollie interrupted. + +"I knew we were sure to go somewhere. We always--" Betty was arguing when +Grace cut in impatiently. + +"Never mind about that," she said. "Did Mrs. Irving say she would go?" + +"She said she was very sure she could manage it," Betty answered. "She +seemed awfully surprised and said it would be great fun to be with us +girls again." + +"It will be great fun for all of us," said Amy happily. "I'll never forget +the wonderful time we had on Pine Island with Mrs. Irving and the boys." + +"Yes--and the boys," Betty repeated a little wistfully. She was thinking +of Allen Washburn and the wonderful time they had had that never-to-be- +forgotten summer--before the war had come to separate them and make their +hearts ache. Oh, it would be unbelievably happy to have the boys back +again--Will, Roy, Frank and--her Allen. The old crowd together once more. +She looked around at the girls, who had also fallen into a thoughtful +mood, and suddenly she smiled, the old bright, happy smile that was +peculiarly Betty's own. + +"Oh, cheer up, everybody," she cried gayly. "How do we know but what the +boys will be home in time to join us at Wild Rose Lodge? Then think of the +fun!" + +"Oh, Betty, if we could only believe that!" they cried. + +"Well," said the Little Captain stoutly, "you never can tell. Stranger +things have happened, you know." + +"But nothing so joyful," added Mollie. + + + + +Chapter V + +Betty Takes a Dare + + + +It would be a week or two before Wild Rose Lodge would be ready for the +girls' occupancy, and as a relief for their impatience they filled in the +time in hiking, motoring and put-putting up and down the Argono in their +natty little motor boat. + +But whatever it was they were doing, their conversation almost invariably +returned to one of two subjects--the return of the boys and the good time +they would have at Moonlight Falls. + +They spoke often of Professor Arnold Dempsey. They took a real interest in +the queer little old man, both because of the service he had done them and +the fact that he was watching and waiting for his two big sons, even as +they were anxiously awaiting the return of their boys. + +"It must be dreadfully lonely for him in that little cabin or house or +whatever you call it in the woods," Amy said one day as she and the girls +sauntered down to the dock where their motor boat was anchored. "And he +said he hardly ever had company." + +"Goodness, I should think he would go crazy," Mollie commented. "Why, I go +almost mad when I don't have any one to talk to for an <i>hour</i>." + +"I wonder if he lived in that little house all during the war," said Betty +thoughtfully. They had reached the dock and were walking slowly out upon +it. "If he did, it must have been dreadfully hard for him. It makes me +shiver to think of him sitting there all alone, reading the casualty list, +terrified for fear the next name would be that of his son----" + +"Oh, Betty," cried gentle Amy, all her sympathy quickly roused by the +picture Betty had drawn, "what a dreadful thing to think of!" + +"But he never did find their names among the missing or killed," Mollie +reminded them soberly. "We know that because he said he expected to see +them soon." + +"Of course. And all we can do is hope with all our hearts that he gets his +wish," said Betty brightly, adding with a sudden change of subject: "But +away with dull care. The sun is shining and here's our fairy ship waiting +to carry us off to fresh adventure. What more could any one want, I'd like +to know." + +"Humph," grunted Mollie, eyeing critically the trim little boat in which +they had had so much fun and adventure, as the other girls tumbled aboard. +"I'd say she didn't look very much like a fairy boat just now. She needs +considerable polishing and scrubbing. Why don't you girls get busy, +anyhow?" + +"Just hear who's talking," yawned Grace, disposing herself lazily in a +comfortable chair on deck. "I haven't noticed you waving a broom and mop +frantically around these parts lately, Mollie dear." + +"In fact," Betty added with a mischievous twinkle in her eye, "I think I +remember suggesting that the <i>Gem</i> needed grooming the other day. +Whereupon some one who shall be nameless suggested a motor ride instead." + +"She's got you there, old dear," drawled Grace, taking the inevitable box +of chocolates from her pocket and opening it lovingly. "I remember the +incident pre-zactly as it has been described." + +Mollie, who was still standing on the dock, regarding them frowningly, +started to reply but Betty interrupted her with a shout. She had started +the engine and the boat began to move slowly away from the dock. + +"Better hurry up," suggested the Little Captain wickedly. "We'd rather not +leave you behind, but if you insist--" + +However, Mollie had not the slightest intention in the world of being left +behind. With a gasp of mingled surprise and dismay she made a jump for it, +cleared the foot of space between the dock and the boat and landed square +in the middle of Grace's astonished and outraged lap. She would have sat +on the candy box, too, and would, in all probability, have ruined it and +her dress as well, had not Grace, with rare presence of mind, whipped the +box out of danger just in the nick of time. + +"Well," said Mollie, too surprised and indignant to move for a moment, +while, at the comical picture she made, both Betty and Amy laughed +merrily, "I surely like this!" + +"You do, do you? Well, I don't!" cried Grace, recovering both her breath +and her dignity at the same moment. "If you don't stop sitting on my lungs +this minute, Mollie Billette, I'll--I'll--stick this pin into you." + +With a yell Mollie stumbled to her feet and shook out her dress +belligerently. + +"You had better not. I'm stronger than you, Grace Ford, and I've a good +mind to let you see what the bottom of the river looks like." + +She advanced toward her prospective victim, and Betty stopped laughing +long enough to call to her. + +"You'd better change your mind, Mollie," she cautioned merrily. "You can't +give Gracie a ducking without ruining her dress and she might charge you +damages. Reconsider--I beg of you, reconsider!" + +Mollie condescended to reconsider and plumped herself down cross-legged on +the deck, disdaining a chair. + +"Oh, very well," she said, adding as she glared darkly at Grace: "You will +probably never know, woman, how near to death you were." + +To which Grace replied with unexpected ferocity. + +"And you may never know, woman, just how near to death you are this +minute. Look at what you have done to my best sport skirt. I don't believe +I will ever be able to get those wrinkles out." + +"If you two will stop quarreling just long enough to tell me where you +want to go," Betty requested, "I should be very much obliged. Up or down +the river?" + +"Anywhere," answered Grace, still regarding her crumpled sport skirt +gloomily. "We are just trying to kill time this afternoon anyway, so I +don't see that it makes much difference where we go." + +"Suppose we take her up to the Point," suggested Mollie, getting up from +the deck and going over to Betty who still had the wheel. "Maybe we can +get some ice-cream and a drink of ice water. I am getting dreadfully +thirsty already." + +Betty looked tempted but a little doubtful. + +"You know it is pretty dangerous to run in there, Mollie," she protested. +"There are so many other boats driven by Percy Falconer's crazy lot who +don't care whether they capsize you or not--" + +"Goodness, Betty, it isn't like you to be afraid," Mollie started, but +stopped at the look in the "Little Captain's" eye. + +"I'd rather you didn't ever say that again, Mollie," she said. "I'll take +you in there since you want it, but if anything should happen remember +that I warned you." + +"Goodness, Mollie, I don't see why you ever wanted to go and suggest that +for," said Grace nervously. "We all know there is danger of a collision +over at the Point, and I'm sure I don't want to spoil my clothes, even if +you do." + +"Your father said that he would rather we kept to this side of the river, +Betty," urged Amy. "Please don't go over to the Point now." + +"There's no use talking to her," snapped Grace. "You ought to know Betty +well enough by this time to know that she would take us over to the Point +now, after what Mollie said, if she knew we would all die of it. Might as +well save your breath." + +Mollie said nothing, but down in her heart she was more than a little bit +anxious and was beginning to regret that she had deliberately egged Betty +on. + +Percy Falconer, of whom Betty had spoken, had once been a rather dudish, +affected boy and had later developed into an exceedingly fast young man. +He had an immensely rich father and a mother who denied him nothing so +that he had been able to gather together a few kindred spirits among whom +he was the leader. All the regular boys and girls in town thoroughly +disliked "the set," but there were a few girls who were willing to put up +with Percy Falconer and his crowd for sake of the long motor rides, +dances, dinners and motorboat picnics that the boys were able to give +them. + +There were always some of this wild crowd over at the "Point," and it was +for this reason as well as the very real danger of a collision with a +recklessly driven boat that Betty's father had rather discouraged the +chums going over to that side of the river. + +However the day was fine, the water of the river was as calm as a lake and +the <i>Gem</i> flew across the sparkling water like a gull, bringing a +flush of pure excitement and pleasure to the faces of the girls. Danger-- +what danger could there be in this staunch little craft, with Betty at the +wheel? + +They were half way across the river, now--three quarters. The gay pleasure +craft flaunting up and down the river were becoming more numerous and +Betty slackened speed. Her breath came more quickly and her hands +tightened on the wheel. She could drive a boat as well as any boy, but +here, she knew, was a situation to test her greatest skill. + +Craft of all sizes and descriptions seemed to the excited girls to be +piling up about them. Most of the boats were being navigated carefully, +but now and then a small, fast speed-craft would shoot out from behind +another so suddenly that Betty would be forced to swerve sharply to one +side, fairly grazing the stern of the racing boat. + +On one of these occasions, when it had seemed impossible to avoid a +collision, Amy called out sharply: + +"Oh, Betty, don't you think we had better go back?" + +And Betty replied with a queer little laugh: + +"Might just as well go ahead as back now. We'll be there in a minute. +Don't worry." + +The words were scarcely out of her mouth when two craft running neck and +neck and driven recklessly slipped out from behind a sailboat and drove +directly down upon the <i>Gem</i>. It seemed impossible that the Outdoor +Girls could escape disaster. + + + + +Chapter VI + +Nearly Wrecked + + + +The girls did not scream. Perhaps they were too frightened or perhaps it +was just natural pluck. + +They did jump to their feet though as if with some wild thought of leaping +overboard. But there they remained, staring with fascinated eyes at the +fate that was bearing down upon them. + +As for Betty, after one breath-taking minute when all the blood in her +body seemed to rush to her head, she simply sat there and tried in the +second that was given her to think what to do. + +Almost automatically, she wrenched the wheel around, nearly capsizing the +boat with the sudden turn. At almost the same second, as though the thing +had been prearranged, the boys in the racing craft swung around in the +opposite direction. + +A slight scraping as the side of the <i>Gem</i> slid along the side of the +nearer of the racing craft, and they were safe, with no harm done with the +exception of a little paint scraped from the side of the boat. + +It was a moment before the girls could realize what had happened to them. +Then a voice hailed them from the boat alongside. In a glance the girls +perceived that the voice belonged to no other than Percy Falconer himself. + +"Hello," called Percy, adding boisterously as he recognized the girls: +"Well, by all that's holy, if it isn't the Outdoor Girls! Thought you +never came over to this side of the river." + +"We don't," Betty answered, the hand that still gripped the wheel shaking +nervously now that the danger was over. "And I don't believe we ever will +again, either!" + +"I say, your teeth are chattering," cried Percy, looking at Betty in open +admiration. In the old days, Percy had tried hard to win favor in Betty's +eyes, but the latter had always treated him with a good-natured +indifference not unmixed with contempt that had been very hard for the +young dude to bear. During the years he had still admired Betty from afar +and hated Allen Washburn for being the "lucky one." So now he hastened to +make the most of what he thought was an opportunity. + +"Come on over to the Point with me and Derby here," indicating the young +fellow in the other racing craft who had drawn his boat up close to them +and was looking on with interest. "We will get you something to steady +your nerves a bit. We had a pretty narrow squeak that time, and it's no +wonder it upset you a little." + +He was supposedly addressing all the girls, but his eyes were only for +Betty. As for her, she suddenly had a startlingly clear mental picture of +what her father would think were some one to tell him that his daughter +and her chums had been seen at the "Point" with Percy Falconer and a +friend of his. + +In days gone by Percy had been very insipid, his mind entirely on his +clothes; now he had become a sport, and the report was that he caroused +around not a little. + +Betty turned to the youth with a decided little shake of her head, though +her eyes were smiling. + +"I think we shall have to go right back," she said. "It looks as though it +were going to rain. Thank you just as much," and she began to ease her +motor boat gently away from the other craft. + +"Oh, I say," Percy cried, disappointedly and a little angrily, for out of +the corner of his eye he could see that his friend was laughing at him, +"we would only keep you for a moment or two. You needn't be afraid of us. +We won't bite, you know." + +"We don't know you well enough to be sure even of that," said Mollie, +coming suddenly and flippantly into the conversation. + +But Percy took not the slightest notice of her and, as Betty was slowly +but surely widening the distance between the <i>Gem</i> and his boat, he +leaned forward eagerly. + +"Betty, let me see you some time. How about to-morrow night?" + +And because Betty was always kind to every one and was sorry for Mollie's +flippant speech, she said, quite unexpectedly, even to herself, "All +right." + +Then she turned the <i>Gem</i> around and started for home, conscious that +her chums were gazing at her in speechless amazement. + +"Betty!" cried Grace, horrified. "You are never going to let Percy +Falconer come to see you, are you?" + +But Betty turned on her irritably. She was tired and nervous and angry at +herself for having anything to do with that conceited dude, Percy +Falconer. + +"You heard me say he could come, didn't you?" she said in response to +Grace's incredulous question, Amy's wide-eyed stare, and Mollie's grin. +"And if you are going to ask me why I said so," she added desperately, +"I'm not going to tell you. And if anybody speaks to me before I get back +to the dock, I'll--wreck 'em, that's all." + +The girls exchanged glances and wisely decided to change the subject, for +the present at least. For the time they had plenty to do anyway, just +watching out that somebody else did not run into them! + +By the time they reached comparatively clear water they were all tired and +they were glad for once when the <i>Gem</i> scraped against the home dock +and the "cruise" was over. + +"Well," said Mollie as they climbed on to the dock, "we surely did have +some excitement, but we didn't get what we started out for after all." + +"What's that?" asked Grace, as she tied the ribbon round her candy box and +adjusted her hat at a more becoming angle. + +"Ice-cream and a drink of ice water," said Mollie ruefully. "I've just +remembered that I am dying of thirst." + +"Come on around to my house," Betty invited. Her wrist was lame from +gripping the wheel so hard and she felt it gingerly. "Mother said she +would make a big pitcher of lemonade for us and leave it in the +refrigerator." + +"Whew," whistled Mollie, taking Betty's arm and hurrying her forward. "By +any chance did you girls hear what I heard? <i>Me</i> for <i>it</i>, Betty +Nelson." + +The girls talked little on their way to Betty's house, but they thought a +good deal. They were tired and disgruntled, and it seemed to them in their +pessimistic mood that everything they had tried to do that day had gone +wrong. And the climax of it all was their meeting--if it could be called a +meeting--with Percy Falconer. Worst of all, Betty was going to allow him +to call! + +With something of this in her mind, Mollie glanced sideways at her chum +and, curiosity getting the better of her discretion, ventured to remark +upon it. + +"I wonder what Allen will say," she said, "when he learns about Percy." + +It was an unfortunate remark, as Betty very soon showed by turning upon +her chum angrily. + +"I don't know that Allen has a right to say anything at all about what I +do," she said. "And as I don't intend ever to see Percy Falconer after +to-morrow, I think we had better forget about him. But there," she added, +bringing herself up short and giving Mollie's hand a little conciliatory +squeeze, "I didn't mean to be cross. I'm just kind of mad about the whole +thing--and tired, and hot--" + +"I know," said Mollie generously. "I guess we all are--tired and hot, I +mean. We will feel better after we have had something cold to drink." + +Betty's mother had left not only the lemonade but some sandwiches of +chopped nuts and cream cheese. Jubilantly the girls carried these +delicacies out on the front porch and proceeded to devour them without +further delay. + +As they ate and drank, their ill-humor vanished and they began to feel +once more like their cheerful, optimistic selves. They even began to laugh +a little about the close shave they had had with Percy and his friend. + +"It was mighty clever work of yours, Betty, swerving around like that," +Mollie said reminiscently, as she patted the Little Captain's hand +approvingly. "I'm sure I would have been so scared I'd have gone right +ahead and then there would have been a nasty smash." + +"I do hope the folks don't hear about it," worried Grace. "It would only +make them nervous and they might even refuse to let us go out in the +<i>Gem</i> any more." + +"I don't see how the folks are going to know anything about it," said Amy +calmly. + +"Unless our dear friend Percy blabs it all over town," added Grace. + +"I think we ought to tell the folks," Betty spoke up suddenly. "I know +they would rather hear about it from us than from any one else. Hello," +she broke off, as her eye lighted on a newspaper lying on the table, "this +looks like the evening edition. Maybe it has some news of Allen's +division." + +"My, just listen to her," yawned Grace. "Allen's division, indeed. As +though he were the only one we were interested in--" + +But her words were cut short by a startled exclamation from Betty. + +"Oh, girls, look here!" she cried. "Look at these names. Oh, I hope it +isn't true! I hope it isn't!" + + + + +Chapter VII + +Bad Tidings Confirmed + + + +"I wish I knew what you were talking about," said Mollie, pausing with a +sandwich half-way to her mouth, while Amy and Grace regarded the Little +Captain with astonishment. "What names? Where?" + +But Betty was paying no attention to them. She was reading hastily the +column that had caught her startled attention. + +"Listen to this," she said, reading out loud. "Among those who were killed +in the last great Allied offensive are the names of these brave soldiers. +James Browning of Columbus, Ohio--No, that isn't what I mean--Look, here +they are--James Dempsey and Arnold Dempsey, Junior. Girls, do you suppose +--" and she looked at them with widening eyes. + +"Arnold Dempsey, Arnold Dempsey," repeated Mollie, searching in her +memory, but Amy interrupted excitedly. + +"That was Professor Dempsey's name, wasn't it?" she asked. "Oh, Betty, do +you suppose it could be his son?" + +"Why, of course it is his son--how could it be any one else?" cried Grace, +the excitement beginning to communicate itself to her. "Arnold Dempsey, +Junior--and the professor said his sons were over there." + +"Didn't it say something about James Dempey, too, Betty?" asked Mollie, +fairly snatching the paper from her chum. "Yes, here it is. Do you suppose +that can be his other son?" + +Betty shook her head soberly. + +"I don't know," she said. "Of course he didn't tell us the name of his +other son, but it might easily be James. Oh, I hope it isn't so!" she +added, her heart aching for the lonely old man whose one big interest in +life was his boys. "I do hope there has been some mistake." + +"I guess we all do," said Amy gently, adding with a sigh: "But I'm afraid +there isn't very much hope of it. The Government is usually right when it +comes to things like that." + +"Not always," Mollie retorted quickly. "Look at the time they reported +that Alien was among the missing and he wasn't at all. That is the only +mistake we happen to know about, but I fancy there are plenty of others." + +At mention of that dreadful time when she had read Alien's name in the +long list of the missing, Betty experienced again something of the emotion +she had felt at that time. + +She saw again in imagination the dark room where she had gone to be by +herself, she heard the thunder of the surf on the rocks outside and the +rumble of the thunder overhead. She saw once more the vision of Alien as +she had seen it then. Allen stretched out cold and dead perhaps on some +shell-ridden battlefield or perhaps, more terrible still, a prisoner in +the hands of the Hun, suffering unspeakable torture-- + +"But this is not as bad as though the boys were missing," she said +suddenly, speaking her thought aloud. "At least the professor will know +that his sons are dead." + +The girls started and looked at Betty queerly. + +"I was thinking of Allen," she explained in response to their rather +startled glances, "and the time when we thought he was missing. If this +thing is true about Professor Dempsey's sons I think I shall be able to +sympathize with him, almost better than any of you." + +"I guess you will, honey," said Mollie soberly, putting an arm about her +chum. "It was a terrible time for us all--there at Bluff Point. But it was +almost worth the suffering when we found out that Allen was alive and well +and never had been missing at all Do you remember how happy we all were +then?" + +"Happy," Betty repeated, shaking off her depression and smiling at the +memory. "I'll say we were the happiest girls on earth--especially after we +recovered the twins. But what," she said, coming back to the present +subject, "are we going to do about Professor Dempsey? We ought to do +something, you know." + +"I suppose we ought," said Grace, a little vaguely, "but I'm sure I don't +know just what." + +"I think," suggested Amy practically, "that the best thing would be to try +to find out first of all whether these poor boys who were killed are +really Professor Dempsey's sons or not." + +"Humph, that sounds all right," observed Mollie. "But has any one here any +suggestion as to just how we will go about it? I'm sure I don't know any +one who is acquainted with Professor Dempsey--or his family either." + +"I've got it," said Betty, leaning forward eagerly. "It may not be much of +an idea, but then again it may." + +"Speak up, speak up, what's on your mind?" urged Mollie slangily. + +"Well," said Betty, "there is Mr. Haig, principal of Deepdale High. He +knows pretty nearly every one at the university where Professor Dempsey +used to teach and he is more than likely to know whether the professor has +any sons and what their names are." + +"Yes, that is all right as far as it goes," broke in Mollie impatiently. + +"We all know Mr. Haig--" Amy began, but this time it was Grace who +interrupted. + +"Yes, we all know him," she said. "But I'd like to know if there is any +one of us--except Betty perhaps--who would have the nerve to go to him and +ask him a question like that--" + +"Say, who's telling this story I'd like to know," broke in Betty +impatiently. "I'm not asking any one to go to Mr. Haig with that question +or any other--although I would be perfectly willing to brave the lion in +his den if there were no other way. My plan is this. Dad knows Mr. Haig, +you know--went to school with him--old college chums and all that. I'm +sure that if we asked him real pretty he would go to Mr. Haig and find out +about Professor Dempsey for us." + +"Then suppose we find out that Professor Dempsey hasn't any sons by the +name of James and Arnold?" suggested Grace. + +"Then we shall be mighty glad we took the trouble to find out and set our +minds at rest," answered Betty soberly. + +"And if we find out that they are really his sons, what then?" queried +Grace, and this time Betty looked puzzled and Mollie and Amy completely +beyond their depth. + +"Why then," said Betty hesitatingly, "I'm sure I don't just know what we +ought to do. But don't you think," she added, brightening, "that it might +be a good idea to wait until we have found out definite facts before we +try to solve any more problems?" + +Rather reluctantly the girls agreed and, after making Betty promise that +she would let them know the very first minute she found out the names of +Arnold Dempsey's sons, they said good-bye and started for home. + +Of course Betty had already told her father and mother about Professor +Dempsey and the part he had played in actually saving their lives; so when +she told them that night of what she had read in the paper and begged her +father to help her find out whether the dead soldiers were really Arnold +Dempsey's sons or not, he readily consented to do what he could. + +"I'll drop in and see Haig to-morrow," he promised. "I have often heard +him speak of Professor Dempsey as being one of the best professors of +zooelogy up at the university and I am sure I will be able to find out what +you want to know. I hope you have been mistaken in your conclusions, for +it would be a horrible blow to a man to lose both his grown sons at once +and like that. Now run off to bed and tomorrow I may have some news for +you." + +With this Betty was forced to be content. She went to bed of course, there +was nothing else to do, but she tossed restlessly all night and what sleep +she got was checkered with horrid dreams and she woke up in the morning +feeling as though she had not been to sleep at all. + +The next day was a long one to live through, even though the girls did +keep calling her up at frequent intervals to see if she had any news for +them yet. She became so tired of hearing the telephone bell ring at last +that she stuffed a handkerchief between the bell and the clapper and sat +down to read a novel and while away the time as best she could till her +father came home. + +Luckily for her--and him too, perhaps--Mr. Nelson did get home early, and +he was no sooner inside the door than Betty grabbed him by the arm, led +him over to a divan in the corner of the living room, and let loose upon +him a flood of questions. + +"Did you see him? What did he say? Why didn't you let me know sooner?" + +These and various other queries were hurled at Mr. Nelson so fast that it +is no wonder the poor gentleman appeared slightly bewildered. But knowing +his impetuous young daughter of old, he merely pinched her cheek fondly +and waited for her to give him a chance to speak. + +"If you will wait just a moment I will try to tell you about it," he said +at last, mildly. + +"There's only one thing I really want to know, Dad," said Betty soberly. +"And that is the name of Professor Dempsey's sons." + +Her father shook his head slowly, regretfully. + +"I am afraid it is as you have feared, dear," he said. "Professor Dempsey +has two sons--or rather, had--and their names were James and Arnold." + +"Oh, Daddy!" Betty was quiet for a minute, letting the full consciousness +of what her father had said sink into her heart. Then her lips trembled +and her eyes filled with tears. "I--I was pretty sure it was true. But, +oh, I was hoping so hard that it wouldn't be!" + + + + +Chapter VIII + +Premonitions + + + +Betty kept her promise and called up the girls to tell them the news. Like +the Little Captain, they had felt almost sure of the identity of the two +Dempsey boys who had been killed in France, yet the confirmation of their +fears came as a distinct shock. + +They waited for a couple of days, undecided what to do, if indeed it was +their place to do anything at all. Vaguely they felt the need of +comforting the queer little professor in his hour of greatest trouble, and +yet they were at a loss to know just how to go about it. + +Meanwhile, the occupations that had ordinarily filled their days to +overflowing with fun, seemed dull and uninteresting and they found their +thoughts reverting again and again to the bereaved father in his lonely +little cabin in the woods. + +Percy Falconer had called at Betty's house the day after the incident on +the river as had been arranged, and Betty had conceived the plan of having +all her chums there to meet him. + +Her hope was that the gay Percy, seeing four, where he had expected only +one, would be overwhelmed with numbers and would flee the premises early-- +to return no more. + +Her faith in her plan was more than justified. Percy had always been a +little afraid of the Outdoor Girls--Betty in particular--but it is +probable that if he had been able to meet them one at a time, he might +have come off victorious. As it was, he was routed, completely and +ignominiously, leaving the girls to laugh at his discomfiture. + +"There, I guess that is the end of <i>that</i> pest," Mollie had said when +she had recovered a little from her mirth. "I imagine we won't see him +around these parts again." + +"I hope not," Betty had answered with a satisfied little yawn. "Wasn't he +too funny in that checked suit and awful green necktie? Poor old Percy! I +suppose he can't help it. He probably just grew that way." + +She had been comparing him all evening with her splendid, upstanding +Allen, and poor Percy had certainly not gained by the comparison. + +The amusing incident served to divert their minds somewhat from the +thought of Professor Dempsey, but the picture of him haunted their minds +so continually day and night that the Outdoor Girls finally decided that +something must be done about it. + +"I can't stand it any longer," Betty confided to them one morning when +they stood on Mollie's porch discussing what course of action it would be +best to take. "I have a queer feeling that the poor professor is in +desperate need of friends, and I don't believe I'll be able to sleep +another night until I find out something definite about him." + +"Won't he think we are sort of 'butting in'?" asked Grace, hesitating a +little. "He might think we came just out of curiosity." + +"I don't think he would," said Mollie. "You know he invited us to come +back some time when we could stay long enough for him to tell us something +about those bugs and butterflies and things he sticks pins into--" + +"That's the idea!" exclaimed Betty quickly. "We won't have to tell him we +know anything about his trouble. If he tells us--why, all right, but if he +doesn't, of course we won't try to force a confidence. Anyway," she +finished soberly, "we'll have the satisfaction of knowing we have done our +best for him whether it really helps him any or not." + +"And we owe him a very great deal," spoke tip Amy softly. "He really saved +our lives, you know." + +So it was settled, and while the other three girls ran home to put on +coats and hats and get ready for the drive, Mollie ran around to the +garage and brought her big car to the front of the house. + +She waved good-bye to her mother, who was trying rather wildly to keep +Dodo and Paul from running under the wheels of the car and getting killed, +and purred off down the street in the direction of Betty's house. + +When she arrived there she was a little surprised to see that Betty was +backing her fast little roadster down the drive. + +To Betty the little car was almost alive, and she talked to it as she +would have to some loved horse or dog. She scrubbed it and scoured it and +shined it so that it always looked like a brand new car. + +"Hey, look out!" cried Mollie, for Betty, not noticing her and being a +little worried about the sound of the engine, had backed the small car +down the drive and almost into Mollie's big one. "What kind of driving do +you call that? Do you want to buy me a new mudguard?" + +"Oh, pardon me," said Betty, laughing back at her. "You were so small and +insignificant, I came near not seeing you." + +"Well, you would have <i>felt</i> me in another minute," grumbled Mollie, +as she shut off the engine and got out of the car. "What's the idea of +your little peanut, anyway? Thought you were going to ride in a regular +car." + +"That's why I chose mine," Betty laughed back impishly, still intent on +the sound of the engine. + +It was part of their fun to be always throwing insults at each other's car +but the thrusts were invariably good-natured. + +Only once had there threatened to be any trouble between the chums on +account of rivalry over the cars. That had been when Mollie had taken +Betty's "dare" to a race and Betty's little roadster had won the day, +racing like a streak of light along the country road and leaving Mollie's +high-powered but more clumsy car far behind. + +But Mollie had taken her defeat like the little sport she was--even though +it must be admitted she had been considerably disappointed and taken aback +by her failure--and in her ever since there had been a great respect for +Betty's car. + +But now she eyed with impatience the bent figure of the Little Captain as +she still leaned over the wheel, her ear tuned to the purr of the engine. + +"For goodness' sake, what's the matter with you?" she cried. "I thought +you were the one who was in a hurry to be off and now look at you--sitting +there like--" + +"Engine is missing," Betty informed her briskly. "Guess I had better have +a look--" + +"If you start fussing with bolts and screws now, you can count me out," +said Mollie, resolutely climbing back into her car. "It is ten o'clock +already, and we won't be home before night if we don't hurry." + +"Oh, all right," laughed Betty. "But if the car gives out before we get +back don't blame me, that's all." + +"It would give me the greatest of pleasure," said Mollie with a diabolical +chuckle as her machine moved off down the street, "to have everyone in +Deepdale see me towing your poor little flivver through the town." + +"Huh," sang back Betty scornfully as the roadster responded eagerly to her +touch, "they will have a great deal better chance of seeing me in the lead +with your great big jumbo tottering feebly at the end of a rope." + +They picked up Amy and Grace on the way and were soon flying swiftly down +the road in the direction of Professor Dempsey's tree-surrounded home. + +They were in rather good spirits at first, for now that they were really +on the way to doing something, though they were not quite sure what, they +felt relieved and almost gay. + +But as the distance shortened between them and their destination, a +strange depression that they could neither explain nor brush away settled +down over them. + +Once, Grace, who sat beside the Little Captain in the roadster, sighed +rather dolefully and Betty looked at her out of the corner of her eye. + +"Do you feel that way too, Grade?" the latter asked. + +"What way?" asked Grace uncertainly. "That sigh, do you mean?" + +"Yes," nodded Betty. "You sounded rather mournful and that is exactly the +way I feel. What's the matter with us, anyway? Where are our spirits?" + +"I suppose we couldn't expect to feel joyful," said Grace after a little +pause. "We aren't going, so far as I can see, on a very happy errand, you +know." + +"But I don't think it is that alone," said Betty, with a shake of her +head. "I feel as if we were going to see something perfectly dreadful--" + +"Betty," Grace looked at her in sudden alarm, her eyes wide, "you don't +suppose that the professor could have done anything--anything rash, do +you?" + +"You mean--" said Betty, hesitating before the ugly word. "Oh, Grace, you +don't mean--suicide, do you?" + +Grace nodded and tried hard not to look as frightened as she felt. + +"No, I--I don't think so," said Betty, grasping the wheel with hands that +somehow seemed suddenly weak. "If I thought anything like that had +happened I wouldn't have the courage to go on." + +"Well, I don't believe I have--the courage, I mean," said Grace, +irresolutely. "Don't you think we had better go back, Betty? It's so +lonesome here and--and--everything--" + +Her voice was rising to something like a wail, and Betty, striving to +throttle her own misgivings, spoke in a voice that was intended to be +reassuring. + +"We wouldn't think very much of ourselves if we turned back now," she +said. "And probably we are worrying a great deal about nothing. He didn't +seem like the kind of man who would do a thing like that." + +Grace said no more about turning back, and they were silent for the rest +of the way. But instead of lightening, the cloud of depression became +deeper and more foreboding until even the stout Little Captain began, +almost to wish that they had not come. + + + + +Chapter IX + +A Visitor + + + +When they came to the scene of what was so nearly a terrible accident a +week or so before they found that the big tree which had extended clear +across the road was gone and that the underbrush also had been cleared +away. + +They stopped the cars a little the other side of the path that led into +the woods and slowly stepped down into the road. + +When they caught sight of each other's faces they began to laugh shakily. + +"We certainly look as if we were going on a ghost hunt," Mollie said. At +this Grace uttered a little cry of protest. The thought had struck too +near her own disquieting thoughts to be comfortable. + +"For goodness' sake, somebody say something cheerful," she begged. "I've +got to get up my courage some way." + +"Well, I haven't any to lend you," grumbled Mollie, as she linked her arm +in Betty's and the two went along toward the path. "I don't like this job +a little bit." + +"Don't you think," suggested Amy, holding back a little, "that somebody +ought to stay here and take care of the cars?" + +"No, you don't!" said Mollie, catching her by the hand and pulling her +along after them. "If one of us goes we are all going." + +"Oh, come along," urged Betty, eager to get the thing over with. "I think +we are all acting like a lot of geese. It might help some if we tried to +remember that we are Outdoor Girls." + +This challenge did a great deal toward bolstering up the girls' courage +and they hurried along the path more confidently. + +Their pace slowed a bit, however, when they reached the cleared space +where the little cottage stood and they paused for a moment in the shelter +of the trees to discuss what to do next. + +"Do you think we had all better go?" asked Grace nervously. "Perhaps the +four of us would frighten him--" + +"No, we will all go together," said Betty decidedly. "There is nothing to +be gained by standing here talking about it. Come on, girls." + +She started across the cleared space and the girls followed slowly. The +little cottage looked deserted and forlorn and the dreary aspect of it +served to increase the girls' uneasy sense of disaster. + +Betty knocked gently on the door which had, upon that other occasion not +so very long ago, been hospitably opened to them. But, though they waited +breathlessly for a response, none came--the house was as silent as a tomb. + +"Do it again, Betty. He might be asleep or something." suggested Mollie, +with a glance over her shoulder at the quiet woodland. "Knock harder this +time." + +Betty obeyed, but with no better success than the first time. Everything +was as silent as before. + +"Isn't there a bell, I wonder?" suggested Amy, wishing ardently that they +were back on the road once more. "Perhaps your knock isn't loud enough for +him to hear." + +"We might tap on the window," suggested Grace. "If I use my ring on the +window pane he surely ought to hear that." + +She started to suit her action to the words when an exclamation from Betty +made her pause. The latter had tried the door and found to her surprise +that it gave to her touch. + +"The door is unlocked," she said. "I don't believe the professor is in +here at all and if he has gone into the woods to hunt his butterflies and +beetles I am sure he wouldn't mind our going inside. What do you think?" + +She was about to push the door open, but Grace detained her with a nervous +hand on her arm. + +"Oh, I don't think we had better go in, Betty!" she cried. "You know what +we were speaking of in the car. Suppose we should find that he has--that +he has--" + +"That he has what?" asked Amy, her eyes wide. "For goodness' sake, what do +you mean, Grace?" + +Betty tried to stop her, but Grace hurried on heedlessly. + +"He may have committed suicide," she cried, adding, in response to +Mollie's and Amy's cry of horror: "You know he must have been desperate +enough to do anything, poor old man, out here all alone." + +At the conviction in Grace's tone, Betty felt her own nerve slipping. She +did not want to go into that silent house any more than the other girls +did. Every instinct in her commanded that she run from the place to the +commonplace safety of the road. She was afraid of what she might find on +the other side of that unlocked door. And yet-- + +"I'm going in," she cried, and, suiting the action to the word, pushed the +door quickly open and stepped over the threshold. + +Emboldened by her example, the other girls followed and stopped short with +a cry of dismay. They had not found what they feared--but something almost +as bad. + +The room, which had been so neat and orderly when they had last seen it, +was now the scene of such utter confusion as one might only hope to see +depicted in a cubist's nightmare. + +The animal skins which had adorned the walls had been torn down and lay in +a tattered heap upon the floor. The shelves upon which had rested the +professor's botanical specimens had been swept clean and their contents +also were scattered about the floor. + +The bench upon which the girls had sat and partaken of the queer little +man's hospitality was overturned and the one chair in the room was upside +down on top of it. The whole room looked as though a cyclone--or a maniac +--had been at work. + +The girls stared for a minute and then drew closer together as if seeking +protection from some unseen menace. They had some vague conception of what +had taken place here in this lonely little cottage. The elderly and +already nervous professor, reading the tragedy of his sons' death, all +alone perhaps, with no one to comfort or restrain him, had lost his mind, +temporarily at least, and had found an outlet in ruthlessly destroying +everything which came within reach of his hand. + +And if this were so, might he not even now be hiding about somewhere, +watching them, perhaps? + +This thought seemed to strike the girls at the same time, for after +peering for a second about the room, they turned and made a concerted dash +for the door. + +Once outside the room, in the reassuring sunshine, they turned and looked +at each other sheepishly. Then Betty wheeled about and started for the +door again. + +"Betty, you are never going back into that place again?" cried Amy wildly, +holding to her skirt. "I won't let you! Do you hear me? Come back here!" + +But Betty had no intention of coming back. She turned and faced the girls +calmly, though inwardly she was trembling. + +"Of course I am going back," she said. "Professor Dempsey may be in one of +the other rooms and he may be sick. If nobody will go with me, I'm going +in alone." + +Of course the three girls could not let her go in alone, so they trailed +back at her heels into the house, being very careful, however, to leave +the door wide open behind them, in case a hasty retreat became necessary. + +Cautiously Betty opened the door at the other end of the room and stepped +into what had evidently been a sort of rough kitchen. Now it was nothing +but a nightmare like the other room, and she shuddered as she looked about +at the desolate confusion. + +There was a door at the farther end of this room, and after some +hesitation and an inward struggle Betty crossed hastily to it and flung it +wide open. + +What she half expected and feared to find there nobody but Betty herself +ever knew, but whatever it was, she gave a great sigh of relief at not +finding it there. The room was upset, though not quite as badly as the +other two, but there was no sign of human occupancy anywhere. + +She turned to the girls who had come up behind her and were eagerly and +half shudderingly peering over her shoulder. + +"There's nothing here," she announced, the relief she felt showing in her +voice, "and as there doesn't seem to be any other room in the place, I +suppose we might as well go back." + +Echoing her suggestion heartily, me girls started to retrace their steps +when a slight sound in the other room made them stop short in a panic. + +"What was that?" Amy questioned, but Mollie held up her hand impatiently. + +There came the sound of some one stumbling over something. This was +followed by a muttered exclamation. + +While the girls looked about them wildly for a means of escape Mollie +began to laugh hysterically. + +"We have a visitor," she announced in a strangled voice. "And he is +between us and the only door in the place. Come on, girls, let's see who +it is." + +They stepped out into the cluttered living room and came face to face with +a young man who seemed more startled at seeing them than they had been at +sight of him. + +"Well, I'll be jiggered!" he exclaimed, and at sound of the commonplace +phrase the girls could have hugged the speaker in relief. Also they felt a +rather hysterical desire to laugh long and foolishly. + +As it was, the stranger stood staring at the girls and the girls at him so +long that the funny side of the situation struck Betty and she really did +begin to laugh. + +"We haven't the slightest idea who you are," she told the astonished young +man. "But I am sure of one thing, and that is that we were never so glad +to see any one in all our lives as we are to see you." + + + + +Chapter X + +Hurrah for Allen + + + +The young man stared for a moment longer. Then the humor of the situation +seemed to strike him too, and he smiled pleasantly. + +"It surely is a pleasure to be as welcome as all that," he said +pleasantly, and the girls noticed that he was a well set up young fellow +and that he wore his uniform easily, as if he had been used to wearing it +for a long, long time. "I am Wesley Travers," he went on. "I live in a +cottage down the road and I came over this way to see if the old professor +had come back yet. I saw the door open--came in--and found you." + +He smiled again pleasantly and looked as though he considered that he had +fallen into rather good luck. But at his mention of the professor Betty +had sobered instantly. + +"Oh, then you know something about Professor Dempsey?" she questioned +eagerly. + +"Please tell us what happened to him," added Amy breathlessly. + +"Did he do this?" asked Mollie, with a comprehensive sweep of her hand +about the cluttered room. + +"I'm afraid he did," answered the young fellow, sobering instantly. "You +see, I just returned from overseas about a week ago and a couple of days +later my dad read in the paper about the death of this queer old man's two +sons. The pater had always been interested in the lonely old boy, so he +sent me over to see if I could do anything for him. I found the place like +this and--the bird had flown. Went dopy I suppose about the bad news and +tore things up a bit." + +Though the boy's words were slangy, there was real sympathy in his tone +and the girls liked him the better for it. + +"And you haven't heard anything from him since?" asked Betty softly. + +"Not a word or a sign," answered the boy, with a shake of his head. "Just +clean cleared out, that's all. Pretty hard luck, I call it. Just at the +end of things too--when he had a right to expect the fellows home. Pretty +tough luck. I wish I could find the poor old duffer and do something for +him." + +The girls heartily echoed the wish. Before leaving the place for good, +they looked about the rooms once more for some sign or message that might +give them a clue to the whereabouts of the professor. They found nothing, +however, and finally were forced to give up the search. + +As the young people stepped outside once more and closed the door after +them upon the desolate house a great wave of pity swept over Betty. +Somehow it did not seem right to go off like this as though they were +abandoning the old man to his fate. Yet what could they do more than they +had done? + +"Girls," she said, a little quiver in her voice, "I would give almost +everything I own to find the poor old professor and help him back to +happiness. If I only could," she added after a pause. "Well," said Wesley +Travers, as he looked admiringly at Betty's flushed, sympathetic little +face, "I imagine if any one could find him and bring him happiness, you +would be that one." + +The young soldier accompanied them back to the road. After thanking him +for the information he had given them, the girls climbed into their cars +and headed toward home, leaving Wesley Travers still standing in the road +and looking after them thoughtfully. + +"A mighty nice bunch of girls," thought the latter. "Especially the little +brown-haired one. They seemed rather interested in that dotty old +professor too. Lucky fellow to have four girls like that interested in +him!" After this remark he started off toward home. + +Luckily for the girls, the next few days were so crowded with preparations +for the trip to Wild Rose Lodge that they had not much time to dwell on +the poor old professor and his misfortunes. + +Only at night would they sometimes dream queer dreams in which wild-eyed +men went around smashing everything in sight and a little cottage stood +lonely and desolate and ghostlike amid a silent forest of trees. + +After a night like this the girls were always glad to awake and find the +sunshine streaming cheerfully in their windows. And they would throw +themselves with more than usual energy into the activities of the day. Yet +try as they would, they could never quite blot the tragedy from their +minds. + +On the afternoon of the day before they were to start for Moonlight Falls, +the girls were gathered in Betty's garage at the back of the house, where +the Little Captain was giving her car one last overhauling to make sure +that it was in perfect condition for the trip. Mollie suddenly espied the +postman coming down the street. + +Now the postman was a very popular man with the girls, for the reason that +he brought almost daily some message from the boys on the other side. He +sympathized with the chums so fully in their desire for letters with the +red triangle in one corner that he actually confessed to a guilty feeling +when he had no missive of the sort for them. + +So now, as Mollie ran toward him with outstretched hand, he held up to her +delighted gaze not only one letter, but four. + +"One for each of you," he said beamingly, as Mollie reached him. "I +thought that probably I would find all four of you at one place, so I kept +the letters together." + +"Oh, thanks, it is awfully good of you," said Mollie absent-mindedly, as +she took the welcome letters and hurried with them back to the garage. +"One for each of us, just think of that!" she cried to the questioning +girls. "It looks as if the boys had all written at the same time. Put down +your duster, Betty, for goodness' sake, and read what Alien has to say. +Maybe," she added hopefully, as she ripped her envelope open, "they will +tell us something definite about coming home." + +So down the girls sat in the midst of dust cloths and more or less dirt to +find what the boys had written. For a moment only the crackling of paper +broke the silence. Then Grace gave a little joyful cry. + +"Will says he is almost sure to be home soon--" + +"And he has been made a sergeant," Amy interrupted, or rather added, her +eyes shining with pride. "Just think of that--Will, a sergeant!" + +"I was just going to tell them that if you had waited a minute," said +Grace, rather crossly. There was quite a little jealousy between Grace and +Amy over Will. Grace had declared more than once that whereas she had +known her brother all her life, Amy had only known him for a couple of +years--or--or more. Grace loved her brother devotedly and once in a while +she resented Amy's place in his affections. + +So now to change the subject and avert a possible quarrel, Mollie jumped +into the breach. + +"Listen to this," she said. "Roy and Frank have been made corporals and +Allen--oh, look at Betty blush!" She looked gleefully across at the Little +Captain and Amy and Grace followed her glance. + +Betty was not blushing, but she felt as uncomfortable as though she had +been. + +"Tell us what Allen says," Mollie dared her wickedly. "Come on, honey-- +dare you to." + +"You can go on daring all you like," said Betty defiantly. This time she +was blushing--from the fact that she knew she could not, or would not, +tell the girls what Allen had said in his letter. Not for anything in this +world! + +"I don't mean what you mean," said Mollie, enjoying her confusion +immensely, while Grace and Amy looked on laughingly. "I just thought that +maybe you would like to be the one to tell us about his promotion." + +"His promotion!" cried Amy and Grace together, and Betty looked quite as +bewildered as any of them. + +"Mollie, for goodness' sake tell us what you mean," she demanded. + +"But didn't he tell you about it, Betty?" Mollie insisted. + +"Wait a minute," said the Little Captain as she hastily scanned the pages +of her long letter. Then, down near the end of the last page she found it, +just a little paragraph, put in as though it had been an afterthought. +"Why," cried Betty, her eyes beginning to shine with excitement, "girls, +listen to this. Allen has been promoted. He's an officer now--a +lieutenant! Think of it--leather leggings and all!" + +It was too much for the girls. They laughed and cried and hugged each +other and tried to imagine Allen in his new uniform to their hearts' +content, for the young new-made officer was a favorite with them all. + +"Goodness," said Amy happily, "I suppose when he gets home he will be +altogether too high-toned to notice common folk like us." + +"Oh, I don't know," said Grace happily, adding with a sly little glance at +Betty, "I imagine he will make an exception of one of us at least." + +"I wonder," drawled Mollie as she picked up her unfinished letter, "which +one of us you can mean." + + + + +Chapter XI + +The Hold-Up + + + +The girls were glad that the letters had come from the boys just as they +had, for it helped them to bridge over the tediously long wait till the +next morning. + +They read the missives with the little red triangles in the left hand +corner over and over again and--whisper it!--at least two of them slept +with the precious letters under their pillows. + +And then--the morning was upon them. It was a beautiful morning too, and +as the girls dressed hurriedly they were glad that they had arranged to +start early. In that way they could take their time and enjoy to the full +the glorious ride to Moonlight Falls. It was only fifty-five miles, but by +driving slowly they could make it seem like twice that. + +It was barely half past nine when Betty, having finished breakfast and put +the last finishing touches to her new white hat, ran around to the garage +to get the car out. + +Ten minutes later she had drawn up in front of Mollie's house, her ears +still ringing with the hundred and one instructions of her anxious mother, +and was tooting the horn of her little car furiously. + +The summons had the desired effect. Mollie came running from the house, +straightening her hat with one hand and lugging a valise in the other +while the twins trailed at her skirts. + +"For goodness' sake, let go of me, Paul. Dodo, if you touch that bag +again, I'll spank you. Mother," she wailed, looking back pleadingly over +her shoulder, "won't you please make these little pests go into the +house?" + +Whereupon Mrs. Billette suddenly appeared at the door, smiled at Betty, +grabbed Paul with one hand, Dodo with the other, while the twins roared a +protest. + +Released, Mollie dropped her bag, sped round to the garage, and in a +moment more was backing the big car round to the road. + +The girls had decided to about live in their khaki tramping suits on this +trip, merely packing in a good dress or two to wear on dress-up occasions. +In this way they had to take less luggage and could have more space to +"spread out" as Mollie said. + +"Put your grip in here, Betty," Mollie suggested, as she slung her own +grip into the tonneau of the big machine. "There is more room, and Mrs. +Irving said she wouldn't mind in the least being entirely surrounded by +suitcases." + +Betty laughed, did as she was bid, and a moment later they were off, +speeding down the road to Grace's house where they were to pick up the +other two girls and Mrs. Irving. + +They found the three waiting for them, and it took scarcely any time at +all to add the extra grips to the growing pile in the tonneau of Mollie's +car. Amid great fun, Mrs. Irving, who was rosy-cheeked and matronly and as +jolly as the girls, was wedged into the remaining space, Amy climbed to +the front seat beside Mollie and Grace took her seat with Betty. + +They were off! The sting of the wind was in their faces, and the sun beat +warmly down upon them as they rolled along, passing familiar houses, and +sometimes familiar people, to whom they waved, and so on and on till they +left the town behind them and started out on the open road. + +"My, this is something like," commented Grace, stretching her feet out +before her for all the world like a lazy, comfortable cat. "I feel awfully +sorry for all the poor people who haven't cars to ride in to-day and Wild +Rose Lodges to visit. By the way, why is it called Wild Rose Lodge, +Betty?" + +"Because they say there are lots of wild roses around it, of course," +Betty responded, her hands resting easily on the wheel, her eyes bright +with the joy of the moment. Grace, stealing a sideways glance at her, +could not help thinking that Betty looked not unlike a wild rose herself. + +"You look awfully pretty, honey," she said then, for Grace was always +generous with praise where her friends were concerned. "I would give the +world to have a color like yours." + +"Goodness," remarked Betty, turning to look at her chum, her face a little +brighter pink because of the honest compliment, "you have a lovely color-- +as you very well know. Mine is too red sometimes." + +"Nobody thinks that but you," said Grace, squeezing Betty's hand +affectionately while she dived down in her pocket for some candy. "The +only time I have noticed you get very red," she added, "is when some one +happens to mention a certain young gentleman by the name of Lieutenant +Allen Washburn." + +Betty could feel that her face was burning, but she did not care. She was +awfully proud of Allen and desperately fond of him and for the moment she +did not care if the whole world knew about it. + +"Isn't it wonderful, Grade?" she cried, her heart pounding joyously. +"About Allen being an officer, I mean. I have to pinch myself several +times a minute to make myself realize that it is really true." + +"It surely is great," Grace answered slowly, adding after a moment, while +a faraway expression crept into her eyes, "I don't blame you for being +crazy about him, honey. I could almost be foolish myself. Oh, don't +worry," she went on quickly as Betty turned amazed and rather startled +eyes upon her. "I'm no fonder of Allen than I am of any of the other boys. +I just said that I didn't blame you, that's all." + +Betty turned her eyes to the road once more, but in her heart she was +troubled. There had been a note in Grace's voice that she had never heard +before. Could it be possible that she really cared for Allen? But she +pushed the thought from her mind resolutely. If such a thing could have +been possible, she certainly would have discovered it before this. The +mere thought was nonsense of course. And yet she was troubled. + +"Have some candy," Grace invited, breaking in upon her thoughts. "You +needn't stick up your nose at it to-day for I bought this fresh from the +store this morning." + +"Who said I was going to stick up my nose?" said Betty, helping herself to +a chocolate that looked as if it might contain a nut and thankful for the +break in her not-too-pleasant reflections. "If you will think back just a +little, I think you will admit that I have been guilty very seldom of +sticking up my nose at anything--" + +"Except Percy Falconer," finished Grace drolly, and they both laughed +merrily. + +"Poor Percy!" said Betty, chewing her candy contentedly. "I suppose he +will hate us more heartily than ever now." + +They were running some eight or ten miles from the town along a quiet +stretch of road, never dreaming of danger, when Betty's little racer nosed +around a bend in the road and came smack into it! Not twenty feet ahead of +them a man sprang into the middle of the road and leveled a revolver at +them! In one electrified instant they saw that the fellow wore a mask and +a slouch hat and looked for all the world like a brigand straight out of +some sensational moving picture. + +Betty, more surprised at first than alarmed, put on her brakes and came to +a standstill, at the same time putting out a hand to warn the car behind +them. + +"Oh, Betty, we are being held up!" moaned Grace, who evidently was +frightened enough for both of them. "For goodness' sake, hold up your +hands. He may shoot." + +Still feeling rather dazed with the suddenness of the thing, Betty raised +both hands above her head, at the same time feeling a rather hysterical +desire to laugh. It was so absurd, being held up by a masked stranger in +broad daylight. + +Nevertheless, she gave a little gasp of fright as the man waved his big +revolver menacingly and came close to the car. She wished frantically that +he would not point that firearm at her. Suppose it should go off! + +"Come on, hand over what you got," the robber demanded in a gruff +threatening voice. "The quicker you move, the better it will be for you." + +"Wh--what do you want?" asked Betty, in a weak little voice that did not +sound like her own at all. She had thought of her pocketbook beside her in +the pocket of the car. The purse contained a whole month's allowance. She +was sparring desperately for time--help in some form or other might come +at any moment. But the ruffian in the road was evidently in no frame of +mind to be fooled with. + +He waved his revolver once more, eliciting a terrified gurgle from Grace +and commanded roughly that they get out of the car. + +"No funny business," he snarled. "Get out!" + +Betty was about to obey when she had a brilliant thought. Her pepper gun! +She had bought it the day before from the son of her father's chauffeur, +thinking it was an undesirable plaything for a nine-year-old boy and had +put it, as the most convenient place, in her car. And the pepper gun was +filled--as it should have been--with good red cayenne pepper! + + + + +Chapter XII + +Sheep! + + + +For a moment Betty hesitated, almost afraid of what she was going to do. +The pepper gun might work, but if she were not quick enough or clever +enough, her little trick might also result in a tragedy. + +Her hesitation was only momentary, however, for Betty was a born fighter. +Suddenly she cried out as if in joyful greeting to an unexpected arrival. + +"Here they come! here they come!" she called, and in the moment that their +captor turned his startled eyes from her to the road ahead, Betty acted. + +She snatched the pepper gun from its hiding place in the car and as the +man once more turned furiously upon her let him have the full contents +directly in the face. + +It was a dreadful thing to do. Choking and sputtering, the ruffian dropped +his revolver and raised both fists to his tortured eyes. + +"I'll get you for this!" he cried between great sneezes that threatened to +tear him apart. "You just wait--" + +But Betty refused to wait. As soon as the fellow had dropped his weapon +she had started the engine, and now she guided the car past the stuttering +robber and raced off down the road. + +Mollie, who had only half understood what was going on but who had caught +enough of it to be considerably alarmed did not stop to ask questions, but +sped off down the road after Betty. + +It was half a dozen miles farther on that Betty finally slowed the car and +waited for Mollie and the others to catch up with her. Grace, who had been +gradually recovering from her fright, had not yet recovered enough to ask +any questions. She had been too much concerned in putting miles between +them and the scene of their adventure. + +As Mollie came up alongside, Betty drew her first free breath. + +Of course Mollie and Amy and Mrs. Irving wanted to hear all about it, and +Betty told them what had happened, her account interrupted by hysterical +laughter. + +But when she came to the pepper gun, the girls' expression of utter +bewilderment changed to admiration of Betty's quick thought and quicker +action. + +"Why, Betty," cried Amy, incredulously, "I don't see how you ever had the +courage to do it. Why, that man might have shot you!" + +"He probably would have if I hadn't got him first," said Betty, half-way +between laughter and tears. "It was taking an awfully big chance, but," +with a flash of spirit, "I wasn't going to sit there calmly and have him +take away all our money. Not if I could help it." + +"Betty, I think you were simply wonderful," said Mollie in heart-felt +admiration. "Why, if he had taken our money it would have completely +spoiled our trip." + +"How they talk," said Grace hysterically. "Any one would think it was only +the trip that mattered when we might very easily have been <i>killed.</i>" + +This remark served to bring Mrs. Irving to a realization of the present, +and she suggested that they start on again. + +"Not that I am particularly nervous," she hastily added, as the girls +looked at her suspiciously. "Only I will feel just as well when we have +put a dozen miles between us and that highway robber, instead of only half +that. I wish there was a town handy where we could notify the +authorities." + +They started on again, and as the miles slid past them they became less +nervous and even began to laugh a little at thought of the robber's +consternation when he received the contents of Betty's pepper gun full in +his face. + +"He was probably the most surprised crook ever," commenced Grace with a +chuckle. "He never will get over cursing you, Betty. How did you ever +happen to have it? The pepper gun, I mean," she added curiously. + +Betty explained how the gun had come into her possession. "I didn't know," +she added ruefully, her foot on the accelerator as they sped up a steep +hill, "when I bought it, that it would come in so handy. How much further +do you suppose we have to go?" she asked, changing the subject abruptly. + +"Why," said Grace, looking at her wrist watch and realizing suddenly that +she was getting rather hungry, "we have been riding since ten o'clock and +it is now after noon. We must be very nearly there by this time. Goodness, +I hope there will be something to eat around Wild Rose Lodge. I'm getting +famished." + +"Mollie's Uncle John said he would attend to that--stocking the cabin with +good things, I mean," said Betty, herself suddenly conscious of a +disturbingly hungry feeling. "He said we would find enough canned things +to last us at least a week." + +"Canned things, yes," pouted Grace. "But who in the world wants to live on +canned things? I don't see why we didn't bring a chicken along, at least." + +"Well, maybe we can manage to run over one," chuckled Betty, as they +passed a farmhouse and several chickens scuttled squawking across the +road. "Then we can have one good and fresh. For goodness' sake, what is +Mollie tooting that horn for?" she added, as the raucous signal came from +the car behind them, "Has she stopped the car, Grace? Look and see." + +"It's stopped deader than a door nail," said Grace, obligingly screwing +about in her seat and fixing on the road behind them a disapproving eye. +"Now what do you suppose can be the trouble this time? If she has had a +blowout or something, I'm not going to help fix the old thing--" + +"You couldn't fix the blowout, dear, but you might help with the tire," +Betty said, with a laugh, as she stopped the roadster and jumped to the +road. "Come on, she seems to be excited about something--" + +"Goodness, I hope it isn't another highway robber," said Grace anxiously, +stopping in the middle of the road at the dreadful thought. "I don't see +any, but--" + +"You don't see any because there <i>isn't</i> any," Betty assured her, +taking her by the arm and leading her decidedly forward. "You don't +suppose there is a whole Robin Hood's band in this woods, do you?" + +Mollie and Amy and Mrs. Irving came running to meet them excitedly--or at +least, Mollie and Amy did the running, while their chaperon followed more +slowly. + +"There are blackberries in there, whole bushels and bushels of them!" +Mollie called. "You could see them from the road, and there you girls +passed right by them without even looking." + +"Blackberries!" repeated Grace resignedly, as she felt in her pocket to +see if she had any candy left. "Just listen to her speaking of +blackberries when what I'm dying for is a good big steak with onions on +top of it--" + +"Stop it," cried Mollie indignantly, while the others felt their mouths +begin to water. "The idea of mentioning steak--But here," she broke off, +seizing Grace's hand and dragging her toward the woods, "come with me and +pick berries if you value your life. Lucky we brought those tin pails +along." + +"But why," protested Grace patiently, as she was dragged along, "should we +want to pick berries?" + +"To eat," replied Mollie, attacking a bush that was fairly black with the +luscious ripe fruit. "And besides," she added, lowering her voice to a +confidential pitch, "Mrs. Irving said that if she could find some flour +and baking powder in the lodge she would make us a steamed blackberry +pudding for supper." + +Grace stared for a moment then, without another word, set to work on the +loaded bush. + +"You might have told me that before," she grumbled, her mouth full of +berries. "You always did have a mean disposition, Mollie." + +To which Mollie's only reply was a chuckle and a sly wink at Betty, who +was working close at her side. + +They worked on happily for a few minutes, then suddenly Amy straightened +up and stood quiet as though she were listening to something. + +The girls, whose nerves were still a little on edge from their recent +adventure, demanded to know in no uncertain tones what was the matter with +her. + +"N-nothing," Amy answered a little sheepishly. "I thought I heard a little +rustling among the leaves, that's all." + +"Probably a breeze coming up," said Betty matter-of-factly, and they went +on with their berry picking. + +But it was not long before a second disturbance came, and this time they +all heard it. It was, as Amy had said, a rustling sound. However, it was +louder this time, as though several heavy bodies were pushing through the +underbrush on the other side of the road. + +"Perhaps we had better go and see what is making all the noise," said Mrs. +Irving, her light tone successfully hiding an undercurrent of nervousness. +"I guess we have picked enough berries for our pudding, anyway." + +The girls picked up their pails and started for the road, Betty in the +lead. But when the latter reached the outer fringe of bushes she started +back, almost treading on Mollie's toes and causing her to drop her pail in +alarm. + +"It's sheep!" cried the Little Captain. "Dozens and dozens of them! Come +and look!" + + + + +Chapter XIII + +The Enemy Routed + + + +Mrs. Irving pushed forward beside Betty, and the girls stared +unbelievingly over her shoulder. Then they saw that she was right. + +While they had been picking berries in the woods a flock of sheep had +wandered down to the road from the other direction and had completely +surrounded their two cars. + +The big-eyed, innocent looking animals were circling around and around the +machines as if examining them with a sort of ovine interest and curiosity. + +But to the girls the sheep had a rather terrifying aspect. There were so +many of them and they had so completely taken possession of their +automobiles! How in the world were they ever to get back their property? + +"Goodness!" Grace whispered plaintively in Betty's ear, "I expect they +will try to climb into the cars next. What ever are we going to do?" + +"Sh," cautioned Amy fearfully, as some of the flock, attracted by the +noise in the bushes, turned their heads in the direction of it. "Suppose +they should come in here?" + +"Well, they are not lions, you goose," said Mollie, coming out of the +trance into which surprise had thrown her. "They are only sheep, and they +couldn't hurt you if they tried." + +"Not unless they stampeded," said Betty quietly. "In that case I wouldn't +care to be in the way." + +"But we can't stay here all night," Mollie protested impatiently. + +"Held up by a lot of silly old sheep," added Grace, still more +uncomfortably conscious of a growing appetite. + +"It must be almost two o'clock," added Amy with a sigh. + +"Yes, if things keep on this way it will be night before we reach the +lodge," said Mollie, adding with decision, "I vote that we get some sticks +and stones and scat 'em out of the way." + +"I think I have a better suggestion than that," put in Mrs. Irving, +speaking for the first time. "I think we had better wait for a short time +before we do anything. The sheep will probably get tired in a little while +and wander off of their own accord." + +"Oh, all right," said Mollie, with rather bad grace as she seated herself +on a convenient rock. "But all the time we are waiting for them to be +tired, we will be getting tired ourselves and, goodness, Mrs. Irving, I'm +being starved to death." + +At the desperation in her tones the girls had to laugh, though they were +as reluctant to sit with folded hands and wait as she was. Still, Mrs. +Irving was their chaperon and probably knew best. + +So with admirable resignation they disposed themselves beside Mollie on +the big rock and settled down to watch for developments. + +But after waiting for an everlasting five minutes they decided that there +were to be no developments. The foolish sheep continued to circle lazily +about the cars, nibbling now and then upon the grass by the roadside but +showing not the slightest intention in the world of moving from there for +some time to come. + +"Oh, what shall we do?" moaned Grace, moving restlessly on her +uncomfortable seat. "My foot is going to sleep and I'm trying to sit on a +pointed stone or something." + +"And it looks as though those crazy sheep were going to stay there all +night," added Betty, herself growing restive at the apparent futility of +waiting for something to happen. "Can't we do something, Mrs. Irving?" + +"Wait just a few minutes more," begged the lady, who was afraid of the +sheep, but was reluctant to confess her fear to her young charges. "Look, +there seems to be a movement among them now," she added hopefully, as one +sheep pressed against another and sent it scampering a few feet along the +road. "We won't have to wait much longer, I am sure." + +And so, both to break their chaperon's authority, the girls fidgeted and +fumed, getting more impatient and hungrier with every leaden minute that +dragged itself by until almost three-quarters of an hour had passed. + +Then, when they began to think that they must scream if they were forced +to wait another minute, their chaperon rose of her own accord and with a +decided movement flicked the dust from her skirt. + +"I think we have waited long enough," she hazarded, to which each girl +said a fervent though silent "amen." "I suppose we shall have to follow +Mollie's suggestion and gather sticks and stones. Perhaps we can scare +them away." + +"Hooray!" shouted Mollie, jumping to her feet with relief. At the +unexpected sound the sheep in the road started and looked about them +uneasily. "Come on, girls, I'm mad enough to attack Jem single-handed. All +who are with me, say Aye." + +"Aye!" they yelled, scurrying about to find sticks and stones. + +Betty, flourishing a branch at the frightened flock, yelled: "We are wild, +wild women, old sheep. You had better get out while the going's good. We +eat little fellers like you alive!" and with a whoop of wild spirits she +danced down to the edge of the wood waving her stick wildly about her +head. + +Her fun was contagious and, smothering their laughter, the girls waltzed +after her, throwing sticks and stones and all sorts of improvised weapons +into the midst of the now thoroughly frightened flock. + +Mrs. Irving strove to caution them, but her voice was lost in the babble, +and for once in her life at least she found herself utterly ignored. With +a little sigh she picked up a stick of her own and followed after the +girls. + +For a moment it looked as though the panic stricken sheep would rush +straight for the shouting girls, and in that moment what was little more +than an exciting game to the girls might have turned into a rather +dreadful tragedy. + +But, luckily, half a dozen sheep broke through and, led by an old ram, +started down the road and the rest of the flock, as is the habit of sheep, +followed after. + +In a moment the entire flock was galloping off down the road with the +excited girls in pursuit. There is no telling how far they might have +followed the sheep had not Betty become suddenly possessed of a grain of +common-sense. + +Panting and laughing, she came to a standstill while the girls rushed past +her. + +"Come back here!" she cried, her voice choked with laughter. "There's no +use of our being as silly as the sheep. Mrs. Irving will think we have +deserted her." + +So reluctantly the girls abandoned the chase and started back to rejoin +their much relieved but slightly dazed chaperon. + +"Now if we had only done that an hour ago," said Mollie, as they climbed +back into the machines determined to make up for lost time, "we would have +been that much nearer the lodge and--something to eat." + +"Goodness, it will be almost dark when we get there now," wailed Grace, as +she slipped into the seat beside Betty. "And we haven't had anything to +eat since breakfast." + +"What with highway robbers and sheep," laughed Betty, as she started the +engine, "we shall be lucky if we get there at all." + +"Oh, Betty, if you love me don't mention that awful highwayman again," +begged Grace, looking uneasily into the shadows of the wood. "I don't want +to have any more thrills like that as long as I live." + +"Let's hope we won't," said Betty fervently. + +"It's a pity there is no telephone along this road--we could notify the +folks at Deepdale," remarked Mollie. + +"Humph, if we did that they might get so scared that they'd send for us to +come home," came from Amy. + +"That's so!" came from the other Outdoor Girls quickly. + +"Well, as I said before, no more thrills like that for yours truly," +repeated Grace. + +But little did the girls know that in the weeks to follow they would have +more and more startling thrills than they had ever experienced before. + + + + +Chapter XIV + +Nothing Human + + + +They might have reached Wild Rose Lodge before dusk, in spite of Grace's +gloomy prediction, if everything had gone well then. But it seemed that +the evil genius of bad luck was not yet through with them. + +They were scarcely five miles from their destination when, bang! went a +report that made the girls clutch at each other wildly. At first they +jumped to the conclusion that they were being held up again, but close on +the heels of the first thought came the conviction of the truth. Mollie +had had a blowout! + +Betty, looking behind, saw the big car stop and brought her own little +roadster to a standstill once more. "There is nothing wrong with our +tires, is there?" she asked of Grace. "Look over your side, Gracie, and +see." + +Finding nothing amiss, they jumped out and ran back to Mollie to offer +assistance. Mollie was eyeing the flat tire gloomily and saying things +under her breath that none of the girls could catch. Then as Betty spoke +to her she seemed to come to life and ran around to the back of the +machine. + +"Of course you can help," she answered, working to release the extra tire. +"I would like to see you get out of it. Lucky I bought an extra tire +before we started, though I did hope," here she glared at the girls as if +it were all their fault, "that I wouldn't have to use it so soon. We've +had more trouble on this ride than any I can remember. A hold-up, sheep +and--this!" + +"Well, there is no use talking about it," Betty reminded her cheerfully. +"The less we talk, the harder we can work and the sooner we shall get +started again." + +"Yes, that's all very well," grumbled Mollie, as she fumbled for her +tools; "but you don't know this place as well as I do." + +"You talk," said Amy, her eyes widening, "as though there were wild +animals or something in the woods. I didn't know they came as far east as +this." + +"They don't, goose," said Mollie grumpily, as she pulled at the tire. "I +didn't say anything about wild animals, did I? Only we have to ride about +two miles through the woods before we get to the lodge and I must say I +didn't want to do that in the dark." + +"But there is some sort of road, isn't there?" asked Grace. + +Mollie, bending over the lifting jack, shot her a withering glance. + +"Of course there's a road," she said shortly. "How else could we expect to +use the cars?" + +"It must be a sort of wagon road," suggested Betty as she deftly helped +her chum. "And I don't blame you for not wanting to try it at night, +Mollie. I don't much like the idea myself." + +"I believe if we hurry that we can get there before dusk," said Mrs. +Irving confidently, though it might have been noticed that she kept her +eyes rather anxiously on the fast sinking sun. + +At last, after what seemed an eternity to the impatient girls, the new +tire had replaced the old one, the old one was safely strapped on the back +of the car, the tools were put away, and they were ready to start once +more. + +"Give her plenty of gas this time, Betty," Mollie sung after her as the +Little Captain climbed into her car. "If we can manage to get to the woods +before dark we will be doing good work. Let her go." + +With which advice she settled herself behind the wheel of her own car and +they were off once more. + +Betty did "give her plenty of gas," the result being that they succeeded +in reaching the wagon road that led into the woods to the lodge just on +the edge of dusk. + +However, when they started along the road they were dismayed to find that +what was only dusk outside on the road became almost dark in here, and +Betty had all she could do to keep to the road at all. + +"Hadn't you better put on your lights?" Grace suggested uneasily. "We +might run into a ditch or something. Betty, I'm half scared." + +For answer Betty switched on the lights and the woods and the road ahead +of them were suddenly flooded with a weird radiance. It brought out +branches and leaves and stones in such sharp contrast to the dark +background that the effect was startling. + +"Oh," gasped Grace, "turn them off again, do, Betty. It is positively +ghastly." + +"Don't be foolish," said Betty, striving to make her voice sound +matter-of-fact, her eyes glued to the road ahead of them as it twisted and +turned through the woods. "I don't see why lights should make a perfectly +harmless wood look ghastly. And, anyway, I couldn't turn them out now. I +don't believe I could find my way. You don't want me to run into +something, do you?" + +"No, of course not," Grace said more firmly, rather ashamed of her fears. +"I didn't mean to act in a silly fashion. But," she turned to Betty +quickly, "that hold-up and all--don't you feel a little queer yourself, +Betty? Tell the truth." + +"Yes," said the Little Captain truthfully. "I feel," she added slowly, as +though searching for words, "I feel as though the woods belonged to +somebody and that we were sort of--sort of--intruding." + +"Why, Betty!" said Grace, staring at her, "what a funny thing to say." + +"I suppose it is," said Betty, shaking off the illusion with a shrug of +her shoulders. "I am getting foolish in my old age I guess. We shall all +feel better when we get something to eat." + +"If we ever do," said Grace gloomily, adding as a sudden turn in the woods +shot them deeper into the gloom of it: "Do be careful, Betty. I feel as +though we were going over a precipice." + +But Betty was too busy keeping the road to listen to her. + +"Look behind," she directed Grace, "and see if Mollie is following close +to us." + +"She is right behind," reported Grace, as two eyes of light shot their +glare in her eyes. "She is following us closer than a poor relation." + +Betty giggled at this, and then for a long time--or at least it seemed a +long time to their strained nerves--they went on in silence, following the +winding road wherever it led and getting deeper into the forest with every +moment. + +Then suddenly something loomed up dark against the shadows only a few +hundred feet ahead of them, and with a great feeling of thankfulness they +realized that they had reached their destination. Directly ahead of them +stood Wild Rose Lodge. They had arrived! + +But just as they were about to break into wild jubilation something +happened that tightened Betty's hand on the wheel and made Grace cry out +with dismay. + +Out from the shadow of the lodge a second shadow detached itself, a +hunched up, bulky, fearful shadow that seemed neither beast nor man, but a +combination of both of them. + +For a moment, while the girls watched, paralyzed with fright, the thing +seemed about to spring into the path of the moving car. But in another +instant it turned, wheeled, and disappeared into the thick bushes about +the house. + +Then and only then did Betty recover presence of mind enough to stop the +car. + +"Betty! Betty!" cried Grace in a horrified whisper, grasping Betty's hand +as it clung to the wheel. "What was it? Oh, what was it?" + +"I don't know," Betty answered mechanically. "I only know it was +horrible." + +Then quite suddenly and without warning Grace broke down and cried. + + + + +Chapter XV + +Wild Roses + + + +"We will go into the house," Mrs. Irving answered to their concerted cry of +"What shall we do?" "Whatever it was that has frightened us has +disappeared now, and we shall certainly be safer inside the house than out +here. Come on, girls, I have the key." + +And so, leaving the cars where they were, the girls approached the house +with shaking knees and hearts that hammered their fear aloud. The Outdoor +Girls were ordinarily afraid of nothing real and human, but to be held up +at the point of a pistol would unnerve almost any one, and the struggle +the girls had made not to give way to their fears at the time had made +them more nervous still. And this thing that had startled them now, added +to what had gone before, seemed a little more than could be borne. It +seemed, in fact, like nothing human. + +Mrs. Irving turned the key in the lock, opened the door and stepped inside +the dark place, motioning to the girls to follow her. + +Fearfully the chums obeyed and Betty and Mollie pulled out their electric +pocket torches, filling the place with a weird light. Mollie, being +acquainted with the place, naturally took charge of the situation. + +"There are matches over there," she said, "and candles over the fireplace. +For goodness' sake, let's get a regular light, folks. Perhaps that will +make us feel more natural." + +"So say all of us," echoed Amy. "The dark makes everything worse, when you +are not well acquainted with a place." + +Mollie touched a match to the candles, and in the answering flare turned +to face her chums. + +"Girls," she said, determinedly, "I don't know how you feel about it, but +I vote that before we do anything else we get something to eat. We all +look like ghosts just now and I'm sure we feel much worse than that. But a +little food makes a monstrous lot of difference." + +"You know it does," cried Grace, relaxing into one of the big chairs that +were scattered about the room and covering her face with her hands. "I +think if I don't get something to eat soon, I'll die, that's all." + +"Well, we are none of us going to die," said Mrs. Irving vigorously, as +she threw aside her coat and hat. "Show us the way to the kitchen, Mollie, +and if there is anything there to eat, we will get it." + +Accordingly Mollie took one of the candles and led the way into a little +room beyond while all the girls but Betty crowded in after her. + +For the Little Captain slipped back for a moment and very quietly closed +the door, shutting out definitely the shadow beyond it. + +"I suppose it is foolish," she said to herself, "because if there is +anything out there that really wants to get in there are plenty of ways +that it can do it, without coming in through the door. But," and she +turned the key in the lock, "it certainly makes one feel more comfortable +to have the door closed." Then she followed the girls into the other room, +and the sight that met her eyes was certainly more cheering than anything +she could have imagined. + +Mollie's Uncle John had surprised them. In the exact center of a table set +for five lay a young pig, roasted whole and browned to a turn! Nor was +this all. The table was littered with covered dishes of all sizes and +descriptions, and as the contents of each one of these dishes was +disclosed, the girls became more and more excited and hilarious. + +There was apple sauce in one, salad in another, mashed potatoes that had +become quite cold in another, and a boat of gravy which had also become +quite cold. + +"But we don't mind," cried Mollie joyfully, as she took the gravy-boat in +one hand, the dish of potatoes in the other, and ran with them over to a +great stove in one corner of the room. "We need only some matches to have +this blazing hot in a minute. No, not that way, Grace," as the latter +tried to help by lighting the burner. "This isn't a gas stove, you know; +it's an oil stove and you had better look out or you will blow us all up." + +It is small wonder if Betty was so dazzled by this joyful scene that she +could neither move nor speak for the space of two seconds or so. Then, +recovering her powers of locomotion, she went over to the table and picked +up a note that, in their excitement, the girls had overlooked. + +"See what this says," she called to them, and they looked at her rather +impatiently. Just at that moment the only thing they cared to consider was +food--and more food--and then some more! + +But as Betty read they became more interested, and even stopped long +enough to hear her through. It was a brief note. This is what it said. + + "My dear young ladies: + + "I am a neighbor of Mr. Prendergast," (this was the dressed-up name + of Mollie's Uncle John) "and he axed me to get your dinner ready fer + you. I tried to keep it hot but you wus so long comin' I had to go + home to get dinner fer my old man. Hope things is all right. + + "Lizzie Davis." + +"So she is the one who has done all this," said Betty, looking around at +the good things with dancing eyes. "I bet she is nice and plump and has +rosy cheeks." + +"Lizzie Davis? Lizzie Davis?" repeated Mollie, bringing the steaming gravy +back and plumping the dish triumphantly down on the table. "Rather a funny +name for a fairy godmother, but she sure does know how to cook. Don't +forget the potatoes, Grace. Come on, girls--let's sit down." + +So down the girls sat and acted like ravenous pigs--or so Grace described +their conduct afterward. Mrs. Irving set to work carving the delicious +pork, but they could not wait for her. + +They seized slices of bread, spread apple sauce and butter on them, and +ate like what they were, four famished girls and one equally famished +chaperon who had been out in the open all day and had had nothing to eat +since morning. + +It was some time before they showed any considerable signs of slowing up. +Then Grace put down her fork, leaned back lazily, and called for dessert. +The latter was a huge cherry pie, and before the girls were through with +it there was not enough left to color a robin's egg. + +After the pangs of hunger had been satisfied they found to their great +surprise that they were dead tired and sleepy. + +"We will get the dishes out of the way and then Mollie can show us where +we sleep," said Betty. "Oh, girls, did you ever in your life taste such a +dinner?" + +It was not till the dishes had all been cleared away and Mollie took up +her candle to show them their quarters that the unwelcome thought of the +thing that had so frightened them again crept terrifyingly into their +minds. Try as they would to forget it, they could not. + +There were three small sleeping rooms in the lodge, but, small as they +were, they were comfortable and contained beds that seemed the height of +luxury to the tired girls. + +Because of the indistinct and flickering candle light the girls could make +out very little of what the rooms really looked like, and they postponed +any close examination until the morning. Back of the lodge was a shed for +the cars. + +The bedrooms were all joined by doors, which gave the girls a safe and +sociable feeling. Mrs. Irving, of course, had one room to herself, Betty +and Mollie slept together and Grace and Amy paired off. + +They wasted little time in getting ready--Betty and Mollie had appointed +themselves a committee of two to bring in the grips from Mollie's car--and +before long they tasted the exquisite restfulness of comfortable beds +after a long nerve-trying day in the out-of-doors. + +"I don't believe I shall close my eyes all night," said Amy with +conviction. "I'm too horribly nervous." + +But three minutes later she was sound asleep! + +The sun had been up a good two hours before any one stirred in Wild Rose +Lodge. Betty was the first to awake, and in fifteen minutes she had the +rest of the sleepy-eyed and protesting girls up and nearly dressed. + +"What's the idea, anyway?" yawned Grace lazily. "I could have slept at +least a good two hours more." + +"On a day like this?" sang Betty, breathing in deep breaths of the +wood-scented air. "And isn't this just the dearest room you ever saw?" +she added, wheeling about and regarding the apartment delightedly. They +were in Grace and Amy's room, for, as usual, Mollie and Betty had been +the first dressed and had gone into their churns' room to hurry them up +--if such a thing were possible. + +Betty's summing up of the room they were in was indeed well deserved, for +the place was charming. There was a dresser, a bed, and three chairs, and +all of these articles of furniture had been rough-hewed out of logs, +giving the place a delightfully rustic appearance. There was a grass rug +on the floor and in one corner a little table covered with books. + +"Isn't it darling?" cried Mollie, following Betty's glance about the +place. "Uncle John built the lodge and made all of the furniture himself, +you know. And he bought the grass rugs from the Indians." + +They were still exclaiming about the place when Mrs. Irving called to them +that breakfast was ready. With a whoop of delight they answered the +summons, and a moment later sat themselves down to a most satisfying meal +of omelet and toast and coffee with real cream in it. Also Mrs. Irving set +on the table a yellow-topped pitcher of milk fresh from the cow. + +"Our friend, Lizzie Davis, brought it," their chaperon answered with a +smile, in response to the girls' curious questions. "Also some fresh +butter and eggs. I have an idea," she added, as she got up to refill the +butter plate, "that we shall live on the fat of the land while we are +here." + +"Lizzie Davis," repeated Betty, pausing in the act of filling her glass +with fresh milk and regarding Mrs. Irving with dancing eyes. "Tell me, +chaperon dear. Didn't she have nice red cheeks, and wasn't she +delightfully plump?" + +"Yes," said Mrs. Irving, smiling at Betty's flushed prettiness. "She was +all of that, my dear. I don't believe I ever saw a more cozy looking +person in my life." + +"I knew it!" cried Betty triumphantly, adding with a suspicious eye on +Grace: "Hand over that plate of toast, Gracie. You needn't think you can +eat it all up!" + +After breakfast they sallied forth to "view the country o'er." They would +have stayed and helped Mrs. Irving clear up, but that good woman declared +that she could do better by herself on this first morning. After she had +become better acquainted with the place they could help her all they +liked. Finally, after some protest, they had to let her have her way. + +As they stepped out on the porch, Betty paused and held up her hand for +silence. + +"Listen," she said. "That murmuring sound and the splash of water--" + +"It's the river and the falls," explained Mollie. "Let's go down and have +a look at them." + +But Amy, giving a little gasp of delight, fairly tumbled down the steps +and into a riot of gorgeous pink wild roses. The lodge was fairly +surrounded by them. + +"Oh, you darlings!" cried Amy, putting both arms around a bush of the +fragrant flowers as though she would gather in all their beauty at once. +"I never saw anything so wonderful in all my life! Oh, girls, I'm glad I +came!" + + + + +Chapter XVI + +The Whirlpool + + + +All the spirit and joy of the woods seemed to have entered into the +Outdoor Girls. For the next half hour they romped in the woods and the +beautiful flowers for all the world like little children whose first +glimpse it was of the country. + +They took down their hair and made wreaths of wild roses for crowns, and +when, faces flushed with exercise and fun, they had finished, one might +easily have mistaken them for real fairies come to life. + +"But I want to see the river," Betty called to them, stopping once more to +listen to the rhythmic sound of splashing water. "Come on, girls. It can't +be more than a few hundred feet away, even though we can't see it for the +bushes. Lead on, Mollie Billette, I wouldst hie me hence." + +But when Mollie laughingly obeyed and started into the woods, Amy held +back. + +"What's the matter?" Grace asked, turning to her curiously. + +"I--I was just thinking," stammered Amy, ashamed of her own weakness, +"about last night." + +"About last night," Betty prompted, still at a loss. + +"You haven't forgotten, have you?" she asked, incredulously. "That--thing +--on the porch." + +"Oh!" they said, and a shadow fell over their bright faces. + +"Why, yes," said Betty, slowly, adding as though she could not quite +explain the phenomenon herself: "I suppose we did forget all about it." + +"Or if we didn't, we should have," said Mollie, ungrammatically but +decidedly. "Come on, girls, we aren't going to let any silly old thing +like that frighten us out of a good time." + +"It seems," said Grace thoughtfully, while Amy still held back, "almost as +if we had dreamed the whole thing. The memory of it is so vague--and +indistinct." + +"Well, it isn't vague to me--or indistinct either," said Amy, feeling +rather abused because the girls did not seem to share her feelings. "I +hardly slept all night long just thinking about it" + +"Oh, Amy Blackford!" said Grace accusingly, while Mollie and Betty turned +twinkling eyes upon her. "If that isn't the biggest one I ever heard. Why, +I woke up once or twice in the night and each time I found you almost +snoring." + +"Oh, I did not," protested Amy, flushing indignantly, but here Mollie and +Betty stepped laughingly into the fray and peremptorily put an end to it. + +"Let's not fight about it," said Betty, when she could make herself heard. +"We don't care whether Amy snored or not. What we want to know is this: +Who is coming with us for a look at the falls?" + +"Now you're talking, Little Captain," said Mollie approvingly. "All in +favor please say Aye." Amy still showed some inclination to hold back, +but Mollie and Betty each took an arm and hurried her willy-nilly with +them into the woods. + +"You had better take the lead, Mollie," Betty suggested after they had +gone some little distance along the path. "I can manage Amy alone now, I +guess. She seems pretty well tamed." + +"Tamed, but scared to death," Amy came back, with a wry smile. "Really, +Betty," she turned to look at the Little Captain closely, "aren't you the +least little bit nervous about what happened last night?" + +"No, I don't think I am now," said Betty, adding candidly, "I must say I +was last night though--just frightened to death. It seemed so awfully +uncanny--coming upon that thing in the dark after what we had gone through +with that bandit. But then," she added more lightly, "everything seems so +much worse in the dark, you know." + +"Yes," said Amy slowly and looking very serious. "That all may be very +true. But I think that as long as we are sure we didn't dream it last +night and that the skulking thing really dodged out from the corner of our +porch that we ought to be on our guard against it. And how," she finished +most reasonably, "can we be on our guard in the woods?" + +Betty was at a loss to know just how to answer such a question. By this +time Mollie and Grace were some little distance ahead of them and Amy's +nervousness was beginning to communicate itself to her against her will. + +She felt again the creeping sensation that had traveled up and down her +spine at sight of that crouching, sinister figure that had sprung out from +the shadow of the porch. + +It had disappeared into the bushes last night, and, for all she knew--and +the thought made her tingle weirdly--it might still be hiding in them, +crouching, ready to spring-- + +With an effort she shook off the mood and turned to Amy brightly. + +"There is no use in our making a mountain out of a mole hill," she said, +plucking a wild rose as they swung by and smelling of its delicious +fragrance. "Last night, I admit, it seemed very terrifying to us, but that +was probably because we couldn't see what it was that frightened us. It +may just have been a large dog or something." + +"Humph," sniffed Amy, sceptically, "it must have been a monster dog. Sort +of a ghost hound." + +"Goodness, that's going from bad to worse," laughed Betty, as they +rejoined the other girls. "Let's hope it isn't anything like that, Amy +dear. Hello, what are you waiting for?" she hailed the girls cheerfully. +"We almost fell over you." + +"Watch your step," cautioned Mollie, adding as she cleared aside some +bushes and motioned Betty to a place beside her: "We've reached the river, +Betty, and a little farther up is the falls. Isn't it beautiful?" + +"Oh, it is beautiful," rejoined Betty, a sentiment which Amy heartily +echoed, and for a few minutes they stood there, drinking in the beauty of +the scene, entirely unmindful of the lovely picture they themselves made +with their loosened hair and wreaths of wild flowers. + +The river was not very wide, but the water was deep and clear and swift +and the continual swish-swish of its passage over rocks and between +foliage-laden banks made a pleasant, even sound that was deliciously +restful and refreshing. + +"Oh, if we could only get down right into the very middle of it and let +those little ripples wash over us forever and forever!" sighed Grace +ecstatically. + +"She would a little mermaid be!" sang Betty, as she slipped down to the +very edge of the water and leaned over to catch her reflection in the +bright depths of it. "But honestly, Mollie, isn't there any place in the +river where we can swim?" + +"It looks too swift for good swimming to me--" began Grace, but Mollie +stopped her with a mysterious finger to her lips. + +"Hush, my pretty one, not a word," said the latter, beginning to pick her +way daintily along the river bank. "Follow me and you will wear diamonds, +or seaweed, or whatever it is that mermaids wear. And don't fall over, +whatever you do," she turned around to caution them. "The river is so +swift here that I don't believe even the strongest swimmer would have a +chance." + +Accordingly the girls "watched their step," and for some distance followed +Mollie uncomplainingly. Then, as there seemed no sign of their getting +anywhere, Grace started to protest. + +"Say, do you suppose she has any idea where she is going?" the latter +asked of Betty in a tone that was designed to reach Mollie's ear. But +before she could say anything more, Mollie herself swung jubilantly round +upon them. + +"Here we are, girls!" she cried. "Now see if you ever saw anything so +pretty in all your lives." + +Once more the girls stood spellbound by the natural beauty of the scene. +As they walked they had become more and more conscious of the roaring +noise made by rushing water, and now, ascending a small rise of ground, +they came full upon the majestic beauty of Moonlight Falls. + +The falls fell full thirty feet, and at the foot of it the river was +churned into swirling, liquid foam that whirled around and around again in +a sort of mad race and then went rushing off down the river in a shower of +lacy spray. + +It was wildly inspiring, exhilarating, and the girls thrilled with a +strange new emotion as they watched. It was so free, so gloriously +unchained! + +"There is our swimming pool over there," Mollie said, raising her voice to +make it heard above the roar of the water. "You see there is a sort of +little back eddy below the falls and to one side of it, and right there +we'll find the best swimming of our lives. But," she added, and her voice +was impressively solemn, "heaven help any one of us who gets in the path +of the falls." + +"Look!" cried Amy suddenly, her voice ringing out full and clear and +startled above the uproar. "That--thing--over there. It is going into the +falls--no, under them!" + +"Where?" cried Mollie eagerly, leaning far forward. "Oh, yes, I see what +you mean. Oh, girls, I'm slipping!" Her voice rose to a terrified wail. +"Betty! Catch me!" + +But Betty was too late. She sprang forward just in time to see Mollie +slide down the slippery bank and plunge into the maddened water of the +river! + + + + +Chapter XVII + +The "Thing" + + + +It took the girls a moment to realize the extent of the awful thing that +had happened. Then Betty, obeying her first impulse, raised her hands +above her head as though to dive, but Amy screamed to her to stop. + +"You will only be lost too!" she cried frantically. "Look--that flat +stick--the long one--" + +Instantly Betty saw what she meant and stooped to pick up a long broken +branch that was lying at her feet. At the same instant Mollie came to the +surface several feet away from the spot where she had fallen and threw her +strength desperately against the rushing might of the river. + +Betty ran along the river bank, Amy and Grace at her heels, shouting +encouragement to Mollie as she ran. + +"Hold tight!" she cried, adding with fresh dismay as she saw that the girl +was being swept further from the shore: "Over this way, honey. Swim to +your right--to your right--" + +Blinded, chilled to the bone with the cold water, her hair in her eyes and +her skirts clinging tight about her legs, Mollie struggled wildly, unable +to hear the shouts of her chums above the ringing in her ears. + +It was taking all her strength to hold her own against the rush of the +river--and now she was not even doing that! Slowly, very slowly, she was +being pushed backward; in a little while more she would be sucked +downward, and then-- + +She closed her eyes, and then, as though the obliteration of one sense +made more clear the other, she heard Betty calling to her above the roar +of the falls. + +"Mollie! Mollie!" it came, faint but distinct, "take hold of the stick and +we'll pull you in. Mollie, do you hear me?" + +The girl in the water was still struggling hard against the current that +was dragging at her cruelly, and at the sound of Betty's words she shook +the water from her eyes and looked about her dazedly. She had forgotten +the girls. + +Then she saw something that sent a tingle of renewed hope through her +tired body. What she saw was a long branch bobbing on the water not two +feet from her outstretched hand, and at the other end of the stick was-- +Betty. + +With a sigh that was half a sob she struck out for it, reached it, and +clung to it as only the drowning know how to cling. + +Then she felt herself being drawn through the water, and once more she +closed her eyes. When she opened them again she was on a warm grassy bank +with Amy chafing one hand, Grace the other, while Betty was busy +unfastening the clothes about her waist. + +As Mollie was never under any circumstances expected to act as people +thought she should act, so this occasion was no exception to the rule. She +pushed Amy and Grace aside, glared at Betty, and sat up with a little +jerk. + +"For goodness' sake, stop undressing me, Betty Nelson!" she said. "I'm not +dead yet." + +"So we see," said Betty, while her eyes lost their anxious expression and +began to twinkle instead. "But you might have been, you know, if we had +left you to yourself." + +Mollie looked down at her dripping clothes ruefully and then out at the +rushing water. + +"I guess you are right," she said with a little grimace. "It wasn't very +pleasant while it lasted, either. Whew, but that water was cold!" She +shivered involuntarily and Betty sprang to her feet. + +"We had better be getting back to the lodge," she said. "You can put on +some dry things, Mollie, and we girls will get you some hot soup. You are +chilled to the bone." + +"Nonsense," denied Mollie grumpily. "I'm beginning to feel fine and warm. +Besides," she added, trying to cover a chill that fairly made her teeth +ache, "I want to stay and find out about that thing that got us into all +this fuss." + +"Nonsense," Grace put in. Up to this time Grace had been made speechless +by Mollie's sudden recovery. "You are shivering so you can't sit still." + +"It makes me cold just to look at you," added Amy. + +"Don't be foolish, honey," said Betty impatiently. "You can't sit there +all day in dripping clothes, and besides you will really get cold." + +"Humph," grunted Mollie, getting to her feet rather unsteadily and shaking +out her sodden skirts. "I guess this isn't the first time I have taken a +dip in cold water. And besides," she added impatiently: "I don't know +about you girls, but I would like to know just what that thing was that we +saw dart beneath the falls." + +"That was what made you fall into the water, wasn't it?" asked Betty, her +forehead wrinkling thoughtfully. "You leaned so far out to see--" + +"Yes, yes," Mollie interrupted impatiently, all her curiosity revived. +"That was what made me fall into the water all right. But what I want to +know is--what was it?" + +"I don't know," said Betty, shaking her head. "I didn't see it." + +"Neither did I," Grace added. + +Mollie looked from one to the other of them open-mouthed. Then she turned +to Amy. + +"You saw it, didn't you?" she asked. "You screamed, you know." + +"Yes," said Amy, nodding her head very solemnly. "And it looked to me a +lot like what we saw last night." + +"Thank goodness, you saw it too or the girls would surely think I had been +dreaming or was crazy," said Mollie, with relief. Then she suddenly turned +and started off into the woods. "I'm going all alone to find out what that +was," she told her stupefied chums. "I've got to clear up the mystery +before I'm an hour older." + +But this time Mollie found that there was some one stronger than she, and +that was Betty. The Little Captain ran after her and brought her back, +protesting but captive. + +"We are going back to the house now and get you something hot to eat," +said Betty, as they rejoined Amy and Grace and started off toward home. +"Afterwards if everybody's willing we will hunt this strange beast that +jumps out from porches and leaps into rivers just for the fun of the +thing. But just now, Billy Billette, you are going home." + +But Mollie had been more severely shocked than she was willing to admit by +her experience, and it was some time before the girls visited the falls or +the river again. Meanwhile they contented themselves with exploring the +country about the lodge, taking short trips in the cars and wondering +whether the boys would really be home before the summer was over. + +Their days were not altogether happy, however, for the thought of that +weird thing prowling around in the woods and ready, for all they knew, to +spring out at them at every turn, refused to be banished from their minds. + +Then, too, they thought a great deal about poor Professor Dempsey and the +little ruined cottage in the woods. Somehow, they had an uneasy feeling +that if they had gone to him at the very first minute they had heard of +his trouble they might have helped him. Whereas, they had waited and--he +had fled. + +For a while the idea of a dip in the swimming pool was naturally not very +attractive to Mollie, but at last there came a day when she herself +suggested it and the girls enthusiastically seconded the motion. + +More than the prospect of a good time, was the hope, unexpressed, that +they might see again that strange thing which Amy and Mollie had only +glimpsed the time before. Perhaps, they thought, if the mysterious thing +were faced in the open and in broad daylight, it might prove to be no +mystery at all but something ordinary and commonplace enough to do away +with all their vague and weird imaginings. + +But in this expectation they were most completely disappointed. Nothing at +all unusual occurred and although they enjoyed their swim in the warm back +eddy of the pool, they came away disgruntled and with a curious feeling +that they had been cheated out of something. + +"I only wish the boys would come," sighed Amy, as they turned in once more +at the lodge. + +After that the "Thing" became almost like an obsession with them. They +must find out definitely what it was that was spoiling all their fun. They +began to haunt the river, especially at the foot of the falls, in the hope +of seeing something, anything that would put an end to their curiosity and +uneasiness. + +For a long time they had not got up courage enough to visit the place at +night, but at last they became curious enough to brave even that. + +"We have simply got to find out something," Mollie whispered to Betty as +on this particular night they stood on the porch and waited for Mrs. +Irving to join them. "We can't go on this way any longer, Betty. Why, I am +getting so nervous I jump if you look at me." + +"I know," said Betty soberly. "It really is getting on our nerves too +much. Amy and Grace are feeling it even worse than we are." + +"Yes," agreed Mollie grumpily. "Last night was the third night in +succession that Amy got us all out of bed to listen to some fool noise +outside. I'm just about sick of it." + +The other three came then and they had no further chance for conversation. +As a matter of fact, they talked surprisingly little on the walk to the +river. + +High above them a wonderful full moon sent its silvery light filtering +down through leaves and branches, making of the woods a fairyland. +Somehow, the very beauty of it filled the girls with a strange dread. To +them the patches of moonlight were weird, unreal, the shadowy woods held a +sinister menace. + +By the time they had reached the river's edge they were almost ready to +turn and run. But they conquered the impulse and pressed on. Then suddenly +they saw what they had hoped, yet dreaded, to see. + +On the opposite bank, staring down into the rapids with a terrible +intentness, stood a man, or something that resembled a man. In one awful, +breath-taking minute they realized that here at last was the "Thing." + +As they watched, the hunched-up crouching figure on the opposite bank made +a lumbering movement forward as though about to throw itself into the +water at the foot of the falls. + +"Oh!" screamed Betty, the words wrenched from her dry throat. "Don't do +that! You mustn't do that! Go back! For goodness' sake, go back!" + +With a hoarse cry that answered her own, the "Thing" flung back from the +water's edge and disappeared into the darkness! + + + + +Chapter XVIII + +Surprised + + + +The Outdoor Girls could hardly have told how they got back to the lodge +after that. Blindly they stumbled through the underbrush, expecting they +knew not what horrible thing, thankful for the moonlight that made it +possible for them to hurry. + +They did reach home somehow and there they sat until late into the night, +trying to find some explanation for the thing they had seen, striving to +think up some plan for hunting it down until finally Mrs. Irving sent them +to bed. + +That did not do very much good, for they lay awake and talked until the +first rays of sunlight crept into the windows. Then they said goodnight +and sank into a sleep of exhaustion. + +For three days after the episode the girls never went far from the house +on foot. They would take the cars and spin down the open road, but a sort +of horror of the supernatural kept them from venturing into the woods +again. + +But when the fourth day dawned the fright of their moonlight experience +had begun to wear off and they were beginning to feel ashamed of their +fear. + +Having a little of this in her mind, Mollie gave voice to it at the +breakfast table. + +"I must say," she began, buttering a piece of bread energetically, "that +it isn't like us Outdoor Girls to let anything scare us into staying near +the house. Why, I declare, I don't believe there is one of us who would +dare poke her nose past that rose bush in front of the porch after +sundown. That's a pretty state of affairs, isn't it?" + +"Well, you needn't glare at me as if it were all my fault," retorted Amy +with spirit. "I'm sure I didn't wish the horrible old thing on us." + +"I only wish I knew who did," sighed Grace, adding, with a sudden burst of +ferocity: "I would wring his neck." + +"Suppose somebody suggests something we can do about it," said Betty +reasonably. "I'm sure that after the other night nobody could blame us for +being frightened." + +"No. But there is one thing I can blame you for," said Mollie, glaring +morosely at her chum. "And that is for not letting the horrible old thing +drown itself when it so very evidently wanted to. If that had happened all +our worries would have been over." + +"Goodness, Mollie, what a horrible idea!" Betty protested. + +"I don't think it was a horrible idea," Grace put in. "I think it was just +about the finest idea I ever heard of." + +"Yes," added Amy with a deceptive mildness, "if you hadn't called out just +then, Betty, the whole thing would have been over and the Thing would have +been drowned. And then," she added plaintively, "we would have been able +to enjoy our summer." + +"It really wasn't any of our business, you know," Grace finished, moodily. + +For a moment Betty sat and stared at them, undecided whether to be amused +or indignant. However, the latter emotion won and she turned upon the +girls with flashing eyes. + +"I think you are all perfectly horrid," she said. "And I would think you +were worse if I weren't perfectly sure that you don't really mean what you +say. Why, just suppose," she went on earnestly, "that we had willingly +permitted that man to commit suicide? Why, we would have been just as +guilty as if we had murdered him!" + +"But he may have done it since anyway," muttered Mollie stubbornly. "He +didn't have to wait to ask our permission, and there are plenty of times +that he can commit suicide when we are not around--if he really wants to +do it." + +"What he or anybody else does when we are not around, is not our +business," answered Betty. "We can't help what happens in our absence." + +"You seem to take it for granted that it is a man," Mollie continued, +still stubbornly argumentative. "But I am not so sure about that. The +several times that we have seen the--the--Thing--it has looked as much +animal as human to me." + +"Well, we won't argue that point," said Betty, rising and beginning to +clear away the dishes, "because we don't know anything about it." + +"That is just exactly what I am getting at," said Mollie earnestly, +leaning forward and resting her elbows on the table while the girls +watched her interestedly. "We don't know anything about it, but that is no +reason why we should sit back and twiddle our thumbs and start at +shadows." + +"Well, for goodness' sake, tell us what's on your mind," prompted Grace +impatiently. "We haven't sat back and twiddled our thumbs and started at +shadows because we enjoyed it, you know." + +"Now my plan is this," said Mollie, ignoring Grace, who shrugged her +shoulders and reached for her candy box. "Suppose we take a tramp through +the woods to the head of the falls? It is a beautiful hike and the scenery +at the falls is magnificent. But aside from that we will have a chance to +find out something about this thing that will do away with the mystery." + +"If it doesn't do away with us at the same time," said Amy so ruefully +that they had to laugh at her. + +"Well, what do you say?" asked Mollie, looking around the circle of +thoughtful faces--her glance a dare. + +For a moment it looked as if they all might refuse to go, but then their +sporting blood came to the fore and they decided for the adventure. + +But when they told Mrs. Irving about their project and begged her to say +yes to it, she looked very doubtful and only consented at last on the +proviso that she was to go with them. This they were only too glad to +have, and a few minutes later the lodge hummed with excitement and +preparation once more. To the Outdoor Girls, active and fun-loving by +nature, to be quiet for a few days was nothing short of torture. So now, +even though there was still more than a little fear of the "Thing" in +their hearts, they found relief in the promise of adventure. + +They put up some sandwiches and fruit in a basket in case they were not +able to get home by noon. Then they locked the door of the little lodge +and started down the steps. They hesitated before starting into the woods, +and Mollie had a happy thought. + +"We can go part of the way along the road," she said. "And then there is a +path that leads directly through to the head of the falls." + +The celerity with which they accepted this suggestion seemed funny to them +afterward, but at the time they had other things to think about. Mostly +they were wondering if they would really be able to hold on to their nerve +long enough to see the adventure through. + +"I wish," said Betty wistfully, as she had wished so many times of late, +"that the boys were here. They could help us out so beautifully." And she +sighed, for when she spoke of "the boys," she always thought of one boy +most--and that one was Allen. + +"Well, there's no use wishing for what can't possibly happen," Grace was +saying, when there came a whistle so clear and penetrating that it made +them jump--then another, and another. Was it just that they were nervous +or was there really something peculiarly familiar in the sound? At any +rate they stopped and turned around to see who the whistlers could be. + +There were three soldiers coming down the road, broad-shouldered, vital +looking fellows who swung along toward the astonished girls as though they +owned the world. + +"Betty, oh, Betty!" whispered Grace in a tense voice, grasping Betty's arm +so hard it hurt "It can't be, oh, it can't be the boys!" + +But Mollie had broken away from the group and was rushing toward the +soldier lads like the wild little tomboy she was. + +"Girls, it's the boys! it's the boys! it's the boys!" she yelled. "They're +all tanned and they're at least ten inches taller, but it's the boys just +the same." + +And before any of the other girls knew what she was about she had kissed +each one of them twice and was hanging on the tallest one's arm, who +happened to be Frank, laughing and crying at the same time. + +Then the girls seemed to decide that she had had the lads to herself long +enough, and they immediately entered the contest, all laughing at once, +all crying at once, and all talking at once, until it was a wonder the +boys did not lose their heads entirely. + +The only one who was not absolutely and completely and deliriously happy +was Betty. For the other three boys were there, but Allen had not come! + +As though reading her thought, Will, who was much handsomer and more manly +than when he went away, put an arm about the Little Captain's shoulder big +brother fashion and drew her aside from the rest. + +"You are wondering about Allen," he said, and Betty nodded eagerly. "You +see," continued Will, his face lighting up in a smile that would always be +boyish, "since Allen became one of the big bugs--which is another name for +officer, you understand--he had to pay the penalty and stay over there +with them for a little while longer. He will probably be over on the next +transport, although of course you can never be sure about that. Oh, and I +forgot," he put his hand in his pocket and drew forth a pocketknife, a wad +of string and--a little three-cornered note. "He asked me to give this to +you as soon as I saw you. So now you can tell him that 'I seen my duty and +I done it noble.'" + +With a twinkle in his eye Will turned back to the others and Betty was +left to open her note. This is what she read: + +"Gosh, some fellows do have all the luck, don't they? But never mind, +little girl. I'm coming to you by the very first boat, and when I get +there do you know what I'm going to do? Do you?" + +Betty wanted to run away by herself and read the note over and over again. +But she could not do that. With a sigh she hid the little message in a +pocket of her skirt and turned back to the others. + + + + +Chapter XIX + +Like Old Times + + + +It was a long time before the boys and girls woke up to the fact that they +were still standing in the center of the road and that they might be ever +so much more comfortable on the porch of the lodge, if any one had had +sense enough to think that far. + +Mrs. Irving, who had been keeping herself rather in the background during +the first rapturous greetings, now came in for her share of salutations +and boyish greetings. The young soldiers crowded about her, patting her +hands and her shoulders and telling her how awfully fine she looked and +how glad they were to find her here until the lady actually blushed with +pleasure and begged them to stop their nonsense. In fact, it was she who +finally suggested that they go up to the lodge again. + +"I don't see why we didn't think of that before," said Mollie, joyfully +slipping an arm into Frank's and turning him right-about-face. "We are due +to talk all day anyway, so we might as well do it in comfort. Don't forget +the lunch basket, Betty," she called back to her chum. + +Betty would have forgotten the basket and left it where it stood just as +she had dropped it at the side of the road--and small wonder if she had-- +but as she stooped to pick it up, Will's strong brown hand whipped out in +front of her nose and seized the handle firmly. + +"That's the idea," said Grace approvingly, adding with a sisterly pat on +his shoulder: "You run along with Amy and Mrs. Irving. I want to talk to +Betty." + +So Will, being a well-trained brother, did as he was told, and Grace drew +Betty behind the others. + +"What about Allen, honey?" she asked, her blue eyes honestly worried. "We +all missed him so, but we didn't like to say too much for fear--for fear--" + +"He's all right," said Betty, her heart glowing again at thought of the +little note hidden away in her pocket. "He has only been delayed a little, +that's all. Will says he will probably be over on the next transport." + +"Oh, I am relieved," said Grace with such fervor that Betty looked at her +quickly. Could it be, she wondered, that what she had half sensed before +could be really true? Was Grace fond of Allen? But because the idea made +her unhappy, she decided that she was just trying to think up trouble and +dismissed it from her mind. All the girls loved Allen of course--who could +help it?--but they couldn't any of them, she told herself fiercely, care +for him the way she did. + +"Well, what are you thinking about? You needn't look so fierce," she heard +Grace saying, and she forced a smile to her face. + +"I'm not looking fierce," Betty answered gayly. "Don't you know that that +is just my natural expression, Gracie dear? That's the way I make little +girls like you afraid of me." + +"Well, I'm not afraid of you, not one little bit," asserted Grace, +squeezing Betty's arm fondly. "Oh, Betty dear, isn't it wonderful having +the boys back and don't they look fine--especially Will?" + +"Don't they? Especially Will," agreed Betty with a sly little glance. "If +you don't look out you will give the impression that you're rather fond of +that worthless old brother of yours, honey." + +"I love him awfully," replied Grace, adding with a little puckering of her +forehead: "But I am going to tell you something, Betty, that I wouldn't +tell to any one else for the world. I'm jealous, actually jealous! of +Amy." + +Betty gave a merry little laugh and slipped an arm about her chum. + +"Gracie dear, we never would have known that if you hadn't told us," she +said dryly. "Don't you know," as Grace looked at her reproachfully, "that +we have all been perfectly well aware of that ever since Will first began +to make eyes at Amy?" + +"I can't help it," Grace retorted, while sudden tears sprang to her eyes. +"I've known him longer than she has, and we've loved each other ever since +he was two and I was two weeks! Did you see the way he looked at her?" she +finished dolefully. + +"Yes. But of course you couldn't see the way he looked at you," said Betty +quickly. "And I did." + +"Oh, did he look glad to see me? Did he?" demanded Grace with pathetic +eagerness. + +"Of course he did, you little goose," said Betty, adding with a chuckle: +"You've been spoiled, that's all. You've been so used to being the +<i>only</i> pebble on the beach, dear, that you can't be content with +being just one of two." + +By this time they had reached the lodge and were greeted noisily by the +others, who had already seated themselves on the porch as though they +intended to stay all day. + +"Hello," called Frank. His handsome face, though somewhat thinner than the +girls remembered, was better looking than ever and he had developed a +trick of flinging the hair back from his forehead that the girls thought +immensely attractive. + +Roy, who had seated himself on the railing of the porch and was swinging +his feet, looked more unchanged than either of the boys, though the girls +were soon to find out that he had changed the most. + +Will, who had settled Amy in a chair and was sitting cross-legged on the +floor at her feet, was gazing up at the girl with his heart in his eyes. +As for Amy--well, the girls had never known she could look so radiant. + +"Have a seat," invited Roy, rising lazily to the dignity of his six feet +as Betty and Grace came up on the porch. "It would seem like old times to +see you girls perched on the railing." + +"I'll have you know, sir," said Betty very demurely, as she pulled Grace +down beside her on the top step of the porch, "that we have quite grown up +since you have been away. We will sit here where we can get a good view of +you all." + +"And we want to hear about everything you have done over there," broke in +Amy eagerly. "Please, everything--right from the beginning." + +The boys fidgeted, looked dismayed, and Roy burst forth in protest. + +"Oh, I say!" he cried. "We'll do anything else for you, but please don't +ask us to do that." + +"We don't want to talk about ourselves or the war," muttered Frank, almost +as if to himself. "We want to forget about it--if we can." + +"You see," Will explained, and there was a stern note in his young voice, +"we worked and we sweated and we fought. We lived under conditions week +after week and month after month that it makes us shudder even to think of +now. For months we lived in a perfect inferno--and do you know what our +idea of heaven was then?" + +They said nothing and he went on in a lighter tone. + +"It was just to get back alive and, well, to God's country and you girls-- +to sit for hours, days if we could, where we could look at you and listen +to you and not do a thing but just be happy. I wonder if you can +understand that?" + +"Of course, we can, Will!" cried Betty, impulsively reaching over and +laying a hand on the boy's arm. "You have earned the right to sit and be +amused, and we'll do it till you cry aloud for mercy. And you needn't tell +us a single word about yourselves until you get good and ready." + +"You're a brick, Betty," said Will warmly, laying his hand over her little +one. "I might have known we could count on you." + +"By the way," Roy broke in suddenly, his eye on the basket of eatables +that the girls had prepared for their adventure, "what's in that hamper, +anyway? If it's anything to eat, let's have it." + +Betty pulled the basket over to her, lifted the cover and passed it over +to the ravenous one. + +"Eat while there is anything left," she commanded, adding with a chuckle: +"Our adventure seems to be over for to-day, at least." + +"Adventure?" repeated Frank inquiringly, as he reached for a sandwich. + +"Yes," said Mollie, adding with a sigh: "And you boys had to come along +just in time to spoil it all." + + + + +Chapter XX + +Very Much Alive + + + +"That is complimentary, I must say," grinned Will, getting up from his +seat on the porch and going over to join Roy on the railing. "After being +away for months we are told the minute we get back that we've 'spoiled +everything.'" + +"'Tis rather hard lines," said Mollie with an answering grin. "But one must +tell the truth, you know." + +"By the way," put in Grace curiously, "I know Betty promised that we +wouldn't ask questions, but there is just one thing I want to know." + +"Speak, fair damsel," Roy replied, thinking meanwhile how much prettier +Grace had grown. "We will promise to answer faithfully anything that is +not connected with war." + +"When did you get in?" asked Grace, "and how did you get here?" + +"We came in yesterday," answered Roy, helping himself to another sandwich. +"And of course we beat it for headquarters right away." + +"Yes'm, and I'll tell you we were a disappointed lot when we found that +you girls had flown," added Frank ruefully. "We were all set for a jolly +reunion--" + +"But we wrote you about spending the summer here," Betty interrupted. "And +we were mourning because you couldn't be at the lodge with us." + +"We missed your letters, I guess," said Will. "We sailed very suddenly, +and there is probably a stack of them piled up there at the old service +station." + +"We found out where you were all rightie, though," Roy continued. "So we +took the first train out this morning, debarked at the nearest station +south of here, and proceeded to walk the rest of the way. It was thus that +you came upon us." + +"You came upon us, you mean," Amy corrected. "We ought to know well +enough, because you nearly gave us heart failure." + +Will looked at her as if he wanted to say something but did not quite dare +in public. However, she intercepted the look and with a little panicky +feeling turned her eyes away. + +"I imagine," said Grace softly, looking up at Will, "that mother wasn't +glad to see you or anything." + +"Not at all," returned Will, a soft light in his eyes as he remembered the +greeting between him and his parents. "I was a little afraid," he added +soberly, "that mother and dad wouldn't like my skipping off like this the +day after I'd got home. But they seemed to understand all right." + +"Gee, but this is great," said Frank, stretching contentedly and looking +about the group with happy eyes. "I wonder how many times we've seen this +all in our dreams, fellows. Only we couldn't have imagined it half as +perfect as this." + +"It sure is like old times," agreed Roy, adding with a smile as he turned +to their chaperon, who had been quietly enjoying herself: "We even have +Mrs. Irving with us. Gee, it's just like that summer at Pine Island! All +the old crowd together--" + +"Except Allen," put in Will, frowning a little. "Gosh, it didn't seem +right at all to leave the old fellow behind. You wouldn't know him," he +added, his face flushing enthusiastically, "I've never seen a fellow +change the way Allen has--for the better." + +"Was there so much room for improvement?" asked Betty demurely, and they +looked at her laughingly. + +"Nobody would expect you to think so," Will replied, his eyes twinkling, +then added seriously: + +"Of course we all know that Allen was the finest kind even before the war, +but, gosh! I wish you could just see how all the fellows love him and how +even his superior officers consult him and seem to value his judgment. I +tell you, I'm glad to have him call me his friend." + +"You bet!" exclaimed Frank, nodding soberly. + +"Allen sure has come out strong," Roy agreed; and at this glowing praise +of the only absent one Betty felt her heart swell with pride and she +wanted to hug the boys for being so loyal to her Allen. Also, deep down in +her heart, she began to feel a little trepidation about the homecoming of +this hero. Who was she, Betty Nelson, to call this glorious Lieutenant +Allen Washburn, <i>her</i> Allen? + +So engrossed was she in these and other absorbing thoughts that it was +some time before she noticed that the conversation had taken another turn. +Also that the boys and girls were becoming rather excited. + +"I didn't say it was a ghost," Mollie was declaring hotly. "In fact I have +always thought of a ghost as wearing a sheet and pillow case sort of garb. +And this thing certainly wore nothing of the sort." + +"Tell us all about it," said Frank, leaning forward. + +"Yes, it sounds as if it might prove interesting," added Roy. + +So the girls told them all about it from that first night when they had +been so badly frightened by the "Thing" that had hidden in the shadows of +the porch. The boys listened with scarcely an interruption till they were +through. + +"Gosh, I don't like the sound of that at all," said Will, when they had +finished. "It isn't a pleasant thing to have a lunatic roaming the woods +while you girls are all alone here in this place. Could you possibly put +us up for the night?" he asked, turning abruptly to Mrs. Irving. + +"Why, there isn't any room," said the latter slowly, frowning a little as +she tried to think up ways and means. "There aren't any extra beds, but +there is a large settee in the living room and a couple of you can sleep +on that. I found plenty of blankets stowed away." + +"Fine!" cried Will enthusiastically. "Just the very thing! One of us can +take turns sleeping on the floor. It won't be the first time we've slept +on harder things." + +"Goodness, any one would think they were going to stay a month," said +Mollie in dismay. + +"No, we won't stay a month," Will went on. "But we are going to stay until +we find out what it is that has been bothering you girls. Do you suppose +we would leave you unprotected here? I should say not!" Grace noticed that +when he said this his glance was first for Amy, and, afterward, for her. + +So it was settled. Mrs. Irving went inside to see about getting lunch. +"Though how the boys can find any room for lunch after eating all those +sandwiches, I don't know," Amy had commented wonderingly. + +Mrs. Irving had refused absolutely to let any of the girls even so much as +help with this lunch, saying they must stay outside and visit with the +boys on this momentous occasion. + +"Since you are convinced that this thing is not a ghost," Will went on, +while appetizing odors began to waft toward them from the open kitchen +windows, "we will take it for granted that it is a man, and a man who has, +presumably, lost his mind." + +"A crazy man," murmured Betty. "Worse and worse--and more of it." + +"Girls," cried Amy, jumping suddenly to her feet, "I have an idea." + +"Impossible!" drawled Grace. + +"Why," went on Amy, unheeding Grace's remark and growing visibly more +excited as she talked, "you know, Professor Dempsey went crazy--or at +least we supposed he did--and ran away into the woods. Now since Will +thinks this man is crazy too, why, they may be one and the same--" + +"Amy!" cried Mollie, her eyes beginning to shine as she realized the +possibility of what the girl had said. "You are a wonder, child! Why +didn't any of us think of that before?" + +"Because it is rather far-fetched and absurd, I suppose," said Grace, the +suggestion of a sneer in her voice bringing a quick flush to Amy's face. + +"I don't see that it is so far-fetched--or absurd either," Betty broke in +quietly. "Remember, we are only a little over fifty miles from the place +where Professor Dempsey had his cottage, and it would be easy for him to +wander this far." + +Here Frank broke in on behalf of the very much mystified boys. + +"Before you stage the hair-pulling contest," he said, "would you mind +telling us poor benighted males what it is all about?" + +So the girls told them all about Professor Dempsey, and while they talked +the boys became more and more excited. Finally Will could keep quiet no +longer. + +"Say," he asked, leaning forward, "did the two sons of the cracked old +professor happen to bear the names of James and Arnold?" + +The girls gaped at him. "Yes," they breathed. "How did you know?" + +"Because," said Will, "those very same fellows were in our regiment. In +fact, I was beside Arnold when he was wounded in that last engagement. +Strange thing that James was wounded at the same time." + +"Wounded?" repeated Betty, who like all the girls was feeling rather dazed +at this new development. "Then they weren't killed?" + +"Not a bit of it," Will replied vehemently. "Why, even their wounds +weren't serious enough to lay them up for long. The last I heard of them +they were coming over on a hospital ship and expected to be here almost as +soon as we were. For all I know, they may have landed by this time." + +"Oh," said Amy, still too dazed to take it all in. "Then all this time we +have thought of them as dead, they were alive--" + +"Very much so," said Will, with a grin, "and probably kicking too--just +like us!" + + + + +Chapter XXI + +Out of the Dark + + + +It took the Outdoor Girls a moment or two to digest this rather startling +information. And when it did finally seep into their consciousness, their +first feeling was one of joy for the poor professor whose sons would be +restored to him after all. + +But quick on the heels of this thought came another. How could the sons be +restored to their father, if the father were nowhere to be found? + +"You say the old chap skipped out, decamped?" Will broke in on their +meditations. "That sort of complicates matters, doesn't it?" + +"Rather," agreed Roy, frowning. "It is going to be rather tough on those +fellows, James and Arnold, to come home, expecting to be welcomed by a +rejoicing parent, only to find said parent missing." + +"Humph, that's the first time I've thought of the boys' side of it," said +Betty. "We have been too much occupied right along in being sorry for the +poor old professor." + +"Well, if you had known the boys, you would have thought of their side of +it all right," said Frank seriously. "They are mighty good scouts, both of +them, and they think a lot of their old dad, too, I can tell you. Why, +many a night"--his voice took on a reminiscent note and the girls felt +once again that they were privileged in having a brief glimpse of the life +"over there"--"when a surprise attack was scheduled for the next morning +or we were waiting for some such manoeuvre from the enemy, Arnold would +talk to me about his dad--that was the time when fellows got chummy, you +know, and got to know each other's souls--and once he gave me a note for +the old chap and asked me to deliver it if I came through and he didn't. I +think I have it about me somewhere." He fumbled about in his pockets while +the girls waited silently. + +Presently he drew forth a little slip of paper, muddy and worn and +dust-stained from being carried about for a long, long time in a khaki +pocket. + +"He told me," Frank went on, still holding the slip of paper in his hand +but making no attempt to open it, "that his mother had died when he and +Jimmy were young and that since then his dad had been father and mother +both to them and that he had worked himself nearly to death to give them a +chance for the college education that he had had. He said that the one +thing that had always threatened to floor the old boy was when either he +or Jim got mad and threatened to give up school and go to work so as to +take some of the load from the old pater's shoulders. So they were glad, +actually glad, when the war came along and gave them a chance not only to +serve their country and earn some money--even if it was only a miserable +pittance--so that they could send some home to their dad and feel that +they had stopped being a drag upon him. He used to tell me," Frank went +on, for the spell of those old thrilling times was strong upon him again, +"with tears in his eyes--and I'll tell you there was no braver man in all +the American army than Arnold Dempsey; he was good for two Boches any day +--that it would be the happiest moment of his life when he got back to the +old country and announced to his proud and admiring pater that he had come +home to turn the tables; that Jimmy and he were going to make the old +fellow take a rest and do the work themselves for a change. And he asked +me, in case anything did happen to him and Jimmy, to be kind to his dad +and try to make up to him as much as I could. I gave him my promise that +night." Frank looked about the intent group of faces soberly. "In case the +boys had been killed, I would have regarded it as a sacred trust." + +Something swelled in the girls' hearts and for; a moment they could not +speak. Then, + +"I guess we all love you for that, Frank," said Betty simply. With a +little nod of her head toward the slip of paper he still held, she added: +"What about that--now?" + +Frank looked down at the slip of paper for a moment uncomprehendingly, for +his thoughts had been far away. + +"Oh, the note," he said. "Why, that was only to be given to his father in +case anything happened, you know. But now that the boys are coming back to +him themselves, I suppose the thing is worthless." He made a motion as +though to tear the note up, but Grace stopped him with a quick +exclamation. + +"Don't!" she cried, adding as they all looked at her in surprise: "Don't +you suppose there might be something in it that would give us a clue to +the professor's whereabouts now, perhaps? Don't you think it would be wise +to look, at least?" + +But Frank slowly shook his head. + +"Arnold Dempsey's message, written to his dad when he thought he might +never see him again, doesn't belong to us," he said decidedly. "The note +was given in trust to me, and since I can't deliver it--or at least, since +there is now no reason for delivering it--the only thing I can honorably +do is this." And very slowly and very decidedly he tore the note into +little bits and threw the pieces among the wild roses at the side of the +porch. + +It was the first real glimpse the girls had had of the man who had come +back in the old Frank's place, and with all their hearts they admired him. + +Even Grace, who had seemed inclined to pout a little, could not but admit +that the action was splendid in him. + +"And now," said Will, "after all that, the boys will come back to find +their dad gone, heaven knows where, dead perhaps--" + +"Oh, I wonder if there isn't some way we can follow him and find out at +least what has happened to him?" broke in Amy earnestly. "It seems +dreadful just to sit back and not even try to help." + +"I don't see what we can do," said Will judicially, just as Mrs. Irving +appeared in the doorway. "We will postpone the discussion for the present +anyway," he added, in a different tone, rising with alacrity and dusting +off his uniform. "Something tells me that lunch is waiting. Come, let us +eat!" + +So ended all serious discussion for that day, and the girls and boys gave +themselves up to the delight of being together again. Only Betty's +thoughts seemed to wander at times and she had to be brought back by +sundry mischievous and significant remarks from the young folks. + +Worn out with fun, the young soldiers slept like tops that night in their +improvised beds and rose the next morning professing to feel like "two +year olds" and ready for whatever new fun and adventure the day might +bring them. + +And for the first night since their arrival at Wild Rose Lodge the girls +slept soundly without being bothered by the haunting fear of the "Thing"-- +at least, so they said. + +That day they wandered through the woods together, searching for some sign +of their strange visitor, but found not a trace of anything unusual and +alarming. + +"I'm really beginning to believe that you girls have let your imaginations +run away from you," Will remarked, when they sat about the living-room +after a satisfying supper, just luxuriating in idleness. + +"Or perhaps the gentleman has been frightened away by our coming," Roy +suggested in a superior tone that made the girls want to throw something +at him. "Perhaps he is afraid of the uniform of the U.S.A." + +"He may be afraid of the uniform," sniffed Mollie scathingly. "But he +certainly couldn't be afraid of <i>you</i>." + +"Now you don't mean that, you know you don't," laughed Roy, drawing her +down beside him on the couch and holding her there with an iron grip of +his brown fingers. "Say you didn't, like a pretty little girl, and I'll +let you go." + +"I won't say any such--" Mollie began, then suddenly her gaze stiffened +into such a stare of wonder, and even alarm, that it made the girls fairly +hold their breath. + +"Mollie, what is it?" demanded Roy commandingly. + +"Over there!" she shrieked. "At the window, Roy! Do you see it?" + + + + +Chapter XXII + +Tragedy + + + +There, pressed so close to the pane of the window that the nose was +flattened grotesquely, eyes wildly staring, hair disheveled, was a face +that even in that tense moment the girls recognized--the face of Professor +Dempsey! + +It took the boys perhaps a second to fling out of the room, jump down the +steps of the porch and circle the house to the window. + +And yet, in that second, the man was gone, leaving no more trace than if +the earth had opened and swallowed him up. For almost an hour the boys +searched the woods about the lodge, refusing to allow the girls to +accompany them, saying truly that they would hamper them more than they +could help. + +"You see, I was right after all," Amy stated for at least the tenth time. +"From the moment the idea came to me, I felt almost sure that poor crazy +Professor Dempsey was this thing that was frightening us." + +"But did you ever see such an awful face in all your life?" said Mollie, +shuddering at the recollection. + +"And the look in his eyes as he stared at Roy," Grace added in a hushed +voice. "I shouldn't wonder if--if we hadn't been there, he might have +murdered him." + +"Oh, Gracie, don't!" Amy clapped her hands to her ears. "We are frightened +enough without having you say things like that" + +"Suppose," said Mollie, in a sepulchral voice, "he should come back before +the boys do?" + +"That's just what I was thinking," said a quiet voice behind them, and +they jumped and cried out in alarm. The next moment they saw it was Mrs. +Irving and felt ashamed of themselves. + +"I think you had all better come into the house till the boys come back," +their chaperon continued. "I shall feel safer when we are behind locked +doors." + +The girls shivered, but Mollie protested. + +"Suppose anything should happen to the boys?" she asked, but here Mrs. +Irving chose to exercise her authority. + +"We will talk about that when we are inside the house," she said very +firmly, and Mollie had nothing else to do but obey. + +The girls did breathe a little more freely when the door was locked, but +they found themselves wishing even more ardently that the boys would come +back. + +The window against which the horribly distorted face had been pressed +seemed to hold a peculiar fascination for the Outdoor Girls and they found +themselves unable to turn their eyes away from it. + +"Oh, I wish the boys would come back," moaned Amy, after a few moments +more had passed in strained silence. "If anything should happen to them +I'm sure I would die." + +"Nonsense, Amy," snapped Mollie. "What could one little mad old man do to +three big husky soldier boys?" + +The words had hardly been spoken when the sound of voices could be heard +coming toward the house, and a moment later the boys themselves stamped up +on the porch. + +"Not a sign of him," said Will in response to the girls' eager questions. +"I don't see how he could have disappeared so completely in such a short +time." + +"We all took different directions, too," said Roy, taking a seat on the +couch again and staring fascinatedly at the window. "If all the rest of +you hadn't seen it too, I should certainly think I had been mistaken." + +"You weren't mistaken," Mollie assured him grimly. "I can vouch for that." + +"Didn't one of you girls call out something about Professor Dempsey?" +asked Frank, abruptly. + +"Yes," said Betty, going over to him and putting an excited hand on his +shoulder. "That's the thing that startled us so, Frank. We are sure it was +Professor Dempsey's face. But, still, it was so wild and distorted that we +really wouldn't feel like contradicting any one who told us it wasn't he," +she added slowly. "Do you understand what I mean?" + +Frank nodded, and Will broke in excitedly: + +"But the poor old codger's looks would naturally be changed," he argued, +"after he had spent all this time wandering around the woods--out of his +mind at that. I am inclined to think that the girls are right and that it +is really Professor Dempsey." + +"If only I could have gotten my hands on him!" mourned Roy. "We wouldn't +have been in any further doubt." + +"There is really no doubt, boys. We just want--oh, I don't know what we +want!" exclaimed Mollie, who was excited and unstrung and nervous. + +Soon after that they all went to bed, having first decided to make a more +thorough search of the woods in the morning and take the postponed trip to +the head of the falls. + +They slept fitfully and were glad when at last they woke to find the sun +shining in their windows. For once Amy and Grace did not have to be coaxed +or wheedled or forced to get out of bed, but dressed quickly and were +ready almost as soon as Mollie and Betty. + +"You know I rather hated to leave the boys in that room last night," Betty +confided to Grace, stopping before the mirror for one final little pat of +her hair. "I was afraid that--he--might come back--" + +"Oh, Betty, what a horrid idea," said Grace. "Come on, let's see if +everything is all right." + +But they found that their fears had been wasted. The boys were in the +kitchen hilariously helping Mrs. Irving get the breakfast to the +accompaniment of continual good-natured scolding from that flushed and +perspiring lady. It was Amy's day to get the breakfast, but, as usual, she +was late in getting down. + +"You make a good deal more trouble than you mend," Mrs. Irving was saying +as the girls came to the door, then added relievedly as she caught sight +of them: "For goodness' sake, get these young ruffians out of the kitchen, +my dears, or we'll not have any breakfast until noon." + +So amid much fun and nonsense the boys were shooed forth into the bright +sunshine of the out-of-doors, and all the girls fell to to help their +chaperon, not wanting to put the extra work the boys made entirely on +Amy's shoulders. + +Breakfast was good, but they ate hurriedly, anxious to get at the business +of the day. They wanted more than they had wanted anything in a very long +time to find Professor Dempsey and tell him the joyful news that his sons +were alive. + +"I'm horribly afraid of him at night," Mollie confided, as they started +out at last, "but in the daytime I am only sorry for him." + +"Do you think we shall find him, Will?" asked Amy, with a helpless little +look into Will's self-reliant young face. "I do want to so much." + +Will looked down at her with an expression that said to any one who would +read it: "I would give you anything in the world you asked for, if I only +could." + +But all he really said was: "That remains to be seen. He proved himself a +rather slippery customer last night, and the chase we put up may only +serve to put him on his guard. Crazy people are tricky, you know." + +"Goodness," said Grace, looking fearfully over her shoulder. "There is +nothing in the world I am so afraid of as a crazy person." + +"That's why she has always been so afraid of me, I suppose," grinned +Mollie. + +"Afraid of you," said Grace, her eyebrows raised in mock surprise. "Little +shrimp--who are you?" There followed a characteristic scene that somewhat +lifted the oppression they had all been feeling, and it was not till they +had nearly reached the river at the head of the falls that they became +serious again. + +"It was right about here," said Betty soberly, "that we saw him the night +that he started to jump into the river--or I suppose it was the same one," +she added. + +"Let us hope so," said Mollie fervently. "I wouldn't like to think that +there were two lunatics wandering round these woods. One is quite enough." + +As they came closer to the river they became more and more conscious that +they were not alone, that some one, hidden in the bushes, was craftily +watching them. + +So strong did this feeling finally become that once the boys separated, +thrashing the bushes in all directions. They did not find anything, and +finally continued along the path, a little ashamed of what they thought +was an attack of nerves. + +"Phew, this is getting a little hot for me," said Frank, running his hand +through his shock of fair hair. "I don't mind fighting anything in the +open--" He left the sentence unfinished, for at that moment they broke +through the bushes at the river's edge upon a sight that struck them +speechless. + +Not twenty yards down the bank stood a ragged scarecrow of a man, so +unkempt, so wild, so abandoned in its crouching attitude as to appear +hardly human. + +Before they had time to utter a word or move a muscle, the man threw up +his arms in a gesture indescribably terrible, and with a hoarse shout +disappeared in the swirling waters. + +It all happened so quickly that for the space of a dazed second they +wondered if they had really seen it at all. Then they recovered their +powers of motion and rushed to the spot where the man had disappeared. + +Though they leaned far out over the water they could see no sign of +anything human, and with a creeping feeling of horror they began to speak +of what had probably already happened. + +"It's certain death down there," Roy muttered, as though to himself, +gazing into the rushing river. "The poor old fellow! He has got his, I +guess." + +"Look here, fellows, here are some clothes," Will called out suddenly, and +the boys rushed over to where he stood, a tattered old hat and an equally +ragged coat in his hands. "Maybe there will be something in the jacket to +tell us where the poor fellow has been staying and what he has been up +to." + +They searched through the coat and finally pulled out a wallet. + +"Now if it only has some writing in it," said Mollie breathlessly. + +There was a card, and the card bore the words which they expected, yet +dreaded, Arnold Dempsey, Ph. D. But there was nothing else, and suddenly +tears dimmed their eyes and they had to turn away. + +"It will be mighty hard on Jimmy and Arnold," muttered Roy, gazing +somberly at the fast-flowing river. "To have their dad go that way! +They'll take it mighty hard--those boys." + + + + +Chapter XXIII + +A Moonlight Apparition + + + +"Let's look around a little anyway," Betty suggested. "He may possibly +have been swept up on the shore farther down the river." + +"If such a thing were possible he would probably be dead anyway," Frank +protested, but the girls paid no attention to him. The mere suggestion +that the professor might still be alive and in need of assistance was +enough for them, and they set about feverishly to scour the woods on both +sides of the river and for a considerable distance down its shores. + +After an hour of vain search, however, they were forced to conclude that +the old man was indeed dead, and so reluctantly and with heavy hearts they +turned their steps back toward Wild Rose Lodge. + +They talked very little on the way back, for they were too occupied with +their own gloomy thoughts. Only once Betty spoke what was in the minds of +all of them. + +"It seems such a terrible waste--such a pity," she said. "Just a mistake +on the part of the Government to have resulted in this tragedy. Arnold and +James Dempsey coming home, safe and well and hopeful to find their father +--dead!" + +The boys stayed on for several days at the lodge, and for all the Outdoor +Girls but Betty their stay was unmitigated joy. But in the heart of the +Little Captain, hard as she tried to fight against it, was a little sense +of injury to think that her chums had got their boys back and she had been +denied hers. + +To be sure, all the boys made much of her and petted her--for there was +not one of them who had not competed for her favor in the old days before +Allen had shouldered them all out--but no amount of attention from any one +else could make up for one little word from Allen. + +At each sunrise she awoke thrilling with the thought that perhaps Allen +would be with her before the sun went down. And as each evening came +without him she sighed and thought, "Perhaps to-morrow." + +Since the tragic death of Professor Dempsey they felt that they need no +longer fear the woods, although they never ventured near the river or the +falls without a heartache and the fervent wish that they might have +reached the poor demented man with the glad news of his sons' safety in +time to avert the tragedy. + +However, they did enjoy their liberty, and took long tramps with the boys +through the woods and picnicked with them beside little unexpected brooks +and streams, quite in the nature of old days. + +Then at last came the day when the boys announced that they would have to +return to town and to the military camp to obtain their formal discharge +from the army. + +"We may surprise you by coming back in 'civies' a week or two from now," +Will laughed, as the girls prepared to spin them to the railroad station +in the cars. "So you had better be prepared for the shock." + +"Maybe they won't care for us any more when they see us out of uniform," +grinned Roy, as he shook hands with Mrs. Irving. "You know the old saying +that a uniform has made many a hero of a bootblack." + +"Goodness, I hope you aren't a bootblack," said Mollie from her car, where +she was "doing things" with the engine. + +"I'm not," answered Roy, adding with a grin, "Nothing half so honest." + +Although the girls knew that they were only saying good-bye to the boys +for a few days, the parting was hard just the same, and half an hour later +they watched the train wind serpent-like down the shining track with a +sinking feeling at their hearts. + +"Aren't we a lot of geese?" said Grace impatiently, as they climbed back +into the cars. "We have done without the boys for a couple of years, and +now when they have just gone as far as Deepdale for a couple of weeks, we +are almost crying about it." + +"I suppose it is just because we have had so much separation that we can't +bear any more of it--even a little," suggested gentle Amy, feeling as if +she had just awakened from a blissful dream. + +"Never mind," said Mollie, putting an arm about Betty's waist and giving +it a little squeeze. "Just think how lovely it will be to see the boys in +regular clothes again, and maybe," with a sly glance at Betty, "by the +time they come back they will have added one to their number." + +"Goodness, I hope so!" said Betty, unashamed. + +In spite of some regret at not having the boys, the girls managed to enjoy +themselves in the days that followed. They motored and swam and fished and +hiked, and got as becomingly sun-burned and tanned as young Indians. It +was not until two or three days before the boys returned that anything +untoward happened to disturb their peace of mind. + +Then one night the moon came out with such dazzling brilliance that Betty +was seized with a strong desire to be out in it. + +"Let's go for a moonlight swim," she suggested excitedly, as they all +stood on the porch of the lodge staring up through the trees to where the +moon shone glitteringly down. "We haven't done it since we came, and +surely our vacation wouldn't be complete without one." + +"Or more," said Mollie, seconding the plan with enthusiasm. "Come on. +Let's tell Mrs. Irving where we are going. Maybe she will wish to go +along, but I doubt it." + +Mollie was right: Mrs. Irving did not wish to go, and the girls rushed +upstairs to don bathing suits in preparation for the lark. + +A few minutes later they were racing like slim young ghosts through the +woods, laughing and calling to each other and entirely abandoned to the +joy of the moment. + +"Race you to the old swimming hole," Mollie called out, as they neared the +river; and away they all raced in response to the challenge. + +Betty won, in spite of the fact that Mollie had had a short head start, +and the girls, wild in their exuberance, would have lifted her to their +shoulders had not Betty herself laughingly fought them off. + +"I have another challenge," she cried. "My fresh box of candy to whoever +swims to the other side of the swimming hole first. Are you on?" + +"We're on!" yelled Grace enthusiastically, adding: "I'd swim from here to +Jericho for that box of candy, Betty." + +As a matter of fact, whether it was really the thought of the candy or +whether it was because the other girls were tired from the last spurt, +Grace really did get to the other side of the swimming pool first, and, +pulling herself up on the other bank, dripping and triumphant, demanded +the prize. + +"You surely did win it, and you shall have that box of candy--much as I +hoped to keep it in the family," laughed Betty, shaking the water from her +eyes and drawing herself up beside her chum. "Goodness, isn't that water +delicious to-night?" she added, wriggling her toes luxuriously in the +rippling wavelets. "Just cool enough to be refreshing and not cold enough +to chill you----" She broke off suddenly and sat staring, her eyes +widening and her body tense. + +"Girls," she said in a queer voice, for Mollie and Amy had also drawn +themselves up on the bank, "have I gone crazy, or what is the matter with +me? Do you see--what--I see--up there?" + +Alarmed, the girls followed the direction of her strained gaze, and +suddenly they seemed to feel themselves congeal with momentary horror. + +Far above them on the bank near the falls and on the other side of the +river, stood the crouched-up, animal-like figure of--the "Thing!" + + + + +Chapter XXIV + +Recovered + + + +The sight was almost too much for the girls. What they felt was sheer +animal panic and they wanted to run away--anywhere--just so they put +distance enough between them and that figure on the bank. + +"Sit still," Betty commanded them, recovering her presence of mind. "That +is Professor Dempsey up there, and if we make any sudden sound we are sure +of frightening him away." + +"But he was killed--we saw it," moaned Amy. "That must be his g-ghost." + +"Don't be ridiculous," snapped Mollie, her thoughts working along with +Betty's. "You know you don't believe in ghosts." + +"But how----" Amy was beginning when Betty interrupted sharply. + +"Listen," she said. "I came across an old derelict of a rowboat the other +day when we were exploring the upper river, but I didn't say anything to +you girls about it because I thought it was too much of a wreck to bother +with. For all I know it isn't even water tight--" + +"Betty," Mollie broke in excitedly, "I see what you mean! We can row +across the upper river to where Professor Dempsey is--Were there oars in +the boat?" she broke off to ask. + +"A couple of old sticks that would serve for oars," Betty answered. "Of +course it's taking a big chance--" + +"Say no more," cried Mollie, jumping to her feet and wringing out her +bathing suit. "Big chance is our middle name anyway. Lead on, Betty. Where +do we find this craft?" + +"I'm not quite sure that I can find it," said Betty, leading the way into +the woods, "but it was down this way somewhere. Don't make any noise, +girls, and let's hurry, or we won't get there before he disappears again." + +Grace and Amy were now entering into the spirit of the thing, and they +followed at Betty's heels eagerly, careful not to step on stick or stone +that might betray their presence. + +Luckily Betty managed to stumble directly on the old derelict rowboat +where it lay in ancient helplessness in the concealment of a thick grove +of bushes along the upper reach of the stream. + +"Goody! This is almost too much luck," cried Betty exultantly. "You get in +the stern, Amy, and Grace in the bow. Mollie and I will do the rowing." + +"I only hope the old thing doesn't take in too much water," said Amy, as +she and Grace got gingerly into the rickety old craft and Betty and Mollie +pushed it off from the shore. + +"That remains to be seen," answered the Little Captain as she handed one +of the ancient oars to Mollie. "There is one thing we shall have to +remember, Mollie," she said, as they pushed clear of the bank and glided +out into the swift water of the river, "and that is to keep far enough +this side of the falls to guard against being swept over it. Bear hard on +your right hand, Mollie honey. It wouldn't be much fun if we upset here, +you know." + +"Oh!" gasped Grace, holding fast to the side of the boat and noting with +dismay how plainly the roar of the falls came to them. "I wish we had +another oar, I'd help----" + +"You can help most, Grade," cut in the Little Captain briskly, "by keeping +your nerve and helping us to keep ours. Mollie," she called in a whisper +that carried the length of the boat, "can you see--It--yet?" + +"Yes," Mollie telegraphed back in the same tense whisper. "It's got its +back to us, I think." + +"Good," said Betty softly, adding as she threw all her weight against her +oar, "now let's keep still and work." + +It was queer how they referred to that presence at the head of the falls +as "It." Some way, in the weird moonlight, under the more than unusual +circumstances, it seemed almost impossible to give the thing a name. + +"Was it Professor Dempsey?" they kept asking themselves over and over +again. But he had committed suicide. Or at least they had seen him fall +into the river, and they could have vowed that he did not come out again. +They had searched both sides of the river. How could they have missed him? +And yet, if that motionless figure at the head of the falls was really +Professor Dempsey, he must have been washed ashore that day and evaded +them as he had succeeded in evading them so many times before. + +And all the time the roar of the falls was growing louder and louder in +their ears and they knew that theirs was a race with life and death. + +Could they succeed in reaching the opposite bank before the deadly current +of the river should suck them over the falls, to almost certain +annihilation? + +The answer to the question came a moment: later when, without warning, the +prow of the little boat struck on an unexpected projection of the shore +and they came to a standstill. + +"Thank heaven!" said Betty under her breath as Mollie jumped out and +pulled the craft further in to shore. "That was nearly the riskiest thing +you ever did, Betty Nelson." + +Once on shore again, the girls' confidence returned and they hurried +silently through the woods toward the spot where they had seen the figure. +Then Betty, who had taken the lead, suddenly motioned to them to stop. + +She had caught a glimpse through the trees of the man, who resembled more +than ever a scarecrow in his crazy makeshift garments--and at the sight of +him her heart unaccountably skipped a beat. + +Her thoughts had not gone beyond this moment. Strangely enough all her +energy had been concentrated upon reaching the man before he disappeared. +But now that they had succeeded so far she was at a loss what to do next. + +But at that moment she inadvertently stepped on a dry twig that snapped +sharply under her foot, and at the sound the man had turned fiercely, like +an animal at bay. Then he wheeled about and made as though to flee for the +shelter of the woods. + +In this emergency Betty followed impulse. She ran out into the open, +calling to him wildly that his sons were alive. Not to run away, because +his sons were safe and well. They were coming to him---- + +The pitiful wreck of a man paused in his flight as the import of the words +seemed to sink into his befuddled brain, but he turned upon the Little +Captain a look of ferocious hatred that would have terrified a less +courageous girl than Betty. But her whole heart was in her mission, and +she had utterly forgotten herself. + +"Won't you please believe me?" she said, advancing toward him, hands +outstretched pleadingly. "I know what I'm talking about. Your sons, Arnold +and Jimmy----" + +As though the names of his boys had released some cord in his brain, the +man cried out hoarsely: + +"Jimmy and Arnold--my sons, my little boys!" Then, turning fiercely to +Betty, he cried: "You're not lying to me, are you? Because I'll throw you +into the river! I'll cut you into little pieces!" + +As the man advanced menacingly, Grace screamed and Mollie ran forward with +some wild idea of protecting her chum, but Betty waved them back. + +"I'm not lying to you," she told the crazy man, looking straight into his +glaring eyes. "Your boys were wounded, but not seriously, and they sailed +a few days ago for this country on a hospital ship. They want to see you +more than anything else in the world," she added, playing on the sudden +softness that had crept into his wild eyes. "And they sent their love to +their dad." + +At sound of the old loving name all the fight went out of the old man and +he sank to his knees on the grass, sobbing horribly. + +They let him alone for a moment, then Betty motioned to Mollie, and +together they lifted him to his feet. The sight of his tear-stained, +unkempt old face, creased and lined with suffering, but with the wildness +gone out of the eyes, stirred a profound pity in the girls and they wished +more than anything in the world to make him happy again. + +"We are going to take you home, Professor Dempsey," Betty told him +soothingly, as with Mollie's help she half led, half carried, him through +the woods toward the spot where they had left the boat, Amy and Grace +following awed and silent behind them. "And as soon as your boys reach +home we will bring them to you. Be careful of this big rock. Ah, here's +the boat." And talking all the time, softly and soothingly as one would to +a child, Betty at last succeeded in seating the derelict old man in the +equally derelict old boat. + +The girls tumbled in after him, and with a prayer in her heart Betty +pushed off from shore. + +That ride back across the river was as weird and unreal as any nightmare +the girls had ever lived through. Their queer passenger, seeming the most +unreal of all, was quiet for the most part but occasionally he would sit +up and look about him wildly and could only be soothed back to reason by +Betty's sweet voice telling him of his boys--Jimmy and Arnold. + +Somehow they reached the opposite shore, and, after pulling the boat up +among the bushes once more, they started back, the old man with them, to +Wild Rose Lodge. + + + + +Chapter XXV + +The Old Crowd Again + + + +Mrs. Irving, who had been worried by their prolonged absence, met the +girls at the door as they stumbled with the almost exhausted old man up +the steps of the porch. + +At sight of the latter she grew deathly pale, and leaned against the door +for support. She felt that all the world was growing black---- + +"Oh, please, please don't faint!" she heard Betty's young voice calling to +her desperately as it seemed from a long distance. "We've depended upon +you to help us." + +With a great effort she fought off the dizziness and drew herself away +from Betty's supporting arm. + +"It's all right," she said dazedly. "The shock, I guess. Betty what--who-- +is that----" + +"Oh, please don't ask any questions now," Betty begged feverishly. "Just +help us, and we will tell you all about it later. This is Professor +Dempsey," she added, turning to the broken old man who stood staring at +them uncomprehendingly. "He can have Mollie's and my room, can't he, Mrs. +Irving? and we will bunk somewhere else." + +Mrs. Irving nodded automatically, still too dazed by the suddenness of the +thing even to think, and they helped the old man into Betty's room and +laid him on the bed. The tired, ragged, unkempt old head had hardly +touched the pillow before its owner had sunk into a heavy sleep. + +For a moment the girls were startled, for it almost seemed as though he +were dead, but Betty put her hand on the ragged old shirt above the heart +and found that the action was strong and regular. + +"Perhaps it is the very best thing that could happen to him," she said +softly, and, laying a light cover over him, tip-toed from the room, +followed quietly by Mrs. Irving and the other girls. + +Once in the other room, with the need for action over, the girls felt weak +and spent, and it was only then that they realized that they had been +through a terrible ordeal. + +In broken sentences they told Mrs. Irving all that had happened and as she +listened she more and more appalled at the risk they had run and the +danger they had gone through. + +"Girls, girls," she cried when they had finished, "I was half wild about +you as it was. But if I had known the truth I think I should have gone +crazy. Just the same," she added and her eyes shone with pride in them, +"it was a glorious thing for you to do--an unselfish, wonderfully +courageous thing. I'm proud of you!" + +In spite of the fact that they were tired out, the girls insisted upon +standing watch and watch that night. They felt that some one should be +with Professor Dempsey all the time in case he should wake in the night +with his old madness upon him. It was the longest night any of them had +ever spent, and the morning dawned upon a hollow-eyed, worn-out set of +Outdoor Girls. + +"I never," said Betty, looking around at her white-faced chums wearily, +"spent such a terrible night in my life. How is the patient?" she added, +taking up the subject that had not left their minds for a minute. "Who was +in there last?" + +"I," said Grace, brushing out her hair, listlessly. "He is still asleep." + +That report continued good all morning, and it was almost noon before the +ragged, unbelievably unkempt old man on the bed opened his eyes. + +The girls had been looking forward to, yet dreading, this minute. It had +been decided that only one of them should be in the room with him when he +awoke, but the rest were hovering close to the door ready to give +assistance if it should become necessary. + +But they need not have worried. The magic of his long sleep, together with +the glad news he had heard the night before, seemed to have transformed +the man overnight to his old gentle self. + +To be sure, he was amazed at his strange surroundings, and looked +uncomprehendingly into Betty's face as she bent compassionately over him. +But all he said was: + +"I declare, this is all very strange, young lady--very strange. Would you +mind--er--telling me where I am?" + +At the tone, even more than the words, the girls felt a wild desire to +shout aloud their relief. For the tone was the same, gentle, polite one +that they remembered hearing that day when the little man had entertained +them in his cabin in the woods. + +Then Betty, as gently as she knew how, told him a little of what had +happened to him, and the girls could see by the surprise on his face that +he had no recollection whatever of the matters of which she was speaking. + +"I declare it is most strange--most strange," he declared when she had +finished, adding as he looked down and plucked distastefully at his +tattered shirt: "And this is the result of my--er--temporary aberration, +is it? Ah, but I remember," he sat up suddenly, a gleam of fear in his +eyes. "It was when I read of the death of my boys. Something snapped in my +brain, I think. You say"--he turned to Betty, grasping her hand +imploringly--"you say that my sons are well--that they are coming to me?" + +"Yes," said Betty soothingly, pressing him back upon the pillow. "They are +well and safe and will be with you soon--in a few days, perhaps." + +"Ah," said the little man, submitting to Betty's touch, a happy smile on +his lips, "that is good. That is very--very--good--" and with a sigh like +a tired child's, he fell asleep again! + +"Did you hear what he said?" whispered Betty, her eyes shining as she +tip-toed from the room, closed the door softly behind her and faced her +awed and incredulous chums. "He's well, girls. He's completely sane +again." + +"It's a miracle," said Mollie breathlessly. + +And so it came to pass that some little time later four good-looking young +fellows, recently in the service of the greatest country on the earth, and +one of them still wearing his regimentals, saw a rather unexpected sight +as they swung down the path toward Wild Rose Lodge. + +On the porch sat an elderly, contented looking man, clad in garments that +would easily have accommodated two men of his size--garments belonging to +Mollie's Uncle John, and seated about him in attitudes of lazy comfort +were four young girls. + +These young girls--who were, at least from the standpoint of the four +young men, exceedingly good to look upon, were engaged in doing some sort +of fancy work. All but one of them, that is; for the fourth, a girl with +wavy brown hair and bright brown eyes, pink cheeks, and a dream of a +mouth, was reading to the elderly man who sat in the chair of state. + +"Gee, Allen," whispered one of the tall youths to the one who still wore +the uniform of his country's service, "I feel as though we were crabbing +your act. Can't we fellows do the disappearing act----" + +But just at the moment the girl with the brown eyes and the pink cheeks +looked up, gave one little startled cry, and dropped the book to the +porch. + +The other girls looked up and then followed a scene that very nearly made +the temporarily forgotten and neglected old man on the porch drop out of +his chair in surprise. + +"Allen!" screamed the girls, all except the brown-haired, pink-cheeked +one, who, for some unaccountable reason hung back behind the others. "You +perfect angel!" + +"Why didn't you let us know you were coming so that we could have been +prepared?" + +"Oh, isn't your uniform lovely!" + +"And look at the dressed-up leggings!" + +These and various other exclamations like them, coupled to the fact that +all the girls, except the one that he wanted to most, had kissed him, +rather overwhelmed young Lieutenant Washburn and took his breath away. + +His three companions, however, finding themselves neglected and out in the +cold, interfered at this point and saved his life. + +"Betty, what are you hiding away back there for?" cried Mollie to the +Little Captain, whose cheeks were pinker than ever and whose eyes were +shining very brightly with a sort of mixture of joy and fright. "Don't you +know Allen in his uniform?" + +"Aren't you going to kiss him?" chimed in Grace wickedly. + +"We all did," added Amy. + +But Betty had no intention of kissing Allen, although he begged her to +with his laughing eyes and she continued backing into the doorway, until +Mrs. Irving, coming up behind her, caught her up and pushed her out upon +the porch again. + +However, the chaperon monopolized Allen for a few minutes and gave Betty +time to catch her breath. She found Mollie introducing Professor Dempsey +to the astonished boys. These young soldiers wanted to ask a hundred +questions, but, catching a warning look from Betty, decided to wait till +later, when the little man himself was not present. + +Frank, who was perhaps more glad than any of them to see the father of his +chums alive and well, settled himself near the man and began to pour into +his starved and eager ears news of his sons and tales of adventures in +which they had figured. + +And while Betty was still smiling in sympathy with the look of absolute +happiness on Professor Dempsey's face, Allen dragged himself away from the +group of his admirers and came over to her. + +Boldly he pulled her hand through his arm and led her past the laughing +boys and girls, down the steps, and along the path that led into the +woods. + +"Be back in time for supper," Will called after them. "Something tells me +we are going to have some feed." + +"Oh, don't bother them," they heard Mollie's voice in laughing reproof. +"Remember, you were young yourself, once!" + +"And now," said Allen, when they had gone just far enough for the trees +and bushes to screen them from the view of the people on the porch, "I +want you to look at me, Betty. You haven't yet, you know." + +"I c-can't," said Betty in a muffled voice. "I guess--" she added +whimsically, "I guess I'm a little afraid of you, Lieutenant Allen +Washburn." + +With a glad laugh Allen put his strong young arms about her. + +"Do you think you can keep on all your life being afraid of me--like +that?" he asked. "Little Betty?" + +And Betty, with the radiant joy of all youth in her heart, slowly nodded. + + * * * * * + +And what glorious days followed! The young folks never tired of their +tramps through the woods and walks in the vicinity of Moonlight Falls. +They gave themselves up to a good time and had it in full measure. + +"Gee, what an improvement over the trenches in France!" remarked Will one +day. "No more wars for me!" + +"So say we all of us!" sang out Frank. + +When they had to return to Deepdale the boys took Professor Dempsey with +them and Frank saw to it that the old man was made comfortable until his +wounded sons returned to him. Both of the hurt soldiers were recovering, +and the reunion of father and sons was most affecting. + +"Now for a final swim below the falls!" cried Mollie one day, when the +outing was coming to an end. + +"We ought to have a good time--now there is no ghost to disturb us," put +in Amy. + +"A chocolate for the first one to enter the water!" exclaimed Grace, +waving her ever-present candy box in the air. + +"That settles it--I'm off!" burst out Betty; and then all made a wild dash +for the swimming pool. And here let us say good-bye to the Outdoor Girls. + + + +THE END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Outdoor Girls at Wild Rose Lodge +by Laura Lee Hope + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WILD ROSE LODGE *** + +This file should be named 7gwrl10.txt or 7gwrl10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 7gwrl11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 7gwrl10a.txt + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: The Outdoor Girls at Wild Rose Lodge + or, The Hermit of Moonlight Falls + +Author: Laura Lee Hope + +Release Date: June, 2005 [EBook #8211] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on July 2, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-Latin-1 + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WILD ROSE LODGE *** + + + + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + +The Outdoor Girls +at +Wild Rose Lodge +or +The Hermit of Moonlight Falls + +by +Laura Lee Hope + +Author of "The Outdoor Girls of Deepdale," "The +Outdoor Girls at Bluff Point," "The Moving +Picture Girls," "The Bobbsey Twins," +"Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue," +"Six Little Bunkers at Grandma +Bell's," Etc. + + + + +Contents + + + + I Just Fun. + II The Falling Tree. + III The Queer Little Man. + IV Good News. + V Betty Takes a Dare. + VI Nearly Wrecked. + VII Bad Tidings Confirmed. + VIII Premonitions. + IX A Visitor. + X Hurrah for Allen. + XI The Hold-Up. + XII Sheep! + XIII The Enemy Routed. + XIV Nothing Human. + XV Wild Roses. + XVI The Whirlpool. + XVII The "Thing". +XVIII Surprised. + XIX Like Old Times. + XX Very Much Alive. + XXI Out of the Dark. + XXII Tragedy. +XXIII A Moonlight Apparition. + XXIV Recovered. + XXV The Old Crowd Again. + + + + + +The Outdoor Girls at Wild Rose Lodge + + + + +Chapter I + +Just Fun + + + +"Did you ever see a more wonderful day?" + +The four Outdoor Girls, in Mollie Billette's touring car and with Mollie +herself at the wheel, were at the present moment rushing wildly over a +dusty country road at the rate of thirty miles an hour. + +Grace Ford was sitting in front with Mollie, while Betty Nelson and Amy +Blackford "sprawled," to use Mollie's sarcastic and slightly exaggerated +description, "all over the tonneau." + +"You look as if you had never done a real day's work in your life," said +Mollie, with a disapproving glance over her shoulder at the girls in the +tonneau. + +"We never have," returned quiet Amy, with a grin. + +"And we are proud of it," added Betty, as she defiantly settled her feet +still more comfortably on the foot rail. "Why should we be energetic when +it is so much easier to be lazy?" + +"There the proper spirit speaks," applauded Grace Ford from the front. "I +think I shall have to change places with you, Betty. It's far too exciting +up here with Mollie. She insists upon staging near collisions every few +feet--thus keeping me awake!" + +"Great heavens!" cried Mollie, pressing an impatient foot upon the +accelerator to which the great car responded with an eager purring, "did +any one ever give us the mistaken title of Outdoor Girls, I wonder? They +should have called us the Rip Van Winkle club, instead." + +"Now she's getting sour-castic," commented Grace lazily. "Have some candy, +honey, and sweeten up." + +She passed the ever-present box of delicacies over to Mollie, to which +overture the young driver responded with so indignant a stare that Grace +quickly withdrew the box, tucked it behind her, and strove to look +unconscious. + +"Please, ma'am, I didn't mean to do it," she said meekly. + +"Well, don't do it again, that's all," returned Mollie, uncompromisingly, +her eyes once more on the road ahead, "I've eaten so many chocolates this +week that I've had indigestion and mother threatened to cut down my +allowance." + +"Goodness, it's my allowance that suffers," retorted Grace, ruefully, +"since it is my candy that you eat." + +"Stop quarreling, girls, and answer my question." said Betty, sitting up +straight and regarding delightedly a vista of flying hills and woodland +greenery. "I asked you a few minutes ago if you had ever seen so wonderful +a day?" + +"Yes, plenty of 'em," returned Mollie, as she took a sharp curve on two +wheels. "If you weren't too lazy to notice anything, Betty Nelson, you +would see that there is a storm coming up. Look at those clouds over there +in the east." + +"Oh, you're a kill-joy!" cried Betty, cocking an optimistic eye up at the +sky. "It's only one teeny little cloud anyway, and who cares for clouds +when the boys are coming home?" + +Both Amy and Grace felt a breathless little tug at their hearts at the +joyful challenge in Betty's words, but Mollie, with a perverseness that +was sometimes characteristic of her, refused to be too happy. + +"Who says they're coming home?" she asked. "Now you're only guessing." + +"Guessing!" cried Betty indignantly. "What do you mean--guessing? The war +is over, isn't it?" + +"Yes; and has been for quite a while," Mollie responded dryly. "But that +doesn't say that the boys are coming home right away." + +"We don't care about the right away," interrupted Amy, with a quiet +happiness in her face that made Betty hug her impulsively. "We can wait +patiently, now that we know they are safe." + +"It's all right for you to talk about patience, Amy," retorted Mollie, +throttling her engine and sliding at breakneck speed down a long hill +without the thought of using a brake. A brake to Mollie meant something to +be used at the last minute when she couldn't think of anything else to do. +"You're an angel, but I'm not----" + +"No, indeed!" said Grace, so emphatically that the girls in the tonneau +chuckled and Mollie looked at her threateningly. + +"For goodness' sake, don't waste time looking at me," Grace pleaded, as +they bounced into a hole in the road and out again, fairly jouncing the +breath from the girls' bodies. "Keep your eyes on the road, Mollie dear. +We're not ready to die yet." + +"Well, look out, or you may--ready or not," threatened Mollie darkly, as +the car skidded around another precipitous turn and the girls saw with +relief a long stretch of flat road before them. + +"Just the same the boys must be coming home before very long," said Amy, +quietly returning to the subject. "And when they do come we'll have to +give them some sort of big party or something, girls." + +"Of course we will," said Grace, munching contentedly on a chocolate. +"Something that will make the people in Deepdale sit up and take notice." + +"We-el--I don't know," objected Betty thoughtfully. "They say that the few +soldier boys who have come home object to any sort of fuss being made over +them. They seem to want to forget everything that has happened 'over +there,' and any sort of celebration brings the whole thing vividly before +them again." + +"Yes, that's true, too," Mollie agreed. "I remember our doctor telling +mother that if people only wouldn't try to force confidences from the boys +and would try to keep all thought of the awful things they had been +through out of their minds, there would be fewer cases of nervous +breakdowns." + +"Pop!" said Grace, snapping her finger resignedly. "There go all our hopes +of a good time, Amy. When the boys come home all we shall be allowed to do +will be to smooth their fevered brows and hold their hands." + +"Well, we might do worse things even than that," said Betty, with a light +laugh, and Mollie shot her a malicious glance. + +"Just watch Betty objecting to that" she said wickedly. "Before we know it +she will be sighing that Allen has only one fevered brow to smooth!" + +Amy and Grace looked at Betty mischievously--at Betty who could not for +the life of her look as unconcerned as she would have liked. + +"Don't be so foolish" she said hastily, at which the girls only laughed +the more. + +"Never mind, honey," said Amy, putting an arm fondly about her chum. "I +guess we will all be crazy with joy to get the boys home again." + +"Well, you needn't think you can hold hands with Will and smooth his +fevered brow all the time," said Grace unexpectedly. "Because I really +have some share in him myself, you know. Remember, mine was one of the +three pictures he kept under his pillow." + +Readers of previous volumes in this series may recall that joyful letter +written to Betty not so long ago in which Sergeant Allen Washburn--now +Lieutenant Allen Washburn--had spoken of the three pictures which Will +Ford had kept under his pillow during his long convalescence in one of the +army hospitals over there. These readers may also remember that one of the +pictures was of the boy's mother, another of his sister, Grace, and the +third of shy little Amy Blackford, who now was blushing so furiously at +the mere mention of it. + +"How about poor Frank and Roy?" asked Mollie, mentioning the other two +boys who made up the quartette of the girls' boy chums. "Who will attend +to their fevered brows?" + +"Oh, you and Grace can take turns at that," said Betty, lightly adding, +with a little sigh: "Try as we can, Amy and I never know quite how to pair +you four off. We can't for the life of us find out which of you likes +Frank best and which inclines to Roy." + +"That's right, kid--keep 'em guessing," said Mollie slangily, as she +turned on power and challenged a steep grade. "Grace and I believe in +scattering our favors--as 'twere. See that hill just ahead of us? What do +you bet I make it without changing gears?" + +"If you make it without changing our looks, I'll be happy," said Grace +ruefully, as they bumped and rumbled to the top of the steep grade. "Look +out, Mollie!" she added suddenly, indicating a big pile of brushwood that +jutted out almost into the center of the road. "For goodness' sake, slow +down!" + +But Mollie did more than slow down. She stopped--and with such suddenness +that the girls were all but thrown out of the car and Betty bumped her +nose on the seat in front. + +They had scarcely regained their poise when they were startled by a shrill +cry from Amy. + +"Girls!" she almost screamed, clutching Betty's arm in a grip that hurt, +"look at that tree. It's going to fall! Oh, we'll be killed!" + +The girls followed the direction of her pointing finger and looks of +horror sprang to their eyes. Slowly, its descent retarded somewhat by the +branches of other trees, a towering giant of the forest tottered and +crashed its destructive way downward. And they were directly in its path! + + + + +Chapter II + +The Falling Tree + + + +For a moment the Outdoor Girls sat fascinated, paralyzed, without the +power to move a muscle. Then suddenly Grace seemed galvanized to action. +She leaned toward Mollie, grasping the steering wheel of the motionless +car frantically. + +"For heaven's sake, Mollie, get out of the way! Start the car!" she +screamed. + +"I can't!" Mollie answered, tight-lipped. "Something's wrong. The motor's +dead." + +But with Grace's scream, Betty had come to her senses and had scrambled +out of the car, dragging the still paralyzed Amy after her. + +"Grace, get out! Mollie, are you crazy?" she shouted wildly. "You'll be +killed--" + +Automatically Grace started to clamber to the road, but Mollie still +fussed with brakes and levers, her lips in a tight line, her eyes blazing. + +"Something's wrong--but I'll get her started," she muttered over and over +to herself while Betty raged at her from the road. + +"Get out! get out!" fumed the Little Captain. "Jump, or I'll come after +you and we'll both be killed. Mollie!" + +Luckily for Mollie's suicidal stubbornness, the great tree had been halted +for a moment in its downward plunge by some particularly heavy foliage and +branches, but the girls could see that it was only a matter of seconds +until the giant should tear itself loose and come plunging down upon them. + +And still Mollie fumbled with levers in a vain and foolish attempt to save +her beloved car at the risk of her own life. + +Betty had just jumped upon the running board in a wild attempt to drag her +chum from the car when suddenly help came to them from an unexpected +quarter. + +An elderly man came running from the woods, evidently attracted by their +excited cries. He gave one look at the toppling tree, even now tearing +itself loose from the impeding branches, another at the machine with the +two girls still in it, and then, with a speed and decision which seemed to +belie his age, went to the rescue. + +"Come--help me push!" he cried to Amy and Grace, who were still standing +dumbly in the middle of the road. A moment later he had thrown himself +with all his might against the machine, striving to push it out of the +path of the falling tree. + +In an instant of time the girls had added their strength to his and the +automobile was moving slowly down the road. Luckily the car was on a down +grade or they never could have managed it. As it was, there was just time +to get out of the way when the great tree came crashing down, its +outermost branches just brushing Amy's skirt. The giant had fallen on the +very spot where the car had been only a moment before! + +"Girls," breathed Betty, with a shaky little attempt at a laugh, "I guess +we've never in our lives been nearer death than we were just then." + +And while the girls are marveling at their almost miraculous escape from a +terrible death, time will be taken to introduce the Outdoor Girls to those +readers who have not yet met them and also to review briefly a few of the +exciting and interesting adventures they have had up to the time of this +present narrative. + +There were four of them. Betty Nelson, or the "Little Captain" as the +girls often called her because she had such a decided talent for knowing +just the right thing to do at just the right moment, was eighteen, +dark-haired and dark-eyed. She had a fund of vitality and more than her +share of sense and good judgment--all of which went toward making her what +she was, the most popular girl in Deepdale. + +Grace Ford, tall, slender and willowy, was almost the same age as Betty, +but that fact and her love of the outdoors were the only things she had in +common with the "Little Captain." Her father, James Ford, was a lawyer, +and her mother, Mrs. Margaret Ford, a rather dressy lady who spent a good +deal of her time at clubs, was quite a figure in the society of Deepdale. +However, all through the war Mrs. Ford had worked with an untiring +enthusiasm for the "cause," a fact which had made her many more friends +than her social popularity could ever have done. + +Next in the little quartette came Mollie Billette. Mollie was seventeen, +French-American, and impulsive, with a quick temper that made more trouble +for herself than for any one else. She and Betty were alike in their +splendid vigor and vitality. Mollie, or "Billy" as she was sometimes +called by her chums, had a very lovely widowed mother and an extremely +mischievous young brother and sister, Paul and Dora (nicknamed "Dodo"), +who were twins and six. Although the twins were pretty nearly always in +trouble, they were really adorable children, whom everybody loved. + +Amy Blackford, shy, sweet, pretty, completed the quartette. There had been +a mystery about her past which had recently been cleared up, and it may +have been this mystery that caused the girls to treat her with a little +more consideration and gentleness than they did each other. Her guardian +was a broker in the city who knew very little of the past except through +letters. + +The four boys who were close chums of the girls and had added to the +interest and excitement of more than one of their adventures were Allen +Washburn, who was very much interested in Betty, and in whom Betty was +very much interested; Will Ford, Grace's brother, who had carried Amy +Blackford's picture all through the war; Frank Haley, Will Ford's closest +chum, and Roy Anderson who had not much distinction of any kind except +that he was "lots of fun" and a chum of the other three boys. + +In the first volume of this series the girls went on a camping and +tramping tour, tramping for miles over the country and meeting with many +adventures on the way. + +Later they had more fun at Rainbow Lake, in a motor car, in a winter camp, +in Florida, at Ocean View, then at Pine Island where the girls and boys +together had cleared up a mystery surrounding a gypsy cave. + +Later the girls and boys found themselves caught in the meshes of the +great war, as many hundreds of thousands of others had been. The boys +responded eagerly to the bugle call, and the girls, too, were eager for +Army service and finally went to a hostess house at Camp Liberty. Though +the girls had never worked harder in their lives, they found that the task +had a stirringly romantic side as well. + +Then in the volume directly preceding this, entitled "The Outdoor Girls at +Bluff Point" the girls had had perhaps the most exciting adventure of all. + +The Hostess House at Camp Liberty having burnt down, the chums found +themselves forced to take a much-needed, although not entirely welcome, +vacation and had decided to spend it at a romantic spot near the ocean +called Bluff Point. The cottage on the bluff had been loaned to the girls +by Grace's patriotic Aunt Mary, who declared that she owed something to +the chums for having worked so hard for the good old Stars and Stripes. +Mrs. Ford, worn out with war work, had gone with the girls to chaperon +them. + +Bad tidings at first threatened to overwhelm the chums. The Fords received +word that Will was seriously wounded "somewhere in France" and later +Mollie received a telegram from her mother saying that the twins, Dodo and +Paul, had disappeared. Still later, while everything was at its blackest, +Betty read Allen Washburn's name among the missing. However, everything +cleared up later when the twins, who had been kidnapped, were recovered +and their kidnapper sent to justice. Still later Allen proved that the +report that he had been missing was an error by writing to Betty himself +and in the letter he also spoke of Will Ford and the fact that he was +getting over his wound splendidly. Of course there had been great +rejoicing and the vacation had proved a happy one after all. + +And now, at the time of this story, the war was over and the first +regiments of soldiers had arrived from the other side and the girls were +expecting a joyful reunion with the boys at any time. + +They had not yet made definite plans for the summer and were just in the +position of waiting for something to happen when something had happened +with a vengeance--but not at all the kind of something which the four +girls had expected. + +"I think you are right, my dear," said the man who had saved the lives of +at least two of the girls, rubbing his hands fussily together and peering +out of small, near-sighted eyes, first at the tree and then at the girls. +"It was a close call--a very close call. I declare, it was very nearly the +closest call I ever saw!" + +For the first time the girls really looked at him. He was a rather small +man, slenderly built, with long sensitive hands and a very bald head, in +the center of which a tuft of hair stood comically upright. These +characteristics, coupled to the squinting eyes, gave the man a very odd +appearance. + +He was so queer a figure standing there in the center of the road that the +girls found themselves staring unduly. Realizing something of this, Betty +jumped down from the running board where she was still standing and held +out her hand to the little man, thanking him in a voice that still +trembled a little for the great service he had done them. The other girls +followed suit and so overwhelmed their rescuer that he seemed quite +embarrassed and looked around nervously as if for some means of escape. + +Betty, seeing his embarrassment, was about to take pity upon him when +something happened that they had not bargained for. It began to rain, not +gently, but in a deluge, taking the girls completely by surprise. + +Instinctively they turned toward the car, but Mollie suddenly began to +laugh in a half-hysterical manner. + +"This is what I call fun" she said. "Engine dead, caught in the rain, and +I've even left the side curtains at home! I guess we're in for it, girls." + + + + +Chapter III + +The Queer Little Man + + + +While the girls stood looking wildly at each other their unknown rescuer +seemed suddenly galvanized to action. + +"This won't do at all!" he cried, raising both hands to his bald head +which was by this time very wet and more shiny than ever. "You will get +your death of cold, young ladies, you surely will. You must come with me. +Here, right along this path I have a cottage--" All the time he was +talking he was hustling them fussily ahead of him, for all the world like +some old hen with a brood of chickens. + +The girls, not knowing what else to do and being in rather a bewildered +frame of mind, allowed themselves to be hustled. The rain was sheeting +down in a terrific cloud burst, so that their clothes clung to them damply +and they began to shiver. + +They circled the fallen tree which had so nearly been their undoing, and a +moment later found themselves upon a narrow footpath which seemed to lead +into the very heart of the woods. + +"I wonder where he is taking us," whispered Grace in Betty's ear. "Maybe +he's a murderer or something." + +In spite of her discomfort, Betty giggled. + +"Did you ever see a murderer with a bald head like that?" she asked. + +It seemed to the girls as if the path must be at least a mile long, but +just as they were despairing of ever reaching the end of it, they came out +into a partially cleared space and through the trees caught a glimpse of +something that looked like a house. + +Their new acquaintance, who up to this time had been bringing up the rear, +now took the lead and led them over tangled underbrush, stones and +foot-bruising rocks, to his strange little dwelling. + +"It's a house, it's a house!" cried Grace thankfully, as they hurried +after the little man. "I guess somebody will have to wring me out when we +get inside. I'm soaked through!" + +"Goodness, why don't you tell us something we don't know?" grumbled +Mollie, but nobody was listening to her. They had reached the house and +the man had swung the door open hospitably. + +"Step inside, step inside, do," he urged with a nervous gesture that +reminded the girls once more of the proverbial hen. "You will find it dry +at least, and I will have a fire for you in a hurry. Just a moment till I +get some wood--just a moment--" + +And while he rambled on, suiting his words with quick nervous action, the +girls crowded inside the cottage and looked about them curiously. + +The room they had entered was large and scrupulously neat. At first glance +it seemed a queer combination of hunting lodge and museum of natural +history. The rough clapboards and beams of the ceiling and walls had never +been plastered, and this very crudity seemed somehow to give the room an +air of warmth and home-likeness that was very inviting. + +Hung on the walls were several fairly large skins of animals, a gun or +two, and over the huge open fireplace, which very nearly covered one end +of the room, hung the magnificent head of a buck. + +On the wall opposite the fireplace was a set of rudely-erected shelves, +one beneath the other, and these shelves were covered with specimens of +butterflies, beetles and other bugs of every size and description. That +the specimens had been mounted by an expert even an inexperienced eye +could see. + +The girls, who had been regarding the oddities of the room with growing +interest, were brought back to a realization of the discomfort of wet +clothes by the owner of the place himself. + +The latter had brought firewood from somewhere, and, with the aid of half +a dozen matches, had succeeded in getting a fairly good blaze. + +Then with a smile of satisfaction he turned to the girls, rubbing his +hands together genially. + +"Come nearer to the fire--come closer--do," he urged in his quick nervous +way. "I am sure you are chilled through--quite chilled through. I will +bring chairs." He stopped abruptly and looked about him with an +embarrassed air, his gaze coming to rest on the only chair which adorned +the room. + +Betty, seeing his confusion, was trying to think of something helpful to +say, when the little man suddenly found a way out of his quandary. + +"Ah, I have it!" he cried, seizing enthusiastically upon a long bench that +stood on one side of the room. "Four can sit upon this quite easily, I am +sure. A happy thought--a very happy thought--" and he pulled and tugged at +the bench until he succeeded in moving it close to the fire. + +Afterward it occurred to the girls that they might have helped him, for it +was a very heavy bench and he was rather a frail old man. But at the time +they were too interested in this unusual place and their rather +extraordinary host to think of anything very rational. + +However, they seated themselves dutifully in a row upon the bench, "for +all the world like an orphan asylum out for an airing," as Mollie said +later, and gratefully stretched out their sodden shoes to the blaze. + +They were cold and they were wet and they were fast becoming very hungry, +all of which might have been expected to form a very good reason why they +should have been miserable. But they weren't miserable--not at all. To the +Outdoor Girls the thrill of an adventure always more than counterbalanced +the possible discomforts attending it. + +Their host started to draw up the one chair in the room, hesitated a +moment then, as though he had just thought of something, turned and darted +through the door, closing it with a little click behind him. + +For the space of half a second the girls looked after him. Then they +looked at each other. Then they drew a long breath and let loose the flood +of curious questions which had been struggling for expression for the past +twenty minutes. + +"Well, isn't this a lark?" cried Mollie, her eyes dancing, "Half an hour +ago we were awfully bored, and now look at us." + +"Yes, look at us," said Grace with a little sniff. "I'm sure we're not +very much to look at right now with our hair wet, and our clothes--" + +"Oh, for goodness' sake, who cares about such things?" cried Betty gaily. +"I think this is a darling place and I'm having the time of my life. I +wonder who he is?" + +"He seemed kind of scared just now, didn't he?" chuckled Mollie, feeling +her shoe to see if it was drying out any. "It was funny the way he bolted +out of the room." + +"Poor old dear--no wonder he was scared," commented Grace, as she took off +her hat and tried to do something with her hopelessly bedraggled locks. +"The way we look we're enough to scare anybody. Oh, dear, hasn't any one a +comb?" + +"Why, of course, we carry a complete beauty parlor outfit just for your +benefit, dear," giggled Mollie. "The rest of us don't need it though, We +are too beautiful naturally." + +"You know I like him a lot, the queer little man, I mean," said Amy, +evidently following out her own train of thought. "He seems kind of fussy +and peculiar but he has an awfully nice smile." + +"Trust Amy to find the smile," said Betty, putting an arm fondly about the +younger girl. "And of course we all like him," she added seriously. "If it +hadn't been for him we probably wouldn't be feeling so happy right now." + +"Yes, we would probably be in some hospital with our unhappy relatives +weeping over our mangled remains," said the irrepressible Mollie, and +laughed at the shriek that went up at her gruesome remark. "There probably +wouldn't have been enough of us left to recognize," she added by way of +good measure, and they shrieked again. + +"For goodness' sake, let's talk of something pleasant," said Grace, rising +suddenly and going over to the window. "If you want to sit on that old +bench all day, you can." + +It appeared that the girls had no intention of sitting on the bench all +day. They got up and sauntered about the room, examining the skins on the +walls and looking, but without much curiosity, at the rifles. They +lingered longest before the shelves of butterflies and beetles, for some +of the specimens were really beautiful and very rare. + +After they had examined everything in sight they began to grow restive. +They must have been in the place nearly an hour and it suddenly occurred +to them to wonder where their host had been keeping himself all this time. + +"I wish we could get started," worried Mollie, looking out upon the sodden +landscape. The rain was apparently coming down just as hard as ever. "I +hate to leave the car all by itself out there. Somebody might steal it." + +"I wish I knew where that man was," said Grace nervously. "I never trust +strange men. He may set the house on fire for all we know." + +The words were hardly out of her mouth when the door opened and the topic +of conversation himself entered, carrying a tray so big and heaped so high +with sandwiches that one could scarcely discover the man behind it. + +Betty and Amy ran to his assistance, and between them they got the tray +safely to the bench. In one delighted glance the girls saw that not only +sandwiches, but a steaming pot of coffee and the remains of what had been +a great, three-layer chocolate cake were on the tray. + +At thought of the fussy little man taking all this time and trouble, for +it must have taken a good deal of work to make all that formidable array +of sandwiches--the girls were sincerely touched and regarded their host +with a new interest. + +"There, there," he was saying, regarding the heaped-up tray with evident +pleasure, "you must sit down and eat at once. You must be nearly starved-- +famished. I hope this will be enough." + +He looked at them so anxiously that Betty felt like hugging him--and +nearly did it. + +"Enough! Well, I guess it is enough," she said heartily, as the other +girls seated themselves on the bench either side of the tempting tray and +began enthusiastically to help themselves. "It would be plenty for an +army. We can't thank you enough." + +"Indeed we can't," added Mollie. + +"It's awfully good of you," said Grace, as she took a bite of her ham +sandwich. + +"Awfully good," added Amy, like an echo. + +The little man waved aside their thanks and drew up the one chair in the +room, talking all the time in his quick, jerky fashion. + +"It was no trouble, I am sure,--no trouble whatever," he said, adding as +though he wished to change the subject: "You didn't tell me your name--" +he hesitated, looking at Betty, who of course did tell him her name on the +spot. This proved a signal for mutual introductions, and the girls learned +that their new friend was a college professor, Arnold Dempsey by name. +They also learned that he had taken up woodcraft in the hope of recovering +his health. + +And while they contentedly munched sandwiches and sipped steaming coffee +the girls learned a good deal more about Arnold Dempsey, and the more they +learned of him the more they felt drawn to him. + +And when he started to tell them of his two sons who had fought so nobly +in the army of democracy, their eyes began to shine and they leaned toward +him with an interest that was intensely real. + +"Oh, it must be wonderful to have two big soldier sons," cried Amy, +forgetting her shyness in her enthusiasm. "Aren't you dreadfully proud?" + +A gleam came into Professor Dempsey's eyes and his thin shoulders +straightened. + +"Yes, yes," he said. "Of course I'm proud of my boys--very proud. And I +hope," a look of absolute happiness came into his eyes and he smiled +contentedly, "that before very long I shall see them." + +"Oh, I'm sure you will!" cried Betty eagerly. + +"That's what we are all hoping for, anyway," said Grace, adding with a +sigh: "The boys have been gone so <i>dreadfully</i> long." + +"Look," cried Mollie presently, rising suddenly to her feet and pointing +toward the window. "We have been so busy talking that we never noticed the +sun had come out." + +"And doesn't it look good!" exulted Betty. + +In spite of their reluctance to leave their new-found friend, the girls +were anxious to be off, for they knew their parents would be worrying +about them. + +Professor Dempsey insisted on seeing them safely back to the road although +they protested that there was absolutely no need of it. + +"There are two or three paths that lead to the road," he explained, as he +flung wide the door, letting in a flood of sunshine, "and I wouldn't have +you lose your way for the world--not for the world!" + +The woodland was beautiful after the rain, and the girls sniffed the +fragrant air eagerly as they followed Professor Dempsey along the path. It +was not till they had almost reached the road that Mollie had a +disquieting thought. + +"How do we know but what we're stuck here for good?" she asked the girls. +"The car stopped dead, you remember, just under that horrible tree, and +I'm sure I don't know what in the world made it. If I can't find out the +trouble--" + +"Oh, but you've got to find it," protested Grace, while Betty and Amy +looked worried. "We can't stay here all night, and it may be a dozen miles +to the nearest garage." + +"I know that just as well as you do," grumbled Mollie. "But if I can't, I +can't, that's all." + +By this time they had reached the road and Mollie went straight to the +car. While she and Betty were trying to find out what was wrong the other +two girls and Professor Dempsey looked on anxiously. + +"Well, as far as I can see there is absolutely nothing wrong with it," +snapped Mollie at last, lifting a face flushed with exertion. "Get in, +girls, and I'll start the engine--or try to. Then if she won't go we'll +have to make up our minds to stay here all night or walk to the next +garage." + +Accordingly the girls got in and Mollie pressed the self-starter. To her +great surprise, the engine purred a response, and as she shifted her gears +the car moved slowly forward. + +"Oh, goodie, we're going," cried Amy, and the faces of the other girls +showed relief. + +"Must have been a drop of water in the gasoline," hazarded Mollie, and +then she throttled the engine once more while she and her chums turned to +say good-bye to Professor Dempsey. The latter was still standing in the +road, looking up at them rather wistfully. + +"I'm glad that I had an opportunity of helping you, young ladies--very +glad," he answered, in response to their repeated thanks. "You conferred a +great favor on me also, for I have little company. Good-bye--and good luck +to you." + +The girls responded gayly, and as they started forward Betty leaned far +out of the machine to call back an encouraging: "Keep hoping hard for your +boys to come home. I am sure they will be back soon." + +"Thank you, young lady, thank you," said Professor Dempsey, but the words +were too low for Betty to catch and she was too far away to see the mist +that sprang suddenly to his eyes. + + + + +Chapter IV + +Good News + + + +Deepdale, the home of the four Outdoor Girls, is a thriving little city +with a population of about fifteen thousand people. It is situated on the +Argono River, a pleasant stream where a great many of the young folk of +Deepdale, and some of the older ones too, keep motor boats and canoes and +various other types of pleasure craft. + +Farther on, the Argono empties into Rainbow Lake, which is picturesque in +the extreme. It has several pretty and romantic looking islands, chief of +which is Triangle Island--so called because of its shape. + +There is a boat running from Deepdale to Clammerport at the foot of +Rainbow Lake, and this boat is almost always crowded with pleasure +seekers. In addition to this Deepdale is situated in the heart of New York +state and is only a hundred-and-fifty-mile run from the city of that name. +Thus one can easily see that Deepdale is a very desirable place in which +to live. + +At least that is what the four Outdoor Girls thought. And since they had +spent most of their lives there, they certainly ought to know! + +On the morning of this day, some ten days or so after their strange +encounter with Professor Dempsey, the girls were gathered on Betty's +porch, talking over their plans for the summer. + +"I am only waiting to hear from Uncle John," Mollie was saying, as she +swung lazily back and forth in the couch swing. "The last time I saw him +he said that he was almost sure to go north this summer and he told me +that as soon as he made definite plans he would let me know." + +"You told us that two weeks ago," Grace reminded her. "And we haven't +heard from him yet." + +"It does seem to take him a long time to make up his mind," sighed Amy. + +Betty, who had been trying to read a novel, closed the book and turned to +them with a laugh. + +"Goodness, you all sound doleful," she told them. "It seems to me that we +ought to be able to live through it, even if we don't get Wild Rose Lodge +for the summer. There are plenty of other things we can do." + +Mollie turned upon her indignantly. + +"How you talk, Betty Nelson," she scolded her. "As if we could possibly +have as good a time anywhere else as we could at Wild Rose Lodge. Think of +being in a real hunting lodge out in the woods away from everybody! Why, +it will be a real adventure--" + +"All right. I surrender--don't shoot," laughed Betty, coming over and +perching on the railing beside Mollie. "I admit we should probably have +more fun at the lodge than we could anywhere else. I was only trying to +look on the bright side of things in case our plans should fall through. +Hello--who's this?" + +"This" proved to be Mollie's little sister Dora, or "Dodo," as she was +called by almost everybody. With a sigh of relief, the girls saw that +Dodo's twin brother, Paul, was not with her, for together the children +were a simply unconquerable pair. + +The twins had been spoiled by their widowed mother, Mrs. Billette, even +before the time when they had been kidnapped and spirited off by a hideous +Spaniard. But since their recovery, their joyful mother had indulged them +in every way until they had become well nigh unmanageable. + +Yet in spite of everything, the twins were very lovable, and every one +loved them, even those whom they annoyed most. + +And now as Dodo tore up the street toward them, waving something white in +her hand, the girls instinctively glanced about to see what they ought to +put out of sight before the cyclone struck them. + +"Thank goodness, Paul isn't with her," murmured Grace. "Then we would be +in for it." + +"Dodo," cried Mollie as the child started up the walk, "scrape some of +that mud off your feet before you come up. You will get Betty's porch all +dirty." + +"Name's Dora--not Dodo," the little girl answered, paying not the +slightest heed to Mollie's caution about the mud. "Dodo's a baby's name-- +don't like it. Got something for you." + +She stumbled heedlessly up the steps, leaving a trail of mud behind her, +and almost breaking her neck in the bargain. + +"Now just look at Betty's porch," Mollie was beginning in exasperation +when Betty laughingly interfered. + +"Oh, let her alone, Mollie," she coaxed. "The porch was dirty anyway and-- +what's that you have in your hand, Dodo?" + +"Sumfin' for Mollie," answered Dodo, leaning sulkily against the rail +while the girls regarded her anxiously. "An' if Mallie aren't nice to me +she can't have it." + +"Oh, for goodness' sake be nice to her and get it over with, Mollie," +urged Grace, uneasily conscious of the candy box she had shoved hastily +behind her. She was afraid one corner of it might show. + +So Mollie got down from her perch on the railing and went over coaxingly +to the little girl. + +"Give it to Mollie, honey," she begged. "I'll even call you Dora, if you +will." + +"<i>Always</i> Dora--<i>never</i> Dodo?" asked Dodo eagerly, for she was +growing out of babyhood just enough to resent being called by her baby +name. + +"Always Dora," Mollie promised. + +For answer Dodo held out the white thing she had waved at them from the +street, and with a little cry of excitement Mollie saw that it was a +letter addressed to her in her Uncle John's firm hand. + +At her exclamation the girls crowded round her eagerly. She hastily tore +open the envelope and devoured the contents. Then she turned to the girls +with a glowing face. + +"It's all right, it's all right!" she cried, waving the letter round her +head like a flag and nearly upsetting her chums. "Uncle John says it is +settled. He is going to Canada for a couple of months and we can have the +lodge for the whole time he is away or a part of it, just as we wish. +Hooray! How's that for luck?" + +The girls were so excited over their good fortune that they forgot all +about Dodo. She, finding herself unobserved, had slipped around the girls +to the swing, snatched the box of candy which Grace had exposed when she +got up, had taken the steps two at a time and was flying off down the +street before the girls saw what she was up to. + +Then it was Grace who, with a dreadful premonition, thought of her candy. +She turned quickly, saw that the box was gone, and uttered a wail of woe. + +"That little Turk of a sister of yours has done it again," she cried, +turning to Mollie, while Betty and Amy began to laugh. "You just wait till +I catch her. I'll get my candy back if I have to--spank her," this last +with a fierce scowl. + +Betty put an arm about her excited chum, led her over to the swing and put +her down in it. + +"By the time you caught Dodo there wouldn't be any of your candy left," +she said, adding soothingly: "Never mind, honey. We will get you some more +if we have to take up a collection." + +"Makes me feel like an orphan's home," grumbled Grace, but she laughed +nevertheless with the rest and immediately forgot both her candy and Dodo +in renewed excitement over Wild Rose Lodge. + +"Just where is this place, Mollie?" asked Amy. "What is it called?" + +"Oh, that's the very best part of it," said Mollie, with a mysterious +smile. "It has the most wonderful, most romantic name. Come closer while I +whisper it--Moonlight Falls. There, isn't that a real name for a place?" + +"Wild Rose Lodge at Moonlight Falls," sighed Grace ecstatically. "If we +don't have a wildly romantic time in a place with a name like that, it +will be our own fault." + +"But we will have to have a chaperon--" Amy was beginning when Betty +interrupted her eagerly. + +"I have fixed that," she said, and while they all looked in astonishment +she went on quickly to explain. "I met Mrs. Irving in the street the other +day--you know she has been away ever since that last time she was with us +on Pine Island--and I asked her then if she would chaperon us this +summer." + +"But you didn't even know then that we were going to Wild Rose Lodge, +Betty," Mollie interrupted. + +"I knew we were sure to go somewhere. We always--" Betty was arguing when +Grace cut in impatiently. + +"Never mind about that," she said. "Did Mrs. Irving say she would go?" + +"She said she was very sure she could manage it," Betty answered. "She +seemed awfully surprised and said it would be great fun to be with us +girls again." + +"It will be great fun for all of us," said Amy happily. "I'll never forget +the wonderful time we had on Pine Island with Mrs. Irving and the boys." + +"Yes--and the boys," Betty repeated a little wistfully. She was thinking +of Allen Washburn and the wonderful time they had had that never-to-be- +forgotten summer--before the war had come to separate them and make their +hearts ache. Oh, it would be unbelievably happy to have the boys back +again--Will, Roy, Frank and--her Allen. The old crowd together once more. +She looked around at the girls, who had also fallen into a thoughtful +mood, and suddenly she smiled, the old bright, happy smile that was +peculiarly Betty's own. + +"Oh, cheer up, everybody," she cried gayly. "How do we know but what the +boys will be home in time to join us at Wild Rose Lodge? Then think of the +fun!" + +"Oh, Betty, if we could only believe that!" they cried. + +"Well," said the Little Captain stoutly, "you never can tell. Stranger +things have happened, you know." + +"But nothing so joyful," added Mollie. + + + + +Chapter V + +Betty Takes a Dare + + + +It would be a week or two before Wild Rose Lodge would be ready for the +girls' occupancy, and as a relief for their impatience they filled in the +time in hiking, motoring and put-putting up and down the Argono in their +natty little motor boat. + +But whatever it was they were doing, their conversation almost invariably +returned to one of two subjects--the return of the boys and the good time +they would have at Moonlight Falls. + +They spoke often of Professor Arnold Dempsey. They took a real interest in +the queer little old man, both because of the service he had done them and +the fact that he was watching and waiting for his two big sons, even as +they were anxiously awaiting the return of their boys. + +"It must be dreadfully lonely for him in that little cabin or house or +whatever you call it in the woods," Amy said one day as she and the girls +sauntered down to the dock where their motor boat was anchored. "And he +said he hardly ever had company." + +"Goodness, I should think he would go crazy," Mollie commented. "Why, I go +almost mad when I don't have any one to talk to for an <i>hour</i>." + +"I wonder if he lived in that little house all during the war," said Betty +thoughtfully. They had reached the dock and were walking slowly out upon +it. "If he did, it must have been dreadfully hard for him. It makes me +shiver to think of him sitting there all alone, reading the casualty list, +terrified for fear the next name would be that of his son----" + +"Oh, Betty," cried gentle Amy, all her sympathy quickly roused by the +picture Betty had drawn, "what a dreadful thing to think of!" + +"But he never did find their names among the missing or killed," Mollie +reminded them soberly. "We know that because he said he expected to see +them soon." + +"Of course. And all we can do is hope with all our hearts that he gets his +wish," said Betty brightly, adding with a sudden change of subject: "But +away with dull care. The sun is shining and here's our fairy ship waiting +to carry us off to fresh adventure. What more could any one want, I'd like +to know." + +"Humph," grunted Mollie, eyeing critically the trim little boat in which +they had had so much fun and adventure, as the other girls tumbled aboard. +"I'd say she didn't look very much like a fairy boat just now. She needs +considerable polishing and scrubbing. Why don't you girls get busy, +anyhow?" + +"Just hear who's talking," yawned Grace, disposing herself lazily in a +comfortable chair on deck. "I haven't noticed you waving a broom and mop +frantically around these parts lately, Mollie dear." + +"In fact," Betty added with a mischievous twinkle in her eye, "I think I +remember suggesting that the <i>Gem</i> needed grooming the other day. +Whereupon some one who shall be nameless suggested a motor ride instead." + +"She's got you there, old dear," drawled Grace, taking the inevitable box +of chocolates from her pocket and opening it lovingly. "I remember the +incident pre-zactly as it has been described." + +Mollie, who was still standing on the dock, regarding them frowningly, +started to reply but Betty interrupted her with a shout. She had started +the engine and the boat began to move slowly away from the dock. + +"Better hurry up," suggested the Little Captain wickedly. "We'd rather not +leave you behind, but if you insist--" + +However, Mollie had not the slightest intention in the world of being left +behind. With a gasp of mingled surprise and dismay she made a jump for it, +cleared the foot of space between the dock and the boat and landed square +in the middle of Grace's astonished and outraged lap. She would have sat +on the candy box, too, and would, in all probability, have ruined it and +her dress as well, had not Grace, with rare presence of mind, whipped the +box out of danger just in the nick of time. + +"Well," said Mollie, too surprised and indignant to move for a moment, +while, at the comical picture she made, both Betty and Amy laughed +merrily, "I surely like this!" + +"You do, do you? Well, I don't!" cried Grace, recovering both her breath +and her dignity at the same moment. "If you don't stop sitting on my lungs +this minute, Mollie Billette, I'll--I'll--stick this pin into you." + +With a yell Mollie stumbled to her feet and shook out her dress +belligerently. + +"You had better not. I'm stronger than you, Grace Ford, and I've a good +mind to let you see what the bottom of the river looks like." + +She advanced toward her prospective victim, and Betty stopped laughing +long enough to call to her. + +"You'd better change your mind, Mollie," she cautioned merrily. "You can't +give Gracie a ducking without ruining her dress and she might charge you +damages. Reconsider--I beg of you, reconsider!" + +Mollie condescended to reconsider and plumped herself down cross-legged on +the deck, disdaining a chair. + +"Oh, very well," she said, adding as she glared darkly at Grace: "You will +probably never know, woman, how near to death you were." + +To which Grace replied with unexpected ferocity. + +"And you may never know, woman, just how near to death you are this +minute. Look at what you have done to my best sport skirt. I don't believe +I will ever be able to get those wrinkles out." + +"If you two will stop quarreling just long enough to tell me where you +want to go," Betty requested, "I should be very much obliged. Up or down +the river?" + +"Anywhere," answered Grace, still regarding her crumpled sport skirt +gloomily. "We are just trying to kill time this afternoon anyway, so I +don't see that it makes much difference where we go." + +"Suppose we take her up to the Point," suggested Mollie, getting up from +the deck and going over to Betty who still had the wheel. "Maybe we can +get some ice-cream and a drink of ice water. I am getting dreadfully +thirsty already." + +Betty looked tempted but a little doubtful. + +"You know it is pretty dangerous to run in there, Mollie," she protested. +"There are so many other boats driven by Percy Falconer's crazy lot who +don't care whether they capsize you or not--" + +"Goodness, Betty, it isn't like you to be afraid," Mollie started, but +stopped at the look in the "Little Captain's" eye. + +"I'd rather you didn't ever say that again, Mollie," she said. "I'll take +you in there since you want it, but if anything should happen remember +that I warned you." + +"Goodness, Mollie, I don't see why you ever wanted to go and suggest that +for," said Grace nervously. "We all know there is danger of a collision +over at the Point, and I'm sure I don't want to spoil my clothes, even if +you do." + +"Your father said that he would rather we kept to this side of the river, +Betty," urged Amy. "Please don't go over to the Point now." + +"There's no use talking to her," snapped Grace. "You ought to know Betty +well enough by this time to know that she would take us over to the Point +now, after what Mollie said, if she knew we would all die of it. Might as +well save your breath." + +Mollie said nothing, but down in her heart she was more than a little bit +anxious and was beginning to regret that she had deliberately egged Betty +on. + +Percy Falconer, of whom Betty had spoken, had once been a rather dudish, +affected boy and had later developed into an exceedingly fast young man. +He had an immensely rich father and a mother who denied him nothing so +that he had been able to gather together a few kindred spirits among whom +he was the leader. All the regular boys and girls in town thoroughly +disliked "the set," but there were a few girls who were willing to put up +with Percy Falconer and his crowd for sake of the long motor rides, +dances, dinners and motorboat picnics that the boys were able to give +them. + +There were always some of this wild crowd over at the "Point," and it was +for this reason as well as the very real danger of a collision with a +recklessly driven boat that Betty's father had rather discouraged the +chums going over to that side of the river. + +However the day was fine, the water of the river was as calm as a lake and +the <i>Gem</i> flew across the sparkling water like a gull, bringing a +flush of pure excitement and pleasure to the faces of the girls. Danger-- +what danger could there be in this staunch little craft, with Betty at the +wheel? + +They were half way across the river, now--three quarters. The gay pleasure +craft flaunting up and down the river were becoming more numerous and +Betty slackened speed. Her breath came more quickly and her hands +tightened on the wheel. She could drive a boat as well as any boy, but +here, she knew, was a situation to test her greatest skill. + +Craft of all sizes and descriptions seemed to the excited girls to be +piling up about them. Most of the boats were being navigated carefully, +but now and then a small, fast speed-craft would shoot out from behind +another so suddenly that Betty would be forced to swerve sharply to one +side, fairly grazing the stern of the racing boat. + +On one of these occasions, when it had seemed impossible to avoid a +collision, Amy called out sharply: + +"Oh, Betty, don't you think we had better go back?" + +And Betty replied with a queer little laugh: + +"Might just as well go ahead as back now. We'll be there in a minute. +Don't worry." + +The words were scarcely out of her mouth when two craft running neck and +neck and driven recklessly slipped out from behind a sailboat and drove +directly down upon the <i>Gem</i>. It seemed impossible that the Outdoor +Girls could escape disaster. + + + + +Chapter VI + +Nearly Wrecked + + + +The girls did not scream. Perhaps they were too frightened or perhaps it +was just natural pluck. + +They did jump to their feet though as if with some wild thought of leaping +overboard. But there they remained, staring with fascinated eyes at the +fate that was bearing down upon them. + +As for Betty, after one breath-taking minute when all the blood in her +body seemed to rush to her head, she simply sat there and tried in the +second that was given her to think what to do. + +Almost automatically, she wrenched the wheel around, nearly capsizing the +boat with the sudden turn. At almost the same second, as though the thing +had been prearranged, the boys in the racing craft swung around in the +opposite direction. + +A slight scraping as the side of the <i>Gem</i> slid along the side of the +nearer of the racing craft, and they were safe, with no harm done with the +exception of a little paint scraped from the side of the boat. + +It was a moment before the girls could realize what had happened to them. +Then a voice hailed them from the boat alongside. In a glance the girls +perceived that the voice belonged to no other than Percy Falconer himself. + +"Hello," called Percy, adding boisterously as he recognized the girls: +"Well, by all that's holy, if it isn't the Outdoor Girls! Thought you +never came over to this side of the river." + +"We don't," Betty answered, the hand that still gripped the wheel shaking +nervously now that the danger was over. "And I don't believe we ever will +again, either!" + +"I say, your teeth are chattering," cried Percy, looking at Betty in open +admiration. In the old days, Percy had tried hard to win favor in Betty's +eyes, but the latter had always treated him with a good-natured +indifference not unmixed with contempt that had been very hard for the +young dude to bear. During the years he had still admired Betty from afar +and hated Allen Washburn for being the "lucky one." So now he hastened to +make the most of what he thought was an opportunity. + +"Come on over to the Point with me and Derby here," indicating the young +fellow in the other racing craft who had drawn his boat up close to them +and was looking on with interest. "We will get you something to steady +your nerves a bit. We had a pretty narrow squeak that time, and it's no +wonder it upset you a little." + +He was supposedly addressing all the girls, but his eyes were only for +Betty. As for her, she suddenly had a startlingly clear mental picture of +what her father would think were some one to tell him that his daughter +and her chums had been seen at the "Point" with Percy Falconer and a +friend of his. + +In days gone by Percy had been very insipid, his mind entirely on his +clothes; now he had become a sport, and the report was that he caroused +around not a little. + +Betty turned to the youth with a decided little shake of her head, though +her eyes were smiling. + +"I think we shall have to go right back," she said. "It looks as though it +were going to rain. Thank you just as much," and she began to ease her +motor boat gently away from the other craft. + +"Oh, I say," Percy cried, disappointedly and a little angrily, for out of +the corner of his eye he could see that his friend was laughing at him, +"we would only keep you for a moment or two. You needn't be afraid of us. +We won't bite, you know." + +"We don't know you well enough to be sure even of that," said Mollie, +coming suddenly and flippantly into the conversation. + +But Percy took not the slightest notice of her and, as Betty was slowly +but surely widening the distance between the <i>Gem</i> and his boat, he +leaned forward eagerly. + +"Betty, let me see you some time. How about to-morrow night?" + +And because Betty was always kind to every one and was sorry for Mollie's +flippant speech, she said, quite unexpectedly, even to herself, "All +right." + +Then she turned the <i>Gem</i> around and started for home, conscious that +her chums were gazing at her in speechless amazement. + +"Betty!" cried Grace, horrified. "You are never going to let Percy +Falconer come to see you, are you?" + +But Betty turned on her irritably. She was tired and nervous and angry at +herself for having anything to do with that conceited dude, Percy +Falconer. + +"You heard me say he could come, didn't you?" she said in response to +Grace's incredulous question, Amy's wide-eyed stare, and Mollie's grin. +"And if you are going to ask me why I said so," she added desperately, +"I'm not going to tell you. And if anybody speaks to me before I get back +to the dock, I'll--wreck 'em, that's all." + +The girls exchanged glances and wisely decided to change the subject, for +the present at least. For the time they had plenty to do anyway, just +watching out that somebody else did not run into them! + +By the time they reached comparatively clear water they were all tired and +they were glad for once when the <i>Gem</i> scraped against the home dock +and the "cruise" was over. + +"Well," said Mollie as they climbed on to the dock, "we surely did have +some excitement, but we didn't get what we started out for after all." + +"What's that?" asked Grace, as she tied the ribbon round her candy box and +adjusted her hat at a more becoming angle. + +"Ice-cream and a drink of ice water," said Mollie ruefully. "I've just +remembered that I am dying of thirst." + +"Come on around to my house," Betty invited. Her wrist was lame from +gripping the wheel so hard and she felt it gingerly. "Mother said she +would make a big pitcher of lemonade for us and leave it in the +refrigerator." + +"Whew," whistled Mollie, taking Betty's arm and hurrying her forward. "By +any chance did you girls hear what I heard? <i>Me</i> for <i>it</i>, Betty +Nelson." + +The girls talked little on their way to Betty's house, but they thought a +good deal. They were tired and disgruntled, and it seemed to them in their +pessimistic mood that everything they had tried to do that day had gone +wrong. And the climax of it all was their meeting--if it could be called a +meeting--with Percy Falconer. Worst of all, Betty was going to allow him +to call! + +With something of this in her mind, Mollie glanced sideways at her chum +and, curiosity getting the better of her discretion, ventured to remark +upon it. + +"I wonder what Allen will say," she said, "when he learns about Percy." + +It was an unfortunate remark, as Betty very soon showed by turning upon +her chum angrily. + +"I don't know that Allen has a right to say anything at all about what I +do," she said. "And as I don't intend ever to see Percy Falconer after +to-morrow, I think we had better forget about him. But there," she added, +bringing herself up short and giving Mollie's hand a little conciliatory +squeeze, "I didn't mean to be cross. I'm just kind of mad about the whole +thing--and tired, and hot--" + +"I know," said Mollie generously. "I guess we all are--tired and hot, I +mean. We will feel better after we have had something cold to drink." + +Betty's mother had left not only the lemonade but some sandwiches of +chopped nuts and cream cheese. Jubilantly the girls carried these +delicacies out on the front porch and proceeded to devour them without +further delay. + +As they ate and drank, their ill-humor vanished and they began to feel +once more like their cheerful, optimistic selves. They even began to laugh +a little about the close shave they had had with Percy and his friend. + +"It was mighty clever work of yours, Betty, swerving around like that," +Mollie said reminiscently, as she patted the Little Captain's hand +approvingly. "I'm sure I would have been so scared I'd have gone right +ahead and then there would have been a nasty smash." + +"I do hope the folks don't hear about it," worried Grace. "It would only +make them nervous and they might even refuse to let us go out in the +<i>Gem</i> any more." + +"I don't see how the folks are going to know anything about it," said Amy +calmly. + +"Unless our dear friend Percy blabs it all over town," added Grace. + +"I think we ought to tell the folks," Betty spoke up suddenly. "I know +they would rather hear about it from us than from any one else. Hello," +she broke off, as her eye lighted on a newspaper lying on the table, "this +looks like the evening edition. Maybe it has some news of Allen's +division." + +"My, just listen to her," yawned Grace. "Allen's division, indeed. As +though he were the only one we were interested in--" + +But her words were cut short by a startled exclamation from Betty. + +"Oh, girls, look here!" she cried. "Look at these names. Oh, I hope it +isn't true! I hope it isn't!" + + + + +Chapter VII + +Bad Tidings Confirmed + + + +"I wish I knew what you were talking about," said Mollie, pausing with a +sandwich half-way to her mouth, while Amy and Grace regarded the Little +Captain with astonishment. "What names? Where?" + +But Betty was paying no attention to them. She was reading hastily the +column that had caught her startled attention. + +"Listen to this," she said, reading out loud. "Among those who were killed +in the last great Allied offensive are the names of these brave soldiers. +James Browning of Columbus, Ohio--No, that isn't what I mean--Look, here +they are--James Dempsey and Arnold Dempsey, Junior. Girls, do you suppose +--" and she looked at them with widening eyes. + +"Arnold Dempsey, Arnold Dempsey," repeated Mollie, searching in her +memory, but Amy interrupted excitedly. + +"That was Professor Dempsey's name, wasn't it?" she asked. "Oh, Betty, do +you suppose it could be his son?" + +"Why, of course it is his son--how could it be any one else?" cried Grace, +the excitement beginning to communicate itself to her. "Arnold Dempsey, +Junior--and the professor said his sons were over there." + +"Didn't it say something about James Dempey, too, Betty?" asked Mollie, +fairly snatching the paper from her chum. "Yes, here it is. Do you suppose +that can be his other son?" + +Betty shook her head soberly. + +"I don't know," she said. "Of course he didn't tell us the name of his +other son, but it might easily be James. Oh, I hope it isn't so!" she +added, her heart aching for the lonely old man whose one big interest in +life was his boys. "I do hope there has been some mistake." + +"I guess we all do," said Amy gently, adding with a sigh: "But I'm afraid +there isn't very much hope of it. The Government is usually right when it +comes to things like that." + +"Not always," Mollie retorted quickly. "Look at the time they reported +that Alien was among the missing and he wasn't at all. That is the only +mistake we happen to know about, but I fancy there are plenty of others." + +At mention of that dreadful time when she had read Alien's name in the +long list of the missing, Betty experienced again something of the emotion +she had felt at that time. + +She saw again in imagination the dark room where she had gone to be by +herself, she heard the thunder of the surf on the rocks outside and the +rumble of the thunder overhead. She saw once more the vision of Alien as +she had seen it then. Allen stretched out cold and dead perhaps on some +shell-ridden battlefield or perhaps, more terrible still, a prisoner in +the hands of the Hun, suffering unspeakable torture-- + +"But this is not as bad as though the boys were missing," she said +suddenly, speaking her thought aloud. "At least the professor will know +that his sons are dead." + +The girls started and looked at Betty queerly. + +"I was thinking of Allen," she explained in response to their rather +startled glances, "and the time when we thought he was missing. If this +thing is true about Professor Dempsey's sons I think I shall be able to +sympathize with him, almost better than any of you." + +"I guess you will, honey," said Mollie soberly, putting an arm about her +chum. "It was a terrible time for us all--there at Bluff Point. But it was +almost worth the suffering when we found out that Allen was alive and well +and never had been missing at all Do you remember how happy we all were +then?" + +"Happy," Betty repeated, shaking off her depression and smiling at the +memory. "I'll say we were the happiest girls on earth--especially after we +recovered the twins. But what," she said, coming back to the present +subject, "are we going to do about Professor Dempsey? We ought to do +something, you know." + +"I suppose we ought," said Grace, a little vaguely, "but I'm sure I don't +know just what." + +"I think," suggested Amy practically, "that the best thing would be to try +to find out first of all whether these poor boys who were killed are +really Professor Dempsey's sons or not." + +"Humph, that sounds all right," observed Mollie. "But has any one here any +suggestion as to just how we will go about it? I'm sure I don't know any +one who is acquainted with Professor Dempsey--or his family either." + +"I've got it," said Betty, leaning forward eagerly. "It may not be much of +an idea, but then again it may." + +"Speak up, speak up, what's on your mind?" urged Mollie slangily. + +"Well," said Betty, "there is Mr. Haig, principal of Deepdale High. He +knows pretty nearly every one at the university where Professor Dempsey +used to teach and he is more than likely to know whether the professor has +any sons and what their names are." + +"Yes, that is all right as far as it goes," broke in Mollie impatiently. + +"We all know Mr. Haig--" Amy began, but this time it was Grace who +interrupted. + +"Yes, we all know him," she said. "But I'd like to know if there is any +one of us--except Betty perhaps--who would have the nerve to go to him and +ask him a question like that--" + +"Say, who's telling this story I'd like to know," broke in Betty +impatiently. "I'm not asking any one to go to Mr. Haig with that question +or any other--although I would be perfectly willing to brave the lion in +his den if there were no other way. My plan is this. Dad knows Mr. Haig, +you know--went to school with him--old college chums and all that. I'm +sure that if we asked him real pretty he would go to Mr. Haig and find out +about Professor Dempsey for us." + +"Then suppose we find out that Professor Dempsey hasn't any sons by the +name of James and Arnold?" suggested Grace. + +"Then we shall be mighty glad we took the trouble to find out and set our +minds at rest," answered Betty soberly. + +"And if we find out that they are really his sons, what then?" queried +Grace, and this time Betty looked puzzled and Mollie and Amy completely +beyond their depth. + +"Why then," said Betty hesitatingly, "I'm sure I don't just know what we +ought to do. But don't you think," she added, brightening, "that it might +be a good idea to wait until we have found out definite facts before we +try to solve any more problems?" + +Rather reluctantly the girls agreed and, after making Betty promise that +she would let them know the very first minute she found out the names of +Arnold Dempsey's sons, they said good-bye and started for home. + +Of course Betty had already told her father and mother about Professor +Dempsey and the part he had played in actually saving their lives; so when +she told them that night of what she had read in the paper and begged her +father to help her find out whether the dead soldiers were really Arnold +Dempsey's sons or not, he readily consented to do what he could. + +"I'll drop in and see Haig to-morrow," he promised. "I have often heard +him speak of Professor Dempsey as being one of the best professors of +zoölogy up at the university and I am sure I will be able to find out what +you want to know. I hope you have been mistaken in your conclusions, for +it would be a horrible blow to a man to lose both his grown sons at once +and like that. Now run off to bed and tomorrow I may have some news for +you." + +With this Betty was forced to be content. She went to bed of course, there +was nothing else to do, but she tossed restlessly all night and what sleep +she got was checkered with horrid dreams and she woke up in the morning +feeling as though she had not been to sleep at all. + +The next day was a long one to live through, even though the girls did +keep calling her up at frequent intervals to see if she had any news for +them yet. She became so tired of hearing the telephone bell ring at last +that she stuffed a handkerchief between the bell and the clapper and sat +down to read a novel and while away the time as best she could till her +father came home. + +Luckily for her--and him too, perhaps--Mr. Nelson did get home early, and +he was no sooner inside the door than Betty grabbed him by the arm, led +him over to a divan in the corner of the living room, and let loose upon +him a flood of questions. + +"Did you see him? What did he say? Why didn't you let me know sooner?" + +These and various other queries were hurled at Mr. Nelson so fast that it +is no wonder the poor gentleman appeared slightly bewildered. But knowing +his impetuous young daughter of old, he merely pinched her cheek fondly +and waited for her to give him a chance to speak. + +"If you will wait just a moment I will try to tell you about it," he said +at last, mildly. + +"There's only one thing I really want to know, Dad," said Betty soberly. +"And that is the name of Professor Dempsey's sons." + +Her father shook his head slowly, regretfully. + +"I am afraid it is as you have feared, dear," he said. "Professor Dempsey +has two sons--or rather, had--and their names were James and Arnold." + +"Oh, Daddy!" Betty was quiet for a minute, letting the full consciousness +of what her father had said sink into her heart. Then her lips trembled +and her eyes filled with tears. "I--I was pretty sure it was true. But, +oh, I was hoping so hard that it wouldn't be!" + + + + +Chapter VIII + +Premonitions + + + +Betty kept her promise and called up the girls to tell them the news. Like +the Little Captain, they had felt almost sure of the identity of the two +Dempsey boys who had been killed in France, yet the confirmation of their +fears came as a distinct shock. + +They waited for a couple of days, undecided what to do, if indeed it was +their place to do anything at all. Vaguely they felt the need of +comforting the queer little professor in his hour of greatest trouble, and +yet they were at a loss to know just how to go about it. + +Meanwhile, the occupations that had ordinarily filled their days to +overflowing with fun, seemed dull and uninteresting and they found their +thoughts reverting again and again to the bereaved father in his lonely +little cabin in the woods. + +Percy Falconer had called at Betty's house the day after the incident on +the river as had been arranged, and Betty had conceived the plan of having +all her chums there to meet him. + +Her hope was that the gay Percy, seeing four, where he had expected only +one, would be overwhelmed with numbers and would flee the premises early-- +to return no more. + +Her faith in her plan was more than justified. Percy had always been a +little afraid of the Outdoor Girls--Betty in particular--but it is +probable that if he had been able to meet them one at a time, he might +have come off victorious. As it was, he was routed, completely and +ignominiously, leaving the girls to laugh at his discomfiture. + +"There, I guess that is the end of <i>that</i> pest," Mollie had said when +she had recovered a little from her mirth. "I imagine we won't see him +around these parts again." + +"I hope not," Betty had answered with a satisfied little yawn. "Wasn't he +too funny in that checked suit and awful green necktie? Poor old Percy! I +suppose he can't help it. He probably just grew that way." + +She had been comparing him all evening with her splendid, upstanding +Allen, and poor Percy had certainly not gained by the comparison. + +The amusing incident served to divert their minds somewhat from the +thought of Professor Dempsey, but the picture of him haunted their minds +so continually day and night that the Outdoor Girls finally decided that +something must be done about it. + +"I can't stand it any longer," Betty confided to them one morning when +they stood on Mollie's porch discussing what course of action it would be +best to take. "I have a queer feeling that the poor professor is in +desperate need of friends, and I don't believe I'll be able to sleep +another night until I find out something definite about him." + +"Won't he think we are sort of 'butting in'?" asked Grace, hesitating a +little. "He might think we came just out of curiosity." + +"I don't think he would," said Mollie. "You know he invited us to come +back some time when we could stay long enough for him to tell us something +about those bugs and butterflies and things he sticks pins into--" + +"That's the idea!" exclaimed Betty quickly. "We won't have to tell him we +know anything about his trouble. If he tells us--why, all right, but if he +doesn't, of course we won't try to force a confidence. Anyway," she +finished soberly, "we'll have the satisfaction of knowing we have done our +best for him whether it really helps him any or not." + +"And we owe him a very great deal," spoke tip Amy softly. "He really saved +our lives, you know." + +So it was settled, and while the other three girls ran home to put on +coats and hats and get ready for the drive, Mollie ran around to the +garage and brought her big car to the front of the house. + +She waved good-bye to her mother, who was trying rather wildly to keep +Dodo and Paul from running under the wheels of the car and getting killed, +and purred off down the street in the direction of Betty's house. + +When she arrived there she was a little surprised to see that Betty was +backing her fast little roadster down the drive. + +To Betty the little car was almost alive, and she talked to it as she +would have to some loved horse or dog. She scrubbed it and scoured it and +shined it so that it always looked like a brand new car. + +"Hey, look out!" cried Mollie, for Betty, not noticing her and being a +little worried about the sound of the engine, had backed the small car +down the drive and almost into Mollie's big one. "What kind of driving do +you call that? Do you want to buy me a new mudguard?" + +"Oh, pardon me," said Betty, laughing back at her. "You were so small and +insignificant, I came near not seeing you." + +"Well, you would have <i>felt</i> me in another minute," grumbled Mollie, +as she shut off the engine and got out of the car. "What's the idea of +your little peanut, anyway? Thought you were going to ride in a regular +car." + +"That's why I chose mine," Betty laughed back impishly, still intent on +the sound of the engine. + +It was part of their fun to be always throwing insults at each other's car +but the thrusts were invariably good-natured. + +Only once had there threatened to be any trouble between the chums on +account of rivalry over the cars. That had been when Mollie had taken +Betty's "dare" to a race and Betty's little roadster had won the day, +racing like a streak of light along the country road and leaving Mollie's +high-powered but more clumsy car far behind. + +But Mollie had taken her defeat like the little sport she was--even though +it must be admitted she had been considerably disappointed and taken aback +by her failure--and in her ever since there had been a great respect for +Betty's car. + +But now she eyed with impatience the bent figure of the Little Captain as +she still leaned over the wheel, her ear tuned to the purr of the engine. + +"For goodness' sake, what's the matter with you?" she cried. "I thought +you were the one who was in a hurry to be off and now look at you--sitting +there like--" + +"Engine is missing," Betty informed her briskly. "Guess I had better have +a look--" + +"If you start fussing with bolts and screws now, you can count me out," +said Mollie, resolutely climbing back into her car. "It is ten o'clock +already, and we won't be home before night if we don't hurry." + +"Oh, all right," laughed Betty. "But if the car gives out before we get +back don't blame me, that's all." + +"It would give me the greatest of pleasure," said Mollie with a diabolical +chuckle as her machine moved off down the street, "to have everyone in +Deepdale see me towing your poor little flivver through the town." + +"Huh," sang back Betty scornfully as the roadster responded eagerly to her +touch, "they will have a great deal better chance of seeing me in the lead +with your great big jumbo tottering feebly at the end of a rope." + +They picked up Amy and Grace on the way and were soon flying swiftly down +the road in the direction of Professor Dempsey's tree-surrounded home. + +They were in rather good spirits at first, for now that they were really +on the way to doing something, though they were not quite sure what, they +felt relieved and almost gay. + +But as the distance shortened between them and their destination, a +strange depression that they could neither explain nor brush away settled +down over them. + +Once, Grace, who sat beside the Little Captain in the roadster, sighed +rather dolefully and Betty looked at her out of the corner of her eye. + +"Do you feel that way too, Grade?" the latter asked. + +"What way?" asked Grace uncertainly. "That sigh, do you mean?" + +"Yes," nodded Betty. "You sounded rather mournful and that is exactly the +way I feel. What's the matter with us, anyway? Where are our spirits?" + +"I suppose we couldn't expect to feel joyful," said Grace after a little +pause. "We aren't going, so far as I can see, on a very happy errand, you +know." + +"But I don't think it is that alone," said Betty, with a shake of her +head. "I feel as if we were going to see something perfectly dreadful--" + +"Betty," Grace looked at her in sudden alarm, her eyes wide, "you don't +suppose that the professor could have done anything--anything rash, do +you?" + +"You mean--" said Betty, hesitating before the ugly word. "Oh, Grace, you +don't mean--suicide, do you?" + +Grace nodded and tried hard not to look as frightened as she felt. + +"No, I--I don't think so," said Betty, grasping the wheel with hands that +somehow seemed suddenly weak. "If I thought anything like that had +happened I wouldn't have the courage to go on." + +"Well, I don't believe I have--the courage, I mean," said Grace, +irresolutely. "Don't you think we had better go back, Betty? It's so +lonesome here and--and--everything--" + +Her voice was rising to something like a wail, and Betty, striving to +throttle her own misgivings, spoke in a voice that was intended to be +reassuring. + +"We wouldn't think very much of ourselves if we turned back now," she +said. "And probably we are worrying a great deal about nothing. He didn't +seem like the kind of man who would do a thing like that." + +Grace said no more about turning back, and they were silent for the rest +of the way. But instead of lightening, the cloud of depression became +deeper and more foreboding until even the stout Little Captain began, +almost to wish that they had not come. + + + + +Chapter IX + +A Visitor + + + +When they came to the scene of what was so nearly a terrible accident a +week or so before they found that the big tree which had extended clear +across the road was gone and that the underbrush also had been cleared +away. + +They stopped the cars a little the other side of the path that led into +the woods and slowly stepped down into the road. + +When they caught sight of each other's faces they began to laugh shakily. + +"We certainly look as if we were going on a ghost hunt," Mollie said. At +this Grace uttered a little cry of protest. The thought had struck too +near her own disquieting thoughts to be comfortable. + +"For goodness' sake, somebody say something cheerful," she begged. "I've +got to get up my courage some way." + +"Well, I haven't any to lend you," grumbled Mollie, as she linked her arm +in Betty's and the two went along toward the path. "I don't like this job +a little bit." + +"Don't you think," suggested Amy, holding back a little, "that somebody +ought to stay here and take care of the cars?" + +"No, you don't!" said Mollie, catching her by the hand and pulling her +along after them. "If one of us goes we are all going." + +"Oh, come along," urged Betty, eager to get the thing over with. "I think +we are all acting like a lot of geese. It might help some if we tried to +remember that we are Outdoor Girls." + +This challenge did a great deal toward bolstering up the girls' courage +and they hurried along the path more confidently. + +Their pace slowed a bit, however, when they reached the cleared space +where the little cottage stood and they paused for a moment in the shelter +of the trees to discuss what to do next. + +"Do you think we had all better go?" asked Grace nervously. "Perhaps the +four of us would frighten him--" + +"No, we will all go together," said Betty decidedly. "There is nothing to +be gained by standing here talking about it. Come on, girls." + +She started across the cleared space and the girls followed slowly. The +little cottage looked deserted and forlorn and the dreary aspect of it +served to increase the girls' uneasy sense of disaster. + +Betty knocked gently on the door which had, upon that other occasion not +so very long ago, been hospitably opened to them. But, though they waited +breathlessly for a response, none came--the house was as silent as a tomb. + +"Do it again, Betty. He might be asleep or something." suggested Mollie, +with a glance over her shoulder at the quiet woodland. "Knock harder this +time." + +Betty obeyed, but with no better success than the first time. Everything +was as silent as before. + +"Isn't there a bell, I wonder?" suggested Amy, wishing ardently that they +were back on the road once more. "Perhaps your knock isn't loud enough for +him to hear." + +"We might tap on the window," suggested Grace. "If I use my ring on the +window pane he surely ought to hear that." + +She started to suit her action to the words when an exclamation from Betty +made her pause. The latter had tried the door and found to her surprise +that it gave to her touch. + +"The door is unlocked," she said. "I don't believe the professor is in +here at all and if he has gone into the woods to hunt his butterflies and +beetles I am sure he wouldn't mind our going inside. What do you think?" + +She was about to push the door open, but Grace detained her with a nervous +hand on her arm. + +"Oh, I don't think we had better go in, Betty!" she cried. "You know what +we were speaking of in the car. Suppose we should find that he has--that +he has--" + +"That he has what?" asked Amy, her eyes wide. "For goodness' sake, what do +you mean, Grace?" + +Betty tried to stop her, but Grace hurried on heedlessly. + +"He may have committed suicide," she cried, adding, in response to +Mollie's and Amy's cry of horror: "You know he must have been desperate +enough to do anything, poor old man, out here all alone." + +At the conviction in Grace's tone, Betty felt her own nerve slipping. She +did not want to go into that silent house any more than the other girls +did. Every instinct in her commanded that she run from the place to the +commonplace safety of the road. She was afraid of what she might find on +the other side of that unlocked door. And yet-- + +"I'm going in," she cried, and, suiting the action to the word, pushed the +door quickly open and stepped over the threshold. + +Emboldened by her example, the other girls followed and stopped short with +a cry of dismay. They had not found what they feared--but something almost +as bad. + +The room, which had been so neat and orderly when they had last seen it, +was now the scene of such utter confusion as one might only hope to see +depicted in a cubist's nightmare. + +The animal skins which had adorned the walls had been torn down and lay in +a tattered heap upon the floor. The shelves upon which had rested the +professor's botanical specimens had been swept clean and their contents +also were scattered about the floor. + +The bench upon which the girls had sat and partaken of the queer little +man's hospitality was overturned and the one chair in the room was upside +down on top of it. The whole room looked as though a cyclone--or a maniac +--had been at work. + +The girls stared for a minute and then drew closer together as if seeking +protection from some unseen menace. They had some vague conception of what +had taken place here in this lonely little cottage. The elderly and +already nervous professor, reading the tragedy of his sons' death, all +alone perhaps, with no one to comfort or restrain him, had lost his mind, +temporarily at least, and had found an outlet in ruthlessly destroying +everything which came within reach of his hand. + +And if this were so, might he not even now be hiding about somewhere, +watching them, perhaps? + +This thought seemed to strike the girls at the same time, for after +peering for a second about the room, they turned and made a concerted dash +for the door. + +Once outside the room, in the reassuring sunshine, they turned and looked +at each other sheepishly. Then Betty wheeled about and started for the +door again. + +"Betty, you are never going back into that place again?" cried Amy wildly, +holding to her skirt. "I won't let you! Do you hear me? Come back here!" + +But Betty had no intention of coming back. She turned and faced the girls +calmly, though inwardly she was trembling. + +"Of course I am going back," she said. "Professor Dempsey may be in one of +the other rooms and he may be sick. If nobody will go with me, I'm going +in alone." + +Of course the three girls could not let her go in alone, so they trailed +back at her heels into the house, being very careful, however, to leave +the door wide open behind them, in case a hasty retreat became necessary. + +Cautiously Betty opened the door at the other end of the room and stepped +into what had evidently been a sort of rough kitchen. Now it was nothing +but a nightmare like the other room, and she shuddered as she looked about +at the desolate confusion. + +There was a door at the farther end of this room, and after some +hesitation and an inward struggle Betty crossed hastily to it and flung it +wide open. + +What she half expected and feared to find there nobody but Betty herself +ever knew, but whatever it was, she gave a great sigh of relief at not +finding it there. The room was upset, though not quite as badly as the +other two, but there was no sign of human occupancy anywhere. + +She turned to the girls who had come up behind her and were eagerly and +half shudderingly peering over her shoulder. + +"There's nothing here," she announced, the relief she felt showing in her +voice, "and as there doesn't seem to be any other room in the place, I +suppose we might as well go back." + +Echoing her suggestion heartily, me girls started to retrace their steps +when a slight sound in the other room made them stop short in a panic. + +"What was that?" Amy questioned, but Mollie held up her hand impatiently. + +There came the sound of some one stumbling over something. This was +followed by a muttered exclamation. + +While the girls looked about them wildly for a means of escape Mollie +began to laugh hysterically. + +"We have a visitor," she announced in a strangled voice. "And he is +between us and the only door in the place. Come on, girls, let's see who +it is." + +They stepped out into the cluttered living room and came face to face with +a young man who seemed more startled at seeing them than they had been at +sight of him. + +"Well, I'll be jiggered!" he exclaimed, and at sound of the commonplace +phrase the girls could have hugged the speaker in relief. Also they felt a +rather hysterical desire to laugh long and foolishly. + +As it was, the stranger stood staring at the girls and the girls at him so +long that the funny side of the situation struck Betty and she really did +begin to laugh. + +"We haven't the slightest idea who you are," she told the astonished young +man. "But I am sure of one thing, and that is that we were never so glad +to see any one in all our lives as we are to see you." + + + + +Chapter X + +Hurrah for Allen + + + +The young man stared for a moment longer. Then the humor of the situation +seemed to strike him too, and he smiled pleasantly. + +"It surely is a pleasure to be as welcome as all that," he said +pleasantly, and the girls noticed that he was a well set up young fellow +and that he wore his uniform easily, as if he had been used to wearing it +for a long, long time. "I am Wesley Travers," he went on. "I live in a +cottage down the road and I came over this way to see if the old professor +had come back yet. I saw the door open--came in--and found you." + +He smiled again pleasantly and looked as though he considered that he had +fallen into rather good luck. But at his mention of the professor Betty +had sobered instantly. + +"Oh, then you know something about Professor Dempsey?" she questioned +eagerly. + +"Please tell us what happened to him," added Amy breathlessly. + +"Did he do this?" asked Mollie, with a comprehensive sweep of her hand +about the cluttered room. + +"I'm afraid he did," answered the young fellow, sobering instantly. "You +see, I just returned from overseas about a week ago and a couple of days +later my dad read in the paper about the death of this queer old man's two +sons. The pater had always been interested in the lonely old boy, so he +sent me over to see if I could do anything for him. I found the place like +this and--the bird had flown. Went dopy I suppose about the bad news and +tore things up a bit." + +Though the boy's words were slangy, there was real sympathy in his tone +and the girls liked him the better for it. + +"And you haven't heard anything from him since?" asked Betty softly. + +"Not a word or a sign," answered the boy, with a shake of his head. "Just +clean cleared out, that's all. Pretty hard luck, I call it. Just at the +end of things too--when he had a right to expect the fellows home. Pretty +tough luck. I wish I could find the poor old duffer and do something for +him." + +The girls heartily echoed the wish. Before leaving the place for good, +they looked about the rooms once more for some sign or message that might +give them a clue to the whereabouts of the professor. They found nothing, +however, and finally were forced to give up the search. + +As the young people stepped outside once more and closed the door after +them upon the desolate house a great wave of pity swept over Betty. +Somehow it did not seem right to go off like this as though they were +abandoning the old man to his fate. Yet what could they do more than they +had done? + +"Girls," she said, a little quiver in her voice, "I would give almost +everything I own to find the poor old professor and help him back to +happiness. If I only could," she added after a pause. "Well," said Wesley +Travers, as he looked admiringly at Betty's flushed, sympathetic little +face, "I imagine if any one could find him and bring him happiness, you +would be that one." + +The young soldier accompanied them back to the road. After thanking him +for the information he had given them, the girls climbed into their cars +and headed toward home, leaving Wesley Travers still standing in the road +and looking after them thoughtfully. + +"A mighty nice bunch of girls," thought the latter. "Especially the little +brown-haired one. They seemed rather interested in that dotty old +professor too. Lucky fellow to have four girls like that interested in +him!" After this remark he started off toward home. + +Luckily for the girls, the next few days were so crowded with preparations +for the trip to Wild Rose Lodge that they had not much time to dwell on +the poor old professor and his misfortunes. + +Only at night would they sometimes dream queer dreams in which wild-eyed +men went around smashing everything in sight and a little cottage stood +lonely and desolate and ghostlike amid a silent forest of trees. + +After a night like this the girls were always glad to awake and find the +sunshine streaming cheerfully in their windows. And they would throw +themselves with more than usual energy into the activities of the day. Yet +try as they would, they could never quite blot the tragedy from their +minds. + +On the afternoon of the day before they were to start for Moonlight Falls, +the girls were gathered in Betty's garage at the back of the house, where +the Little Captain was giving her car one last overhauling to make sure +that it was in perfect condition for the trip. Mollie suddenly espied the +postman coming down the street. + +Now the postman was a very popular man with the girls, for the reason that +he brought almost daily some message from the boys on the other side. He +sympathized with the chums so fully in their desire for letters with the +red triangle in one corner that he actually confessed to a guilty feeling +when he had no missive of the sort for them. + +So now, as Mollie ran toward him with outstretched hand, he held up to her +delighted gaze not only one letter, but four. + +"One for each of you," he said beamingly, as Mollie reached him. "I +thought that probably I would find all four of you at one place, so I kept +the letters together." + +"Oh, thanks, it is awfully good of you," said Mollie absent-mindedly, as +she took the welcome letters and hurried with them back to the garage. +"One for each of us, just think of that!" she cried to the questioning +girls. "It looks as if the boys had all written at the same time. Put down +your duster, Betty, for goodness' sake, and read what Alien has to say. +Maybe," she added hopefully, as she ripped her envelope open, "they will +tell us something definite about coming home." + +So down the girls sat in the midst of dust cloths and more or less dirt to +find what the boys had written. For a moment only the crackling of paper +broke the silence. Then Grace gave a little joyful cry. + +"Will says he is almost sure to be home soon--" + +"And he has been made a sergeant," Amy interrupted, or rather added, her +eyes shining with pride. "Just think of that--Will, a sergeant!" + +"I was just going to tell them that if you had waited a minute," said +Grace, rather crossly. There was quite a little jealousy between Grace and +Amy over Will. Grace had declared more than once that whereas she had +known her brother all her life, Amy had only known him for a couple of +years--or--or more. Grace loved her brother devotedly and once in a while +she resented Amy's place in his affections. + +So now to change the subject and avert a possible quarrel, Mollie jumped +into the breach. + +"Listen to this," she said. "Roy and Frank have been made corporals and +Allen--oh, look at Betty blush!" She looked gleefully across at the Little +Captain and Amy and Grace followed her glance. + +Betty was not blushing, but she felt as uncomfortable as though she had +been. + +"Tell us what Allen says," Mollie dared her wickedly. "Come on, honey-- +dare you to." + +"You can go on daring all you like," said Betty defiantly. This time she +was blushing--from the fact that she knew she could not, or would not, +tell the girls what Allen had said in his letter. Not for anything in this +world! + +"I don't mean what you mean," said Mollie, enjoying her confusion +immensely, while Grace and Amy looked on laughingly. "I just thought that +maybe you would like to be the one to tell us about his promotion." + +"His promotion!" cried Amy and Grace together, and Betty looked quite as +bewildered as any of them. + +"Mollie, for goodness' sake tell us what you mean," she demanded. + +"But didn't he tell you about it, Betty?" Mollie insisted. + +"Wait a minute," said the Little Captain as she hastily scanned the pages +of her long letter. Then, down near the end of the last page she found it, +just a little paragraph, put in as though it had been an afterthought. +"Why," cried Betty, her eyes beginning to shine with excitement, "girls, +listen to this. Allen has been promoted. He's an officer now--a +lieutenant! Think of it--leather leggings and all!" + +It was too much for the girls. They laughed and cried and hugged each +other and tried to imagine Allen in his new uniform to their hearts' +content, for the young new-made officer was a favorite with them all. + +"Goodness," said Amy happily, "I suppose when he gets home he will be +altogether too high-toned to notice common folk like us." + +"Oh, I don't know," said Grace happily, adding with a sly little glance at +Betty, "I imagine he will make an exception of one of us at least." + +"I wonder," drawled Mollie as she picked up her unfinished letter, "which +one of us you can mean." + + + + +Chapter XI + +The Hold-Up + + + +The girls were glad that the letters had come from the boys just as they +had, for it helped them to bridge over the tediously long wait till the +next morning. + +They read the missives with the little red triangles in the left hand +corner over and over again and--whisper it!--at least two of them slept +with the precious letters under their pillows. + +And then--the morning was upon them. It was a beautiful morning too, and +as the girls dressed hurriedly they were glad that they had arranged to +start early. In that way they could take their time and enjoy to the full +the glorious ride to Moonlight Falls. It was only fifty-five miles, but by +driving slowly they could make it seem like twice that. + +It was barely half past nine when Betty, having finished breakfast and put +the last finishing touches to her new white hat, ran around to the garage +to get the car out. + +Ten minutes later she had drawn up in front of Mollie's house, her ears +still ringing with the hundred and one instructions of her anxious mother, +and was tooting the horn of her little car furiously. + +The summons had the desired effect. Mollie came running from the house, +straightening her hat with one hand and lugging a valise in the other +while the twins trailed at her skirts. + +"For goodness' sake, let go of me, Paul. Dodo, if you touch that bag +again, I'll spank you. Mother," she wailed, looking back pleadingly over +her shoulder, "won't you please make these little pests go into the +house?" + +Whereupon Mrs. Billette suddenly appeared at the door, smiled at Betty, +grabbed Paul with one hand, Dodo with the other, while the twins roared a +protest. + +Released, Mollie dropped her bag, sped round to the garage, and in a +moment more was backing the big car round to the road. + +The girls had decided to about live in their khaki tramping suits on this +trip, merely packing in a good dress or two to wear on dress-up occasions. +In this way they had to take less luggage and could have more space to +"spread out" as Mollie said. + +"Put your grip in here, Betty," Mollie suggested, as she slung her own +grip into the tonneau of the big machine. "There is more room, and Mrs. +Irving said she wouldn't mind in the least being entirely surrounded by +suitcases." + +Betty laughed, did as she was bid, and a moment later they were off, +speeding down the road to Grace's house where they were to pick up the +other two girls and Mrs. Irving. + +They found the three waiting for them, and it took scarcely any time at +all to add the extra grips to the growing pile in the tonneau of Mollie's +car. Amid great fun, Mrs. Irving, who was rosy-cheeked and matronly and as +jolly as the girls, was wedged into the remaining space, Amy climbed to +the front seat beside Mollie and Grace took her seat with Betty. + +They were off! The sting of the wind was in their faces, and the sun beat +warmly down upon them as they rolled along, passing familiar houses, and +sometimes familiar people, to whom they waved, and so on and on till they +left the town behind them and started out on the open road. + +"My, this is something like," commented Grace, stretching her feet out +before her for all the world like a lazy, comfortable cat. "I feel awfully +sorry for all the poor people who haven't cars to ride in to-day and Wild +Rose Lodges to visit. By the way, why is it called Wild Rose Lodge, +Betty?" + +"Because they say there are lots of wild roses around it, of course," +Betty responded, her hands resting easily on the wheel, her eyes bright +with the joy of the moment. Grace, stealing a sideways glance at her, +could not help thinking that Betty looked not unlike a wild rose herself. + +"You look awfully pretty, honey," she said then, for Grace was always +generous with praise where her friends were concerned. "I would give the +world to have a color like yours." + +"Goodness," remarked Betty, turning to look at her chum, her face a little +brighter pink because of the honest compliment, "you have a lovely color-- +as you very well know. Mine is too red sometimes." + +"Nobody thinks that but you," said Grace, squeezing Betty's hand +affectionately while she dived down in her pocket for some candy. "The +only time I have noticed you get very red," she added, "is when some one +happens to mention a certain young gentleman by the name of Lieutenant +Allen Washburn." + +Betty could feel that her face was burning, but she did not care. She was +awfully proud of Allen and desperately fond of him and for the moment she +did not care if the whole world knew about it. + +"Isn't it wonderful, Grade?" she cried, her heart pounding joyously. +"About Allen being an officer, I mean. I have to pinch myself several +times a minute to make myself realize that it is really true." + +"It surely is great," Grace answered slowly, adding after a moment, while +a faraway expression crept into her eyes, "I don't blame you for being +crazy about him, honey. I could almost be foolish myself. Oh, don't +worry," she went on quickly as Betty turned amazed and rather startled +eyes upon her. "I'm no fonder of Allen than I am of any of the other boys. +I just said that I didn't blame you, that's all." + +Betty turned her eyes to the road once more, but in her heart she was +troubled. There had been a note in Grace's voice that she had never heard +before. Could it be possible that she really cared for Allen? But she +pushed the thought from her mind resolutely. If such a thing could have +been possible, she certainly would have discovered it before this. The +mere thought was nonsense of course. And yet she was troubled. + +"Have some candy," Grace invited, breaking in upon her thoughts. "You +needn't stick up your nose at it to-day for I bought this fresh from the +store this morning." + +"Who said I was going to stick up my nose?" said Betty, helping herself to +a chocolate that looked as if it might contain a nut and thankful for the +break in her not-too-pleasant reflections. "If you will think back just a +little, I think you will admit that I have been guilty very seldom of +sticking up my nose at anything--" + +"Except Percy Falconer," finished Grace drolly, and they both laughed +merrily. + +"Poor Percy!" said Betty, chewing her candy contentedly. "I suppose he +will hate us more heartily than ever now." + +They were running some eight or ten miles from the town along a quiet +stretch of road, never dreaming of danger, when Betty's little racer nosed +around a bend in the road and came smack into it! Not twenty feet ahead of +them a man sprang into the middle of the road and leveled a revolver at +them! In one electrified instant they saw that the fellow wore a mask and +a slouch hat and looked for all the world like a brigand straight out of +some sensational moving picture. + +Betty, more surprised at first than alarmed, put on her brakes and came to +a standstill, at the same time putting out a hand to warn the car behind +them. + +"Oh, Betty, we are being held up!" moaned Grace, who evidently was +frightened enough for both of them. "For goodness' sake, hold up your +hands. He may shoot." + +Still feeling rather dazed with the suddenness of the thing, Betty raised +both hands above her head, at the same time feeling a rather hysterical +desire to laugh. It was so absurd, being held up by a masked stranger in +broad daylight. + +Nevertheless, she gave a little gasp of fright as the man waved his big +revolver menacingly and came close to the car. She wished frantically that +he would not point that firearm at her. Suppose it should go off! + +"Come on, hand over what you got," the robber demanded in a gruff +threatening voice. "The quicker you move, the better it will be for you." + +"Wh--what do you want?" asked Betty, in a weak little voice that did not +sound like her own at all. She had thought of her pocketbook beside her in +the pocket of the car. The purse contained a whole month's allowance. She +was sparring desperately for time--help in some form or other might come +at any moment. But the ruffian in the road was evidently in no frame of +mind to be fooled with. + +He waved his revolver once more, eliciting a terrified gurgle from Grace +and commanded roughly that they get out of the car. + +"No funny business," he snarled. "Get out!" + +Betty was about to obey when she had a brilliant thought. Her pepper gun! +She had bought it the day before from the son of her father's chauffeur, +thinking it was an undesirable plaything for a nine-year-old boy and had +put it, as the most convenient place, in her car. And the pepper gun was +filled--as it should have been--with good red cayenne pepper! + + + + +Chapter XII + +Sheep! + + + +For a moment Betty hesitated, almost afraid of what she was going to do. +The pepper gun might work, but if she were not quick enough or clever +enough, her little trick might also result in a tragedy. + +Her hesitation was only momentary, however, for Betty was a born fighter. +Suddenly she cried out as if in joyful greeting to an unexpected arrival. + +"Here they come! here they come!" she called, and in the moment that their +captor turned his startled eyes from her to the road ahead, Betty acted. + +She snatched the pepper gun from its hiding place in the car and as the +man once more turned furiously upon her let him have the full contents +directly in the face. + +It was a dreadful thing to do. Choking and sputtering, the ruffian dropped +his revolver and raised both fists to his tortured eyes. + +"I'll get you for this!" he cried between great sneezes that threatened to +tear him apart. "You just wait--" + +But Betty refused to wait. As soon as the fellow had dropped his weapon +she had started the engine, and now she guided the car past the stuttering +robber and raced off down the road. + +Mollie, who had only half understood what was going on but who had caught +enough of it to be considerably alarmed did not stop to ask questions, but +sped off down the road after Betty. + +It was half a dozen miles farther on that Betty finally slowed the car and +waited for Mollie and the others to catch up with her. Grace, who had been +gradually recovering from her fright, had not yet recovered enough to ask +any questions. She had been too much concerned in putting miles between +them and the scene of their adventure. + +As Mollie came up alongside, Betty drew her first free breath. + +Of course Mollie and Amy and Mrs. Irving wanted to hear all about it, and +Betty told them what had happened, her account interrupted by hysterical +laughter. + +But when she came to the pepper gun, the girls' expression of utter +bewilderment changed to admiration of Betty's quick thought and quicker +action. + +"Why, Betty," cried Amy, incredulously, "I don't see how you ever had the +courage to do it. Why, that man might have shot you!" + +"He probably would have if I hadn't got him first," said Betty, half-way +between laughter and tears. "It was taking an awfully big chance, but," +with a flash of spirit, "I wasn't going to sit there calmly and have him +take away all our money. Not if I could help it." + +"Betty, I think you were simply wonderful," said Mollie in heart-felt +admiration. "Why, if he had taken our money it would have completely +spoiled our trip." + +"How they talk," said Grace hysterically. "Any one would think it was only +the trip that mattered when we might very easily have been <i>killed.</i>" + +This remark served to bring Mrs. Irving to a realization of the present, +and she suggested that they start on again. + +"Not that I am particularly nervous," she hastily added, as the girls +looked at her suspiciously. "Only I will feel just as well when we have +put a dozen miles between us and that highway robber, instead of only half +that. I wish there was a town handy where we could notify the +authorities." + +They started on again, and as the miles slid past them they became less +nervous and even began to laugh a little at thought of the robber's +consternation when he received the contents of Betty's pepper gun full in +his face. + +"He was probably the most surprised crook ever," commenced Grace with a +chuckle. "He never will get over cursing you, Betty. How did you ever +happen to have it? The pepper gun, I mean," she added curiously. + +Betty explained how the gun had come into her possession. "I didn't know," +she added ruefully, her foot on the accelerator as they sped up a steep +hill, "when I bought it, that it would come in so handy. How much further +do you suppose we have to go?" she asked, changing the subject abruptly. + +"Why," said Grace, looking at her wrist watch and realizing suddenly that +she was getting rather hungry, "we have been riding since ten o'clock and +it is now after noon. We must be very nearly there by this time. Goodness, +I hope there will be something to eat around Wild Rose Lodge. I'm getting +famished." + +"Mollie's Uncle John said he would attend to that--stocking the cabin with +good things, I mean," said Betty, herself suddenly conscious of a +disturbingly hungry feeling. "He said we would find enough canned things +to last us at least a week." + +"Canned things, yes," pouted Grace. "But who in the world wants to live on +canned things? I don't see why we didn't bring a chicken along, at least." + +"Well, maybe we can manage to run over one," chuckled Betty, as they +passed a farmhouse and several chickens scuttled squawking across the +road. "Then we can have one good and fresh. For goodness' sake, what is +Mollie tooting that horn for?" she added, as the raucous signal came from +the car behind them, "Has she stopped the car, Grace? Look and see." + +"It's stopped deader than a door nail," said Grace, obligingly screwing +about in her seat and fixing on the road behind them a disapproving eye. +"Now what do you suppose can be the trouble this time? If she has had a +blowout or something, I'm not going to help fix the old thing--" + +"You couldn't fix the blowout, dear, but you might help with the tire," +Betty said, with a laugh, as she stopped the roadster and jumped to the +road. "Come on, she seems to be excited about something--" + +"Goodness, I hope it isn't another highway robber," said Grace anxiously, +stopping in the middle of the road at the dreadful thought. "I don't see +any, but--" + +"You don't see any because there <i>isn't</i> any," Betty assured her, +taking her by the arm and leading her decidedly forward. "You don't +suppose there is a whole Robin Hood's band in this woods, do you?" + +Mollie and Amy and Mrs. Irving came running to meet them excitedly--or at +least, Mollie and Amy did the running, while their chaperon followed more +slowly. + +"There are blackberries in there, whole bushels and bushels of them!" +Mollie called. "You could see them from the road, and there you girls +passed right by them without even looking." + +"Blackberries!" repeated Grace resignedly, as she felt in her pocket to +see if she had any candy left. "Just listen to her speaking of +blackberries when what I'm dying for is a good big steak with onions on +top of it--" + +"Stop it," cried Mollie indignantly, while the others felt their mouths +begin to water. "The idea of mentioning steak--But here," she broke off, +seizing Grace's hand and dragging her toward the woods, "come with me and +pick berries if you value your life. Lucky we brought those tin pails +along." + +"But why," protested Grace patiently, as she was dragged along, "should we +want to pick berries?" + +"To eat," replied Mollie, attacking a bush that was fairly black with the +luscious ripe fruit. "And besides," she added, lowering her voice to a +confidential pitch, "Mrs. Irving said that if she could find some flour +and baking powder in the lodge she would make us a steamed blackberry +pudding for supper." + +Grace stared for a moment then, without another word, set to work on the +loaded bush. + +"You might have told me that before," she grumbled, her mouth full of +berries. "You always did have a mean disposition, Mollie." + +To which Mollie's only reply was a chuckle and a sly wink at Betty, who +was working close at her side. + +They worked on happily for a few minutes, then suddenly Amy straightened +up and stood quiet as though she were listening to something. + +The girls, whose nerves were still a little on edge from their recent +adventure, demanded to know in no uncertain tones what was the matter with +her. + +"N-nothing," Amy answered a little sheepishly. "I thought I heard a little +rustling among the leaves, that's all." + +"Probably a breeze coming up," said Betty matter-of-factly, and they went +on with their berry picking. + +But it was not long before a second disturbance came, and this time they +all heard it. It was, as Amy had said, a rustling sound. However, it was +louder this time, as though several heavy bodies were pushing through the +underbrush on the other side of the road. + +"Perhaps we had better go and see what is making all the noise," said Mrs. +Irving, her light tone successfully hiding an undercurrent of nervousness. +"I guess we have picked enough berries for our pudding, anyway." + +The girls picked up their pails and started for the road, Betty in the +lead. But when the latter reached the outer fringe of bushes she started +back, almost treading on Mollie's toes and causing her to drop her pail in +alarm. + +"It's sheep!" cried the Little Captain. "Dozens and dozens of them! Come +and look!" + + + + +Chapter XIII + +The Enemy Routed + + + +Mrs. Irving pushed forward beside Betty, and the girls stared +unbelievingly over her shoulder. Then they saw that she was right. + +While they had been picking berries in the woods a flock of sheep had +wandered down to the road from the other direction and had completely +surrounded their two cars. + +The big-eyed, innocent looking animals were circling around and around the +machines as if examining them with a sort of ovine interest and curiosity. + +But to the girls the sheep had a rather terrifying aspect. There were so +many of them and they had so completely taken possession of their +automobiles! How in the world were they ever to get back their property? + +"Goodness!" Grace whispered plaintively in Betty's ear, "I expect they +will try to climb into the cars next. What ever are we going to do?" + +"Sh," cautioned Amy fearfully, as some of the flock, attracted by the +noise in the bushes, turned their heads in the direction of it. "Suppose +they should come in here?" + +"Well, they are not lions, you goose," said Mollie, coming out of the +trance into which surprise had thrown her. "They are only sheep, and they +couldn't hurt you if they tried." + +"Not unless they stampeded," said Betty quietly. "In that case I wouldn't +care to be in the way." + +"But we can't stay here all night," Mollie protested impatiently. + +"Held up by a lot of silly old sheep," added Grace, still more +uncomfortably conscious of a growing appetite. + +"It must be almost two o'clock," added Amy with a sigh. + +"Yes, if things keep on this way it will be night before we reach the +lodge," said Mollie, adding with decision, "I vote that we get some sticks +and stones and scat 'em out of the way." + +"I think I have a better suggestion than that," put in Mrs. Irving, +speaking for the first time. "I think we had better wait for a short time +before we do anything. The sheep will probably get tired in a little while +and wander off of their own accord." + +"Oh, all right," said Mollie, with rather bad grace as she seated herself +on a convenient rock. "But all the time we are waiting for them to be +tired, we will be getting tired ourselves and, goodness, Mrs. Irving, I'm +being starved to death." + +At the desperation in her tones the girls had to laugh, though they were +as reluctant to sit with folded hands and wait as she was. Still, Mrs. +Irving was their chaperon and probably knew best. + +So with admirable resignation they disposed themselves beside Mollie on +the big rock and settled down to watch for developments. + +But after waiting for an everlasting five minutes they decided that there +were to be no developments. The foolish sheep continued to circle lazily +about the cars, nibbling now and then upon the grass by the roadside but +showing not the slightest intention in the world of moving from there for +some time to come. + +"Oh, what shall we do?" moaned Grace, moving restlessly on her +uncomfortable seat. "My foot is going to sleep and I'm trying to sit on a +pointed stone or something." + +"And it looks as though those crazy sheep were going to stay there all +night," added Betty, herself growing restive at the apparent futility of +waiting for something to happen. "Can't we do something, Mrs. Irving?" + +"Wait just a few minutes more," begged the lady, who was afraid of the +sheep, but was reluctant to confess her fear to her young charges. "Look, +there seems to be a movement among them now," she added hopefully, as one +sheep pressed against another and sent it scampering a few feet along the +road. "We won't have to wait much longer, I am sure." + +And so, both to break their chaperon's authority, the girls fidgeted and +fumed, getting more impatient and hungrier with every leaden minute that +dragged itself by until almost three-quarters of an hour had passed. + +Then, when they began to think that they must scream if they were forced +to wait another minute, their chaperon rose of her own accord and with a +decided movement flicked the dust from her skirt. + +"I think we have waited long enough," she hazarded, to which each girl +said a fervent though silent "amen." "I suppose we shall have to follow +Mollie's suggestion and gather sticks and stones. Perhaps we can scare +them away." + +"Hooray!" shouted Mollie, jumping to her feet with relief. At the +unexpected sound the sheep in the road started and looked about them +uneasily. "Come on, girls, I'm mad enough to attack Jem single-handed. All +who are with me, say Aye." + +"Aye!" they yelled, scurrying about to find sticks and stones. + +Betty, flourishing a branch at the frightened flock, yelled: "We are wild, +wild women, old sheep. You had better get out while the going's good. We +eat little fellers like you alive!" and with a whoop of wild spirits she +danced down to the edge of the wood waving her stick wildly about her +head. + +Her fun was contagious and, smothering their laughter, the girls waltzed +after her, throwing sticks and stones and all sorts of improvised weapons +into the midst of the now thoroughly frightened flock. + +Mrs. Irving strove to caution them, but her voice was lost in the babble, +and for once in her life at least she found herself utterly ignored. With +a little sigh she picked up a stick of her own and followed after the +girls. + +For a moment it looked as though the panic stricken sheep would rush +straight for the shouting girls, and in that moment what was little more +than an exciting game to the girls might have turned into a rather +dreadful tragedy. + +But, luckily, half a dozen sheep broke through and, led by an old ram, +started down the road and the rest of the flock, as is the habit of sheep, +followed after. + +In a moment the entire flock was galloping off down the road with the +excited girls in pursuit. There is no telling how far they might have +followed the sheep had not Betty become suddenly possessed of a grain of +common-sense. + +Panting and laughing, she came to a standstill while the girls rushed past +her. + +"Come back here!" she cried, her voice choked with laughter. "There's no +use of our being as silly as the sheep. Mrs. Irving will think we have +deserted her." + +So reluctantly the girls abandoned the chase and started back to rejoin +their much relieved but slightly dazed chaperon. + +"Now if we had only done that an hour ago," said Mollie, as they climbed +back into the machines determined to make up for lost time, "we would have +been that much nearer the lodge and--something to eat." + +"Goodness, it will be almost dark when we get there now," wailed Grace, as +she slipped into the seat beside Betty. "And we haven't had anything to +eat since breakfast." + +"What with highway robbers and sheep," laughed Betty, as she started the +engine, "we shall be lucky if we get there at all." + +"Oh, Betty, if you love me don't mention that awful highwayman again," +begged Grace, looking uneasily into the shadows of the wood. "I don't want +to have any more thrills like that as long as I live." + +"Let's hope we won't," said Betty fervently. + +"It's a pity there is no telephone along this road--we could notify the +folks at Deepdale," remarked Mollie. + +"Humph, if we did that they might get so scared that they'd send for us to +come home," came from Amy. + +"That's so!" came from the other Outdoor Girls quickly. + +"Well, as I said before, no more thrills like that for yours truly," +repeated Grace. + +But little did the girls know that in the weeks to follow they would have +more and more startling thrills than they had ever experienced before. + + + + +Chapter XIV + +Nothing Human + + + +They might have reached Wild Rose Lodge before dusk, in spite of Grace's +gloomy prediction, if everything had gone well then. But it seemed that +the evil genius of bad luck was not yet through with them. + +They were scarcely five miles from their destination when, bang! went a +report that made the girls clutch at each other wildly. At first they +jumped to the conclusion that they were being held up again, but close on +the heels of the first thought came the conviction of the truth. Mollie +had had a blowout! + +Betty, looking behind, saw the big car stop and brought her own little +roadster to a standstill once more. "There is nothing wrong with our +tires, is there?" she asked of Grace. "Look over your side, Gracie, and +see." + +Finding nothing amiss, they jumped out and ran back to Mollie to offer +assistance. Mollie was eyeing the flat tire gloomily and saying things +under her breath that none of the girls could catch. Then as Betty spoke +to her she seemed to come to life and ran around to the back of the +machine. + +"Of course you can help," she answered, working to release the extra tire. +"I would like to see you get out of it. Lucky I bought an extra tire +before we started, though I did hope," here she glared at the girls as if +it were all their fault, "that I wouldn't have to use it so soon. We've +had more trouble on this ride than any I can remember. A hold-up, sheep +and--this!" + +"Well, there is no use talking about it," Betty reminded her cheerfully. +"The less we talk, the harder we can work and the sooner we shall get +started again." + +"Yes, that's all very well," grumbled Mollie, as she fumbled for her +tools; "but you don't know this place as well as I do." + +"You talk," said Amy, her eyes widening, "as though there were wild +animals or something in the woods. I didn't know they came as far east as +this." + +"They don't, goose," said Mollie grumpily, as she pulled at the tire. "I +didn't say anything about wild animals, did I? Only we have to ride about +two miles through the woods before we get to the lodge and I must say I +didn't want to do that in the dark." + +"But there is some sort of road, isn't there?" asked Grace. + +Mollie, bending over the lifting jack, shot her a withering glance. + +"Of course there's a road," she said shortly. "How else could we expect to +use the cars?" + +"It must be a sort of wagon road," suggested Betty as she deftly helped +her chum. "And I don't blame you for not wanting to try it at night, +Mollie. I don't much like the idea myself." + +"I believe if we hurry that we can get there before dusk," said Mrs. +Irving confidently, though it might have been noticed that she kept her +eyes rather anxiously on the fast sinking sun. + +At last, after what seemed an eternity to the impatient girls, the new +tire had replaced the old one, the old one was safely strapped on the back +of the car, the tools were put away, and they were ready to start once +more. + +"Give her plenty of gas this time, Betty," Mollie sung after her as the +Little Captain climbed into her car. "If we can manage to get to the woods +before dark we will be doing good work. Let her go." + +With which advice she settled herself behind the wheel of her own car and +they were off once more. + +Betty did "give her plenty of gas," the result being that they succeeded +in reaching the wagon road that led into the woods to the lodge just on +the edge of dusk. + +However, when they started along the road they were dismayed to find that +what was only dusk outside on the road became almost dark in here, and +Betty had all she could do to keep to the road at all. + +"Hadn't you better put on your lights?" Grace suggested uneasily. "We +might run into a ditch or something. Betty, I'm half scared." + +For answer Betty switched on the lights and the woods and the road ahead +of them were suddenly flooded with a weird radiance. It brought out +branches and leaves and stones in such sharp contrast to the dark +background that the effect was startling. + +"Oh," gasped Grace, "turn them off again, do, Betty. It is positively +ghastly." + +"Don't be foolish," said Betty, striving to make her voice sound +matter-of-fact, her eyes glued to the road ahead of them as it twisted and +turned through the woods. "I don't see why lights should make a perfectly +harmless wood look ghastly. And, anyway, I couldn't turn them out now. I +don't believe I could find my way. You don't want me to run into +something, do you?" + +"No, of course not," Grace said more firmly, rather ashamed of her fears. +"I didn't mean to act in a silly fashion. But," she turned to Betty +quickly, "that hold-up and all--don't you feel a little queer yourself, +Betty? Tell the truth." + +"Yes," said the Little Captain truthfully. "I feel," she added slowly, as +though searching for words, "I feel as though the woods belonged to +somebody and that we were sort of--sort of--intruding." + +"Why, Betty!" said Grace, staring at her, "what a funny thing to say." + +"I suppose it is," said Betty, shaking off the illusion with a shrug of +her shoulders. "I am getting foolish in my old age I guess. We shall all +feel better when we get something to eat." + +"If we ever do," said Grace gloomily, adding as a sudden turn in the woods +shot them deeper into the gloom of it: "Do be careful, Betty. I feel as +though we were going over a precipice." + +But Betty was too busy keeping the road to listen to her. + +"Look behind," she directed Grace, "and see if Mollie is following close +to us." + +"She is right behind," reported Grace, as two eyes of light shot their +glare in her eyes. "She is following us closer than a poor relation." + +Betty giggled at this, and then for a long time--or at least it seemed a +long time to their strained nerves--they went on in silence, following the +winding road wherever it led and getting deeper into the forest with every +moment. + +Then suddenly something loomed up dark against the shadows only a few +hundred feet ahead of them, and with a great feeling of thankfulness they +realized that they had reached their destination. Directly ahead of them +stood Wild Rose Lodge. They had arrived! + +But just as they were about to break into wild jubilation something +happened that tightened Betty's hand on the wheel and made Grace cry out +with dismay. + +Out from the shadow of the lodge a second shadow detached itself, a +hunched up, bulky, fearful shadow that seemed neither beast nor man, but a +combination of both of them. + +For a moment, while the girls watched, paralyzed with fright, the thing +seemed about to spring into the path of the moving car. But in another +instant it turned, wheeled, and disappeared into the thick bushes about +the house. + +Then and only then did Betty recover presence of mind enough to stop the +car. + +"Betty! Betty!" cried Grace in a horrified whisper, grasping Betty's hand +as it clung to the wheel. "What was it? Oh, what was it?" + +"I don't know," Betty answered mechanically. "I only know it was +horrible." + +Then quite suddenly and without warning Grace broke down and cried. + + + + +Chapter XV + +Wild Roses + + + +"We will go into the house," Mrs. Irving answered to their concerted cry of +"What shall we do?" "Whatever it was that has frightened us has +disappeared now, and we shall certainly be safer inside the house than out +here. Come on, girls, I have the key." + +And so, leaving the cars where they were, the girls approached the house +with shaking knees and hearts that hammered their fear aloud. The Outdoor +Girls were ordinarily afraid of nothing real and human, but to be held up +at the point of a pistol would unnerve almost any one, and the struggle +the girls had made not to give way to their fears at the time had made +them more nervous still. And this thing that had startled them now, added +to what had gone before, seemed a little more than could be borne. It +seemed, in fact, like nothing human. + +Mrs. Irving turned the key in the lock, opened the door and stepped inside +the dark place, motioning to the girls to follow her. + +Fearfully the chums obeyed and Betty and Mollie pulled out their electric +pocket torches, filling the place with a weird light. Mollie, being +acquainted with the place, naturally took charge of the situation. + +"There are matches over there," she said, "and candles over the fireplace. +For goodness' sake, let's get a regular light, folks. Perhaps that will +make us feel more natural." + +"So say all of us," echoed Amy. "The dark makes everything worse, when you +are not well acquainted with a place." + +Mollie touched a match to the candles, and in the answering flare turned +to face her chums. + +"Girls," she said, determinedly, "I don't know how you feel about it, but +I vote that before we do anything else we get something to eat. We all +look like ghosts just now and I'm sure we feel much worse than that. But a +little food makes a monstrous lot of difference." + +"You know it does," cried Grace, relaxing into one of the big chairs that +were scattered about the room and covering her face with her hands. "I +think if I don't get something to eat soon, I'll die, that's all." + +"Well, we are none of us going to die," said Mrs. Irving vigorously, as +she threw aside her coat and hat. "Show us the way to the kitchen, Mollie, +and if there is anything there to eat, we will get it." + +Accordingly Mollie took one of the candles and led the way into a little +room beyond while all the girls but Betty crowded in after her. + +For the Little Captain slipped back for a moment and very quietly closed +the door, shutting out definitely the shadow beyond it. + +"I suppose it is foolish," she said to herself, "because if there is +anything out there that really wants to get in there are plenty of ways +that it can do it, without coming in through the door. But," and she +turned the key in the lock, "it certainly makes one feel more comfortable +to have the door closed." Then she followed the girls into the other room, +and the sight that met her eyes was certainly more cheering than anything +she could have imagined. + +Mollie's Uncle John had surprised them. In the exact center of a table set +for five lay a young pig, roasted whole and browned to a turn! Nor was +this all. The table was littered with covered dishes of all sizes and +descriptions, and as the contents of each one of these dishes was +disclosed, the girls became more and more excited and hilarious. + +There was apple sauce in one, salad in another, mashed potatoes that had +become quite cold in another, and a boat of gravy which had also become +quite cold. + +"But we don't mind," cried Mollie joyfully, as she took the gravy-boat in +one hand, the dish of potatoes in the other, and ran with them over to a +great stove in one corner of the room. "We need only some matches to have +this blazing hot in a minute. No, not that way, Grace," as the latter +tried to help by lighting the burner. "This isn't a gas stove, you know; +it's an oil stove and you had better look out or you will blow us all up." + +It is small wonder if Betty was so dazzled by this joyful scene that she +could neither move nor speak for the space of two seconds or so. Then, +recovering her powers of locomotion, she went over to the table and picked +up a note that, in their excitement, the girls had overlooked. + +"See what this says," she called to them, and they looked at her rather +impatiently. Just at that moment the only thing they cared to consider was +food--and more food--and then some more! + +But as Betty read they became more interested, and even stopped long +enough to hear her through. It was a brief note. This is what it said. + + "My dear young ladies: + + "I am a neighbor of Mr. Prendergast," (this was the dressed-up name + of Mollie's Uncle John) "and he axed me to get your dinner ready fer + you. I tried to keep it hot but you wus so long comin' I had to go + home to get dinner fer my old man. Hope things is all right. + + "Lizzie Davis." + +"So she is the one who has done all this," said Betty, looking around at +the good things with dancing eyes. "I bet she is nice and plump and has +rosy cheeks." + +"Lizzie Davis? Lizzie Davis?" repeated Mollie, bringing the steaming gravy +back and plumping the dish triumphantly down on the table. "Rather a funny +name for a fairy godmother, but she sure does know how to cook. Don't +forget the potatoes, Grace. Come on, girls--let's sit down." + +So down the girls sat and acted like ravenous pigs--or so Grace described +their conduct afterward. Mrs. Irving set to work carving the delicious +pork, but they could not wait for her. + +They seized slices of bread, spread apple sauce and butter on them, and +ate like what they were, four famished girls and one equally famished +chaperon who had been out in the open all day and had had nothing to eat +since morning. + +It was some time before they showed any considerable signs of slowing up. +Then Grace put down her fork, leaned back lazily, and called for dessert. +The latter was a huge cherry pie, and before the girls were through with +it there was not enough left to color a robin's egg. + +After the pangs of hunger had been satisfied they found to their great +surprise that they were dead tired and sleepy. + +"We will get the dishes out of the way and then Mollie can show us where +we sleep," said Betty. "Oh, girls, did you ever in your life taste such a +dinner?" + +It was not till the dishes had all been cleared away and Mollie took up +her candle to show them their quarters that the unwelcome thought of the +thing that had so frightened them again crept terrifyingly into their +minds. Try as they would to forget it, they could not. + +There were three small sleeping rooms in the lodge, but, small as they +were, they were comfortable and contained beds that seemed the height of +luxury to the tired girls. + +Because of the indistinct and flickering candle light the girls could make +out very little of what the rooms really looked like, and they postponed +any close examination until the morning. Back of the lodge was a shed for +the cars. + +The bedrooms were all joined by doors, which gave the girls a safe and +sociable feeling. Mrs. Irving, of course, had one room to herself, Betty +and Mollie slept together and Grace and Amy paired off. + +They wasted little time in getting ready--Betty and Mollie had appointed +themselves a committee of two to bring in the grips from Mollie's car--and +before long they tasted the exquisite restfulness of comfortable beds +after a long nerve-trying day in the out-of-doors. + +"I don't believe I shall close my eyes all night," said Amy with +conviction. "I'm too horribly nervous." + +But three minutes later she was sound asleep! + +The sun had been up a good two hours before any one stirred in Wild Rose +Lodge. Betty was the first to awake, and in fifteen minutes she had the +rest of the sleepy-eyed and protesting girls up and nearly dressed. + +"What's the idea, anyway?" yawned Grace lazily. "I could have slept at +least a good two hours more." + +"On a day like this?" sang Betty, breathing in deep breaths of the +wood-scented air. "And isn't this just the dearest room you ever saw?" +she added, wheeling about and regarding the apartment delightedly. They +were in Grace and Amy's room, for, as usual, Mollie and Betty had been +the first dressed and had gone into their churns' room to hurry them up +--if such a thing were possible. + +Betty's summing up of the room they were in was indeed well deserved, for +the place was charming. There was a dresser, a bed, and three chairs, and +all of these articles of furniture had been rough-hewed out of logs, +giving the place a delightfully rustic appearance. There was a grass rug +on the floor and in one corner a little table covered with books. + +"Isn't it darling?" cried Mollie, following Betty's glance about the +place. "Uncle John built the lodge and made all of the furniture himself, +you know. And he bought the grass rugs from the Indians." + +They were still exclaiming about the place when Mrs. Irving called to them +that breakfast was ready. With a whoop of delight they answered the +summons, and a moment later sat themselves down to a most satisfying meal +of omelet and toast and coffee with real cream in it. Also Mrs. Irving set +on the table a yellow-topped pitcher of milk fresh from the cow. + +"Our friend, Lizzie Davis, brought it," their chaperon answered with a +smile, in response to the girls' curious questions. "Also some fresh +butter and eggs. I have an idea," she added, as she got up to refill the +butter plate, "that we shall live on the fat of the land while we are +here." + +"Lizzie Davis," repeated Betty, pausing in the act of filling her glass +with fresh milk and regarding Mrs. Irving with dancing eyes. "Tell me, +chaperon dear. Didn't she have nice red cheeks, and wasn't she +delightfully plump?" + +"Yes," said Mrs. Irving, smiling at Betty's flushed prettiness. "She was +all of that, my dear. I don't believe I ever saw a more cozy looking +person in my life." + +"I knew it!" cried Betty triumphantly, adding with a suspicious eye on +Grace: "Hand over that plate of toast, Gracie. You needn't think you can +eat it all up!" + +After breakfast they sallied forth to "view the country o'er." They would +have stayed and helped Mrs. Irving clear up, but that good woman declared +that she could do better by herself on this first morning. After she had +become better acquainted with the place they could help her all they +liked. Finally, after some protest, they had to let her have her way. + +As they stepped out on the porch, Betty paused and held up her hand for +silence. + +"Listen," she said. "That murmuring sound and the splash of water--" + +"It's the river and the falls," explained Mollie. "Let's go down and have +a look at them." + +But Amy, giving a little gasp of delight, fairly tumbled down the steps +and into a riot of gorgeous pink wild roses. The lodge was fairly +surrounded by them. + +"Oh, you darlings!" cried Amy, putting both arms around a bush of the +fragrant flowers as though she would gather in all their beauty at once. +"I never saw anything so wonderful in all my life! Oh, girls, I'm glad I +came!" + + + + +Chapter XVI + +The Whirlpool + + + +All the spirit and joy of the woods seemed to have entered into the +Outdoor Girls. For the next half hour they romped in the woods and the +beautiful flowers for all the world like little children whose first +glimpse it was of the country. + +They took down their hair and made wreaths of wild roses for crowns, and +when, faces flushed with exercise and fun, they had finished, one might +easily have mistaken them for real fairies come to life. + +"But I want to see the river," Betty called to them, stopping once more to +listen to the rhythmic sound of splashing water. "Come on, girls. It can't +be more than a few hundred feet away, even though we can't see it for the +bushes. Lead on, Mollie Billette, I wouldst hie me hence." + +But when Mollie laughingly obeyed and started into the woods, Amy held +back. + +"What's the matter?" Grace asked, turning to her curiously. + +"I--I was just thinking," stammered Amy, ashamed of her own weakness, +"about last night." + +"About last night," Betty prompted, still at a loss. + +"You haven't forgotten, have you?" she asked, incredulously. "That--thing +--on the porch." + +"Oh!" they said, and a shadow fell over their bright faces. + +"Why, yes," said Betty, slowly, adding as though she could not quite +explain the phenomenon herself: "I suppose we did forget all about it." + +"Or if we didn't, we should have," said Mollie, ungrammatically but +decidedly. "Come on, girls, we aren't going to let any silly old thing +like that frighten us out of a good time." + +"It seems," said Grace thoughtfully, while Amy still held back, "almost as +if we had dreamed the whole thing. The memory of it is so vague--and +indistinct." + +"Well, it isn't vague to me--or indistinct either," said Amy, feeling +rather abused because the girls did not seem to share her feelings. "I +hardly slept all night long just thinking about it" + +"Oh, Amy Blackford!" said Grace accusingly, while Mollie and Betty turned +twinkling eyes upon her. "If that isn't the biggest one I ever heard. Why, +I woke up once or twice in the night and each time I found you almost +snoring." + +"Oh, I did not," protested Amy, flushing indignantly, but here Mollie and +Betty stepped laughingly into the fray and peremptorily put an end to it. + +"Let's not fight about it," said Betty, when she could make herself heard. +"We don't care whether Amy snored or not. What we want to know is this: +Who is coming with us for a look at the falls?" + +"Now you're talking, Little Captain," said Mollie approvingly. "All in +favor please say Aye." Amy still showed some inclination to hold back, +but Mollie and Betty each took an arm and hurried her willy-nilly with +them into the woods. + +"You had better take the lead, Mollie," Betty suggested after they had +gone some little distance along the path. "I can manage Amy alone now, I +guess. She seems pretty well tamed." + +"Tamed, but scared to death," Amy came back, with a wry smile. "Really, +Betty," she turned to look at the Little Captain closely, "aren't you the +least little bit nervous about what happened last night?" + +"No, I don't think I am now," said Betty, adding candidly, "I must say I +was last night though--just frightened to death. It seemed so awfully +uncanny--coming upon that thing in the dark after what we had gone through +with that bandit. But then," she added more lightly, "everything seems so +much worse in the dark, you know." + +"Yes," said Amy slowly and looking very serious. "That all may be very +true. But I think that as long as we are sure we didn't dream it last +night and that the skulking thing really dodged out from the corner of our +porch that we ought to be on our guard against it. And how," she finished +most reasonably, "can we be on our guard in the woods?" + +Betty was at a loss to know just how to answer such a question. By this +time Mollie and Grace were some little distance ahead of them and Amy's +nervousness was beginning to communicate itself to her against her will. + +She felt again the creeping sensation that had traveled up and down her +spine at sight of that crouching, sinister figure that had sprung out from +the shadow of the porch. + +It had disappeared into the bushes last night, and, for all she knew--and +the thought made her tingle weirdly--it might still be hiding in them, +crouching, ready to spring-- + +With an effort she shook off the mood and turned to Amy brightly. + +"There is no use in our making a mountain out of a mole hill," she said, +plucking a wild rose as they swung by and smelling of its delicious +fragrance. "Last night, I admit, it seemed very terrifying to us, but that +was probably because we couldn't see what it was that frightened us. It +may just have been a large dog or something." + +"Humph," sniffed Amy, sceptically, "it must have been a monster dog. Sort +of a ghost hound." + +"Goodness, that's going from bad to worse," laughed Betty, as they +rejoined the other girls. "Let's hope it isn't anything like that, Amy +dear. Hello, what are you waiting for?" she hailed the girls cheerfully. +"We almost fell over you." + +"Watch your step," cautioned Mollie, adding as she cleared aside some +bushes and motioned Betty to a place beside her: "We've reached the river, +Betty, and a little farther up is the falls. Isn't it beautiful?" + +"Oh, it is beautiful," rejoined Betty, a sentiment which Amy heartily +echoed, and for a few minutes they stood there, drinking in the beauty of +the scene, entirely unmindful of the lovely picture they themselves made +with their loosened hair and wreaths of wild flowers. + +The river was not very wide, but the water was deep and clear and swift +and the continual swish-swish of its passage over rocks and between +foliage-laden banks made a pleasant, even sound that was deliciously +restful and refreshing. + +"Oh, if we could only get down right into the very middle of it and let +those little ripples wash over us forever and forever!" sighed Grace +ecstatically. + +"She would a little mermaid be!" sang Betty, as she slipped down to the +very edge of the water and leaned over to catch her reflection in the +bright depths of it. "But honestly, Mollie, isn't there any place in the +river where we can swim?" + +"It looks too swift for good swimming to me--" began Grace, but Mollie +stopped her with a mysterious finger to her lips. + +"Hush, my pretty one, not a word," said the latter, beginning to pick her +way daintily along the river bank. "Follow me and you will wear diamonds, +or seaweed, or whatever it is that mermaids wear. And don't fall over, +whatever you do," she turned around to caution them. "The river is so +swift here that I don't believe even the strongest swimmer would have a +chance." + +Accordingly the girls "watched their step," and for some distance followed +Mollie uncomplainingly. Then, as there seemed no sign of their getting +anywhere, Grace started to protest. + +"Say, do you suppose she has any idea where she is going?" the latter +asked of Betty in a tone that was designed to reach Mollie's ear. But +before she could say anything more, Mollie herself swung jubilantly round +upon them. + +"Here we are, girls!" she cried. "Now see if you ever saw anything so +pretty in all your lives." + +Once more the girls stood spellbound by the natural beauty of the scene. +As they walked they had become more and more conscious of the roaring +noise made by rushing water, and now, ascending a small rise of ground, +they came full upon the majestic beauty of Moonlight Falls. + +The falls fell full thirty feet, and at the foot of it the river was +churned into swirling, liquid foam that whirled around and around again in +a sort of mad race and then went rushing off down the river in a shower of +lacy spray. + +It was wildly inspiring, exhilarating, and the girls thrilled with a +strange new emotion as they watched. It was so free, so gloriously +unchained! + +"There is our swimming pool over there," Mollie said, raising her voice to +make it heard above the roar of the water. "You see there is a sort of +little back eddy below the falls and to one side of it, and right there +we'll find the best swimming of our lives. But," she added, and her voice +was impressively solemn, "heaven help any one of us who gets in the path +of the falls." + +"Look!" cried Amy suddenly, her voice ringing out full and clear and +startled above the uproar. "That--thing--over there. It is going into the +falls--no, under them!" + +"Where?" cried Mollie eagerly, leaning far forward. "Oh, yes, I see what +you mean. Oh, girls, I'm slipping!" Her voice rose to a terrified wail. +"Betty! Catch me!" + +But Betty was too late. She sprang forward just in time to see Mollie +slide down the slippery bank and plunge into the maddened water of the +river! + + + + +Chapter XVII + +The "Thing" + + + +It took the girls a moment to realize the extent of the awful thing that +had happened. Then Betty, obeying her first impulse, raised her hands +above her head as though to dive, but Amy screamed to her to stop. + +"You will only be lost too!" she cried frantically. "Look--that flat +stick--the long one--" + +Instantly Betty saw what she meant and stooped to pick up a long broken +branch that was lying at her feet. At the same instant Mollie came to the +surface several feet away from the spot where she had fallen and threw her +strength desperately against the rushing might of the river. + +Betty ran along the river bank, Amy and Grace at her heels, shouting +encouragement to Mollie as she ran. + +"Hold tight!" she cried, adding with fresh dismay as she saw that the girl +was being swept further from the shore: "Over this way, honey. Swim to +your right--to your right--" + +Blinded, chilled to the bone with the cold water, her hair in her eyes and +her skirts clinging tight about her legs, Mollie struggled wildly, unable +to hear the shouts of her chums above the ringing in her ears. + +It was taking all her strength to hold her own against the rush of the +river--and now she was not even doing that! Slowly, very slowly, she was +being pushed backward; in a little while more she would be sucked +downward, and then-- + +She closed her eyes, and then, as though the obliteration of one sense +made more clear the other, she heard Betty calling to her above the roar +of the falls. + +"Mollie! Mollie!" it came, faint but distinct, "take hold of the stick and +we'll pull you in. Mollie, do you hear me?" + +The girl in the water was still struggling hard against the current that +was dragging at her cruelly, and at the sound of Betty's words she shook +the water from her eyes and looked about her dazedly. She had forgotten +the girls. + +Then she saw something that sent a tingle of renewed hope through her +tired body. What she saw was a long branch bobbing on the water not two +feet from her outstretched hand, and at the other end of the stick was-- +Betty. + +With a sigh that was half a sob she struck out for it, reached it, and +clung to it as only the drowning know how to cling. + +Then she felt herself being drawn through the water, and once more she +closed her eyes. When she opened them again she was on a warm grassy bank +with Amy chafing one hand, Grace the other, while Betty was busy +unfastening the clothes about her waist. + +As Mollie was never under any circumstances expected to act as people +thought she should act, so this occasion was no exception to the rule. She +pushed Amy and Grace aside, glared at Betty, and sat up with a little +jerk. + +"For goodness' sake, stop undressing me, Betty Nelson!" she said. "I'm not +dead yet." + +"So we see," said Betty, while her eyes lost their anxious expression and +began to twinkle instead. "But you might have been, you know, if we had +left you to yourself." + +Mollie looked down at her dripping clothes ruefully and then out at the +rushing water. + +"I guess you are right," she said with a little grimace. "It wasn't very +pleasant while it lasted, either. Whew, but that water was cold!" She +shivered involuntarily and Betty sprang to her feet. + +"We had better be getting back to the lodge," she said. "You can put on +some dry things, Mollie, and we girls will get you some hot soup. You are +chilled to the bone." + +"Nonsense," denied Mollie grumpily. "I'm beginning to feel fine and warm. +Besides," she added, trying to cover a chill that fairly made her teeth +ache, "I want to stay and find out about that thing that got us into all +this fuss." + +"Nonsense," Grace put in. Up to this time Grace had been made speechless +by Mollie's sudden recovery. "You are shivering so you can't sit still." + +"It makes me cold just to look at you," added Amy. + +"Don't be foolish, honey," said Betty impatiently. "You can't sit there +all day in dripping clothes, and besides you will really get cold." + +"Humph," grunted Mollie, getting to her feet rather unsteadily and shaking +out her sodden skirts. "I guess this isn't the first time I have taken a +dip in cold water. And besides," she added impatiently: "I don't know +about you girls, but I would like to know just what that thing was that we +saw dart beneath the falls." + +"That was what made you fall into the water, wasn't it?" asked Betty, her +forehead wrinkling thoughtfully. "You leaned so far out to see--" + +"Yes, yes," Mollie interrupted impatiently, all her curiosity revived. +"That was what made me fall into the water all right. But what I want to +know is--what was it?" + +"I don't know," said Betty, shaking her head. "I didn't see it." + +"Neither did I," Grace added. + +Mollie looked from one to the other of them open-mouthed. Then she turned +to Amy. + +"You saw it, didn't you?" she asked. "You screamed, you know." + +"Yes," said Amy, nodding her head very solemnly. "And it looked to me a +lot like what we saw last night." + +"Thank goodness, you saw it too or the girls would surely think I had been +dreaming or was crazy," said Mollie, with relief. Then she suddenly turned +and started off into the woods. "I'm going all alone to find out what that +was," she told her stupefied chums. "I've got to clear up the mystery +before I'm an hour older." + +But this time Mollie found that there was some one stronger than she, and +that was Betty. The Little Captain ran after her and brought her back, +protesting but captive. + +"We are going back to the house now and get you something hot to eat," +said Betty, as they rejoined Amy and Grace and started off toward home. +"Afterwards if everybody's willing we will hunt this strange beast that +jumps out from porches and leaps into rivers just for the fun of the +thing. But just now, Billy Billette, you are going home." + +But Mollie had been more severely shocked than she was willing to admit by +her experience, and it was some time before the girls visited the falls or +the river again. Meanwhile they contented themselves with exploring the +country about the lodge, taking short trips in the cars and wondering +whether the boys would really be home before the summer was over. + +Their days were not altogether happy, however, for the thought of that +weird thing prowling around in the woods and ready, for all they knew, to +spring out at them at every turn, refused to be banished from their minds. + +Then, too, they thought a great deal about poor Professor Dempsey and the +little ruined cottage in the woods. Somehow, they had an uneasy feeling +that if they had gone to him at the very first minute they had heard of +his trouble they might have helped him. Whereas, they had waited and--he +had fled. + +For a while the idea of a dip in the swimming pool was naturally not very +attractive to Mollie, but at last there came a day when she herself +suggested it and the girls enthusiastically seconded the motion. + +More than the prospect of a good time, was the hope, unexpressed, that +they might see again that strange thing which Amy and Mollie had only +glimpsed the time before. Perhaps, they thought, if the mysterious thing +were faced in the open and in broad daylight, it might prove to be no +mystery at all but something ordinary and commonplace enough to do away +with all their vague and weird imaginings. + +But in this expectation they were most completely disappointed. Nothing at +all unusual occurred and although they enjoyed their swim in the warm back +eddy of the pool, they came away disgruntled and with a curious feeling +that they had been cheated out of something. + +"I only wish the boys would come," sighed Amy, as they turned in once more +at the lodge. + +After that the "Thing" became almost like an obsession with them. They +must find out definitely what it was that was spoiling all their fun. They +began to haunt the river, especially at the foot of the falls, in the hope +of seeing something, anything that would put an end to their curiosity and +uneasiness. + +For a long time they had not got up courage enough to visit the place at +night, but at last they became curious enough to brave even that. + +"We have simply got to find out something," Mollie whispered to Betty as +on this particular night they stood on the porch and waited for Mrs. +Irving to join them. "We can't go on this way any longer, Betty. Why, I am +getting so nervous I jump if you look at me." + +"I know," said Betty soberly. "It really is getting on our nerves too +much. Amy and Grace are feeling it even worse than we are." + +"Yes," agreed Mollie grumpily. "Last night was the third night in +succession that Amy got us all out of bed to listen to some fool noise +outside. I'm just about sick of it." + +The other three came then and they had no further chance for conversation. +As a matter of fact, they talked surprisingly little on the walk to the +river. + +High above them a wonderful full moon sent its silvery light filtering +down through leaves and branches, making of the woods a fairyland. +Somehow, the very beauty of it filled the girls with a strange dread. To +them the patches of moonlight were weird, unreal, the shadowy woods held a +sinister menace. + +By the time they had reached the river's edge they were almost ready to +turn and run. But they conquered the impulse and pressed on. Then suddenly +they saw what they had hoped, yet dreaded, to see. + +On the opposite bank, staring down into the rapids with a terrible +intentness, stood a man, or something that resembled a man. In one awful, +breath-taking minute they realized that here at last was the "Thing." + +As they watched, the hunched-up crouching figure on the opposite bank made +a lumbering movement forward as though about to throw itself into the +water at the foot of the falls. + +"Oh!" screamed Betty, the words wrenched from her dry throat. "Don't do +that! You mustn't do that! Go back! For goodness' sake, go back!" + +With a hoarse cry that answered her own, the "Thing" flung back from the +water's edge and disappeared into the darkness! + + + + +Chapter XVIII + +Surprised + + + +The Outdoor Girls could hardly have told how they got back to the lodge +after that. Blindly they stumbled through the underbrush, expecting they +knew not what horrible thing, thankful for the moonlight that made it +possible for them to hurry. + +They did reach home somehow and there they sat until late into the night, +trying to find some explanation for the thing they had seen, striving to +think up some plan for hunting it down until finally Mrs. Irving sent them +to bed. + +That did not do very much good, for they lay awake and talked until the +first rays of sunlight crept into the windows. Then they said goodnight +and sank into a sleep of exhaustion. + +For three days after the episode the girls never went far from the house +on foot. They would take the cars and spin down the open road, but a sort +of horror of the supernatural kept them from venturing into the woods +again. + +But when the fourth day dawned the fright of their moonlight experience +had begun to wear off and they were beginning to feel ashamed of their +fear. + +Having a little of this in her mind, Mollie gave voice to it at the +breakfast table. + +"I must say," she began, buttering a piece of bread energetically, "that +it isn't like us Outdoor Girls to let anything scare us into staying near +the house. Why, I declare, I don't believe there is one of us who would +dare poke her nose past that rose bush in front of the porch after +sundown. That's a pretty state of affairs, isn't it?" + +"Well, you needn't glare at me as if it were all my fault," retorted Amy +with spirit. "I'm sure I didn't wish the horrible old thing on us." + +"I only wish I knew who did," sighed Grace, adding, with a sudden burst of +ferocity: "I would wring his neck." + +"Suppose somebody suggests something we can do about it," said Betty +reasonably. "I'm sure that after the other night nobody could blame us for +being frightened." + +"No. But there is one thing I can blame you for," said Mollie, glaring +morosely at her chum. "And that is for not letting the horrible old thing +drown itself when it so very evidently wanted to. If that had happened all +our worries would have been over." + +"Goodness, Mollie, what a horrible idea!" Betty protested. + +"I don't think it was a horrible idea," Grace put in. "I think it was just +about the finest idea I ever heard of." + +"Yes," added Amy with a deceptive mildness, "if you hadn't called out just +then, Betty, the whole thing would have been over and the Thing would have +been drowned. And then," she added plaintively, "we would have been able +to enjoy our summer." + +"It really wasn't any of our business, you know," Grace finished, moodily. + +For a moment Betty sat and stared at them, undecided whether to be amused +or indignant. However, the latter emotion won and she turned upon the +girls with flashing eyes. + +"I think you are all perfectly horrid," she said. "And I would think you +were worse if I weren't perfectly sure that you don't really mean what you +say. Why, just suppose," she went on earnestly, "that we had willingly +permitted that man to commit suicide? Why, we would have been just as +guilty as if we had murdered him!" + +"But he may have done it since anyway," muttered Mollie stubbornly. "He +didn't have to wait to ask our permission, and there are plenty of times +that he can commit suicide when we are not around--if he really wants to +do it." + +"What he or anybody else does when we are not around, is not our +business," answered Betty. "We can't help what happens in our absence." + +"You seem to take it for granted that it is a man," Mollie continued, +still stubbornly argumentative. "But I am not so sure about that. The +several times that we have seen the--the--Thing--it has looked as much +animal as human to me." + +"Well, we won't argue that point," said Betty, rising and beginning to +clear away the dishes, "because we don't know anything about it." + +"That is just exactly what I am getting at," said Mollie earnestly, +leaning forward and resting her elbows on the table while the girls +watched her interestedly. "We don't know anything about it, but that is no +reason why we should sit back and twiddle our thumbs and start at +shadows." + +"Well, for goodness' sake, tell us what's on your mind," prompted Grace +impatiently. "We haven't sat back and twiddled our thumbs and started at +shadows because we enjoyed it, you know." + +"Now my plan is this," said Mollie, ignoring Grace, who shrugged her +shoulders and reached for her candy box. "Suppose we take a tramp through +the woods to the head of the falls? It is a beautiful hike and the scenery +at the falls is magnificent. But aside from that we will have a chance to +find out something about this thing that will do away with the mystery." + +"If it doesn't do away with us at the same time," said Amy so ruefully +that they had to laugh at her. + +"Well, what do you say?" asked Mollie, looking around the circle of +thoughtful faces--her glance a dare. + +For a moment it looked as if they all might refuse to go, but then their +sporting blood came to the fore and they decided for the adventure. + +But when they told Mrs. Irving about their project and begged her to say +yes to it, she looked very doubtful and only consented at last on the +proviso that she was to go with them. This they were only too glad to +have, and a few minutes later the lodge hummed with excitement and +preparation once more. To the Outdoor Girls, active and fun-loving by +nature, to be quiet for a few days was nothing short of torture. So now, +even though there was still more than a little fear of the "Thing" in +their hearts, they found relief in the promise of adventure. + +They put up some sandwiches and fruit in a basket in case they were not +able to get home by noon. Then they locked the door of the little lodge +and started down the steps. They hesitated before starting into the woods, +and Mollie had a happy thought. + +"We can go part of the way along the road," she said. "And then there is a +path that leads directly through to the head of the falls." + +The celerity with which they accepted this suggestion seemed funny to them +afterward, but at the time they had other things to think about. Mostly +they were wondering if they would really be able to hold on to their nerve +long enough to see the adventure through. + +"I wish," said Betty wistfully, as she had wished so many times of late, +"that the boys were here. They could help us out so beautifully." And she +sighed, for when she spoke of "the boys," she always thought of one boy +most--and that one was Allen. + +"Well, there's no use wishing for what can't possibly happen," Grace was +saying, when there came a whistle so clear and penetrating that it made +them jump--then another, and another. Was it just that they were nervous +or was there really something peculiarly familiar in the sound? At any +rate they stopped and turned around to see who the whistlers could be. + +There were three soldiers coming down the road, broad-shouldered, vital +looking fellows who swung along toward the astonished girls as though they +owned the world. + +"Betty, oh, Betty!" whispered Grace in a tense voice, grasping Betty's arm +so hard it hurt "It can't be, oh, it can't be the boys!" + +But Mollie had broken away from the group and was rushing toward the +soldier lads like the wild little tomboy she was. + +"Girls, it's the boys! it's the boys! it's the boys!" she yelled. "They're +all tanned and they're at least ten inches taller, but it's the boys just +the same." + +And before any of the other girls knew what she was about she had kissed +each one of them twice and was hanging on the tallest one's arm, who +happened to be Frank, laughing and crying at the same time. + +Then the girls seemed to decide that she had had the lads to herself long +enough, and they immediately entered the contest, all laughing at once, +all crying at once, and all talking at once, until it was a wonder the +boys did not lose their heads entirely. + +The only one who was not absolutely and completely and deliriously happy +was Betty. For the other three boys were there, but Allen had not come! + +As though reading her thought, Will, who was much handsomer and more manly +than when he went away, put an arm about the Little Captain's shoulder big +brother fashion and drew her aside from the rest. + +"You are wondering about Allen," he said, and Betty nodded eagerly. "You +see," continued Will, his face lighting up in a smile that would always be +boyish, "since Allen became one of the big bugs--which is another name for +officer, you understand--he had to pay the penalty and stay over there +with them for a little while longer. He will probably be over on the next +transport, although of course you can never be sure about that. Oh, and I +forgot," he put his hand in his pocket and drew forth a pocketknife, a wad +of string and--a little three-cornered note. "He asked me to give this to +you as soon as I saw you. So now you can tell him that 'I seen my duty and +I done it noble.'" + +With a twinkle in his eye Will turned back to the others and Betty was +left to open her note. This is what she read: + +"Gosh, some fellows do have all the luck, don't they? But never mind, +little girl. I'm coming to you by the very first boat, and when I get +there do you know what I'm going to do? Do you?" + +Betty wanted to run away by herself and read the note over and over again. +But she could not do that. With a sigh she hid the little message in a +pocket of her skirt and turned back to the others. + + + + +Chapter XIX + +Like Old Times + + + +It was a long time before the boys and girls woke up to the fact that they +were still standing in the center of the road and that they might be ever +so much more comfortable on the porch of the lodge, if any one had had +sense enough to think that far. + +Mrs. Irving, who had been keeping herself rather in the background during +the first rapturous greetings, now came in for her share of salutations +and boyish greetings. The young soldiers crowded about her, patting her +hands and her shoulders and telling her how awfully fine she looked and +how glad they were to find her here until the lady actually blushed with +pleasure and begged them to stop their nonsense. In fact, it was she who +finally suggested that they go up to the lodge again. + +"I don't see why we didn't think of that before," said Mollie, joyfully +slipping an arm into Frank's and turning him right-about-face. "We are due +to talk all day anyway, so we might as well do it in comfort. Don't forget +the lunch basket, Betty," she called back to her chum. + +Betty would have forgotten the basket and left it where it stood just as +she had dropped it at the side of the road--and small wonder if she had-- +but as she stooped to pick it up, Will's strong brown hand whipped out in +front of her nose and seized the handle firmly. + +"That's the idea," said Grace approvingly, adding with a sisterly pat on +his shoulder: "You run along with Amy and Mrs. Irving. I want to talk to +Betty." + +So Will, being a well-trained brother, did as he was told, and Grace drew +Betty behind the others. + +"What about Allen, honey?" she asked, her blue eyes honestly worried. "We +all missed him so, but we didn't like to say too much for fear--for fear--" + +"He's all right," said Betty, her heart glowing again at thought of the +little note hidden away in her pocket. "He has only been delayed a little, +that's all. Will says he will probably be over on the next transport." + +"Oh, I am relieved," said Grace with such fervor that Betty looked at her +quickly. Could it be, she wondered, that what she had half sensed before +could be really true? Was Grace fond of Allen? But because the idea made +her unhappy, she decided that she was just trying to think up trouble and +dismissed it from her mind. All the girls loved Allen of course--who could +help it?--but they couldn't any of them, she told herself fiercely, care +for him the way she did. + +"Well, what are you thinking about? You needn't look so fierce," she heard +Grace saying, and she forced a smile to her face. + +"I'm not looking fierce," Betty answered gayly. "Don't you know that that +is just my natural expression, Gracie dear? That's the way I make little +girls like you afraid of me." + +"Well, I'm not afraid of you, not one little bit," asserted Grace, +squeezing Betty's arm fondly. "Oh, Betty dear, isn't it wonderful having +the boys back and don't they look fine--especially Will?" + +"Don't they? Especially Will," agreed Betty with a sly little glance. "If +you don't look out you will give the impression that you're rather fond of +that worthless old brother of yours, honey." + +"I love him awfully," replied Grace, adding with a little puckering of her +forehead: "But I am going to tell you something, Betty, that I wouldn't +tell to any one else for the world. I'm jealous, actually jealous! of +Amy." + +Betty gave a merry little laugh and slipped an arm about her chum. + +"Gracie dear, we never would have known that if you hadn't told us," she +said dryly. "Don't you know," as Grace looked at her reproachfully, "that +we have all been perfectly well aware of that ever since Will first began +to make eyes at Amy?" + +"I can't help it," Grace retorted, while sudden tears sprang to her eyes. +"I've known him longer than she has, and we've loved each other ever since +he was two and I was two weeks! Did you see the way he looked at her?" she +finished dolefully. + +"Yes. But of course you couldn't see the way he looked at you," said Betty +quickly. "And I did." + +"Oh, did he look glad to see me? Did he?" demanded Grace with pathetic +eagerness. + +"Of course he did, you little goose," said Betty, adding with a chuckle: +"You've been spoiled, that's all. You've been so used to being the +<i>only</i> pebble on the beach, dear, that you can't be content with +being just one of two." + +By this time they had reached the lodge and were greeted noisily by the +others, who had already seated themselves on the porch as though they +intended to stay all day. + +"Hello," called Frank. His handsome face, though somewhat thinner than the +girls remembered, was better looking than ever and he had developed a +trick of flinging the hair back from his forehead that the girls thought +immensely attractive. + +Roy, who had seated himself on the railing of the porch and was swinging +his feet, looked more unchanged than either of the boys, though the girls +were soon to find out that he had changed the most. + +Will, who had settled Amy in a chair and was sitting cross-legged on the +floor at her feet, was gazing up at the girl with his heart in his eyes. +As for Amy--well, the girls had never known she could look so radiant. + +"Have a seat," invited Roy, rising lazily to the dignity of his six feet +as Betty and Grace came up on the porch. "It would seem like old times to +see you girls perched on the railing." + +"I'll have you know, sir," said Betty very demurely, as she pulled Grace +down beside her on the top step of the porch, "that we have quite grown up +since you have been away. We will sit here where we can get a good view of +you all." + +"And we want to hear about everything you have done over there," broke in +Amy eagerly. "Please, everything--right from the beginning." + +The boys fidgeted, looked dismayed, and Roy burst forth in protest. + +"Oh, I say!" he cried. "We'll do anything else for you, but please don't +ask us to do that." + +"We don't want to talk about ourselves or the war," muttered Frank, almost +as if to himself. "We want to forget about it--if we can." + +"You see," Will explained, and there was a stern note in his young voice, +"we worked and we sweated and we fought. We lived under conditions week +after week and month after month that it makes us shudder even to think of +now. For months we lived in a perfect inferno--and do you know what our +idea of heaven was then?" + +They said nothing and he went on in a lighter tone. + +"It was just to get back alive and, well, to God's country and you girls-- +to sit for hours, days if we could, where we could look at you and listen +to you and not do a thing but just be happy. I wonder if you can +understand that?" + +"Of course, we can, Will!" cried Betty, impulsively reaching over and +laying a hand on the boy's arm. "You have earned the right to sit and be +amused, and we'll do it till you cry aloud for mercy. And you needn't tell +us a single word about yourselves until you get good and ready." + +"You're a brick, Betty," said Will warmly, laying his hand over her little +one. "I might have known we could count on you." + +"By the way," Roy broke in suddenly, his eye on the basket of eatables +that the girls had prepared for their adventure, "what's in that hamper, +anyway? If it's anything to eat, let's have it." + +Betty pulled the basket over to her, lifted the cover and passed it over +to the ravenous one. + +"Eat while there is anything left," she commanded, adding with a chuckle: +"Our adventure seems to be over for to-day, at least." + +"Adventure?" repeated Frank inquiringly, as he reached for a sandwich. + +"Yes," said Mollie, adding with a sigh: "And you boys had to come along +just in time to spoil it all." + + + + +Chapter XX + +Very Much Alive + + + +"That is complimentary, I must say," grinned Will, getting up from his +seat on the porch and going over to join Roy on the railing. "After being +away for months we are told the minute we get back that we've 'spoiled +everything.'" + +"'Tis rather hard lines," said Mollie with an answering grin. "But one must +tell the truth, you know." + +"By the way," put in Grace curiously, "I know Betty promised that we +wouldn't ask questions, but there is just one thing I want to know." + +"Speak, fair damsel," Roy replied, thinking meanwhile how much prettier +Grace had grown. "We will promise to answer faithfully anything that is +not connected with war." + +"When did you get in?" asked Grace, "and how did you get here?" + +"We came in yesterday," answered Roy, helping himself to another sandwich. +"And of course we beat it for headquarters right away." + +"Yes'm, and I'll tell you we were a disappointed lot when we found that +you girls had flown," added Frank ruefully. "We were all set for a jolly +reunion--" + +"But we wrote you about spending the summer here," Betty interrupted. "And +we were mourning because you couldn't be at the lodge with us." + +"We missed your letters, I guess," said Will. "We sailed very suddenly, +and there is probably a stack of them piled up there at the old service +station." + +"We found out where you were all rightie, though," Roy continued. "So we +took the first train out this morning, debarked at the nearest station +south of here, and proceeded to walk the rest of the way. It was thus that +you came upon us." + +"You came upon us, you mean," Amy corrected. "We ought to know well +enough, because you nearly gave us heart failure." + +Will looked at her as if he wanted to say something but did not quite dare +in public. However, she intercepted the look and with a little panicky +feeling turned her eyes away. + +"I imagine," said Grace softly, looking up at Will, "that mother wasn't +glad to see you or anything." + +"Not at all," returned Will, a soft light in his eyes as he remembered the +greeting between him and his parents. "I was a little afraid," he added +soberly, "that mother and dad wouldn't like my skipping off like this the +day after I'd got home. But they seemed to understand all right." + +"Gee, but this is great," said Frank, stretching contentedly and looking +about the group with happy eyes. "I wonder how many times we've seen this +all in our dreams, fellows. Only we couldn't have imagined it half as +perfect as this." + +"It sure is like old times," agreed Roy, adding with a smile as he turned +to their chaperon, who had been quietly enjoying herself: "We even have +Mrs. Irving with us. Gee, it's just like that summer at Pine Island! All +the old crowd together--" + +"Except Allen," put in Will, frowning a little. "Gosh, it didn't seem +right at all to leave the old fellow behind. You wouldn't know him," he +added, his face flushing enthusiastically, "I've never seen a fellow +change the way Allen has--for the better." + +"Was there so much room for improvement?" asked Betty demurely, and they +looked at her laughingly. + +"Nobody would expect you to think so," Will replied, his eyes twinkling, +then added seriously: + +"Of course we all know that Allen was the finest kind even before the war, +but, gosh! I wish you could just see how all the fellows love him and how +even his superior officers consult him and seem to value his judgment. I +tell you, I'm glad to have him call me his friend." + +"You bet!" exclaimed Frank, nodding soberly. + +"Allen sure has come out strong," Roy agreed; and at this glowing praise +of the only absent one Betty felt her heart swell with pride and she +wanted to hug the boys for being so loyal to her Allen. Also, deep down in +her heart, she began to feel a little trepidation about the homecoming of +this hero. Who was she, Betty Nelson, to call this glorious Lieutenant +Allen Washburn, <i>her</i> Allen? + +So engrossed was she in these and other absorbing thoughts that it was +some time before she noticed that the conversation had taken another turn. +Also that the boys and girls were becoming rather excited. + +"I didn't say it was a ghost," Mollie was declaring hotly. "In fact I have +always thought of a ghost as wearing a sheet and pillow case sort of garb. +And this thing certainly wore nothing of the sort." + +"Tell us all about it," said Frank, leaning forward. + +"Yes, it sounds as if it might prove interesting," added Roy. + +So the girls told them all about it from that first night when they had +been so badly frightened by the "Thing" that had hidden in the shadows of +the porch. The boys listened with scarcely an interruption till they were +through. + +"Gosh, I don't like the sound of that at all," said Will, when they had +finished. "It isn't a pleasant thing to have a lunatic roaming the woods +while you girls are all alone here in this place. Could you possibly put +us up for the night?" he asked, turning abruptly to Mrs. Irving. + +"Why, there isn't any room," said the latter slowly, frowning a little as +she tried to think up ways and means. "There aren't any extra beds, but +there is a large settee in the living room and a couple of you can sleep +on that. I found plenty of blankets stowed away." + +"Fine!" cried Will enthusiastically. "Just the very thing! One of us can +take turns sleeping on the floor. It won't be the first time we've slept +on harder things." + +"Goodness, any one would think they were going to stay a month," said +Mollie in dismay. + +"No, we won't stay a month," Will went on. "But we are going to stay until +we find out what it is that has been bothering you girls. Do you suppose +we would leave you unprotected here? I should say not!" Grace noticed that +when he said this his glance was first for Amy, and, afterward, for her. + +So it was settled. Mrs. Irving went inside to see about getting lunch. +"Though how the boys can find any room for lunch after eating all those +sandwiches, I don't know," Amy had commented wonderingly. + +Mrs. Irving had refused absolutely to let any of the girls even so much as +help with this lunch, saying they must stay outside and visit with the +boys on this momentous occasion. + +"Since you are convinced that this thing is not a ghost," Will went on, +while appetizing odors began to waft toward them from the open kitchen +windows, "we will take it for granted that it is a man, and a man who has, +presumably, lost his mind." + +"A crazy man," murmured Betty. "Worse and worse--and more of it." + +"Girls," cried Amy, jumping suddenly to her feet, "I have an idea." + +"Impossible!" drawled Grace. + +"Why," went on Amy, unheeding Grace's remark and growing visibly more +excited as she talked, "you know, Professor Dempsey went crazy--or at +least we supposed he did--and ran away into the woods. Now since Will +thinks this man is crazy too, why, they may be one and the same--" + +"Amy!" cried Mollie, her eyes beginning to shine as she realized the +possibility of what the girl had said. "You are a wonder, child! Why +didn't any of us think of that before?" + +"Because it is rather far-fetched and absurd, I suppose," said Grace, the +suggestion of a sneer in her voice bringing a quick flush to Amy's face. + +"I don't see that it is so far-fetched--or absurd either," Betty broke in +quietly. "Remember, we are only a little over fifty miles from the place +where Professor Dempsey had his cottage, and it would be easy for him to +wander this far." + +Here Frank broke in on behalf of the very much mystified boys. + +"Before you stage the hair-pulling contest," he said, "would you mind +telling us poor benighted males what it is all about?" + +So the girls told them all about Professor Dempsey, and while they talked +the boys became more and more excited. Finally Will could keep quiet no +longer. + +"Say," he asked, leaning forward, "did the two sons of the cracked old +professor happen to bear the names of James and Arnold?" + +The girls gaped at him. "Yes," they breathed. "How did you know?" + +"Because," said Will, "those very same fellows were in our regiment. In +fact, I was beside Arnold when he was wounded in that last engagement. +Strange thing that James was wounded at the same time." + +"Wounded?" repeated Betty, who like all the girls was feeling rather dazed +at this new development. "Then they weren't killed?" + +"Not a bit of it," Will replied vehemently. "Why, even their wounds +weren't serious enough to lay them up for long. The last I heard of them +they were coming over on a hospital ship and expected to be here almost as +soon as we were. For all I know, they may have landed by this time." + +"Oh," said Amy, still too dazed to take it all in. "Then all this time we +have thought of them as dead, they were alive--" + +"Very much so," said Will, with a grin, "and probably kicking too--just +like us!" + + + + +Chapter XXI + +Out of the Dark + + + +It took the Outdoor Girls a moment or two to digest this rather startling +information. And when it did finally seep into their consciousness, their +first feeling was one of joy for the poor professor whose sons would be +restored to him after all. + +But quick on the heels of this thought came another. How could the sons be +restored to their father, if the father were nowhere to be found? + +"You say the old chap skipped out, decamped?" Will broke in on their +meditations. "That sort of complicates matters, doesn't it?" + +"Rather," agreed Roy, frowning. "It is going to be rather tough on those +fellows, James and Arnold, to come home, expecting to be welcomed by a +rejoicing parent, only to find said parent missing." + +"Humph, that's the first time I've thought of the boys' side of it," said +Betty. "We have been too much occupied right along in being sorry for the +poor old professor." + +"Well, if you had known the boys, you would have thought of their side of +it all right," said Frank seriously. "They are mighty good scouts, both of +them, and they think a lot of their old dad, too, I can tell you. Why, +many a night"--his voice took on a reminiscent note and the girls felt +once again that they were privileged in having a brief glimpse of the life +"over there"--"when a surprise attack was scheduled for the next morning +or we were waiting for some such manoeuvre from the enemy, Arnold would +talk to me about his dad--that was the time when fellows got chummy, you +know, and got to know each other's souls--and once he gave me a note for +the old chap and asked me to deliver it if I came through and he didn't. I +think I have it about me somewhere." He fumbled about in his pockets while +the girls waited silently. + +Presently he drew forth a little slip of paper, muddy and worn and +dust-stained from being carried about for a long, long time in a khaki +pocket. + +"He told me," Frank went on, still holding the slip of paper in his hand +but making no attempt to open it, "that his mother had died when he and +Jimmy were young and that since then his dad had been father and mother +both to them and that he had worked himself nearly to death to give them a +chance for the college education that he had had. He said that the one +thing that had always threatened to floor the old boy was when either he +or Jim got mad and threatened to give up school and go to work so as to +take some of the load from the old pater's shoulders. So they were glad, +actually glad, when the war came along and gave them a chance not only to +serve their country and earn some money--even if it was only a miserable +pittance--so that they could send some home to their dad and feel that +they had stopped being a drag upon him. He used to tell me," Frank went +on, for the spell of those old thrilling times was strong upon him again, +"with tears in his eyes--and I'll tell you there was no braver man in all +the American army than Arnold Dempsey; he was good for two Boches any day +--that it would be the happiest moment of his life when he got back to the +old country and announced to his proud and admiring pater that he had come +home to turn the tables; that Jimmy and he were going to make the old +fellow take a rest and do the work themselves for a change. And he asked +me, in case anything did happen to him and Jimmy, to be kind to his dad +and try to make up to him as much as I could. I gave him my promise that +night." Frank looked about the intent group of faces soberly. "In case the +boys had been killed, I would have regarded it as a sacred trust." + +Something swelled in the girls' hearts and for; a moment they could not +speak. Then, + +"I guess we all love you for that, Frank," said Betty simply. With a +little nod of her head toward the slip of paper he still held, she added: +"What about that--now?" + +Frank looked down at the slip of paper for a moment uncomprehendingly, for +his thoughts had been far away. + +"Oh, the note," he said. "Why, that was only to be given to his father in +case anything happened, you know. But now that the boys are coming back to +him themselves, I suppose the thing is worthless." He made a motion as +though to tear the note up, but Grace stopped him with a quick +exclamation. + +"Don't!" she cried, adding as they all looked at her in surprise: "Don't +you suppose there might be something in it that would give us a clue to +the professor's whereabouts now, perhaps? Don't you think it would be wise +to look, at least?" + +But Frank slowly shook his head. + +"Arnold Dempsey's message, written to his dad when he thought he might +never see him again, doesn't belong to us," he said decidedly. "The note +was given in trust to me, and since I can't deliver it--or at least, since +there is now no reason for delivering it--the only thing I can honorably +do is this." And very slowly and very decidedly he tore the note into +little bits and threw the pieces among the wild roses at the side of the +porch. + +It was the first real glimpse the girls had had of the man who had come +back in the old Frank's place, and with all their hearts they admired him. + +Even Grace, who had seemed inclined to pout a little, could not but admit +that the action was splendid in him. + +"And now," said Will, "after all that, the boys will come back to find +their dad gone, heaven knows where, dead perhaps--" + +"Oh, I wonder if there isn't some way we can follow him and find out at +least what has happened to him?" broke in Amy earnestly. "It seems +dreadful just to sit back and not even try to help." + +"I don't see what we can do," said Will judicially, just as Mrs. Irving +appeared in the doorway. "We will postpone the discussion for the present +anyway," he added, in a different tone, rising with alacrity and dusting +off his uniform. "Something tells me that lunch is waiting. Come, let us +eat!" + +So ended all serious discussion for that day, and the girls and boys gave +themselves up to the delight of being together again. Only Betty's +thoughts seemed to wander at times and she had to be brought back by +sundry mischievous and significant remarks from the young folks. + +Worn out with fun, the young soldiers slept like tops that night in their +improvised beds and rose the next morning professing to feel like "two +year olds" and ready for whatever new fun and adventure the day might +bring them. + +And for the first night since their arrival at Wild Rose Lodge the girls +slept soundly without being bothered by the haunting fear of the "Thing"-- +at least, so they said. + +That day they wandered through the woods together, searching for some sign +of their strange visitor, but found not a trace of anything unusual and +alarming. + +"I'm really beginning to believe that you girls have let your imaginations +run away from you," Will remarked, when they sat about the living-room +after a satisfying supper, just luxuriating in idleness. + +"Or perhaps the gentleman has been frightened away by our coming," Roy +suggested in a superior tone that made the girls want to throw something +at him. "Perhaps he is afraid of the uniform of the U.S.A." + +"He may be afraid of the uniform," sniffed Mollie scathingly. "But he +certainly couldn't be afraid of <i>you</i>." + +"Now you don't mean that, you know you don't," laughed Roy, drawing her +down beside him on the couch and holding her there with an iron grip of +his brown fingers. "Say you didn't, like a pretty little girl, and I'll +let you go." + +"I won't say any such--" Mollie began, then suddenly her gaze stiffened +into such a stare of wonder, and even alarm, that it made the girls fairly +hold their breath. + +"Mollie, what is it?" demanded Roy commandingly. + +"Over there!" she shrieked. "At the window, Roy! Do you see it?" + + + + +Chapter XXII + +Tragedy + + + +There, pressed so close to the pane of the window that the nose was +flattened grotesquely, eyes wildly staring, hair disheveled, was a face +that even in that tense moment the girls recognized--the face of Professor +Dempsey! + +It took the boys perhaps a second to fling out of the room, jump down the +steps of the porch and circle the house to the window. + +And yet, in that second, the man was gone, leaving no more trace than if +the earth had opened and swallowed him up. For almost an hour the boys +searched the woods about the lodge, refusing to allow the girls to +accompany them, saying truly that they would hamper them more than they +could help. + +"You see, I was right after all," Amy stated for at least the tenth time. +"From the moment the idea came to me, I felt almost sure that poor crazy +Professor Dempsey was this thing that was frightening us." + +"But did you ever see such an awful face in all your life?" said Mollie, +shuddering at the recollection. + +"And the look in his eyes as he stared at Roy," Grace added in a hushed +voice. "I shouldn't wonder if--if we hadn't been there, he might have +murdered him." + +"Oh, Gracie, don't!" Amy clapped her hands to her ears. "We are frightened +enough without having you say things like that" + +"Suppose," said Mollie, in a sepulchral voice, "he should come back before +the boys do?" + +"That's just what I was thinking," said a quiet voice behind them, and +they jumped and cried out in alarm. The next moment they saw it was Mrs. +Irving and felt ashamed of themselves. + +"I think you had all better come into the house till the boys come back," +their chaperon continued. "I shall feel safer when we are behind locked +doors." + +The girls shivered, but Mollie protested. + +"Suppose anything should happen to the boys?" she asked, but here Mrs. +Irving chose to exercise her authority. + +"We will talk about that when we are inside the house," she said very +firmly, and Mollie had nothing else to do but obey. + +The girls did breathe a little more freely when the door was locked, but +they found themselves wishing even more ardently that the boys would come +back. + +The window against which the horribly distorted face had been pressed +seemed to hold a peculiar fascination for the Outdoor Girls and they found +themselves unable to turn their eyes away from it. + +"Oh, I wish the boys would come back," moaned Amy, after a few moments +more had passed in strained silence. "If anything should happen to them +I'm sure I would die." + +"Nonsense, Amy," snapped Mollie. "What could one little mad old man do to +three big husky soldier boys?" + +The words had hardly been spoken when the sound of voices could be heard +coming toward the house, and a moment later the boys themselves stamped up +on the porch. + +"Not a sign of him," said Will in response to the girls' eager questions. +"I don't see how he could have disappeared so completely in such a short +time." + +"We all took different directions, too," said Roy, taking a seat on the +couch again and staring fascinatedly at the window. "If all the rest of +you hadn't seen it too, I should certainly think I had been mistaken." + +"You weren't mistaken," Mollie assured him grimly. "I can vouch for that." + +"Didn't one of you girls call out something about Professor Dempsey?" +asked Frank, abruptly. + +"Yes," said Betty, going over to him and putting an excited hand on his +shoulder. "That's the thing that startled us so, Frank. We are sure it was +Professor Dempsey's face. But, still, it was so wild and distorted that we +really wouldn't feel like contradicting any one who told us it wasn't he," +she added slowly. "Do you understand what I mean?" + +Frank nodded, and Will broke in excitedly: + +"But the poor old codger's looks would naturally be changed," he argued, +"after he had spent all this time wandering around the woods--out of his +mind at that. I am inclined to think that the girls are right and that it +is really Professor Dempsey." + +"If only I could have gotten my hands on him!" mourned Roy. "We wouldn't +have been in any further doubt." + +"There is really no doubt, boys. We just want--oh, I don't know what we +want!" exclaimed Mollie, who was excited and unstrung and nervous. + +Soon after that they all went to bed, having first decided to make a more +thorough search of the woods in the morning and take the postponed trip to +the head of the falls. + +They slept fitfully and were glad when at last they woke to find the sun +shining in their windows. For once Amy and Grace did not have to be coaxed +or wheedled or forced to get out of bed, but dressed quickly and were +ready almost as soon as Mollie and Betty. + +"You know I rather hated to leave the boys in that room last night," Betty +confided to Grace, stopping before the mirror for one final little pat of +her hair. "I was afraid that--he--might come back--" + +"Oh, Betty, what a horrid idea," said Grace. "Come on, let's see if +everything is all right." + +But they found that their fears had been wasted. The boys were in the +kitchen hilariously helping Mrs. Irving get the breakfast to the +accompaniment of continual good-natured scolding from that flushed and +perspiring lady. It was Amy's day to get the breakfast, but, as usual, she +was late in getting down. + +"You make a good deal more trouble than you mend," Mrs. Irving was saying +as the girls came to the door, then added relievedly as she caught sight +of them: "For goodness' sake, get these young ruffians out of the kitchen, +my dears, or we'll not have any breakfast until noon." + +So amid much fun and nonsense the boys were shooed forth into the bright +sunshine of the out-of-doors, and all the girls fell to to help their +chaperon, not wanting to put the extra work the boys made entirely on +Amy's shoulders. + +Breakfast was good, but they ate hurriedly, anxious to get at the business +of the day. They wanted more than they had wanted anything in a very long +time to find Professor Dempsey and tell him the joyful news that his sons +were alive. + +"I'm horribly afraid of him at night," Mollie confided, as they started +out at last, "but in the daytime I am only sorry for him." + +"Do you think we shall find him, Will?" asked Amy, with a helpless little +look into Will's self-reliant young face. "I do want to so much." + +Will looked down at her with an expression that said to any one who would +read it: "I would give you anything in the world you asked for, if I only +could." + +But all he really said was: "That remains to be seen. He proved himself a +rather slippery customer last night, and the chase we put up may only +serve to put him on his guard. Crazy people are tricky, you know." + +"Goodness," said Grace, looking fearfully over her shoulder. "There is +nothing in the world I am so afraid of as a crazy person." + +"That's why she has always been so afraid of me, I suppose," grinned +Mollie. + +"Afraid of you," said Grace, her eyebrows raised in mock surprise. "Little +shrimp--who are you?" There followed a characteristic scene that somewhat +lifted the oppression they had all been feeling, and it was not till they +had nearly reached the river at the head of the falls that they became +serious again. + +"It was right about here," said Betty soberly, "that we saw him the night +that he started to jump into the river--or I suppose it was the same one," +she added. + +"Let us hope so," said Mollie fervently. "I wouldn't like to think that +there were two lunatics wandering round these woods. One is quite enough." + +As they came closer to the river they became more and more conscious that +they were not alone, that some one, hidden in the bushes, was craftily +watching them. + +So strong did this feeling finally become that once the boys separated, +thrashing the bushes in all directions. They did not find anything, and +finally continued along the path, a little ashamed of what they thought +was an attack of nerves. + +"Phew, this is getting a little hot for me," said Frank, running his hand +through his shock of fair hair. "I don't mind fighting anything in the +open--" He left the sentence unfinished, for at that moment they broke +through the bushes at the river's edge upon a sight that struck them +speechless. + +Not twenty yards down the bank stood a ragged scarecrow of a man, so +unkempt, so wild, so abandoned in its crouching attitude as to appear +hardly human. + +Before they had time to utter a word or move a muscle, the man threw up +his arms in a gesture indescribably terrible, and with a hoarse shout +disappeared in the swirling waters. + +It all happened so quickly that for the space of a dazed second they +wondered if they had really seen it at all. Then they recovered their +powers of motion and rushed to the spot where the man had disappeared. + +Though they leaned far out over the water they could see no sign of +anything human, and with a creeping feeling of horror they began to speak +of what had probably already happened. + +"It's certain death down there," Roy muttered, as though to himself, +gazing into the rushing river. "The poor old fellow! He has got his, I +guess." + +"Look here, fellows, here are some clothes," Will called out suddenly, and +the boys rushed over to where he stood, a tattered old hat and an equally +ragged coat in his hands. "Maybe there will be something in the jacket to +tell us where the poor fellow has been staying and what he has been up +to." + +They searched through the coat and finally pulled out a wallet. + +"Now if it only has some writing in it," said Mollie breathlessly. + +There was a card, and the card bore the words which they expected, yet +dreaded, Arnold Dempsey, Ph. D. But there was nothing else, and suddenly +tears dimmed their eyes and they had to turn away. + +"It will be mighty hard on Jimmy and Arnold," muttered Roy, gazing +somberly at the fast-flowing river. "To have their dad go that way! +They'll take it mighty hard--those boys." + + + + +Chapter XXIII + +A Moonlight Apparition + + + +"Let's look around a little anyway," Betty suggested. "He may possibly +have been swept up on the shore farther down the river." + +"If such a thing were possible he would probably be dead anyway," Frank +protested, but the girls paid no attention to him. The mere suggestion +that the professor might still be alive and in need of assistance was +enough for them, and they set about feverishly to scour the woods on both +sides of the river and for a considerable distance down its shores. + +After an hour of vain search, however, they were forced to conclude that +the old man was indeed dead, and so reluctantly and with heavy hearts they +turned their steps back toward Wild Rose Lodge. + +They talked very little on the way back, for they were too occupied with +their own gloomy thoughts. Only once Betty spoke what was in the minds of +all of them. + +"It seems such a terrible waste--such a pity," she said. "Just a mistake +on the part of the Government to have resulted in this tragedy. Arnold and +James Dempsey coming home, safe and well and hopeful to find their father +--dead!" + +The boys stayed on for several days at the lodge, and for all the Outdoor +Girls but Betty their stay was unmitigated joy. But in the heart of the +Little Captain, hard as she tried to fight against it, was a little sense +of injury to think that her chums had got their boys back and she had been +denied hers. + +To be sure, all the boys made much of her and petted her--for there was +not one of them who had not competed for her favor in the old days before +Allen had shouldered them all out--but no amount of attention from any one +else could make up for one little word from Allen. + +At each sunrise she awoke thrilling with the thought that perhaps Allen +would be with her before the sun went down. And as each evening came +without him she sighed and thought, "Perhaps to-morrow." + +Since the tragic death of Professor Dempsey they felt that they need no +longer fear the woods, although they never ventured near the river or the +falls without a heartache and the fervent wish that they might have +reached the poor demented man with the glad news of his sons' safety in +time to avert the tragedy. + +However, they did enjoy their liberty, and took long tramps with the boys +through the woods and picnicked with them beside little unexpected brooks +and streams, quite in the nature of old days. + +Then at last came the day when the boys announced that they would have to +return to town and to the military camp to obtain their formal discharge +from the army. + +"We may surprise you by coming back in 'civies' a week or two from now," +Will laughed, as the girls prepared to spin them to the railroad station +in the cars. "So you had better be prepared for the shock." + +"Maybe they won't care for us any more when they see us out of uniform," +grinned Roy, as he shook hands with Mrs. Irving. "You know the old saying +that a uniform has made many a hero of a bootblack." + +"Goodness, I hope you aren't a bootblack," said Mollie from her car, where +she was "doing things" with the engine. + +"I'm not," answered Roy, adding with a grin, "Nothing half so honest." + +Although the girls knew that they were only saying good-bye to the boys +for a few days, the parting was hard just the same, and half an hour later +they watched the train wind serpent-like down the shining track with a +sinking feeling at their hearts. + +"Aren't we a lot of geese?" said Grace impatiently, as they climbed back +into the cars. "We have done without the boys for a couple of years, and +now when they have just gone as far as Deepdale for a couple of weeks, we +are almost crying about it." + +"I suppose it is just because we have had so much separation that we can't +bear any more of it--even a little," suggested gentle Amy, feeling as if +she had just awakened from a blissful dream. + +"Never mind," said Mollie, putting an arm about Betty's waist and giving +it a little squeeze. "Just think how lovely it will be to see the boys in +regular clothes again, and maybe," with a sly glance at Betty, "by the +time they come back they will have added one to their number." + +"Goodness, I hope so!" said Betty, unashamed. + +In spite of some regret at not having the boys, the girls managed to enjoy +themselves in the days that followed. They motored and swam and fished and +hiked, and got as becomingly sun-burned and tanned as young Indians. It +was not until two or three days before the boys returned that anything +untoward happened to disturb their peace of mind. + +Then one night the moon came out with such dazzling brilliance that Betty +was seized with a strong desire to be out in it. + +"Let's go for a moonlight swim," she suggested excitedly, as they all +stood on the porch of the lodge staring up through the trees to where the +moon shone glitteringly down. "We haven't done it since we came, and +surely our vacation wouldn't be complete without one." + +"Or more," said Mollie, seconding the plan with enthusiasm. "Come on. +Let's tell Mrs. Irving where we are going. Maybe she will wish to go +along, but I doubt it." + +Mollie was right: Mrs. Irving did not wish to go, and the girls rushed +upstairs to don bathing suits in preparation for the lark. + +A few minutes later they were racing like slim young ghosts through the +woods, laughing and calling to each other and entirely abandoned to the +joy of the moment. + +"Race you to the old swimming hole," Mollie called out, as they neared the +river; and away they all raced in response to the challenge. + +Betty won, in spite of the fact that Mollie had had a short head start, +and the girls, wild in their exuberance, would have lifted her to their +shoulders had not Betty herself laughingly fought them off. + +"I have another challenge," she cried. "My fresh box of candy to whoever +swims to the other side of the swimming hole first. Are you on?" + +"We're on!" yelled Grace enthusiastically, adding: "I'd swim from here to +Jericho for that box of candy, Betty." + +As a matter of fact, whether it was really the thought of the candy or +whether it was because the other girls were tired from the last spurt, +Grace really did get to the other side of the swimming pool first, and, +pulling herself up on the other bank, dripping and triumphant, demanded +the prize. + +"You surely did win it, and you shall have that box of candy--much as I +hoped to keep it in the family," laughed Betty, shaking the water from her +eyes and drawing herself up beside her chum. "Goodness, isn't that water +delicious to-night?" she added, wriggling her toes luxuriously in the +rippling wavelets. "Just cool enough to be refreshing and not cold enough +to chill you----" She broke off suddenly and sat staring, her eyes +widening and her body tense. + +"Girls," she said in a queer voice, for Mollie and Amy had also drawn +themselves up on the bank, "have I gone crazy, or what is the matter with +me? Do you see--what--I see--up there?" + +Alarmed, the girls followed the direction of her strained gaze, and +suddenly they seemed to feel themselves congeal with momentary horror. + +Far above them on the bank near the falls and on the other side of the +river, stood the crouched-up, animal-like figure of--the "Thing!" + + + + +Chapter XXIV + +Recovered + + + +The sight was almost too much for the girls. What they felt was sheer +animal panic and they wanted to run away--anywhere--just so they put +distance enough between them and that figure on the bank. + +"Sit still," Betty commanded them, recovering her presence of mind. "That +is Professor Dempsey up there, and if we make any sudden sound we are sure +of frightening him away." + +"But he was killed--we saw it," moaned Amy. "That must be his g-ghost." + +"Don't be ridiculous," snapped Mollie, her thoughts working along with +Betty's. "You know you don't believe in ghosts." + +"But how----" Amy was beginning when Betty interrupted sharply. + +"Listen," she said. "I came across an old derelict of a rowboat the other +day when we were exploring the upper river, but I didn't say anything to +you girls about it because I thought it was too much of a wreck to bother +with. For all I know it isn't even water tight--" + +"Betty," Mollie broke in excitedly, "I see what you mean! We can row +across the upper river to where Professor Dempsey is--Were there oars in +the boat?" she broke off to ask. + +"A couple of old sticks that would serve for oars," Betty answered. "Of +course it's taking a big chance--" + +"Say no more," cried Mollie, jumping to her feet and wringing out her +bathing suit. "Big chance is our middle name anyway. Lead on, Betty. Where +do we find this craft?" + +"I'm not quite sure that I can find it," said Betty, leading the way into +the woods, "but it was down this way somewhere. Don't make any noise, +girls, and let's hurry, or we won't get there before he disappears again." + +Grace and Amy were now entering into the spirit of the thing, and they +followed at Betty's heels eagerly, careful not to step on stick or stone +that might betray their presence. + +Luckily Betty managed to stumble directly on the old derelict rowboat +where it lay in ancient helplessness in the concealment of a thick grove +of bushes along the upper reach of the stream. + +"Goody! This is almost too much luck," cried Betty exultantly. "You get in +the stern, Amy, and Grace in the bow. Mollie and I will do the rowing." + +"I only hope the old thing doesn't take in too much water," said Amy, as +she and Grace got gingerly into the rickety old craft and Betty and Mollie +pushed it off from the shore. + +"That remains to be seen," answered the Little Captain as she handed one +of the ancient oars to Mollie. "There is one thing we shall have to +remember, Mollie," she said, as they pushed clear of the bank and glided +out into the swift water of the river, "and that is to keep far enough +this side of the falls to guard against being swept over it. Bear hard on +your right hand, Mollie honey. It wouldn't be much fun if we upset here, +you know." + +"Oh!" gasped Grace, holding fast to the side of the boat and noting with +dismay how plainly the roar of the falls came to them. "I wish we had +another oar, I'd help----" + +"You can help most, Grade," cut in the Little Captain briskly, "by keeping +your nerve and helping us to keep ours. Mollie," she called in a whisper +that carried the length of the boat, "can you see--It--yet?" + +"Yes," Mollie telegraphed back in the same tense whisper. "It's got its +back to us, I think." + +"Good," said Betty softly, adding as she threw all her weight against her +oar, "now let's keep still and work." + +It was queer how they referred to that presence at the head of the falls +as "It." Some way, in the weird moonlight, under the more than unusual +circumstances, it seemed almost impossible to give the thing a name. + +"Was it Professor Dempsey?" they kept asking themselves over and over +again. But he had committed suicide. Or at least they had seen him fall +into the river, and they could have vowed that he did not come out again. +They had searched both sides of the river. How could they have missed him? +And yet, if that motionless figure at the head of the falls was really +Professor Dempsey, he must have been washed ashore that day and evaded +them as he had succeeded in evading them so many times before. + +And all the time the roar of the falls was growing louder and louder in +their ears and they knew that theirs was a race with life and death. + +Could they succeed in reaching the opposite bank before the deadly current +of the river should suck them over the falls, to almost certain +annihilation? + +The answer to the question came a moment: later when, without warning, the +prow of the little boat struck on an unexpected projection of the shore +and they came to a standstill. + +"Thank heaven!" said Betty under her breath as Mollie jumped out and +pulled the craft further in to shore. "That was nearly the riskiest thing +you ever did, Betty Nelson." + +Once on shore again, the girls' confidence returned and they hurried +silently through the woods toward the spot where they had seen the figure. +Then Betty, who had taken the lead, suddenly motioned to them to stop. + +She had caught a glimpse through the trees of the man, who resembled more +than ever a scarecrow in his crazy makeshift garments--and at the sight of +him her heart unaccountably skipped a beat. + +Her thoughts had not gone beyond this moment. Strangely enough all her +energy had been concentrated upon reaching the man before he disappeared. +But now that they had succeeded so far she was at a loss what to do next. + +But at that moment she inadvertently stepped on a dry twig that snapped +sharply under her foot, and at the sound the man had turned fiercely, like +an animal at bay. Then he wheeled about and made as though to flee for the +shelter of the woods. + +In this emergency Betty followed impulse. She ran out into the open, +calling to him wildly that his sons were alive. Not to run away, because +his sons were safe and well. They were coming to him---- + +The pitiful wreck of a man paused in his flight as the import of the words +seemed to sink into his befuddled brain, but he turned upon the Little +Captain a look of ferocious hatred that would have terrified a less +courageous girl than Betty. But her whole heart was in her mission, and +she had utterly forgotten herself. + +"Won't you please believe me?" she said, advancing toward him, hands +outstretched pleadingly. "I know what I'm talking about. Your sons, Arnold +and Jimmy----" + +As though the names of his boys had released some cord in his brain, the +man cried out hoarsely: + +"Jimmy and Arnold--my sons, my little boys!" Then, turning fiercely to +Betty, he cried: "You're not lying to me, are you? Because I'll throw you +into the river! I'll cut you into little pieces!" + +As the man advanced menacingly, Grace screamed and Mollie ran forward with +some wild idea of protecting her chum, but Betty waved them back. + +"I'm not lying to you," she told the crazy man, looking straight into his +glaring eyes. "Your boys were wounded, but not seriously, and they sailed +a few days ago for this country on a hospital ship. They want to see you +more than anything else in the world," she added, playing on the sudden +softness that had crept into his wild eyes. "And they sent their love to +their dad." + +At sound of the old loving name all the fight went out of the old man and +he sank to his knees on the grass, sobbing horribly. + +They let him alone for a moment, then Betty motioned to Mollie, and +together they lifted him to his feet. The sight of his tear-stained, +unkempt old face, creased and lined with suffering, but with the wildness +gone out of the eyes, stirred a profound pity in the girls and they wished +more than anything in the world to make him happy again. + +"We are going to take you home, Professor Dempsey," Betty told him +soothingly, as with Mollie's help she half led, half carried, him through +the woods toward the spot where they had left the boat, Amy and Grace +following awed and silent behind them. "And as soon as your boys reach +home we will bring them to you. Be careful of this big rock. Ah, here's +the boat." And talking all the time, softly and soothingly as one would to +a child, Betty at last succeeded in seating the derelict old man in the +equally derelict old boat. + +The girls tumbled in after him, and with a prayer in her heart Betty +pushed off from shore. + +That ride back across the river was as weird and unreal as any nightmare +the girls had ever lived through. Their queer passenger, seeming the most +unreal of all, was quiet for the most part but occasionally he would sit +up and look about him wildly and could only be soothed back to reason by +Betty's sweet voice telling him of his boys--Jimmy and Arnold. + +Somehow they reached the opposite shore, and, after pulling the boat up +among the bushes once more, they started back, the old man with them, to +Wild Rose Lodge. + + + + +Chapter XXV + +The Old Crowd Again + + + +Mrs. Irving, who had been worried by their prolonged absence, met the +girls at the door as they stumbled with the almost exhausted old man up +the steps of the porch. + +At sight of the latter she grew deathly pale, and leaned against the door +for support. She felt that all the world was growing black---- + +"Oh, please, please don't faint!" she heard Betty's young voice calling to +her desperately as it seemed from a long distance. "We've depended upon +you to help us." + +With a great effort she fought off the dizziness and drew herself away +from Betty's supporting arm. + +"It's all right," she said dazedly. "The shock, I guess. Betty what--who-- +is that----" + +"Oh, please don't ask any questions now," Betty begged feverishly. "Just +help us, and we will tell you all about it later. This is Professor +Dempsey," she added, turning to the broken old man who stood staring at +them uncomprehendingly. "He can have Mollie's and my room, can't he, Mrs. +Irving? and we will bunk somewhere else." + +Mrs. Irving nodded automatically, still too dazed by the suddenness of the +thing even to think, and they helped the old man into Betty's room and +laid him on the bed. The tired, ragged, unkempt old head had hardly +touched the pillow before its owner had sunk into a heavy sleep. + +For a moment the girls were startled, for it almost seemed as though he +were dead, but Betty put her hand on the ragged old shirt above the heart +and found that the action was strong and regular. + +"Perhaps it is the very best thing that could happen to him," she said +softly, and, laying a light cover over him, tip-toed from the room, +followed quietly by Mrs. Irving and the other girls. + +Once in the other room, with the need for action over, the girls felt weak +and spent, and it was only then that they realized that they had been +through a terrible ordeal. + +In broken sentences they told Mrs. Irving all that had happened and as she +listened she more and more appalled at the risk they had run and the +danger they had gone through. + +"Girls, girls," she cried when they had finished, "I was half wild about +you as it was. But if I had known the truth I think I should have gone +crazy. Just the same," she added and her eyes shone with pride in them, +"it was a glorious thing for you to do--an unselfish, wonderfully +courageous thing. I'm proud of you!" + +In spite of the fact that they were tired out, the girls insisted upon +standing watch and watch that night. They felt that some one should be +with Professor Dempsey all the time in case he should wake in the night +with his old madness upon him. It was the longest night any of them had +ever spent, and the morning dawned upon a hollow-eyed, worn-out set of +Outdoor Girls. + +"I never," said Betty, looking around at her white-faced chums wearily, +"spent such a terrible night in my life. How is the patient?" she added, +taking up the subject that had not left their minds for a minute. "Who was +in there last?" + +"I," said Grace, brushing out her hair, listlessly. "He is still asleep." + +That report continued good all morning, and it was almost noon before the +ragged, unbelievably unkempt old man on the bed opened his eyes. + +The girls had been looking forward to, yet dreading, this minute. It had +been decided that only one of them should be in the room with him when he +awoke, but the rest were hovering close to the door ready to give +assistance if it should become necessary. + +But they need not have worried. The magic of his long sleep, together with +the glad news he had heard the night before, seemed to have transformed +the man overnight to his old gentle self. + +To be sure, he was amazed at his strange surroundings, and looked +uncomprehendingly into Betty's face as she bent compassionately over him. +But all he said was: + +"I declare, this is all very strange, young lady--very strange. Would you +mind--er--telling me where I am?" + +At the tone, even more than the words, the girls felt a wild desire to +shout aloud their relief. For the tone was the same, gentle, polite one +that they remembered hearing that day when the little man had entertained +them in his cabin in the woods. + +Then Betty, as gently as she knew how, told him a little of what had +happened to him, and the girls could see by the surprise on his face that +he had no recollection whatever of the matters of which she was speaking. + +"I declare it is most strange--most strange," he declared when she had +finished, adding as he looked down and plucked distastefully at his +tattered shirt: "And this is the result of my--er--temporary aberration, +is it? Ah, but I remember," he sat up suddenly, a gleam of fear in his +eyes. "It was when I read of the death of my boys. Something snapped in my +brain, I think. You say"--he turned to Betty, grasping her hand +imploringly--"you say that my sons are well--that they are coming to me?" + +"Yes," said Betty soothingly, pressing him back upon the pillow. "They are +well and safe and will be with you soon--in a few days, perhaps." + +"Ah," said the little man, submitting to Betty's touch, a happy smile on +his lips, "that is good. That is very--very--good--" and with a sigh like +a tired child's, he fell asleep again! + +"Did you hear what he said?" whispered Betty, her eyes shining as she +tip-toed from the room, closed the door softly behind her and faced her +awed and incredulous chums. "He's well, girls. He's completely sane +again." + +"It's a miracle," said Mollie breathlessly. + +And so it came to pass that some little time later four good-looking young +fellows, recently in the service of the greatest country on the earth, and +one of them still wearing his regimentals, saw a rather unexpected sight +as they swung down the path toward Wild Rose Lodge. + +On the porch sat an elderly, contented looking man, clad in garments that +would easily have accommodated two men of his size--garments belonging to +Mollie's Uncle John, and seated about him in attitudes of lazy comfort +were four young girls. + +These young girls--who were, at least from the standpoint of the four +young men, exceedingly good to look upon, were engaged in doing some sort +of fancy work. All but one of them, that is; for the fourth, a girl with +wavy brown hair and bright brown eyes, pink cheeks, and a dream of a +mouth, was reading to the elderly man who sat in the chair of state. + +"Gee, Allen," whispered one of the tall youths to the one who still wore +the uniform of his country's service, "I feel as though we were crabbing +your act. Can't we fellows do the disappearing act----" + +But just at the moment the girl with the brown eyes and the pink cheeks +looked up, gave one little startled cry, and dropped the book to the +porch. + +The other girls looked up and then followed a scene that very nearly made +the temporarily forgotten and neglected old man on the porch drop out of +his chair in surprise. + +"Allen!" screamed the girls, all except the brown-haired, pink-cheeked +one, who, for some unaccountable reason hung back behind the others. "You +perfect angel!" + +"Why didn't you let us know you were coming so that we could have been +prepared?" + +"Oh, isn't your uniform lovely!" + +"And look at the dressed-up leggings!" + +These and various other exclamations like them, coupled to the fact that +all the girls, except the one that he wanted to most, had kissed him, +rather overwhelmed young Lieutenant Washburn and took his breath away. + +His three companions, however, finding themselves neglected and out in the +cold, interfered at this point and saved his life. + +"Betty, what are you hiding away back there for?" cried Mollie to the +Little Captain, whose cheeks were pinker than ever and whose eyes were +shining very brightly with a sort of mixture of joy and fright. "Don't you +know Allen in his uniform?" + +"Aren't you going to kiss him?" chimed in Grace wickedly. + +"We all did," added Amy. + +But Betty had no intention of kissing Allen, although he begged her to +with his laughing eyes and she continued backing into the doorway, until +Mrs. Irving, coming up behind her, caught her up and pushed her out upon +the porch again. + +However, the chaperon monopolized Allen for a few minutes and gave Betty +time to catch her breath. She found Mollie introducing Professor Dempsey +to the astonished boys. These young soldiers wanted to ask a hundred +questions, but, catching a warning look from Betty, decided to wait till +later, when the little man himself was not present. + +Frank, who was perhaps more glad than any of them to see the father of his +chums alive and well, settled himself near the man and began to pour into +his starved and eager ears news of his sons and tales of adventures in +which they had figured. + +And while Betty was still smiling in sympathy with the look of absolute +happiness on Professor Dempsey's face, Allen dragged himself away from the +group of his admirers and came over to her. + +Boldly he pulled her hand through his arm and led her past the laughing +boys and girls, down the steps, and along the path that led into the +woods. + +"Be back in time for supper," Will called after them. "Something tells me +we are going to have some feed." + +"Oh, don't bother them," they heard Mollie's voice in laughing reproof. +"Remember, you were young yourself, once!" + +"And now," said Allen, when they had gone just far enough for the trees +and bushes to screen them from the view of the people on the porch, "I +want you to look at me, Betty. You haven't yet, you know." + +"I c-can't," said Betty in a muffled voice. "I guess--" she added +whimsically, "I guess I'm a little afraid of you, Lieutenant Allen +Washburn." + +With a glad laugh Allen put his strong young arms about her. + +"Do you think you can keep on all your life being afraid of me--like +that?" he asked. "Little Betty?" + +And Betty, with the radiant joy of all youth in her heart, slowly nodded. + + * * * * * + +And what glorious days followed! The young folks never tired of their +tramps through the woods and walks in the vicinity of Moonlight Falls. +They gave themselves up to a good time and had it in full measure. + +"Gee, what an improvement over the trenches in France!" remarked Will one +day. "No more wars for me!" + +"So say we all of us!" sang out Frank. + +When they had to return to Deepdale the boys took Professor Dempsey with +them and Frank saw to it that the old man was made comfortable until his +wounded sons returned to him. Both of the hurt soldiers were recovering, +and the reunion of father and sons was most affecting. + +"Now for a final swim below the falls!" cried Mollie one day, when the +outing was coming to an end. + +"We ought to have a good time--now there is no ghost to disturb us," put +in Amy. + +"A chocolate for the first one to enter the water!" exclaimed Grace, +waving her ever-present candy box in the air. + +"That settles it--I'm off!" burst out Betty; and then all made a wild dash +for the swimming pool. And here let us say good-bye to the Outdoor Girls. + + + +THE END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Outdoor Girls at Wild Rose Lodge +by Laura Lee Hope + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WILD ROSE LODGE *** + +This file should be named 8gwrl10.txt or 8gwrl10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 8gwrl11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 8gwrl10a.txt + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN EBOOKS*Ver.02/11/02*END* + diff --git a/old/8gwrl10.zip b/old/8gwrl10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2c84a90 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/8gwrl10.zip diff --git a/old/8gwrl10h.htm b/old/8gwrl10h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..97b44d6 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/8gwrl10h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,5522 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?> +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> + +<html> + +<head> +<title>The Outdoor Girls at Wild Rose Lodge, by Laura Lee Hope</title> + +<style type="text/css"> + <!-- + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5 { text-align: center; font-weight: bold; font-variant: small-caps } + h1 { margin-top: 2em } + .smallcaps { font-variant: small-caps } + img { border-style: none } + --> +</style> +</head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's The Outdoor Girls at Wild Rose Lodge, by Laura Lee Hope +#18 in our series by Laura Lee Hope + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. 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You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: The Outdoor Girls at Wild Rose Lodge + or, The Hermit of Moonlight Falls + +Author: Laura Lee Hope + +Release Date: June, 2005 [EBook #8211] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on July 2, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-Latin-1 + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WILD ROSE LODGE *** + + + + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + +</pre> + + +<h1>The Outdoor Girls +at +Wild Rose Lodge</h1> +<p align="center" class="smallcaps">or</p> +<h2>The Hermit of Moonlight Falls</h2> + +<p align="center" class="smallcaps">by</p> +<h3>Laura Lee Hope</h3> + +<h4>Author of "The Outdoor Girls of Deepdale," "The<br /> +Outdoor Girls at Bluff Point," "The Moving<br /> +Picture Girls," "The Bobbsey Twins,"<br /> +"Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue,"<br /> +"Six Little Bunkers at Grandma<br /> +Bell's," Etc.</h4> + + + + +<h1>Contents</h1> + + +<ol style="list-style-type: upper-roman"> + <li><a href="#ch_01">Just Fun.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch_02">The Falling Tree.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch_03">The Queer Little Man.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch_04">Good News.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch_05">Betty Takes a Dare.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch_06">Nearly Wrecked.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch_07">Bad Tidings Confirmed.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch_08">Premonitions.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch_09">A Visitor.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch_10">Hurrah for Allen.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch_11">The Hold-Up.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch_12">Sheep!</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch_13">The Enemy Routed.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch_14">Nothing Human.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch_15">Wild Roses.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch_16">The Whirlpool.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch_17">The "Thing".</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch_18">Surprised.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch_19">Like Old Times.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch_20">Very Much Alive.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch_21">Out of the Dark.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch_22">Tragedy.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch_23">A Moonlight Apparition.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch_24">Recovered.</a></li> + <li><a href="#ch_25">The Old Crowd Again.</a></li> +</ol> + + + + +<h1>The Outdoor Girls at Wild Rose Lodge</h1> + + + + +<h1><a name="ch_01"></a>Chapter I</h1> + +<h2>Just Fun</h2> + + + +<p>"Did you ever see a more wonderful day?"</p> + +<p>The four Outdoor Girls, in Mollie Billette's touring car and with Mollie +herself at the wheel, were at the present moment rushing wildly over a +dusty country road at the rate of thirty miles an hour.</p> + +<p>Grace Ford was sitting in front with Mollie, while Betty Nelson and Amy +Blackford "sprawled," to use Mollie's sarcastic and slightly exaggerated +description, "all over the tonneau."</p> + +<p>"You look as if you had never done a real day's work in your life," said +Mollie, with a disapproving glance over her shoulder at the girls in the +tonneau.</p> + +<p>"We never have," returned quiet Amy, with a grin.</p> + +<p>"And we are proud of it," added Betty, as she defiantly settled her feet +still more comfortably on the foot rail. "Why should we be energetic when +it is so much easier to be lazy?"</p> + +<p>"There the proper spirit speaks," applauded Grace Ford from the front. "I +think I shall have to change places with you, Betty. It's far too exciting +up here with Mollie. She insists upon staging near collisions every few +feet--thus keeping me awake!"</p> + +<p>"Great heavens!" cried Mollie, pressing an impatient foot upon the +accelerator to which the great car responded with an eager purring, "did +any one ever give us the mistaken title of Outdoor Girls, I wonder? They +should have called us the Rip Van Winkle club, instead."</p> + +<p>"Now she's getting sour-castic," commented Grace lazily. "Have some candy, +honey, and sweeten up."</p> + +<p>She passed the ever-present box of delicacies over to Mollie, to which +overture the young driver responded with so indignant a stare that Grace +quickly withdrew the box, tucked it behind her, and strove to look +unconscious.</p> + +<p>"Please, ma'am, I didn't mean to do it," she said meekly.</p> + +<p>"Well, don't do it again, that's all," returned Mollie, uncompromisingly, +her eyes once more on the road ahead, "I've eaten so many chocolates this +week that I've had indigestion and mother threatened to cut down my +allowance."</p> + +<p>"Goodness, it's my allowance that suffers," retorted Grace, ruefully, +"since it is my candy that you eat."</p> + +<p>"Stop quarreling, girls, and answer my question." said Betty, sitting up +straight and regarding delightedly a vista of flying hills and woodland +greenery. "I asked you a few minutes ago if you had ever seen so wonderful +a day?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, plenty of 'em," returned Mollie, as she took a sharp curve on two +wheels. "If you weren't too lazy to notice anything, Betty Nelson, you +would see that there is a storm coming up. Look at those clouds over there +in the east."</p> + +<p>"Oh, you're a kill-joy!" cried Betty, cocking an optimistic eye up at the +sky. "It's only one teeny little cloud anyway, and who cares for clouds +when the boys are coming home?"</p> + +<p>Both Amy and Grace felt a breathless little tug at their hearts at the +joyful challenge in Betty's words, but Mollie, with a perverseness that +was sometimes characteristic of her, refused to be too happy.</p> + +<p>"Who says they're coming home?" she asked. "Now you're only guessing."</p> + +<p>"Guessing!" cried Betty indignantly. "What do you mean--guessing? The war +is over, isn't it?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; and has been for quite a while," Mollie responded dryly. "But that +doesn't say that the boys are coming home right away."</p> + +<p>"We don't care about the right away," interrupted Amy, with a quiet +happiness in her face that made Betty hug her impulsively. "We can wait +patiently, now that we know they are safe."</p> + +<p>"It's all right for you to talk about patience, Amy," retorted Mollie, +throttling her engine and sliding at breakneck speed down a long hill +without the thought of using a brake. A brake to Mollie meant something to +be used at the last minute when she couldn't think of anything else to do. +"You're an angel, but I'm not----"</p> + +<p>"No, indeed!" said Grace, so emphatically that the girls in the tonneau +chuckled and Mollie looked at her threateningly.</p> + +<p>"For goodness' sake, don't waste time looking at me," Grace pleaded, as +they bounced into a hole in the road and out again, fairly jouncing the +breath from the girls' bodies. "Keep your eyes on the road, Mollie dear. +We're not ready to die yet."</p> + +<p>"Well, look out, or you may--ready or not," threatened Mollie darkly, as +the car skidded around another precipitous turn and the girls saw with +relief a long stretch of flat road before them.</p> + +<p>"Just the same the boys must be coming home before very long," said Amy, +quietly returning to the subject. "And when they do come we'll have to +give them some sort of big party or something, girls."</p> + +<p>"Of course we will," said Grace, munching contentedly on a chocolate. +"Something that will make the people in Deepdale sit up and take notice."</p> + +<p>"We-el--I don't know," objected Betty thoughtfully. "They say that the few +soldier boys who have come home object to any sort of fuss being made over +them. They seem to want to forget everything that has happened 'over +there,' and any sort of celebration brings the whole thing vividly before +them again."</p> + +<p>"Yes, that's true, too," Mollie agreed. "I remember our doctor telling +mother that if people only wouldn't try to force confidences from the boys +and would try to keep all thought of the awful things they had been +through out of their minds, there would be fewer cases of nervous +breakdowns."</p> + +<p>"Pop!" said Grace, snapping her finger resignedly. "There go all our hopes +of a good time, Amy. When the boys come home all we shall be allowed to do +will be to smooth their fevered brows and hold their hands."</p> + +<p>"Well, we might do worse things even than that," said Betty, with a light +laugh, and Mollie shot her a malicious glance.</p> + +<p>"Just watch Betty objecting to that" she said wickedly. "Before we know it +she will be sighing that Allen has only one fevered brow to smooth!"</p> + +<p>Amy and Grace looked at Betty mischievously--at Betty who could not for +the life of her look as unconcerned as she would have liked.</p> + +<p>"Don't be so foolish" she said hastily, at which the girls only laughed +the more.</p> + +<p>"Never mind, honey," said Amy, putting an arm fondly about her chum. "I +guess we will all be crazy with joy to get the boys home again."</p> + +<p>"Well, you needn't think you can hold hands with Will and smooth his +fevered brow all the time," said Grace unexpectedly. "Because I really +have some share in him myself, you know. Remember, mine was one of the +three pictures he kept under his pillow."</p> + +<p>Readers of previous volumes in this series may recall that joyful letter +written to Betty not so long ago in which Sergeant Allen Washburn--now +Lieutenant Allen Washburn--had spoken of the three pictures which Will +Ford had kept under his pillow during his long convalescence in one of the +army hospitals over there. These readers may also remember that one of the +pictures was of the boy's mother, another of his sister, Grace, and the +third of shy little Amy Blackford, who now was blushing so furiously at +the mere mention of it.</p> + +<p>"How about poor Frank and Roy?" asked Mollie, mentioning the other two +boys who made up the quartette of the girls' boy chums. "Who will attend +to their fevered brows?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, you and Grace can take turns at that," said Betty, lightly adding, +with a little sigh: "Try as we can, Amy and I never know quite how to pair +you four off. We can't for the life of us find out which of you likes +Frank best and which inclines to Roy."</p> + +<p>"That's right, kid--keep 'em guessing," said Mollie slangily, as she +turned on power and challenged a steep grade. "Grace and I believe in +scattering our favors--as 'twere. See that hill just ahead of us? What do +you bet I make it without changing gears?"</p> + +<p>"If you make it without changing our looks, I'll be happy," said Grace +ruefully, as they bumped and rumbled to the top of the steep grade. "Look +out, Mollie!" she added suddenly, indicating a big pile of brushwood that +jutted out almost into the center of the road. "For goodness' sake, slow +down!"</p> + +<p>But Mollie did more than slow down. She stopped--and with such suddenness +that the girls were all but thrown out of the car and Betty bumped her +nose on the seat in front.</p> + +<p>They had scarcely regained their poise when they were startled by a shrill +cry from Amy.</p> + +<p>"Girls!" she almost screamed, clutching Betty's arm in a grip that hurt, +"look at that tree. It's going to fall! Oh, we'll be killed!"</p> + +<p>The girls followed the direction of her pointing finger and looks of +horror sprang to their eyes. Slowly, its descent retarded somewhat by the +branches of other trees, a towering giant of the forest tottered and +crashed its destructive way downward. And they were directly in its path!</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="ch_02"></a>Chapter II</h1> + +<h2>The Falling Tree</h2> + + + +<p>For a moment the Outdoor Girls sat fascinated, paralyzed, without the +power to move a muscle. Then suddenly Grace seemed galvanized to action. +She leaned toward Mollie, grasping the steering wheel of the motionless +car frantically.</p> + +<p>"For heaven's sake, Mollie, get out of the way! Start the car!" she +screamed.</p> + +<p>"I can't!" Mollie answered, tight-lipped. "Something's wrong. The motor's +dead."</p> + +<p>But with Grace's scream, Betty had come to her senses and had scrambled +out of the car, dragging the still paralyzed Amy after her.</p> + +<p>"Grace, get out! Mollie, are you crazy?" she shouted wildly. "You'll be +killed--"</p> + +<p>Automatically Grace started to clamber to the road, but Mollie still +fussed with brakes and levers, her lips in a tight line, her eyes blazing.</p> + +<p>"Something's wrong--but I'll get her started," she muttered over and over +to herself while Betty raged at her from the road.</p> + +<p>"Get out! get out!" fumed the Little Captain. "Jump, or I'll come after +you and we'll both be killed. Mollie!"</p> + +<p>Luckily for Mollie's suicidal stubbornness, the great tree had been halted +for a moment in its downward plunge by some particularly heavy foliage and +branches, but the girls could see that it was only a matter of seconds +until the giant should tear itself loose and come plunging down upon them.</p> + +<p>And still Mollie fumbled with levers in a vain and foolish attempt to save +her beloved car at the risk of her own life.</p> + +<p>Betty had just jumped upon the running board in a wild attempt to drag her +chum from the car when suddenly help came to them from an unexpected +quarter.</p> + +<p>An elderly man came running from the woods, evidently attracted by their +excited cries. He gave one look at the toppling tree, even now tearing +itself loose from the impeding branches, another at the machine with the +two girls still in it, and then, with a speed and decision which seemed to +belie his age, went to the rescue.</p> + +<p>"Come--help me push!" he cried to Amy and Grace, who were still standing +dumbly in the middle of the road. A moment later he had thrown himself +with all his might against the machine, striving to push it out of the +path of the falling tree.</p> + +<p>In an instant of time the girls had added their strength to his and the +automobile was moving slowly down the road. Luckily the car was on a down +grade or they never could have managed it. As it was, there was just time +to get out of the way when the great tree came crashing down, its +outermost branches just brushing Amy's skirt. The giant had fallen on the +very spot where the car had been only a moment before!</p> + +<p>"Girls," breathed Betty, with a shaky little attempt at a laugh, "I guess +we've never in our lives been nearer death than we were just then."</p> + +<p>And while the girls are marveling at their almost miraculous escape from a +terrible death, time will be taken to introduce the Outdoor Girls to those +readers who have not yet met them and also to review briefly a few of the +exciting and interesting adventures they have had up to the time of this +present narrative.</p> + +<p>There were four of them. Betty Nelson, or the "Little Captain" as the +girls often called her because she had such a decided talent for knowing +just the right thing to do at just the right moment, was eighteen, +dark-haired and dark-eyed. She had a fund of vitality and more than her +share of sense and good judgment--all of which went toward making her what +she was, the most popular girl in Deepdale.</p> + +<p>Grace Ford, tall, slender and willowy, was almost the same age as Betty, +but that fact and her love of the outdoors were the only things she had in +common with the "Little Captain." Her father, James Ford, was a lawyer, +and her mother, Mrs. Margaret Ford, a rather dressy lady who spent a good +deal of her time at clubs, was quite a figure in the society of Deepdale. +However, all through the war Mrs. Ford had worked with an untiring +enthusiasm for the "cause," a fact which had made her many more friends +than her social popularity could ever have done.</p> + +<p>Next in the little quartette came Mollie Billette. Mollie was seventeen, +French-American, and impulsive, with a quick temper that made more trouble +for herself than for any one else. She and Betty were alike in their +splendid vigor and vitality. Mollie, or "Billy" as she was sometimes +called by her chums, had a very lovely widowed mother and an extremely +mischievous young brother and sister, Paul and Dora (nicknamed "Dodo"), +who were twins and six. Although the twins were pretty nearly always in +trouble, they were really adorable children, whom everybody loved.</p> + +<p>Amy Blackford, shy, sweet, pretty, completed the quartette. There had been +a mystery about her past which had recently been cleared up, and it may +have been this mystery that caused the girls to treat her with a little +more consideration and gentleness than they did each other. Her guardian +was a broker in the city who knew very little of the past except through +letters.</p> + +<p>The four boys who were close chums of the girls and had added to the +interest and excitement of more than one of their adventures were Allen +Washburn, who was very much interested in Betty, and in whom Betty was +very much interested; Will Ford, Grace's brother, who had carried Amy +Blackford's picture all through the war; Frank Haley, Will Ford's closest +chum, and Roy Anderson who had not much distinction of any kind except +that he was "lots of fun" and a chum of the other three boys.</p> + +<p>In the first volume of this series the girls went on a camping and +tramping tour, tramping for miles over the country and meeting with many +adventures on the way.</p> + +<p>Later they had more fun at Rainbow Lake, in a motor car, in a winter camp, +in Florida, at Ocean View, then at Pine Island where the girls and boys +together had cleared up a mystery surrounding a gypsy cave.</p> + +<p>Later the girls and boys found themselves caught in the meshes of the +great war, as many hundreds of thousands of others had been. The boys +responded eagerly to the bugle call, and the girls, too, were eager for +Army service and finally went to a hostess house at Camp Liberty. Though +the girls had never worked harder in their lives, they found that the task +had a stirringly romantic side as well.</p> + +<p>Then in the volume directly preceding this, entitled "The Outdoor Girls at +Bluff Point" the girls had had perhaps the most exciting adventure of all.</p> + +<p>The Hostess House at Camp Liberty having burnt down, the chums found +themselves forced to take a much-needed, although not entirely welcome, +vacation and had decided to spend it at a romantic spot near the ocean +called Bluff Point. The cottage on the bluff had been loaned to the girls +by Grace's patriotic Aunt Mary, who declared that she owed something to +the chums for having worked so hard for the good old Stars and Stripes. +Mrs. Ford, worn out with war work, had gone with the girls to chaperon +them.</p> + +<p>Bad tidings at first threatened to overwhelm the chums. The Fords received +word that Will was seriously wounded "somewhere in France" and later +Mollie received a telegram from her mother saying that the twins, Dodo and +Paul, had disappeared. Still later, while everything was at its blackest, +Betty read Allen Washburn's name among the missing. However, everything +cleared up later when the twins, who had been kidnapped, were recovered +and their kidnapper sent to justice. Still later Allen proved that the +report that he had been missing was an error by writing to Betty himself +and in the letter he also spoke of Will Ford and the fact that he was +getting over his wound splendidly. Of course there had been great +rejoicing and the vacation had proved a happy one after all.</p> + +<p>And now, at the time of this story, the war was over and the first +regiments of soldiers had arrived from the other side and the girls were +expecting a joyful reunion with the boys at any time.</p> + +<p>They had not yet made definite plans for the summer and were just in the +position of waiting for something to happen when something had happened +with a vengeance--but not at all the kind of something which the four +girls had expected.</p> + +<p>"I think you are right, my dear," said the man who had saved the lives of +at least two of the girls, rubbing his hands fussily together and peering +out of small, near-sighted eyes, first at the tree and then at the girls. +"It was a close call--a very close call. I declare, it was very nearly the +closest call I ever saw!"</p> + +<p>For the first time the girls really looked at him. He was a rather small +man, slenderly built, with long sensitive hands and a very bald head, in +the center of which a tuft of hair stood comically upright. These +characteristics, coupled to the squinting eyes, gave the man a very odd +appearance.</p> + +<p>He was so queer a figure standing there in the center of the road that the +girls found themselves staring unduly. Realizing something of this, Betty +jumped down from the running board where she was still standing and held +out her hand to the little man, thanking him in a voice that still +trembled a little for the great service he had done them. The other girls +followed suit and so overwhelmed their rescuer that he seemed quite +embarrassed and looked around nervously as if for some means of escape.</p> + +<p>Betty, seeing his embarrassment, was about to take pity upon him when +something happened that they had not bargained for. It began to rain, not +gently, but in a deluge, taking the girls completely by surprise.</p> + +<p>Instinctively they turned toward the car, but Mollie suddenly began to +laugh in a half-hysterical manner.</p> + +<p>"This is what I call fun" she said. "Engine dead, caught in the rain, and +I've even left the side curtains at home! I guess we're in for it, girls."</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="ch_03"></a>Chapter III</h1> + +<h2>The Queer Little Man</h2> + + + +<p>While the girls stood looking wildly at each other their unknown rescuer +seemed suddenly galvanized to action.</p> + +<p>"This won't do at all!" he cried, raising both hands to his bald head +which was by this time very wet and more shiny than ever. "You will get +your death of cold, young ladies, you surely will. You must come with me. +Here, right along this path I have a cottage--" All the time he was +talking he was hustling them fussily ahead of him, for all the world like +some old hen with a brood of chickens.</p> + +<p>The girls, not knowing what else to do and being in rather a bewildered +frame of mind, allowed themselves to be hustled. The rain was sheeting +down in a terrific cloud burst, so that their clothes clung to them damply +and they began to shiver.</p> + +<p>They circled the fallen tree which had so nearly been their undoing, and a +moment later found themselves upon a narrow footpath which seemed to lead +into the very heart of the woods.</p> + +<p>"I wonder where he is taking us," whispered Grace in Betty's ear. "Maybe +he's a murderer or something."</p> + +<p>In spite of her discomfort, Betty giggled.</p> + +<p>"Did you ever see a murderer with a bald head like that?" she asked.</p> + +<p>It seemed to the girls as if the path must be at least a mile long, but +just as they were despairing of ever reaching the end of it, they came out +into a partially cleared space and through the trees caught a glimpse of +something that looked like a house.</p> + +<p>Their new acquaintance, who up to this time had been bringing up the rear, +now took the lead and led them over tangled underbrush, stones and +foot-bruising rocks, to his strange little dwelling.</p> + +<p>"It's a house, it's a house!" cried Grace thankfully, as they hurried +after the little man. "I guess somebody will have to wring me out when we +get inside. I'm soaked through!"</p> + +<p>"Goodness, why don't you tell us something we don't know?" grumbled +Mollie, but nobody was listening to her. They had reached the house and +the man had swung the door open hospitably.</p> + +<p>"Step inside, step inside, do," he urged with a nervous gesture that +reminded the girls once more of the proverbial hen. "You will find it dry +at least, and I will have a fire for you in a hurry. Just a moment till I +get some wood--just a moment--"</p> + +<p>And while he rambled on, suiting his words with quick nervous action, the +girls crowded inside the cottage and looked about them curiously.</p> + +<p>The room they had entered was large and scrupulously neat. At first glance +it seemed a queer combination of hunting lodge and museum of natural +history. The rough clapboards and beams of the ceiling and walls had never +been plastered, and this very crudity seemed somehow to give the room an +air of warmth and home-likeness that was very inviting.</p> + +<p>Hung on the walls were several fairly large skins of animals, a gun or +two, and over the huge open fireplace, which very nearly covered one end +of the room, hung the magnificent head of a buck.</p> + +<p>On the wall opposite the fireplace was a set of rudely-erected shelves, +one beneath the other, and these shelves were covered with specimens of +butterflies, beetles and other bugs of every size and description. That +the specimens had been mounted by an expert even an inexperienced eye +could see.</p> + +<p>The girls, who had been regarding the oddities of the room with growing +interest, were brought back to a realization of the discomfort of wet +clothes by the owner of the place himself.</p> + +<p>The latter had brought firewood from somewhere, and, with the aid of half +a dozen matches, had succeeded in getting a fairly good blaze.</p> + +<p>Then with a smile of satisfaction he turned to the girls, rubbing his +hands together genially.</p> + +<p>"Come nearer to the fire--come closer--do," he urged in his quick nervous +way. "I am sure you are chilled through--quite chilled through. I will +bring chairs." He stopped abruptly and looked about him with an +embarrassed air, his gaze coming to rest on the only chair which adorned +the room.</p> + +<p>Betty, seeing his confusion, was trying to think of something helpful to +say, when the little man suddenly found a way out of his quandary.</p> + +<p>"Ah, I have it!" he cried, seizing enthusiastically upon a long bench that +stood on one side of the room. "Four can sit upon this quite easily, I am +sure. A happy thought--a very happy thought--" and he pulled and tugged at +the bench until he succeeded in moving it close to the fire.</p> + +<p>Afterward it occurred to the girls that they might have helped him, for it +was a very heavy bench and he was rather a frail old man. But at the time +they were too interested in this unusual place and their rather +extraordinary host to think of anything very rational.</p> + +<p>However, they seated themselves dutifully in a row upon the bench, "for +all the world like an orphan asylum out for an airing," as Mollie said +later, and gratefully stretched out their sodden shoes to the blaze.</p> + +<p>They were cold and they were wet and they were fast becoming very hungry, +all of which might have been expected to form a very good reason why they +should have been miserable. But they weren't miserable--not at all. To the +Outdoor Girls the thrill of an adventure always more than counterbalanced +the possible discomforts attending it.</p> + +<p>Their host started to draw up the one chair in the room, hesitated a +moment then, as though he had just thought of something, turned and darted +through the door, closing it with a little click behind him.</p> + +<p>For the space of half a second the girls looked after him. Then they +looked at each other. Then they drew a long breath and let loose the flood +of curious questions which had been struggling for expression for the past +twenty minutes.</p> + +<p>"Well, isn't this a lark?" cried Mollie, her eyes dancing, "Half an hour +ago we were awfully bored, and now look at us."</p> + +<p>"Yes, look at us," said Grace with a little sniff. "I'm sure we're not +very much to look at right now with our hair wet, and our clothes--"</p> + +<p>"Oh, for goodness' sake, who cares about such things?" cried Betty gaily. +"I think this is a darling place and I'm having the time of my life. I +wonder who he is?"</p> + +<p>"He seemed kind of scared just now, didn't he?" chuckled Mollie, feeling +her shoe to see if it was drying out any. "It was funny the way he bolted +out of the room."</p> + +<p>"Poor old dear--no wonder he was scared," commented Grace, as she took off +her hat and tried to do something with her hopelessly bedraggled locks. +"The way we look we're enough to scare anybody. Oh, dear, hasn't any one a +comb?"</p> + +<p>"Why, of course, we carry a complete beauty parlor outfit just for your +benefit, dear," giggled Mollie. "The rest of us don't need it though, We +are too beautiful naturally."</p> + +<p>"You know I like him a lot, the queer little man, I mean," said Amy, +evidently following out her own train of thought. "He seems kind of fussy +and peculiar but he has an awfully nice smile."</p> + +<p>"Trust Amy to find the smile," said Betty, putting an arm fondly about the +younger girl. "And of course we all like him," she added seriously. "If it +hadn't been for him we probably wouldn't be feeling so happy right now."</p> + +<p>"Yes, we would probably be in some hospital with our unhappy relatives +weeping over our mangled remains," said the irrepressible Mollie, and +laughed at the shriek that went up at her gruesome remark. "There probably +wouldn't have been enough of us left to recognize," she added by way of +good measure, and they shrieked again.</p> + +<p>"For goodness' sake, let's talk of something pleasant," said Grace, rising +suddenly and going over to the window. "If you want to sit on that old +bench all day, you can."</p> + +<p>It appeared that the girls had no intention of sitting on the bench all +day. They got up and sauntered about the room, examining the skins on the +walls and looking, but without much curiosity, at the rifles. They +lingered longest before the shelves of butterflies and beetles, for some +of the specimens were really beautiful and very rare.</p> + +<p>After they had examined everything in sight they began to grow restive. +They must have been in the place nearly an hour and it suddenly occurred +to them to wonder where their host had been keeping himself all this time.</p> + +<p>"I wish we could get started," worried Mollie, looking out upon the sodden +landscape. The rain was apparently coming down just as hard as ever. "I +hate to leave the car all by itself out there. Somebody might steal it."</p> + +<p>"I wish I knew where that man was," said Grace nervously. "I never trust +strange men. He may set the house on fire for all we know."</p> + +<p>The words were hardly out of her mouth when the door opened and the topic +of conversation himself entered, carrying a tray so big and heaped so high +with sandwiches that one could scarcely discover the man behind it.</p> + +<p>Betty and Amy ran to his assistance, and between them they got the tray +safely to the bench. In one delighted glance the girls saw that not only +sandwiches, but a steaming pot of coffee and the remains of what had been +a great, three-layer chocolate cake were on the tray.</p> + +<p>At thought of the fussy little man taking all this time and trouble, for +it must have taken a good deal of work to make all that formidable array +of sandwiches--the girls were sincerely touched and regarded their host +with a new interest.</p> + +<p>"There, there," he was saying, regarding the heaped-up tray with evident +pleasure, "you must sit down and eat at once. You must be nearly starved-- +famished. I hope this will be enough."</p> + +<p>He looked at them so anxiously that Betty felt like hugging him--and +nearly did it.</p> + +<p>"Enough! Well, I guess it is enough," she said heartily, as the other +girls seated themselves on the bench either side of the tempting tray and +began enthusiastically to help themselves. "It would be plenty for an +army. We can't thank you enough."</p> + +<p>"Indeed we can't," added Mollie.</p> + +<p>"It's awfully good of you," said Grace, as she took a bite of her ham +sandwich.</p> + +<p>"Awfully good," added Amy, like an echo.</p> + +<p>The little man waved aside their thanks and drew up the one chair in the +room, talking all the time in his quick, jerky fashion.</p> + +<p>"It was no trouble, I am sure,--no trouble whatever," he said, adding as +though he wished to change the subject: "You didn't tell me your name--" +he hesitated, looking at Betty, who of course did tell him her name on the +spot. This proved a signal for mutual introductions, and the girls learned +that their new friend was a college professor, Arnold Dempsey by name. +They also learned that he had taken up woodcraft in the hope of recovering +his health.</p> + +<p>And while they contentedly munched sandwiches and sipped steaming coffee +the girls learned a good deal more about Arnold Dempsey, and the more they +learned of him the more they felt drawn to him.</p> + +<p>And when he started to tell them of his two sons who had fought so nobly +in the army of democracy, their eyes began to shine and they leaned toward +him with an interest that was intensely real.</p> + +<p>"Oh, it must be wonderful to have two big soldier sons," cried Amy, +forgetting her shyness in her enthusiasm. "Aren't you dreadfully proud?"</p> + +<p>A gleam came into Professor Dempsey's eyes and his thin shoulders +straightened.</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes," he said. "Of course I'm proud of my boys--very proud. And I +hope," a look of absolute happiness came into his eyes and he smiled +contentedly, "that before very long I shall see them."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'm sure you will!" cried Betty eagerly.</p> + +<p>"That's what we are all hoping for, anyway," said Grace, adding with a +sigh: "The boys have been gone so <i>dreadfully</i> long."</p> + +<p>"Look," cried Mollie presently, rising suddenly to her feet and pointing +toward the window. "We have been so busy talking that we never noticed the +sun had come out."</p> + +<p>"And doesn't it look good!" exulted Betty.</p> + +<p>In spite of their reluctance to leave their new-found friend, the girls +were anxious to be off, for they knew their parents would be worrying +about them.</p> + +<p>Professor Dempsey insisted on seeing them safely back to the road although +they protested that there was absolutely no need of it.</p> + +<p>"There are two or three paths that lead to the road," he explained, as he +flung wide the door, letting in a flood of sunshine, "and I wouldn't have +you lose your way for the world--not for the world!"</p> + +<p>The woodland was beautiful after the rain, and the girls sniffed the +fragrant air eagerly as they followed Professor Dempsey along the path. It +was not till they had almost reached the road that Mollie had a +disquieting thought.</p> + +<p>"How do we know but what we're stuck here for good?" she asked the girls. +"The car stopped dead, you remember, just under that horrible tree, and +I'm sure I don't know what in the world made it. If I can't find out the +trouble--"</p> + +<p>"Oh, but you've got to find it," protested Grace, while Betty and Amy +looked worried. "We can't stay here all night, and it may be a dozen miles +to the nearest garage."</p> + +<p>"I know that just as well as you do," grumbled Mollie. "But if I can't, I +can't, that's all."</p> + +<p>By this time they had reached the road and Mollie went straight to the +car. While she and Betty were trying to find out what was wrong the other +two girls and Professor Dempsey looked on anxiously.</p> + +<p>"Well, as far as I can see there is absolutely nothing wrong with it," +snapped Mollie at last, lifting a face flushed with exertion. "Get in, +girls, and I'll start the engine--or try to. Then if she won't go we'll +have to make up our minds to stay here all night or walk to the next +garage."</p> + +<p>Accordingly the girls got in and Mollie pressed the self-starter. To her +great surprise, the engine purred a response, and as she shifted her gears +the car moved slowly forward.</p> + +<p>"Oh, goodie, we're going," cried Amy, and the faces of the other girls +showed relief.</p> + +<p>"Must have been a drop of water in the gasoline," hazarded Mollie, and +then she throttled the engine once more while she and her chums turned to +say good-bye to Professor Dempsey. The latter was still standing in the +road, looking up at them rather wistfully.</p> + +<p>"I'm glad that I had an opportunity of helping you, young ladies--very +glad," he answered, in response to their repeated thanks. "You conferred a +great favor on me also, for I have little company. Good-bye--and good luck +to you."</p> + +<p>The girls responded gayly, and as they started forward Betty leaned far +out of the machine to call back an encouraging: "Keep hoping hard for your +boys to come home. I am sure they will be back soon."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, young lady, thank you," said Professor Dempsey, but the words +were too low for Betty to catch and she was too far away to see the mist +that sprang suddenly to his eyes.</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="ch_04"></a>Chapter IV</h1> + +<h2>Good News</h2> + + + +<p>Deepdale, the home of the four Outdoor Girls, is a thriving little city +with a population of about fifteen thousand people. It is situated on the +Argono River, a pleasant stream where a great many of the young folk of +Deepdale, and some of the older ones too, keep motor boats and canoes and +various other types of pleasure craft.</p> + +<p>Farther on, the Argono empties into Rainbow Lake, which is picturesque in +the extreme. It has several pretty and romantic looking islands, chief of +which is Triangle Island--so called because of its shape.</p> + +<p>There is a boat running from Deepdale to Clammerport at the foot of +Rainbow Lake, and this boat is almost always crowded with pleasure +seekers. In addition to this Deepdale is situated in the heart of New York +state and is only a hundred-and-fifty-mile run from the city of that name. +Thus one can easily see that Deepdale is a very desirable place in which +to live.</p> + +<p>At least that is what the four Outdoor Girls thought. And since they had +spent most of their lives there, they certainly ought to know!</p> + +<p>On the morning of this day, some ten days or so after their strange +encounter with Professor Dempsey, the girls were gathered on Betty's +porch, talking over their plans for the summer.</p> + +<p>"I am only waiting to hear from Uncle John," Mollie was saying, as she +swung lazily back and forth in the couch swing. "The last time I saw him +he said that he was almost sure to go north this summer and he told me +that as soon as he made definite plans he would let me know."</p> + +<p>"You told us that two weeks ago," Grace reminded her. "And we haven't +heard from him yet."</p> + +<p>"It does seem to take him a long time to make up his mind," sighed Amy.</p> + +<p>Betty, who had been trying to read a novel, closed the book and turned to +them with a laugh.</p> + +<p>"Goodness, you all sound doleful," she told them. "It seems to me that we +ought to be able to live through it, even if we don't get Wild Rose Lodge +for the summer. There are plenty of other things we can do."</p> + +<p>Mollie turned upon her indignantly.</p> + +<p>"How you talk, Betty Nelson," she scolded her. "As if we could possibly +have as good a time anywhere else as we could at Wild Rose Lodge. Think of +being in a real hunting lodge out in the woods away from everybody! Why, +it will be a real adventure--"</p> + +<p>"All right. I surrender--don't shoot," laughed Betty, coming over and +perching on the railing beside Mollie. "I admit we should probably have +more fun at the lodge than we could anywhere else. I was only trying to +look on the bright side of things in case our plans should fall through. +Hello--who's this?"</p> + +<p>"This" proved to be Mollie's little sister Dora, or "Dodo," as she was +called by almost everybody. With a sigh of relief, the girls saw that +Dodo's twin brother, Paul, was not with her, for together the children +were a simply unconquerable pair.</p> + +<p>The twins had been spoiled by their widowed mother, Mrs. Billette, even +before the time when they had been kidnapped and spirited off by a hideous +Spaniard. But since their recovery, their joyful mother had indulged them +in every way until they had become well nigh unmanageable.</p> + +<p>Yet in spite of everything, the twins were very lovable, and every one +loved them, even those whom they annoyed most.</p> + +<p>And now as Dodo tore up the street toward them, waving something white in +her hand, the girls instinctively glanced about to see what they ought to +put out of sight before the cyclone struck them.</p> + +<p>"Thank goodness, Paul isn't with her," murmured Grace. "Then we would be +in for it."</p> + +<p>"Dodo," cried Mollie as the child started up the walk, "scrape some of +that mud off your feet before you come up. You will get Betty's porch all +dirty."</p> + +<p>"Name's Dora--not Dodo," the little girl answered, paying not the +slightest heed to Mollie's caution about the mud. "Dodo's a baby's name-- +don't like it. Got something for you."</p> + +<p>She stumbled heedlessly up the steps, leaving a trail of mud behind her, +and almost breaking her neck in the bargain.</p> + +<p>"Now just look at Betty's porch," Mollie was beginning in exasperation +when Betty laughingly interfered.</p> + +<p>"Oh, let her alone, Mollie," she coaxed. "The porch was dirty anyway and-- +what's that you have in your hand, Dodo?"</p> + +<p>"Sumfin' for Mollie," answered Dodo, leaning sulkily against the rail +while the girls regarded her anxiously. "An' if Mallie aren't nice to me +she can't have it."</p> + +<p>"Oh, for goodness' sake be nice to her and get it over with, Mollie," +urged Grace, uneasily conscious of the candy box she had shoved hastily +behind her. She was afraid one corner of it might show.</p> + +<p>So Mollie got down from her perch on the railing and went over coaxingly +to the little girl.</p> + +<p>"Give it to Mollie, honey," she begged. "I'll even call you Dora, if you +will."</p> + +<p>"<i>Always</i> Dora--<i>never</i> Dodo?" asked Dodo eagerly, for she was +growing out of babyhood just enough to resent being called by her baby +name.</p> + +<p>"Always Dora," Mollie promised.</p> + +<p>For answer Dodo held out the white thing she had waved at them from the +street, and with a little cry of excitement Mollie saw that it was a +letter addressed to her in her Uncle John's firm hand.</p> + +<p>At her exclamation the girls crowded round her eagerly. She hastily tore +open the envelope and devoured the contents. Then she turned to the girls +with a glowing face.</p> + +<p>"It's all right, it's all right!" she cried, waving the letter round her +head like a flag and nearly upsetting her chums. "Uncle John says it is +settled. He is going to Canada for a couple of months and we can have the +lodge for the whole time he is away or a part of it, just as we wish. +Hooray! How's that for luck?"</p> + +<p>The girls were so excited over their good fortune that they forgot all +about Dodo. She, finding herself unobserved, had slipped around the girls +to the swing, snatched the box of candy which Grace had exposed when she +got up, had taken the steps two at a time and was flying off down the +street before the girls saw what she was up to.</p> + +<p>Then it was Grace who, with a dreadful premonition, thought of her candy. +She turned quickly, saw that the box was gone, and uttered a wail of woe.</p> + +<p>"That little Turk of a sister of yours has done it again," she cried, +turning to Mollie, while Betty and Amy began to laugh. "You just wait till +I catch her. I'll get my candy back if I have to--spank her," this last +with a fierce scowl.</p> + +<p>Betty put an arm about her excited chum, led her over to the swing and put +her down in it.</p> + +<p>"By the time you caught Dodo there wouldn't be any of your candy left," +she said, adding soothingly: "Never mind, honey. We will get you some more +if we have to take up a collection."</p> + +<p>"Makes me feel like an orphan's home," grumbled Grace, but she laughed +nevertheless with the rest and immediately forgot both her candy and Dodo +in renewed excitement over Wild Rose Lodge.</p> + +<p>"Just where is this place, Mollie?" asked Amy. "What is it called?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, that's the very best part of it," said Mollie, with a mysterious +smile. "It has the most wonderful, most romantic name. Come closer while I +whisper it--Moonlight Falls. There, isn't that a real name for a place?"</p> + +<p>"Wild Rose Lodge at Moonlight Falls," sighed Grace ecstatically. "If we +don't have a wildly romantic time in a place with a name like that, it +will be our own fault."</p> + +<p>"But we will have to have a chaperon--" Amy was beginning when Betty +interrupted her eagerly.</p> + +<p>"I have fixed that," she said, and while they all looked in astonishment +she went on quickly to explain. "I met Mrs. Irving in the street the other +day--you know she has been away ever since that last time she was with us +on Pine Island--and I asked her then if she would chaperon us this +summer."</p> + +<p>"But you didn't even know then that we were going to Wild Rose Lodge, +Betty," Mollie interrupted.</p> + +<p>"I knew we were sure to go somewhere. We always--" Betty was arguing when +Grace cut in impatiently.</p> + +<p>"Never mind about that," she said. "Did Mrs. Irving say she would go?"</p> + +<p>"She said she was very sure she could manage it," Betty answered. "She +seemed awfully surprised and said it would be great fun to be with us +girls again."</p> + +<p>"It will be great fun for all of us," said Amy happily. "I'll never forget +the wonderful time we had on Pine Island with Mrs. Irving and the boys."</p> + +<p>"Yes--and the boys," Betty repeated a little wistfully. She was thinking +of Allen Washburn and the wonderful time they had had that never-to-be- +forgotten summer--before the war had come to separate them and make their +hearts ache. Oh, it would be unbelievably happy to have the boys back +again--Will, Roy, Frank and--her Allen. The old crowd together once more. +She looked around at the girls, who had also fallen into a thoughtful +mood, and suddenly she smiled, the old bright, happy smile that was +peculiarly Betty's own.</p> + +<p>"Oh, cheer up, everybody," she cried gayly. "How do we know but what the +boys will be home in time to join us at Wild Rose Lodge? Then think of the +fun!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Betty, if we could only believe that!" they cried.</p> + +<p>"Well," said the Little Captain stoutly, "you never can tell. Stranger +things have happened, you know."</p> + +<p>"But nothing so joyful," added Mollie.</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="ch_05"></a>Chapter V</h1> + +<h2>Betty Takes a Dare</h2> + + + +<p>It would be a week or two before Wild Rose Lodge would be ready for the +girls' occupancy, and as a relief for their impatience they filled in the +time in hiking, motoring and put-putting up and down the Argono in their +natty little motor boat.</p> + +<p>But whatever it was they were doing, their conversation almost invariably +returned to one of two subjects--the return of the boys and the good time +they would have at Moonlight Falls.</p> + +<p>They spoke often of Professor Arnold Dempsey. They took a real interest in +the queer little old man, both because of the service he had done them and +the fact that he was watching and waiting for his two big sons, even as +they were anxiously awaiting the return of their boys.</p> + +<p>"It must be dreadfully lonely for him in that little cabin or house or +whatever you call it in the woods," Amy said one day as she and the girls +sauntered down to the dock where their motor boat was anchored. "And he +said he hardly ever had company."</p> + +<p>"Goodness, I should think he would go crazy," Mollie commented. "Why, I go +almost mad when I don't have any one to talk to for an <i>hour</i>."</p> + +<p>"I wonder if he lived in that little house all during the war," said Betty +thoughtfully. They had reached the dock and were walking slowly out upon +it. "If he did, it must have been dreadfully hard for him. It makes me +shiver to think of him sitting there all alone, reading the casualty list, +terrified for fear the next name would be that of his son----"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Betty," cried gentle Amy, all her sympathy quickly roused by the +picture Betty had drawn, "what a dreadful thing to think of!"</p> + +<p>"But he never did find their names among the missing or killed," Mollie +reminded them soberly. "We know that because he said he expected to see +them soon."</p> + +<p>"Of course. And all we can do is hope with all our hearts that he gets his +wish," said Betty brightly, adding with a sudden change of subject: "But +away with dull care. The sun is shining and here's our fairy ship waiting +to carry us off to fresh adventure. What more could any one want, I'd like +to know."</p> + +<p>"Humph," grunted Mollie, eyeing critically the trim little boat in which +they had had so much fun and adventure, as the other girls tumbled aboard. +"I'd say she didn't look very much like a fairy boat just now. She needs +considerable polishing and scrubbing. Why don't you girls get busy, +anyhow?"</p> + +<p>"Just hear who's talking," yawned Grace, disposing herself lazily in a +comfortable chair on deck. "I haven't noticed you waving a broom and mop +frantically around these parts lately, Mollie dear."</p> + +<p>"In fact," Betty added with a mischievous twinkle in her eye, "I think I +remember suggesting that the <i>Gem</i> needed grooming the other day. +Whereupon some one who shall be nameless suggested a motor ride instead."</p> + +<p>"She's got you there, old dear," drawled Grace, taking the inevitable box +of chocolates from her pocket and opening it lovingly. "I remember the +incident pre-zactly as it has been described."</p> + +<p>Mollie, who was still standing on the dock, regarding them frowningly, +started to reply but Betty interrupted her with a shout. She had started +the engine and the boat began to move slowly away from the dock.</p> + +<p>"Better hurry up," suggested the Little Captain wickedly. "We'd rather not +leave you behind, but if you insist--"</p> + +<p>However, Mollie had not the slightest intention in the world of being left +behind. With a gasp of mingled surprise and dismay she made a jump for it, +cleared the foot of space between the dock and the boat and landed square +in the middle of Grace's astonished and outraged lap. She would have sat +on the candy box, too, and would, in all probability, have ruined it and +her dress as well, had not Grace, with rare presence of mind, whipped the +box out of danger just in the nick of time.</p> + +<p>"Well," said Mollie, too surprised and indignant to move for a moment, +while, at the comical picture she made, both Betty and Amy laughed +merrily, "I surely like this!"</p> + +<p>"You do, do you? Well, I don't!" cried Grace, recovering both her breath +and her dignity at the same moment. "If you don't stop sitting on my lungs +this minute, Mollie Billette, I'll--I'll--stick this pin into you."</p> + +<p>With a yell Mollie stumbled to her feet and shook out her dress +belligerently.</p> + +<p>"You had better not. I'm stronger than you, Grace Ford, and I've a good +mind to let you see what the bottom of the river looks like."</p> + +<p>She advanced toward her prospective victim, and Betty stopped laughing +long enough to call to her.</p> + +<p>"You'd better change your mind, Mollie," she cautioned merrily. "You can't +give Gracie a ducking without ruining her dress and she might charge you +damages. Reconsider--I beg of you, reconsider!"</p> + +<p>Mollie condescended to reconsider and plumped herself down cross-legged on +the deck, disdaining a chair.</p> + +<p>"Oh, very well," she said, adding as she glared darkly at Grace: "You will +probably never know, woman, how near to death you were."</p> + +<p>To which Grace replied with unexpected ferocity.</p> + +<p>"And you may never know, woman, just how near to death you are this +minute. Look at what you have done to my best sport skirt. I don't believe +I will ever be able to get those wrinkles out."</p> + +<p>"If you two will stop quarreling just long enough to tell me where you +want to go," Betty requested, "I should be very much obliged. Up or down +the river?"</p> + +<p>"Anywhere," answered Grace, still regarding her crumpled sport skirt +gloomily. "We are just trying to kill time this afternoon anyway, so I +don't see that it makes much difference where we go."</p> + +<p>"Suppose we take her up to the Point," suggested Mollie, getting up from +the deck and going over to Betty who still had the wheel. "Maybe we can +get some ice-cream and a drink of ice water. I am getting dreadfully +thirsty already."</p> + +<p>Betty looked tempted but a little doubtful.</p> + +<p>"You know it is pretty dangerous to run in there, Mollie," she protested. +"There are so many other boats driven by Percy Falconer's crazy lot who +don't care whether they capsize you or not--"</p> + +<p>"Goodness, Betty, it isn't like you to be afraid," Mollie started, but +stopped at the look in the "Little Captain's" eye.</p> + +<p>"I'd rather you didn't ever say that again, Mollie," she said. "I'll take +you in there since you want it, but if anything should happen remember +that I warned you."</p> + +<p>"Goodness, Mollie, I don't see why you ever wanted to go and suggest that +for," said Grace nervously. "We all know there is danger of a collision +over at the Point, and I'm sure I don't want to spoil my clothes, even if +you do."</p> + +<p>"Your father said that he would rather we kept to this side of the river, +Betty," urged Amy. "Please don't go over to the Point now."</p> + +<p>"There's no use talking to her," snapped Grace. "You ought to know Betty +well enough by this time to know that she would take us over to the Point +now, after what Mollie said, if she knew we would all die of it. Might as +well save your breath."</p> + +<p>Mollie said nothing, but down in her heart she was more than a little bit +anxious and was beginning to regret that she had deliberately egged Betty +on.</p> + +<p>Percy Falconer, of whom Betty had spoken, had once been a rather dudish, +affected boy and had later developed into an exceedingly fast young man. +He had an immensely rich father and a mother who denied him nothing so +that he had been able to gather together a few kindred spirits among whom +he was the leader. All the regular boys and girls in town thoroughly +disliked "the set," but there were a few girls who were willing to put up +with Percy Falconer and his crowd for sake of the long motor rides, +dances, dinners and motorboat picnics that the boys were able to give +them.</p> + +<p>There were always some of this wild crowd over at the "Point," and it was +for this reason as well as the very real danger of a collision with a +recklessly driven boat that Betty's father had rather discouraged the +chums going over to that side of the river.</p> + +<p>However the day was fine, the water of the river was as calm as a lake and +the <i>Gem</i> flew across the sparkling water like a gull, bringing a +flush of pure excitement and pleasure to the faces of the girls. Danger-- +what danger could there be in this staunch little craft, with Betty at the +wheel?</p> + +<p>They were half way across the river, now--three quarters. The gay pleasure +craft flaunting up and down the river were becoming more numerous and +Betty slackened speed. Her breath came more quickly and her hands +tightened on the wheel. She could drive a boat as well as any boy, but +here, she knew, was a situation to test her greatest skill.</p> + +<p>Craft of all sizes and descriptions seemed to the excited girls to be +piling up about them. Most of the boats were being navigated carefully, +but now and then a small, fast speed-craft would shoot out from behind +another so suddenly that Betty would be forced to swerve sharply to one +side, fairly grazing the stern of the racing boat.</p> + +<p>On one of these occasions, when it had seemed impossible to avoid a +collision, Amy called out sharply:</p> + +<p>"Oh, Betty, don't you think we had better go back?"</p> + +<p>And Betty replied with a queer little laugh:</p> + +<p>"Might just as well go ahead as back now. We'll be there in a minute. +Don't worry."</p> + +<p>The words were scarcely out of her mouth when two craft running neck and +neck and driven recklessly slipped out from behind a sailboat and drove +directly down upon the <i>Gem</i>. It seemed impossible that the Outdoor +Girls could escape disaster.</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="ch_06"></a>Chapter VI</h1> + +<h2>Nearly Wrecked</h2> + + + +<p>The girls did not scream. Perhaps they were too frightened or perhaps it +was just natural pluck.</p> + +<p>They did jump to their feet though as if with some wild thought of leaping +overboard. But there they remained, staring with fascinated eyes at the +fate that was bearing down upon them.</p> + +<p>As for Betty, after one breath-taking minute when all the blood in her +body seemed to rush to her head, she simply sat there and tried in the +second that was given her to think what to do.</p> + +<p>Almost automatically, she wrenched the wheel around, nearly capsizing the +boat with the sudden turn. At almost the same second, as though the thing +had been prearranged, the boys in the racing craft swung around in the +opposite direction.</p> + +<p>A slight scraping as the side of the <i>Gem</i> slid along the side of the +nearer of the racing craft, and they were safe, with no harm done with the +exception of a little paint scraped from the side of the boat.</p> + +<p>It was a moment before the girls could realize what had happened to them. +Then a voice hailed them from the boat alongside. In a glance the girls +perceived that the voice belonged to no other than Percy Falconer himself.</p> + +<p>"Hello," called Percy, adding boisterously as he recognized the girls: +"Well, by all that's holy, if it isn't the Outdoor Girls! Thought you +never came over to this side of the river."</p> + +<p>"We don't," Betty answered, the hand that still gripped the wheel shaking +nervously now that the danger was over. "And I don't believe we ever will +again, either!"</p> + +<p>"I say, your teeth are chattering," cried Percy, looking at Betty in open +admiration. In the old days, Percy had tried hard to win favor in Betty's +eyes, but the latter had always treated him with a good-natured +indifference not unmixed with contempt that had been very hard for the +young dude to bear. During the years he had still admired Betty from afar +and hated Allen Washburn for being the "lucky one." So now he hastened to +make the most of what he thought was an opportunity.</p> + +<p>"Come on over to the Point with me and Derby here," indicating the young +fellow in the other racing craft who had drawn his boat up close to them +and was looking on with interest. "We will get you something to steady +your nerves a bit. We had a pretty narrow squeak that time, and it's no +wonder it upset you a little."</p> + +<p>He was supposedly addressing all the girls, but his eyes were only for +Betty. As for her, she suddenly had a startlingly clear mental picture of +what her father would think were some one to tell him that his daughter +and her chums had been seen at the "Point" with Percy Falconer and a +friend of his.</p> + +<p>In days gone by Percy had been very insipid, his mind entirely on his +clothes; now he had become a sport, and the report was that he caroused +around not a little.</p> + +<p>Betty turned to the youth with a decided little shake of her head, though +her eyes were smiling.</p> + +<p>"I think we shall have to go right back," she said. "It looks as though it +were going to rain. Thank you just as much," and she began to ease her +motor boat gently away from the other craft.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I say," Percy cried, disappointedly and a little angrily, for out of +the corner of his eye he could see that his friend was laughing at him, +"we would only keep you for a moment or two. You needn't be afraid of us. +We won't bite, you know."</p> + +<p>"We don't know you well enough to be sure even of that," said Mollie, +coming suddenly and flippantly into the conversation.</p> + +<p>But Percy took not the slightest notice of her and, as Betty was slowly +but surely widening the distance between the <i>Gem</i> and his boat, he +leaned forward eagerly.</p> + +<p>"Betty, let me see you some time. How about to-morrow night?"</p> + +<p>And because Betty was always kind to every one and was sorry for Mollie's +flippant speech, she said, quite unexpectedly, even to herself, "All +right."</p> + +<p>Then she turned the <i>Gem</i> around and started for home, conscious that +her chums were gazing at her in speechless amazement.</p> + +<p>"Betty!" cried Grace, horrified. "You are never going to let Percy +Falconer come to see you, are you?"</p> + +<p>But Betty turned on her irritably. She was tired and nervous and angry at +herself for having anything to do with that conceited dude, Percy +Falconer.</p> + +<p>"You heard me say he could come, didn't you?" she said in response to +Grace's incredulous question, Amy's wide-eyed stare, and Mollie's grin. +"And if you are going to ask me why I said so," she added desperately, +"I'm not going to tell you. And if anybody speaks to me before I get back +to the dock, I'll--wreck 'em, that's all."</p> + +<p>The girls exchanged glances and wisely decided to change the subject, for +the present at least. For the time they had plenty to do anyway, just +watching out that somebody else did not run into them!</p> + +<p>By the time they reached comparatively clear water they were all tired and +they were glad for once when the <i>Gem</i> scraped against the home dock +and the "cruise" was over.</p> + +<p>"Well," said Mollie as they climbed on to the dock, "we surely did have +some excitement, but we didn't get what we started out for after all."</p> + +<p>"What's that?" asked Grace, as she tied the ribbon round her candy box and +adjusted her hat at a more becoming angle.</p> + +<p>"Ice-cream and a drink of ice water," said Mollie ruefully. "I've just +remembered that I am dying of thirst."</p> + +<p>"Come on around to my house," Betty invited. Her wrist was lame from +gripping the wheel so hard and she felt it gingerly. "Mother said she +would make a big pitcher of lemonade for us and leave it in the +refrigerator."</p> + +<p>"Whew," whistled Mollie, taking Betty's arm and hurrying her forward. "By +any chance did you girls hear what I heard? <i>Me</i> for <i>it</i>, Betty +Nelson."</p> + +<p>The girls talked little on their way to Betty's house, but they thought a +good deal. They were tired and disgruntled, and it seemed to them in their +pessimistic mood that everything they had tried to do that day had gone +wrong. And the climax of it all was their meeting--if it could be called a +meeting--with Percy Falconer. Worst of all, Betty was going to allow him +to call!</p> + +<p>With something of this in her mind, Mollie glanced sideways at her chum +and, curiosity getting the better of her discretion, ventured to remark +upon it.</p> + +<p>"I wonder what Allen will say," she said, "when he learns about Percy."</p> + +<p>It was an unfortunate remark, as Betty very soon showed by turning upon +her chum angrily.</p> + +<p>"I don't know that Allen has a right to say anything at all about what I +do," she said. "And as I don't intend ever to see Percy Falconer after +to-morrow, I think we had better forget about him. But there," she added, +bringing herself up short and giving Mollie's hand a little conciliatory +squeeze, "I didn't mean to be cross. I'm just kind of mad about the whole +thing--and tired, and hot--"</p> + +<p>"I know," said Mollie generously. "I guess we all are--tired and hot, I +mean. We will feel better after we have had something cold to drink."</p> + +<p>Betty's mother had left not only the lemonade but some sandwiches of +chopped nuts and cream cheese. Jubilantly the girls carried these +delicacies out on the front porch and proceeded to devour them without +further delay.</p> + +<p>As they ate and drank, their ill-humor vanished and they began to feel +once more like their cheerful, optimistic selves. They even began to laugh +a little about the close shave they had had with Percy and his friend.</p> + +<p>"It was mighty clever work of yours, Betty, swerving around like that," +Mollie said reminiscently, as she patted the Little Captain's hand +approvingly. "I'm sure I would have been so scared I'd have gone right +ahead and then there would have been a nasty smash."</p> + +<p>"I do hope the folks don't hear about it," worried Grace. "It would only +make them nervous and they might even refuse to let us go out in the +<i>Gem</i> any more."</p> + +<p>"I don't see how the folks are going to know anything about it," said Amy +calmly.</p> + +<p>"Unless our dear friend Percy blabs it all over town," added Grace.</p> + +<p>"I think we ought to tell the folks," Betty spoke up suddenly. "I know +they would rather hear about it from us than from any one else. Hello," +she broke off, as her eye lighted on a newspaper lying on the table, "this +looks like the evening edition. Maybe it has some news of Allen's +division."</p> + +<p>"My, just listen to her," yawned Grace. "Allen's division, indeed. As +though he were the only one we were interested in--"</p> + +<p>But her words were cut short by a startled exclamation from Betty.</p> + +<p>"Oh, girls, look here!" she cried. "Look at these names. Oh, I hope it +isn't true! I hope it isn't!"</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="ch_07"></a>Chapter VII</h1> + +<h2>Bad Tidings Confirmed</h2> + + + +<p>"I wish I knew what you were talking about," said Mollie, pausing with a +sandwich half-way to her mouth, while Amy and Grace regarded the Little +Captain with astonishment. "What names? Where?"</p> + +<p>But Betty was paying no attention to them. She was reading hastily the +column that had caught her startled attention.</p> + +<p>"Listen to this," she said, reading out loud. "Among those who were killed +in the last great Allied offensive are the names of these brave soldiers. +James Browning of Columbus, Ohio--No, that isn't what I mean--Look, here +they are--James Dempsey and Arnold Dempsey, Junior. Girls, do you suppose +--" and she looked at them with widening eyes.</p> + +<p>"Arnold Dempsey, Arnold Dempsey," repeated Mollie, searching in her +memory, but Amy interrupted excitedly.</p> + +<p>"That was Professor Dempsey's name, wasn't it?" she asked. "Oh, Betty, do +you suppose it could be his son?"</p> + +<p>"Why, of course it is his son--how could it be any one else?" cried Grace, +the excitement beginning to communicate itself to her. "Arnold Dempsey, +Junior--and the professor said his sons were over there."</p> + +<p>"Didn't it say something about James Dempey, too, Betty?" asked Mollie, +fairly snatching the paper from her chum. "Yes, here it is. Do you suppose +that can be his other son?"</p> + +<p>Betty shook her head soberly.</p> + +<p>"I don't know," she said. "Of course he didn't tell us the name of his +other son, but it might easily be James. Oh, I hope it isn't so!" she +added, her heart aching for the lonely old man whose one big interest in +life was his boys. "I do hope there has been some mistake."</p> + +<p>"I guess we all do," said Amy gently, adding with a sigh: "But I'm afraid +there isn't very much hope of it. The Government is usually right when it +comes to things like that."</p> + +<p>"Not always," Mollie retorted quickly. "Look at the time they reported +that Alien was among the missing and he wasn't at all. That is the only +mistake we happen to know about, but I fancy there are plenty of others."</p> + +<p>At mention of that dreadful time when she had read Alien's name in the +long list of the missing, Betty experienced again something of the emotion +she had felt at that time.</p> + +<p>She saw again in imagination the dark room where she had gone to be by +herself, she heard the thunder of the surf on the rocks outside and the +rumble of the thunder overhead. She saw once more the vision of Alien as +she had seen it then. Allen stretched out cold and dead perhaps on some +shell-ridden battlefield or perhaps, more terrible still, a prisoner in +the hands of the Hun, suffering unspeakable torture--</p> + +<p>"But this is not as bad as though the boys were missing," she said +suddenly, speaking her thought aloud. "At least the professor will know +that his sons are dead."</p> + +<p>The girls started and looked at Betty queerly.</p> + +<p>"I was thinking of Allen," she explained in response to their rather +startled glances, "and the time when we thought he was missing. If this +thing is true about Professor Dempsey's sons I think I shall be able to +sympathize with him, almost better than any of you."</p> + +<p>"I guess you will, honey," said Mollie soberly, putting an arm about her +chum. "It was a terrible time for us all--there at Bluff Point. But it was +almost worth the suffering when we found out that Allen was alive and well +and never had been missing at all Do you remember how happy we all were +then?"</p> + +<p>"Happy," Betty repeated, shaking off her depression and smiling at the +memory. "I'll say we were the happiest girls on earth--especially after we +recovered the twins. But what," she said, coming back to the present +subject, "are we going to do about Professor Dempsey? We ought to do +something, you know."</p> + +<p>"I suppose we ought," said Grace, a little vaguely, "but I'm sure I don't +know just what."</p> + +<p>"I think," suggested Amy practically, "that the best thing would be to try +to find out first of all whether these poor boys who were killed are +really Professor Dempsey's sons or not."</p> + +<p>"Humph, that sounds all right," observed Mollie. "But has any one here any +suggestion as to just how we will go about it? I'm sure I don't know any +one who is acquainted with Professor Dempsey--or his family either."</p> + +<p>"I've got it," said Betty, leaning forward eagerly. "It may not be much of +an idea, but then again it may."</p> + +<p>"Speak up, speak up, what's on your mind?" urged Mollie slangily.</p> + +<p>"Well," said Betty, "there is Mr. Haig, principal of Deepdale High. He +knows pretty nearly every one at the university where Professor Dempsey +used to teach and he is more than likely to know whether the professor has +any sons and what their names are."</p> + +<p>"Yes, that is all right as far as it goes," broke in Mollie impatiently.</p> + +<p>"We all know Mr. Haig--" Amy began, but this time it was Grace who +interrupted.</p> + +<p>"Yes, we all know him," she said. "But I'd like to know if there is any +one of us--except Betty perhaps--who would have the nerve to go to him and +ask him a question like that--"</p> + +<p>"Say, who's telling this story I'd like to know," broke in Betty +impatiently. "I'm not asking any one to go to Mr. Haig with that question +or any other--although I would be perfectly willing to brave the lion in +his den if there were no other way. My plan is this. Dad knows Mr. Haig, +you know--went to school with him--old college chums and all that. I'm +sure that if we asked him real pretty he would go to Mr. Haig and find out +about Professor Dempsey for us."</p> + +<p>"Then suppose we find out that Professor Dempsey hasn't any sons by the +name of James and Arnold?" suggested Grace.</p> + +<p>"Then we shall be mighty glad we took the trouble to find out and set our +minds at rest," answered Betty soberly.</p> + +<p>"And if we find out that they are really his sons, what then?" queried +Grace, and this time Betty looked puzzled and Mollie and Amy completely +beyond their depth.</p> + +<p>"Why then," said Betty hesitatingly, "I'm sure I don't just know what we +ought to do. But don't you think," she added, brightening, "that it might +be a good idea to wait until we have found out definite facts before we +try to solve any more problems?"</p> + +<p>Rather reluctantly the girls agreed and, after making Betty promise that +she would let them know the very first minute she found out the names of +Arnold Dempsey's sons, they said good-bye and started for home.</p> + +<p>Of course Betty had already told her father and mother about Professor +Dempsey and the part he had played in actually saving their lives; so when +she told them that night of what she had read in the paper and begged her +father to help her find out whether the dead soldiers were really Arnold +Dempsey's sons or not, he readily consented to do what he could.</p> + +<p>"I'll drop in and see Haig to-morrow," he promised. "I have often heard +him speak of Professor Dempsey as being one of the best professors of +zoölogy up at the university and I am sure I will be able to find out what +you want to know. I hope you have been mistaken in your conclusions, for +it would be a horrible blow to a man to lose both his grown sons at once +and like that. Now run off to bed and tomorrow I may have some news for +you."</p> + +<p>With this Betty was forced to be content. She went to bed of course, there +was nothing else to do, but she tossed restlessly all night and what sleep +she got was checkered with horrid dreams and she woke up in the morning +feeling as though she had not been to sleep at all.</p> + +<p>The next day was a long one to live through, even though the girls did +keep calling her up at frequent intervals to see if she had any news for +them yet. She became so tired of hearing the telephone bell ring at last +that she stuffed a handkerchief between the bell and the clapper and sat +down to read a novel and while away the time as best she could till her +father came home.</p> + +<p>Luckily for her--and him too, perhaps--Mr. Nelson did get home early, and +he was no sooner inside the door than Betty grabbed him by the arm, led +him over to a divan in the corner of the living room, and let loose upon +him a flood of questions.</p> + +<p>"Did you see him? What did he say? Why didn't you let me know sooner?"</p> + +<p>These and various other queries were hurled at Mr. Nelson so fast that it +is no wonder the poor gentleman appeared slightly bewildered. But knowing +his impetuous young daughter of old, he merely pinched her cheek fondly +and waited for her to give him a chance to speak.</p> + +<p>"If you will wait just a moment I will try to tell you about it," he said +at last, mildly.</p> + +<p>"There's only one thing I really want to know, Dad," said Betty soberly. +"And that is the name of Professor Dempsey's sons."</p> + +<p>Her father shook his head slowly, regretfully.</p> + +<p>"I am afraid it is as you have feared, dear," he said. "Professor Dempsey +has two sons--or rather, had--and their names were James and Arnold."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Daddy!" Betty was quiet for a minute, letting the full consciousness +of what her father had said sink into her heart. Then her lips trembled +and her eyes filled with tears. "I--I was pretty sure it was true. But, +oh, I was hoping so hard that it wouldn't be!"</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="ch_08"></a>Chapter VIII</h1> + +<h2>Premonitions</h2> + + + +<p>Betty kept her promise and called up the girls to tell them the news. Like +the Little Captain, they had felt almost sure of the identity of the two +Dempsey boys who had been killed in France, yet the confirmation of their +fears came as a distinct shock.</p> + +<p>They waited for a couple of days, undecided what to do, if indeed it was +their place to do anything at all. Vaguely they felt the need of +comforting the queer little professor in his hour of greatest trouble, and +yet they were at a loss to know just how to go about it.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, the occupations that had ordinarily filled their days to +overflowing with fun, seemed dull and uninteresting and they found their +thoughts reverting again and again to the bereaved father in his lonely +little cabin in the woods.</p> + +<p>Percy Falconer had called at Betty's house the day after the incident on +the river as had been arranged, and Betty had conceived the plan of having +all her chums there to meet him.</p> + +<p>Her hope was that the gay Percy, seeing four, where he had expected only +one, would be overwhelmed with numbers and would flee the premises early-- +to return no more.</p> + +<p>Her faith in her plan was more than justified. Percy had always been a +little afraid of the Outdoor Girls--Betty in particular--but it is +probable that if he had been able to meet them one at a time, he might +have come off victorious. As it was, he was routed, completely and +ignominiously, leaving the girls to laugh at his discomfiture.</p> + +<p>"There, I guess that is the end of <i>that</i> pest," Mollie had said when +she had recovered a little from her mirth. "I imagine we won't see him +around these parts again."</p> + +<p>"I hope not," Betty had answered with a satisfied little yawn. "Wasn't he +too funny in that checked suit and awful green necktie? Poor old Percy! I +suppose he can't help it. He probably just grew that way."</p> + +<p>She had been comparing him all evening with her splendid, upstanding +Allen, and poor Percy had certainly not gained by the comparison.</p> + +<p>The amusing incident served to divert their minds somewhat from the +thought of Professor Dempsey, but the picture of him haunted their minds +so continually day and night that the Outdoor Girls finally decided that +something must be done about it.</p> + +<p>"I can't stand it any longer," Betty confided to them one morning when +they stood on Mollie's porch discussing what course of action it would be +best to take. "I have a queer feeling that the poor professor is in +desperate need of friends, and I don't believe I'll be able to sleep +another night until I find out something definite about him."</p> + +<p>"Won't he think we are sort of 'butting in'?" asked Grace, hesitating a +little. "He might think we came just out of curiosity."</p> + +<p>"I don't think he would," said Mollie. "You know he invited us to come +back some time when we could stay long enough for him to tell us something +about those bugs and butterflies and things he sticks pins into--"</p> + +<p>"That's the idea!" exclaimed Betty quickly. "We won't have to tell him we +know anything about his trouble. If he tells us--why, all right, but if he +doesn't, of course we won't try to force a confidence. Anyway," she +finished soberly, "we'll have the satisfaction of knowing we have done our +best for him whether it really helps him any or not."</p> + +<p>"And we owe him a very great deal," spoke tip Amy softly. "He really saved +our lives, you know."</p> + +<p>So it was settled, and while the other three girls ran home to put on +coats and hats and get ready for the drive, Mollie ran around to the +garage and brought her big car to the front of the house.</p> + +<p>She waved good-bye to her mother, who was trying rather wildly to keep +Dodo and Paul from running under the wheels of the car and getting killed, +and purred off down the street in the direction of Betty's house.</p> + +<p>When she arrived there she was a little surprised to see that Betty was +backing her fast little roadster down the drive.</p> + +<p>To Betty the little car was almost alive, and she talked to it as she +would have to some loved horse or dog. She scrubbed it and scoured it and +shined it so that it always looked like a brand new car.</p> + +<p>"Hey, look out!" cried Mollie, for Betty, not noticing her and being a +little worried about the sound of the engine, had backed the small car +down the drive and almost into Mollie's big one. "What kind of driving do +you call that? Do you want to buy me a new mudguard?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, pardon me," said Betty, laughing back at her. "You were so small and +insignificant, I came near not seeing you."</p> + +<p>"Well, you would have <i>felt</i> me in another minute," grumbled Mollie, +as she shut off the engine and got out of the car. "What's the idea of +your little peanut, anyway? Thought you were going to ride in a regular +car."</p> + +<p>"That's why I chose mine," Betty laughed back impishly, still intent on +the sound of the engine.</p> + +<p>It was part of their fun to be always throwing insults at each other's car +but the thrusts were invariably good-natured.</p> + +<p>Only once had there threatened to be any trouble between the chums on +account of rivalry over the cars. That had been when Mollie had taken +Betty's "dare" to a race and Betty's little roadster had won the day, +racing like a streak of light along the country road and leaving Mollie's +high-powered but more clumsy car far behind.</p> + +<p>But Mollie had taken her defeat like the little sport she was--even though +it must be admitted she had been considerably disappointed and taken aback +by her failure--and in her ever since there had been a great respect for +Betty's car.</p> + +<p>But now she eyed with impatience the bent figure of the Little Captain as +she still leaned over the wheel, her ear tuned to the purr of the engine.</p> + +<p>"For goodness' sake, what's the matter with you?" she cried. "I thought +you were the one who was in a hurry to be off and now look at you--sitting +there like--"</p> + +<p>"Engine is missing," Betty informed her briskly. "Guess I had better have +a look--"</p> + +<p>"If you start fussing with bolts and screws now, you can count me out," +said Mollie, resolutely climbing back into her car. "It is ten o'clock +already, and we won't be home before night if we don't hurry."</p> + +<p>"Oh, all right," laughed Betty. "But if the car gives out before we get +back don't blame me, that's all."</p> + +<p>"It would give me the greatest of pleasure," said Mollie with a diabolical +chuckle as her machine moved off down the street, "to have everyone in +Deepdale see me towing your poor little flivver through the town."</p> + +<p>"Huh," sang back Betty scornfully as the roadster responded eagerly to her +touch, "they will have a great deal better chance of seeing me in the lead +with your great big jumbo tottering feebly at the end of a rope."</p> + +<p>They picked up Amy and Grace on the way and were soon flying swiftly down +the road in the direction of Professor Dempsey's tree-surrounded home.</p> + +<p>They were in rather good spirits at first, for now that they were really +on the way to doing something, though they were not quite sure what, they +felt relieved and almost gay.</p> + +<p>But as the distance shortened between them and their destination, a +strange depression that they could neither explain nor brush away settled +down over them.</p> + +<p>Once, Grace, who sat beside the Little Captain in the roadster, sighed +rather dolefully and Betty looked at her out of the corner of her eye.</p> + +<p>"Do you feel that way too, Grade?" the latter asked.</p> + +<p>"What way?" asked Grace uncertainly. "That sigh, do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," nodded Betty. "You sounded rather mournful and that is exactly the +way I feel. What's the matter with us, anyway? Where are our spirits?"</p> + +<p>"I suppose we couldn't expect to feel joyful," said Grace after a little +pause. "We aren't going, so far as I can see, on a very happy errand, you +know."</p> + +<p>"But I don't think it is that alone," said Betty, with a shake of her +head. "I feel as if we were going to see something perfectly dreadful--"</p> + +<p>"Betty," Grace looked at her in sudden alarm, her eyes wide, "you don't +suppose that the professor could have done anything--anything rash, do +you?"</p> + +<p>"You mean--" said Betty, hesitating before the ugly word. "Oh, Grace, you +don't mean--suicide, do you?"</p> + +<p>Grace nodded and tried hard not to look as frightened as she felt.</p> + +<p>"No, I--I don't think so," said Betty, grasping the wheel with hands that +somehow seemed suddenly weak. "If I thought anything like that had +happened I wouldn't have the courage to go on."</p> + +<p>"Well, I don't believe I have--the courage, I mean," said Grace, +irresolutely. "Don't you think we had better go back, Betty? It's so +lonesome here and--and--everything--"</p> + +<p>Her voice was rising to something like a wail, and Betty, striving to +throttle her own misgivings, spoke in a voice that was intended to be +reassuring.</p> + +<p>"We wouldn't think very much of ourselves if we turned back now," she +said. "And probably we are worrying a great deal about nothing. He didn't +seem like the kind of man who would do a thing like that."</p> + +<p>Grace said no more about turning back, and they were silent for the rest +of the way. But instead of lightening, the cloud of depression became +deeper and more foreboding until even the stout Little Captain began, +almost to wish that they had not come.</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="ch_09"></a>Chapter IX</h1> + +<h2>A Visitor</h2> + + + +<p>When they came to the scene of what was so nearly a terrible accident a +week or so before they found that the big tree which had extended clear +across the road was gone and that the underbrush also had been cleared +away.</p> + +<p>They stopped the cars a little the other side of the path that led into +the woods and slowly stepped down into the road.</p> + +<p>When they caught sight of each other's faces they began to laugh shakily.</p> + +<p>"We certainly look as if we were going on a ghost hunt," Mollie said. At +this Grace uttered a little cry of protest. The thought had struck too +near her own disquieting thoughts to be comfortable.</p> + +<p>"For goodness' sake, somebody say something cheerful," she begged. "I've +got to get up my courage some way."</p> + +<p>"Well, I haven't any to lend you," grumbled Mollie, as she linked her arm +in Betty's and the two went along toward the path. "I don't like this job +a little bit."</p> + +<p>"Don't you think," suggested Amy, holding back a little, "that somebody +ought to stay here and take care of the cars?"</p> + +<p>"No, you don't!" said Mollie, catching her by the hand and pulling her +along after them. "If one of us goes we are all going."</p> + +<p>"Oh, come along," urged Betty, eager to get the thing over with. "I think +we are all acting like a lot of geese. It might help some if we tried to +remember that we are Outdoor Girls."</p> + +<p>This challenge did a great deal toward bolstering up the girls' courage +and they hurried along the path more confidently.</p> + +<p>Their pace slowed a bit, however, when they reached the cleared space +where the little cottage stood and they paused for a moment in the shelter +of the trees to discuss what to do next.</p> + +<p>"Do you think we had all better go?" asked Grace nervously. "Perhaps the +four of us would frighten him--"</p> + +<p>"No, we will all go together," said Betty decidedly. "There is nothing to +be gained by standing here talking about it. Come on, girls."</p> + +<p>She started across the cleared space and the girls followed slowly. The +little cottage looked deserted and forlorn and the dreary aspect of it +served to increase the girls' uneasy sense of disaster.</p> + +<p>Betty knocked gently on the door which had, upon that other occasion not +so very long ago, been hospitably opened to them. But, though they waited +breathlessly for a response, none came--the house was as silent as a tomb.</p> + +<p>"Do it again, Betty. He might be asleep or something." suggested Mollie, +with a glance over her shoulder at the quiet woodland. "Knock harder this +time."</p> + +<p>Betty obeyed, but with no better success than the first time. Everything +was as silent as before.</p> + +<p>"Isn't there a bell, I wonder?" suggested Amy, wishing ardently that they +were back on the road once more. "Perhaps your knock isn't loud enough for +him to hear."</p> + +<p>"We might tap on the window," suggested Grace. "If I use my ring on the +window pane he surely ought to hear that."</p> + +<p>She started to suit her action to the words when an exclamation from Betty +made her pause. The latter had tried the door and found to her surprise +that it gave to her touch.</p> + +<p>"The door is unlocked," she said. "I don't believe the professor is in +here at all and if he has gone into the woods to hunt his butterflies and +beetles I am sure he wouldn't mind our going inside. What do you think?"</p> + +<p>She was about to push the door open, but Grace detained her with a nervous +hand on her arm.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't think we had better go in, Betty!" she cried. "You know what +we were speaking of in the car. Suppose we should find that he has--that +he has--"</p> + +<p>"That he has what?" asked Amy, her eyes wide. "For goodness' sake, what do +you mean, Grace?"</p> + +<p>Betty tried to stop her, but Grace hurried on heedlessly.</p> + +<p>"He may have committed suicide," she cried, adding, in response to +Mollie's and Amy's cry of horror: "You know he must have been desperate +enough to do anything, poor old man, out here all alone."</p> + +<p>At the conviction in Grace's tone, Betty felt her own nerve slipping. She +did not want to go into that silent house any more than the other girls +did. Every instinct in her commanded that she run from the place to the +commonplace safety of the road. She was afraid of what she might find on +the other side of that unlocked door. And yet--</p> + +<p>"I'm going in," she cried, and, suiting the action to the word, pushed the +door quickly open and stepped over the threshold.</p> + +<p>Emboldened by her example, the other girls followed and stopped short with +a cry of dismay. They had not found what they feared--but something almost +as bad.</p> + +<p>The room, which had been so neat and orderly when they had last seen it, +was now the scene of such utter confusion as one might only hope to see +depicted in a cubist's nightmare.</p> + +<p>The animal skins which had adorned the walls had been torn down and lay in +a tattered heap upon the floor. The shelves upon which had rested the +professor's botanical specimens had been swept clean and their contents +also were scattered about the floor.</p> + +<p>The bench upon which the girls had sat and partaken of the queer little +man's hospitality was overturned and the one chair in the room was upside +down on top of it. The whole room looked as though a cyclone--or a maniac +--had been at work.</p> + +<p>The girls stared for a minute and then drew closer together as if seeking +protection from some unseen menace. They had some vague conception of what +had taken place here in this lonely little cottage. The elderly and +already nervous professor, reading the tragedy of his sons' death, all +alone perhaps, with no one to comfort or restrain him, had lost his mind, +temporarily at least, and had found an outlet in ruthlessly destroying +everything which came within reach of his hand.</p> + +<p>And if this were so, might he not even now be hiding about somewhere, +watching them, perhaps?</p> + +<p>This thought seemed to strike the girls at the same time, for after +peering for a second about the room, they turned and made a concerted dash +for the door.</p> + +<p>Once outside the room, in the reassuring sunshine, they turned and looked +at each other sheepishly. Then Betty wheeled about and started for the +door again.</p> + +<p>"Betty, you are never going back into that place again?" cried Amy wildly, +holding to her skirt. "I won't let you! Do you hear me? Come back here!"</p> + +<p>But Betty had no intention of coming back. She turned and faced the girls +calmly, though inwardly she was trembling.</p> + +<p>"Of course I am going back," she said. "Professor Dempsey may be in one of +the other rooms and he may be sick. If nobody will go with me, I'm going +in alone."</p> + +<p>Of course the three girls could not let her go in alone, so they trailed +back at her heels into the house, being very careful, however, to leave +the door wide open behind them, in case a hasty retreat became necessary.</p> + +<p>Cautiously Betty opened the door at the other end of the room and stepped +into what had evidently been a sort of rough kitchen. Now it was nothing +but a nightmare like the other room, and she shuddered as she looked about +at the desolate confusion.</p> + +<p>There was a door at the farther end of this room, and after some +hesitation and an inward struggle Betty crossed hastily to it and flung it +wide open.</p> + +<p>What she half expected and feared to find there nobody but Betty herself +ever knew, but whatever it was, she gave a great sigh of relief at not +finding it there. The room was upset, though not quite as badly as the +other two, but there was no sign of human occupancy anywhere.</p> + +<p>She turned to the girls who had come up behind her and were eagerly and +half shudderingly peering over her shoulder.</p> + +<p>"There's nothing here," she announced, the relief she felt showing in her +voice, "and as there doesn't seem to be any other room in the place, I +suppose we might as well go back."</p> + +<p>Echoing her suggestion heartily, me girls started to retrace their steps +when a slight sound in the other room made them stop short in a panic.</p> + +<p>"What was that?" Amy questioned, but Mollie held up her hand impatiently.</p> + +<p>There came the sound of some one stumbling over something. This was +followed by a muttered exclamation.</p> + +<p>While the girls looked about them wildly for a means of escape Mollie +began to laugh hysterically.</p> + +<p>"We have a visitor," she announced in a strangled voice. "And he is +between us and the only door in the place. Come on, girls, let's see who +it is."</p> + +<p>They stepped out into the cluttered living room and came face to face with +a young man who seemed more startled at seeing them than they had been at +sight of him.</p> + +<p>"Well, I'll be jiggered!" he exclaimed, and at sound of the commonplace +phrase the girls could have hugged the speaker in relief. Also they felt a +rather hysterical desire to laugh long and foolishly.</p> + +<p>As it was, the stranger stood staring at the girls and the girls at him so +long that the funny side of the situation struck Betty and she really did +begin to laugh.</p> + +<p>"We haven't the slightest idea who you are," she told the astonished young +man. "But I am sure of one thing, and that is that we were never so glad +to see any one in all our lives as we are to see you."</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="ch_10"></a>Chapter X</h1> + +<h2>Hurrah for Allen</h2> + + + +<p>The young man stared for a moment longer. Then the humor of the situation +seemed to strike him too, and he smiled pleasantly.</p> + +<p>"It surely is a pleasure to be as welcome as all that," he said +pleasantly, and the girls noticed that he was a well set up young fellow +and that he wore his uniform easily, as if he had been used to wearing it +for a long, long time. "I am Wesley Travers," he went on. "I live in a +cottage down the road and I came over this way to see if the old professor +had come back yet. I saw the door open--came in--and found you."</p> + +<p>He smiled again pleasantly and looked as though he considered that he had +fallen into rather good luck. But at his mention of the professor Betty +had sobered instantly.</p> + +<p>"Oh, then you know something about Professor Dempsey?" she questioned +eagerly.</p> + +<p>"Please tell us what happened to him," added Amy breathlessly.</p> + +<p>"Did he do this?" asked Mollie, with a comprehensive sweep of her hand +about the cluttered room.</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid he did," answered the young fellow, sobering instantly. "You +see, I just returned from overseas about a week ago and a couple of days +later my dad read in the paper about the death of this queer old man's two +sons. The pater had always been interested in the lonely old boy, so he +sent me over to see if I could do anything for him. I found the place like +this and--the bird had flown. Went dopy I suppose about the bad news and +tore things up a bit."</p> + +<p>Though the boy's words were slangy, there was real sympathy in his tone +and the girls liked him the better for it.</p> + +<p>"And you haven't heard anything from him since?" asked Betty softly.</p> + +<p>"Not a word or a sign," answered the boy, with a shake of his head. "Just +clean cleared out, that's all. Pretty hard luck, I call it. Just at the +end of things too--when he had a right to expect the fellows home. Pretty +tough luck. I wish I could find the poor old duffer and do something for +him."</p> + +<p>The girls heartily echoed the wish. Before leaving the place for good, +they looked about the rooms once more for some sign or message that might +give them a clue to the whereabouts of the professor. They found nothing, +however, and finally were forced to give up the search.</p> + +<p>As the young people stepped outside once more and closed the door after +them upon the desolate house a great wave of pity swept over Betty. +Somehow it did not seem right to go off like this as though they were +abandoning the old man to his fate. Yet what could they do more than they +had done?</p> + +<p>"Girls," she said, a little quiver in her voice, "I would give almost +everything I own to find the poor old professor and help him back to +happiness. If I only could," she added after a pause. "Well," said Wesley +Travers, as he looked admiringly at Betty's flushed, sympathetic little +face, "I imagine if any one could find him and bring him happiness, you +would be that one."</p> + +<p>The young soldier accompanied them back to the road. After thanking him +for the information he had given them, the girls climbed into their cars +and headed toward home, leaving Wesley Travers still standing in the road +and looking after them thoughtfully.</p> + +<p>"A mighty nice bunch of girls," thought the latter. "Especially the little +brown-haired one. They seemed rather interested in that dotty old +professor too. Lucky fellow to have four girls like that interested in +him!" After this remark he started off toward home.</p> + +<p>Luckily for the girls, the next few days were so crowded with preparations +for the trip to Wild Rose Lodge that they had not much time to dwell on +the poor old professor and his misfortunes.</p> + +<p>Only at night would they sometimes dream queer dreams in which wild-eyed +men went around smashing everything in sight and a little cottage stood +lonely and desolate and ghostlike amid a silent forest of trees.</p> + +<p>After a night like this the girls were always glad to awake and find the +sunshine streaming cheerfully in their windows. And they would throw +themselves with more than usual energy into the activities of the day. Yet +try as they would, they could never quite blot the tragedy from their +minds.</p> + +<p>On the afternoon of the day before they were to start for Moonlight Falls, +the girls were gathered in Betty's garage at the back of the house, where +the Little Captain was giving her car one last overhauling to make sure +that it was in perfect condition for the trip. Mollie suddenly espied the +postman coming down the street.</p> + +<p>Now the postman was a very popular man with the girls, for the reason that +he brought almost daily some message from the boys on the other side. He +sympathized with the chums so fully in their desire for letters with the +red triangle in one corner that he actually confessed to a guilty feeling +when he had no missive of the sort for them.</p> + +<p>So now, as Mollie ran toward him with outstretched hand, he held up to her +delighted gaze not only one letter, but four.</p> + +<p>"One for each of you," he said beamingly, as Mollie reached him. "I +thought that probably I would find all four of you at one place, so I kept +the letters together."</p> + +<p>"Oh, thanks, it is awfully good of you," said Mollie absent-mindedly, as +she took the welcome letters and hurried with them back to the garage. +"One for each of us, just think of that!" she cried to the questioning +girls. "It looks as if the boys had all written at the same time. Put down +your duster, Betty, for goodness' sake, and read what Alien has to say. +Maybe," she added hopefully, as she ripped her envelope open, "they will +tell us something definite about coming home."</p> + +<p>So down the girls sat in the midst of dust cloths and more or less dirt to +find what the boys had written. For a moment only the crackling of paper +broke the silence. Then Grace gave a little joyful cry.</p> + +<p>"Will says he is almost sure to be home soon--"</p> + +<p>"And he has been made a sergeant," Amy interrupted, or rather added, her +eyes shining with pride. "Just think of that--Will, a sergeant!"</p> + +<p>"I was just going to tell them that if you had waited a minute," said +Grace, rather crossly. There was quite a little jealousy between Grace and +Amy over Will. Grace had declared more than once that whereas she had +known her brother all her life, Amy had only known him for a couple of +years--or--or more. Grace loved her brother devotedly and once in a while +she resented Amy's place in his affections.</p> + +<p>So now to change the subject and avert a possible quarrel, Mollie jumped +into the breach.</p> + +<p>"Listen to this," she said. "Roy and Frank have been made corporals and +Allen--oh, look at Betty blush!" She looked gleefully across at the Little +Captain and Amy and Grace followed her glance.</p> + +<p>Betty was not blushing, but she felt as uncomfortable as though she had +been.</p> + +<p>"Tell us what Allen says," Mollie dared her wickedly. "Come on, honey-- +dare you to."</p> + +<p>"You can go on daring all you like," said Betty defiantly. This time she +was blushing--from the fact that she knew she could not, or would not, +tell the girls what Allen had said in his letter. Not for anything in this +world!</p> + +<p>"I don't mean what you mean," said Mollie, enjoying her confusion +immensely, while Grace and Amy looked on laughingly. "I just thought that +maybe you would like to be the one to tell us about his promotion."</p> + +<p>"His promotion!" cried Amy and Grace together, and Betty looked quite as +bewildered as any of them.</p> + +<p>"Mollie, for goodness' sake tell us what you mean," she demanded.</p> + +<p>"But didn't he tell you about it, Betty?" Mollie insisted.</p> + +<p>"Wait a minute," said the Little Captain as she hastily scanned the pages +of her long letter. Then, down near the end of the last page she found it, +just a little paragraph, put in as though it had been an afterthought. +"Why," cried Betty, her eyes beginning to shine with excitement, "girls, +listen to this. Allen has been promoted. He's an officer now--a +lieutenant! Think of it--leather leggings and all!"</p> + +<p>It was too much for the girls. They laughed and cried and hugged each +other and tried to imagine Allen in his new uniform to their hearts' +content, for the young new-made officer was a favorite with them all.</p> + +<p>"Goodness," said Amy happily, "I suppose when he gets home he will be +altogether too high-toned to notice common folk like us."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't know," said Grace happily, adding with a sly little glance at +Betty, "I imagine he will make an exception of one of us at least."</p> + +<p>"I wonder," drawled Mollie as she picked up her unfinished letter, "which +one of us you can mean."</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="ch_11"></a>Chapter XI</h1> + +<h2>The Hold-Up</h2> + + + +<p>The girls were glad that the letters had come from the boys just as they +had, for it helped them to bridge over the tediously long wait till the +next morning.</p> + +<p>They read the missives with the little red triangles in the left hand +corner over and over again and--whisper it!--at least two of them slept +with the precious letters under their pillows.</p> + +<p>And then--the morning was upon them. It was a beautiful morning too, and +as the girls dressed hurriedly they were glad that they had arranged to +start early. In that way they could take their time and enjoy to the full +the glorious ride to Moonlight Falls. It was only fifty-five miles, but by +driving slowly they could make it seem like twice that.</p> + +<p>It was barely half past nine when Betty, having finished breakfast and put +the last finishing touches to her new white hat, ran around to the garage +to get the car out.</p> + +<p>Ten minutes later she had drawn up in front of Mollie's house, her ears +still ringing with the hundred and one instructions of her anxious mother, +and was tooting the horn of her little car furiously.</p> + +<p>The summons had the desired effect. Mollie came running from the house, +straightening her hat with one hand and lugging a valise in the other +while the twins trailed at her skirts.</p> + +<p>"For goodness' sake, let go of me, Paul. Dodo, if you touch that bag +again, I'll spank you. Mother," she wailed, looking back pleadingly over +her shoulder, "won't you please make these little pests go into the +house?"</p> + +<p>Whereupon Mrs. Billette suddenly appeared at the door, smiled at Betty, +grabbed Paul with one hand, Dodo with the other, while the twins roared a +protest.</p> + +<p>Released, Mollie dropped her bag, sped round to the garage, and in a +moment more was backing the big car round to the road.</p> + +<p>The girls had decided to about live in their khaki tramping suits on this +trip, merely packing in a good dress or two to wear on dress-up occasions. +In this way they had to take less luggage and could have more space to +"spread out" as Mollie said.</p> + +<p>"Put your grip in here, Betty," Mollie suggested, as she slung her own +grip into the tonneau of the big machine. "There is more room, and Mrs. +Irving said she wouldn't mind in the least being entirely surrounded by +suitcases."</p> + +<p>Betty laughed, did as she was bid, and a moment later they were off, +speeding down the road to Grace's house where they were to pick up the +other two girls and Mrs. Irving.</p> + +<p>They found the three waiting for them, and it took scarcely any time at +all to add the extra grips to the growing pile in the tonneau of Mollie's +car. Amid great fun, Mrs. Irving, who was rosy-cheeked and matronly and as +jolly as the girls, was wedged into the remaining space, Amy climbed to +the front seat beside Mollie and Grace took her seat with Betty.</p> + +<p>They were off! The sting of the wind was in their faces, and the sun beat +warmly down upon them as they rolled along, passing familiar houses, and +sometimes familiar people, to whom they waved, and so on and on till they +left the town behind them and started out on the open road.</p> + +<p>"My, this is something like," commented Grace, stretching her feet out +before her for all the world like a lazy, comfortable cat. "I feel awfully +sorry for all the poor people who haven't cars to ride in to-day and Wild +Rose Lodges to visit. By the way, why is it called Wild Rose Lodge, +Betty?"</p> + +<p>"Because they say there are lots of wild roses around it, of course," +Betty responded, her hands resting easily on the wheel, her eyes bright +with the joy of the moment. Grace, stealing a sideways glance at her, +could not help thinking that Betty looked not unlike a wild rose herself.</p> + +<p>"You look awfully pretty, honey," she said then, for Grace was always +generous with praise where her friends were concerned. "I would give the +world to have a color like yours."</p> + +<p>"Goodness," remarked Betty, turning to look at her chum, her face a little +brighter pink because of the honest compliment, "you have a lovely color-- +as you very well know. Mine is too red sometimes."</p> + +<p>"Nobody thinks that but you," said Grace, squeezing Betty's hand +affectionately while she dived down in her pocket for some candy. "The +only time I have noticed you get very red," she added, "is when some one +happens to mention a certain young gentleman by the name of Lieutenant +Allen Washburn."</p> + +<p>Betty could feel that her face was burning, but she did not care. She was +awfully proud of Allen and desperately fond of him and for the moment she +did not care if the whole world knew about it.</p> + +<p>"Isn't it wonderful, Grade?" she cried, her heart pounding joyously. +"About Allen being an officer, I mean. I have to pinch myself several +times a minute to make myself realize that it is really true."</p> + +<p>"It surely is great," Grace answered slowly, adding after a moment, while +a faraway expression crept into her eyes, "I don't blame you for being +crazy about him, honey. I could almost be foolish myself. Oh, don't +worry," she went on quickly as Betty turned amazed and rather startled +eyes upon her. "I'm no fonder of Allen than I am of any of the other boys. +I just said that I didn't blame you, that's all."</p> + +<p>Betty turned her eyes to the road once more, but in her heart she was +troubled. There had been a note in Grace's voice that she had never heard +before. Could it be possible that she really cared for Allen? But she +pushed the thought from her mind resolutely. If such a thing could have +been possible, she certainly would have discovered it before this. The +mere thought was nonsense of course. And yet she was troubled.</p> + +<p>"Have some candy," Grace invited, breaking in upon her thoughts. "You +needn't stick up your nose at it to-day for I bought this fresh from the +store this morning."</p> + +<p>"Who said I was going to stick up my nose?" said Betty, helping herself to +a chocolate that looked as if it might contain a nut and thankful for the +break in her not-too-pleasant reflections. "If you will think back just a +little, I think you will admit that I have been guilty very seldom of +sticking up my nose at anything--"</p> + +<p>"Except Percy Falconer," finished Grace drolly, and they both laughed +merrily.</p> + +<p>"Poor Percy!" said Betty, chewing her candy contentedly. "I suppose he +will hate us more heartily than ever now."</p> + +<p>They were running some eight or ten miles from the town along a quiet +stretch of road, never dreaming of danger, when Betty's little racer nosed +around a bend in the road and came smack into it! Not twenty feet ahead of +them a man sprang into the middle of the road and leveled a revolver at +them! In one electrified instant they saw that the fellow wore a mask and +a slouch hat and looked for all the world like a brigand straight out of +some sensational moving picture.</p> + +<p>Betty, more surprised at first than alarmed, put on her brakes and came to +a standstill, at the same time putting out a hand to warn the car behind +them.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Betty, we are being held up!" moaned Grace, who evidently was +frightened enough for both of them. "For goodness' sake, hold up your +hands. He may shoot."</p> + +<p>Still feeling rather dazed with the suddenness of the thing, Betty raised +both hands above her head, at the same time feeling a rather hysterical +desire to laugh. It was so absurd, being held up by a masked stranger in +broad daylight.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, she gave a little gasp of fright as the man waved his big +revolver menacingly and came close to the car. She wished frantically that +he would not point that firearm at her. Suppose it should go off!</p> + +<p>"Come on, hand over what you got," the robber demanded in a gruff +threatening voice. "The quicker you move, the better it will be for you."</p> + +<p>"Wh--what do you want?" asked Betty, in a weak little voice that did not +sound like her own at all. She had thought of her pocketbook beside her in +the pocket of the car. The purse contained a whole month's allowance. She +was sparring desperately for time--help in some form or other might come +at any moment. But the ruffian in the road was evidently in no frame of +mind to be fooled with.</p> + +<p>He waved his revolver once more, eliciting a terrified gurgle from Grace +and commanded roughly that they get out of the car.</p> + +<p>"No funny business," he snarled. "Get out!"</p> + +<p>Betty was about to obey when she had a brilliant thought. Her pepper gun! +She had bought it the day before from the son of her father's chauffeur, +thinking it was an undesirable plaything for a nine-year-old boy and had +put it, as the most convenient place, in her car. And the pepper gun was +filled--as it should have been--with good red cayenne pepper!</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="ch_12"></a>Chapter XII</h1> + +<h2>Sheep!</h2> + + + +<p>For a moment Betty hesitated, almost afraid of what she was going to do. +The pepper gun might work, but if she were not quick enough or clever +enough, her little trick might also result in a tragedy.</p> + +<p>Her hesitation was only momentary, however, for Betty was a born fighter. +Suddenly she cried out as if in joyful greeting to an unexpected arrival.</p> + +<p>"Here they come! here they come!" she called, and in the moment that their +captor turned his startled eyes from her to the road ahead, Betty acted.</p> + +<p>She snatched the pepper gun from its hiding place in the car and as the +man once more turned furiously upon her let him have the full contents +directly in the face.</p> + +<p>It was a dreadful thing to do. Choking and sputtering, the ruffian dropped +his revolver and raised both fists to his tortured eyes.</p> + +<p>"I'll get you for this!" he cried between great sneezes that threatened to +tear him apart. "You just wait--"</p> + +<p>But Betty refused to wait. As soon as the fellow had dropped his weapon +she had started the engine, and now she guided the car past the stuttering +robber and raced off down the road.</p> + +<p>Mollie, who had only half understood what was going on but who had caught +enough of it to be considerably alarmed did not stop to ask questions, but +sped off down the road after Betty.</p> + +<p>It was half a dozen miles farther on that Betty finally slowed the car and +waited for Mollie and the others to catch up with her. Grace, who had been +gradually recovering from her fright, had not yet recovered enough to ask +any questions. She had been too much concerned in putting miles between +them and the scene of their adventure.</p> + +<p>As Mollie came up alongside, Betty drew her first free breath.</p> + +<p>Of course Mollie and Amy and Mrs. Irving wanted to hear all about it, and +Betty told them what had happened, her account interrupted by hysterical +laughter.</p> + +<p>But when she came to the pepper gun, the girls' expression of utter +bewilderment changed to admiration of Betty's quick thought and quicker +action.</p> + +<p>"Why, Betty," cried Amy, incredulously, "I don't see how you ever had the +courage to do it. Why, that man might have shot you!"</p> + +<p>"He probably would have if I hadn't got him first," said Betty, half-way +between laughter and tears. "It was taking an awfully big chance, but," +with a flash of spirit, "I wasn't going to sit there calmly and have him +take away all our money. Not if I could help it."</p> + +<p>"Betty, I think you were simply wonderful," said Mollie in heart-felt +admiration. "Why, if he had taken our money it would have completely +spoiled our trip."</p> + +<p>"How they talk," said Grace hysterically. "Any one would think it was only +the trip that mattered when we might very easily have been <i>killed.</i>"</p> + +<p>This remark served to bring Mrs. Irving to a realization of the present, +and she suggested that they start on again.</p> + +<p>"Not that I am particularly nervous," she hastily added, as the girls +looked at her suspiciously. "Only I will feel just as well when we have +put a dozen miles between us and that highway robber, instead of only half +that. I wish there was a town handy where we could notify the +authorities."</p> + +<p>They started on again, and as the miles slid past them they became less +nervous and even began to laugh a little at thought of the robber's +consternation when he received the contents of Betty's pepper gun full in +his face.</p> + +<p>"He was probably the most surprised crook ever," commenced Grace with a +chuckle. "He never will get over cursing you, Betty. How did you ever +happen to have it? The pepper gun, I mean," she added curiously.</p> + +<p>Betty explained how the gun had come into her possession. "I didn't know," +she added ruefully, her foot on the accelerator as they sped up a steep +hill, "when I bought it, that it would come in so handy. How much further +do you suppose we have to go?" she asked, changing the subject abruptly.</p> + +<p>"Why," said Grace, looking at her wrist watch and realizing suddenly that +she was getting rather hungry, "we have been riding since ten o'clock and +it is now after noon. We must be very nearly there by this time. Goodness, +I hope there will be something to eat around Wild Rose Lodge. I'm getting +famished."</p> + +<p>"Mollie's Uncle John said he would attend to that--stocking the cabin with +good things, I mean," said Betty, herself suddenly conscious of a +disturbingly hungry feeling. "He said we would find enough canned things +to last us at least a week."</p> + +<p>"Canned things, yes," pouted Grace. "But who in the world wants to live on +canned things? I don't see why we didn't bring a chicken along, at least."</p> + +<p>"Well, maybe we can manage to run over one," chuckled Betty, as they +passed a farmhouse and several chickens scuttled squawking across the +road. "Then we can have one good and fresh. For goodness' sake, what is +Mollie tooting that horn for?" she added, as the raucous signal came from +the car behind them, "Has she stopped the car, Grace? Look and see."</p> + +<p>"It's stopped deader than a door nail," said Grace, obligingly screwing +about in her seat and fixing on the road behind them a disapproving eye. +"Now what do you suppose can be the trouble this time? If she has had a +blowout or something, I'm not going to help fix the old thing--"</p> + +<p>"You couldn't fix the blowout, dear, but you might help with the tire," +Betty said, with a laugh, as she stopped the roadster and jumped to the +road. "Come on, she seems to be excited about something--"</p> + +<p>"Goodness, I hope it isn't another highway robber," said Grace anxiously, +stopping in the middle of the road at the dreadful thought. "I don't see +any, but--"</p> + +<p>"You don't see any because there <i>isn't</i> any," Betty assured her, +taking her by the arm and leading her decidedly forward. "You don't +suppose there is a whole Robin Hood's band in this woods, do you?"</p> + +<p>Mollie and Amy and Mrs. Irving came running to meet them excitedly--or at +least, Mollie and Amy did the running, while their chaperon followed more +slowly.</p> + +<p>"There are blackberries in there, whole bushels and bushels of them!" +Mollie called. "You could see them from the road, and there you girls +passed right by them without even looking."</p> + +<p>"Blackberries!" repeated Grace resignedly, as she felt in her pocket to +see if she had any candy left. "Just listen to her speaking of +blackberries when what I'm dying for is a good big steak with onions on +top of it--"</p> + +<p>"Stop it," cried Mollie indignantly, while the others felt their mouths +begin to water. "The idea of mentioning steak--But here," she broke off, +seizing Grace's hand and dragging her toward the woods, "come with me and +pick berries if you value your life. Lucky we brought those tin pails +along."</p> + +<p>"But why," protested Grace patiently, as she was dragged along, "should we +want to pick berries?"</p> + +<p>"To eat," replied Mollie, attacking a bush that was fairly black with the +luscious ripe fruit. "And besides," she added, lowering her voice to a +confidential pitch, "Mrs. Irving said that if she could find some flour +and baking powder in the lodge she would make us a steamed blackberry +pudding for supper."</p> + +<p>Grace stared for a moment then, without another word, set to work on the +loaded bush.</p> + +<p>"You might have told me that before," she grumbled, her mouth full of +berries. "You always did have a mean disposition, Mollie."</p> + +<p>To which Mollie's only reply was a chuckle and a sly wink at Betty, who +was working close at her side.</p> + +<p>They worked on happily for a few minutes, then suddenly Amy straightened +up and stood quiet as though she were listening to something.</p> + +<p>The girls, whose nerves were still a little on edge from their recent +adventure, demanded to know in no uncertain tones what was the matter with +her.</p> + +<p>"N-nothing," Amy answered a little sheepishly. "I thought I heard a little +rustling among the leaves, that's all."</p> + +<p>"Probably a breeze coming up," said Betty matter-of-factly, and they went +on with their berry picking.</p> + +<p>But it was not long before a second disturbance came, and this time they +all heard it. It was, as Amy had said, a rustling sound. However, it was +louder this time, as though several heavy bodies were pushing through the +underbrush on the other side of the road.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps we had better go and see what is making all the noise," said Mrs. +Irving, her light tone successfully hiding an undercurrent of nervousness. +"I guess we have picked enough berries for our pudding, anyway."</p> + +<p>The girls picked up their pails and started for the road, Betty in the +lead. But when the latter reached the outer fringe of bushes she started +back, almost treading on Mollie's toes and causing her to drop her pail in +alarm.</p> + +<p>"It's sheep!" cried the Little Captain. "Dozens and dozens of them! Come +and look!"</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="ch_13"></a>Chapter XIII</h1> + +<h2>The Enemy Routed</h2> + + + +<p>Mrs. Irving pushed forward beside Betty, and the girls stared +unbelievingly over her shoulder. Then they saw that she was right.</p> + +<p>While they had been picking berries in the woods a flock of sheep had +wandered down to the road from the other direction and had completely +surrounded their two cars.</p> + +<p>The big-eyed, innocent looking animals were circling around and around the +machines as if examining them with a sort of ovine interest and curiosity.</p> + +<p>But to the girls the sheep had a rather terrifying aspect. There were so +many of them and they had so completely taken possession of their +automobiles! How in the world were they ever to get back their property?</p> + +<p>"Goodness!" Grace whispered plaintively in Betty's ear, "I expect they +will try to climb into the cars next. What ever are we going to do?"</p> + +<p>"Sh," cautioned Amy fearfully, as some of the flock, attracted by the +noise in the bushes, turned their heads in the direction of it. "Suppose +they should come in here?"</p> + +<p>"Well, they are not lions, you goose," said Mollie, coming out of the +trance into which surprise had thrown her. "They are only sheep, and they +couldn't hurt you if they tried."</p> + +<p>"Not unless they stampeded," said Betty quietly. "In that case I wouldn't +care to be in the way."</p> + +<p>"But we can't stay here all night," Mollie protested impatiently.</p> + +<p>"Held up by a lot of silly old sheep," added Grace, still more +uncomfortably conscious of a growing appetite.</p> + +<p>"It must be almost two o'clock," added Amy with a sigh.</p> + +<p>"Yes, if things keep on this way it will be night before we reach the +lodge," said Mollie, adding with decision, "I vote that we get some sticks +and stones and scat 'em out of the way."</p> + +<p>"I think I have a better suggestion than that," put in Mrs. Irving, +speaking for the first time. "I think we had better wait for a short time +before we do anything. The sheep will probably get tired in a little while +and wander off of their own accord."</p> + +<p>"Oh, all right," said Mollie, with rather bad grace as she seated herself +on a convenient rock. "But all the time we are waiting for them to be +tired, we will be getting tired ourselves and, goodness, Mrs. Irving, I'm +being starved to death."</p> + +<p>At the desperation in her tones the girls had to laugh, though they were +as reluctant to sit with folded hands and wait as she was. Still, Mrs. +Irving was their chaperon and probably knew best.</p> + +<p>So with admirable resignation they disposed themselves beside Mollie on +the big rock and settled down to watch for developments.</p> + +<p>But after waiting for an everlasting five minutes they decided that there +were to be no developments. The foolish sheep continued to circle lazily +about the cars, nibbling now and then upon the grass by the roadside but +showing not the slightest intention in the world of moving from there for +some time to come. + +"Oh, what shall we do?" moaned Grace, moving restlessly on her +uncomfortable seat. "My foot is going to sleep and I'm trying to sit on a +pointed stone or something."</p> + +<p>"And it looks as though those crazy sheep were going to stay there all +night," added Betty, herself growing restive at the apparent futility of +waiting for something to happen. "Can't we do something, Mrs. Irving?"</p> + +<p>"Wait just a few minutes more," begged the lady, who was afraid of the +sheep, but was reluctant to confess her fear to her young charges. "Look, +there seems to be a movement among them now," she added hopefully, as one +sheep pressed against another and sent it scampering a few feet along the +road. "We won't have to wait much longer, I am sure."</p> + +<p>And so, both to break their chaperon's authority, the girls fidgeted and +fumed, getting more impatient and hungrier with every leaden minute that +dragged itself by until almost three-quarters of an hour had passed.</p> + +<p>Then, when they began to think that they must scream if they were forced +to wait another minute, their chaperon rose of her own accord and with a +decided movement flicked the dust from her skirt.</p> + +<p>"I think we have waited long enough," she hazarded, to which each girl +said a fervent though silent "amen." "I suppose we shall have to follow +Mollie's suggestion and gather sticks and stones. Perhaps we can scare +them away."</p> + +<p>"Hooray!" shouted Mollie, jumping to her feet with relief. At the +unexpected sound the sheep in the road started and looked about them +uneasily. "Come on, girls, I'm mad enough to attack Jem single-handed. All +who are with me, say Aye."</p> + +<p>"Aye!" they yelled, scurrying about to find sticks and stones.</p> + +<p>Betty, flourishing a branch at the frightened flock, yelled: "We are wild, +wild women, old sheep. You had better get out while the going's good. We +eat little fellers like you alive!" and with a whoop of wild spirits she +danced down to the edge of the wood waving her stick wildly about her +head.</p> + +<p>Her fun was contagious and, smothering their laughter, the girls waltzed +after her, throwing sticks and stones and all sorts of improvised weapons +into the midst of the now thoroughly frightened flock.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Irving strove to caution them, but her voice was lost in the babble, +and for once in her life at least she found herself utterly ignored. With +a little sigh she picked up a stick of her own and followed after the +girls.</p> + +<p>For a moment it looked as though the panic stricken sheep would rush +straight for the shouting girls, and in that moment what was little more +than an exciting game to the girls might have turned into a rather +dreadful tragedy.</p> + +<p>But, luckily, half a dozen sheep broke through and, led by an old ram, +started down the road and the rest of the flock, as is the habit of sheep, +followed after.</p> + +<p>In a moment the entire flock was galloping off down the road with the +excited girls in pursuit. There is no telling how far they might have +followed the sheep had not Betty become suddenly possessed of a grain of +common-sense.</p> + +<p>Panting and laughing, she came to a standstill while the girls rushed past +her.</p> + +<p>"Come back here!" she cried, her voice choked with laughter. "There's no +use of our being as silly as the sheep. Mrs. Irving will think we have +deserted her."</p> + +<p>So reluctantly the girls abandoned the chase and started back to rejoin +their much relieved but slightly dazed chaperon.</p> + +<p>"Now if we had only done that an hour ago," said Mollie, as they climbed +back into the machines determined to make up for lost time, "we would have +been that much nearer the lodge and--something to eat."</p> + +<p>"Goodness, it will be almost dark when we get there now," wailed Grace, as +she slipped into the seat beside Betty. "And we haven't had anything to +eat since breakfast."</p> + +<p>"What with highway robbers and sheep," laughed Betty, as she started the +engine, "we shall be lucky if we get there at all."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Betty, if you love me don't mention that awful highwayman again," +begged Grace, looking uneasily into the shadows of the wood. "I don't want +to have any more thrills like that as long as I live."</p> + +<p>"Let's hope we won't," said Betty fervently.</p> + +<p>"It's a pity there is no telephone along this road--we could notify the +folks at Deepdale," remarked Mollie.</p> + +<p>"Humph, if we did that they might get so scared that they'd send for us to +come home," came from Amy.</p> + +<p>"That's so!" came from the other Outdoor Girls quickly.</p> + +<p>"Well, as I said before, no more thrills like that for yours truly," +repeated Grace.</p> + +<p>But little did the girls know that in the weeks to follow they would have +more and more startling thrills than they had ever experienced before.</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="ch_14"></a>Chapter XIV</h1> + +<h2>Nothing Human</h2> + + + +<p>They might have reached Wild Rose Lodge before dusk, in spite of Grace's +gloomy prediction, if everything had gone well then. But it seemed that +the evil genius of bad luck was not yet through with them.</p> + +<p>They were scarcely five miles from their destination when, bang! went a +report that made the girls clutch at each other wildly. At first they +jumped to the conclusion that they were being held up again, but close on +the heels of the first thought came the conviction of the truth. Mollie +had had a blowout!</p> + +<p>Betty, looking behind, saw the big car stop and brought her own little +roadster to a standstill once more. "There is nothing wrong with our +tires, is there?" she asked of Grace. "Look over your side, Gracie, and +see."</p> + +<p>Finding nothing amiss, they jumped out and ran back to Mollie to offer +assistance. Mollie was eyeing the flat tire gloomily and saying things +under her breath that none of the girls could catch. Then as Betty spoke +to her she seemed to come to life and ran around to the back of the +machine.</p> + +<p>"Of course you can help," she answered, working to release the extra tire. +"I would like to see you get out of it. Lucky I bought an extra tire +before we started, though I did hope," here she glared at the girls as if +it were all their fault, "that I wouldn't have to use it so soon. We've +had more trouble on this ride than any I can remember. A hold-up, sheep +and--this!"</p> + +<p>"Well, there is no use talking about it," Betty reminded her cheerfully. +"The less we talk, the harder we can work and the sooner we shall get +started again."</p> + +<p>"Yes, that's all very well," grumbled Mollie, as she fumbled for her +tools; "but you don't know this place as well as I do."</p> + +<p>"You talk," said Amy, her eyes widening, "as though there were wild +animals or something in the woods. I didn't know they came as far east as +this."</p> + +<p>"They don't, goose," said Mollie grumpily, as she pulled at the tire. "I +didn't say anything about wild animals, did I? Only we have to ride about +two miles through the woods before we get to the lodge and I must say I +didn't want to do that in the dark."</p> + +<p>"But there is some sort of road, isn't there?" asked Grace.</p> + +<p>Mollie, bending over the lifting jack, shot her a withering glance.</p> + +<p>"Of course there's a road," she said shortly. "How else could we expect to +use the cars?"</p> + +<p>"It must be a sort of wagon road," suggested Betty as she deftly helped +her chum. "And I don't blame you for not wanting to try it at night, +Mollie. I don't much like the idea myself."</p> + +<p>"I believe if we hurry that we can get there before dusk," said Mrs. +Irving confidently, though it might have been noticed that she kept her +eyes rather anxiously on the fast sinking sun.</p> + +<p>At last, after what seemed an eternity to the impatient girls, the new +tire had replaced the old one, the old one was safely strapped on the back +of the car, the tools were put away, and they were ready to start once +more.</p> + +<p>"Give her plenty of gas this time, Betty," Mollie sung after her as the +Little Captain climbed into her car. "If we can manage to get to the woods +before dark we will be doing good work. Let her go."</p> + +<p>With which advice she settled herself behind the wheel of her own car and +they were off once more.</p> + +<p>Betty did "give her plenty of gas," the result being that they succeeded +in reaching the wagon road that led into the woods to the lodge just on +the edge of dusk.</p> + +<p>However, when they started along the road they were dismayed to find that +what was only dusk outside on the road became almost dark in here, and +Betty had all she could do to keep to the road at all.</p> + +<p>"Hadn't you better put on your lights?" Grace suggested uneasily. "We +might run into a ditch or something. Betty, I'm half scared."</p> + +<p>For answer Betty switched on the lights and the woods and the road ahead +of them were suddenly flooded with a weird radiance. It brought out +branches and leaves and stones in such sharp contrast to the dark +background that the effect was startling.</p> + +<p>"Oh," gasped Grace, "turn them off again, do, Betty. It is positively +ghastly."</p> + +<p>"Don't be foolish," said Betty, striving to make her voice sound +matter-of-fact, her eyes glued to the road ahead of them as it twisted and +turned through the woods. "I don't see why lights should make a perfectly +harmless wood look ghastly. And, anyway, I couldn't turn them out now. I +don't believe I could find my way. You don't want me to run into +something, do you?"</p> + +<p>"No, of course not," Grace said more firmly, rather ashamed of her fears. +"I didn't mean to act in a silly fashion. But," she turned to Betty +quickly, "that hold-up and all--don't you feel a little queer yourself, +Betty? Tell the truth."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said the Little Captain truthfully. "I feel," she added slowly, as +though searching for words, "I feel as though the woods belonged to +somebody and that we were sort of--sort of--intruding."</p> + +<p>"Why, Betty!" said Grace, staring at her, "what a funny thing to say."</p> + +<p>"I suppose it is," said Betty, shaking off the illusion with a shrug of +her shoulders. "I am getting foolish in my old age I guess. We shall all +feel better when we get something to eat."</p> + +<p>"If we ever do," said Grace gloomily, adding as a sudden turn in the woods +shot them deeper into the gloom of it: "Do be careful, Betty. I feel as +though we were going over a precipice."</p> + +<p>But Betty was too busy keeping the road to listen to her.</p> + +<p>"Look behind," she directed Grace, "and see if Mollie is following close +to us."</p> + +<p>"She is right behind," reported Grace, as two eyes of light shot their +glare in her eyes. "She is following us closer than a poor relation."</p> + +<p>Betty giggled at this, and then for a long time--or at least it seemed a +long time to their strained nerves--they went on in silence, following the +winding road wherever it led and getting deeper into the forest with every +moment.</p> + +<p>Then suddenly something loomed up dark against the shadows only a few +hundred feet ahead of them, and with a great feeling of thankfulness they +realized that they had reached their destination. Directly ahead of them +stood Wild Rose Lodge. They had arrived!</p> + +<p>But just as they were about to break into wild jubilation something +happened that tightened Betty's hand on the wheel and made Grace cry out +with dismay.</p> + +<p>Out from the shadow of the lodge a second shadow detached itself, a +hunched up, bulky, fearful shadow that seemed neither beast nor man, but a +combination of both of them.</p> + +<p>For a moment, while the girls watched, paralyzed with fright, the thing +seemed about to spring into the path of the moving car. But in another +instant it turned, wheeled, and disappeared into the thick bushes about +the house.</p> + +<p>Then and only then did Betty recover presence of mind enough to stop the +car.</p> + +<p>"Betty! Betty!" cried Grace in a horrified whisper, grasping Betty's hand +as it clung to the wheel. "What was it? Oh, what was it?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know," Betty answered mechanically. "I only know it was +horrible."</p> + +<p>Then quite suddenly and without warning Grace broke down and cried.</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="ch_15"></a>Chapter XV</h1> + +<h2>Wild Roses</h2> + + + +<p>"We will go into the house," Mrs. Irving answered to their concerted cry of +"What shall we do?" "Whatever it was that has frightened us has +disappeared now, and we shall certainly be safer inside the house than out +here. Come on, girls, I have the key."</p> + +<p>And so, leaving the cars where they were, the girls approached the house +with shaking knees and hearts that hammered their fear aloud. The Outdoor +Girls were ordinarily afraid of nothing real and human, but to be held up +at the point of a pistol would unnerve almost any one, and the struggle +the girls had made not to give way to their fears at the time had made +them more nervous still. And this thing that had startled them now, added +to what had gone before, seemed a little more than could be borne. It +seemed, in fact, like nothing human.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Irving turned the key in the lock, opened the door and stepped inside +the dark place, motioning to the girls to follow her.</p> + +<p>Fearfully the chums obeyed and Betty and Mollie pulled out their electric +pocket torches, filling the place with a weird light. Mollie, being +acquainted with the place, naturally took charge of the situation.</p> + +<p>"There are matches over there," she said, "and candles over the fireplace. +For goodness' sake, let's get a regular light, folks. Perhaps that will +make us feel more natural."</p> + +<p>"So say all of us," echoed Amy. "The dark makes everything worse, when you +are not well acquainted with a place."</p> + +<p>Mollie touched a match to the candles, and in the answering flare turned +to face her chums.</p> + +<p>"Girls," she said, determinedly, "I don't know how you feel about it, but +I vote that before we do anything else we get something to eat. We all +look like ghosts just now and I'm sure we feel much worse than that. But a +little food makes a monstrous lot of difference."</p> + +<p>"You know it does," cried Grace, relaxing into one of the big chairs that +were scattered about the room and covering her face with her hands. "I +think if I don't get something to eat soon, I'll die, that's all."</p> + +<p>"Well, we are none of us going to die," said Mrs. Irving vigorously, as +she threw aside her coat and hat. "Show us the way to the kitchen, Mollie, +and if there is anything there to eat, we will get it."</p> + +<p>Accordingly Mollie took one of the candles and led the way into a little +room beyond while all the girls but Betty crowded in after her.</p> + +<p>For the Little Captain slipped back for a moment and very quietly closed +the door, shutting out definitely the shadow beyond it.</p> + +<p>"I suppose it is foolish," she said to herself, "because if there is +anything out there that really wants to get in there are plenty of ways +that it can do it, without coming in through the door. But," and she +turned the key in the lock, "it certainly makes one feel more comfortable +to have the door closed." Then she followed the girls into the other room, +and the sight that met her eyes was certainly more cheering than anything +she could have imagined.</p> + +<p>Mollie's Uncle John had surprised them. In the exact center of a table set +for five lay a young pig, roasted whole and browned to a turn! Nor was +this all. The table was littered with covered dishes of all sizes and +descriptions, and as the contents of each one of these dishes was +disclosed, the girls became more and more excited and hilarious.</p> + +<p>There was apple sauce in one, salad in another, mashed potatoes that had +become quite cold in another, and a boat of gravy which had also become +quite cold.</p> + +<p>"But we don't mind," cried Mollie joyfully, as she took the gravy-boat in +one hand, the dish of potatoes in the other, and ran with them over to a +great stove in one corner of the room. "We need only some matches to have +this blazing hot in a minute. No, not that way, Grace," as the latter +tried to help by lighting the burner. "This isn't a gas stove, you know; +it's an oil stove and you had better look out or you will blow us all up."</p> + +<p>It is small wonder if Betty was so dazzled by this joyful scene that she +could neither move nor speak for the space of two seconds or so. Then, +recovering her powers of locomotion, she went over to the table and picked +up a note that, in their excitement, the girls had overlooked.</p> + +<p>"See what this says," she called to them, and they looked at her rather +impatiently. Just at that moment the only thing they cared to consider was +food--and more food--and then some more!</p> + +<p>But as Betty read they became more interested, and even stopped long +enough to hear her through. It was a brief note. This is what it said.</p> + +<blockquote> "My dear young ladies:</blockquote> + +<blockquote> "I am a neighbor of Mr. Prendergast," (this was the dressed-up name + of Mollie's Uncle John) "and he axed me to get your dinner ready fer + you. I tried to keep it hot but you wus so long comin' I had to go + home to get dinner fer my old man. Hope things is all right.</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="smallcaps"> "Lizzie Davis."</blockquote> + +<p>"So she is the one who has done all this," said Betty, looking around at +the good things with dancing eyes. "I bet she is nice and plump and has +rosy cheeks."</p> + +<p>"Lizzie Davis? Lizzie Davis?" repeated Mollie, bringing the steaming gravy +back and plumping the dish triumphantly down on the table. "Rather a funny +name for a fairy godmother, but she sure does know how to cook. Don't +forget the potatoes, Grace. Come on, girls--let's sit down."</p> + +<p>So down the girls sat and acted like ravenous pigs--or so Grace described +their conduct afterward. Mrs. Irving set to work carving the delicious +pork, but they could not wait for her.</p> + +<p>They seized slices of bread, spread apple sauce and butter on them, and +ate like what they were, four famished girls and one equally famished +chaperon who had been out in the open all day and had had nothing to eat +since morning.</p> + +<p>It was some time before they showed any considerable signs of slowing up. +Then Grace put down her fork, leaned back lazily, and called for dessert. +The latter was a huge cherry pie, and before the girls were through with +it there was not enough left to color a robin's egg.</p> + +<p>After the pangs of hunger had been satisfied they found to their great +surprise that they were dead tired and sleepy.</p> + +<p>"We will get the dishes out of the way and then Mollie can show us where +we sleep," said Betty. "Oh, girls, did you ever in your life taste such a +dinner?"</p> + +<p>It was not till the dishes had all been cleared away and Mollie took up +her candle to show them their quarters that the unwelcome thought of the +thing that had so frightened them again crept terrifyingly into their +minds. Try as they would to forget it, they could not.</p> + +<p>There were three small sleeping rooms in the lodge, but, small as they +were, they were comfortable and contained beds that seemed the height of +luxury to the tired girls.</p> + +<p>Because of the indistinct and flickering candle light the girls could make +out very little of what the rooms really looked like, and they postponed +any close examination until the morning. Back of the lodge was a shed for +the cars.</p> + +<p>The bedrooms were all joined by doors, which gave the girls a safe and +sociable feeling. Mrs. Irving, of course, had one room to herself, Betty +and Mollie slept together and Grace and Amy paired off.</p> + +<p>They wasted little time in getting ready--Betty and Mollie had appointed +themselves a committee of two to bring in the grips from Mollie's car--and +before long they tasted the exquisite restfulness of comfortable beds +after a long nerve-trying day in the out-of-doors.</p> + +<p>"I don't believe I shall close my eyes all night," said Amy with +conviction. "I'm too horribly nervous."</p> + +<p>But three minutes later she was sound asleep!</p> + +<p>The sun had been up a good two hours before any one stirred in Wild Rose +Lodge. Betty was the first to awake, and in fifteen minutes she had the +rest of the sleepy-eyed and protesting girls up and nearly dressed.</p> + +<p>"What's the idea, anyway?" yawned Grace lazily. "I could have slept at +least a good two hours more."</p> + +<p>"On a day like this?" sang Betty, breathing in deep breaths of the +wood-scented air. "And isn't this just the dearest room you ever saw?" +she added, wheeling about and regarding the apartment delightedly. They +were in Grace and Amy's room, for, as usual, Mollie and Betty had been +the first dressed and had gone into their churns' room to hurry them up +--if such a thing were possible.</p> + +<p>Betty's summing up of the room they were in was indeed well deserved, for +the place was charming. There was a dresser, a bed, and three chairs, and +all of these articles of furniture had been rough-hewed out of logs, +giving the place a delightfully rustic appearance. There was a grass rug +on the floor and in one corner a little table covered with books.</p> + +<p>"Isn't it darling?" cried Mollie, following Betty's glance about the +place. "Uncle John built the lodge and made all of the furniture himself, +you know. And he bought the grass rugs from the Indians."</p> + +<p>They were still exclaiming about the place when Mrs. Irving called to them +that breakfast was ready. With a whoop of delight they answered the +summons, and a moment later sat themselves down to a most satisfying meal +of omelet and toast and coffee with real cream in it. Also Mrs. Irving set +on the table a yellow-topped pitcher of milk fresh from the cow.</p> + +<p>"Our friend, Lizzie Davis, brought it," their chaperon answered with a +smile, in response to the girls' curious questions. "Also some fresh +butter and eggs. I have an idea," she added, as she got up to refill the +butter plate, "that we shall live on the fat of the land while we are +here."</p> + +<p>"Lizzie Davis," repeated Betty, pausing in the act of filling her glass +with fresh milk and regarding Mrs. Irving with dancing eyes. "Tell me, +chaperon dear. Didn't she have nice red cheeks, and wasn't she +delightfully plump?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Mrs. Irving, smiling at Betty's flushed prettiness. "She was +all of that, my dear. I don't believe I ever saw a more cozy looking +person in my life."</p> + +<p>"I knew it!" cried Betty triumphantly, adding with a suspicious eye on +Grace: "Hand over that plate of toast, Gracie. You needn't think you can +eat it all up!"</p> + +<p>After breakfast they sallied forth to "view the country o'er." They would +have stayed and helped Mrs. Irving clear up, but that good woman declared +that she could do better by herself on this first morning. After she had +become better acquainted with the place they could help her all they +liked. Finally, after some protest, they had to let her have her way.</p> + +<p>As they stepped out on the porch, Betty paused and held up her hand for +silence.</p> + +<p>"Listen," she said. "That murmuring sound and the splash of water--"</p> + +<p>"It's the river and the falls," explained Mollie. "Let's go down and have +a look at them."</p> + +<p>But Amy, giving a little gasp of delight, fairly tumbled down the steps +and into a riot of gorgeous pink wild roses. The lodge was fairly +surrounded by them.</p> + +<p>"Oh, you darlings!" cried Amy, putting both arms around a bush of the +fragrant flowers as though she would gather in all their beauty at once. +"I never saw anything so wonderful in all my life! Oh, girls, I'm glad I +came!"</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="ch_16"></a>Chapter XVI</h1> + +<h2>The Whirlpool</h2> + + + +<p>All the spirit and joy of the woods seemed to have entered into the +Outdoor Girls. For the next half hour they romped in the woods and the +beautiful flowers for all the world like little children whose first +glimpse it was of the country.</p> + +<p>They took down their hair and made wreaths of wild roses for crowns, and +when, faces flushed with exercise and fun, they had finished, one might +easily have mistaken them for real fairies come to life.</p> + +<p>"But I want to see the river," Betty called to them, stopping once more to +listen to the rhythmic sound of splashing water. "Come on, girls. It can't +be more than a few hundred feet away, even though we can't see it for the +bushes. Lead on, Mollie Billette, I wouldst hie me hence."</p> + +<p>But when Mollie laughingly obeyed and started into the woods, Amy held +back.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter?" Grace asked, turning to her curiously.</p> + +<p>"I--I was just thinking," stammered Amy, ashamed of her own weakness, +"about last night."</p> + +<p>"About last night," Betty prompted, still at a loss.</p> + +<p>"You haven't forgotten, have you?" she asked, incredulously. "That--thing +--on the porch."</p> + +<p>"Oh!" they said, and a shadow fell over their bright faces.</p> + +<p>"Why, yes," said Betty, slowly, adding as though she could not quite +explain the phenomenon herself: "I suppose we did forget all about it."</p> + +<p>"Or if we didn't, we should have," said Mollie, ungrammatically but +decidedly. "Come on, girls, we aren't going to let any silly old thing +like that frighten us out of a good time."</p> + +<p>"It seems," said Grace thoughtfully, while Amy still held back, "almost as +if we had dreamed the whole thing. The memory of it is so vague--and +indistinct."</p> + +<p>"Well, it isn't vague to me--or indistinct either," said Amy, feeling +rather abused because the girls did not seem to share her feelings. "I +hardly slept all night long just thinking about it"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Amy Blackford!" said Grace accusingly, while Mollie and Betty turned +twinkling eyes upon her. "If that isn't the biggest one I ever heard. Why, +I woke up once or twice in the night and each time I found you almost +snoring."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I did not," protested Amy, flushing indignantly, but here Mollie and +Betty stepped laughingly into the fray and peremptorily put an end to it.</p> + +<p>"Let's not fight about it," said Betty, when she could make herself heard. +"We don't care whether Amy snored or not. What we want to know is this: +Who is coming with us for a look at the falls?"</p> + +<p>"Now you're talking, Little Captain," said Mollie approvingly. "All in +favor please say Aye." Amy still showed some inclination to hold back, +but Mollie and Betty each took an arm and hurried her willy-nilly with +them into the woods.</p> + +<p>"You had better take the lead, Mollie," Betty suggested after they had +gone some little distance along the path. "I can manage Amy alone now, I +guess. She seems pretty well tamed."</p> + +<p>"Tamed, but scared to death," Amy came back, with a wry smile. "Really, +Betty," she turned to look at the Little Captain closely, "aren't you the +least little bit nervous about what happened last night?"</p> + +<p>"No, I don't think I am now," said Betty, adding candidly, "I must say I +was last night though--just frightened to death. It seemed so awfully +uncanny--coming upon that thing in the dark after what we had gone through +with that bandit. But then," she added more lightly, "everything seems so +much worse in the dark, you know."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Amy slowly and looking very serious. "That all may be very +true. But I think that as long as we are sure we didn't dream it last +night and that the skulking thing really dodged out from the corner of our +porch that we ought to be on our guard against it. And how," she finished +most reasonably, "can we be on our guard in the woods?"</p> + +<p>Betty was at a loss to know just how to answer such a question. By this +time Mollie and Grace were some little distance ahead of them and Amy's +nervousness was beginning to communicate itself to her against her will.</p> + +<p>She felt again the creeping sensation that had traveled up and down her +spine at sight of that crouching, sinister figure that had sprung out from +the shadow of the porch.</p> + +<p>It had disappeared into the bushes last night, and, for all she knew--and +the thought made her tingle weirdly--it might still be hiding in them, +crouching, ready to spring--</p> + +<p>With an effort she shook off the mood and turned to Amy brightly.</p> + +<p>"There is no use in our making a mountain out of a mole hill," she said, +plucking a wild rose as they swung by and smelling of its delicious +fragrance. "Last night, I admit, it seemed very terrifying to us, but that +was probably because we couldn't see what it was that frightened us. It +may just have been a large dog or something."</p> + +<p>"Humph," sniffed Amy, sceptically, "it must have been a monster dog. Sort +of a ghost hound."</p> + +<p>"Goodness, that's going from bad to worse," laughed Betty, as they +rejoined the other girls. "Let's hope it isn't anything like that, Amy +dear. Hello, what are you waiting for?" she hailed the girls cheerfully. +"We almost fell over you."</p> + +<p>"Watch your step," cautioned Mollie, adding as she cleared aside some +bushes and motioned Betty to a place beside her: "We've reached the river, +Betty, and a little farther up is the falls. Isn't it beautiful?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, it is beautiful," rejoined Betty, a sentiment which Amy heartily +echoed, and for a few minutes they stood there, drinking in the beauty of +the scene, entirely unmindful of the lovely picture they themselves made +with their loosened hair and wreaths of wild flowers.</p> + +<p>The river was not very wide, but the water was deep and clear and swift +and the continual swish-swish of its passage over rocks and between +foliage-laden banks made a pleasant, even sound that was deliciously +restful and refreshing.</p> + +<p>"Oh, if we could only get down right into the very middle of it and let +those little ripples wash over us forever and forever!" sighed Grace +ecstatically.</p> + +<p>"She would a little mermaid be!" sang Betty, as she slipped down to the +very edge of the water and leaned over to catch her reflection in the +bright depths of it. "But honestly, Mollie, isn't there any place in the +river where we can swim?"</p> + +<p>"It looks too swift for good swimming to me--" began Grace, but Mollie +stopped her with a mysterious finger to her lips.</p> + +<p>"Hush, my pretty one, not a word," said the latter, beginning to pick her +way daintily along the river bank. "Follow me and you will wear diamonds, +or seaweed, or whatever it is that mermaids wear. And don't fall over, +whatever you do," she turned around to caution them. "The river is so +swift here that I don't believe even the strongest swimmer would have a +chance."</p> + +<p>Accordingly the girls "watched their step," and for some distance followed +Mollie uncomplainingly. Then, as there seemed no sign of their getting +anywhere, Grace started to protest.</p> + +<p>"Say, do you suppose she has any idea where she is going?" the latter +asked of Betty in a tone that was designed to reach Mollie's ear. But +before she could say anything more, Mollie herself swung jubilantly round +upon them.</p> + +<p>"Here we are, girls!" she cried. "Now see if you ever saw anything so +pretty in all your lives."</p> + +<p>Once more the girls stood spellbound by the natural beauty of the scene. +As they walked they had become more and more conscious of the roaring +noise made by rushing water, and now, ascending a small rise of ground, +they came full upon the majestic beauty of Moonlight Falls.</p> + +<p>The falls fell full thirty feet, and at the foot of it the river was +churned into swirling, liquid foam that whirled around and around again in +a sort of mad race and then went rushing off down the river in a shower of +lacy spray.</p> + +<p>It was wildly inspiring, exhilarating, and the girls thrilled with a +strange new emotion as they watched. It was so free, so gloriously +unchained!</p> + +<p>"There is our swimming pool over there," Mollie said, raising her voice to +make it heard above the roar of the water. "You see there is a sort of +little back eddy below the falls and to one side of it, and right there +we'll find the best swimming of our lives. But," she added, and her voice +was impressively solemn, "heaven help any one of us who gets in the path +of the falls."</p> + +<p>"Look!" cried Amy suddenly, her voice ringing out full and clear and +startled above the uproar. "That--thing--over there. It is going into the +falls--no, under them!"</p> + +<p>"Where?" cried Mollie eagerly, leaning far forward. "Oh, yes, I see what +you mean. Oh, girls, I'm slipping!" Her voice rose to a terrified wail. +"Betty! Catch me!"</p> + +<p>But Betty was too late. She sprang forward just in time to see Mollie +slide down the slippery bank and plunge into the maddened water of the +river!</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="ch_17"></a>Chapter XVII</h1> + +<h2>The "Thing"</h2> + + + +<p>It took the girls a moment to realize the extent of the awful thing that +had happened. Then Betty, obeying her first impulse, raised her hands +above her head as though to dive, but Amy screamed to her to stop.</p> + +<p>"You will only be lost too!" she cried frantically. "Look--that flat +stick--the long one--"</p> + +<p>Instantly Betty saw what she meant and stooped to pick up a long broken +branch that was lying at her feet. At the same instant Mollie came to the +surface several feet away from the spot where she had fallen and threw her +strength desperately against the rushing might of the river.</p> + +<p>Betty ran along the river bank, Amy and Grace at her heels, shouting +encouragement to Mollie as she ran.</p> + +<p>"Hold tight!" she cried, adding with fresh dismay as she saw that the girl +was being swept further from the shore: "Over this way, honey. Swim to +your right--to your right--"</p> + +<p>Blinded, chilled to the bone with the cold water, her hair in her eyes and +her skirts clinging tight about her legs, Mollie struggled wildly, unable +to hear the shouts of her chums above the ringing in her ears.</p> + +<p>It was taking all her strength to hold her own against the rush of the +river--and now she was not even doing that! Slowly, very slowly, she was +being pushed backward; in a little while more she would be sucked +downward, and then--</p> + +<p>She closed her eyes, and then, as though the obliteration of one sense +made more clear the other, she heard Betty calling to her above the roar +of the falls.</p> + +<p>"Mollie! Mollie!" it came, faint but distinct, "take hold of the stick and +we'll pull you in. Mollie, do you hear me?"</p> + +<p>The girl in the water was still struggling hard against the current that +was dragging at her cruelly, and at the sound of Betty's words she shook +the water from her eyes and looked about her dazedly. She had forgotten +the girls.</p> + +<p>Then she saw something that sent a tingle of renewed hope through her +tired body. What she saw was a long branch bobbing on the water not two +feet from her outstretched hand, and at the other end of the stick was-- +Betty.</p> + +<p>With a sigh that was half a sob she struck out for it, reached it, and +clung to it as only the drowning know how to cling.</p> + +<p>Then she felt herself being drawn through the water, and once more she +closed her eyes. When she opened them again she was on a warm grassy bank +with Amy chafing one hand, Grace the other, while Betty was busy +unfastening the clothes about her waist.</p> + +<p>As Mollie was never under any circumstances expected to act as people +thought she should act, so this occasion was no exception to the rule. She +pushed Amy and Grace aside, glared at Betty, and sat up with a little +jerk.</p> + +<p>"For goodness' sake, stop undressing me, Betty Nelson!" she said. "I'm not +dead yet."</p> + +<p>"So we see," said Betty, while her eyes lost their anxious expression and +began to twinkle instead. "But you might have been, you know, if we had +left you to yourself."</p> + +<p>Mollie looked down at her dripping clothes ruefully and then out at the +rushing water.</p> + +<p>"I guess you are right," she said with a little grimace. "It wasn't very +pleasant while it lasted, either. Whew, but that water was cold!" She +shivered involuntarily and Betty sprang to her feet.</p> + +<p>"We had better be getting back to the lodge," she said. "You can put on +some dry things, Mollie, and we girls will get you some hot soup. You are +chilled to the bone."</p> + +<p>"Nonsense," denied Mollie grumpily. "I'm beginning to feel fine and warm. +Besides," she added, trying to cover a chill that fairly made her teeth +ache, "I want to stay and find out about that thing that got us into all +this fuss."</p> + +<p>"Nonsense," Grace put in. Up to this time Grace had been made speechless +by Mollie's sudden recovery. "You are shivering so you can't sit still."</p> + +<p>"It makes me cold just to look at you," added Amy.</p> + +<p>"Don't be foolish, honey," said Betty impatiently. "You can't sit there +all day in dripping clothes, and besides you will really get cold."</p> + +<p>"Humph," grunted Mollie, getting to her feet rather unsteadily and shaking +out her sodden skirts. "I guess this isn't the first time I have taken a +dip in cold water. And besides," she added impatiently: "I don't know +about you girls, but I would like to know just what that thing was that we +saw dart beneath the falls."</p> + +<p>"That was what made you fall into the water, wasn't it?" asked Betty, her +forehead wrinkling thoughtfully. "You leaned so far out to see--"</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes," Mollie interrupted impatiently, all her curiosity revived. +"That was what made me fall into the water all right. But what I want to +know is--what was it?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know," said Betty, shaking her head. "I didn't see it."</p> + +<p>"Neither did I," Grace added.</p> + +<p>Mollie looked from one to the other of them open-mouthed. Then she turned +to Amy.</p> + +<p>"You saw it, didn't you?" she asked. "You screamed, you know."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Amy, nodding her head very solemnly. "And it looked to me a +lot like what we saw last night."</p> + +<p>"Thank goodness, you saw it too or the girls would surely think I had been +dreaming or was crazy," said Mollie, with relief. Then she suddenly turned +and started off into the woods. "I'm going all alone to find out what that +was," she told her stupefied chums. "I've got to clear up the mystery +before I'm an hour older."</p> + +<p>But this time Mollie found that there was some one stronger than she, and +that was Betty. The Little Captain ran after her and brought her back, +protesting but captive. + +"We are going back to the house now and get you something hot to eat," +said Betty, as they rejoined Amy and Grace and started off toward home. +"Afterwards if everybody's willing we will hunt this strange beast that +jumps out from porches and leaps into rivers just for the fun of the +thing. But just now, Billy Billette, you are going home."</p> + +<p>But Mollie had been more severely shocked than she was willing to admit by +her experience, and it was some time before the girls visited the falls or +the river again. Meanwhile they contented themselves with exploring the +country about the lodge, taking short trips in the cars and wondering +whether the boys would really be home before the summer was over.</p> + +<p>Their days were not altogether happy, however, for the thought of that +weird thing prowling around in the woods and ready, for all they knew, to +spring out at them at every turn, refused to be banished from their minds.</p> + +<p>Then, too, they thought a great deal about poor Professor Dempsey and the +little ruined cottage in the woods. Somehow, they had an uneasy feeling +that if they had gone to him at the very first minute they had heard of +his trouble they might have helped him. Whereas, they had waited and--he +had fled.</p> + +<p>For a while the idea of a dip in the swimming pool was naturally not very +attractive to Mollie, but at last there came a day when she herself +suggested it and the girls enthusiastically seconded the motion.</p> + +<p>More than the prospect of a good time, was the hope, unexpressed, that +they might see again that strange thing which Amy and Mollie had only +glimpsed the time before. Perhaps, they thought, if the mysterious thing +were faced in the open and in broad daylight, it might prove to be no +mystery at all but something ordinary and commonplace enough to do away +with all their vague and weird imaginings.</p> + +<p>But in this expectation they were most completely disappointed. Nothing at +all unusual occurred and although they enjoyed their swim in the warm back +eddy of the pool, they came away disgruntled and with a curious feeling +that they had been cheated out of something.</p> + +<p>"I only wish the boys would come," sighed Amy, as they turned in once more +at the lodge.</p> + +<p>After that the "Thing" became almost like an obsession with them. They +must find out definitely what it was that was spoiling all their fun. They +began to haunt the river, especially at the foot of the falls, in the hope +of seeing something, anything that would put an end to their curiosity and +uneasiness.</p> + +<p>For a long time they had not got up courage enough to visit the place at +night, but at last they became curious enough to brave even that.</p> + +<p>"We have simply got to find out something," Mollie whispered to Betty as +on this particular night they stood on the porch and waited for Mrs. +Irving to join them. "We can't go on this way any longer, Betty. Why, I am +getting so nervous I jump if you look at me."</p> + +<p>"I know," said Betty soberly. "It really is getting on our nerves too +much. Amy and Grace are feeling it even worse than we are."</p> + +<p>"Yes," agreed Mollie grumpily. "Last night was the third night in +succession that Amy got us all out of bed to listen to some fool noise +outside. I'm just about sick of it."</p> + +<p>The other three came then and they had no further chance for conversation. +As a matter of fact, they talked surprisingly little on the walk to the +river.</p> + +<p>High above them a wonderful full moon sent its silvery light filtering +down through leaves and branches, making of the woods a fairyland. +Somehow, the very beauty of it filled the girls with a strange dread. To +them the patches of moonlight were weird, unreal, the shadowy woods held a +sinister menace.</p> + +<p>By the time they had reached the river's edge they were almost ready to +turn and run. But they conquered the impulse and pressed on. Then suddenly +they saw what they had hoped, yet dreaded, to see.</p> + +<p>On the opposite bank, staring down into the rapids with a terrible +intentness, stood a man, or something that resembled a man. In one awful, +breath-taking minute they realized that here at last was the "Thing."</p> + +<p>As they watched, the hunched-up crouching figure on the opposite bank made +a lumbering movement forward as though about to throw itself into the +water at the foot of the falls.</p> + +<p>"Oh!" screamed Betty, the words wrenched from her dry throat. "Don't do +that! You mustn't do that! Go back! For goodness' sake, go back!"</p> + +<p>With a hoarse cry that answered her own, the "Thing" flung back from the +water's edge and disappeared into the darkness!</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="ch_18"></a>Chapter XVIII</h1> + +<h2>Surprised</h2> + + + +<p>The Outdoor Girls could hardly have told how they got back to the lodge +after that. Blindly they stumbled through the underbrush, expecting they +knew not what horrible thing, thankful for the moonlight that made it +possible for them to hurry.</p> + +<p>They did reach home somehow and there they sat until late into the night, +trying to find some explanation for the thing they had seen, striving to +think up some plan for hunting it down until finally Mrs. Irving sent them +to bed.</p> + +<p>That did not do very much good, for they lay awake and talked until the +first rays of sunlight crept into the windows. Then they said goodnight +and sank into a sleep of exhaustion.</p> + +<p>For three days after the episode the girls never went far from the house +on foot. They would take the cars and spin down the open road, but a sort +of horror of the supernatural kept them from venturing into the woods +again.</p> + +<p>But when the fourth day dawned the fright of their moonlight experience +had begun to wear off and they were beginning to feel ashamed of their +fear.</p> + +<p>Having a little of this in her mind, Mollie gave voice to it at the +breakfast table.</p> + +<p>"I must say," she began, buttering a piece of bread energetically, "that +it isn't like us Outdoor Girls to let anything scare us into staying near +the house. Why, I declare, I don't believe there is one of us who would +dare poke her nose past that rose bush in front of the porch after +sundown. That's a pretty state of affairs, isn't it?"</p> + +<p>"Well, you needn't glare at me as if it were all my fault," retorted Amy +with spirit. "I'm sure I didn't wish the horrible old thing on us."</p> + +<p>"I only wish I knew who did," sighed Grace, adding, with a sudden burst of +ferocity: "I would wring his neck." + +"Suppose somebody suggests something we can do about it," said Betty +reasonably. "I'm sure that after the other night nobody could blame us for +being frightened."</p> + +<p>"No. But there is one thing I can blame you for," said Mollie, glaring +morosely at her chum. "And that is for not letting the horrible old thing +drown itself when it so very evidently wanted to. If that had happened all +our worries would have been over."</p> + +<p>"Goodness, Mollie, what a horrible idea!" Betty protested.</p> + +<p>"I don't think it was a horrible idea," Grace put in. "I think it was just +about the finest idea I ever heard of."</p> + +<p>"Yes," added Amy with a deceptive mildness, "if you hadn't called out just +then, Betty, the whole thing would have been over and the Thing would have +been drowned. And then," she added plaintively, "we would have been able +to enjoy our summer."</p> + +<p>"It really wasn't any of our business, you know," Grace finished, moodily.</p> + +<p>For a moment Betty sat and stared at them, undecided whether to be amused +or indignant. However, the latter emotion won and she turned upon the +girls with flashing eyes.</p> + +<p>"I think you are all perfectly horrid," she said. "And I would think you +were worse if I weren't perfectly sure that you don't really mean what you +say. Why, just suppose," she went on earnestly, "that we had willingly +permitted that man to commit suicide? Why, we would have been just as +guilty as if we had murdered him!"</p> + +<p>"But he may have done it since anyway," muttered Mollie stubbornly. "He +didn't have to wait to ask our permission, and there are plenty of times +that he can commit suicide when we are not around--if he really wants to +do it."</p> + +<p>"What he or anybody else does when we are not around, is not our +business," answered Betty. "We can't help what happens in our absence."</p> + +<p>"You seem to take it for granted that it is a man," Mollie continued, +still stubbornly argumentative. "But I am not so sure about that. The +several times that we have seen the--the--Thing--it has looked as much +animal as human to me."</p> + +<p>"Well, we won't argue that point," said Betty, rising and beginning to +clear away the dishes, "because we don't know anything about it."</p> + +<p>"That is just exactly what I am getting at," said Mollie earnestly, +leaning forward and resting her elbows on the table while the girls +watched her interestedly. "We don't know anything about it, but that is no +reason why we should sit back and twiddle our thumbs and start at +shadows."</p> + +<p>"Well, for goodness' sake, tell us what's on your mind," prompted Grace +impatiently. "We haven't sat back and twiddled our thumbs and started at +shadows because we enjoyed it, you know."</p> + +<p>"Now my plan is this," said Mollie, ignoring Grace, who shrugged her +shoulders and reached for her candy box. "Suppose we take a tramp through +the woods to the head of the falls? It is a beautiful hike and the scenery +at the falls is magnificent. But aside from that we will have a chance to +find out something about this thing that will do away with the mystery."</p> + +<p>"If it doesn't do away with us at the same time," said Amy so ruefully +that they had to laugh at her.</p> + +<p>"Well, what do you say?" asked Mollie, looking around the circle of +thoughtful faces--her glance a dare.</p> + +<p>For a moment it looked as if they all might refuse to go, but then their +sporting blood came to the fore and they decided for the adventure.</p> + +<p>But when they told Mrs. Irving about their project and begged her to say +yes to it, she looked very doubtful and only consented at last on the +proviso that she was to go with them. This they were only too glad to +have, and a few minutes later the lodge hummed with excitement and +preparation once more. To the Outdoor Girls, active and fun-loving by +nature, to be quiet for a few days was nothing short of torture. So now, +even though there was still more than a little fear of the "Thing" in +their hearts, they found relief in the promise of adventure.</p> + +<p>They put up some sandwiches and fruit in a basket in case they were not +able to get home by noon. Then they locked the door of the little lodge +and started down the steps. They hesitated before starting into the woods, +and Mollie had a happy thought.</p> + +<p>"We can go part of the way along the road," she said. "And then there is a +path that leads directly through to the head of the falls."</p> + +<p>The celerity with which they accepted this suggestion seemed funny to them +afterward, but at the time they had other things to think about. Mostly +they were wondering if they would really be able to hold on to their nerve +long enough to see the adventure through.</p> + +<p>"I wish," said Betty wistfully, as she had wished so many times of late, +"that the boys were here. They could help us out so beautifully." And she +sighed, for when she spoke of "the boys," she always thought of one boy +most--and that one was Allen.</p> + +<p>"Well, there's no use wishing for what can't possibly happen," Grace was +saying, when there came a whistle so clear and penetrating that it made +them jump--then another, and another. Was it just that they were nervous +or was there really something peculiarly familiar in the sound? At any +rate they stopped and turned around to see who the whistlers could be.</p> + +<p>There were three soldiers coming down the road, broad-shouldered, vital +looking fellows who swung along toward the astonished girls as though they +owned the world.</p> + +<p>"Betty, oh, Betty!" whispered Grace in a tense voice, grasping Betty's arm +so hard it hurt "It can't be, oh, it can't be the boys!"</p> + +<p>But Mollie had broken away from the group and was rushing toward the +soldier lads like the wild little tomboy she was.</p> + +<p>"Girls, it's the boys! it's the boys! it's the boys!" she yelled. "They're +all tanned and they're at least ten inches taller, but it's the boys just +the same."</p> + +<p>And before any of the other girls knew what she was about she had kissed +each one of them twice and was hanging on the tallest one's arm, who +happened to be Frank, laughing and crying at the same time.</p> + +<p>Then the girls seemed to decide that she had had the lads to herself long +enough, and they immediately entered the contest, all laughing at once, +all crying at once, and all talking at once, until it was a wonder the +boys did not lose their heads entirely.</p> + +<p>The only one who was not absolutely and completely and deliriously happy +was Betty. For the other three boys were there, but Allen had not come!</p> + +<p>As though reading her thought, Will, who was much handsomer and more manly +than when he went away, put an arm about the Little Captain's shoulder big +brother fashion and drew her aside from the rest.</p> + +<p>"You are wondering about Allen," he said, and Betty nodded eagerly. "You +see," continued Will, his face lighting up in a smile that would always be +boyish, "since Allen became one of the big bugs--which is another name for +officer, you understand--he had to pay the penalty and stay over there +with them for a little while longer. He will probably be over on the next +transport, although of course you can never be sure about that. Oh, and I +forgot," he put his hand in his pocket and drew forth a pocketknife, a wad +of string and--a little three-cornered note. "He asked me to give this to +you as soon as I saw you. So now you can tell him that 'I seen my duty and +I done it noble.'"</p> + +<p>With a twinkle in his eye Will turned back to the others and Betty was +left to open her note. This is what she read:</p> + +<p>"Gosh, some fellows do have all the luck, don't they? But never mind, +little girl. I'm coming to you by the very first boat, and when I get +there do you know what I'm going to do? Do you?"</p> + +<p>Betty wanted to run away by herself and read the note over and over again. +But she could not do that. With a sigh she hid the little message in a +pocket of her skirt and turned back to the others.</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="ch_19"></a>Chapter XIX</h1> + +<h2>Like Old Times</h2> + + + +<p>It was a long time before the boys and girls woke up to the fact that they +were still standing in the center of the road and that they might be ever +so much more comfortable on the porch of the lodge, if any one had had +sense enough to think that far.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Irving, who had been keeping herself rather in the background during +the first rapturous greetings, now came in for her share of salutations +and boyish greetings. The young soldiers crowded about her, patting her +hands and her shoulders and telling her how awfully fine she looked and +how glad they were to find her here until the lady actually blushed with +pleasure and begged them to stop their nonsense. In fact, it was she who +finally suggested that they go up to the lodge again.</p> + +<p>"I don't see why we didn't think of that before," said Mollie, joyfully +slipping an arm into Frank's and turning him right-about-face. "We are due +to talk all day anyway, so we might as well do it in comfort. Don't forget +the lunch basket, Betty," she called back to her chum.</p> + +<p>Betty would have forgotten the basket and left it where it stood just as +she had dropped it at the side of the road--and small wonder if she had-- +but as she stooped to pick it up, Will's strong brown hand whipped out in +front of her nose and seized the handle firmly.</p> + +<p>"That's the idea," said Grace approvingly, adding with a sisterly pat on +his shoulder: "You run along with Amy and Mrs. Irving. I want to talk to +Betty."</p> + +<p>So Will, being a well-trained brother, did as he was told, and Grace drew +Betty behind the others.</p> + +<p>"What about Allen, honey?" she asked, her blue eyes honestly worried. "We +all missed him so, but we didn't like to say too much for fear--for fear--"</p> + +<p>"He's all right," said Betty, her heart glowing again at thought of the +little note hidden away in her pocket. "He has only been delayed a little, +that's all. Will says he will probably be over on the next transport."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I am relieved," said Grace with such fervor that Betty looked at her +quickly. Could it be, she wondered, that what she had half sensed before +could be really true? Was Grace fond of Allen? But because the idea made +her unhappy, she decided that she was just trying to think up trouble and +dismissed it from her mind. All the girls loved Allen of course--who could +help it?--but they couldn't any of them, she told herself fiercely, care +for him the way she did.</p> + +<p>"Well, what are you thinking about? You needn't look so fierce," she heard +Grace saying, and she forced a smile to her face.</p> + +<p>"I'm not looking fierce," Betty answered gayly. "Don't you know that that +is just my natural expression, Gracie dear? That's the way I make little +girls like you afraid of me."</p> + +<p>"Well, I'm not afraid of you, not one little bit," asserted Grace, +squeezing Betty's arm fondly. "Oh, Betty dear, isn't it wonderful having +the boys back and don't they look fine--especially Will?"</p> + +<p>"Don't they? Especially Will," agreed Betty with a sly little glance. "If +you don't look out you will give the impression that you're rather fond of +that worthless old brother of yours, honey."</p> + +<p>"I love him awfully," replied Grace, adding with a little puckering of her +forehead: "But I am going to tell you something, Betty, that I wouldn't +tell to any one else for the world. I'm jealous, actually jealous! of +Amy."</p> + +<p>Betty gave a merry little laugh and slipped an arm about her chum.</p> + +<p>"Gracie dear, we never would have known that if you hadn't told us," she +said dryly. "Don't you know," as Grace looked at her reproachfully, "that +we have all been perfectly well aware of that ever since Will first began +to make eyes at Amy?"</p> + +<p>"I can't help it," Grace retorted, while sudden tears sprang to her eyes. +"I've known him longer than she has, and we've loved each other ever since +he was two and I was two weeks! Did you see the way he looked at her?" she +finished dolefully.</p> + +<p>"Yes. But of course you couldn't see the way he looked at you," said Betty +quickly. "And I did."</p> + +<p>"Oh, did he look glad to see me? Did he?" demanded Grace with pathetic +eagerness.</p> + +<p>"Of course he did, you little goose," said Betty, adding with a chuckle: +"You've been spoiled, that's all. You've been so used to being the +<i>only</i> pebble on the beach, dear, that you can't be content with +being just one of two."</p> + +<p>By this time they had reached the lodge and were greeted noisily by the +others, who had already seated themselves on the porch as though they +intended to stay all day.</p> + +<p>"Hello," called Frank. His handsome face, though somewhat thinner than the +girls remembered, was better looking than ever and he had developed a +trick of flinging the hair back from his forehead that the girls thought +immensely attractive.</p> + +<p>Roy, who had seated himself on the railing of the porch and was swinging +his feet, looked more unchanged than either of the boys, though the girls +were soon to find out that he had changed the most.</p> + +<p>Will, who had settled Amy in a chair and was sitting cross-legged on the +floor at her feet, was gazing up at the girl with his heart in his eyes. +As for Amy--well, the girls had never known she could look so radiant.</p> + +<p>"Have a seat," invited Roy, rising lazily to the dignity of his six feet +as Betty and Grace came up on the porch. "It would seem like old times to +see you girls perched on the railing."</p> + +<p>"I'll have you know, sir," said Betty very demurely, as she pulled Grace +down beside her on the top step of the porch, "that we have quite grown up +since you have been away. We will sit here where we can get a good view of +you all."</p> + +<p>"And we want to hear about everything you have done over there," broke in +Amy eagerly. "Please, everything--right from the beginning."</p> + +<p>The boys fidgeted, looked dismayed, and Roy burst forth in protest.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I say!" he cried. "We'll do anything else for you, but please don't +ask us to do that."</p> + +<p>"We don't want to talk about ourselves or the war," muttered Frank, almost +as if to himself. "We want to forget about it--if we can."</p> + +<p>"You see," Will explained, and there was a stern note in his young voice, +"we worked and we sweated and we fought. We lived under conditions week +after week and month after month that it makes us shudder even to think of +now. For months we lived in a perfect inferno--and do you know what our +idea of heaven was then?"</p> + +<p>They said nothing and he went on in a lighter tone.</p> + +<p>"It was just to get back alive and, well, to God's country and you girls-- +to sit for hours, days if we could, where we could look at you and listen +to you and not do a thing but just be happy. I wonder if you can +understand that?"</p> + +<p>"Of course, we can, Will!" cried Betty, impulsively reaching over and +laying a hand on the boy's arm. "You have earned the right to sit and be +amused, and we'll do it till you cry aloud for mercy. And you needn't tell +us a single word about yourselves until you get good and ready."</p> + +<p>"You're a brick, Betty," said Will warmly, laying his hand over her little +one. "I might have known we could count on you."</p> + +<p>"By the way," Roy broke in suddenly, his eye on the basket of eatables +that the girls had prepared for their adventure, "what's in that hamper, +anyway? If it's anything to eat, let's have it."</p> + +<p>Betty pulled the basket over to her, lifted the cover and passed it over +to the ravenous one.</p> + +<p>"Eat while there is anything left," she commanded, adding with a chuckle: +"Our adventure seems to be over for to-day, at least."</p> + +<p>"Adventure?" repeated Frank inquiringly, as he reached for a sandwich.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Mollie, adding with a sigh: "And you boys had to come along +just in time to spoil it all."</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="ch_20"></a>Chapter XX</h1> + +<h2>Very Much Alive</h2> + + + +<p>"That is complimentary, I must say," grinned Will, getting up from his +seat on the porch and going over to join Roy on the railing. "After being +away for months we are told the minute we get back that we've 'spoiled +everything.'"</p> + +<p>"'Tis rather hard lines," said Mollie with an answering grin. "But one must +tell the truth, you know."</p> + +<p>"By the way," put in Grace curiously, "I know Betty promised that we +wouldn't ask questions, but there is just one thing I want to know."</p> + +<p>"Speak, fair damsel," Roy replied, thinking meanwhile how much prettier +Grace had grown. "We will promise to answer faithfully anything that is +not connected with war."</p> + +<p>"When did you get in?" asked Grace, "and how did you get here?"</p> + +<p>"We came in yesterday," answered Roy, helping himself to another sandwich. +"And of course we beat it for headquarters right away."</p> + +<p>"Yes'm, and I'll tell you we were a disappointed lot when we found that +you girls had flown," added Frank ruefully. "We were all set for a jolly +reunion--"</p> + +<p>"But we wrote you about spending the summer here," Betty interrupted. "And +we were mourning because you couldn't be at the lodge with us."</p> + +<p>"We missed your letters, I guess," said Will. "We sailed very suddenly, +and there is probably a stack of them piled up there at the old service +station."</p> + +<p>"We found out where you were all rightie, though," Roy continued. "So we +took the first train out this morning, debarked at the nearest station +south of here, and proceeded to walk the rest of the way. It was thus that +you came upon us."</p> + +<p>"You came upon us, you mean," Amy corrected. "We ought to know well +enough, because you nearly gave us heart failure."</p> + +<p>Will looked at her as if he wanted to say something but did not quite dare +in public. However, she intercepted the look and with a little panicky +feeling turned her eyes away.</p> + +<p>"I imagine," said Grace softly, looking up at Will, "that mother wasn't +glad to see you or anything."</p> + +<p>"Not at all," returned Will, a soft light in his eyes as he remembered the +greeting between him and his parents. "I was a little afraid," he added +soberly, "that mother and dad wouldn't like my skipping off like this the +day after I'd got home. But they seemed to understand all right."</p> + +<p>"Gee, but this is great," said Frank, stretching contentedly and looking +about the group with happy eyes. "I wonder how many times we've seen this +all in our dreams, fellows. Only we couldn't have imagined it half as +perfect as this."</p> + +<p>"It sure is like old times," agreed Roy, adding with a smile as he turned +to their chaperon, who had been quietly enjoying herself: "We even have +Mrs. Irving with us. Gee, it's just like that summer at Pine Island! All +the old crowd together--"</p> + +<p>"Except Allen," put in Will, frowning a little. "Gosh, it didn't seem +right at all to leave the old fellow behind. You wouldn't know him," he +added, his face flushing enthusiastically, "I've never seen a fellow +change the way Allen has--for the better."</p> + +<p>"Was there so much room for improvement?" asked Betty demurely, and they +looked at her laughingly.</p> + +<p>"Nobody would expect you to think so," Will replied, his eyes twinkling, +then added seriously:</p> + +<p>"Of course we all know that Allen was the finest kind even before the war, +but, gosh! I wish you could just see how all the fellows love him and how +even his superior officers consult him and seem to value his judgment. I +tell you, I'm glad to have him call me his friend."</p> + +<p>"You bet!" exclaimed Frank, nodding soberly.</p> + +<p>"Allen sure has come out strong," Roy agreed; and at this glowing praise +of the only absent one Betty felt her heart swell with pride and she +wanted to hug the boys for being so loyal to her Allen. Also, deep down in +her heart, she began to feel a little trepidation about the homecoming of +this hero. Who was she, Betty Nelson, to call this glorious Lieutenant +Allen Washburn, <i>her</i> Allen?</p> + +<p>So engrossed was she in these and other absorbing thoughts that it was +some time before she noticed that the conversation had taken another turn. +Also that the boys and girls were becoming rather excited.</p> + +<p>"I didn't say it was a ghost," Mollie was declaring hotly. "In fact I have +always thought of a ghost as wearing a sheet and pillow case sort of garb. +And this thing certainly wore nothing of the sort."</p> + +<p>"Tell us all about it," said Frank, leaning forward.</p> + +<p>"Yes, it sounds as if it might prove interesting," added Roy.</p> + +<p>So the girls told them all about it from that first night when they had +been so badly frightened by the "Thing" that had hidden in the shadows of +the porch. The boys listened with scarcely an interruption till they were +through.</p> + +<p>"Gosh, I don't like the sound of that at all," said Will, when they had +finished. "It isn't a pleasant thing to have a lunatic roaming the woods +while you girls are all alone here in this place. Could you possibly put +us up for the night?" he asked, turning abruptly to Mrs. Irving.</p> + +<p>"Why, there isn't any room," said the latter slowly, frowning a little as +she tried to think up ways and means. "There aren't any extra beds, but +there is a large settee in the living room and a couple of you can sleep +on that. I found plenty of blankets stowed away."</p> + +<p>"Fine!" cried Will enthusiastically. "Just the very thing! One of us can +take turns sleeping on the floor. It won't be the first time we've slept +on harder things."</p> + +<p>"Goodness, any one would think they were going to stay a month," said +Mollie in dismay.</p> + +<p>"No, we won't stay a month," Will went on. "But we are going to stay until +we find out what it is that has been bothering you girls. Do you suppose +we would leave you unprotected here? I should say not!" Grace noticed that +when he said this his glance was first for Amy, and, afterward, for her.</p> + +<p>So it was settled. Mrs. Irving went inside to see about getting lunch. +"Though how the boys can find any room for lunch after eating all those +sandwiches, I don't know," Amy had commented wonderingly.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Irving had refused absolutely to let any of the girls even so much as +help with this lunch, saying they must stay outside and visit with the +boys on this momentous occasion.</p> + +<p>"Since you are convinced that this thing is not a ghost," Will went on, +while appetizing odors began to waft toward them from the open kitchen +windows, "we will take it for granted that it is a man, and a man who has, +presumably, lost his mind."</p> + +<p>"A crazy man," murmured Betty. "Worse and worse--and more of it."</p> + +<p>"Girls," cried Amy, jumping suddenly to her feet, "I have an idea."</p> + +<p>"Impossible!" drawled Grace.</p> + +<p>"Why," went on Amy, unheeding Grace's remark and growing visibly more +excited as she talked, "you know, Professor Dempsey went crazy--or at +least we supposed he did--and ran away into the woods. Now since Will +thinks this man is crazy too, why, they may be one and the same--"</p> + +<p>"Amy!" cried Mollie, her eyes beginning to shine as she realized the +possibility of what the girl had said. "You are a wonder, child! Why +didn't any of us think of that before?"</p> + +<p>"Because it is rather far-fetched and absurd, I suppose," said Grace, the +suggestion of a sneer in her voice bringing a quick flush to Amy's face.</p> + +<p>"I don't see that it is so far-fetched--or absurd either," Betty broke in +quietly. "Remember, we are only a little over fifty miles from the place +where Professor Dempsey had his cottage, and it would be easy for him to +wander this far."</p> + +<p>Here Frank broke in on behalf of the very much mystified boys.</p> + +<p>"Before you stage the hair-pulling contest," he said, "would you mind +telling us poor benighted males what it is all about?"</p> + +<p>So the girls told them all about Professor Dempsey, and while they talked +the boys became more and more excited. Finally Will could keep quiet no +longer.</p> + +<p>"Say," he asked, leaning forward, "did the two sons of the cracked old +professor happen to bear the names of James and Arnold?"</p> + +<p>The girls gaped at him. "Yes," they breathed. "How did you know?"</p> + +<p>"Because," said Will, "those very same fellows were in our regiment. In +fact, I was beside Arnold when he was wounded in that last engagement. +Strange thing that James was wounded at the same time."</p> + +<p>"Wounded?" repeated Betty, who like all the girls was feeling rather dazed +at this new development. "Then they weren't killed?"</p> + +<p>"Not a bit of it," Will replied vehemently. "Why, even their wounds +weren't serious enough to lay them up for long. The last I heard of them +they were coming over on a hospital ship and expected to be here almost as +soon as we were. For all I know, they may have landed by this time."</p> + +<p>"Oh," said Amy, still too dazed to take it all in. "Then all this time we +have thought of them as dead, they were alive--"</p> + +<p>"Very much so," said Will, with a grin, "and probably kicking too--just +like us!"</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="ch_21"></a>Chapter XXI</h1> + +<h2>Out of the Dark</h2> + + + +<p>It took the Outdoor Girls a moment or two to digest this rather startling +information. And when it did finally seep into their consciousness, their +first feeling was one of joy for the poor professor whose sons would be +restored to him after all.</p> + +<p>But quick on the heels of this thought came another. How could the sons be +restored to their father, if the father were nowhere to be found?</p> + +<p>"You say the old chap skipped out, decamped?" Will broke in on their +meditations. "That sort of complicates matters, doesn't it?"</p> + +<p>"Rather," agreed Roy, frowning. "It is going to be rather tough on those +fellows, James and Arnold, to come home, expecting to be welcomed by a +rejoicing parent, only to find said parent missing."</p> + +<p>"Humph, that's the first time I've thought of the boys' side of it," said +Betty. "We have been too much occupied right along in being sorry for the +poor old professor."</p> + +<p>"Well, if you had known the boys, you would have thought of their side of +it all right," said Frank seriously. "They are mighty good scouts, both of +them, and they think a lot of their old dad, too, I can tell you. Why, +many a night"--his voice took on a reminiscent note and the girls felt +once again that they were privileged in having a brief glimpse of the life +"over there"--"when a surprise attack was scheduled for the next morning +or we were waiting for some such manoeuvre from the enemy, Arnold would +talk to me about his dad--that was the time when fellows got chummy, you +know, and got to know each other's souls--and once he gave me a note for +the old chap and asked me to deliver it if I came through and he didn't. I +think I have it about me somewhere." He fumbled about in his pockets while +the girls waited silently.</p> + +<p>Presently he drew forth a little slip of paper, muddy and worn and +dust-stained from being carried about for a long, long time in a khaki +pocket.</p> + +<p>"He told me," Frank went on, still holding the slip of paper in his hand +but making no attempt to open it, "that his mother had died when he and +Jimmy were young and that since then his dad had been father and mother +both to them and that he had worked himself nearly to death to give them a +chance for the college education that he had had. He said that the one +thing that had always threatened to floor the old boy was when either he +or Jim got mad and threatened to give up school and go to work so as to +take some of the load from the old pater's shoulders. So they were glad, +actually glad, when the war came along and gave them a chance not only to +serve their country and earn some money--even if it was only a miserable +pittance--so that they could send some home to their dad and feel that +they had stopped being a drag upon him. He used to tell me," Frank went +on, for the spell of those old thrilling times was strong upon him again, +"with tears in his eyes--and I'll tell you there was no braver man in all +the American army than Arnold Dempsey; he was good for two Boches any day +--that it would be the happiest moment of his life when he got back to the +old country and announced to his proud and admiring pater that he had come +home to turn the tables; that Jimmy and he were going to make the old +fellow take a rest and do the work themselves for a change. And he asked +me, in case anything did happen to him and Jimmy, to be kind to his dad +and try to make up to him as much as I could. I gave him my promise that +night." Frank looked about the intent group of faces soberly. "In case the +boys had been killed, I would have regarded it as a sacred trust."</p> + +<p>Something swelled in the girls' hearts and for; a moment they could not +speak. Then,</p> + +<p>"I guess we all love you for that, Frank," said Betty simply. With a +little nod of her head toward the slip of paper he still held, she added: +"What about that--now?"</p> + +<p>Frank looked down at the slip of paper for a moment uncomprehendingly, for +his thoughts had been far away.</p> + +<p>"Oh, the note," he said. "Why, that was only to be given to his father in +case anything happened, you know. But now that the boys are coming back to +him themselves, I suppose the thing is worthless." He made a motion as +though to tear the note up, but Grace stopped him with a quick +exclamation.</p> + +<p>"Don't!" she cried, adding as they all looked at her in surprise: "Don't +you suppose there might be something in it that would give us a clue to +the professor's whereabouts now, perhaps? Don't you think it would be wise +to look, at least?"</p> + +<p>But Frank slowly shook his head.</p> + +<p>"Arnold Dempsey's message, written to his dad when he thought he might +never see him again, doesn't belong to us," he said decidedly. "The note +was given in trust to me, and since I can't deliver it--or at least, since +there is now no reason for delivering it--the only thing I can honorably +do is this." And very slowly and very decidedly he tore the note into +little bits and threw the pieces among the wild roses at the side of the +porch.</p> + +<p>It was the first real glimpse the girls had had of the man who had come +back in the old Frank's place, and with all their hearts they admired him.</p> + +<p>Even Grace, who had seemed inclined to pout a little, could not but admit +that the action was splendid in him.</p> + +<p>"And now," said Will, "after all that, the boys will come back to find +their dad gone, heaven knows where, dead perhaps--"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I wonder if there isn't some way we can follow him and find out at +least what has happened to him?" broke in Amy earnestly. "It seems +dreadful just to sit back and not even try to help."</p> + +<p>"I don't see what we can do," said Will judicially, just as Mrs. Irving +appeared in the doorway. "We will postpone the discussion for the present +anyway," he added, in a different tone, rising with alacrity and dusting +off his uniform. "Something tells me that lunch is waiting. Come, let us +eat!"</p> + +<p>So ended all serious discussion for that day, and the girls and boys gave +themselves up to the delight of being together again. Only Betty's +thoughts seemed to wander at times and she had to be brought back by +sundry mischievous and significant remarks from the young folks.</p> + +<p>Worn out with fun, the young soldiers slept like tops that night in their +improvised beds and rose the next morning professing to feel like "two +year olds" and ready for whatever new fun and adventure the day might +bring them.</p> + +<p>And for the first night since their arrival at Wild Rose Lodge the girls +slept soundly without being bothered by the haunting fear of the "Thing"-- +at least, so they said.</p> + +<p>That day they wandered through the woods together, searching for some sign +of their strange visitor, but found not a trace of anything unusual and +alarming.</p> + +<p>"I'm really beginning to believe that you girls have let your imaginations +run away from you," Will remarked, when they sat about the living-room +after a satisfying supper, just luxuriating in idleness.</p> + +<p>"Or perhaps the gentleman has been frightened away by our coming," Roy +suggested in a superior tone that made the girls want to throw something +at him. "Perhaps he is afraid of the uniform of the U.S.A."</p> + +<p>"He may be afraid of the uniform," sniffed Mollie scathingly. "But he +certainly couldn't be afraid of <i>you</i>."</p> + +<p>"Now you don't mean that, you know you don't," laughed Roy, drawing her +down beside him on the couch and holding her there with an iron grip of +his brown fingers. "Say you didn't, like a pretty little girl, and I'll +let you go."</p> + +<p>"I won't say any such--" Mollie began, then suddenly her gaze stiffened +into such a stare of wonder, and even alarm, that it made the girls fairly +hold their breath.</p> + +<p>"Mollie, what is it?" demanded Roy commandingly.</p> + +<p>"Over there!" she shrieked. "At the window, Roy! Do you see it?"</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="ch_22"></a>Chapter XXII</h1> + +<h2>Tragedy</h2> + + + +<p>There, pressed so close to the pane of the window that the nose was +flattened grotesquely, eyes wildly staring, hair disheveled, was a face +that even in that tense moment the girls recognized--the face of Professor +Dempsey!</p> + +<p>It took the boys perhaps a second to fling out of the room, jump down the +steps of the porch and circle the house to the window.</p> + +<p>And yet, in that second, the man was gone, leaving no more trace than if +the earth had opened and swallowed him up. For almost an hour the boys +searched the woods about the lodge, refusing to allow the girls to +accompany them, saying truly that they would hamper them more than they +could help.</p> + +<p>"You see, I was right after all," Amy stated for at least the tenth time. +"From the moment the idea came to me, I felt almost sure that poor crazy +Professor Dempsey was this thing that was frightening us."</p> + +<p>"But did you ever see such an awful face in all your life?" said Mollie, +shuddering at the recollection.</p> + +<p>"And the look in his eyes as he stared at Roy," Grace added in a hushed +voice. "I shouldn't wonder if--if we hadn't been there, he might have +murdered him."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Gracie, don't!" Amy clapped her hands to her ears. "We are frightened +enough without having you say things like that"</p> + +<p>"Suppose," said Mollie, in a sepulchral voice, "he should come back before +the boys do?"</p> + +<p>"That's just what I was thinking," said a quiet voice behind them, and +they jumped and cried out in alarm. The next moment they saw it was Mrs. +Irving and felt ashamed of themselves.</p> + +<p>"I think you had all better come into the house till the boys come back," +their chaperon continued. "I shall feel safer when we are behind locked +doors."</p> + +<p>The girls shivered, but Mollie protested.</p> + +<p>"Suppose anything should happen to the boys?" she asked, but here Mrs. +Irving chose to exercise her authority.</p> + +<p>"We will talk about that when we are inside the house," she said very +firmly, and Mollie had nothing else to do but obey.</p> + +<p>The girls did breathe a little more freely when the door was locked, but +they found themselves wishing even more ardently that the boys would come +back.</p> + +<p>The window against which the horribly distorted face had been pressed +seemed to hold a peculiar fascination for the Outdoor Girls and they found +themselves unable to turn their eyes away from it.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I wish the boys would come back," moaned Amy, after a few moments +more had passed in strained silence. "If anything should happen to them +I'm sure I would die."</p> + +<p>"Nonsense, Amy," snapped Mollie. "What could one little mad old man do to +three big husky soldier boys?"</p> + +<p>The words had hardly been spoken when the sound of voices could be heard +coming toward the house, and a moment later the boys themselves stamped up +on the porch.</p> + +<p>"Not a sign of him," said Will in response to the girls' eager questions. +"I don't see how he could have disappeared so completely in such a short +time."</p> + +<p>"We all took different directions, too," said Roy, taking a seat on the +couch again and staring fascinatedly at the window. "If all the rest of +you hadn't seen it too, I should certainly think I had been mistaken."</p> + +<p>"You weren't mistaken," Mollie assured him grimly. "I can vouch for that."</p> + +<p>"Didn't one of you girls call out something about Professor Dempsey?" +asked Frank, abruptly.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Betty, going over to him and putting an excited hand on his +shoulder. "That's the thing that startled us so, Frank. We are sure it was +Professor Dempsey's face. But, still, it was so wild and distorted that we +really wouldn't feel like contradicting any one who told us it wasn't he," +she added slowly. "Do you understand what I mean?"</p> + +<p>Frank nodded, and Will broke in excitedly:</p> + +<p>"But the poor old codger's looks would naturally be changed," he argued, +"after he had spent all this time wandering around the woods--out of his +mind at that. I am inclined to think that the girls are right and that it +is really Professor Dempsey."</p> + +<p>"If only I could have gotten my hands on him!" mourned Roy. "We wouldn't +have been in any further doubt."</p> + +<p>"There is really no doubt, boys. We just want--oh, I don't know what we +want!" exclaimed Mollie, who was excited and unstrung and nervous.</p> + +<p>Soon after that they all went to bed, having first decided to make a more +thorough search of the woods in the morning and take the postponed trip to +the head of the falls.</p> + +<p>They slept fitfully and were glad when at last they woke to find the sun +shining in their windows. For once Amy and Grace did not have to be coaxed +or wheedled or forced to get out of bed, but dressed quickly and were +ready almost as soon as Mollie and Betty.</p> + +<p>"You know I rather hated to leave the boys in that room last night," Betty +confided to Grace, stopping before the mirror for one final little pat of +her hair. "I was afraid that--he--might come back--"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Betty, what a horrid idea," said Grace. "Come on, let's see if +everything is all right."</p> + +<p>But they found that their fears had been wasted. The boys were in the +kitchen hilariously helping Mrs. Irving get the breakfast to the +accompaniment of continual good-natured scolding from that flushed and +perspiring lady. It was Amy's day to get the breakfast, but, as usual, she +was late in getting down.</p> + +<p>"You make a good deal more trouble than you mend," Mrs. Irving was saying +as the girls came to the door, then added relievedly as she caught sight +of them: "For goodness' sake, get these young ruffians out of the kitchen, +my dears, or we'll not have any breakfast until noon."</p> + +<p>So amid much fun and nonsense the boys were shooed forth into the bright +sunshine of the out-of-doors, and all the girls fell to to help their +chaperon, not wanting to put the extra work the boys made entirely on +Amy's shoulders.</p> + +<p>Breakfast was good, but they ate hurriedly, anxious to get at the business +of the day. They wanted more than they had wanted anything in a very long +time to find Professor Dempsey and tell him the joyful news that his sons +were alive.</p> + +<p>"I'm horribly afraid of him at night," Mollie confided, as they started +out at last, "but in the daytime I am only sorry for him."</p> + +<p>"Do you think we shall find him, Will?" asked Amy, with a helpless little +look into Will's self-reliant young face. "I do want to so much."</p> + +<p>Will looked down at her with an expression that said to any one who would +read it: "I would give you anything in the world you asked for, if I only +could."</p> + +<p>But all he really said was: "That remains to be seen. He proved himself a +rather slippery customer last night, and the chase we put up may only +serve to put him on his guard. Crazy people are tricky, you know."</p> + +<p>"Goodness," said Grace, looking fearfully over her shoulder. "There is +nothing in the world I am so afraid of as a crazy person."</p> + +<p>"That's why she has always been so afraid of me, I suppose," grinned +Mollie.</p> + +<p>"Afraid of you," said Grace, her eyebrows raised in mock surprise. "Little +shrimp--who are you?" There followed a characteristic scene that somewhat +lifted the oppression they had all been feeling, and it was not till they +had nearly reached the river at the head of the falls that they became +serious again.</p> + +<p>"It was right about here," said Betty soberly, "that we saw him the night +that he started to jump into the river--or I suppose it was the same one," +she added.</p> + +<p>"Let us hope so," said Mollie fervently. "I wouldn't like to think that +there were two lunatics wandering round these woods. One is quite enough."</p> + +<p>As they came closer to the river they became more and more conscious that +they were not alone, that some one, hidden in the bushes, was craftily +watching them.</p> + +<p>So strong did this feeling finally become that once the boys separated, +thrashing the bushes in all directions. They did not find anything, and +finally continued along the path, a little ashamed of what they thought +was an attack of nerves.</p> + +<p>"Phew, this is getting a little hot for me," said Frank, running his hand +through his shock of fair hair. "I don't mind fighting anything in the +open--" He left the sentence unfinished, for at that moment they broke +through the bushes at the river's edge upon a sight that struck them +speechless.</p> + +<p>Not twenty yards down the bank stood a ragged scarecrow of a man, so +unkempt, so wild, so abandoned in its crouching attitude as to appear +hardly human.</p> + +<p>Before they had time to utter a word or move a muscle, the man threw up +his arms in a gesture indescribably terrible, and with a hoarse shout +disappeared in the swirling waters.</p> + +<p>It all happened so quickly that for the space of a dazed second they +wondered if they had really seen it at all. Then they recovered their +powers of motion and rushed to the spot where the man had disappeared.</p> + +<p>Though they leaned far out over the water they could see no sign of +anything human, and with a creeping feeling of horror they began to speak +of what had probably already happened.</p> + +<p>"It's certain death down there," Roy muttered, as though to himself, +gazing into the rushing river. "The poor old fellow! He has got his, I +guess."</p> + +<p>"Look here, fellows, here are some clothes," Will called out suddenly, and +the boys rushed over to where he stood, a tattered old hat and an equally +ragged coat in his hands. "Maybe there will be something in the jacket to +tell us where the poor fellow has been staying and what he has been up +to."</p> + +<p>They searched through the coat and finally pulled out a wallet.</p> + +<p>"Now if it only has some writing in it," said Mollie breathlessly.</p> + +<p>There was a card, and the card bore the words which they expected, yet +dreaded, Arnold Dempsey, Ph. D. But there was nothing else, and suddenly +tears dimmed their eyes and they had to turn away.</p> + +<p>"It will be mighty hard on Jimmy and Arnold," muttered Roy, gazing +somberly at the fast-flowing river. "To have their dad go that way! +They'll take it mighty hard--those boys."</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="ch_23"></a>Chapter XXIII</h1> + +<h2>A Moonlight Apparition</h2> + + + +<p>"Let's look around a little anyway," Betty suggested. "He may possibly +have been swept up on the shore farther down the river."</p> + +<p>"If such a thing were possible he would probably be dead anyway," Frank +protested, but the girls paid no attention to him. The mere suggestion +that the professor might still be alive and in need of assistance was +enough for them, and they set about feverishly to scour the woods on both +sides of the river and for a considerable distance down its shores.</p> + +<p>After an hour of vain search, however, they were forced to conclude that +the old man was indeed dead, and so reluctantly and with heavy hearts they +turned their steps back toward Wild Rose Lodge.</p> + +<p>They talked very little on the way back, for they were too occupied with +their own gloomy thoughts. Only once Betty spoke what was in the minds of +all of them.</p> + +<p>"It seems such a terrible waste--such a pity," she said. "Just a mistake +on the part of the Government to have resulted in this tragedy. Arnold and +James Dempsey coming home, safe and well and hopeful to find their father +--dead!"</p> + +<p>The boys stayed on for several days at the lodge, and for all the Outdoor +Girls but Betty their stay was unmitigated joy. But in the heart of the +Little Captain, hard as she tried to fight against it, was a little sense +of injury to think that her chums had got their boys back and she had been +denied hers.</p> + +<p>To be sure, all the boys made much of her and petted her--for there was +not one of them who had not competed for her favor in the old days before +Allen had shouldered them all out--but no amount of attention from any one +else could make up for one little word from Allen.</p> + +<p>At each sunrise she awoke thrilling with the thought that perhaps Allen +would be with her before the sun went down. And as each evening came +without him she sighed and thought, "Perhaps to-morrow."</p> + +<p>Since the tragic death of Professor Dempsey they felt that they need no +longer fear the woods, although they never ventured near the river or the +falls without a heartache and the fervent wish that they might have +reached the poor demented man with the glad news of his sons' safety in +time to avert the tragedy.</p> + +<p>However, they did enjoy their liberty, and took long tramps with the boys +through the woods and picnicked with them beside little unexpected brooks +and streams, quite in the nature of old days.</p> + +<p>Then at last came the day when the boys announced that they would have to +return to town and to the military camp to obtain their formal discharge +from the army.</p> + +<p>"We may surprise you by coming back in 'civies' a week or two from now," +Will laughed, as the girls prepared to spin them to the railroad station +in the cars. "So you had better be prepared for the shock."</p> + +<p>"Maybe they won't care for us any more when they see us out of uniform," +grinned Roy, as he shook hands with Mrs. Irving. "You know the old saying +that a uniform has made many a hero of a bootblack."</p> + +<p>"Goodness, I hope you aren't a bootblack," said Mollie from her car, where +she was "doing things" with the engine.</p> + +<p>"I'm not," answered Roy, adding with a grin, "Nothing half so honest."</p> + +<p>Although the girls knew that they were only saying good-bye to the boys +for a few days, the parting was hard just the same, and half an hour later +they watched the train wind serpent-like down the shining track with a +sinking feeling at their hearts.</p> + +<p>"Aren't we a lot of geese?" said Grace impatiently, as they climbed back +into the cars. "We have done without the boys for a couple of years, and +now when they have just gone as far as Deepdale for a couple of weeks, we +are almost crying about it."</p> + +<p>"I suppose it is just because we have had so much separation that we can't +bear any more of it--even a little," suggested gentle Amy, feeling as if +she had just awakened from a blissful dream.</p> + +<p>"Never mind," said Mollie, putting an arm about Betty's waist and giving +it a little squeeze. "Just think how lovely it will be to see the boys in +regular clothes again, and maybe," with a sly glance at Betty, "by the +time they come back they will have added one to their number."</p> + +<p>"Goodness, I hope so!" said Betty, unashamed.</p> + +<p>In spite of some regret at not having the boys, the girls managed to enjoy +themselves in the days that followed. They motored and swam and fished and +hiked, and got as becomingly sun-burned and tanned as young Indians. It +was not until two or three days before the boys returned that anything +untoward happened to disturb their peace of mind.</p> + +<p>Then one night the moon came out with such dazzling brilliance that Betty +was seized with a strong desire to be out in it.</p> + +<p>"Let's go for a moonlight swim," she suggested excitedly, as they all +stood on the porch of the lodge staring up through the trees to where the +moon shone glitteringly down. "We haven't done it since we came, and +surely our vacation wouldn't be complete without one."</p> + +<p>"Or more," said Mollie, seconding the plan with enthusiasm. "Come on. +Let's tell Mrs. Irving where we are going. Maybe she will wish to go +along, but I doubt it."</p> + +<p>Mollie was right: Mrs. Irving did not wish to go, and the girls rushed +upstairs to don bathing suits in preparation for the lark.</p> + +<p>A few minutes later they were racing like slim young ghosts through the +woods, laughing and calling to each other and entirely abandoned to the +joy of the moment.</p> + +<p>"Race you to the old swimming hole," Mollie called out, as they neared the +river; and away they all raced in response to the challenge.</p> + +<p>Betty won, in spite of the fact that Mollie had had a short head start, +and the girls, wild in their exuberance, would have lifted her to their +shoulders had not Betty herself laughingly fought them off.</p> + +<p>"I have another challenge," she cried. "My fresh box of candy to whoever +swims to the other side of the swimming hole first. Are you on?"</p> + +<p>"We're on!" yelled Grace enthusiastically, adding: "I'd swim from here to +Jericho for that box of candy, Betty."</p> + +<p>As a matter of fact, whether it was really the thought of the candy or +whether it was because the other girls were tired from the last spurt, +Grace really did get to the other side of the swimming pool first, and, +pulling herself up on the other bank, dripping and triumphant, demanded +the prize.</p> + +<p>"You surely did win it, and you shall have that box of candy--much as I +hoped to keep it in the family," laughed Betty, shaking the water from her +eyes and drawing herself up beside her chum. "Goodness, isn't that water +delicious to-night?" she added, wriggling her toes luxuriously in the +rippling wavelets. "Just cool enough to be refreshing and not cold enough +to chill you----" She broke off suddenly and sat staring, her eyes +widening and her body tense.</p> + +<p>"Girls," she said in a queer voice, for Mollie and Amy had also drawn +themselves up on the bank, "have I gone crazy, or what is the matter with +me? Do you see--what--I see--up there?"</p> + +<p>Alarmed, the girls followed the direction of her strained gaze, and +suddenly they seemed to feel themselves congeal with momentary horror.</p> + +<p>Far above them on the bank near the falls and on the other side of the +river, stood the crouched-up, animal-like figure of--the "Thing!"</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="ch_24"></a>Chapter XXIV</h1> + +<h2>Recovered</h2> + + + +<p>The sight was almost too much for the girls. What they felt was sheer +animal panic and they wanted to run away--anywhere--just so they put +distance enough between them and that figure on the bank.</p> + +<p>"Sit still," Betty commanded them, recovering her presence of mind. "That +is Professor Dempsey up there, and if we make any sudden sound we are sure +of frightening him away."</p> + +<p>"But he was killed--we saw it," moaned Amy. "That must be his g-ghost."</p> + +<p>"Don't be ridiculous," snapped Mollie, her thoughts working along with +Betty's. "You know you don't believe in ghosts."</p> + +<p>"But how----" Amy was beginning when Betty interrupted sharply.</p> + +<p>"Listen," she said. "I came across an old derelict of a rowboat the other +day when we were exploring the upper river, but I didn't say anything to +you girls about it because I thought it was too much of a wreck to bother +with. For all I know it isn't even water tight--"</p> + +<p>"Betty," Mollie broke in excitedly, "I see what you mean! We can row +across the upper river to where Professor Dempsey is--Were there oars in +the boat?" she broke off to ask.</p> + +<p>"A couple of old sticks that would serve for oars," Betty answered. "Of +course it's taking a big chance--"</p> + +<p>"Say no more," cried Mollie, jumping to her feet and wringing out her +bathing suit. "Big chance is our middle name anyway. Lead on, Betty. Where +do we find this craft?"</p> + +<p>"I'm not quite sure that I can find it," said Betty, leading the way into +the woods, "but it was down this way somewhere. Don't make any noise, +girls, and let's hurry, or we won't get there before he disappears again."</p> + +<p>Grace and Amy were now entering into the spirit of the thing, and they +followed at Betty's heels eagerly, careful not to step on stick or stone +that might betray their presence.</p> + +<p>Luckily Betty managed to stumble directly on the old derelict rowboat +where it lay in ancient helplessness in the concealment of a thick grove +of bushes along the upper reach of the stream.</p> + +<p>"Goody! This is almost too much luck," cried Betty exultantly. "You get in +the stern, Amy, and Grace in the bow. Mollie and I will do the rowing."</p> + +<p>"I only hope the old thing doesn't take in too much water," said Amy, as +she and Grace got gingerly into the rickety old craft and Betty and Mollie +pushed it off from the shore.</p> + +<p>"That remains to be seen," answered the Little Captain as she handed one +of the ancient oars to Mollie. "There is one thing we shall have to +remember, Mollie," she said, as they pushed clear of the bank and glided +out into the swift water of the river, "and that is to keep far enough +this side of the falls to guard against being swept over it. Bear hard on +your right hand, Mollie honey. It wouldn't be much fun if we upset here, +you know."</p> + +<p>"Oh!" gasped Grace, holding fast to the side of the boat and noting with +dismay how plainly the roar of the falls came to them. "I wish we had +another oar, I'd help----"</p> + +<p>"You can help most, Grade," cut in the Little Captain briskly, "by keeping +your nerve and helping us to keep ours. Mollie," she called in a whisper +that carried the length of the boat, "can you see--It--yet?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," Mollie telegraphed back in the same tense whisper. "It's got its +back to us, I think."</p> + +<p>"Good," said Betty softly, adding as she threw all her weight against her +oar, "now let's keep still and work."</p> + +<p>It was queer how they referred to that presence at the head of the falls +as "It." Some way, in the weird moonlight, under the more than unusual +circumstances, it seemed almost impossible to give the thing a name.</p> + +<p>"Was it Professor Dempsey?" they kept asking themselves over and over +again. But he had committed suicide. Or at least they had seen him fall +into the river, and they could have vowed that he did not come out again. +They had searched both sides of the river. How could they have missed him? +And yet, if that motionless figure at the head of the falls was really +Professor Dempsey, he must have been washed ashore that day and evaded +them as he had succeeded in evading them so many times before.</p> + +<p>And all the time the roar of the falls was growing louder and louder in +their ears and they knew that theirs was a race with life and death.</p> + +<p>Could they succeed in reaching the opposite bank before the deadly current +of the river should suck them over the falls, to almost certain +annihilation?</p> + +<p>The answer to the question came a moment: later when, without warning, the +prow of the little boat struck on an unexpected projection of the shore +and they came to a standstill.</p> + +<p>"Thank heaven!" said Betty under her breath as Mollie jumped out and +pulled the craft further in to shore. "That was nearly the riskiest thing +you ever did, Betty Nelson."</p> + +<p>Once on shore again, the girls' confidence returned and they hurried +silently through the woods toward the spot where they had seen the figure. +Then Betty, who had taken the lead, suddenly motioned to them to stop.</p> + +<p>She had caught a glimpse through the trees of the man, who resembled more +than ever a scarecrow in his crazy makeshift garments--and at the sight of +him her heart unaccountably skipped a beat.</p> + +<p>Her thoughts had not gone beyond this moment. Strangely enough all her +energy had been concentrated upon reaching the man before he disappeared. +But now that they had succeeded so far she was at a loss what to do next.</p> + +<p>But at that moment she inadvertently stepped on a dry twig that snapped +sharply under her foot, and at the sound the man had turned fiercely, like +an animal at bay. Then he wheeled about and made as though to flee for the +shelter of the woods.</p> + +<p>In this emergency Betty followed impulse. She ran out into the open, +calling to him wildly that his sons were alive. Not to run away, because +his sons were safe and well. They were coming to him----</p> + +<p>The pitiful wreck of a man paused in his flight as the import of the words +seemed to sink into his befuddled brain, but he turned upon the Little +Captain a look of ferocious hatred that would have terrified a less +courageous girl than Betty. But her whole heart was in her mission, and +she had utterly forgotten herself.</p> + +<p>"Won't you please believe me?" she said, advancing toward him, hands +outstretched pleadingly. "I know what I'm talking about. Your sons, Arnold +and Jimmy----"</p> + +<p>As though the names of his boys had released some cord in his brain, the +man cried out hoarsely:</p> + +<p>"Jimmy and Arnold--my sons, my little boys!" Then, turning fiercely to +Betty, he cried: "You're not lying to me, are you? Because I'll throw you +into the river! I'll cut you into little pieces!"</p> + +<p>As the man advanced menacingly, Grace screamed and Mollie ran forward with +some wild idea of protecting her chum, but Betty waved them back.</p> + +<p>"I'm not lying to you," she told the crazy man, looking straight into his +glaring eyes. "Your boys were wounded, but not seriously, and they sailed +a few days ago for this country on a hospital ship. They want to see you +more than anything else in the world," she added, playing on the sudden +softness that had crept into his wild eyes. "And they sent their love to +their dad."</p> + +<p>At sound of the old loving name all the fight went out of the old man and +he sank to his knees on the grass, sobbing horribly.</p> + +<p>They let him alone for a moment, then Betty motioned to Mollie, and +together they lifted him to his feet. The sight of his tear-stained, +unkempt old face, creased and lined with suffering, but with the wildness +gone out of the eyes, stirred a profound pity in the girls and they wished +more than anything in the world to make him happy again.</p> + +<p>"We are going to take you home, Professor Dempsey," Betty told him +soothingly, as with Mollie's help she half led, half carried, him through +the woods toward the spot where they had left the boat, Amy and Grace +following awed and silent behind them. "And as soon as your boys reach +home we will bring them to you. Be careful of this big rock. Ah, here's +the boat." And talking all the time, softly and soothingly as one would to +a child, Betty at last succeeded in seating the derelict old man in the +equally derelict old boat.</p> + +<p>The girls tumbled in after him, and with a prayer in her heart Betty +pushed off from shore.</p> + +<p>That ride back across the river was as weird and unreal as any nightmare +the girls had ever lived through. Their queer passenger, seeming the most +unreal of all, was quiet for the most part but occasionally he would sit +up and look about him wildly and could only be soothed back to reason by +Betty's sweet voice telling him of his boys--Jimmy and Arnold.</p> + +<p>Somehow they reached the opposite shore, and, after pulling the boat up +among the bushes once more, they started back, the old man with them, to +Wild Rose Lodge.</p> + + + + +<h1><a name="ch_25"></a>Chapter XXV</h1> + +<h2>The Old Crowd Again</h2> + +<p> +Mrs. Irving, who had been worried by their prolonged absence, met the +girls at the door as they stumbled with the almost exhausted old man up +the steps of the porch.</p> + +<p>At sight of the latter she grew deathly pale, and leaned against the door +for support. She felt that all the world was growing black----</p> + +<p>"Oh, please, please don't faint!" she heard Betty's young voice calling to +her desperately as it seemed from a long distance. "We've depended upon +you to help us."</p> + +<p>With a great effort she fought off the dizziness and drew herself away +from Betty's supporting arm.</p> + +<p>"It's all right," she said dazedly. "The shock, I guess. Betty what--who-- +is that----"</p> + +<p>"Oh, please don't ask any questions now," Betty begged feverishly. "Just +help us, and we will tell you all about it later. This is Professor +Dempsey," she added, turning to the broken old man who stood staring at +them uncomprehendingly. "He can have Mollie's and my room, can't he, Mrs. +Irving? and we will bunk somewhere else."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Irving nodded automatically, still too dazed by the suddenness of the +thing even to think, and they helped the old man into Betty's room and +laid him on the bed. The tired, ragged, unkempt old head had hardly +touched the pillow before its owner had sunk into a heavy sleep.</p> + +<p>For a moment the girls were startled, for it almost seemed as though he +were dead, but Betty put her hand on the ragged old shirt above the heart +and found that the action was strong and regular.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps it is the very best thing that could happen to him," she said +softly, and, laying a light cover over him, tip-toed from the room, +followed quietly by Mrs. Irving and the other girls.</p> + +<p>Once in the other room, with the need for action over, the girls felt weak +and spent, and it was only then that they realized that they had been +through a terrible ordeal.</p> + +<p>In broken sentences they told Mrs. Irving all that had happened and as she +listened she more and more appalled at the risk they had run and the +danger they had gone through.</p> + +<p>"Girls, girls," she cried when they had finished, "I was half wild about +you as it was. But if I had known the truth I think I should have gone +crazy. Just the same," she added and her eyes shone with pride in them, +"it was a glorious thing for you to do--an unselfish, wonderfully +courageous thing. I'm proud of you!"</p> + +<p>In spite of the fact that they were tired out, the girls insisted upon +standing watch and watch that night. They felt that some one should be +with Professor Dempsey all the time in case he should wake in the night +with his old madness upon him. It was the longest night any of them had +ever spent, and the morning dawned upon a hollow-eyed, worn-out set of +Outdoor Girls.</p> + +<p>"I never," said Betty, looking around at her white-faced chums wearily, +"spent such a terrible night in my life. How is the patient?" she added, +taking up the subject that had not left their minds for a minute. "Who was +in there last?"</p> + +<p>"I," said Grace, brushing out her hair, listlessly. "He is still asleep."</p> + +<p>That report continued good all morning, and it was almost noon before the +ragged, unbelievably unkempt old man on the bed opened his eyes.</p> + +<p>The girls had been looking forward to, yet dreading, this minute. It had +been decided that only one of them should be in the room with him when he +awoke, but the rest were hovering close to the door ready to give +assistance if it should become necessary.</p> + +<p>But they need not have worried. The magic of his long sleep, together with +the glad news he had heard the night before, seemed to have transformed +the man overnight to his old gentle self.</p> + +<p>To be sure, he was amazed at his strange surroundings, and looked +uncomprehendingly into Betty's face as she bent compassionately over him. +But all he said was:</p> + +<p>"I declare, this is all very strange, young lady--very strange. Would you +mind--er--telling me where I am?"</p> + +<p>At the tone, even more than the words, the girls felt a wild desire to +shout aloud their relief. For the tone was the same, gentle, polite one +that they remembered hearing that day when the little man had entertained +them in his cabin in the woods.</p> + +<p>Then Betty, as gently as she knew how, told him a little of what had +happened to him, and the girls could see by the surprise on his face that +he had no recollection whatever of the matters of which she was speaking.</p> + +<p>"I declare it is most strange--most strange," he declared when she had +finished, adding as he looked down and plucked distastefully at his +tattered shirt: "And this is the result of my--er--temporary aberration, +is it? Ah, but I remember," he sat up suddenly, a gleam of fear in his +eyes. "It was when I read of the death of my boys. Something snapped in my +brain, I think. You say"--he turned to Betty, grasping her hand +imploringly--"you say that my sons are well--that they are coming to me?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Betty soothingly, pressing him back upon the pillow. "They are +well and safe and will be with you soon--in a few days, perhaps."</p> + +<p>"Ah," said the little man, submitting to Betty's touch, a happy smile on +his lips, "that is good. That is very--very--good--" and with a sigh like +a tired child's, he fell asleep again!</p> + +<p>"Did you hear what he said?" whispered Betty, her eyes shining as she +tip-toed from the room, closed the door softly behind her and faced her +awed and incredulous chums. "He's well, girls. He's completely sane +again."</p> + +<p>"It's a miracle," said Mollie breathlessly.</p> + +<p>And so it came to pass that some little time later four good-looking young +fellows, recently in the service of the greatest country on the earth, and +one of them still wearing his regimentals, saw a rather unexpected sight +as they swung down the path toward Wild Rose Lodge.</p> + +<p>On the porch sat an elderly, contented looking man, clad in garments that +would easily have accommodated two men of his size--garments belonging to +Mollie's Uncle John, and seated about him in attitudes of lazy comfort +were four young girls.</p> + +<p>These young girls--who were, at least from the standpoint of the four +young men, exceedingly good to look upon, were engaged in doing some sort +of fancy work. All but one of them, that is; for the fourth, a girl with +wavy brown hair and bright brown eyes, pink cheeks, and a dream of a +mouth, was reading to the elderly man who sat in the chair of state.</p> + +<p>"Gee, Allen," whispered one of the tall youths to the one who still wore +the uniform of his country's service, "I feel as though we were crabbing +your act. Can't we fellows do the disappearing act----"</p> + +<p>But just at the moment the girl with the brown eyes and the pink cheeks +looked up, gave one little startled cry, and dropped the book to the +porch.</p> + +<p>The other girls looked up and then followed a scene that very nearly made +the temporarily forgotten and neglected old man on the porch drop out of +his chair in surprise.</p> + +<p>"Allen!" screamed the girls, all except the brown-haired, pink-cheeked +one, who, for some unaccountable reason hung back behind the others. "You +perfect angel!"</p> + +<p>"Why didn't you let us know you were coming so that we could have been +prepared?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, isn't your uniform lovely!"</p> + +<p>"And look at the dressed-up leggings!"</p> + +<p>These and various other exclamations like them, coupled to the fact that +all the girls, except the one that he wanted to most, had kissed him, +rather overwhelmed young Lieutenant Washburn and took his breath away.</p> + +<p>His three companions, however, finding themselves neglected and out in the +cold, interfered at this point and saved his life.</p> + +<p>"Betty, what are you hiding away back there for?" cried Mollie to the +Little Captain, whose cheeks were pinker than ever and whose eyes were +shining very brightly with a sort of mixture of joy and fright. "Don't you +know Allen in his uniform?"</p> + +<p>"Aren't you going to kiss him?" chimed in Grace wickedly.</p> + +<p>"We all did," added Amy.</p> + +<p>But Betty had no intention of kissing Allen, although he begged her to +with his laughing eyes and she continued backing into the doorway, until +Mrs. Irving, coming up behind her, caught her up and pushed her out upon +the porch again.</p> + +<p>However, the chaperon monopolized Allen for a few minutes and gave Betty +time to catch her breath. She found Mollie introducing Professor Dempsey +to the astonished boys. These young soldiers wanted to ask a hundred +questions, but, catching a warning look from Betty, decided to wait till +later, when the little man himself was not present.</p> + +<p>Frank, who was perhaps more glad than any of them to see the father of his +chums alive and well, settled himself near the man and began to pour into +his starved and eager ears news of his sons and tales of adventures in +which they had figured.</p> + +<p>And while Betty was still smiling in sympathy with the look of absolute +happiness on Professor Dempsey's face, Allen dragged himself away from the +group of his admirers and came over to her.</p> + +<p>Boldly he pulled her hand through his arm and led her past the laughing +boys and girls, down the steps, and along the path that led into the +woods.</p> + +<p>"Be back in time for supper," Will called after them. "Something tells me +we are going to have some feed."</p> + +<p>"Oh, don't bother them," they heard Mollie's voice in laughing reproof. +"Remember, you were young yourself, once!"</p> + +<p>"And now," said Allen, when they had gone just far enough for the trees +and bushes to screen them from the view of the people on the porch, "I +want you to look at me, Betty. You haven't yet, you know."</p> + +<p>"I c-can't," said Betty in a muffled voice. "I guess--" she added +whimsically, "I guess I'm a little afraid of you, Lieutenant Allen +Washburn."</p> + +<p>With a glad laugh Allen put his strong young arms about her.</p> + +<p>"Do you think you can keep on all your life being afraid of me--like +that?" he asked. "Little Betty?"</p> + +<p>And Betty, with the radiant joy of all youth in her heart, slowly nodded.</p> + +<hr width="80%" size="1" /> + +<p>And what glorious days followed! The young folks never tired of their +tramps through the woods and walks in the vicinity of Moonlight Falls. +They gave themselves up to a good time and had it in full measure.</p> + +<p>"Gee, what an improvement over the trenches in France!" remarked Will one +day. "No more wars for me!"</p> + +<p>"So say we all of us!" sang out Frank.</p> + +<p>When they had to return to Deepdale the boys took Professor Dempsey with +them and Frank saw to it that the old man was made comfortable until his +wounded sons returned to him. Both of the hurt soldiers were recovering, +and the reunion of father and sons was most affecting.</p> + +<p>"Now for a final swim below the falls!" cried Mollie one day, when the +outing was coming to an end.</p> + +<p>"We ought to have a good time--now there is no ghost to disturb us," put +in Amy.</p> + +<p>"A chocolate for the first one to enter the water!" exclaimed Grace, +waving her ever-present candy box in the air.</p> + +<p>"That settles it--I'm off!" burst out Betty; and then all made a wild dash +for the swimming pool. And here let us say good-bye to the Outdoor Girls.</p> + + + +<h1>The End</h1> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Outdoor Girls at Wild Rose Lodge +by Laura Lee Hope + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WILD ROSE LODGE *** + +This file should be named 8gwrl10h.htm or 8gwrl10h.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 8gwrl11h.htm +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 8gwrl10ah.htm + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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