Janet Aldridge - The Meadow Brook Girls by the Sea

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"But can't we do something?" pleaded Margery.

The Chief Guardian shook her head sadly.

"I fear we can not. You have but to look out there to know that any
efforts on our part would be futile."

Miss Elting suddenly cried out.

"Girls, what can we be thinking of? We must patrol the beach. The sea
is going down a little. Divide up into pairs; keep as close to the
shore as possible without being caught by a wave; then search every
foot of the beach all along. I will go up the beach. Hazel, you come
with me. Mrs. Livingston, will you have the other girls assist us?"

The Chief Guardian gave the orders promptly. Fifty girls began running
along the shore. Mrs. Livingston quickly called them back, dividing
the party into groups of two. She was very business-like and calm,
which, in a measure, served to calm the girls themselves.

"Look carefully," she cautioned. "The missing girls may have been
washed ashore; they may be found nearly drowned, and it may not be too
late to revive them. Make all haste!"

There was no delay. The Camp Girls took up their work systematically.
A thorough search was made of the beach in both directions, the
patrols eventually returning to the Chief Guardian to report that they
had found no trace of the missing girls.

"Keep moving. They may drift in," commanded Mrs. Livingston.

The search was again taken up, pairs of girls going over the ground
thoroughly, investigating every shadow, every sticky mass of sea weed
that caught their anxious glances, but not a sign of either of the two
girls did they find.

An hour had passed; then Mrs. Livingston called them in. She directed
certain groups to return to camp and begin getting the tents laid out,
and to put up such as were in condition to be raised. The Chief
Guardian herself remained on the beach with Miss Elting and the
Meadow-Brook Girls. There was little conversation. The women walked
slowly back and forth, scanning the sea, of which they could see but
little, for the night was still very dark. At first they tried calling
out at intervals, ceasing only when their voices had grown hoarse. To
none of their calls was there any reply. Harriet and Tommy were too
far out, and the noise about them was too great to permit of their
hearing a human voice, even had it been closer at hand.

Meantime the two girls were now swimming quite steadily. Harriet knew
that, were they to remain quiet too long, they would grow stiff and
gradually get chilled through. That would mark the end, as she well
understood. Then again it was necessary to give Tommy enough to do to
keep her mind from her troubles, which were many that night.

All the time Harriet was straining eyes and ears to locate the land.
She had not the remotest idea in which direction it lay, and dared not
swim straight ahead in any direction for fear of going farther away.
The wind died out and rose again. Had it continued to freshen from the
start, she would have permitted herself to drift with it, but Harriet
feared that the wind had veered, and that it was now blowing out to
sea, what little there was of it, so she tried to swim about in a
circle in so far as was possible. Tommy, of course, knew nothing of
what was in the mind of her companion, nor did Harriet think best to
confide in her.

"I'm getting tired. I can't keep up much longer," wailed Grace.

"Rest a moment on your back. I will keep a hand under your shoulders
so you won't sink. If only one knew it, it isn't really possible to
sink, provided the lungs are kept well filled with air and no water
swallowed."

"I could think like a thtone if I let mythelf go."

"Don't let yourself go. There is every reason why you should not, and
not one why you should."

"Yeth." Tommy turned over on her back. "Did you ever thwallow thalt
water?"

"I never did."

"Then don't. It ith awful. Oh, I'm tho tired and I'm getting thleepy."

Harriet roused herself instantly. She gave Tommy a brisk slap on one
cheek. Tommy cried out and began fighting back, with the result that
she was the one to swallow salt water. Tommy choked, strangled and
floundered, still screaming for Harriet to save her. Instead Harriet
let her companion struggle, keeping close to her, but making no effort
to help.

"Thave me!"

It was a choking moan. Uttering it, Tommy disappeared. Harriet lunged
for her and dragged her companion up, and none too soon, for the
little girl had swallowed so much salt water that she was really half
drowned. Harriet shook her and pounded her on the back, all the time
managing to float on the surface of the water, evidencing that
Harriet was something of a swimmer. Yet she was becoming weary and the
sense of feeling was leaving her limbs. She realized that it was the
chill of the Atlantic and that unless she succeeded in restoring her
circulation she would soon be helpless. Just now, however, all her
efforts were devoted to the task of arousing Grace. The little girl
began to whimper and to struggle anew.

"I am amazed at you, Tommy," gasped Harriet. "You, a swimmer, to
swallow part of the ocean!"

"I didn't. The ocean thwallowed me--e."

"You must work. Swim, Tommy!"

"I--I can't. I'm tho tired." Grace made languid efforts to prove that
she was weary. There could be no doubt of it. She did not have the
endurance possessed by her companion, and even Harriet's strength was
leaving her, because of that terrible numbness in her lower limbs, a
numbness that was creeping upward little by little.

"I will help you. But you must do something for yourself. Turn over on
your stomach. There. You need not try to fight it, just make swimming
motions, slowly. Not so fast. Now you have the pace."

"I can't keep it. My limbth will not work. My kneeth are thtiff. Oh,
Harriet, I think I'm going to die!"

"Nonsense! Why, you could swim all night, if necessary, and be up in
time for six o'clock breakfast just the same."

"Breakfatht. It will be fithh for breakfatht for Tommy Thompthon, I
gueth. Fithh, Harriet, fithh," mumbled Grace, then ceased swimming.
"Fithh!"

"Poor girl, she is about done for!" muttered Harriet Burrell. She
turned Tommy over on her back and, placing a hand under the little
girl, began swimming slowly. The added burden was almost more than
Harriet, in her benumbed state, was able to handle. She knew that she
could not support Grace and herself through the rest of that long,
dark night. She knew, too, that unless they were rescued, her
companion would be past help by the end of another hour. It already
seemed hours since they had slipped into the sea and rode out on the
crest of a receding wave. Now her movements were becoming slower and
slower. She seemed not to possess the power to move her limbs. It was
not all weariness either; it was that dragging numbness that was
pulling her down.

Harriet fought a more desperate battle with herself than she ever had
been called upon to fight before. She did not now believe that they
would be rescued, but that did not prevent her keeping up the battle
as long as a single vestige of strength remained. It was sheer grit
that kept Harriet Burrell afloat during that long, heart-breaking swim
among the Atlantic rollers on this never-to-be-forgotten night.

But at last the girl ceased swimming. Her limbs simply would not move
in obedience to her will; her arms seemed weighed down by some
tremendous pressure; her head grew heavy and her senses dulled.

"I believe this is the end," muttered Harriet. One great struggle,
then her weary muscles relaxed. For a few moments she floated on her
back, turned over with a great effort, then settled lower and lower in
the water, all the time fighting to regain possession of her
faculties, but growing weaker with each effort.

Then Harriet Burrell went down, dragging Tommy with her.

CHAPTER IX

A SURPRISE THAT PROVED A SHOCK

It could not have been very long, not more than a few seconds, before
Harriet Burrell's benumbed senses began to perform their natural
functions. Deep down in her inner consciousness was the feeling that,
though the surf was breaking over her, underneath her was something
solid, immovable. In a vague sort of way she wondered at this, but for
the time being was too weary and dulled to reason out the cause of the
phenomenon.

After a time the girl began to feel little pains shooting up her arms,
reaching to her shoulders and down along her spine. Again was her
wonderment aroused. Little by little her heavy eyelids struggled open.
But her eyes saw only black darkness and water. Harriet, by a supreme
force of will, now began to reason the cause.

"I am still in the water, but my hands and feet are on something
solid. What does it mean?" she thought.

Turning her head slightly, she saw that which increased her
wonderment. Tommy Thompson was sitting beside her, the little girl's
head leaning against Harriet. It struck Harriet as peculiar that
Tommy was able to sit on the water with nearly half her body out of
the water. Harriet then discovered that she was crouching on all
fours. It was a peculiar position for her, too. She wondered, if able
to maintain that position, why she might not stand up just as well.

"I can do it!" she screamed. "I can stand on the--" She paused. Tommy
had toppled over and lay on her side, partly covered with water.
"Land!" breathed Harriet. "We are on land, but there is water all
about us. I don't understand."

Pondering over this for a moment, Harriet stooped and lifted Grace to
a sitting posture. Her blood had begun to circulate and a warm glow
was suffusing her entire body.

"Tommy, wake up! Wake up! It's land. We are on solid ground. Don't you
understand?"

"Breakfatht for fithh," muttered Tommy. Harriet shook her as
vigorously as she could. It required no little effort to get Grace
wide enough awake to understand what Harriet was saying, but after a
short time Tommy seemed to understand, understanding that finally came
to her with a shock almost equal to that that Harriet had felt.

"We--we are on thhore?" she questioned.

"Yes, yes. Let's get out of the water. Come, dear, I will support
you." This she did, though Harriet staggered and was barely able to
support herself. She slipped a cold arm about Grace's waist. "Make
your feet go." The two girls stumbled forward, Tommy now having an arm
about Harriet's waist, then with a scream from Tommy they stepped off
into deep water and went in all over.

"Thave me, oh, thave me!" moaned Tommy as they came up.

But the plunge had done them good. It had shaken both girls wide awake
and cleared their clouded minds. They once more had been awakened to a
realization of their position.

"It wathn't land at all! Let me go, let me die," insisted Tommy,
struggling to free herself from Harriet's grasp.

"It was a sand bar," explained Harriet. "Please behave yourself,
Tommy. You must _do_ something. It is all I can do to take care of
myself. Now, please, help me by helping yourself and we shall be on
dry land in a few moments."

Grace made several awkward attempts to swim, then gave it up.

"I can't do it, Harriet. What ith the uthe of trying to thwim any
more?"

"Don't you understand? We were on a sand bar. It was that that saved
our lives after we were overcome. We should have drowned had it not
been for the bar."

"Yeth, but we are in deep water again," wailed Tommy.

"Think, think! Don't be so stupid. We must be near the shore. I don't
believe there would be a shallow place like that one far out from
land."

"Do you think tho?" Tommy's voice was weaker than before.

"I am sure of it. Swim. That's a good girl."

"I--I can't."

"Then I will swim for you."

Once more Harriet Burrell placed a hand under Grace and began swimming
with her. The surf was behind them and was rapidly carrying them with
it toward either the shore or the sea, Harriet neither knew nor
thought which. Had she not been still half dazed she might have
smelled the vegetation on shore, not so very far from them, but of
this she took no heed. She swam, summoning all her strength to the
task, knowing that she would not be able to keep up much longer. Then
all at once her hands touched bottom. A moment more and she lay full
length upon the wet, sandy bottom with the waves breaking over her.
Harriet groped with her hands and found that the water at arm's
length, ahead was but a few inches deep. She sprang up with, a weak
cry.

"Tommy, Tommy! We've made it."

"Fithh," muttered Grace.

Harriet grasped her by the arms and began backing toward shore,
dragging her companion with her.

The ground grew more and more solid as she backed. There could be no
doubt now. They were rapidly getting to dry land. Here, unlike the
beach fronting the camp, the ground sloped gradually up away from the
sea, then extended off among the trees a level stretch for some
distance.

Tommy struggled a little when Harriet raised her to her feet. The
latter did not know which way camp lay from where they had landed, but
she decided that it must be to the right of them. In this surmise
Harriet was correct, but the camp was farther away than she had
thought. She staggered along, half leading, half carrying, her
companion, until, exhausted by her efforts, she sank down, Tommy with
her.

"I can't go another step; I'm tired out," gasped Harriet.

"Ye-t-h," agreed Grace weakly.

The two girls toppled over and stretched out on the wet ground,
clasped in each other's arms. They were almost instantly asleep. Tired
nature could endure no more, and there they continued to lie and
slumber through the remaining hours of the night.

Break of day still found patrol parties running along the shore,
alternately searching the beach and gazing out to sea. An occasional
boat was sighted far out, but that was all. No signs of the missing
Meadow-Brook Girls had been found. Ever since the dawn, however, Crazy
Jane McCarthy had been taking account of the direction of the wind,
which was blowing across the bay to the right of their camp. She
decided to investigate that part of the coast on her own account,
going far beyond the farthest point that had been reached by any of
the patrols.

Suddenly Crazy Jane uttered a yell that should have been heard at the
camp, but was not. She had discovered the girls lying on the
beach--still locked in each other's arms.

Jane rushed to them, and, grabbing Tommy, began shaking her. Harriet
raised her heavy eyelids, sat up and rubbed her eyes. Tommy tried to
brush Jane aside.

"Fithh for breakfatht," she muttered.

"Oh, Jane, is it really you?" stammered Harriet, trying to keep from
lying back and again going to sleep.

"Oh, my stars, darlin's! And we thought all the time that you were
both drowned. Don't tell me a thing now. I'll go right back and get
some of the girls to help me get you back to camp."

"No, no; we can walk. There is nothing the matter with us except that
we are tired out. Tommy, Tommy, wake up! It is morning and we are safe
and dry. Think of it!"

"I--I don't want to think. I want to go to thleep."

Jane lifted and shook the little lisping girl until Tommy begged for
mercy, declaring that she would rather go to sleep than return to
camp. It required no little effort to get the girl to try to walk.
Harriet herself would have much preferred going back to sleep, but
after a time, with their arms about Tommy, they managed to get her
started, upon which they took up their weary trudge to the camp, more
than a mile away, stumbling along with Tommy, half asleep nearly every
minute of the time.

It was almost an hour later when a great shout arose from the camp as
the girls were discovered slowly approaching. There was a wild rush to
meet them. Every girl in camp, including the guardians, joined in the
rush to welcome the returning Meadow-Brook Girls.

CHAPTER X

SUMMONED TO THE COUNCIL

"They're saved! They're saved!" shouted fifty voices, their owners
almost wild with delight. With one common impulse they gathered up
Tommy and Harriet and started to carry them into camp. Tommy offered
no resistance. She submitted willingly. With Harriet it was different.
She struggled, freed herself from the detaining arms, and sprang away
from her rejoicing companions, laughing softly.

"I am perfectly able to take care of myself, thank you," she said.

"You certainly do not look it," declared the Chief Guardian. Harriet's
face was pale, her eyes sunken, with dark rings underneath them, but
in other ways she appeared to be her old self. "We shall both be as
well as ever after we have had something warm to eat and drink."

"Tell us, oh, tell us about it," cried several girls in chorus.

"Not a word until after the girls have had something to eat and drink.
They are completely exhausted." Mrs. Livingston gazed wonderingly at
Harriet Burrell, knowing full well that the latter had borne the
greater share of the burden in the battle that she must have had to
fight through the long, dark night.

The cook girls were already making coffee and warming up food left
over from their own breakfast, as being the quickest way to prepare
something for the returned Meadow-Brook Girls. That meal strengthened
and cheered them wonderfully. Tommy began to chatter after having
drunk her first cup of coffee. Their companions sat about in a
semi-circle watching them, scarcely able to restrain their curiosity
as to what had happened during the night. Jane opened the recital by a
question.

"Did you really mean that you wished fish for breakfast, Tommy?" she
asked.

Grace regarded her with a frowning squint.

"I didn't want any fithh for breakfatht. It wath the fithh that wanted
me for their breakfatht."

"And there are sharks off this coast, too!" gasped one of the girls.

"Were you in the water for long?" asked Miss Elting.

"It seemed like a long time, it seemed like hours and hours," admitted
Harriet, accompanying the words with a bright smile that the keen-eyed
Chief Guardian saw was forced.

"For hours!" cried the girls in chorus.

"If you feel able, please tell us about it," urged Hazel.

Mrs. Livingston shook her head.

"Both girls are going to bed immediately. Please fix up two cots for
them in my tent. No, no," she added in answer to Harriet's protests,
"it is my order. You are to turn in and sleep until supper time, if
you wish; by that time we shall have the camp put to rights and you
may talk to your hearts' content."

The Chief Guardian led the two girls to her tent, assisting them to
remove their damp clothing, putting them in warm flannel night gowns
and tucking them in their cots. Harriet insisted that she did not wish
to be "babied," but, the guardian was firm. After tucking them in Mrs.
Livingston sat down on the edge of Tommy's cot and began asking her
questions, all of which Tommy answered volubly, Harriet now and then
offering objections to her companion's praise. In a few moments the
Chief Guardian was in possession of the whole story of the night's
experiences.

"You are the same brave Harriet that we came to know so well at our
camp in the Pocono Woods," said Mrs. Livingston. "There are not many
like you; but we shall speak of your achievements later. Now I will
draw the flap, and I do not wish to see it opened until sundown. I
know that I may depend upon you to obey orders."

Harriet nodded. "There is something I should like to ask. Did you see
anything of a sail boat in the bay this morning?"

"No. Why?"

"I saw one come in last night before the blow. It anchored in the
cove. They had put out their lights before coming in, which made me
wonder."

"Are you sure about that?"

"Yes, I know. I wondered if they had been blown ashore?"

"We should have known of it if such had been the case. But I can't
understand what a boat could be doing in here. This is a remote place
where people seldom come. That was why I chose it for our summer
camping place. I will ask the girls if they saw anything of the boat
you mention, but it is doubtful."

"Another thing. Oh, I'm not going to keep you here talking with me all
day."

"No; I want to go to thleep," interjected Grace.

"I saw a cabin down on that long point of land just this side of the
bay. What is it?"

"A fisherman's cabin. It is not occupied, nor has it been in a very
long time."

"Then why can't we Meadow-Brook Girls use it while we are in camp? I
should love to be down by the water, with the sea almost at my feet."

"I should think you would have had enough of the sea, after your
dreadful experience of last night," laughed Mrs. Livingston.

"I am fascinated with the sea. It is wonderful! Do you think we could
have the cabin?"

"I will consult with Miss Elting. If she thinks it wise, I will see
what can be done. Of course, it is a little farther from the camp than
I like. I prefer to have my girls where I can have an eye on them at
all times. But the Meadow-Brook Girls can be depended upon to take
care of themselves, save that they are too venturesome. Yes, I will
see what can be done."

"Oh, thank you ever so much," answered Harriet with glowing eyes.
"Then, if we wish, we may sleep out on the sands when the nights are
warm."

"I shall have to think about that, my dear. Now go to sleep. This
evening I shall have more to say."

Tommy was already asleep. Harriet dropped into a heavy slumber within
a very few moments after the Chief Guardian's departure. She did not
awaken until the sun had dipped into the sea. As she forced herself to
a realization of her surroundings, the merry chatter of voices was
borne to her ears and the savory odor of camp cooking to her nostrils.

In the meantime an active day had been spent by the Camp Girls. There
was much to be done, for the camp was in a confused condition after
the storm of the preceding evening. A day of labor had given a keen
zest to the appetites of the campers; added to this was the
satisfaction of having completed their work. The camp now was in trim
condition. Acting upon the orders of the Chief Guardian, the wood had
been laid for a council fire. The orders had been issued for the girls
to don ceremonial dress and report for a council at eight o'clock that
evening.

The girls wondered what important subject was to come up for
consideration, as it was not the evening for the regular weekly
council fire that was always held during the summer encampment. Of all
this Harriet was unaware. When she awakened she found dry clothing
laid out for her to put on. The same had been done for Grace, who was
still sleeping soundly. Harriet shook the little girl awake.

"It is nearly night, dear," she said. "How do you feel?"

Tommy blinked several times before replying. "How do I feel? Not tho
wet ath I did latht night. I thmell thupper!" exclaimed Tommy, sitting
up suddenly.

"I told you it was nearly night. Let's go out and see the girls. How
good they all are to us!"

"I thuppothe they will all be looking at me and following me about ath
though I wath thome thort of curiothity," complained Grace.

"Of course you would not like that. It would embarrass you, wouldn't
it, Tommy?"

"It would embarrath me more if they didn't," answered Tommy honestly,
puckering her face into frowns and squinting up at Harriet so
whimsically that the older girl burst into a peal of merry laughter.

Instantly following the laugh, Jane's head was thrust through the tent
opening. The head was in disorder, for Jane had found no time to
attend to her hair. She had been working, which meant that she had
been accomplishing things, for Jane was a host in herself when it came
to work.

"Excuse the condition of my crowning glory, darlin's, but I couldn't
wait to comb it. I have been sent to tell you that the grease is on
the bacon and the potatoes are popping open in the hot ashes of the
cook fire. We're going to cut off the tops of them, dig out a tunnel
and fill the tunnel with butter. Um, um! Now, what do you think of
that?"

In a twinkling Tommy was out of bed and gleefully hurrying into her
clothes.

"I thought it would interest you, darlin'," chuckled Jane.

"You dress as if you were going to a fire," declared Harriet, with a
good-natured laugh.

"She is," answered Crazy Jane; "the camp fire--the cook fire, I should
say."

Tommy, during this dialogue, had not uttered a word. Finally, having
got into her clothes to her satisfaction, she darted from the tent,
spinning Jane half-way around as she dashed past her, the little girl
twisting her hair into a hard knot as she ran.

"I want a potato with a hole in it," she shouted the moment she came
in sight of the cook fire. Some one snatched a hot tuber from the
ashes and tossed it to her. Tommy caught the potato, but dropped it
instantly and began cooling her fingers. "I want one with a hole in
it," she insisted.

"Bring it here and you shall have it," replied Miss Elting. Instead of
picking up the potato and carrying it, Tommy propelled it along with
the toe of her boot. She did not propose to burn her fingers again.
The guardian gouged out a hole to the bottom, filling the hole with
butter, Tommy's eyes growing larger and larger. Then she began to eat
the potato with great relish, after having seasoned it with salt and
pepper. This was no time for words, nor were any uttered until
nothing but the blackened skin of the potato was left.

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