Janet Aldridge - The Meadow Brook Girls by the Sea

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The men stood for some time, evidently engaged in a discussion,
though no sound of voices reached the listening girl. They then picked
up their box and walked down the beach with it.

"That is odd. They said they were going up the beach with provisions
for a friend. I don't understand this proceeding at all, but it looks
questionable to me. I know what I'll do; I'll follow them."

The Meadow-Brook Girl did not stop to consider that she had decided
upon a possibly dangerous adventure. Stooping over as low as possible
and yet remain on her feet, Harriet ran full speed toward the beach.
She saw the men halt and put down the box, whereat the girl flattened
herself on the sandy bar and lay motionless until, finally, they
picked up their burden and went on. She was able to make out the
sailboat anchored some little distance out in the bay.

"They must have brought the box off from the boat," she mused. "I
wonder what is in it? I am positive that there is some mystery here.
It isn't my affair, but my woman's curiosity makes me wonder what it
is all about. There they go again." She was up and off, this time
reaching the beach before they put down the box again. Now Harriet was
reasonably safe from discovery. She crouched close to the sandy bluff
and lay watching. She saw one of the men put off in a rowboat, which
he propelled rapidly over to the sailboat. He did not remain there
long, and she saw him pulling back to shore as if in more haste than
when he went out.

"Now they are going to do something," decided the watching girl. "Yes,
they are going to take the box."

The men did. Picking it up, they carried it back in among the trees,
Harriet following at a safe distance, picking her way cautiously, not
making the slightest sound in moving about among the spindling pines.

Finally, realizing that the men had stopped, the girl crouched down
with eyes and ears on the alert. She could hear them at work. They
were not going ahead, but they were engaged in some occupation the
nature of which for the moment puzzled Harriet Burrell. Then all at
once the truth flashed into her mind.

"They are hiding the box!" exclaimed the girl under her breath. "But
why are they doing that? What secret could be so dark that it needs
hiding in the woods? I shall make it my business to find out. There,
they are coming out."

She threw herself on the ground. She could hear the men approaching.
They seemed, from the sound of their voices, to be coming directly
toward her. Harriet gathered herself ready for a spring in case of
discovery, which now seemed imminent, then again flattened herself on
the ground.

"I won't run until I have to," she decided. Courage was required for a
girl to remain in Harriet's position under the circumstances, but
Harriet Burrell had plenty of this and to spare. In the meantime the
men were rapidly drawing near. They were conversing in low tones, but
the girl in hiding on the ground was unable to make out what they were
saying. Rather was her attention centered on what they were going to
do, which was the all-important question at that moment. But Harriet
was not left long in suspense. The men were coming straight toward
her. She could see them quite plainly now, and wondered why they did
not see her. It was evident that they had not yet done so, perhaps
because they were so fully occupied with their own affairs.

Harriet Burrell braced herself. To rise would mean instant discovery;
to remain as she was, possible avoidance of it. She decided upon the
latter course and lay still. Within a minute the expected occurred.
The men had swerved to their right slightly, raising the hope in the
mind of Harriet that they were going to pass her without discovering
her. Instead a heavy boot came in contact with her own feet. There
followed a muttered exclamation, the man pitched headlong, the girl
having stiffened her limbs to meet the shock the instant she felt the
touch of the boot against her feet.

The man's companion laughed uproariously and was called sharply to
account by the one who had fallen.

Now came the supreme test for Harriet. She could scarcely restrain
herself from crying out, springing up and running away. Instead, she
lay perfectly quiet, breathing as lightly as possible. The man got up
growling.

"Confound these dark holes," he snarled.

"Hurt yourself?" questioned his companion.

"No, only skinned my wrist. Let's get back to the boat. Why doesn't
the Cap'n do it himself instead of asking us to take all the risks and
all the knocks to boot?"

"Because he is paying us for doing it. I reckon you'd better do as
you're told if you want to come in for the clean-up. We'd better be
hustling, too, for Cap'n wants to get under way. We've lost too much
time already and we'll be in bad first thing we know."

The man who had fallen answered with an unintelligible growl. He had
not looked behind him to see what he had fallen over. Instead, he
wrapped a handkerchief about his wrist and started on. The two men
trudged on down toward where they had left their boat. They were
nearly at the beach before Harriet Burrell finally sat up.

"Wasn't that a narrow escape?" she breathed. "He fell over me and
never saw me. I wonder if my ankle is broken? It feels as though it
were. How it did hurt when he kicked me! It is a wonder I did not
scream. I wonder what they are going to do now?"

She got up and limped toward the beach, using a little less caution
than she had done when coming out. She paused just at the edge of the
trees, where she stood in the shadow observing the men. They shoved
the boat off and followed it out a little way, splashing in the water
with their heavy boots, for the beach was too shallow to permit their
getting into the rowboat and rowing directly away from the shore. They
first had to shove it off into deeper water. This was quickly
accomplished, and piling in, one of the pair began rowing out toward
the sailboat.

The Meadow-Brook girl sat down and began to rub her injured ankle. The
rowboat was now merely a dark blotch out on the bay. The blotch neared
the sailboat and was lost in the shadow that surrounded the larger
craft. A few moments later Harriet heard the anchor being hauled in,
then the creak of the rings on the mast as the sail was being raised.
The boat got under way quickly and with very little disturbance, swung
to the breeze, the boom lurching to the leeward side of the boat with
a "clank." Then the sailboat began moving slowly from the bay. There
were no lights to be seen either within or without. The boat was in
darkness. Harriet gazed with straining eyes until the boat had finally
merged with the sea and was lost to view. A few moments later she
caught the twinkle of a masthead light. She watched the light and saw
that it was moving slowly up the coast.

"That's the last of them for to-night," she reflected. "I wonder where
they put that box and what is in it? However, I can't look for it
to-night. I will see if I can find out anything about it in the
morning. I hope Miss Elting hasn't awakened and missed me."

Harriet stepped quickly down to the beach. She gained the bar and ran
until she reached the cabin. Listening outside the door, she found
that her companions were still asleep. She crept cautiously into the
cabin, undressed, rolled in her blanket and lay staring up at the
ceiling until her heavy eyelids closed and she was sound asleep. Her
companions apparently had slept through the entire adventure, for
which Harriet Burrell was thankful.

CHAPTER XIV

A VISITOR WHO WAS WELCOME

"Wake up, girls. Put on your bathing suits and jump in." Miss Elting
already was dressed in her blue bathing costume, her hair tucked under
her red rubber bathing cap. "We have just time for a swim before
breakfast. I see the smoke curling up from the campfire already."

"I don't want to thwim; I want to thleep," protested Tommy.

"Get a move, darlin', unless you want to be thrown in," interjected
Jane, who was hurrying into her bathing suit. "Margery, don't tempt us
too far, or we will throw you in, too."

"I am sleepy, too," declared Harriet, sitting up and rubbing her eyes.
"I can't imagine what makes me feel so stupid this morning." Then,
remembering, she became silent.

"If you would go to bed with the children and get your regular night's
rest, you wouldn't be so sleepy in the morning," Jane answered with
apparent indifference. Harriet regarded Jane with inquiring eyes. "I
wonder if Jane really suspects that I was out of the cabin in the
night, or whether it was one of her incidental remarks?" she
reflected. "I'll find out before the day is ended."

"Am I right, darlin'?" persisted Jane, with a tantalizing smile.

"Right about what?"

"Being up late?"

"I agree with you," replied Harriet frankly, looking her questioner
straight in the eyes. "I am losing altogether too much sleep of late."

"We didn't lothe any thleep latht night," added Tommy.

"You certainly did not, my dear; nor did Margery nor any of the others
unless it were Crazy Jane," declared Harriet with a mischievous glance
at Jane McCarthy, who refused to be disturbed by it or to be trapped
into any sort of an admission.

"Girls, girls, aren't you coming in?" Miss Elting rose dripping from
the bay and peered into the cabin. "Come in or you'll be too late."

"At once, Miss Elting," called Harriet. "It has taken me some little
time to get awake. I am awake now. Here I come." She ran out of the
cabin and sprang into the water with a shout and a splash, striking
out for the opposite side, nearly a quarter of a mile away. She had
reached the middle of the bay before the guardian caught sight of her
and called to her to return. The Meadow-Brook girl did so, though it
had been her intention to swim all the way across the bay and back.

In the meantime the other girls had begun their swim. Jane was
splashing about in deep water, Hazel doing likewise, while Margery was
swimming in water barely up to her neck. Tommy, on the other hand,
appeared to be afraid to venture out. Every time a ripple would break
about her knees she would scream and run back out of the way.

"'Fraid cat!" jeered Margery. "'Fraid to come in where the water is
deep."

"Yeth, I am," admitted Tommy.

"I told you so, I told you so," shouted Buster. "I always said she was
a 'fraid cat, and now she has shown you that I am right."

"Who is a 'fraid cat?" demanded Miss Elting, pulling herself up on the
beach with her hands.

"I am," answered Tommy, speaking for herself.

"Who says you are?"

"Buthter."

"Margery, I am ashamed of you. You have evidently forgotten that Grace
showed how little she was afraid when she was lost at sea the other
night," chided the guardian.

"Yeth, I'm a 'fraid cat. But I'd rather be a 'fraid cat than a fat
cat!" declared the little, lisping girl with an earnestness that made
them all smile. Harriet came swinging in with long, steady strokes,
the last one landing her on the sand with the greater part of her body
out of the shallow water.

"Why wouldn't you let me go across, Miss Elting?" she asked.

"You would be late for breakfast."

"Oh! I thought you feared I might drown," answered Harriet
whimsically.

"Once is enough," answered Jane. "There goes the fish horn. Hurry,
girls! We are going to be late."

"The fithh horn? Are we going to have fithh for breakfatht?"
questioned Tommy.

"Never mind what, girls. Tuck up your blankets and get busy. Remember,
you must braid your hair before going to breakfast. I don't like to
see you at meals with your hair down; you girls are too old for that."

"Yes, Miss Elting," answered Harriet.

"I gueth I'll cut my hair off. It ith too much trouble to fix it every
morning," decided Grace. "But, Mith Elting, couldn't I fix it the
night before and thleep in it?"

"Certainly not! How can you suggest such a thing?"

Tommy twisted her face out of shape and blinked solemnly at Margery,
whose chin was in the air. They were all hurrying now, for their
morning bath had given them keen appetites. Miss Elting was first to
be ready, then Harriet, but they waited until their companions were
dressed and ready to go.

"The Indian lope to the breakfast tent," announced Miss Elting.
"Forward, go!"

The girls started off at an easy though not particularly graceful
lope, the guardian and the Torch Bearer setting the pace for the rest.
They arrived at the cook tent with faces flushed and eyes sparkling,
with a few moments to spare before the moment for marching in arrived.
The Chief Guardian smiled approvingly.

"Sleeping out on the bay appears to agree with you girls," she said.
"I have no need to ask if you slept well."

"Harriet is the restless one," answered Jane.

Harriet flushed in spite of her self-control; but no special
significance was attached to Jane's remark, for it was seldom that she
was taken seriously.

Harriet, after recovering from her momentary confusion, chuckled and
laughed, very much amused over what had made no impression at all on
her companions.

"I shall ask some of our craftswomen here to build beds for the
cabin," announced the Chief Guardian, as they were sitting down.

"It is not necessary," replied Miss Elting. "Our girls prefer the
bough beds, which they will build during the day."

"And what will our new Torch Bearer do to amuse herself after the
regular duties of the day are done?" questioned Mrs. Livingston. "Will
she take her group for a swim in the Atlantic?"

"Yeth, Harriet and mythelf are going to try to thwim acroth thith
afternoon," Grace informed them.

"Swim across the Atlantic? Mercy me!" answered Mrs. Livingston
laughingly. "That would indeed be an achievement."

"I beg your pardon, but I didn't thay 'acroth the othean'; I meant to
thwim acroth the pond down in the cove yonder. Harriet could thwim
acroth the othean if she withhed to, though," added Tommy.

"You surely have a loyal champion, Miss Burrell," called one of the
guardians from the far end of the table. "Still, we have not heard
what you are going to do to-day. I am quite sure it will be something
worth while?"

"I have about made up my mind to go out in search of buried treasure,"
answered Harriet, with mock gravity. They laughed heartily at this.
Jane regarded her narrowly.

"I wonder what Harriet has in her little head now?" she said under her
breath.

"Why, what do you mean?" asked the Chief Guardian. "Buried treasure
along this little strip of coast? Perhaps, however, you may mean out
on the Shoal Islands."

"No, Mrs. Livingston. Right here in Camp Wau-Wau there is buried
treasure. I don't know whether it is worth anything or not, but there
is a buried treasure here."

The girls uttered exclamations of amazement, for they saw that their
new Torch Bearer was in earnest, that she meant every word she had
uttered about the treasure.

"Now, isn't that perfectly remarkable?" breathed Margery.

"Oh, do tell us about it?" cried the girls.

"Not a word more," answered Harriet. "I give you leave to find it,
though, if you can. Some of you clever trailers see if you can pick up
the trail and follow it to its end. At the end you will find the
buried treasure, unless it has been taken away within a few hours,
which I very much doubt. Now, that is all I am going to tell you about
it."

"Do you really mean that, Harriet?" questioned Grace.

Harriet nodded.

"Why don't you get it yourthelf, then?"

"I may one of these days if the girls fail to find it. I wish to see
if they are good trailers. But we are forgetting to eat breakfast.
Just now I am more in need of breakfast than of buried treasure."

"Yes, girls, please eat your breakfast. We must put the camp to rights
as soon as we finish, for I have an idea that we may have visitors
before the day is done," urged Mrs. Livingston.

The Wau-Wau girls were too much excited over Harriet's words to be
particularly interested in the subject of visitors just then, so they
hurried their breakfast, discussing the new Torch Bearer's veiled
suggestions, eager to have done with the morning meal and the morning
work that they might try to solve this delightful mystery. Harriet was
well satisfied with the excitement she had stirred, though having done
so would rather bar her from carrying out certain plans that she had
had in mind ever since the previous night.

Later in the morning, however, under pretext of wishing to get pine
boughs for her bed, she, with Tommy, strolled off into the woods, but
beyond locating the spot where she had lain when the man stumbled over
her in the darkness she made no progress toward solving the mystery.
Not the slightest trace of the box did she discover. Of course,
Harriet did not hope to find the mysterious box standing in plain
sight, but she could not imagine what they had done with it in so
brief a time. She did not dare make much of a point of searching
about, observing that Tommy was regarding her keenly during the
morning stroll.

With her belt hatchet Harriet selected and cut such boughs as she
desired and placed them in a pile, afterward to be carried out to the
cabin on the Lonesome Bar. Later on they were assisted by the other
Meadow-Brook Girls. They covered the floor of the cabin with the
fragrant green boughs until Tommy declared that it made her "thleepy"
just to smell it. In the meantime, those of their companions who were
not engaged with camp duties were strolling about along the beach near
the camp, discussing what Harriet had told them at breakfast that
morning. It was all right to tell them to pick up the trail, but what
trail was it, and how were they to find it? Even the guardians were
not beyond curiosity in the matter, and they, too, when they thought
themselves unobserved, might have been seen looking eagerly about for
the "trail." All this amused Harriet Burrell very much.

With her group, Harriet was at the cabin arranging the boughs, when
they were summoned to camp by three blasts of the fish horn used for
the various signals employed by Camp Wau-Wau. Something had happened
in camp.

"Thomebody hath found it!" cried Tommy, shooting a quick glance of
inquiry at Harriet Burrell. The latter flushed, then burst out
laughing after a look toward the miniature forest of spindling pines.

"I hope they have. But I may tell you, my dear Tommy, that they
haven't found either the trail or my buried treasure."

"You must know pretty well where it is," said Miss Elting, eyeing
Harriet steadily for a few seconds. "Come, we must not delay answering
that summons."

They did not delay. The Meadow-Brook Girls responded promptly, making
a run for it in good order.

"There's a motor car," shouted Jane, when they came in sight of the
camp. "O darlin's, maybe it is a new car Daddy has sent down for me to
take the place of the one that is drowned."

Jane leaped on ahead of her companions, intent upon reaching the camp.
Harriet sprinted up beside her, almost as much excited as was Crazy
Jane herself.

The two girls easily outdistanced their companions in a very few
moments. It was a race between them to see who should first reach the
camp. Harriet fell behind slightly as her quick eyes made out a figure
sitting in front of the Chief Guardian's tent. The figure was that of
a man and he was conversing with Mrs. Livingston.

Jane uttered a sudden shrill cry. She, too, had discovered the visitor
and recognized him.

"It's Daddy. It's my dear old Daddy!" she screamed, and, forgetful of
the lectures she had received on comporting herself with dignity and
restraint, Crazy Jane threw herself--hurled herself, in fact--into the
arms of Contractor McCarthy. Now, a camp chair is never any too
substantial. The one on which Mr. McCarthy was sitting was no
exception to the rule. It collapsed under the force of Crazy Jane's
projectile-like force. Mr. McCarthy, in attempting to save himself
from going down with it, lurched sideways. In doing so he bumped
heavily against the Chief Guardian, and with a sharp little cry from
the latter, the three went down in a confused heap.

CHAPTER XV

TOMMY MAKES A DISCOVERY

A dozen girls sprang forward to the assistance of the unfortunate
trio, but Harriet was ahead of them. She grasped the Chief Guardian
under the arms and lifted her to her feet, then taking a hand of Mr.
McCarthy pulled him up with disconcerting suddenness. He looked dazed
and a little sheepish.

"It's that mad girl Jane of mine," he explained.

Mrs. Livingston's face was flushed, her eyes snapped; then her angry
expression softened and she burst out laughing.

"O Jane, Jane! You will be the undoing of all of us before you have
done."

Jane, with her hair disheveled, stood ruefully surveying the scene.

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Livingston, that you went over. I didn't want to make
you fall down, but I just had to show Daddy how glad I was to see
him."

"You showed me all right, young lady. Lucky, for us all that we had
soft ground under us. Mrs. Livingston, I suppose you'll be telling me
to take this mad-cap daughter of mine home with me. I shouldn't blame
you if you did, and I don't think I'd cry over it, for I want her. No,
I don't mean that--"

"Daddy!" rebuked Jane.

"I mean that she is better off here, and you are doing her a heap of
good, Mrs. Livingston, even if she did give way to one of her old fits
of violence just now."

"Certainly not, Mr. McCarthy," answered the Chief Guardian promptly.
"We all love Jane. She is a splendid girl and we should miss her. I
certainly did miss her last summer, and now I should miss her more
than ever. I hope we shall have her with us for many summers; then one
of these days, when she is older, she, too, will have a camp of girls
to look after."

"I feel very thorry for the camp," broke in Tommy.

"You will have to buy a new camp stool, Daddy," reminded Jane. "I'm
glad I'm not so stout that I break up the furniture every time I sit
on it."

"Yeth, Buthter doeth that," said Tommy, nodding solemnly.

"And you, young lady, you've got some strength in those arms," he
said, turning to Harriet. "The way you bounced me to my feet was a
wonder. Tommy, you haven't shaken hands with your old friend. Come
here, my dear, and shake hands with me."

"You were tho mixed up that I couldn't tell which wath the hand to
thhake," replied Grace promptly. "That wath what Jane callth a meth,
wathn't it?"

"It was. Why, how do you do, Hazel--and Margery, too? Well, well! this
is a delightful surprise. How fine you all look. And I hear you had a
swim the other night, Harriet, and you, too, Tommy. Well, well! And
you like the water, eh?"

"It is glorious," breathed Harriet, instinctively glancing out to sea,
where a flock of gulls were circling and swooping down in search of
food.

"You won't have to swim any more unless you wish to. I've made
different arrangements about that."

"You mean you have bought me a new car, Daddy?" interrupted Jane.

"I haven't said. I reckon you don't need a car here. You must have
learned, from your recent experience, that an automobile doesn't
travel on water half as well as it does on land."

"Ourth did. It traveled fine until it got to the bottom," Tommy
informed him.

"No, I haven't bought another car yet. I have some men who are going
to get the old one up to-morrow. We shall see what shape she's in. Of
course, if she isn't workable any more, I will have another for you by
the time you get home. Tell me how it happened. I couldn't make much
out of your telegram. By the way, when you send a telegram, don't
forget that you aren't writing a letter. That telegram you sent cost
me nine dollars and thirty-seven cents."

"Isn't it worth that much to hear from your daughter?" Jane's eyes
were dancing.

Mr. McCarthy took off his hat and wiped the perspiration from his
forehead.

"What would you do with her, Mrs. Livingston?" he laughed.

"I should love her, Mr. McCarthy; she is worth it," was the Chief
Guardian's prompt reply.

"She is," he agreed solemnly, "and I do. But you haven't told me,
Jane, darling."

"Oh, let Harriet do it. I never was strong on telling things so any
one could understand what I was talking about."

"There isn't much to tell about the accident, except that we turned
off on a side road according to directions. Jane wheeled down it at a
slow rate of speed--for her," added Harriet under her breath. "We ran
out on an ice pier and plumped right into the pond."

"You went down with the car, then?" stammered Mr. McCarthy.

"Right down to the bottom," Tommy informed him.

"That did not amount to much," continued Harriet. "The top was not up.
We had little difficulty in getting out--"

"But Harriet was drowned in getting the trunk free from the rear end,"
declared Jane earnestly.

"Drowned?" exclaimed the contractor.

"Yes, nearly drowned," corrected Miss Elting. "We had a pretty hard
time resuscitating her. I am beginning to think that the Meadow-Brook
Girls bear charmed lives, Mr. McCarthy."

"So am I. But you don't mean to tell me that Harriet really was all
but drowned?"

"Yes."

"It does beat all, it does," reflected Mr. McCarthy, mopping his
forehead again and regarding Harriet with wondering eyes. "It is a
guess as to whether she or Jane can get into the most trouble. They
are a pair hard to beat."

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