Janet Aldridge - The Meadow Brook Girls by the Sea

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"We do not try to find excitement, Mr. McCarthy," expostulated
Harriet. "We cannot always help it if trouble overtakes us the way it
did when the car went into the ice pond."

"Certainly not. I know you, at least, are wholly to be depended upon,
but Jane isn't always the most prudent girl in the world. Now, will
you dears run along and enjoy yourselves. I have several things to
discuss with Mrs. Livingston, then we will have an afternoon together.
I wish Jane and Harriet to drive down with me and show me the place
where they lost the car later on in the afternoon. You remember you
interrupted our conversation here a short time ago, Jane," reminded
the visitor.

"May I try the car, Dad?" questioned Jane.

"Yes. But look sharp that you don't wreck the thing. I have no fancy
to walk all the way back to Portsmouth this evening," he chuckled.

"Come along, Meadow-Brooks. I can't take any more this trip, but if
Dad's buggy goes all right, I'll take the rest of you out on the
instalment plan."

"I don't want to go," decided Tommy. "I want to thtay here and retht.
I never get any retht at all."

The others were eager to go. Jane already was cranking up the car. Her
companions, with the exception of Grace Thompson, piled in, and a few
moments later the car rolled from the camp, headed for the highway
some little distance from the camp. There was no road leading to the
camp, but the way was reasonably smooth, provided one dodged the
trees, both standing and fallen.

In the meantime the other girls went about their duties and
recreations. Mr. McCarthy and Mrs. Livingston again sat down and
continued their conversation. Tommy, now being without a guardian,
Miss Elting having gone with Jane and her party, started down toward
the beach, her eyes very bright, her movements quick and alert. Some
of the girls whom she met asked where she was going. Tommy replied
that she might go fishing, but that she couldn't say for sure until
she found out whether she could catch anything. The little girl kept
edging farther and farther away from her companions, until finally,
finding herself beyond sight of them, began running with all her
might. They saw no more of Tommy Thompson for several hours.

While all this was going on, Jane McCarthy was racing her father's car
up and down the road at an ever-increasing rate of speed. Those in the
camp could hear the purr of the motors, and now and then a flash of
red showed between the trees as the car sped past the camp.

"Must be doing close to fifty miles an hour," observed Mr. McCarthy,
grinning.

"Aren't you afraid she will kill herself, or some one else?"
questioned the guardian anxiously.

"She never has. I don't reckon it would bother any of the Meadow-Brook
Girls to go into the ditch. They are pretty well used to getting into
mix-ups."

"They certainly have every reason to be used to it," nodded Mrs.
Livingston reflectively. "But, were they my daughters, I must confess
I should not know an easy moment. I do not, as it is, when they are
out of my sight. That was the reason I hesitated to accede to your
request. However, they will have nothing to do with the operation of
it. All they will have to do will be to sit still and enjoy
themselves. Then, again, it is the one thing needful to make a summer
at the sea shore thoroughly enjoyable. I know that all of my girls
will take the keenest possible delight in it, and I thank you, on
their behalf, for your thoughtfulness and kindness. You have done a
great deal for our camp, as well as for our organization, and I wish
you would permit me to make it known to the general officers in--"

"By no means, Mrs. Livingston," hastily interposed the visitor. "It is
nothing at all, and it's just a little pride in that mad-cap daughter
of mine that has led me to do what little I have. But in reference to
the new plan, you will tell the girls to-day, eh?"

"No; you tell them."

"Oh, leave me out of it, please."

"I could not do that. You will take dinner with us to-day, of course,
and then you may announce it to the girls. I can imagine how pleased
they will be. Why, there come the girls now!" exclaimed the Chief
Guardian.

"The girls?"

"Yes, yes. Jane--"

"Eh? Alone?"

"No, no. There is Miss Elting and Harriet. Yes, they are all there.
What can it mean?"

"It means that they have smashed the car," groaned Mr. McCarthy. "I
told you." He did not look around, but sat fumbling with his hat, his
face very red. Jane stepped up before him, and with chin on her breast
surveyed him from under her eyelashes, "Well?" he demanded.

"Well, we're here," answered Jane.

"What is the trouble, girls?" cried Mrs. Livingston. "Thank goodness,
you are all here. Why doesn't some one speak up?"

"How much damage did you do to her, Jane?" questioned the visitor
calmly, referring to the car.

"Enough."

"Tell me about it!"

"She's in the ditch about a mile up the road."

"Think we can pull her out between us?"

Jane shook her head.

"Not without the wrecking crew. She's bottom side up, two wheels off
and part of her machinery on the other side of the road," was Crazy
Jane's calm reply. However, before they had an opportunity to say
more, Tommy Thompson came running toward them, her face flushed with
excitement.

"I've found it! I've found it!" she shouted.

"Found what?" demanded the Chief Guardian.

"I've found the treathure trail. I've got it, I know I have!"

CHAPTER XVI

TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE

"She's found the buried treasure!" screamed Buster.

The girls uttered a cheer. Harriet regarded Tommy's excited face
inquiringly.

"You really have found it?"

"Yeth, yeth."

"Where is the treasure?"

"I don't know. How thhould I know?"

"But you said you had found it," interposed the Chief Guardian.

"No, I thaid I had found the trail. Of courthe, I haven't found the
treathure. But I've found thomething, and--"

"What did you find? Come, tell us," urged Harriet.

Controlling herself somewhat, Tommy glanced triumphantly at the
expectant faces about her.

"There wath a man at thith camp latht night."

"What?" The girls asked the question at the top of their voices.

"There were two men here latht night," persisted Grace.

"Please explain what you mean, Grace," commanded the Chief Guardian.
"You say there were two men here last night. How do you know?"

"I found the markth of their feet--in the thand. But that wathn't all
I found. There wath a boat here, too--a boat. Now, what do you think
of that?"

"Try to be more explicit, Grace," urged Miss Elting. "Tell us what you
have discovered, without beating about the bush so long."

"There wathn't any buthh to beat about. It wath right on the thand.
Don't you underthtand?"

Miss Elting sat down. "Tell it your own way, then. We are simply
wasting time in trying to hurry you," she said.

"Yeth. Well, it wath thith way. I wath looking for the treathure trail
that Harriet told uth about at breakfatht thith morning, though I
don't thee how thhe thhould know anything about it. My footthepth led
me--led me, you understand? No, it wath my feet, not my footthtepth,
that led me--right along the thhore of the ocean. And what do you
thuppose I found?"

"An oyster shell," suggested Margery.

"No, not that. I found where a boat had been drawn up on the thhore
and then thhoved out again. It had been drawn up on the thand. Then
there were trackth about the place, trackth of heavy bootth, and a
mark in the thand where thomething heavy had been put down. It looked
like a box. I gueth it wath. The men had taken the box between them
and carried it up and down the thhore ath far ath I could thee. You
know, the tide wathhed the marks out near down to the thea."

"What did they do with the box, dearie?" interrupted Harriet.

"That I have not yet dethided. I thhall find out about that later.
Well, after a time, it theemth, they took the box up the thandy beach
and into the woodth, but by that time it wath tho dark that I couldn't
thee any more footprintth and couldn't tell what they did with the
box."

"Marvelous," muttered Buster. "Excruciatingly marvelous!"

"Is this a fairy story?" demanded Mrs. Livingston.

"Ask Harriet," suggested Crazy Jane. "I think she knows more about it
than Tommy does. Don't you, Harriet?"

"What makes you think that, Jane?" questioned Harriet mischievously.

"Ask me, darlin'."

"I have, dear."

Jane stepped over and whispered in Harriet's ear, the others regarding
the proceeding with puzzled expressions on their faces. Harriet's
face broke out into a ripple of smiles.

"I am caught red-handed," she said. "It seems that I am not the only
light sleeper in the Meadow-Brook camp. Jane chanced to observe
something that I did last night. She has known it all along. She
hinted at it this morning, and I suspected that she knew more than she
had told us."

"But, my dear, we are all in the dark," reminded the Chief Guardian.
"Won't you be good enough to explain this mystery? Surely you can do
so in a way that will make it clear to us. Two men, a box and a boat
and goodness knows what else, here on this lonely part of the coast."

"I was suddenly awakened last night," began Harriet without
preliminary remarks. "A boat sailed into the bay close to shore and
came to anchor. Then a small boat put off. Two men were in it. They
came ashore with a heavy box, started down the bar, then back to the
beach after I had met and stopped them. Tommy has told you the truth
about their further movements."

"Wait a moment. You stopped them, you say?" questioned Mrs.
Livingston.

"Yes. I didn't want them to get near the cabin and disturb our party.
According to their story they had made a mistake. They had some
supplies for a friend of theirs who was on a fishing trip somewhere
up the coast."

"You believed that to be the case, then?"

"No, Mrs. Livingston, I did not, because, instead of going up the
beach after I had turned them back, they went the other way,
eventually turning in among the trees, where they remained for some
time. I did not see them again until they fell over me later--"

"What!" The guardian was more amazed than before.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you that I followed them to see what they were
going to do. I didn't find out, but they found me, though they were
not aware of it." Harriet explained how she had lain down on the
ground and how one of the two men had stumbled over her feet without
discovering her presence. Exclamations of amazement greeted this part
of the story.

"What became of them after that?" asked Miss Elting.

"They shoved off their rowboat, rowed out to the sailboat, which
quickly weighed anchor and put out to sea. That is all I know about
it. You see, Tommy was right."

Mrs. Livingston turned to Tommy.

"My dear, you did splendidly. Of all this camp of girls you were the
only one who found the trail and read it aright. That is trailing for
you, Mr. McCarthy. But what could the men have been doing here? I do
not like the looks of it at all."

"They have gone, so we needn't worry," replied Harriet. "I forgot to
say that there was a boat in here--I think it was the same one--the
other night just before the storm. It is my idea that they came in on
that occasion to put something ashore, but were obliged to get out to
sea before the storm broke. They came back on the following night to
finish what they had failed to do the first time."

Mr. McCarthy nodded. So did Mrs. Livingston.

"Remarkable girls, these Meadow-Brook Girls, Mr. McCarthy. However,
there is nothing to be done. We shall not be bothered any more, in all
probability. Besides, they were not here on our account, so we have no
cause to worry."

"And I've got to walk back to Portsmouth," groaned Mr. McCarthy. "I
told you, Mrs. Livingston."

"Perhaps we may catch some farmer who is going in that direction, and
who will be willing to give you a lift," she suggested.

"No; you will have to let me sleep under a tree and hang about
to-night. The men are coming down in the morning to get the car out of
the pond. They might as well have two jobs as one. How did it happen,
Jane?"

For the first time the party of Camp Girls who had gathered about the
little group gave their attention to the Meadow-Brook Girls. The
latter were now discovered to be much the worse for wear. Their hair
was down over their shoulders and their clothes were soiled and torn.

"Got it hard, didn't you?" chuckled Mr. McCarthy.

"Oh, not so much," replied Jane, repressing a smile.

"You are a thight. You look ath though you had been digging for buried
treathure," declared Tommy.

"How'd it happen?" rumbled Mr. McCarthy.

"It was like this, Daddy, dear. We were running along nicely and
easily--just at a comfortable jog, when--"

"How fast?"

"How much time were we making, Harriet?"

"Nearly sixty miles an hour."

"Yes, I knew it wasn't very fast. Just jogging, Daddy."

The visitor grunted.

"Something went wrong with the steering gear. I don't know what it
was, but the wheel had no effect on the car. You should have seen us.
It was funny, wasn't it, girls, the way that car darted from one side
of the road to the other, and we hanging on for dear life? You see,
that was all we could do--hang on. Well, the car jumped the ditch,
went up the bank on that side of the road, smashed into the iron post
of a wire fence, then stood up on end and turned over backward. Did
you ever see such a contrary automobile? Where did you buy it, Dad?"

"Didn't buy it. Borrowed it of a man I know up at Portsmouth. It'll
cost me only a few thousand to make it right with him, but then Dad's
rich; don't you care."

"I never do," chuckled Jane. "Do you?"

"No, I don't, so long as no one gets hurt. How'd you get out? What did
you do when the car was stopped by the fence?"

"We just went on over, Dad. You know nothing can stop a Meadow-Brook
Girl when she is once well started on a course. We landed on plowed
ground on the other side of the fence."

"Mercy!" exclaimed the Chief Guardian.

"Can anything hurt you, girls?"

"I hope not," answered Harriet. "This was a little sudden, but we
didn't mind it so very much, did we, Miss Elting?"

"I don't know who you mean by 'we,' but please do not include me in
this particular 'we.' I am not over the shock of that plunge yet, nor
do I expect to be for some hours to come. I fear the car is ruined,
Mr. McCarthy. I hope you will not send another one down here for Jane,
if you will pardon my saying so." This from Miss Elting.

"That's all right, Miss Elting. I am not going to send another car at
present. Perhaps when you young folks are ready to go home I may send
a car for you, but I may give you a driver. For the present I've got
something else in my mind. I had to wait until I asked Mrs. Livingston
about it before I put it through. She thinks it will be fine. She will
tell you all about it at dinner to-day."

"There goes the dinner horn now," announced the guardian of the
Meadow-Brook Girls. "Girls, you are not presentable. Hurry and get
ready for dinner. We mustn't be late to-day, of all days."

It was really marvelous that the girls were able to work such a
transformation in themselves in so short a time. In the few moments
that had been left to them they had rearranged their hair, brushed the
dirt of the plowed field from their clothing and washed their faces
and hands. It was really a jolly dinner, too, for the good-natured
guest kept them all laughing with his humorous stories and odd
remarks. He was so much like his daughter Jane that they had no need
to be reminded of the relationship.

"This has been a day of excitement, hasn't it?" remarked one of the
guardians to Miss Elting. "Buried treasure, automobile wrecks,
visitors, mysterious strangers. Gracious me! what are the Camp Girls
coming to?"

"I don't know. Did Mr. McCarthy say what the surprise is that he has
in store for the girls? I thought perhaps he might have said something
about it during our absence on that automobile ride."

"Not that I heard. He undoubtedly told Mrs. Livingston. There, she is
speaking now," added the guardian.

Mrs. Livingston had risen and rapped on the table with a knife for
attention.

"Our guest and good friend, Mr. McCarthy, wishes to make an
announcement," she said, then sat down.

Jane's father got up, his face very red, his forehead glistening with
beads of perspiration.

"Your guest and good friend most emphatically _does not_ wish to make
an announcement," declared the visitor. "But it is up to him to do so
because he wishes to please that fine woman, your Chief Guardian--is
that what you call yourself, Mrs. Livingston? I get all mixed up with
various names and titles. It's as bad as attending a reception of the
royal family, judging from what I've heard."

Mrs. Livingston nodded, smiling good-naturedly.

"Well, girls, you know I've got to do something to furnish that mad-cap
daughter of mine with a variety of means of ending her life and those
of her friends. She has exhausted everything thus far. However, this
is a perfectly safe proposition, this one that I have planned for you
and her, and I don't think any of you can get into serious difficulty
through it."

"Don't keep us in suspense, Dad! Tommy will suffocate if you don't
tell us now. She has been holding her breath ever since you began
speaking," cried Jane.

A ripple of laughter ran along both sides of the table, but quickly
subsided when Mr. McCarthy again began speaking.

"Very good, if you must know. But--I say, Mrs. Livingston, I think we
won't tell them until to-morrow. As I think it over, I guess I won't
tell them after all. They'll know all about it when it gets here.
That's all." Mr. McCarthy sat down, wiping his forehead and looking
vastly relieved.

A chorus of "Ohs!" greeted the announcement. "Please, please tell us,
oh, do," they begged, but the visitor shook his head.

"I think, Mr. McCarthy, that I had better tell them if you do not wish
to. They will be too much upset otherwise," said the Chief Guardian.
"Have I your permission?"

He nodded.

"As you wish. They've got me so flustered that I couldn't say another
word to them."

"Very good. Listen, girls, and I will tell you," said the Chief
Guardian.

CHAPTER XVII

WHEN THEIR SHIP CAME IN

There was no need to further impose silence on the Camp Girls.
Eager-eyed, they leaned forward, gazing straight at the smiling woman
at the head of the table.

"I wanted Mr. McCarthy to tell you. However, as he refuses, I shall do
so. You are to have a boat for the rest of the summer. The boat is the
gift of Mr. McCarthy to the Meadow-Brook Girls directly, and to the
rest of you indirectly."

"What kind of a boat ith it?" piped Tommy.

"A sailboat," answered the visitor. "I have appointed Miss Burrell as
the commodore, though she doesn't know it. I understand she did very
well as the captain of the 'Red Rover' last summer. Now we'll give her
a trial on salt water. You will look to her for your orders and
permission to go out, and I imagine you won't have any cause to
complain of her treatment of you, eh, Harriet?"

"O Mr. McCarthy! you embarrass me. But tell us about the boat,"
answered Harriet laughingly.

"It's just a little old sailboat, that's all--one I picked up at
Portsmouth; but even though she's a tub, she is perfectly safe and you
may go as far as you wish with her, always first consulting with the
captain and the commodore."

"Oh, is there to be a captain? Am I to be the captain?" questioned
Jane mischievously.

"My grathiouth, I hope not," exclaimed Grace.

"No. The captain owns this particular boat, and he will be wholly in
charge of the actual operation of it, acting upon the orders of the
commodore as to who is to go and when and where. Now it's all out and
I'm glad of it. I--"

Mr. McCarthy's further words were unheard because of the cheer given
by the Camp Girls, in which Mrs. Livingston and the guardians joined
enthusiastically, much to the discomfiture of the guest, who half rose
as though to run away. Evidently thinking better of it, he settled
back in his seat and wiped his forehead.

Jane got up, and, running to her father, threw a pair of impulsive
arms about his neck.

"Isn't he the darling Dad, though, girls?"

"He is," agreed the Chief Guardian.

"You won't think tho after we have all gone and drowned ourthelveth
from thith--from the--what ith the name of the thhip on which we are
going to thail the thalt water?"

"Her name is 'The Sister Sue,'" replied Mr. McCarthy.

"Thave me!" wailed Tommy. "The boat may be all right, but think of
being drowned in a name like that! Now, if it wath 'The Queen of the
Theath,' or thome thuch name ath that, I thouldn't so much mind being
drowned in her, but 'The Thithter Thue'--thave uth!"

"You are not going to drown at all," laughed Miss Elting, "so don't
begin to lay any plans in that direction."

"When is the boat coming here, Daddy?" questioned Jane.

"To-morrow morning early, if they have her ready in time. I told the
owner to slap some new clothes on her, and make her presentable by
to-morrow, sure. How do you like the idea, girls?"

"Oh, it's just too glorious for anything," cried Margery, now awakened
to the possibilities of having a sailboat of their very own. Tommy
regarded her quizzically, opened her mouth to speak, then closed her
lips.

"What is it, dear?" questioned Miss Elting.

"It ith nothing now. Maybe I'll thay it when we get to thea, provided
Buthter doeth not thay it for me."

"See here! We have forgotten all about that buried treasure,"
exclaimed Mr. McCarthy, at his ease once more after having escaped
from the table. "Will you show me, Tommy?"

"No, thir. That ith a dark thecret."

"What, girls keep a secret?" scoffed the visitor.

"Don't you think they can?" demanded Tommy, squinting at him with one
eye tightly closed.

"Never saw one that could."

"Then pleathe look at me."

"By the way, Mr. McCarthy," called Mrs. Livingston, "did you mention
the name of our new captain, the one who owns and sails the boat?"

"That's so. I reckon I forgot that. He is known as Captain Bill. His
real name, I believe, is Cummings."

"You are quite sure that he is all right, are you, Mr. McCarthy?"

"Has a reputation second to none among the Portsmouth skippers. I took
care of that, knowing you were a lot of lone women and girls down
here. I didn't see him personally. Took my friend Lawyer Roberts's
word for it, and what else I could pick up about the docks," added Mr.
McCarthy. "But I must be thinking about getting back."

"Surely, Daddy, you are never going to think of walking back, are
you?"

"Not I. I hear an automobile coming. I'm just going to get out to the
road and beg a ride. They'll be keeping along on this road for at
least ten miles and I can walk the rest of the way in, if I have to.
In case I do not see you again, Mrs. Livingston, here's good-bye and
good luck. I hope you all have a fine time with the boat. If that
skipper doesn't obey orders, day or night, get a telegram to me
instantly, and I'll bounce him right off. But don't let Jane send any
telegrams. She'll break me, she's so long-winded--"

"Which I inherited," finished Crazy Jane. "Come on, girls; let's go
out to the highway and see Dad off. We may have to watch him start off
on foot."

They met the men who were coming to pull the automobile out of the ice
pond. Mr. McCarthy gave them the additional job of towing the wrecked
car to the nearest garage.

Mr. McCarthy was in luck. The automobile that they had heard
approaching was a big power moving-van that had been down the coast
with a load of furniture for a city family who were moving into their
summer home. The driver was willing to give Mr. McCarthy a lift, and a
few moments later the contractor was bowling along the highway on his
way to Portsmouth, thence on to his home at Meadow-Brook. The girls
stood waving to him as long as the big car was in sight, he
occasionally leaning out to wave back at them. They then retraced
their steps to the camp, talking animatedly about the great treat in
store for them--the sailboat with the homely name. They could scarcely
contain themselves until the morrow, when the boat was to arrive. In
the meantime everybody went over to examine the trail that Tommy
Thompson had found. As she had said, it led into the woods and was
there lost. Harriet showed them as nearly as possible where she had
lain when the man stumbled over her, but search as they might they
were unable to find a single trace of the box that had so mysteriously
disappeared.

At supper that evening Mrs. Livingston advised the girls to say
nothing to any one outside of their own companions regarding the
strange proceeding. She explained that, by remaining silent on the
subject, they might be able to learn more about it, and that perhaps
some violation of the law might be at the bottom of it.

Early on the following morning all the girls were up scanning the sea
for a sail. A coasting schooner in the far distance, making up the
coast, was the only boat in sight. The day was brilliant with
sunshine, the sea blue and sparkling. The lookouts could see a long
distance. The day passed and the night passed, but still no trace of
their boat. Nor had the other mysterious craft paid another visit to
the bay. At least, if it had, none of the campers had been awake at
the time.

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