Tabitha's Vacation Part 12

"No, but he'll investigate as soon as----"

The rest of the sentence was lost in the slamming of a door; but the two culprits lay and quaked with fear long after the rest of the household was fast asleep, little dreaming that as soon as the door was tightly closed so they could no longer distinguish the voices, Glory had wheeled on Tabitha and giggled accusingly, "You knew all the time!"

"Not until I ran past their door and saw their bed was empty,"

whispered the black-haired girl with her hand over her mouth to stifle the laughter she could no longer suppress.

"What possessed you to keep on, then?'

"I surmised what would happen, and decided to scare _them_ a little, too. So I crept around the house and listened to you talking with them. When they thought they heard me coming back, I concluded it was time I did put in appearance again; but I thought I'd die laughing to hear them scuttling into bed. Now I reckon the score is even!"

"Then you won't tell their Uncle this time?"

"I ought to."

"They've had a big punishment already, Puss."

"They deserve it."

"I--I scared them stiff when I shot."

"Poor girlie, and you were as badly scared yourself. My brave Glory!"

"Don't praise me, Kitty. I'm an awful coward. My teeth are chattering yet."

"And you are trembling as if you had the ague. Are you sure you're not hurt? I thought I heard something fall."

"The gun kicked and knocked me over," Gloriana admitted. "That is what gave the boys a chance to scramble into the closet. I didn't know it was Billiard and Toady then, because the bullet splintered the lamp chimney and I couldn't see real well."

"But you locked them in."

"Oh, that was easy! They were holding the door shut with all their might, and the only thing left to do was to turn the key in the lock.

I am so thankful it was only a prank!"

"So am I," Tabitha admitted grudgingly. "But I can't say I relish that cla.s.s of pranks."

"Give them another chance, Tabitha. I think they really are trying to be good."

"Well, I'll--see. We'll forget all about it now and go to sleep.

Morning can't be very far off."

CHAPTER VII

TOADY AND THE CASTOR BEANS

But when morning dawned, Gloriana lay flushed and feverish upon her pillow, her head throbbing until she could scarcely open her eyes.

Tabitha was alarmed, and between her worry over the sick girl lying in their darkened room, and her ministrations to croupy Janie, who had caught cold sleeping in the night air on the mountain top, the poor housekeeper was so nearly distracted that she had little time to devote to the rest of her large family, and they wandered about the premises like so many disconsolate chicks who had lost their mother. It was an ideal time to get into mischief, and yet something restrained them.

The girls, it seemed, had slept through all the racket of the previous night, and were not aware that anything out of the ordinary had occurred, but they could not understand the tense atmosphere; and when Mercedes heroically tried to fill Tabitha's place the other members of the brood resented her authority, frankly found fault with her badly cooked oatmeal and unsalted potatoes, and insulted her attempts at housekeeping in such a heartless, unfeeling manner that she finally dissolved in tears and refused to do anything further toward their comfort. Susie and Inez quarreled over the dishes and had the sulks all day. The boys, still fearful of the consequences of their latest prank, and somewhat remorseful at having frightened Gloriana into a fever, wandered aimlessly away toward town, glad to escape from Tabitha's watchful eye, and greatly relieved to think no mention had been made by anyone of the burglars' visit.

"Guess the girls couldn't have heard the noise last night," ventured Toady, when they had left the house far enough behind to make it impossible for anyone to overhear their conversation.

"The girls?" repeated Billiard blankly, his thoughts on another phase of the situation.

"Mercedes and Susie and the twins, I mean."

"Oh! P'r'aps Tabitha's making 'em keep still."

"Do you think Tabitha knows we did it?" cried Toady in alarm.

"Naw, you ninny! That is, not 'nless Glory's gone and squealed."

"But----"

"I meant she'd prob'ly try to hush them up if they had heard our racket, so's the whole town wouldn't know about the burglars."

"Why? That's just what is worrying me. If she has hushed them up, it's just to make us believe she doesn't suspect. I'll bet the constable will be up there bright and early with his d'tectives, asking all sorts of questions, and everyone in Silver Bow will join in the hunt."

"Then we'll be found out even if Glory doesn't tell."

Toady nodded gloomily.

"It'll go hard with us if the _constable_ should find out who did it."

Again Toady nodded.

"We--better--light--out--now."

Toady stopped stock-still in the roadway. "Why?" he demanded.

"Do you want to go to jail?"

"Naw, but they don't put _kids_ in jail here. I s'pose likely we'd get a good thrashing----"

"Would you rather stay here and take a whaling than skip while you've got the chance?" cried Billiard, turning pale at the mere thought of such a punishment at the hands of a desert constable, who, somehow, in his imagination, had a.s.sumed the proportions and disposition of a monster.

"We--we deserve a sound licking," bravely replied Toady, whose conscience was troubling him sorely.

It was Billiard's turn to halt in the rocky road and stare with unbelieving eyes at his brother, finally finding vent for his feelings by hissing the single word, "Coward!"

"No more coward than you!" Toady denied. "We have been as mean as dirt ever since we came here, and if Tabitha had been as hateful as most girls are, she'd have written Uncle Hogan long ago."

"So you're fishing to get her to write, are you?"

"No, I ain't, but I believe she'd--like it--better--if we told her ourselves, instead of getting found out by someone else."