The Camp Fire Girls at Onoway House Part 14

"It might be, but it isn't," said Nyoda, laughing.

"I know," said Sahwah, starting up, "it's 'shamrock.'"

"You are sharper than I thought," said Nyoda, rising from her seat.

"n.o.body down yet. Now, fire your broadside at us. No word under three syllables. Anything less would be unworthy of our giant intellects."

"Third round!" cried Calvin.

Sahwah walked down to the water's edge, holding in her hand a large key.

Leaning over, she moved the key as if it were walking in the water. This proved a puzzler, and cries of 'Milwaukee,' 'Nebrasky,' and 'turnkey'

were all met with a triumphant shake of the head.

"It looks as if we would have to give up," said Hinpoha.

Just then Nyoda sprang up with a shout. "Why didn't I think of it before?" she cried. "It's 'Keewaydin,' key-wade-in. What else could you expect from Sahwah?"

"That's it," said Sahwah. "You must be a mind reader."

"Here's where we finish you off," said Nyoda, as her side came out again. "We've taken a word of four syllables this time." The whole team advanced in single file, Indian fashion, keeping closely in step. Round and round they marched, back and forth, never slackening their speed, until one by one they tumbled to the ground from sheer exhaustion and stiffened out lifelessly. The guessers looked at each other, puzzled.

"Do it again," said Sahwah. The strenuous march was repeated, and the marchers succ.u.mbed as before. Still no light came to the onlookers.

Sahwah whispered something to Gladys.

"Would you just as soon do it again?" asked Gladys. Again the file wound round the trees and tumbled to the turf. Nyoda made a triumphant grimace as no guess was forthcoming. Sahwah's eyes began to sparkle.

"Would you please do it once more?" she pleaded.

"Have mercy on the performers," groaned Nyoda, but they went through it again, and this time they were too spent to rise from the ground when the acting was done. "Do you give up?" called Nyoda.

"No," answered Gladys.

"You have five seconds to produce the answer, then," said Nyoda.

"It's diapason," said Gladys, "die-a-pacin."

"Really!" said Nyoda, falling back in astonishment.

"We knew it all the while!" cried Sahwah and Gladys. "We just kept you doing it over and over again because we liked to see you work."

The laugh was on Nyoda and her team all the way around. "We do this to each other!" called Sahwah, using the Indian form of taunt when one has played a successful trick on another.

"Tie the villains to a tree, and let them perish of mosquito bites,"

Nyoda commanded in an awful tone. "I'll get even with you for that, Miss Sahwah," she said, darkly, as the other side trooped off to cook up a new poser.

"Hadn't you better stop playing now?" inquired Mrs. Gardiner. "You know we wanted to get home before dark."

"Oh, let's do one more," pleaded Migwan. If they had only stopped playing when Mrs. Gardiner suggested it and gone home early they might have been in time to prevent the thing which occurred, but they were bent on seeing one side or the other go down, and Gladys's side prepared another charade.

"We've played up to your own game," said Gladys, who was introducing the new charade, "and have increased the number to five syllables." The actors were Mrs. Gardiner, Betty and Tom Gardiner. Mrs. Gardiner was scolding the children and emphasized her remarks by a sharp pinch on Tom's arm. Betty, seeing the maternal hand also extended in her direction, promptly climbed a tree and sat in safety, while her mother shook her finger at her and cried warningly, "I'll attend to you after awhile."

"What on earth?" said Nyoda, scratching her head in perplexity. But scratch as she might, no answer came, and the rest of her team had nothing to offer either. After holding out for fully fifteen minutes they were compelled to give it up.

"It's 'manipulator,'" cried the winning side, in chorus.

"'Ma-nip-you-later!'" And they stood around to condole while Nyoda's side prepared supper. Then it was that Calvin, basely deserting the team he had helped so far, went over to the side of the enemy and helped Migwan fetch wood for the fire. Both sides stopped often to jeer at each other, so it took them twice as long to get the meal ready as it would have ordinarily. They loitered and sang along the way home, letting the horses take their time, and it was quite late when they reached Onoway House.

The first thing that greeted them was the sight of Mr. Bob, the c.o.c.ker spaniel, rolling on the front lawn in great distress, and giving every sign of being poisoned. They hastily administered an antidote and, after a time of suspense were confident that the effect of the poison had been counteracted. So far they had only been in the kitchen, but when the excitement about the dog was over they moved toward the sitting-room to rest awhile and drink lemonade before going to bed. When the light was lit they all stopped in astonishment. In the sitting-room there was an old-fashioned combination desk and bookcase, the bookcase part set on top of the desk and reaching nearly to the ceiling. It belonged to the house, and the desk was closed and locked. Now, however, it stood open, and all the drawers were pulled out, while the top of the desk and the floor before it were strewn with papers in great disorder.

"Burglars!" cried Migwan. "The house has been robbed!" They immediately looked through the house to see what had been taken. Up-stairs in the room occupied by the two boys there was a desk similar to the one in the sitting-room. This had also been broken open and the drawers searched through, although the disorder of papers was not so great as it was down-stairs. Half afraid of what they should find, the whole family went from room to room, but nothing else seemed to have been disturbed, and as far as they could see nothing had been stolen. The silver in the sideboard drawer was untouched, but then, this was only plate, and worn at that. But in full view on the dining-room table lay Sahwah's Firemaker Bracelet, which she had laid there a few moments before starting for the picnic, and then, with her customary forgetfulness, neglected to pick up again. This was solid silver and worth stealing.

Further than that, she had also forgotten to wear her watch, and it was still safe in her top bureau drawer. It was a riddle, and as they talked it over they could only come to one conclusion, and that was that the burglar had thought there were large sums of money hidden in the two desks and had pa.s.sed over the small articles in the hope of getting a bigger harvest, or else was leaving those other things to the last. He ransacked the up-stairs desk, having broken the lock, and then went through the one down-stairs. While looking through the papers in the sitting-room he had evidently been frightened away by something, for there was one drawer that had not been disturbed. This also accounted for the fact that nothing else had been taken. What had frightened him was probably the barking of the dog, who, although he was on the outside, had become aware of the presence of someone in the house. He had fed the dog poison, probably poisoned meat, for they had found a small piece of meat on the porch. Evidently the poison had begun to act before Mr. Bob had it all eaten, and he left that piece. But before the dog was dead the burglar had heard the family returning along the road, singing, and made his escape. The whole thing must have happened not long before, for the dog had not had the poison long enough to take deadly effect. It was then that they regretted having lingered so long over the game of charades and delayed their homecoming.

"If we had only been half an hour sooner, we might have found out who it was," said Mrs. Gardiner.

"Thank Heaven we weren't half an hour later," said Hinpoha, "or Mr. Bob would have been dead." She would have felt worse about losing Mr. Bob than about having all her possessions stolen.

"How about sleeping in the tepee to-night?" asked Gladys. There was not enough room in the house for so many people and the eight Winnebagos had made their beds in the tepee while the three girls from town were there, both to solve the question of sleeping quarters and for the fun of the thing. It was just like camping out to sleep on the ground, all the eight girls in a circle around the little watch fire in the middle of the tepee.

"Oh, I'll be afraid to," said Hinpoha.

"I don't know but what it would be just as safe as sleeping in the house," said Nyoda. "I doubt if anyone would think of people sleeping out in that thing. It's a rather novel idea in this neighborhood. And at any rate there's nothing out there to steal and consequently nothing to tempt a thief."

So, their fears having vanished, the Winnebagos went to bed in the tepee just as they had planned. Nyoda took the precaution of putting her pistol under her pillow. The girls really enjoyed the air of suppressed excitement. When did youth and high spirits ever fail to respond to the thrill of danger, either real or fancied? This attempted burglary was the most exciting thing that had ever happened to most of the girls and they were getting as much thrill out of it as possible. It amused them to see Tom and Calvin parading the front lawn armed with bird guns, swelled up with importance at having to guard a houseful of women.

Instead of hoping that the burglar had been scared away for good they wished fervently that he would return and give them a chance to shoot.

They would have stayed there all night if Mrs. Gardiner had not ordered them to bed.

One by one the girls in the tepee dropped off to slumber, worn out with the varied events of the day. But Nyoda could not sleep. She had a throbbing headache from the glare of the sun on the water while she sat fishing. The little fire, in the center of the bare circle of earth which prevented it from spreading, died down and subsided to glowing embers, then one by one these turned black and left the tepee in darkness. There was not a spark left. Nyoda was sure of this, for she sat up several times in an effort to make herself comfortable, and when she took a drink from the pail of well water which stood nearby she emptied the dipper over the spot where the fire had been, to make doubly sure. Still sleep would not come. She stared out of the doorway of the tepee into the darkness. A group of beech trees with their light grey bark loomed up ghostlike before the door. She began to think of the ghost which had appeared to her that other night in that very doorway, and tried to connect the incidents which had taken place afterwards with that. One thing was sure-someone was getting into Onoway House every few days. Why nothing was taken was a mystery to her. It seemed to her now that it was not so much an attempt at burglary as an effort to annoy and frighten the family. Possibly it was someone who had a grudge against them-she could not imagine why-and was indulging in these pranks to satisfy a spite. She thought she saw a glimmer of light on the subject.

Farmer Landsdowne had once told her that when it became known that Mr.

Mitch.e.l.l was going to give up the care of the place, several farmers of the Centerville Road district had applied for the position of caretaker, but wishing to a.s.sist Migwan, the Bartletts had refused their offers and given the place over to the Winnebagos. That must be it. Someone wanted that job badly and was wreaking his disappointment on the people who had kept him from getting it. The more she thought of it the more probable it seemed. Possibly more than one were involved in the plot.

Then another thought struck her. Could it be the crazy man who lived alone in the little house among the trees? Calvin had stated that he never left the house, but who could account for the inspirations of an unbalanced mind? That nothing had been taken from the house seemed to indicate a want of fixed purpose in the mind of the housebreaker-to go to all that trouble for nothing. This idea also seemed worth considering.

As she lay turning these things over in her mind she thought she heard a stealthy footstep in the gra.s.s outside of the tepee. Thinking that the ghost was coming to pay another visit, she drew the pistol from under her pillow and turning over, face downward, lay with it pointed toward the doorway. There would be no outcry when he appeared in the doorway.

The first intimation the ghost would have that he was observed would be a shot in the leg that would prevent him from running away and would solve the mystery. In tense silence she waited, one; two; three minutes, but nothing appeared. Then suddenly she smelled smoke, and turning around swiftly saw that the side of the tepee toward which she had had her back was in flames.

"Fire!" she called at the top of her voice. "Sahwah! Hinpoha! Gladys!

Migwan! Wake up!" And seizing the pail of water she dashed it against the side of the tepee. The water sizzled as it fell, but the canvas covering was burning like tinder. Thus rudely awakened the girls sprang up in alarm. The place was filling with dense smoke, and through it they groped their way to the opening, dragging out their blankets. Hardly had the last girl got out when the whole thing was one roaring blaze, which lit up the scenery a long way around.

Nyoda, paying no attention to the flames that were mounting skyward from the burning canvas, looked intently for a lurking figure among the trees, for she thought it hardly possible that whoever had set the tepee afire could have gotten outside of the range of light in that short time. It was possible to see as far as the road on the one side and across the river on the other. But nowhere was there a man or the shadow of a man. The folks came running out of Onoway House half dressed and in terror that the girls had not escaped from the burning tent in time, and the farmers all the way down the road, seeing the glare, rushed to offer their a.s.sistance, for a fire in the country is a serious thing where there is no water pressure. Farmer Landsdowne came on a dead run, carrying a water bucket. Even Abner Smalley appeared in the midst of the crowd. He gave a scowling look at Calvin, but said nothing, and soon took his departure when the danger was over, as it was directly, for it did not take long to reduce that canvas covering to a black ma.s.s, and buckets of water thrown all around on the ground and the trees kept the fire from spreading.

For the second time that night the family gathered in the sitting-room and faced each other over an exciting happening. "I told you if you built a fire in that tepee you would burn it down," said Mrs. Gardiner.

"I never felt easy when you had one."

"But it didn't catch fire from our little fire," declared Nyoda, and told the events of the night, from the going out of the fire to the footsteps outside the tepee when the canvas had suddenly blazed up when she was lying in wait for the ghost with a pistol. The circle of faces paled with fear as she told her tale. Who could this mysterious visitor be, who seemed determined to do them some harm? The girls finished the night in the house, three in a bed, but none of them closed their eyes to sleep.

CHAPTER XI.-THE WELL DIGGER'S GHOST.