The Campfire Girls on Ellen's Isle Part 31

"We haven't had a chance to try it on anybody yet," said Hinpoha, "except Antha. We really and truly didn't want her here this summer at all until Katherine said she would be an opportunity instead of a nuisance." Here Nyoda smiled radiantly in Katherine's direction in the darkness. What a faculty that girl had for seeing possibilities, whether in wooden Indians or spoiled children!

"And so you found out that it was worth while to have her here after all," said Nyoda, beaming upon them when they had finished. "Well, I should say you had been making very fair headway, indeed. So far only one opportunity has presented itself and you have made the most of that.

You're one hundred per cent efficient on that basis. I'm proud of you."

How glad they were then that they had "put up" with Antha! Somewhere in the back of each one's head there lurked the suspicion that Nyoda must have "put up" with _them_ considerably, back in the days when she first became their Guardian.

"I think we ought to set our seal on all our 'little sisters,'" said Katherine, speaking with her old animation. "Why not make Antha an 'a.s.sociate member' of the Winnebagos? Then we'd never lose interest in her."

"Good idea," said Nyoda heartily. "Let's have a ceremonial meeting right away and make her officially one of us."

No sooner said than done, and a council fire was kindled on the beach and in the presence of the whole company Antha was made a Winnebago with full ceremony--a thing they never would have dreamed of at the beginning of the summer.

"This is going to be our last week on Ellen's Isle," said Sahwah rather dolefully at the breakfast table the next morning. "We want to pack it as full of good times as we can."

All the Winnebagos and Sandwiches set down their cups with a dismayed bang. While they were perfectly aware of the flight of time they had not begun to think seriously about going home. It seemed incredible, how near at hand the time actually was.

But when Sahwah had finished speaking Mr. Evans raised his voice. "I wasn't going to tell you until council meeting tonight," he said in a tone which betrayed a coming surprise. "But the way things have worked out I do not have to be back in the city until after the first week in September, so we can stay one week longer than we had planned."

He tried to make some further remarks, but they were lost in the cheer that followed his announcement. To the enthusiastic campers that extra week seemed like an endless amount of time.

"You will stay with us, Nyoda?" pleaded Hinpoha, and Nyoda smilingly a.s.sured her that she and Sherry had already been invited to stay on and were going to accept because the business conference Sherry was to attend in Chicago had been postponed for a week. Judge Dalrymple also promised to stay until the twins went home.

"But who'll be Chiefs that extra week?"

"Antha and Anthony," said Katherine promptly. "They've both proven themselves responsible."

And without waiting to go into formal meeting the family council approved the appointment, to the infinite amazement of the judge, who had never looked upon the twins as anything but very small and irresponsible children. He listened unbelievingly to the tale of Antha and the camera.

"She's got grit!" he exclaimed exultingly to Mr. Evans and Uncle Teddy.

"She's got grit! I thought she hadn't a speck. She's a Dalrymple after all! Praise be, she's got grit!" He seemed more pleased about the fact that she had grit than if she had possessed all the virtues of the saints.

"She's learned to swim, too! How did you ever do it? I knew it would be the making of her to send her here for the summer. And Anthony, too, you've done something to him. Why, he calls me 'sir' every time he speaks to me! He actually says 'sir!' That's something he never did in his life before. And where he used to choose the worst boys he could find for companions he seems to have learned to pick the best out of the lot. He thinks there's no one in the world like that St. John boy; wants me to give him our old yacht. Seems to have stopped bragging, too; that used to be his besetting sin."

Uncle Teddy smiled reminiscently at this, and then, acting upon a sudden impulse, he told the judge how the boys had cured Anthony of boasting by forcing him to make good his words.

"So it took a lesson like that to do it?" said the judge. "Well, I guess you're right. He ought to have had it long ago, only I've never had a chance to do anything like that to him. His mother would have interfered. You know how it is." He broke off with a shrug of his shoulders.

"I can't thank you enough for taking care of them this summer," he said earnestly.

Then Mr. Evans told him just how Katherine had influenced the Council to consent to the coming of the twins. "So it was Katherine that did it,"

said the judge. "I am deeply in her debt. Do you happen to know of anything she would like to have particularly? I would like to show my appreciation in some way."

"I don't know of anything special she wants," said Mr. Evans, "except----" And briefly he told the judge about Katherine's home troubles.

"Do you suppose she would take the money to go to college?" asked the judge.

Mr. Evans shook his head. "I'm afraid she won't. I offered it to her myself. It seems that her mother is sick and her father is much discouraged and they want her at home to look after things. It was her own decision to go; she is determined to make the sacrifice for their sakes. It is a n.o.ble one, you must admit, and I would feel delicate about influencing her to do otherwise."

"Hm," said the judge. "No use offering her money then. But, by the way--what did you say was the name of the company that her father sank his money in?"

"Pacific Refining Company," said Mr. Evans.

"H-m-m-m," said the judge. "I happen to know a little about that company. Peculiar case, very. Seemed sound as a rock, yet it failed through bad management. But I happen to know that if it were backed by somebody of good repute and put into the hands of an able manager it would pull through and pay dividends. Trouble is n.o.body wants to sink any more money in it. Possibly I could arrange to back it--Hm. I'll see what can be done. Not a word to the girl about this, you understand, there's nothing certain about it."

Then Antha's voice was heard calling for her father and away he went, leaving Mr. Evans and Uncle Teddy staring breathless after the man who proposed to revive dead ventures as casually as if he were talking about putting up screens.

"What are we going to do with Eeny-Meeny when we go home?" asked Gladys.

That was a question n.o.body was prepared to answer offhand.

"Take her home and put her in the House of the Open Door," said Sahwah.

"But hardly any of us will be there to see her," objected Hinpoha, "and, anyway, it's cruelty to dumb Indians to take them away from their native woods and shut them up in houses. I know Eeny-Meeny wouldn't be happy there. I think we ought to leave her here on Ellen's Isle."

Then it was that Katherine had another inspiration. "I've got a plan worth two of that," she said, beginning to giggle in antic.i.p.ation.

"Let's bury her at the base of the rock in the ravine, and then mark the rock so mysteriously that somebody who comes after us will fall for it and dig up the earth. You're good at that sort of thing, Hinpoha, you carve some fearful and wonderful things on that rock. Won't they get a shock, though, when they come to Eeny-Meeny?" In their mind's eye they could all see the sensation caused by the discovering of Eeny-Meeny possibly years hence at the base of the rock, and the prank appealed to them irresistibly.

Of course, the mention of the rock in the ravine brought out the story of the Trail of the Seven Cedars and the fruitless search for Indian relics. The judge listened to the tale with a peculiar expression of interest. "By the way," he said casually, when they had finished, "did you know that I happen to own that stretch of land?"

The Winnebagos and Sandwiches were much taken aback. "Do you mind awfully, because we dug up the ground?" asked Gladys. "Why didn't you tell us your father owned the land?" she said, turning reproachfully to the twins.

"We didn't know it," said Antha, "but I don't think papa minds our digging it up, do you, Papa?"

"Not in the least," said the judge, chuckling. "And I think it would be the best joke in the world to 'plant' Eeny-Meeny at the base of the rock. Some time or other that land will be sold, and I will see to it that hints are dropped to whoever buys it that there are Indian relics on the premises and they are invariably found at the bases of marked rocks. That's the best joke I've heard in years. Katherine, you're a genius. That idea of yours was surely inspired."

So the Princ.i.p.al Diversion for the last week was the burial of Eeny-Meeny. After elaborate farewell ceremonies had been held over her on Ellen's Isle she was put into a canoe and towed across the lake, then taken out and carried along the Trail of the Seven Cedars to the ravine.

All the family went along to see the fun and take part in the last rites. But at the entrance to the ravine there was a ripple of astonishment. The cedar tree which had stood half way up the side, the largest and oldest of the seven, had been uprooted by the storm and lay at length in the bottom of the ravine. Where it had been there was a great gaping hole in the hillside. Numbers of rocks had come down with it and rolled into the excavation made by the boys and girls, carrying with them great quant.i.ties of earth, so that it was no longer an open pit. The whole appearance of the ravine had been changed by the falling of the tree.

The funeral party paused, uncertain whether to go to the work of taking the rocks out of Eeny-Meeny's grave or dig a new one somewhere else.

While they stood around and talked it over Slim grew weary and went up the hillside to sit down in the hollow left by the roots of the tree, which looked to him like a comfortable seat. He settled himself heavily, but no sooner had he done so than the ground broke away under him and he disappeared with a yell.

"Where are you?" cried the rest in amazement, running to the spot.

"Inside the hill," came Slim's voice from beyond the hole. "There's a cave here and I'm in it."

"Are you hurt?" they called.

"No," he answered.

"I'm coming in to look at the cave," said Sahwah, and she crawled carefully through the hole which had been much widened by Slim's breaking through, and dropped down beside him. After her came the others, one by one, all anxious to see this chamber in the hillside. It was about as large as an ordinary sized room, the walls all rock, dripping with the dampness of ages. Katherine, blundering about in the darkness, which was only partly relieved by the flashlights, walked into something wet and cold. At her startled exclamation the others hurried over into the far corner with her and their flashlights shone on a good sized pool of water in the floor of the cave. It was being fed by a stream which came steadily through a fissure between two rocks. At one end of the pool the water flowed out into a hole in the ground and was lost to view.

"It's a spring!" said Gladys. "I thought I heard water in here when we came down."

Mr. Evans dipped a pocket cup into the clear water and took a drink.

"It's a mineral spring!" he exclaimed in great excitement. "The same as the one on Ellen's Isle. But the size of it! There's a fortune in it for you, Judge. Think of the gallons of water that are flowing by some underground pa.s.sage into the lake without ever coming to the surface!

That's the prettiest case of poetic justice I've ever come across, finding this spring on your land. Now you can go ahead and organize a new mineral water company that will have a real spring for a basis."

"I'll do it!" said the judge, "and all those who had stock in the old one will have first chance at this. What a lucky accident! I told you that idea of Katherine's to bring Eeny-Meeny to the ravine was inspired."

"Now I know the meaning of the arrow on the rock!" said Sahwah when they were all outside the cave again. "You see, it points directly toward the hillside where those rocks came rolling down. Somebody found that cave and the spring and marked the spot so they could come back again, and then they never came back and it went on being a secret."