The Meadow-Brook Girls in the Hills Part 30

"Did you not say that our equipment was perfectly safe here?" demanded Miss Elting, turning sharply on the guide.

"I--I thought it was, Miss."

"Then how do you explain this?" she asked with a comprehensive wave of the hand.

"I don't explain it. I swum! I don't know what to think about it. I wish I could get my hands on the scoundrel."

Miss Elting sat down to think. "It is plain that we have been followed into the mountains. The man whom Hazel saw at the 'Slide' undoubtedly is the one who has been causing us all the trouble. He may have been hovering about us all the time, we knowing nothing about it. I am afraid we aren't very clever, girls. We have allowed our enemy to outwit us."

"I don't believe he has, Miss Elting," replied Harriet. "If so, he has been watching us from a distance. We surely should have discovered if the man had come close to our camp."

"It must have been the man that Hazel saw, and I believe he was the one who dropped the green goggles," was Harriet's emphatic declaration. "I wonder what his grievance is?"

"All our stuff gone; we'll have to go back, won't we?" mourned Margery.

"We have our luggage, but that is some distance from here," replied the guardian. "How long will it take us to get to our supplies, Mr. Grubb?"

"A day, or a day and a half, I reckon."

"Then we had better go for them to-morrow morning. We can do nothing more this evening. But--what are we to do for food?"

"We have a little. We have some coffee and a spoonful of rice. That's enough. We can live another twenty-four hours or so on that. I'll fix up something now. Maybe there's something in a cache back of the hut.

I'll see." To their delight, Ja.n.u.s returned, not long after that, with a small sack of flour and one of corn meal. It did not take the girls long to start a fire in the small cook stove. They threw open the windows, the "Shelter" warming up very quickly.

The girls began work at once, Ja.n.u.s showing them how to make the kind of corn cakes that are popular with the mountain guides in the White Mountain range. All the time Harriet Burrell was thinking intently over their situation and the loss of the supplies. She was considering the perplexing problems from different viewpoints, with a view toward solving them.

"What did the thief do with our supplies?" she demanded, turning to the guide.

"Probably took them away with him. That's the way thieves usually do.

Otherwise, what's the use in stealing?"

"I don't think so, sir. I do not believe this thief took the stuff because he wanted it, but rather to make you trouble."

"Maybe, maybe. It's all the same thing."

"Oh, no, sir; it isn't, not if he did not carry the stuff away with him. If he did not carry it away with him, what could he have done with it?" She regarded Mr. Grubb inquiringly.

"I swum! I don't know," declared Ja.n.u.s, looking deeply puzzled.

"Nor do I, but I propose to find out. Is there such a thing as a lantern here, Mr. Grubb?"

He shook his head. "Better leave off everything else till we get some food. There's the coffee pot on the steps outside, where I put it, but the cream is all gone. We'll have to drink our coffee black."

"Yeth, and thtay awake all night," averred Tommy. "But we don't care.

We are used to thtaying awake all night, aren't we, Jane?"

"Yes, darlin', we are," agreed Jane brightly. "But I'm wishing I might lay violent hands on the rogue who took our belongings. Where is that Mr. Sheriff for whom you sent to come and catch our friend of the green goggles and the black whiskers, Mr. Grubb?"

"He'll be along in good time," replied the guide, stroking his own whiskers while regarding with squinting eyes the progress of the supper under the deft fingers of the Meadow-Brook Girls. "Here! Let me do that. I reckon I can be finishing the supper while you young ladies get ready. There's a barrel of rain water just back of the hut where you can wash. You look as though you needed it--no offense intended."

A merry laugh greeted the words of Ja.n.u.s Grubb. The girls agreed that they _did_ need it. Their clothing was not in very good condition, either, but nothing could be done with the garments until they reached a spot where they could change them for fresh apparel. The girls ran out laughing, and a moment later were heard splashing in the rain barrel. They came in with dripping faces to get their towels, then, running out again, rubbed their faces until their cheeks glowed underneath their tan. Tommy's freckles were now more p.r.o.nounced than ever, but her usually pale face wore a healthy look and her eyes were bright and sparkling.

Supper was late that evening, nor was it a heavy supper when at last they sat down on the benches in the "Shelter" with their cups and their corn cakes beside them, but they were as happy a party of girls as if sitting at a table laden with good things and sparkling with cut gla.s.s and silver. There were health and good-fellowship here; and there also was the pride of achievement, for these young girls had accomplished a great deal during the time they had been living their out-of-door life.

They made merry over their scanty supper and finished with satisfied appet.i.tes.

After supper Harriet asked the guide to prepare some torches, saying she wished to look about to see if she could find anything. Ja.n.u.s said there was no wood at hand fit for torches. No wood, no lantern--nothing save the smoky old lamp in the "Shelter," and very little oil in that. Ja.n.u.s said there had been a can of oil there a week before that, but that some one must have carried it off, can and all.

"I'll hold the light for you if you want to dig," he offered.

"Yes, please do that," urged Harriet. "I know where I wish to look.

If you will hold the light out there on the edge of that bank of rocks I will go below. It is such a convenient place to throw things.

Tommy, look out that you don't throw your dishes over when you go out.

I think I will just wash that chimney before we go any further."

"Whatever you do don't drop it!" exclaimed Miss Elting. "We cannot get along without the lamp."

"We can build up a fire outside, if necessary. I rather think that would be a better idea still. What do you say, Mr. Grubb?"

Ja.n.u.s consulted his whiskers, then decided that the idea was an excellent one. He said he would go out and get some fuel for the fire, and did so. While he was thus engaged, Harriet cleaned the lamp chimney, Miss Elting hung canvas over the gla.s.sless windows and the other girls washed and put away the few dishes that had been used. A fine, large fire was started on the ledge of rock that extended out from the "Shelter" to a drop-off of some twenty feet. Harriet was very much interested in the fire that night. Then, after it was well started, she walked to the edge, and, with her back to the flames, peered down.

All at once she started to run down the path to the left. She called to Jane to come with her. They had to clamber over some rough ground in order to reach a point below the hut. The light from the fire made the shadows dance down there.

"I saw something glisten down here," explained Miss Burrell. "I am certain it was a tin can. Wouldn't it be fine were we to find our canned supplies down here, Jane?"

"Then it is fine, for here's the very thing you were looking for." The Irish girl stooped, then held up a tin can. Harriet uttered a little exclamation and reached for it. "But it's empty," chuckled Jane.

"Oh, fudge! Some one has thrown it over. Other picnic parties have been up here. Besides, this is not one of our cans. But that doesn't mean we shan't find any of our own. Look hard, Jane."

"I'm looking hard, so hard that my eyes ache," replied Jane dryly. An instant later she cried out, "Will you look at that?"

Harriet was at her side in a couple of seconds from the uttering of that cry. Then she, too, raised her voice in a shout that called her companions from the hut. Miss Elting came out carrying the lamp.

Ja.n.u.s took it from her, and, standing on the very edge in the full light of the campfire, held the lamp above his head and peered down.

"What is it?" cried the guardian.

"We have found our canned stuff and a whole lot of our equipment,"

answered Harriet triumphantly.

"Hooee-e-e-e!" shouted the Meadow-Brook Girls in great glee.

"Wait! I'll be down there to help you gather it up," Ja.n.u.s called down to them.

"Get the packs, girls," ordered Miss Elting.

Then there came an interruption that startled the girls into silence.

Something sped through the air over their heads, uttering a strange, weird woo-woo-woo! It pa.s.sed, followed by a distant report, the crack of a rifle. Then, all at once, the lamp that Ja.n.u.s Grubb was holding above his head crumbled into nothingness, the oil in the well of the lamp streaming down over the guide's head and face.