The Motor Maids at Sunrise Camp Part 24

"Do they accuse my father of setting Razor Back on fire?" asked Phoebe, tremulously.

"They tried to, but they couldn't prove it," answered Billie.

"My father loves the mountains," protested poor Phoebe. "He loves the forests. He wouldn't harm even one tree. How cruel these people are!

Always they have hated us and we have never injured any of them. Oh, Billie, I feel that I must go to my father. I know he needs me."

"You remember the doctor's message," answered Billie; "that it would be dangerous for you to leave camp. I am certain he knew what he was saying. Besides, didn't you say the old herb woman was a friend? She would not have deceived you, would she?"

"No," answered Phoebe, half smiling. "Once I pulled a thorn out of old Granny's foot and washed and bound it, and she has been good to me ever since. The time she nursed me, she never left me day or night until I was well."

"So you see," said Billie, "it would be foolish for you to start out to hunt your father when you know old Granny can be depended upon and Dr.

Hume, too."

Phoebe was not the only one who felt restless in camp that afternoon.

All of them had the sensation of waiting for something. Only Alberdina seemed placidly content. Having been forgiven the pink clothes and having had her stolen money refunded, she went about her work, singing and yodelling in a melodious voice, and for lunch surprised them with a German cinnamon cake she had made during their absence in the village.

"Why, you can cook, Alberdina?" exclaimed Billie, on whom cooking was beginning to pall.

"I can a leedle coog."

"Then you shall cook the dinner," announced Billie firmly, and Alberdina, who had not mentioned cooking in the bond, quailed before her stern gray eye and consented.

The afternoon dragged slowly along. It was very hot and the women members of the camp lay on their cots in kimonos reading and napping.

Percy, underneath, snored l.u.s.tily, and Ben chopped wood and piled up the logs scientifically for a fire that evening.

Alberdina's supper was distinctly German in flavor, but it was good and Billie and Nancy enjoyed freedom from the bondage of cooking the evening meal. After supper the wind freshened and it grew much cooler.

"It's going to be a dark night. There's no moon," remarked Ben, wistfully. "Shall I light the camp fire? And then we can sit around and tell stories and sing songs," and because no one either a.s.sented or objected, owing to the peculiar restlessness that possessed them, he put a match to the pile of logs and presently the clearing was illuminated.

The camp house stood out in bold relief against the background of the mountains. Little clouds were scurrying across the sky like schools of fish, and an occasional flash of heat lightning lit up the mountains and valley with strange distinctness. Elinor had brought out her guitar and they had just begun one of the old familiar songs, when a ragged boy appeared in their midst so suddenly that he might have sprung up full grown from the earth.

He faced Ben without looking at the others.

"The doctor wants both gem'man to come. I show the way. Quick."

Phoebe sat up very straight and looked at the boy.

"I don't know you," she said. "Who are you?"

"I come from that away," answered the boy, pointing with his thumb toward Indian Head. "The doctor said you would know it was all right by this here," he added, unb.u.t.toning his coat and taking out the doctor's well remembered cane. "An' he don't want none of the ladies to come.

Jes' the men."

"But I will go," exclaimed Phoebe. "My father----"

"Is your father Frenchy?"

"Yes," answered the girl, lowering her eyes.

"The doctor says Frenchy's gal was not to be skeered. Frenchy is safe and well."

"Are you sure?" demanded Phoebe.

"So help me," answered the boy, raising his hand to heaven.

"But what does it mean?" broke in Miss Campbell. "I don't like the sound of it at all. Why has the doctor sent for both of you boys? Why should we be left alone? It's not like the doctor at all."

"They ain't got to go no distance much, lady," the boy a.s.sured her.

"They'll be back inside of fifteen minutes," and being the prince of liars and an actor of precocious ability, he succeeded in persuading them that Ben and Percy must follow him without delay.

The girls were still gathering up the rugs and cushions preparatory to going into the house, when there came another interruption that frightened Miss Campbell so much that she gave a little cry and seized Billie's arm.

"It's only old Granny, the herb-woman," Billie a.s.sured her. "What is it, Granny?"

"Phoebe! They gona' tar and feather Phoebe an' her father if they can find him. Go, quick. Lupo an' his men comin' up mountain. Hurry and shut house."

"But I don't want to bring this danger on my friends," exclaimed Phoebe.

"I will go with you, Granny."

"No, no, too dangerous," answered the old woman. "Lupo, he see in dark."

"Indeed, you shall not go," broke in Miss Campbell indignantly. "You'll stay right here and they shall not tar and feather you or anybody else.

The low wretches!"

"Shut up house, quick," was Granny's last piece of advice as she melted away in the darkness.

n.o.body paused to beat down the camp fire or gather up the rugs and cushions. Into the house they scurried and lost no time in drawing the great iron-bound winter doors across the openings into the living room, and bolting them. The doors to the sleeping porches were all carefully closed and locked from the inside. Then they sat down in the immense vaulted room and waited.

Phoebe, sitting apart from the others, seemed very quiet and calm in the face of the danger which threatened her, and Billie knew she was calling on the faith which had never failed her.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE ATTACK.

They were filled with hot indignation over the situation. They felt sure now that Ben and Percy had been lured away, but they were not uneasy for their safety. Billie had told them what Dr. Hume had said: that the mountaineers would not dare injure any of the campers. But all of them realized that Phoebe might be treated with cruel indignities. Only a few weeks before, Billie had read an account in a newspaper of how a pretty young school teacher had been tarred and feathered by a mob of people who were jealous of her beauty and refinement. If Lupo could persuade the villagers that Phoebe and her father were responsible for the forest fires, Billie felt certain they would have a very unreasonable lot of visitors to deal with that night. She wished with all her heart that someone with an eloquent tongue would appear and address these narrow, stupid men, someone who understood their natures and knew how to deal with them. She believed that violence would only aggravate their rage.

Someone would have to talk to them.

The other Motor Maids sat on a divan whispering together, and Miss Campbell, calm as was her wont in the presence of danger, paced up and down the room, examining the bolts of the heavy shutters. Alberdina, with her little iron bound trunk beside her, sat grumbling in a corner.

"Is it for thees I haf gome?" she murmured. "I to New Yorg return to-morrow. They will keel me already yet."

"You are perfectly safe, Alberdina," said Miss Campbell, "and you are not to go back to New York to-morrow. You are to stay with us and see this thing through. I shall telegraph Mr. Campbell in the morning and have the law on these people. I am sick and tired of their savagery and injustice. The cruel wretches! I----"

A long shrill whistle interrupted her outburst. It penetrated the stout walls of their fortress so unexpectedly that it brought them all to their feet with low exclamations.

"There they are," whispered Mary.