The Orchard Secret Part 34

"Go away! Get out of here!" she ordered through a crack in the door. She waited. She heard nothing. Perhaps the beast had gone. She loosed the hook a little, making a crack wide enough out of which she could look.

The ram hadn't gone. He was balefully eyeing the shed from a little distance, and when he saw the door move again he lowered his head and b.u.t.ted it harder than before.

"Oh, this is awful!" groaned Arden. "I guess I'll have to stay in here until he goes away or falls asleep. I suppose rams do sleep, sometimes.

This is what I get for doubting Tiddy. I wonder if there is a back door that I could sneak out of while he's b.u.t.ting the front one?"

But there was no rear exit, as Arden discovered when she peered through the jumble of ladders, barrels, and tools. Sheds aren't usually built with two doors.

There was nothing to be done but to wait for a rescue or until the ram should get weary of the siege and raise it.

"When the girls find out about this they'll have the laugh on me all right!" Arden ruefully mused.

The ram was quiet again, but Arden thought it useless again to give any orders or to tantalize the brute by partly opening the door. Time was pa.s.sing. It was getting late. She would soon be due at her cla.s.s. If she did not appear, her chums might think something had happened to her and start a search.

"But I didn't tell them where I was going," Arden reflected. "They don't know where to start looking, and they'll never imagine I came to the orchard after all that's happened.

"'Oh, to be in England, now that Spring is there'--or any old place but in this shed," the imprisoned girl murmured. She was getting panicky.

Almost without knowing what she was doing, Arden found herself shouting:

"Go away, ram! Go away!"

She paused and caught her breath suddenly. She heard voices outside; men talking. The sounds came nearer. Someone said:

"That certainly was a mighty poor job you did on that pen, Anson. The ram got out without half trying. There he is now, down by the tool shed. And by Jove, Anson, I believe he's got someone penned in there! He wouldn't act that way unless there was someone in the shed. Look, there he goes, b.u.t.ting the door!"

It was Tom Scott. Arden recognized the voice. And Anson Yaeger, the grim farmer, answered:

"I did as good a job as I could with the wood I had. I'd like to see you or anybody else----"

"Never mind that now!" interrupted Tom. "The thing to do now is to catch that ram again! He's dangerous. Come on!"

Arden could hear footsteps running now, and though the ram once more b.u.t.ted the door, nearly cracking some of the boards, she knew that rescue was on the way.

There was silence outside the shed for a moment, and then Tom Scott said:

"You slip around back, Anson, and sort of hold his attention by peering out at him around the corner. While you're doing that, I can slip up behind him and get this rope around him. I'll la.s.so him, and we'll hog-tie him, cowboy fashion."

"Very well," agreed the farmer.

Arden could not see what they did, but she was told, later. Tom, who had provided himself with a noosed rope when he and Anson started out in search of the escaped ram, skillfully tossed it over the beast's head from the rear. The noose fell in a choking loop around the ram's neck, and Tom pulled tight.

The surprised animal turned to charge Tom, but by this time Anson attacked him with a heavy timber, knocked him down, and both men threw themselves upon the creature. He struggled and bleated, but was soon well tied so he could not move.

"Good work, Anson!" complimented Tom.

"Hum!" was the grunted answer. The farmer was winded.

Arden was debating with herself whether to come out and show who the ram had imprisoned or to wait until the men had taken the beast away. But she had no choice, for Tom said:

"Now we'll see what unfortunate this ram was after."

"I'm going out," Arden told herself and unhooked the door.

Tom Scott and Anson fairly jumped with surprise as they saw her.

"He chased me in here," she volunteered. "I got in just in time, but I didn't dare come out again."

"No, it's wise you didn't," said Tom, smiling at her. "This is a dangerous beast. I thought he was after someone, the way he stood near this shed. Your red sweater must have attracted him. Not hurt, are you?"

"No, only frightened. At least I was. I'm so glad you came."

"Well, he can't hurt you now," chuckled Tom, looking at the bound ram.

Anson said nothing. "He's a tricky beast. Worked his way out of the pen we shut him up in temporarily until his owner can dispose of him. I believe the dean has threatened to make a complaint unless the ram is removed from around here."

"I hope he goes," said Arden. "The orchard will be safer without him and less--less mysterious."

"Mysterious?" questioned Tom, somewhat wonderingly.

"Yes. But I must be going. I'll be late for my cla.s.s. Thank you for rescuing me."

"It was a pleasure," Tom said, bowing and smiling. "Also a pleasure to choke the beast that gave me such a whack."

Still Anson Yaeger did not speak. He seemed to be glaring at Arden with his little beady eyes almost hidden under s.h.a.ggy brows. But Arden was looking only at Tom Scott. She could not seem to help it. And he was looking at her. Arden began to feel embarra.s.sed. It was as if, she said later, she had met the good-looking gardener at some previous time but could not remember where. She was puzzled and annoyed.

"Well, I really must go!" she announced, and this time she did, hurrying past the bound and rec.u.mbent ram that seemed to eye her with much malevolence. But he was helpless now.

Arden hurried up through the orchard, turning for a final look at the scene of her latest adventure. She saw Anson bringing a wheelbarrow out of the shed to be used in taking the ram to a new prison. Then she ran to Bordmust and reached it just in time for English lit.

CHAPTER XXVI The Challenge

Terry and Sim were in other rooms, so Arden did not see her chums until after the last cla.s.s of the day. Then she met them on the steps of Bordmust, where they usually waited for one another.

If ever Arden astonished Terry and Sim, it was on this occasion, when she related her startling adventure with the ram.

"No, never!" gasped Terry in disbelief.

"Yes," a.s.serted Arden.

"Oh, my aunt's cat!" shouted Sim, and then she and Terry went into spasms of laughter. Though they realized Arden had been in some danger, the funny side of it was now uppermost in their minds.

"Let's go over to the orchard and look around," suggested Terry as their mirth subsided.

"There won't be anything to look at, now that Arden is out," said Sim.

"I know," answered Terry, "but I'd like to see what the place looks like now that the danger is removed and the mystery solved."