Dorothy Dale's Camping Days
Page 12
CHAPTER XI
WHEN THE BOYS CAME
Dorothy had always loved her cousins, Ned and Nat, but when theyarrived at the camp, the day after Tavia's disappearance, she fanciedshe had never before fully appreciated them. They came in the_Firebird_, their automobile, and declared that they would camp out inthe open Maine woods, cook in the open, make soups of lily bulbs,stirred with the aromatic boughs of the spruce, and otherwise conformto all the glorious hardships peculiar to the pioneers--according tothe stories told by said pioneers.
But the absence of Tavia put a damper on everything.
"We have got to start out and trace her," Jack Markin told Ned andNat. "It is inconceivable where she could have gone to."
"We certainly shall start out at once," declared Nat, who was alwaysTavia's champion, to say nothing of his being her special friend andadmirer. "I have known her to do risky things before, but this is theutmost."
"I never saw such a girl," growled Ned. "Just when a fellow expects tohave a first-rate time, she puts up something that knocks it out."
Dorothy was disconsolate. Her eyes showed the result of a sleeplessnight, and her usually pink cheeks were quite pale.
"She would never stay away of her own accord over night," she sighed,"whatever she might do during the day."
"Now, Doro, dear," consoled Cologne, "you must not look at it thatway. It is perfectly surprising what may happen, in a perfectly safeway, after one has found out, while before that time such things seemutterly impossible. Haven't we had lots of that at Glenwood?"
"Yes, things do happen that seem anything but likely," Dorothyadmitted. "And I do hope that such will be the case this time. I wishwe knew!"
"We had a great time in Dalton," said Nat, "the day we went over tosee the old place--your old place, Dorothy. The major asked us to goin to look after a leak in the roof, and just as we went into the oldplumbing shop we heard a racket. It seems that a fellow namedMortimer Morrison, a stage-struck chap, played a part on the localstage, and while delivering his lines he gave his audience atreat--the real thing in tragics. He went crazy--wild, stark, staringmad! He was an escaped sanitariumite--he got out, found the stage atDalton, and was having a gay old time when the----" Nat suddenlystopped. "What's the matter, coz?" he asked.
Dorothy was sitting on the rustic bench, at the side of the old corncrib, and she went pale as her cousin told the story. Cologne wasbeside her, and, as Nat asked what the matter was, Cologne graspedDorothy's trembling hand.
"What, Dorothy?"
"Why the--man! That man! He is the one who saved the team--the one whowrote the letter to Tavia. I found a part of it. She never told me,but it blew open at--my very feet. And that name was on the piece ofpaper!"
"Tavia know that--loon!" Ned exclaimed.
"We all knew him--if he is the same one," declared Cologne, forDorothy was too agitated to speak. "We happened to get in trouble witha hay wagon, and an old team of horses, and he helped us out. Come tothink of it he did act queer!"
"And he is around here--now?" asked Nat.
"Yes, I saw some one the other day whom I am sure could be no oneelse. He had the most peculiar walk. Did you see him in Dalton, Nat?"
"I was just going to tell you that while we were in the plumbing shopa fellow sauntered by. He wore a hat--like a cowboy, and otherwiselooked queer. Well, when the plumber sighted him he rushed to the'phone and called up the only officer in Dalton--Tavia's father, andtold him the lunatic was just sauntering down the road. But from lastaccounts he was still sauntering--the squire didn't overhaul him."
"And likely he was just wise enough to get far away," commented Ned."Now why on earth would Tavia have anything to do with a specimen ofthat kind?"
"It would be impossible to guess to what trick he might resort inorder to get Tavia to meet him, or to even become interested in hisstage schemes. You know Tavia has a very pardonable weakness foranything theatrical," said Dorothy.
"All Tavia's weaknesses are pardonable, as far as you are concerned,coz," ventured Ned.
"But the hunt," interrupted Jack. "We had better get at it. The girlwe malign may actually----" He looked at Dorothy and so left thesurmise unsaid.
An hour later Ned and Nat, with Jack and Claud, started out in the_Firebird_, it having been decided that it would be best for all theboys to go together in the auto, as they could then cover any amountof ground, and not have to worry about Dorothy and Cologne. The twogirls went their way in the cart, old Jeff, the horse, being lookedupon as quite a competent guide.
It was really the first good opportunity that Dorothy had had to seethe glories of the Maine woods, but what were they to her to-day? Whatmattered the long lines of spruce, the dainty larch, or the tangledarbor-vitae, to her now?
To all Cologne's enthusiastic efforts to point out these beauties, aswell as to distract Dorothy, she only answered with the most vagueacquiescence.
"If we don't find her to-day----" she faltered.
"But we shall," insisted Cologne. "I feel it! Tavia will be back atcamp for supper!"
"Are we far from camp now?" asked Dorothy, looking along the fir-linedroad to the wilderness beyond.
"No, we are only just around the bend. Would you like to get out andwalk? I think I hear the honk of the _Firebird_."
"I believe I would like to walk," said Dorothy. "I have sucha--stagnant feeling. The walk in this air ought to dispel it."
"Suppose we tie Jeff up here, and let him graze, while I go over tothat camp"--indicating a white speck between the trees--"and then Imay inquire if any one has seen a girl like Tavia pass up Oldtownway?"
"And I might take the other direction, and ask at those camps. I seequite a colony over that way," said Dorothy.
"And we will both meet here in----"
"An hour," finished Dorothy. "If we are to search, there is no sensein running back and forth--so long as we can keep our directionsstraight."
"And you are sure you won't get lost?" asked Cologne, with a smile."Perhaps losses are like accidents--they come in groups."
"Oh, I have a compass on my watch guard. Let me see," and afterconsulting the instrument, she faced north. "I will go due west andcome back due east. I surely can't get lost if I follow that."
"Now, Doro, don't go too near the edge of anything. I never saw suchedgy-edges as they are up here in Maine. Looks to me as if this partof the world was made last, with the jumping-off places for the menwho did the making."
"For the jump back into--eternity? Quite an idea, Cologne," saidDorothy, as the two girls prepared to part.
"Good-bye, Jeff," called Dorothy. "Eat a good meal. We may not getback to camp for lunch," and she patted the old horse.
"Pity we didn't fetch some 'standwiches,'" shouted Cologne, who wasalready making her way through the thickets that carpeted the path."If you find any dwarf cherries bring me some, Dorothy."
"Wild strawberries will do me," responded Dorothy, as she, too, gotaway from the tree where Jeff was tied. "I don't fancy either of uswill die of hunger!"
"Not in the Maine woods!" Cologne predicted.
Then they lost sight of each other.
Only Jeff was left to mark the spot from which they started.