The Meadow-Brook Girls by the Sea; Or, The Loss of The Lonesome Bar

by Janet Aldridge

  CHAPTER XII

  MYSTERY ON A SAND BAR

  "I--I thank you."

  Harriet, placing the right hand over the heart, bowed low, and theceremony was complete. The voices of the Wau-Wau Girls were raised insinging, "My Country, 'Tis of Thee." Then they ran forward, fairlysmothering Harriet with their embraces and congratulations.

  "You forget that I am the real hero," Tommy reminded them; whereatthey picked up the little girl and tried to toss her back and forth,with the result that she was dropped on the ground.

  The guardians added their congratulations as soon as they succeeded ingetting close enough to Harriet to do so. Grace also came in for hershare of congratulation and praise, with which she was well content.

  "Come, girls," urged Miss Elting, "you know we have to make our beds,and the hour is getting late."

  "I'm not thleepy," protested Grace, "I could thtay awake for ageth."

  "You will be by the time we find our sleeping place. It is somelittle distance from here." Harriet glanced at the guardianinquiringly.

  "Yes, it is the cabin," answered Miss Elting. "Mrs. Livingston lost notime in arranging for us to occupy it, though I am not at all certainthat it is the wise thing to do under the circumstances."

  "Under what circumstances?" asked Harriet.

  "Storms."

  "But they can do us no harm."

  "We shall have to take for granted that they will not. Mrs. Livingstonsent to town to ask permission of the owner, who readily granted it.He had forgotten that he owned the cabin. It seems that no one hasoccupied it in several years. Mrs. Livingston also obtained some newblankets for us, but for to-night we shall have to put up with somehardships. To-morrow you girls can fix us bough-beds; then we shall bequite comfortable. But we shall have to cook out-of-doors, there beingno stove in the cabin."

  "We shan't be able to cook on the bar. The breeze from the sea is sostrong there that it would blow the fire away."

  "We must come to camp for our meals, then. Perhaps that would bebetter after all. We don't wish to run away by ourselves; and besidesthis, you are now a Torch Bearer and must take a more active part inthe affairs of the Camp, even if you are of the Meadow-Brook group,"reminded the guardian.

  Harriet nodded thoughtfully.

  "How good and kind Mrs. Livingston is! And think of what she has donefor me. It is too good to be true."

  "What is too good to be true?" questioned the Chief Guardian herself.

  "Everything--all that you have done for me."

  "We are still in your debt. Now you had better be getting along. Willyou need a light?"

  "No, thank you. Harriet ith an owl. She can thee in the dark jutht athwell ath in the light," answered Tommy, speaking for Harriet.

  The Meadow-Brook party, after calling their good nights, startedtoward the cabin, Harriet with the thought strong in her mind thatonly one rank lay between her and the highest gift in the power of theorganization to bestow. She determined that one day she would be aGuardian of the Fire, but she dared not even dream of ever rising tothe high office of Chief Guardian. Harriet's life would be too full ofother things, she felt.

  They trooped, laughing and chatting, along the beach, and, reachingthe Lonesome Bar, followed it out. The bar was a narrow, sandy stripthat extended nearly a quarter of a mile out into the bay. About halfway out the cabin had been built and for some time occupied by aPortsmouth man, who occasionally ran down there for a week-end fishingtrip. The cabin, as a camping place, possessed the double advantage ofbeing out of the mosquito zone and of being swept by ocean breezesalmost continuously. A fresh breeze was now blowing in from the sea,and the white-crested rollers could be seen slipping past them oneither side. It was almost as though they were walking down an oceanlane without even wetting their boots. The water was shallow on eitherside, so that even though they stepped off they were in no danger ofgoing into deep water.

  "We have forgotten all about a lamp!" exclaimed Harriet as they nearedthe cabin.

  "That has been attended to," replied Miss Elting.

  "You know we have been thleeping, Harriet," reminded Tommy--"thleepingour young headth off. Ithn't it nithe to be able to thleep while otherfolkth do your work for you?"

  They had hurried on and Tommy was obliged to run to catch up withthem. Miss Elting was lighting a swinging lamp when they entered thecottage, which consisted of one room, above which was an attic, butwith no entrance so far as they were able to observe. Six rolls ofblankets lay on the floor against a side wall ready to be opened andspread when the girls should be ready for bed. One solitary windowcommanded a view of the sea. Tommy surveyed the place with a squintand a scowl. There was not another article in the place besides theblankets.

  "There ithn't much danger of falling over the furniture in the dark,ith there?" she asked.

  "Not when we have a Torch Bearer with us," answered Buster, from theshadow just outside the door.

  "Thave me!" murmured Tommy.

  "Oh, my stars! We'll laugh to-morrow, darlin'. It's too dark to laughnow. Come in and sit down, Buster. It isn't safe to leave you outthere. No telling what you might not do after having given out such aflimsy 'joke.'"

  "Where shall I sit?" asked Margery, stepping in and glancing about theroom.

  "Take the easy chair over there in the corner," suggested Harrietsmilingly.

  "But there isn't any chair there."

  "That ith all right. You jutht thit where the chair would be if therewere one," suggested Tommy.

  "No sitting this evening," declared the guardian. "You will allprepare for bed. At least two of you need rest--I mean Harriet andTommy."

  "Yeth, we alwayth need that. I never thhall get enough of it untilafter I have been dead ever and ever tho long."

  "I am not sleepy, but, of course, being a leader now, I have to set agood example," said Harriet lightly.

  Tommy squinted at her inquiringly, as if trying to decide whether ornot it were prudent to take advantage of her now that Harriet was aleader officially. She decided to test the matter out at the firstopportunity, but just now there was a matter of several hours' sleepahead, so Tommy quickly prepared for sleep, after which, straighteningout her blanket, she twisted herself up in it in a mummy roll withonly the top of her tow-head and a pair of very bright little eyesobservable over the top of the blanket.

  Harriet waited until her companions had rolled up in their blankets;then she opened the door wide so that the ocean breeze blew in andswirled about the interior of the cabin in a miniature gale. The girlsdid not mind it at all. They thought it delicious. This was gettingthe real benefit of being at the sea shore. Harriet rolled in herblanket directly in front of the door with her head pillowed on thesill. To enter the cabin one would have to step over her. She went tosleep after lying gazing out over the sea for some time.

  "What's that?" Harriet started up with a half-smothered exclamation. Areport that sounded like the discharge of a gun had aroused her, orelse she had been dreaming. She was not certain which it had been. Theother girls were asleep, as was indicated by their regular breathing.Harriet listened intently. She had not changed her position, but hereyes were wide open, looking straight out to sea. Nothing unusual wasfound there. She was about to close her eyes again when a peculiarcreaking sound greeted her ears. Harriet knew instantly the meaning ofthe sound. It came from the straining of ropes on a sailboat.

  Unrolling from the blanket and hastily dressing, the Meadow-Brook Girlcrawled out to the bar, wishing to make her observations unseen by anyone else. Now she saw it again, that same filmy cloud in the darkness,towering up in the air, moving almost phantom-like into the bay to thesouth of the cabin on Lonesome Bar.

  "It's a boat. I believe it is the same one I saw in there before. ButI can't be sure of that. I don't know boats well enough; then, again,the night is too dark to make certain. I don't know that it would beanything of importance if a boat were to run in here to anchor for thenight. That evidently is what they propose doing," she thought.<
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  That Harriet's surmise was correct was evidenced a few moments laterwhen the boat's anchor splashed into the waters of the bay and theanchor chain rattled through the hawse hole. Harriet tried to get aclear idea of what the boat itself looked like, but was unable to doso on account of the darkness. Now the creak of oars was borne faintlyto her ears; the sound ceased abruptly, then was taken up again.

  "They are putting a boat ashore!" muttered Harriet, who was nowsitting on the sand, her hair streaming over her shoulder in thefresh, salty breeze. "I hope to goodness none of them comes out here.The girls would be terribly frightened if they knew about this. Idon't believe I shall tell them, unless--"

  Harriet paused suddenly as the sound of men's voices was heardsomewhere toward the land end of the bar. She walked around to therear of the cabin, peering shoreward. She made out faintly the figuresof two men coming down the bar. They were carrying something betweenthem--something that seemed to be heavy and burdensome, for the menwere staggering under its weight.

  The Meadow-Brook Girl realized that she was face to face with amystery, but what that mystery was she could not even surmise, norwould she for some time to come. She determined to act, however, andthat, if possible, without alarming her companions. Hesitating but amoment, Harriet stepped out boldly and started up the bar to meet themysterious strangers with their heavy burden.