Tish: The Chronicle of Her Escapades and Excursions

by Mary Roberts Rinehart

  IV

  Well, there it was--staring at us. I felt positively chilled. He lookedso young and agreeable, and, as Aggie said, he had such nice teeth. Andto know him for what he was--it was tragic! But that was not all.

  "Add the numbers!" said Tish. "Thirty-one tons, perhaps, of dynamite!And that's only part," said Tish. "Here's the most damning thing ofall--a note to his accomplice!"

  "Damning" is here used in the sense of condemnatory. We are none of usaddicted to profanity.

  We read the other paper, which had been in a sealed envelope, butwithout superscription. It is before me as I write, and I am copying itexactly:--

  I shall have to see you. I'm going crazy! Don't you realize that this is a matter of life and death to me? Come to Island Eleven to-night, won't you? And give me a chance to talk, anyhow. Something has got to be done and done soon. I'm desperate!

  Aggie sneezed three times in sheer excitement; for anyone can see howabsolutely incriminating the letter was. It was not signed, but it wasin the same writing as the list.

  Tish, who knows something about everything, said the writing denoted anunscrupulous and violent nature.

  "The _y_ is especially vicious," she said. "I wouldn't trust a man whomade a _y_ like that to carry a sick child to the doctor!"

  The thing, of course, was to decide at once what measures to take. Theboat would not come again for two days, and to send a letter by it tothe town marshal or sheriff, or whatever the official is in Canada whotakes charge of spies, would be another loss of time.

  "Just one thing," said Tish. "I'll plan this out and find some way todeal with the wretch; but I wouldn't say anything to Hutchins. She's anice little thing, though she is a fool about a motor boat. There's nocase in scaring her."

  For some reason or other, however, Hutchins was out of spirits thatnight.

  "I hope you're not sick, Hutchins?" said Tish.

  "No, indeed, Miss Tish."

  "You're not eating your fish."

  "I'm sick of fish," she said calmly. "I've eaten so much fish that whenI see a hook I have a mad desire to go and hang myself on it."

  "Fish," said Tish grimly, "is good for the brain. I do not care toboast, but never has my mind been so clear as it is to-night."

  Now certainly, though Tish's tone was severe, there was nothing in it tohurt the girl; but she got up from the cracker box on which she wassitting, with her eyes filled with tears.

  "Don't mind me. I'm a silly fool," she said; and went down to the riverand stood looking out over it.

  It quite spoiled our evening. Aggie made her a hot lemonade and, Ibelieve, talked to her about Mr. Wiggins, and how, when he was living,she had had fits of weeping without apparent cause. But if the girl wasin love, as we surmised, she said nothing about it. She insisted that itwas too much fish and nervous strain about the Mebbe.

  "I never know," she said, "when we start out whether we're going to getback or be marooned and starve to death on some island."

  Tish said afterward that her subconscious self must have taken the word"marooned" and played with it; for in ten minutes or so her plan poppedinto her head.

  "'Full-panoplied from the head of Jove,' Lizzie," she said. "Really, itis not necessary to think if one only has faith. The supermind does itall without effort. I do not dislike the young man; but I must do myduty."

  Tish's plan was simplicity itself. We were to steal his canoe.

  "Then we'll have him," she finished. "The current's too strong there forhim to swim to the mainland."

  "He might try it and drown," Aggie objected. "Spy or no spy, he'ssomebody's son."

  "War is no time to be chicken-hearted," Tish replied.

  I confess I ate little all that day. At noon Mr. McDonald came andborrowed two eggs from us.

  "I've sent over to a store across country, by my Indian guide,philosopher, and friend," he said, "for some things I needed; but I daresay he's reading Byron somewhere and has forgotten it."

  "Guide, philosopher, and friend!" I caught Tish's eye. McDonald hadwritten the Updike letter! McDonald had meant to use our respectabilityto take him across the border!

  We gave him the eggs, but Tish said afterward she was not deceived for amoment.

  "The Indian has told him," she said, "and he's allaying our suspicions.Oh, he's clever enough! 'Know the Indian mind and my own!'" she quotedfrom the Updike letter. "'I know Canada thoroughly.' 'My object is notmoney.' I should think not!"

  Tish stole the green canoe that night. She put on the life preserver andwe tied the end of the rope that Aggie had let slip to the canoe. Thelife-preserver made it difficult to paddle, Tish said, but she feltmore secure. If she struck a rock and upset, at least she would notdrown; and we could start after her at dawn with the Mebbe.

  "I'll be somewhere down the river," she said, "and safe enough, mostlikely, unless there are falls."

  Hutchins watched in a puzzled way, for Tish did not leave until dusk.

  "You'd better let me follow you with the launch, Miss Tish," she said."Just remember that if the canoe sinks you're tied to it."

  "I'm on serious business to-night, Hutchins," Tish said ominously. "Youare young, and I refuse to trouble your young mind; but your ears aresharp. If you hear any shooting, get the boat and follow me."

  The mention of shooting made me very nervous. We watched Tish as long aswe could see her; then we returned to the tent, and Aggie and Icrocheted by the hanging lantern. Two hours went by. At eleven o'clockTish had not returned and Hutchins was in the motor boat, getting itready to start.

  "I like courage, Miss Lizzie," she said to me; "but this thing ofelderly women, with some sort of bug, starting out at night in canoes istoo strong for me. Either she's going to stay in at night or I'm goinghome."

  "Elderly nothing!" I said, with some spirit. "She is in the prime oflife. Please remember, Hutchins, that you are speaking of your employer.Miss Tish has no bug, as you call it."

  "Oh, she's rational enough," Hutchins retorted: "but she is a woman ofone idea and that sort of person is dangerous."

  I was breathless at her audacity.

  "Come now, Miss Lizzie," she said, "how can I help when I don't knowwhat is being done? I've done my best up here to keep you comfortableand restrain Miss Tish's recklessness; but I ought to know something."

  She was right; and, Tish or no Tish, then and there I told her. She wasmore than astonished. She sat in the motor boat, with a lantern at herfeet, and listened.

  "I see," she said slowly. "So the--so Mr. McDonald is a spy and has sentfor dynamite to destroy the railroad! And--and the red-haired man is adetective! How do you know he is a detective?"

  I told her then about the note we had picked up from beside her in thetrain, and because she was so much interested she really seemed quitethrilled. I brought the cipher grocery list and the other note down toher.

  "It's quite convincing, isn't it?" she said. "And--and exciting! I don'tknow when I've been so excited."

  She really was. Her cheeks were flushed. She looked exceedingly pretty.

  "The thing to do," she said, "is to teach him a lesson. He's young. Hemayn't always have had to stoop to such--such criminality. If we canscare him thoroughly, it might do him a lot of good."

  I said I was afraid Tish took a more serious view of things and wouldnotify the authorities. And at that moment there came two or threeshots--then silence.

  I shall never forget the ride after Tish and how we felt when we failedto find her; for there was no sign of her. The wind had come up, and,what with seeing Tish tied to that wretched canoe and sinking with it orshot through the head and lying dead in the bottom of it, we were aboutcrazy. As we passed Island Eleven we could see the spy's camp-fire andhis tent, but no living person.

  At four in the morning we gave up and started back, heavy-hearted.What, therefore, was our surprise to find Tish sitting by the fire inher bathrobe, with a cup of tea in her lap and her feet in a foot-tub ofhot water! Considering all we had gone through and
that we had obeyedorders exactly, she was distinctly unjust. Indeed, at first she quiterefused to speak to any of us.

  "I do think, Tish," Aggie said as she stood shivering by the fire, "thatyou might at least explain where you have been. We have been going upand down the river for hours, burying you over and over."

  Tish took a sip of tea, but said nothing.

  "You said," I reminded her, "that if there was shooting, we were tostart after you at once. When we heard the shots, we went, of course."

  Tish leaned over and, taking the teakettle from the fire, poured morewater into the foot-tub. Then at last she turned to speak.

  "Bring some absorbent cotton and some bandages, Hutchins," she said. "Iam bleeding from a hundred wounds. As for you"--she turned fiercely onAggie and me--"the least you could have done was to be here when Ireturned, exhausted, injured, and weary; but, of course, you weregallivanting round the lake in an upholstered motor boat."

  Here she poured more water into the foot-tub and made it much too hot.This thawed her rather, and she explained what was wrong. She wasbruised, scratched to the knees, and with a bump the size of an egg onher forehead, where she had run into a tree.

  The whole story was very exciting. It seems she got the green canoewithout any difficulty, the spy being sound asleep in his tent; butabout that time the wind came up and Tish said she could not make aninch of progress toward our camp.

  The chewing gum with which we had repaired our canoe came out at thattime and the boat began to fill, Tish being unable to sit over the leakand paddle at the same time. So, at last, she gave up and made for themainland.

  "The shooting," Tish said with difficulty, "was by men from the Indiancamp firing at me. I landed below the camp, and was making my way asbest I could through the woods when they heard me moving. I believe theythought it was a bear."

  I think Tish was more afraid of the Indians, in spite of theirsixty-three steel engravings and the rest of it, than she pretended,though she said she would have made herself known, but at that momentshe fell over a fallen tree and for fifteen minutes was unable to speaka word. When at last she rose the excitement was over and they had goneback to their camp.

  "Anyhow," she finished, "the green canoe is hidden a couple of milesdown the river, and I guess Mr. McDonald is safe for a time. Lizzie, youcan take a bath to-morrow safely."

  Tish sat up most of the rest of the night composing a letter to theauthorities of the town, telling them of Mr. McDonald and enclosingcareful copies of the incriminating documents she had found.

  During the following morning the river was very quiet. Through thebinocular we were able to see Mr. McDonald standing on the shore of hisisland and looking intently in our direction, but naturally we paid noattention to him.

  The red-haired man went in swimming that day and necessitated ourretiring to the tent for an hour and a half; but at noon Aggie'snaturally soft heart began to assert itself.

  "Spy or no spy," she said to Tish, "we ought to feed him."

  "Huh!" was Tish's rejoinder. "There is no sense is wasting good food ona man whose hours are numbered."

  We were surprised, however, to find that Hutchins, who had detested Mr.McDonald, was rather on Aggie's side.

  "The fact that he has but a few more hours," she said to Tish, "is anexcellent reason for making those hours as little wretched as possible."

  It was really due to Hutchins, therefore, that Mr. McDonald had aluncheon. The problem of how to get it to him was a troublesome one, butTish solved it with her customary sagacity.

  "We can make a raft," she said, "a small one, large enough to hold atray. By stopping the launch some yards above the island we can floathis luncheon to him quite safely."

  That was the method we ultimately pursued and it worked mostsatisfactorily.

  Hutchins baked hot biscuits; and, by putting a cover over the pan, wewere enabled to get them to him before they cooled.

  We prepared a really appetizing luncheon of hot biscuits, broiled ham,marmalade, and tea, adding, at Aggie's instructions, a jar of preservedpeaches, which she herself had put up.

  Tish made the raft while we prepared the food, and at exactly half-pasttwelve o'clock we left the house. Mr. McDonald saw us coming and waswaiting smilingly at the upper end of the island.

  "Great Scott!" he said. "I thought you were never going to hear me.Another hour and I'd have made a swim for it, though it's suicidal withthis current. I'll show you where you can come in so you won't hit arock."

  Hutchins had stopped the engine of the motor boat and we threw out theanchor at a safe distance from the shore.

  "We are not going to land," said Tish, "and I think you know perfectlywell the reason why."

  "Oh, now," he protested; "surely you are going to land! I've had anawfully uncomfortable accident--my canoe's gone."

  "We know that," Tish said calmly. "As a matter of fact, we took it."

  Mr. McDonald sat down suddenly on a log at the water's edge and lookedat us.

  "Oh!" he said.

  "You may not believe it," Tish said, "but we know everything--yourdastardly plot, who the red-haired man is, and all the destruction andwretchedness you are about to cause."

  "Oh, I say!" he said feebly. "I wouldn't go as far as that. I'm--I'mnot such a bad sort."

  "That depends on the point of view," said Tish grimly.

  Aggie touched her on the arm then and reminded her that the biscuitswere getting cold; but Tish had a final word with him.

  "Your correspondence has fallen into my hands, young man," she said,"and will be turned over to the proper authorities."

  "It won't tell them anything they don't know," he said doggedly. "Lookhere, ladies: I am not ashamed of this thing. I--I am proud of it. I amperfectly willing to yell it out loud for everybody to hear. As a matterof fact, I think I will."

  Mr. McDonald stood up suddenly and threw his head back; but hereHutchins, who had been silent, spoke for the first time.

  "Don't be an idiot!" she said coldly. "We have something here for you toeat if you behave yourself."

  He seemed to see her then for the first time, for he favored her with along stare.

  "Ah!" he said. "Then you are not entirely cold and heartless?"

  She made no reply to this, being busy in assisting Aggie to lower theraft over the side of the boat.

  "Broiled ham, tea, hot biscuits, and marmalade," said Aggie gently. "Mypoor fellow, we are doing what we consider our duty; but we want you toknow that it is hard for us--very hard."

  When he saw our plan, Mr. McDonald's face fell; but he stepped out intothe water up to his knees and caught the raft as it floated down.

  Before he said "Thank you" he lifted the cover of the pan and saw thehot biscuits underneath.

  "Really," he said, "it's very decent of you. I sent off a grocery orderyesterday, but nothing has come."

  Tish had got Hutchins to start the engine by that time and we weremoving away. He stood there, up to his knees in water, holding the trayand looking after us. He was really a pathetic figure, especially inview of the awful fate we felt was overtaking him.

  He called something after us. On account of the noise of the engine, wecould not be certain, but we all heard it the same way.

  "Send for the whole d--d outfit!" was the way it sounded to us. "Itwon't make any difference to me."