CHAPTER IX
TED FINDS A CAVE
Janet and Ted returned from looking at the pretty scarlet bird just intime to see what happened to Trouble. They saw him fall into the spring.
"Oh!" cried Janet, clasping her hands. "Oh, look!"
"He'll be drowned!" yelled Ted, and then he ran as fast as he couldtoward the place where he had last seen his little brother, for BabyWilliam was not in sight now. He was down in the water.
Perhaps Trouble might not have come to any harm, more than to get wetthrough by the time Ted reached him. Perhaps the little fellow might nothave been drowned. At any rate, no harm came to him, even though Jan andher brother did not get there in time to help.
The two Curlytops, their fuzzy hair fluttering in the wind, were halfway to the spring when they saw coming from the bushes a ragged man.
"There he is!" cried Janet.
"Who?" asked Ted.
"The man who--talked to me--while I was picking flowers," and Jan'svoice came in gasps, for she was getting out of breath from having runso hard. "There he is!" and she pointed.
"That's the tramp!" cried Ted. "They _are_ on the island, only grandpacouldn't find 'em!"
"Do you--do you s'pose he's goin' to take Trouble?" faltered Janet.
Before Ted could answer, the Curlytops saw what the ragged man was goingto do. They saw him stoop over the spring, reach down into it and liftsomething up. The "something" was Baby William, screaming and crying infright, and dripping wet.
The ragged man set Trouble down on a rock near the spring, and then,waving his hand to Ted and Jan, he cried:
"He's all right--swallowed hardly any water. Take him home as soon asyou can, though. I haven't time to stop--have to go to see theprofessor!"
With that the man seemed to dive in between some high bushes, and theCurlytops could not see him any more. But Trouble was still sitting onthe rock, the water from his clothes making a little puddle all aroundhim, and he was crying hard, his tears running down his cheeks.
"Oh, Trouble!" gasped Jan, putting her arms around him, all wet as hewas.
"Are you hurt?" asked Ted, looking carefully at his little brother.
"I--I--I fal--falled in an'--an' I's all--all wetted!" wailed Trouble,his breath coming in gasps because of his crying, which he had partlystopped on seeing his brother and sister. "I falled in de spwing, Idid!"
"What made you?" asked Ted, while Jan tried to wring some of the waterout of the little fellow's waist and rompers.
"I wanted to get de pail full for mamma."
"But I filled the pail, Trouble. You oughtn't to have touched it," saidTeddy. He went to the spring and looked down in it. The pail was at thebottom of the little pool.
"It's a good thing that tramp got him out," remarked Janet. "He must bea nice man, even if his clothes are ragged."
"I guess so, too," agreed Ted. "But he said we must take Trouble home. Iguess we'd better."
"Yes," assented Jan. "But he isn't hurt."
"He wasn't in very long," Ted said. "The man got him out awfulquick--quicker than we could. You lead him home, Jan, and I'll get thepail out of the spring. It's sunk like a ship."
"How're you going to get it?"
"With a stick, I guess. You mustn't lean over the spring any more,Trouble."
"No," promised Baby William.
But the Curlytops could not be sure he would keep his promise. He mightfor a time, while he remembered what had happened to him.
With a crooked stick Teddy managed to fish up the pail after two orthree trials. Then, filling it with water from the spring, he carried itback to camp, while Jan led the wet and dripping Trouble.
"Oh, my goodness! What's happened now?" asked Nora, as she saw the threechildren coming into camp. "Did you go in swimming with all your clotheson, Trouble?"
"No. I falled into de spwing, I did!"
"And the tramp got him out!" added Jan.
Then she and Teddy, taking turns, told what had happened. Mrs. Martinscolded Trouble a little, to make him more careful the next time. ThenGrandpa Martin said:
"Well, there must be strangers on this island after all, though I couldnot find them. They must be hiding somewhere, and I'd like to know whatfor."
"Maybe they're living in gypsy wagons," suggested Jan.
"Or in a cave," added Ted. "They look as if they lived in a cave."
"There isn't any cave on the island, as far as I know," his grandfathertold Ted. "But I don't like those strange men roaming about our placehere. They may not do any harm, but I don't like it. I'll have anotherlook for them."
"So will I," added Teddy, but he did not say this aloud. Teddy had madeup his mind to do something. He was going to look for those men himself,either in a cave or a gypsy wagon. Ted wanted to find the raggedman--find all of them if more than one; and there seemed to be at leasttwo, for the one who had pulled Teddy out of the spring had spoken ofanother--a "professor."
"What's a professor?" asked Jan.
"Oh, it's a man or a woman who has studied his lessons and teaches themto others," answered her mother. "One who knows a great deal aboutsomething, such as about the stars or about the world we live in.Professors find out many things and then tell others--young peoplegenerally--about them."
"I'm going to be a professor," said Teddy.
"Are you?" inquired his mother with a smile. "I hope you will get wiseenough to be one."
But Teddy did not speak all that was in his mind. If a professor was onewho found out things, then the small boy decided he would be one longenough to find out about the tramps, and perhaps find the cave wherethey lived, and then he could tell Jan.
When Trouble had been put into dry clothes and sent to sleep by hismother's singing, "Ding-dong bell, Pussy's in the well," Jan and Ted satby themselves, talking over what had happened that day. Ted was making asmall boat to sail on the lake, and Jan was mending her doll's dress,where a prickly briar bush had torn a little hole in it.
Early the next morning Ted slipped away from his place at the breakfasttable, and motioned to Jan to join him behind the sleeping tent. Tedheld his finger over his lips to show his sister that he wanted her tokeep very quiet.
"What's the matter?" she whispered, when they were safe by themselves."Did you see the tramp-man?"
"No, but I'm going to find him!"
"You are?" cried Janet, and her eyes opened wide with wonder andsurprise.
"Don't tell anybody," went on Ted. "We don't want Trouble to follow us.Come on off this way," and he pointed to a path that led through thebushes back of the tent.
Trouble was busy just then, playing in the sand on the shore of CloverLake, while Mrs. Martin and Nora were clearing away the breakfastthings. Grandpa Martin was raking up around the tents, so no one saw theCurlytops slip away.
"Which way are you going?" asked Jan of her brother.
"Over to the spring."
"What for? To get more water? Where's your pail?"
"I don't have to get water yet," answered Ted. "I'm going to the springto look to see if I can tell which way that tramp went. Don't you knowhow Indians do--look at the leaves and grass in the woods, and they cantell by the marks which way anybody went? Mother read us a story oncelike that."
"I don't like Indians," remarked Jan somewhat shortly, half turningback.
"Oh, there's no Indians!" exclaimed Ted impatiently. "I was only sayin'what they did. Come on!"
So Jan followed her brother, though she was a little bit afraid.However, she saw nothing to frighten her, and it was nice in the woods.The wind was blowing through the trees, the birds were singing and itwas cool and pleasant. The Curlytops soon came to the spring whereTrouble had fallen in.
"Now we must look all around," declared Teddy.
"What for?" his sister demanded again.
"To tell which way the tramp-man went. Then we can find his cave."
"Maybe he lives in a wagon or a tent."
"Then we'll find them. Come on, help look!"
"Well, look for a place where the bushes are broken down and where yousee footprints in the dirt. That's the way Indians tell. Mother read itout of a book to us."
So Jan and Ted looked all around the spring, and at last Ted found aplace where it seemed as if some one had run through in a hurry, fortwigs were broken off the bushes, and, by looking down at the ground, hesaw the marks of shoes in the dirt.
Of course Ted could not tell who had made them, but he thought surely itmust have been the tramp who had pulled Trouble from the spring. Ted wassure they were not the footprints of himself and his sister, for theirown were much smaller.
"Come on, Jan!" cried Teddy. "We'll find that tramp now or, anyway, theplace where he hides."
He pushed on through the bushes. There seemed to be a sort of pathleading away from the spring, which was not the same path that Ted andGrandpa Martin took when they went from the camp to the water-hole tofill the pail each day.
On and on went Ted, with Jan following. She was so excited now at thethought that perhaps they might find something, that she was not a bitfrightened.
"Wait a minute! Wait for me, Teddy!" she called, as her brother hurriedon ahead of her.
"Come on, Jan!" he called. "There's a good path here, and I guess I seesomething. Oh, look here! Oh, Jan! Oh! Oh!" suddenly cried Teddy. Thenhis voice seemed to fade away, as if he had all at once gone down thecellar, and Jan could hear him calling faintly.
"Oh, Teddy! What's the matter? What's the matter?" she cried as she ranon through the bushes.
"I've found the cave!" was his answer, so faint and far away that Jancould hardly hear. "I've found the cave. I fell right into it! Comeon!"
The Curlytops on Star Island; Or, Camping out with Grandpa Page 9
