The in the Woods Part 4 (1/2)
”In the winter, of course, the people that own them take them away where they'll be safe. But they leave them out like that most of the summer. Some of them come here quite often, and it would be a great nuisance to have to drag the canoes along every time they come and go.”
Long before noon everything was ready, and Wanaka, who had gone away for a time, returned.
”You and Zara look so different that I don't believe anyone would recognize either of you,” she told Bessie. ”You look just like the rest of the girls. So, even if we should meet anyone who knows you, I think you'd be safe enough.”
”Not if it was Maw Hoover,” said Zara so earnestly that Wanaka laughed, although she felt that there was something pathetic about Zara's fear of the farmer's wife, too.
”Well, we're not going to meet her, anyhow, Zara. And she'd never expect to find you and Bessie among us, anyhow. We aren't going across the lake and over to the main road. We're going right through the woods to the next valley. It's going to be a long day's trip, but it's cool, and I think a good long tramp will do us all good.
”That's fine,” said Bessie. ”No one over there will know anything about us. Is that why we made so many sandwiches and things like that -- so that we could eat our lunch on the way?”
”Yes, and we'll build a fire and have something hot, too. Now you can watch us put out the fire.”
”I hate to see it go out,” said Zara. ”I love the fire.”
”We all do, but we must never leave a fire without someone to tend it. Fire is a great servant, but we must use it properly. And a little fire, even this one of ours, might start a bad blaze in the woods here if we left it behind us.”
Bessie nodded wisely.
”We had an awful bad fire here two or three years ago. It was just before Zara came out here. Someone was out in the woods hunting, or something like that, and they left a fire, and the wind came up and set the trees on fire. It burned for three or four days, and all the men in the town had to turn out to save some of the places near the woods.”
”Almost all the big fires in the forests start because someone is careless just like that, Bessie. They don't mean any harm -- but they don't stop to think.”
Then all the girls gathered about the fire, and each in turn did her part in stamping out the glowing embers. They sang as they did this duty, and Bessie felt again the curious thrill that had stirred her when she had heard the good-night song the evening before.
”I know what it is that is so splendid about the Camp Fire Girls, Zara,” she said, suddenly. ”They belong to one another, and they do things together. That's what counts -- that's why they look so happy. We've never had anything to belong to, you and I, anything like this. Don't you see what I mean?”
”Yes, I do, Bessie. And that's what makes it seem so easy when they work. They're doing things together, and each of them has something to do at the same time that all the others are working, too.”
”Why, I just loved was.h.i.+ng the dishes this morning,” said Bessie, smiling at the thought. ”I never felt like that before, when Maw Hoover was always at me to do them, so that I got through. And I did them faster here, too -- much faster. Just because I enjoyed it, and it seemed like the most natural thing to do.”
”I always did feel that way, but then I only worked for myself and my father,” said Zara.
Then the walk through the cool, green woods began. The girls started out in Indian file, but presently the trail broadened, so that they could walk two or three abreast. It was not long before they came into country that Bessie had never seen, well as she knew the woods near the Hoover farmhouse.
Wanaka, careful lest too steady a walk should tire the girls, called a halt at least once an hour, and, when the trail led up hill, oftener. And at each halt one girl or another, who had been detailed at the last stop, reported on the birds and wild animals she had seen since the last check, and, when she had done, all the others were called on to tell if they had seen any that she had missed.
”It's just like a game, isn't it?” said Zara. ”I think it's great fun!”
The halt for lunch was made after they had come out of the woods, by the side of a clear spring. They were on a bluff, high above a winding country road, with a path worn by the feet of thirsty pa.s.sersby who knew of the spring, and some thoughtful person had piped the water down to a big trough where horses could drink. But they could not, from the place where the fire had been made, see the road or the carriages.
”I don't think anyone will come along looking for you,” Wanaka told Bessie, ”but if we stay out of sight we'll surely be on the safe side.”
Suddenly, as they were about to sit down, Zara cried out.
”My handkerchief!” she said. ”It's gone -- and I had it just before we crossed the road. I must have dropped it there. I'll go back and see.”
”I'll go with you,” cried Bessie, jumping up. But before she could move, Zara, laughing, had dashed off, and Bessie dropped back to her place with a smile.
”She's as quick as a flash,” she said. ”She always could beat me in a race. There's no use in my going after her.”
But, even as she spoke, a wild cry of terror reached their ears -- that and the sound of a man's coa.r.s.e laughter. Bessie started to her feet, her eyes staring in fright. And she led the rush of the whole party to the edge of the bluff.
Driving swiftly down the road away from Hedgeville was a runabout. And in it Bessie saw Zara, held fast by a big man whose back she recognized at once. It was Farmer Weeks!
”Oh, that's Farmer Weeks!” she cried. ”He'll get them to give Zara to him, and he'll beat her and treat her terribly.”
Despairingly she made to run after the disappearing horse. But Wanaka checked her, gently.
”We must be careful -- and slow,” she said.
CHAPTER VII.
A FRIEND IN NEED.
”But we must do something, really we must, Miss Eleanor!” cried Bessie. ”I must, I mean. Zara trusted me, and if I don't help her now, just think of what will happen.”
”You must keep calm, Bessie, that's the first thing to think of. If you let yourself get excited and worked up you won't help Zara, and you'll only get into trouble yourself. You say she trusted you -- now you must trust me a little. Tell me, first, just what this man will do and if he has any right at all to touch her.”
”Why, he's the meanest man in town, Wanaka! He really is -- everyone says so! None of the men would work for him in harvest time. They said he worked them to death and wouldn't give them enough to eat.”
”Yes, but why should he pick Zara up that way and carry her off?”
”Because he wants to make her work for him. He's awfully rich, and Paw Hoover said he'd lent money to so many men in the village and all around that they had to do just what he told them, or he'd sell their land and their horses and cattle. And he said he'd make the people at the poor-farm bind Zara over to him and then she'd have to work for him until she was twenty-one, just for her board.”
”That's pretty serious, Bessie. I'm sure he wouldn't be a good guardian, but if he had such influence over the men, maybe they wouldn't stop to think about that.”
She was silent for a minute, thinking hard.
”Where was he going with her, Bessie? He seemed to be driving away from Hedgeville.”
”Yes, he was. I suppose he was going over to Zebulon. That's the county seat, and he goes over there quite often. Almost every time they hold court, I guess. Paw Hoover said he was a mighty bad neighbor, always getting in law-suits.”
”Well, I think I'd better go to Zebulon. If I talk to him, perhaps I can make him give Zara up. How far is it, Bessie?”
”Only about two miles. But if you go, can't I go with you?”
”I think I'd better go alone, Bessie. If he saw you, he might try to take you back to the Hoovers, you know. No, I'll go alone. If it's only two miles, it won't take me long to walk there, and I can get someone to drive me back. Girls!”
They crowded about her.
”I'm going away for a little while. You are to stay here and wait for me. And keep close together. I'll get back as soon as I can. And while I'm gone you can clear up the mess we made with luncheon -- when you've finished it, I mean. Now, you'd better hurry up and eat it. I won't wait.”
And the guardian hurried off, determined to rescue Zara from the clutches of the old miser who was so anxious to make her work for him, because he saw a chance to get a good deal for nothing, or almost nothing. If the general opinion about Silas Weeks was anywhere near true, it would cost him mighty little to satisfy himself that he was keeping faith with the county and giving Zara, in return for her services, good board, lodging, and clothing.
Bessie watched Wanaka go off, and she tried to convince herself that everything would be all right. But, strong as was the faith she already had in Miss Mercer, she knew the ways of Silas Weeks too well to be really confident. And she couldn't get rid of the feeling that she, and no one else, was responsible for Zara. It was because of her that Zara had come away, and Bessie felt that she should make sure, herself, that Zara didn't have cause to regret the decision.