The in the Woods Part 5 (2/2)
”That's easily explained, Zara,” said Bessie. ”When they were going the wind was behind them. Now it's in front of them. And they were going up hill, too, so there may have been an echo, because they were shouting toward the rocks upon the hill. Now that's changed, too.”
”Say, you're a regular scout!” said Jack approvingly. ”I knew all that, but I didn't suppose girls knew things like that. Say, when. I get old enough I'm going to be a Boy Scout. That'll be fine, won't it? I'll have a uniform, and a badge, and everything.”
”Splendid, Jack! We're going to be Camp Fire Girls, and we'll have rings, and badges, too.”
”What are Camp Fire Girls? Are they like the Boy Scouts?”
”Something like them, Jack. Sometime, when I know more about them, I'll come back and tell you all about it. I know it's nice -- but I don't really know much more than that yet.”
Then they had to be still again, for the voices of the returning hunters were very plain. They could hear Farmer Weeks, loud and angry, in the lead.
”Ain't it the beatin'est thing you ever heard of?” he was asking one of his companions. ”How do you guess that little varmint ever got away?”
”Better give it up as a bad job, old hayseed,” said another voice. ”She's too slick for you -- and I can't say I'm sorry, either. Way you've been goin' on here makes me think anyone'd be glad to dig out and run away from a chance to work for you.”
”Any lazy good-for-nothing like you would -- yes,” said Farmer Weeks, enraged by the taunt. ”I make anyone that gits my pay or my vittles work -- an' why shouldn't they? If you'd gone on, like I wanted you to, we'd have caught her.”
”We ain't workin' for you, an' we never will, neither,” said the other man, laughing. ”Better be careful how you start callin' us names, I can tell you. If you ain't you may go home with a few of them whiskers of your'n pulled out.”
”You shut your trap!”
”Sure! I'd rather hear you talk, anyhow. You're so elegant and refined like. Makes me sorry I never went to collidge, so's I could talk that way, too.”
They couldn't make out what Farmer Weeks replied to that. He was so angry that he just mumbled his words, and didn't get them out properly. Zara was smiling, her eyes s.h.i.+ning. But then the old farmer's voice rose loud and clear again, just as he pa.s.sed the cave.
”I'll git her yet,” he said, vindictively. ”I know what she's done, all right. She's gone traipsin' off with that pa.s.sel of gals that Paw Hoover sold his garden truck to yesterday. I heard 'em laughin' and chatterin' back there on the road where I found her. She'll go runnin' back to 'em -- and I'll show 'em, I will!”
”Aw, you're all talk and no do,” said the other man, contemptuously. ”You talk big, but you don't do a thing.”
”I'll have the law on 'em. That gal's as good as mine for the time till she's twenty-one, an' I'll show 'em whether they can run off that way with a man's property. Guess even a farmer's got some rights -- an' I can afford to pay for lawin' when I need it done.”
”I s'pose you can afford to pay us for runnin' off on this wild goose chase for you, then? Hey?”
”Not a cent -- not a cent!” they heard Farmer Weeks say, angrily. ”I ain't a-goin' to give none of my good money that I worked for to any lowdown s.h.i.+rkers like you -- hey, what are you doin' there, tryin' to trip me up?”
A chorus of laughter greeted his indignant question, but he seemed to take the hint, for the fugitives in the cave heard no more talk from him, although for some time after that the sounds in the direction the pursuers had taken on their return to the inn were plain enough.
When the last sounds had died away, and they were quite sure that they were safe, for the time, at least, Bessie got up.
”Suppose we follow this trail right up the way they went?” Bessie asked Jack. ”Where will it bring us?”
”To the top of the mountain,” said Jack. ”But if you want to go off that way I'll walk a way with you, and show you where you can strike off and come to another trail that will bring you out on the main road to Zebulon.”
”That'll be fine, Jack. If you'll do that, you'll help us ever so much, and we'll be able to get along splendidly.”
”We'd better start,” said Zara, nervously. ”I want to get away as soon as ever I can. Don't you, Bessie?”
”Indeed I do, Zara. I'm just as afraid of having Farmer Weeks catch us as you are. If he found me he'd take me back to Maw Hoover, I know. And she'd be awfully angry with me.”
”I'm all ready to start whenever you are,” announced Jack. ”Come on. It gets dark early in the woods, you know. They're mighty thick when you get further up the mountain. But if you walk along fast you'll get out of them long before it's really dark.”
So they started off. Little Jack seemed to be a thorough woodsman and to know almost every stick and stone in the path. And presently they came to a blazed tree -- a tree from which a strip of bark had been cut with a blow from an axe.
”That's my mark. I made it myself,” said Jack, proudly. ”Here's where we leave this trail. Be careful now. Look where I put my feet, and come this same way.”
Then he struck off the trail, and into the deep woods themselves where the moss and the carpet of dead leaves deadened their footsteps. Although the sun was still high, the trees were so thick that the light that came down to them was that of twilight, and Zara shuddered.
”I'd hate to be lost in these woods,” she said.
Then, abruptly, they were on another trail. Jack had been a true guide.
”You can't lose your way now,” he said. ”Keep to the trail and go straight ahead.”
”Good-bye, Jack,” said Bessie. ”You're just as true and brave as any of the knights you ever read about, and if you keep on like this you'll be a great man when you grow up -- as great as your father. Good-bye!”
”Good-bye and thank you ever so much,” called Zara.
”Come again!” said Jack, and stood there until they were out of sight.
It was not long before they came out near the main road, and now Zara gave a joyful cry.
”Oh, I'm so glad to be here!” she exclaimed. ”Those woods frightened me, Bessie. They were so dark and gloomy. And it's so good to see the sun again, and the fields and the blue sky!”
Bessie looked about her curiously, as she strove to get her bearings. Then her face cleared.
”I know where we are now,” she said. ”We're still quite a little distance from where we stopped for lunch and Farmer Weeks got hold of you, Zara. We'll have to go up the road. You see, it brought us quite a little out of our direct way -- going back in the woods as we did. But it was worth it -- to get away from Farmer Weeks.”
”I should think it was!” said Zara. ”I'd walk on my hands for a mile to be free from him. He was awful. He drove up just as I got down to the road, and as soon as I saw him I started to run. But I was so frightened that my knees shook, and he jumped out and caught me.”
”What did he say to you?”
”Oh, everything! He said he could have me put in prison for running away, and he asked me where you were, but I wouldn't say a thing. I wouldn't even answer him when he asked me if I'd seen you. And he said that when I came to work for him, he'd see that I got over my laziness and my notions.”
”Well, you're free of him now, Zara. Oh!”
”What is it, Bessie?”
”Zara, don't you remember what he said? That he'd find us through the Camp Fire Girls? He knows about them! If we go right back to them now, we may be walking right into his arms. Oh, how I wish I could get hold of Miss Eleanor -- of Wanaka!”
They stared at one another in consternation.
CHAPTER IX.
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