The in the Mountains Part 10 (1/2)
And, sure enough, as soon as they reached the camp, Dolly marched up to Miss Eleanor, who was sitting by herself on the porch, and told her the whole story.
”And was Bessie in this too?” asked Eleanor, trying to look stern, but failing.
”No, she was not. She didn't know what I was going to do at all. She just followed to see that I didn't get into any trouble. And I'd have been caught if she hadn't been there.”
”I--I'm sorry you did it, Dolly,” said Eleanor, almost hysterically. She was trying to suppress the laughter that she was shaking with, but it was hard work. ”Still, I don't believe I'll scold you very much. Now you've got even with them for all the things they've done--more than even, if the screams I heard mean anything. We didn't know what was up.”
”Not exactly what was up,” said Margery, who had overheard part of the conversation, ”but we knew who was up as soon as we found you were gone, Dolly.”
Margery looked at Miss Eleanor, then she choked, and left the porch hurriedly. And the next moment roars of laughter came from the other girls, as Margery told them the story.
”But I'm glad you've told me all about it, Dolly,” said Eleanor. ”I don't mind saying that I think you had a good deal of excuse--but do try to let things work out by themselves after this. The chances are you've only made them hate us more than ever, and they will feel that it's a point of honor now to get even with us for this. All the girls will have to suffer for what you did.”
Even as she spoke, Bessie saw two or three figures approaching from the direction of the other camp, and a shrill voice was raised.
”There she is, Miss Brown. She's the one who's supposed to look after them.”
Gladys Cooper was the speaker, but as soon as she saw Eleanor look around she dropped back, leaving a woman whose manner was timid and nervous, and whose voice showed that she had little spirit, to advance alone.
”Miss Mercer?” she said, inquiringly, to Eleanor. ”I am Miss Brown, and I have been left in charge of Miss Halsted's Camp this summer while she is away. She is ill. I am one of the teachers in her school--”
”Sit down, Miss Brown,” said Eleanor, kindly. One look at poor Miss Brown explained the conduct of the girls in her care. She was one of those timid, nervous women who can never be expected to control anyone, much less a group of healthy, mischievous girls in need of a strong, restraining hand.
”I'm--really very sorry--I don't like--but I feel it is my duty--to speak to you, Miss Mercer,” stammered Miss Brown. ”The fact is--the young ladies seem to think it was one of your Camp Fire Girls who let loose a--number of mice in our boathouse this evening.”
”I'm afraid it was, Miss Brown,” said Eleanor, gravely. ”And I need hardly say that I regret it. I naturally do not approve of anything of the sort. But your girls have themselves to blame to a certain extent.”
”Why, I don't see how that can be!” said Miss Brown, looking bewildered.
”Now, Miss Brown, honestly, and just between us, haven't they made your life a burden for you ever since you've been here with them alone? Let me tell you what they've done since we've been here.”
And calmly and without anger, Eleanor told the teacher of the various methods of making themselves unpleasant that the girls in the camp had adopted since the coming of the Camp Fire Girls. She raised her voice purposely when she came to the end.
”Now, mind, I don't approve of this joke with the mice,” she said. ”But I do think it would be more plucky if your girls, after starting all the trouble and making themselves as hateful as they possibly could, had kept quiet when the tables were turned. When they worried us, we didn't go over to make a complaint about them. I must say I am disappointed in those of your girls whom I happen to know, like Gladys Cooper. I thought she was a lady.”
There was a furious cry from the darkness beyond the porch, and the next instant Gladys herself was in front of Eleanor, with tears of rage in her eyes.
”You shan't say I'm not a lady,” she cried. ”I don't care if you are Miss Mercer! We don't want your horrid charity girls up here, and we tried to make them understand it--”
”Stop!” said Eleanor, sternly. ”Listen to me, Gladys! I like your mother, and I'm sorry to see you acting in such a way. What do you mean by charity girls?”
”They haven't got the money to come up here,” stammered Gladys.
”It hasn't been given to them, if you mean that,” said Eleanor. ”We don't believe in idle, useless girls in the Camp Fire. And every girl here, even those like Dolly Ransom, who could have got the money at home very easily, have earned all their expenses for this vacation, except two who didn't have time, and are here as my guests. Don't talk about charity. They have a better right to be here than you have. Now go away, and if you don't want to have unpleasant things happen to you, don't do unpleasant things to other people.”
Quite cowed by the sudden anger in Eleanor's voice, Gladys didn't hesitate. And Miss Brown, before she left the porch, looked wistfully at Eleanor.
”I wish I had your courage, my dear,” she whispered. ”That served Gladys right, but if I spoke so to her, I should lose my position.”
”Well, I suppose it wasn't a nice thing to do,” said Dolly, as she and Bessie prepared for bed that night. ”But I really do think we won't have any more trouble. I think Gladys and the rest of them have learned a lesson.”
”I hope so, Dolly,” said Bessie. ”I wouldn't have done it myself, but I really am beginning to think that maybe it was the best thing that could have happened. Thunderstorms clear the air sometimes; perhaps this will have the same effect.”
It was well after midnight when the girls were awakened by loud knocking below.
”Oh, that's some trick of theirs,” said Dolly, sleepily, and turned over again.
But a few minutes later Eleanor's voice, calling them, took them downstairs in a hurry. They found her talking to Miss Brown, who was in tears.
”Girls,” said Eleanor, ”Gladys Cooper and another girl are lost, and they must be out on the mountain. It's turned very cold. Shall we help find them? We haven't been friends, but remember what Wo-he-lo means!”
CHAPTER XV.
COALS OF FIRE.
There wasn't a single dissenting voice. Once they knew what was required, the girls rushed at once to their rooms to dress, and within ten minutes they were all a.s.sembled on the porch. Mingled with them were most of the girls from Miss Halsted's camp, thoroughly frightened and much distressed, and evidently entirely forgetful of the trouble that had existed as late as that evening between the two camps.
”Now, I'll tell you very quickly what the situation is,” said Eleanor. ”Don't mind asking questions, but make them short. It seems that some of the other girls over there were angry at Gladys when they got back there after Miss Brown came here to see me. And they told her she had been wrong in setting them against us.”
”I knew she was the one who had done it!” Dolly whispered to Bessie.
”She and one other girl, Marcia Bates, were great chums, and they got angry. They said they wouldn't stay to be abused--isn't that right, Miss Brown?--and they decided to go for a walk in the woods back of the lake here.”
”They've often done it before,” said Miss Brown. ”I thought it was all right and they would have gone, anyhow, even if I'd told them not to do it.”
”When they started,” Eleanor went on, ”the moon was up, and there were plenty of stars, so that they should have been able to find their way back easily, guided by the moon or by the Big Bear--the Dipper. But it's clouded up since then and it's begun to rain. The wind has changed, too, and they might easily have lost themselves.”
”Wouldn't they be on a regular trail?” asked Margery Burton.
”There aren't any regular trails back here,” spoke up one of the girls from the Halsted camp. ”There are just a lot of little paths that criss-cross back and forth, and keep on getting mixed up. It's hard enough to find your way in daylight.”
”They have sent for guides from the big hotel at the head of the lake,” said Eleanor. ”They will get here as soon as they can, and a few men are out searching already. But I think the best thing for us to do is to organize a regular patrol. We'll beat up the mountain quickly, and pretty well together, in a long line, so that there won't be more than a hundred feet between any two of us. Then when we get to the ridge about half way up we'll start back, and cover the ground more carefully, if we haven't found them.”
”Why won't we go beyond the ridge?” asked Dolly.
”We'll leave that part to the men. I think myself that it's most unlikely they would go beyond that. I've had our guides here make up a whole lot of resinous torches. They'll burn very brightly, and for a long time, and each of us will take as many as she can carry, about fifteen or twenty.
”And I've made up a lot of little first-aid packages, in case one of the girls is hurt, or has twisted her ankle. That may be the reason they're out so late. When we start to come back we'll break up in twos, and each pair will go back and forth, instead of coming straight down, so that we'll cover the whole side of the mountain.”
”How shall we know if we find them?” asked Bessie. ”I mean how will the others know?”
”I've got one horn for every two of us,” said Eleanor. ”One toot won't mean anything, just that we're keeping in touch. But whoever finds them is to blow five or six times, very close together. It's very still in the woods, and a signal like that can be heard even when you're a long way from it.”
”Can't some of us go and help, Miss Mercer?” asked one of the Halsted girls, the one, incidentally, who had been the ruling spirit in the trick to spoil the pleasures of swimming for the Camp Fire Girls.
”I think you better stay at home, and get a lot of good hot coffee or broth or something ready for them when they get back,” said Eleanor. ”They'll need something of the sort, I can promise you. And really, I'm afraid you'd be rather useless in the woods. Our girls, you see, have to be able to find their way pretty well. You'll be more useful at home.”