Part 2 (1/2)
CHAPTER II
MISS ELTING'S MYSTERIOUS CALLER
”Come back here!” shouted the guide. Harriet halted. She hesitated at sight of the black shadows there rather than at the command. She distinctly heard some one floundering over a high board fence that shut in the rear yard of the store and post-office. Ja.n.u.s's hand was on her arm.
”Well, I swum!” he exclaimed.
”Oh, that's too bad. He got away,” cried Harriet ruefully. ”I was too slow. I could have caught him just as well as not, had I not been so stupid as to wait.”
Harriet and the guide walked to where her companions were standing, not certain what they ought to do, not quite sure what had occurred.
”This one's all right,” chuckled Ja.n.u.s. ”She's got the s.p.u.n.k, but she needs watching. She'll get the whole outfit in trouble. Tell me about it,” he concluded, turning to Harriet.
”You saw it, sir?” asked Harriet quickly.
”I didn't see anything,” returned the guide. ”The man was standing on the spot where you are standing at this moment. He was listening to what we were saying, but for what reason I can't imagine. I made the mistake of calling to you. I shouldn't have done that. When you started for him he disappeared.”
”Yes, we saw him; then we did not,” added Miss Elting.
”You didn't stop to think. You were too excited, and, besides, I was nearer to the man than were the rest of you girls. He simply dropped down on all fours and ran off the porch like a dog or a cat.”
”Well, I swum!” muttered the guide.
”Mr. Grubb, I don't like this,” declared the guardian severely.
”Neither do I, Miss,” he replied in a tone that made the girls laugh.
”I am not certain what I ought to do, Mr. Grubb,” continued Miss Elting. ”If it means that my girls are to be annoyed and disturbed, we shall be obliged to look for another guide. You know I have a personal responsibility in this matter. I shall have to think it over. Unless you can give me reasonable a.s.surance that these incidents will not be repeated, then I shall have to make some different arrangements. You will please send the luggage to the hotel as suggested. I will see you early in the morning, at any rate. Come, girls.”
Ja.n.u.s, somewhat downcast and very thoughtful, led the way to the Compton House, a short distance down the street from the post-office and grocery store. The girls began talking almost as soon as they had left the store porch.
”Please, please don't discharge him,” begged Hazel. ”He is such a nice man.”
”And thuch nithe whithkerth,” added Grace Thompson. ”He lookth jutht like an uncle of mine, who----”
”I agree with the girls, Miss Elting,” interjected Harriet. ”We are able to take care of ourselves. Perhaps this is simply another crazy man, of whom we shall be rid as soon as we leave the village for the mountains in the morning. Please don't dismiss Mr. Grubb.”
”I shall have to think this matter over,” was the guardian's grave reply. ”We do not care to repeat last summer's experience. You remember what came of relying on the a.s.surance of a stranger.” Miss Elting referred to the manner in which they had been tricked by the man who had charge of her brother's houseboat the previous summer, and whose treachery had caused them so much annoyance.
None of the Meadow-Brook Girls made reply. They were as fully puzzled in this respect as was their guardian. Miss Elting, however, pondered over the mystery all the way to the hotel. They found the Compton House a very comfortable country hotel, rather more so than some others of which they had had experience during their previous journeys.
Arriving at the hotel, they hurriedly prepared for supper, for they were late and the other guests of the house had eaten and left the dining room before the Meadow-Brook Girls had even entered the hotel.
By the time supper was finished, their luggage had come over from the station. Ja.n.u.s Grubb, went home, not a little troubled as well as mystified by the occurrences of the evening. Who the man could possibly be he had not the remotest idea. He tried to recall who of his acquaintances might be guilty of playing such a joke on him. To the mind of Ja.n.u.s the incident could have been only a prank, though he questioned the good taste of any such interference between himself and his customers.
On the contrary, Miss Elting and her young charges attached more serious meaning to the performances of the man who had regarded them through green goggles. They regarded the incident with suspicion and agreed to proceed only with the utmost caution.
None of the readers of this series need an introduction to Harriet Burrell and her three friends, who figured so prominently in ”THE MEADOW-BROOK GIRLS UNDER CANVAS.” It was in this narrative that the four chums made their first expedition into the Pocono woods and for several happy weeks were members of Camp Wau-Wau, a campfire a.s.sociation of which the girls became loyal members. At the end of their stay in camp they decided to walk to their home town, sending their camping outfit on ahead.
The story of their journey home on foot was told in the second volume, ”THE MEADOW-BROOK GIRLS ACROSS COUNTRY,” in which an Italian and his dancing bear, a campful of gipsies and a band of marauding tramps furnished much of the excitement. Then, too, the friendly aid and rivalries of a camp of boys known as the Tramp Club furnished many enjoyable situations.