Part 21 (1/2)

Mrs. Irving had refused absolutely to let any of the girls even so much as help with this lunch, saying they must stay outside and visit with the boys on this momentous occasion.

”Since you are convinced that this thing is not a ghost,” Will went on, while appetizing odors began to waft toward them from the open kitchen windows, ”we will take it for granted that it is a man, and a man who has, presumably, lost his mind.”

”A crazy man,” murmured Betty. ”Worse and worse--and more of it.”

”Girls,” cried Amy, jumping suddenly to her feet, ”I have an idea.”

”Impossible!” drawled Grace.

”Why,” went on Amy, unheeding Grace's remark and growing visibly more excited as she talked, ”you know, Professor Dempsey went crazy--or at least we supposed he did--and ran away into the woods. Now since Will thinks this man is crazy too, why, they may be one and the same--”

”Amy!” cried Mollie, her eyes beginning to s.h.i.+ne as she realized the possibility of what the girl had said. ”You are a wonder, child! Why didn't any of us think of that before?”

”Because it is rather far-fetched and absurd, I suppose,” said Grace, the suggestion of a sneer in her voice bringing a quick flush to Amy's face.

”I don't see that it is so far-fetched--or absurd either,” Betty broke in quietly. ”Remember, we are only a little over fifty miles from the place where Professor Dempsey had his cottage, and it would be easy for him to wander this far.”

Here Frank broke in on behalf of the very much mystified boys.

”Before you stage the hair-pulling contest,” he said, ”would you mind telling us poor benighted males what it is all about?”

So the girls told them all about Professor Dempsey, and while they talked the boys became more and more excited. Finally Will could keep quiet no longer.

”Say,” he asked, leaning forward, ”did the two sons of the cracked old professor happen to bear the names of James and Arnold?”

The girls gaped at him. ”Yes,” they breathed. ”How did you know?”

”Because,” said Will, ”those very same fellows were in our regiment. In fact, I was beside Arnold when he was wounded in that last engagement.

Strange thing that James was wounded at the same time.”

”Wounded?” repeated Betty, who like all the girls was feeling rather dazed at this new development. ”Then they weren't killed?”

”Not a bit of it,” Will replied vehemently. ”Why, even their wounds weren't serious enough to lay them up for long. The last I heard of them they were coming over on a hospital s.h.i.+p and expected to be here almost as soon as we were. For all I know, they may have landed by this time.”

”Oh,” said Amy, still too dazed to take it all in. ”Then all this time we have thought of them as dead, they were alive--”

”Very much so,” said Will, with a grin, ”and probably kicking too--just like us!”

Chapter XXI

Out of the Dark

It took the Outdoor Girls a moment or two to digest this rather startling information. And when it did finally seep into their consciousness, their first feeling was one of joy for the poor professor whose sons would be restored to him after all.

But quick on the heels of this thought came another. How could the sons be restored to their father, if the father were nowhere to be found?

”You say the old chap skipped out, decamped?” Will broke in on their meditations. ”That sort of complicates matters, doesn't it?”