THE DISAPPEARANCE
The August moon had never been more radiant, indeed it flooded the
Sunrise Camp grounds with a brightness that made it appear almost like
day. And now the regular Council Fire proceedings were over and the
Indian custom of "The Maidens' Feast" about to begin.
In a circle about a cone-shaped rock, which had been brought with
infinite difficulty to its position in the camp grounds, Miss McMurtry
and the maidens were seated, each person bearing in her lap a round
wooden bowl, while from the smoldering ashes of the Council Fire arose a
delicious odor of roasting ears of corn.
But before the feast could be eaten a ceremony of as grave importance to
the Camp Fire girls as to the Indian maidens of long ago must take
place. Each girl was to take the oath of purity and honor, and then the
maidens' song would be sung and four times they would dance around the
altar.
No one of the group of Camp Fire members and no more their guardian
really knew at first whether in this plan of Eleanor's, Mollie's and
Edith's there was any deeper motive than the entertainment of their
friends and the revival of an old Indian custom seemingly appropriate
and beautiful. But as the details unfolded themselves the suspicion in
the minds of most of them grew almost into certainty. Once or twice
Miss McMurtry had thought of stopping the proceedings altogether, but
then she did not feel satisfied that this method of the three girls for
testing the innocence or guilt of their companions was not an admirable
one. More than she would have acknowledged, since worry is not
permitted in Camp Fire rules, had Miss McMurtry puzzled over what should
be done in their present dilemma. Betty's money had certainly
disappeared and some one must have stolen it; if not Nan, then who else?
For they had had no guests since Esther and Betty returned with the
money from the village post-office.
So by the time Edith Norton, with her light hair hanging loose about her
shoulders and a circle of red about her head, stepped forth into the
center of the circle, looking unusually white and nervous, there was not
but one member of her audience who did not at least partially guess at
what was about to take place. And this was of course Polly O'Neill!
For not only did she fail to understand Betty's actual money loss and
the suspicion against Nan, but so deeply had she been involved in her
own perplexity that she had hardly been aware of anything that had taken
place that evening. Now, however, having at last made up her mind to
take Miss McMurtry into her confidence when the girls had gone to bed,
she did look up with interest at the picturesque figure of Edith.
Near the cone-shaped rock two arrows had been lightly stuck into the
ground, this forming a sort of altar to which each maiden must come,
touching first the stone and then the arrows as she declares her purity.
As she stood by the side of this altar Edith's voice trembled so that it
was with difficulty her first words could be understood. The girls who
knew pretty well what to expect understood her immediately, however, but
not Polly!
"Sorrow and much uneasiness have lately crept into our midst, my
maidens," she announced, trying to preserve a certain likeness to the
Indian speech in the form of her words, "and many of us there are who go
about heavy of heart because the sin of one of us must be the burden of
us all, until guilt is established and the innocent cleared. Some days
ago there vanished from the possession of one of us fifty dollars in
bank notes enclosed in an envelope containing no address. This money
has not been found, but the envelope has been recognized as crumpled up
and thrown away a few feet from the tent of its rightful owner. Now no
member of the Sunrise Camp can feel it possible that any one of its
members has been guilty of this sin and yet no visitor has stepped foot
within our camp limits within the time when the deed must have occurred.
Therefore have we three maidens, after deep thought, appointed this
evening wherein the innocent may declare her innocence and the wrong-doer
confess her sin. For only in confession and by the return of the
money can she ever hope to be at peace with herself. Moreover, we
believe that no Camp Fire girl will take this oath of purity without
telling the entire truth. Betty Ashton will you come forward first."
Betty jumped up quickly. During Edith's long harangue her group of
listeners had been supremely uncomfortable, so that no one of them dared
do more than barely glance at Nan, who sat with her knees up to her
chin, her eyes cast upon the ground and her black hair covering her face
like a veil. If she felt, and of course she did, that Edith's speech was
directed toward her rather than toward any other girl, neither by a
sound nor a movement did she betray it. Not even when Betty, having
finished with her part in the ceremony, deliberately forsaking her
former place in the circle came back and sitting down next her
deliberately laid her arm across Nan's bowed shoulders. There was
nothing to do or say, she would only make things worse by any protest
now, and yet Betty was bitterly grieved and offended. If Nan had done
wrong this public method of making her either confess or perjure herself
she felt to be wholly unkind.
So as Nan was in everybody's thoughts during this time no one happened
to glance toward Polly O'Neill or, seeing her, to observe anything
unusual in her manner or appearance, for Polly also neither moved nor
spoke during Edith's recital, although her face turned suddenly white.
Fifty dollars in an envelope, the money in bank notes and the envelope
crumpled up and thrown away near their tent! Her discovery in the woods
that day had been just this and she herself had thrown away that same
envelope. Betty of course had lost the enclosure out of her letter in
bringing it home from the post office and, hiding the letter away
afterwards, believed the money still there.
Why did not Polly get up and make this announcement at once? It would
have been very simple except for one thing, she had spent the money, and
in the first moment of surprised horror had no idea how she would ever
be able to return it.
Like a good many impetuous people Polly O'Neill sometimes had the
misfortune to do her thinking when it was too late. Finding the money
in the woods, when she felt she needed it so much, had seemed to her
like a miracle, so that it never occurred to her, either that afternoon
or evening, that she should have tried to find out to whom the money
rightfully belonged before using it, although she had been thinking of
little else since then. That this money should have been Betty's of all
people, and that it was now her duty to stand up and confess her mistake
before her friends.
Polly set her teeth, the circle of girls revolved before her eyes, she
had been worrying too much to be either reasonable or well. And at any
moment Edith Norton might demand that she step forward and take the oath
which was meant to proclaim that she had had nothing to do with the loss
of Betty's money. Truly she did not understand that the charge had been
directed against poor Nan, so watching her opportunity Polly slipped
away without being noticed.
When Nan Graham's name was called from the center of the circle the
silence was oppressive. But the girl rose up quietly, pushing her
coarse black hair from her face, and as quietly walked forward to the
cone-shaped rock where the two arrows were still standing fixed in the
ground. Before laying her hand on these objects, however, she stood
perfectly still for a moment, letting her accusing eyes sweep from the
face of one of her girl judges to the other and then, touching the stone
and the arrows, came back quickly to her old place. Not till then did
she betray how deeply the atmosphere of distrust and unfaith had hurt
her, but when Betty's arm came round her for the second time, she burst
into weeping, hiding her face on Betty's shoulder, and hearing her
whisper comfortingly: "I believe with all my heart that you know nothing
of my wretched money, Nan, and I beg your pardon if I even made you
think I suspected you."
Just before the time for Polly to take the oath her absence was
discovered, but not until the feast of the corn had actually begun did
Mollie and Betty go back to their tent to look for her and they did not
return for so long a time that Miss McMurtry, fearing Polly might be
ill, rose up to follow them. However, she had only gone a few steps
before the two girls joined her.
"We can't find Polly anywhere, Donna," Mollie said in an extremely
annoyed tone. "We have looked in all the tents and called and even gone
down to the pine grove. What silly mood do you suppose has overtaken
her? For the one thing mother most objects to is for Polly to wander
off alone at night. She did it once when she was a very little girl."
"Don't worry, Mollie, she is sure to be back in half a minute when she
remembers," the older woman replied.