A FRIEND IN TROUBLE
The next morning Eleanor Mercer, summoned from the group of girls with
whom she was discussing some details of the coming contest with the Boy
Scouts by the appearance of a man who had rowed up to the little
landing stage, accompanied by one of the guides, old Andrew, called
Bessie King and Dolly Ransom to her with a grave face.
"This is Deputy Sheriff Rogers, from Hamilton," she explained. "He
says that you must go there today to testify against those gypsies."
"Sorry, ma'am, if it's awkward jest now," said the officer. "But law's
law, and orders is orders."
"Oh, we understand that perfectly, Mr. Rogers," said Eleanor. "You
have to do your duty, and of course we are anxious to see that the law
is properly enforced. Don't think we're complaining. But I will admit
I am nervous."
"Nervous, ma'am? Why, there ain't nothin' to be nervous about!"
"I hope you're right, Mr. Rogers. But there are things back of this
attempt to kidnap my two girls here that haven't come out at all yet.
I don't suppose you've heard of them. And it's been suggested to me
that it might not be quite safe for them at Hamilton."
The deputy sheriff laughed heartily at that.
"Safe?" he said. "Well, I should some guess they'll be safe down
there! Sheriff Blaine--he's my boss, ma'am, you see--would jest about
rip the hide off of anyone who tried to tech them young ladies while
they was there obeyin' the orders of the court. Don't you worry none.
We'll look after them all right enough."
"As long as you know that there may be some danger, I shall be
relieved, and feel that everything is all right," said Eleanor,
pleasantly. "It's when we're not expecting their blows that the people
we are afraid of have been able to strike at us successfully. There is
a Mr. Holmes--"
"I know him well, if it's Mr. Holmes, the big storekeeper from the city
you mean, ma'am," interrupted Rogers. "Say, if he's a friend of yours,
you can be sure you'll be looked after all right down to Hamilton. We
think a sight of him down there. He's a fine man, m'am; yes, indeed, a
fine man!"
Eleanor looked startled, and only Bessie's quick pinch of her arm
prevented Dolly from crying out in surprise and disgust. Knowing what
they did of the treachery and meanness of Holmes, this praise of him
was disturbing to a degree. But Eleanor never changed countenance.
She understood, as if by some instinct, that this was a time for
keeping her own counsel.
"I shall go to Hamilton with you," said Eleanor, decidedly. "Will you
be able to wait a little while, Mr. Rogers, while we get ready?"
"Surely, ma'am," said Rogers. "We want to get the train that goes down
from the station here at noon, and that gives us lots of time. If we
start two hours from now we'll catch it, with time to spare."
"Then if you'll sit down and make yourself comfortable," she said,
"we'll be ready when it's time to start."
As soon as Rogers had taken himself off, Eleanor called the girls
together in her own tent.
"I feel that it is my duty to be with Bessie and Dolly at Hamilton,"
she explained. "And, because I rather foresaw this, I have arranged
for a friend of mine to come over here and take my place as Guardian at
short notice. She is Miss Drew--Miss Anna Drew--and some of you must
have met her in the city. She has had plenty of experience as a Camp
Fire Guardian, and you'll all like her, I know.
"Please make it as easy for her as possible. Do just as she tells you,
even if she doesn't have the same way of doing everything that I have.
I'll get back as soon as I can, and I want you to have a good time
while we're gone."
"We'll see that she doesn't have any trouble, Wanaka," said Margery
Burton loyally. "She'll find that this Camp Fire can behave itself,
all right!"
"Thanks! I knew I could count on all of you," said Eleanor. "Now I'm
going to send her a note by Andrew. Her people own some of this land,
and she happens to be in their camp at one of the other lakes, so that
she'll be able to get here before we go if she starts at once."
Andrew was quite ready to carry the note, and went off while Eleanor
and the two girls made the simple preparations that were necessary for
their trip.
"I'm so glad you didn't say anything when the deputy sheriff spoke that
way of Mr. Holmes," she said to Bessie and Dolly. "I was afraid one of
you would cry out and I really couldn't have blamed you if you had."
"I would have--I was just going to," said Dolly honestly, "but Bessie
pinched me, so I shut up, though I couldn't see why. I still think he
ought to know that this man he seems to think so much of is the very
one they ought to watch most carefully if they really want to make sure
that we don't get into any trouble while we're going down there."
"The trouble is that he wouldn't believe it, Dolly, and it would simply
discredit us with him and all the other authorities at Hamilton, so
that they wouldn't believe us when we had something to tell them that
we were sure was true."
"But we're sure that Mr. Holmes was behind this gypsy. We've got the
letter he wrote to him to prove it!"
"Yes, but Mr. Jamieson doesn't want anyone to know we have that letter
until the proper time comes. He wants to catch Mr. Holmes in a trap if
he possibly can, so that he'll be harmless after this. You can see
what a good thing that would be."
"Oh, yes. I never thought of that! He doesn't want to put him on his
guard, you mean?"
"Just exactly that, Dolly. You see, if Mr. Holmes thinks we don't
suspect him, it's possible that he may betray himself in some fashion.
He'll feel sure that this man John hasn't betrayed him, and if he
thinks we don't know anything about the part he had in this kidnapping
plan, he may try to do something, else that will get him into serious
trouble.
"And we've got to move very slowly and very carefully, because it's
quite plain that he has a lot of friends at Hamilton and that they
won't believe anything against him, no matter how serious it may be,
unless they get absolute proof."
"Oh, I do hope Mr. Jamieson will be able to catch him this time! I'd
feel ever so much better about Bessie and Zara if I knew that they
didn't need to be afraid of him any longer."
"So would I, Dolly, and so would Mr. Jamieson. It's this man who is
worrying us more than all the other enemies Bessie and Zara have, put
together."
"Because he's so rich?"
"Partly that, and because he's so clever, too. And if all I hear about
him is true, the more he is beaten, the more dangerous he becomes. He
doesn't like to be beaten, and it makes him so angry that he takes all
sorts of chances, and does the wildest, most desperate things to get
even. They say he was very unfair to a lot of small shopkeepers in the
city when he was building up his big store."
"How do you mean, Miss Eleanor?"
"Why, he did everything he could to make them sell out to him for a
small price, and, if they wouldn't do it, he did his best to ruin their
business. He would circulate false stories about them, and he used his
influence with the police and the city authorities to make all sorts of
trouble for them.
"Then he would open a store next door to them, sometimes, and sell
everything they did cheaper, at a loss, so that people would stop
buying from them. You see, he could afford to lose money doing that,
because he knew that if he once got them out of the way, he could put
prices up again, and get his money back."
"You didn't know all that the day after Zara was taken away, did you,
Miss Eleanor?" asked Bessie. "Don't you remember how you laughed at me
then for saying I didn't like him, and that I thought he might be mixed
up in Zara's disappearance?"
"Yes, I do remember it very well, Bessie. I've often thought what a
good thing it was that your eyes were so sharp, and that you suspected
him even when all the rest of us thought he was all right. If it
hadn't been for that, Mr. Jamieson would never have looked up the
records that gave him the clue to where Mr. Holmes had hidden Zara."
"I think Bessie would make a pretty good detective," said Dolly. "They
do have women detectives now, don't they? And she seems to be able to
tell from looking at people whether they can be trusted or not."
Bessie laughed heartily at that suggestion.
"I can't do anything of the sort," she said. "And, even if I could, I
wouldn't be a detective, Dolly. The trouble with you is that you read
too many novels. You think people behave in real life just the way the
people in the books you read do, and they don't."
The return of old Andrew, the guide, who had rowed across the lake on
his return from carrying Eleanor's note to Miss Drew, was the signal to
complete the preparations for departure.
"I caught her, all right, Miss Eleanor," said Andrew. "Says she won't
be able to come over here till after lunch, but she'll be right over
then with a bundle of sticks to keep the young ladies in order till you
get back yourself."
"Good!" laughed Eleanor. "That's all right, then, and I can leave here
with a clear conscience. Andrew, you'll sort of keep an eye on things
till I get back, won't you?"
"Leave it to me, ma'am," said Andrew. "Say, me and some of the boys
was thinking maybe you'd like to have some of us turn up, sort of
casual like, down at Hamilton?"
"Why, it's very good of you, Andrew, but I don't believe we'll need any
help from you, thanks."
"You can't always sometimes tell," said Andrew, sagely. "Now, this
here Rogers is a good fellow enough, but obstinate as a mule, and the
sheriff might be his twin brother for that. They're birds of a
feather, see? And onct they get it into their heads that a thing's so,
there ain't nothin' I know of, short of a stick of dynamite, will make
them change their minds. So we thought that mebbe it wouldn't be a bad
idea to have some of us within call."
"I'll let you know if we need any help, Andrew," promised Eleanor.
"And it's very good of you to offer to come. But Mr. Jamieson will be
there--you know him, don't you?"
"Mister Charlie? Indeed I do, ma'am, and a fine young chap he is, too.
I've often hunted with him through these woods up here. If he's goin'
to look after the law part of this for you, you'll have a good chance
to beat them sharks down there. Some pretty smart lawyers there at
Hamilton, they tell me, ma'am. I ain't never been to law myself. Any
time I get into a fight I can't settle with my tongue, I use my hands.
Cheaper, and better, too, in the long run."
"It's the old-fashioned way, Andrew. Most people can't settle their
troubles so easily. Well, you'll row us to the end of the lake, I
suppose?"
"Get right in, ma'am! Might as well start, so's you can take it easy
on the trail. Not a bit of use hurryin' when there ain't no need of
it, I say. There's lots of times when it can't be helped, without
lookin' for a chance."
So, with the strains of the Wo-he-lo cheer rising from the girls who
were left behind, they started in the boat for the first stage of the
short journey to Hamilton.
Andrew insisted on going with them as far as the station, and as the
train pulled out, they heard his cheery voice.
"Now, remember if you need me or any of the boys, all you've got to do
is to send us word, and we'll find a way to get there a bit quicker
than we're expected," he cried. "Ain't nothin' we wouldn't do for you
and the young ladies, Miss Eleanor!"
"You leave them to us, old timer," Rogers called back from the car
window. "We'll guarantee to return them, safe and sound. And it won't
take any long time, neither. There's a good case against that sneaking
gypsy, and we'll have him on his way to the penitentiary in two shakes
of a lamb's tail."
"If you don't, I'll vote for another sheriff next election," vowed
Andrew, "if I have to vote a Demmycratic ticket to do it, and that's
somethin' I ain't done--not since I was old enough to vote."
Rogers was reassuring enough in his speech and manner, but Eleanor had
a presentiment of evil; a foreboding that something was wrong.
The railroad trip to Hamilton was not a long one, and within two hours
of the time they had left Long Lake the brakeman called out the name of
the county seat. Eleanor and the two girls, with Rogers carrying their
bags, moved to the door, and, as they reached the ground, looked about
eagerly for Jamieson.
He was nowhere to be seen. But Holmes was there, avoiding their eyes,
but with a grin of malicious triumph that worried Eleanor. And Rogers,
a moment after he had left them to speak to a friend, returned, his
face grave.
"I hear your friend Mr. Jamieson is arrested," he said.