BROTHERLY LOVE
Jake Utway woke from a restless doze as the car bumped over the rough
road behind Camp Lenape. He looked about him with sleep-sodden eyes as
the driver, Frank, drew up outside the lodge. There was a light in the
Chief’s office, and the Chief himself must have heard the noise of their
motor, for he appeared at once, holding up a lantern so that he could
see the newcomers.
His face lighted up as he saw Jake, huddled in the back of the machine
beside the warden of Elmville.
“Well, there you are at last!” he exclaimed with a sigh of relief.
“Jerry has been in bed for an hour, and I stayed up on the chance that I
might hear something of you. Now that you’re really here, I admit that a
big load is off my mind.” He turned to the warden. “I don’t know how to
thank you, sir, for picking up the boys as you have done. I’m sorry that
two Lenape fellows have caused you so much trouble.”
“No trouble!” cried the warden genially. “Now, let’s not keep young Jake
here away from his bed any longer with all our talk. He’s earned a good
night’s sleep.”
“That so? Well, hop along, Jake. We’ll talk this over with you and your
brother in the morning.”
The words sounded ominous, but Jake was too tired to worry about what
the morning would bring. He stumbled off toward Tent Ten, hardly aware
of what he was doing; but as he left, he heard the Chief invite the two
men into the lodge for a cup of coffee, and the three of them
disappeared into the building talking together in confidential tones.
Jake fell like a log upon his bunk, without taking off any of his
stained garments; but Mr. Avery was awake, and soon tucked the worn-out
boy between his blankets.
The next morning, after breakfast, the Utway twins stood outside the
door of the Chief’s office with beating hearts. They had not been given
any chance to speak to each other since their separate returns to camp
late the previous night; and now that they were back in the familiar
scenes of Lenape, their wild adventure seemed like a mad dream. How
could they have run away from camp without thinking of the worry and
trouble that this disobedient act would cause their leaders and the
Chief?
Jerry knocked shakily upon the door. At the call of “Come in!” the two
culprits entered the office and stood waiting for judgment.
They could not read the look on the Chief’s face as he stood regarding
them quizzically. “We-ell!” he said slowly, and paused.
“We—we’re sorry, Chief!” blurted out Jerry. “We didn’t think about
making a lot of trouble for you and our leaders. We just wanted to
help—— But I guess it’s no use trying to tell how we felt about it.”
“Do you think you did right in leaving Lenape without telling anybody?”
Jerry shook his head miserably.
“What about you, Jake?”
“I’m sorry too, Chief. We thought we were helping Burk, but maybe we
were wrong. When you put it up to us that way, it makes us feel as if
we—we——”
The man nodded. “I could talk to you for an hour about camp discipline,
and it wouldn’t mean as much to you as those words of yours mean, boys.
Your own consciences are better judges than I could ever hope to be. And
I won’t say that you didn’t have some excuse. As things have turned out,
no harm has been done, luckily for you.”
The Chief tapped with a pencil on his desk for an instant, and then
began speaking softly, almost to himself.
“I talked with the warden last night after you went to bed, Jake. And he
said several things about you boys which I won’t repeat; but he made me
see that Lenape hasn’t done all it might do for you two. From now on, I
shall expect you to use all your extra energy in being better campers.
You both have lots of pep, and in Burk’s case your efforts turned out to
be of great value. Keep on putting that pep to work to help the other
fellow at Lenape! You know how to do it.”
He rose with a smile, and held out his hand. The twins straightened, and
looked their leader full in the eyes. “Thanks, Chief,” said Jerry
huskily. “We’ll try.”
“We sure will!” added Jake.
Silently the Chief took their hands, and gave each a hearty grip.
“Oh, by the way, boys,” he said, as they turned to go, “I have some news
for you. Last night the warden told me some things about this fellow
Burk that interested me a lot. When he’s free again, as he should be if
the warden means what he says, I shouldn’t be surprised if I could find
a job around camp where Burk might be of use.”
Jake and Jerry Utway held back their feelings until they were almost out
on the porch. Then they broke loose.
“Hurray for Chief!” they shouted. “Yay, Chief! Yay, Lenape!”
The hospital tent was full to overflowing with laughing boys. In the
midst of them, clad in pajamas, Sherlock Jones sat up in a comfortable
white bed, leaning back on his pillows with sparkling eyes. Now and then
he paused in his talk to blow his long nose resoundingly, but otherwise
seemed none the worse for his adventure on the mountain and his wetting
in the brook when the hounds were on his trail. He was the center of
interest, and it was plain to be seen that he was enjoying his brief
moment in the limelight of fame.
About him sat or stood all the members of the Tent Ten group, and a
number of other boys who listened joyously to his tale. Chink Towner and
Wild Willie Sanders perched at the foot of his bed; Fat Crampton, with
wide eyes and open mouth, hung upon his words; Steve Link was there, and
Sunfish Linder, and Spaghetti Megaro, and many others.
“And were you scared when those big bloodhounds jumped up at the tree
and tried to get you?” piped up little Pete Lister.
“Say, I hung on and said my prayers!” answered Sherlock amid laughter.
“But pretty soon along came a man named Harris, and he chained ’em up,
and after that it was all right.”
“But how did Jake and the man get away so quick?” asked Soapy Mullins.
“You’ll have to ask him that.”
“I tried to ask him this morning,” put in Lefkowitz, “but he wouldn’t
tell me a thing. But he came to camp real late last night; I was awake
and saw him get here.”
“We’ll know all about it pretty soon,” observed Gil Shelton, who was
sitting on the steps of the tent. “Here they both come now, up from the
lodge. Guess they want to see you, Sherlock.”
Sherlock drew forth his handkerchief. “I used to think I was some
punkins as a detective,” he announced, “but I’ll say right here that the
Utway twins have got it all over me when it comes to solving mysteries.
From now on, I resign! A thousand mysteries can happen around this camp,
and I won’t lift my little finger!”
A low cheer broke forth as the two brothers stepped into the shadow of
the tent-house. “Yay, Jake! Yay, Jerry!”
Jake grinned. “Hello, Sherlock, old boy! How have you been since I last
saw you? Get down that tree all right?”
Sherlock smiled back. “I’m all right. How are you two?”
“We’re cinders,” announced Jerry. “We’ve just been listening to the
Chief, and boy, we’re never going to run away from camp again! From now
on, I’m going to be the best little boy you ever saw. And I really mean
it. I felt like a penny waiting for change after the Chief got through
talking. Man, I’d sooner get pinched by the cops ten times, than have
the Chief look at me like that again!”
“You said it,” added Jake. “I’d rather get shot at ten times than feel
as low as I did just now. But the Chief is one grand fellow. He made us
see how wrong we were to run away from Lenape the way we did, but he
knew what really happened, and said he hoped Burk would get his pardon
soon, and that he’d find a job around camp for Burk to do when he got
out!”
“But what did happen?”
“How did Burk get caught?”
“Where were you all the time?”
Questions rose from a dozen clamorous throats, and the crowd of excited
campers closed in about the two brothers.
“Well,” said Jerry slowly, “it’ll take a long time to tell. We were only
away from camp for one day, but boy, what a day!”
“It seemed like a hundred years!” agreed Jake. “And say, wasn’t that
farmer kid surprised when we drove up last night and I gave him back his
bicycle! Guess he thought he had my mackinaw for keeps!”
“That reminds me,” said Jerry. “I’ll have to write to that storekeeper
down at Wallistown to send mine back. But you fellows will have to get
Jake to tell the story. He’s the one that did everything, and got to
Canoe Mountain. I got nabbed before we were half-way there.”
“Yeah!” said Jake scornfully. “I wouldn’t have got very far if you
hadn’t seen us in the gypsy flivver, and hadn’t thrown away the keys to
the warden’s car. And it was your idea for us to go to Canoe Mountain in
the first place.”
“That wasn’t anything. But I call it real smart of you to figure out
that Burk had stowed away those pearls in his mattress!”
“Listen, Jerry Utway!” said Jake, and there was a glint in his bright
blue eyes. “We found Burk together, and we never could have put it
across if we hadn’t been working together all the time. Sherlock here
helped a lot, too, although he didn’t know it. Now, for goodness sake,
nail up that trap of yours until you can say something with some sense
to it!”
“I will not!” answered Jerry stoutly. “You’re a hero, that’s what you
are—a bloomin’ hero!”
“I’m not! Don’t call me names! Take that back!”
“You are, too! I won’t take it back. You’re a bloomin’ hero!”
Jake seized a heavy hot-water bottle that lay at the foot of Sherlock’s
bed, and wielded it threateningly. The circle of boys widened about the
two brothers, and laughing campers nudged each other and winked. For
almost a week now, the Utway twins had been strangely peaceable. They
had been driven by the mystery that had surrounded Camp Lenape to join
forces and forget their brotherly strife in a common cause and in the
face of a common danger. But now that they were back home again at
Lenape, a friendly little battle might clear the air, make them feel
themselves once more.
“That’s the boy, Jake!” urged Chink Towner. “Give him the works!”
“Key down, you Chinaman!” cried Jake. “I know what I’m doing.” Again he
wielded the hot-water bottle menacingly, hefting it as if on the point
of hurling it full at his brother. “Now, Jerry, you take that back!”
“You’re a hero, a bloomin’ hero!” chanted Jerry, tauntingly.
“And you’re another!”
“And you’re his brother!”
Sherlock Jones flashed a mock-terrified glance at the two embattled
brothers.
“Help!” he cried, and slid down into the bed, pulling the covers
protectingly over his head. “The Utway twins are at it again!”
THE END
Transcriber’s Notes
--Copyright notice provided as in the original—this e-text is public
domain in the country of publication.
--Silently corrected palpable typos; left non-standard spellings and
dialect unchanged.
--In the text versions, delimited italics text in _underscores_ (the
HTML version reproduces the font form of the printed book.)
End of Project Gutenberg's The Mystery at Camp Lenape, by Carl Saxon