Of course, Ruth was not at all sure that she could do anything for Sadie
Raby if she found her. Perhaps, as Helen said, she was fond of
shouldering other people's burdens.
It did seem to the girl of the Red Mill as though it were a very
dreadful thing for Sadie to be wandering about the country all alone,
and without means to feed herself, or get anything like proper shelter.
In her secret heart Ruth was thinking that _she_ might have been as wild
and neglected if Uncle Jabez, with all his crankiness, had not taken her
in and given her a home at the Red Mill.
They stopped and saw Ruth's old school teacher and then, it being past
mid-afternoon, Helen turned the headlights of the car toward home again.
As the machine slid so smoothly along the road toward the Lumano and the
Red Mill, Ruth suddenly uttered a cry and pointed ahead. A huge dog had
leaped out of a side road and stood, barring their way and barking.
"Reno! dear old fellow!" Ruth said, as Helen shut off the power. "He
knows us."
"Tom must be near, then. That's the Wilkins Corner road," Helen
observed.
As the car came to a halt and the big mastiff tried to jump in and
caress the girls with his tongue--poor fellow! he knew no better, though
Helen scolded him--Ruth stood up and shouted for her friend's twin
brother.
"Tom! Tom! A rescue! a rescue! We're being eaten up by a great
four-legged beast--get down, Reno! Oh, don't!"
She fell back in her seat, laughing merrily, and keeping the big dog off
with both hands. A cheery whistle came from the wood. Reno started and
turned to look. He had had his master back for only a day, but Tom's
word was always law to the big mastiff.
"Down, sir!" sang out Tom Cameron, and then he burst into view.
"Oh, Tom! what a sight you are!" gasped Ruth.
"My goodness me!" exclaimed his sister. "Have you been in a fight?"
"Down, Reno!" commanded her brother again. He came striding toward them.
If he had not been so disheveled, anybody could have seen that, dressed
in his sister's clothes, and she in his, one could scarcely have told
them apart. A boy and a girl never could look more alike than Tom and
Helen Cameron.
"What has happened to you?" demanded Ruth, quite as anxious as Tom's own
sister.
"Look like I'd been monkeying with the buzz-saw--eh?" he demanded, but a
little ruefully. "Say! I've had a time. If it hadn't been for Reno----"
"Why, Reno has hurt himself, too!" exclaimed Ruth, hopping out of the
car and for the first time noticing that there was a cake of partially
dried blood on the dog's shoulder.
"He isn't hurt much. And neither am I. Only my clothes torn----"
"And your face scratched!" ejaculated Helen.
"Oh--well--_that's_ nothing. That was an accident. She didn't mean to do
it."
"_Who_ didn't mean to do it? What _are_ you talking about?" screamed his
sister, at last fully aroused. "You've been in some terrible danger, Tom
Cameron."
"No, I haven't," returned Tom, beginning to grin again. "Just been
playing the chivalrous knight."
"And got his face scratched!" tittered Ruth.
"Aw--well---- Now wait! let me tell you," he began.
"Now he's going to make excuses," cried Helen. "You have gotten into
trouble, you reckless boy, and want to make light of it."
"Gee! I'd like to see _you_ make light of it," exclaimed Tom, with some
vexation. "If you can make head or tail of it---- And that girl!"
"There he goes again," said Ruth. "He has got to tell us. It is about a
girl," and she laughed, teasingly.
"Say! I don't know which one of you is the worse," said Tom, ruefully.
"Listen, will you?"
"Go ahead," said Helen, solemnly.
"Well, Reno and I were hiking along the Wilkins Corner road yonder. It
was just about where your Uncle Jabe's wagon, Ruth, knocked me down into
the gully that time--remember?"
Ruth nodded.
"Well, I heard somebody scream. It was a girl. Reno began to growl and I
held him back till I located the trouble. There was a campfire down
under that bank and the scream came from that direction.
"'Go to it, old boy!' I says, and let Reno go. I had no reason to
believe there was real trouble," Tom said, wagging his head. "But I
followed him down the bank just the same, for although Reno wouldn't
bite anybody unless he had to, he does look ugly--to strangers.
"Well, what do you think? There were a couple of tramps at the fire, and
Reno was holding them off from a girl. He showed his teeth all right,
and one of them had his knife out. _He_ was an ugly looking customer."
"My goodness! a girl?" gasped his sister. "What sort of a looking girl?"
"She wasn't bad looking," Tom said. "Younger than us--mebbe twelve, or
so. But she'd been sleeping out in her clothes--you could see she had.
And her face and hands were dirty.
"'What were they trying to do to you?' I asked her.
"'Trying to get my money,' says she. 'I ain't got much, but you bet I
want that little.'
"'I guess you can keep it,' I said. 'But if I were you, I'd hike out of
this.'
"'I'm going to,' says she. 'I'm going just as fast as I can to the
railroad and jump a train. These fellers have been bothering me all day.
I'm glad you came along. Thanks.'
"And with that she started to move off. But the tramps were real ugly,
and one of them jumped for her. I tripped him up," said Tom, grinning
again now in remembrance of the row, "and then there certainly _was_ a
fuss."
"Oh, Tom!" murmured Helen.
"Well, I had Reno, didn't I? The man I tripped fell into the fire, but
was more scared than hurt. But the other fellow--the one with the
knife--slashed at Reno, and cut him.
"Well! you never saw such a girl as that tramping girl was----"
"What's _that_?" gasped Ruth. "Oh, Helen!"
"It might be Sadie Raby--eh?" queried her chum.
"Hel-lo!" exclaimed Master Tom, turning curious. "What do you girls know
about her? Sadie Raby--that's what she said her name was."
"My goodness me! What do you think of that?" cried his sister.
"And where is she now?" demanded Ruth.
"Aw, wait till I tell you all about it," complained Tom. "You girls take
the wind all out of my sails."
"All right. Go ahead," begged his sister.
"So, that Sadie girl, she came back to my help, and when one of the
fellows had me down, and Reno was holding the other by the wrist, she
started to dig into the face of the rascal who held me. And once she
scratched me by mistake," added Tom, laughing.
"But between us--mostly through Reno's help--we frightened them off. They
hobbled away through the bushes. Then I took her to the railroad, and
waited at the tank till a train came along and stopped."
"And put her aboard, Tom!" cried Ruth.
"Yes. It was a freight. I bribed the conductor with two dollars to let
her ride as far as Campton. I knew those two tramps would never catch
her there. Why! what's the matter?"
"Goodness me!" exclaimed Helen, with disgust. "Doesn't it take a boy to
spoil everything?"
"Why--what?" began Tom.
"And her name was Sadie Raby?" demanded Ruth.
"That's what she said."
"We just wanted to see her, that's all," said his sister. "Ruth did,
anyway. And I'd have been glad to help her."
"Well, I helped her, didn't I?" demanded Tom, rather doggedly.
"Yes. Just like a boy. What do you suppose is to become of a girl like
her traveling around the country?"
"She seemed to want to get to Campton real bad. I reckon she has folks
there," said Tom, slowly.
"She's got no folks--if her story is true," said Ruth, quietly, "save two
little brothers."
"And they're twins, like us, Tom," said Helen, eagerly. "Oh, dear! it's
too bad Ruth and I didn't come across Sadie, instead of you."
Tom began to laugh at that. "You'd have had a fine time getting her away
from those tramps," he scoffed. "She didn't have but a little money, and
they would have stolen that from her if it hadn't been for Reno and me."