THE SHERIFF WITH HIS DOGS
Another evening melted into night, leaving in the minds of most of the
girls of Central High now encamped on Acorn Island, a feeling of
contentment and pleasure because of a well-spent day.
Their activities had been joyous ones; their fun and sport healthful;
and nothing had really occurred to trouble their minds.
Of course, Laura was an exception to the others. Jess and Bobby were
to a degree disturbed over the mystery of the young man who had
visited the camp on two occasions, and about their unexpected
discovery of Professor Dimp's presence on Acorn Island.
But it was Mother Wit who had thought out the true significance of
these mysterious happenings. She had reason to believe that the "Mr.
Norman" whom Lizzie Bean had talked about--and the man who had
frightened the same Lizzie and robbed the camp of food--and the Norman
Halliday who was wanted by the sheriff for the robbery of the
Merchants and Miners Bank of Albany, was one and the same person.
Not alone that, but he was camping on this island, without a permit
from the Rocky River Lumber Company; and his companion was their own
respected, if not well-liked, Professor Dimp.
Certainly the old professor could have had nothing to do with the
robbery of the bank; nor could he have reaped any benefit by such
crime. Laura was sure that the old professor was perfectly honest and
respectable.
He was surely not camping against his will, with the strange young man
who had saved Short and Long from the farmer's savage dog. Professor
Dimp must have some deep interest in him.
Laura, too, could not believe the young man with the gun to be a
criminal of the character the newspapers had given the thief and
forger who had betrayed his employers in the bank.
"That young man has a good face. If Lizzie's story is true, too, he
has a good heart. And he was quick to act to-day when he saved Billy
Long; he took a chance for a stranger, when it was unwise for him to
show himself.
"There is a mystery about him. The professor would not be with the
young man if he were bad--oh! I am sure of that," concluded Laura.
This discussion Laura carried on in her mind. She did not take even
Jess into her inmost confidence, and Chet--of course--went back to the
mainland with the rest of the boys, when bedtime came.
Poor old Professor Dimp! He had ever been the butt for his careless
pupils' pranks. His eccentricities, his absent-mindedness, and his
devotion to what Bobby called "the dead parts of speech" had made him
an object of the pupils' dislike and a subject for their wit.
Of course, they knew he was wonderfully well educated--that the depths
of Latin and Greek were easily plumbed by his thought. But respect for
a teacher's attainments does not always breed love for the
teacher--nor an appreciation of the said teacher's softer qualities,
either.
Laura had come to the conclusion that there must be a side to "Old
Dimple's" character that few of his pupils had surmised.
There was a bond between Professor Dimp and that mysterious young man
from Albany that Laura Belding did not understand. Yet she sought her
cot that night with a belief that the old gentleman was good and kind,
and that the accusation against his young companion must be very, very
wrong!
Could she have climbed a tree like Short and Long, Laura would have
gone to the top of one of the big oaks near the camp, the next
morning at daybreak. From that height she knew she could see most of
the open patches on the island, clear to the western end.
She was very curious as to whether Professor Dimp was still camping in
the little glade where she and her comrades had met him. And had the
young man returned from the north side of the lake where she had seen
him the day before?
Laura was an early riser, as ever, that morning. She was tempted,
before the camp was generally astir, to run out to the end of the
island and see if the Professor's camp were still established there.
But Professor Dimp had been so sharp with her and the other girls,
that Laura half feared to meet him. He was certainly a stern old
gentleman, and she remembered now that, from the time the girls of
Central High had decided to come here to Acorn Island to camp,
Professor Dimp had been quite put out about it.
"Why!" thought Laura, "he was planning to come here himself at that
time. He must have already arranged to meet the young man here. And he
considers us interlopers. It's very, very strange!"
Nor did Laura wish to discuss the affair with Jess or Bobby Hargrew.
She was afraid to tell anybody what she surmised about Professor
Dimp's companion.
It was after breakfast--which Liz served with all the spirit and
cheerfulness, so Bobby said, of an Egyptian mummy with the
mumps!--that they first spied the big barge coming from the north
shore of the lake.
The slow-moving craft was under sail and there were several men aboard
of her, as well as a pack of dogs which now and then gave tongue.
Immediately the Barnacle went raving mad. The sigh and sound of so
many canines heading toward the island that had been his own domain
for a week, quite drove the Barnacle out of such few senses as he
possessed.
He barked at the barge from the heights where the camp stood; then he
raced down to the shore and emitted a salvo of barks from the landing
on that side of the island. Then he raced back again, and so returned
to the shore--alternating in his rushes in the craziest possible way.
Meanwhile the barge drew nearer and nearer. The general question at
the girls' camp was: "Why were the men and dogs coming to Acorn
Island?"
"They can't land here without a permit," Bobby declared. "The Rocky
River Lumber Company has posted the island."
"And what sort of game can they hunt with hounds this time of year?"
demanded Jess.
"Those are bloodhounds," said her mother, calmly. "English
bloodhounds."
"Goodness!" squealed Bobby, suddenly. "Bloodhounds? Don't you all feel
just like Eliza crossing the ice, girls?"
"Not much!" cried Dora, laughing. "On a hot day like this?"
The cicadas were filing their saws in the tops of the trees and the
promise of one of the hottest days of the season danced in the shimmer
of haze over the water.
"Do you really suppose they are coming here with those dogs?" repeated
Nell.
"They have no business to land," said Bobby, again serious.
"I know who they are!" Jess cried, suddenly.
"Who?" asked her mother.
"Chet said something about a sheriff coming to the boys' camp over
yonder. And he had a pack of bloodhounds with him."
"But why should an officer of the law come _here_?" queried Mrs.
Morse.
Laura, and Jess, and Bobby looked at each other. Of course, Mother Wit
had understood the approach of the barge from the first; but she had
said nothing. Now Jess and Bobby burst out with:
"Oh! he must be after that young man."
"What young man?" was the chorus of the other campers.
"The young man who is with Professor Dimp," said the thoughtless
Bobby. "Isn't that it, Laura?"
Laura groaned. The cat was out of the bag now, and she foresaw much
trouble in the camp on Acorn Island.