THE SHELTER OF THE WOODS
For the first few minutes as they ran, the three of them were too busy
to talk, and they needed their breath too much to be anxious to say
anything. Jack, his little legs flying, covered ground at an astonishing
pace. Zara had always been a speedy runner, and now, clutching Bessie's
hand tightly, she helped her over some of the harder places.
They were running right into the woods, as it seemed to Bessie, and more
than once, as she heard sounds of pursuit behind, she was frightened. It
seemed to her impossible that little Jack, mean he never so well, could
possibly enable them to escape from angry Farmer Weeks, who, for an old
man, seemed to be keeping up astonishingly well in the race. But soon
the noises behind them grew fainter, and it was not long before the
ground began to rise sharply. Jack dropped to a walk, and the two girls,
panting from the hard run, were not slow to follow his example.
"This is like playing Indians," said Jack, happily. "It's lots of
fun--much better than playing by myself. Here's my cave."
"Don't you think we'd better go on, Bessie?" panted Zara. "We're ahead
of them now, and they might find us here."
"No, I think we'd better stop right here. Would you ever know there was
a cave here if Jack hadn't uncovered the entrance? And see, it's so wild
that we'd have to stick to the path, and we don't know the way. I'm
afraid they'd be sure to catch us sooner or later if we went on."
"Listen!" said Jack. "They're getting nearer again!"
And sure enough, they could hear the shouts of those who were following
them, and the noise was getting louder. Bessie hesitated no longer, but
pushed Zara before her into the cave. Jack followed them.
"See," he said, "I can pull those branches over, and they'll never see
the mouth of the cave. They'll think these are just bushes growing here.
Isn't it a bully place? I've played it was a smuggler's cave, and all
sorts of things, but it never was as good fun as this."
"Just think that way," said Bessie to poor Zara, who was trembling like
a leaf. "When we get back with the girls, we'll think this is just good
fun--a fine adventure. So cheer up, we're safe now."
"But how will we ever get back to them, even if they don't catch us
now?" asked Zara. "We'll be seen when we go out, won't we?"
"No, indeed," said Bessie. "I'll bet Jack's thought about that, haven't
you, Jack?"
"You bet!" he said, proudly. "They'll go by, and they'll keep on for a
long way, and then they'll think they've gone so far that a girl
couldn't ever have done it. And then they'll decide they've missed her,
and they'll turn around and come back again, and hunt around near the
hotel. And when they do that--"
"Hush!" said Bessie. "Here they come! Keep quiet, now, both of you!
Don't even breathe hard--and don't sneeze, whatever you do!"
And then, lying down close to one another, at full length on the floor
of the cave, which Jack, for his play, had covered with soft branches of
evergreen trees, they peeped out through the leafy covering of the cave
while Farmer Weeks went by, snorting and puffing angrily, like some wild
animal, his eyes straight ahead. He never looked at the cave, or in
their direction, but the next man, one employed about the hotel, seemed
to have his eyes fixed directly on the branches. Bessie thought he
looked suspicious. She was sure that he had spied the device, and was
about to call to Farmer Weeks. But, when he was still a few feet off, he
tripped over a root, and sprawled on his face, and, if he had ever
really had any suspicions at all, the fall seemed to drive them from his
mind effectually. He picked himself up, laughing, since the fall had
not hurt him, and, after he had shouted back a warning to two men who
followed him, he went on, dusting himself off.
The root had been good to the fugitives, sure enough, for the men who
followed kept their eyes on the ground, looking out for it, since they
had no desire to share the tumble of the man in front, and neither of
them so much as looked at the cave.
"My, but they're brave men!" said Jack. "Three of them, all to chase one
little girl!"
Zara, her fears somewhat relieved, laughed as she looked at her rescuer.
"I'm bigger than you are," she said, smiling.
"Yes, but you're a girl," said Jack, in a lordly fashion that would have
made Bessie laugh if she hadn't been afraid of hurting his feelings.
"And I've rescued you, haven't I? Did you ever read about the Knights of
the Round Table, and how they rescued ladies in distress? I'm your
knight, and you ought to give me a knot of ribbon. They always do in the
books."
Zara looked puzzled.
"Haven't you ever read about them?" said Jack, looking disappointed. But
then he turned to Bessie. "You have, haven't you?"
"I certainly have, Jack, and Zara shall, soon. They were brave men,
Zara, who lived centuries ago. And whenever they saw a lady who needed
help they gave it to her. Jack's quite right; he is like them."
Jack flushed with pleasure. He had liked Bessie from the start and now
he adored her.
"You're Zara's true knight, Jack, and she'll give you that ribbon from
her hair. But you mustn't let anyone see it, or tell about this
adventure, unless your father asks you. You mustn't say anything that
isn't true, but only answer questions. Don't offer to tell people, or
else you may be punished, because Farmer Weeks would say we were bad,
and that it was wrong to help us."
"I wouldn't believe him, and neither would my pop, I know that. He's the
greatest man that ever lived--greater than George Washington. And he'll
say I was just right if I tell him. I just know he will."
"But maybe he and Farmer Weeks are friends, Jack. Then he'd think it was
all wrong, wouldn't he?"
"My pop wouldn't have him for a friend, Bessie, don't you believe he
would! My pop would never lock a girl up in a room by herself without
her dinner, even if she'd been bad."
"I wonder why they're so long coming back," said Bessie, finally. "Won't
they miss you, Jack?"
"Not if I get back in time for supper. They don't care what I do when
it's a holiday, like this. They know I know my way around here, and
there aren't any wild animals. I wish there were!"
"Wouldn't you be afraid of them?"
"Not a bit of it! I'd have a gun, and I'd shoot them, just as quick as
quick!"
"Even if they weren't trying to hurt you?"
"Yes, why shouldn't I? Everyone does, in all the books."
"But we don't act the way people in books do, Jack. We can't. Things
aren't just that way. Books are to read, to learn things, and for fun,
but we've got to remember that real life's different."
"Well, I bet if I saw a lion coming through that wood there I'd kill
him."
"Suppose he ate you up first?" asked Zara.
"He'd better not! My pop'd catch and make him sorry he ever did anything
like that! Say, it is taking them a long time to come back. Maybe
they've lost their way."
"Could they around here?"
"You bet they could! Lots of people do, from the hotel, and we have to
send out and find them, so's they don't have to stay out all night. Say,
did you hear something just then?"
They listened attentively, and presently Zara keen ears detected a
sound.
"There's someone coming," she said. "Listen! You can hear them quite
plainly now."
They were quiet for a minute.
"They must be quite close," said Zara, then. "We heard them much further
off than that when they were coming after us. I wonder why they got so
near before we heard them this time?"
"That's easily explained, Zara," said Bessie. "When they were going the
wind was behind them. Now it's in front of them. And they were going up
hill, too, so there may have been an echo, because they were shouting
toward the rocks upon the hill. Now that's changed, too."
"Say, you're a regular scout!" said Jack approvingly. "_I_ knew all
that, but I didn't suppose girls knew things like that. Say, when I get
old enough I'm going to be a Boy Scout. That'll be fine, won't it? I'll
have a uniform, and a badge, and everything."
"Splendid, Jack! We're going to be Camp Fire Girls, and we'll have
rings, and badges, too."
"What are Camp Fire Girls? Are they like the Boy Scouts?"
"Something like them, Jack. Sometime, when I know more about them, I'll
come back and tell you all about it. I know it's nice--but I don't
really know much more than that yet."
Then they had to be still again, for the voices of the returning hunters
were very plain. They could hear Farmer Weeks, loud and angry, in the
lead.
"Ain't it the beatin'est thing you ever heard of?" he was asking one of
his companions. "How do you guess that little varmint ever got away?"
"Better give it up as a bad job, old hayseed," said another voice.
"She's too slick for you--and I can't say I'm sorry, either. Way you've
been goin' on here makes me think anyone'd be glad to dig out and run
away from a chance to work for you."
"Any lazy good-for-nothing like you would--yes," said Farmer Weeks,
enraged by the taunt. "I make anyone that gits my pay or my vittles
work--an' why shouldn't they? If you'd gone on, like I wanted you to,
we'd have caught her."
"We ain't workin' for you, an' we never will, neither," said the other
man, laughing. "Better be careful how you start callin' us names, I can
tell you. If you ain't you may go home with a few of them whiskers of
your'n pulled out."
"You shut your trap!"
"Sure! I'd rather hear you talk, anyhow. You're so elegant and refined
like. Makes me sorry I never went to collidge, so's I could talk that
way, too."
They couldn't make out what Farmer Weeks replied to that. He was so
angry that he just mumbled his words, and didn't get them out properly.
Zara was smiling, her eyes shining. But then the old farmer's voice rose
loud and clear again, just as he passed the cave.
"I'll git her yet," he said, vindictively. "I know what she's done, all
right. She's gone traipsin' off with that passel of gals that Paw Hoover
sold his garden truck to yesterday. I heard 'em laughin' and chatterin'
back there on the road where I found her. She'll go runnin' back to
'em--and I'll show 'em, I will!"
"Aw, you're all talk and no do," said the other man, contemptuously.
"You talk big, but you don't do a thing."
"I'll have the law on 'em. That gal's as good as mine for the time till
she's twenty-one, an' I'll show 'em whether they can run off that way
with a man's property. Guess even a farmer's got some rights--an' I can
afford to pay for lawin' when I need it done."
"I s'pose you can afford to pay us for runnin' off on this wild goose
chase for you, then? Hey?"
"Not a cent--not a cent!" they heard Farmer Weeks say, angrily. "I ain't
a-goin' to give none of my good money that I worked for to any low-down
shirkers like you--hey, what are you doin' there, tryin' to trip me up?"
A chorus of laughter greeted his indignant question, but he seemed to
take the hint, for the fugitives in the cave heard no more talk from
him, although for some time after that the sounds in the direction the
pursuers had taken on their return to the inn were plain enough.
When the last sounds had died away, and they were quite sure that they
were safe, for the time, at least, Bessie got up.
"Suppose we follow this trail right up the way they went?" Bessie asked
Jack. "Where will it bring us?"
"To the top of the mountain," said Jack. "But if you want to go off that
way I'll walk a way with you, and show you where you can strike off and
come to another trail that will bring you out on the main road to
Zebulon."
"That'll be fine, Jack. If you'll do that, you'll help us ever so much,
and we'll be able to get along splendidly."
"We'd better start," said Zara, nervously. "I want to get away as soon
as ever I can. Don't you, Bessie?"
"Indeed I do, Zara. I'm just as afraid of having Farmer Weeks catch us
as you are. If he found me he'd take me back to Maw Hoover, I know. And
she'd be awfully angry with me."
"I'm all ready to start whenever you are," announced Jack. "Come on. It
gets dark early in the woods, you know. They're mighty thick when you
get further up the mountain. But if you walk along fast you'll get out
of them long before it's really dark."
So they started off. Little Jack seemed to be a thorough woodsman and to
know almost every stick and stone in the path. And presently they came
to a blazed tree--a tree from which a strip of bark had been cut with a
blow from an axe.
"That's my mark. I made it myself," said Jack, proudly. "Here's where we
leave this trail. Be careful now. Look where I put my feet, and come
this same way."
Then he struck off the trail, and into the deep woods themselves where
the moss and the carpet of dead leaves deadened their footsteps.
Although the sun was still high, the trees were so thick that the light
that came down to them was that of twilight, and Zara shuddered.
"I'd hate to be lost in these woods," she said.
Then, abruptly, they were on another trail. Jack had been a true guide.
"You can't lose your way now," he said. "Keep to the trail and go
straight ahead."
"Good-bye, Jack," said Bessie. "You're just as true and brave as any of
the knights you ever read about, and if you keep on like this you'll be
a great man when you grow up--as great as your father. Good-bye!"
"Good-bye and thank you ever so much," called Zara.
"Come again!" said Jack, and stood there until they were out of sight.
It was not long before they came out near the main road, and now Zara
gave a joyful cry.
"Oh, I'm so glad to be here!" she exclaimed. "Those woods frightened me,
Bessie. They were so dark and gloomy. And it's so good to see the sun
again, and the fields and the blue sky!"
Bessie looked about her curiously as she strove to get her bearings.
Then her face cleared.
"I know where we are now," she said. "We're still quite a little
distance from where we stopped for lunch and Farmer Weeks got hold of
you, Zara. We'll have to go up the road. You see, it brought us quite a
little out of our direct way--going back in the woods as we did. But it
was worth it--to get away from Farmer Weeks."
"I should think it was!" said Zara. "I'd walk on my hands for a mile to
be free from him. He was awful. He drove up just as I got down to the
road, and as soon as I saw him I started to run. But I was so frightened
that my knees shook, and he jumped out and caught me."
"What did he say to you?"
"Oh, everything! He said he could have me put in prison for running
away, and he asked me where you were, but I wouldn't say a thing. I
wouldn't even answer him when he asked me if I'd seen you. And he said
that when I came to work for him, he'd see that I got over my laziness
and my notions."
"Well, you're free of him now, Zara. Oh!"
"What is it, Bessie?"
"Zara, don't you remember what he said? That he'd find us through the
Camp Fire Girls? He knows about them! If we go right back to them now,
we may be walking right into his arms. Oh, how I wish I could get hold
of Miss Eleanor--of Wanaka!"
They stared at one another in consternation.