THE TRUTH AT LAST
But Bessie, despite Mrs. Chester's kind words, was terribly downcast.
"Really, Mrs. Chester," she said miserably, "it's awfully unfair to make
all the other girls suffer on account of me."
"You mustn't look at it that way, Bessie. You couldn't tell a lie, you
know, even to prevent this trouble."
"No, but I'm sure he thinks I did that. He's not an unkind man, and he
really doesn't want to make me unhappy, and drive you all away, I know.
Mrs. Chester, won't you send me away?"
"Nonsense, Bessie! If you haven't done anything wrong, why shouldn't we
stand by you? Even if you had, we'd do that, and we ought to do it all
the more when you're in the right, and unjustly suspected. Don't you
worry about it a bit! Everything will be all right."
"But I really think you ought to let me go. I'm just a trouble maker--I
make trouble for everyone! If it hadn't been for me, Jake Hoover would
never have burnt his father's barn--don't you know that?"
"That isn't so, Bessie. If you hadn't been there, something else would
have happened. And it's the same way here. You haven't anything to do
with all this trouble here. It would have come just the same if you
hadn't arrived at all, I'm sure of that. And then one of the girls would
have been accused, and everything would have happened just the same."
"Oh, I'm afraid not!"
"But I'm sure of it, Bessie, and I really know better than you. You
mustn't take it so hard. No one is going to blame you. Rest easy about
that. I'll see to it that they all understand just how it is."
"I wish I could believe that!"
Mrs. Chester told Eleanor what General Seeley had said as soon as they
returned to the camp, and Eleanor, after a moment, just laughed.
"Well, it can't be helped," she said. "If he wants to act that way, we
can't stop him, can we? And I'm so glad that you're going to stick by
poor Bessie. I know she feels as bad as she can feel about it--and it's
so fine for her to know that she really has some friends who will trust
her and believe her at last. She's never had them before."
"She has them now, Eleanor. And it's because you're so fond of her
already that I'm so sure she's telling the truth. I think I'd trust her,
anyhow, but, even if I'd never seen her, I'd take your word."
"Will you tell all the girls why we're going?"
"I think not--just at first, anyhow. We'll just say that we're going to
move on. I'm pretty sure that the people over at Pine Bridge will have
some place where we can make camp, and that we can have our Council Fire
to-night just the same. It won't be as nice as it is here, of course,
but we'll make it do, somehow."
So Mrs. Chester went around to the different Guardians of the Camp
Fires, and told them of the change in the plans. At once the order to
strike the tents and pack was given, and then Mrs. Chester went to make
arrangements for carrying the baggage over to Pine Bridge and for
getting a camping place there.
"I'll get back as soon as I can, Eleanor," she said, "but I may be
delayed in finding a camping place. If I am, I'll send the wagons
over--I don't want to use General Seeley's, while he's angry at us. And
you can take charge and see that everything goes as it should. You'll
just take my place."
"No one can do that, Mrs. Chester, but I'll do my best."
Bessie, forlorn and unhappy, helped in the work of packing, and longed
for someone to talk to. She didn't want to tell Zara, who had troubles
enough of her own to worry her, and Eleanor, of course, was too busy,
with all the work of seeing that everything was done properly. She had
to keep a watchful eye on the preparations of the other Camp Fires as
well as of her own. And then, suddenly, Bessie got a new idea.
"All this trouble is for me," she said. "Suppose I weren't here--suppose
I just went away? Then they could all stay."
The more she thought of that, the more the idea grew upon her.
"I will do that--I will!" she said to herself, with sudden
determination. "I'm just like a sign of bad luck--I make trouble for
everyone who's good to me. Like Paw Hoover! He was always good--and the
fire hurt him more than it did anyone else, though it was Maw Hoover and
Jake who made all my trouble. I won't stay here and let them suffer for
me any longer."
And, very quietly, since she wanted no one to know what she was doing,
Bessie went into the tent, which had not yet been taken down, and
changed from the blouse and skirt, which had been lent to her, into the
old dress she had worn when she had jumped into the water to rescue
Minnehaha.
Then, moving as silently and as cautiously as she could, Bessie slipped
into the woods behind the camp. She dared not go the other way, which
was the direct route to the main road outside of General Seeley's
estate, because she knew that if any of the girls, or one of the
Guardians saw her, she would be stopped. She didn't know the way by the
direction she had to take, but she was sure that she could find it, and
she wasn't afraid. Her one idea was to get away and save trouble for the
others.
Of course, if Bessie had stopped to think, she would have known that it
was wrong to do what she planned. But her aim was unselfish, and she
didn't think of the grief and anxiety that would follow her
disappearance. She was sensitive, in any case, and General Seeley's
stern manner, although he had not really meant to be unkind, had upset
her dreadfully.
To her surprise, the woods that she followed grew very thick. And she
was still more surprised, presently, to come upon a wire fence. In such
woods, it seemed very strange to her. Then, as she saw a bird with a
long, brilliantly colored tail strutting around on the other side of the
fence, she suddenly understood. This must be the place where the
precious pheasants she was supposed to have frightened were kept. And
she hadn't even known where they were!
Bessie wondered, as she looked at the beautiful bird, how anyone could
have the heart to frighten it, or any like it.
"I don't blame General Seeley a bit for being angry if he really thought
I had done that," she said to herself. "And he did, of course. They
don't know anything about me, really. He was quite right."
Then she remembered, too, what he had said about the game-keepers.
Probably, after what had happened, they would be more careful than ever,
and Bessie decided that she had better move along as fast as she could,
lest someone find her and think she was trying to get at the birds
again.
But, anxious as she was to get away from the dangerous neighborhood, she
found that, to move at all, she had to stick close to the fence, since
the going beyond it was too rough for her. Then, too, as she went along,
she heard strange noises--as if someone was moving in the woods near
her, and trying not to make a noise. That frightened and puzzled her, so
she moved very quietly herself, anxious to find out who it was. A wild
thought came to her, too--perhaps it was the real poacher, for whom she
had been mistaken, that she heard!
Presently the fence turned out, and she had to circle around, following
it, to keep to the straight path. And, as the fence turned in again, she
gave a sudden gasping little cry, that she had the greatest difficulty
in choking down, lest it betray her at once.
For she saw a dark figure against the green background, bending over,
and plucking at something that lay on the ground.
"It is! It really is--the poacher!" she whispered to herself.
She longed to know what to do. There was no way of telling whether there
was anyone about. If she lifted her voice and called for help, it might
bring a game-keeper quickly--and it might simply give the poacher the
alarm, and enable him to escape, leaving the evidence of the crime to be
turned against her. And this time no one, not even Mrs. Chester, would
believe in her innocence.
Slowly Bessie crept toward the crouching figure. At least she would try
to see his face, so that she would recognize him again, if she was lucky
enough to see him. For Bessie was determined that some time, no matter
how far in the future, she would clear herself, and make General Seeley
admit that he had wronged her.
And then, when she was scarcely ten feet from him, she stepped on a
branch that crackled under her feet, and the poacher turned and faced
her, springing to his feet. Bessie screamed as she saw his face, for it
was her old enemy--Jake Hoover!
For a moment he was far more frightened than she. He stared at her
stupidly. Then he recognized her, and his face showed his evil triumph.
"Ah, here, are yer?" he cried, and sprang toward her, his hands full of
the feathers he had plucked from the tail of the pheasant he had snared.
That move was Jake's fatal mistake. Had he run at once, he might have
been able to escape. But now, Bessie, brave as ever, sprang to meet him.
He was far stronger than she, but she had seen help approaching--a man
in velveteens, and for just a moment after Jake, too, had seen the
game-keeper, Bessie was able to keep him from running. She clung to his
arms and legs, and though Jake struck at her, she would not let go. And
then, just in time, the game-keeper's heavy hand fell on Jake's
shoulder.
"So you're the poacher, my lad?" he said. "Well I've caught you this
time, dead to rights."
Squirm and wriggle as he would, Jake couldn't escape now. He was trapped
at last, and for once Bessie saw that he was going to reap the reward of
his evil doing.
The game-keeper lifted a whistle to his lips, and blew a loud, long
blast upon it. In a moment the wood filled with the noise of men
approaching, and, to Bessie's delight, she saw General Seeley among
them.
"What? At it again?" he said, angrily, as he saw Bessie. Jake was hidden
by the game-keeper, and General Seeley thought at first that it was
Bessie who had fallen to the trap he had set. Bessie said nothing--she
couldn't.
"No, General. It wasn't the girl, after all," said the game-keeper.
"Never did seem to me as if it could be, anyhow. Here's the lad that did
it all--and I caught him in the act. The feathers are all over him
still."
"It wasn't me! She did it! I saw her, and I took the feathers from her,"
wailed Jake, anxious, as ever, to escape himself, no matter how many
lies he had to tell, or who had to suffer for his sins. But the
game-keeper only laughed roughly.
"That won't do you no good, my boy. You'd better own up and take your
medicine. Here, see this, General."
He plunged his hands into Jake's pockets, and produced the wire and
other materials Jake had used in making his snare.
"I guess that's pretty good evidence, ain't it, sir?"
"It is, indeed," said the general, grimly. "Take him up to the house,
Tyler. I'll attend to his case later. Go on, now. I want to talk to this
girl."
Then he turned to Bessie and took off his hat.
"I was wrong and you were right this morning," he said, pleasantly. "I
want to apologize to you, Bessie. And I shall try to make up to you for
having treated you so badly. How can I do that?"
"Oh, there's nothing to make up, General," said Bessie, tearfully. "I'm
so glad you know I didn't do that!"
"But what are you doing here--and in that dress?"
"I--I was going away--so that the others could stay."
"I see--so that they wouldn't have to suffer because I was so brutally
unkind to you. Well, you come with me! Why didn't you wear the other
clothes, though? They're nicer than these."
"They're not mine. These are all I have, of my own."
"Is that so? Well, you shall have the best wardrobe money can buy,
Bessie, just as soon as Mrs. Chester can get it for you. I'll make that
my present to you--as a way of making up, partly, for the way I behaved
to you. How will you like that?"
"That's awfully good of you, but you mustn't--really, you mustn't!"
"I guess I can do as I like with my own money, Bessie. And I'm going to
be one of your friends--one of your best friends, if you'll let me.
Will you shake hands, to show that you don't bear any hard feelings?"
And Bessie, unable to speak, held out her hand.
General Seeley wrung it--then he started, suddenly.
"Here, here, what am I thinking of?" he said, briskly. "I must find Mrs.
Chester and ask her to forgive me. Do you think she will do it, Bessie?
Or haven't you known her long enough--"
"Why should she forgive you, sir? You just thought what anyone else
would have thought. What I don't understand is why she was willing to
believe me. She didn't know anything about me--"
"I'll tell you why, Bessie. It's because she knows human nature, and I,
like the old fool I am, wouldn't acknowledge it! But I've learned my
lesson--I'll never venture to disagree with her again. And I'm going to
hunt her up and tell her so."
So Bessie, as happy as she had been miserable a few minutes before, went
with the general, while he looked for Mrs. Chester. She returned from
Pine Bridge just as they reached the camp, and she listened to General
Seeley's apologies with smiling eyes.
"I knew I was right," was all she said. "And I'm more than glad that the
real culprit was found. But, my dear, you oughtn't to have tried to
leave us that way. It wasn't your fault, and we should have gone, just
the same, and we would have had to look for you until we found you. When
we once make friends of anyone, we don't let them get away from us. That
wouldn't be true to the spirit of the Camp Fire--not a bit of it!"
Then, while Bessie changed again into the clothes Ayu had lent her, Mrs.
Chester gave the welcome order to unpack, and explained to the Guardians
that Bessie was cleared, and they were going to stay in camp, and have
the Council Fire just as it had been planned. Everyone was delighted,
Eleanor Mercer most of all, because she had had real faith in Bessie,
and it was a triumph for her to know that her faith had not been
misplaced.