CAUGHT NAPPING
The following morning Barbara awoke with the feeling of one who has
experienced a disagreeable dream. Was it a trick of her imagination, or
had she really seen their beautiful young countess deep in conversation
with Monsieur Duval and Mrs. De Lancey Smythe? True Bab had not seen her
face, but her height, and carriage--the blue cloak--were unmistakable.
On her return to their room Bab had not mentioned her unpleasant
discovery to Ruth. She could not bear to voice any actual charge against
the Countess Sophia. "Perhaps it will all be explained yet," she told
herself, and with a wisdom far beyond her years, she resolved to be
silent, at least for the present, about what she had seen.
When the launch which Mr. Stuart had chartered, with its freight of
picnickers, had put out from shore and headed for the villa, where they
were to pick up the countess and Madame de Villiers, Barbara had loyally
decided to let not even the evidence of her own eyes sway her into
condemning the countess unheard.
On their arrival at the villa they found the countess and Madame de
Villiers ready and waiting for them, and the sailing party was soon
comfortably seated in the roomy launch. Madame de Villiers occupied a
wicker chair opposite Miss Sallie, while the young countess and the
"Automobile Girls" had stretched a steamer rug over the roof of the
small cabin, and lay upon it in picturesque attitudes under their
sunshades.
There was a churning of the propeller, a shrill toot from the whistle,
and the launch glided out over the water as smoothly as a canoe rides
down stream.
"We're off!" cried Mr. Stuart joyously.
"I believe you are just a great boy still, Robert," smiled Miss Sallie
indulgently.
The day's excursion had been arranged by Mr. Stuart. He was an
enthusiastic fisherman, and on his return from the fishing expedition
with Mr. Warren he at once began to plan a similar excursion for the
"Automobile Girls," extending his invitation to the countess and Madame
de Villiers.
It was an ideal day for a picnic. The sun shone brilliantly down on Palm
Beach, making it look like an enchanted land. The bathers were out in
full force. A little farther up the beach countless flower-trimmed hats
and many-hued parasols made gorgeous blots of color along the white
sands. Overhead the sky was an intense blue, and the water reflected the
blueness in its depths.
"You can never understand how happy this makes me," declared the
countess, bestowing an enchanting smile upon the little company. "Mr.
Stuart, we thank you for the many pleasures you have given Cousine and
me. Someday I hope I may be able to do something for you."
"Wait until the picnic is over before you thank me, Countess," replied
her host. "The fishing may bore you, especially if the fish don't bite."
"Ah, well," laughed the countess, "I could fish patiently all day, under
a sky like this without complaining, if I were to catch nothing but a
minnow."
Mr. Stuart's fishing party had made an early start. They were to land
some miles up the coast, where those who were not of a mind to fish
could make themselves comfortable on shore.
The journey was not a short one. It was well past eleven o'clock when
they landed on a hard shell beach, broken here and there by patches of
marsh grass.
"You are especially privileged to be allowed to set foot on these
shores," Mr. Stuart assured his guests, as he handed them out of the
launch. "The location of this place has been kept a secret; otherwise it
would be overrun with tourists and excursionists."
"Is it so beautiful?" Ruth inquired.
"Wait until you see it!" was Mr. Stuart's reply.
The beach sloped upward so as to form a wall that completely hid the
land behind it from view.
Ruth and Barbara ran on ahead.
"Oh, Father," cried Ruth excitedly. "This is a surprise!"
The two girls were looking down into a beautiful little dell. It was
like a tiny oasis, with a sand wall on one side of it, and a mass of
palmettoes, oak trees and cocoanut palms encircling it on the other
three sides. The ground was carpeted thickly with violets. Yellow
jasmine and elder flowers gleamed through the foliage. The branches of
the oak trees were draped with gray Spanish moss, which made quite a
sombre background for the gay tropical scene.
"This is to be your drawing-room and dining-room, Madame," declared Mr.
Stuart, as he helped Madame de Villiers over the sandy hillock. "You may
do whatever you like here. You may pull the violets, or walk on them.
There are no park rules."
"Was there ever such a place in the world!" exclaimed Countess Sophia.
"I shall not leave it until we sail for home. The most wonderful of sea
trout could not lure me from this enchanting spot."
"We shall stay here, too," agreed Mollie and Grace. "I would rather
gather violets than catch gold fish," Mollie assured Mr. Stuart.
The wicker chairs were brought from the launch, so that Madame de
Villiers and Aunt Sallie could be comfortable in their sylvan retreat.
Ruth and Barbara went off with Mr. Stuart on the quest for fish, while
the young countess, Mollie and Grace gathered wild flowers and made
wreaths of the sweet-smelling yellow jasmine.
Grace ran with her crown of wild jasmine and placed it on Miss Sallie's
soft white hair. The countess placed her wreath on Madame de Villiers's
head.
"Oh, happy day, Oh, day so dear!"
sang Countess Sophia as she stuck one of the beautiful yellow flowers
into her dark hair and danced with Mollie over the sands.
It was a happy day indeed--one that the little party would never forget!
Mysteries and unanswered questions were banished. Even Bab forgot for
the time being all disquieting thoughts. The lovely young countess, with
her eyes full of an appealing tenderness, had driven away all ugly
suspicion.
Several hours later the fishing party returned.
"See what we've got!" Ruth exclaimed proudly, as she ran up the sand
hill flourishing a string of speckled sea trout.
"Miss am sho a lucky fisherman," agreed the old colored man in whose
boat Mr. Stuart and the two girls had been fishing.
"But where are your fish, Barbara?" Grace inquired.
Mr. Stuart laughed. "Bab is the unluckiest fisherman that ever threw out
a line," he explained. "Shall I tell them, Bab?"
Barbara flushed. "Oh, go ahead," she consented.
"Well," Mr. Stuart continued, "Miss Barbara Thurston caught a tarpon a
yard long this morning."
"Where is it?" cried the waiting audience.
"Back in the sea, whence it came, and it nearly took Mistress Bab along
with it," Mr. Stuart answered. "When Barbara caught her tarpon, she
began reeling in her line as fast as she could. But the tarpon was too
heavy for it, and the line broke. Then Bab prepared to dive into the
ocean after her fish."
"I was so excited I forgot I did not have on my bathing suit," Bab
explained. "I thought, if I could just dive down into the water, I could
catch my tarpon, and then Mr. Stuart could pull us both back into the
boat."
"Reckless, Barbara!" cried Miss Stuart. "What will you do next!"
"Don't scold, Aunt Sallie," Ruth begged. "It was too funny, and Father
and I caught hold of Bab's skirts before she jumped. Then old Jim, the
colored man, got the fish. So we had a good look at him without Bab's
drowning herself. But when we found that the catch was a tarpon, and not
good to eat, Father flung it back in the water."
While Mr. Stuart and the girls were talking, Jim and the engineer from
the launch built a fire. They were soon at work frying the fish for
luncheon.
Nobody noticed that a small naphtha launch had been creeping cautiously
along the coast. It was sheltered from view by the bank of sand. And it
managed to hide itself in a little inlet about a quarter of a mile away
from Mr. Stuart's larger boat.
After a hearty luncheon no one had much to say. The "Automobile Girls"
were unusually silent. Finally they confessed to being dreadfully
sleepy. There is something in the soft air of Florida that compels
drowsiness. Miss Sallie and Madame de Villiers nodded in their chairs.
Mr. Stuart, the countess and the four girls stretched themselves on the
warm sand. Jim slept under the lea of his small fishing boat, and the
engineer of the launch went to sleep on the sand not far from the
water's edge.
For nearly an hour the entire party slumbered. All at once Mr. Stuart
awoke with a feeling that something had happened. He rubbed his eyes,
then counted the girls and his guests. Miss Sallie was safe under the
shadow of her parasol, which had been fixed over her head. Madame de
Villiers sat nodding in her chair.
The afternoon shadows had begun to lengthen; a fresh breeze was stirring
the leaves of the palm trees. But, except for the occasional call of a
mocking bird, not a sound could be heard.
Mr. Stuart waited. Did he not hear a faint noise coming from the
direction of his launch. "The engineer has probably gone aboard!" Mr.
Stuart thought.
"It is high time we were leaving for home," said he to himself.
But as he stepped to the edge of the embankment he saw his engineer
still lying on the ground sleeping soundly.
A small boat like a black speck disappeared around a curve in the shore.
"What on earth does that mean?" cried Mr. Stuart. Leaping over the sandy
wall he ran toward his engineer. Mr. Stuart shook him gently. The man
opened his eyes drowsily, yawned then raising himself to a sitting
position, looked stupidly about.
"A strange boat has just put out from here," said Mr. Stuart quietly.
"We had better go out to the launch and see if all is well."
The engineer rose to his feet, and still stupid from his heavy sleep,
followed Mr. Stuart to the dinghy. The sound of voices aroused old Jim
who clambered to his feet blinking rapidly.
Mr. Stuart and the engineer pushed off toward the launch, each feeling
that he was about to come upon something irregular. Their premonitions
proved wholly correct. The engine room of the pretty craft was a total
wreck. The machinery had been taken apart so deftly, it seemed as though
an engineer alone could have accomplished it, while the most important
parts of the engine were missing.
"Whose work is this?" ejaculated Mr. Stuart, clenching his fists in
impotent rage. Suddenly it dawned upon him what the wrecking of his
launch meant. He was on an uninhabited shore with seven women, his
engineer, and colored servant, with no prospect of getting away that
night.
He felt in his pockets. A pen-knife was his only tool or weapon.
Mr. Stuart rowed back to shore to break the disagreeable news to the
members of his party. But the sleepers were awake on his return. They
had seen Mr. Stuart row hurriedly out to the launch with the engineer,
and surmised instantly that something had happened.
"Oh, dear, oh, dear!" wailed the countess, when Mr. Stuart had explained
their plight. "Must I always bring ill-luck to you?"
"Nonsense!" expostulated Mr. Stuart. "How could the wrecking of our
engine have any connection with you, Countess?"
Old Jim who still stood blinking and stretching now began to vaguely
grasp the situation.
"'Scuse me ladies," he mumbled. "I spects I'se jest been nappin' a
little. I ain't been 'zactly asleep."
The "Automobile Girls" laughed, in spite of the difficulties which
confronted them.
"Oh no, you haven't been asleep," Mr. Stuart assured him, "but that nap
of yours was a close imitation of the real thing."
Jim grinned sheepishly and hung his woolly head. "I 'low nothin' bad
ain't happened, suh."
"Something bad certainly has happened. In fact about as bad as it well
could be, Jim," declared Mr. Stuart. "Some wretch has tampered with the
engine of our launch and left us high and dry on this lonely shore. We
must do something and that something quickly. It's getting late, and we
don't want to spend the night here, lovely as the place is. Where's the
nearest house or village?"
"Lor', suh," exclaimed old Jim. "This am a lonesome spot. There ain't no
village no wheres round heah!"
"But where is the nearest house, then?" demanded Mr. Stuart.
The darkey scratched his head reflectively.
"Ole Miss Thorne might take you in, Massa. Her place am about two miles
from here. She's my old missis. I live thar. I jest comes down here and
helps fishin' parties to land and takes them out in my boat in the
daytime. Nights I sleeps at my old missis's place. She comes of a fine
family she do. But she's a little teched in the head, suh."
"All right, Jim; show us the way to the house. But how are we to find a
horse and wagon? My sister and Madame de Villiers will not care to walk
that distance."
"I got an old horse and wagon hitched near here, Massa," Jim returned.
"I come over in it this morning."
Mr. Stuart finally installed Miss Sallie, Madame de Villiers, and the
young countess in the bottom of Jim's old wagon. He also stored their
lunch baskets away under the seats. Food might be precious before they
found their way back to their hotel.
Then Jim started his patient old horse, while Mr. Stuart and the
"Automobile Girls" followed the wagon which led the way along a narrow
road through the heart of the jungle.
But before leaving the deserted shore, Mr. Stuart went back to the
launch. He tacked a note on the outside of the cabin. The note explained
the accident to their engine. It also stated that Mr. Stuart and his
party had gone to seek refuge at the home of a Miss Thorne, two miles
back from the shore.
Mr. Stuart did not believe the wrecker would return to the boat. He had
accomplished his evil purpose. But Mr. Stuart did hope that another
launch might visit the coast either that evening or in the early
morning. Therefore he requested that any one who discovered his letter
would come to Miss Thorne's home for his party.