THE FROST GAMES
The big sleigh in which were Helen and the other girls swept into
the clearing in advance and Ruth's chum led the chorus addressed
vociferously to the girl from Red Mill.
"Oh, Ruthie!"
"The lost is found!"
"And she got here first--wasn't that cute of her?"
"Oh, _do_ tell us all about it, Ruth," cried Lluella Fairfax.
"However could you scare us so, Ruthie?" cried Jennie Stone, the
heavyweight. "I was so worried I was actually sick."
"And that is positively 'no error,'" laughed Belle Tingley. "For
once Heavy was so troubled that she couldn't eat."
Helen was out of the sleigh at once and hugged Ruth hard. "You
blessed girl!" she cried. "I was _so_ afraid something dreadful
had happened to you."
"And what became of that horrid boy Mr. Cameron tried to take to
Scarboro?" demanded Madge Steele.
The boys piled out of their sledge before Ruth could answer these
questions, and she was unable to give a very vivid explanation of all
that had happened to her since leaving the train, until the whole
party was gathered before one of the open fires in the hall, waiting
for dinner. Before this hour came, however, and while the rest of the
young folks were getting acquainted with the possibilities of Snow
Camp, Ruth had a serious talk with Mr. Cameron regarding the
mysterious boy who had disappeared on the verge of the Snow Camp
reservation.
"I don't know how he escaped us. He sped away through the woods with
the old hermit's snowshoes--I am sure of that. And that old
Rattlesnake Man didn't seem to be bothered at all by his loss," Ruth
said.
"Perhaps that hermit knows something about the fellow. We'll look
into that," said the merchant, gravely. "However, Ruth, you did what
you thought was right. It was reckless. I cannot commend you for
leaving the train, child. Something dreadful might have happened to
you."
"I thought something dreadful _did_ happen to me," said Ruth, with a
shudder, "when those mules ran away and that catamount leaped up on
the timber cart."
"I believe you! And your going to the cabin of that rattlesnake
catcher. They say he is mad, and he handles the serpents just as
though they were white mice. The people hereabout are afraid of him,"
said Mr. Cameron, earnestly.
"He was as kind as he could be to me," said Ruth, shaking her head.
"I don't think I should ever be afraid of him. His eyes are kind. But
the snakes--oh! they did frighten me dreadfully."
"From what I hear of this young man, 'Lias Hatfield, who is in jail
at Scarboro, he is a decent lad and has worked hard for his
stepmother. The half-brother he shot was about the age of this boy we
found down home. But _his_ body was recovered from the river
only the other day when they arrested 'Lias. I shall make it my
business to see the Hatfields personally and learn, if possible, how
a stranger like that boy who came here with you, Ruth, could have
obtained Mr. Hatfield's old wallet."
"He had some deep interest in the mystery of this shooting,"
declared Ruth, and she told the merchant of the newspaper clipping
that had dropped out of the old wallet when she had undertaken to dry
the boy's clothing at the Red Mill.
Meanwhile, the other young folks were highly delighted over the
possibilities for fun at Snow Camp. Tom and his friends did not pay
much attention to what was inside the great log house; but before
noon they knew all that was to be done outside and were unhappy only
because they did not know which to do first. In addition, Busy Izzy
had exhausted himself and every man about the place, asking
questions; and finally Tom and Bob gagged him with his own
handkerchief and threatened to tie him up and not give him any dinner
if he did not stop it.
"But _do_ let him ask for a second helping to pudding, boys,"
urged the kind-hearted Heavy. "It's going to be fine--I had a taste
of the dough. Mary says it's 'Whangdoodle Pudding, with Lallygag
Sauce'; but you needn't be afraid of the fancy name she gives it,"
added the plump girl, rolling her eyes. "It's just scrumptious!"
They laughed at Heavy's ecstasies, yet all did full justice to the
pudding. Such a hearty appetite as everybody had! The snapping cold
and the odor of balsam and pine gave a tang to the taste that none of
them had ever known before. The girls were full of plans for quiet
hours around the great open fires, as well as for the out-of-door
fun; but Tom was leader on this first day of the vacation at Snow
Camp, and he declared for skating in the afternoon.
Even Mrs. Murchiston went down to the pond.
The boys took turns in pushing her about in an ice-chair. But Mr.
Cameron put on skates and proved himself master of them, too. Long
Jerry came down to watch them and grinned broadly at the boys' antics
on the ice. Jerry was no skater; but he was stringing snowshoes and
by the morning would have enough ready for the whole party and
promised to teach the young folk the art of walking on them in half a
day.
That afternoon on the ice only put an edge on the appetite of the
whole party for the frost games. "Plenty of time to make those
pine-needle pillows for the girls at Briarwood, if we have a stormy day,"
quoth Helen Cameron. "We mustn't mope before the fire this evening.
The moon is coming up--big as a bushel and red as fire! Oh, we'll
have some fun this night."
"What now?" demanded Madge Steele. "I see the boys have stolen out
after supper. A sleigh ride?"
"No; although that would be fun," said Helen.
"Oh, dear! Can't we take it easy this evening?" whined Heavy, after
a mighty yawn. "I _was_ so hungry--"
"You shouldn't give way to that dreadful appetite of yours, Jennie
Stone!" cried Belle Tingley. "If there's any fun afoot I want to be
in it."
"Come on! All ready!" shouted the boys outside the house, and the
sextette of girls ran to get on their wraps.
They bundled out of the house to find Tom, Bob and Isadore each
drawing a long, flat, narrow toboggan. Helen clapped her hands and
shouted:
"Fine! fine! See these sleds, girls."
"We're going to shoot the chutes, Heavy," sang out Madge. "Do you
think you can stand it?"
"Now, don't any of you back out," Tom said. "Each of us will take
two girls on his sled. There's plenty of room."
"You'd better draw matches for us," said the irrepressible Heavy.
"That is, if you intend drawing _us_--two to each toboggan--to
the top of that slide. I never did care much for boys--they are
greedy; but which one of you could drag Madge and me, for instance,
up that hill?"
"We draw the line at that," cried Tom. "Those who can't toddle along
to the top of the chute needn't expect to ride to the bottom."
They all hurried off, laughing and shouting. It was a most beautiful
moonlight night. Save their own voices, only the distant barking of a
fox broke the great silence that wrapped the snow-clad country about.
None of the grown folk followed them. The party had the hill to
themselves.
It being a race to the hill-top, with the first two girls to take
their places on the toboggan of the first boy, naturally Heavy was
out of the running, and bound to be last. She came panting to the
starting platform, and found Ruth waiting to share Isadore's sled
with her.
Tom, with Madge and Belle, had already shot down the icy chute. Bob
Steele, with Lluella and Helen before him, dropped over the verge of
the platform and their toboggan began to whiz down the pathway, as
Jennie plumped down upon the remaining toboggan.
"Come on, Ruthie! You're a good little thing to wait for me--and I
guess Tom Cameron didn't like it much, either? He wanted you."
"Nonsense, Jennie," returned Ruth, with a laugh. "What does it
matter? As long as we all get a slide--"
"Hurry up, now," cried Busy Izzy, troubled because he was behind his
comrades, if the girls were not. "Sit tight."
He pushed the toboggan over the edge of the drop almost before Ruth
was settled behind Jennie. He flung himself upon the sled, sitting
sideways, and "kicked" them over the drop. The toboggan struck the
icy course and began to descend it like an arrow shot from a bow.
Jennie Stone shrieked a single, gasping:
"Oh!"
The toboggan whizzed down the path, with the low, icy dykes on
either hand, and so rapidly that their eyes watered and they could
not see. It seemed only a breath when the third toboggan shot onto
the level at the bottom, and they passed the crew of the first sled
already coming back. It was exhilarating sport--it was delightful.
Yet every time they started Ruth felt as though the breath left her
lungs and that she couldn't catch it again until they slowed down at
the bottom of the hill.
She would have felt safer with one of the other boys, too. Isadore
Phelps was none too careful, and once the toboggan ran up one of the
side dykes and almost spilled them on the course.
"Do look out what you are about, Isadore," Ruth begged, when they
reached the bottom of the slide that time. "If we should have a spill----"
"Great would be the fall thereof!" grinned Isadore, looking at
Heavy, puffing up the hill beside them.
"You take care now, and don't spatter me all over the slide," said
the cheerful stout girl, whose doll-like face was almost always
wreathed in smiles.
But Isadore was really becoming reckless. To tell the truth, Bob and
Tom were laughing at him. He had been the last to get away each time
from the starting platform, and he could not catch up with the
others. Perhaps that was the stout girl's fault; but Ruth would climb
the hill no faster than Jennie, and so the third toboggan continued
far behind the others. As they panted up the hill Tom and his two
companions shot past and waved their hands at them; then followed Bob
Steele's crew and Helen shouted some laughing gibe at them. Isadore's
face grew black.
"I declare! I wish you girls would stir yourselves. Hurry up!" he
growled quite ungallantly.
"What's the hurry?" panted Heavy.
"There's nobody paying us for this; is there? Let 'em catch up with
us and then we will be--all--to--geth--er--Woof! My goodness me, I'm
winded," and she had to stop on the hill and breathe.
"Go on and leave us. Take one trip by yourself, Isadore," said Ruth.
"No, I won't," returned Phelps, ungratefully. "Then they'll all gab
about it. Come along; will you?"
"Don't you mind him, Jennie," whispered Ruth. "I don't think he's
very nice."
They got aboard the toboggan once more and Isadore recklessly flung
himself on it, too, and pushed off. At the moment there came a shrill
hail from below. Tom was sending up some word of warning--at the very
top of his voice.
But the three just starting down the slide could not distinguish his
words.
Jennie shut her eyes tight the moment the toboggan lurched forward,
so she could not possibly see anything that lay before them. Ruth
peered over the stout girl's shoulder, the wind half blinding her
eyes with tears. But the moonlight lay so brilliantly upon the track
that it was revealed like midday. Something lay prone and black upon
the icy surface of the slide.