A TELEPHONE CHASE
The excited screaming of the other girls brought Mrs. Murchiston to
the hall in a hurry. When she heard what had caused the excitement
she called the maids, intending to send one of them for Mr. Cameron.
But just then the woman--a farmer's wife along the road--began
talking to Ruth again, and the maids learned from her answers into
the 'phone the cause of the excitement. Go out into the open when the
catamount might be within a couple of miles of the lodge? No, indeed!
Mary threw her apron over her head and sank down on the floor,
threatening hysterics. Janey was scared both dumb and motionless.
These women who had lived all their lives in towns, or near towns,
were not fit to cope with the startling incidents of the backwoods.
The woman on the wire explained to Ruth that she was telephoning all
along the line toward Scarboro, warning each farmer of the big cat's
approach.
"But if it keeps on in the same direction it was going when we saw
it last, the creature will strike Snow Camp first," declared the
excited lady. "You must get your men out with guns and dogs to stop
the beast if you can. It's mad with hunger and it will do some
dreadful damage if it is not killed."
Ruth repeated this to her friends, and asked Mrs. Murchiston what
they should do.
"If the baste comes here," cried Mary, the maid, "he can jump right
into these low winders. We'll be clawed to pieces."
"There are heavy shutters for these windows," Mrs. Murchiston said,
faintly. "But they are to heavy for us to handle--and I suppose they
are stored in one of the outbuildings, anyway."
"Why, I wouldn't go out of doors for a fortune!" cried Lluella
Fairfax.
"But the creature isn't here yet," Ruth said, doubtfully.
"How do you know how fast he's traveling?" returned Helen, quickly.
"But think of the boys down there skating," said her chum.
"Oh, oh!" gasped Jennie. "If that panther eats them up they'll be
more than well paid for spoiling our taffy."
"Hush, Jennie!" commanded Madge. "This is no time for joking. How
are we going to warn them--and the men in the woods?"
"And father?" cried Helen Cameron.
"Oh, I wouldn't _dare_ go out!" gasped Belle Tingley.
But Ruth ran out into the big kitchen and opened the door. The
outbuildings were not far away, but not a soul appeared about them.
There seemed to be a brooding silence over the whole place. The men
were so deep in the woods that she could not hear a sound from them;
nor was the ring of skates on the pond apparent to her ear.
"Come back, Ruth! come back!" begged her chum, who had followed her.
"Suppose that beast should be hiding near?"
"I don't suppose he's within a mile of the camp," said Ruth, her
voice unshaken. "There are all the guns in the hall--even the little
shotguns. I don't suppose the men have a gun with them, and of course
the boys have not. And both parties should be warned. I'm going----"
"Oh, Ruth! you're mad!" cried Helen. "You mustn't go."
"Who'll go, then?" demanded her friend. "I guess we're all equally
scared--Mrs. Murchiston and all."
"Nobody will go----"
"I'm going!" declared Ruth, firmly. "If the panther is coming from
that woman's house--the woman who telephoned--then the pond is in the
very opposite direction. I'll take Tom's rifle and some cartridges."
"But you don't know how to shoot!" cried Helen.
"We ought to know. It's a shame that girls don't learn to handle
guns just like boys. I'm going to get Long Jerry Todd to show me how."
While she spoke she had run into the hall and caught up Tom's light
rifle. She knew where his ammunition was, too. And she secured half a
dozen cartridges and put them into the magazine, having seen Tom load
the gun the day before.
"You'll shoot yourself!" murmured Helen.
"I hope not," returned Ruth, shaking her head. "But I hope I won't
have a chance to shoot the panther. I don't want to see that awful
beast again."
"I don't see how you dare, Ruth Fielding!" cried Helen.
"Huh! It isn't because I'm not afraid," admitted her chum. "But
somebody must tell those boys, dear."
Ruth had already seized her coat and cap. She shrugged herself into
the former, pulled the other down upon her ears, and catching up the
loaded gun ran out of the kitchen just before Mrs. Murchiston, who
had suddenly suspected what she was about, came to forbid the
venture. Ruth, however, was out of the house and winging her way down
the cleared path toward the pond, before the governess could call to
her.
"Oh, she will be killed, Mrs. Murchiston!" cried Helen, in tears.
"Not likely," declared that lady. "But she should not have gone out
without my permission."
Nor was Ruth altogether as courageous as she appeared. She did not
suppose that the huge cat that had so frightened her and the strange
boy that Mr. Cameron had brought up from Cheslow, was very near Snow
Camp as yet. Yet she glanced aside as she ran with expectation in her
eyes, and when of a sudden something jumped in the bushes, she almost
shrieked and ran the faster.
There was a crash beside the path, the bushes parted, and a great,
fawn-colored body leaped out into the path.
"Oh, Reno!" Ruth cried. "I never _was_ so frightened! You bad
dog--I thought you were the cat-o'-mountain."
But immediately she felt that her fear was gone. Here was Tom's
faithful mastiff, whose tried courage she knew, and which she knew
would not fail her if they came face to face with the panther.
She hurried on, nevertheless, to the pond, to warn the boys; but to
her surprise, as she approached the ice, she heard nothing of the
truants. There was no ring of steel on the ice, nor were their voices
audible. When Ruth Fielding reached the ice, the pond was deserted.
"Now what could have happened to them? Where have they gone?"
thought the girl.
She hesitated, not alone staring about the open pond, but looking
sharply on either side into the snow-mantled woods. Reno remained by
her and she had a hand upon his collar. Should she shout? Should she
call for Tom Cameron and his mates? If she called, and the terrible
cat was within earshot, it might be attracted to her by the sound.
"Baby!" she finally apostrophized herself. "I don't suppose that
beast is anywhere near. Here goes!" and she raised her clear voice in
a lusty shout.
There came, however, no reply. She shouted again and again, with a
like result.
"Where under the sun could those boys have gone?" was her unspoken
question. "Could they have returned to the house by some other path?"
But she did not believe this was so. Rather, she was inclined to
think Tom and his comrades had gone farther than the pond. There was
a good-sized stream through which the waters of this pond emptied
into Rolling River. That outlet was frozen over, too, and it would be
just like the three boys to explore the frozen stream.
Ruth wished that she had brought her skates instead of the gun with
her. She felt now that the boys should indeed be warned of the
roaming panther, as they had gone so far from the lodge. Here was
Reno, too. If she told the mastiff to find Tom, he would doubtless do
so. She could even send some written word to the boys by the dog--had
she a pencil and paper. It would not be the first time that Reno had
played message-bearer.
But the warn Tom and his companions would not be all Ruth had
started out to do. Tom was a good shot and a steady hand, she knew.
With this loaded rifle in his hand the party might feel fit to meet
the panther, if it so fell out. Without any weapon even the noble
mastiff might prove an insufficient protection.