THE FIRE AT THE PIER
"WE must have a regular scout meeting," announced Cleo. "We may get into
trouble if we are not careful. Grace, have you rounded up all the True
Treds?"
"I have," replied Grace, raising her finger in salute to the emergency
captain. "They'll all be here at Rosabell, by eleven. And having Mary
and Helen will give us a small troop."
"That's splendid. Mary and Helen are Tenderfoots, of course, but they
know the duties. I can scarcely believe that girl would actually say the
things we heard her say, and then to throw that box at Louise!"
"Just the same as pulling faces at us the first day we met her," said
Grace. "I don't feel we ought to take her seriously. But you know there
was another fire out Koto way last night, and it spoiled some lovely
trees. Father says every one is so indignant about it, but never a
person is found around to give a clue to the culprit."
"And she insinuated that we made the beach fire," said Cleo indignantly.
"Oh, that's pure nonsense, of course. But did you see how she acted when
we asked her about the Weasle?"
"Yes, she knows about that note, I'm sure," said Cleo. "But then she
thinks she knows a lot of things. She certainly lives over on the
Island, and so she couldn't very well start fires at night?"
"But she rows like an Indian. Here come the girls. Now we will have a
chance to talk it all over."
The arrival of Helen, Mary, Louise, and Julia completed the group, and
presently a summer session of the True Treds was under way.
To the newcomers at Sea Crest the whole situation was explained, and
nothing short of consternation followed its recital.
"Do you mean to say no one knows this girl?" asked Helen.
"No one we can find," replied Louise. "You see the whole town moves away
when the summer folks come, all but the cleaners and the store keepers;
and we didn't like to ask any of them."
"I'm sure Captain Dave must know this girl," declared Grace. "I'm going
down to the station this very afternoon and have a talk with him."
"Saw him go out to Brightwater in a motor boat this morning," Louise
said.
"Well, we simply have got to keep up our troop tactics until we run this
down," declared Cleo. "Think of her saying we tried to drown the boy!"
"And she called him Bentley. That's rather a pretty name. He surely
doesn't belong to her class," said Grace.
"But he too is odd, we must admit," resumed Louise, "and he had the very
same kind of paper we found in the bottle."
"And his boat was covered with it," added Grace.
"But you really don't think he could be malicious enough to start
fires?" asked Julia.
"I don't know," replied Grace. "They always say book-worms are queer,
and surely he is a book-worm, if there ever was one."
"I propose taking a trip to that Looney Island," said Louise directly.
"I'd love to," followed Cleo; "but what about Captain Dave's warning?"
"What did he say?" inquired Mary.
"Why, he told us this Luna Island or Looney Land as the children call
it, was a very good place to keep away from."
"Did he say why?" asked Helen.
"No; just hinted that children always feared to go over there, and he
considers children the natural judges of danger. We know better. Here
we are mere kiddies, and we are not a bit afraid," and she laughed at
the idea.
"In fact, we are just dying to go. How do you get there?" This from
Margaret.
"Take the launch to the point, then hire a boat and row over to the
island. We saw 'the girl' do it. It's only a short distance."
"Sounds alluring," said Mary, who was now a splendidly healthy little
girl, quite unlike the timid creature discovered by the girls in our
second volume, "The Girl Scouts at Bellaire."
"You are almost chubby, Mary," remarked Grace. "I suppose you had a
wonderful winter in the South with your folks."
"Oh yes, wonderful," replied Mary. "But I would rather have been to
school in New York with you girls. Perhaps next fall I can enter with
you."
"So it is all decided," prompted Helen. "We are to go to your Looney
Land and capture the lunes. I wonder if we had not better bring a few
brothers along?"
"As scouts we scorn a body guard!" replied Louise, "although it might be
well to leave a lookout over at the point."
"When do we set out?" asked Julia, now as keen as her companions on the
perilous expedition.
"That must depend on the weather," said Cleo. "We can't brave the waters
with overhung skies. If I'm not mistaken I hear thunder this minute."
"Bring your wheels in," cautioned Grace. "Benny will put them in the
garage. There! That surely sounded near by."
In the cyclonic way storms have of gathering near the ocean, clouds
tumbled over clouds, piling mountains high, then dipping down in
veritable spouts ready to empty their weight of water on the shrinking
earth. The weather had been just warm enough to precipitate this sort of
shower, and before the first drops fell people scurried for shelter,
deserting piers, and board walk, as if swept away by the reckless west
wind.
The Girl Scouts stayed on the porch until the lightning frightened them
inside Rosabell cottage, then from the windows watched the vagaries of
the summer storm.
A sudden blinding flash of lightning and its immediate clap of thunder
drove the girls from the window.
"Oh!" shouted more than one. "Wasn't that awful!"
"Listen!" as a gong sounded. "The fire bell!" cried Grace. "Get your
coats; see the crowd over there! Let's run."
Without a thought of the down-pouring rain, the Girl Scouts, garbed in
such protective garments as they could snatch from the clothes-tree in
the hall of Rosabell, raced over to cover the short distance to the
pavilion, where the crowd was seen to gather from all directions.
"What was struck?" Cleo asked a boy, who was trying to outdistance the
bright red fire engine.
"The pier, I guess," he replied, dashing on merrily at the prospect of
some real excitement.
A light film of smoke could now be seen steaming up through the rain at
the end of the pier. But it was not likely a fire could make much
headway in that downpour. The girls watched the rather primitive fire
apparatus, with keen interest. Crowds of boys, numbers of men, and a
scattering of girls and children, made the scene quite a lively one, to
say nothing of the shouting of the volunteer firemen--the only grade
that is allowed to shout at a fire. A line of hose was soon dragged out
to the end of the pier, and almost before the happy urchins realized it
the fire was out, back taps sounded from the tower in the village, and
the fun was over.
After the crowd had dispersed and the shower was entirely over, the
girls walked down the pier to inspect the damage. On one of the benches
near the end, an old man sat huddled alone, his fishing rod was at his
feet, and his basket was beside him on the bench. As they approached he
stood up, then sank down again unable to keep to his feet.
"He must have been out here when the lightning struck," said Louise.
"The poor old man!"
They came up to him and he smiled feebly.
"That was a big shower," said Helen by way of introduction.
"Mighty heavy, mighty heavy," he answered, his words short and his voice
very low.
"Were you out here then?" asked Grace, beginning to realize that the old
man must have been stunned.
"Yes, and--it near--finished me," he replied, again trying to stand but
ending by sinking back on the bench, heavier than before.
"Oh, you poor old man!" said Julia. "We must help you home. Where do you
live?"
"Couldn't help me home," he replied with a sigh. "I have a long walk
along the sand, and then the boat. Don't see how I'm going to make it
though. That flash just did me up," and he stooped to gather his fishing
things that had evidently been scattered when the hose was run down the
pier.
"Where do you live?" again asked Louise. "No matter how far away it is
we can help you. We can take you in a car."
"No cars go out that way," said the fisherman, mistaking Louise's
meaning.
"Oh, we mean in an automobile," she corrected. "Let us see if you can't
lean on some of us while the others go for a car. We will be glad to
help you," she insisted, feeling the Girl Scout pledge surge over her.
It was quickly decided Grace should run for her sister Leonore, to get
their car out, as Rosabell was the nearest cottage, and while she
hurried off with Helen, Cleo and Louise assisted the old man to his
feet. Meanwhile Mary and Julia gathered up his fishing outfit.
He was old and feeble at best, but now, after his fright and shock from
the lightning, he seemed leaden, as he leaned on Cleo from one side,
with Louise at the other.
Up the pier they led him, and at every step he either sighed because he
had lost his power or blessed "the little girls who gave him a hand." It
seemed to the scouts rather odd that no one had discovered his plight
until they had found him, but after all, it was not hard to understand
how an old fisherman could be overlooked in the excitement.
Leonore had driven up with the car, and before the stragglers around the
pier could question them, the girls had their charge in the comfortable
seat, where he lay back in very apparent relief.
"Which way?" inquired the young girl driving.
"To the river dock," called Grace; and all crowded in the roomy car,
they started off with their strange passenger.