THE GLORIOUS AFTERMATH
THE wig wag contest had furnished enough excitement at Sea Crest to
constitute a nine day's wonder. Nothing short of an uncanny power seemed
attributed to the Girl Scout, who would risk her own life in a dive from
that pier, when she saw a canoe upset beneath. The whole occurrence had
been so spectacular that the publicity it provoked was widespread--every
one was talking of the wig wag rescue.
"But, Weasie dear," cooed Grace, "what did it feel like to jump? Just
tell us that and then we'll let you off."
Louise smiled wanly. Was it possible that any other question could be
invented?
"It didn't exactly feel," she replied to Grace, "but I knew I had to do
it. I had been watching the little speck of a boat as it took the
rollers from the side, and I knew the next would toss it over. Then I
saw Kitty--and I didn't think of the distance after that."
"You looked about as big as a fish hawk diving for his dinner," remarked
Cleo, "and you nipped Kitty just as neatly as a hawk pecks his fish."
"I felt just like that--it is birdlike to dive from such a distance,"
Louise said, "and cutting through the air, free of everything--is--is
wonderful."
"Even with the ocean as a backstop?" asked Helen shivering.
"Nice and soft," Louise said reflectively.
"But however did you hold on to Kitty, and cling to the canoe?"
persisted Grace, in spite of the promise to cease questioning.
"I don't know. It was black for awhile, and I just struggled to keep up,
and to keep Kitty up. She was too scared to help herself, and she had
swallowed a lot of water. I guess I managed to cling to the
canoe--Girls, you don't know what you can do until you have to," she
finished.
It was still early, but the visit to Kitty at the hospital had to be
made early, according to promise. Louise and Margaret were to go, and
the other scouts, especially Julia and Grace, were going in the car as
far as the village, to be picked up there by the girl's car on the way
back.
They found the patient dressed, and being forcibly detained, as the
nurse put it. In fact, Kitty had been dressed since day break, and
nothing short of force did detain her.
"Good thing you come now," she greeted Margaret. "Oh, there's my
life-saver. Hello, McGinty, how's the water to-day? I don't want to test
it though," she shook her cropped head, and the girls noticed how much
better that hair looked since its salt water shampoo.
"Don't hurry so, Kitty. You have plenty of time. Uncle Pete said he
would be over at the landing at ten o'clock, and it's only nine now."
Louise told her.
"No matter what time," she retorted, "it's next year to me. This place
is haunted sure. I was fishin' with ghosts all night."
"That was your bromide," Margaret assured her. "You were so excited and
hysterical you simply had to be quieted down. Do you feel all right?"
"Don't know as I feel at all," Kitty answered, jerking herself up to
make sure she had not grown fins. "I never want to read that Jonah story
again. But I knew it! I knew it!" and she chewed her lips in repressed
bitterness.
"Knew what?" Louise asked.
"That the old monster ocean would try to swallow me," she replied.
"Didn't I tell you I would never go on that water after what it done to
me? But I did want to see that wig waggin' and I went out because--"
She stopped, and the sharp little black eyes were glistening.
"I know, Kitty. You wanted to see us beat the boys, didn't you?" asked
Louise. "Well, we did it, and maybe if you hadn't--got spilled, I
couldn't have won on the signalling. You see, the life boat was out
there watching, and they caught my message, and just shot in--lucky for
you and me."
"If I knowed Captain Dave's men were out there, I wouldn't have been so
scared to death," Kitty said. "But anyhow, I'm goin' home," and she made
for the door. "Good-by, nurse, you've been real good to me. I like your
cookin' first rate, and I'll fetch you the first mess of clams I dig,"
she offered.
The nurse was amused and interested. Kitty had given her a new line on
patients. From the time her wet clothes had been taken from her, Kitty
had threatened to go out on the fire escape in the hospital robe, if
they were not returned very early in the morning, and nurse knew very
well, she intended to carry out the threat.
There was no bag or luggage to leave with Kitty, neither did she dally
in her exit. Rather, she was in the car and waiting, before Margaret and
Louise could possibly get down the stairs and reach the sidewalk.
"I love automobiles," said Kitty, as they climbed in, and Leonore
touched the starter.
"Wish you would take a longer ride," Margaret remarked. "It would do you
good."
"Can't, wish I could," the girl replied a bit wistfully. "Don't know
what's happened since I've been away. Hope Bentley was there." Margaret
then noticed an anxiety that seemed to make a woman out of the winsome
child.
"You're not worrying about Uncle Pete?" asked Louise. "The girl said he
was all right last evening."
"Oh no, it isn't Uncle Pete I'm worrying about," replied Kitty. But she
did not attempt to explain further, and the girls noticed the omission.
Turning carefully into the little sand road that led to the landing,
Leonore slowed down. A boy just stepped from the pavilion.
"Oh, there's Bentley!" shouted Kitty. "Hello, Ben!" she called waving
frantically. No wonder she was so delighted, thought her companions. It
was almost like coming back from the grave.
"Hello, Kitty," replied Bentley quickly as he could make out the figure
in the back seat of the car. His face showed his pleasure. For Kitty to
have been snatched from the waves, and then spend the night in the
hospital, was really an occurrence.
"Wait a minute, wait a minute," she rattled on. The "waits" were
addressed one to Bentley and the other to Leonore. "I'm going over with
Ben. Got your boat?"
"Yes, come on," called the boy, plainly glad to be of service to the
heroine. "Uncle Pete is at the bend. I'll row you down to him."
"Hello, Bentley," Louise called out. "Haven't we had a great time?"
"I should say you had," he answered, cap in hand. "You're the life
saver, aren't you?"
"She's _it_," sang out Margaret gleefully.
"Oh, say, girls" (now Bentley's bashfulness was threatening him), "did
any of you lose a bag?"
For a moment neither Margaret nor Louise remembered Elizabeth's lost bag
with the shoes and stockings on the beach. Then it flashed on Margaret--
"Oh, yes with some other things," she stammered. "You know, Louise,
Elizabeth left her bag with the things on the beach, moonlight bathing
night--"
"Yes, that's so," said Louise. "Why, Bentley? Did you find a bag?"
"No, but I saw one in a shop, and I thought it might belong to some one
of you girls. What sort did you lose?"
Neither girl knew much about the lost bag, but Louise thought it might
be a blue crochet.
"Yes, that's it," said Bentley. "It has a tassel on it and it's blue.
I'll get it for you next time I go over to Jake's," he offered.
"Is it at Jake's?" exclaimed Kitty. "That's where I saw the dandy pumps
with buckles on, and the swellest silk stockings. Louise, I'll get the
bag for you, because I'm going over to Jake's to buy some of those
things!"
"Oh," exclaimed Louise, in a gale of laughter. "Those are our pumps and
stockings. They were taken off from the beach."
"You don't say?" and Kitty's tone allayed any possible suspicion.
"That's just like Jake. Buys everything the boys offer, and no questions
asked, just like they say in the papers. I tell you, I'll come around
when I can," this rather dubiously, "and I'll get you girls, and we'll
go and raid Jake. It'll do him good."
When she raced off with Bentley and Leonore turned toward the village
the scouts were still shaking with laughter.
"We are to raid Jake's. Remember that," said Margaret.
"But we will surely have to make a contribution to Kitty," said Louise.
"She has had her eye on your buckles, Maggie."
"Why didn't you see the patient all the way home?" asked Leonore, when
they stopped for the other girls at the Post Office.
"Oh, why didn't we?" reiterated Louise. "Leonore, she lives on forbidden
ground. We have had a glimpse of it and hope for more, but we have to
bide-a-wee, don't we, Margaret? Get me a quart of those peaches," she
called out to Cleo, who seemed spellbound before a fruit stand.
"And I want new apples," ordered Margaret. "Don't take any old cold
storage stuff. I want new ones, if they do pizen me," she declared.
"How folks stare," whispered Louise. "I'll have to leave off this handy
little uniform for a while."
"Not at all," protested Margaret. "We want folks to know who we are. I
feel like giving the cheer this very minute."
But the return of the marketers forestalled any such danger. Apples and
peaches, and even a big melon, were piled in the car by the boy from the
Italian fruit stand, and then Cleo insisted on every one having a soda
before going back to Ocean Avenue.
The drug store, where the best soda was served, filled many other civic
needs than those of supplying sundaes and prescriptions. It also served
as a town information bureau, and just now, while the girls were waiting
for their order, a very pompous woman in the spickest, spannest white
duck outfit, was asking questions from the prescription clerk.
The girls heard him mention "the Point" and at this they stopped talking
to "listen in."
"But I must get my messages as quickly as they are received," said the
white duck woman. "It is of the utmost importance."
"Wireless messages have to be relayed," explained the man, "and besides
that, we can't always get a boat over to the place." His voice was
vindictive.
"All right, but please be more careful," said the woman. "It is not a
matter of money, you know."
"We only have one kind of charge," fired back the clerk rather angrily.
"Our boys are paid for their time, and that's all we ask." He turned
away to answer the telephone, and the haughty creature left the drug
store. As she did she made no excuse for an impertinent survey of the
girls, sipping their sodas.
"Know us the next time," said Cleo.
"Surely will," added Louise.
"And getting wireless messages for Luna Land! Now I'm all excited," and
Margaret tried to make use of two drug store fans, one in each hand.
"It is flabbergasting," gulped Louise, finishing her soda. "That white
duck reminds me of something."
"Of Kitty's nurse," Margaret exclaimed. "I think though, the wireless
one has a crackle the hospital brand lacks. Kitty's nurse was quite
noiseless."
"That one wasn't, though," declared Julia. "She had enough starch in
that outfit to defy even the Sea Crest dampness. Perhaps that was the
real idea. Come on, scouts. Do you recall Neal is to take us out in his
new launch?"
"And did you hear he is going to call it the Treddie, after us?" added
Grace.
"Yes, wanted to make it True Tred, but we told him that was
copyrighted," explained Julia.
"Shall we dare ask for a trip to the Point?" inquired Helen. "That was
the plan you know; first trip in the new launch."
"We'll see. But come on, do. Leonore, you are a dear, to take us all
about, and listen to our prattle," Cleo told the capable driver who had
long since finished her soda, and was waiting patiently for the younger
girls.
"I like it," she replied with evident sincerity.
"You shall have a box of sunburn cream for that," sang out Louise. "What
is your brand? Or would you rather have a talcum?"
Selecting from the bewildering display at the counter of summer toilet
articles consumed still more time, until finally, realization that it
was really lunch time, the fire bell announcing it, brought them all up
sharply.
"Wish we had our slippers and pumps back," said Grace. "These emergency
sneaks certainly look the part. When did Kitty say we were to raid
Jake's?"
"No definite time was set, as they say about delayed scout meetings,"
replied Margaret, "but I could use my pretty buckled pumps this very
afternoon."
"Wait a minute," Helen called to a news boy. "We want a paper!" They
always seemed to want something when in town.
"Look! Look!" exclaimed Margaret, securing the sheet while some one else
paid the boy. "We are all over the front page. Louise Hart, we will have
to appoint a body guard for you, or the people will kidnap you. Just
read this!"
"Oh, just listen," insisted Cleo. "It says the Sea Crest Life Savers are
going to ask the naval authorities to acknowledge the brave act----"
But Louise had fallen back in a mock faint--The glory of the aftermath
was getting a bit too thick for comfort.