A SLEIGH-RIDE PARTY
Promptly at two, Geraldine and Alfred, well bundled in furs, were waiting
in the hall when a joyous shouting, ringing of bells and blowing of horns
announced that the merry sleigh-ride party was coming up the drive.
Alfred threw open the door and gave an answering halloo, then, turning,
he assisted Geraldine down the icy steps.
“I wonder where Danny O’Neil is,” the Colonel exclaimed. “I told him to
put ashes on the icy places, but he has not done so.”
The girls graciously welcomed Geraldine and made room for her on the
deep, blanket-covered straw between Doris and Merry.
“This is for you to blow upon,” the former maiden said, producing from
her coat pocket a small tassled horn.
For one moment Geraldine hesitated. Then, as the two big white horses
raced along the snowy road with bells jingling, she soon caught the
spirit of merriment and found herself tooting upon a horn as gayly as the
rest of them. Never before had she had such a jolly time, and she was
actually feeling a bit sorry for the city girls who had never been on a
straw ride.
The sun was bright, and long before they reached their destination they
could see the ice glistening on Little Bear Lake.
As they drew up at the Inn, to rest the horses a moment before turning up
the seldom traveled East Lake Road, Mr. Wiggin, who lived in that lonely
spot all the year round with only now and then an occasional guest for a
week-end, came out to greet them.
Usually his face beamed when he saw these young people, but today he
looked greatly troubled.
“What’s up, Mr. Wiggin?” Bob drew rein to inquire. “You look as though
you’d seen a ghost.”
“Well, I came out to warn you young people you’d better turn back. Old
Man Bartlett, who lives a mile up the wood road, was robbed an hour ago.
He’d been to town to get five hundred dollars he had in the bank; got a
queer notion that the bank was going to pieces. He had the money in an
old bag. Someone must have seen him getting it out of the bank and
followed him. Anyway, when he reached the wood road, he was held up and
robbed.”
“Well, with all the unbroken snow there is about here, it will be easy
enough to catch the thief,” Bob said.
“You’re wrong there!” Mr. Wiggin replied. “Several teams have been along
the lake road since the blizzard, and he could walk in the ruts.”
“Was poor old Mr. Bartlett hurt?” Gertrude asked anxiously.
“No, not at all. He was blindfolded and tied to a tree, but he worked
himself loose before long, but the robber was gone. The old man came
right down here and we telephoned to the sheriff. He and his men will be
along most any minute now. There may be some shooting, and so I’d advise
you boys to take the girls right back to town.”
Jack looked anxiously at Merry, who was vigorously shaking her head. “We
aren’t afraid, are we, girls?”
“Not with all these boys along to protect us,” Peg declared.
Then Doris explained: “We’re only going as far as our cabin. Mr. Wiggin;
that’s not more than a mile from here. We’ll be all right.”
“That crook is probably headed for Dorchester by this time,” one of the
boys put in. “We don’t want to miss our fun for him.”
The innkeeper watched the sleighload of young people until they had
disappeared over a rise on the East Lake Road. Then he shook his head
solemnly and, having entered the inn, he said to his wife: “That’s what I
call a foolhardy risk. It might be all right for the young fellows if
they were alone, but to take a parcel of girls into, nobody knows what, I
call it downright foolishness and maybe worse. Why, if they cornered that
highwayman, he would shoot, of course, and there’s no tellin’ who he
would hit. Well, not being their guardeen, I couldn’t prevent their
goin’, and so they’ll have to take their chance.”
Meanwhile the two big white horses were slowly ploughing their way along
the east side of the lake. In some spots the road was quite bare where
the wind had swept across the fields, but in other places the horses
floundered through deep snow drifts. The road, which led close to the
lake, was hilly and winding, and, as it neared the cabin, it entered a
dense wood of snow-covered pines.
“Girls, why don’t you blow on your horns?” Bob called as he looked back.
“There’s nothing to be afraid of. That highwayman would make straight for
Dorchester, where he could lose himself in the crowd.”
Suddenly Merry called out excitedly: “Bob, stop a minute. Look there.
That highwayman must have been riding on a horse. If he was, this is
where he turned and cut through the pine woods to the old Dorchester
road.”
Jack and several other boys leaped over the side of the sleigh and
followed the tracks for some distance through the woods where there was
little snow on the ground.
“Say, boys, I believe Merry’s got the right idea,” Jack said as he
climbed back to his former place next to Geraldine.
“Glad we saw those tracks,” Alfred put in. “Now we know for sure that the
highwayman won’t be lurking around the Drexel cabin.”
“Sure thing! Let’s proceed to forget about him and have a good time,” Bob
called in his cheerful way. “Blow on your horns, girls. Make this silent
pine wood ring.”
“Ohoo! Isn’t it silent, though, and dark, too? Hurry up, Bob. We’ll blow
hard enough when we get out into the sunshine,” Betty Byrd said as she
huddled close to Merry.
Peggy took occasion to say to Doris in a low aside that the boys of the
“C. D. C.” probably thought they now had a mystery to solve, but they
wanted the girls to think that they weren’t interested.
“That’s what I thought,” was the whispered reply. “Wouldn’t it be great
if we solved the mystery first?”
“Say, cut out the secret stuff,” one boy across from them called; then,
taking his companion’s horn, he blew a merry blast. The others did
likewise and so noisily they emerged into the sunshine, but some of the
girls glanced back at the silent, somber woods as though fearing that the
robber had been there all of the time.
Just in front of them and built close to the lake was a picturesque log
cabin.
“Hurray for the Drexel Lodge!” someone called.
“You girls stay in the sleigh,” Bob said, “while we boys see if the
robber is hiding in the cabin.”
Five minutes later the lads reappeared. “He certainly isn’t here!” Jack
declared. “The heavy wooden doors and blinds are all padlocked just as
they were left last fall, and there is no other way of entering, so let’s
forget the highwayman and have the good time we planned.”
“Jack is right,” Bertha said as she leaped from the sleigh. “Doris, you
have the key. Let’s open the doors while the boys get wood from the shed.
Isn’t the ice just great? I can hardly wait to get my skates on, can you,
Geraldine?”
The young people were convinced that the highwayman was not in their
neighborhood, and, with fear gone, they resumed their merrymaking. The
blinds were opened, letting in a flood of sunlight. A big dry log was
soon burning on the wide hearth and a fire was started in the kitchen
stove.
“Now, girls,” Doris announced, “I want you all to go skating with the
boys while I prepare our supper.”
“Why, won’t you be afraid to stay here alone?” Betty Byrd, the timorous,
inquired. “I wouldn’t do it for worlds.”
“No, I’m not afraid,” Doris replied. “The house was locked, so why should
I be?”
“Sure thing. You’re safe enough!” Bob declared. “But if you do get
frightened, blow on your horn.”
Ten minutes later Doris was alone, or at least she _thought_ she was
alone in the log cabin.