TOMMY MAKES A DISCOVERY
A dozen girls sprang forward to the assistance of the unfortunate
trio, but Harriet was ahead of them. She grasped the Chief Guardian
under the arms and lifted her to her feet, then taking a hand of Mr.
McCarthy pulled him up with disconcerting suddenness. He looked dazed
and a little sheepish.
"It's that mad girl Jane of mine," he explained.
Mrs. Livingston's face was flushed, her eyes snapped; then her angry
expression softened and she burst out laughing.
"O Jane, Jane! You will be the undoing of all of us before you have
done."
Jane, with her hair disheveled, stood ruefully surveying the scene.
"I'm sorry, Mrs. Livingston, that you went over. I didn't want to make
you fall down, but I just had to show Daddy how glad I was to see
him."
"You showed me all right, young lady. Lucky, for us all that we had
soft ground under us. Mrs. Livingston, I suppose you'll be telling me
to take this mad-cap daughter of mine home with me. I shouldn't blame
you if you did, and I don't think I'd cry over it, for I want her. No,
I don't mean that--"
"Daddy!" rebuked Jane.
"I mean that she is better off here, and you are doing her a heap of
good, Mrs. Livingston, even if she did give way to one of her old fits
of violence just now."
"Certainly not, Mr. McCarthy," answered the Chief Guardian promptly.
"We all love Jane. She is a splendid girl and we should miss her. I
certainly did miss her last summer, and now I should miss her more
than ever. I hope we shall have her with us for many summers; then one
of these days, when she is older, she, too, will have a camp of girls
to look after."
"I feel very thorry for the camp," broke in Tommy.
"You will have to buy a new camp stool, Daddy," reminded Jane. "I'm
glad I'm not so stout that I break up the furniture every time I sit
on it."
"Yeth, Buthter doeth that," said Tommy, nodding solemnly.
"And you, young lady, you've got some strength in those arms," he
said, turning to Harriet. "The way you bounced me to my feet was a
wonder. Tommy, you haven't shaken hands with your old friend. Come
here, my dear, and shake hands with me."
"You were tho mixed up that I couldn't tell which wath the hand to
thhake," replied Grace promptly. "That wath what Jane callth a meth,
wathn't it?"
"It was. Why, how do you do, Hazel--and Margery, too? Well, well! this
is a delightful surprise. How fine you all look. And I hear you had a
swim the other night, Harriet, and you, too, Tommy. Well, well! And
you like the water, eh?"
"It is glorious," breathed Harriet, instinctively glancing out to sea,
where a flock of gulls were circling and swooping down in search of
food.
"You won't have to swim any more unless you wish to. I've made
different arrangements about that."
"You mean you have bought me a new car, Daddy?" interrupted Jane.
"I haven't said. I reckon you don't need a car here. You must have
learned, from your recent experience, that an automobile doesn't
travel on water half as well as it does on land."
"Ourth did. It traveled fine until it got to the bottom," Tommy
informed him.
"No, I haven't bought another car yet. I have some men who are going
to get the old one up to-morrow. We shall see what shape she's in. Of
course, if she isn't workable any more, I will have another for you by
the time you get home. Tell me how it happened. I couldn't make much
out of your telegram. By the way, when you send a telegram, don't
forget that you aren't writing a letter. That telegram you sent cost
me nine dollars and thirty-seven cents."
"Isn't it worth that much to hear from your daughter?" Jane's eyes
were dancing.
Mr. McCarthy took off his hat and wiped the perspiration from his
forehead.
"What would you do with her, Mrs. Livingston?" he laughed.
"I should love her, Mr. McCarthy; she is worth it," was the Chief
Guardian's prompt reply.
"She is," he agreed solemnly, "and I do. But you haven't told me,
Jane, darling."
"Oh, let Harriet do it. I never was strong on telling things so any
one could understand what I was talking about."
"There isn't much to tell about the accident, except that we turned
off on a side road according to directions. Jane wheeled down it at a
slow rate of speed--for her," added Harriet under her breath. "We ran
out on an ice pier and plumped right into the pond."
"You went down with the car, then?" stammered Mr. McCarthy.
"Right down to the bottom," Tommy informed him.
"That did not amount to much," continued Harriet. "The top was not up.
We had little difficulty in getting out--"
"But Harriet was drowned in getting the trunk free from the rear end,"
declared Jane earnestly.
"Drowned?" exclaimed the contractor.
"Yes, nearly drowned," corrected Miss Elting. "We had a pretty hard
time resuscitating her. I am beginning to think that the Meadow-Brook
Girls bear charmed lives, Mr. McCarthy."
"So am I. But you don't mean to tell me that Harriet really was all
but drowned?"
"Yes."
"It does beat all, it does," reflected Mr. McCarthy, mopping his
forehead again and regarding Harriet with wondering eyes. "It is a
guess as to whether she or Jane can get into the most trouble. They
are a pair hard to beat."
"We do not try to find excitement, Mr. McCarthy," expostulated
Harriet. "We cannot always help it if trouble overtakes us the way it
did when the car went into the ice pond."
"Certainly not. I know you, at least, are wholly to be depended upon,
but Jane isn't always the most prudent girl in the world. Now, will
you dears run along and enjoy yourselves. I have several things to
discuss with Mrs. Livingston, then we will have an afternoon together.
I wish Jane and Harriet to drive down with me and show me the place
where they lost the car later on in the afternoon. You remember you
interrupted our conversation here a short time ago, Jane," reminded
the visitor.
"May I try the car, Dad?" questioned Jane.
"Yes. But look sharp that you don't wreck the thing. I have no fancy
to walk all the way back to Portsmouth this evening," he chuckled.
"Come along, Meadow-Brooks. I can't take any more this trip, but if
Dad's buggy goes all right, I'll take the rest of you out on the
instalment plan."
"I don't want to go," decided Tommy. "I want to thtay here and retht.
I never get any retht at all."
The others were eager to go. Jane already was cranking up the car. Her
companions, with the exception of Grace Thompson, piled in, and a few
moments later the car rolled from the camp, headed for the highway
some little distance from the camp. There was no road leading to the
camp, but the way was reasonably smooth, provided one dodged the
trees, both standing and fallen.
In the meantime the other girls went about their duties and
recreations. Mr. McCarthy and Mrs. Livingston again sat down and
continued their conversation. Tommy, now being without a guardian,
Miss Elting having gone with Jane and her party, started down toward
the beach, her eyes very bright, her movements quick and alert. Some
of the girls whom she met asked where she was going. Tommy replied
that she might go fishing, but that she couldn't say for sure until
she found out whether she could catch anything. The little girl kept
edging farther and farther away from her companions, until finally,
finding herself beyond sight of them, began running with all her
might. They saw no more of Tommy Thompson for several hours.
While all this was going on, Jane McCarthy was racing her father's car
up and down the road at an ever-increasing rate of speed. Those in the
camp could hear the purr of the motors, and now and then a flash of
red showed between the trees as the car sped past the camp.
"Must be doing close to fifty miles an hour," observed Mr. McCarthy,
grinning.
"Aren't you afraid she will kill herself, or some one else?"
questioned the guardian anxiously.
"She never has. I don't reckon it would bother any of the Meadow-Brook
Girls to go into the ditch. They are pretty well used to getting into
mix-ups."
"They certainly have every reason to be used to it," nodded Mrs.
Livingston reflectively. "But, were they my daughters, I must confess
I should not know an easy moment. I do not, as it is, when they are
out of my sight. That was the reason I hesitated to accede to your
request. However, they will have nothing to do with the operation of
it. All they will have to do will be to sit still and enjoy
themselves. Then, again, it is the one thing needful to make a summer
at the sea shore thoroughly enjoyable. I know that all of my girls
will take the keenest possible delight in it, and I thank you, on
their behalf, for your thoughtfulness and kindness. You have done a
great deal for our camp, as well as for our organization, and I wish
you would permit me to make it known to the general officers in--"
"By no means, Mrs. Livingston," hastily interposed the visitor. "It is
nothing at all, and it's just a little pride in that mad-cap daughter
of mine that has led me to do what little I have. But in reference to
the new plan, you will tell the girls to-day, eh?"
"No; you tell them."
"Oh, leave me out of it, please."
"I could not do that. You will take dinner with us to-day, of course,
and then you may announce it to the girls. I can imagine how pleased
they will be. Why, there come the girls now!" exclaimed the Chief
Guardian.
"The girls?"
"Yes, yes. Jane--"
"Eh? Alone?"
"No, no. There is Miss Elting and Harriet. Yes, they are all there.
What can it mean?"
"It means that they have smashed the car," groaned Mr. McCarthy. "I
told you." He did not look around, but sat fumbling with his hat, his
face very red. Jane stepped up before him, and with chin on her breast
surveyed him from under her eyelashes, "Well?" he demanded.
"Well, we're here," answered Jane.
"What is the trouble, girls?" cried Mrs. Livingston. "Thank goodness,
you are all here. Why doesn't some one speak up?"
"How much damage did you do to her, Jane?" questioned the visitor
calmly, referring to the car.
"Enough."
"Tell me about it!"
"She's in the ditch about a mile up the road."
"Think we can pull her out between us?"
Jane shook her head.
"Not without the wrecking crew. She's bottom side up, two wheels off
and part of her machinery on the other side of the road," was Crazy
Jane's calm reply. However, before they had an opportunity to say
more, Tommy Thompson came running toward them, her face flushed with
excitement.
"I've found it! I've found it!" she shouted.
"Found what?" demanded the Chief Guardian.
"I've found the treathure trail. I've got it, I know I have!"