formations hang from the roof. That is where the hunter said the
weirdness of the place impressed you," explained Julie.
They continued deeper into the mountainside, and the air felt cooler,
while the domed tunnel grew perceptibly smaller. The girls were silent
now, being very careful to follow closely behind the Captain.
"I think it is quite spooky enough for me," whispered Betty, taking hold
of Mrs. Vernon's skirt.
"If you feel this way, now, what will you do when we get away in!"
laughed Julie.
The laugh echoed madly and hurled its sounds back again at the scouts,
and the entire party stopped suddenly with fright.
"Oh! It was only an echo of Julie's laugh," sighed the Captain, in
relief.
"But what a horrible maniac's cry it was!" gasped Joan.
Betty was shivering with nervousness, when Julie again laughed, to hear
the echoes come back.
"_Please_ don't do that!" cried Ruth, closing her ears, and at the same
time dropping the candle.
Its light was extinguished, and the candle must have rolled into some
crevice, for it could not be found, even though the flashlight and other
candles were used to hunt for it.
"You'll have to creep close beside me," said Julie, linking Ruth's arm
through hers.
The cave now narrowed down so that they had to stoop to go on. About
fifty feet further, the tunnel forked. Two separate tubes ran at
diagonal lines with each other.
"Which shall we take first?" asked Joan, comparing the two openings.
"'My mother told me to take this one,'" counted Julie, her finger
pointing to each tunnel alternating on each word she spoke. It was the
right-hand opening that was on the last count.
Mrs. Vernon laughed. "Well, we will go this way and see why your 'mother
told you to take this one.'"
The scouts laughed, too, but the echoes failed to ring back as
repeatedly as in the front tunnel.
"That means we are near the end of this tube," said Joan.
"I'm glad of it! I don't like to be away in here," admitted Betty.
"The roof is coming down to bump our heads, Verny," said Julie, who was
now leading.
"Then we must soon retrace our steps and take the other tube, as this
was the short one that leads nowhere. The other must be the tube that
leads to the stalactite cave," said Mrs. Vernon.
The scouts proceeded a few feet further but the aperture was becoming
too small to follow comfortably, and the Captain said:
"Well, we may as well turn around, girls."
As she spoke a low moan seemed to come from the ground, and the girls
huddled close to the Captain.
"What was it, Verny?" whispered Julie, fearfully.
Mrs. Vernon gravely turned her flashlight over the walls and ceiling of
the rocky tunnel, then moved it slowly over the ground about them.
Just when the scouts began to feel courageous again, thinking the sound
was some other form of hallucination in the cave, the light fell upon a
form doubled up against the side of the rocky wall.
The scouts saw it about the same time the Captain did, and four
high-pitched, excited young voices screamed fearfully, causing the
tunnel behind them to echo with ear-splitting yells of terror. Even Mrs.
Vernon shivered at the uncanny sight and sounds.
Betty and Ruth had hidden their faces in the Captain's skirt, as if this
would defend them from danger. But Julie and Joan stood their ground
beside the Captain, trying to peer in advance of their position to see
what the form could be.
"Is he drunk?" whispered Joan.
"Maybe he is murdered," ventured Julie, causing the others to shiver
again.
"No--he moaned, so he is not dead. I must find out what is the matter,"
replied the Captain, bracing herself for the unpleasant task.
"Oh, Verny! Please don't!" wailed Betty.
"He may be hoaxing us like Hepsy did--better call to him and tell him we
haven't a jewel or a cent with us," cried Ruth.
But the form remained inanimate. Not another sound was heard other than
the cries and talking of the scouts.
Mrs. Vernon went over slowly, keeping the electric light directly upon
the form. The two other girls held their candles so that the footpath
showed distinctly, as they walked beside the Captain. Ruth and Betty
clung to each other where they had been left standing.
"Here! Get up!" ordered Mrs. Vernon, pushing the body gently with her
foot.
But there was no sound or motion from the form.
The coat had been removed, but the undergarments looked like good ones,
so Mrs. Vernon stooped down the better to see. The right arm was so bent
upwards that it covered the face, and it seemed as if the man was
sleeping that way.
"Wake up! Do you hear me?" called the Captain, again.
The fearful quiet was the only effect of the second demand, so then Mrs.
Vernon carefully removed the arm from the face.
"Oh!" shrieked Julie and Joan, falling back suddenly, and even the
Captain cried with horror.
"Help! Help!" screamed Ruth, not sure of what was happening to her
friends.
But the movement of the arm must have caused an instance of
consciousness in the man, as he made another faint sound like a sigh or
a moan.
"Girls, something has happened to this man, and we have to use our
scout-sense to try and carry him out to the air," said Mrs. Vernon,
turning to the girls.
"Oh, dear me! I'm afraid to go any nearer. He may die if we move him,"
said Joan, fearfully.
"He'll surely die if left here alone. It may be days or even weeks
before any party again visits this Cave," said Mrs. Vernon,
emphatically.
"How terrible! We just can't let him die, then," admitted Julie.
"Do we have to help you?" wailed Ruth, from the rear.
"Betty and you will have to carry the lights, while we three try to
carry him," answered the Captain.
"If only we had a blanket!" sighed Julie.
"It would have been so easy to make a stretcher, then," added Joan.
"We'll have to contrive one from my skirt, girls. I have a full skirt
on, and the pleats at the belt can quickly be ripped out."
Even as she spoke, Mrs. Vernon slipped off the plaid skirt and began
pulling at the belt. But it was well-sewed and would not give way.
"Here, let me chew open some of the stitches," said Joan.
"No, no! I have an idea--let me burn the threads with the candle-flame,"
called Julie.
"Good! Now touch it right there," said the Captain, as she held the belt
over the flame.
In a few moments, the scorched and smoking skirt belt gave way to the
strength of the pull Mrs. Vernon used on it, and once the stitching
began, it easily ripped across the entire width.
"That scorching also reminds me, girls! I've heard said that smoking
wool will revive a fainting person. We will try it as soon as we have
him out of this smothering place," said the Captain.
An impromptu stretcher was then contrived of the skirt, and the three
bearers lifted the unconscious man upon it. They managed to carry the
form over to the spot where Betty and Ruth held the lights, but the
moment Ruth saw the gash on the head, and the blood trickling from it,
she screamed and clung to Betty.
"Don't, Ruth--don't hang on to me like that!" wailed Betty. "I'm going to
faint, if you don't let go of me!"
"Betty Lee! You'd better not!" cried Julie, desperately.
"We haven't time to hold you up and try to revive you," added Joan.
"Children, start ahead and show us the way, or we'll all be taken to
Court to testify why we let this man die," ordered the Captain, hoping
by such awe-inspiring words to make Betty and Ruth see the necessity of
self-control.
Ruth managed to take the extra candle from Betty's shaking hand, and
say: "Come on, Betty, we'll both be in jail for murder if we don't."
As this was Ruth's interpretation of Court, and it seemed to have the
desired effect, Mrs. Vernon thought best not to correct her. The two
frightened girls led the way with the lights and the three bearers of
the still unconscious form followed.
Finally they reached the open, and the man was placed upon the grass
near the Cave entrance. "If he doesn't regain his senses in a few
moments, we will have to try that burnt wool," said Mrs. Vernon,
watching the patient very closely, while the scouts bathed his head with
the water they had brought in a bottle.
But the fresh air seemed to have the hoped-for effect, for the man
heaved a deep sigh and slowly opened his eyes. At first he merely stared
right up at the green foliage of the trees, but as his strength came
back, he tried to see who was bathing his forehead.
"Do you feel better, now?" inquired Mrs. Vernon, softly.
The man tried to speak but couldn't, so Julie whispered: "Maybe he's
been in there for days, and needs food."
"Some of you girls run and bring the hamper up," said Mrs. Vernon, but
the patient had heard.
"No--all right," he managed to gasp.
After what seemed an eternity to the scouts, the man had survived far
enough to sit up and lean against the front seat of the buckboard which
the girls had removed and carried over.
"I fear you have had a bad accident," said the Captain. "Do you know
what happened to you in the Cave? Maybe you fell from a shelf of rock."
"No--tramps did it."
The girls cried out, but the Captain gave them a severe look that
quieted them at once. Then she held the cup of water for the man to sip,
and he freshened up visibly.
"Girls, all four of you go for the hamper, as we must eat our dinner up
here. You can take turns in carrying it, you know," said the Captain.
The scouts preferred to hover about and hear about the tramps, but Mrs.
Vernon's word was law, so they started down the hill. On the way, Ruth
said, complainingly:
"We ought to hitch that lazy old horse to the buckboard and make her
pull the load up the hill."
"She'd balk halfway up, Ruth, and make us pull _her_ up the rest of the
way," retorted Julie, laughingly.
Mrs. Vernon fanned the cut and bruised face, and wished the man could
tell who he was. As if in answer to her thoughts, he whispered: "Did you
find my card-case in the coat pocket?"
"No, the tramps who maltreated you so, stole everything."
The man was not yet aware that he was in his shirt-sleeves, but now he
glanced at himself and frowned.
"I beg your pardon, but you see my appearance is unavoidable," murmured
he, while a flush rose to his pale face.
"Oh, don't think of form just now--let us help you back to a normal state
as soon as possible," replied Mrs. Vernon, earnestly.
"I am a stranger in these parts, having left the train that goes to New
York, because I heard there were some marvelous caves of stalactite
formation in this mountain. I was told to find a young hunter on top of
this crest who would guide me," whispered he.
"But I must have missed my way, as I found myself at the Cave itself,
before I even found the trail that goes to the hunter's cabin. I had a
grip which I left outside, and taking my flashlight out of it, I started
in alone." The speaker rested a few moments, then continued: "As I
reached the branch where the two tunnels fork, I heard voices. So I
hailed, thinking it might be the hunter escorting a party through the
Cave. Then suddenly the voices were silenced.
"That should have warned me that all was not right, but I hurried on,
hoping to meet some one. Instead I suddenly was struck directly in the
face with a sharp rock. The blow staggered me, but I leaned against the
wall, until two hard-looking villains crept along the tunnel thinking I
was unconscious.
"One of them had on stripes, so I judged they were escaped convicts. I
fought them off, but the blows from a cudgel and the loss of blood from
the gash made by the rock, weakened me so that I remember no more until
I opened my eyes and found you bending over me."
"How horrible! But how grateful we are that we visited the Caves to-day.
What day was it that you went in there?"
"Let me think: I left the train at the Junction on the evening of July
third, and stopped at a country inn for the night. Early on the Fourth I
climbed the mountains, and visited the Cave. What day is it now?"
"Why this is the Fourth still! You must have been attacked but a short
time before we found you. It is now noon," exclaimed Mrs. Vernon,
showing her dread of lurking rascals by calling to the girls to hasten
up the hill.
"Thank heavens! Then we may catch them before they get out of the
country," said the man.
"My name is Mrs. Vernon, and I am camping in these woods with my girl
scouts. But I should dread having them go about alone after this."
"My name is Mr. Gilroy, and I certainly feel greatly obliged to your
scouts and to you, Madame, for your aid."
"If only we were not so far from camp, or such a long ride to Freedom.
You could have medical attention there, and notify the police of this
assault."
"My dear Madame! I, too, have been an enthusiastic camper and can help
myself better than the physicians can. Give me a few hours' rest, and I
will be as well as ever," said Mr. Gilroy.
The scouts now came puffing up with the hamper, registering many threats
against Hepsy for her untimely trick. As they came over and stood beside
the Captain, she introduced them to Mr. Gilroy. They were delighted to
find him so far recovered, and they said so in girlish words and
expressions.
The scouts displayed as hearty an appetite as if nothing unusual had
happened, but Mrs. Vernon was too concerned over the news of some tramps
being at large to enjoy her dinner; she put two and two together and
decided that this was what the young hunter wished to warn her about.
Mr. Gilroy seemed to like the eager attendance on him shown by the
girls, but he ate sparingly of all the many goodies they urged upon him.
When the dinner was over, Mrs. Vernon said: "We must leave the hamper
hidden somewhere, girls, and call back for it another day. The back seat
we must leave here, also."
"Why?" asked the scouts, wonderingly.
"Because we must contrive some sort of couch on the floor of the
buckboard for Mr. Gilroy; you girls will sit on either side, or at the
back of the buckboard. I can manage to crowd in one extra scout on the
front seat. As Ruth is the slenderest one, I think it had better be she
and Betty for the front seat, while Joan and Julie mount guard over
their patient."
The girls seemed to think the plan a good one, so the hamper and extra
seat were soon hidden inside the Cave.
CHAPTER TWELVE
AN UNPLEASANT SURPRISE
When dinner was cleared away, Mrs. Vernon and the scouts gathered young
spruce tips from the trees growing so profusely near the Cave. These
were woven into a soft springy mattress on the floor of the buckboard,
by placing a row of tips where the head would be. The next row of tips
was so placed that the stems ran under the soft resisting tops of the
former row. So on, row after row was woven, until the floor of the
vehicle was covered.
Mr. Gilroy was then helped up and partly carried over to the spruce-bed.
He had been preparing for this ordeal, and managed to get up on the
buckboard, but then he sank back in a half-faint. The scouts were at
hand, however, with water and a paper fan.
The return trip took more than two hours, and when the trail was
followed that led direct to the camp Hepsy jogged along without urging
and without balking.
Joan and Julie sat on either side of their patient, with their feet
dangling from the rear. Mrs. Vernon drove Hepsy very carefully, and the
animal seemed to sense that she must step circumspectly. Not a bowlder
or rut did she cause the vehicle to encounter.
"For which we are duly grateful to tricky old Hepsy," declared Julie, as
they neared the camp.
The scouts entertained Mr. Gilroy on this ride down the mountainside, so
that he smiled and almost forgot he was a patient. In fact, the scouts
forgot he was a stranger, so pleasant was this middle-aged man of
forty-five, with his fine face and gray hair.
On the last hundred yards to the Camp, Hepsy pricked up her ears.
"She smells oats for supper, and a good bed," laughed Joan.
"I'm awfully glad we had Hepsy with us to bring back this couch for Mr.
Gilroy," said Betty.
"Yes, and we're all glad there is such a nice hut ready to receive Mr.
Gilroy. All we will have to do will be to carry the spruce tips from
here to the cabin and make the bed," added Julie.
Then they told Mr. Gilroy all about the hut and the rugs and the
wonderful furniture, that had taken more than two weeks to build. They
were still laughing over the perfect work done on the roof by the young
hunter, when Hepsy pulled the vehicle up on the plateau near the huts
and stopped.
"Our camp is under those pines, right beside the tumbling waters,"
explained Ruth, pointing out the spot to the tired-looking eyes of the
man.
"Well, I've enjoyed the ride, dear young ladies, but I am greatly
relieved to be here," sighed Mr. Gilroy.
"Verny, can't you make Hepsy bring the buckboard over to the hut so Mr.
Gilroy won't have to walk?" said Joan.
"I was just going to suggest it. I will lead her by the head, so she
won't balk, but you girls remain seated and see that our guest does not
roll off."
Ruth and Betty followed behind, and the Captain led the horse carefully
over the grass until the camp was reached. All that was now necessary
was for the man to wait until the spruce bed was removed from the wagon
to the hut.
"You girls run and make room in the hut so we can lay the bed on the
floor. Move the furniture against the walls," said the Captain.
Julie and Joan, being foremost, ran over to begin the work while Mrs.
Vernon unhitched Hepsy to take her to the shed. Ruth and Betty were
about to push the buckboard under the trees when a heart-rending cry
came from the hut.
The Captain thought instantly of the tramps, and held her heart as she
ran to help. Ruth and Betty left the wagon where it was and started
after Mrs. Vernon. Even Mr. Gilroy, forgetting his weakness, slid from
the buckboard and crept along in wake of the others.
"Oh, Verny! Our lovely, lovely hut! Oh, oh!" wailed Joan.
"Everything ruined! Who could have done it!" cried Julie, stamping her
foot furiously.
When the others crowded about the door, they beheld a scene indeed! Mr.
Gilroy sank upon the grapevine seat just outside the door, and panted
forth:
"Those rascally vandals! They did it!"
"Oh, oh! everything gone or broken! But why did they do it? It won't
help them any!" wailed Ruth.
The table and chairs had disappeared completely, and bits of grapevine
and ends of boards scattered everywhere, testified to the cataclysm that
struck the inside of the hut. The pictures were torn from the walls, and
the flowers were tossed, with their holders, into the grass near the
hut. The willow and grass mats were in strips, some of them showing
where the demons had tried to set fire to them, but they were too green
to burn readily.
Suddenly Mrs. Vernon gasped and said: "The annex, girls!"
She feared that the tramps might be hidden there. But the girls thought
she meant the food-stock, so they ran pell-mell out of the new hut into
the old one, Mrs. Vernon trying to hold them back.
The scouts found the food-stuff had been taken, too. This was too much
for them! They fairly screamed with rage. Mrs. Vernon had all she could
do to calm their hysterical anger.
"I'll kill them if I get sight of them!" screamed Ruth, with clenched
hands, jumping up and down.
"Oh, if we only had that hunter's gun!" added Joan.
"And shoot each other--no thank you!" declared Julie, in so
matter-of-fact a tone that it did more to stop the howling than anything
else. Even Mr. Gilroy felt like smiling, in spite of the troubles these
innocent scouts had had thrust upon them.
"Verny, don't you suppose those poor convicts have gone without food for
so long that they had to take ours!" ventured Betty, kindly.
"Oh, oh! how _can_ you pity them, Betty Lee!" cried Joan.
"Betty, if you don't swear to avenge this outrage, I'll spank you good
and hard--so there!" threatened Julie, her eyes gleaming dangerously as
she leaned towards poor Betty.
"I can't swear, Julie, but I am sorry for two terribly wicked men who
don't know better than to hurt Mr. Gilroy and then ruin our lovely home.
The food I s'pose they needed," explained Betty, with more spirit than
she had ever expressed in her life.
The scouts were so amazed at Betty's self-defense that unconsciously
they pardoned her charity towards the vagabonds.
"Besides, Verny, they couldn't have carried the boxes very far, you
know, when it took Hepsy and all of _us_ to carry them in," added Betty.
"And the furniture was awfully heavy, too," said Ruth.
"And too clumsy for them to handle well," Betty added, but she had best
have left that unsaid, as Julie's wrath exploded.
"How can you call the furniture clumsy? They were just as handsome as
anything I ever saw!"
But no one abetted this statement, so she modified her words. "Well, not
_very_ clumsy--only heavy, maybe."
Mr. Gilroy had been thinking very quickly during this conversation, and
now he called to the Captain. They all ran over to him to see if he was
all right.
"Oh, yes, I feel all right; but I was wondering if you can find it
possible to have Hepsy drive on down to that village you mention?"
"To Freedom? What for?" asked Julie, surprised.
"Because I have a theory about this vandalism, and the sooner the police
hear of it, the better for the safety of all," replied Mr. Gilroy.
"Do you think you can stand the extra journey?" now asked Mrs. Vernon.
"I feel so strong and improved since I see what the rascals did here
that I really will be better off if we go to the village than if I
remained here chafing against the delay of catching them."
Mrs. Vernon knew that an unsettled mental condition was worse than
actual healthy fatigue, so she agreed to drive on down to Freedom. "But
it will be too late for us to return to-night!"
"Oh, you must not think of it! In fact, you must not camp here again
until the convicts are taken," hastily replied Mr. Gilroy.
"I suppose we can find a good farm-house where we can board for a time,"
suggested Mrs. Vernon.
"We'll ask the grocery man who comes up for our orders," added Julie.
By the time Hepsy was hitched again to the buckboard, the scouts had
packed some things in suitcases to take with them. Mr. Gilroy refused to
recline on the spruce bed again, so he sat up between the two girls.
Hepsy was inclined to balk when she found she was wanted to drive down
to Freedom; but Mrs. Vernon was most emphatic with a persuasive hickory
stick, so that Hepsy decided that "discretion was the better part of
stubbornness."
Once warmed up to the going, Hepsy kept on traveling at a great rate, so
that the village of Freedom was seen in less than an hour's time after
leaving the camp. While Mrs. Vernon asked the keeper of the general
store about hotel accommodations for all, Mr. Gilroy went to the
telephone and called up the police station at Junction.
The scouts had not heard the first part of his conversation, as they
were interested in hearing about rooms for the night, but when the
store-keeper held up a hand for silence, they heard Mr. Gilroy say
excitedly:
"Is that so! Well, I really believe I can get them for you. My name is
Chester Gilroy, and my home is in New York State, but the young ladies
are Girl Scouts. The Captain's name is Mrs. Vernon, of Elmertown--the
other side of this ridge, you know. And the scouts are Juliette and
Elizabeth Lee, Ruth Bentley and Joan Allison."
The scouts exchanged glances with Mrs. Vernon, but they had no clue to
the conversation at the other end of the wire.
"What's that?" asked Mr. Gilroy. "Oh--yes! They lost all their
food-stuff, furniture, and other things from camp, so they are compelled
to stay at Freedom until the rascals are caught."
After saying "good-by" Mr. Gilroy hung up the receiver and came over to
the group waiting to hear what was to be done.
The excitement and tiresome trip, followed by the sudden relaxation and
satisfaction he experienced now, caused the man's head to whirl, so that
he dropped into a wooden chair for a time.
As he sat there recovering himself, he quickly planned. Then he looked
up at the store-keeper.
"Mr. Grocer, I can show you an express order on a bank at Junction from
my home bank in New York State. I want you to take it--not to cash, but
just to prove to you that I mean business."
The scouts looked perplexed, and the store-keeper said: "What sort of
business do you want to transact?"
"I want you to act as a constable for me--or get a real one, if there is
one, at once. Then I want you to collect as large a posse of men as you
can, and begin and search that mountainside thoroughly. Begin at an
outside circle and narrow down as you reach the camp-huts. We've got to
get those escaped convicts and hand them over to the police before we
can feel safe." The canny grocer shook his head dubiously.