will pretend we are going to burn down the hut," now announced Julie,
highly pleased with her plan.
"How?" asked Betty.
"This way--now listen and keep your wits about you--all of you, and reply
wisely," whispered Julie, going over to the fireplace to speak so the
men behind the wall could plainly hear her.
"Scouts, the Chief and his men are outside loading their guns to open a
fight on these two men hidden behind this wall, but that means there
will be an awful fight. Now, I have a much better plan; I am going to
pour gasoline all over this wall and then light it. It won't take long
to burn these logs down; but it will give these convicts a chance to
give themselves up."
Julie paused a moment, then called out loudly:
"Say, you two fugitives! Come out from there quietly and we won't drive
you forth."
But not a sound was heard from behind the wall. After a few moments,
Julie added: "All right! We'll have to burn down the hut. I'm sorry, but
we've got to get you, or give up camping here."
The scouts were intensely interested in this farce, but Julie meant
business. She turned to the Captain and said: "Make the scouts leave the
hut before I pour this gasoline all over the log wall. If they remain
here with lighted candles, the fumes of the gasoline will cause an
explosion."
Julie grinned at the girls and placed a finger on her lips as a signal
for absolute silence; then she continued:
"That's right, Captain; now you take that can of gasoline that stands by
the door, and pour it all over those logs while I soak these--then run
outside. I will wait, and the moment you are out I will throw a lighted
taper at the wall. Instantly the flames will eat up the bark and begin
to burn through. By that time those two men will be glad to crawl out
and give themselves up."
Julie pointed at a pail of water that stood by the door, so the Captain
picked it up. Then the scout began arranging the paper and kindlings in
the fireplace. These she lit with a match, and when she found they were
beginning to burn, she called out:
"Now! Let us throw the gasoline all over the wall! Ready!"
As Julie gave the word, Mrs. Vernon tossed the water over as much wall
surface as possible, then ran from the hut. The smoke now began to pour
from the fireplace and filled the room. The scouts had to remain outside
to keep from choking. Julie was the last to leave, but she smiled with
satisfaction when she saw the dense smoke quickly filling the hut. Then
she closed the door.
"Have you enough wood on the fire to last this trick out?" asked Mrs.
Vernon, anxiously.
"Piles of it! That's why it is smoking so furiously," replied Julie.
"Only a tiny spiral of smoke can be seen coming from the top of the
chimney, so most of it must be escaping from the fireplace into the
room," announced Joan.
Suddenly the scouts heard some one back of the hut wall cough. Then
another louder cough. Soon two were coughing and strangling desperately,
and the Captain patted Julie on the back approvingly.
Then a gutteral voice tried to be heard: "Vee gif up--onny safe us from
dis fire!"
Julie held Betty, who was going to shout back that they would be saved.
No one replied to the cry, and the two voices shrieked and screamed,
"Help! Help--dis house iss on fire--vee burn to dedt!"
Julie was about to answer, when the Chief and Mr. Gilroy ran up. The
latter caught Mrs. Vernon's look, but the former cried excitedly: "How
did the hut catch fire?"
He seemed terribly upset about it and wanted to know if the convicts had
set fire to the logs. Mrs. Vernon began to explain, while Julie
scrambled up on the roof of Hepsy's shed and carefully made her way
along the framework until she reached the chimney, where she held fast
and called down to the men behind the wall.
"Come out and give yourselves up, or roast where you are."
When the Chief heard the scout's command, he smiled and ordered his men
up on the roof to help. Then he followed Julie, and stood beside her
with cocked revolver aiming at the rocky wall. The other policemen
climbed up, too, and the Chief said to Julie:
"You'd better get down and join your friends now. We can handle the
rascals better if you are out of the way."
"But you won't have to use revolvers, 'cause they are unarmed," said
Julie, anxiously.
"How do you know that?"
"We heard them whispering. Besides, one man has a crushed foot, and we
scouts don't believe in hurting _anything_ that is helpless--even a
convict who has made lots of trouble for us."
"All right, little girl; I'll put my gun away, but we ought to have
_one_ to show, so the rascals won't try to overpower us."
"I guess they are so full of smoke and fear that they won't be able to
fight. Cowards always give up easy, you know," said Julie, creeping down
from the roof of the hut, back to Hepsy's shed.
As Julie had said, the two convicts crawled up from behind the wall,
looking the sorriest mortals ever one saw. Their eyes were red and
watery from the smoke so that they could hardly see, and they coughed
every other second. One limped most painfully, and had to be helped by
his pal. Then, just as they stood up on the roof to hold up their hands
in defeat, the other one broke through the tar paper roof and stuck fast
between the rafters.
"Oh, there goes our roof!" cried Betty plaintively.
"Never mind, Betty dear! You can hire men to put on fifty roofs now,
with the reward you scouts will get," exclaimed Mr. Gilroy.
"Reward! What reward?" asked five amazed voices.
Mr. Gilroy laughed delightedly. "The Chief told me that one reason his
men and all the men in Freedom were so eager to hunt these convicts, was
the hope of the cash reward offered. The State has offered $500 a head
for the capture, dead or alive, of these outlaws and aliens. You scouts
have captured the men!"
"W-h-y! I can't believe it! How did we do it?" exclaimed Betty.
"Oh--Julie caught them, didn't she?" cried Joan.
"Not alone, Jo. You all helped, and the Captain poured the gasoline, you
know, and took the risk of being blown to bits!" laughed Julie,
excitedly, as she twisted her fingers nervously.
"When the Chief told me of the rewards, I said: 'Then the girls ought to
have it, no matter who _catches_ the convicts, for they apprehended them
and turned in the news of their whereabouts.'"
"Oh, but we didn't, Mr. Gilroy. You did that yourself," Ruth corrected
the gentleman.
"I only took the blows from the prisoners--you did the rest. But I never
dreamed that you would capture them, too. I might have known that girl
scouts are capable of doing anything."
The moment handcuffs were on the convicts, they were placed in custody
of the officer. Then the Chief blew his signal so the hunters on the
mountainside would know the men were taken.
He congratulated Julie and her friends on having won the much coveted
reward, and then said to Mrs. Vernon: "I suppose you will hear from the
Government offices in a few days. Meantime, I will need the names and
addresses of the members of Dandelion Camp, to enter the report on my
records."
The scattered men who had been hunting through the forests now straggled
into camp, all eager to hear by whom and how the convicts had been
caught. When they learned that a few girls did the work, they looked
disgusted.
But one of the officers laughed heartily as he said: "Why didn't we
think of that hiding-place!"
"Wall, I kin say I'm glad th' gals got it! They lost all the camp
ferniture and grub, an' has to go home now!" added Lem Saunders, the
constable.
"Oh, we forgot to tell you! The food and some furniture was found hidden
down the trail in the bushes," exclaimed Joan.
"But ye haint be agoin' to stay out here any more, air yeh?" asked
Lemuel, wondering at such a risk.
"Of course! We are safer now than we were before we went to Bluebeard's
Cave, you know," laughed Julie.
"Now we know where those convicts will be, but for two weeks past they
were at large and we never knew it. _That_ was when there was cause to
fear for us--being in a lonesome camp," added Mrs. Vernon.
"Yeh," agreed Lemuel. "But what one don't know never hurts one, ye
know!"
"That reminds me!" exclaimed the Captain, holding up a hand for
attention. "Do any of you men know a young hunter and trapper from up
the mountain?"
"D'ye mean Ole Granny Dunstan's boy?" asked Lemuel.
"I only know he lives up the mountain somewhere, and makes his living
through selling pelts. I don't even know his name," said Mrs. Vernon.
"That's him! Ole Granny Dunstan's son," returned Lemuel.
"Is he with you to-night?" continued the Captain.
"Nah! He's gone to Washerton most ten days ago. They writ him a note
sayin' they was holdin' a French paper fer him," explained a young man
who was standing on the outer line of the posse.
"He fit so hard in France, yeh know, that th' Frenchys done sent him a
fine paper tellin' folks about him. I've hear'n said folks over thar
nicknamed him an 'ace,'" said another man.
"Then he must have been an aviator!" exclaimed Mrs. Vernon.
"Yeh! he can fly in one of them machines--but we don't keep any in
Freedom, so we never seed him ride one," said Lemuel.
"Well, gentlemen, I thank you for this information. But should you see
him when he returns from Washington, tell him we want him to stop in and
see us--at Dandelion Camp."
The Chief had ordered his men to accompany the convicts to the village,
so Mr. Gilroy offered the car to them. He was going to stay at camp with
the scouts, he said.
"But we left our suitcases at the hotel, and Hepsy is at the stable in
Freedom!" declared the Captain.
"We'll all have to go back, then, and come up in the morning," added
Julie.
So the convicts were tied to horses and two of the officers whose mounts
had been chosen for this need sat in the car with the scouts. But they
didn't mind being crowded when the two policemen began telling stories
of the narrow escapes they had had in the past while catching criminals.
As the cavalcade entered Freedom, Mrs. Vernon said: "After all those
blood-curdling stories, I doubt if my scouts will sleep."
It was past midnight when the hunting party returned to Freedom, and
only goodness knows what time it was when all the hunters had finished
telling the citizens how the convicts were captured by a few girl
scouts.
Long after the scouts had retired Mrs. Vernon heard them whispering to
each other. Finally she called out:
"Why don't you girls go to sleep?"
"We can't, Verny; we're thinking of that reward," said Joan.
"And we've spent most of it already!" laughed Julie.
"You'll have plenty of time to plan about it, girls, for the
Government--like most large bodies--moves very slowly. It may be next
summer before you get the check," said the Captain.
"Never mind; it will be ready for the Adirondacks, then."
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
A FURNITURE SHOWER
News of the raid on Dandelion Camp traveled swiftly, so that the head of
police in Elmertown heard of the posse and the reward offered to capture
the convicts.
He was going down the street after hearing the story and, meeting Mr.
Allison, stopped him.
"I suppose the scouts came home this afternoon," he said.
"The scouts! Why, no--why should they?" asked Mr. Allison.
"Is it possible that you have not heard?"
"Heard--heard what? Has anything terrible happened?" cried the frightened
father.
Now, the policeman knew that no one in Elmertown had heard the story,
but he liked to create an effect, so he explained carefully, "Why, two
convicts got away from State's prison and were hiding on that mountain
where your girls are camping."
"Good heavens! What happened?"
"Nothing more than their camp was broken up. All the food-stuff and
furniture are gone. The men stole everything and what they could not
carry away, they broke to bits."
"Why--how awful! Where were the scouts when this happened?" asked Mr.
Allison, trembling with apprehension.
"Oh, it seems they went to Bluebeard's Cave to celebrate the Fourth, and
there they found an unconscious man who had been beaten almost to death
by the rascals who, after robbing him, took him way back in the Cave and
left him there. But the scouts discovered him, and saved his life."
"Well, now! that is something like it," said the father proudly.
"But it didn't spare their camp. When they got back they found
everything gone, so they kept right on to Freedom and are staying at
Mrs. Munson's hotel."
"Why there--they should have come home," said Mr. Allison.
"They couldn't, I s'pose. You see, they would have to be on hand to
swear to warrants and everything. We police do things up according to
law, you know."
"Maybe they'll be home to-day," ventured Mr. Allison.
"Like as not. Well, so long!"
Mr. Allison thanked the officer and hurried to his office. He rang up
the Bentley's house and found Ruth's father at home.
"Say, Bentley, I just met the cop on our beat and he tells me the scouts
had an awful time! Two escaped prisoners were hiding on the mountains,
and smashed up the camp. Every bit of food and all the furniture broken
to bits. The girls saved a man that the outlaws had beaten to a jelly."
"Good heavens! Were any of the scouts hurt in the fight?"
"No, but I guess they were pretty well frightened,--eh?"
"I should say so! What are we going to do about it--go out and bring them
home?" said Mr. Bentley.
"Oh, the cop told me they were now at a hotel in Freedom, as they had to
be on hand to testify to certain things. I suppose they will be home
to-morrow."
"Let me hear from you if you hear anything new, will you?" asked Mr.
Bentley.
"Yes, and you do the same," replied Mr. Allison.
Hardly had both men hung up the receivers before the telephone bell at
the Lee house tinkled. May answered the call. Two men were trying to get
her. One said to the other: "Get off of this wire--it's busy."
Then the other replied: "I called the number first--I heard you come
in----Now get off, I have to tell this party a very important story."
"Ho! that sounds like Allison's voice--is it you?"
"Yes,--is this Bentley?" asked the other voice.
"Ha, ha, ha! I was just going to tell the Lees about the robbers and the
camp. But you can tell them, if you like."
"All right--hang up and I'll tell them," said Mr. Bentley.
Now, May had heard this conversation and when the men spoke of robbers
and camp she trembled with fear. By the time Mr. Bentley had told his
story, she was so weak that she had to sit down. Finally she managed to
get in a word, so she asked:
"But where are the girls? Did anything happen to them?"
"Oh, they are all right! They're stopping at the Freedom Hotel until the
police can get all their testimony."
"Thank goodness. The furniture can quickly be replaced, but the girls'
lives cannot. Now we will have to plan to refurnish their huts," said
May.
"Refurnish--why! Won't you insist upon their coming home now?" asked Mr.
Bentley.
"Why should they come home now, just after they cleared the pests out of
their vicinity? Of course not!"
"Well, I suppose you are right in one way. But Allison and I expected
they would come home to-morrow."
"Poor girls! They were having such a wonderful time in camp, too! I
guess I will get Mrs. Vernon's sister to take me to Freedom in the
morning to see if there is anything we can do."
"May, I think that is a fine idea. And when you see them give them our
love and say that we will do anything they say. If they plan to go on
with the camp--all right and well. We will stock them up again."
"All right, Mr. Bentley, I'll call you up when I get back and tell you
all they say. Meantime, let Mr. Allison know that I intend running out
to see them, will you?"
"Yes, I'll call him up at once, May. Good-by."
So it happened that Mrs. Vernon's sister-in-law and May went to Freedom
in the automobile the day following the Fourth, but found the town
almost deserted. Mrs. Munson told them how the scouts led the way up the
mountainside when the police arrived, and they weren't expected back
that day.
After sitting around and waiting until afternoon, May and Mrs. Vernon's
sister decided to go back. But they left notes with Mrs. Munson for the
scouts, as soon as they should return.
That evening May telephoned the Bentleys. After telling the little she
knew about the case, she asked them to come over and discuss a plan she
had thought of. Then the Allisons were asked to run over and meet the
others in planning a relief-party for the scouts.
That evening the whole plan was approved and worked out. May said that
the sister-in-law had promised to send the factory truck to the house on
Saturday at noon, so they need not worry about transporting the
donations to the camp. As that was the only hitch in the entire plan,
once it was removed every one was delighted.
That Saturday morning the local papers were full of the story of how a
few girl scouts found and captured two desperate outlaws. The story was
so highly embellished that several of the conservative parents in the
town thought it was dreadful to allow girls to go off in the woods
without a dog or a big brother. What the big brother would have done
that the scouts didn't accomplish is hard to say.
But most of the girls who had been so anxious to be scouts and spend the
summer in camp, now gnashed their teeth in envy. Here were four girls
who had to dig dandelions to earn the money to go away on, now having
the most wonderful time! They had their names in the paper, and every
one said what brave scouts they were! And, most of all, they were going
to have ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS from the Government as a reward. "Oh, why
did we have to sit at home all summer while these scouts were getting
all the fun?" they wailed.
The three families of the Dandelion Camp Scouts felt very proud of their
girls when they read the account in the papers, and they felt all the
more eager to go to camp with the donations of furniture, and show the
girls how much they appreciated their courage and cleverness in
capturing the rascals.
At one o'clock on Saturday the driver pulled his truck up in front of
the Lee homestead. Just inside the picket fence stood two cane-seated
chairs. The fact that hind-legs were missing was not apparent to a
casual observer, but that is why they had been in the loft for several
years.
The moment the truck was seen to stop, May and her father ran from the
house, carrying paper bundles piled high in their arms. Eliza followed
with a brass banquet lamp minus a globe. Handing this to the driver, she
hurried back for odds and ends of dishes and pans. May made a second
trip for some pictures in broken frames--also a washtub and old tools
that had been found in the loft.
The second stop was made at the Bentley's house. Their donation
consisted of a table with three legs; a small wash-stand bureau with
bottomless drawers; an old-fashioned towel-rack and a rocker with a very
lame back; in fact, the back might be called crippled and helpless. But
then they added a goodly stock of groceries.
At the Allison's house the driver took on a kitchen table with one
drop-leaf gone and the other hanging by one hinge. A small family
album-stand from the parlor of long ago. An old hair-cloth sofa with
broken springs and the filling most gone; a straw mattress and a spiral
spring that had not been used for years, so the Allisons thought it
might as well go to the camp as to be left in the attic. Foodstuff was
the last but not least of this donation.
When the truck reached the Vernons' house, where the sister-in-law was
waiting, many cumbersome and heavy items were added to the collection.
By this time the jitney party had been picked up one after another, and
now all arrived at the Vernons' house for the last passenger.
The truck and jitney then started for Dandelion Camp, the happy givers
picturing how delighted the scouts would be to receive the shower of
furniture.
At Freedom the surprise party found their girls had gone back to camp,
and the injured man with them. Lemuel Saunders was such a personage in
the public eye since the man-hunt on the mountain that he could be seen
strutting up and down Main Street, telling people all about the Great
Deed. Thus it was that the families from Elmertown heard the tale
first-hand--with all its trimmings.
As the truck started up the trail for the camp Mr. Bentley turned to Mr.
Lee and Mr. Allison and said: "According to Lemuel, he did the whole
trick. If our girls played so little a part in the capture, why should
they have had the reward?"
But further conversation was rendered impossible by the deep ruts worn
in the trail by the many wagons that had recently traveled the road.
People from Freedom and other villages nearby wanted to see the girl
scouts who had shown so much sense as to trap two convicts.
Finally the truck halted, and the jitney traveled on a few hundred feet
in advance before it, too, had to stop. Each member of the party then
took a piece of furniture and, carrying the load, started for camp.
The scouts were busy trying to put their camp in order again, when Mrs.
Vernon called out, "Some one's coming up the trail."
Ruth ran out to see who it could be, and then exclaimed: "Why, it's
Daddy! He's carrying an old table."
A few yards behind Mr. Bentley came Mr. Allison with the legless chairs.
And then followed the chauffeur, staggering under a canopy of the
husk-mattress. A line of visitors came behind him, each burdened with
some piece of old furniture.
The scouts stood speechless at the top of the slope, but gradually the
truth about this "moving brigade" dawned upon Mrs. Vernon. She turned
instantly to the girls, and said: "Be very grateful, for your people
have gone to a great deal of trouble to refurnish your camp."
Mr. Bentley was only too thankful to drop his burden when he reached the
scouts; Ruth caught hold of his hand, laughing merrily as she said: "Oh,
can you ever stand up straight again, Daddy?"
"I doubt it," returned he, holding the small of his back.
Then the others came up and deposited their donations beside the
kitchen-table. As each one sighed and wiped streaming faces, the scouts
declared they were the finest families on earth.
"You certainly are very self-sacrificing to bring all this furniture to
camp," added Mrs. Vernon.
"We would have been cold-blooded folks if we hadn't, after hearing how
all the rustic furniture was destroyed," said May.
"But we got it all back!" exclaimed Julie, joyously.
"Got it back! I thought those rascals smashed it up," said Mr. Allison.
"No--they just hid it behind bushes and trees; only the grass mats and
little ornaments were broken up," explained Joan.
"Dear me! Do you mean to say that we brought this load of odds and ends
all this way for nothing?" cried Mrs. Bentley.
"Of course not! Now we can entertain company over-night, you see. With
that mattress and spring we can have two people," declared Julie,
looking at her companions for credit of this idea.
"That's so! And we can furnish a regular bedroom with the chairs and
table--and banquet lamp," added Joan.
"But we will have to pin a notice on those chairs so no one will use
them," ventured Betty, doubtfully, looking at the legless objects.
Every one laughed, and Ruth added: "We'll build new legs on to them."
"You'll have to build another hut to hold the furniture," now said Mr.
Gilroy.
This attracted all attention to the stranger, and Mrs. Vernon suddenly
flushed crimson, and said: "Oh! What a poor scout hostess I make. I
quite forgot to introduce our guest, Mr. Gilroy." Then the usual
ceremony took place, midst the laughter of every one, for Mrs. Vernon
was considered to be very particular about social customs.
"Now that all this furniture is here, what shall we do with it?" asked
Joan.
"It won't stand dew and weather like our rustic pieces, you know," added
Ruth.
"If you scouts will help move the 'shower,' we might pile it back of
Hepsy's shed and cover it with a canvas until you have built a hotel,"
laughed May.
So, with merriment and strenuous labor, the furniture was neatly stacked
up beside the shed until it could be better arranged.
Then every one sat down to listen to the story of the capture of the
convicts. As all the scouts wished to tell the tale at the same time so
that no one understood, the visitors quickly voted that Mrs. Vernon be
the speaker. This was acceptable to the girls, and the Captain began.