CAP TO THE RESCUE
Where was she? What could be so black?
Nora gasped--it was so stifling. Fumbling in the strange place her hand
found the door and as she pressed against it she heard it shut!
"Oh mercy!" she exclaimed aloud. "I'm shut in this awful place!"
Now her eyes could make out the rafters. It was the attic, but what part
of it? The faintest gleam of light breaking in from above followed the
rough beams. The frightened girl fell back breathing hard and feeling
faint. To faint in the attic! Surely that would be romantic! But she
didn't want to faint all alone up there and maybe die and not be found
for years, as she had read happened once to a bride who went up to look
for her grandmother's quilt.
She was so dizzy. She really must sit down. Not even a hazy fear of rats
roused her, for it was unbearably hot and stuffy.
"O-o-o-h!"
That was the end of Nora for the time being. She succumbed to the first
faint she had ever performed, and there was no one to see her, no one to
rescue her, not one even to know where she was!
Such a little prince!
Velvets and ribbons brushed cobwebs and dust, as she slumped down,
down----!
Of all her life's dreams what she dreamed when she breathed again seemed
the strangest. But it was all broken up like pieces of stars mashed into
flashes of dazzling light, and there was no more head nor tail to it.
All she could think of was how tired she was, and she knew she just had
to sleep.
If spiders had any talent for observing, those in that cubby hole would
have had a wonderful story to tell to the crawling things in roof and
rafters, but even they did not so much as try, with a web, to arouse the
half-conscious child, and one lacy net was so near Nora's face her gasps
of breath swayed and rocked the baby spider in its cradle.
So there she was asleep now, and glad not to know!
Downstairs supper had been prepared and everyone was waiting for Nora.
Who had seen her? Where had she spent the afternoon?
"Vita," said Jerry sharply, "you know you were not to let the child go
off these grounds alone."
"I no see her, never. She no come out from the house," protested the
frightened Vita.
"Well, we have got to search," decided Ted, her bronzed face plainly
showing alarm, and her brown eyes blinking with unnamed fears.
"Where has Cap been?" again demanded Jerry. "He should have been with
her."
"He went with the Scouts; they asked for him, and of course, I let him
go as usual. I did not know Nora was going out, in fact, I thought she
was going to write to her school mates," replied Ted. "But don't let us
waste time. I'll take the north way, Vita you go by the Ledge, and
Jerry, I suppose you will jump on a horse and scout every way."
"Yes, I'll take Cap and send him on ahead." All the laugh was gone from
Jerry's voice now. How quickly the cloud of Anxiety can darken the
brightest home?
More than an hour later all three searchers returned to the Nest and
admitted they could not find Nora.
"She couldn't be in the house, could she?" asked Ted, disconsolately.
"We looked hastily, but it was best to do all the outdoor looking
first," replied Jerry. "Do you suppose she went to visit anyone? Did she
make friends with Alma and Wyn, our pet Scouts?"
"I wish she had. There's that about the Scouts, they go in groups,"
answered Ted, with feeling. "Let us look over the house more carefully.
But why should she hide?" A loud bark from Cap answered that question.
"Here! Cap knows where she is. Let him find her," exclaimed Jerry,
joyfully.
"It's at the kitchen door," added Ted, hurrying in that direction.
"Quick, open the door, Vita!" commanded Jerry, while the dog barked
wildly.
Vita put a trembling hand on the door that led to the back stairs and
opened into the kitchen. No sooner had she done so than Cap bounded past
her, and the next moment the big dog and the forlorn little prince
tumbled into the room.
"Nora!" exclaimed both Jerry and Ted.
"It isn't! It can't be!" faltered the surprised maid. "This is boy----"
"Boy nothing!" almost shouted Jerry, so glad to see Nora in any guise
that her strange costume interested him not at all.
"The poor little darling," cried Ted, gathering the black velvet form up
into her arms. "What ever happened to you, dear?"
Nora brushed a dusty hand over her blinking eyes. "Oh, I am so glad I am
saved. I thought I would surely die."
"Up attic. Why baby! No one could die in our attic. Cap knew you were up
there and if you had not tumbled down just when you did he would have
gone through the wall to find you, wouldn't you, old fellow?" Jerry
asked fondly.
The Saint Bernard was in his native element at the rescue work, and he
licked Nora's hand contentedly. Ted had gathered the child up into her
arms and Vita was already busy getting a refreshing drink. Jerry,
manlike, just looked on, happy beyond words, for in the bad hour
previous he was a prey to keen anxiety, and during the process made up
his mind in the future to keep Nora closer to the family circle at all
times.
Nora had not yet come to the point of talking. Her swoon and its
consequent haziness left her in a daze, and with the mother-like arms
about her, and the breath of Cap reviving her, and Cousin Jerry's big
soft eyes encouraging her, the relief from her fright was slowly
creeping over her and it was so delicious she had no idea of dispelling
it with mere words.
"I know," said Teddie softly, "you were playing parts, dressing up in
the duds from the big chest."
"Did you go to sleep in the trunk?" ventured Jerry, slyly.
"No, I don't know just where I was--I was----" faltered Nora, now
beginning to feel a little foolish in her boy's outfit.
"She went up wrong stairs and I guess, maybe, she got lost in the big
open attic," Vita volunteered, apparently anxious to forestall further
questions.
"No, it was not opened. It was shut tight--very tight," snapped Nora.
She resented Vita's explanation. Somehow she felt Vita was to blame.
"Then you must have struck the spook closet," said Jerry, his old happy
tones ringing through the small kitchen. "Say Ted, let's get into the
other room. Can you walk, Bobbs, or shall big Cousin Jerry carry you?"
"Oh, I can walk all right," replied Nora, slipping to the floor from
Teddie's lap. "But I was so stiff and cramped and--I guess I must have
fainted."
"You must have been up there all the time we were hunting for you, and
the attic is always hot," added Ted. "I never thought of looking there."
"But Cap did. He knew where you were the moment he came in the house,"
said Jerry proudly. "I tell you, Cap is a regular life-saver. He will
have to get another medal for this; even if he didn't drag you out of
the spook cabinet, he did tumble in the kitchen with you."
Both Jerry and Ted were too considerate to show surprise at Nora's
appearance, but Vita could not or did not attempt to hide her
astonishment.
"Guess she thinks the fairies had you," said Jerry softly, when Vita
stood in the doorway, her hands on her capable hips and her mouth wide
open in a gasp of surprise. But Nora had an uncertain feeling that Vita,
as sole tenant of the back stairway, should have made better
arrangements than to have a door that would spring shut like that, right
at the very top of the dark place.
It was at this point a mistake was made. Nora did not express herself
and Vita had no idea of explaining. Mr. and Mrs. Jerry were supposed to
know all about the Nest, but did they! In the excitement of finding
Nora, the actual hiding place was not being considered.
Quickly as the little girl recovered her self-possession and took part
in the conversation, everyone enjoyed a good hearty laugh, naturally led
by Jerry.
"What special kind of prince were you, Bobbs?" he asked jovially. "I did
not know they hid in dark attics."
"Oh, yes they did," contradicted Ted. "Don't you remember the princes in
the tower?"
"I don't, but it doesn't matter. They must have been in a tower or you
would not have included the fact in your college course," replied Jerry,
always ready to tease on that score. Whenever Ted found a new specimen
in the woods, or questioned about a strange bird, he would invariably
ascribe the matter to "her college course."
Nora was anxious to get out of the ill-fated costume. She wanted to run
upstairs and change, now that her knees had stopped shaking, but Ted
insisted she take her supper just as she was, and readily made a merry
time out of the near catastrophe. Again Nora missed the point--no sense
of humor was a sad lack in so active a girl.
Cap regarded her with an eye almost twinkling. Did he know the attic
secret that she had been unable even to realize was a secret?
"Your clothes fit pretty well," said Jerry, "but I think I like you best
in your Little Girl Blue dress. Guess, after all, girls really shouldn't
wear----"
"Now, there you go again, Jerry Manton," interrupted Ted. "As if the
costume had anything to do with Nora getting lost."
And all the while Nora was thinking: "If they only knew." But she had
never had any one to confide in, except Barbara, and now she did not
know exactly how to tell her story. Besides, how silly it would be to
say she had actually been out in the roadway in the Fauntleroy clothes?
And if they ever knew she had been seen and spoken to by a Girl Scout!
The fear of humiliation crushed back any desire to tell the whole story
and so it remained as it appeared, an incident of no more importance
than a case of being lost in the attic.
All the horrors of the black hole, all the terrors of her fright and
faintness, besides what actually happened when she finally burst through
that door and all but fell head-long down the dark stairs--this Nora
crushed back from her lips, and only dared to think of it as something
she would write in her secret diary.
Perhaps she would tell Barbara. It was too thrilling to remain a secret
with no one but herself to ponder upon it.
A refreshing bath, more beef tea and a bedtime story told by the
affectionate Cousin Teddie one hour later, all but dispelled the trying
memory.
The story was one read from a favorite woodland series, in which
children, birds and furry things found days of happiness in the carefree
hours, far away from artificial restrictions of "Do" and "Don't."
The girls mentioned in the story were not spoken of as Scouts, but Nora
suspected they must have been very much like such in ideals.
"You see," said Teddie gently, when she had finished the interesting
story, "girls who love nature find real joy in studying the woods and
learning to love the woodland creatures. You have had no chance to know
what such pleasure means, dear."
"No," said Nora faintly. And at that moment she decided to put on her
new uniform the very next morning, and then go forth with Cousin Ted and
Cousin Jerry in quest of the adventures promised.
"I guess," she began timidly, "it is better, Cousin Teddie, for me to go
along with you every day, if you don't mind."
"Why, I can't bear to leave you home, either with Vita or to your own
resources," declared Ted. "But I didn't want to urge you. Your
experience today may be a good thing in the end--it may help to cure you
of the artificiality you have been absorbing so deeply. I will have to
write your mother a bit of advice. I do not believe her little daughter
is getting the sort of education best for her. Now, roll over and go to
sleep." She pressed a fond kiss on the warm cheek. "And Nora love, don't
bother about dreaming," finished Mrs. Jerry Manton, in a tone of voice
not learned during her famous "college course."