ON THE TRAIL
“Now, the first thing you want to do is to keep cool,” advised Blake.
“Take it easy—nothing could have happened to her.”
“Oh, but you don’t know—there might,” gasped Alice.
“What is it?” asked Jack, as he and Phil came up on the run, having
followed Blake when they heard the girls calling.
“Natalie is missing!” exclaimed Mrs. Bonnell. “Marie and I went for a
walk in the woods, leaving Mabel and Natalie here. When did she leave
you, Mabel?”
“Soon after you started out.”
“That’s nearly two hours ago. And she’s been gone all this time,”
commented the Guardian. “Did she say which way she was going?”
“No,” answered Mabel. “I didn’t pay much attention. I was looking after
that beef stew, and I didn’t want it to burn, so I kept going in the
tent ever so often.”
“I heard Natalie say, when I was over the stove at one time, that she
was going into the woods, and I took it for granted that she would
follow you.”
“We didn’t see anything of her,” said Marie. “We walked slowly at first,
so she could easily have caught up to us.”
“And it’s getting darker,” murmured Alice, who had been over to the
boys’ camp, doing a bit of sewing for her brother. She had followed them
as they ran to Dogwood in response to the calls.
“Oh, isn’t it too bad!” exclaimed Mrs. Bonnell.
“She’ll turn up all right!” asserted Blake. “Then you didn’t see which
way she went, Mabel?”
“No, I was in the cooking tent. But she wouldn’t go off the main path;
would she?”
“It doesn’t seem so,” spoke Marie. “Oh, we must find her! She can’t stay
in the woods,” and there was a catch in her voice.
“Now, take it easy, sis,” advised her brother. “We’ll find her all
right. All we’ll have to do is to begin a search. She probably went
farther than she meant to and it takes longer to come back. Come on,
boys, we’ll start on the trail.”
“You must have lanterns!” insisted the Guardian. “It will soon be too
dark to see. We have a number of ’em. Girls, light ’em up!”
“Are we going to stay here—alone?” asked Alice.
“You always have,” said her brother.
“But Natalie——”
“Let ’em come along, if they want to,” suggested Jack. “It’s no fun
waiting around for news. But we’ll soon find her,” he added. “We’ll each
take a different trail—there are three main ones into the woods—Nat must
be on one of those. Each fellow can take a girl, and Mrs. Bonnell can be
a sort of director of operations.”
The girls paired off with their brothers, and soon the woods bore the
appearance of a forest wherein flickered big fireflies, for the lanterns
bobbed here and there amid the trees, as do the insects on a June
evening.
As the boys and Camp Fire Girls went slowly along they called from time
to time, their voices echoing through the fast-darkening woods. But
there came no answering cry.
The three main trails into the woods did not diverge greatly, and it was
possible for the three searching parties to keep in communication with
one another. From time to time one or the other called, asking for any
news. But none was forthcoming.
“Oh, we _must_ find her!” exclaimed Mrs. Bonnell. “Something must have
happened to her!”
“I think that must be it,” agreed Jack; Mrs. Bonnell having accompanied
him and his sister. “Maybe she has fallen and——”
“Oh, Jack!” begged Marie. “Don’t say such horrid things!”
“Why not—if they’re true? We might as well recognize that something is
likely to have happened. We’ve got to face the music.”
“Poor Natalie!” breathed Marie. “Oh!” she screamed a moment later.
“What is it?” demanded Mrs. Bonnell.
“Something went right over my foot.”
“A snake—I mean hoptoad,” and Jack quickly corrected himself.
“Don’t mention it!” cried Marie with a shudder.
She clung to her brother, who flashed the lantern back and forth. Again
and again was Natalie’s name called, but the echoes from the dark woods
were the only replies.
“Oh, what can have become of her?” whispered Mabel to Phil. “Do you
suppose——?”
“What’s the use of supposing anything?” he answered a bit shortly.
“We’ll know when we find her, and not before.”
Then they tramped on, and, a little later, a call from their left gave
them hope. Blake and Alice were over there.
“What is it?” called Phil. “Have you found her?”
“No,” answered Blake in disappointed tones. “Alice thought she heard
her, but it turned out to be a stray cow. Any luck?”
“Not a bit!”
“Where are the others?”
“Not far off. I can see their light. I guess they haven’t struck any
clues.”
“We’ll have to wait until morning.”
“I think so, but we’ll look a little farther.”
So they kept on. But it was evident that Natalie was not in that part of
the woods. After some difficulty the three bands of searchers got
together again, Jack, his sister and Mrs. Bonnell having wandered into a
sort of swamp, where the water oozed over their shoes. They were wet,
tired and miserable.
“We—we can’t find her!” faltered Marie.
“Oh, where can she be?” murmured Mabel.
“Now, there’s no use worrying,” insisted Blake.
“But, we can’t help it,” said his sister.
“We just must, girls,” declared Mrs. Bonnell in firm tones. “We must not
worry!”
“But, poor Natalie!” cried Alice.
“Be sensible,” ordered the Guardian. “She is well and strong, and able
to take care of herself. Something may have unavoidably detained her,
and——”
“But, where did she go? Where could she stay after dark?” Marie wanted
to know.
“We can’t tell. Certainly we will have to find her. Perhaps we had
better go back to camp and summon help,” suggested Mrs. Bonnell.
“Oh, let’s!” chorused the girls, and this was voted the best plan.
“There’s a camp of young fellows not far from ours,” said Jack when they
were all back at Dogwood—a disconsolate enough party. “We’ll get them
and beat the woods. You girls had better stay here now. We’ll find her.
I’ll row down in one of your boats, and get them.”
He hurried to the little dock, and at once called out:
“Where’s your small rowboat?”
“Isn’t it there?” asked Mrs. Bonnell in surprised tones.
“Not a sign of it.”
In the flickering light of the lanterns those near the tents looked at
each other. Then Marie cried:
“I see it now! Natalie went out in a boat and is drowned! Oh, Natalie!”
and she fell to sobbing on Mrs. Bonnell’s shoulder.