THE CABIN ON THE MOUNTAIN
Yes, it was a man digging in the ground. The quivering, yellowish glare
from a torch that had been stuck in the ground by his side—as it
flickered and flared, sometimes almost extinguished by the night air,
and then suddenly blazing to a vivid flame—silhouetted his form in
sharp outline against the high rock by which he was standing.
As the girl’s eyes dilated in puzzled wonder as to who the man was, and
why he was digging in the woods at this hour of the night, a queer, odd
quiver, or twitching of his head at times, as he bent over the spade,
aroused within her a vague consciousness that she had seen some one
before who had that same peculiar motion.
Tige, the little yellow dog crouching at their feet, at this moment gave
a low growl, a warning that he might betray their presence. Nathalie,
quickly pushing Jean from her lap, grabbed the dog, and snuggled him
close to smother the growl, afraid that the man would discover that he
had been seen. Assailed by a nameless fear, she seized Jean’s hand and
pushed on up the incline, stepping cautiously, almost noiselessly, on
the fallen leaves and stones, ever and anon glancing back, as if fearful
that the man would pursue them.
Recalled to herself at Jean’s wide, frightened eyes, and the tremor of
his slight form, she whispered with assumed courage, “Oh, I guess the
man is only burying some dead animal, or something of that kind up here
in the woods.” Nevertheless she was almost as frightened as the child,
and was devoutly thankful when they reached a little clearing nearer the
top, where the moon shone down with the brightness of day.
Yes, it would be about here that Sheila would come, for it was not far
from the jutting rock where they had seen such beautiful views that
morning. With keen eyes the girl peered around, but only craggy rocks,
scrubby bushes, tree-stumps—weird black objects in the moonlight—here
and there, backed by a forest of heavily-branched trees met her gaze.
Oh! what was that tiny glimmer of light over by the tree yonder? Was it
a light held by the man who had been digging, and who was perhaps
watching them from behind the tree?
Nathalie’s heart gave a wild leap, again shaken by that nameless fear,
and then, to her intense relief, she saw that the light came from the
little log cabin the children had found that morning in prowling about
the clearing. Yes, some one must live there. But suppose it should be
the man they had seen? Ah, they would hurry on, and gripping Jean’s hand
in a closer pressure, she started forward. But no; Jean stood
obstinately still, with low-bent head, as if listening.
What was it? Oh, it was a noise,—a low sound like a moan. Could it be
Sheila? Was she lying somewhere there in the woods? Why, it sounded as
if it came from the little cabin! Nathalie’s head went up as she peered
resolutely through the gloom. No, she would not allow her foolish fear
to master her. She would go forward and see what it was—perhaps. A
moment or so later the girl, still frenziedly clinging to the little
boy’s hand, her heart leaping with anxious agitation and nervous fear,
tapped loudly on one of the log posts of the open doorway, which was
hung with what appeared to be a large dark-colored shawl that waved
dismally in the wind. Almost immediately, in answer to her rap, the
shawl was pushed hastily aside and a man stood in the doorway.
From the weird red gleam of a lantern that hung from the center of the
cabin, Nathalie perceived that the man was young, with a strange pallor
on his lean, brown face, which was lighted by large, densely black eyes,
that were peering down at her from beneath a tangle of soft, wavy black
hair.
Inwardly quaking, but determined not to show her fear, Nathalie
inquired, “Have you seen anything of a little girl about?” Without
answering, the man turned and was pointing towards a log couch built up
against the wall, spread with an old army-coat. Nathalie gave a hurried
glance, and then made a wild rush forward, for the little form lying so
strangely still on the coat was Sheila!
But the man’s hand stayed her as he said in a low, but pleasant-sounding
voice, “Sh-sh! I would not awaken her. Poor little thing, she cried
herself to sleep.” He then briefly explained how he had been awakened by
the low whimpering of a child, and, on going out to the clearing, had
found her sitting on a rock, crying piteously for the fairies to come
and get her. He was moved to question her, and then, by a little
coaxing, and the explanation that the fairies had all gone back to
fairyland, as it was long after midnight, he had coaxed the child into
the cabin, and finally she had fallen asleep. As Nathalie bent over her
in anxious solicitude she saw the undried tears still on her lashes,
while low, whimpering moans—the sounds that had arrested her
attention—came at intervals from between the soft, red lips.
As the girl pondered as to how she was to get Sheila home, Danny’s
policeman’s whistle, as he called it, followed by Janet’s shrill
“hoo-hooing,” announced that the rest of the party of searchers had
arrived. In a short space they were all in the little cabin, animatedly
discussing how to carry the little girl down the mountain. Danny,
meanwhile, had hastened to the couch and was down on his knees, softly
kissing the little hand thrown over the side, in the abandon of sleep,
while the young man stood at one side, quietly watching the little
group.
It was soon decided, at his suggestion, that they leave the little girl
there in the cabin with Danny until morning, when there would be more
light to get her down the mountain. This difficulty settled, with
relieved hearts they were about to set forth on their return journey
down the trail, when Nathalie, whose eyes had been wandering about the
rustic hut, cried, “But do you live here all alone up on this mountain?”
The young man’s eyes lighted. “Why, yes, I live alone up here. It is not
much of a summer-resort,” he said, with a rarely winning smile. “Still
it answers my purpose, for I am guaranteed plenty of pure air. I am an
English soldier,” he volunteered somewhat slowly, “and have recently
come over here from England. I was wounded,—” he glanced down at his
arm with its gloved hand, and which Janet had been eying rather sharply,
for it hung down in a strangely stiff way,—“and I thought the mountains
would benefit me. But I am very glad I found the child,” he broke off
abruptly, as if he had been revealing something he did not care to talk
about. “I hope she will be none the worse for her adventure,” he
continued kindly, “even if she failed to find the fairies.” Nathalie had
explained how the child had come to wander away.
[Illustration: Nathalie bent over in anxious solicitude.—_Page 259._]
Early the next morning Danny and Sheila appeared, the little girl now
quite wide-awake, but she grew very shamefaced when Mrs. Page scolded
her gently for giving them such a fright, dwelling upon the deep anxiety
she had caused Miss Natty, when she had been so good to her, too. The
tears came into the brown eyes at this rebuke, and, impulsively running
to the girl, she protested with a stifled sob that she would not run
after any more fairies.
Of course Nathalie had to kiss the woeful little damsel, but perceiving
that the auspicious moment had arrived to impress her with a fact that
she should know, she took her out on the porch, and then gravely and
carefully made clear to the little mind that there were no fairies, but
just beautiful fancies that existed in the brains of people, who put
them in stories so as to make them interesting to children.
But Danny, apparently greatly distressed, now drew Nathalie to one side,
and confided to her that he believed that the young man must be hungry
and very poor, for there seemed to be no food in the cabin. And he had
heard him mutter,—when he thought the boy was asleep,—as he counted
some loose change he had taken from his pocket and thrown on the table,
“Well, that won’t get much food.” And then he had sat very quiet for a
long time, as if thinking.
Nathalie immediately rushed to impart this news to her mother, with the
result that, a half-hour later, Danny and Tony, each with a basket
filled with food, started up the mountain-trail. In his pocket Danny
carried a note written by Mrs. Page, in which she not only thanked the
young man again for his kindness to Sheila, but made it clear that the
food came from the child, a thank offering to him, and that she hoped he
would find it acceptable, as she knew that it must be a difficult matter
to obtain much food up there on the mountain top.
Some time later the two boys returned in a state of great excitement.
They claimed that they had found the young man asleep on the couch, and
although they had tried to awaken him, and had “hollered and hollered
right into his ear,” as Danny expressed it, he had not even stirred. The
faces of the listeners grew grave as they heard this, and Janet, with a
sudden sharp exclamation, turned and rushed up-stairs, to reappear in a
moment with a medicine-case and her hat. Her training as a district
nurse was now to be put to a real test. “I just believe that boy has
been starved to death,” she ejaculated, her blue eyes luminous with
sympathy, “for I could see by the look of him last night that he was in
a bad way.”
Of course Nathalie would not let Janet go alone, and so the two girls
and the boys again hurried up the mountain to the cabin, where they
found the young man not dead, as Nathalie had vaguely feared, but in a
state of unconsciousness. Under Janet’s able ministrations he was
finally brought to, and after Nathalie had warmed some broth—Danny had
made a fire in the open—it was gently fed to him by Janet. As Nathalie
watched her, she opened her eyes in amazement at the girl’s deftness and
gentleness in handling her charge, for this indeed was a new phase of
her cousin’s character.
Won by the girls’ sympathy and interest, Philip de Brie—as that proved
to be the young man’s name—said he had been wounded at the battle of
Loos, and then wounded again and taken a prisoner at the battle of the
Somme. After many months, under most harrowing circumstances, he had
made his escape, and finally reached England, only to find that his
mother had died in the meantime. “As I was alone,” there was a
perceptible quiver in his voice,—“my father had died when I was a
lad,—I decided to come over here.
“My father was an American,” he continued. “I was born in America, and,
as I knew that I had a grandmother living here, now my only relative, I
felt that I wanted to see her. But I found that she, too, had died,” the
young man’s eyes saddened, “and, well, once up on these grand old
mountains, somehow I wanted to stay, they seemed so restful after the
nerve-shocked life of a battle-field and my prison experience. I found
this old shack up here one day in wandering about, and, after finding
its owner, hired it for the summer. You see, my arm was bayoneted by a
German,” his mouth set in a hard line, “and was never properly treated
in the German camp. Sometimes I fear I will lose it altogether. But you
have been very kind to me—I shall get along now.” He attempted to rise,
but Janet, forcing him back, insisted upon ripping open the sleeve
covering the bayoneted arm, notwithstanding his protests, and here she
found a condition that made her eyes grow very grave.
After cleaning the wound and applying what remedies she had on hand, she
rebandaged the arm, which made the patient feel much better, he
affirmed. After giving him a soothing draught, and fixing him as
comfortably as she could with the meager bed-clothing in the cabin, so
he could sleep, she and Nathalie withdrew outside.
Under the trees the two girls sat and discussed the situation with much
perplexity, for Janet maintained that it was a serious case,—that the
young man’s temperature was not only rising, but that his arm needed a
surgeon’s care. But what were they to do? And the girls’ eyes grew
tragically grave as they realized that the young man was an object of
much solicitude, alone and ill in a strange country, and evidently
without any means.
It was finally decided that they take turns in caring for him, with the
help of Danny, who was not only sympathetically interested, but who was
quite a handy man in many ways. He said he had learned to care for
Sheila, and for the old woman whom he called his nurse, who had cared
for them, and who was not only very aged, but miserably ill for some
time before she died.
But the next morning, unfortunately,—Janet and Danny had remained
during the night,—the patient’s condition was worse and Janet, with
tears in her eyes, besought Nathalie to go to the village and see if she
could get help.
As the girl hurried down the trail her mind was active. Oh, she did hate
to make the young man a public charge, as he looked so refined, and had
such a noble, winning way with him. And he was a soldier, too; yes, a
“Son of Liberty,” as she confided to Tony, who was by her side. For had
he not been fighting in France to give liberty to the world? “Why, there
isn’t anything too good for him,” lamented the girl, “and yet there he
is up there alone, perhaps at the point of death for want of proper
care.” And yet where was she to get the money to call a physician, and
where could she find one, were perplexing questions.
As these thoughts ran rapidly through the girl’s brain, sometimes spoken
aloud in her stress, inspired perhaps by Tony’s unspoken sympathy, as he
gently patted her hand, she caught her breath quickly, and a bright
flash illumined her eyes.
“Yes, I will do it,” she muttered aloud, absent-mindedly returning the
boy’s caresses. “I will take the money. I was saving it. O dear!”
Nathalie almost wailed, “shall I ever be able to save even a _sou_
towards going to college? Well, it can’t be helped. I’ll just have to
take it and see if I can’t get some one to tell me where I can get a
physician.”
Hurrying into the house, Nathalie informed her mother as to the
patient’s condition, and then told that she intended taking the money
she had saved and call a doctor. Mrs. Page kissed the girl softly with
troubled eyes, saying gently, “Never mind, Nathalie, you are investing
your money at a greater per cent of interest in giving it to this
unknown stranger, than if you used it for yourself. And then, who knows,
dear? Something may turn up some day——”
“Oh no,” cried Blue Robin in a discouraged voice, “_nothing_ will ever
turn up.” And then, with a feeble smile, she cried, “But, as you often
say, mumsie, things are foreordained, and so perhaps it wouldn’t be for
my good to have my wish. And then, anyway, I shall have the
satisfaction,” the brown eyes were sparkling again, “of knowing that the
‘drop in the bucket,’ is going to do some good to some one.”
After finding Sam, who was rarely ill and could give her no information
as to where to get a physician unless it was at Littleton, she started
for the village. As she passed the little red house she ran in for a
moment to tell Mrs. Carney about the man in the cabin, as she had become
much interested in the young man’s story. The queer old lady and the
girl had become very good friends since that visit with the children,
for Nathalie had learned that the sometimes sharp gray eyes covered a
kindly nature, notwithstanding the old lady’s brusque, queer ways.
“Yes, it just breaks my heart to take my college money,” she dolefully
confided. Then, half-ashamed of her repining, she tried to explain how
college had been the dream of her life, and how many times she had been
disappointed. A kindly gleam in Mrs. Carney’s eyes, however, assured her
that the old lady understood how she felt, and after a hurried good-by
she was on her way to the post-office.
Nathalie feared she was going to get no more information here than what
Sam had imparted, when suddenly a lady, who had been standing near, and
who had been interested in her story, informed her that there was a
famous surgeon from New York up at the Sunset Hill House, and that
possibly she could get him.
Thanking her warmly, the girl hurried up the board walk to the
hotel,—the children tagging on behind her,—feeling extremely nervous
as she realized her boldness in asking a big physician, who had probably
come to the mountains for a rest, to be bothered with a poor patient.
And then, too, who knew what terribly high prices he might ask for his
services? Nathalie began to feel that her “drop in the bucket” might not
prove of any help after all.
But, bracing to the ordeal, she told the children to wait at the little
Observation Tower, as she called it, in front of the hotel, and hurried
to the office. She had just nervously cleared her throat to question the
clerk when the sudden cry, “Oh, Nathalie! Nathalie! where did you come
from?” caused her to swing about. The next moment Nita Van Vorst had her
arms about her, and was hugging and kissing her excitedly, while her
mother stood by with pleased, shining eyes.
After a hearty greeting from Mrs. Van Vorst, Nathalie cried laughingly,
although the sudden revulsion from nervous anxiety had brought tears to
her eyes, “Oh, where did you come from, and when did you get here?”
“We arrived last night,” replied Nita, bubbling over with delight at
being with her friend again. “Our coming here is a surprise _for you_,
and we were just going to see if we could get some information as to
where Seven Pillars was, so as to motor there.”
“Oh, I’m so glad to see you, and now you can see my boys!” And then,
after Mrs. Van Vorst had led them into one of the little side-rooms
opening from the long hall, where they could converse without being
heard, she told all about her boys,—Sheila, the boy-girl, as she called
her, the good times they were all having, and about the young man who
was lying so ill up on the mountain, and what had brought her to the
hotel. “I am so nervous,” sighed the girl, as she finished her story,
“for I don’t know this big man, and I dread to speak with him, for fear
he will be brusque and sharp with me, but _something_ must be done for
that poor soldier boy.”
“Excuse me a moment,” exclaimed Mrs. Van Vorst after she had conversed a
while; “I want to go and see if I have any mail.” But, to Nathalie’s
surprise, she did not go in the direction of the desk, but hurried after
a tall, rather stout gentleman who at that moment passed through the
hall.
But the little incident was forgotten, as Nathalie and Nita had so much
to say to one another that they both talked at once, as if their tongues
were hung in the middle. Nita insisted that her friend would have to
remain to dinner with her, as she had so much news to tell, especially
about the Liberty Girls, that it would take hours to tell it.
In the midst of these many bits of enjoyed information, Nita’s mother
returned, and Nathalie in a moment was dazedly bowing to the tall
gentleman, whom her friend presented as Dr. Gilmour. “He is the surgeon,
Nathalie,” she added smilingly, “whom you came after. As he is a very
old friend of mine, and a good American to boot,” she nodded at the
gentleman, “he has consented to go with you up the mountain to see your
Son of Liberty, as you call him.”
“Oh, I am so glad! I am so glad!” burst from the girl with a
joy-thrilled voice. “And, oh, I thank you so much; it is so kind of
you,” she added with misty eyes, turning impulsively towards the
physician.
But the big man, with an amused smile in his keen gray eyes, patted her
on the shoulder as he said, “My little lady, I think that every true
American should stand ready to do anything to help any man, or boy, who
has been brave enough to face those fiendish Huns.”
“Oh, I think so, too,” cried the relieved girl, a wave of color flushing
her cheeks, “and I think it must have been that thought that gave me the
courage to come and ask you.”
“Oh, isn’t it just dandy!” enthused Nita, as Dr. Gilmour hurried away to
get his little black case, while Nathalie led her friend down the steps
of the veranda to where three little figures sat patiently waiting for
her on the tower-steps.
But the girl’s eyes widened as she suddenly perceived that they were not
alone, for a brown-clad figure with soldierly bearing, but with a
golf-bag slung over his shoulder, with one foot on the steps, was
bending down and talking to the children. And then a sudden thrill
stirred her as she recognized the soldier lad who had helped her down
the foot-bridge that day at the Flume, and who had so kindly taken Jean
to see the cascade.
As Nathalie reached the children, she became embarrassed, as she
suddenly realized that she did not know the name of the young soldier.
But her embarrassment was momentary, as Nita called out merrily, “Hello,
Van. Is _that_ what you are doing, making love to the kiddies? I thought
you were going to play golf.”
“That was my intention,” replied the boy, straightening up and lifting
his hat, and then his dark blue eyes brightened quickly, as he perceived
Nita’s companion.
Nathalie was now introduced to Mr. Van Darrell, the son of a friend of
Nita’s mother, and then the little group were chatting merrily as they
waited for Dr. Gilmour, and Mrs. Van Vorst, who had gone to order the
car to take them to the foot of the Trail that led to the top of Garnet
Mountain.
All at once young Darrell turned towards Nathalie as he said, “But, Miss
Page, have we not met before? Were you not one of the girls at Camp
Mills one day last month, who asked a party of us if we did not want
some cherries? And then, if I remember rightly, we all helped you to
gather up the fruit after you had knocked the basket from the car.”
“Oh, yes, I remember you,” dimpled Nathalie. “No, not when I met you
that day at the Flume, although your face haunted me as being familiar,
but it all came to me on the ride home.”
“But I knew you right away,” said the boy half shyly, “although I did
not like to make myself known, for, of course, I did not even know your
name.”
“Or I yours,” laughed Nathalie. And then, with her mind filled with
thoughts of the young English soldier, she told his story to Mr.
Darrell, who immediately became so interested in Tommy Atkins, as he
called him, that he begged Nathalie to let him go with her, quite
assured, he declared, that he could be of some assistance to him.
Before the girl could reply a new voice suddenly shrilled, “Oh,
Nathalie, how do you do? Did you come up here to call on us?”
The girl, thus addressed, stared with some bewilderment, to see her two
New York schoolmates hurrying towards her. They looked very fetching in
their modish golf-costumes, with their bags slung carelessly over their
shoulders, as each one seized her hand and shook it cordially, while
smiling down upon her in a most friendly and chummy way.
For a full second the girl simply stared, dazed and confused, as it
suddenly flashed into her consciousness that the last time she had met
these girls they had snubbed her, deliberately turning their backs upon
her, when she greeted them, the day she had come to the hotel to leave
the sweet peas. Ah, a sudden red leaped into Nathalie’s cheeks, her eyes
flamed angrily, and she was about to return their snub by turning her
back upon them, for she had intuitively divined that they were nice to
her because they wanted to be introduced to her friends. Yes, they
wanted to know the soldier-boy.
But something deep within the girl, her finer nature, whispered, “Never
mind, ignore their slight, and show that you are above them by acting
the lady.” With simple dignity the girl coolly returned their effusive
greeting, and then, with cold formality, introduced them to her two
friends. Oh, how delighted they were to meet Miss Van Vorst; they had
heard all about her from a friend of hers,—Nita never was able to
discover this friend. Then, turning from Nita as quickly as possible,
they made an onslaught upon the soldier lad. Oh, how pleased they were
to meet him, they had been just wild to know him ever since they had
sighted his uniform. Was he a New York guardsman? What regiment did he
belong to? These and a score of similar questions were quickly hurled at
the young man, somewhat to his embarrassment. Nathalie could not hear
all they said as she chattered with Nita, but vaguely realized, as they
rattled on, with an angry flutter of her heart, that they were again
ignoring her, as she heard them urging Mr. Darrell to join them at a
game of golf.
But a few moments later, when Nita waved a good-by to her mother from
the car, she was seated between the soldier lad and Nathalie, with the
children crowding upon their laps, and the doctor in front with the
chauffeur.
As the car whizzed away from the hotel Nita gave Nathalie’s sleeve a
sudden twitch as she cried, “Oh, look, Nathalie; there’s the _Count_!”
“The _Count_,” repeated her friend in mystified wonder, as she bent
forward to gaze after a young man who had just flashed by in an
automobile. But suddenly, with a curious gleam in her eyes, the girl
drew back, a slight flush on her cheeks.
“Oh, no, he’s not a _real Count_,” informed Nita with some amusement in
her eyes; “but every one calls him that because they think he’s so
Frenchy-looking, with his dark skin and big black eyes. The girls seem
quite wild about him, for he takes them riding in his car. Some one told
mother that he was from Chicago, and was quite wealthy.”
But Nathalie manifested no further interest in the gentleman whom Nita
had dubbed the Count, although she immediately recognized the young man
as the one who had repaired her car the day she had gone after the
children. But, alas, she felt that he was no gentleman, for had he not
stared at her rudely in the post-office, and then accosted her near the
cemetery a short time later?