"Have you a ball of strong twine in your kit, Jane?" asked Harriet. "You
told me to ask for anything I wanted but did not see."
"Sure, I have. In the tool box. Wait. I'll get it for you."
While Jane went for the twine, Harriet hurried out, returning a few
moments later with two sticks, each stick being about five feet long.
Next she got a tin pail and stood the pail bottom-side-up on the sticks.
Her companions watched her wonderingly.
"What _are_ you trying to do?" demanded Miss Elting.
"Fixing a burglar alarm. You'll agree that it is all right after I have
it finished. Now, I want to run this twine all the way around the camp.
I shall need some round sticks. Help me find some, Tommy. You have sharp
eyes."
All hands set out to hunt for the desired sticks. Harriet began
thrusting them into the soft ground at more or less regular intervals.
When the stakes had been placed loops of string were tied near the tops
of them, and through these loops was threaded the long twine until the
camp was entirely surrounded by it. It formed a thread-like barrier that
seemed too slender a thing to be of much use. One end of the string was
secured to the two sticks on which the pail had been placed. The slack
in the string was taken up until the sticks and the pail tilted from the
wall of the tent at a sharp angle.
"Hurrah!" cried the guardian. "That is a most ingenious contrivance. How
did you come to think of it?"
"Nethethity ith the mother of invention, tho my father thayth," spoke up
Grace.
Harriet nodded approvingly. The others laughed.
"Tommy is becoming quite a philosopher," averred the guardian. "Aren't
you going to give us a demonstration of your invention, Harriet?"
"Very well," laughed Harriet. "Hazel, will you go out and stumble
against the string? Don't you dare to break it for--Oh!"
The two sticks had come down with a crash, the tin pail rattling as it
rolled over the floor. Tommy screamed and so did Margery.
"There's your demonstration," announced Harriet. "Some one is coming. I
hope it isn't those Italians again."
Miss Elting with her loaded revolver, Jane with her club, Harriet armed
this time with a stout stick, sauntered forth to meet the newcomer. Jane
had run to the dark side of the tent, thrusting her club across the
corner ready to use it at the first indication of trouble. To her
disgust, the farmer from whom she had obtained permission to make camp,
now appeared on the scene.
"It's all right, girls. This is the gentleman who let us make camp
here," called Jane.
"I just came over to tell you to take care of your fire. If it runs
it'll burn off the meadow, it being all fresh seeding there. I wouldn't
want to lose it," hailed their visitor.
"Thank you for calling our attention to it. We are always careful of
fire," Miss Elting made reply.
"What was it I fell over when I came in here?" he asked, glancing about
him. "You certainly look mighty comfortable here."
The girls looked at each other and giggled.
"It was a little contrivance of one of our young women, so that we might
be warned of the approach of strangers," the guardian informed him. "You
see, it warned us that some one was coming."
"I guess you can take care of yourselves, all right. Is there anything
you want? If there is, come over to the house. My wife is curious to see
this outfit. Maybe she will come over in the morning."
"Thank you very kindly for your interest," answered the guardian. "We
shall be breaking camp early in the morning."
The farmer left. Harriet nodded to her companions.
"Was the demonstration satisfactory?" she questioned.
"I should say it was," answered Margery. "It nearly scared me out of my
wits."
"I suppose we shall have to mend the string now. The farmer's big boots
broke it in two places. However, we needn't worry about any person
getting into this camp to-night without giving us warning of his
approach," said Harriet. She repaired the broken "burglar alarm," then
returning to the tent adjusted the sticks and the pail, placing several
other pieces of tinware with it. The girls then gathered about the
campfire, where they chatted, told stories and exchanged experiences
until a late hour.
Harriet got out the map just before they retired. After consulting with
Miss Elting for some time, it was decided that they should take a short
cut across a rugged country, using their compass to guide them, meeting
Jane some twelve miles further on. She would have to drive more than
twenty miles to make the point. The girls did not enjoy the highways
very much. In the first place, the roads were dusty; many curious people
were to be met with on the roads; then again they thoroughly enjoyed
breaking new paths through the forests and over fields and hills. Now
that all the crops had been garnered there was no danger of doing damage
to the farmers' fields by tramping across them. Jane was instructed to
wait for them after driving into the next town for fresh supplies.
"It's curious that we don't run across any melon fields. The first one I
catch sight of I'm going to raid," she declared.
"No, Jane, you mustn't do that," objected the guardian. "What we get we
must pay for."
"Certainly," agreed Jane. "But there isn't any sport in just walking up
and paying for melons. It's a heap more fun to forage for them."
"But, Jane, think what it means to take an object of value that doesn't
belong to you. It is stealing!"
"That's true. It surely is," agreed Jane. "I won't ever mention any such
thing again."
"Thank you," returned Miss Elting with a smile that amply repaid Crazy
Jane for her decision.
At last all hands began making preparations for bed. Folding cots were
opened and made up, fresh fuel was heaped on the campfire, then Harriet
and Miss Elting made a round of the camp to see that all was in shape
for the night. Jane lighted the big headlights on her car, turning them
on the darkest part of the camp, after which they drew the flap to the
tent and began preparing for bed. Half an hour later the camp was
silent, save for the occasional crackling of the fire. All the dead
leaves and inflammable stuff had been raked away and the ground dug up
immediately about the fire to prevent it from spreading. The moon now
silvered the landscape, and a faint mist was rising from about the
Willow Ponds, adding to the beauty of the night.
Midnight came, then the silence became more marked than before. About
one o'clock in the morning two men might have been observed skulking
about the farther side of the pond nearest to the camp. They took care
not to come within range of the headlights of Crazy Jane's motor car.
Had one looked closely at them the men might have been recognized as the
same pair that had visited the camp with the bear earlier in the
evening. What their purpose was in returning could only be surmised.
It might be revenge or robbery. In either event it was bad enough, and
the Meadow-Brook Girls, sleeping soundly, were blissfully unconscious of
the danger that menaced them. Their faith in Harriet Burrell's burglar
alarm permitted them to sleep without fear.
All at once there was a mighty crash in the tent. As Tommy Thompson
described it afterwards, "it thounded ath if lightning had thtruck a tin
thhop." The tin pail and the other kitchen utensils that had been hung
on the long sticks in the tent came down with a clatter and a bang. The
tin pail rolled clear across the tent, landed on Margery Brown, bringing
from her a scream of terror.
"Quick! Put on your bathrobes!" called Miss Elting. "There is trouble
here."
No need to tell them that. The tin pail already had conveyed this
information to the Meadow-Brook Girls.
"Oh, thave me!" wailed Tommy.
Harriet was the first one to run outside the tent.
"There they are!" she cried, having caught sight of two skulking figures
near the automobile. "It's the same Italians. Let's call for help as
loudly as we can. Perhaps that will make them take to their heels."
It had the desired effect. Seeing that the camp was fully aroused the
intruders fled. Then a daring plan suggested itself to Crazy Jane
McCarthy. Leaving her companions she started on a run for her car.
"Come back! Where are you going?" cried the guardian.
"I'll show you, I'll show them! Just watch and you'll see more fun than
a barrel of monkeys eating cayenne pepper."
Dashing up to the car, she advanced the spark control, and gave the
crank a quick turn. The car began a sputtering that quickly grew into a
roar from the exhaust. Crazy Jane leaped in. She was clad in a bathrobe
that reached to her ankles; her tangle of hair fell about her face and
shoulders giving her face a wilder and more weird expression than ever.
Jane threw in the high speed lever. The car leaped forward. Harriet
Burrell, who had divined something of Jane's purpose, made a running
leap and landed on the step, grasping one of the cover braces for
support.
"Jane, Jane! For goodness' sake, what are you going to do?"
"I'm going to give the rascals the scare of their lives. They haven't
had enough. Get in!"
Harriet did so, but only to prevent being thrown off the car. She had
little desire to participate in the drive that she well knew would be an
exciting one. Miss Elting was shouting to Jane to come back. Jane did
not or would not hear. Uttering a shrill little cry of triumph she drove
the car ahead at a perilous rate of speed. Over the rough field the
automobile lurched and careened imperiling the safety of its occupants
and threatening momentarily to upset and wreck the car.
The two men were fleeing across the field. Seeing the car bearing down
upon them, they began to dodge. The big white eyes of the headlights
followed them wherever they went. It was maddening. Now the fugitives
began zig-zagging. So did Crazy Jane. Once she nearly ran them down. The
Italians sprang out of the way just in time and began running back
toward the camp. Jane pursued them as soon as she could get the car
turned about and facing the other way. By this time the men had gotten a
long start.
"They're making for the camp, the villains," breathed Jane.
"It is because they are trying to get out of your way," answered Harriet
almost breathlessly. "You will have to head them off."
"Head them off nothing!" exploded Jane. "Rather will I take their heads
off, the miserable rascals."
"Jane, Jane! You mustn't run them down. You simply _must not_. You might
kill them. Please, please don't try to do that, dear!" begged Harriet.
"All right, darlin'. But you're making me lose a lot of fun. I don't get
an opportunity like this every day in the week. They deserve all I can
give them."
"You mustn't harm a human being, no matter how bad he is. There, they
have turned toward the road."
"I won't hurt them," promised Jane. "I'll just scare them a little."
"Oh!" cried Harriet as the car rose on two wheels, nearly turning over.
"Do be careful!"
"Don't be afraid. As long as I've got two wheels on the ground I'm all
right. Now if I had only one wheel on the old sod you might worry, but
you wouldn't worry for long. See 'em go. They know I've got them now!"
Just then the men plunged headlong into a ditch that extended all the
way across the field. The girls had not discovered it until that moment.
Jane checked her car just in time to prevent it also from going into the
ditch.
"There's a bridge to the right," Harriet informed her, then was sorry
she had made the suggestion. Crazy Jane charged the bridge at full
speed. All four wheels seemed to strike the planking at the same
instant.
Jane turned sharply. They were now chasing the two men obliquely across
the field. The men were lagging.
"They're getting winded," shouted Crazy Jane triumphantly.
"Please go back now," begged Harriet "You have frightened them enough.
They never will trouble us again."
"Not till I get the wretches on a run down the road. I've not finished
with them yet."
"They have nearly finished themselves," answered Harriet. She was no
longer apprehensive that Jane would injure the men intentionally, though
Harriet feared that one of them might stumble and be crushed underneath
the car. Still her pulses were beating high, the color in her cheeks had
mounted to her forehead. She was entering into the spirit of the wild
chase almost with the enthusiasm of Crazy Jane herself.
The voices of their companions in the camp no longer reached them. The
two girls were too far away to hear now, even had the car not been
making such a din.
The two men were making for the roadside fence, a board structure, which
in the haze of the damp night, the girls did not see. They had forgotten
that the fence was there.
All at once the men reached the fence. Grasping the top board they flung
themselves over, landing heavily on the ground on the other side.
"Look out!" cried Harriet warningly.
"Hold fast!" yelled Jane.
Crash!
The car struck the fence with a mighty crash accompanied by the sound of
splintering woodwork. The headlights went out, and Jane brought her car
to a stop in the midst of the wreck at the roadside.