PAYMENT OF A DEBT
Grumblingly, Amy allowed Jessie to draw her away. Nell followed, and all
climbed quickly into the car. In a moment they were off, burning up the
road again in the direction of Forest Lodge.
Amy grumbled all the way back, but Jessie would hardly speak at all. She
could not get the vision of Darry and that girl out of her mind. She
wondered why it should hurt her so much to see his friendliness to some
one else.
“You dragged me away before the last act,” Amy complained. “Don’t you
know the best part was still to come—when we confronted the guilty man
and maiden?”
“I didn’t want to confront any one,” Jessie returned, wearily. “And,
besides, I don’t believe Darry is guilty of anything.”
“Well, we at least know he is guilty of friendship with a girl whose
past, to say the least of it, is a trifle queer,” retorted Amy. “Darry
will certainly hear my idea of his actions when he gets back.”
It was almost dark when Darry did finally return, and all that afternoon
Jessie had been feverishly restless. She was unable to give her mind to
anything. Even her beloved radio had lost much of its fascination for
her, and she listened apathetically to a really fine concert from New
York.
The other girls did not notice her mood, for the reason that they were
considerably stirred up over the mystery of Darry’s actions. Then, too,
though they would not for the world have acknowledged this to each
other, they were rather dreading the approach of dark. They could not,
however much they tried, put from their minds the memory of that
dreadful wailing lament which had reached their ears from the direction
of the swamp. Constantly before them was the mental vision of those
ghostly figures, flitting among the trees.
“Looks a good deal like having a ghost hunt this afternoon, I must say,”
Nell remarked once, as they scanned the mountain road for a sign of
Darry’s roadster. “I can’t say that I relish spending another night here
with those spooks wandering loose around the place.”
“We can go now if you want to,” Burd suggested. “There is still time to
get to the swamp and back before dark, and perhaps you would rest easier
to-night if you could see that there was nothing alarming there.”
“Ghosts aren’t supposed to walk till after dark, anyway; so I don’t see
any use going down there just to look at the place,” was Amy’s
ungracious response.
After that Burd and Fol left the girls to their own devices and went off
to enjoy a little quiet fishing.
Later Amy declared she was tired after having slept so little the night
before and went to lie down. Miss Alling was listening in to a concert,
completely absorbed in her new fancy.
Jessie and Nell wandered down to the dock, embarked in their favorite
green canoe, and drifted out upon the water.
It was there that Amy found them some time later when she came running
down to the water’s edge, waving something in her hand.
“You will never guess what I’ve got,” she shouted, as the girls paddled
nearer to the dock. “Darry is back and he brought me a present.”
As Nell and Jessie clambered out of the canoe, they saw that Amy held in
her hand something green that fluttered in the breeze.
“A bill!” exclaimed Jessie. “Where did you get that from, Amy Drew?”
“You needn’t look as if I had robbed a bank or something,” chuckled Amy.
“I came by it honestly, I assure you. Didn’t you hear me say Darry gave
me a present?”
“Well, you can tell Darry for me that if he is distributing five-dollar
bills as recklessly as all that he can throw some in this direction,”
Nell remarked.
Jessie looked from the bill to Amy’s mischievous face and presently
light dawned upon her.
“Why did he give you that, Amy Drew?” she demanded, excitedly. “Tell me
quickly before I go to Darry and ask him.”
“That girl gave it to him,” Amy confessed, lowering her tone to a
mysterious whisper. “She told him to give it to me in exchange for the
bad five-dollar bill.”
“So Darry has turned into a reformer!” remarked Nell, in huge enjoyment.
“Imagine inducing that girl to give good money for bad.”
“Darry says she did not know the bill was bad,” said Amy. But she added,
with a giggle: “I think he is a poor simpleton, myself—allowing that
girl to pull the wool over his eyes. Nobody can ever tell me again that
I have a bright brother.”
“Then he admits having seen the girl,” said Jessie, thoughtfully. “Did
you tell him about our trip to Gibbonsville?”
“No. He got in his innings first. When he handed me the bill and told me
where it came from I was so surprised I couldn’t speak. When I had
recovered Darry had disappeared.”
“I think we had better not say anything about following him, then,”
suggested Jessie, as they neared the lodge. “It would only make him
angry.”
“I couldn’t get him to tell me anything about the girl, not even her
name,” said Amy, regretfully. “I never saw such an annoying person! He
is as close-mouthed as a clam!”
They found Aunt Emma, who hated to cook, in the lodge struggling with
supper, and immediately set about helping her. It was fun to get the
fire started and brown the ham to a golden crispness and fry the eggs
till they looked like little white islands with a mound of gold in the
center. In this pleasant occupation the girls forgot to miss Phrosy and
forgot, for the moment, even to think of Phrosy’s ghosts.
Burd and Fol, coming in a few moments later, cheerful and ravenous and
triumphantly displaying a nice catch of fish, declared that they had
never tasted so fine a dinner.
Afterward they listened in to a splendid radio concert and about nine
o’clock realized with relief that the “ghosts” had not chosen to make
themselves manifest on that night at least.
On the afternoon of the second day after the girls had trailed Darry to
Gibbonsville, they were tuning in to the wave length of the forest
ranger station when there came suddenly to them, ringing along the
airways, the words: “More men on the northeast section, sir. The fire is
sweeping in a semicircle toward the north.”
“A fire!” cried Jessie. “Oh, I wonder if it is anywhere near us.”
“Listen, did you hear that?” cried Fol, excitedly. “The fire is a long
way off——”
“Down at the other end of Lake Towako probably,” agreed Darry. “They
will have it in hand in no time, I bet. Watch and see.”
“Listen and see, you mean,” giggled Amy.
“Listen and hear would be still better,” put in Nell, with a jolly
laugh.
“Oh, listen to them,” Jessie implored. “Isn’t it wonderful how they can
send messages to each other right out of the air?”
It was wonderful, and for the better part of two hours the young folks
sat without stirring, thrilled to the depths of them by this battle
between the greatest enemy of the forest, fire, and the ingenuity of
man.
It was evidently quite a serious fire, and as it was coming steadily in
their direction they were all much relieved when the success of the
fire-fighters was announced over the radio.
“What heroes they must be, these forest rangers,” said Jessie, when the
air waves were mute again. “Think what they have done in this last two
hours—the property they have saved, and lives, too, maybe.”
“I would have liked to see them at work,” remarked Fol, musingly. “And,
gee! wouldn’t it be great to be in one of those airplanes?”
“I’m not so sure I’d like that,” replied Darry, soberly.
“I think I will have to write a book about seeing a forest fire by
radio,” chuckled Amy. “It is almost as thrilling as being on the spot.”
“And quite a good deal safer,” laughed Burd.