CRAZY JANE'S "FIND"
Tommy, having been unable to free herself from her blanket, had rolled
over and over until she reached the opposite side of the tent. Margery
Brown, not having got out of the way, had been hit on the head by a
tent-pole, which knocked her down and so dazed her for the moment that
she lay whimpering where she had fallen.
Of this Harriet and Miss Elting were unaware. Their efforts were
directed toward getting out of the tent to learn what had occurred.
They could hear the canvas ripping; and the noise of the floundering
hordes just outside was still going on. Together the two women fought
their way out from under the canvas.
"Catch 'em! Catch 'em!" Jim was yelling at the top of his voice. "The
horses are getting away!"
"Yes, and they have taken a good part of the tent with them," called
Harriet.
The men had halted, not knowing whether they should proceed or not.
"Come on! come on!" cried Miss Elting. She could not see the horses,
but she could hear them crashing through the bushes whinnying in
terror. There was something sinister in this sudden outbreak,
something that neither Miss Elting nor Harriet Burrell understood.
Jane, having crawled from beneath the overturned tent, came running to
them.
"What a mess!" she cried in dismay. "I feel as though I had been in a
railroad wreck. What was it?"
"The horses," answered Harriet.
"Is that all? Didn't anything fall on us?"
"I think we had a narrow escape from being trampled by the horses."
The guide came running to them.
"Was any one hurt? What, the tent down?"
"Yes. The animals ran into it and tore it down," replied the guardian.
"I don't understand it at all. Do you, Mr. Grubb?"
"I swum, I don't!" he exploded. "Run into the tent? Why should they
do that?"
"They must have been terribly frightened," averred Jane McCarthy.
"Now, what could have frightened a pair of horses enough to make them
so blind they couldn't see a tent? Will you tell me that?"
The guide kicked the embers of the campfire, and piled on some light
wood. At this juncture Hazel came out, leading Margery, who had both
hands pressed to her head.
"Something fell on her head," explained Hazel.
Miss Elting took Margery to the fire and made her sit down. Margery
had no need to be urged. She sat down, all in a heap, and would have
toppled over had not the guardian held her up. A lump as large as a
horse chestnut had risen on the stout girl's head.
"Oh, my dear! You did get a bump, didn't you?" cried the guardian.
"Sit right where you are. I will bring some liniment. Fortunately,
the skin is not broken. Mr. Grubb, won't you please see what you can
do with the tent? I fear it is seriously damaged."
"I want to look at those halters, first, if you can wait a minute."
Miss Elting nodded, then hurried to the collapsed tent, under which she
burrowed and groped about in the dark in search of her medicine kit,
which she finally found and brought to the fireside. Margery's swollen
head was treated until the soreness had become eased a little. Harriet
and Jane supported her to a blanket that they had brought from the
tent, and, after tucking her in, left the unfortunate Margery to doze
and rest. Tommy crept over and kissed her on the forehead.
"I'm tho thorry, Buthter," she whispered sympathetically. "I withh it
might have been me who got the bump on the head. But never mind; you
will be better pretty thoon. Don't you think tho?"
Margery's answer was a moan. Tommy crept away with a troubled look in
her eyes.
"The horses broke their halters," Janus was saying as Tommy joined her
companions. "Can't understand what skeered them into doing that. Jim
must be having a chase, or he'd have been back before this. Want to
quit?"
"Certainly not," answered Miss Elting with emphasis. "But we should
like to know what it means."
"Might have been a bird or something. Doesn't take much to startle a
horse when he's asleep. I've known a partridge to fly up before a
sleeping horse and cause the animal to break away and rip things up
generally. You'll find, if you find at all, that it was something like
this skeered Jim's nags."
"I gueth it wath a two-legged bird," observe Tommy wisely.
"That would be strange, indeed," answered Miss Elting. "How many legs
do birds ordinarily have?"
Tommy flushed.
"That ith tho. I wath thinking a bird had four legs, jutht like a
table."
Margery groaned.
"Oh! Are you feeling badly again, dear?" called Miss Elting.
"Yes."
"What is it? Does your head pain you?" questioned the guardian.
"No, it's Tommy. She gives me a pain."
"Tommy, come help us put up the tent," urged Harriet. "Maybe it will
fall on your head next. That will make Margery feel well again, won't
it, dearie?"
Margery, in a weak voice, agreed that it would. Tommy retorted that
she didn't care if it did.
The tent was found to have been quite badly torn. The hoofs of the
horses had left great rents in it. After examining the canvas it was
decided not to try to repair it that night, but to leave it as it was
until morning, when the girls would be better able to see what they
were doing.
They had once more raised the tent, having been obliged to cut one new
pole, when Jim returned leading the horses. They were very nervous and
kept tossing their heads, rearing and plunging at the slightest unusual
sound.
"Something wrong with them. I don't know what it is," he said, in
answer to the guide's glance of inquiry.
"Lead 'em up here. Well, I swum!"
"Wha--at is it?" demanded Margery, sitting up.
"Look at that, will ye?"
The girls got as close to the animals as was prudent. Janus parted the
hair on the hip of one horse and pointed to a small wound. The other
horse bore a similar wound.
"Oh, they have hurt themselves. Isn't it too bad?" sympathized Hazel.
"Hurt themselves!" exploded the guide. "Those wounds were made with
some sharp instrument, maybe a knife. I don't know. Now, can you
blame them for running away and taking the tent down? This business is
moving too fast! What are we going to do?"
"You are the guide, sir. You are the responsible head of the party,"
replied Miss Elting.
"I thought I was, too. But, I swum! I don't know which from t'other
any more. Jim, what do you think about that?" pointing a finger at the
horses and indicating their wounded hips. "Did they get them
themselves, or did somebody do it to them? I can't make up my mind."
"Some one did it, Jan. The hosses never did that themselves."
"But how could they?"
"Maybe tied a knife to a long stick. Didn't mean to do any serious
work or would have cut deeper. Just went through the skin, that's all,
but enough to set the critters crazy. See any one about these parts?"
questioned the driver, turning to the girls.
"No, sir. We were under the tent. We saw nothing," answered Harriet.
"I think it must have been the squealing of the horses that awakened
us. The next we knew we were being trampled on and the tent was down
about our ears. Have you looked about here carefully, Mr. Grubb?"
"For what?" returned Janus quickly.
"For thpookth," Tommy replied pertly.
"Pshaw!"
"I mean have you looked where the horses were tied," explained Harriet.
"You did examine the halters. You say they were broken, not cut. I
think we should look further."
"Yes. I agree with Harriet that we ought to make a careful search of
the ground about the camp," said Miss Elting. "We cannot afford to
miss opportunities that might solve this mystery. I wish you and the
driver would make a start," she urged.
"All right. Where's the lantern?" demanded Janus.
"It went down with the bridge," Harriet informed him. "We have
another, a smaller one, but I hardly think it will be of much use for
our purpose. I'll tell you what. Why not use some of the dry pitch
pine roots that you gathered?" suggested Harriet. "They are ready to
burn and will make excellent torches. We have plenty of kindling wood
without them."
"An excellent idea," approved the guardian.
Janus glanced at Jim and nodded. "I told you so," chuckled the guide.
"I knew she could suggest something."
Janus gathered up some roots, whittling one end of each stick into a
sunflower-like bunch of shavings. These ends he lighted, whereat the
torches flared up into flickering, smoking flames. The guide led the
way, followed by the entire Meadow-Brook party, Margery Brown having
become so interested as to forget her troubles for the moment, though
the lump on her head was still large and painful.
Just before reaching the trees where the horses had been tied, Miss
Elting suggested that all save the guide and Harriet stop where they
were.
"If so many of us go forward we shall not only be likely to miss any
clues there are, but perhaps destroy them altogether. I have an idea
that we are going to find something that will enlighten us," she added.
"That's good, common sense," agreed the guide, nodding his approval.
"Is there anything you wish us to do, Mr. Grubb?" asked Miss Elting.
"Little Brownie is the pilot," replied Janus jocularly, waving a hand
in Harriet Burrell's direction. "Whatever she suggests, we will do.
We can't do any better than to follow her lead."
Harriet's cheeks flushed. She had taken a torch and began slowly to
circle the trees to which the horses had been tied upon arriving at the
camp site. At first her circle was a wide one, Janus following her
example by beginning well out beyond the trees. Harriet's smoking
torch was held close to the ground, sweeping from side to side, the
torch bearer assuming a crouching position with head well lowered, body
bent almost double.
"Look out!" shouted Tommy, as Harriet came abreast of her party.
"Wha--at?" Harriet straightened up sharply. "What is it!"
"You will burn your nothe, if you don't look out."
"Oh, Tommy!" Harriet laughed merrily. "Is that all?"
"I was thinking the same thing," chuckled the guide. "Wish I could
bend over like that. But don't bother us, little one. This is our
busy night, and right serious business it is, too." The laughter
disappeared from his face and Janus bent low to his task.
The others of the party had either seated themselves on the ground or
leaned against trees. They chatted while the guide and Harriet Burrell
sought for the true trail, but it was not very encouraging work.
The two torches flickered and smoked weirdly, now and then becoming
mere glows like distant lamps in a fog, as the bearer slipped behind a
tree or was masked by an intervening growth of bushes whose foliage was
very thick and dense.
"Oh, Mr. Grubb, who of our party has brass-headed tacks in his boot
heels?" called Harriet.
"I have. Why?"
"I found a heel mark that gave me that impression," answered Harriet
laughingly.
"Well, I swum!"
"It was a guess about their being brass-headed, though," she admitted.
"You would have made a prize sheriff, Little Brownie," declared the
guide, gazing at her admiringly. "If I'd had you to nose the trail
when I was after Red Tacy and Charlie Valdes it wouldn't have taken me
a matter of two months to get them."
"Who are they?"
"A couple of outlaws who turned things upside down in these hills some
years ago. But I got them both. They are serving terms up at Concord
now. Find anything?"
"No, sir."
The circles were steadily narrowing, though the man and the girl were
working slowly and deliberately, really covering the ground by inches,
so thorough was their search for clues of the supposed night visitors.
No spot of the size of a hand escaped the keen scrutiny of one or the
other of them. They could not have answered had they been asked what
particular thing they had hoped to find, but in some vague way each
felt that a clue to the mystery would be turned up as a result of their
search. If a person had stolen into camp under cover of the night,
wounding and stampeding the horses, it was probable that footprints or
other evidences of his presence had been left behind, a tell-tale clue
to the recent visitor. As yet, not a single trace had been found by
the searchers. They continued with their work until they finally
brought up facing each other in front of the trees to which the broken
ends of the halters were still tied.
Harriet glanced up into the perplexed face of the guide and laughed.
Janus gave back a glum look and muttered, "I swum!"
"Have you two sleuths finished your work?" called Crazy Jane.
"It certainly looks as though we had," replied Harriet. "What do you
think, Mr. Grubb?"
"I reckon we're beaten."
"Yes. We haven't found a clue of any consequence. Perhaps we have
imagined too much, but I do not think so."
"Give me a torch; it's my turn now. Let's see what Crazy Jane can
find," said Jane McCarthy. "My grandfather was the champion shamrock
hunter of the Emerald Isle, and my Dad says I'm a pocket edition of my
grandfather. Just watch me while I show you a few things."
Harriet handed her torch to Jane, and, walking over, sat down by Miss
Elting.
"Did you really fail for once, Harriet?" questioned the guardian in a
teasing voice. She understood Harriet's peculiarities, knowing that
the girl was not given to talking when there was real or fancied reason
why she should not.
"I should say I did; that is, I did not discover anything that I could
feel certain about. But some one has been here. There was just one
footprint in a bit of soft dirt, but some one had most provokingly
stepped on it, nearly obliterating it. From what I could make out of
the original footprint it wasn't made by any of our party. That is all
I found, but enough to verify our suspicions. Where is Jane going?"
Jane McCarthy was moving away from camp, apparently following the trail
made by the party when they came up from the river to make camp among
the trees.
"That's a good idea, too," she added approvingly, instantly catching
the significance of Jane's action. "I never thought of trying it."
"I don't know just what you mean, but anything not thought of by you I
shouldn't consider worth bothering about." Miss Elting laughed softly,
patting the brown head beside her. "There! She is returning, and
empty-handed like yourself, I'll warrant."
"Do not be too certain of that. On the contrary, Jane has discovered
something."
"Why do you think that?"
"I can tell by the swing of her shoulders. Miss Elting, Crazy Jane has
beaten us all; you see if she hasn't. Hoo-e-e-e!"
"Jane! Oh, Jane! Did you find something?" cried Tommy, in a shrill,
high-pitched voice that Margery declared might have been heard a mile
away. "What did you find?"
"Did I find thomething?" mimicked Jane. "Does Crazy Jane McCarthy ever
fail to get what she goes after? Yes, I did find something; something,
too, that will make you girls open your eyes. And you too, Mr. Grubb!
Sh-h-! Not a word," she warned dramatically. "Come over by the
campfire, where we can see, and I'll show you all----"
"Thomething," finished Tommy Thompson.
"Yes, 'thomething,'" answered Jane with a nod, then hurried toward the
camp. Her companions raced after her, Janus Grubb bringing up the rear
in long strides, the fingers of one hand clutched in his abundant
whiskers. Jim stood gazing after them, his underjaw drooping. Jim
hadn't yet quite come to an understanding of this most unusual company.
He stood there wondering until the girls had passed out of his sight,
after which the driver, with hands thrust deep in his pockets, walked
slowly campward, trying to make up his mind what had happened.