A MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE
"Quick, girls!" shouted Miss Elting.
"Thave me!" screamed Tommy Thompson.
Harriet opened her eyes in time to see Janus running rapidly from the
camp, firing his revolver at every jump. After his second shout of
warning he was not heard to speak again. For a moment or so they could
hear him crashing through the hushes, now and then firing his revolver,
probably when he caught sight of the man he was pursuing, the intruder
having no doubt returned, perhaps hoping to be able to catch the camp
asleep, thus giving him an opportunity to recover his rifle.
The girls unrolled themselves from their blankets as quickly as
possible. Harriet started to follow Janus.
"Come back!" commanded Miss Elting.
Harriet halted abruptly. "Please let me go," she pleaded.
"By no means! How could you ask such a thing? Let Janus attend to
matters of this sort. We must look after ourselves here. The man may
return."
Harriet Burrell still stood where she had halted. Her head was bent
slightly forward. She was listening. Not a sound could be heard now
from the pursuing guide.
"Hoo-e-e-e-e!" called Harriet. But no answering call came back to her.
She still kept her position until the guardian called to her. Harriet
then walked slowly back to her trembling companions. Jane and Miss
Elting were no more frightened than Harriet. They did not know,
however, what had occurred to disturb Janus, and could only surmise.
Harriet stirred the fire, throwing on more dry boughs and brush until a
crackling blaze had sprung up. She was more disturbed than her
expression indicated. In the meantime Miss Elting had satisfied
herself that nothing had been taken from the camp, which knowledge
served in a way to relieve her.
However, as the moments passed, and nothing further was heard from the
guide, the others of the Meadow-Brook party began to feel a vague
alarm. They could not believe that anything had happened to Janus, nor
could they understand why he should remain away from the camp so long.
Jane and Harriet "Hoo-e-e-ed!" until they were hoarse, but no reply
followed their calls. Half an hour passed; then an hour, during which
time everybody walked nervously about the camp.
"Miss Elting, something serious must have occurred to Mr. Grubb,"
declared Harriet.
"Oh, goodness, more mystery!" exclaimed Jane.
"Please, let Jane and myself go out to look for him. He may have been
shot, he may be suffering, or----"
"No! Not a girl may leave this camp," replied the guardian firmly.
"But what if Mr. Grubb is in trouble?" protested Harriet.
"Would it better the situation were any of you girls to get into the
same difficulty? No, I could not think of it. Besides, I believe Mr.
Grubb will return in good time. We do not know but he may be hiding,
hoping to catch the one he went out after. If so, you would be
interfering with, perhaps defeating, the very plan he has in mind. No,
girls; you will stay here."
There was no more to be said. Miss Elting's word was law with her
charges. Harriet and Jane submitted without further protest, but this
did not lessen their concern over the continued absence of the guide.
Of course, there was no more sleep in the camp that night. The party
sat down, always keeping out of the firelight, Harriet and Jane doing
guard duty, walking about the camp some little distance back. Harriet
had the rifle. The possession of this gave them a feeling of greater
security than otherwise would have been the case. She kept the rifle
in her hands during all the rest of the night.
Dawn found the girls pale after their long vigil following the exciting
incidents of the evening. But daylight served to bring back their
failing courage. Harriet put down the rifle at the first suggestion of
morning light. Jane gathered fresh fuel for the fire and a roaring
blaze warmed them up, for the morning on the mountain was very chill.
"Come, girls, get breakfast," directed Miss Elting. "We must eat.
Afterward we shall consider what is to be done. The situation demands
careful thought, then action. We cannot go far without our guide."
They knew that. Breakfast was prepared in some haste that morning.
While eating they discussed their predicament, finally coming to a
decision. It was decided that they should try to follow the guide's
trail, spreading out so as to cover the ground thoroughly. In this
formation they would continue until they either found him or failed.
There seemed no other course to take. The guide's pack was distributed
among the girls. It made quite a load for them, but Harriet and Jane
carried more than the others, in addition to which Harriet carried the
captured rifle. An examination of the magazine showed that there were
ten cartridges in it, quite sufficient for any likely needs of theirs.
Before starting out Harriet raised the rifle with the muzzle pointing
skyward.
"Don't be frightened, I'm going to fire a signal," she announced.
Margery screamed, despite the warning, when a crash woke the echoes.
After an interval of a few seconds Harriet fired two more shots in
quick succession. This was a signal. All listened, but no answering
shot was heard, nor any shout to indicate that the signal had been
heard.
"We will move on," announced the guardian. "Keep within calling
distance. Harriet will take the trail from the camp; the others will
spread out on either side."
Harriet Burrell started a little in advance of the others, beginning at
the point where she had seen Janus disappear. For a time it was
somewhat difficult to follow the trail, because of the trampling the
bushes had had on the evening before. However, after a short time the
trail stretched away, clear to the eyes of an experienced woodsman.
There were broken bushes here and there; that was all, though enough
for one who knew how to use her eyes.
"I have found the trail," called Harriet; "it is turning to the east."
This she knew was to enable the pursued to make better time in getting
away. After a short distance the trail turned upward, then led to the
east again. Bushes were getting more scarce. Only occasional clumps
of them were to be found, making the work of following the trail much
more difficult.
Two hours of climbing, with frequent periods of hunting for the trail
that had lost itself, brought them to the end of their resources. The
trail, at first so plainly marked, had, as a famous woodsman has said,
"petered out into a squirrel track, run up a tree and disappeared into
a knothole." On every side were almost barren rocks, though below and
further to the east the mountain vegetation showed thick and green,
dropping away into ravines here and there, the surface being more
uneven than anything they had yet encountered on this particular
mountain. Still further below, the mountainside appeared to be quite
heavily wooded.
"I believe we should look into that," said Harriet, indicating the
lower part that was covered with green. "We may find some clue to the
whereabouts of our guide."
"We might get lost there," answered the guardian.
"But--we have only to go down. We can't possibly get lost if we do
that. Going down will lead us to the foot of the mountain, and out
into the open once more," urged Harriet. The guardian smiled.
"How silly of me not to have thought of that. I am beginning to think
that my pupil knows more about outdoor life and woodcraft than I ever
dreamed. If you think best, Harriet, we will look down there. In the
meantime I would suggest that one of us remain in this vicinity to make
a more thorough search."
Harriet offered to do this, so it was agreed that the rest of the party
should head obliquely down the mountain while she worked back and
forth, like a switchback railway, until she, too, had reached the
objective point where the others would be waiting for her. This
programme was carried out, beginning immediately. Not a trace,
however, did she find of the lost trail. While awaiting her arrival
the others of the party walked back and forth along the edge of the
thick growth, but with no better results than had attended the search
made by Harriet Burrell.
At noon they stopped for luncheon, then followed the same method as had
Harriet, moving east and west, ever enlarging their field as the growth
increased in area. Night found them far up on the mountainside still
facing the mystery of the disappearance of the guide, whom the girls
earlier had named "The Pilot of the White Mountains."
He was no longer a pilot, but in need of one.
It was not a particularly cheerful party of girls that sat down to a
supper of rice, corn cakes and coffee that evening. It was arranged
that Harriet should take the early part of the night watch, Jane
McCarthy the last half, for they dared not leave their camp unguarded.
A huge fire was built that sent a glow high above the foliage of bushes
and second-growth trees, visible for a long distance. This was done
with a purpose. The girls hoped that, were Janus within sight, he
might see the light and be guided to them. The blaze did serve to
attract the attention of others whom the girls were to see before the
night was ended.
Harriet's vigil was not a lonely one to her. She always found comfort
in Nature, no matter how dark or silent Dame Nature's mood might be.
She drew back a short distance from camp so that her moving about might
not disturb her companions, remaining quiet until they had finally gone
to sleep, after which she began strolling back and forth.
She had been on guard for something more than two hours when she was
startled by three shots from somewhere lower down the mountain.
Harriet pointed her rifle into the air and promptly pulled the trigger
twice. Two heavy reports from her rifle caused an instant commotion in
the camp of the Meadow-Brook Girls. The girls untangled themselves
from their blankets and sprang up very much frightened. Their nerves
were on edge after all they had experienced, and these shots, fired so
near at hand, had sent at least three of them to the verge of panic.
"Are we attacked?" cried Jane.
"We may be," answered Harriet. "Hurry and get yourselves together.
Some one besides ourselves is in the mountains and we must be ready for
whatever comes. I don't know what it is. Hurry, please! We may have
to leave here very suddenly."
No time was lost in "getting themselves together," as Harriet had
expressed it. Fortunately, having gone to bed with their clothing on,
there was little preparation to make. This completed, at Miss Elting's
direction the girls moved off in a body, secreting themselves in the
shadows some distance from the light of the campfire, but within sight
of it. Up to this time Harriet had made no explanation. Miss Elting,
after having placed the girls to her satisfaction, eagerly demanded to
know the meaning of Harriet's signals, the guardian not having heard
the other shots fired farther, down the mountainside.
"I answered a signal," replied Miss Burrell.
"Oh, then it is the guide? It's Janus!" cried Miss Elting joyously.
"No, it was not Janus. The signal was fired from a rifle," answered
Harriet Burrell.