Hutchins brought a newspaper to Tish the next morning at breakfast, and
Tish afterwards said her expression was positively malevolent in such a
young and pretty woman.
The newspaper said that an attempt had been made to rob the Newcomb
place the night before, but that the thieves had apparently secured
nothing but a package of oatmeal and a tin sprinkling-can, which they
had abandoned on the lawn. Some color, however, was lent to the fear
that they had secured an amount of money, from the fact that a silver
half-dollar had been found on the window sill of a tool-house. The
Newcomb family was at its summer home on the Maine coast.
"You see," Hutchins said to Tish, "that man didn't belong there at all.
He was just impertinent and--laughing in his sleeve."
Tish was really awfully put out, having planned to take the Sunday
school there for a picnic. She was much pleased, however, at Hutchins's
astuteness.
"I shall take her along to Canada," she said to me. "The girl has
instinct, which is better than reason. Her subconsciousness is unusually
active."
Looking back, as I must, and knowing now all that was in her small head
while she whistled about the car, or all that was behind her smile,
one wonders if women really should have the vote. So many of them are
creatures of sex and guile. A word from her would have cleared up so
much, and she never spoke it!
Well, we spent most of July in getting ready to go. Charlie Sands said
the mosquitoes and black flies would be gone by August, and we were in
no hurry.
We bought a good tent, with a diagram of how to put it up, some folding
camp-beds, and a stove. The day we bought the tent we had rather a
shock, for as we left the shop the suburban youth passed us. We ignored
him completely, but he lifted his hat. Hutchins, who was waiting in
Tish's car, saw him, too, and went quite white with fury.
Shortly after that, Hannah came in one night and said that a man was
watching Tish's windows. We thought it was imagination, and Tish gave
her a dose of sulphur and molasses--her liver being sluggish.
"Probably an Indian, I dare say," was Tish's caustic comment.
In view of later developments, however, it is a pity we did not
investigate Hannah's story; for Aggie, going home from Tish's late one
night in Tish's car, had a similar experience, declaring that a small
machine had followed them, driven by a heavy-set man with a mustache.
She said, too, that Hutchins, swerving sharply, had struck the smaller
machine a glancing blow and almost upset it.
It was about the middle of July, I believe, that Tish received the
following letter:--
_Madam_: Learning that you have decided to take a fishing-trip in
Canada, I venture to offer my services as guide, philosopher, and
friend. I know Canada thoroughly; can locate bass, as nearly as it
lies in a mortal so to do; can manage a motor launch; am thoroughly
at home in a canoe; can shoot, swim, and cook--the last indifferently
well; know the Indian mind and my own--and will carry water and chop
wood.
I do not drink, and such smoking as I do will, if I am engaged, be
done in the solitude of the woods.
I am young and of a cheerful disposition. My object is not money, but
only expenses paid and a chance to forget a recent and still poignant
grief. I hope you will see the necessity for such an addition to your
party, and allow me to subscribe myself, madam,
Your most obedient servant,