THE HUT IN THE WOODS
"What is it?" Laura cried.
For answer Billie pointed through the gloom.
"There! See it?" she cried excitedly. "It's some sort of little house, I
guess--a hut or something."
"A house!" cried Laura joyfully. "Glory be, let's go! What's the matter?"
she asked, as the other girls hung back.
"Better not be in too much of a hurry," Billie cautioned her. "The place
looks as if it were empty; but you never can tell."
"Well, there's something I can tell," Laura retorted impatiently. "And
that is, that I'm getting soaking wet." She started on again, but Billie
called to her to stop.
"Don't be crazy, Laura," she whispered. "We're all alone in the woods,
and it's almost night. How do we know who may be in that shack?"
"Oh, Billie, suppose it were the Codfish!" whispered Vi, and Laura looked
disgusted.
"It isn't apt to be the Codfish," returned Billie. "But whoever it is, I
think we'd better be careful. We'll go up to it softly and look about a
bit. Please don't any one speak until we're sure it's all right."
The girls were used to obeying Billie, even impulsive Laura, so now they
followed softly at her heels, stepping over twigs so as to make no noise.
"Goodness! anybody would think we were thieves ourselves," Laura giggled
hysterically, and Billie looked back at her warningly.
It was a strange thing and strangely made, this remote little shelter in
the woods. It probably had some sort of framework of wood inside, but all
the girls could see from the outside was a rude structure entirely
covered by moss and interwoven twigs. In fact, unless one looked closely,
one might think that the little hut was no hut at all, but part of the
foliage itself.
The girls could find no windows, but as they moved cautiously around the
hut Billie came upon a small door. The latter was hardly more than four
feet high, and the girls would have to stoop considerably to get through
it.
"For goodness sake, open it, Billie," Laura whispered close in her ear.
"It's beginning to pour pitchforks and I'm getting soaking wet. I don't
care if a hyena lives in there, I'm going in too."
Billie wanted to laugh, but she was too wet and nervous. So she opened
the little door cautiously and peered inside.
For a minute she could not tell whether the hut was empty or not, for it
was very very dark. But as her eyes became accustomed to the darkness she
felt sure that the place was empty.
"Come on," she called over her shoulder to the girls, her voice still
cautiously lowered. "I can't see very well, but I guess there's nobody at
home."
The girls had to stoop almost double to enter the tiny door, but once
inside they were surprised to find that they could stand upright.
They were in almost entire darkness, the only patch of light coming from
the little door that Vi had left open. Suddenly they began to feel
panicky again.
"If we could only get a light," whispered Vi.
"Goodness, listen to the child," said Laura scornfully. "She wants all
the comforts of home--ouch!" Her toe had come in contact with something
hard.
"What's the matter?" cried Billie startled.
"Matter enough," moaned Laura. "I've broken my toe!"
"Oh well, if that's all," said Billie, but Laura began to laugh
hysterically.
"Oh yes, that's all," she cried. "I only wish it had happened to you,
Billie Bradley!"
If all wishes could be fulfilled as quickly as that of Laura's there
would be few unsatisfied people in the world, for before it was out of
her mouth Billie uttered a sharp cry of pain, and, lifting a smarting
ankle in her hand, began to rub it gently.
"Did you do it, too?" cried Laura joyfully, adding with a good imitation
of Billie: "Oh well, if that's all--"
"Oh for goodness sake, keep still," cried Billie, from which it will be
seen that Billie was not in the best of tempers. "This place must be full
of stuff. Goodness, why didn't we think to bring matches with us!"
"Because we went out to get ferns, not to burn up the woods," said Laura,
with a chuckle.
"Goodness!" cried Vi suddenly out of the darkness. "It is--no it
isn't--yes it is----"
"For goodness sake, what's the matter with her?" asked Laura, getting
hysterical again. "Has trouble turned her head?"
"No. But something's turned yours," Vi's voice came indignantly back at
her. "I've found something, I have. But I've a good mind not to tell you
what it is."
"Violet, my darling," cried Laura, fondly. "Don't you see me on my
knees?"
"Yes," said Vi, and suddenly there was a flare of light in the room that
illuminated the faces of the girls and made Billie and Laura jump.
"I see you," said Vi calmly, and stood laughing at them while the
flickering match in her hand died down to a little glimmer and went out.
"So that's what you found--matches," cried Billie joyfully, while Laura
just kept on gaping. "Oh, Vi, you're a darling, and I forgive you for
scaring us almost to death. Come on, light another one so we can see
where we are."
Vi obediently lighted another match, a box of which she had found quite
by accident, and the girls looked about them curiously. And as they
looked their curiosity and wonder grew. Billie was wild with impatience
when the match in Vi's hand flickered and went out again.
"Here, give them to me," she cried. "I thought I saw something. Look out,
don't spill them, Vi!"
"I should say not--they're all we have," chimed in Laura.
The match flared up in Billie's hand, and this time it was her turn to
make a discovery. The discovery was a pair of thick white candles, each
set in a white china dish and pushed to one end of a rudely-made table.
Quick as a flash, Billie put the match to the wick of one candle, and
then, with a sigh of excitement, blew out the match that was almost
burning her fingers.
"Girls," she cried, looking about her eagerly, "isn't this the queerest,
funniest little place you ever saw? And it's so complete."
Excitedly she crossed the little hut, whose floor was nothing but solid,
trampled-down earth, and began to examine a rude-looking cot that ran
along all one side of the queer little place.
"And here's a pantry!" exclaimed Vi excitedly. "Look, girls, shelves and
cans of things and--and--everything!"
The interior of the place was made of rough boards, rudely thrown
together as if by an amateur. Why the person who had made the little
cabin had not laid boards for his floor, nobody could tell. Perhaps he
had run short of lumber or perhaps he preferred the hard earth floor.
As Vi had said, in one corner some boards had been nailed up to form
shelves, and there were several tins of canned goods upon the shelves.
Quite evidently this must be the queer owner's pantry.
Besides this, the cot, the table, and an oddly-shaped chair, which had
evidently been made from an old soap box, made the only furnishings of
the place.
"I wonder," said Billie, looking about her while a sort of awe crept into
her voice, "what the person is like that lives here. He must be very
queer, to say the least."
"Oh," cried Vi, all her old fears coming back again. "Girls, I'd almost
forgotten the Codfish. Do you suppose--"
"No, we don't," said Laura shortly, wishing that the very mention of the
Codfish would not send the cold chills all over her. "Goodness, just
listen to that rain," she added, shivering. "I guess we're in for a night
of it."
"But we can't stay _here_ all night," said Billie anxiously.
"Suppose the owner should come back," added Vi, her teeth beginning to
chatter.
"Well, he could only kill us if he did," said Laura gloomily.
"Besides, there are three of us to his one," said Billie, trying to speak
lightly. But Laura spoiled the attempt by adding more gloomily than ever:
"How do we know there's only one of him?"
"Well it doesn't look as if a whole family resided here."
"That's so too--but there may be two, at least."
Again the girls looked around the queer place. They saw a few tools as if
somebody had spent time in woodworking. There were shavings and parts of
cut tree branches and strips of bark.
"I'll wager he's a queer stick--whoever he is," was Billie's comment.
"And what will he say if he finds us here, prying into his private
affairs?" came from Laura, with something of a shiver. "Oh!"
All uttered a little cry as a crash of thunder reached them. Then the
rain seemed to come down harder than ever.
"Just listen to that!"
"It's good we are under cover. If we weren't we'd be drowned!"
The rain came in at one corner of the shelter, forming a pool on the hard
floor. But it did not reach the girls, for which they were thankful.
"I wonder how long it will last," sighed Vi presently.
"Maybe all night," returned Billie.
"Oh, do you really think it will last that long?" came pleadingly.
"You know as much about it as I do."
"What will they think of our absence at the Hall?" broke in Laura.
"They may send out a searching party----" began Billie.
"Hush," cried Vi suddenly, and her tone sent the gooseflesh all over them
again. "I hear something. Don't you think we'd better put something
against the door?"