JANE PLAYS EAVESDROPPER
Two hours later the Meadow-Brook Girls were startled to hear a voice directly over their heads call:
"Girls, girls."
"Who is it?" asked Miss Elting cautiously.
"It's I. I'm up here, right where we heard George Baker talking this morning."
"You nearly thcared me to death!" gasped Tommy.
"Speak more quietly, please," warned Harriet. "Jane, I wish you would come up here. No; I'm not going to take you far. I want you within reach of the boat."
"Do you see anything of the boys, Harriet?" asked Miss Elting.
"No, but I hear them occasionally. They are quite a distance ahead, traveling fast, and ought to be back long before dark."
Jane lost no time in hurrying to the lower end of the creek in order to join her friend. Harriet lay on the rocks, at a point where she could not see the water, and there Jane joined her.
"What I want you to do," Harriet explained in whispers, at the same time on the alert for sound or sign of the boys, "is to stay here, or not far from here, so that you can warn the girls in case I signal by making a cawing noise like a crow. I don't want the girls to make too much noise, for it would spoil our fun if the boys should discover our hiding place."
"But how am I going to get back if I have to do so in a hurry?"
"Can you go down a rope?"
"Show me the rope that I can't go down," boasted Jane.
"How about this one?" smiled Harriet, producing a coil of quarter inch manila rope.
"Well, it's small, but I'll try it. Where do you wish me to climb?"
"I'll show you. Take hold of my feet and don't you dare let go. I surely shall break my neck if you do." Harriet crawled over the edge, Jane grasping her by the ankles to prevent her from falling. Then Harriet tied one end of the rope to a root of a tree that stood on the brink. "Look out below!" she warned, at the same time dropping the coil through the foliage and shaking the rope until the coil finally dropped into the stream. "Please draw the rope up to the boat," she called. "That's it. Now pull me back, Jane."
Jane McCarthy did so with some assistance from Harriet, who clawed at the roots of the tree and pushed with her hands until she finally got to the top once more. Reaching there she got up and surveyed the work with approval.
"Can you see the rope, Jane?"
Miss McCarthy shook her head.
"If you have to go down it be careful that you don't fall before you get to the rope. Now do you understand?"
"Do I? This is going to be great fun. Won't the boys be surprised when we play our great trick on them?"
"Provided they do not surprise us first," answered Harriet.
"Where are you going?"
"To follow George Baker's trail for a time. I can't tell beyond that what I shall do. It will depend upon circumstances. Remember the signal. I'm off now."
Jane watched Harriet slip away. There was undisguised admiration in the eyes of Jane McCarthy. Not a sound could she hear from her companion, so silently did the latter move away. After Harriet had gone, Jane called down to her friends that she was going to move from the spot and that they should keep quiet.
The hours passed slowly for Jane. She was too active to care to sit down calmly and wait when there were things to be done, so Jane decided that she too would explore a little on her own account. She started slowly, edging down nearer to the shore, thus taking a different course from that followed by her companion, toward the upper end of the island.
Jane had been gone about an hour when she heard voices directly ahead of her. She glanced about in quest of a safe hiding place. Not knowing exactly the direction that was being followed by those whose voices she had heard, she decided to run toward home. A shout from behind her at that juncture told her that at least one of the party had gotten between her and the hiding place of the "Red Rover."
Without an instant's hesitation Crazy Jane ran to a low, bushy tree and climbed up in its foliage with almost the quickness of a cat. Her clothes suffered, but she did not care. Her sole desire now was to get out of sight as quickly as possible. She would never forgive herself if she were to be the means of their being discovered. As yet she had heard no warning cry from Harriet Burrell.
Jane had hardly secreted herself in the foliage of the tree when another hail sounded between her tree and home.
"Is that you, boys?" It was the voice of George Baker.
"Yes," answered Sam. "What's up?"
George made his way toward them. Jane could hear him forcing his way through the bushes.
The two parties met in an open space a short distance from the tree that held Jane. She was straining every muscle to get a glimpse of them.
"Some one has been along here since I passed," declared George. "I found a footprint in the moss over there, and it was a woman's."
"So did we find the same thing," answered Larry. "There's something queer about this whole island. I feel spooky all the time. Did you hear any one?"
"No."
"Well, I did. Some one threw a stone at me. It dropped right at my feet."
Jane giggled softly. Harriet had been playing tricks on them. She wondered where Harriet was. Jane would have given the signal, but dared not do so. In the first place she was not sure that she could imitate a crow so as to deceive a person, and in the second place the boys were too close to her to run any chances.
"They are here, all right, boys," cried George. "I was certain of it all the time."
"It may be spooks," answered Larry Goheen.
"Well, just let them come out. I guess we can take care of any spooks that we shall find on this island. But we must get busy again. It will soon be dark. Spread out, fellows. I'll tell you what we'll do. Taking that tree there for a centre"—waving toward the tree occupied by Crazy Jane McCarthy—"we will circle about, making the circle larger each time we start out."
"Wait. I'll climb the tree and take a look around," interjected Sam. He started for the tree. His hands had grasped it ere Jane realized that hers was the tree meant. For once in her life Crazy Jane McCarthy was at a loss to proceed. She did not know what to do. But George unknowingly came to her rescue.
"Never mind the tree. It's too low. You can't get high enough to look over the tops of the bushes. You come along as I suggested."
"How ever am I going to get out of this?" muttered Jane. "Won't Harriet be cross when she finds I've quit my post and gone out on my own responsibility?" Her further reflections were interrupted by a loud "caw, caw, caw!"
"What's that?" cried Larry in alarm.
"It's a crow, you tenderfoot," jeered George. "Didn't you ever hear one before?"
"Harriet!" exclaimed Jane under her breath. "She has discovered where the boys are. She's giving me warning and I dare not answer her. What shall I do?"
"Yes, I have heard crows, but I never heard a crow with a voice like that," answered Larry. "I'll bet it's no more crow than I am."
Once more the crow cawed. This time the bird's voice sounded much farther away. Jane reasoned it out when she said to herself that Harriet had probably turned her head away or else had cawed in a lower tone to deceive the boys, who were now moving rapidly away, making as many circles as there were boys in the party.
Jane dared not get down from the tree, but she began moving about, seeking a better position from which she might look the ground over. If the boys got far enough away she might try to run, but then there was the probability of meeting their rivals, no matter which way she sought to escape.
The crow cawed again.
"I tell you that isn't a crow," shouted Larry.
"Go on, go on!" called George.
Jane listening intently, concentrating her attention on what was being said, rather than what she was doing, lost her footing. She grasped frantically for a limb and caught one. But the limb did not hold. It snapped and came away in her hand.
Crash! She landed on a bunch of small limbs and branches. She went right on through them, tearing off leaves with frantic hands in her efforts to get hold of something that would stop her progress. The foliage checked her fall a little, but not sufficiently to prevent her falling the rest of the way.
A yell from Larry Goheen, an answering shout from George, and another from Sam, told that the boys had heard the fall. They began running toward the tree, with shouts of triumph.
"We've got somebody," yelled George. "Look sharp, fellows."
"I'm on the job," howled Sam.
"Get clubs. It may be a spook," howled Larry.
The Tramp Club surrounded the tree, keeping their formation as well as possible, not forgetting that their prey might slip away from them did they not guard all sides. As yet they did not now who or what that prey was. A moment later they halted with exclamations of surprise.
Directly beneath the tree in which Jane McCarthy had been hiding stood a man. He was dark and swarthy, with high cheek bones and jet black hair. He was an Indian half-breed. The fellow stood scowling, regarding the boys with angry eyes. Broken limbs and scattered leaves showed where Jane McCarthy had fallen from the tree, and broken bushes also showed where she had floundered after reaching the ground.
The Tramp Club gazed at the scowling face of the half-breed in speechless amazement.