TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE
"She's found the buried treasure!" screamed Buster.
The girls uttered a cheer. Harriet regarded Tommy's excited face inquiringly.
"You really have found it?"
"Yeth, yeth."
"Where is the treasure?"
"I don't know. How thhould I know?"
"But you said you had found it," interposed the Chief Guardian.
"No, I thaid I had found the trail. Of courthe, I haven't found the treathure. But I've found thomething, and—"
"What did you find? Come, tell us," urged Harriet.
Controlling herself somewhat, Tommy glanced triumphantly at the expectant faces about her.
"There wath a man at thith camp latht night."
"What?" The girls asked the question at the top of their voices.
"There were two men here latht night," persisted Grace.
"Please explain what you mean, Grace," commanded the Chief Guardian. "You say there were two men here last night. How do you know?"
"I found the markth of their feet—in the thand. But that wathn't all I found. There wath a boat here, too—a boat. Now, what do you think of that?"
"Try to be more explicit, Grace," urged Miss Elting. "Tell us what you have discovered, without beating about the bush so long."
"There wathn't any buthh to beat about. It wath right on the thand. Don't you underthtand?"
Miss Elting sat down. "Tell it your own way, then. We are simply wasting time in trying to hurry you," she said.
"Yeth. Well, it wath thith way. I wath looking for the treathure trail that Harriet told uth about at breakfatht thith morning, though I don't thee how thhe thhould know anything about it. My footthepth led me—led me, you understand? No, it wath my feet, not my footthtepth, that led me—right along the thhore of the ocean. And what do you thuppose I found?"
"An oyster shell," suggested Margery.
"No, not that. I found where a boat had been drawn up on the thhore and then thhoved out again. It had been drawn up on the thand. Then there were trackth about the place, trackth of heavy bootth, and a mark in the thand where thomething heavy had been put down. It looked like a box. I gueth it wath. The men had taken the box between them and carried it up and down the thhore ath far ath I could thee. You know, the tide wathhed the marks out near down to the thea."
"What did they do with the box, dearie?" interrupted Harriet.
"That I have not yet dethided. I thhall find out about that later. Well, after a time, it theemth, they took the box up the thandy beach and into the woodth, but by that time it wath tho dark that I couldn't thee any more footprintth and couldn't tell what they did with the box."
"Marvelous," muttered Buster. "Excruciatingly marvelous!"
"Is this a fairy story?" demanded Mrs. Livingston.
"Ask Harriet," suggested Crazy Jane. "I think she knows more about it than Tommy does. Don't you, Harriet?"
"What makes you think that, Jane?" questioned Harriet mischievously.
"Ask me, darlin'."
"I have, dear."
Jane stepped over and whispered in Harriet's ear, the others regarding the proceeding with puzzled expressions on their faces. Harriet's face broke out into a ripple of smiles.
"I am caught red-handed," she said. "It seems that I am not the only light sleeper in the Meadow-Brook camp. Jane chanced to observe something that I did last night. She has known it all along. She hinted at it this morning, and I suspected that she knew more than she had told us."
"But, my dear, we are all in the dark," reminded the Chief Guardian. "Won't you be good enough to explain this mystery? Surely you can do so in a way that will make it clear to us. Two men, a box and a boat and goodness knows what else, here on this lonely part of the coast."
"I was suddenly awakened last night," began Harriet without preliminary remarks. "A boat sailed into the bay close to shore and came to anchor. Then a small boat put off. Two men were in it. They came ashore with a heavy box, started down the bar, then back to the beach after I had met and stopped them. Tommy has told you the truth about their further movements."
"Wait a moment. You stopped them, you say?" questioned Mrs. Livingston.
"Yes. I didn't want them to get near the cabin and disturb our party. According to their story they had made a mistake. They had some supplies for a friend of theirs who was on a fishing trip somewhere up the coast."
"You believed that to be the case, then?"
"No, Mrs. Livingston, I did not, because, instead of going up the beach after I had turned them back, they went the other way, eventually turning in among the trees, where they remained for some time. I did not see them again until they fell over me later—"
"What!" The guardian was more amazed than before.
"Oh, I forgot to tell you that I followed them to see what they were going to do. I didn't find out, but they found me, though they were not aware of it." Harriet explained how she had lain down on the ground and how one of the two men had stumbled over her feet without discovering her presence. Exclamations of amazement greeted this part of the story.
"What became of them after that?" asked Miss Elting.
"They shoved off their rowboat, rowed out to the sailboat, which quickly weighed anchor and put out to sea. That is all I know about it. You see, Tommy was right."
Mrs. Livingston turned to Tommy.
"My dear, you did splendidly. Of all this camp of girls you were the only one who found the trail and read it aright. That is trailing for you, Mr. McCarthy. But what could the men have been doing here? I do not like the looks of it at all."
"They have gone, so we needn't worry," replied Harriet. "I forgot to say that there was a boat in here—I think it was the same one—the other night just before the storm. It is my idea that they came in on that occasion to put something ashore, but were obliged to get out to sea before the storm broke. They came back on the following night to finish what they had failed to do the first time."
Mr. McCarthy nodded. So did Mrs. Livingston.
"Remarkable girls, these Meadow-Brook Girls, Mr. McCarthy. However, there is nothing to be done. We shall not be bothered any more, in all probability. Besides, they were not here on our account, so we have no cause to worry."
"And I've got to walk back to Portsmouth," groaned Mr. McCarthy. "I told you, Mrs. Livingston."
"Perhaps we may catch some farmer who is going in that direction, and who will be willing to give you a lift," she suggested.
"No; you will have to let me sleep under a tree and hang about to-night. The men are coming down in the morning to get the car out of the pond. They might as well have two jobs as one. How did it happen, Jane?"
For the first time the party of Camp Girls who had gathered about the little group gave their attention to the Meadow-Brook Girls. The latter were now discovered to be much the worse for wear. Their hair was down over their shoulders and their clothes were soiled and torn.
"Got it hard, didn't you?" chuckled Mr. McCarthy.
"Oh, not so much," replied Jane, repressing a smile.
"You are a thight. You look ath though you had been digging for buried treathure," declared Tommy.
"How'd it happen?" rumbled Mr. McCarthy.
"It was like this, Daddy, dear. We were running along nicely and easily—just at a comfortable jog, when—"
"How fast?"
"How much time were we making, Harriet?"
"Nearly sixty miles an hour."
"Yes, I knew it wasn't very fast. Just jogging, Daddy."
The visitor grunted.
"Something went wrong with the steering gear. I don't know what it was, but the wheel had no effect on the car. You should have seen us. It was funny, wasn't it, girls, the way that car darted from one side of the road to the other, and we hanging on for dear life? You see, that was all we could do—hang on. Well, the car jumped the ditch, went up the bank on that side of the road, smashed into the iron post of a wire fence, then stood up on end and turned over backward. Did you ever see such a contrary automobile? Where did you buy it, Dad?"
"Didn't buy it. Borrowed it of a man I know up at Portsmouth. It'll cost me only a few thousand to make it right with him, but then Dad's rich; don't you care."
"I never do," chuckled Jane. "Do you?"
"No, I don't, so long as no one gets hurt. How'd you get out? What did you do when the car was stopped by the fence?"
"We just went on over, Dad. You know nothing can stop a Meadow-Brook Girl when she is once well started on a course. We landed on plowed ground on the other side of the fence."
"Mercy!" exclaimed the Chief Guardian.
"Can anything hurt you, girls?"
"I hope not," answered Harriet. "This was a little sudden, but we didn't mind it so very much, did we, Miss Elting?"
"I don't know who you mean by 'we,' but please do not include me in this particular 'we.' I am not over the shock of that plunge yet, nor do I expect to be for some hours to come. I fear the car is ruined, Mr. McCarthy. I hope you will not send another one down here for Jane, if you will pardon my saying so." This from Miss Elting.
"That's all right, Miss Elting. I am not going to send another car at present. Perhaps when you young folks are ready to go home I may send a car for you, but I may give you a driver. For the present I've got something else in my mind. I had to wait until I asked Mrs. Livingston about it before I put it through. She thinks it will be fine. She will tell you all about it at dinner to-day."
"There goes the dinner horn now," announced the guardian of the Meadow-Brook Girls. "Girls, you are not presentable. Hurry and get ready for dinner. We mustn't be late to-day, of all days."
It was really marvelous that the girls were able to work such a transformation in themselves in so short a time. In the few moments that had been left to them they had rearranged their hair, brushed the dirt of the plowed field from their clothing and washed their faces and hands. It was really a jolly dinner, too, for the good-natured guest kept them all laughing with his humorous stories and odd remarks. He was so much like his daughter Jane that they had no need to be reminded of the relationship.
"This has been a day of excitement, hasn't it?" remarked one of the guardians to Miss Elting. "Buried treasure, automobile wrecks, visitors, mysterious strangers. Gracious me! what are the Camp Girls coming to?"
"I don't know. Did Mr. McCarthy say what the surprise is that he has in store for the girls? I thought perhaps he might have said something about it during our absence on that automobile ride."
"Not that I heard. He undoubtedly told Mrs. Livingston. There, she is speaking now," added the guardian.
Mrs. Livingston had risen and rapped on the table with a knife for attention.
"Our guest and good friend, Mr. McCarthy, wishes to make an announcement," she said, then sat down.
Jane's father got up, his face very red, his forehead glistening with beads of perspiration.
"Your guest and good friend most emphatically does not wish to make an announcement," declared the visitor. "But it is up to him to do so because he wishes to please that fine woman, your Chief Guardian—is that what you call yourself, Mrs. Livingston? I get all mixed up with various names and titles. It's as bad as attending a reception of the royal family, judging from what I've heard."
Mrs. Livingston nodded, smiling good-naturedly.
"Well, girls, you know I've got to do something to furnish that mad-cap daughter of mine with a variety of means of ending her life and those of her friends. She has exhausted everything thus far. However, this is a perfectly safe proposition, this one that I have planned for you and her, and I don't think any of you can get into serious difficulty through it."
"Don't keep us in suspense, Dad! Tommy will suffocate if you don't tell us now. She has been holding her breath ever since you began speaking," cried Jane.
A ripple of laughter ran along both sides of the table, but quickly subsided when Mr. McCarthy again began speaking.
"Very good, if you must know. But—I say, Mrs. Livingston, I think we won't tell them until to-morrow. As I think it over, I guess I won't tell them after all. They'll know all about it when it gets here. That's all." Mr. McCarthy sat down, wiping his forehead and looking vastly relieved.
A chorus of "Ohs!" greeted the announcement. "Please, please tell us, oh, do," they begged, but the visitor shook his head.
"I think, Mr. McCarthy, that I had better tell them if you do not wish to. They will be too much upset otherwise," said the Chief Guardian. "Have I your permission?"
He nodded.
"As you wish. They've got me so flustered that I couldn't say another word to them."
"Very good. Listen, girls, and I will tell you," said the Chief Guardian.