HARRIET'S GRAVE MISTAKE
"Is that you, Jane?" cried Harriet, splashing toward the spot where the third splash had been heard.
Jane gazed about her in comical dismay.
"Oh, what a mess! A frisky gasoline buggy never stirred up so much trouble for a poor girl. Where is he?" she asked.
"Lost in the woods," answered Harriet, laughing as she swam toward her companion. "Get out of the water."
"I'm going to. Is it over my head?"
"I guess not unless you lie down flat in it. Oh, Jasper! Please lend a hand to Miss McCarthy. The bank is steep."
"Girls! are you crazy!" It was the voice of the Chief Guardian that greeted the two as they emerged from the water.
"No, Mrs. Livingston, but the bear is," chuckled Jane.
"That b'ar never'll show up around these parts again," averred Jasper.
"Come to my quarters, girls," commanded Miss Partridge, suddenly discovering that both girls were wet and shivering. After dry wrappers had been furnished them, they returned to their own tents, Harriet to resume her outdoor nap which had been interrupted by the visiting bear. Harriet first entered her tent to get another blanket. She struck a match to assist her in finding it Patricia lay in bed wide awake. She was regarding Harriet angrily.
"Hasn't Miss Kidder come in yet?" asked Harriet, observing that Cora's cot was unoccupied.
"You don't see her, do you?"
"No."
"Then she hasn't."
"Thank you," answered Harriet sweetly, blowing out the light and going out. She was smiling an amused smile at the snappiness of Patricia Scott. She puzzled a little over the fact that Cora had not yet come in. However, the camp had been so upset that many of the girls were still talking in their darkened tents, unable to go to sleep. It was possible that Cora might still be visiting somewhere on the grounds. Harriet did at that moment recall the conversation that she had recently overheard between Patricia and Cora. She was exhausted after her bear hunt and dropped off to sleep quickly after getting into bed.
In the morning Harriet ran into the tent to wash and dress. Patricia yawned, then turned over without opening her eyes. Harriet glanced quickly at Cora Kidder's cot. The clothes had been tumbled about and the pillow patted down, but Harriet saw instantly that the bed had not been slept in that night. Then all at once a thought came to Harriet. Cora had gone to the dance at "The Pines" with Mr. Collier. She had not returned, though it was now broad daylight. The thought made Harriet Burrell gasp. If the Chief Guardian were to know of this, the girl would be dismissed in disgrace for flagrant disobedience of camp regulations. A great wave of pity for the lawless girl welled up in Harriet's heart. It made her very unhappy. The young Meadow-Brook girl went about her dressing almost without realizing what she was doing. She walked to the cook tent in much the same frame of mind. Her companions noted her abstraction and commented upon it. They joked with her about her midnight chase after a bear. Harriet scarcely smiled, though she tried to hide her unhappiness that morning.
"Where is Miss Kidder?" asked Miss Partridge as they were seating themselves at the table.
"She was not feeling quite well last evening," explained the Chief Guardian. "She did not come in to dinner. I told her to take a late sleep this morning. How is Miss Kidder feeling this morning, Miss Burrell?"
"I—I don't know," stammered Harriet.
"She is not coming in to breakfast, then?"
"I—I be—lieve not."
Harriet's heart was thumping wildly. It seemed to her that a great gulf yawned before her and that she was about to plunge into it. Mrs. Livingston was speaking again. Her voice sounded far away to Harriet.
"Will you take a breakfast tray to her when you return to your tent, Miss Burrell?" asked the Chief Guardian.
"I will take it to the tent, Mrs. Livingston," faltered Harriet.
"If Miss Kidder is not feeling well this morning, kindly come and tell me. I will see her myself."
"Very well," hastily answered the girl.
Glancing up she saw Miss Partridge's gaze fixed inquiringly upon her. A sudden revulsion of feeling swept over Harriet. She realized what she had done. She wanted to scream out that she had deceived them. A look of terror leaped into her eyes. Miss Partridge saw the expression, as did Miss Elting from the other end of the table. It was quite evident that none of the guardians knew that Patricia Scott had slept in Harriet's tent that night. Harriet glancing quickly at Patricia saw that she was sitting with eyes fixed on her plate calmly eating her breakfast. There was a half smile on the lips of Patricia. For the moment Harriet was filled with anger. Anger again gave place to horror over her deception.
Miss Partridge was still looking at Harriet with a pained expression in her eyes.
"Oh, she suspects me," thought Harriet. "What shall I do?"
After breakfast the girl summoned all her will to her aid, waited calmly until the tray for Cora had been prepared, then with trembling hands carried it to her tent. Just before reaching her quarters Harriet saw a slim figure clad in a raincoat with head completely enveloped by a hood dart into the tent. And when Harriet stepped inside, there was Cora tucked under the quilts apparently asleep.
"Oh!" Harriet gave a little cry of amazement. She wondered for the moment if she had been dreaming, if Cora had not been there all the time. Harriet then recalled that a moment before she had seen some one entering her quarters from the rear of the tent. A bit of sleeve observable at the edge of the blanket told her that Cora was fully dressed, not in her uniform but in a blue evening gown that Harriet had seen among Miss Kidder's personal effects.
"Why did you wake me up?" demanded Cora petulantly, opening her eyes.
"I beg your pardon," answered Harriet coldly. "Here is a tray that Mrs. Livingston asked me to take to you."
"Put it on the chair. I wish you would go out and leave me. I don't feel like talking. If any girl comes here ask her to stay out of the tent for the next half hour. I'm going to get up and dress soon."
Harriet set the tray down and walked from the tent. Her heart was heavy on account of the deception she had practised. Her pride had been wounded, too. Did Cora Kidder think her so stupid as not to know what had been going on? Then the next thought was one of remorse that she had deceived Miss Partridge and Mrs. Livingston.
"My offense is as great as theirs," accused Harriet.
At that juncture her attention was attracted to a girl running toward her. It was Crazy Jane. Harriet walked away from the tent. Jane came up with her a few yards further on.
"Harriet, what is the matter?" she demanded, bending a keen glance into the face of Harriet Burrell.
"Oh, Jane. I'm so unhappy," replied Harriet sadly.
"Tell me all about it darling" begged Jane soothingly, linking an arm within that of her companion, leading her farther into the woods.
"Oh, yes, I will tell you. I must tell you. I am bursting, I shall go mad if I do not tell some one. But Jane, you must keep secret what I tell you. You must promise me that."
"If it's your secret, I'll promise. If it isn't, I won't promise."
Harriet regarded her companion steadily for a moment.
"I must tell you," she whispered. Then, haltingly, at first, Harriet told Jane that Cora Kidder had slipped away in the night and gone to the dance at "The Pines." There could be no doubt of it. Jane learned from Harriet of the conversation that she had overheard, was reminded of the visit of Mr. Collier the day before and was made acquainted with Cora's return to the tent while the Camp Girls were at their breakfast, a time when one might be certain of finding the camp clear of prying eyes.
Jane's face wore a serious expression.
"You say his sister went with them?"
"That was the plan. But, oh, Jane, I am suspected of treachery. I know Miss Partridge and Miss Elting suspected that I was deceiving them this morning. I didn't mean to, but I just couldn't see Cora disgraced and sent home. Don't you see what it would have meant to her?"
Jane regarded her thoughtfully.
"Cora doesn't like you, Harriet. She and Patricia are your enemies, but I don't know why. I have wondered if those two girls didn't have something to do with that soup affair. Do you know that Cora came into the cook tent from the front just as you sat down that night?"
"Yes, I know she did. She helped to haze me that night too. And—and—oh, Jane, don't betray her, but I overheard Cora and Patricia talking the other night. Words were dropped that left no doubt in my mind that Cora had done that awful thing."
"Spoiling the soup?"
"Yes."
"The miserable sneak!" exploded Jane. "Let me tell her!" Jane sprang up. Her face was flushed, her eyes snapping.
"Oh, no, no, no! She isn't to blame. It is Patricia, who is so vengeful, and Cora is so weak. She has been influenced by the other girl. Oh, you mustn't, you mustn't say a word to her! Promise me that you will not."
"I'd like to tell her what I think of her," breathed Jane in a low, tense voice, shaking a clenched first "Oh, wouldn't I like to."
"You must keep out of it. I must suffer for my deception. Oh, Jane, I can't stay here after this. I never shall be able to look any of them in the face after this. Go away now and let me think."
Jane left her companion abruptly. On her way back toward the campfire she saw Miss Partridge hurrying to Cora's tent. The Assistant Chief Guardian remained inside but a few moments after which she was seen returning, walking with less haste. Harriet stole into the forest that she might be alone.
Miss Partridge, satisfied that all was well with Cora was puzzling her mind as to what had so disturbed Harriet, when Jane seeing her return, acted upon a sudden impulse and hurried to Cora Kidder's tent. She paused in the doorway. Cora was in her wrapper, looking as if she had just gotten up.
"Well, what do you want?" she demanded, turning on Jane.
"I want to talk with you."
"Please go away and let me alone."
"Where were you last night?" Jane flung the question at her without warning. Cora flushed to the roots of her hair. Jane saw that her hands trembled too.
"Is there no such thing as privacy in this camp?" flared Cora.
"Yes, for those who are entitled to it."
Cora drew herself up, enraged past all endurance.
"Steady there! Steady! I know where you were last night. I know you went to 'The Pines' with that Collier chap. Oh, I know all about it, and what's more, you went with him alone."
"I didn't. His sister was with us. She came back with us, and——"
Crazy Jane threw back her head and laughed softly.
"Thanks, darlin'," she chuckled. "Confession is good for a guilty soul."
"Oh!" gasped Cora Kidder, realizing that she had confessed, that Jane had trapped her into the confession. Then she burst forth angrily.
"It's that hateful Harriet Burrell! I might have known it. She has been spying on me all the time. I hate her! I hate her! Oh, how I hate her! I could claw her eyes out, and——"
"Softly, my darlin', softly!"
"I don't care. I'm going anyway. I'll have Jasper take me to the train to-day. I don't want to stay here with such sneaks following me and spying on everything I do. You're no better than the rest. I suppose she's told Mrs. Livingston, I suppose every girl in the camp knows about it by this time. I haven't done anything of which I'm ashamed."
"Oh, yes, you have," interjected Jane quickly. "Harriet has not told the Chief. Cora Kidder, sit down there and listen to me; listen to the story of the finest bit of loyalty that any girl ever heard."
"I won't! Get out of my tent!"
"Sit down there. Harriet Burrell has not told any one."
"She told you; you know she did!"
"I had to drag it out of her. Then she tried to make me promise I wouldn't tell the Chief Guardian."
"And you will? You'll give me away?"
"You have given yourself away, Cora. Now that I've had it from your own lips I am free to tell whom I please. But I think you are going to tell Mrs. Livingston yourself."
"Never!" with a stamp of the foot.
"Listen! Harriet Burrell deceived them this morning. When they asked her about you she led them to believe that you were sleeping. She was trying to protect you. She did wrong. I shouldn't have done it if you had been as mean to me as you have to her. Oh, my stars! what a girl!"
Cora Kidder opened her eyes. She regarded Crazy Jane wonderingly.
"She knew all the time that you were planning to go to the dance, but she never said a word to any one, though it most broke her precious heart to think you would do such a thing. Last night when she came in here after we had chased the bear, she found you gone. Patricia was mean to her when she asked about you. This morning when she came in to dress, you weren't here. She saw that your bed hadn't been slept in. Then she knew. She was very unhappy. When they asked her about you this morning at breakfast Harriet avoided the questions and gave Mrs. Livingston indirect answers. She even brought a tray to you to keep up the deception. Now do you realize what that means to a girl like Harriet? The moment she gave a second thought to what she had done she was horrified. There isn't a more unhappy girl in the world than Harriet Burrell at this minute."
"Oh!" exclaimed Cora weakly.
"That isn't all. She knows more about you than this, even if this weren't enough."
"What does she know?" demanded Miss Kidder with a violent start, the color leaving her face suddenly.
"She knows you and Patricia were in that hazing affair. Then she knew something worse than that. She knows that you were the one who spoiled the consommé and lost the 'honor' bead for her."
Cora sat down heavily on the edge of the cot. Her eyes were wide with terror.
"She—she knows?"
"Yes. And I shouldn't be surprised if she knew more. She isn't the girl to tell all she knows. Now, what are you going to do about it, Cora Kidder?"
"Oh, I don't know," moaned the unhappy girl, burying her face in the pillows, her shoulders rising and falling with her smothered sobs.
Jane watched her in silence. There was an expression of compassion in the eyes of Crazy Jane. Finally she rose and stepped softly to the cot. Cora was aroused by a gentle touch on her shoulder.
"Dearie!" murmured Crazy Jane soothingly.
"Oh, what shall I do! What shall I do?" moaned Cora.
"Go straight to Mrs. Livingston and tell her everything. Do not spare yourself, nor Patricia, for she is the one who is to blame. She has been using you to avenge what she thinks are her own private wrongs. Tell it all, and set right that noble girl who has protected you, and who has gotten herself into an awful mess in doing so. Cora will you do it?"
"I can't, I can't," moaned Cora.
"Then I will do it myself," warned Jane, withdrawing her hand sharply.
"No, no, no! Don't! I'll do it. I'll go. I'll tell her everything. I don't care what she does to me. I just can't stand this! Oh, I never thought there were such people in the world! I'll go to Mrs. Livingston to-night, and——"
"Not to-night. Go, now, Cora. You can't tell what might happen between this and to-night."
"Yes, I'll go," was the faint reply. A veil seemed to fall from before the eyes of Cora Kidder. She saw herself as she had never done before, saw her own unworthiness, saw how she had been led to commit acts that were foreign to her real nature. She wondered how she ever could have been so blind. Cora rose and hurriedly began doing up her hair. Jane gave the girl an encouraging pat on the shoulder and slipped from the tent without another word.
"What a mess, oh what a fine mess," muttered Crazy Jane, swinging into a long stride as she started for the other end of the camp.