SOUNDING THE GENERAL ALARM
The instant a hand touched her cot Harriet Burrell was awake and sitting up. But to her amazement she was thrown on her back, a towel was twisted about her head by a pair of dexterous hands and her arms were pinioned at her sides. At first she did not know what to make of this sudden attack, then a warning whisper in a girlish voice brought understanding with it. Harriet had been struggling with good prospect of getting free, but she ceased her efforts at once upon coming to the conclusion that some of the Camp Girls were playing a midnight trick on her. Harriet even assisted them by obediently rising from her cot. A pair of rubber-soled tennis shoes were quickly slipped on her feet. Her clothing, with the exception of her camp uniform, was handed her and she dressed as best she could under the circumstances. Then her bathrobe was thrown about her shoulders and again the warning voice whispered to her to be silent.
The midnight intruders found Tommy, however, a most belligerent captive. She struggled violently and made frantic efforts to scream out, until, fearful of discovery, one of the mysterious visitors hastily seized Tommy's clothing from her locker, another took charge of her bathrobe while four of them marched the indignant little girl out of the tent and away from the camp where she was forced into her clothes despite her strenuous resistance.
"They are hazing us," thought Harriet as she was led away.
That was the plan. The hazers, now divided themselves into two parties. One division took charge of Grace, while the other division proceeded in the opposite direction with Harriet and after walking a short distance came to a halt. The bath towel that was nearly suffocating Harriet was partly removed from her head. A voice, plainly disguised spoke to her.
"Art thou prepared for initiation into the mysteries of the tribe of Wau-Wau, my sister?" asked the voice.
"That depends upon what the initiation into those mysteries is. I don't know whether I am prepared or not," answered the girl lightly.
"My sisters, is the fire extinguished and the hearth left in order?" asked the first speaker.
"Even so."
"Then having been tried by fire, by the flame that thou wilt one day wear upon thine arm it is meet that thou shouldst learn the touch of the enemy of those flames. My sisters what is the enemy that defeats the flame?"
"Water," answered a muffled chorus of voices.
"Then, my sister, thou, having been tried by the fire, the fire that burned at our feet this evening it is meet that thou shouldst now submit to the final test. Below thee is a pool, a pool deep and dark wherein lurk the water sprite and the wood nymph, waiting there to welcome thee."
Harriet now heard the ripple of water somewhere near at hand. She smiled. Water, no matter how deep, held no terrors for her. She was an expert swimmer. However, the night was cool and she knew that the water of a forest stream would be a great deal colder.
"Hast thou yet earned the swimming honor?" asked the voice at her side.
"I can swim, if that is what you mean."
"It is well. The water sprites and the wood nymphs will lend wings to thee in thy efforts to please them. But beware. The way is far and dark. A bottomless pool lies far below thee. Art thou prepared?"
"Oh, yes, I think so. At least I shall be no better prepared in——"
Harriet Burrell did not complete the sentence. Her bathrobe was suddenly snatched from her shoulders. Some one gave her a violent push from behind. She leaped to save herself from falling, just what they had looked for her to do. It seemed to Harriet that she must have fallen many, many feet before she reached the water, which in reality was not more than three feet below the spot from which she leaped. She struck the water with a little gasp, then stood still for a second in bewilderment, as the water rippled over her feet and ankles. The bottomless pool was not more than a foot deep.
"Is that all?" she asked in a calm voice after she had recovered from her first astonishment. "I hope you do not wish me to swim this stream. The water is rather too shallow, even for me."
"Come, sister. Thou hast been tried in the waters of Wau-Wau and found not wanting. A helping hand will meet thee where water meets earth and earth meets water. Come."
Harriet did not seek the assistance of any one in getting out of the stream, but a hand grasped one of hers and assisted her to the bank. The girl felt herself enveloped once more in her bathrobe, and her captives led her in what she shrewdly guessed to be the direction of the camp.
While all this was going on, the other party of hazers was holding Grace Thompson captive not far from the stream to where Harriet had been conducted. Wrapped in the folds of her bathrobe, the towel still bound about her head and over her eyes, Tommy stood practically helpless in the midst of her captors.
"My sisters," said one of the hazers, acting as the spokesman for that branch of the initiation party. "What is the name of the Indian maiden whose spirit guides this little sister?"
"Tommy, the Squirrel," was the prompt reply.
"Ah! Then being guided by the spirit of a squirrel, O little maiden, thou shouldst prove thy prowess by climbing a tree. Ah! The tree is close at hand. Climb, sister."
"I gueth not!" returned Tommy, in a threatening voice. "I'll thcream for help."
"Shouting will avail thee nothing. No ears will hear. Climb and all shall be well."
Tommy had her doubts about this latter statement. She knew how loudly she could scream. She knew also that they were not very far from the camp because she could now and then catch a flicker of the campfire through the trees.
An idea occurred to the little girl and could her captors have looked into her eyes they would have read there an expression of cunning that boded ill for them.
"Will the Squirrel climb?" demanded the voice.
"Yeth, the Thquirrel will climb," she acquiesced, with surprising docility. "Where ith the tree?"
"Just behind you."
Grace was turned about, her hands were placed against the trunk of the tree, and the towel was suddenly removed from about her head.
The tree was a small one with limbs hanging low, almost within reach of Grace Thompson's hands. Some one gave her a boost. Tommy took advantage of it and with the help of the hazers clambered to the lower limb. In the intense darkness she was unable to see clearly anything about her. Feeling her way, cautiously, she climbed to the next limb. Her bathrobe, however, sadly impeded her progress, but by determined efforts she managed at last to reach the top of the tree.
"Come on up, girlth. It ith fine up here."
Tommy's courage was rapidly returning to her. Then again she could afford to speak pleasantly to her captors for she was about to turn the tables on them in a most unexpected manner.
"You're all 'fraid catth, 'fraid catth and I'm going to thhow you that you are. In a minute I'm going to thcare you half to death. Now watch me."
Tommy did all she had promised to do, and just as Harriet and her captors were moving toward the camp, Tommy uttered a wild, piercing cry. Then she uttered another and still another. About that time half a dozen girls might have been observed fleeing toward the camp. They were running as perhaps they had never run before. Harriet was left standing alone on the bank of the stream. She was too startled at first to realize what the cries meant. All at once she discovered that the voice was Tommy's. But Harriet was considerably puzzled, for there was not the least note of alarm in the cries. They were intended solely to arouse the camp and cause the downfall of the girls who were running for their tents. So far as arousing the camp was concerned, Tommy's plan worked to perfection for girls in every tent were tumbling out in alarm.
Then Tommy discovered that she was alone, and becoming alarmed at being left out in the woods without company, she began to scream in earnest. At the same time she endeavored to scramble down from her lofty position scratching her hands on the projections of the tree in her hasty descent. Suddenly she missed her footing. Her hands slipped from the limb to which she had been clinging, and she felt herself falling. She did not reach the ground, however, for the heavy cord confining her bathrobe at the waist caught on a projecting limb of the tree, and Tommy dangled helplessly in the air.
This time her screams were full of terror. Never before had such screams been heard at Camp Wau-Wau. Off in the camp a bell was being frantically rung. A general alarm was being sounded. Guardians clad in kimonos and bathrobes were running toward Tommy and the tree that was holding her prisoner. Camp Girls eager to distinguish themselves and earn a bead for their bravery were not far behind the guardians, with promise of outdistancing the latter if the race lasted long enough.
Guardians carried lanterns and here and there a girl was carrying a torch that she had thoughtfully snatched from the fire as she ran along. Among the torch bearers were Patricia Scott and Cora Kidder. They were among the foremost of the girls to rush to the relief of the unfortunate Tommy.
No sooner had Harriet recognized the note of terror in Tommy's voice than she sprang forward to go to her companion's assistance. She believed something serious had happened to Grace.
"Where are you! Grace, oh, Grace!" cried Harriet.
Tommy, instead of answering, screamed the louder. Harriet, guided by the sound of her friend's voice, groped her way to the tree from which Grace was suspended, and after stumbling blindly about she finally succeeded in reaching the base of the tree.
"Oh, Tommy, what is the matter?"
"I'm—I'm up a tree," wailed Grace.
"Why don't you come down?"
"I can't. I'm fatht."
"Be quiet. I'll climb up and release you," soothed Harriet, starting to climb up the small tree trunk. "Some one is coming from the camp. I see the lights. This is too bad. I was in hopes they might not know about it. Now we shall never hear the last of it."
"I don't care if we don't. I want to get down," wailed Grace.
Harriet succeeded in, climbing the tree to a point where she could reach out and touch her companion. Perhaps suspecting something of the truth, Harriet moved very cautiously. She discovered what the trouble was almost at once.
"Tommy I'm afraid when I loosen this cord that holds you you will fall," said Harriet.
"How far will I fall?" quavered Tommy.
"Only a few feet," replied Harriet. "You aren't more than six or seven feet from the ground. The ground is soft. It's all moss and mold under this tree."
"I don't want to fall," wailed the little girl "I want to thtay here. Don't you dare touch me, Harriet Burrell."
"Then wait until the others get here. They are almost here now."
"There it is," cried a voice. Harriet thought the voice belonged to Miss Elting. It proved to belong to Cora Kidder. "My gracious, girls what is it?"
"It ith I," answered a plaintive voice from above their heads.
"Oh, oh, oh!" cried the girls as they gazed up at the limb of the tree from where Tommy was suspended.
"Young woman what are you doing up there?" demanded Mrs. Livingston. "Are you Miss Thompson?"
"I wath. I don't know who I am now, Mithith Livingthton. Pleathe help me down."
"If you will stand below to catch her I think I shall be able to release her," called Harriet from her perch in the tree.
Harriet had not been seen before in the darkness, screened by the foliage as she was, Mrs. Livingston called to know who she was. Harriet gave her name. Then the Chief Guardian directed that Harriet should release the prisoner from her difficulty while several of the guardians stood in a circle under the tree with arms outstretched ready to stop the fall of the little figure hanging over their heads.
"Are you going to drop me?" questioned Tommy in great alarm.
"Yes, but it won't hurt you," answered Harriet.
"I don't want to. I——"
Tommy did not complete the sentence. Instead she finished with a scream as Harriet unfastened the cord from the stub that had held it and with one hand lowered Tommy into the arms of her friends. This Harriet did with one hand, clinging with the other to one of the lower limbs of the tree. As several of the girls held up their lanterns to aid the others in catching Grace, there were exclamations of admiration at Harriet's exhibition of strength.
"Who would think her so strong?" exclaimed a guardian.
"Harriet is as plucky as she is strong," answered Miss Elting.
So Tommy did not fall after all. Harriet had not been certain that the cord would hold, hence she had requested the guardians to stand ready to break the smaller girl's fall. After Tommy had been lowered, Harriet swung herself down and joined the excited group below.
"Miss Burrell, kindly explain what you were doing in the tree?" demanded the Chief Guardian.
"I went up to assist my companion."
"What was she doing there—how did she chance to be in the tree?"
"I do not know, Mrs. Livingston. Tommy will know. I was not there when she climbed the tree. I heard her call and went to her assistance."
Mrs. Livingston did not say that Harriet's being near enough to hear the call before any of the others had heard it, needed explanation. Instead she turned to Tommy.
"Miss Thompson, what were you doing in the tree?"
"I wath hanging down."
"How did you get up there? Did some one lift you there?"
"I climbed. Then when I got up far enough tho they couldn't get me, I yelled."
"So who could not get you?" questioned the Chief Guardian sharply.
"Oh, thome folkth that I wath taking a walk with through the woodth," answered Tommy lamely.
"Young women we will return to the camp," announced Mrs. Livingston. It was a silent procession, except in the case of Grace, who kept up a continual chatter without saying much of anything.
Most of the girls were aware that a serious offense had been committed and that the morrow would be a day of reckoning. More than one girl in that party was shivering as though from the chill night air. All crawled into bed silently that night with expectations of trouble when morning came.