“What do you do when anybody is sick?” she asked Miss Merritt.
“We do the best we know how,” answered the teacher. “Most of the women know about herbs and simple remedies. Some of them are quite skilled nurses, indeed. But it’s pretty hard sometimes!”
“I should think so!” cried Anne. “Something ought to be done. I wonder if Father knows?”
“Children in ’most any place need more than they get,” said Miss Merritt pathetically. “If only all the summer people would be interested in these little neighbors of theirs. For they are neighbors, even if it is only for a few weeks.”
The Round Robin agreed that this was another case where a “getting together” was needed. And Anne Poole said to herself—“I will ask Father if I can’t help those children some way.” But she wished she need not have to ask; Father was so queer nowadays!
CHAPTER XVII
MYSTERY
Ever since the adventure of the Round Robin on the mountain Captain Sackett had been uneasy. It is not pleasant to know that there are lawbreakers in your neighborhood. Hunting deer out of season was bad enough. But to think of a careless rifle pointed at any creature in brown—who might have two legs instead of four! The Captain shuddered, whenever he thought of Beverly’s narrow escape, and of Nelly’s risk. Nobody in Old Harbor would shoot deer out of season; the Captain was sure of that. He was inclined to think it must be some passing stranger who had landed from a boat. Or perhaps it was some shepherd from a neighboring island where sheep were turned out for the summer, with one lonely man to keep them company. The exiles on those far islands who saw no human being for weeks together were apt to get hungry for mischief once in a while.
“We’ll keep an eye open,” said the Captain to Hugh and Victor after one of their troubled parleys. “Don’t let’s scare the little girls about it. Only they mustn’t go alone on the mountain again.”
The young men went warily through the woods and scoured the mountain and shore for traces of the deer-chaser, but to no purpose. Even the deer seemed to have disappeared. As to the cave, Dick sometimes believed the ocean had swallowed it up.