A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V W X Z

The Outdoor Girls at Wild Rose Lodge

L >> Laura Lee Hope >> The Outdoor Girls at Wild Rose Lodge




"I guess you are right," she said with a little grimace. "It wasn't very
pleasant while it lasted, either. Whew, but that water was cold!" She
shivered involuntarily and Betty sprang to her feet.

"We had better be getting back to the lodge," she said. "You can put on
some dry things, Mollie, and we girls will get you some hot soup. You are
chilled to the bone."

"Nonsense," denied Mollie grumpily. "I'm beginning to feel fine and warm.
Besides," she added, trying to cover a chill that fairly made her teeth
ache, "I want to stay and find out about that thing that got us into all
this fuss."

"Nonsense," Grace put in. Up to this time Grace had been made speechless
by Mollie's sudden recovery. "You are shivering so you can't sit still."

"It makes me cold just to look at you," added Amy.

"Don't be foolish, honey," said Betty impatiently. "You can't sit there
all day in dripping clothes, and besides you will really get cold."

"Humph," grunted Mollie, getting to her feet rather unsteadily and shaking
out her sodden skirts. "I guess this isn't the first time I have taken a
dip in cold water. And besides," she added impatiently: "I don't know
about you girls, but I would like to know just what that thing was that we
saw dart beneath the falls."

"That was what made you fall into the water, wasn't it?" asked Betty, her
forehead wrinkling thoughtfully. "You leaned so far out to see--"

"Yes, yes," Mollie interrupted impatiently, all her curiosity revived.
"That was what made me fall into the water all right. But what I want to
know is--what was it?"

"I don't know," said Betty, shaking her head. "I didn't see it."

"Neither did I," Grace added.

Mollie looked from one to the other of them open-mouthed. Then she turned
to Amy.

"You saw it, didn't you?" she asked. "You screamed, you know."

"Yes," said Amy, nodding her head very solemnly. "And it looked to me a
lot like what we saw last night."

"Thank goodness, you saw it too or the girls would surely think I had been
dreaming or was crazy," said Mollie, with relief. Then she suddenly turned
and started off into the woods. "I'm going all alone to find out what that
was," she told her stupefied chums. "I've got to clear up the mystery
before I'm an hour older."

But this time Mollie found that there was some one stronger than she, and
that was Betty. The Little Captain ran after her and brought her back,
protesting but captive.

"We are going back to the house now and get you something hot to eat,"
said Betty, as they rejoined Amy and Grace and started off toward home.
"Afterwards if everybody's willing we will hunt this strange beast that
jumps out from porches and leaps into rivers just for the fun of the
thing. But just now, Billy Billette, you are going home."

But Mollie had been more severely shocked than she was willing to admit by
her experience, and it was some time before the girls visited the falls or
the river again. Meanwhile they contented themselves with exploring the
country about the lodge, taking short trips in the cars and wondering
whether the boys would really be home before the summer was over.

Their days were not altogether happy, however, for the thought of that
weird thing prowling around in the woods and ready, for all they knew, to
spring out at them at every turn, refused to be banished from their minds.

Then, too, they thought a great deal about poor Professor Dempsey and the
little ruined cottage in the woods. Somehow, they had an uneasy feeling
that if they had gone to him at the very first minute they had heard of
his trouble they might have helped him. Whereas, they had waited and--he
had fled.

For a while the idea of a dip in the swimming pool was naturally not very
attractive to Mollie, but at last there came a day when she herself
suggested it and the girls enthusiastically seconded the motion.

More than the prospect of a good time, was the hope, unexpressed, that
they might see again that strange thing which Amy and Mollie had only
glimpsed the time before. Perhaps, they thought, if the mysterious thing
were faced in the open and in broad daylight, it might prove to be no
mystery at all but something ordinary and commonplace enough to do away
with all their vague and weird imaginings.

But in this expectation they were most completely disappointed. Nothing at
all unusual occurred and although they enjoyed their swim in the warm back
eddy of the pool, they came away disgruntled and with a curious feeling
that they had been cheated out of something.

"I only wish the boys would come," sighed Amy, as they turned in once more
at the lodge.

After that the "Thing" became almost like an obsession with them. They
must find out definitely what it was that was spoiling all their fun. They
began to haunt the river, especially at the foot of the falls, in the hope
of seeing something, anything that would put an end to their curiosity and
uneasiness.

For a long time they had not got up courage enough to visit the place at
night, but at last they became curious enough to brave even that.

"We have simply got to find out something," Mollie whispered to Betty as
on this particular night they stood on the porch and waited for Mrs.
Irving to join them. "We can't go on this way any longer, Betty. Why, I am
getting so nervous I jump if you look at me."

"I know," said Betty soberly. "It really is getting on our nerves too
much. Amy and Grace are feeling it even worse than we are."

"Yes," agreed Mollie grumpily. "Last night was the third night in
succession that Amy got us all out of bed to listen to some fool noise
outside. I'm just about sick of it."

The other three came then and they had no further chance for conversation.
As a matter of fact, they talked surprisingly little on the walk to the
river.

High above them a wonderful full moon sent its silvery light filtering
down through leaves and branches, making of the woods a fairyland.
Somehow, the very beauty of it filled the girls with a strange dread. To
them the patches of moonlight were weird, unreal, the shadowy woods held a
sinister menace.

By the time they had reached the river's edge they were almost ready to
turn and run. But they conquered the impulse and pressed on. Then suddenly
they saw what they had hoped, yet dreaded, to see.

On the opposite bank, staring down into the rapids with a terrible
intentness, stood a man, or something that resembled a man. In one awful,
breath-taking minute they realized that here at last was the "Thing."

As they watched, the hunched-up crouching figure on the opposite bank made
a lumbering movement forward as though about to throw itself into the
water at the foot of the falls.

"Oh!" screamed Betty, the words wrenched from her dry throat. "Don't do
that! You mustn't do that! Go back! For goodness' sake, go back!"

With a hoarse cry that answered her own, the "Thing" flung back from the
water's edge and disappeared into the darkness!




Chapter XVIII

Surprised



The Outdoor Girls could hardly have told how they got back to the lodge
after that. Blindly they stumbled through the underbrush, expecting they
knew not what horrible thing, thankful for the moonlight that made it
possible for them to hurry.

They did reach home somehow and there they sat until late into the night,
trying to find some explanation for the thing they had seen, striving to
think up some plan for hunting it down until finally Mrs. Irving sent them
to bed.

That did not do very much good, for they lay awake and talked until the
first rays of sunlight crept into the windows. Then they said goodnight
and sank into a sleep of exhaustion.

For three days after the episode the girls never went far from the house
on foot. They would take the cars and spin down the open road, but a sort
of horror of the supernatural kept them from venturing into the woods
again.

But when the fourth day dawned the fright of their moonlight experience
had begun to wear off and they were beginning to feel ashamed of their
fear.

Having a little of this in her mind, Mollie gave voice to it at the
breakfast table.

"I must say," she began, buttering a piece of bread energetically, "that
it isn't like us Outdoor Girls to let anything scare us into staying near
the house. Why, I declare, I don't believe there is one of us who would
dare poke her nose past that rose bush in front of the porch after
sundown. That's a pretty state of affairs, isn't it?"

"Well, you needn't glare at me as if it were all my fault," retorted Amy
with spirit. "I'm sure I didn't wish the horrible old thing on us."

"I only wish I knew who did," sighed Grace, adding, with a sudden burst of
ferocity: "I would wring his neck."

"Suppose somebody suggests something we can do about it," said Betty
reasonably. "I'm sure that after the other night nobody could blame us for
being frightened."

"No. But there is one thing I can blame you for," said Mollie, glaring
morosely at her chum. "And that is for not letting the horrible old thing
drown itself when it so very evidently wanted to. If that had happened all
our worries would have been over."

"Goodness, Mollie, what a horrible idea!" Betty protested.

"I don't think it was a horrible idea," Grace put in. "I think it was just
about the finest idea I ever heard of."

"Yes," added Amy with a deceptive mildness, "if you hadn't called out just
then, Betty, the whole thing would have been over and the Thing would have
been drowned. And then," she added plaintively, "we would have been able
to enjoy our summer."

"It really wasn't any of our business, you know," Grace finished, moodily.

For a moment Betty sat and stared at them, undecided whether to be amused
or indignant. However, the latter emotion won and she turned upon the
girls with flashing eyes.

"I think you are all perfectly horrid," she said. "And I would think you
were worse if I weren't perfectly sure that you don't really mean what you
say. Why, just suppose," she went on earnestly, "that we had willingly
permitted that man to commit suicide? Why, we would have been just as
guilty as if we had murdered him!"

"But he may have done it since anyway," muttered Mollie stubbornly. "He
didn't have to wait to ask our permission, and there are plenty of times
that he can commit suicide when we are not around--if he really wants to
do it."

"What he or anybody else does when we are not around, is not our
business," answered Betty. "We can't help what happens in our absence."

"You seem to take it for granted that it is a man," Mollie continued,
still stubbornly argumentative. "But I am not so sure about that. The
several times that we have seen the--the--Thing--it has looked as much
animal as human to me."

"Well, we won't argue that point," said Betty, rising and beginning to
clear away the dishes, "because we don't know anything about it."

"That is just exactly what I am getting at," said Mollie earnestly,
leaning forward and resting her elbows on the table while the girls
watched her interestedly. "We don't know anything about it, but that is no
reason why we should sit back and twiddle our thumbs and start at
shadows."

"Well, for goodness' sake, tell us what's on your mind," prompted Grace
impatiently. "We haven't sat back and twiddled our thumbs and started at
shadows because we enjoyed it, you know."

"Now my plan is this," said Mollie, ignoring Grace, who shrugged her
shoulders and reached for her candy box. "Suppose we take a tramp through
the woods to the head of the falls? It is a beautiful hike and the scenery
at the falls is magnificent. But aside from that we will have a chance to
find out something about this thing that will do away with the mystery."

"If it doesn't do away with us at the same time," said Amy so ruefully
that they had to laugh at her.

"Well, what do you say?" asked Mollie, looking around the circle of
thoughtful faces--her glance a dare.

For a moment it looked as if they all might refuse to go, but then their
sporting blood came to the fore and they decided for the adventure.

But when they told Mrs. Irving about their project and begged her to say
yes to it, she looked very doubtful and only consented at last on the
proviso that she was to go with them. This they were only too glad to
have, and a few minutes later the lodge hummed with excitement and
preparation once more. To the Outdoor Girls, active and fun-loving by
nature, to be quiet for a few days was nothing short of torture. So now,
even though there was still more than a little fear of the "Thing" in
their hearts, they found relief in the promise of adventure.

They put up some sandwiches and fruit in a basket in case they were not
able to get home by noon. Then they locked the door of the little lodge
and started down the steps. They hesitated before starting into the woods,
and Mollie had a happy thought.

"We can go part of the way along the road," she said. "And then there is a
path that leads directly through to the head of the falls."

The celerity with which they accepted this suggestion seemed funny to them
afterward, but at the time they had other things to think about. Mostly
they were wondering if they would really be able to hold on to their nerve
long enough to see the adventure through.

"I wish," said Betty wistfully, as she had wished so many times of late,
"that the boys were here. They could help us out so beautifully." And she
sighed, for when she spoke of "the boys," she always thought of one boy
most--and that one was Allen.

"Well, there's no use wishing for what can't possibly happen," Grace was
saying, when there came a whistle so clear and penetrating that it made
them jump--then another, and another. Was it just that they were nervous
or was there really something peculiarly familiar in the sound? At any
rate they stopped and turned around to see who the whistlers could be.

There were three soldiers coming down the road, broad-shouldered, vital
looking fellows who swung along toward the astonished girls as though they
owned the world.

"Betty, oh, Betty!" whispered Grace in a tense voice, grasping Betty's arm
so hard it hurt "It can't be, oh, it can't be the boys!"

But Mollie had broken away from the group and was rushing toward the
soldier lads like the wild little tomboy she was.

"Girls, it's the boys! it's the boys! it's the boys!" she yelled. "They're
all tanned and they're at least ten inches taller, but it's the boys just
the same."

And before any of the other girls knew what she was about she had kissed
each one of them twice and was hanging on the tallest one's arm, who
happened to be Frank, laughing and crying at the same time.

Then the girls seemed to decide that she had had the lads to herself long
enough, and they immediately entered the contest, all laughing at once,
all crying at once, and all talking at once, until it was a wonder the
boys did not lose their heads entirely.

The only one who was not absolutely and completely and deliriously happy
was Betty. For the other three boys were there, but Allen had not come!

As though reading her thought, Will, who was much handsomer and more manly
than when he went away, put an arm about the Little Captain's shoulder big
brother fashion and drew her aside from the rest.

"You are wondering about Allen," he said, and Betty nodded eagerly. "You
see," continued Will, his face lighting up in a smile that would always be
boyish, "since Allen became one of the big bugs--which is another name for
officer, you understand--he had to pay the penalty and stay over there
with them for a little while longer. He will probably be over on the next
transport, although of course you can never be sure about that. Oh, and I
forgot," he put his hand in his pocket and drew forth a pocketknife, a wad
of string and--a little three-cornered note. "He asked me to give this to
you as soon as I saw you. So now you can tell him that 'I seen my duty and
I done it noble.'"

With a twinkle in his eye Will turned back to the others and Betty was
left to open her note. This is what she read:

"Gosh, some fellows do have all the luck, don't they? But never mind,
little girl. I'm coming to you by the very first boat, and when I get
there do you know what I'm going to do? Do you?"

Betty wanted to run away by herself and read the note over and over again.
But she could not do that. With a sigh she hid the little message in a
pocket of her skirt and turned back to the others.




Chapter XIX

Like Old Times



It was a long time before the boys and girls woke up to the fact that they
were still standing in the center of the road and that they might be ever
so much more comfortable on the porch of the lodge, if any one had had
sense enough to think that far.

Mrs. Irving, who had been keeping herself rather in the background during
the first rapturous greetings, now came in for her share of salutations
and boyish greetings. The young soldiers crowded about her, patting her
hands and her shoulders and telling her how awfully fine she looked and
how glad they were to find her here until the lady actually blushed with
pleasure and begged them to stop their nonsense. In fact, it was she who
finally suggested that they go up to the lodge again.

"I don't see why we didn't think of that before," said Mollie, joyfully
slipping an arm into Frank's and turning him right-about-face. "We are due
to talk all day anyway, so we might as well do it in comfort. Don't forget
the lunch basket, Betty," she called back to her chum.

Betty would have forgotten the basket and left it where it stood just as
she had dropped it at the side of the road--and small wonder if she had--
but as she stooped to pick it up, Will's strong brown hand whipped out in
front of her nose and seized the handle firmly.

"That's the idea," said Grace approvingly, adding with a sisterly pat on
his shoulder: "You run along with Amy and Mrs. Irving. I want to talk to
Betty."

So Will, being a well-trained brother, did as he was told, and Grace drew
Betty behind the others.

"What about Allen, honey?" she asked, her blue eyes honestly worried. "We
all missed him so, but we didn't like to say too much for fear--for fear--"

"He's all right," said Betty, her heart glowing again at thought of the
little note hidden away in her pocket. "He has only been delayed a little,
that's all. Will says he will probably be over on the next transport."

"Oh, I am relieved," said Grace with such fervor that Betty looked at her
quickly. Could it be, she wondered, that what she had half sensed before
could be really true? Was Grace fond of Allen? But because the idea made
her unhappy, she decided that she was just trying to think up trouble and
dismissed it from her mind. All the girls loved Allen of course--who could
help it?--but they couldn't any of them, she told herself fiercely, care
for him the way she did.

"Well, what are you thinking about? You needn't look so fierce," she heard
Grace saying, and she forced a smile to her face.

"I'm not looking fierce," Betty answered gayly. "Don't you know that that
is just my natural expression, Gracie dear? That's the way I make little
girls like you afraid of me."

"Well, I'm not afraid of you, not one little bit," asserted Grace,
squeezing Betty's arm fondly. "Oh, Betty dear, isn't it wonderful having
the boys back and don't they look fine--especially Will?"

"Don't they? Especially Will," agreed Betty with a sly little glance. "If
you don't look out you will give the impression that you're rather fond of
that worthless old brother of yours, honey."

"I love him awfully," replied Grace, adding with a little puckering of her
forehead: "But I am going to tell you something, Betty, that I wouldn't
tell to any one else for the world. I'm jealous, actually jealous! of
Amy."

Betty gave a merry little laugh and slipped an arm about her chum.

"Gracie dear, we never would have known that if you hadn't told us," she
said dryly. "Don't you know," as Grace looked at her reproachfully, "that
we have all been perfectly well aware of that ever since Will first began
to make eyes at Amy?"

"I can't help it," Grace retorted, while sudden tears sprang to her eyes.
"I've known him longer than she has, and we've loved each other ever since
he was two and I was two weeks! Did you see the way he looked at her?" she
finished dolefully.

"Yes. But of course you couldn't see the way he looked at you," said Betty
quickly. "And I did."

"Oh, did he look glad to see me? Did he?" demanded Grace with pathetic
eagerness.

"Of course he did, you little goose," said Betty, adding with a chuckle:
"You've been spoiled, that's all. You've been so used to being the
only pebble on the beach, dear, that you can't be content with
being just one of two."

By this time they had reached the lodge and were greeted noisily by the
others, who had already seated themselves on the porch as though they
intended to stay all day.

"Hello," called Frank. His handsome face, though somewhat thinner than the
girls remembered, was better looking than ever and he had developed a
trick of flinging the hair back from his forehead that the girls thought
immensely attractive.

Roy, who had seated himself on the railing of the porch and was swinging
his feet, looked more unchanged than either of the boys, though the girls
were soon to find out that he had changed the most.

Will, who had settled Amy in a chair and was sitting cross-legged on the
floor at her feet, was gazing up at the girl with his heart in his eyes.
As for Amy--well, the girls had never known she could look so radiant.

"Have a seat," invited Roy, rising lazily to the dignity of his six feet
as Betty and Grace came up on the porch. "It would seem like old times to
see you girls perched on the railing."

"I'll have you know, sir," said Betty very demurely, as she pulled Grace
down beside her on the top step of the porch, "that we have quite grown up
since you have been away. We will sit here where we can get a good view of
you all."

"And we want to hear about everything you have done over there," broke in
Amy eagerly. "Please, everything--right from the beginning."

The boys fidgeted, looked dismayed, and Roy burst forth in protest.

"Oh, I say!" he cried. "We'll do anything else for you, but please don't
ask us to do that."

"We don't want to talk about ourselves or the war," muttered Frank, almost
as if to himself. "We want to forget about it--if we can."

"You see," Will explained, and there was a stern note in his young voice,
"we worked and we sweated and we fought. We lived under conditions week
after week and month after month that it makes us shudder even to think of
now. For months we lived in a perfect inferno--and do you know what our
idea of heaven was then?"

They said nothing and he went on in a lighter tone.

"It was just to get back alive and, well, to God's country and you girls--
to sit for hours, days if we could, where we could look at you and listen
to you and not do a thing but just be happy. I wonder if you can
understand that?"

"Of course, we can, Will!" cried Betty, impulsively reaching over and
laying a hand on the boy's arm. "You have earned the right to sit and be
amused, and we'll do it till you cry aloud for mercy. And you needn't tell
us a single word about yourselves until you get good and ready."

"You're a brick, Betty," said Will warmly, laying his hand over her little
one. "I might have known we could count on you."

"By the way," Roy broke in suddenly, his eye on the basket of eatables
that the girls had prepared for their adventure, "what's in that hamper,
anyway? If it's anything to eat, let's have it."

Betty pulled the basket over to her, lifted the cover and passed it over
to the ravenous one.

"Eat while there is anything left," she commanded, adding with a chuckle:
"Our adventure seems to be over for to-day, at least."

"Adventure?" repeated Frank inquiringly, as he reached for a sandwich.

"Yes," said Mollie, adding with a sigh: "And you boys had to come along
just in time to spoil it all."




Chapter XX

Very Much Alive



"That is complimentary, I must say," grinned Will, getting up from his
seat on the porch and going over to join Roy on the railing. "After being
away for months we are told the minute we get back that we've 'spoiled
everything.'"

"'Tis rather hard lines," said Mollie with an answering grin. "But one must
tell the truth, you know."

"By the way," put in Grace curiously, "I know Betty promised that we
wouldn't ask questions, but there is just one thing I want to know."

"Speak, fair damsel," Roy replied, thinking meanwhile how much prettier
Grace had grown. "We will promise to answer faithfully anything that is
not connected with war."

"When did you get in?" asked Grace, "and how did you get here?"

"We came in yesterday," answered Roy, helping himself to another sandwich.
"And of course we beat it for headquarters right away."

"Yes'm, and I'll tell you we were a disappointed lot when we found that
you girls had flown," added Frank ruefully. "We were all set for a jolly
reunion--"

Copyright (c) 2007. famouswriterz.com. All rights reserved.