The Campfire Girls on Ellen's Isle Part 20

"Where? Where?" they all cried.

"In a cave under the east bluff. I just discovered it today. The entrance is all covered by trees. I found the ashes of a little fire inside. That's where they're cooking up their plans and preparing something to spring as a surprise on us."

"Oh, if we could only hide back in that cave when they are there and hear and see what they are doing," said Sahwah.

"How are we going to know when they will be there?" asked Gladys.

n.o.body was able to answer this.

"If we're smart enough we'll find out," said Katherine, waving her long arms. She was as keen on the scent of the mysterious Dark of the Moon Society as a hound after a stag.

That night darkness had hardly fallen when the Captain, Slim and the Bottomless Pitt complained of being utterly tired out and announced their intention of going to bed.

"What made you so tired, boys?" asked Mrs. Evans solicitously. "Are we expecting you young people to do too much? I don't want you to go home worn out."

"Oh, it was probably from running up and down the path so often with the boards for the dock," said the Captain. "That's all." He yawned widely behind his hand. "We're not doing too much every day, really we aren't.

You mustn't feel anxious."

Mrs. Evans made a mental resolve to see that the boys and girls all had a definite rest hour each day.

Katherine's thoughts went into a widely different channel. At the first mention of going to bed before the others she became suspicious, and, looking closely, she was positive that the Captain's yawn was feigned.

Lying on her back on the sand so that her head was behind Sahwah and Gladys she whispered very quietly, "D. M. S. meeting." Gladys and Sahwah squeezed her arm to let her know they understood and as soon as the three boys had started up the hill they rose also, saying they were going up on the Council Rock. Hinpoha rose and followed them; Migwan and Nakwisi apparently did not catch on, and remained where they were.

There was no time to follow the boys. The girls must be in the cave before the Sandwiches got there to be able to overhear anything. Taking a short cut, they came out on the bluff just above the cave. They could hear the boys stopping for a drink at the spring on the other side of the island.

"How'll we get down?" asked Gladys in a whisper.

"Crawl down the face of the cliff," said Sahwah. "And we'll probably skin our whole mortal frames doing it."

"s.h.!.+" said Katherine. "There's no time to crawl down. We've got to hurry. Go half way down and jump the rest of the way. It's all soft sand underneath."

"We'll be killed," said Gladys.

"Nonsense!" said Katherine scornfully. "Didn't I say it was all soft sand underneath? s.h.!.+ I'll go first Sh-h!"

She swung over the edge, poised on the little ledge, flung out her arms and leapt into the darkness below. There was a crash, a smash, a plump, and a startled wail.

"What is it?" cried Gladys, throwing caution to the winds and shouting.

"I'm in the lake, I guess," called Katherine from below. "First I jumped in and then the sky fell on me." Her voice sounded oddly m.u.f.fled and far away.

Gladys flashed her little bug light over the cliff and then shrieked with laughter at the spectacle below. Flat on the beach sat Katherine, her feet straight out in front of her and a tin washtub upside down on her head, completely hiding the upper half of her. From the edge of it the water was dripping in tiny streamlets. The main deluge had already descended. All around her lay the clothes which had been soaking in the tub ready to be washed out bright and early the next morning.

Of course her yell and the shouts of those above brought the rest of the family on the run, and after one look at her n.o.body had strength enough to lift the tub off her head. Uncle Teddy recovered first and removed the eclipse.

"I forgot to tell you folks I had set the tub there," said Aunt Clara.

"But how could I guess that one of you would jump into it? Whatever induced you to jump off the cliff in the dark anyway?"

"I was just 'exploragin','" replied Katherine meekly, rising and shaking the water from her clothes like a dog.

There was no spying on the Dark of the Moon Society that night. Mrs.

Evans ordered Katherine off to bed at once, because it was too late to get into dry clothes and the air was too cool to keep the wet clothes on, and as Katherine was chief spy there was nothing doing unless she headed it. So if there was a meeting in the cave after all that commotion it went un.o.bserved.

But a day or two later there was consternation in Katherine's tent. The rumor had just gone around that the Dark of the Moon Society was going to kidnap Eeny-Meeny and burn her at the stake. Sahwah had overheard a bit of conversation in the woods that gave her the clue. It was going to happen that night.

Katherine went "straight up in the air." "They sha'n't burn Eeny-Meeny!"

she declared, shaking her fist above her head. "They'll only touch her over my prostrate body!"

Many were the elaborate plans made for Eeny-Meeny's defense. Katherine's plan was voted the simplest and best. "Hide her!" she suggested, and this course was agreed upon. But simple as this plan sounded it presented unexpected difficulties. They couldn't get a chance to do it.

No matter when they approached Eeny-Meeny there was always one of the Sandwiches close at hand.

"They're picketing her!" announced Katherine, baffled in several attempts. "I pretended I wanted to touch her up with color and carried her away from the Council Rock, and the Captain came right along, so I had to do it, and the minute I was through he insisted on carrying her back and I couldn't object without rousing his suspicions, so back she went. Now Slim's sitting and leaning his head against her."

"The thing to do," said Hinpoha, "is to have a counter attraction at the other end of the island that will draw them all away, and in the meantime one of us can hide her."

"Good," said Katherine, "what shall we do?"

"It ought to be a panic," said Hinpoha, "and then if we yell loud enough they'll forget everything and run to the rescue."

"What would we scream for?" asked Gladys.

"Oh, for most anything," answered Hinpoha. "The main idea is to scream loud enough to start a panic. I'll think up something in a minute."

"Well, let us know when you're ready, and we'll bring our voices," said Gladys.

Hinpoha departed to attend to her dinner duties and Katherine went out into the woods to look for berries. In a little hollow she stumbled over Antha, sitting in a heap against a tree shedding tears into her handkerchief. "What's the matter?" asked Katherine, sinking down beside her. She was so used to seeing Antha in tears that she was not greatly concerned, but out of general sympathy she inquired what was the matter.

"I want to go home!" wailed Antha. "This is a horrible mean old place and I can't have any fun at all."

"Why can't you have any fun?" asked Katherine.

"Because you girls are always running away from me and having secrets that you won't tell me," said Antha with a gulp. "You're doing something now that you won't let me know about."

True enough. They hadn't told Antha about the danger threatening Eeny-Meeny nor the plan for her defense. Katherine reflected. "It _was_ kind of mean to leave her out of that. I wouldn't like it myself if I were the younger one of a group and they kept having secrets from me.

I'm not being a real nice big sister at all."

"Never mind, Antha," she said, patting her hand. "I'll tell you about it. The boys are planning to steal Eeny-Meeny tonight and burn her at the stake and we're trying to keep them from doing it. We're going to hide her. You may help us if you like. Won't that be fun?"

Antha sniffed, and with the perverseness of her nature lost interest in the secret as soon as she found out what it was, and didn't seem to care whether Eeny-Meeny was burned at the stake or not. And when Katherine went farther and invited her to be her special helper in everything, and offered to show her where the oven bird's nest was that everybody was looking for, Antha declined to come along, preferring to go into the kitchen where dinner was being prepared.

So Katherine went out alone to pay the oven bird's nest a visit and on the way found a chipmunk with a broken leg, hopping around on the other three and cheeping shrilly in distress. She tried to coax it to her with peanuts and succeeded in getting it to take one, when suddenly from the direction of the kitchen came the sound of a terrific explosion, shaking the earth and making the air ring with echoes. The sound had scarcely died away when there was a second report more violent than the first, followed in a moment by a third.

"The gasoline stove!" thought Katherine. "Antha's been trying to fill it and it's exploded!" And she set off like the wind toward the kitchen, from which direction terrible shrieks were puncturing the air. She did not know it, but she was yelling like a Comanche Indian all the way. She staggered into the clearing, expecting to find the kitchen tent in flames, but it was lying on the ground in a tangled ma.s.s from which apparently detached hands and feet were waving wildly. "What exploded?"

she demanded.

Hinpoha was leaning against a tree, pale as death, and she grasped Katherine by the arm and led her out of earshot of the others. "The cans of beans," she said faintly. "Don't look so scared, Katherine, it's only--the--panic!"

"What on earth did you do?" asked Katherine.