The Meadow-Brook Girls by the Sea Part 20

Tommy twisted her face out of shape and blinked solemnly at Margery, whose chin was in the air. They were all hurrying now, for their morning bath had given them keen appet.i.tes. Miss Elting was first to be ready, then Harriet, but they waited until their companions were dressed and ready to go.

"The Indian lope to the breakfast tent," announced Miss Elting.

"Forward, go!"

The girls started off at an easy though not particularly graceful lope, the guardian and the Torch Bearer setting the pace for the rest.

They arrived at the cook tent with faces flushed and eyes sparkling, with a few moments to spare before the moment for marching in arrived.

The Chief Guardian smiled approvingly.

"Sleeping out on the bay appears to agree with you girls," she said.

"I have no need to ask if you slept well."

"Harriet is the restless one," answered Jane.

Harriet flushed in spite of her self-control; but no special significance was attached to Jane's remark, for it was seldom that she was taken seriously.

Harriet, after recovering from her momentary confusion, chuckled and laughed, very much amused over what had made no impression at all on her companions.

"I shall ask some of our craftswomen here to build beds for the cabin," announced the Chief Guardian, as they were sitting down.

"It is not necessary," replied Miss Elting. "Our girls prefer the bough beds, which they will build during the day."

"And what will our new Torch Bearer do to amuse herself after the regular duties of the day are done?" questioned Mrs. Livingston. "Will she take her group for a swim in the Atlantic?"

"Yeth, Harriet and mythelf are going to try to thwim acroth thith afternoon," Grace informed them.

"Swim across the Atlantic? Mercy me!" answered Mrs. Livingston laughingly. "That would indeed be an achievement."

"I beg your pardon, but I didn't thay 'acroth the othean'; I meant to thwim acroth the pond down in the cove yonder. Harriet could thwim acroth the othean if she withhed to, though," added Tommy.

"You surely have a loyal champion, Miss Burrell," called one of the guardians from the far end of the table. "Still, we have not heard what you are going to do to-day. I am quite sure it will be something worth while?"

"I have about made up my mind to go out in search of buried treasure,"

answered Harriet, with mock gravity. They laughed heartily at this.

Jane regarded her narrowly.

"I wonder what Harriet has in her little head now?" she said under her breath.

"Why, what do you mean?" asked the Chief Guardian. "Buried treasure along this little strip of coast? Perhaps, however, you may mean out on the Shoal Islands."

"No, Mrs. Livingston. Right here in Camp Wau-Wau there is buried treasure. I don't know whether it is worth anything or not, but there is a buried treasure here."

The girls uttered exclamations of amazement, for they saw that their new Torch Bearer was in earnest, that she meant every word she had uttered about the treasure.

"Now, isn't that perfectly remarkable?" breathed Margery.

"Oh, do tell us about it?" cried the girls.

"Not a word more," answered Harriet. "I give you leave to find it, though, if you can. Some of you clever trailers see if you can pick up the trail and follow it to its end. At the end you will find the buried treasure, unless it has been taken away within a few hours, which I very much doubt. Now, that is all I am going to tell you about it."

"Do you really mean that, Harriet?" questioned Grace.

Harriet nodded.

"Why don't you get it yourthelf, then?"

"I may one of these days if the girls fail to find it. I wish to see if they are good trailers. But we are forgetting to eat breakfast.

Just now I am more in need of breakfast than of buried treasure."

"Yes, girls, please eat your breakfast. We must put the camp to rights as soon as we finish, for I have an idea that we may have visitors before the day is done," urged Mrs. Livingston.

The Wau-Wau girls were too much excited over Harriet's words to be particularly interested in the subject of visitors just then, so they hurried their breakfast, discussing the new Torch Bearer's veiled suggestions, eager to have done with the morning meal and the morning work that they might try to solve this delightful mystery. Harriet was well satisfied with the excitement she had stirred, though having done so would rather bar her from carrying out certain plans that she had had in mind ever since the previous night.

Later in the morning, however, under pretext of wis.h.i.+ng to get pine boughs for her bed, she, with Tommy, strolled off into the woods, but beyond locating the spot where she had lain when the man stumbled over her in the darkness she made no progress toward solving the mystery.

Not the slightest trace of the box did she discover. Of course, Harriet did not hope to find the mysterious box standing in plain sight, but she could not imagine what they had done with it in so brief a time. She did not dare make much of a point of searching about, observing that Tommy was regarding her keenly during the morning stroll.

With her belt hatchet Harriet selected and cut such boughs as she desired and placed them in a pile, afterward to be carried out to the cabin on the Lonesome Bar. Later on they were a.s.sisted by the other Meadow-Brook Girls. They covered the floor of the cabin with the fragrant green boughs until Tommy declared that it made her "thleepy"

just to smell it. In the meantime, those of their companions who were not engaged with camp duties were strolling about along the beach near the camp, discussing what Harriet had told them at breakfast that morning. It was all right to tell them to pick up the trail, but what trail was it, and how were they to find it? Even the guardians were not beyond curiosity in the matter, and they, too, when they thought themselves un.o.bserved, might have been seen looking eagerly about for the "trail." All this amused Harriet Burrell very much.

With her group, Harriet was at the cabin arranging the boughs, when they were summoned to camp by three blasts of the fish horn used for the various signals employed by Camp Wau-Wau. Something had happened in camp.

"Thomebody hath found it!" cried Tommy, shooting a quick glance of inquiry at Harriet Burrell. The latter flushed, then burst out laughing after a look toward the miniature forest of spindling pines.

"I hope they have. But I may tell you, my dear Tommy, that they haven't found either the trail or my buried treasure."

"You must know pretty well where it is," said Miss Elting, eyeing Harriet steadily for a few seconds. "Come, we must not delay answering that summons."

They did not delay. The Meadow-Brook Girls responded promptly, making a run for it in good order.

"There's a motor car," shouted Jane, when they came in sight of the camp. "O darlin's, maybe it is a new car Daddy has sent down for me to take the place of the one that is drowned."

Jane leaped on ahead of her companions, intent upon reaching the camp.

Harriet sprinted up beside her, almost as much excited as was Crazy Jane herself.

The two girls easily outdistanced their companions in a very few moments. It was a race between them to see who should first reach the camp. Harriet fell behind slightly as her quick eyes made out a figure sitting in front of the Chief Guardian's tent. The figure was that of a man and he was conversing with Mrs. Livingston.

Jane uttered a sudden shrill cry. She, too, had discovered the visitor and recognized him.

"It's Daddy. It's my dear old Daddy!" she screamed, and, forgetful of the lectures she had received on comporting herself with dignity and restraint, Crazy Jane threw herself--hurled herself, in fact--into the arms of Contractor McCarthy. Now, a camp chair is never any too substantial. The one on which Mr. McCarthy was sitting was no exception to the rule. It collapsed under the force of Crazy Jane's projectile-like force. Mr. McCarthy, in attempting to save himself from going down with it, lurched sideways. In doing so he b.u.mped heavily against the Chief Guardian, and with a sharp little cry from the latter, the three went down in a confused heap.

CHAPTER XV

TOMMY MAKES A DISCOVERY

A dozen girls sprang forward to the a.s.sistance of the unfortunate trio, but Harriet was ahead of them. She grasped the Chief Guardian under the arms and lifted her to her feet, then taking a hand of Mr.