Chapter XXVIII. THE GIRL IN THE HOLLOW TREE
Just why old Toby Vanderwiller was clinging to that branch and did nottry to wade ashore, neither Nan nor Tom could understand. But one thingwas plain: the old lumberman thought himself in danger, and every oncein a while he gave out a shout for help. But his voice was growing weak.
"Hey, Tobe!" yelled Tom. "Why don't you wade ashore?"
"There ye be, at last, hey?" snarled the old man, who was evidently justas angry as he could be. "Thought ye'd never come. Hearn them horsesrattling their chains, must ha' been for an hour."
"That's stretching it some," laughed Tom. "That tree hasn't been toppledover an hour."
"Huh! Ye can't tell me nothin' 'beout that!" declared Toby. "I was righthere when it happened."
"Goodness!" gasped Nan.
"Yep. And lemme tell ye, I only jest 'scaped being knocked down when shefell."
"My!" murmured Nan again.
"That's how I got inter this muck hole," growled the old lumberman. "Ijumped ter dodge the tree, and landed here."
"Why don't you wade ashore?" demanded Tom again, preparing in aleisurely manner to cast the old man the end of a line he had coiled onthe timber cart.
"Yah!" snarled Toby. "Why don't Miz' Smith keep pigs? Don't ax foolquestions, Tommy, but gimme holt on that rope. I'm afraid ter let go thebranch, for I'll sink, and if I try ter pull myself up by it, the wholeblamed tree'll come down onter me. Ye see how it's toppling?"
It was true that the fallen tree was in a very precarious position. WhenToby stirred at all, the small weight he rested on the branch made thehead of the tree dip perilously. And if it did fall the old man wouldbe thrust into the quagmire by the weight of the branches which overhunghis body.
"Let go of it, Toby!" called Tom, accelerating his motions. "Catchthis!"
He flung the coil with skill and Toby seized it. The rocking treegroaned and slipped forward a little. Toby gave a yell that could havebeen heard much farther than his previous cries.
But Tom sank back on the taut rope and fairly jerked the old man outof the miry hole. Scrambling on hands and knees, Toby reached firmerground, and then the road itself.
Nan uttered a startled exclamation and cowered behind the cart. Thehuge tree, groaning and its roots splintering, sagged down and, inan instant, the spot there the old lumberman had been, was completelycovered by the interlacing branches of the uprooted tree.
"Close squeal, that," remarked Tom, helping the old man to his feet.
Toby stared at them both, wiping the mire from his face as he did so.He was certainly a scarecrow figure after his submersion in the mud; gutNan did not feel like laughing at him. The escape had been too narrow.
"Guess the Almighty sent you just in time, Tom, my boy," said TobyVanderwiller. "He must have suthin' more for the old man to do yet,before he cashes in. And little Sissy, too. Har! Henry Sherwood's sonand Henry Sherwood's niece. Reckon I owe him a good turn," he muttered.
Nan heard this, though Tom did not, and her heart leaped. She hoped thatToby would feel sufficient gratitude to help Uncle Henry win his caseagainst Gedney Raffer. But, of course, this was not the time to speak ofit.
When the old lumberman heard about the fire in the sawdust he was quiteas excited as the young folk had been. It was fast growing dark now, butit was impossible from the narrow road to see even the glow of the fireagainst the clouded sky.
"I believe it's goin' to open up and rain ag'in," Toby said. "But if youwant to go on and plow me a fire-strip, Tommy, I'll be a thousand timesobleeged to you."
"That's what I came this way for," said the young fellow briefly. "Hopon and we'll go to the island as quickly as possible."
They found Mrs. Vanderwiller and the crippled boy anxiously watching theflames in the tree top from the porch of the little house on the island.Nan ran to them to relate their adventures, while Toby got out the plowand Tom hitched his big horses to it.
The farm was not fenced, for the road and forest bounded it completely.Tom put the plow in at the edge of the wood and turned his furrowstoward it, urging the horses into a trot. It was not that the fire wasnear; but the hour was growing late and Tom knew that his mother andfather would be vastly anxious about Nan.
The young fellow made twelve laps, turning twelve broad furrows thatsurely would guard the farm against any ordinary fire. But by the timehe was done it did not look as though the fire in the sawdust wouldspread far. The clouds were closing up once more and it was againraining, gently but with an insistence that promised a night ofdownpour, at least.
Old Mrs. Vanderwiller had made supper, and insisted upon their eatingbefore starting for Pine Camp. And Tom, at least, did his share withknife and fork, while his horses ate their measure of corn in thepaddock. It was dark as pitch when they started for home, but Tom wascheerful and sure of his way, so Nan was ashamed to admit that she wasfrightened.
"Tell yer dad I'll be over ter Pine Camp ter see him 'fore many days,"Old Toby jerked out, as they were starting. "I got suthin' to say tohim, I have!"
Tom did not pay much attention to this; but Nan did. Her heart leapedfor joy. She believed that Toby Vanderwiller's words promised help forUncle Henry.
But she said nothing to Tom about it. She only clung to his shoulder asthe heavy timber cart rattled away from the island.
A misty glow hung over the sawdust strip as they advanced; but now thatthe wind had died down the fire could not spread. Beside the road theglow worms did their feeble best to light the way; and now and then anold stump in the swamp displayed a ghostly gleam of phosphorus.
Nan had never been in the swamp before at night. The rain had drivenmost of the frogs and other croaking creatures to cover. But now andthen a sudden rumble "Better-go-roun'!" or "Knee-deep! Knee-deep!"proclaimed the presence of the green-jacketed gentlemen with the yellowvests.
"Goodness me! I'd be scared to death to travel this road by myself," Nansaid, as they rode on. "The frogs make such awful noises."
"But frogs won't hurt you," drawled Tom.
"I know all that," sighed Nan. "But they sound as if they would. There!That one says, just as plain as plain can be, 'Throw 'im in! Throw 'imin!"
"Good!" chuckled Tom. "And there's a drunken old rascal calling:'Jug-er-rum! Jug-er-rum!'!"
A nighthawk, wheeling overhead through the rain, sent down herdiscordant cry. Deep in a thicket a whip-poor-will complained. It wasindeed a ghostly chorus that attended their slow progress through theswamp at Pine Camp.
When they crossed the sawdust tract there was little sign of the fire.The dead tree had fallen and was just a glowing pile of coals, fastbeing quenched by the gently falling rain. For the time, at least, thedanger of a great conflagration was past.
"Oh! I am so glad," announced Nan, impetuously. "I was afraid it wasgoing to be like that Pale Lick fire."
"What Pale Lick fire?" demanded Tom, quickly. "What do you know aboutthat?"
"Not much, I guess," admitted his cousin, slowly. "But you used to livethere, didn't you?"
"Rafe and I don't remember anything about it," said Tom, in his quietway. "Rafe was a baby and I wasn't much better. Marm saved us both, sowe've been told. She and dad never speak about it."
"Oh! And Indian Pete?" whispered Nan.
"He saved the whole of us--dad and all. He knew a way out through aslough and across a lake. He had a dug-out. He got badly burned draggingdad to the boat when he was almost suffocated with smoke," Tom saidsoberly.
"'Tisn't anything we talk about much, Nan. Who told you?"
"Oh, it's been hinted to me by various people," said Nan, slowly. "But Isaw Injun Pete, Tom."
"When? He hasn't been to Pine Camp since you came."
Nan told her cousin of her adventure in the hollow near Blackton'slumber camp. Tom was much excited by that.
"Gracious me, Nan! But you are a plucky girl. Wait till Rafe hears aboutit. And marm and dad will praise you for being so level-headed today.Aren't many girls like you, Nan, I bet!"<
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"Nor boys like you, Tom," returned the girl, shyly. "How brave you were,staying to pull that old wagon-wheel out of the fire."
"Ugh!" growled Tom. "A fat time I'd have had there if it hadn't been foryou helping me out of the oven. Cracky! I thought I was going to have myleg burned to a cinder.
"That would have been terrible!" shuddered Nan. "What would poor AuntKate have said?"
"We can't tell her anything about it," Tom hastened to say. "You see, mytwo older brothers, Jimmy and Alfred, were asleep in the garret of ourhouse at Pale Lick, and marm thought they'd got out. It wasn't untilafterward that she learned they'd been burned up with the house. She'snever got over it."
"I shouldn't think she would," sighed Nan.
"And you see she's awfully afraid of fire, even now," said Tom.
They rattled on over the logs of the road; here and there they came tobad places, where the water had not gone down; and the horses were verycareful in putting their hoofs down upon the shaking logs. However, itwas not much over an hour after leaving the island that they spied thelights of Pine Camp from the top of the easy rise leading out of thetamarack swamp.
They met Rafe with a lantern half way down the hill. Uncle Henry wasaway and Aunt Kate had sent Rafe out to look for Nan, although shesupposed that the girl had remained at the Vanderwillers' until the rainwas over, and that Toby would bring her home.
There was but one other incident of note before the three of themreached the rambling house Uncle Henry had built on the outskirts ofPine Camp. As they turned off the swamp road through the lane that ranpast the Llewellen cottage, Rafe suddenly threw the ray of his lanterninto a hollow tree beside the roadway. A small figure was there, and itdarted back out of sight.
"There!" shouted Rafe. "I knew you were there, you little nuisance. Whatdid you run out of the house and follow me for, Mar'gret Llewellen?"
He jumped in and seized the child, dragging her forth from the hollow ofthe big tree. He held her, while she squirmed and screamed.
"You lemme alone, Rafe Sherwood! Lemme alone!" she commanded. "I ain'tdoin' nothin' to you."
"Well, I bet you are up to some monkey-shines, out this time of night,"said Rafe, giving her a little shake. "You come on back home, Mag."
"I won't!" declared the girl.
"Yes, do, Margaret," begged Nan. "It's going to rain harder. Don't hurther, Rafe."
"Yah! You couldn't hurt her," said Rafe. "She's as tough as a littlepine-knot, and don't you forget it! Aren't you, Mag?"
"Lemme go!" repeated Margaret, angrily.
"What did you chase down here after me for?" asked Rafe, the curious.
"I, I thought mebbe you was comin' to hunt for something," stammered thegirl.
"So I was. For Nancy here," laughed Rafe.
"Thought 'twas somethin' of mine," said the girl. "Lemme go now!"
She jerked away her hand and scuttled into the house that they were thenjust passing.
"Wonder what the little imp came out to watch me for?" queried Rafe.
After they had arrived at home and the excitement o the return was over;after she and Tom had told as much of their adventures as they thoughtwise, and Nan had retired to the east chamber, she thought again aboutMargaret and her queer actions by the roadside.
"Why, that tree is where Margaret hides her most precious possessions,"said Nan, suddenly, sitting up in bed. "Why, what could it be she wasafraid Rafe would find there? Why can that child have hidden somethingthere that she doesn't want any of us to see?"
Late as it was, and dark as it was, and stormy as the night was, shefelt that she must know immediately what Margaret Llewellen had hiddenin the hollow tree.