CHAPTER XVI.
THE HIKE.
You could plainly see the Devil's Gorge from Camp Carter, that is, youcould see a dent in the neighboring mountain, and no one but Josh knewthat it was two hours' steady walking to that purplish dimple. Twohours' steady walking is not possible with twenty-odd persons, and soit took nearer four to reach the end of their journey. There were manypauses to rest and to tie shoe strings and refresh themselves atgurgling springs. Josh led the way with Josephus as pack mule, the lunchstrapped on his back and Bobby perched on top like a Great Mogul.
Josephus was at a great disadvantage as his short fore leg was downhill. "Never mind, he'll play thunder goin' back," Josh consoled himselfand Bobby, who had to sit very carefully to keep from falling off on thedown side. Josephus limped cheerfully on as though there were nothinghe enjoyed more than a hike where he was allowed to carry the lunch.
"He is such a cheerful old mule that I just know if he had been born acanary bird he would be singing all the time," declared Nan. "I think hehas a most enviable disposition."
"Yes, his disposition is more to be envied than his job," suggested oneof the party.
"Never mind, we will lighten his load for him before we return. I amstarved."
"Who is it that is hungry?"
"Me, me!" from so many mouths that the educating spinsters' precise "I,I," was lost in the avalanche of me's.
Those worthy ladies were in a seventh heaven of bliss. They had foundmany botanical specimens which they pounced upon for future analysis,and their little hammers were going whack! whack! at every boulder thatpoor Josephus stumbled over. They were really very nice and kind, and asfor their backbones, it was not their fault that they had pokers insteadof vertebrae.
The Devil's Gorge was worth the long walk, even to those who had nohammers. Great rocks were piled high on top of one another and all downthe mountain side was an enormous crack in solid rock.
"Geewhiz! Something must have been doing here once to make such a mess,"declared Lewis Somerville.
"Just look at that great rock balanced there on that little one! Itwould take just a push to send it clattering down. To think that onegreat heave of Mother Earth must have sent it up, and there it has beenjust as it is for centuries!" said Douglas.
"Well, we uns bets Mr. Bill could send it over with one er his sidesplitters." And with that from Josh, Bill gave a sample of his laughthat did not dislodge the great boulder but made Tillie Wingo stoptalking for a whole minute.
"You uns ain't lowing to eat here, is you uns?" asked Josh ratherplaintively.
"Well, this is a pretty good place," suggested Dr. Wright, who had founda pleasant companion in Miss Hill although he had made some endeavor atfirst to walk beside Helen. But that young lady swished her cold-gravycorduroy skirt by him and refused to be walked beside. Helen was lookingparticularly charming on that day, although she could but confess toherself that she was a little tired. Making sandwiches for such a lotof persons was no joke, and she had been at it for hours before theystarted on the hike. She had had plenty of helpers, but sandwiches wereher particular stunt and she had had a finger in every one.
Dr. Wright's last glimpse of Helen as she had sat in the coach of themoving train, telling a truly true made-up story to Bobby, had remaineda very pleasant picture in his mind. He had decided that there was a lotof sweetness in the girl and certainly a great deal of cleverness andcharm--if she would only not feel that her thorny side was the onealways to be presented to him. When he had handed her the aromaticammonia for Douglas and she had thanked him so sweetly, he had felt thatsurely the hatchet was buried between them and now they were to befriends. He had been thinking of her a good deal during the past weekand had quite looked forward to the possibility of becoming betteracquainted with her.
Helen had really meant to be nice, but on the young doctor's arrival aspirit of perverseness had seized her and she had her thorns all readyto prick him whenever he approached her, hoping for some share of thesweetness she could lavish on others: on Bobby, for instance. Thatyoungster always declared Helen was his favorite sister, and there wasnever a time when Bobby was too dirty or too naughty for Helen to thinkhe was not the sweetest and most kissable thing in the world. As Bobby'sconversation when he was with his 'ployer was taken up a great deal withHelen, and vice versa, those two young persons perforce heard much ofone another. Helen was grateful to Dr. Wright for his kindness to Bobbyand at the same time was a little jealous of Bobby's affection andadmiration for him.
"It isn't like me," she would argue to herself, "but somehow this manseems always to be putting me in the wrong, and now he even has Bobbyloving him more than he does me, and as for the girls--they make metired!"
That very morning when they were dressing for the hike and she wasputting on her cold-gravy corduroy skirt, grey pongee shirtwaist andgrey stockings and canvas shoes--all thought out with care even to thesoft grey summer felt hat and the one touch of color: a bright red tieknotted under the soft rolling collar--she had been irritated almost toa point of tears because Nan, who was all ready, came running back intothe tent to put on some khaki leggins because Dr. Wright said it wouldbe wise to wear them, as a place like the Devil's Gorge was sure to besnaky. Douglas and Lucy had done the same thing and had wanted her to.
"Indeed I won't! How did he happen to be the boss of this camp? Hispower of attorney does not extend to me, I'll have him know! Besides, doyou think I am going to ruin the whole effect of my grey costume withthose old mustard colored leggins? Not on your life!"
"Helen is very tired; that's what makes her so unreasonable," Nan hadwhispered to Douglas as they left the tent to Helen and her costume."She has worked so hard all morning on the sandwiches. When I finishedthe deviled eggs, I wanted her to let me help, but she wouldn't."
"Yes, I know. I was so busy in the tents, making up cots andstraightening up things, that I had to leave it all to you and Helen,but I thought Gwen and Susan were there to help."
"So they were, but Susan has a slap dash way of making sandwiches thatdoes not appeal to Helen, and while Gwen is very capable, she cannottake the initiative in anything unless she has been taught it at school.The next time we make sandwiches she will do it much better. She was soanxious to make them just right that she was slower than Brer Tarripin."
"I asked Gwen to go with us this morning, but she shrank back in suchhorror at the mention of the Devil's Gorge that I realized I had beencruel, indeed, to speak of the place to her. That's where her fatherkilled himself, you know."
"Yes, poor girl! Doesn't it seem strange that there were no papers ofany sort found to show where he came from?"
Just then Dr. Wright joined them and they told him of the little Englishgirl and how her father had killed himself and how, there being nopapers to show that he had made a payment on the mountain property, OldDean, the country storekeeper, had foreclosed at the Englishman's deathand the property had later been given to their father in payment of adebt Dean owed him for services in rebuilding the hotel at Greendale,also owned by Dean.
"Aunt Mandy says it was only about a thousand dollars in all," explainedDouglas, "and she was under the impression that Mr. Brown had paid cashfor the land, but he was so reticent no one knew much about him and oldDean said that he had never paid anything. Of course Dean is the richmember of the community and gives them credit at his store, so all themountaineers are under his thumb, more or less. Father got only halfthe land."
When Helen appeared, she fancied Dr. Wright looked disapprovingly at herbecause of her legginless state, but on the contrary he was thinkingwhat a very delightful looking person she was and never even thought ofleggins. He only thought how nice it would be if she would permit him towalk by her side and hold back the low hanging branches and briars sothat her bright, animated face would escape the inevitable scratchesthat attend a hike in the mountains. He liked the way she walked,carrying her head and shoulders in rather a gallant way. He liked thesure-footed way she stepped along in her pre
tty grey canvas ties. Heliked the set and hang of her corduroy skirt and the roll of the softcollar of her shirt--above all, he liked the little dash of red at herthroat. She reminded him of a scarlet tanager, only they were black, andshe was grey, grey like a dove--but there was certainly nothing dovelikeabout her, certainly nothing meek or cooing as she swished by him.
No one laughed more or chattered more than Helen did on that hike, noteven Tillie Wingo herself, the queen bee of laughers and chatterers; butNan noticed that the last mile of their walk her sister's carriage wasnot nearly so gallant, and Dr. Wright noticed that the scarlet of hertie was even more brilliant because of an unwonted paleness of herpiquant face. He tapped his breast pocket to be sure that the tinymedicine case he always carried with him was safe.
"You never can tell what will happen when a lot of youngsters start offon a hike, and it is well to have 'first aid to the injured' handy," hehad said to himself.
"Wal, if you uns is lowing to eat here, reckon we uns will driveJosephus round the mounting a bit. We uns feels like it's a feedin' theDevil and starvin' God to eat in sech a spot," and Josh prepared tounload his mule after he had assisted Bobby to the ground.
"Oh, please don't eat here," begged Nan, "this is where the Englishmandied."
"Where? Where?" the others demanded, and Josh, nothing loath to tellthe dramatic incident and emboldened by the crowd and broad daylight,when hants were powerless, told again the tale of the man with the sad,tired face who was always trying to get away from the ringing androaring in his head; how he had drifted into Greendale and bought theland with the cabin on it from old Dean and taken his little girl upthere where they had lived about two years; and then how one night hehad not come home, and Gwen had come to their cabin early in the morningto ask them to hunt her father, and after long search they had found himdown in the Devil's Gorge--dead.
"Dead's a door nail and Gwen left 'thout so much as a sho 'nuf name,'cause the Englishman allus called hisself Brown, but the books whatGwen fetched to we allses' house is got another name writ in 'em, an' mymaw, she says that Gwen's jes' as likely to be named one as tother. Mymaw says that she don't hold to the notion that the Englishman took hisown life, but that was what the coroner said--susanside--an' accordin'to law we uns is bleeged to accept his verdict."
"I agree with your mother," said Dr. Wright. "It is more apt to havebeen vertigo that toppled the poor man over. That ringing in the head isso often accompanied with vertigo."
They carried the provisions around the mountain, out of sight of thegruesome spot, and under a mighty oak tree ate their very goodluncheon.