CHAPTER VI
ON THE WINGS OF THE WIND
However, aside from Dot's disturbance of mind over the trip into thedeep woods where, on occasion, babies had to be flung to wolves, therewas something that disturbed Ruth on this morning which almost madeher doubt the advisability of starting for Red Deer Lodge.
Ruth had been up as early as Linda, the Finnish maid. There was stillmuch to do, and the sleigh would be at the door at eight-thirty. WhenLinda came down, however, she stopped at Ruth's door and said she hadheard Uncle Rufus groaning most of the night. The old colored man wasundoubtedly suffering from one of his recurrent rheumatic attacks.
Ruth hurried up to the third story of the house and to Uncle Rufus'room.
"Yes'm, Missie Ruth," groaned the old man. "Ah's jes' knocked rightdown ag'in. Ah don' believe Ah's goin' to be able to git up a-tall tosee yo' off dis mawnin'."
"Poor Uncle Rufus!" said the oldest Corner House girl,commiseratingly. "I believe I'd better telephone to Dr. Forsyth andlet him come--"
"No'm. Ah don' want dat Dr. Forsyth to come a-near me, Missie Ruth,"interrupted Uncle Rufus.
"Why, of course you do," said the girl. "He gave you something beforethat helped you. Don't you remember?"
"Ah don' say he don' know he's business, Missie Ruth," said the oldman, shaking his head. "Mebbe his med'cine's jest as good as de nex'doctor's med'cine. But Ah don' want Dr. Forsyth no mo'."
"Why not?"
"Dr. Forsyth done insulted me," said the old man, with risingindignation. "He done talk about me."
"Why, Uncle Rufus!"
"Sho' has!" repeated the black man. "An' Ah nebber did him a mite o'harm. He done say things about me dat I can't nebber overlook--no,ma'am!"
"Why, Uncle Rufus!" murmured the worried Ruth, "I think you must bemistaken. I can't imagine Dr. Forsyth being unkind, or saying unkindthings about one."
"He sho' did," declared the obstinate old man. "And he done put it inwritin'. You jes' reach me ma best coat, Missie Ruth. It's all setdown dar on ma burial papers."
Of course, Uncle Rufus, like most frugal colored people, belonged to a"burial association"--an insurance scheme by which one must die towin.
"What could Dr. Forsyth have said about you that you think is unkind,Uncle Rufus?" repeated Ruth, as she came into the room to get thecoat.
"Ah tell yo' what he done said!" exclaimed the old man, indignantly."Dr. Forsyth say Ah was a drunkard an' a joy-rider! Dat's what he say!An' de goodness know, Missie Ruth, I ain't tetch a drap of gin fo'many a long year, and I ain't nebber step foot in even yourautomobile. No'm! He done insulted me befo' de members of ma buriallodge, an' I don' want nothin' mo' to do wid dat white man--no'm!"
He spread out the insurance policy with a flourish and pointed to theexamining doctor's notation regarding Uncle Rufus' former illness:"Autotoxication."
"Ah's a respectable man," urged Uncle Rufus, evidently hurt to thequick by what he thought was Dr. Forsyth's uncalled-for criticism. "Ahdon't get drunk in no auto--no'm! An' I don't go scootin' roun' decountry in one o' dem 'bominations. Dere is niggers w'at owns one o'dem flivvers an' drinks gin wid it. But not Unc' Rufus--no'm!"
"I never would accuse you of such reprehensible habits," Ruth assuredhim, having considerable difficulty in suppressing after all a desireto laugh. "Nor does Dr. Forsyth mean anything like that."
She explained carefully to the old negro that "autotoxication" meant"self-poisoning"--the poisoning of the body by unexpelled organicmatter. This poison, in the form of an acid in the blood, was thecause of Uncle Rufus' pains and aches.
"Fo' de lan's sake!" murmured Uncle Rufus. "Is dat sho' 'nough so,Missie Ruth?"
"You know I would not mislead you, Uncle Rufus."
"Dat's right. You would not," agreed the old man. "An' is dat what datfool white doctor mean? Ah jes' got rheumatics, like Ah always has?"
"Yes, Uncle Rufus."
"Tell me, Missie Ruth," he asked, "what do dem doctors want to usesech wo'ds fo', when dere is common wo'ds to use dat a pusson kinunderstan'?"
"Just for that reason, I fancy," laughed Ruth. "So the patient cannotunderstand. The doctors think it isn't well for the patient to knowtoo much about what ails him, so they call ordinary illnesses by hardnames."
"Ain't it a fac'? Ain't it a fac'?" repeated Uncle Rufus, shaking hishead. "Ah reckon if we knowed too much, we wouldn't want doctorsa-tall, eh? Well, now, Missie Ruth, you let dat Lindy gal git ma'medicine bottle filled down to de drug store, and Ah'll dose up likeAh done befo'. If dat white doctor's medicine was good fo' one time,it ought to be good fo' another time."
Uncle Rufus remained in bed, however, and the little girls and Sammy,as well as Neale and Agnes, trooped up to say good-bye to him beforethey started for the railway station.
The north-bound express train halted at Milton at three minutes pastnine, and the Corner House party were in good season for it. Mr.Howbridge joined them on the station platform. Hedden, the lawyer'sman, having gone ahead to make the path smooth for his employer andhis friends, Mr. Howbridge and Neale attended to getting the ticketsand to the light baggage; and they made the three older girls, Mrs.MacCall, and the children comfortable in the chair car. Tom Jonah, ofcourse, rode in the baggage car.
It was two hundred miles and more to Culberton, at the foot of LongLake. The train made very good time, but it was past one o'clock whenthey alighted at the lake city. There was a narrow gauge road herethat followed the line of the lake in a northerly direction; but itwas little more than a logging road and the trains were so slow, andthe schedule so poor, that Mr. Howbridge had planned for other andmore novel means of transportation up the lake to the small town fromwhich they would have to strike back into the wilderness by"tote-road" to Red Deer Lodge. But this new means of transportation,he told the young people, depended entirely upon the wind.
"Goodness!" gasped Agnes, "are we going up the lake by kite?"
"In a balloon, maybe?" Cecile laughed.
"Oh!" murmured Tess, who was much interested in air traffic, "I hopeit's a big aeroplane."
"Nothing like that," Neale assured her. "But if we have a good windyou'll think we're flying, Tess."
Mr. Howbridge had taken the ex-circus boy into his confidence; but therest of the party were so busy greeting Luke Shepard, who was waitingfor them at this point, that they did not consider much how they wereto get up the lake. There was no train leaving Culberton over the LakeBranch until evening. Neale disappeared immediately after greetingLuke, and took Tom Jonah with him.
In a few minutes Neale returned to the waiting room of the Culbertonrailroad station, and said to Mr. Howbridge:
"They are about ready. Man says the wind is good, and likely to befresher, if anything. Favorable time. He's making 'em ready."
"What's going on?" asked Luke, who was a handsome young collegianparticularly interested in Ruth Kenway, and not too serious to beenthusiastic over the secret the lawyer and Neale had between them.
"Come on and we'll show you," Neale said, grinning.
"No, no!" exclaimed Mr. Howbridge. "Let us have lunch first. We have along, cold ride before us."
"In what?" Agnes asked. "We don't take to the sleigh yet, do we?"
"Aren't the cars on the branch line heated?" Ruth asked. "You know, wemust not let the children get cold--and Mrs. MacCall."
"Don't mind about me, lassie," returned the Scotchwoman. "I'll trustmyself to Mr. Howbridge."
"We'll go to the hotel first of all," said the lawyer. "Hedden willhave arranged for our comfort there--and other things, as well. Do notbe afraid for the children, Martha."
But "Martha" could not help being a bit worried, even if Mrs. MacCallwas along. And Neale's grin was too impish to be comforting.
"I know you men folks are cooking up something," she sighed. "And I amnot at all sure, Mr. Howbridge, that you consider the needs of smallchildren like Tess and Dot and Sammy."
"Huh!" grunted Sammy, who overheard this.
"I suppose
if I had taken my twins home three months ago when FrankBirdsall died, you think I would have learned something about theneeds and care of young persons by this time?" suggested the lawyer.
"Oh, I am sure you would have learned a great deal," agreed Ruth,unable to suppress a smile.
"I wish I had!" groaned Mr. Howbridge.
The mystery of the disappearance of Ralph and Rowena Birdsall weighedon Mr. Howbridge's mind continually. He did not often let the troublecome to the surface, however, being desirous of giving the youngpeople with him a good time.
The surprise in store for them added zest to the enjoyment of the niceluncheon at the Culberton hotel. At half past two they all trooped outof the hotel, bags in hand, and instead of returning to the railwaystation, set off down the hill toward the docks.
"Are we going by steamer?" Agnes wanted to know. "Is there a channelopen through the ice? I never _did_!"
"If there were two feet of ice on the Arlington Pond so that theycould not drag it for the poor Birdsall twins," Ruth said, "surelythis lake must be frozen quite as thick."
"But there's a sailboat! I see one!" cried Tess, pointing between thebuildings as they approached the waterfront.
"And there's another," said Sammy. "Oh, Je-ru-sa-_lem_! Looky, Aggie!That boat's sailing on the ice!"
"Oh-ee!" squealed Agnes, clasping her hands and letting her bag fallto the ground. "Ice-boats! Neale! Are they really ice-boats?"
"And are we going to sail on them?" murmured Ruth.
"For mercy's sake!" gasped the housekeeper. "Here's a fine thing! Haveyou gone daft, Mr. Howbridge?"
"It will be a new experience for you and me, Mrs. MacCall," said thelawyer calmly. "But they tell me it is very invigorating."
"It's the nearest thing to flying, as far as the sensation goes, thatthere is, I guess," Luke Shepard put in.
"I used to have a scooter when we were in winter quarters," said NealeO'Neil to Agnes. "Don't be afraid, Aggie."
"Oh, I won't be afraid if you are along, Neale," promptly declared thelittle beauty. "I know you will take care of me."
"You bet!" responded Neale, his eyes shining.
As they came down to the big wharf the party got a better view of thelake front. There were at least a dozen ice-boats, large and small, inmotion. Those farthest out from the shore had caught the full sweep ofthe wind and were darting about, as Mrs. MacCall said, like water-bugson the surface of a pond.
Ruth looked around keenly as they came out on the wharf.
"Why!" she said to Mr. Howbridge, "this is the lumber company's wharf.The company you said had bought the timber on the Birdsall Estate."
"It is the Neven Lumber Company, as you can see by the sign over theoffices yonder," agreed their guardian. "And here comes Nevenhimself."
A red-faced man with a red vest on which were small yellow dots andsome grease spots, and who chewed a big and black cigar and wore hishard hat on one side of his head, approached the group as Mr.Howbridge spoke. He hailed the latter jovially.
"Hey, Howbridge! Glad to see you. So these are your folks, are they?Hope you'll have a merry Christmas up there in the woods. Nice place,Birdsall's Lodge."
"Thank you," said the lawyer quietly.
"Which of 'em's Birdsall's young ones?" continued the lumber dealer,staring about with very bold eyes, and especially at Ruth Kenway andCecile Shepard.
"I am sorry to say, Mr. Neven," said the lawyer, "that the Birdsalltwins are not with us. The children have run away from their home--ahome with people who have known them since they were born. It is avery strange affair, and is causing me much worry."
"You don't say!" exclaimed Neven. "Too bad! Too bad! But they'll turnup. Young 'uns always do. I ran away myself when I was a kid; and lookat me now," and the lumberman puffed out his chest proudly, as thoughsatisfied that Lem Neven was a good deal of a man.
"I reckon," pursued the lumberman, "that you think it's your duty togo up to the Birdsall place and look over the piece I've got stumpageon. But you don't re'lly need to. My men are scientific, I tell you. Idon't hire no old has-beens like Ike M'Graw. Those old timber cruisersare a hundred years behind the times."
"They have one very good attribute. At least, Ike has," Mr. Howbridgesaid quietly.
"What's that?" asked Neven.
"He is perfectly honest," was the dry response. "I shall base mydemands for the Birdsall estate on Ike's report. I assure you of thatnow, Mr. Neven, so that you need build no false hopes upon the reportsof your own cruisers. As the contract stands we can close it out anddeal with another company if it seems best to do so. And somecompany--either yours or another----will go in there right after NewYear's and begin to cut."
He turned promptly away from the red-faced man and followed his partyalong the wharf to its end. Here lay two large ice-boats. There was aboxlike cockpit on each that would hold four passengers comfortably,besides the tiller men and the boy who "trimmed ship." A crew of twowent with each boat.
"How will the other two of our party travel?" asked Ruth, when thesearrangements were explained.
Already Neale O'Neil had beckoned Agnes to one side. There lay behindthe two big boats a skeleton-like arrangement, with a seat at thestern no wider than a bobsled, and another on the "outrigger," orcrossbeam. This scooter carried a huge boom for a leg-o'-mutton sail,and it was a type of the very fastest ice-boats on the lake.
Neale helped the eager Agnes down a rude ladder to the ice. She wasjust reckless enough to desire to try the new means of locomotion. Herexclamations of delight drew Ruth to the edge of the wharf over theirheads.
"What are you two doing down there?" asked the older girl.
"Oh, now, Ruthie!" murmured Agnes, "do let me go with Neale in thispretty boat. There isn't room for us in the bigger boats. Do!"
Ruth knew very little about racing ice-boats. The scooter looked nomore dangerous to her than did the lumbering craft that Hedden hadengaged for the rest of the party.
These bigger boats, furnished with square sails rather than theleg-o'-muttons they now flaunted, were commonly used to transfermerchandise, or even logs up and down the lake. They were lumberingand slow.
"Well, if Mr. Howbridge says you can," the oldest Corner House girlagreed, still somewhat doubtful.
Neale had already begged permission of Mr. Howbridge. The lawyer wasquite as ignorant regarding ice-boating as Ruth herself. Neither ofthem considered that any real harm could come to Neale and Agnes inthe smaller craft.
The crews of the larger ice-boats were experienced boatmen. They gottheir lumbering craft under way just as soon as the passengers weresettled with their light baggage in the cockpits. There were bearrobes and blankets in profusion. Although the wind was keen, the partydid not expect that Jack Frost would trouble them.
"Isn't this great?" cried Cecile, who was in one of the boats withRuth, her brother, and Sammy Pinkney. "My! we always manage to havesuch very nice times when we are with you Corner House girls, Ruthie."
"This is all new to me," admitted her friend. "I hope nothing willhappen to wreck us."
"Wreck us! Fancy!" laughed Cecile.
"This wind is very strong, just the same," said Ruth.
"Hold hard!" cried Luke, laughing. "Low bridge!"
The boom swung over, and they all stooped quickly to avoid it. Thenext moment the big sail filled, bulging with the force of the wind.The heavy runners began to whine over the powdered ice, and they wentswiftly onward toward the middle of the lake.
"On the wings of the wind! How delightful!" cried Cecile. Then shesaid again: "Isn't this great?"