CHAPTER XVIII
A CALL IN THE NIGHT
Footsore and weary, but satisfied and happy, they finished the day ofthe carnival hike.
"Let's all help with supper," suggested Louise, who was off duty onthe K. P. (Kitchen Police) for that day. "Then we can all go down tothe dock and see the excursion boat go out."
"We are not hungry, a bit," replied Cleo, "but I suppose we must tryto eat. Come on, girls, all join in this chorus. It will be lovely onthe lake this wonderful evening."
And so it proved to be. Never had the waters of Hocomo taken on a moregorgeous costume. Velvets, satins and silks, in every rainbow hue,were flung in reckless splendor of draperies over the great, softsurface of the water, by a sunset as prodigious as it was profligate.
Among the parties leaving, one little tribe of excursionists stayeduntil the very last steamer insisted, with its thrill whistle, thatthey either come aboard or stay behind indefinitely.
"If only we could stay," murmured one pale-faced girl. She wasstanding near the Bobbies, who were watching the city children embark.
"Do you like it up here?" questioned Louise. She felt guilt in thebanal query.
"Oh, it's like--Paradise," said the wistful one. "But we'll be gladenough if the firemen in the city turn the hose in the gutterto-morrow to make a lake for us."
Louise sighed. So many children like this one must stay in the city,she knew. Others equally sad and fully as wistful were reluctantlymeasuring each step of the little dock and gang-plank. How they hatedto go back!
"Oh, girls!" whispered Cleo. "Why don't we try to do something for alittle band of that sort?"
"What?" asked Grace.
"We could lend them our camp," went on Cleo bravely. "We all havecottages here."
"So we could, and there are two weeks yet before the general schoolsopen," sang back Grace. "I would just love to let the most needy of agroup like that have two weeks at Comalong."
"So should I," declared Louise. "Let's try to do it."
"There's the caretaker; get a name and address from her," suggestedJulia hurriedly.
"Better have Mackey do it," said Corene, who promptly sidled up to thedirector with the proposition.
"I don't know," demurred Miss Mackin in answer, "but it won't do anyharm to have a name and address." So she in turn stepped up to thedirector of the excursion party.
The children, she learned, were from a tenement district, and were nottechnically sick, but oh, how pitifully near it!
As each little victim passed along, the Bobbies' determination grew.
They would be happy to surrender their beloved camp for such a humancause as this.
One short hour later, around a friendly little campfire, the planswere made. Everything in the camp and the camp included would beturned over to the city troop (they should all be enrolled as Scoutsbefore taking possession), and for the two weeks before school openedthese slum children would come back to Paradise.
"You must realize," explained Miss Mackin, "this will mean at leastthe complete sacrifice of your bedding. You may take these blankets,and we will ask headquarters to send us bed covering, but the cots----"
"We will donate them to a mercy camp for next year," spoke up Julia."I am sure the home folks will all be perfectly satisfied."
"And it won't hurt our lovely flag," reasoned Louise. "Of course wewill turn everything except our personal belongings over to theorganization, at any rate."
"Did you expect to make Comalong a regular summer Scout camp?" askedMiss Mackin.
"Surely," replied Corene. "We were just experimenting at first, butnow we know it will be a real practical camp for any amount ofsummers."
"In that case," proposed Miss Mackin, "we will notify headquarters andhave inventory taken at once. Are you perfectly sure you want to giveup before the end of the month?"
"Positive," insisted Louise. "I couldn't enjoy this a week longer andremember that little wistful, woeful-faced girl, who said she hopedthe firemen would be allowed to make a gutter-lake in the city forthem to-morrow."
"Indeed, we couldn't," chimed in Corene. "And besides, just think whatit will mean to give a real fresh air camp donation?"
"Yes, nothing could be better," assented the director happily. "And asyou all can go to your home cottages it doesn't seem quite so gigantica sacrifice."
"But camp is ideal," murmured Julia, putting one more small log on thedying embers; just enough to keep mosquitoes away.
"Perfect," joined in Cleo, her voice dropping or dripping with regret.
"That's the very reason we want to do this--to put a seal of a perfectsummer on it all," declared Corene, who perhaps more than the othersfelt a really deep responsibility for that camp; from its veryinception at the Essveay School, to its fullest day, that just closedon the carnival hike.
So it was all agreed and settled. Camp Comalong was to be turned overto the city children and their Social Service caretakers, by the endof the week.
Somehow it was a little saddening, however, and it was very evidentthat the Bobbies did not feel like singing the usual woodland GoodNight, as they prepared for their sleep in the big canvas cradle underthe stars.
"Dreaming!" minds dimly awoke with that vague idea.
"No, someone is calling," spoke Isabel, as if anyone had spokenbefore.
They listened. Came a cautious call:
"Girls! Bobbie! Grace!"
"It's Peg," exclaimed a chorus, and with that realization each feltjust a little bit guilty that the new ideas of the evening before hadso obliterated the troubles of Peg from their Scout consideration.
Bare feet instantly pattered on the bare boards. The night light wasreached and turned up and the tent flap "unlocked."
And there was Peg with her Aunt Carrie!
"Oh, do come in," begged Miss Mackin, anxiously. "What has happened?"
"Nothing," replied Peg a trifle cynically, "but we were afraidsomething might happen to these," she indicated a box she carried andalso an armful of what seemed to be rolled cardboard.
Quickly the girls made the night visitors welcome, and with skillacquired from a similar previous experience, they were now preparingto "double bunk."
Miss Ramsdell (Aunt Carrie) sighed deeply and sank down with veryevident relief.
"I insisted that Peggie come down to you," she explained. "Ever sincewe got back from the hills yesterday afternoon, mysterious men havebeen prowling about our cottages," she explained.
"Perhaps just to frighten us," added Peg. "At the same time thesepapers are so precious I was very glad to bring them down, if we don'tupset you too much?"
"We are simply delighted to have you come," said Corene, sincerely."And we never could have induced you to if something like this had nothappened."
"But I wanted to come more than you can ever know," said the girl withthe wonderful black eyes and the glossy crow-black hair. "You see, Iwas guarding daddy's treasures. When he went there was no one left butme, and I was to finish his life's work. I have been trying to do it."Her voice tapered to a whisper, and no one attempted to intrude uponit.
Finally Aunt Carrie, from her grateful quarters, spoke:
"Tell them, dear, about the patent," she said.
"Let us make you comfortable first," suggested Cleo, considerately."Here, Peg, this is where we keep our treasures. Do you want to putyours in here?"
She opened a very small door in a packing case that was hidden beneathextra blankets and some clothing.
"That's a splendid hiding place," replied Peg. "One would think itnothing more than a case of supplies. Yes, if I may, I'll put mythings in there."
First she lifted in the box, that plainly was heavy; then she placedupon it the roll of stiff paper.
"Oh," she sighed wearily. "I believe if it had not been for Shag Ishould have lost these long ago."
"I thought to-night, however," added Aunt Carrie, "that faithful Shagwas in danger of being shot. That is one reason why I urged Peggie tocome down."
/> "Yes, I felt that way too," said the girl. "I heard a sniper's shotlong after anyone would have been out hunting."
"Where is Shag?" asked Julia.
"Just outside our door here," replied Peg. "He won't leave until wedo."
"We are glad to have him also," said Miss Mackin. "We have not feltthe need of a watchman with Officer Porter around, but to-night----"
"We could not have ventured over the hill except for the officer'sescort," said Aunt Carrie. "It was when we heard his whistle wedecided to make a dash."
"Yes, we have been having quite a night of it," put in Peg with agirlish laugh. "You should have seen us, like a couple of movieladies, armed to the teeth and posted behind our strongest door! If wehad not been in such serious danger I should have thought it awonderful joke," and she laughed lightly at the memory.
"Armed to the teeth!" repeated Grace hopefully.
"Yes, indeedy; I had the best and biggest revolver, and auntie held toa shotgun, and when we made sure we were really in danger of beingbombed or burglared or something, we just loaded up and stood guarduntil we heard the officer's whistle. It seemed ages," she finishedseriously.
"And haven't you even been to bed?" asked Julia, anxiously.
"Oh, no, indeed. You see, that Leonore began this attack yesterday,after you saw her prowling around," explained Peg. "Her dad claims aright--a business right to what my dad discovered. That's why we havehad to act so mysterious and live behind bolted doors," she added."One glimpse of dad's drawings would spoil everything for us," shefinished.
"That's why!" exclaimed Grace; for in the simple statement had beendisclosed the mystery of the hermit life of Peg and her Aunt Carrie.
"Yes, my dear brother, Peggie's father, was confident the machine heinvented would bring us great wealth, and besides this he had manyland claims about here that he felt would bring valuable ores."
"And _that's_ why you went to the hills so often," burst out Louise."We wondered and wondered."
"Yes, that's why," agreed Peg.
"You don't think your robbers would follow you down here?" askedIsabel, not fearfully but rather confidently.
"No, we have covered our tracks," said Peg. "They might see Shag----"
"Bring him in," begged Cleo, who loved Shag or any other "nice dog"right next to her companions.
"There isn't really any danger of them following us," said Peg."Besides, we will have a couple of extra watchmen in the woods betweennow and morning. But I know Shag will just love to come in."
So it happened the Bobbies had a company of three to billet--whenfinally Miss Mackin succeeded in inducing everyone "to quiet down andwait until morning" for the telling of the real story of Peg's fightto establish the rights her father had left her to struggle with.