CHAPTER XXIII
RAIDING THE ATTIC
No one could tell just how they got there, but realizing that some onewas suffering they had all followed Cap to the attic, and there waitedagain for the sound that was to lead them to the victim.
"There's a cabinet over there," Nora whispered. "A person might hide inthat."
She was holding on to Alma and looked odd, indeed, still dressed in thatgorgeous velvet costume.
"Here's another light--this will show us the far end there," said MissBeckwith, snapping on the extra bulb.
"There it is!" gasped Pell. "Oh, it is somewhere--yes, come over here,"she cried. "Surely that's a child!"
The faint cry, that was almost like a sob, sounded again. It must beover under the low beams.
Nora forgot her terror now, for she knew the secret place of the long,rumbling attic, and no sooner had she heard the distinct cry than shebrushed past all the others, dragged up a big dust curtain, thenstopped.
"Here! Here!" she called frantically. "It's a little girl. Bring thecandle!"
Thistle was beside her with the extra light. "Oh, mercy!" gasped Nora."It's Lucia."
"Lucia," repeated the others.
"Yes, my own little darling Lucia. Oh, child," she cried out, "what hashappened to you? How ever did you get here?"
"Go away. Please, go away. I can't tell you. Oh, where is Vita? Vitacome!" begged a voice, while Nora tried in vain to soothe her.
"Let me there!" ordered Miss Beckwith. "The poor little thing!" shecontinued. "She evidently has had a fit of hysteria. Just see her gasp!Keep quiet, dear," she said gently. "You are all right now. We will takecare of you. There! Stop sobbing. Don't you know the girls?"
"She knows me, don't you, Lucia?" asked Nora, anxiously. "Oh, I am soglad we found her. She might have died."
"Don't let us waste time in talking. Here girls. Use your first aid,now. We must carry her down stairs to the air," ordered Miss Beckwith.
They carried her down carefully and laid her on a couch by the window.
"Where is this?" the girl murmured. Then she looked into Nora's face andsomething of the terror left her own. "Angel," she said simply, blinkinguncertainly.
"You know this little girl, don't you, Lucia?" pressed Becky now,anxious to arouse her.
"Yes," she said.
Nora cast a look of appeal at the director. She wanted to speak to thesick girl. Becky motioned she might do so.
"Lucia," began Nora, very gently, "where did--you--come from?"
"I run away from--Nick," she gasped, and again that look of terrorflashed across the little pinched face.
"Don't be frightened; you are here with me, Nora, now," said the girl inthe velvet suit. "No one can touch you here."
"Where--is--Vita? She not come back, bring doctor?"
That was it. Vita had gone for a doctor.
"She'll be here soon," soothed Miss Beckwith. The Scouts stood spellbound. How wonderful to have found the poor little waif right in Nora'sown attic!
There was a sound below. Vita came stamping up the stairs.
"What is it?" she panted. Then seeing the crowd. "You come--save my poorlittle Lucia!"
"Yes, Vita, we are here," replied Nora, sensing now the part that Vitahad been playing. "We brought her down."
"Poor Lucia. Vita's baby--Vita's bambino," crooned the woman, as sheleaned over the couch and chaffed the trembling hands.
It was a pathetic picture. The brilliantly-lighted room was like a stagewith this strange drama being enacted upon it. The row of Scouts wereunconsciously standing like a patrol at attention, while Nora inFauntleroy dress, stood at Lucia's head; and the woman in the quaintpeasant attire bent over; and then, there on the soft, bright couch, laythe inert figure with the great eyes staring out from under the bandage,evidently put on the hot forehead by Vita.
No questions asked, every one could see the child was kin to Vita, butnot her own child, perhaps her granddaughter.
"She will be all right now, I think, Vita," said Miss Beckwith. "Shejust had a spell of hysteria, didn't she?"
"Oh, she have a fit very bad," whispered the woman. "I run for doctor,quick, but he is no place----" her voice droned off into a low sound offoreign words, lamentation and wailings.
"Why was she shut up there?" asked Nora.
"She beg for dark--she never go in light when fit comes," Vita managedto make them understand. "I always hide her--she runs from Nick likeanything. But he no hurt her, never. Just one time he scare her. Shealways cry so much he t'ink she might get better, and he scare her.Lucia run away and come to Vita, every time."
"He didn't really hurt her," Miss Beckwith was both asking Vita andexplaining to the girls. "Hysterical children must have a dread ofsomething, and I suppose she seized on that."
Lucia now sat up and looked about her. All the fear had left her, andher black eyes shone with relief.
"She's all right now, aren't you, Lucia?" Thistle ventured to ask. Theother girls were still spellbound.
"Lovely," replied the child, actually rubbing her brown hand on the softcouch cover almost as if she were saying, "Nice! Nice!"
"There come Cousin Jerry and Cousin Ted!" exclaimed Nora. "I'll bringthem right up."
"What Mrs. Jerry say?" asked Vita, anxiously.
"Oh, that will be all right, Vita," said Nora, running along. "She'llunderstand everything."
It is marvelous what sympathy can explain. No need for words to fill outthe gaps.
"Well, what a reception!" exclaimed the surprised Ted. "I never expectedsuch a party as this." Her eyes fell upon Lucia. "A refugee?" she askedkindly.
"Vita's little girl, Cousin Ted," said Nora, promptly. "We foundher--sick." She did not say where.
"She is in good hands now, I am sure," said Mrs. Manton, glancing aroundat the patrol. "We were detained with our fractious car--should havebeen home ages ago. Did you need anything? Have you had a doctor?"
"She seemed merely hysterical," explained Becky. "I don't think sheneeds a doctor tonight. She will probably sleep well after theexcitement--and exhaustion," she added in an undertone.
"Well, of all things," exclaimed Mrs. Manton, suddenly getting a goodlook at Nora. "Have you been having a masquerade?"
"A little Scout party," Miss Beckwith replied, to save Noraembarrassment. "This has been an eventful evening."
"Must have been," agreed the hostess. "Shall we all go down and leavethe child to rest?" she proposed.
"_We_ must go," assured the leader. "It is not ten o'clock, I hope?"
"No, and we'll run you over in our car--if the car will run. Mr. Mantonis out tinkering with it. That's how he missed the excitement," Tedexplained.
Nora hung back with Lucia. She felt she had found her after so muchanxiety, she was almost afraid the child would be spirited away if sheshould lose sight of her now.
"How nice!" said Vita, and the relief in her own voice proved that thebig woman had been suffering no little anxiety, herself.
"I go home now, Vita," said Lucia, humbly. "I'm sorry, Vita."
"Oh, you don't have to go home, Lucia," Nora hurried to interrupt. "Youcan stay right here. You don't want to go hide in the dark any more, doyou Lucia?"
"But I don't want to make the trouble."
"She is so good when the fit is gone," said Vita, affectionately. "PoorLucia, she can no help it."
"Of course, she can't. I'll tell you, Vita, we'll ask Cousin Ted and I'msure she'll let us fix Lucia up in that nice attic bed. Would you likethat, Lucia?" enthused Nora.
"She love the attic," said Vita. "She come every time, and I must hideher. But I no like to make the bother----"
"And that was why you kept it secret!" said Nora. "Well, Vita, I didthink you were--mean," she paused to soften the word, "but now I knowwhy. And I am so glad to find Lucia again. You see, I knew her before."
"You bring her the cakes----"
"And you knew that, too?" Nora's secrets were fast evaporating. "Well,at any rate, Vita, y
ou gave me a nice tin box and all the good thingsyou could make, so I won't blame you. I'll run along and ask Cousin Tedabout the attic. Dear me! What a blessing the girls came over with me!We might have been going on this way--for weeks and not have found out,"she added. "But the girls have to hurry off; it is getting time toanswer the night roll call. I'll be back in a minute, Vita," she wastalking fast. "Don't let Lucia move until I tell you," she warned.
"All right, little Nora," replied Vita fondly. "I have two little girls,now; yes, Lucia?"
"The girls have to leave without hearing this whole wonderful story,Nora," said Ted, as they crowded out to the car, "but I have asked themto come over tomorrow. They will die of curiosity in the meantime ifMiss Beckwith does not keep them too busy to get into such mischief,"added the young woman jocularly.
"Oh, Nora!" called out Wyn, "you come right over about daylight, willyou? We'll leave a tent flap loose and you can crawl in. I would havenervous prostration if I had to wait until after inspection to hear thesequel. Good night!"
"Good night! Good night! everybody!" went up the customary shout, andwhen the reliable little car, so recently called fractious by its owner,rumbled out into the roadway, the Scouts were actually singing theircamp song.
How wonderful to be girls! And how wonderful to be Girl Scouts!
CHAPTER XXIV
FULFILLMENT
"Of course, she'll come over. Didn't I say I'd leave a flap up?" askedWyn. It was so early that the very Chickadees, after whom the patrol hadbeen named, were still asleep in their own tree-top scout tents.
"As if she could get out of bed----"
"Why couldn't she? After last night I wonder if she will ever feel safein bed again. Seems to me," said the incorrigible Wynnie, "she could dolots more good sitting up--raiding attics and things like that."
"But Chicks," said Thistle from a rumpled pillow, "isn't that child adream?"
"You mean didn't that child dream----"
"No, I do not. I think she is the most adorable thing. Why, she looksexactly like a painting we have----"
"There--there," soothed Treble.
"Don't get homesick," Pell called out. "We have a few more days to gobefore time to break camp and you want to be in at the big party, don'tyou?"
"I think the prince part simply the most marvelous story I have everheard," said Treble, under her breath. It was too early to join in ageneral wake-up.
"Leave it to Alma," whispered Laddie. "I always said these quiet littlegirls have the most fun. I heard Wyn groaning in her sleep after everyone else was aslumber. That's the kind of fun _she_ has."
"Looks as if Nora had not walked in _her_ sleep, at any rate," put inBetta. "I move we get up and slick things up early. How do we know butthe myth flew away in the night?"
"We don't, but she didn't," replied Treble crisply. "But hark to afamiliar sound. It calls arise----"
Then began the duties, and in spite of their anxiety to get over to theNest, the Scouts did succeed in performing their tasks with the usualaccuracy and unusual alacrity.
At nine o'clock they were free.
No need to ask what anyone was going to do that morning. Every GirlScout who had been in "the raid" was ready to run before the day'sorders had been read from the bulletin.
They headed for the Mantons' cottage.
"Did you ever?"
"No, I never!"
This was a part of the meaningless contribution in words offered as thegirls came up to the Nest. They had seen the tableau on the front porch.
"Hello!" called out Nora.
"'Lo, yourself," sang back Thistle.
"Too early for a fashionable call?" asked Treble.
"Come along, girls," Mrs. Manton welcomed them. "I am sure Nora has beenanxiously waiting for you. I'll let her tell you the news," shefinished, indicating the chairs for the party.
Lucia was in a big steamer chair. It almost swallowed up the tinyfigure, but she had a way of reclining, quite gracefully.
"How are you today, Lucia?" asked Alma.
"Oh, I'm all right," replied the child, pinking through her dark skin.She looked very pretty in one of Nora's bright rose dresses, with thesame color hair ribbon, and her feet encased in a pair of whiteslippers. No wonder she was "all right."
"She's going to stay," said Nora proudly. "We've adopted her."
"Quick work," remarked Laddie. "But I don't blame you. She looks as ifshe grew right here in this lovely big wild wood. Don't you like it,Lucia?"
"Lots, much," said the child.
"We found out all about it, of course," continued Nora. "Lucia won'tmind if I tell you?" she questioned.
"No," said the stranger. The single word indicated her timidity.
"You see, she is the daughter of Vita's daughter who died last year,"Nora explained. "She has been living with cousins, and the man Nick, ofwhom she was so frightened, is the cousin's husband."
Lucia now seemed to shrink back, and at that sign Nora signaled thegirls to leave the porch and adjourn to more convenient quarters fortheir confidences.
Once away from the restriction, words flew back and forth in questionsand answers, until Wyn wanted to know if it was all a duet between Almaand Nora, or could they make it a chorus?
"And he didn't beat her?" demanded Pell.
"And she is really related to Vita, not kidnapped?" asked Betta.
"You didn't find her all bruised up----"
"Now girls," scoffed Nora. "I know perfectly well you don't thinkanything of the kind. You all know Vita was always kind andgenerous----"
"Whew!" whistled Wyn. "How we can change! I thought she was a regularbear this time yesterday morning."
"I think your cousins are perfectly splendid," said Betta, sensibly. "Isshe really going to adopt the child?"
"We had a doctor this morning," said Nora with an important air, "and headvised change of scene----"
"Let's take her over to Chickadee!" interrupted Thistle. "That would bea distinct and decided change."
"Oh, hush," begged Alma. "What else did the doctor say, Nora?"
"She is hysterical--all came from the fright of her mother's suddendeath," continued Nora. "But girls, I don't know how much to thank you,"she broke off. "Being a Scout has done much for me."
"We believe you," said Wyn in her usual bantering way. "But say, littlegirl, are you going back to that school where they teach you to wearsilk underwear in the cold, blasty winter weather? Couldn't you make outto get adopted at the Nest yourself?"
A laugh, then a set of laughs, followed this.
"You are coming over to camp tonight, remember," said Alma, seriously."We have not initiated you yet, you know."
"How about that first formal ducking, with Jimbsy in the background?"Pell reminded them. "That seemed all right for an initiation."
Mrs. Manton was coming down the path with the inevitable letter. Wasthere ever a story finished without "a letter"? Mr. Jerry followed up.
It was, as you have guessed, from Nora's mother, and she did grantpermission for her to stay.
"So," said Mrs. Teddy Manton, otherwise Theodora, while the real Jerrylooked over her shoulder at the letter, and Cap sniffed approvingly atNora's khaki skirt, "we expect to have Nora go to school in town thiswinter, and perhaps next summer we will all be back again at RockyLedge."
"This was a real vacation," sighed Nora, "the best I ever had."
"Three cheers!" yelled the Scouts; and Lucia from her porch was trulysorry she had ever called those girls "crazy."
It was all so comfortable and safe now. Even her "bad fit" was gone withthe winds, and how lovely to be out in the sunlight and have nothing tofear!
Again came a riotous shout from the girls on and off the bench.
"Chick! Chick! Chick-a-dees!" they yelled. And it must have been Wyn whoechoed:
"Cut! Cut! ka-dah! cut!"
Girl Scouts are many and their adventures equally numerous, frommountain to valley, over hill and dale, and their further activitieswill be told
of in the next volume of this series, which will beentitled: The Girl Scouts at Spindlewood Knoll.
THE END.
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RUTH FIELDING OF THE RED MILL _or Jasper Parloe's Secret_
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