CHAPTER VII
CAP TO THE RESCUE
Where was she? What could be so black?
Nora gasped--it was so stifling. Fumbling in the strange place her handfound the door and as she pressed against it she heard it shut!
"Oh mercy!" she exclaimed aloud. "I'm shut in this awful place!"
Now her eyes could make out the rafters. It was the attic, but what partof it? The faintest gleam of light breaking in from above followed therough beams. The frightened girl fell back breathing hard and feelingfaint. To faint in the attic! Surely that would be romantic! But shedidn't want to faint all alone up there and maybe die and not be foundfor years, as she had read happened once to a bride who went up to lookfor her grandmother's quilt.
She was so dizzy. She really must sit down. Not even a hazy fear of ratsroused her, for it was unbearably hot and stuffy.
"O-o-o-h!"
That was the end of Nora for the time being. She succumbed to the firstfaint she had ever performed, and there was no one to see her, no one torescue her, not one even to know where she was!
Such a little prince!
Velvets and ribbons brushed cobwebs and dust, as she slumped down,down----!
Of all her life's dreams what she dreamed when she breathed again seemedthe strangest. But it was all broken up like pieces of stars mashed intoflashes of dazzling light, and there was no more head nor tail to it.All she could think of was how tired she was, and she knew she just hadto sleep.
If spiders had any talent for observing, those in that cubby hole wouldhave had a wonderful story to tell to the crawling things in roof andrafters, but even they did not so much as try, with a web, to arouse thehalf-conscious child, and one lacy net was so near Nora's face her gaspsof breath swayed and rocked the baby spider in its cradle.
So there she was asleep now, and glad not to know!
Downstairs supper had been prepared and everyone was waiting for Nora.
Who had seen her? Where had she spent the afternoon?
"Vita," said Jerry sharply, "you know you were not to let the child gooff these grounds alone."
"I no see her, never. She no come out from the house," protested thefrightened Vita.
"Well, we have got to search," decided Ted, her bronzed face plainlyshowing alarm, and her brown eyes blinking with unnamed fears.
"Where has Cap been?" again demanded Jerry. "He should have been withher."
"He went with the Scouts; they asked for him, and of course, I let himgo as usual. I did not know Nora was going out, in fact, I thought shewas going to write to her school mates," replied Ted. "But don't let uswaste time. I'll take the north way, Vita you go by the Ledge, andJerry, I suppose you will jump on a horse and scout every way."
"Yes, I'll take Cap and send him on ahead." All the laugh was gone fromJerry's voice now. How quickly the cloud of Anxiety can darken thebrightest home?
More than an hour later all three searchers returned to the Nest andadmitted they could not find Nora.
"She couldn't be in the house, could she?" asked Ted, disconsolately.
"We looked hastily, but it was best to do all the outdoor lookingfirst," replied Jerry. "Do you suppose she went to visit anyone? Did shemake friends with Alma and Wyn, our pet Scouts?"
"I wish she had. There's that about the Scouts, they go in groups,"answered Ted, with feeling. "Let us look over the house more carefully.But why should she hide?" A loud bark from Cap answered that question.
"Here! Cap knows where she is. Let him find her," exclaimed Jerry,joyfully.
"It's at the kitchen door," added Ted, hurrying in that direction.
"Quick, open the door, Vita!" commanded Jerry, while the dog barkedwildly.
Vita put a trembling hand on the door that led to the back stairs andopened into the kitchen. No sooner had she done so than Cap bounded pasther, and the next moment the big dog and the forlorn little princetumbled into the room.
"Nora!" exclaimed both Jerry and Ted.
"It isn't! It can't be!" faltered the surprised maid. "This is boy----"
"Boy nothing!" almost shouted Jerry, so glad to see Nora in any guisethat her strange costume interested him not at all.
"The poor little darling," cried Ted, gathering the black velvet form upinto her arms. "What ever happened to you, dear?"
Nora brushed a dusty hand over her blinking eyes. "Oh, I am so glad I amsaved. I thought I would surely die."
"Up attic. Why baby! No one could die in our attic. Cap knew you were upthere and if you had not tumbled down just when you did he would havegone through the wall to find you, wouldn't you, old fellow?" Jerryasked fondly.
The Saint Bernard was in his native element at the rescue work, and helicked Nora's hand contentedly. Ted had gathered the child up into herarms and Vita was already busy getting a refreshing drink. Jerry,manlike, just looked on, happy beyond words, for in the bad hourprevious he was a prey to keen anxiety, and during the process made uphis mind in the future to keep Nora closer to the family circle at alltimes.
Nora had not yet come to the point of talking. Her swoon and itsconsequent haziness left her in a daze, and with the mother-like armsabout her, and the breath of Cap reviving her, and Cousin Jerry's bigsoft eyes encouraging her, the relief from her fright was slowlycreeping over her and it was so delicious she had no idea of dispellingit with mere words.
"I know," said Teddie softly, "you were playing parts, dressing up inthe duds from the big chest."
"Did you go to sleep in the trunk?" ventured Jerry, slyly.
"No, I don't know just where I was--I was----" faltered Nora, nowbeginning to feel a little foolish in her boy's outfit.
"She went up wrong stairs and I guess, maybe, she got lost in the bigopen attic," Vita volunteered, apparently anxious to forestall furtherquestions.
"No, it was not opened. It was shut tight--very tight," snapped Nora.She resented Vita's explanation. Somehow she felt Vita was to blame.
"Then you must have struck the spook closet," said Jerry, his old happytones ringing through the small kitchen. "Say Ted, let's get into theother room. Can you walk, Bobbs, or shall big Cousin Jerry carry you?"
"Oh, I can walk all right," replied Nora, slipping to the floor fromTeddie's lap. "But I was so stiff and cramped and--I guess I must havefainted."
"You must have been up there all the time we were hunting for you, andthe attic is always hot," added Ted. "I never thought of looking there."
"But Cap did. He knew where you were the moment he came in the house,"said Jerry proudly. "I tell you, Cap is a regular life-saver. He willhave to get another medal for this; even if he didn't drag you out ofthe spook cabinet, he did tumble in the kitchen with you."
Both Jerry and Ted were too considerate to show surprise at Nora'sappearance, but Vita could not or did not attempt to hide herastonishment.
"Guess she thinks the fairies had you," said Jerry softly, when Vitastood in the doorway, her hands on her capable hips and her mouth wideopen in a gasp of surprise. But Nora had an uncertain feeling that Vita,as sole tenant of the back stairway, should have made betterarrangements than to have a door that would spring shut like that, rightat the very top of the dark place.
It was at this point a mistake was made. Nora did not express herselfand Vita had no idea of explaining. Mr. and Mrs. Jerry were supposed toknow all about the Nest, but did they! In the excitement of findingNora, the actual hiding place was not being considered.
Quickly as the little girl recovered her self-possession and took partin the conversation, everyone enjoyed a good hearty laugh, naturally ledby Jerry.
"What special kind of prince were you, Bobbs?" he asked jovially. "I didnot know they hid in dark attics."
"Oh, yes they did," contradicted Ted. "Don't you remember the princes inthe tower?"
"I don't, but it doesn't matter. They must have been in a tower or youwould not have included the fact in your college course," replied Jerry,always ready to tease on that score. Whenever Ted found a new sp
ecimenin the woods, or questioned about a strange bird, he would invariablyascribe the matter to "her college course."
Nora was anxious to get out of the ill-fated costume. She wanted to runupstairs and change, now that her knees had stopped shaking, but Tedinsisted she take her supper just as she was, and readily made a merrytime out of the near catastrophe. Again Nora missed the point--no senseof humor was a sad lack in so active a girl.
Cap regarded her with an eye almost twinkling. Did he know the atticsecret that she had been unable even to realize was a secret?
"Your clothes fit pretty well," said Jerry, "but I think I like you bestin your Little Girl Blue dress. Guess, after all, girls really shouldn'twear----"
"Now, there you go again, Jerry Manton," interrupted Ted. "As if thecostume had anything to do with Nora getting lost."
And all the while Nora was thinking: "If they only knew." But she hadnever had any one to confide in, except Barbara, and now she did notknow exactly how to tell her story. Besides, how silly it would be tosay she had actually been out in the roadway in the Fauntleroy clothes?And if they ever knew she had been seen and spoken to by a Girl Scout!
The fear of humiliation crushed back any desire to tell the whole storyand so it remained as it appeared, an incident of no more importancethan a case of being lost in the attic.
All the horrors of the black hole, all the terrors of her fright andfaintness, besides what actually happened when she finally burst throughthat door and all but fell head-long down the dark stairs--this Noracrushed back from her lips, and only dared to think of it as somethingshe would write in her secret diary.
Perhaps she would tell Barbara. It was too thrilling to remain a secretwith no one but herself to ponder upon it.
A refreshing bath, more beef tea and a bedtime story told by theaffectionate Cousin Teddie one hour later, all but dispelled the tryingmemory.
The story was one read from a favorite woodland series, in whichchildren, birds and furry things found days of happiness in the carefreehours, far away from artificial restrictions of "Do" and "Don't."
The girls mentioned in the story were not spoken of as Scouts, but Norasuspected they must have been very much like such in ideals.
"You see," said Teddie gently, when she had finished the interestingstory, "girls who love nature find real joy in studying the woods andlearning to love the woodland creatures. You have had no chance to knowwhat such pleasure means, dear."
"No," said Nora faintly. And at that moment she decided to put on hernew uniform the very next morning, and then go forth with Cousin Ted andCousin Jerry in quest of the adventures promised.
"I guess," she began timidly, "it is better, Cousin Teddie, for me to goalong with you every day, if you don't mind."
"Why, I can't bear to leave you home, either with Vita or to your ownresources," declared Ted. "But I didn't want to urge you. Yourexperience today may be a good thing in the end--it may help to cure youof the artificiality you have been absorbing so deeply. I will have towrite your mother a bit of advice. I do not believe her little daughteris getting the sort of education best for her. Now, roll over and go tosleep." She pressed a fond kiss on the warm cheek. "And Nora love, don'tbother about dreaming," finished Mrs. Jerry Manton, in a tone of voicenot learned during her famous "college course."