CHAPTER XI _The Picnic_
The figure in white remained motionless in the doorway of Miss Grant'sroom. Mary Louise continued to sit rigid in the bed, while Jane, who wasstill lying down, clutched her chum's arm with a grip that actually hurt.
For a full minute there was no sound in the room. Then a flash oflightning revealed the cause of the girls' terror.
Mary Louise burst out laughing.
"Elsie!" she cried. "You certainly had us scared!"
Jane sat up angrily.
"What's the idea, sneaking in like a ghost?" she demanded.
The orphan started to sob.
"I was afraid of waking you," she explained. "I didn't mean to frightenyou."
"Well, it's all right now," said Mary Louise soothingly. "Ordinarily weshouldn't have been scared. But in this house, where everybody talksabout seeing ghosts all the time, it's natural for us to be keyed up."
"Why that woman doesn't put in electricity," muttered Jane, "is more thanI can see. It's positively barbarous!"
"Come over and sit here on the bed, Elsie, and tell us why you camedownstairs," invited Mary Louise. "Are you afraid of the storm?"
"Yes, a little bit. But I thought I heard something down in the yard."
"Old Mrs. Grant's ghost?" inquired Jane lightly.
"Maybe it was Abraham Lincoln Jones, returning for more chickens,"surmised Mary Louise. "But no, it couldn't be, or Silky would bebarking--he could hear that from the cellar--so it must be just the wind,Elsie. It does make an uncanny sound through all those trees."
"May I stay here till the storm is over?" asked the girl.
"Certainly."
If it had not been so hot, Mary Louise would have told Elsie to sleepwith them. But three in a bed, and a rather uncomfortable bed at that,was too close quarters on a night like this.
The storm lasted for perhaps an hour, while the girls sat chattingtogether. As the thundering subsided, Jane began to yawn.
"Suppose I go up to the attic and sleep with Elsie?" she said to MaryLouise, "if you're not afraid to stay in this room by yourself."
"Of course I'm not!" replied her chum. "I think that's a fine idea, andyour being there will prevent Elsie from being nervous and hearingthings. Does it suit you, Elsie?"
"Yes! Oh, I'd love it! If you're sure you don't mind, Mary Louise."
"I don't expect to mind anything in about five minutes," yawned MaryLouise. "I'm dead for sleep."
She was correct in her surmise: she knew nothing at all until the brightsunshine was pouring into her room and Jane wakened her by throwing apillow at her head.
"Wake up, lazybones!" she cried. "Don't you realize that today is thepicnic?"
Mary Louise threw the pillow back at her chum and jumped out of bed.
"What a glorious day!" she exclaimed. "And so much cooler."
Elsie, attired in her new pink linen dress, dashed into the room.
"Oh, this is something like!" she cried. "I haven't heard any gayety likethis for three years!"
"Mary Louise is always 'Gay,'" remarked Jane demurely. "In fact, she'llbe 'Gay' till she gets married."
Her chum hurled the other pillow from Miss Grant's bed just as Hannahpoked her nose into the room.
"Don't you girls throw them pillows around!" she commanded. "Miss Mattieis that careful about her bed--she even makes it herself. And athouse-cleanin' time I ain't allowed to touch it!"
"It's a wonder she let you sleep on it, Mary Louise," observed Elsie.
"_Made_ me sleep on it, you mean." Then, of Hannah, she inquired, "Howsoon do we have breakfast?"
"Right away, soon as you're dressed. Then you girls can help pack up somedoughnuts and rolls I made for your picnic."
"You're an angel, Hannah!" exclaimed Mary Louise. To the girls she said,"Scram, if you want me downstairs in two minutes."
Soon after breakfast the cars arrived. There were three of them--the twosports roadsters belonging to Max Miller and Norman Wilder, and a sedandriven by one of the girls of their crowd, a small, red-haired girl namedHope Dorsey, who looked like Janet Gaynor.
Max had brought an extra boy for Elsie, a junior at high school, by thename of Kenneth Dormer, and Mary Louise introduced him, putting him withElsie in Max's rumble seat. She herself got into the front.
"Got your swimming suit, Mary Lou?" asked Max, as he started his car withits usual sudden leap.
"Of course," she replied. "As a matter of fact, I brought two of them."
"I hadn't noticed you were getting that fat!"
"That's just about enough out of you! I don't admire the Mae West figure,you know."
"Then why two suits?" inquired the young man. "Change of costume?"
"One for Elsie and one for me," explained Mary Louise. "I don't believeElsie can swim, but she'll soon learn. Will you teach her, Max?"
"I don't think I'll get a chance to, from the way I saw Ken making eyesat her. He'll probably have a monopoly on the teaching."
Mary Louise smiled: this was just the way she wanted things to be.
The picnic grounds near Cooper's woods were only a couple of miles fromRiverside. A wide stream which flowed through the woods had been dammedup for swimming, and here the boys and men of Riverside had built tworough shacks for dressing houses. The cars were no sooner unloaded thanthe boys and girls dashed for their respective bath houses.
"Last one in the pool is a monkey!" called Max, as he locked his car.
"I guess I'll be the monkey," remarked Elsie. "Because I have a suit I'mnot familiar with."
"I'll help you," offered Mary Louise.
They were dressed in no time at all; as usual the girls were ahead of theboys. They were all in the water by the time the boys came out of theirshack.
The pool was empty except for a few children, so the young people fromRiverside had a chance to play water games and to dive to their hearts'content. Everybody except Elsie Grant knew how to swim, and Mary Louiseand several of the others were capable of executing some remarkable stuntdiving.
Before noontime arrived Elsie found herself venturing into the deeperparts of the pool, and, with Kenneth or Mary Louise beside her, sheactually swam several yards. All the while she was laughing and shoutingas she had not done since her parents' death; the cloud of suspicion thathad been hanging over her head for the past few days was forgotten. Shewas a normal, happy girl again.
The lunch that followed provided even more fun and hilarity than theswim. It seemed as if their mothers had supplied everything in the worldto eat. Cakes and pies and sandwiches; hot dogs and steaks to be cookedover the fire which the boys built; ice cream in dry ice, and refreshingdrinks of fruit juices, iced tea, and soda water. Keen as their appetiteswere from the morning's swim, the young people could not begin to eateverything they had brought.
"We'll have enough left for supper," said Mary Louise, leaning backagainst a tree trunk with a sigh of content.
"If the ants don't eat it up," returned Jane. "We better cover thingsup."
"We'll do it right away," announced Hope Dorsey. "Come on, boys! you burnrubbish, and we girls will pack food."
"I can't move," protested Max. "The ants are welcome to their share asfar as I'm concerned. I don't think I'll ever eat again."
"I hate _aunts_," said Elsie, with a sly look at Mary Louise and Jane. "Idon't want them to get a thing, so I'll help put the food away."
Max and a couple of the other lazier boys were pulled to their feet byKenneth and Norman, and the picnic spot was soon as clean as when theparty had arrived. Hope Dorsey suggested that they drive back to her homelater in the afternoon and have supper on the lawn. Then they could turnon the radio and dance on her big screened porch.
"When do we visit these gypsies you were talking about, Max?" demandedJane. "I'm keen to hear my fortune."
"They're back towards Riverside," replied the youth. "About half a milefrom Dark Cedars," he added, to Mary Louise.
; "They used to camp at Dark Cedars--at least, some gypsies did," Elsieinformed the party. "If they're the same ones, you'd think they wouldn'tcome back, after they were driven away by the police."
"Is that what your aunt did?" inquired Kenneth.
"Yes, so Hannah says--Hannah is the maid, you know. She says Aunt Mattiehates them."
The young people piled into the cars again, and Max led the way, off themain highway to a dirt road extending behind Dark Cedars. Through thetrees they could catch a glimpse of the gypsy encampment.
"Has everybody some money--in silver?" inquired Max, after the cars wereparked beside the road. "The gypsies insist on gold and silver."
Mary Louise nodded; she was prepared for herself as well as for Elsie.
"Do we all go in in a bunch?" asked Hope.
"Certainly not!" replied Max. "You don't think we could tell our secretsin front of the whole bunch, do you?"
"Must be pretty bad," observed Jane.
"All right, then, if that's the way you feel about it, I'll go in withyou!" challenged Norman.
"Suits me," returned the girl, with a wink at Mary Louise.
As the crowd came closer to the gypsy encampment, they saw the usualtents, the caravan, which was a motor truck, and a fire, over which akettle was smoldering. Half a dozen children, dressed in ordinaryclothing but without shoes and stockings, were playing under a tree, andthere were several women about. But there did not appear to be any men atthe camp at the time.
One of the women, who had been standing over the fire, came forward tomeet the young people. She was past middle age, Mary Louise judged, fromher dark, wrinkled skin, but her hair was jet black, and her movementswere as agile and as graceful as a girl's. She wore a long dress of adeep blue color, without any touch of the reds and yellows one usuallyassociates with gypsies.
"Fortunes?" she asked, smiling, and revealing an ugly gap in her frontteeth, which made her look almost like a story-book witch.
"How much?" asked Max, holding up a quarter in his hand.
The gypsy shook her head. "One dollar," she announced.
Max pulled down the corners of his mouth and looked doubtfully at hisfriends.
"There are fourteen of us," he said. "Fourteen at fifty cents each isseven dollars. All in silver.... Take it or leave it."
The woman regarded him shrewdly; she saw that he meant what he said.
"All right," she agreed. "I'll go into my tent and get ready."
The young people turned to Max with whispered congratulations.
"She certainly speaks perfect English," remarked Mary Louise.
They sat down on the grass while they waited for the gypsy woman tosummon them, and when the tent flap finally opened, Jane Patterson andNorman Wilder jumped to their feet and walked over to the fortune tellerfirst.
"She'll think you two are engaged, Jane," teased Hope, "if you go intogether."
"Then she'll get fooled," returned the other girl laughingly.
The couple were absent for perhaps five minutes. When they came out ofthe tent Jane dashed down the hill to the road.
"The gypsy told her that her class ring is in my car," explained Normanto the others. "The one she lost, you remember? She said it's under theseat."
"I could have suggested that she look there myself," remarked Max. "OnlyI thought, of course, that she already had.... Shall I try my luck next,or will one of you girls go?"
"I'd love to go," offered Hope Dorsey. "I simply can't wait. By the way,did she think you two were engaged?"
"No, she didn't. She's pretty wise, after all. She told me someastounding things. One was that a relation had just died--my uncle did,you know--and that we're going to get some money.... I hope that part'strue.... You have to hand it to her. I don't believe it's all just thebunk."
Hope ran into the tent, and while she was gone Jane returned triumphantlyfrom the car with her lost ring. Mary Louise's eyes flashed withexcitement: perhaps the gypsy was really possessed of second sight. Oh,if she could only solve that mystery at Dark Cedars!
Mary Louise was last of all the group to enter the fortune teller's tent.The woman was seated on the ground with a dirty pack of cards in herhands. She indicated that the girl should sit down beside her and gaveher the cards to shuffle.
"I'm really not interested in my fortune half so much as I am in amystery I'm involved in," explained Mary Louise. She paused, wonderingwhether the gypsy would understand what she was talking about. Perhapsshe ought to use simpler language.
"You mean you want to ask me questions?" inquired the woman.
"Yes, that's it," replied Mary Louise. "I'm staying at Dark Cedars now,and there are strange things going on there. Maybe you can explain them."
"Dark Cedars!" repeated the gypsy. "I know the place.... You don't livethere?"
"No, I don't live there. I'm just staying there while Miss Grant is inthe hospital."
The black eyes gleamed, and the woman held two thin, dirty hands in frontof her face.
"Mattie Grant is _evil_," she announced. "Keep away from her!"
Mary Louise wrinkled her brows. "I'm not with her," she said. "I'm onlystaying at Dark Cedars while Miss Grant is away."
"But why is that?"
"That's just what I want to ask you! Miss Grant's money has already beenstolen, and I thought maybe you could tell me what I'm supposed to beprotecting--by sleeping in her bed every night."
"In the old witch's bed? Oh-ho!"
"Yes." It struck Mary Louise funny that this gypsy woman should call MissGrant a witch when she herself looked much more like one.
The gypsy, however, was giving her attention to the cards, shufflingthem, and finally drawing one of them out of the deck. She laid it faceup in Mary Louise's lap and nodded significantly. It was the eight ofhearts.
"Mattie Grant's treasure--is--a ruby necklace," she announced slowly,staring hard at the card. "With eight precious rubies!" She handed thecard to Mary Louise. "Count them for yourself!" she said.
Mary Louise gazed at the woman in amazement, not knowing whether tobelieve her or not. The explanation was plausible, but it seemed ratherfoolish to her--that the eight of hearts should mean eight rubies....Would the ace of diamonds have indicated a diamond ring?
But there was no use in questioning the gypsy's power, no point inantagonizing her. So, instead, she changed the subject by telling herthat a box of gold pieces had been stolen from the safe in Miss Grant'sbedroom.
"Perhaps you can tell me who took them?" she suggested.
The woman picked up the cards and shuffled them again, mutteringsomething unintelligible to herself as she did it. Once more she drew outa card, seemingly at random. This time it was the queen of diamonds.
"A light-haired girl--or woman," she announced. "That's all I can say."
Mary Louise gasped. Elsie Grant had light hair--but, then, so did CorinnePearson.... And Mrs. Grace Grant's hair was gray.
The gypsy rose from the ground as lightly and as easily as a girl.
"I think you've had more than your time, miss," she concluded. "Now,please to go!"