CHAPTER IX
JOHN JARLEY, EXILE
This could be no day of leisure for the Go-Ahead Club. To get settled incamp was the first task--and that no small one.
There was the plank flooring to be laid in the big tent, the cook-tentto be erected, and the floor laid in that. There was a sheet-iron stoveto erect, with a smoke pipe to the outside, and an asbestos "blanket" towrap around the pipe to keep the canvas of the tent-top from scorching.
There were the swinging shelves to put up, fastened to the ridge-pole ofthe cook-tent, on which certain supplies could be kept out of the reachof the wood mice and other small vermin. Indeed, there were a dozen andone things of moment to see about, beside bringing over to the camp aselection of the stores--and their extra clothes--from John Jarley'sshack by the boat landing.
Wyn was a competent girl and knew something about using a hammer and asaw. The flooring planks for both tents had been assembled at Denton,and were numbered; but after they got the sleepers laid Wyn realizedthat she and her mates had tackled more of a task than they hadexpected.
"And the boys will be just as busy as they can be to-day," she said tothe other girls. "It's a wonder if everything they owned didn't getsoaked last evening.
"Now, we can't depend upon the Busters to give us any assistance justnow. Doubt if we see 'hide nor hair' of them to-day. But we needsomebody to make these floors properly. There! Bess has stuck a splinterinto her hand already."
"Plague take the old board!" snapped Bess, dropping it and sucking on aragged little wound in her hand.
"You see," Wyn said, quickly. "I'm going to get some help. Anybody wantto walk over to Jarley's with me?"
"Are you going to get that man to come here?" demanded Bess, sharply.
"Don't see what else there is to do--do you, Bessie?"
"Isn't there anybody else to help us around here? There must be othersquatters."
"I do not know of any. We chance to know the Jarleys----"
"Not I!" cried Bess, shaking her head. "_I_ don't know them--and Iwon't know them."
"All right. You and Grace and Percy take the pails and try for someberries in the woods yonder. I saw some ripe ones this morning. Freshpicked berries will add nicely to our bill-of-fare; isn't that so, Mrs.Havel?"
"Quite so, my dear," replied the widow, and buried herself in her bookagain, for, as she had told the girls, she had not come here to work;they must treat her as a guest.
"Are you going to stop with Mrs. Havel, Mina?" continued Wyn. "Then comealong with me, Frank. We'll go over and see if the Jarleys bite. Bess isafraid they will!"
"She was telling us all about John Jarley," said Wyn's chum, as the twoleft the camp on the green knoll. "Do you suppose he stole that motorboat and the box of silver statuettes?"
* * * * *
"I don't _know_ anything about it," said Wyn, briskly. "But I knowthat he and Polly are very poor, and with a motor boat and five thousanddollars' worth of silver, it looks to me as though they would be veryfoolish to suffer the privations they do. It's nasty gossip, that's allit is."
"Well, Bess says the man stole from her father years ago----"
"I don't know much about _that_, either," interrupted Wynifred."But I think Bess is overstepping the line of exact truth when she saysJohn Jarley stole from her father. They were doing business together,and Mr. Lavine accused Jarley of 'selling him out' in a real estatedeal.
"I asked my father about it. Father says the whole business was a littlemisty, at best. If Jarley did all Lavine said, he merely was guilty ofbeing false to his friend and partner. It is doubtful if he made muchout of it. But Lavine talked loudly and long; he had lots of friendseven then. The talk and all fairly hounded the Jarleys out of town.
"And now," said Wyn, warmly, "the Lavines are rich and the Jarleys havealways been poor. Mr. Jarley is an exile from his old home and suchfriends as he had in Denton. It is really a shame, I think--and you'llsay so, too, when you see what a splendid girl Polly is."
The two girls had followed the edge of the lake toward the landing,instead of taking the path through the wood. Suddenly they came in sightof the float and shack, with the several boats in Mr. Jarley's keeping.
Back from the shore was a tiny cottage, painted red, its window sash anddoor striped with yellow. It was a gay little cot, and everything aboutit was as neat and as gaily painted as a Dutch picture.
As Wyn and Frank came down the hill they saw Polly Jarley run out of thehouse and down to the landing. Her father was busy there at anoverturned boat--evidently caulking the seams.
The boatman's girl did not see her visitors coming; but Wyn and Frankgot a good view of her, and the latter exclaimed to Wyn:
"Why! she's as pretty as a picture! She's handsome! If she only had onnice clothes she would be a perfect beauty."
"Wouldn't she?" returned Wyn, happily. "I think my Polly Jolly is justthe _dearest_ looking creature. Isn't she brown? And what prettyfeet and hands she has!"
Polly wore a very short skirt, patched and stained. Her blouse was openat the throat, so that the soft roundness of the curve of her shoulderwas plainly visible.
Out of the open neck of the blouse her deeply tanned throat rose like abronze column; the roses in her cheeks and on her lips relieved thesun-darkened skin. Her hair was in two great plaits and it was evidentthat she seldom troubled about a hat. She was lithe, graceful as shecould be, and bubbling over with good health if not good spirits.
And this was a morning--after the rain--to make even a lachrymose personlively. The smell of all growing things was in the nostrils--the warmthof the sun lapped one about like a mantle--it was a beautiful, beautifulday,--one to be remembered.
Wyn shouted and started running down the hill. Polly heard her, turnedto see who it might be who called, and recognizing her friend, set outto meet her quite as eagerly.
"Oh, Miss Wynifred!" cried the boatman's daughter.
"Polly Jolly! This is Frank Cameron." She kissed Polly warmly. "How fineyou look, Polly! Tell me! will all we girls look as healthy and be asstrong as you are, by the autumn? You're a picture!"
"A pretty shabby one, I fear, Miss Wyn," protested Polly, yet smiling."I am in the very oldest clothes I have, for there is much dirty work tobe done around here. We have hardly got ready for the summer yet. Fatherhas been so lame."
"And you must introduce me to your father, Polly," Wyn said, quickly."We have something for him to do--if he will be so kind."
"All you need to do is to say what it is, Wynifred," responded Polly,warmly. "If either of us can do anything for you we will only be tooglad."
The three girls walked to the spot where Mr. Jarley was engaged upon hisboat. He was not at all the sort of a person whom the girls from townhad expected to see. The boatmen and woodsmen who sometimes drifted intoDenton were rough characters. This man, after being ten years and morein the woods, savored little of the rough life he had followed.
He was a small man, very neat in his suit of brown overalls, withgrizzled hair, a short-cropped gray mustache, and without color in hisface save the coat of tan his out-of-door life had given him.
There was a gentle, deprecatory air about him that reminded Wyn stronglyof Polly herself. But this manner was almost the only characteristicthat father and daughter had in common.
Mr. Jarley was low-spoken, too; he listened quietly and with an air ofdeference to what Wyn had to propose.
"Surely I will come around and do all I can to aid you, Miss Mallory,"he said. "You shall pick out the stores you think you will need, and wewill take a boat around to your camp. Your stores will be perfectly safehere--if you wish to risk them in my care," he added.
"Of course, sir. And we expect to pay you for keeping them. If we have along spell of rainy weather the dampness would be bound to spoil thingsin our tents."
"True. This corrugated iron shack will keep the stores dry, and the doorhas a good padlock," returned Mr. Jarley. "Now, you young ladies
pickout what you wish carried over to the camp and I will soon be at yourservice."
"Isn't he nice?" whispered Wyn to Frank, when Polly had run into thehouse for something, and Mr. Jarley himself was out of hearing.
"Why! he is a perfect gentleman!" exclaimed Frank. "How can Bess talk asshe does about him? I am surprised at her."
"And these other people about here, too!" declared Wyn, warmly. "What anevil tongue Gossip has! That man--Shelton, is his name?--at the otherend of the lake, who has accused Mr. Jarley of stealing his boat and thesilver statues, ought to be punished."
"Well--of course--we don't _know_ anything more about the Jarleysthan these other people," observed Frank, doubtfully.
"I judge people by their appearance a good deal, I suppose," admittedWyn. "And mother tells me that is a poor way to judge. Just the same, I_feel_ that the Jarleys are being maligned. And I would love tohelp them."
"Well! there isn't much chance to do that unless you can prove that he_is_ honest, after all," remarked Frank.
"I know it. Everything is going to tell against him unless the lost boatand the images can be found. I wonder where it was sunk? Do you supposePolly would tell us just where the accident happened?"
"Ask her."
"I will, if I get a chance," declared Wyn. "And wouldn't it be fine ifwe girls could find the sunken boat and the box belonging to Dr.Shelton, and clear up the whole trouble?"
"Even _that_ would not satisfy Bessie Lavine," said Frankie, with alittle laugh. "You know--Bess is 'awful sot in her ways.' When she hasmade up her mind that a thing is so, you can't shake it out of her witha charge of dynamite!"
"You never tried the dynamite; did you, Frank?" queried Wyn, smiling.
"No! But I've wanted to--at times."
"Bessie is like her father--obstinate. It is a family trait Yet, onceget her turned around--show her that she has been wrong and unfair toanybody--and she can't do too much for her to prove how sorry she is."
"That's right! look how she talked against the boys--especially againstDave Shepard. And now you can just wager she won't be able to do enoughfor him to show how grateful she is for being pulled out of the water,"laughed Frank.
Mr. Jarley was ready to load the boat for them, and Polly came back withthe key to the shack. Polly could not go over to the camp, for both sheand her father could not leave the landing at once. Some fishermen mightcome along at any time to hire a boat. The season was opening now, andafter the "lean months" that had gone by, the Jarleys had to be on thewatch for every dollar that might come their way.
"It seems an awfully hard life for such a man--and for Polly," whisperedWyn to her companion. "I'd just _love_ to have Polly for a memberof our club."
"So would I," agreed Frank. "She's just as sweet as she can be. But Besswould go right up in the air!"
"Oh, I know it," sighed Wyn. "Somehow we have got to make Bessie Lavinesee the error of her ways. Oh, dear! why can't people be nice to eachother all the time?"
"Goodness me, Wyn Mallory!" exclaimed Frank. "What do you expect whilethere still remains 'original sin' in the world? That seems to have beenleft out of _your_ constitution; but most of the rest of us haveour share."