Margaret Penrose

“ It was very quick work that Paul and Walter did, for they had no mind to be caught there when the bear should make his way back, as they had no doubt he would. They regained the life preserver, which was so scratched and torn that it was no longer good for its original purpose, but they wanted it as a memento of the adventure.
As the bear had not had time to meddle with the food laid out by the girls, they were not so badly off after all, although it was exasperating to have to go without the fish, whose appetizing aroma was still in the air. ”

“ It was evidently a command, for the gypsy girl turned instantly and went away, disappearing into one of the vans, while the man, after a scowl that included all the party, sauntered away and dropped on the grass beside some of his comrades.
“Well, what do you think of that?” demanded Belle in amazement.
“Just when she had a husband picked out for each of you, too,” chaffed Paul. “But cheer up, girls. We’re here yet. Count on us to the last breath. You can’t lose us.”
“No such luck,” retorted Bess. “But what on earth made that man act that way?” ”

“ Having recovered everything else, even to Aunt Betty’s lunch basket, the picnic party pushed out some distance, and ate their lunch with an appetite that was the keener for their enforced waiting.
They were sure that Bruin’s instinct would lead him straight back to the succulent repast that had been so rudely interrupted, and they were right, for a few minutes later he came loping along and plunged into the remnants of his fish dinner. He glared out over the water at his enemies, but his one experience had been sufficient, and he made no further attempt to take after them. ”

“ That’s why it’s called a ‘vampire.’”
[94]
“But,” objected Cora, “any one would think from that that the plant had intelligence and knew just what it was doing, just as an animal does when it hunts for prey.”
“Exactly,” agreed Mr. Morley. “Who are we to say that plants don’t have intelligence? What proof is there in nature that they don’t suffer and enjoy, feel and plan, as men and animals do, only on a lower plane? We humans are too conceited. We assume that we possess intelligence almost exclusively. We grant some to animals, though we slur even that by calling it only instinct. ”

“ The fish were indeed disappearing with magical rapidity.
“He’s a magician,” said Jack. “He’s making mutton of fish.”
“It’s well enough to joke,” murmured Bess. “But what will we do if he eats all the rest of our lunch?”
“We’ll have to grin and bear it,” said Paul, whose disposition to pun could not be overcome.
“Perhaps he’ll be satisfied with the fish and leave the rest of the food alone,” remarked Cora hopefully.
“You’re a cheerful optimist,” replied her brother. “You don’t know much about a bear’s appetite. Besides, he must be awfully hungry, otherwise he would run away—bears usually do.” ”

“ A groan went up from the girls.
“Oh, Ananias!” exclaimed Bess.
“Ananiases, you mean,” corrected her sister. “One’s just as bad as the others. They all hang together.”
“We’re like Ben Franklin when he signed the Declaration of Independence,” laughed Paul. “He said they’d all have to hang together or they’d hang separately.”
“I’ll admit that you have a good car, sis,” said Jack.
“And if that isn’t enough to take us back into favor, we’ll do anything else you say,” said Walter, wringing his hands in pretended agitation. ”

“ Not far from where they were standing was a small boathouse with a pier projecting into the lake. Near the end of the little dock a motor boat was moored.
“There’s the boat!” cried Jack, and they all made a rush for it.
“The Water Sprite,” read Cora from the partly effaced letters on the stern.
“It has good enough lines,” said Walter, as he ran his eyes over the boat, “but it seems as though it had been pretty well neglected.”
“The owner never used it much,” explained Jack. “He didn’t care much for the water, and when he was here spent most of his time in hunting on land.” ”

“ He whirled the wheel around, and the car, its speed diminished but still considerable, dashed into a tree by the side of the road. The driver, an elderly man, was thrown out and lay stunned and bleeding.
[13]
The mother rushed to the little one and gathered it up into her arms with sobs and exclamations.
The girls, who had been unable to move and had sat paralyzed with horror, breathed a huge sigh of relief.
“Thank God, the baby’s saved!” cried Bess.
“Yes,” exclaimed Cora, “but the man may be killed! Let’s see what we can do to help him.” ”

“ I could have shaken you when you thanked him so sweetly, Cora Kimball.”
[28]
The girls looked at each other aghast.
“Did you ever?” gasped Belle.
“He ought to be exposed!” exclaimed Cora indignantly.
“I suppose he ought,” agreed Bess placidly. “But after all, the proof wouldn’t be strong enough. It would be simply my word against his, and he’d swear black and blue that I was mistaken. We’d only get mixed up in an ugly mess, and nothing would come of it after all. I fancy that that young man will get to the end of his rope soon enough without our having anything to do with it. ”

“ It wouldn’t prove anything. There are lots of people in the world who look alike and yet who haven’t the slightest relation to each other.”
“I know it,” admitted Cora. “But just the same I have what the boys would call a hunch that in this case it would give us a clue to the gypsy girl’s secret.”
“If she has any,” laughed Bess.
“Get out your crystal sphere, Sybilla, and pluck the heart from this mystery,” smiled Belle.
“You girls can laugh if you want to,” rejoined Cora, “but all the same I’ll think about this and perhaps dream about it until I recall the face I’m groping for.” ”

“ North, east, south, west, wherever she looked she could see nothing resembling a trail. In all that tangle of trees, rocks and undergrowth there was no indication that the foot of man had ever disturbed its solitude. And as Cora looked wildly about her, the forest seemed to mock her with a lurking smile as though taunting her helplessness. ”

“ They saw him go with immense relief, for there was no other man in sight, and his impudence had alarmed as well as offended them.
“Well, of all the nerve!” ejaculated Belle.
“You certainly can freeze when you want to, Cora,” laughed Bess.
“How lucky it was that you thought of Jack,” said Belle. “Did you see the frightened look that came into his eyes?”
“That sort of man always is a coward,” replied Cora. “Perhaps he won’t be so free and easy when he meets girls alone again. But let’s get busy now and hustle these things back into the car.” ”

“ It was a day on which it was good to be alive.
“To think that we’re really on our way to the Adirondacks,” murmured Belle delightedly. “I’ve wanted to go there ever since I wore pigtails.”
“And to Camp Kill Kare,” said Bess. “The very name seems to promise all kinds of fun.”
[4]
“Doesn’t it?” agreed Cora. “And how much more fun it is to go this way than in stuffy old railway cars.”
“Are you sure we can get there by to-morrow night?” asked Belle.
“We can if nothing happens to the car,” answered Cora. “It’s in splendid shape now, and we’re fairly eating up the miles. ”

“ On the other hand, she faced the perils of the woods if she left the shelter of the cabin. Bears and panthers roamed the forest in the daytime as well as at night. Lynxes and wildcats, too, though less dangerous, were not to be despised, and there was the ever-present danger of snakes.
While she was pondering the best plan to pursue, she heard the humming of a motor.
She jumped to her feet in wild delight. Could that be the motor of a car with people searching for her? It must be. ”

“ He took off his hat, and Cora’s startled eyes saw two large braids of hair coiled tightly about his head.
The aviator was a woman!
The next moment she had her arms about Cora, and the latter was sobbing as though her heart would break.
“There, there, my dear,” said the newcomer, patting Cora’s disheveled hair, “go ahead and cry all you want to. It will do you good, and I know just how you feel. But you’re all right now.”
[139]
The revulsion from despair to joy had been so great that it was some minutes before Cora recovered her self-control. ”

“ The little minnows swim into it to avoid their enemies and as soon as they’re well inside, the mouth closes and the plant regales itself with a fish dinner.
“Then there are the cannibal plants. There are hundreds of trees that have the life juices sucked from them by the parasitic plants that twine around them until they give up the ghost.”
“Just as the trusts do to the common people,” observed Jack.
“Well,” said Cora, drawing a long breath, “I’ve always known that nature was cruel, but I’ve never connected that idea with plants.” ”

“ I need refinement just as much as you do.”
“Peace, brethren,” interposed Jack. “We’ll do this thing on the level. My claims to coarseness are just as strong as either of yours, but do you see me engaging in unseemly brawls? Nay and again nay. We’ll pull straws for it and may the coarsest man win.”
“I don’t know that we want any of you,” said Cora. “We don’t take incurable cases.”
“Don’t be too harsh, Cora,” said Belle. “You know they say there’s a spark of good in the very lowest.”
“While the lamp holds out to burn
The vilest sinner may return,”
hummed Bess. ”

“ Paul Hastings, who had a position in an automobile concern, was a close friend of Jack and Walter, and the girls too liked him very much.
The love of motoring that all six, boys and girls alike, shared in common had led to many trips to various parts of the country, in the course of which they had met with many surprising and sometimes thrilling adventures. Both Cora and the Robinson twins had cars of their own, but as Cora seemed to take the lead in everything, most of the tours were taken in her car. ”

“ But despite their best efforts, dusk was settling down and the stars beginning to peep out when they drove up to the Kimball’s Aunt Margaret’s door.
She greeted them affectionately, and after they had washed off the dust of travel they were seated at the sumptuous meal she had had prepared in anticipation of their coming. After dinner was over, a number of young people in the neighborhood who had been invited to meet the tourists dropped in, and there was music and dancing. ”

“ He stood at the cabin door, watching them as they hurried down to their boat.
“This is the end of a perfect day,” sang Bess gaily, as they stepped on board the Water Sprite, which the boys had brought around to the little dock at which Mr. Morley’s rowboat was tied.
“It certainly has been a crowded one,” said Belle.
“Isn’t Mr. Morley an unusual man?” asked Cora. “I’m more and more convinced that there’s a mystery about him.”
“He’s a fine chap,” said Jack, “but I didn’t notice anything especially mysterious about him.”
“That’s because you’re a man,” said Cora. ”

“ If he had not been hardened, he would have succumbed before the exasperated glare of three pairs of girlish eyes.
“Better get in out of the wet, Jack,” counseled Paul.
“Come over here and I’ll protect you with my life,” adjured Walter.
“Don’t pay any attention to those idiots, girls,” advised Cora. “We’ll wait until we get by ourselves and can talk sense without being interrupted.”
The Water Sprite, as though repenting of its lapses that afternoon, was now on its good behavior, and she kept “dry as a bone” on the short passage from the island. ”

“ Cora ran in the direction indicated by the plane.
She had gone perhaps two hundred yards, when she came to a large plateau which bore marks of having been swept at some time by a fire. So fierce had been the conflagration that trees and undergrowth alike had been burned to ashes in the holocaust. Even the stumps had crumbled into ashes, and there were several places in the wide expanse where a skillful aviator could make a landing without danger of injuring his machine. ”

“ For the benefit of the servants, it was given out that Nina was a friend who had arrived rather late the night before, and might stay at Kill Kare for some time.
“Let’s hope that Joel doesn’t get wise,” remarked Jack, when he was alone with his chums. “I can imagine the old boy throwing a fit if he learns that we’re harboring anybody connected with the gypsies. He loves them as much as a miser loves a tax collector.” ”