Chapter XII: Meadow-Brook Girls Up a Tree

Supper, that night, was a jolly affair. Miss Elting decided that, though the boys were full of pranks, they were lads well worth knowing. She, naturally, was very particular as to the associates of her charges, but she approved of the Tramp Club. The boys, even as their captain had averred at the first meeting, were "full of mischief." Despite their love of fun however they were straightforward, manly young men.

The party broke up about nine o'clock that evening.

"To-morrow the contest begins," reminded the captain.

"So it does," answered Harriet, as though she had overlooked that fact. "What time do you start?"

"Oh, I don't know. What time do you start?"

"After breakfast," laughed Harriet.

"Ha, ha! That's another joke," chuckled Dill.

"It isn't as yet. Perhaps it may be to-morrow night," replied Harriet. But just how much of a joke it was to be, or on whom, Harriet Burrell at that moment did not know. She rather suspected it would be on the Tramp Club, but in this conjecture she was wrong.

"Oh, Harriet, why did you ever get us into this?" groaned Margery, after the departure of the boys. "Here am I half dead, with swollen feet and aching bones, and now I've got to enter a race of I don't know how many miles against a lot of athletic boys."

"As I said before, Margery, you may ride in the car if you prefer."

"No; I'm going through with this hike if it kills me."

"That's the way to talk!" nodded Harriet briskly. "Faint heart never won strong race."

"Have you any plans for fooling the boys, Harriet?" asked Jane.

Harriet shook her head, but, after a gesture of apology, drew Jane aside, whispering with her.

"Can you spare us a moment, Miss Elting?" asked Harriet. Soon the three were in earnest council.

"I agree," called Tommy ironically. "What ith it? I'm thtrong for it!"

"It's going to be hard work," declared the guardian, "and it'll be rough traveling during the last five miles, but we'll be there by noon. We made no agreement with the boys to stop at any particular place?"

"No, Miss Elting," Harriet answered.

"Then everybody to bed!" ordered the guardian tersely.

At three the next morning four sleepy girls were tumbled out of bed by a barely less drowsy chaperon. But swift, silent work had to be done. Harriet put wood on the still glowing coals of the fire, then prepared coffee and a light meal.

"Thtop it!" screamed Tommy, when energetic Jane "struck" the tent, bringing it down on a pair of heads, the other of which was Margery's.

Jane McCarthy, heedless of their protests, hustled relentlessly. The girls and their guardian ate as best they could, under the circumstances. By the time the light breakfast had been eaten all the packing had been done, and everything was ready for moving, except the dishes and supplies. These were packed by Margery, Hazel and Tommy. At four o'clock all was in readiness for the start.

"We are going to travel eastward over the mountains, girls," explained Harriet. "We shall have dense forests to go through and rugged paths to follow, but we shall save a number of miles and a great deal of time by going that way. We ought to reach Meadow-Brook some hours ahead of the boys if they take the road, as I heard Mr. Baker say they would. We shall touch the road occasionally, especially after we get over the mountains. And you, Jane, must leave a sign on the fence. We will do the same. Wherever we touch the highway we will make a sign, also putting down the time. Those boys don't know anything about our secret signs, and they mustn't."

"Are we all ready?" asked the guardian.

"Yes."

"You had better start your car quietly, Jane," suggested Miss Elting.

Jane nodded. She understood. The camp of the Tramp Club was not so far away but that the boys could hear the motor plainly if they were awake, which the girls very much doubted, as the Tramps had confessed that they sat up late nights, telling stories, playing Indian war games and scouting in the woods.

"Shoulder packs!" commanded Harriet.

A few moments later the four girls with their guardian, after having put out the fire, started from the field. They were headed for the highway. Jane stood beside her car, waving to them until they were out of sight, then she calmly climbed into the vehicle and went to sleep. Crazy Jane had a plan of her own.

About five o'clock the camp of the Tramp Club began to show signs of life. The captain roused his companions. It had been his intention to get out earlier, but he had overslept, as had all of his men. Still, he did not consider that there was any necessity for great haste. Of course he had not the slightest idea that the Meadow-Brook Girls had broken camp at any such early hour.

The boys, while losing no time, made no effort at great haste. It was nearly six o'clock when they finished their breakfast and half an hour later, before they strapped on their packs and started down the road.

Dill Dodd chuckled triumphantly as he pointed to Jane McCarthy's automobile standing right where it had been since the previous afternoon.

"All sleepy heads over there," nodded Sam. "We could beat that outfit and sleep all the time."

"Wait a minute," answered George. "I don't see the tent, do you, fellows?"

No one spoke for a moment. Then the leader announced that he was going down to the girls' camp. He returned at a trot after having visited the deserted camp and peered into the automobile.

"Well, what is it?" questioned several boys.

"Fellows, we're stung. They've gone!" declared George.

"But--but the automobile is there?"

"Yes, and that Miss McCarthy is curled up like a kitten on the back seat sleeping as sweetly as you please. There's not another girl in camp."

"Well, what do you know about that?" drawled Davy.

"How long have they been gone, do you think?" asked Will.

"From the feel of the ashes I should say several hours." George did not know that they had smothered the fire with a damp blanket. "That was a fine trick to play on us the first day," growled George. "That's the girl of it."

"Hold on, Cap. You know Miss Burrell, who seems to be the spokesman for the outfit, said strategy wasn't barred. This isn't a trick, it's strategy. There's a difference between tricking and strategy you know."

"Boys, we've _got to_ catch up with them," declared the captain. "Are we going to let a lot of girls get the best of us?"

"No!" shouted the boys in chorus.

"Then hike! Don't lose your wind at the start. Strike a steady clip, but after half an hour hit it up, and keep hitting it up till we catch up with them and take the lead once more. This is a fine mess, but we'll soon be out of it with flying colors."

The Tramp Club walked for two hours without finding any trace of the Meadow-Brook Girls. The boys were becoming worried. By this time they surely ought to have found the tracks of the girls in the road.

"You don't think they have taken a short cut, do you?" asked Charlie.

Baker shook his head.

"They couldn't get over those mountains. No; they have been following the side of the road, so we wouldn't be able to pick up the trail. They're sharp ones. They know something about trailing. That's plain to be seen. Hark! what's that?"

The honk, honk of an automobile horn was heard in the far distance to the rear of them. They listened a moment, then pressed on. It was not an unusual happening to be passed by a motor car. They soon realized, however, that this one was coming at a much higher rate of speed than the statute said was lawful.

A cloud of dust arose a full half mile to the rear of them. As it bore down on the boys the dust rose higher and higher.

"Hoo-e-e-e! Hoo-e-e-e!" yelled a shrill voice from the heart of the dust cloud.

"It's that Miss McCarthy. They call her Crazy Jane," shouted Dill. "Let's hold her up."

Bent on mischief, the boys formed a chain across the road with clasped hands. On came the car careening from side to side, its horn honking hoarsely like the warning of a sentinel crow, its driver uttering her shrill "hoo-e-e-e," her hair standing out almost straight behind her in the breeze.

The boys stood firm; the car did not slacken its speed.

"Jump for your lives!" yelled the captain of the tramps. "She's going to run us down!"

A great black object flitted past them just as their ranks opened. There was not even time to get out of the road. The most they could do was to make an opening large enough--and barely large enough at that--to permit the passage of the car, which went roaring past them. A long-drawn "hoo-e-e-e," floated back to them, a choking cloud of dust and sand showered over them, sending the boys into severe coughing fits as they staggered off to the side of the highway and sat down on the dusty grass.

"Well, what do you think of that?" gasped Sam Crocker.

"I think it's exceedingly lucky for us that we got out of the road when we did," answered Captain George, shaking an angry fist in the direction of the disappearing cloud of dust. "Why, she would have run right over us."

"She would," agreed the boys in chorus.

"But also she wouldn't. She knew we would get out of the way," added Sam Crocker.

"Come on, fellows. This won't do," cried George. "We've got to make tracks now." They scrambled to their feet and set out at a fast pace. In the meantime Jane McCarthy, chuckling over the scare she had given the Tramp Club, was racing along the highway in her mad drive to the eastward.

A few miles farther on she stopped the car and after taking a survey of the land, got out and made some chalk marks on a fence. Then she drove on more leisurely.

While all this was happening the Meadow-Brook Girls were traveling on, also at a fast pace. They had gotten over the rugged range of hills after having sustained some scratches on their hands and several rents in their frocks. They then came out into a corn field. A highway lay below them which they would have to cross. On the opposite side of the highway lay an apple orchard, the trees standing close together, their tops in most instances interlacing.

"I wonder if the boys have passed here?" questioned Hazel, shading her eyes and gazing up and down the road.

"No. They must still be a long way back," answered Harriet.

The Meadow-Brook Girls started down the hill, climbing the fence into the road. There before them, plainly discernible, were the tracks of an automobile.

"Jane went past here not long ago," decided Margery. "These are her car tracks, I am sure."

"Yes, and there's a chalk mark on the fence," said Miss Elting, pointing down the road a few rods. They hurried over to examine the sign.

"A broken arrow," exclaimed Harriet. "That means danger or 'look out.' Now, I wonder what we are to look out for? I don't see anything alarming."

"I think Jane means to inform us that the boys are not far from here and to look out for them," suggested the guardian.

"Yes, that must be it. Half-past twelve, the signal says, she passed here. That is nearly an hour ago. Come, girls, let's get over that fence in a hurry and be off. Once through the orchard, and they can't see us," urged Harriet Burrell.

"Wait; let's be certain that we are right," warned the guardian. She took a careful survey about them. Nothing of an alarming nature was to be seen. It was just an ordinary country scene, with the sun shining down overhead, the air warm and oppressive about them.

"Everything appears to be all right," she decided finally. "Yes, go ahead, girls." Miss Elting was the first to climb the roadside fence and drop down on the other side. She was quickly followed by the four girls of her party. "Keep on the alert, girls. If any of you catches sight of the boys drop down behind trees and don't speak." The guardian had entered into the spirit of the contest with an enthusiasm equal to that of the girls themselves. "I can't believe that they have gotten ahead of us. It isn't probable that that was what Jane meant when she marked the danger signal on the fence here."

"Wait," called Harriet. Springing back over the fence she wrote the letters "O. K." underneath the broken arrow and the triangle. This was for the purpose of informing Jane that her message had been read and understood in case she were to return that way later on, as she was more than likely to do.

This done they started briskly in among the trees of the orchard. They had not gone far before Tommy, who was in the lead, uttered a shrill little scream of alarm. The girls had started to run toward her when they halted abruptly. Just ahead of them stood a great hulking bull with head lowered to the ground, his small eyes fixed menacingly on the girls. The bull uttered a deep, rumbling bellow.

"Thave me! Oh, thave me!" wailed Tommy.

"Run for your lives, girls," shouted the guardian.

They turned and were about to flee for the road when they came to another abrupt stop. To the right and the left of them were two other bulls, each with lowered head, pawing the dirt with first one front foot then the other.

All at once the girls understood the meaning of Jane's danger sign. She had seen the bulls in passing, and knowing that her companions would pass that way, had halted to leave a warning for them.

"Quick! Into the trees!" shouted Miss Elting. She grabbed the trembling Tommy and helped her up into a tree, Harriet in the meantime performing the same service for Margery and Hazel. Then the guardian and Harriet began scrambling up, but ere they had gotten off the ground the bulls charged them.