Chapter VII: Discovering Midnight Prowlers

"Have you a ball of strong twine in your kit, Jane?" asked Harriet. "You told me to ask for anything I wanted but did not see."

"Sure, I have. In the tool box. Wait. I'll get it for you."

While Jane went for the twine, Harriet hurried out, returning a few moments later with two sticks, each stick being about five feet long. Next she got a tin pail and stood the pail bottom-side-up on the sticks. Her companions watched her wonderingly.

"What _are_ you trying to do?" demanded Miss Elting.

"Fixing a burglar alarm. You'll agree that it is all right after I have it finished. Now, I want to run this twine all the way around the camp. I shall need some round sticks. Help me find some, Tommy. You have sharp eyes."

All hands set out to hunt for the desired sticks. Harriet began thrusting them into the soft ground at more or less regular intervals.

When the stakes had been placed loops of string were tied near the tops of them, and through these loops was threaded the long twine until the camp was entirely surrounded by it. It formed a thread-like barrier that seemed too slender a thing to be of much use. One end of the string was secured to the two sticks on which the pail had been placed. The slack in the string was taken up until the sticks and the pail tilted from the wall of the tent at a sharp angle.

"Hurrah!" cried the guardian. "That is a most ingenious contrivance. How did you come to think of it?"

"Nethethity ith the mother of invention, tho my father thayth," spoke up Grace.

Harriet nodded approvingly. The others laughed.

"Tommy is becoming quite a philosopher," averred the guardian. "Aren't you going to give us a demonstration of your invention, Harriet?"

"Very well," laughed Harriet. "Hazel, will you go out and stumble against the string? Don't you dare to break it for--Oh!"

The two sticks had come down with a crash, the tin pail rattling as it rolled over the floor. Tommy screamed and so did Margery.

"There's your demonstration," announced Harriet. "Some one is coming. I hope it isn't those Italians again."

Miss Elting with her loaded revolver, Jane with her club, Harriet armed this time with a stout stick, sauntered forth to meet the newcomer. Jane had run to the dark side of the tent, thrusting her club across the corner ready to use it at the first indication of trouble. To her disgust, the farmer from whom she had obtained permission to make camp, now appeared on the scene.

"It's all right, girls. This is the gentleman who let us make camp here," called Jane.

"I just came over to tell you to take care of your fire. If it runs it'll burn off the meadow, it being all fresh seeding there. I wouldn't want to lose it," hailed their visitor.

"Thank you for calling our attention to it. We are always careful of fire," Miss Elting made reply.

"What was it I fell over when I came in here?" he asked, glancing about him. "You certainly look mighty comfortable here."

The girls looked at each other and giggled.

"It was a little contrivance of one of our young women, so that we might be warned of the approach of strangers," the guardian informed him. "You see, it warned us that some one was coming."

"I guess you can take care of yourselves, all right. Is there anything you want? If there is, come over to the house. My wife is curious to see this outfit. Maybe she will come over in the morning."

"Thank you very kindly for your interest," answered the guardian. "We shall be breaking camp early in the morning."

The farmer left. Harriet nodded to her companions.

"Was the demonstration satisfactory?" she questioned.

"I should say it was," answered Margery. "It nearly scared me out of my wits."

"I suppose we shall have to mend the string now. The farmer's big boots broke it in two places. However, we needn't worry about any person getting into this camp to-night without giving us warning of his approach," said Harriet. She repaired the broken "burglar alarm," then returning to the tent adjusted the sticks and the pail, placing several other pieces of tinware with it. The girls then gathered about the campfire, where they chatted, told stories and exchanged experiences until a late hour.

Harriet got out the map just before they retired. After consulting with Miss Elting for some time, it was decided that they should take a short cut across a rugged country, using their compass to guide them, meeting Jane some twelve miles further on. She would have to drive more than twenty miles to make the point. The girls did not enjoy the highways very much. In the first place, the roads were dusty; many curious people were to be met with on the roads; then again they thoroughly enjoyed breaking new paths through the forests and over fields and hills. Now that all the crops had been garnered there was no danger of doing damage to the farmers' fields by tramping across them. Jane was instructed to wait for them after driving into the next town for fresh supplies.

"It's curious that we don't run across any melon fields. The first one I catch sight of I'm going to raid," she declared.

"No, Jane, you mustn't do that," objected the guardian. "What we get we must pay for."

"Certainly," agreed Jane. "But there isn't any sport in just walking up and paying for melons. It's a heap more fun to forage for them."

"But, Jane, think what it means to take an object of value that doesn't belong to you. It is stealing!"

"That's true. It surely is," agreed Jane. "I won't ever mention any such thing again."

"Thank you," returned Miss Elting with a smile that amply repaid Crazy Jane for her decision.

At last all hands began making preparations for bed. Folding cots were opened and made up, fresh fuel was heaped on the campfire, then Harriet and Miss Elting made a round of the camp to see that all was in shape for the night. Jane lighted the big headlights on her car, turning them on the darkest part of the camp, after which they drew the flap to the tent and began preparing for bed. Half an hour later the camp was silent, save for the occasional crackling of the fire. All the dead leaves and inflammable stuff had been raked away and the ground dug up immediately about the fire to prevent it from spreading. The moon now silvered the landscape, and a faint mist was rising from about the Willow Ponds, adding to the beauty of the night.

Midnight came, then the silence became more marked than before. About one o'clock in the morning two men might have been observed skulking about the farther side of the pond nearest to the camp. They took care not to come within range of the headlights of Crazy Jane's motor car. Had one looked closely at them the men might have been recognized as the same pair that had visited the camp with the bear earlier in the evening. What their purpose was in returning could only be surmised.

It might be revenge or robbery. In either event it was bad enough, and the Meadow-Brook Girls, sleeping soundly, were blissfully unconscious of the danger that menaced them. Their faith in Harriet Burrell's burglar alarm permitted them to sleep without fear.

All at once there was a mighty crash in the tent. As Tommy Thompson described it afterwards, "it thounded ath if lightning had thtruck a tin thhop." The tin pail and the other kitchen utensils that had been hung on the long sticks in the tent came down with a clatter and a bang. The tin pail rolled clear across the tent, landed on Margery Brown, bringing from her a scream of terror.

"Quick! Put on your bathrobes!" called Miss Elting. "There is trouble here."

No need to tell them that. The tin pail already had conveyed this information to the Meadow-Brook Girls.

"Oh, thave me!" wailed Tommy.

Harriet was the first one to run outside the tent.

"There they are!" she cried, having caught sight of two skulking figures near the automobile. "It's the same Italians. Let's call for help as loudly as we can. Perhaps that will make them take to their heels."

It had the desired effect. Seeing that the camp was fully aroused the intruders fled. Then a daring plan suggested itself to Crazy Jane McCarthy. Leaving her companions she started on a run for her car.

"Come back! Where are you going?" cried the guardian.

"I'll show you, I'll show them! Just watch and you'll see more fun than a barrel of monkeys eating cayenne pepper."

Dashing up to the car, she advanced the spark control, and gave the crank a quick turn. The car began a sputtering that quickly grew into a roar from the exhaust. Crazy Jane leaped in. She was clad in a bathrobe that reached to her ankles; her tangle of hair fell about her face and shoulders giving her face a wilder and more weird expression than ever.

Jane threw in the high speed lever. The car leaped forward. Harriet Burrell, who had divined something of Jane's purpose, made a running leap and landed on the step, grasping one of the cover braces for support.

"Jane, Jane! For goodness' sake, what are you going to do?"

"I'm going to give the rascals the scare of their lives. They haven't had enough. Get in!"

Harriet did so, but only to prevent being thrown off the car. She had little desire to participate in the drive that she well knew would be an exciting one. Miss Elting was shouting to Jane to come back. Jane did not or would not hear. Uttering a shrill little cry of triumph she drove the car ahead at a perilous rate of speed. Over the rough field the automobile lurched and careened imperiling the safety of its occupants and threatening momentarily to upset and wreck the car.

The two men were fleeing across the field. Seeing the car bearing down upon them, they began to dodge. The big white eyes of the headlights followed them wherever they went. It was maddening. Now the fugitives began zig-zagging. So did Crazy Jane. Once she nearly ran them down. The Italians sprang out of the way just in time and began running back toward the camp. Jane pursued them as soon as she could get the car turned about and facing the other way. By this time the men had gotten a long start.

"They're making for the camp, the villains," breathed Jane.

"It is because they are trying to get out of your way," answered Harriet almost breathlessly. "You will have to head them off."

"Head them off nothing!" exploded Jane. "Rather will I take their heads off, the miserable rascals."

"Jane, Jane! You mustn't run them down. You simply _must not_. You might kill them. Please, please don't try to do that, dear!" begged Harriet.

"All right, darlin'. But you're making me lose a lot of fun. I don't get an opportunity like this every day in the week. They deserve all I can give them."

"You mustn't harm a human being, no matter how bad he is. There, they have turned toward the road."

"I won't hurt them," promised Jane. "I'll just scare them a little."

"Oh!" cried Harriet as the car rose on two wheels, nearly turning over. "Do be careful!"

"Don't be afraid. As long as I've got two wheels on the ground I'm all right. Now if I had only one wheel on the old sod you might worry, but you wouldn't worry for long. See 'em go. They know I've got them now!"

Just then the men plunged headlong into a ditch that extended all the way across the field. The girls had not discovered it until that moment. Jane checked her car just in time to prevent it also from going into the ditch.

"There's a bridge to the right," Harriet informed her, then was sorry she had made the suggestion. Crazy Jane charged the bridge at full speed. All four wheels seemed to strike the planking at the same instant.

Jane turned sharply. They were now chasing the two men obliquely across the field. The men were lagging.

"They're getting winded," shouted Crazy Jane triumphantly.

"Please go back now," begged Harriet "You have frightened them enough. They never will trouble us again."

"Not till I get the wretches on a run down the road. I've not finished with them yet."

"They have nearly finished themselves," answered Harriet. She was no longer apprehensive that Jane would injure the men intentionally, though Harriet feared that one of them might stumble and be crushed underneath the car. Still her pulses were beating high, the color in her cheeks had mounted to her forehead. She was entering into the spirit of the wild chase almost with the enthusiasm of Crazy Jane herself.

The voices of their companions in the camp no longer reached them. The two girls were too far away to hear now, even had the car not been making such a din.

The two men were making for the roadside fence, a board structure, which in the haze of the damp night, the girls did not see. They had forgotten that the fence was there.

All at once the men reached the fence. Grasping the top board they flung themselves over, landing heavily on the ground on the other side.

"Look out!" cried Harriet warningly.

"Hold fast!" yelled Jane.

Crash!

The car struck the fence with a mighty crash accompanied by the sound of splintering woodwork. The headlights went out, and Jane brought her car to a stop in the midst of the wreck at the roadside.