Chapter XIV: A Steam Roller to the Rescue

The tired girls were awakened by a terrific racket. Groanings, clankings and an unfamiliar hiss greeted their ears. They opened their eyes to find that the day had dawned. But what meant this terrible uproar? A shrill, piercing whistle split the calm of the morning.

“Thave me! A train of carth ith coming through the woodth,” cried Tommy. “Oh, thtop them! They’ll run over the tennith court. Thave me!”

Harriet, who had sprung out of bed ahead of her companions, ran to the tent-opening and peered out. Her eyes grew large as she gazed. What she saw was a huge steam roller, enveloped in a cloud of steam. The roller was bumping over the uneven ground, jerking from side to side and making frantic efforts to escape from the rough trail over which the guiding hand of the engineer was directing it.

“For mercy’s sake, what does it mean?” gasped Harriet.

“It evidently is a mistake,” replied Miss Elting. “He has missed his way. Isn’t that man from Meadow-Brook?”

“Yes, he is. But I do not know him. I have seen him driving his steam roller through the streets. He is employed on the improved roads, I believe.”

“He’s coming right this way. He will run down the tent,” cried Margery.

The engineer made a detour at this stage, skirting the tennis court, then once more heading down toward the tent. He continued on his uneven way until right opposite the Meadow-Brook tent and but a few yards distant from it, when he shut off and stopped. Instantly a great burst of escaping steam roared from the safety valve, enveloping the roller in such a cloud that for the moment it was entirely obscured. The furnace door opened with a clank. When a gentle breeze blew the steam across the court toward the woods the girls saw the engineer lighting his pipe. This accomplished, he grasped the whistle lever, pulled the valve wide open and held it there, filling the air with an ear-splitting noise that lasted for a full minute and was deafening to say the least.

The girls were peering out through the narrow slit at the opening of their tent, but immediately on the starting of the whistle they poked their fingers in their ears to shut out the awful sound.

“Stop it!” yelled Crazy Jane. But the whistle drowned the sound of her voice, the latter being barely heard by her companions in the tent.

About this time they discovered P. Earlington Disbrow hopping from his tent with the aid of his stick. He had hastily drawn on his clothes, his hair was standing up in an unkempt shock. He approached the steam roller in a series of leaps and bounds, aided by his stick. The engineer, observing him, finally decided to let go of the whistle lever.

“Here, you bally driver, what do you mean by waking civilized people up by that din?” he demanded angrily.

“Isn’t this the place?” questioned the engineer innocently.

“Yes, it is the place, but blowing all the steam out of your boiler wasn’t a part of the job for which you were engaged. Either stop that racket or pull off where we won’t hear you. It’s five o’clock in the morning.”

“I got to get through and go back on a road job.”

“You will be finished before you start if you don’t watch out. Pull away from there. There are ladies in that tent. I don’t flatter myself that they are asleep. If this were a cemetery nobody would be asleep now, after your salutation to the dawn. Pull out, I tell you, and give them a chance.”

The engineer jerked the throttle open and started his lumbering craft ahead without a word of reply to the irate Englishman, who was regarding him with frowning eyes. The engineer drove his engine to the edge of the clearing, where once more the steam began to blow off, but he mercifully refrained from pulling the whistle. After the roller had come to a halt again, Disbrow hopped back to his own tent, where he took his time about making his morning toilet.

In the meantime the girls were gazing at each other wonderingly.

“What does it mean?” questioned the guardian.

“I do not know,” replied Harriet. “You heard Mr. Disbrow admit that the man had made no mistake in coming here. But what need have we for a steam roller unless it be to run over us, which perhaps might be a good thing after all,” she added with a laugh.

“Dress yourselves, girls,” ordered Miss Elting. “We have overslept as it is. Perhaps it is just as well that the steam roller woke us up.”

“I think I prefer another kind of alarm clock,” chuckled Harriet. “This one is too violent and nerve-racking.”

Mr. Disbrow was out a second time before the girls had made ready for their first appearance. He walked over and held a brief conversation with the driver of the roller, after which he sat down by his own tent to await the coming of the girls, who, he felt sure, would soon be out.

They were. They shouted a cheery good morning to their guest, who thereupon hobbled over to them, looking somewhat embarrassed.

“To whom are we indebted for the steam roller?” asked the guardian lightly.

“I owe you an apology, ladies. When I sent word to the man to come here, I did not for a moment imagine he would find it advisable to drive his hideous vehicle into camp before breakfast. I have expressed as much to him, though in somewhat less temperate language,” added Disbrow with a faint smile.

“The apology is accepted, sir,” answered Harriet gravely. “But we are still in the dark as to the reason for this—this visitation?”

“Ah, yes. I took it upon myself. You see, I need some practice, my late accident making it necessary that I, too, begin playing. No better opportunity will present itself. However, the court being in such wretched shape I dare not attempt any work upon it. It was for that reason that I had the boys send to town for a steam roller.”

“To pack down the court! Oh, that is it,” said Harriet brightly. “How can we thank you?”

“No necessity, Miss Burrell. I tell you it was principally in my own behalf that I ordered the roller. I didn’t order the whistle. That is thrown in gratis. When the boys get here we will have the net taken down so that the man can begin his work of rolling the court.”

“No need to wait for the boys. Come on, girls,” cried Harriet.

They ran to the court and, pulling up the stakes, laid the net flat, after which they rolled it carefully. The net was then removed and laid beside their tent, racquets and stakes were gathered up and stowed in the same place. It was all done with the usual snap of the Meadow-Brook Girls.

“You American girls certainly have the initiative,” declared Disbrow approvingly. “You aren’t afraid to do things. Now, if you were English, you would sit about and look languid, you would wait until the men came to do the work for you. Not so the American girl. When there is a thing to be done she does it. That is all there is to it. I’ll tell that driver to start in. I believe he has gone to sleep.”

“Thhall I throw a thtone at him?” questioned Tommy.

“By no means,” answered the guardian severely. “Run over and tell him we are ready for him.”

“No, no! Leave that for me,” protested Disbrow. But Harriet was already running toward the roller. She awakened the driver, telling him he might begin work at once. He delayed a long time before starting, first feeding more coal into the fire box and oiling the rheumatic joints of the machine before starting. While Mr. Disbrow was showing the driver how the court was to be rolled, the girls were hurriedly preparing breakfast. Had they not been enthusiastic before, they surely would be now that their instructor had gone to all this pains and expense in their behalf. They well knew that it was done wholly on their own account, despite his explanations to the contrary.

Captain George and his party arrived after the girls had finished their breakfast and the man was still clanking back and forth over the court, which was being slowly packed down into a firm surface that shone under the polish put on by the heavy roller.

“You are up early this morning,” remarked Disbrow, “but we have finished our breakfast. You will have to wait until luncheon time.”

“Had our breakfast, thank you,” answered Sam. “What time did the automobile get here?”

“That got here before breakfatht, too,” answered Tommy. “You mutht have thlept pretty thoundly not to have heard it.”

“We did hear it. We heard the whistle,” replied George. “Fine time of day to get here. Who cleared the court?”

“The young ladies,” answered Disbrow, with a reproving glance at the Tramp Boys.

“Too bad we all had sprained ankles,” retorted Sam mischievously, whereat a smile flitted over the pale face of P. Earlington Disbrow.

By eight o’clock Disbrow, after walking over the court and poking it with his stick, pronounced it satisfactory. He paid the driver of the outfit and dismissed him. The boys were directed to place the net, while the instructor looked on critically. When it came to measuring the court, he insisted on doing this himself.

“It is of vital importance that one practise under the identical conditions that will prevail in the match game. George, set up stakes and stretch a string so that all our lines may be true.”

When the court was completed, about an hour later, the campers gazed upon it delightedly.

“Oh, this is a real court!” cried Harriet with glowing eyes.

“Yes. And now you shall do some real playing. We shall have our strokes first, then we shall see you put them into practice in a real game. I’ll be playing myself if I look at that handsome court any longer.”

The day’s work was welcomed with enthusiasm by the Meadow-Brook team. Three sets were played before luncheon time, and rather spirited games they were. The girls with each succeeding game grew more and more proficient as the different strokes became more mechanical to them, and when a halt was called for the noon meal P. Earlington Disbrow showed real enthusiasm.

“Fine, fine!” he exclaimed, smiling broadly.

“Then you think we thall win the tournament?” questioned Tommy.

“My dear Miss Thompson, we are not cup-winners yet; we are still in the novice class. We hope to advance a step a day until we get into one of the higher classes.”

A long rest was taken after luncheon, and then the afternoon was a repetition of the morning with work made easy by the enthusiasm and the painstaking effort of the Meadow-Brook Girls. It had been the first really successful day since they began their practice.

“One point in your favor,” declared Disbrow as he was leaving the Meadow-Brook camp that night, “is your wonderful endurance. I believe in a long race you would wear out a steam engine. Add skill to that quality of endurance and you will be heard from one of these days on the tennis court.”

With this cheering word still ringing in their ears the Meadow-Brook Girls tumbled into bed and went to sleep almost as soon as they had drawn their blankets under their chins.