CHAPTER XIII
THE KINGDOM OF PIPES
Ruth Fielding at first felt only hurt; then she felt angry. She was nolonger the timid, sensitive girl who had faced Jabez Miller when shefirst came to the Red Mill with a tremulous smile, to be sure, but tearsstanding thick in her eyes. No, indeed!
The present Ruth Fielding, a young woman of purpose and experience, notonly could hide her feelings--especially if they were hurt ones--butpossessed a saving sense of humor. And to her mind, just a moment later,Tom Cameron's very military looking shoulders and stride seemed ratherfunny.
He had hurt her; but then, he had hurt her as a boy might. It was true,perhaps, Tom was not grown up. Ruth considered that she was--very muchso!
There he was, daring to complain because his army career had ended sosuddenly--wishing that he had remained in uniform. And how would hisfather and his sister have felt if he had done so!
"He's a great, big booby!" Ruth whispered to herself. Then her smile cameback--that wistful, caressing smile--and she shook her head. "But he'sTom, and he always will be. Dear me! isn't he ever going to grow up?"
So she hid her hurt and accepted the first partner thereafter whooffered; but it was not Chess. Secretly she knew what the matter with Tomwas. And she was too proud to let the ex-captain see that she cared.Nevertheless she was sorry that the party from down the river broke up asthey did when the time to go home came.
She found herself in the Copley's launch again, with Chess' sisters andthe members of the house party the Copleys were entertaining at theirisland. This dividing of the clans made it possible for Chess afterletting the others out at the Copley dock, to take Ruth to the movingpicture island alone.
It was a lovely, soft, moonlight night. The haze over the islands and thepassages between could not be called a fog, but it was almost asshrouding as a fog. When Chess ran the launch outside into the mainstream, where the current was broad and swift, the haze lay upon therippling surface like a blanket.
They were going very swiftly here, for it was with the current. SuddenlyChess shut off the engine. The "plop" of the exhaust ceased. They driftedsilently on the bosom of the St. Lawrence.
"I don't see why I am treated so, Ruth," Chess suddenly burst out. "Doyou know, I'm awfully unhappy?"
"You poor boy!" said Ruth in her warm-hearted way. "I think you areover-sensitive."
"Of course I am sensitive. I shall always be when I am--am--interested inany person and their treatment of me. It is congenital."
"Dear, dear!" laughed Ruth. "They have discovered that even incipientcongenital idiocy can be cured by the removal of the adenoids. But Idon't suppose such an operation will help you?"
"Oh, don't tease a fellow," complained her friend.
He reached for the throttle, then hesitated. Somewhere in the mist aheadwas the throb of another engine.
"Who's this?" muttered Chess.
"Maybe it is Tom--looking for us," said Ruth, chuckling.
"The gall of him," exclaimed the heated Copley. Then he made a gesturefor silence. A long, quavering "co-ee! co-ee!" came through the mist andfrom the south.
"From one of the islands," said Chess quickly.
"What island is that over there?" demanded Ruth, in a whisper. "Isn't itthe one we took the first picture on?"
"It sure is," agreed the young fellow, but wonderingly.
"The Kingdom of Pipes," murmured Ruth.
"What's that?" asked Chessleigh.
Ruth repeated Helen's name for the rocky island on which Ruth had met thequeer old man. "That call came from the island, didn't it?" she asked.
"I believe it did. What's going on here?"
"Hush!" begged Ruth. "That launch is coming nearer."
As she spoke, a moving object appeared in the mist. There was no lightupon this strange craft. Chessleigh shuttered his own cockpit lampinstantly.
"Good boy," acclaimed Ruth. "There is something going on here----"
They heard the call from the island again. There was a low reply from thestrange launch--a whistle. Then the launch pushed on and was hidden bythe mist again from the curious eyes of Ruth and her companion.
But they knew it had gone close to the island, if it had not reallytouched there. Its engine was stilled. All they heard for a time was thelapping of the waves.
"I'd like to know what it means," grumbled Chess.
Ruth agreed. "Let's wait a while. We may hear or see something more."
"Won't see much, I guess," replied her companion.
"Never mind. Let the boat drift. We're all right out here in the current,are we not?"
"Guess so. It beats my time," said her friend. "They say there is a lotof smuggling done along the border."
"Do you say so?" gasped Ruth, clasping her hands and almost as excited asHelen might have been. "Smugglers! Think of it!"
"And bad eggs they are."
"Of course there is no danger?"
"Danger of what?" he asked.
"Wouldn't the smugglers hurt us if we caught them?"
"Don't know. I've got a loaded pistol in the cabin. Guess I'll get itout," said Chess.
"I guess you won't!" Ruth exclaimed. "We'll go right away from herebefore we get into a fight!"
"Humph!" grunted Chess. "You don't suppose they would welcome any spiesif they are smugglers, do you?" he asked.
"But what do they smuggle? Diamonds? Precious stones?"
"Don't know. Maybe. There is a heavy internal revenue tax on diamonds,"Chess said.
"Goodness! wouldn't Helen like to be here."
"She'd want to go ashore and take a hand in it," grinned Copley. "I knowher."
"Yes, Helen is brave," admitted Ruth.
"Humph! She's foolish, you mean," he declared. "Whatever and whoeverthose fellows are, they would not welcome visitors I fancy."
Their launch had been drifting by the island, the upper ridge and treesof which they could see quite plainly. Suddenly a breath of wind--theforecast of the breeze that often rises toward daybreak--swooped downupon the river. It split the mist and revealed quite clearly the upperend of the island where Ruth had interviewed the queer old man, and whichCopley's launch had now drifted past.
A light showed suddenly, and for a few moments, close to the water'sedge. It revealed enough for the two in the drifting launch to seeseveral figures outlined in the misty illumination of the light.
There was the bow of the mysterious boat close against the landing place.At least three men were in the boat and on the shore. Ruth could not besure that either of them was the old man she had spoken with.
But she and Chess Copley saw that they were unloading something from theboat--square, seemingly heavy boxes, yet not so heavy that they could notbe passed from hand to hand. One was about all the weight a man mighteasily lift.
"What do you suppose those boxes are?" whispered Ruth, as the Copleylaunch drifted into the mist again and the end of the island and theother boat were blotted out of sight.
"Give it up. Provisions--supplies. Maybe they are going to camp there.Lots of people camp out on these smaller islands."
"The King of the Pipes will have something to say about that," laughedRuth. "One thing sure about it," she added the next moment, as Chessstarted his engine again. "Those boxes don't contain diamonds."
"I should say not!"
"So if we saw smugglers they are smuggling something besides preciousstones," said the girl gaily. "Won't Helen be interested when I tellher!"
Ruth Fielding on the St. Lawrence; Or, The Queer Old Man of the Thousand Islands Page 13