CHAPTER XXII
THE TWINS' ALARM
It was fully an hour after the _Lauriette_ had chugged away from the dockat the island where the moving picture company was established that themotor-boat which had been to Oak Point returned with Tom Cameron aboard.
Tom, with the other men who had been exploring and fishing all day, wasravenously hungry, but he went around to the veranda of the chiefbungalow where his twin sister and Ruth stayed to see how they werebefore even going to wash and to see if he could bribe one of the cooksto set out "a cold snack."
Tom found Helen on the porch, alone. At a glance, too, he saw that shewas not in a pleasant mood.
"What's gone wrong?" demanded Tom. And with a brother's privilege ofbeing plain-spoken, he added: "You look cross. Go in search of yourtemper."
"Who says I've lost it?" demanded Helen sharply.
"I Cagliostro--Merlin--wizard that I am," chuckled Tom. "I am stilllittle Brighteyes, and I can see just as far into a spruce plank as thenext one."
"Well, I am mad, if you want to know," sniffed Helen.
"Where's Ruth?"
"She's whom I am mad at," declared the girl, nodding.
"I don't believe it," said Tom soothingly. "We could not really be mad atRuth Fielding."
"Don't you feel that way yourself--the way she acts with Chess Copley?"
"I wouldn't mind punching 'Lasses' head," returned Tom. "But that'sdifferent."
"Is that so? What do you know about their being out on the river togetherright now? Humph!"
"Where have they gone?" asked her brother. "Why aren't you with them? Arethey alone?"
This brought out the full particulars of the affair, and Tom listened tothe end of a rather excited account of what had happened thatafternoon--both on the island where Helen and Ruth had been "marooned"and here at the camp--together with the suspicions and curiosity aboutthe island which had been dubbed the Kingdom of Pipes. Nor did it lackinterest in Tom's ears in spite of his sister's rather excited way oftelling it.
"But look here," he asked. "Why didn't you go with Ruth and 'Lasses?"
"Humph! They didn't want me," sniffed Helen.
"Now, Helen, you know better. Ruth never slighted you in the world. Iknow her better than that."
"Well, she makes too much of Chess Copley. She is always praising him upto me. And I don't like it. I'll treat him just as I want to--so there!"
Tom looked rather sober at this. He hesitated a moment. He wanted to askhis pettish sister a question, but evidently did not know how to go aboutit.
"It can't be helped now, I suppose. They will be back after a while.Where were they going besides to that crazy fellow's island?"
"Just there. That's all."
"Come on and watch me eat. I'm starved."
"Thanks! I watched the pythons fed at the zoo once," said Helen withunwonted sharpness. "I will sit here till the scene of savagery is over.You can come back."
"You are in a fine mood, I see," observed Tom, and went off chuckling.
Nevertheless, he was not feeling very happy himself over the thought thatRuth and Chess Copley were out on the river together.
"Looks mighty fishy," muttered Tom Cameron. "I could punch 'Lasses' head,the way I feel."
These thoughts seemed to take Tom's appetite away. To his sister'ssurprise, he returned in a very few minutes to the front porch of thebungalow.
"I told you that you had boa-constrictor habits," she gasped. "Why, TomCameron! you must have swallowed your supper whole."
"I didn't swallow as much as I expected," returned the young man,smiling. But he grew serious again. "How long was Chess going to stay outin his boat?" he asked.
"You don't suppose that I saw him go?" asked Helen, with surprise.
"Do you know that it is after eleven o'clock?" said her brother. "If theywent no further than that crazy man's island, what do you suppose iskeeping them?"
"Mercy's sake! is that the time, Tommy-boy? Why, the crazy man himselfmust be keeping them! Do you suppose the King of the Pipes has capturedRuth and Chess?"
"Don't try to be funny," advised Tom. "It may be no laughing matter."
"Well, I like that!"
"I don't think that Chess would keep her out so late if everything wasall right. Sure they were not going to Copley Island?"
"Sure. The girls have gone away. There's no fun going on there."
"Well, of course the motor-boat may have broken down. Such thingshappen," said Tom reflectively.
"Now you have got me stirred up," cried Helen. "I had no idea it was solate. And Ruthie does not believe in late hours."
"She would not stay out on the river with me half the night, that issure," grumbled Tom.
"Oh, Tommy-boy!" exclaimed his sister, "I don't believe she cares so muchfor Chess. I really don't."
"Well, that is not here nor there. What's to be done? Where's Mr.Hammond--or Willie?"
"They haven't got back from Chippewa Bay with the _Gem_."
"This clumsy old _Tamarack_ is too big for me to handle alone. And theboys have all gone to bed by this time."
"The canoes aren't too big for us to handle," Helen said.
"Us?"
"Yes. I insist on going, too, if you start out to look for the_Lauriette_. And it will look better too. If we are simply paddlingabout, there being nothing the matter with Chess and Ruth, they won't beable to laugh at us. Come on!" exclaimed Helen, picking up her sweater."I am a loyal sister, Tom Cameron."
"Right-o!" he agreed, more cheerfully. "I suppose there really is nothingthe matter. Yet, whatever else Chess Copley is, he's not the sort offellow to keep a girl out till midnight on the river when there is nobodyelse along."
"Humph! Do you think Ruth is a mere chit of a flapper? You areold-fashioned, Tommy-boy. The day of the chaperon is about over."
"You know it isn't over in our set, and never will be," he returned. "Yougirls have a lot of freedom, I admit. But there are limits."
"Baa!" was Helen's utterly impudent remark.
They ran down to the shore and got out one of the canoes. Helen wasfamiliar with the use of the paddle and served her brother as a goodsecond. They drove the canoe out into the open river, but only just for alook up its expanse.
There was no motor-boat in sight or hearing--not even the distant lightsof one. The current was so strong that the Cameron twins went back amongthe islands where the water was smoother. Besides, it was much moreromantic, Helen said wickedly, among the islands, and Chess and Ruth weremore likely to remain in the tortuous passages.
The two laid a pretty direct course, however, for the Kingdom of Pipes.As they spied it, and drew nearer, Tom suddenly stopped paddling and heldup his hand.
"What's the matter?" demanded his sister, likewise raising her paddle outof the water.
"Listen," warned Tom.
Faintly there came the noise of a motor-boat to their straining ears.
"Here they are!" shrilled Helen.
"Will you be still?" demanded her brother. "That's not Copley's boat.It's a deal bigger craft. She's on the other side of the island."
Helen leaned forward and caught at his sleeve. "Look there!" shewhispered. "There is the _Lauriette_."
She had been the first to see the outline of the Copley launch mooredclose to the shore of the island at its upper end.
"They've gone ashore," said Tom. "Where can they be? If that other boatis approaching this island----"
"Oh, Tom! The pirates!"
"Oh, fudge!"
"The smugglers, then. Chess said he believed there were smugglers here."
"What do they smuggle?" demanded Tom with some scorn.
"I don't know. He did not seem very clear about it."
"Just the same," Tom observed, sinking his paddle again in the water,"there may be trouble in the air."
"Trouble on the river, I guess you mean," giggled Helen.
But she giggled because she was excited and nervous. She was quite asalarmed as Tom was over the
possibility that Chess and Ruth had got intosome difficulty on the King of the Pipes' island.
Ruth Fielding on the St. Lawrence; Or, The Queer Old Man of the Thousand Islands Page 22