by Lilian Garis
CHAPTER XIX
SHAG: THE ALARM CLOCK
Daylight was just peeking through the little crack in the tent flapwhen Grace screamed:
"Oh, my! For goodness' sake!" she yelled. "Someone, somebody,something, Shag wants to kiss my toesies!"
The self starters sat up and looked around--the other groaned.
Yes, there was Shag trying to make friends with anything that moved,and Grace must have unconsciously moved that foot.
"What do you want, Shag?" she asked.
The big, bushy tail whisked things around rather perilously in thenarrow quarters.
"Shag is an early riser," said Peg, trying to untangle herself fromthe things that held her on the rim of a cot. "He wants to run off andsee what's going on outdoors." She patted her dog affectionately, thenallowed him to run out, off over the hills to his own quarters.
But the spell was broken. They were awake, those insatiable girls, andready even now to talk to their visitor.
Grace "whispered," but the sibilant swish of sounds seemed moreresonant than an outspoken address might have.
"Don't wake Aunt Carrie," she warned, although _she_ was the alarmclock going off at that very moment.
"Don't wake Mackey," giggled Louise, after Mackey had thrown a leakypine needle pillow at her head.
"And just look at Izzy," begged Cleo. "She's soundproof--like our musicroom at school."
"Go on, Peg. Tell us about it," implored Julia. "I dreamed of you andyour shotgun all night."
"I didn't have a shotgun, that was Auntie," replied Peg. "Mine was areal up-to-date revolver."
"Oh, do tell us!" begged Helen, sitting up and shaking herspaniel-like mop of hair. It was bobbed, and curly, and altogethervery pretty.
"Did you shoot through the door, or was it through the window?"mumbled Cleo, determined to have some shooting in the landscape.
Peg laughed merrily. Then she stretched without warning Corene, andthe effect was accidental. When both girls got up from the floor, onefrom either side of the extension bed, and when it was finallyconceded that everyone was awake and therefore the water-fallwhispering was no longer necessary, "conversation was resumed,"according to Grace.
"And we never could have induced you to come, Peg, if something didn'thappen. Yet, from the first we all planned 'to get you,'" shefinished, a tragic note taking care of that final ominous phrase.
"I wanted to come more than you could possibly have wanted me to doso," said Peg, a trifle seriously. "But you have no idea what acomplicated thing it is for a girl to try to do anything really worthwhile."
"Oh, yes--we--have!" drawled Julia. "You should see me try to make afire to cook breakfast on damp mornings."
"Not that kind of thing, Julia," warned Grace, fearful that Peg wouldbe diverted from her story.
"And did men really try to break in your cottage?" asked Helen,sensation seething.
"It's rather a long story," admitted Peg.
"Go on and tell," begged Louise. "I don't think there is anything socomfy and cozy as story telling in bed," and she gave the blankets apremonitory swish that sent a pair of sneaks flying at her neighbor'shead.
"Of course, we don't want to intrude--that is, we don't want to appearcurious about your private business," apologized Cleo, with a painfulattempt at politeness.
"I am just too glad to tell someone," replied Peg. "If you could everknow what it has been to be misjudged by everybody: to have peopletaunting you and to hear all sorts of foolish things said about you----"
"But people up here admire you--very much," insisted Grace. "Old Pete,the boatman, told us how you rescued the man from the ice lastwinter."
"Oh, that," replied Peg. "He wasn't really unconscious, and I had helpto get him on Whirlwind. But you know how fine men are. They aregenerous and good-natured. Not like----"
"Say it, Peg! Not like girls! That is what you are thinking and I justagree with you," spoke up Julia. "We saw how contemptible those flashygirls were from the very beginning."
"Because they are the daughters of this man who has been claimingfather's rights," replied Peg.
Miss Mackin and Aunt Carrie were now talking in an undertone over intheir end of the tent, so that the girls were quite free to carry onthis disjointed conversation.
"And what happened yesterday after you left the hike picnic?" askedCleo.
"When I got back to the cottage there was Leonore Fairbanks trying tomake friends with Shag. If she could have gotten in the cottage, yousee, she hoped to find the drawing and plans for the invention,"explained Peg. "Then parts of the machine also are hidden in ourhouse, and if she could have obtained any single part of that machinethe men might have been able to guess at its principle."
"Oh, that was why you kept folks away from your house, was it?" askedGrace.
"Yes. Daddy charged me to protect all that work of his until I couldturn it over to his brother, my Uncle Edward. He has been abroad and Iexpect to hear any day that his steamer is in New York. What a reliefthat will be," she sighed.
"What steamer is he on?" inquired Julia.
"The Tourlander. He was in Egypt when daddy died and could not comeuntil he finished his business there."
"The Tourlander is the very steamer my Aunt Marie is on," said Julia,"and it was sighted yesterday. Daddy had a message; mother told meabout it when we went for the mail."
"Sighted! Oh, Aunt Carrie, did you hear? The Tourlander is coming in!It has been sighted!" Peg exclaimed gleefully.
"Really, my dear!" and that message had an electrical effect on MissRamsdell. "If Uncle Edward is coming in we must be stirring. Howstrange it all seems? That I should sleep in a tent again! I havealways loved camping, and since Peggie's mother died we spent quite alot of time traveling about. You see," she explained to everyone, "mybrother was a geologist, and at one time was employed by thegovernment to sample ores. That was how he came to be interested inthese hills. He insisted there were valuable zinc veins up here. Come,Peggie dear, I feel so anxious now. Won't it be splendid if your UncleEdward comes just now when things seem to be so critical?"
"We need him, Auntie mine," replied the girl, who was partiallysucceeding in freeing herself from the girls who vainly tried to holdher for a fuller story.
"I'll tell it all to you, every single bit," she promised. "But wereally must hurry back to the log cabin. Suppose we have beenbombarded during the night? Then, what would we do for a house andhome?"
"Oh, we haven't told you we are going to give up camp," exclaimedGrace. "We really haven't had a chance to tell you anything, Peg."
"Not when you insisted that I do all the talking," replied the other."But why are you going to desert camp?"
"In the interest of humanity," said Julia, solemnly. "We are going togive it to some children who need it more than we do."
"Am I included?" asked Peg. She was almost dressed, and some of thegirls were hurrying to be ready before she left for the hills.
"You simply can't go without breakfast," insisted Miss Mackin. "Wewill have coffee ready in less than no time----"
"But here is Shag, back," interrupted Peg. "What is it, boy? What'sgoing on up there?"
He wagged his tail and "smiled" and flipped his ears. The big collietried to lead his young mistress to the outdoors, at least he movedthat way himself and gave Peg a most appealing look from his big,soft, brown eyes.
"We're coming," Peg answered him. "Girls, it is perfectly delightfulfor us to be at camp and I have been envying you this joy all summer,but if you will excuse us, we are so anxious to get back to ourabandoned home----"
"Are you going to leave your valuables in our safe?" asked Louise.
"I would like to--if it wouldn't worry you too much----"
"Not the least bit. In fact if you leave them we will feel sure ofanother call, and that's a big consideration," declared Corene.
Peg laughed lightly. It was full bright daylight now, and the odor ofdewy softness, the breath of things green, permeated camp and groundssur
rounding.
"Don't you want to be introduced to our bucket-brigade washroom?"asked Louise. "Come along; the line forms on this side," and shedragged Peg out under the runt oak, where a guest basin, turned upsidedown, made a safe pedestal for a twittering robin. He hopped offpolitely as the girls tip-toed up.
"That's our Bobbie Robin," said Louise. "We have him almost trained toeat from a little table Julia erected for him. We place his breakfastthere, and what bird wouldn't eat a fresh cereal even from a tinytable?"
"Here comes our officer!" exclaimed Peg, as a cracking of leaves gavewarning of approaching footsteps.
"Good morning!" called out the man in blue. "All safe and sound downhere?"
"Perfectly," replied Peg. "Anything new on the hill?"
"Not just this morning, but we had some trouble last night," said theofficer. "You were right about the prowlers. We found a couple ofrailroaders hiding behind your barn."
"Are the horses safe?" This query showed Peg's new alarm.
"We made sure of that. I put Tim Morgan right in the cosy little roomthere, and Tim was grateful for the bunk. Also, no one could come nearthose horses with him on the scene."
"I must hurry back," said Peg to Louise. Others of the girls were nowmoving about.
"No need for worry," assured the officer. "These railroad men are thesort that walk the tracks, you know. They must have been hired to lookover your place, but they're busy looking out of a very small windowabout now," and he waved his stick in the direction of Longleigh,where the little country lock-up was situated.
Aunt Carrie was now out of the tent and ready to go back to the logcabin. She exchanged questions with the night watchman, and presentlyshe was saying her thanks and her good-byes, also promising to returnfor a real camp meal just as soon as she and Peg could safely leavethe cabin.
"If my uncle comes I shall be as free as your Bobbie Robin," said Peg."I intend to turn everything over to him; and what a joy that willbe!"
"Then you could come down here and help us wind up camp?" asked Cleoeagerly.
"I suppose I could if----"
"You must, my dear," insisted Miss Ramsdell. "You really must take aholiday."
"But I am somewhat disappointed," said Peg, she was looking over themist-veiled hills. "I hoped to have been able to follow out dear dad'sadvice----" She stopped suddenly, then shook herself free from thedetaining arms, and promised again to come back to campfire that verynight.
"And tell us all about your blockade?" said Helen.
"You mean stockade, Nellie," said Cleo. "But it is all the same in theglow of the campfire where all good stories get their magic touch."
"Good-bye!"
"Good-bye!"
And then the guests from the hilltop left.
For a few minutes the Bobbies stood, a little disappointed, but stillexpectant.
"I should be afraid to go back to that place," remarked Isabel.
"The officer is going to unlock and search first," said Cleo. "Iwouldn't mind going along to see the fun."
"Just imagine those two people standing ready with guns!" exclaimedJulia.
"I wouldn't care to trust myself with a tempting little gun,"confessed Louise. "I have always thought what a temptation it must beto pull a trigger."
"Like our Fourth of July pistols; so have I," admitted Isabel.
"Girls, do you realize it is almost time for colors?" asked MissMackin. "Suppose we sing a cheery 'Good Morning' to get our brainscleared up from all the excitement?"
Then the birds in tree and bush flew off, jealous of their woodlandrights, for the Bobbies really could sing, at least sweetly.
The colors were flying and a scent of coffee floated generously about,when two men on horseback came galloping along and drew rein at thefoot of Comalong hill.
"Hey, there, sissy!" called one, rudely. "Do you know where Peg is?The girl from the log cabin?"
"Don't answer," warned Miss Mackin quickly. "If they want information,that is not the way to seek it," and she turned the girls back to thebreakfast table where the "K. P.'s" were already busy serving.
The next moment the riders galloped off, and the Scouts suspectedcorrectly that one of the men was Francis Fairbanks.