CHAPTER XV
TOMMY MAKES A DISCOVERY
A dozen girls sprang forward to the assistance of the unfortunatetrio, but Harriet was ahead of them. She grasped the Chief Guardianunder the arms and lifted her to her feet, then taking a hand of Mr.McCarthy pulled him up with disconcerting suddenness. He looked dazedand a little sheepish.
"It's that mad girl Jane of mine," he explained.
Mrs. Livingston's face was flushed, her eyes snapped; then her angryexpression softened and she burst out laughing.
"O Jane, Jane! You will be the undoing of all of us before you havedone."
Jane, with her hair disheveled, stood ruefully surveying the scene.
"I'm sorry, Mrs. Livingston, that you went over. I didn't want to makeyou fall down, but I just had to show Daddy how glad I was to seehim."
"You showed me all right, young lady. Lucky, for us all that we hadsoft ground under us. Mrs. Livingston, I suppose you'll be telling meto take this mad-cap daughter of mine home with me. I shouldn't blameyou if you did, and I don't think I'd cry over it, for I want her. No,I don't mean that--"
"Daddy!" rebuked Jane.
"I mean that she is better off here, and you are doing her a heap ofgood, Mrs. Livingston, even if she did give way to one of her old fitsof violence just now."
"Certainly not, Mr. McCarthy," answered the Chief Guardian promptly."We all love Jane. She is a splendid girl and we should miss her. Icertainly did miss her last summer, and now I should miss her morethan ever. I hope we shall have her with us for many summers; then oneof these days, when she is older, she, too, will have a camp of girlsto look after."
"I feel very thorry for the camp," broke in Tommy.
"You will have to buy a new camp stool, Daddy," reminded Jane. "I'mglad I'm not so stout that I break up the furniture every time I siton it."
"Yeth, Buthter doeth that," said Tommy, nodding solemnly.
"And you, young lady, you've got some strength in those arms," hesaid, turning to Harriet. "The way you bounced me to my feet was awonder. Tommy, you haven't shaken hands with your old friend. Comehere, my dear, and shake hands with me."
"You were tho mixed up that I couldn't tell which wath the hand tothhake," replied Grace promptly. "That wath what Jane callth a meth,wathn't it?"
"It was. Why, how do you do, Hazel--and Margery, too? Well, well! thisis a delightful surprise. How fine you all look. And I hear you had aswim the other night, Harriet, and you, too, Tommy. Well, well! Andyou like the water, eh?"
"It is glorious," breathed Harriet, instinctively glancing out to sea,where a flock of gulls were circling and swooping down in search offood.
"You won't have to swim any more unless you wish to. I've madedifferent arrangements about that."
"You mean you have bought me a new car, Daddy?" interrupted Jane.
"I haven't said. I reckon you don't need a car here. You must havelearned, from your recent experience, that an automobile doesn'ttravel on water half as well as it does on land."
"Ourth did. It traveled fine until it got to the bottom," Tommyinformed him.
"No, I haven't bought another car yet. I have some men who are goingto get the old one up to-morrow. We shall see what shape she's in. Ofcourse, if she isn't workable any more, I will have another for you bythe time you get home. Tell me how it happened. I couldn't make muchout of your telegram. By the way, when you send a telegram, don'tforget that you aren't writing a letter. That telegram you sent costme nine dollars and thirty-seven cents."
"Isn't it worth that much to hear from your daughter?" Jane's eyeswere dancing.
Mr. McCarthy took off his hat and wiped the perspiration from hisforehead.
"What would you do with her, Mrs. Livingston?" he laughed.
"I should love her, Mr. McCarthy; she is worth it," was the ChiefGuardian's prompt reply.
"She is," he agreed solemnly, "and I do. But you haven't told me,Jane, darling."
"Oh, let Harriet do it. I never was strong on telling things so anyone could understand what I was talking about."
"There isn't much to tell about the accident, except that we turnedoff on a side road according to directions. Jane wheeled down it at aslow rate of speed--for her," added Harriet under her breath. "We ranout on an ice pier and plumped right into the pond."
"You went down with the car, then?" stammered Mr. McCarthy.
"Right down to the bottom," Tommy informed him.
"That did not amount to much," continued Harriet. "The top was not up.We had little difficulty in getting out--"
"But Harriet was drowned in getting the trunk free from the rear end,"declared Jane earnestly.
"Drowned?" exclaimed the contractor.
"Yes, nearly drowned," corrected Miss Elting. "We had a pretty hardtime resuscitating her. I am beginning to think that the Meadow-BrookGirls bear charmed lives, Mr. McCarthy."
"So am I. But you don't mean to tell me that Harriet really was allbut drowned?"
"Yes."
"It does beat all, it does," reflected Mr. McCarthy, mopping hisforehead again and regarding Harriet with wondering eyes. "It is aguess as to whether she or Jane can get into the most trouble. Theyare a pair hard to beat."
"We do not try to find excitement, Mr. McCarthy," expostulatedHarriet. "We cannot always help it if trouble overtakes us the way itdid when the car went into the ice pond."
"Certainly not. I know you, at least, are wholly to be depended upon,but Jane isn't always the most prudent girl in the world. Now, willyou dears run along and enjoy yourselves. I have several things todiscuss with Mrs. Livingston, then we will have an afternoon together.I wish Jane and Harriet to drive down with me and show me the placewhere they lost the car later on in the afternoon. You remember youinterrupted our conversation here a short time ago, Jane," remindedthe visitor.
"May I try the car, Dad?" questioned Jane.
"Yes. But look sharp that you don't wreck the thing. I have no fancyto walk all the way back to Portsmouth this evening," he chuckled.
"Come along, Meadow-Brooks. I can't take any more this trip, but ifDad's buggy goes all right, I'll take the rest of you out on theinstalment plan."
"I don't want to go," decided Tommy. "I want to thtay here and retht.I never get any retht at all."
The others were eager to go. Jane already was cranking up the car. Hercompanions, with the exception of Grace Thompson, piled in, and a fewmoments later the car rolled from the camp, headed for the highwaysome little distance from the camp. There was no road leading to thecamp, but the way was reasonably smooth, provided one dodged thetrees, both standing and fallen.
In the meantime the other girls went about their duties andrecreations. Mr. McCarthy and Mrs. Livingston again sat down andcontinued their conversation. Tommy, now being without a guardian,Miss Elting having gone with Jane and her party, started down towardthe beach, her eyes very bright, her movements quick and alert. Someof the girls whom she met asked where she was going. Tommy repliedthat she might go fishing, but that she couldn't say for sure untilshe found out whether she could catch anything. The little girl keptedging farther and farther away from her companions, until finally,finding herself beyond sight of them, began running with all hermight. They saw no more of Tommy Thompson for several hours.
While all this was going on, Jane McCarthy was racing her father's carup and down the road at an ever-increasing rate of speed. Those in thecamp could hear the purr of the motors, and now and then a flash ofred showed between the trees as the car sped past the camp.
"Must be doing close to fifty miles an hour," observed Mr. McCarthy,grinning.
"Aren't you afraid she will kill herself, or some one else?"questioned the guardian anxiously.
"She never has. I don't reckon it would bother any of the Meadow-BrookGirls to go into the ditch. They are pretty well used to getting intomix-ups."
"They certainly have every reason to be used to it," nodded Mrs.Livingston reflectively. "But, were they my daughters, I must confessI sho
uld not know an easy moment. I do not, as it is, when they areout of my sight. That was the reason I hesitated to accede to yourrequest. However, they will have nothing to do with the operation ofit. All they will have to do will be to sit still and enjoythemselves. Then, again, it is the one thing needful to make a summerat the sea shore thoroughly enjoyable. I know that all of my girlswill take the keenest possible delight in it, and I thank you, ontheir behalf, for your thoughtfulness and kindness. You have done agreat deal for our camp, as well as for our organization, and I wishyou would permit me to make it known to the general officers in--"
"By no means, Mrs. Livingston," hastily interposed the visitor. "It isnothing at all, and it's just a little pride in that mad-cap daughterof mine that has led me to do what little I have. But in reference tothe new plan, you will tell the girls to-day, eh?"
"No; you tell them."
"Oh, leave me out of it, please."
"I could not do that. You will take dinner with us to-day, of course,and then you may announce it to the girls. I can imagine how pleasedthey will be. Why, there come the girls now!" exclaimed the ChiefGuardian.
"The girls?"
"Yes, yes. Jane--"
"Eh? Alone?"
"No, no. There is Miss Elting and Harriet. Yes, they are all there.What can it mean?"
"It means that they have smashed the car," groaned Mr. McCarthy. "Itold you." He did not look around, but sat fumbling with his hat, hisface very red. Jane stepped up before him, and with chin on her breastsurveyed him from under her eyelashes, "Well?" he demanded.
"Well, we're here," answered Jane.
"What is the trouble, girls?" cried Mrs. Livingston. "Thank goodness,you are all here. Why doesn't some one speak up?"
"How much damage did you do to her, Jane?" questioned the visitorcalmly, referring to the car.
"Enough."
"Tell me about it!"
"She's in the ditch about a mile up the road."
"Think we can pull her out between us?"
Jane shook her head.
"Not without the wrecking crew. She's bottom side up, two wheels offand part of her machinery on the other side of the road," was CrazyJane's calm reply. However, before they had an opportunity to saymore, Tommy Thompson came running toward them, her face flushed withexcitement.
"I've found it! I've found it!" she shouted.
"Found what?" demanded the Chief Guardian.
"I've found the treathure trail. I've got it, I know I have!"
The Meadow-Brook Girls by the Sea; Or, The Loss of The Lonesome Bar Page 15