Diane of the Green Van

by Leona Dalrymple

  DIANE OF THE GREEN VAN

  by

  LEONA DALRYMPLE

  Illustrations by Reginald Birch

  ChicagoThe Reilly & Britton Co.Third printing

  1914

  "_In Arcadie, the Land of Hearte's Desire, Lette us linger whiles with Luveres fond; A sparklynge Comedie they playe--with Fire-- Unwyttynge Fate stands waytynge with hir Wande._"

  Diane of the Green Van was awarded the $10,000.00 prize in a novelcontest in which over five hundred manuscripts were submitted.

  [Frontispiece: "Excellency, as a gentleman who is not a coward, itbehooves you to explain!"]

  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER

  I Of a Great White Bird Upon a Lake II An Indoor Tempest III A Whim IV The Voice of the Open Country V The Phantom that Rose from the Bottle VI Baron Tregar VII Themar VIII After Sunset IX In a Storm-Haunted Wood X On the Ridge Road XI In the Camp of the Gypsy Lady XII A Bullet in Arcadia XIII A Woodland Guest XIV By the Backwater Pool XV Jokai of Vienna XVI The Young Man of the Sea XVII In Which the Baron Pays XVIII Nomads XIX A Nomadic Minstrel XX The Romance of Minstrelsy XXI At the Gray of Dawn XXII Sylvan Suitors XXIII Letters XXIV The Lonely Camper XXV A December Snowstorm XXVI An Accounting XXVII The Song of the Pine-Wood Sparrow XXVIII The Nomad of the Fire-Wheel XXIX The Black Palmer XXX The Unmasking XXXI The Reckoning XXXII Forest Friends XXXIII By the Winding Creek XXXIV The Moon Above the Marsh XXXV The Wind of the Okeechobee XXXVI Under the Live Oaks XXXVII In the Glades XXXVIII In Philip's Wigwam XXXIX Under the Wild March Moon XL The Victory XLI In Mic-co's Lodge XLII The Rain Upon the Wigwam XLIII The Rival Campers XLIV The Tale of a Candlestick XLV The Gypsy Blood XLVI In the Forest XLVII "The Marshes of Glynn" XLVIII On the Lake Shore XLIX Mr. Dorrigan L The Other Candlestick LI In the Adirondacks LII Extracts from the Letters of Norman Westfall LIII By Mic-co's Pool LIV On the Westfall Lake

  ILLUSTRATIONS

  "Excellency, as a gentleman who is not a coward it behooves you to explain." . . . _Frontispiece_

  Diane swung lightly up the forest path

  White girl and Indian maid then clasped hands

  "No, I may not take your hand."

  CHAPTER I

  OF A GREAT WHITE BIRD UPON A LAKE

  Spring was stealing lightly over the Connecticut hills, a shy, tenderthing of delicate green winging its way with witch-rod over the woodedridges and the sylvan paths of Diane Westfall's farm. And with thespring had come a great hammering by the sheepfold and the stableswhere a smiling horde of metropolitan workmen, sheltered by night inthe rambling old farmhouse, built an ingenious house upon wheels andflirted with the house-maids.

  Radiantly the spring swept from delicate shyness into a bolder glow ofleaf and flower. Dogwood snowed along the ridges, Solomon's sealflowered thickly in the bogs, and following the path to the lake onemorning with Rex, a favorite St. Bernard, at her heels, Diane felt witha thrill that the summer itself had come in the night with awind-flutter of wild flower and the fluting of nesting birds.

  The woodland was deliciously green and cool and alive with the pipingof robins. Over the lake which glimmered faintly through the treesahead came the whir and hum of a giant bird which skimmed the lake withsnowy wing and came to rest like a truant gull. Of the habits of thisextraordinary bird Rex, barking, frankly disapproved, but finding hismistress's attention held unduly by a chirping, bright-winged caucus ofbirds of inferior size and interest, he barked and galloped off ahead.

  When presently Diane emerged from the lake path and halted on theshore, he was greatly excited.

  There was an aeroplane upon the water and in the aeroplane a tall youngman with considerable length of sinewy limb, lazily rolling acigarette. Diane unconsciously approved the clear bronze of his lean,burned face and his eyes, blue, steady, calm as the waters of the lakehe rode.

  The aviator met her astonished glance with one of laughing deferenceeven as she marveled at his genial air of staunch philosophy.

  "I beg your pardon," stammered Diane, "but--but are you by any chancewaiting--to be rescued?"

  "Why--I--I believe I am!" exclaimed the young man readily, apparentlygreatly pleased at her common sense. "At your convenience, of course!"

  "Are you--er--sinking or merely there?"

  "Merely here!" nodded the young man with a charming smile ofreassurance. "This contraption is a--er--I--I think Dick calls it anhydro-aeroplane. It has pontoons and things growing all over it forduck stunts and if the water wasn't so infernally still, I'd befloating and smoking and likely in time I'd make shore. That's adelightful pastime for you now," he added with a lazy smile of theutmost good humor, "to float and smoke on a summer day and grab at theshore."

  "I was under the impression," commented Diane critically, "that in anhydro-aeroplane one could rise from the water like a bird. I've readso recently."

  "One can," smiled the shipwrecked philosopher readily, "provided hismotor isn't deaf and dumb and insanely indifferent to suggestion. Whenit grows shy and silent, one swims eventually and drips home, unless adog barks and a rescuer emerges from the trees equipped with sympathyand common sense. I've a mechanician back there," he added sociably."He--he's in a tree, I think. I--er--mislaid him in a very dangerousair current."

  "Are you aware," inquired the girl, biting her lip, "that you'retrespassing?"

  "Lord, no!" exclaimed the aviator. "You don't mean it. Have you byany chance a reputable rope anywhere about you?"

  "No," said Diane maliciously, "I haven't. As a rule, I do go aboutequipped with ropes and hooks and things to--rescue trespassinghydroaviators, but--" she regarded him thoughtfully. "Do you like tofloat about and smoke?"

  The sun-browned skin of the young aviator reddened a trifle, but hiseyes laughed.

  "I'm an incurable optimist," he lightly countered, "or I wouldn't havetried to fly over a private lake in a borrowed aeroplane."

  "I believe," said Diane disapprovingly, "that you were cutting giddycircles over the water and dipping and skimming, weren't you?"

  "I did cut a monkeyshine or two," admitted the young man. "I washaving a devil of a time until you--until the--er--catastropheoccurred."

  "And Miss Westfall, the owner," murmured Diane with sympathy, "isaddicted to firearms. Hadn't you heard? She _hunts_! The Westfallsare all very erratic and quick-tempered. Didn't you know she was atthe farm?"

  The young man looked exceedingly uncomfortable.

  "Great guns, no!" he exclaimed. "I presumed she was safe in NewYork. . . . And this is her lake and her water and her waves, whenthere are any, and no matter how I engineer it, I've got to poach someof her property. Some of it," he added conversationally, "is in myshoe. Lord, I am in a pickle! Are you a guest of hers?"

  "Yes," said Diane calmly.

  "I'm staying over yonder on the hill there with Dick Sherrill," offeredthe young man cordially. "They are opening their place with a party ofmen, some crack amateur aviators--and myself. Do you know theSherrills?"

  "Perhaps I do," said Diane discouragingly. "Why didn't you float aboutand smoke on Mr. Sherrill's lake?" she added curiously. "It's ever somuch bigger than this."

  "Circumstances," began the young man with dignity, and lighted anothercigarette. "My mechanician," he added volubly, after an uncomfortableinterval of silence, "is an exceedingly bold young man. He'll fly overanything, even a cow. Isn't really mine either; he's borrowed, too.Dick keeps a few extra mechanicians on hand, like extra cigars. It'sDick's fault I'm out alone. He lent my mechanici
an to another chap andnobody else would come with me."

  "I thought," flashed Diane pointedly, "I thought your mechanician wassomewhere in a tree."

  The aviator coughed and reddened uncomfortably.

  "Doubtless he is," he said lamely. "He--he most always is. Do youknow, he spends a large part of his spare time in trees--andswamps--and once, I believe, he was discovered in a chimney. I--I'dlike to tell you more about him," he went on affably. "Once--"

  "Thank you," said Diane politely, "but you've really entertained memore now than one could expect from a gentleman in your distressingplight. Come, Rex." She turned back again at the hemlocks whichflanked the forest path. "I'll ask Miss Westfall to send some men,"she added and halted.

  For Diane had surprised a look of such keen regret in the youngaviator's face that they both colored hotly.

  "Beastly luck!" stammered the young man lamely. "I _am_ disappointed.I--I don't seem to have another match."

  "Your cigarette is burning splendidly," hinted Diane coolly, "andyou've a match in your hand."

  For a tense, magnetic instant the keen blue eyes flashed a curiousmessage of pleading and apology, then the aviator fell to whistlingsoftly, struck the match and finding no immediate function for it,dropped it in the water.

  "I don't in the least mind floating about," he stammered, his eyessparkling with silent laughter, "and possibly I'll make shore directly;but Lord love us! don't send the sharp-shooteress--please! Betterabandon me to my fate."

  Slim and straight as the silver birches by the water, Diane hurriedaway up the lake-path.

  "The young man," she flashed with a stamp of her foot, "is a very greatfool."

  "Johnny," she said a little later to a little, bewhiskered man withcheeks like hard red winter apples, "there's a sociable, happy-go-luckyyoung man perched on an aeroplane in the middle of our lake. Bettertake a rope and rescue him. I don't think he knows enough aboutaeroplanes to be flying so promiscuously about the country."

  Johnny Jutes collected a band of enthusiasts and departed.

  "Nobody there, Miss Diane," reported young Allan Carmody uponreturning; "leastwise nobody that couldn't take care of himself. Onlya chap buzzin' almighty swift over the trees. Swooped down like a hawkwhen he saw us an' waved his hand, laughin' fit to kill himself, an'dropped Johnny a fiver an' gee! Miss Diane, but he could drive some!Swift and cool-headed as a bird. He's whizzin' off like mad toward theSherrill place, with his motor a-hummin' an' a-purrin' like a cat.Leanish, sunburnt chap with eyes that 'pear to be laughin' a lot."

  Diane's eyes flashed resentfully and as she walked away to the househer expression was distinctly thoughtful.