The Orchard Secret

by Cleo F. Garis

  CHAPTER V Rescued

  Sim, who was hurrying after Arden and Terry up the steep hill on top ofwhich was perched Bordmust Hall, uttered a series of frightenedexclamations.

  "Oo-oo-oo! Oh, my! Oh, but I was frightened. Wasn't he angry!"

  "Since Dr. Bordmust is our chaplain, it was probably what might be calledrighteous anger," suggested Arden.

  "What do you suppose he meant when he spoke about not always watching?"asked Terry.

  "I don't know," Arden had to admit. "The girls say Dr. Bordmust is reallyqueer at times. I suppose it is because he's such a profound student. Heknows such a lot, all about Egypt, so many languages, and they sayancient history is an open book to him." Arden was fairly sprinting alongthe boardwalk that made the steep path up to Bordmust Hall a littleeasier. What with talking and hurrying, her breath was a bit gaspy.

  "Well, don't ask me what it all means," begged Terry. "I can't evenguess. But, oh! I do hope I'm not going to be late for this first class."

  "So say we all of us," chanted Sim.

  "They can't be too severe at the very beginning," murmured Arden.

  Bordmust Hall, where most of the class sessions were held, crowned withits classic architecture the summit of the long slope which formed theeminence of the broad acres about Cedar Ridge College. It was behind themain, or dormitory, building in which were housed the executive officesand the residence rooms of the faculty. To the southwest of the hall, andeasily viewed from the steps, was the unused pool. To the northwest, andin line with the main building, was the beautiful Gothic chapel with itswonderful stained-glass windows. Near the chapel was the unimposing homeof the chaplain, Rev. Dr. Bordmust; one of whose ancestors had partlyendowed Cedar Ridge. For this reason the hall was named for him.

  At the foot of the slope on which the hall stood were the rambling fieldsand gardens where much of the farm produce for the college tables wasraised. The nearest of the farm-lands, so called, was the orchard, partof which could be seen from the southeast windows of the dormitory. Andit was this orchard that the taxi-man had indicated in such a warningmanner. It was this orchard into which Tom Scott, the good-lookingporter, had been staring the night of the arrival of Arden Blake and herchums. So much had been crowded into the comparatively short time thethree freshmen had been at college that they had almost forgotten thestrange orchard. Even now they had no chance to consider the matter, forthey, with many other girls, were hastening to their first classes.

  They gave a momentary glance toward the orchard, with its quaint gnarledtrees. The morning sun was glinting on red, dark-green, and golden russetapples which the gardener and his men had not yet started to gather.

  Arden, especially, gazed searchingly at the orchard. Apple trees grow insuch strange shapes and huddle so closely to themselves, as if each oneguarded a secret. There was a puzzled look in Arden's blue eyes as shetried to guess what might be hidden by those trees and the tall hedgesurrounding them.

  Sim was gazing rather sorrowfully at the pool building, but Terry wassmiling, perhaps because everything seemed, for the moment, at least, tobe so filled with good and pleasant life.

  "Go on in, kids!" Sim urged her two chums. "I'll be along in a minute ortwo. I just want to take a look at--I just want to--oh, well, go on.Don't wait for me."

  "But won't you be late?" objected Arden.

  "No, I have some time to my credit."

  As her surprised friends watched, Sim left them and hurried down across astretch of smooth lawn toward the disused swimming pool.

  "Too bad," murmured Arden.

  "What is?" asked Terry.

  "I really think Sim feels more keenly than we realize about the pool. Butshe's such a good sport. Look at her! Going to view the ashes of herhopes or the collapse of her dreams or something equally tragic."

  "Don't let's say anything about this," proposed Terry. "If Sim cares somuch, I'm sure she'd rather not talk about this little visit."

  Arden agreed and, taking Terry's arm, they hurried into the hall.

  Sim reached the pool building and tried to get some idea of the wreckwithin by peering through a window. But the sill was too high to afford aview, even if the window had not been made of heavily frosted glass,quite opaque.

  Then she stepped back and gazed up at the copper and glass domed roof.Around the top of the building were set at intervals glazed tilesdepicting nautical scenes. Dolphins were diving merrily as if totantalize sea horses with necks proudly arched, and mermaids flickedtheir tails disdainfully at Father Neptune.

  "I may as well try the door," Sim murmured. "I'd like to see what it'slike inside, though it will probably break my heart!"

  After several hard pushes to the extent of her strength, she succeeded inswinging back the door. She found herself in a sort of vestibule, but theinner door of this opened easily, and then Sim stood almost on the edgeof the abandoned pool.

  A peculiar smell assailed her, as of a place long shut up, but at thesame time it had something of out-of-doors about it, the odor of cleanearth and ripe vegetables.

  "It isn't as bad as Toots said," mused Sim. "At least, it looks as thoughthere isn't so very much the matter. It isn't filled with vegetables,either; just a few bags as yet, though they probably will bring in morewhen they pick the apples. This must have been a beautiful pool once."

  The bottom of the pool was tiled a pea green, a color which must havegiven the water a most cooling tone on a hot day. But the white tilesides no longer gleamed, and in more than one place jagged dark cracksran crazily down the walls like streaks of black lightning. Sim looked atthe cracked tile and concrete edge at her feet. The depth was stillindicated, though there was no water in the pool--5 feet.

  "This is the shallow end, of course," Sim thought, and she walked slowlyaround the edge and toward the melancholy spring-boards to which somestrips of cocoa-fiber matting still clung.

  "How quiet it is in here," Sim murmured. "Like a museum after hours--oran Egyptian tomb." She shivered a little, though it was warm in thenatatorium.

  In the deep end several filled burlap bags were piled up, and in eachcorner were barrels of cabbages leaning against the walls.

  "I thought, from what Toots said, the whole place would be filled to thebrim with cabbages and turnips," Sim said to herself, smiling a littleruefully. "I wonder how long this pool is, or should I say _was_?"

  She began to measure the length with her eyes, mentally swimming withlong, smooth strokes while her feet churned up and down.

  "About seventy-five yards long, I guess," she went on. "And abouttwenty-five across. A lovely size. I could do three lengths a day hereand really enjoy it. Let's see how deep it is from the end of the board."

  She walked gingerly out on the diving plank, choosing the center one forthere were three at the deep end, tiered at different heights. It wasdifficult to estimate, without water in the pool and with the barrels andbags of vegetables scattered about, how close the different boards cameto the surface of the filled space. Sim decided that the plank she wasstanding on was the lowest.

  She permitted herself a little pre-diving, teetery bounce on the veryend, half fearful lest the dried wood should crack beneath even her lightweight. But it held, and Sim gave a bolder jump.

  "A straight dive--cutting the water about there!" With her eyes Simindicated to herself just the spot where her finger tips should enter thewater--had there been any water there.

  She jumped again and came down safely, with no warning cracking of thedried plank. Then she balanced herself on the very tip of the boardbefore, mentally, springing into the air. Now she performed a mostambitious jump, but this time the stiffened wood snapped back suddenly.Sim was thrown to one side, and she swung her arms around and around likea child on its first roller skates, trying desperately not to topplebackward.

  But her motions only caused the board to quiver more violently, and in asplit second Sim slipped off and clung, with her finger tips only,
to theedge of the plank, while the hard-tiled bottom of the pool, seeminglymiles below, waited to receive her.

  "Oh, gosh! What'll I do?" poor Sim thought. "Those tiles don't look verysoft, and I'll drop in a minute!"

  Her fingers ached from their stiff clinging grip, and her arms werequickly tiring. She decided she must soon let go for after a futileattempt to sling one leg up over the side edge of the board it bent soalarmingly that she feared it would snap. She began to swing to and frolike a pendulum, hoping she might cast herself upon a bag of vegetableswhich would serve to break her fall, when, suddenly, she felt her wristsfirmly gripped by two hands, and she looked up to see Tom Scott, theporter-gardener, smiling down at her. He was kneeling on the end of theplank.

  "Don't jump!" he warned. "I'll pull you up. It's rather the reverse of'don't shoot, I'll come down,' isn't it?" he said lightly. He could nothave taken better means to quiet Sim's excited nerves than with Mr.Crockett's little coon banter.

  With what seemed no effort at all, Tom Scott lifted her up and held herclear of the end of the board so her legs did not scrape against it. Thenhe carefully walked back with her toward the middle of the plank, wherethere was no danger of its breaking, set her down, and stood grinning ather. A nice grin it was, too, Sim thought later.

  She managed to produce a weak, embarrassed smile.

  "Thank you so much!" she said a bit stiffly. The man must think hercrazy. "I--I slipped! I--er--I was--that is, I was trying----" To coverher confusion she looked at her red finger tips.

  "Hurt?" he inquired.

  "Broke two or three nails," Sim responded ruefully. "I'm very glad youcame along. I might have sprained an ankle if I had let go, for this endmust be nine feet deep."

  "The water, when there is any, is over nine feet deep nearest this wall,"said Tom Scott. "You certainly would have been jarred a bit, to say theleast."

  "Then I must thank you again. But please don't mention to anyone that youfound me in such a silly fix, will you?" Sim begged. She was quicklyregaining her lost composure. "I just wanted to get a look at the pooland foolishly walked out on the board. I imagined myself poising for adive and I slipped off. You won't tell?"

  "Of course I won't," Tom agreed, somewhat gayly, it seemed. "I came in toget a few of the early apples we have stored here. One of the cooks askedme to. I imagine there are going to be pies. But, honestly, I won't tella soul."

  "Thank you," Sim murmured.

  The young gardener walked up to the middle of the pool and with athleticease jumped down in it near several bags of vegetables. He picked up onecontaining apples, heaved it up on the edge and jumped up himself. Then,slinging the sack up on his shoulder, he walked toward the door, givingSim a friendly backward glance as he went out.

  "What a nice young man!" said Sim to herself. "He doesn't seem like agardener at all. No brogue and no accent of any kind. I wish I could tellArden and Terry, but I'd rather die than have them know of this dizzyadventure. I must have looked perfectly stupid hanging there on the endof the plank!"

  The clanging of a distant bell brought Sim back to reality, and as shelooked at her wrist watch she left all thoughts of pools and good-lookingrescuing gardeners behind her. For it would need a swift dash to get herto Bordmust Hall before she would be late for her class.