CHAPTER X--EVE'S ADVENTURE
Eve Sitz had plenty to do out of school hours when she was at home.Nobody could afford to be idle at the Sitz farm. But she found time,too, to put on an old skirt, gym. shoes, and a sweater, and go downbehind the barn to practice her broad jump and to throw a baseball atthe high board fence behind the sheepfold.
She grew expert indeed in ball throwing, and occasionally when Otto, herbrother, caught her at this exercise, he marvelled that his sister couldthrow the horsehide farther and straighter than he.
"Dot beats it all, mein cracious!" gasped Otto, who was older than Eveby several years, had never been to school in this new country, and wasone who would never be able to speak English without a strong accent."How a girl can t'row a pall like dot. I neffer!"
"You wait till June, Otto," replied his sister, in German. "If you cometo the big field the day of the Centerport High Schools, you will seethat girls can do quite well in athletics. You know how we can row, andyou saw us play basketball. Wait till you see the Central High girls ontrack and field!"
"A lot of foolishness," croaked Otto. "You go to the school to learn tobe smart, no?"
"No," replied Eve, laughing at him. "I am smart in the first place, or Iwould not go. And don't I help mother just as much--and milk--and feedthe pigs and chickens--and all that? Wait till you see me put the shot.I am going to win a whole point for the school if I am championshot-putter."
"Ach! It is beyond me," declared Otto, walking off to attend to hiswork.
The family--plain Swiss folk as they were--thought Eve quite mad overthese "foolish athletics." They had no such things in the schools athome--in the old country. Yet Father and Mother Sitz were secretly proudof their big and handsome daughter. She was growing up "American." Thatwas something to be achieved. They had come of peasant stock, and hopedthat their girl, at least, would mix with a more highly educated classof young folk in this new country.
So, if Eve thought that the tasks which usually fell to her nights andmornings, and on Saturdays, were not sufficient to keep her in what shecalled "condition," her parents made no objection to her throwingbaseballs, or jumping, or taking long walks, or riding on the old graymare's back over the North pasture.
And it was upon one of these rides that she fell upon her secondadventure that Spring with the Gypsies--or, at least, with one of thetribe.
It occurred on the Saturday morning following Miss Carrington's meetingwith Jim Varey, husband of the Gypsy queen. Of course, Bobby Hargrew hadsaid nothing about this mysterious connection of the martinet teacherwith the roving band of "Egyptians"; it was not her secret, and althoughBobby might be an innocent gossip, she was no tale-bearer.
Eve finished her morning's work, "pegged" the baseball at the target shehad marked with a brush on the sheep fold fence, managing to scare allthe woolly muttons out of at least half of their senses, and thengrabbed up a bridle and ran down to the pasture bars and whistled forthe mare.
The old horse came cantering across the field. Eve never failed to havea lump of sugar in her pocket, and the old girl nuzzled around for itand would not be content until she had munched it. Meanwhile Eve slippedon the bridle and sprang upon the creature's back.
Hester Grimes, and Lily Pendleton, and some of the wealthier girls whowent to Central High, rode horseback in the parks. They went to a ridingschool and cantered around a tanbark ring, and then rode, very demurely,two and two, upon old broken-kneed hacks through the bridle-paths. Mrs.Case approved of horseback exercise for girls, either astride orside-saddle, as they pleased; but she certainly would have held herbreath in fear had she seen Eve Sitz career down the rocky pasture uponher mount on this keen-aired morning.
It had rained over night and the bushes were still dripping. Every timea sharp hoof of the unshod mare tore up a clod as she cantered, Eve gotthe scent of the wet earth in her nostrils, and drank it in with longand deep inhalations. She rode the mare with a loose rein and let hertake her head.
They dashed down the hill and through the narrow path that crossed apiece of Mr. Sitz's swamp land. Here the dogwood was budding and a fewJudas-trees displayed a purple blush, as though a colored mist hungabout them. In a few days the bushes would burst forth in full flower.Eve rode fast along the swamp path. It was narrow, and to have venturedthree yards upon either side would have been to sink, horse and all,into the quagmire. This was a waste piece of the farm that her fatherhoped to drain at some time, but now it was only a covert for birds andfrogs.
But suddenly, as the girl rode fast, she thought she heard a cry. Shehalf checked her mount; but the sound was not repeated.
A minute later the gray mare was through the marsh-piece and out uponthe field beyond. Eve intended circling around by Peveril Pond and soreach home again by another path; yet the mysterious cry she had heardback there in the swamp-piece kept returning to her mind.
Suppose it had been a real cry--a human cry--a cry for help?
The thought came back to her again and again. She was in sight of thepond, when she could stand it no longer, but pulled the mare about.
"Come, old girl! We've got to be sure of this," cried Eve. "Back yougo!"
Her mount cantered back again. They reached the edge of the swamp andEve pulled the mare down to a walk. Stepping daintily, the steedfollowed the narrow path through the over-bushed swamp. One could notsee a dozen feet on either hand, so tall were the bushes, and sothick--not even at the height Eve rode.
She halted her horse and called aloud:
"Ahoy! Hullo! Who called?"
No answer--for half a minute. The farmer's daughter shouted again. Thenshe heard it again--a half-stifled cry--a cry that ended in a chokinggasp and which chilled the blood in her veins and made her hold her ownbreath for a moment.
Was it an actual voice calling for help that had answered her? Or hadshe imagined the cry?
She held in the anxious horse, and waited. Again the muffled shriekreached her ears. Somebody was caught in the quagmire--in the quicksand.It was off to the left, and not many yards from the path.
The Girls of Central High on Track and Field Page 10