The Curlytops on Star Island; Or, Camping out with Grandpa

by Howard Roger Garis

  CHAPTER XIX

  THE BLUE LIGHT AGAIN

  Flashing his light about, Hal walked boldly into the dark cave. Tedfollowed, just a little bit afraid, though he did not want to say so.

  "Don't go too far," begged Janet's brother. "Jan'll be afraid if weleave her alone."

  "I won't go far," promised Hal. "I just want to see if there're anytramps in here."

  "Listen an' maybe you can hear them talking," suggested Ted.

  Hal, though larger and older than Ted, was not quite brave enough to govery far into the dark cave, even if he did have his light with him. So,after taking a few steps, he stopped and listened. So did Ted.

  They could hear nothing but the voice of Janet calling to them fromoutside.

  "Ted! Hal!" cried the little girl. "Where are you? I'm going back tocamp!"

  "We're coming!" answered Ted. "Come on back and get her," he added tohis chum. "Then we'll look for the blue rocks."

  "I guess we can't find them unless they're right around here," returnedHal, as he moved his light about in a circle.

  "Why not?" asked Ted.

  "Because this cave is so dark, and my flashlamp doesn't give much light.We could hardly see the stones if they were here."

  "Then how are we going to get 'em?" Ted demanded.

  "I guess we'll have to bring a big lantern. Maybe we ought to bring yourgrandfather along."

  "I guess we had better," agreed Ted. "But we can look a little bit whenwe're here. Let's go for Janet. She's crying."

  Janet was crying by this time, not liking to be left alone outside whilethe boys were in the cave. They ran back to her and her tears were soondried.

  "Will you come in a little way with us?" asked her brother. "There isn'tanything to be afraid of. Is there, Hal?"

  "No, not a thing. We won't go in very far, Jan. And maybe you can seethe blue stones. We couldn't, but sometimes girls' eyes are better thanboys. Come on!"

  So with Hal holding a hand on one side, and Ted on the other, Janet wentslowly into the cave with her brother and his chum. Hal flashed hislight, and by its gleam the Curlytops could see that the cave was large,larger even than it had seemed when they were in it with theirgrandfather.

  "Look on the floor for the rocks," suggested Hal. "That's where thetramp-man would put 'em if he brought 'em here."

  But they did not see the blue rocks, nor any others. The floor of thecave seemed to be of stone or hard clay, and there was nothing on it.They did not go in far enough to see the sacks which Grandpa Martin saidsomeone had used for a bed, nor did the children see the bread and otherbits of food which might have meant that someone had had a picnic in thecave.

  "I guess the rocks aren't here," said Hal, in disappointed tones asJanet said she wanted to turn back, for she did not like it in the cave."Or else maybe they're away at the far end."

  "I'm not going there!" exclaimed Ted.

  "No, I guess we won't go," agreed Hal. "We'll go and tell yourgrandfather and have him come with a big lantern."

  "Hark! What's that?" suddenly called Jan, taking a tighter hold of herbrother's hand.

  From the back part of the cave came a noise. It was as though a rock hadfallen--probably it had--from the roof of the cavern.

  "Someone's throwing stones at us!" cried Ted.

  "Who? Who? Who?" a voice seemed to ask.

  "Oh, dear! We don't know who it was!" cried Janet. "Come on out of here!I'm afraid!"

  "That was only an owl," said Hal with a laugh. "Owls live in dark cavesin the daytime and when it's dark they hoot and call 'who!' I've heard'em lots of times around the Home."

  "There isn't any cave at the Home," objected Ted, who was as frightenedas Janet was.

  "No, but there were owls in the trees. I heard 'em lots of times. Butwe'll go out. I guess maybe that was a loose stone that fell down andmade the first noise. But we don't want any to fall on our heads. Comeon!" called Hal.

  Together he and Ted led Janet back to the mouth of the cave, where theycould see the sunshine. And even Hal, who was not so frightened as theCurlytops had been, was glad to get out.

  "It's too bad we couldn't find the blue gold-stones," he said. "Butmaybe the tramps didn't hide them there, anyhow. We'll look around somemore."

  "Let's eat," suggested Ted. "I'm hungry, and I've got a lot of cookiesin my pockets."

  So they sat down on a stone in a shady place not far from the cave andate the things Nora had given Ted. They then got a drink from a bubblingspring not far away, and pretended they were on a picnic.

  Ted's muddy stocking had dried by this time, and he and Jan, usingsticks, scraped most of the dirt off.

  "Now we'd better be going home," Jan suggested after a bit. "There isn'tany fun here."

  "Yes, we might as well go," agreed Hal. "And I'll tell you what let'sdo!"

  "What?" demanded Ted.

  "Let's look in the place where Trouble found those blue stones and seeif we can find any more."

  "Oh, yes, let's!" cried Janet. She was happy again, now that she was outin the bright sunshine.

  The children remembered where Baby William had found the pretty rocksfrom which he had made his castle, but when they reached the place not aone was to be had, though they searched all about.

  "I guess Trouble took them all," said Janet. "I remember now, I helpedhim look for more and we couldn't find any."

  "Well, maybe there'll be some more somewhere else," suggested Halhopefully. "Let's look."

  So they looked, wandering about in the woods not far from camp, untilthey heard Nora ringing the bell for dinner.

  "Well, where have you children been?" asked Mrs. Martin as they cametrooping up to the tent, tired, hungry and dirty.

  "Oh, we've been looking for gold," explained Ted, but he did not saythey had visited the cave, where they had been told not to go.

  "You didn't dig any more deep holes, did you?" asked his grandfather.

  "No, sir," answered Ted.

  After dinner Ted asked Hal why he didn't speak of having Grandpa Martingo to the cave with the big lantern.

  "I thought you were going to do that," he said to Hal.

  "Well, I was. But maybe we can find some more of the blue stones forourselves. We'll look around before we ask your grandpa to help."

  Janet wanted to stay around camp and play with her dolls that afternoon,and she took care of Trouble.

  "Then we'll go for a goat ride," said Ted. "Come on, Hal."

  The two boys hitched Nicknack to the wagon, and set off down the island.

  "We'll look for some more blue rocks," suggested Hal, and Ted waswilling.

  On and on the two boys rode, now stopping to look at some pretty flower,again waiting to hear the finish of some bird's song. They looked onboth sides of the woodland path for some of the blue rocks, but, thoughthey saw some of other colors, there were none like those they wanted.

  "Whoa there, where are you going now?" Ted suddenly called to Nicknack,and the little boy pulled on the reins by which he guided the goat--or"steered" it, as he sometimes called it.

  "What's the matter?" asked Hal.

  "Nicknack wants to go over that way and I want him to go straightahead," answered Ted.

  "Maybe he sees some of those blue rocks the way he wants to go,"suggested Hal.

  "Oh, I don't guess so," replied his chum. "I guess he just wants to getsome new kind of grass to eat. Whoa, Nicknack, I tell you!" and Teddypulled as hard as he could on the reins, without hurting his goat, forhe never wanted to do that.

  But the goat would not go straight down the island path. He kept pullingoff to one side, and at last Ted cried:

  "Here, Hal, you take hold of the lines and pull with me. Maybe we cansteer him around then."

  "Can we pull real hard--I mean will the lines break?" asked Hal.

  "Oh, no, they're good and strong," answered Ted.

  So he and his chum both pulled on the one rein--the one to getNicknack's head pointed straight down the path instead of off to oneside
, but it did no good. The goat knew what he wanted to do, and he wasgoing to do it.

  "Look out!" suddenly cried Teddy. "We're going to tip over!"

  The next minute the front wheels of the wagon ran up on a little pile ofdirt at one side of the path, and the cart gently tilted to one side andthen went over with a rattle and a bang.

  "There!" laughed Hal, as he rolled out on some soft grass. "We are over,Ted."

  "I knew we were going," said Teddy as he, too, laughed and got up. "Whoathere, Nicknack!" he shouted, for the goat was still going on, draggingthe overturned wagon after him.

  But Nicknack did not stop until he reached a little bush, on which weresome green leaves that he seemed to like very much, for he began to chewthem.

  "That's what he wanted all the while," said Teddy.

  "Well, let him eat all he wants, and then he won't be hungry any moreand he'll pull us where we want to go," advised Hal.

  They did this, after setting the cart up on its wheels. When Nicknackturned away from the bush, and looked at the two waiting boys, Ted said:

  "Well, I guess we can go on now."

  "Yes," added Hal, "and I hope well find those blue rocks. But I don'tbelieve we're ever going to."

  At last, however, when it was getting rather late in the afternoon andTed had said it was time to go back, Hal, who was driving the goatthrough a part of the woods they never before had visited, pointed to abig stone buried in the side of a hill and cried:

  "Look! Isn't that rock blue, Ted?"

  "It does look kind of blue, yes."

  "Then it's just what we're looking for. See, there's lots of little bluerocks, too. Let's take some back to camp. Maybe they're the same kindTrouble had, and there may be gold in 'em! Come on."

  They piled the rocks, which were certainly somewhat blue in color, intothe wagon, and started back with them.

  "We found 'em! We found 'em!" they called as they came within sight ofthe tents. "We got the blue rocks!"

  "Well, they're pretty, certainly," said Grandpa Martin, as he picked upone from the wagon, "but they're no better than any other rocks aroundhere, as far as I can see."

  "They've got gold in 'em, Hal says," Ted stated.

  "Gold? Oh, no, Curlytop!" laughed his grandfather. "I've told you thereis no gold on this island."

  "There's _something_ in the blue rocks," declared Hal. "Feel how heavythey are--lots heavier than any other stones around here."

  "Yes, they are," agreed Grandpa Martin, as he weighed one of the stonesin his hand. "There might be some iron in them, but not gold. Look out!"he suddenly called as the stone slipped from his hand. "Look out foryour toes!"

  Laughing, the Curlytops and Hal jumped back. The blue stone whichGrandpa Martin dropped, struck on the edge of the shovel which was outin front of the tent. As the rock hit the steel tool with a clang,something queer happened.

  At once the rock began to burn with a curious blue flame, and ayellowish smoke curled up.

  "Oh, the rock's on fire!" cried Janet. "The rock's on fire!"

  "Yes, and look!" added Ted. "It's burning blue, just like the light wesaw on the island one night."

  "And how queer it smells!" exclaimed Hal.

  "Sulphur!" ejaculated Grandpa Martin.

  He and the children looked at the queer blue fire that seemed to comefrom inside the rock. What could it mean?