CHAPTER III
FERNS AND MYSTERY
"Th-there's nothing to put against the door," stammered Billie nervously."I might put out the light though." She started for the candle, but Lauraput out a hand and stopped her.
"No," she said. "I'd rather see what's after us, anyway. I hate thedark."
The noise that Vi had heard was a slow measured step that sounded to thegirls' overwrought nerves more like the stealthy creeping of an animalthan the tread of a man. But whoever or whatever it was, it was comingsteadily toward the hut--that much was certain.
The girls drew close together for protection and watched the little doorwide-eyed.
"It sounds like a bear," whispered Vi hysterically.
"Silly," Laura hissed back at her. "Don't you know that bears don't growin this part of the country?"
"But if it was a man," Vi argued, "he wouldn't be walking so slowly--notin this kind of weather."
"Hush," commanded Billie. "He's almost here."
"If it's the Codfish--" Vi was saying desperately, when the little dooropened and she clapped her hand to her mouth, choking back the words.
Some one was coming through the door, some one who had to bend so muchthat for a startled moment the girls were not at all sure but what it wasan animal, after all, and not a man that they had to reckon with.
Then the visitor stood up and they saw with real relief that it was a manafter all. As a matter of fact, after the first startled minute it wasthe newcomer who seemed frightened and the girls who tried to make himfeel at home.
At first sight of the girls the man staggered backward and came up with athump against the wall of the hut. From there he regarded them with eyesthat fairly bulged from his head.
"Hullo!" he muttered, "who are you?"
The girls stared for a moment, then Laura giggled. Who could befrightened when a person wanted to know who they were?
He was a queer looking man. He was tall, over six feet, and so thin thatthe skin seemed to be drawn over the bones. His shoulders slumped and hisarms hung loosely, whether from weariness or discouragement or laziness,the girls found it impossible to tell.
But it was his eyes that they noticed even in that moment of excitement.They were big, much too big for his thin face, and so dark that theyseemed deep-sunken. And the expression was something that the girlsremembered long afterward. It was brooding, haunted, mysterious, with alittle touch of wildness that frightened the girls. Yet his mouth waskind, very kind, and looking at it, the girls ceased to be afraid.
"Who _are_ you?" the man repeated, and this time Billie found her voice.
"We--we got lost," she said hesitatingly, speaking more to the kind mouthof the man than to the strange, wild eyes. "It began to rain----"
"And we found this little place," Laura caught her up eagerly, "and cameinside to keep from drowning to death."
"We hope you don't mind," Vi finished, with her pleading smile whichsometimes won more than all Billie's and Laura's courage.
"Mind," the man repeated vaguely, passing a hand across his eyes as if towake himself up. "Why should I mind? It isn't very often I have company."
The girls thought he spoke bitterly but the next minute he smiled atthem.
"I'm sorry I can't ask you to sit down," he said, so embarrassed thatBillie took pity on him.
"We don't want to sit down," she said, smiling at him. "We're toonervous. Do you suppose the rain will ever stop?"
The man shook out his clothing and sent a shower of spray all about him.He was soaking, drenching wet, and suddenly, looking at him, Billie had adreadful thought.
Suppose the man was not quite right in his mind? She had a horror ofcrazy people. But what sane man would build himself a cabin in the woodslike this in the first place, and then go roaming around in the rainwithout any protection?
A memory of the slow, measured steps they had heard approaching the cabinmade her shudder, and instinctively she drew back a little and snuggledher hand into Laura's.
If he was not crazy he was probably a criminal of some sort, and neitherthought made Billie feel very comfortable. Three girls alone in the woodswith a crazy man or a criminal, with the darkness coming on----
Something of what she was thinking occurred to Laura and Vi also, andthey were beginning to look rather pale and scared.
As for the man--he hardly seemed to know what to do next. He took off hisdripping coat, threw it in a heap in one corner and turned backuncertainly to the girls.
"No, I don't think it will stop raining for some time," he said, seemingto realize that Billie had asked a question which he had not answered."And it is getting pretty dark outside. You say you are lost?"
"Yes," said Billie, wishing she had not told the man that part of theirtroubles; but then, what else could she do? "We were sent into the woodsto find rare ferns----"
"Ferns!" broke in the man, his deep eyes lighting up with suddeninterest. "Ah, I could show you where the rarest and most beautiful fernsin the country grow."
"You could!" they cried, growing interested in their turn and comingcloser to him.
"Are you--a--naturalist?" asked Vi a little uncertainly, for she knewjust enough about naturalists to be sure she was not one.
"I guess you might call me that," said the man. "I've had plenty of timeto become one."
Again the girls had that strange feeling of mystery surrounding the man.He walked over to the other end of the room and before the girls' amazedeyes took out what they had thought to be part of the table.
It was a very cleverly hidden receptacle, and as the girls looked downinto it they saw that it was half filled with curious little fernbaskets.
"I make them," the man explained, as they looked up at him, puzzled. "Andthen I sell them in the town--sometimes."
His mouth tightened bitterly, and he hastily returned the baskets totheir hiding place. Then he turned and faced them abruptly.
"Where do you come from?" he asked almost sharply.
"We come from Three Towers Hall," answered Billie.
"Three Towers!" The man looked very much interested. "Are you--er--teachersthere or pupils?"
"Teachers! Hardly," and Billie had to smile. "We are not old enough forthat. We are pupils."
"Do you like the place?'"
"Very much."
Again there was a pause, and it must be admitted that, for a reason theycould not explain, the girls felt far from comfortable. Oh, if only theywere back at the boarding school again!
"I don't know a great deal about the school," said the man slowly. "Isuppose there are lots of girls there."
"Over a hundred," said Laura, thinking she should say something.
"And quite a few teachers, too?"
"Oh, yes."
Then the man asked quite a lot of other questions and the girls answeredhim as best they could. The man continued to look at them so queerly thatBillie was convinced that there was something wrong with him. But whatwas it? Oh, if only the storm would let up, so they could start back tothe school!
But even when the rain stopped, how could they get back? They were lost,and at night the way would be even harder to find than in the daytime.
No, they were completely in this man's power. If he put them on the rightpath to Three Towers all well and good. If not----But she refused tothink of that.
"I'm sure it isn't raining hard any more," Laura broke in on herthoughts. "Don't you think we could go now?"
"Even if it hasn't stopped raining we don't mind," added Vi eagerly."We're wet now, and we won't mind being a little bit wetter."
For an answer the man opened the door and crawled out into the open. In amoment he was back with what seemed to the girls the best news they hadever heard.
"The rain is over," he said, "but the foliage is still dripping. If youreally don't mind getting wet----"
"Oh, we don't!" they cried, and were starting from the door when Visuddenly remembered somethin
g.
"The ferns!" she cried. "Where are they?"
The girls searched frantically about, knowing that their botany teacherwould reprimand them if they did not bring back the ferns, and finallyfound them on the floor where somebody had brushed them in theexcitement.
Then they crept out through the door, their strange acquaintancelingering behind to put out the light, and found themselves in the cooldarkness of the forest.
"Do you suppose he will really take us back?" Vi whispered, close toBillie's ear.
"He'd better!" said Billie, clenching her hands fiercely against herside. "If he doesn't I'll--I'll--murder him!"
"Goodness, don't talk of murder," cried Laura hysterically. "It's anawful word to use in the dark, and everything!"
Billie Bradley on Lighthouse Island; Or, The Mystery of the Wreck Page 3