The Meadow Brook Girls Across Country Part 6

"Why, she has gone," exclaimed Hazel. "I didn't see her go. Did you, Harriet?"

Harriet Burrell shook her head. She was puzzled at the mysterious disappearance of Sybarina, who had given her rescuer her blessing, then so strangely slipped away.

The walk over the hill did not add to the comfort of the Meadow-Brook Girls. They splashed through deep puddles of water in the little hollows, slipped and stumbled over bare clay spots, fell over stones and roots until they were not only soaked to the skin, but badly bruised as well. Margery wailed and groaned all the way. Tommy made fun of her until they came in sight of the lights in the farm house.

"That's the old shack that has covered us for nigh onto fifty years," he said, nodding toward the light in the window.

The light and the comfortable looking old farm house made the Meadow-Brook Girls almost forget their sodden condition. Mrs. Olney was standing on the front porch, gazing down across the field. She recognized the squire's voice, but she was at a loss to understand who his companions were.

"h.e.l.lo, Martha," he sang out, as he crossed the road with his party.

"That you, Squire?"

"Yep. Me and the girls. Barn all burned down, but I've brought the leavings. Me and the girls is all right, Martha. But they're wetter than Old Sixty. Poke up the kitchen fire and let them dry their clothing."

Miss Elting stepped forward and shook hands with Mrs. Olney, briefly explaining how they came to be there at that time of the night.

"Female tramps. Got fired from sleepin' in the squire's hay barn,"

chuckled the old man.

Mrs. Olney led the way into the house, where she turned and surveyed her callers critically.

"Why, you poor things!" she cried, when she had gotten a good look at the Meadow-Brook Girls. "And you sleepin' in the barn. It's a shame,"

she exclaimed, bustling about. "Squire, you tend to that fire yerself.

I'll git out some dry clothing for these girls. Then I'll see about making some coffee and getting them something to eat. Come into my bedroom, my dears and change your wet clothes."

"I am afraid that we are putting you to a great deal of trouble,"

demurred Miss Elting.

"Not a bit of it," rejoined Mrs. Olney. "Come right along with me."

Half an hour later, Miss Elting and the Meadow-Brook Girls clothed in dressing gowns and wrappers belonging to the hospitable Mrs. Olney sat in the big farm house kitchen doing full justice to the luncheon provided by the farmer's wife. After their exciting experiences of the night the girls were tired enough to gladly welcome the opportunity of sleeping in a real bed, and in spite of their late repast the five wayworn travelers slept peacefully, unvisited by nightmares.

CHAPTER IV-THE COMING OF CRAZY JANE

After bidding good-bye to the hospitable squire and his good wife, next morning, the girls started over the fields on their way down the valley on the other side of the ridge. Before leaving they had pressed their camp dresses and the girls now looked very neat in their dark blue uniforms that they had worn at Camp Wau-Wau. They wore also the official hat of the Camp Girls, to which organization they belonged. The hat was of blue cloth with the letters "C. G." in white embroidered on the front.

About their necks the girls wore a few brightly colored beads which to them meant more than precious stones, for each girl had won her beads by achievements as a Camp Girl. They hoped to win more on the long tramp across country. Harriet and Tommy had won several beads apiece, already, by their bravery at the barn fire, though of course the beads had not been awarded as yet. That would not be until after Miss Elting had made her report to the Chief Guardian at the completion of the trip.

The girls were now well on their way hoping soon to find Jane McCarthy and her car awaiting them. It was a five mile tramp over rough and steep hills, through woods and ravines. By this time however the Meadow-Brook Girls were becoming accustomed to rough traveling. The only one who made any really serious complaints was Margery Brown. She was usually in distress, but it was observed that the stout girl was beginning to lose considerable flesh. Her freckles were more p.r.o.nounced, however, and her face was redder than it ever had been before.

The party, after a trying hike, reached the top of the range of hills about eleven o'clock in the morning. A long, sloping meadow stretched away from them until it met the highway.

"There is the road," cried Harriet.

"But Crazy Jane ith nowhere in thight," observed Tommy solemnly.

"This is where we should have been last night," nodded Miss Elting. "But we should have missed all of our exciting experiences of last night had we taken the right trail."

"Missed them!" exclaimed Margery. "I wish we had. I never shall get over thinking about that awful fire and that horrid old Gipsy woman."

Harriet smiled to herself thinking that it was well that Margery had not seen the dark-faced men enter the barn that night.

"Shall we wait, or go on?" questioned Harriet.

Miss Elting decided that they should go on after reaching the highway.

She told the girls to keep a sharp lookout for "signs." The sign of the Meadow-Brook Girls was a triangle. It might be found chalked on a fence or elsewhere by the roadside. An arrow pointing away from the triangle indicated the direction in which a Meadow-Brook girl had traveled. An arrow pointing straight up indicated, "I will return." An arrow pointing toward the ground meant, "wait here." A broken arrow, pointing in any direction indicated, "danger."

Reaching the highway the girls scanned the fences. Most of these being wire fences there was no s.p.a.ce for any of the signs that they had agreed upon before starting out on their tramp. Occasionally they halted to examine a sign board at the junction of two or more roads, but nowhere did they find any trace of Jane and her car. There were not even tire tracks in the road. The pedestrians had almost made up their minds that Crazy Jane herself had missed her way when Harriet suddenly held up her hand.

"I hear the honk of a motor horn," she said.

"And there's the sign on that hog pen," laughed Miss Elting, pointing to a pig sty close to where they were standing. "That's just like Jane. The arrow says we are to wait here."

"A pig pen ith thertainly a nithe plathe to wait," observed Tommy sarcastically.

"We don't have to wait in the pen, you goose," jeered Margery.

"Tho I thee," answered Tommy imperturbably.

"There she comes!" shouted Hazel.

Crazy Jane McCarthy, her blonde hair streaming over her shoulders, rounded a bend in the road, the rear wheels of her car skidding nearly to the ditch on the outside of the curve. Jane was shouting and waving one hand. She brought the car up sliding and leaped to the ground.

"You dears! Where have you been?" she cried, embracing each of the girls in turn, not forgetting Miss Elting.

"The question, is where have you been?" laughed the guardian.

"Racing up and down the road looking for you," returned Jane.

"Where did you sleep?" questioned Harriet.

"At a farm house over in the valley," chuckled Jane. "Where did you sleep?"

"We were in a barn part of the night. Regular tramps, aren't we,"

answered Harriet, her eyes sparkling.

"Yeth, and-and the barn burned down," explained Grace.

"What?"

"Grace is right," Miss Elting informed Jane. "Lightning struck the barn, burning it to the ground. Harriet saved an old Gipsy woman from being burned to death. She had been stunned by the bolt of lightning and for the time being was paralyzed."

"Oh, what a shame!" exclaimed Jane. "I always have to be absent when the fun is going on. Think of poor me tearing up and down the road, half crazy because I'd lost you and you having so much fun all the time," she complained. "Who was the woman you saved, darlin'?" she questioned, turning admiring eyes on Harriet Burrell.