The Girl Scouts at Rocky Ledge Part 19

It was very dark along the country road, and only the flas.h.i.+ng lights of pa.s.sing cars penetrated the dense blackness of the tree-tunnels through which the party rode. It may have been this or it may have been the acc.u.mulated fatigue of her big, full day, but at any rate, Nora felt very much inclined to huddle up to Cousin Ted and hide.

The humming of the motor was like a lullaby, and the voices of Ted and Jerry mingled so evenly that presently Nora forgot, then she forgot to think, and then she stopped thinking.

She was sound asleep in the cosy comfort of Theodora Manton's encircling arm.

"I'll lift her," she heard a voice whisper.

It had seemed only a minute since she entered the car and here she was home, at the very door, with Vita standing there, lantern in hand.

"Oh, thank you, Cousin Jerry," spoke up Nora bravely. "I am wide awake now. How perfectly silly to fall asleep?"

"How perfectly sensible," he contradicted. "I wish you had not awakened.

I should have had a great joke to tell your Girl Scouts," he teased.

Nora laughed lightly. She was on the ground and anxious to get into the cottage. Why she felt so timid was not clear even to herself, but somewhere within her dread lurked, and when Ted proposed lemonade and crackers Nora excused herself on the grounds of being deliciously sleepy. For once she accepted Vita's offer to light her lights and make the window right for the night.

"You go quick asleep?" Vita remarked, turning down the soft summer covering from the little bed.

"Oh, yes. I fell asleep in the car," returned Nora, yawning.

"That's good. Then you hear no storm----"

"But there is no sign of a storm, Vita."

"Oh, but maybe. Or maybe, yes, some big birds fly and make screech----"

"Vita!" exclaimed Nora sharply. "What ever are you talking about? Are you trying to--scare me?"

"Oh, no. No get scared at--any t'ing." mumbled Vita while her own excited manner seemed real cause for alarm. "I just like to know when my little girl sleep very good, like baby."

Truth to tell Nora was too sleepy to argue, otherwise she might have demanded an explanation. Vita was plainly excited, and this fact coupled with that of her strange actions earlier in the evening was unquestionably enough to cause suspicion; but rest to a girl afflicted with "nerves" is a precious thing, and when it came to Nora she had no idea of risking its loss by any sort of argument.

But Vita seemed to want to linger longer. First she looked at one window, then at another. She even plumped a cus.h.i.+on--as if that were necessary to a night's comfort!

"Where do you sleep, Vita?" asked Nora, drowsily.

"Oh, in a good bed, in the little room by kitchen," replied the maid.

Nora recalled the maid's room. It was on the first floor just off the kitchen. So it could not have been Vita who slept in the attic.

"Would Vita get you a nice cold gla.s.s of water?" asked the solicitous one, still anxious to please.

"Oh, Vita," a yawn interrupted, "I am so sleepy----"

"Then I go----"

"Yes, you go. Good night, Vita," said Nora sweetly, "and I hope I sleep as soundly as I threaten to and as well as you want me to," finished Nora. "Isn't that being a very good girl?"

"Very, very good," said Vita happily. Then she went out quietly and left Nora to her coveted slumber.

CHAPTER XIV

CIRc.u.mSTANTIAL EVIDENCE

But being converted to scouting could not at once cure Nora of her dream habits. Being so long alone in school, and having a brain insatiable for creative material, she usually went to bed to think and she went to sleep to dream.

"I never felt so deliciously tired," she murmured. "But I do wonder what ailed Vita."

Presently blue eyes cuddled in their white satin blankets with brown fringe borders (a way Nora had of describing eye lids and lashes), and then the panorama began.

First it was the Scout memory. She, as the bravest Scout that had ever joined a troup, dramatically saved someone from drowning. Next, Nora as the actress in the picture shown at Lenox, performed the daring feat of swinging from the great rock with strikingly better effect than had she whose name graced the program. The third dream installment had to do with something very indistinct but horribly terrifying. It revealed a crawling thing that first crossed the path, then climbed the morning glory vine right up to Nora's window, and now--yes now--it was choking her!

Had she screamed?

She found herself sitting up straight in bed and she felt as if her very curls had straightened out in fright.

There--was a noise! She listened, put her hand out and switched on the light. It was nothing in her room, but seemed somewhere--Yes, there it was again and it surely was up in the attic!

Was that someone moaning?

Dream dizzy still, Nora could form no definite resolve, either to call or to remain quiet. She simply lay fascinated with fright. The noise ceased. Still she lay--listening. Then other sounds penetrated the night. That was feet--shuffling of feet and they seemed just above her head! Quickly Nora reached out again and touched the b.u.t.ton that switched off the light. She would rather lay hidden deeply in the bed clothing than be exposed to whatever was prowling in the attic, should it come down the stairs.

Then she thought she heard whispering, but that might have been her excited imagination. She drew the covers closer and with her head buried from sound she could no longer listen, and not possibly hear.

But after, what seemed to the frightened girl, a very long time she ventured to poke her head out again, just as she heard a stealthful step on the stairs.

"Oh!" she gasped aloud. Then "Vita!" she called faintly.

"Yes, I come. Sh-s-!"

Nora had not expected to hear that voice. She merely called Vita because she did not want to call Cousin Ted, and she felt the intruder was dangerously near. But there was Vita!

"What is it? You have bad dream?" asked the maid in a whisper, standing now beside the bed.

"No, it was no dream." Nora's voice was not very low, in fact she was angry. "I did hear things and there's no use telling me it was the wind.

It wasn't," she snapped.

"Sh-s-!" again Vita warned. "It is no good to wake cousins. I was up the stairs for that old window. It slam--you hear it?"

"What could slam a window tonight?"

"I do-no!" in the way foreigners have of not understanding when ignorance is more convenient. "I must go to bed now. You all right?"

"Say Vita!" charged Nora. "If you don't tell me the truth I'll--I'll--just shout!"