The Camp Fire Girls at Onoway House Part 18

"That's very true," said Migwan, "but it is likely there is no connection between the two mysteries. It's just a coincidence. I for one am going to be sensible and stop worrying about that noise in the ground." And most of them followed Migwan's example.

The next morning was such a beautiful one that they could not resist getting up early and running out of doors before breakfast. "Let's play a game of hide-and-seek," proposed Sahwah. The others agreed readily; Hinpoha was counted out and had to be "it," and the others scattered to hide themselves. One by one Hinpoha discovered and "caught" the players, or they got "in free." Calvin startled her nearly out of her wits by suddenly dropping out of a tree almost on top of her.

"Are we all in?" asked Migwan, fanning herself with her handkerchief.

She was out of breath from her strenuous run for the goal.

"All but Sahwah," said Hinpoha. She started out again to look for her, turning around every little while to keep a wary eye on the goal lest Sahwah should spring out from somewhere nearby and reach it before she did. But Sahwah was evidently hidden at some distance from the goal, and Hinpoha walked in an ever increasing circle without tempting her out.

The others, tired of waiting for her to be caught, joined in the search and beat the bushes and hunted through the barn and looked up in the trees. But no Sahwah did they find.

Breakfast time neared and Hinpoha called loudly, "In free, Sahwah, game's over." But Sahwah did not emerge from some cleverly concealed nook as they expected.

"Maybe she didn't hear you," said Migwan. "Let's all call." And they all called, shouting together in perfect unison as they had done on so many other occasions, making the combined voice carry a great distance. An echo answered them but that was all. The girls looked at each other blankly.

"Do you suppose she's staying hidden on purpose?" asked Calvin.

"No," said Nyoda, emphatically, "I don't. Sahwah's had enough experience with causing us worry by disappearing never to do it on purpose again.

She's probably stuck somewhere and can't get out. Do you remember the time she was shut up in the statue and couldn't talk? Something of the kind has occurred again, I don't doubt. We'll simply have to search until we find and release her."

They began a systematized search and minutely examined every foot of ground. Thinking that the barn was the most likely place to get into something and not get out again, they opened every old chest there and pried into every corner, and moved every article. They went up-stairs and looked through the lofts and corners. The roof being partly off, it was as light as day, and if she had been there anywhere they would surely have seen her. But there was no sign of her. They looked under the roof of the barn that lay on the ground, thinking that she might have crawled under that and become pinned down, but she was not there.

"Could she have fallen into the river?" asked Calvin.

"It wouldn't have done her any harm if she had," said Hinpoha. "Sahwah's more at home in the water than she is on land. It wouldn't have been unlike her to jump in and swim around and duck her head under every time I came near, but then she would have heard us calling for her and come out."

They parted every bush and shrub, and looked closely at the branches of every tree, half fearing to find her hanging by the hair somewhere.

"Do you suppose she went up the Balm of Gilead tree and into the attic window?" asked Migwan. They searched through the attic, and a laborious search it was, on account of the quant.i.ties of furniture and chests to be moved. They pulled out every drawer and burst open every trunk and chest, thinking she might have crawled into one and then the lid had closed with a spring lock. It was fully noon before they were satisfied that she was not up there.

"Could she be in the cellar?" asked Hinpoha. Down they went, carrying lights to look into all the dark corners. But the search was vain. The girls became extremely frightened. Something told them that Sahwah's disappearance was not voluntary. They looked at each other with growing fear. What had the message on the door said?

"_If you folks know what's good for you you'll get out of that house._"

Was that a warning of what had happened now? Was it a friendly or a sinister warning? Migwan was almost beside herself to think that anything had happened to Sahwah while she was staying with her. The day dragged along like a nightmare. In the afternoon Calvin had an inspiration. "Why didn't I think of it before?" he almost shouted.

"Here's Pointer; he's a hunting dog and can follow a trail. We'll set him to find Sahwah's trail."

"That's right," said Migwan, in relief, "we'll surely find her now."

They gave Pointer a shoe of Sahwah's and in a moment he had started off with his nose to the ground. But if they had expected him to lead them to her hiding-place they were disappointed, for all he did was follow the trail around the garden between the house and the river. Once he went down cellar, straining hard at the chain which held him, and they were sure he would find something they had overlooked in their search, but the trail ended in front of the fruit cellar.

"Sahwah came down here early this morning to bring up those melons, don't you remember?" said Migwan. "That's all Pointer has found out."

They kept Pointer at it for some time, but he never offered to leave the garden.

"Are you sure he's on the trail?" asked Hinpoha, doubtfully.

"Yes," said Calvin, "he never whines that way unless he is. That long howl is the hunting dog's signal that he's on the job. When he loses the trail he runs back and forth uncertainly."

"According to that, Sahwah must be very near," said Gladys. "Are you sure there isn't any other place in the house, cellar or barn that she could have gotten into, Migwan?"

"Quite sure," said Migwan, disheartened. "You know yourself the way we finecombed every foot of s.p.a.ce."

"There's another thing that might have made Pointer lose the trail,"

said Nyoda. "Do you remember that he stopped short at the river once?

Well, it is my belief that Sahwah ran down to the river and either fell or jumped in and swam away. That would destroy the trail, and Sahwah might be miles away for all we know." She carefully refrained from suggesting that anything had happened to Sahwah and she might have gone under the water and not come up again, but there was a fear tugging at her heart that Sahwah had dived in and struck her head on something and gone down.

But several of the others must have had much the same thought, for Gladys remarked, without any apparent connection, "_You can see the bottom almost all the way down the river._"

And Hinpoha said, "_Those tangled roots of trees in the river are nasty things to get into._"

And Calvin set the dog free immediately and untied the rowboat. He and Nyoda rowed down the river while the rest followed along the banks. The stream was clear most of the distance and they could see to the bottom.

Here and there were sharp rocks jutting up and casting shadows on the sunlit bottom, and in places the water had washed the dirt away from the roots of trees so that they extended out into the river like many-fingered creatures waiting to seize their prey. But nowhere did they see what they feared. In the lower part of the river, toward the mouth, the water was deeper and had been dredged free of all obstructions, so while it was muddy and they could not see into its depths they knew that nothing was to be found here.

Vaguely relieved and yet dreadfully anxious and mystified they returned to Onoway House. "Do you suppose she was carried away by an automobile or wagon?" asked Migwan. "Does anyone recall seeing anything of the kind going by when we started to play?" n.o.body did. While they were discussing this new theory, Pointer, who had been left to run loose while they were searching the river, came running up to them. With much wagging of his tail he went to Calvin and laid something at his feet For a moment they could not make out what it was. Migwan recognized it first.

_It was Sahwah's shoe, completely covered and dripping with black mud._

"Where did you find it, Pointer?" asked Calvin. Pointer wagged his tail in evident satisfaction, but, of course, he could not answer his master's question.

"Is that the shoe Sahwah had on this morning?" asked Nyoda.

"Yes," said Hinpoha. "I remember asking her why she wore those shoes with the red b.u.t.tons to run around in and she said they were getting tight and she wanted to wear them out."

"Where does that black mud come from around here?" asked Gladys.

It was Nyoda who guessed the dreadful fact first. All of a sudden she remembered cleaning her shoes after she had come home from her visit to Uncle Peter.

"_The mars.h.!.+_" she gasped. "_Sahwah's caught in the mars.h.!.+_ It's the same mud. I went to the edge of the marsh the other day to see it and got some on my shoe."

Without stopping to hear more, Calvin dashed off in the direction of his father's farm, with Pointer at his heels and Gladys and Nyoda and Hinpoha and Migwan and Tom and Betty trailing after him as fast as they could go. Mrs. Gardiner followed a little distance behind. She could not keep up with them. Calvin tore a flat board from one of the fences as he ran along and called on the others to do the same thing. A little farther on he found a rope and took that along. They reached the edge of the marsh and looked eagerly for the figure of Sahwah imprisoned in the treacherous ooze. But the green surface smiled up innocently at them.

Not a sign of a struggle, no indentation in the level, no break. To the unknowing it looked like the smoothest lawn lying like a sheet of emerald in the sun. But on second glance you saw the water bubbling up through the gra.s.s and then you knew the secret of the greenness. Nowhere could they see Sahwah.

Migwan had to force herself to ask the question that was in everybody's mind. "Has she gone under?"

"No," said Calvin, positively. "It can't be possible in so short a time.

They say that a horse went down here once long ago, and it took him more than two days to be covered entirely."

After being wrought up to such a pitch of expectancy it was a shock to find that Sahwah was not in the marsh. _But how had her shoe come to be covered with marsh mud, and what was it doing off her foot?_ Where had Pointer found it?

"Oh, if only dogs could speak!" said Hinpoha. "Pointer, Pointer, where did you find it?" But Pointer could only wag his tail and bark.

From where they stood at the edge of the marsh they could see the cottage among the trees. A look of inquiry pa.s.sed between Nyoda and Migwan. Calvin saw the look and understood it.

"Would you like to look in Uncle Peter's house?" he asked. His face was very pale, and Nyoda, watching him keenly, thought she detected a sudden suspicion and fear in his eyes. He looked apprehensively over his shoulder at the Red House as they started to skirt the bog. Nyoda understood that movement. Abner Smalley did not know that they knew about Uncle Peter, and Calvin had said he would be very angry if he found it out. Now he would be sure to see them going toward the house.

But this thought did not make Nyoda waver in her determination to search the cottage. The urgency of the occasion released them from their promise of secrecy. As Calvin had no key they were obliged to enter by the window as on former occasions. But the front room was absolutely blank and bare and they saw the impossibility of anyone's being hidden there. It was a tense moment when they opened the door of the inner room and the girls who had never been there stepped behind the others and held their breath. Uncle Peter sat at the table just as Nyoda and Migwan had seen him a day or two before, playing with his rods and wheels. His mild blue eyes rested in astonishment on the number of people who thronged the doorway.

"Come in, ladies," he said, politely. The room was exactly as it had been the other day and apparently he had not stirred from his position.

They all felt that Sahwah had not been there and that the old man knew nothing about the matter. But Calvin spoke to him.

"Uncle Peter," he said. The man turned at the name and stared at him but gave no sign of recognizing him. "Do you know me, Uncle Peter?" said Calvin. "It's Calvin, Jim's boy."