The Motor Girls in the Mountains or The Gypsy Girl's Secret Part 15

He looked at the party with a whimsical smile.

"Why, it's Mr. Morley!"

"So it is," echoed Bess and Belle.

"The very same," smiled the newcomer. "And you are the young ladies that came to my help the other day when I ran my car into a tree. Who would have supposed that we would meet again so soon and under such different circ.u.mstances?"

He shook hands heartily with the girls, and then was introduced to the boys.

"You've had something like a s.h.i.+pwreck, I see," he said, as he looked at the boat.

"Nothing very serious," replied Jack. "Although it might have been, if we'd had much farther to go to reach sh.o.r.e."

"It's too bad," returned Mr. Morley. "However, I'm very glad it wasn't worse. But come up to my cabin. It's only a little way from here. You can build a fire outside and stand about it until your clothes are dry. I live rather simply here, but I can offer you some refreshments. After that, we'll see what we can do toward patching up your boat."

He led the way, chatting with Cora, and the rest followed. A few minutes'

walk brought them to the cabin. It was a small, one-story structure, with three rooms. One served as a living room, dining room and kitchen combined, while the others consisted of a sleeping room and a room where Mr. Morley kept his specimens.

"'A poor place, but mine own,'" quoted their host, with a smile. "I spend most of my summers here looking for specimens. The rest of the year I teach botany in a college. Now I'm going to bring out some cakes and tea and put the young ladies in charge, and we'll have a regular afternoon tea."

While the girls fluttered about inside, preparing the refreshments, Mr.

Morley and the boys built a fire a little way from the door, and in a little while the youths were dry and comfortable again.

It was a gay party that a little later sat around the table where the girls had spread the refreshments. Mr. Morley seemed genuinely glad to have them with him, and the boys and girls were in the highest spirits.

What might have been a disaster had developed into a lark.

While the girls were clearing up the things later, their host went down with the boys to the boat.

He had brought along some boards and oak.u.m, together with necessary tools. His own rowboat enabled them to board the _Water Sprite_ without getting another wetting. Once there, the boys took off their shoes, rolled their trousers to the knees and set to work. In less than an hour they had repaired the damage. Then they bailed out the water and watched anxiously to see if any more came in.

But their anxiety was needless. The work had been well done, and the boat floated high and dry on the water.

CHAPTER XI CORA MAKES A DISCOVERY

The boys, followed by Mr. Morley, retraced their steps to the cabin and told the good news.

"And now," said Cora, "I suppose we must go. It was awfully good of you, Mr. Morley, to take us s.h.i.+pwrecked travelers in and treat us so nicely."

The others echoed this sentiment, but Mr. Morley put in a vehement disclaimer.

"It's nothing compared to what you did for me the other day," he declared. "And I can't tell you how much good it has done me to have you young people here. It's a long time since I've had youth in my home. But that's my own fault. I drove it--"

He brought himself up with a sharp turn.

"Perhaps you'd like to take a look at my specimens before you go," he remarked tentatively.

"We'd dearly love to," replied Cora.

Mr. Morley led the way into the specimen room.

"Just now I'm making a collection of vampires," he remarked.

"No accounting for tastes," whispered Walter to Paul, in a voice too low to be heard by their host.

"Do you keep them in a cage?" asked Jack.

Mr. Morley looked up in surprise.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"Why," replied Jack, "you spoke of vampires, and I thought you meant vampire bats. They're the only kind of vampires I know anything about."

"I was referring to the plant this leaf was taken from," smiled their host, as he held it up for them to see.

It was a long, rounded leaf that seemed to be covered with tiny hairs, on which glistened something that resembled honey and gave forth a fragrant odor. On looking more closely they saw what appeared to be fragments of small insects.

"We call it the sun-dew," explained Mr. Morley. "It's common enough, and you've seen it in the fields many a time. But instead of living on elements drawn from the soil, it feeds on flies and other insects. They are attracted by the honey that it spreads out temptingly to bring them within its reach. But as soon as they light on it, the leaf tightens around them and crushes them to death. Then it eats them at leisure.

That's why it's called a 'vampire.'"

"But," objected Cora, "any one would think from that that the plant had intelligence and knew just what it was doing, just as an animal does when it hunts for prey."

"Exactly," agreed Mr. Morley. "Who are we to say that plants don't have intelligence? What proof is there in nature that they don't suffer and enjoy, feel and plan, as men and animals do, only on a lower plane? We humans are too conceited. We a.s.sume that we possess intelligence almost exclusively. We grant some to animals, though we slur even that by calling it only instinct. But we've been inclined to deny it altogether to plants.

"Now I don't agree with this at all. And there are lots more of the newer school of naturalists who feel just as I do about it. Wherever there is life there is intelligence. Plants can be cunning and patient and cruel and deceitful. If they can't get enough of one kind of food, they hunt for another. When men and animals do these things or show these qualities, we admit that it is the result of thought. What is it, then, that makes a plant do precisely similar things with similar ends in view?

"But there," he interrupted himself with a smile, "one might almost think that I was in my lecture room, talking to a cla.s.s! It's a hobby of mine, and I forget sometimes that others may not be so interested in it as I am."

"But we _are_ interested, keenly interested," protested Cora.

"I never thought of plants in that way before," declared Bess.

"It's opened up an entirely new way of looking at things," said Paul.

"Are there many kinds of vampire plants?" asked Belle.

"Lots of them," replied Mr. Morley. "And they use all kinds of devices-hooks, claws, poison, honey, snares and shocks."

"Desperate characters," whispered Walter to Jack.

"Worse than gunmen," murmured Jack.

"There, for instance," continued their host, "is the 'devil's snare' that is found in South America. It has long, snaky tentacles that sweep the ground for many yards in every direction, for all the world like the long suckers of the devil-fish. It gobbles up anything that comes within its reach, insects, mice and larger animals. Once it gets its deadly grip on a victim, it keeps on tightening and tightening until it chokes the life out of it. It has been known to grasp and kill a good-sized dog."

"The horrid thing!" exclaimed Bess with a little shudder.