"We"re going to be driven over to the big camp, girls," she said. "I think we"ve had quite enough tramping for one day. I don"t want you to be so tired that you won"t enjoy the Council Fire to-night."
There was a chorus of laughter at that, as if the idea that they could ever be too tired to enjoy a Council Fire was a great joke--as, indeed, it was.
But, just the same, the idea of a ride wasn"t a bit unwelcome. The troubles of Bessie and Zara had caused a sudden change in the plans of the Camp Fire, as Miss Mercer had made them originally, and they had had a long and strenuous day. So they greeted the big farm wagons that presently rolled up with a chorus of laughs and cheers, and the drivers blinked with astonishment as they heard the Wohelo cheer ring out.
There were two of the wagons, so that there was room for all of them without crowding. Bessie and Zara rode in the first one, close to Wanaka, who had, of course, taken them under her wing.
"You stay close by me," she said to them. "I want you to meet Mrs.
Chester as soon as we get to the camp."
"Where is it?"
"That"s the surprise I told the girls I had for them this morning. A friend of Mrs. Chester, who has a beautiful place near here, has let us use it for a camping ground. It"s the most wonderful place you ever saw.
There are deer, quite tame, and all sorts of lovely things. But you"ll see more of that in the morning, of course. We"ve all got to be ever so careful, though, not to frighten the deer or to hurt anything about the place. It"s very good of General Seeley to let us be there at all, and we must show him that we are grateful. For the girls who couldn"t get far away from the city it"s been particularly splendid, because they couldn"t possibly have such a good time anywhere else that"s near by."
"Oh!" cried Bessie, a moment later, as the wagons turned from the road into a lane that was flanked on both sides by great trees. "I never saw a place so pretty!"
Wide lawns stretched all around them. But in the distance a pink glow, among a grove of trees, marked the real home of the Camp Fire.
CHAPTER XII
A NEW SUSPICION
"I think the fire is more beautiful than anything else, almost," said the Guardian, as she looked at it and pointed it out to Bessie and Zara.
"It means so much."
"It looks like a welcome, Wanaka."
"That"s just what it is--a real, hearty welcome. It shows us that our sisters of the fire are there waiting for us, ready to make us comfortable after the trouble of the day. Around the fire we can forget all the bad things that have happened, and think only of the good."
"It"s easy to do that now. I"ve been frightened since Jake locked Zara up in the woodshed, awfully frightened. And I"ve been unhappy, too. But I"ve been happier in these last two days than I ever was before."
"That"s the right spirit, Bessie. Make your misfortunes work out so that you think only of the good they bring. That"s the way to be happy, always. You know, it"s an old, old saying that every cloud has a silver lining, but it"s just as true as it"s old, too. People laugh at those old proverbs sometimes,--people who think they know more than anyone else ever did--but in the end they usually admit that they don"t really know much more about life and happiness than the people who discovered those great truths first, or spoke about them first, even if someone else had discovered them."
"I"ve been happy, too," said Zara, but there was a break in her voice.
"If I only knew that my father was all right, then I wouldn"t be able to be anything but happy, now that I know Farmer Weeks can"t take me with him."
"You must try not to worry about your father, Zara. I"m sure that all his troubles will be mended soon, just like yours. Don"t you feel that someone has been looking after you in all your troubles?"
"Oh, yes! I never, never would have been able to get away from Farmer Weeks except for that--"
"Well, just try to think that He will look after your father, too, Zara.
If he has done nothing wrong he can"t be punished, you may be sure of that. This isn"t Russia, or one of those old countries where people can be sent to prison without having done anything to deserve it, just because other people with more money or more power don"t like them. We live in a free country. Be sure that all will turn out right in the end."
"I feel cramped, Miss Eleanor. May I get out and run along by the horses for a little while?"
"Yes, indeed, Zara."
And Wanaka stopped the wagon, so that she could get out.
"Do you want to go, too, Bessie?"
"I think I"d rather ride, Miss Eleanor. I"m awfully tired."
"You shall, then. I want you to do whatever you like to-night. You"ve certainly done enough to-day to earn the right to rest."
They rode along in silence for a few minutes, while the glow of the great welcoming fire grew brighter.
"Miss Eleanor?"
"Yes, Bessie?"
"Don"t you think it"s very strange that Farmer Weeks should take so much trouble to try to get hold of Zara?"
"I do, indeed, Bessie. I"ve been puzzling about that."
"I believe he knows something about her and her father that no one else knows, something that even Zara doesn"t know about, I mean. You know, he and Zara"s father were very friendly at first--or, at least, they used to see one another a good deal."
"Yes? Bessie, what sort of man is Zara"s father? You have seen a good deal of him, haven"t you?"
"I used to go to see Zara sometimes, when I was able to get away. And unless he was away on one of his trips he was always around, but he never said much."
"He could speak English, couldn"t he?"
"Yes, but not a bit well. And when I first went there he was awfully funny. He seemed to be quite angry because I was there, and as soon as I came, he rushed into one of the rooms, and put a lot of things away, and covered them so I couldn"t see them. But Zara talked to him in their own language, and then he was very nice, and he gave me a penny. I didn"t want it, but he made me take it and Zara said I ought to have it, too."
"It looks as if he had had something to hide, Bessie. But then a man might easily want to keep people from finding out all about his business without there being anything wrong."
"If you"d seen him, Miss Eleanor, I"m sure you wouldn"t think he"d do anything wrong. He had the nicest face, and his eyes were kind. And after that, sometimes, I"d go there when Zara was out, and he was always just as nice and kind as he could be. He used to get me to talk to him, too, so that he could learn to speak English."
"Well, there"s something very strange and mysterious about it all. You found this Mr. Weeks there the night he was taken away, didn"t you?"
"Yes."
"That looks as if he had something to do with it. I don"t know--but we"ll find out the truth some time, Bessie."
"I hope it will be soon. And, Miss Eleanor, I"ve been waiting a long time to find out about myself, too. Sometimes I think I"m worse off than Zara, because I don"t know where my father and mother are, or even what became of them."
The Guardian started.
"Poor Bessie!" she said. "But we"ll have to try to find out for you.
There are ways of doing that that the Hoovers would never think of. And I"m sure there"ll be some explanation. They"d never just go away and leave you, without trying to find out if you were well and look after you."
"Not if they could help it, Miss Eleanor." Bessie"s eyes filled with tears. "But perhaps they couldn"t. Perhaps they are--dead."