"Well, I suppose you are right in one way. But Allison and I expected they would come home to-morrow."
"Poor girls! They were having such a wonderful time in camp, too! I guess I will get Mrs. Vernon"s sister to take me to Freedom in the morning to see if there is anything we can do."
"May, I think that is a fine idea. And when you see them give them our love and say that we will do anything they say. If they plan to go on with the camp--all right and well. We will stock them up again."
"All right, Mr. Bentley, I"ll call you up when I get back and tell you all they say. Meantime, let Mr. Allison know that I intend running out to see them, will you?"
"Yes, I"ll call him up at once, May. Good-by."
So it happened that Mrs. Vernon"s sister-in-law and May went to Freedom in the automobile the day following the Fourth, but found the town almost deserted. Mrs. Munson told them how the scouts led the way up the mountainside when the police arrived, and they weren"t expected back that day.
After sitting around and waiting until afternoon, May and Mrs. Vernon"s sister decided to go back. But they left notes with Mrs. Munson for the scouts, as soon as they should return.
That evening May telephoned the Bentleys. After telling the little she knew about the case, she asked them to come over and discuss a plan she had thought of. Then the Allisons were asked to run over and meet the others in planning a relief-party for the scouts.
That evening the whole plan was approved and worked out. May said that the sister-in-law had promised to send the factory truck to the house on Sat.u.r.day at noon, so they need not worry about transporting the donations to the camp. As that was the only hitch in the entire plan, once it was removed every one was delighted.
That Sat.u.r.day morning the local papers were full of the story of how a few girl scouts found and captured two desperate outlaws. The story was so highly embellished that several of the conservative parents in the town thought it was dreadful to allow girls to go off in the woods without a dog or a big brother. What the big brother would have done that the scouts didn"t accomplish is hard to say.
But most of the girls who had been so anxious to be scouts and spend the summer in camp, now gnashed their teeth in envy. Here were four girls who had to dig dandelions to earn the money to go away on, now having the most wonderful time! They had their names in the paper, and every one said what brave scouts they were! And, most of all, they were going to have ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS from the Government as a reward. "Oh, why did we have to sit at home all summer while these scouts were getting all the fun?" they wailed.
The three families of the Dandelion Camp Scouts felt very proud of their girls when they read the account in the papers, and they felt all the more eager to go to camp with the donations of furniture, and show the girls how much they appreciated their courage and cleverness in capturing the rascals.
At one o"clock on Sat.u.r.day the driver pulled his truck up in front of the Lee homestead. Just inside the picket fence stood two cane-seated chairs. The fact that hind-legs were missing was not apparent to a casual observer, but that is why they had been in the loft for several years.
The moment the truck was seen to stop, May and her father ran from the house, carrying paper bundles piled high in their arms. Eliza followed with a bra.s.s banquet lamp minus a globe. Handing this to the driver, she hurried back for odds and ends of dishes and pans. May made a second trip for some pictures in broken frames--also a washtub and old tools that had been found in the loft.
The second stop was made at the Bentley"s house. Their donation consisted of a table with three legs; a small wash-stand bureau with bottomless drawers; an old-fashioned towel-rack and a rocker with a very lame back; in fact, the back might be called crippled and helpless. But then they added a goodly stock of groceries.
At the Allison"s house the driver took on a kitchen table with one drop-leaf gone and the other hanging by one hinge. A small family alb.u.m-stand from the parlor of long ago. An old hair-cloth sofa with broken springs and the filling most gone; a straw mattress and a spiral spring that had not been used for years, so the Allisons thought it might as well go to the camp as to be left in the attic. Foodstuff was the last but not least of this donation.
When the truck reached the Vernons" house, where the sister-in-law was waiting, many c.u.mbersome and heavy items were added to the collection.
By this time the jitney party had been picked up one after another, and now all arrived at the Vernons" house for the last pa.s.senger.
The truck and jitney then started for Dandelion Camp, the happy givers picturing how delighted the scouts would be to receive the shower of furniture.
At Freedom the surprise party found their girls had gone back to camp, and the injured man with them. Lemuel Saunders was such a personage in the public eye since the man-hunt on the mountain that he could be seen strutting up and down Main Street, telling people all about the Great Deed. Thus it was that the families from Elmertown heard the tale first-hand--with all its tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs.
As the truck started up the trail for the camp Mr. Bentley turned to Mr.
Lee and Mr. Allison and said: "According to Lemuel, he did the whole trick. If our girls played so little a part in the capture, why should they have had the reward?"
But further conversation was rendered impossible by the deep ruts worn in the trail by the many wagons that had recently traveled the road.
People from Freedom and other villages nearby wanted to see the girl scouts who had shown so much sense as to trap two convicts.
Finally the truck halted, and the jitney traveled on a few hundred feet in advance before it, too, had to stop. Each member of the party then took a piece of furniture and, carrying the load, started for camp.
The scouts were busy trying to put their camp in order again, when Mrs.
Vernon called out, "Some one"s coming up the trail."
Ruth ran out to see who it could be, and then exclaimed: "Why, it"s Daddy! He"s carrying an old table."
A few yards behind Mr. Bentley came Mr. Allison with the legless chairs.
And then followed the chauffeur, staggering under a canopy of the husk-mattress. A line of visitors came behind him, each burdened with some piece of old furniture.
The scouts stood speechless at the top of the slope, but gradually the truth about this "moving brigade" dawned upon Mrs. Vernon. She turned instantly to the girls, and said: "Be very grateful, for your people have gone to a great deal of trouble to refurnish your camp."
Mr. Bentley was only too thankful to drop his burden when he reached the scouts; Ruth caught hold of his hand, laughing merrily as she said: "Oh, can you ever stand up straight again, Daddy?"
"I doubt it," returned he, holding the small of his back.
Then the others came up and deposited their donations beside the kitchen-table. As each one sighed and wiped streaming faces, the scouts declared they were the finest families on earth.
"You certainly are very self-sacrificing to bring all this furniture to camp," added Mrs. Vernon.
"We would have been cold-blooded folks if we hadn"t, after hearing how all the rustic furniture was destroyed," said May.
"But we got it all back!" exclaimed Julie, joyously.
"Got it back! I thought those rascals smashed it up," said Mr. Allison.
"No--they just hid it behind bushes and trees; only the gra.s.s mats and little ornaments were broken up," explained Joan.
"Dear me! Do you mean to say that we brought this load of odds and ends all this way for nothing?" cried Mrs. Bentley.
"Of course not! Now we can entertain company over-night, you see. With that mattress and spring we can have two people," declared Julie, looking at her companions for credit of this idea.
"That"s so! And we can furnish a regular bedroom with the chairs and table--and banquet lamp," added Joan.
"But we will have to pin a notice on those chairs so no one will use them," ventured Betty, doubtfully, looking at the legless objects.
Every one laughed, and Ruth added: "We"ll build new legs on to them."
"You"ll have to build another hut to hold the furniture," now said Mr.
Gilroy.
This attracted all attention to the stranger, and Mrs. Vernon suddenly flushed crimson, and said: "Oh! What a poor scout hostess I make. I quite forgot to introduce our guest, Mr. Gilroy." Then the usual ceremony took place, midst the laughter of every one, for Mrs. Vernon was considered to be very particular about social customs.
"Now that all this furniture is here, what shall we do with it?" asked Joan.
"It won"t stand dew and weather like our rustic pieces, you know," added Ruth.
"If you scouts will help move the "shower," we might pile it back of Hepsy"s shed and cover it with a canvas until you have built a hotel,"
laughed May.
So, with merriment and strenuous labor, the furniture was neatly stacked up beside the shed until it could be better arranged.
Then every one sat down to listen to the story of the capture of the convicts. As all the scouts wished to tell the tale at the same time so that no one understood, the visitors quickly voted that Mrs. Vernon be the speaker. This was acceptable to the girls, and the Captain began.
She was a good story-teller, and the scenes were graphically described until she reached the part where the Chief stood on the roof of the hut, commanding the fugitives to come out. To make the recital more impressive, the Captain threw out her arm, which was supposed to hold the revolver, when quite unexpectedly the chair she sat in collapsed, and she found herself on the gra.s.s.