"There"s somebody lying down on the other side of the fire, boys,"
continued the one with the hawk eyes. "That smoke keeps shifting around so much I don"t seem to be able to glimpse as well as--say, what d"ye think, fellows, I declare if it ain"t a _woman_!"
CHAPTER XVI
PEACE AFTER STRIFE--CONCLUSION
Lub uttered a gurgle to indicate his consternation. Ethan and Phil exchanged knowing looks, as though to say it was coming out just as they had figured.
The guide was a dark-faced native. He had evidently been having a hard time of it during that terrible storm, with possibly an hysterical woman on his hands, and no proper shelter. He waved his hand at the boys, and looked pleased to see them coming to their relief.
As they entered the camp they saw that the woman was sitting up. She looked as though she could not have stood much more. In spite of all the Adirondack guide may have done in trying to shield her from the torrents of rain, she had been wet through and through. Even sitting close to the fire for a long time had not caused her to stop shivering.
"We"ve come down here to see if we could help you any," Phil said the first thing, when he and his chums reached the fire.
"How"d ye know we was around these diggin"s?" asked the guide, as though puzzled.
"We"ve got a gentleman in camp with a badly broken leg, and he asked us to come," Phil went on to say, narrowly watching the eager face of the woman, who he could see was by breeding a lady, and a very handsome one too no doubt, though just at that time she looked woe-begone, with her long hair hanging down her back to dry, and her khaki outing skirts bedraggled. "He"s been worrying all the night, and nearly crazy because he was afraid some one would be caught in the storm, some one he expected was coming to find him."
Waves of color pa.s.sed over her face as she heard how the gentleman had been so deeply concerned.
"Would you mind telling me his name?" she asked Phil; and somehow the boy was reminded of Mazie when he looked more closely at her.
"He has been calling himself John Newton all along," he remarked; "but just this morning he admitted that his real name was Merriwell--Alwyn Merriwell."
She drew a long breath. Her eyes were as bright as stars as she hurriedly went on to ask another question; and both Phil and Ethan knew exactly what this would be before she had uttered a single word.
"Is there a little girl with--Mr. Merriwell? Oh! please tell me instantly, for I am crazy to hear!"
"Yes, and her name is Mazie!" Phil immediately replied. "We found her lost in the woods, and took her to our camp. Then later on we ran across him. He had broken his leg while searching for her, and tried to crawl miles, thinking to get help from us so as to find her. He came near dying, too."
She dropped her head in her hands, and they could see that she was crying very hard. Whether it was through sheer thankfulness because of what she had heard concerning the presence of the child, or from some other reason, Phil could not quite understand. But he believed it was all going to turn out splendidly.
Presently she looked up, and smiled bravely through her tears. Phil could see that a new happiness had come upon her; and he guessed the cause.
"I am Mazie"s own mother," she said, to the astonishment of Lub, who up to then had not been able to figure things out correctly; "there was a terrible misunderstanding between my husband and myself. The court gave me charge of our child. His love for Mazie was an absorbing pa.s.sion, even greater than my own. One day she disappeared, and we had reason to suspect that he had taken her away, so that she could be with him. Ever since I have sought far and wide to find them, but until lately without avail."
She stopped speaking, and seemed to be thinking for a minute; then went on, for of course none of the boys had ventured to say a single word:
"Of late I have learned through the death of a wicked person that I had wronged my husband dreadfully. I am only waiting to see him to ask his forgiveness; and unless he has lost all his love for me we may undo the wretched past, and start all over again, with Mazie the bond between us."
She had said quite enough for them to understand. Phil was wondering whether they might not have to construct another litter in order to carry the lady all the way to the distant camp.
"Oh! have no fears for me," she hastened to tell him, when he started to speak of such a thing. "I feel as though I could walk from now to sunset, and not grow weary, knowing that Mazie, and Alwyn, are at the end of the trail. We cannot start too soon to satisfy my yearning heart.
I could almost fly as though I had wings."
And, indeed, there was no difficulty in her keeping up with them. The new hope of happiness, after all these dreary months of wretchedness, buoyed her heart up as possibly nothing else could have done.
Before noon had arrived they drew near the cabin under the hemlocks and birches. The sky had cleared, and the sun shone warmly. All nature looked bright again after the storm.
"Listen!" cried the lady, suddenly.
It was the sweet childish voice of Mazie they heard, singing one of her little songs, which the boys had never tired of hearing. Imagine how it affected the mother, separated from her darling so long.
She could not be longer restrained, but rushing ahead pa.s.sed inside the cabin. The boys purposely loitered. When finally they ventured to enter it was to find the lady on her knees, with the arms of the child tightly clasped about her neck. She had one of the wounded man"s hands in hers; and apparently the breach between them had been healed, for he was looking upon mother and child with a love light in his eyes.
This influx of guests was getting serious, X-Ray and Lub had a regular argument as to which one should surrender his bunk to Mazie"s mother.
She would not hear of any such thing, however, and insisted that there was plenty of room for both Mazie and herself in the one bunk.
And after she had recovered from her exposure Mrs. Merriwell insisted on making herself useful, both in the way of a nurse, and in helping with the cooking. As for Mazie"s "daddy," he no longer looked the unhappy man the boys had considered him; since he was not going to be called upon to make that terrible sacrifice which he had considered was his duty.
This new arrangement left the boys more opportunity to prosecute their various pleasures. Lub had begun to show a decided interest in certain things connected with woodcraft, so that Ethan only too gladly accepted every chance to explain how to follow a trail, what certain signs stood for, what was the best way to make a fire in a storm, and dozens of other things equally as interesting.
Of course Phil was more than ever engaged with his flashlight photography. He had secured a startling picture of the red fox whose tracks he had discovered; and this spurred him on to greater things.
Often Ethan kept him company, and showed that he had really started to take a deep interest in this newer method of hunting without a gun.
Mr. Merriwell steadily grew better. He hopped around by the aid of his crutches, and hoped to be able to walk some by the time the Mountain Boys thought of leaving the North Woods for their home town, which was further south, though still in the uplands.
Josh Maxfield, the guide, stayed with them. He made himself useful, and Ethan managed to pick up quite a fund of information from the experienced native, who had been born and bred in the pine woods.
Many were the cheery evenings they all spent, in front of the cabin if it happened to be warm, or before the fire if the night air was chilly, as often turned out to be the case. Josh had plenty of interesting stories to tell. Mazie in particular was keenly interested in his accounts of how the black bear outwitted the honey bees that had made their hive in an old hollow tree; so that he usually secured a sweet treat as long as he could reach in with his paw, and tear the heavily laden combs out.
All too soon did the days pa.s.s, until finally it was decided that they must be starting back over the old trail.
Every one would be sorry indeed to say farewell to Birch Bark Lodge. The Merriwells made Phil promise to send them a set of all his pictures, and in particular the one that showed the dear old cabin.
"It stands for our new life," said the gentleman, as he sat there one arm around his wife, and the other about Mazie; "and every time we look at it our vows will be renewed. Besides, all the happy things that have happened here must rush over our memories. Yes, it will be our standard cure for the blues."
Although the lame man was getting around pretty well, Phil knew he would never be able to stand such a long and arduous journey as the one they had ahead of them. Accordingly they made over the stretcher, with the help of Josh, and meant to carry it along. Of course once they managed to reach the village, where there would be a road leading out of the wilderness, and possibly some sort of vehicle to hire, things would be much easier.
"One thing sure," said Phil, as they got ready to clear out one bright morning, "I"ve had glorious good luck in taking all the pictures I did.
Why, I"ve beaten my highest expectations three times over. The collection will fill a new alb.u.m; and right in front I"ll have stamped in letters of gold: "Memories of Birch Bark Lodge.""
"Yes, we"ll never forget what a grand good time we"ve all had up here,"
affirmed Lub, who seemed to feel the breaking away even more than any of his chums; "and often when I"m snuggled down between common every-day sheets at home I"ll dream of my fine bunk, and the way my blanket kept me warm."
"And what came down the chimney one night," added X-Ray Tyson; "not to mention what _tried_ to come down the next day. Oh! we"ll all enjoy remembering things. And I don"t believe we could ever have such a magnificent time together again."
"Don"t be too sure of that," Phil told him. "I can see some other outings ahead that may even turn out to be jollier than this one, though it seems hard to think it now. Let"s give the old cabin a last salute, boys. Three cheers and a tiger for Birch Bark Lodge!"
They were given with a will. Even little Mazie added her childish treble to the volume of sound that went up.
So they pulled out, and left the old cabin tenantless. The gray squirrels could run over the roof with impunity now; Br"er "c.o.o.n might wander along his trail down to the water"s edge to do a little fishing, without having a sudden blinding flash startle him out of his seven senses; while Br"er Fox need not skulk in the dense covert for fear of meeting roving boys.
But the bear that had fallen down the chimney, and the lordly moose had better make themselves scarce in that particular neighborhood; because ere many moons had waxed and waned Josh intended coming back again to look them up; and the law would no longer protect the shy inmates of the North Woods against the "sticks that spat out fire and stinging missiles" whenever they were pointed straight.