"R-r-i-g-h-t D-r-e-s-s!"
Heads and arms repeated their swift motions.
"Hold it! _Hold_ it!" rasped the voice. "Who said _"Front?"_ Here, Redhead!"
Hinpoha hastily resumed the position she had abandoned too soon.
"Now, FRONT! Again, RIGHT DRESS! FRONT! R-r-r-e-a-d-y! M-a-r-r-k t-i-m-e, M-a-h-k! One-two-three-four! F-or-r-d HUNCH! Wake _up_ there, Redhead!"
Hinpoha jumped and caught pace with the rest of her squad, who were several steps ahead, and then it dawned on her that "F-o-r-r-r-d Hunch!"
must mean "Forward March!"
"One-two-three-four! Left! Left! Left! Left! You with the plaid tie, get in step!"
Migwan shuffled her feet and fell into rhythm.
"One-two-three-four!" The drill sergeant rapped out a jarringly emphatic accent against a tree with her staff.
She was a college gymnasium teacher home on her summer vacation; her name was Miss Raper. She had a tremendous reputation for rigid discipline in her cla.s.ses. She had been trained in military drilling by an army drill officer and had acquired all his mannerisms, from the way of shouting his orders in such a way that it was next to impossible to understand them, to his merciless habit of calling out by name every one who made the slightest error.
"HALT! GUIDE RIGHT! Head to the front, there, Black Eyes! R-r-e-a-d-y!
LEFT WHEEL!"
The squads wheeled in decidedly shaky order.
"Again! LEFT WHEEL! Hold your pivot there! _H-o-l-d y-o-u-r p-i-v-o-t!_ Stand still, you Redhead, and wheel in place! Again! Left Wheel!"
So the endless tramp, tramp, tramp, tramp went on under the blistering July sun; the squads perspired and panted, muscles ached from the continued exertion and heels began to feel as though pounded to pulp from the violence with which they marked the accent.
But never a word of complaint did anyone breathe. They gloried in their discomfort. For this hot dusty road over which they toiled and perspired so was the road to glory, the avenue down which the girls of Oakwood, led by the Winnebagos, would march to triumph over their sworn rivals, the Hillsdale-ites.
Agony had gone through the town and picked out the most promising girls, whom, with the addition of the Winnebagos, she formed into a company.
They drilled for an hour every morning with Miss Raper in the wide dirt road that ran along the foot of the hill behind Carver House.
The hour drew to a close with a final strenuous series of left and right wheels and the Winnebagos sought the shade of the trees along the roadside and fanned themselves with leaves.
"How did we do to-day, Miss Raper?" inquired Agony, as the drill sergeant prepared to depart.
"I congratulate you," replied Miss Raper with sarcastic wit. "I never saw it done worse."
The company recognized the fact that it was a tactical error to try to draw any praises to themselves from Miss Raper. Yet they did not consider themselves abused, nor did they harbor any hard feelings toward her on account of her sharp tongue. They realized that she was a "crackerjack" trainer, and for the sake of winning that contest they were willing to endure her caustic comments meekly.
"I"ll never get left and right wheel correctly," sighed Oh-Pshaw with a discouraged air. "No matter which one she says, I always go in the opposite direction. I get so fussed when she looks at me that I can"t tell my left foot from my right."
"Never mind, you"ll get it in time," said Migwan soothingly. "I had the same trouble at first, but I"m getting sort of used to her now."
"I"m awfully stupid about things like that," mourned Oh-Pshaw, "and I"m afraid I"ll never get over getting fussed. I never _could_ stand up in front of anybody and perform; the minute I see people looking at me I forget everything I know and stand there like a dummy."
"Cheer up, child," said Migwan, "it isn"t nearly as bad as you make out.
Just think of the command and forget all about yourself and Miss Raper and then you"ll get it right every time."
"I hope so," said Oh-Pshaw with a sigh.
"You"ll _have_ to get over it," said Agony emphatically. "If you make any mistakes on the night of the contest--!" Agony"s voice hinted at the awful consequences which would follow such a misdemeanor.
"She isn"t going to make any mistakes the night of the contest," said Migwan, putting her arm through Oh-Pshaw"s and starting off toward Carver House.
The rest sauntered after them in twos and threes, practising drill steps as they went. Sahwah slipped her arm through Veronica"s.
"Let"s go over into the woods awhile before lunch," she said, "just us two."
Veronica came willingly and together they struck into the shady wood path, flecked here and there with irregular patches of sunlight which filtered through the branches above them. It was a pleasant place, this strip of woods crowning a gently rolling hill behind the town. Fallen logs thickly upholstered with moss made delightful sofas especially designed for friends to sit upon and exchange confidences. Veronica and Sahwah often came here on their walks.
Veronica was in a merry mood to-day and danced gaily down the path in pursuit of b.u.t.terflies; waved her hands and called out gay greetings to the squirrels and chipmunks, and constantly exclaimed aloud in wonder and delight at some bit of brilliant orange-colored fungus, or some bright flower that greeted her eyes.
Sahwah was more quiet, and there was a sober look in her eyes. Her mind was filled with perplexity, and her heart with foreboding, and the cause was Veronica. The mystery that seemed to be hovering over her head had not been dispelled as the days went on; on the contrary, it had been deepened. Several more times Sahwah had seen her slipping out of the house at dead of night and an incident had occurred several days before which Sahwah was not able to put out of her mind.
Sahwah was behind the big carved settle in the hall, fishing for a bead that had rolled underneath, when the telephone rang. The telephone was in the hall, at the other end near the dining-room door. Sahwah sighed, thinking she would have to crawl out and answer it, because Nyoda and the girls were all out in the yard working among the vegetables, but just then she heard Veronica answer the call, and went on placidly feeling for her bead. Near to the telephone as she was, she could not help hearing every word Veronica said.
Instead of the "Mrs. Sheridan is in the garden, I will call her," that Sahwah had expected to hear. Veronica had answered, "This is Veronica talking. Yes, I can. I will come immediately. The coast is clear. No one is in the house just now and I can slip away without rousing any suspicions."
Then Sahwah heard her hang up the receiver and pa.s.s out of the hall.
Sahwah sat up quickly and b.u.mped her head sharply on the back of the settle. Then, as the significance of the conversation she had just overheard sank into her mind she remembered Veronica"s mysterious nocturnal errands, and it came to her in a startled flash that Veronica was carrying on something which was a secret from the others--was stealing away from the house to meet someone. She sprang out from behind the settle, not knowing what she intended to do, but bent on seeing where Veronica went.
The hall was empty; Veronica was not there. Sahwah darted to the front door, expecting to see Veronica going down the walk to the street, but there was no sign of her. The street lay clear in the sunshine for its whole length down the hill; there was not a soul in it. Veronica could not have gone out the front way. Neither could she have gone out the back way, because the vegetable garden came up close to the kitchen door, and there Nyoda and the Winnebagos, including Agony and Oh-Pshaw, were working. Veronica must still be in the house. Sahwah went back in and looked through all the rooms for her, upstairs and down, but she was nowhere to be found.
Sahwah sat down on the lowest step of the stairway and thought, and thought, and a great dread came over her and would not be beaten back, a dread of something nameless and undefined, a sinister something that hovered over her with great dark wings, like the Thunder Bird. In an agony of love and sorrow Sahwah faced the fact which her prophetic soul, in its new insight, told her, even while her loyal heart tried to stop the whisper with a resolute hand.
Veronica had been caught in the toils of enemy agents, and was in some way having dealings with them. Sahwah"s heart turned to water within her, and the strength went from her knees so that she could not stand up. Veronica, one of the Winnebagos! It was too horrible to believe! She couldn"t believe it! She _wouldn"t_ believe it! Her loyal heart stood up firmly to her prophetic soul and shouted defiant denials at its insinuating whispers. No, no! Veronica was not deceiving them; she was the sincere, true-hearted girl they thought her, and she was as loyal to America as they were. There must be some explanation for her mysterious actions; it would all come out in time. She would be true to Veronica and keep what she knew to herself, until she found out the truth. She would never let Veronica know that she suspected her, never. All her love for Veronica came over her in a rush and scattered to flight the dark suspicions.
A call from the garden broke on her ear. "Sahwah! Oh, Sahwah! Where are you?"
"Here," she answered, appearing at the back door.
"Where have you been?" called Hinpoha. "We"ve been calling and calling for you. Come look at the robin trying to swallow the enormous angle worm twice as big as himself!"
Sahwah went out, trying to look perfectly natural, and feeling as though her secret were written on her face in letters a foot high. She looked at the girls closely, to see if by any chance Veronica were among them, but she was not.
"Where"s Veronica?" she asked in a voice which she hoped sounded idle and casual.
"Gone up to her room to lie down a while," replied Nyoda. "She got a headache from the sun. She asked to be left undisturbed until dinner time."
("Oh, if she only _were_ in her room," thought poor Sahwah!)
"Come on and help pick raspberries," said Nyoda. "We miss your nimble fingers."
So Sahwah fell to work among the bushes, absently stripping off the luscious red globes into the baskets, but her mind was far away and she took little part in the gay talk that went on around her. By and by, when the berries were all picked, Migwan said:
"Let"s make a basket of leaves and fill it with some of the largest berries and take it to Veronica."