"And did Jim get angry at that?" inquired Cora.
"Angry! He fairly fell upon poor Dan," put in Walter, "and when Ben saw him--I tell you Ben may stand a lot of trouble on his own account, but, when it comes to anyone trying to do Dan, Ben is right there to fight for him. Didn"t he almost put Jim over the rail?"
"There must have been quite a lively time," said Jack. "Sorry I missed it. There is so little excitement around here that we need all we can get. And what was the answer?"
"Jim took his old letter and slunk off," finished Belle. "And Dan said he couldn"t have read even the name on the out side if he had tried. He said it must have been written in Greek," and Belle laughed at the idea of the cla.s.sics getting mixed up in any such small affair.
"Seems to me," said Cora thoughtfully, "that Jim had some very important reason for fearing that one might see that letter."
"Yes," declared Hazel, "that struck me right away. I shouldn"t be surprised if it had been addressed to--the ghost!"
"Well, if you young ladies intend to see what is going on at the Casino this evening," Ed reminded them, "we had better make a start.
This is amateur night, I believe."
"And the Blake girls are going to sing," announced Jack. "Then I shall have a chance to clap my hands at pretty Mabel," and he went, through one of those inimitable boys" pranks, neither funny nor tragic, but just descriptive.
"I think it is awfully nice of the Blake girls to take part," said Cora, "for in this little summer colony everyone ought to be agreeable."
"But I notice you are not taking part," Ed said with a laugh. "Just fancy Cora Kimball on the Casino platform."
"Don"t fancy anything of the kind," objected Bess. "We are willing to be sociable but we have no ambition to shine."
"Come along," called Jack, who was on ahead with Hazel, "and mind, if anything brushes up against you, it is apt to be a c.o.o.n, not a cat, as Belle thought the other night."
They started off for the path that led to the public pavilion on the lake sh.o.r.e. Cora was with Ed, Walter had Belle on one side and Bess on the other, because he declared that the twins should always go together to "balance" him. Jack and Hazel led the way.
At the pavilion the seats were almost all occupied, for campers from all sides of the lake flocked there on the entertainment evenings.
A band was dreaming over some tune, each musician evidently being his own leader.
The elder Miss Blake, Jeannette, who sat on an end seat, arose as they entered and made room for the Chelton folks to sit beside her, meanwhile gushing over the prospect of the evening"s good time, and the good luck of "meeting girls from home."
Walter allowed Bess and Belle to pa.s.s to the chairs beyond Miss Blake and thus placed himself beside the not any too desirable spinster.
He made a wry face aside to Jack. He liked girls but the elder Miss Blake!
"Mabel is going to sing "Dreams,"" she said sweetly. "I do love Mabel"s voice in "Dreams.""
"Yes, I think I should too," said Walter, but the joke was lost on Jeannette. "Who is that dark man over there?" he asked.
"Oh that"s a foreigner. They call him Jones, but that"s because his name is so unp.r.o.nounceable. Isn"t he handsome?" asked the lady.
"Rather odd looking I should say," returned Walter, "but it seems to me he is attracted in this direction. Why should he stare over this way so?"
"He knows me," replied Miss Blake, bowing vigorously to "Jones" who was almost turned around in his chair in his determination to see the Chelton party.
"He"s mighty rude, I think," Walter complained again, leaning over to speak to Cora who was just beyond Bess. "Do you feel the draft from that window, Cora?" he asked.
"Oh I--" then she stopped. Something in Walter"s voice told her that it was not the window draft he was referring to. She glanced across the room, and her eyes fell upon the man she had met at Jim Peter"s landing place.
"I think those seats over there--up near the stage are much pleasanter," said Jack, who also saw that something was wrong.
"Suppose we change?"
"All right" a.s.sented Cora, taking the cue. "There are just four."
"I will stay here with Hazel, while you and Wallie go over there with the girls," suggested Jack. "And say Wallie," he whispered, "if I catch you fanning that young lady in the row ahead I"ll--duck you on the way home."
Walter apologized profusely for leaving Miss Blake. She evidently was sorry that the window had been open for she was "so enjoying talking of dear old Chelton." The place had only been thus mentioned by herself.
"Who is that dark man?" Hazel inquired of Jack, for, as if his eyes were magnets, every girl in the group felt they were riveted upon her.
"I don"t know," replied Jack, "but he seems to be very much interested in someone here. There, he is watching Cora. I wonder who the fellow is?"
The curtain rising interrupted the speculation. A man cushioned like a cozy corner laughed at himself while waiting for his audience to do so. Then he gave a yell and started to sing a ridiculous song about the milkmaid and the summer boarder. When he had finished one verse he took another "fit" of laughter, but somehow the audience did not see it his way, and when he tried it again, he broke off with an explanation. He felt sure that the people did not quite understand the joke, and he tried to tell them how very funny it was. To relieve the situation another person came on. One side of the figure was draped in the evening garb of a lady, while the other wore the full dress suit of a gentleman. The illusion was not at all bad, especially when the "person" waltzed with himself, with his arms around the other side of the evening dress the effect was really funny.
"That"s Spencer," declared Jack to Hazel. "He did that at college.
Isn"t it great?"
"Very funny," admitted Hazel, while the man made in halves bowed on one side first, then on the other, to his applause.
"Mabel is going to sing now," announced Miss Blake getting a firmer hold on her chair. "I just love to hear Mabel sing."
Jack said he did also, then outside the dropped curtain stepped Mabel.
She was pretty, a little thing with brown eyes and brown hair. She wore the most babyish dress made in empire, and it was evident she knew something about making up for good effect on the stage.
Applause instantly greeted Mabel, and Jack was not the one who first tired of clapping his hands. This pleased Miss Jeannette immensely, and she did not fail to express her pleasure to those about her.
The dark man in the seat across the aisle glanced first at the stage and then at the seat where the elderly lady sat. Jack was watching him, and noted his peculiar glances. Presently Mabel started to sing. Her voice was sweet, and her stage manners attractive.
"Isn"t she lovely!" exclaimed Bess to Ed. "I do believe she is studying for the stage."
"Shouldn"t wonder," replied the young man under his breath. Then the girl finished the song and bowed with such pretty piquancy that everybody demanded more of her talent.
Jack was still watching the dark man. As the girl left the platform the latter left his seat and went outside of the pavilion.
Presently a messenger tapped Miss Blake on the shoulder, "Your niece wishes to speak to you," the boy said, and at that Jeanette Blake also left her seat and the room.
"Something mysterious about that," said Jack to Hazel, "and I propose seeing it out if I can. I will take you over to the others, and run outside."
Just as he said that, a boy appeared on the platform and announced that owing to an important message Miss Blake was obliged to leave the hall and could not accommodate with her second number, but that some one else would try to fill her place.
A murmur of dissent arose from the audience.
"How could she get an important message here," Cora asked Ed.
"Where in the world could it come from?"
Jack pushed a chair for Hazel in line with the others.
"I am going outside for a moment," he said. "Take care of the girls until I come back."