Get in quick, Lizzie. It"s filling."
The last we saw of the detective that night he was standing on the bank, staring after us. Afterward, when a good many things were cleared up, he said he decided that he"d been asleep and dreamed the whole thing--the wireless, and my sitting on the hole in the canoe, and the wind tossing it about, and everything--only, of course, there was the tea and the canned corn!
We did our first fishing the next day. Hutchins had got the motor boat going, and I put over the spoon I had made from the feather duster.
After going a mile or so slowly I felt a tug, and on drawing my line in I found I had captured a large fish. I wrapped the line about a part of the engine and Tish put the barrel hoop with the netting underneath it.
The fish was really quite large--about four feet, I think--and it broke through the netting. I wished to hit it with the oar, but Hutchins said that might break the fin and free it. Unluckily we had not brought Tish"s gun, or we might have shot it.
At last we turned the boat round and went home, the fish swimming alongside, with its mouth open. And there Aggie, who is occasionally almost inspired, landed the fish by the simple expedient of getting out of the boat, taking the line up a bank and wrapping it round a tree. By all pulling together we landed the fish successfully. It was forty-nine inches by Tish"s tape measure.
Tish did not sleep well that night. She dreamed that the fish had a red mustache and was a spy in disguise. When she woke she declared there was somebody prowling round the tent.
She got her shotgun and we all sat up in bed for an hour or so.
Nothing happened, however, except that Aggie cried out that there was a small animal just inside the door of the tent. We could see it, too, though faintly. Tish turned the shotgun on it and it disappeared; but the next morning she found she had shot one of her shoes to pieces.
III
It was the day Tish began her diary that we discovered the red-haired man"s signal. Tish was compelled to remain at home most of the day, breaking in another pair of shoes, and she amused herself by watching the river and writing down interesting things. She had read somewhere of the value of such records of impressions:--
10 A.M. Gull on rock. Very pretty. Frightened away by the McDonald person, who has just taken up his customary position. Is he reading or watching this camp?
10.22. Detective is breakfasting--through gla.s.ses, he is eating canned corn. Aggie--pickerel, from bank.
10.40. Aggie"s cat, beside her, has caught a small fish. Aggie declares that the cat stole one of her worms and held it in the water. I think she is mistaken.
11. Most extraordinary thing--Hutchins has asked permission to take pen and ink across to the detective! Have consented.
11.20. Hutchins is still across the river. If I did not know differently I should say she and the detective are quarreling. He is whittling something. Through gla.s.ses, she appears to stamp her foot.
11.30. Aggie has captured a small sunfish. Hutchins is still across the river. He seems to be appealing to her for something--possibly the underwear. We have none to spare.
11.40. Hutchins is an extraordinary girl. She hates men, evidently. She has had some sort of quarrel with the detective and has returned flushed with battle. Mr. McDonald called to her as she pa.s.sed, but she ignored him.
12, noon. Really, there is something mysterious about all this. The detective was evidently whittling a flagpole. He has erected it now, with a red silk handkerchief at end. It hangs out over the water.
Aggie--ba.s.s, but under legal size.
1.15 P.M. The flag puzzles Hutchins. She is covertly watching it. It is evidently a signal--but to whom? Are the secret-service men closing in on McDonald?
1. Aggie--pike!
2. On consulting map find unnamed lake only a few miles away. Shall investigate to-morrow.
3. Steamer has just gone. Detective now has canoe, blue in color. Also food. He sent off his letter.
4. Fed worms. Lizzie thinks they know me. How kindness is its own reward! Mr. McDonald is drawing in his anchor, which is a large stone fastened to a rope. Shall take bath.
Tish"s notes ended here. She did not take the bath after all, for Mr.
McDonald made us a call that afternoon.
He beached the green canoe and came up the rocks calmly and smilingly.
Hutchins gave him a cold glance and went on with what she was doing, which was chopping a plank to cook the fish on. He bowed cheerfully to all of us and laid a string of fish on a rock.
"I brought a little offering," he said, looking at Hutchins"s back.
"The fishing isn"t what I expected but if the young lady with the hatchet will desist, so I can make myself heard, I"ve found a place where there are fish! This biggest fellow is three and a quarter pounds."
Hutchins chopped harder than ever, and the plank flew up, striking her in the chest; but she refused all a.s.sistance, especially from Mr.
McDonald, who was really concerned. He hurried to her and took the hatchet out of her hand, but in his excitement he was almost uncivil.
"You obstinate little idiot!" he said. "You"ll kill yourself yet."
To my surprise, Hutchins, who had been entirely unemotional right along, suddenly burst into tears and went into the tent. Mr. McDonald took a hasty step or two after her, realizing, no doubt, that he had said more than he should to a complete stranger; but she closed the fly of the tent quite viciously and left him standing, with his arms folded, staring at it.
It was at that moment he saw the large fish, hanging from a tree. He stood for a moment staring at it and we could see that he was quite surprised.
"It is a fish, isn"t it?" he said after a moment. "I--I thought for a moment it was painted on something."
He sat down suddenly on one of our folding-chairs and looked at the fish, and then at each of us in turn.
"You know," he said, "I didn"t think there were such fish! I--you mustn"t mind my surprise." He wiped his forehead with his handkerchief.
"Just kick those things I brought into the river, will you? I apologize for them."
"Forty-nine inches," Tish said. "We expect to do better when we really get started. This evening we shall go after its mate, which is probably hanging round."
"Its mate?" he said, rather dazed. "Oh, I see. Of course!"
He still seemed to doubt his senses, for he went over and touched it with his finger. "Ladies," he said, "I"m not going after the--the mate.
I couldn"t land it if I did get it. I am going to retire from the game--except for food; but I wish, for the sake of my reason, you"d tell me what you caught it with."
Well, you may heartily distrust a person; but that is no reason why you should not answer a simple question. So I showed him the thing I had made--and he did not believe me!
"You"re perfectly right," he said. "Every game has its secrets. I had no business to ask. But you haven"t caught me with that feather-duster thing any more than you caught that fish with it. I don"t mind your not telling me. That"s your privilege. But isn"t it rather rubbing it in to make fun of me?"
"Nothing of the sort!" Aggie said angrily. "If you had caught it--"
"My dear lady," he said, "I couldn"t have caught it. The mere shock of getting such a bite would have sent me out of my boat in a swoon." He turned to Tish. "I have only one disappointment," he said, "that it wasn"t one of _our_ worms that did the work."
Tish said afterward she was positively sorry for him, he looked so crestfallen. So, when he started for his canoe she followed him.
"Look here," she said; "you"re young, and I don"t want to see you get into trouble. Go home, young man! There are plenty of others to take your place."
He looked rather startled. "That"s it exactly," he said, after a moment.
"As well as I can make out there are about a hundred. If you think," he said fiercely, raising his voice, "that I"m going to back out and let somebody else in, I"m not. And that"s flat."
"It"s a life-and-death matter," said Tish.