"We cannot stop for anything now, and must depend for the night upon what we have with us. I don"t like the look of that cloud," said the lady.
None of the girls liked the look of it, either. It had now rolled up to the zenith--a leaden ma.s.s, looming over them most threateningly. And there was a rumble of thunder in the summer air.
"Oh! what a beautiful spot!" cried Percy.
"See that reach of lawn--and the thick grove behind it. Goodness me!"
exclaimed Mina Everett, "do you suppose there are bears in that woods?"
"If there are, we"ll catch "em and eat "em," said Frank, practically.
"Now you know, Mina, there hasn"t been a bear shot in this state since your grandfather"s time."
"Well, then, if there"s been none shot, maybe there are a lot grown up here in the woods," objected Mina.
"Don"t scare a fellow to death with your croaking," admonished Percy.
Bessie had known that Polly Jarley had chosen the site for the camp; and she was secretly prepared to find fault with it. But as they drove their canoes ash.o.r.e on the little, silvery beach below the green knoll where the pennant fluttered, Bess could find in her heart no complaint.
It seemed an ideal spot. On three sides the thick woods sheltered the knoll of green. In front the lake lay like a mirror--its surface whitened in ridges "way out toward the middle now, for the wind was coming.
"Hurry ash.o.r.e, girls," said Mrs. Havel. "And pull your canoes well up on the sand. We must hurry to get our shelter up first of all. It will rain before dark, and the night is coming fast."
"Wish the boys had stopped to help us," wailed Grace.
"And let their own stores get all wet--eh?" cried Wyn. "For shame! Come on, girls. To the tent!"
There was a pile of canvas which had been dropped here by the bateau men on their way to Gannet Island that forenoon. There were stakes and poles with the canvas, and the girls had practised putting up the shelter and striking it for some weeks in Wyn"s back yard.
They were not so clumsy at this work, therefore; but it did seem, because they were in a hurry, that everything went wrong.
Mina pounded her thumb with a stake-mallet, and the ridge pole fell once and struck Grace on the side of the head. Poor Grace was always unfortunate.
"Oh, dear me! I wish I was home!" wailed the big girl. "And ouch! it"s going to thunder and lightning just awful!"
"Now, keep at work!" admonished their captain. "Fasten those pegs down well, Frankie," she added, to the girl, who had taken the mallet. "Never mind crying over your poor thumb, Mina. Wait till the tent"s up and all our things brought up from the canoes."
"Here come the first drops, girls!" shrieked Frankie.
Drops! It was a deluge! It came across the lake in a perfect wall of water, shutting out their view of Gannet Island and everything else.
The girls scuttled for the canoes, emptied them, turned the boats keel upward, and then retreated to the big tent, Wyn even dragging the canvas of the cook tent inside to keep it from becoming saturated.
Fortunately the last peg had been secured. The flap was laced down quickly. In the semi-darkness of the sudden twilight the girls and Mrs.
Havel stood together and listened to the rain drum upon the taut canvas.
How it sounded! Worse than the rain on a tin roof! Peering out through the slit in the middle of the tent-flap they could see nothing but a gray wall of water.
Suddenly there was a glaring blue flash, followed soon by the roar of the thunder. Several of the girls cried out and crouched upon the ground.
"Oh, dear me! this is awful!" groaned Grace again.
Mina Everett was sobbing with the pain in her thumb and her fear of the lightning.
"Now, this will never do, girls," admonished Wyn Mallory. "Come! we can set up the alcohol lamp and make tea. That will help some. There are crackers and some ham, and a whole big bottle of olives. Why! we sha"n"t starve for supper, that"s sure."
"I--I don"t know as I want to eat," quavered Mina.
"Pshaw! We Go-Aheads must not be afraid of a little storm----"
Wyn"s voice was drowned in the clap of thunder which accompanied an awful flash of lightning. With both came a splintering crash, the tent seemed to rock, and for a moment its interior was vividly illuminated by the electric bolt. The lightning had struck near at hand.
CHAPTER VIII
AT WINDMILL FARM
Both Wyn and Mrs. Havel--the bravest of the seven gathered in the big tent--were frightened by this awful shock. The other girls clung to them, Mina and Grace sobbing aloud.
"I--I feel as though that bolt fairly seared my eyeb.a.l.l.s," groaned Frank Cameron. "Oh, dear! Here"s another!"
But this flash was not so severe. The girls peered out of the slit in the front of the tent and screamed again in alarm. The rain had pa.s.sed for the moment. There, not many rods away, stood an old, half-dead oak with its top all ablaze.
"That is where the lightning struck," cried Wyn.
"It is fortunate our tent was no nearer to that side of the plateau,"
observed Mrs. Havel.
Then the rain commenced again, and the thudding on the canvas drowned out their voices for a time.
Somehow Wyn managed to get supper. The thunder and lightning gradually subsided; but for an hour the rain came in intermittent dashes and it was nine o"clock before they could venture forth into the cool, damp air.
They had eaten their simple meal and set up the sleeping cots (which were likewise of canvas) before that. There was a flooring of matched planks to be laid, too; but the rain had wet them and the girls would have to wait for to-morrow"s sun to dry them.
"Oh! I don"t believe living under canvas is going to be half so nice as we thought," complained Mina. "I never _did_ think about its storming."
"A bad beginning makes a good ending," quoted Mrs. Havel, brightly.
"This is only for one night."
"Excuse me! I don"t want another like it, Auntie," declared her niece.
They could have no lamp to see to go to bed by, save Wyn"s pocket electric flash.
"And it"s so plaguey awkward!" cried Frankie. "Here one of us has to hold the snapper shut so the others can see. Here, Mina! I"ve played G.o.ddess of Liberty long enough; _you_ hold the lamp awhile."
Wyn slung a line from one end of the tent to the other, and on this they hung their clothes. All the girls were provided with warm pajamas as being safer night garments under canvas than the muslin robes they wore at home.