The Automobile Girls in the Berkshires; Or The Ghost of Lost Man's Trail Read online

  CHAPTER V

  A DAY IN THE WOODS

  Mollie crept to the door of their hut at sunrise next morning. Shethought she heard light footfalls outside their door. The other girlswere fast asleep, worn out by the long trip of the day before. Yet whenMollie peeped outside no one was in sight; all was silence.

  Only the birds had begun to stir in their nests and call their morninggreetings across from one tree top to another. As far as Mollie could seestretched the unbroken forest. A narrow path ran down the hill betweenthe trees. A steeper incline rose back of them and this was broken withdeep ravines. Mollie could neither see nor hear anyone. Yet it seemed toher that she was not alone. She had a sense of some unknown presence.

  She crept back into the room and put on her crimson dressing gown andslippers. She was bent on making a discovery. It could not be Naki or hiswife, whose light footfalls she had heard moving swiftly around thehouse. They were nowhere to be seen. She was nervous about going out, asMiss Sallie had made dreadful suggestions about wolves and wild cats, yetshe slipped out on the tiny porch. Far away through the trees and up thesteep hillside she saw flying like a deer, a thin, brown creature. Was ithuman or a sprite? Mollie could not guess. She caught a glimpse of it,but it had been impossible to observe it accurately, so fast it flew.There was only a whirr of flying feet, and a flash of brown and scarletto be seen. Could it be the famous ghost of Lost Man's Trail?

  At this same moment Naki came around from the back of the house. "Ithought I heard some one," he grumbled, looking suspiciously at Mollie.

  "Yes, so did I," she answered. "And I saw some one or something fly upthe steep side of that hill."

  Naki did not answer. Mollie thought he looked at her queerly.

  "You must have been mistaken, Miss," he declared. "Nothing could havegone up that ravine over yonder. There's only an Indian trail back there.Nobody travels much over that hill. It's all cliffs and dangerous."

  Mollie shook her pretty head. She did not argue, but she knew what shehad seen.

  "I am going to try climbing it, some day, just the same," she thought toherself, "but of course, I must get used to finding my way about first. Imust find out just what I saw this morning."

  "Where have you been, Mollie?" asked Grace, opening her eyes as Molliecame back to bed.

  "What's up?" called Ruth from the next room, where she slept with MissSallie.

  "Oh, nothing," Mollie answered, fearful of being thought superstitious."I thought I heard a sound at the door, but I was mistaken."

  "Girls," Ruth demanded later, as they sat over their breakfast, "is thereanything in the world so good to eat as bacon fried by Ceally over anopen fire?" Ruth helped herself to all that was left on the dish.

  "Ruth Stuart!" called Barbara. "How dare you take all the bacon, when youhave just declared it was so delicious? Miss Sallie, make her divide withme."

  Miss Stuart looked up from her eggs and toast: "What are you childrenquarreling about?" she asked placidly. "Suppose you bring us another dishof bacon, Ceally. The mountain air certainly creates an appetite. I amsure I don't see what benefit I am to get from 'roughing it!' The onething I hoped to do by living outdoors was to reduce my figure, but, ifmy appetite continues at the present rate, I shall certainly not lose anounce."

  "Don't you be too sure, auntie," Ruth demurred. "Wait till we get throughwith you to-day. Think you can climb the hill back of us?"

  Mollie interrupted. "Naki warns us against that particular hill. He saysit is unpopular for climbing because of its cliffs and ravines. But hehints that there is an Indian trail over it, so I am dying to explore it.Aren't you, Bab?"

  "Well, it's not for me!" laughed Ruth hastily. "I am not any too devotedto scaling cliffs, you may remember."

  "What's the programme for to-day?" Grace asked.

  "Somebody must go down the hill with me this afternoon," Ruth answered."The automobile is to meet us there you know, to take us to a postofficeto mail our letters to our beloved families. This morning we can justpoke round the camp. I want Naki to teach us how to make a camp fire."

  Mollie looked down at her dainty hands. "It is rather dirty work, isn'tit?" she asked.

  "Not a bit of it, Mollie," put in Bab. "Don't be finicky, or we shall putyou out of camp. It's a good thing to know how to build a first-classfire. Suppose one of us should be lost in the woods some day!"

  "We will suppose no such thing," protested Miss Stuart.

  Early in the afternoon Miss Sallie and the four girls started down thehill. Bab, Mollie and Miss Stuart were to go only a part of the way withRuth and Grace, the two girls continuing their walk until they met thechauffeur, who was to bring the motor car up to the point of the roadwhere Ruth had told him to meet her.

  Mollie and Bab begged off from the excursion. "I don't want to know," Babargued, "how near we still are to civilization. If I go to town with youto-day, no matter how long the drive is, it will take away a part of theromance of living in the hills."

  Miss Stuart was not much of a walker. Before they had gone half a mileshe decided that it was high time to turn back.

  "Good-bye girls," she called to Ruth and Grace, who were hurrying on. "Donot stay too late. You must be back by dusk, or I shall be most uneasy.At five-thirty I shall expect you in camp. These are my orders." MissSallie turned to Bab and Mollie. "Seriously, children," she explained, "Ithink I shall establish military rules. If one of you stays out afterdusk, I believe I shall shut you up in the guard house for twenty-fourhours."

  "But where is the guard house please, Miss Sallie?" inquired Molliemeekly.

  Miss Sallie laughed. "In this case the guard house means only the cabin.The girl who fails to appear when the roll is called in the evening mustremain within the limits of the camp all the following day."

  Bab and Mollie left Miss Stuart before the log fire in the living room oftheir hut. Miss Sallie, who had a taste for romance in the lives of otherpeople, was deep in the reading of a new novel. A part of the campingsupplies had been a collection of new books for her.

  "Come on, Mollie," cried Bab gayly. "Let's go over in the woods andgather some pine and cedar branches for our fire this evening." Barbarawalked ahead, pulling a small wagon behind her with all the ardor of ayoung boy. "You see," she avowed to Mollie, "I don't have to remember Iam sixteen, or a girl, while we are living in the woods. I can be just asindependent as I like."

  The two sisters were deep in their task. The little wagon was piled highwith evergreens. Suddenly Mollie started. She thought she heard a voicecalling from somewhere above their heads. "Hi, there! Hello! Hello!"

  "Did you hear some one calling?" asked Mollie.

  "Why, no," responded Barbara. "What is the matter with you, Mollie? Thismorning you heard a 'spook' outside the door, this afternoon you believeyou hear a voice calling you. Beware, child! Perhaps you are alreadyafflicted with the wood madness, and may see that wonderful ghost."

  "Hi, there! Hi, there!" A voice was surely floating down from the sky.

  This time Bab stared. Mollie looked triumphant. As far as they could seearound them, there was no other human creature. And the sound did notcome from the ground. Mollie was right. The noise was from overhead. Butit was so far off and faint, it could not come from the trees above them.

  Bab and Mollie ran out into an open space. There was a strange, rattling,swinging noise above their heads, as though a pair of mammoth wings werebeating in the sky. The two girls looked up. There, about twenty yardsabove the tops of the highest trees was the strangest object ever seen byMollie and Bab!

  "What on earth is it?" Bab breathed faintly. The voice sounded moredistinctly this time. "Is there some one down there in the woods?"

  Bab caught the words. The sound was coming from a megaphone from thestrange ship in the air. But Mollie and Bab had no megaphone at theircommand through which to answer back--only two frightened girl voices.

  "Yes, yes!" they called together as loud as they could shout. The soundwas ridiculous even to their
own ears, and was lost in the vast spaces ofthe forest. The strange vehicle over their heads was gliding a littlecloser to the ground. Bab and Mollie could faintly see the figure of aman--two men--when they looked again.

  This time the voice came through the megaphone: "Can you get me help? Ihave broken the rudder of my balloon. We cannot alight withoutassistance. If we come too close to the ground we will catch in thetrees. I want some one to pull us down with ropes."

  "Well," Mollie spoke to herself, "it is a relief to know that that objectis an airship, not some hideous hobgoblin. I would like to know, Bab, howyou and I are to get the thing to the ground?"

  "Run, fly, Molliekins!" cried Bab, whose mind was always quick in action."Go to the cabin for Naki and Ceally. Tell them to come here as fast asthey can tear. We can manage together."

  Mollie was off in a flash.

  Barbara's voice could now be heard by the men in the balloon above her."Drop me a line," she called to them, "before you float too far away. Iwill tie you to a tree."

  Bab had realized that with a broken rudder it was impossible for thedirigible balloon to remain poised in the air.

  A long coil of rope floated down from the sky. Barbara caught it and ranto a tree which was bare of branches. Then she knotted the rope with allher skill and strength. There was nothing to do, now, but wait. Babfastened her gaze upon the strange white bird she had captured, whichhung fluttering and quivering in the sky above her.