CHAPTER XI
THE FROST GAMES
The big sleigh in which were Helen and the other girls swept intothe clearing in advance and Ruth's chum led the chorus addressedvociferously to the girl from Red Mill.
"Oh, Ruthie!"
"The lost is found!"
"And she got here first--wasn't that cute of her?"
"Oh, _do_ tell us all about it, Ruth," cried Lluella Fairfax.
"However could you scare us so, Ruthie?" cried Jennie Stone, theheavyweight. "I was so worried I was actually sick."
"And that is positively 'no error,'" laughed Belle Tingley. "Foronce Heavy was so troubled that she couldn't eat."
Helen was out of the sleigh at once and hugged Ruth hard. "Youblessed girl!" she cried. "I was _so_ afraid something dreadfulhad happened to you."
"And what became of that horrid boy Mr. Cameron tried to take toScarboro?" demanded Madge Steele.
The boys piled out of their sledge before Ruth could answer thesequestions, and she was unable to give a very vivid explanation of allthat had happened to her since leaving the train, until the wholeparty was gathered before one of the open fires in the hall, waitingfor dinner. Before this hour came, however, and while the rest of theyoung folks were getting acquainted with the possibilities of SnowCamp, Ruth had a serious talk with Mr. Cameron regarding themysterious boy who had disappeared on the verge of the Snow Campreservation.
"I don't know how he escaped us. He sped away through the woods withthe old hermit's snowshoes--I am sure of that. And that oldRattlesnake Man didn't seem to be bothered at all by his loss," Ruthsaid.
"Perhaps that hermit knows something about the fellow. We'll lookinto that," said the merchant, gravely. "However, Ruth, you did whatyou thought was right. It was reckless. I cannot commend you forleaving the train, child. Something dreadful might have happened toyou."
"I thought something dreadful _did_ happen to me," said Ruth, with ashudder, "when those mules ran away and that catamount leaped up onthe timber cart."
"I believe you! And your going to the cabin of that rattlesnakecatcher. They say he is mad, and he handles the serpents just asthough they were white mice. The people hereabout are afraid of him,"said Mr. Cameron, earnestly.
"He was as kind as he could be to me," said Ruth, shaking her head."I don't think I should ever be afraid of him. His eyes are kind. Butthe snakes--oh! they did frighten me dreadfully."
"From what I hear of this young man, 'Lias Hatfield, who is in jailat Scarboro, he is a decent lad and has worked hard for hisstepmother. The half-brother he shot was about the age of this boy wefound down home. But _his_ body was recovered from the riveronly the other day when they arrested 'Lias. I shall make it mybusiness to see the Hatfields personally and learn, if possible, howa stranger like that boy who came here with you, Ruth, could haveobtained Mr. Hatfield's old wallet."
"He had some deep interest in the mystery of this shooting,"declared Ruth, and she told the merchant of the newspaper clippingthat had dropped out of the old wallet when she had undertaken to drythe boy's clothing at the Red Mill.
Meanwhile, the other young folks were highly delighted over thepossibilities for fun at Snow Camp. Tom and his friends did not paymuch attention to what was inside the great log house; but beforenoon they knew all that was to be done outside and were unhappy onlybecause they did not know which to do first. In addition, Busy Izzyhad exhausted himself and every man about the place, askingquestions; and finally Tom and Bob gagged him with his ownhandkerchief and threatened to tie him up and not give him any dinnerif he did not stop it.
"But _do_ let him ask for a second helping to pudding, boys,"urged the kind-hearted Heavy. "It's going to be fine--I had a tasteof the dough. Mary says it's 'Whangdoodle Pudding, with LallygagSauce'; but you needn't be afraid of the fancy name she gives it,"added the plump girl, rolling her eyes. "It's just scrumptious!"
They laughed at Heavy's ecstasies, yet all did full justice to thepudding. Such a hearty appetite as everybody had! The snapping coldand the odor of balsam and pine gave a tang to the taste that none ofthem had ever known before. The girls were full of plans for quiethours around the great open fires, as well as for the out-of-doorfun; but Tom was leader on this first day of the vacation at SnowCamp, and he declared for skating in the afternoon.
Even Mrs. Murchiston went down to the pond.
The boys took turns in pushing her about in an ice-chair. But Mr.Cameron put on skates and proved himself master of them, too. LongJerry came down to watch them and grinned broadly at the boys' anticson the ice. Jerry was no skater; but he was stringing snowshoes andby the morning would have enough ready for the whole party andpromised to teach the young folk the art of walking on them in half aday.
That afternoon on the ice only put an edge on the appetite of thewhole party for the frost games. "Plenty of time to make thosepine-needle pillows for the girls at Briarwood, if we have a stormy day,"quoth Helen Cameron. "We mustn't mope before the fire this evening.The moon is coming up--big as a bushel and red as fire! Oh, we'llhave some fun this night."
"What now?" demanded Madge Steele. "I see the boys have stolen outafter supper. A sleigh ride?"
"No; although that would be fun," said Helen.
"Oh, dear! Can't we take it easy this evening?" whined Heavy, aftera mighty yawn. "I _was_ so hungry--"
"You shouldn't give way to that dreadful appetite of yours, JennieStone!" cried Belle Tingley. "If there's any fun afoot I want to bein it."
"Come on! All ready!" shouted the boys outside the house, and thesextette of girls ran to get on their wraps.
They bundled out of the house to find Tom, Bob and Isadore eachdrawing a long, flat, narrow toboggan. Helen clapped her hands andshouted:
"Fine! fine! See these sleds, girls."
"We're going to shoot the chutes, Heavy," sang out Madge. "Do youthink you can stand it?"
"Now, don't any of you back out," Tom said. "Each of us will taketwo girls on his sled. There's plenty of room."
"You'd better draw matches for us," said the irrepressible Heavy."That is, if you intend drawing _us_--two to each toboggan--tothe top of that slide. I never did care much for boys--they aregreedy; but which one of you could drag Madge and me, for instance,up that hill?"
"We draw the line at that," cried Tom. "Those who can't toddle alongto the top of the chute needn't expect to ride to the bottom."
They all hurried off, laughing and shouting. It was a most beautifulmoonlight night. Save their own voices, only the distant barking of afox broke the great silence that wrapped the snow-clad country about.None of the grown folk followed them. The party had the hill tothemselves.
It being a race to the hill-top, with the first two girls to taketheir places on the toboggan of the first boy, naturally Heavy wasout of the running, and bound to be last. She came panting to thestarting platform, and found Ruth waiting to share Isadore's sledwith her.
Tom, with Madge and Belle, had already shot down the icy chute. BobSteele, with Lluella and Helen before him, dropped over the verge ofthe platform and their toboggan began to whiz down the pathway, asJennie plumped down upon the remaining toboggan.
"Come on, Ruthie! You're a good little thing to wait for me--and Iguess Tom Cameron didn't like it much, either? He wanted you."
"Nonsense, Jennie," returned Ruth, with a laugh. "What does itmatter? As long as we all get a slide--"
"Hurry up, now," cried Busy Izzy, troubled because he was behind hiscomrades, if the girls were not. "Sit tight."
He pushed the toboggan over the edge of the drop almost before Ruthwas settled behind Jennie. He flung himself upon the sled, sittingsideways, and "kicked" them over the drop. The toboggan struck theicy course and began to descend it like an arrow shot from a bow.Jennie Stone shrieked a single, gasping:
"Oh!"
The toboggan whizzed down the path, with the low, icy dykes oneither hand, and so rapidly that their eyes watered and they couldnot see. It seemed only a breath when the thir
d toboggan shot ontothe level at the bottom, and they passed the crew of the first sledalready coming back. It was exhilarating sport--it was delightful.Yet every time they started Ruth felt as though the breath left herlungs and that she couldn't catch it again until they slowed down atthe bottom of the hill.
She would have felt safer with one of the other boys, too. IsadorePhelps was none too careful, and once the toboggan ran up one of theside dykes and almost spilled them on the course.
"Do look out what you are about, Isadore," Ruth begged, when theyreached the bottom of the slide that time. "If we should have a spill----"
"Great would be the fall thereof!" grinned Isadore, looking atHeavy, puffing up the hill beside them.
"You take care now, and don't spatter me all over the slide," saidthe cheerful stout girl, whose doll-like face was almost alwayswreathed in smiles.
But Isadore was really becoming reckless. To tell the truth, Bob andTom were laughing at him. He had been the last to get away each timefrom the starting platform, and he could not catch up with theothers. Perhaps that was the stout girl's fault; but Ruth would climbthe hill no faster than Jennie, and so the third toboggan continuedfar behind the others. As they panted up the hill Tom and his twocompanions shot past and waved their hands at them; then followed BobSteele's crew and Helen shouted some laughing gibe at them. Isadore'sface grew black.
"I declare! I wish you girls would stir yourselves. Hurry up!" hegrowled quite ungallantly.
"What's the hurry?" panted Heavy.
"There's nobody paying us for this; is there? Let 'em catch up withus and then we will be--all--to--geth--er--Woof! My goodness me, I'mwinded," and she had to stop on the hill and breathe.
"Go on and leave us. Take one trip by yourself, Isadore," said Ruth.
"No, I won't," returned Phelps, ungratefully. "Then they'll all gababout it. Come along; will you?"
"Don't you mind him, Jennie," whispered Ruth. "I don't think he'svery nice."
They got aboard the toboggan once more and Isadore recklessly flunghimself on it, too, and pushed off. At the moment there came a shrillhail from below. Tom was sending up some word of warning--at the verytop of his voice.
But the three just starting down the slide could not distinguish hiswords.
Jennie shut her eyes tight the moment the toboggan lurched forward,so she could not possibly see anything that lay before them. Ruthpeered over the stout girl's shoulder, the wind half blinding hereyes with tears. But the moonlight lay so brilliantly upon the trackthat it was revealed like midday. Something lay prone and black uponthe icy surface of the slide.