Dorothy Dale's Camping Days

  CHAPTER XIV

  TAVIA'S MISTAKE

  Meanwhile Tavia Travers, the light-hearted, reckless Tavia, realizedthat she had made a dreadful mistake. It was the second afternoonsince she had left the camp, and she was at the railroad station,waiting for something unforseen to develop that would enable her toget back to her friends.

  It was such a lonely place--away out there in the woods, and she hadspent one awful night locked up in that station!

  "I'll walk," she declared, "if I cannot get away from here beforedark!"

  Walk! Fifteen miles to Innernook! With hardly a chance of a singletown in between!

  It was at the little rustic bridge that she had met the man, accordingto the appointment made under the harvest apple tree.

  "Come with me and I will prove to you that what I say is absolutelycorrect," he declared. "I have an old uncle out at Breakaway, and hewill tell you about the fortune with his own lips--I shall make himdo so."

  "But is it far?" Tavia had demurred, for she did not just like thatglassy stare in the man's eyes, handsome though he was.

  "Only a pleasant little train ride--it will do you good to get awayfrom this place. They call it camp--I would call it 'cramp,'" and hechuckled at his attempted joke.

  Tavia had not been inclined to go. He had seen that she hesitated.

  "Well, if you think I am not brotherly enough, I can take you to mysister Belle. She is surely sisterly enough--she will meet us atDurham."

  This had convinced Tavia. Surely if they met his sister at the firststation, there could be no harm in her going. And though the storyabout the fortune might be vapory, it was fun to have had such anexperience--to actually run away!

  Poor foolish Tavia! _Was_ it fun to run away?

  At the station, of course, there had been no sister Belle, but Taviacould not turn back now. This man seemed so compelling--so completelyher master! What was his strange power?

  On they had gone, he telling all sorts of absurd stories about themoney, which, he claimed, was actually secreted in his uncle's house.But long before he reached the station at Breakaway Tavia had decidedthat he was insane--and that _she_ had been insane not to haverealized this awful truth before.

  Then she knew that she must humor him--what might happen if shecrossed this strange man of iron will, who had only to ask her to dosuch a ridiculous thing and she did it?

  To run away from camp! Fun! Yes, it was funny, very----

  "When we get to the station I will go on ahead," he had said, to herimmense relief. "Then, when I have told uncle you are coming, and Ihave gotten him into his good clothes--uncle is very vain when thereare ladies around--then I shall return for you," and he had wavedhimself like a tall young sapling, in that conceited self-consciouspose peculiar to the stage and to--but Tavia was not sure. Perhaps,after all, he might not be altogether unbalanced.

  With many protestations of his earnestness he had left her at thelittle railroad station, and as she saw him saunter down thetan-barked path, she had been glad; then again she was sorry.

  It was dreadful to be all alone there, and night coming on. Even thestation was locked; to whom could she go or whom could she ask formoney to get back to the dear old camp?

  For two long hours she had sat there, then the old station agenthobbled along, and opened the ticket office. Tavia told him somethingof her plight, but instead of saying that she had come away from herfriends on the word of a perfect stranger, she pardonably made the manout to be a distant cousin.

  "Hum! That fellow with the long hair? Well, I guess they'll git himto-night. He's got loose from the sanitarium on the hill, and there'sbeen a lot of looking for him in the last two weeks. Seems to me he'sjest about toured the country," said the old man as he dusted thewindow shelf with his cap. "I reckon they'll git him now. And you wasout with that chap?"

  "Why--yes, no, that is----"

  "Your cousin, eh? Say, miss, he ain't nobody's cousin. But like as nothe thinks he is cousin to the president himself."

  "If I could only borrow a dollar!" sighed Tavia.

  "Well, you could if I hadn't been caught with that trick twice thissummer. Why, if I gave you a dollar, girl, you would make me believe Iwas your cousin, too."

  This retort angered Tavia, and she determined to ask no further favorsfrom this old man. Though he did wear the uniform of a Civil Warveteran, he certainly had poor manners.

  "What will happen?" she asked herself, confident that something musthappen to relieve the situation.

  "The best I kin do," growled the old station agent, "will be to fetchyou a bite to eat back from my boardin' house; and then let you sleephere till mornin'----"

  "Sleep alone in a station!" exclaimed Tavia. "I'm not afraid ofanything--but--I don't believe I'd like to stay in this--place allnight. I have a horror of rats."

  "Rats! No rats around here. I've got the best cat in the country.Switch is his name, an' that's him--he's no slouch."

  "But shut up alone with a big strange cat----" and Tavia looked at theanimal curled up under the beautifully-blacked and summer-shinedstove.

  "Well, you kin do as you please, miss, but there ain't no more trainsyour way to-night, supposin' you did have a ticket."

  Tavia looked out over the gloom that was quickly descending upon thelittle hamlet. Soon it would be night! No one but that station agentin sight! No place to go, but over the hills to his boarding house, orperhaps to some farm house; where, should she have the courage to makeher way through the fields up to a cabin, perhaps fierce dogs, thatwere already howling and barking, would become more her enemies thanwould be the cat, and the solitude of the station.

  "And is there no church--no minister's house where a stranded girlmight get shelter?"

  "Nice young girls don't often get stranded," replied the old man notunreasonably, "and if I was you I'd keep my trouble purty much tomyself. You kin depend upon Sam Dixon. If I say I'll do a thing I'lldo it; and no harm will come to you in this here station for a night.Besides, I come over for the ten o'clock train, and I'm back for themilk train before daylight."

  Something about this speech convinced Tavia she was unfortunate, andit would be best to keep her trouble to herself, for what wouldstrangers care about her predicament? Could she deny that it wasthrough her own fault that she had been thus situated?

  "I'm goin' along now, and say," said the agent, "if you like I'll justlock the office, and give you the outside door key. There ain't notramps, but if you should be timid, before I come back, just turn thekey in the door."

  "Oh, thank you," Tavia was compelled to say, for this was acondescension; "I'm sure I shall not be afraid--in the twilight."

  "Well, take the key anyhow," and locking the inner office he came outin the open room. "I'll fetch you a bite--I'm glad I ain't got no galsto--get left over from way trains."

  How Tavia Travers ever choked down the biscuit and the slice of hamthat Sam Dixon brought back to her that night--how she actuallyfondled old gray Switch, and was glad of his friendly purring duringthat long, dreary night, as she lay cuddled up in the very farthestcorner bench--how the night did, after all, go by, and a very graydawn bring the welcome step or limp of the station agent, onlyTavia--poor unfortunate Tavia--could ever know!

  And it was the next day--daylight at last!

  To-day she must get back to camp if she had to walk!

  Oh, she _must_ get back! Surely something would happen to assist her!