“Ah—ha!” the man finally managed to gasp3, as he steadied himself by seizing a slender sapling. “What do you mean, young man? How dare you lay hands on me? I represent the law, I do!”
“Then I’m sorry for the law,” was Blake’s cool response. “What are you doing here, anyhow? Don’t you know that this is private property? These young ladies rent this camping-ground, and you’re as much a trespasser4 as if they owned it. What are you doing here, anyhow?” and Blake’s voice was stern.
“I’m not going to answer your questions, young man, unless I want to,” the constable fired back. “And you’re doing a mighty5 risky6 thing in interfering7 with the majesty8 of the law. I am it!”
“Glad you told me,” murmured the lad, “otherwise I might not have known it,” and he laughed.
“Be careful!” warned the constable. “I can arrest you too, if I like!”
“Arrest!” gasped9 Natalie, who had somewhat recovered her composure at the advent10 of Blake. The other boys and girls were not in sight.
“Yes, arrest! I thought I’d make you take back-water.”
“I’m not taking back-water, as you call it, at all,” said Blake sharply, “I am merely curious. What do you mean? Once more I ask why you are here? And if you don’t give an account of yourself, I’ll run you off the place,” and Blake looked very much able to do it, a fact, which even gentle Natalie was gladly aware of at that moment.
“Be careful,” needlessly warned Constable Jackson. “I’m here on account of this—it’s my authority,” and again he tapped the nickel star on his coat.
“Authority for what?” snapped Blake.
“For taking her. I’ve got a warrant!” and he pointed11 a stubby finger at Natalie. “It calls for the arrest of one Hadee, a Gypsy girl for the ‘feloniously taking, carrying away and converting the same to her own use of one pocket-book, said to contain the sum of fourteen dollars and thirteen cents, the property of Mrs. Josiah Applebaum, with force and arms, contrary to the statutes12 in such cases made and provided,’” and he drew from his pocket a paper, from which he appeared to have quoted the last few words with great satisfaction. “That’s why I’m here,” the constable went on, “and when I go away I’m going to take her with me!” and he took a step toward Natalie.
“No! No!” she gasped. “There’s some mistake. Oh, Blake!” and she stepped toward the youth.
“There now,” he soothed13 her. “Don’t you be a bit alarmed. Of course there’s a mistake. You sha’n’t stir a step!”
“Oh, she won’t; eh?” jeered14 the representative of the law.
“No!” declared Blake. “As she says there has been a mistake, and it’s you who are making it. So you take her for some Gypsy girl; eh?”
“I sure do. The description fits perfect. Dressed like some Indian girl—hair down her back, ribbon around it and all. Of course she’s the one I want!”
“And you say she is Hadee?” asked Blake curiously15, making a sign to Natalie not to show that she recognized the name.
“Yes; but that don’t matter. Names is easy made up. Now will you come along peaceable, or not?” and he glared at Natalie.
“I—I—” she began.
“Wait,” spoke16 Blake, “I’ll answer him. In the first place,” he went on, “this is Miss Natalie Fuller, a friend of mine. With two boy friends, I am camping over at Stony17 Point. Miss Fuller and four chums are camping here. I can give you their names. I can also refer you to Mr. Henderson, the storekeeper, who knows us all. We might know this Gypsy Hadee you speak of, for some of the girls have had their fortunes told, but I’m positive Miss Fuller has taken no pocket-book. Her costume is that of the Camp Fire Girls’ Association, as we can show you in the official book. Now what do you say?”
“Well, all I’ve got to say that I’ve got a warrant for Hadee,” declared the constable sullenly18.
“But not for Miss Fuller,” insisted Blake. “If you’ll use your eyes you’ll see that she isn’t at all like a Gypsy girl, though she does wear her hair that way,” and at this Natalie smiled a little.
“Well, maybe they did make a mistake,” admitted Constable Jackson. Evidently the array of facts that Blake shot at him rather staggered the representative of the law.
“They!” exclaimed Blake. “I think you did.”
“I didn’t mean to,” the man went on. “After I got the warrant I made some inquiries19. Some one told me there was Gypsy girls camping over here, and I come.”
“So they take us for Gypsies!” exclaimed Natalie. “Oh, what will the Camp Fire Girls say to this?”
“What about this pocket-book?” asked Blake. “Did a Gypsy really take it?”
“Here’s all I know,” said the constable. “Josiah Applebaum, he lives over on the Woodport road, come to town yist’day and complained to Squire20 Grover that a Gypsy had visited his wife, told her fortune, and, when she left, the pocket-book that was on the table went too!”
“Oh!” exclaimed Natalie.
“What’d you say?” demanded the constable.
“Nothing,” answered Blake for her, giving his friend a warning look. “Go on.”
“That’s all there is to it. The squire made out the warrant for the girl, who give the name Hadee, though whether it’s her right one or not I don’t know—it’s a heathen name, anyhow.”
“And you came here after her?” questioned Blake.
“Yes, havin’ heard there was Gypsies here.”
“And now you see you’re wrong?”
“Well, you say so. And it don’t exactly look like a Gypsy camp, either,” Mr. Jackson admitted. “Do you know where I can find ’em?”
“Not in the least,” Blake replied. “You’ll have to use your detective abilities. But I advise you to be a little more sure next time, before you make accusations21. If I had not come along you might have frightened Miss Fuller.”
“I didn’t mean to,” murmured the man. “Well, I’ll go looking for this Hadee, though I don’t believe there’ll be much money left in th’ pocket-book when I git it,” and he started off, looking rather suspiciously at Natalie.
The voices of the other girls, and Mrs. Bonnell approaching through the woods, were heard now, and as they saw Natalie and Blake and the retreating constable Marie cried:
“Oh, what has happened? Is anything wrong?”
“This man is the only one in wrong,” said Blake grimly. “He came to arrest Natalie as a Gypsy pocket-book embezzler22.”
“Oh, Natalie!” came in a chorus.
If there had been any doubt in the mind of the constable, it vanished at the sight of the others. Putting his warrant back in his pocket, and murmuring some indistinguishable words he slowly rowed away in his boat, as Jack2 and Phil came along the lake-shore path to the girls’ camp.
“What’s the row?” demanded Jack. “What did old Jackson want? Has some one been cutting down trees again?”
Blake explained, and his two chums were waxing very indignant until Natalie informed them that, after all it was a very natural mistake, and that no harm had been done.
“If you will look so much like a charming Indian maid, I suppose you must put up with the consequences, breath-of-the-pine-tree,” said Mabel. “It is the penalty of—well, notoriety.”
“Yes, your fame must have spread,” remarked Alice.
“Well, I wish some bread was spread,” declared Marie. “I’m as hungry as—well, as the hungriest animal in the woods. Is dinner ready, Nat?”
“I was getting it when I came near going to prison,” laughed Natalie. “If you’ll all help it will soon be on the table.”
“We’ll help!” exclaimed Jack eagerly. “We haven’t anything much in the grub line at our camp. Ask us, won’t you?”
“Shall we, girls?” inquired Mabel.
“In view of Blake’s rescue, I think we might,” suggested Mrs. Bonnell, and soon a merry little party was gathered under the dining canvas.
“And, Oh, girls!” cried Natalie. “Do you know what I was thinking of when that constable was telling why he thought he wanted me?”
“Probably wondering how you’d like to live on bread and water,” suggested Alice. “I believe that is what prisoners receive.”
“Nothing of the sort!” exclaimed Natalie. “But when he told how this Hadee—which may be Gypsy for Hattie—when he said how she told the farmer’s wife fortune, and then left with the pocket-book, I was thinking of Mabel’s mother’s ring. That girl gave the same name, you know.”
“That’s so!” exclaimed Mabel. “The two cases are just alike. This Hadee may be a professional larcerner, to speak in polite language. Oh, boys! Can’t you locate her camp, and make her give back mother’s ring?”
“I never thought of that,” spoke Blake. “There may be something in it. Fellows, shall we have a try?”
“Where is the camp?” asked Jack.
“I don’t know, but if Jackson can get on the trail, I should think we could,” went on Natalie’s champion. “Let’s think about it, anyhow.”
“And if you boys don’t find it, maybe we can,” put in Alice.
“You girls! You’d never dare go off in the woods alone, looking for a Gypsy camp; you’d get lost!” declared Phil.
“That shows how little he knows about the Camp Fire Girls!” exclaimed Marie. “Know then, rash youth, that we are instructed in the following of trails—Gypsy as well as Indian—that we know how to ‘blaze’ our way as well as do your boy scouts23, and that, while we may not be adepts24, still we can read some signs of woodlore. Can’t we, girls?”
“We can!” came in a chorus.
“I know that moss25 grows on the South—no, the East side of a tree!” said Alice. “At least I think it does. And the East star——”
“North star—moss on the North side, too!” broke in Mabel. “How forgetful you are, Alice.”
“I know I am. Anyhow, do you think we could find this Gypsy camp?”
“We’ll find it for you,” promised Jack. “What do you say to a trip on the water this afternoon?”
“In the launch?” asked Mrs. Bonnell.
“Unfortunately the launch is out of commission,” explained Blake. “Jack was trying to fix the carburettor and he got it out of adjustment.”
“I did not. It was broke before I touched it!” declared Jack indignantly.
“Anyhow the boat’s gasolene circulation seems to be wrong,” went on Blake. “It runs backwards26 like a crab27, instead of forward. So I guess we shall have to take to the oars28. We have sent for a boat-doctor.”
“I’d like to row,” ventured Natalie.
“My canoe holds two very nicely,” put in Blake, quickly.
“And it’s as wabbley as a fellow just learning to skate,” declared Jack. “Come with me, Nat, in my good old tub.”
“After the gallant29 manner in which I saved her from the clutches of the law? I guess not,” exclaimed Blake. “You’ll come canoeing, won’t you, Natalie?”
“I think so—for a little while,” she promised.
The others paired off somehow, and soon a little flotilla of boats was slowly moving along the shady side of the lake. The occupants talked of many things, chiefly of the visit of the constable.
“Where do you suppose the Gypsy camp could be?” asked Mabel, calling to Blake, near whose canoe she and Jack were, in a rowboat.
“It might be almost anywhere,” he answered. “We’ll see Jackson to-morrow, and ask if he has learned anything.”
“Do you think this Hadee could possibly be the same one?” went on the girl whose mother’s ring had been taken.
“From—er—from the method of operation I should think it very likely,” said Blake. “Look out!” he called suddenly to Phil who was rowing with Marie. “Pull over!”
But he was too late. Phil’s boat struck the frail30 canoe, tilted31 it sharply, and the next moment Blake and Natalie were in the waters of the lake.
“Overboard!” yelled Jack. “Steady! We’ll get you!”
The other girls screamed, until a stern command from Mrs. Bonnell quieted them. Jack and Phil, keeping their wits about them rowed toward the overturned canoe. An instant later Blake came up, gasping32. With a shake of his head he cleared his eyes of water, and then looked around for Natalie. She had sunk out of sight.
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1
constable
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| n.(英国)警察，警官 | |
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jack
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| n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克 | |
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gasp
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| n.喘息，气喘；v.喘息；气吁吁他说 | |
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trespasser
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| n.侵犯者；违反者 | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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risky
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| adj.有风险的，冒险的 | |
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7
interfering
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| adj. 妨碍的 动词interfere的现在分词 | |
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8
majesty
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| n.雄伟，壮丽，庄严，威严；最高权威，王权 | |
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9
gasped
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| v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
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10
advent
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| n.(重要事件等的)到来，来临 | |
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11
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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12
statutes
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| 成文法( statute的名词复数 )； 法令； 法规； 章程 | |
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13
soothed
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| v.安慰( soothe的过去式和过去分词 )；抚慰；使舒服；减轻痛苦 | |
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14
jeered
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| v.嘲笑( jeer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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15
curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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16
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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17
stony
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| adj.石头的，多石头的，冷酷的，无情的 | |
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18
sullenly
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| 不高兴地，绷着脸，忧郁地 | |
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19
inquiries
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| n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 )；疑问；探究；打听 | |
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20
squire
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| n.护卫, 侍从, 乡绅 | |
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21
accusations
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| n.指责( accusation的名词复数 )；指控；控告；（被告发、控告的）罪名 | |
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22
embezzler
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| n.盗用公款者，侵占公款犯 | |
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23
scouts
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| 侦察员[机，舰]( scout的名词复数 )； 童子军； 搜索； 童子军成员 | |
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24
adepts
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| n.专家，能手( adept的名词复数 ) | |
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25
moss
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| n.苔，藓，地衣 | |
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26
backwards
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| adv.往回地，向原处，倒，相反，前后倒置地 | |
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27
crab
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| n.螃蟹，偏航，脾气乖戾的人，酸苹果；vi.捕蟹，偏航，发牢骚；vt.使偏航，发脾气 | |
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28
oars
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| n.桨，橹( oar的名词复数 )；划手v.划（行）( oar的第三人称单数 ) | |
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29
gallant
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| adj.英勇的，豪侠的；(向女人)献殷勤的 | |
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30
frail
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| adj.身体虚弱的；易损坏的 | |
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31
tilted
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| v. 倾斜的 | |
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gasping
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| adj. 气喘的, 痉挛的 动词gasp的现在分词 | |
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