“Do you feel all right now?”
“Let her smell of the ammonia again.”
“No, thank you, Marie. It’s too strong. The salts are better,” spoke1 Natalie protestingly. She was sitting up on a cot in the tent, while the boys clustered at the flap outside, and the girls and Mrs. Bonnell gathered around her. The first aid work had ended successfully when Natalie opened her eyes after her swoon.
“I don’t understand how I fainted,” she said feebly. “I never did such a thing before.”
“It was the pain,” said Mabel. “Blake carried you in splendidly, though.”
“Oh, did he carry me?” and a dull red suffused2 the olive-like tint3 of Natalie’s cheeks.
“Of course!” exclaimed Mrs. Bonnell. “Why not? It was the most sensible thing to do under the circumstances. How is the ankle?”
“It pains considerably4.”
“We must try hot and cold compresses. Marie, put the kettle on the oil stove at once. Boys, you clear out of here. We can look after her now—much obliged to you though. You might bring a couple of pails of water, if you don’t mind, before you go.”
“Here’s your hat—what’s your hurry,” murmured Phil half sarcastically5.
“After all we did—to be thrown out this way!” wailed6 Jack7.
“And we haven’t heard what happened!” added Blake. “Let Nat tell us the story of her life, and then we’ll go.”
“There isn’t really much to tell,” she answered. “I got a sudden notion in my head that I wanted to go to the old mill. I thought I would have time to row over and back before supper. So I just slipped away in the small canoe, and got to the place all right.”
“Weren’t you afraid?” asked Mabel.
“What of?”
“The ghost!”
“There wasn’t any when I was there,” went on pretty breath-of-the-pine-tree, as she leaned back on some pillows Mabel had put on the cot for her.
“I just thought I’d look around and see if I could discover what it was that looked like a face at the window that day I saw it. I started up the rickety old stairs, and I turned on my ankle and slipped down.
“Oh, dear! but it hurt. I tried to get up and I couldn’t and I didn’t know how long I’d have to stay there. I called for help, but the place was deserted8 since the old hermit9 moved out. Oh, I didn’t know what to do.”
“And weren’t you afraid—horribly afraid?” asked Marie.
“Not first along, I wasn’t. I didn’t imagine what could harm me. But I was afraid lest I should have to stay there all night. I knew I could never stand that.”
“Did you hear any—ghostly noises?” asked Mabel, and involuntarily she looked over her shoulder.
“Not at first,” answered Natalie, and there was an obvious reluctance10 in her manner.
“Then you did hear something!” exclaimed Jack, who was watching her closely.
“Well, it sounded like some one crying, or moaning, I couldn’t tell which. Then I heard what seemed like some one tramping around in the room overhead.”
“Rats!” exclaimed Jack with such suddenness that all the girls jumped, and Marie screamed.
“I think they were pigeons,” went on Natalie, “and what sounded like moaning was the cooing. When I had reasoned that out I felt better. Then I called for help again, and no one answered for ever so long.”
“You poor child,” murmured Mrs. Bonnell. “Did some one finally come?”
“Yes; Reuben did.”
“Good boy for you, Reuben!” exclaimed Blake, who stood near the farm lad. “I’ll make it all right with you.”
“Huh! I didn’t do it for pay!” he protested.
“Of course not. You didn’t know that you were entertaining an angel unawares; did you?”
Natalie was continuing her story.
“Reuben answered me, after a bit,” she said. “I was never so glad to see any one in all my whole life as I was to see Reuben. I’ll never forget his kindness.”
“’Twasn’t nothin’!” he protested.
“Yes, it was!” insisted Natalie. “He came in, helped me to get up, and then, by leaning on his shoulder, I managed to get down to the lake. He had his boat there, and I got in that, as I thought I could rest better than in the canoe.”
“We towed that back,” put in Reuben. “I tied it down on shore.”
“And so here I am,” resumed Natalie. “Oh, I do hope I’m not going to be laid up.”
“If those boys will leave I’ll attend to your sprain11,” said Mrs. Bonnell significantly, and the young men took the hint and left. With the application of cloths alternately wrung12 out of hot and cold water, Natalie’s ankle was soon much easier. It was not a bad sprain, as sprains13 go, and the Guardian14 assured her she would be out again in a couple of days.
Then Natalie had to tell the story all over again, with repetitions of certain parts, while, on their own behalf, the Camp Fire Girls related how they had instituted one search, and were about to start another when the missing one came back.
As for the boys they could be heard discussing the affair in loud voices as the two parties went to their several camps.
“I wonder what’s in that old mill, anyhow?” ventured Jack.
“It must be something,” declared Blake. “I dare you fellows to come over with me and ‘lay the ghost,’ as they call it.”
“I’ll go!” offered Phil. “It’s a long row, though, and it’s late.”
“The lateness is so much the better,” declared Blake. “Ghosts never perambulate until near midnight, anyhow. How is it—will you fellows go?”
“Not for ours,” declared Charlie Taylor, one of the crowd from the lower camp. “Maybe in the morning we might consider it. Anyhow, this is the closed season for ghosts.”
“You’re afraid!” jeered15 Blake.
“Now, don’t let’s think of tackling it to-night,” suggested Jack. “I’ll go there to-morrow with any one—or two.”
“You can’t see ghosts in the day-time!” declared Blake, as if he were an authority on spirits.
“Who said we would look for them in daylight,” returned Jack. “We can go to the mill to-morrow afternoon, and wait until it gets dark. We can take our lunch with us.”
“That sounds good,” declared Phil. “I’m in on that.”
“Well, if you want to do it that way, I’m willing,” assented16 Blake. “Probably all we’ll find, though, is some tramp sleeping in the shack17. Very well, we’ll lay the ghost to-morrow.”
“And we won’t tell the girls about it until we solve the mystery,” added Phil.
“That’s what,” added Jack.
But the next day it rained, so they postponed18 their ghost-hunting expedition. There was nothing much to do, though, so in the afternoon the boys donned old garments, and went over to the Point, through the drizzle19, for some supplies, shopping for the girls at the same time.
Natalie’s ankle was better, it was reported, and the following day she could hobble about a bit.
“But I’m going to sit still and do bead20 work for a while,” she said when the boys came to call, and she showed where, on a hand loom21, she was working a Camp Fire device for a bead head-band—her emblem22 of a pine tree being made in a conventional design. The other girls were also busy.
“Then you’re not going to the mill again?” asked Jack.
“No, indeed!”
Late that afternoon, giving out some excuse to the girls not to see them that evening, the three chums, having packed a basket of lunch, with some candles for light, some bags to use for cushions, set off for the old mill. They intended to pass the night there to prove or disprove that any one—whether of this earth or some other—was in the ancient structure.
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1
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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2
suffused
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| v.（指颜色、水气等）弥漫于，布满( suffuse的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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3
tint
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| n.淡色，浅色；染发剂；vt.着以淡淡的颜色 | |
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4
considerably
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| adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上 | |
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5
sarcastically
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| adv.挖苦地，讽刺地 | |
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6
wailed
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| v.哭叫，哀号( wail的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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7
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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8
deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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9
hermit
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| n.隐士，修道者；隐居 | |
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10
reluctance
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| n.厌恶，讨厌，勉强，不情愿 | |
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11
sprain
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| n.扭伤,扭筋 | |
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12
wrung
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| 绞( wring的过去式和过去分词 )； 握紧（尤指别人的手）； 把（湿衣服）拧干； 绞掉（水） | |
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13
sprains
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| 扭伤( sprain的名词复数 ) | |
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14
guardian
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| n.监护人；守卫者，保护者 | |
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15
jeered
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| v.嘲笑( jeer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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16
assented
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| 同意，赞成( assent的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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17
shack
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| adj.简陋的小屋，窝棚 | |
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18
postponed
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| vt.& vi.延期，缓办，（使）延迟vt.把…放在次要地位；[语]把…放在后面（或句尾）vi.（疟疾等）延缓发作（或复发） | |
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19
drizzle
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| v.下毛毛雨；n.毛毛雨，蒙蒙细雨 | |
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20
bead
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| n.念珠；(pl.)珠子项链；水珠 | |
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21
loom
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| n.织布机，织机；v.隐现，(危险、忧虑等)迫近 | |
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22
emblem
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| n.象征，标志；徽章 | |
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