Chapter XI: Cora Makes a Discovery

The boys, followed by Mr. Morley, retraced their steps to the cabin and told the good news.

"And now," said Cora, "I suppose we must go. It was awfully good of you, Mr. Morley, to take us shipwrecked travelers in and treat us so nicely."

The others echoed this sentiment, but Mr. Morley put in a vehement disclaimer.

"It's nothing compared to what you did for me the other day," he declared. "And I can't tell you how much good it has done me to have you young people here. It's a long time since I've had youth in my home. But that's my own fault. I drove it----"

He brought himself up with a sharp turn.

"Perhaps you'd like to take a look at my specimens before you go," he remarked tentatively.

"We'd dearly love to," replied Cora.

Mr. Morley led the way into the specimen room.

"Just now I'm making a collection of vampires," he remarked.

"No accounting for tastes," whispered Walter to Paul, in a voice too low to be heard by their host.

"Do you keep them in a cage?" asked Jack.

Mr. Morley looked up in surprise.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"Why," replied Jack, "you spoke of vampires, and I thought you meant vampire bats. They're the only kind of vampires I know anything about."

"I was referring to the plant this leaf was taken from," smiled their host, as he held it up for them to see.

It was a long, rounded leaf that seemed to be covered with tiny hairs, on which glistened something that resembled honey and gave forth a fragrant odor. On looking more closely they saw what appeared to be fragments of small insects.

"We call it the sun-dew," explained Mr. Morley. "It's common enough, and you've seen it in the fields many a time. But instead of living on elements drawn from the soil, it feeds on flies and other insects. They are attracted by the honey that it spreads out temptingly to bring them within its reach. But as soon as they light on it, the leaf tightens around them and crushes them to death. Then it eats them at leisure. That's why it's called a 'vampire.'"

"But," objected Cora, "any one would think from that that the plant had intelligence and knew just what it was doing, just as an animal does when it hunts for prey."

"Exactly," agreed Mr. Morley. "Who are we to say that plants don't have intelligence? What proof is there in nature that they don't suffer and enjoy, feel and plan, as men and animals do, only on a lower plane? We humans are too conceited. We assume that we possess intelligence almost exclusively. We grant some to animals, though we slur even that by calling it only instinct. But we've been inclined to deny it altogether to plants.

"Now I don't agree with this at all. And there are lots more of the newer school of naturalists who feel just as I do about it. Wherever there is life there is intelligence. Plants can be cunning and patient and cruel and deceitful. If they can't get enough of one kind of food, they hunt for another. When men and animals do these things or show these qualities, we admit that it is the result of thought. What is it, then, that makes a plant do precisely similar things with similar ends in view?

"But there," he interrupted himself with a smile, "one might almost think that I was in my lecture room, talking to a class! It's a hobby of mine, and I forget sometimes that others may not be so interested in it as I am."

"But we _are_ interested, keenly interested," protested Cora.

"I never thought of plants in that way before," declared Bess.

"It's opened up an entirely new way of looking at things," said Paul.

"Are there many kinds of vampire plants?" asked Belle.

"Lots of them," replied Mr. Morley. "And they use all kinds of devices--hooks, claws, poison, honey, snares and shocks."

"Desperate characters," whispered Walter to Jack.

"Worse than gunmen," murmured Jack.

"There, for instance," continued their host, "is the 'devil's snare' that is found in South America. It has long, snaky tentacles that sweep the ground for many yards in every direction, for all the world like the long suckers of the devil-fish. It gobbles up anything that comes within its reach, insects, mice and larger animals. Once it gets its deadly grip on a victim, it keeps on tightening and tightening until it chokes the life out of it. It has been known to grasp and kill a good-sized dog."

"The horrid thing!" exclaimed Bess with a little shudder.

"The S. P. C. A. ought to get after it," laughed Walter.

"There are plants, too," continued their mentor, "that show intelligence by the way they adapt themselves to changed conditions. The bladderwort, for example, used to live on insects. Perhaps it got a hint somewhere that it could do better on water than on land. At any rate, it became a water plant. It lies just under the surface and imitates the wide-open mouth of a mother fish. The little minnows swim into it to avoid their enemies and as soon as they're well inside, the mouth closes and the plant regales itself with a fish dinner.

"Then there are the cannibal plants. There are hundreds of trees that have the life juices sucked from them by the parasitic plants that twine around them until they give up the ghost."

"Just as the trusts do to the common people," observed Jack.

"Well," said Cora, drawing a long breath, "I've always known that nature was cruel, but I've never connected that idea with plants."

"Cruel everywhere," assented Mr. Morley, "from man, creation's crown, to plants, creation's base."

They looked with a new interest and a heightened respect at the other specimens he showed, and the time passed so quickly that they were startled, on glancing out of doors, to see how rapidly dusk was coming on.

"When I get to mooning along on my pet theories, I never know when to stop," said Mr. Morley apologetically.

"It's been a real treat to listen to you, Mr. Morley," said Cora with her winning smile.

"Truth is not only stranger but more interesting than fiction," smiled Belle.

They separated with cordial good wishes and a hearty invitation to Mr. Morley to visit them at Camp Kill Kare. He stood at the cabin door, watching them as they hurried down to their boat.

"This is the end of a perfect day," sang Bess gaily, as they stepped on board the _Water Sprite_, which the boys had brought around to the little dock at which Mr. Morley's rowboat was tied.

"It certainly has been a crowded one," said Belle.

"Isn't Mr. Morley an unusual man?" asked Cora. "I'm more and more convinced that there's a mystery about him."

"He's a fine chap," said Jack, "but I didn't notice anything especially mysterious about him."

"That's because you're a man," said Cora.

"I can't help belonging to that despised sex, can I?" inquired Jack in an injured tone.

"I suppose it's your misfortune rather than your fault," dimpled Bess.

"What do you suppose he meant when he said 'I drove it,' and then stopped so suddenly?" asked Belle thoughtfully.

"Probably thinking of his car when he drove it into a tree," remarked Jack flippantly.

If he had not been hardened, he would have succumbed before the exasperated glare of three pairs of girlish eyes.

"Better get in out of the wet, Jack," counseled Paul.

"Come over here and I'll protect you with my life," adjured Walter.

"Don't pay any attention to those idiots, girls," advised Cora. "We'll wait until we get by ourselves and can talk sense without being interrupted."

The _Water Sprite_, as though repenting of its lapses that afternoon, was now on its good behavior, and she kept "dry as a bone" on the short passage from the island.

They found Mrs. King a little worried at their late coming, and she threw up her hands at the story of their narrow escape from sinking.

"You've had a lively brood wished on you, Aunt Betty," laughed Cora, as she threw her arm affectionately around her aunt's waist.

"I can see that already," was the reply. "My only comfort is that you girls seem to bear a charmed life."

"Call it 'charming,'" said Walter gallantly, "and we boys will agree with you."

They had some music after dinner, but as all were tired from their strenuous day they went to their rooms early.

"Girls," exclaimed Cora, as soon as they were alone, "I've found out whom that gypsy girl resembles! It's Mr. Morley!"