Chapter VIII: Fun in the Open

Jack's sardonic laugh seemed to be justified, for the boys had been below stairs for several minutes before the girls came trooping down.

"One more proof that I'm never mistaken," Jack remarked, as he shook his head sadly at the laughing bevy.

"You boys haven't so much to do as we girls have," said Belle, making a little face at him.

"We haven't, eh?" replied Walter. "I lost all my hair-pins in that mad sprint for the house."

"And the rain took my hair out of curl," added Paul.

"And I had the greatest hunt before I found my box of powder!" said Jack in a high falsetto.

Just then Mrs. King came in from the kitchen, where she had been supervising the preparations for dinner.

"Come right along now and take your places at the table," she beamed.

"Table is my middle name!" exclaimed Jack, as he led the way, followed by the others.

It was a sumptuous meal that Aunt Betty had prepared, and with their appetites sharpened by their long ride, the travelers did it full justice. And the warmth and good cheer of the cozy dining room were emphasized by contrast with the rain that beat upon the windows.

"A regular flood," commented Jack.

"Noah would have felt at home in that," said Bess.

"That reminds me," interposed Paul. "Noah was supposed to take two specimens of every kind of animal when he went into the Ark. But there was one species he overlooked."

"What was that?" asked Cora.

"Rats," replied Paul.

"How do you make that out?" inquired Belle.

"Why," Paul answered, "he had been sailing forty days before he saw ary rat."

There was a moment of stunned silence.

"Ararat!" Cora at length exclaimed. "Paul, how could you inflict that on us?"

"You ought to be shot at sunrise," said Bess.

"Now you see, Aunt Betty, what we've had to stand on our journey up here," moaned Cora.

"I must say you seem to have thrived on it," smiled Aunt Betty, looking at the rosy cheeks and sparkling eyes of the girls.

"Good for Aunt Betty!" cried Walter. "She appreciates us! You girls will too, when you've seen a little more of men and realize how we stand out from the common herd."

"Who was that woman," asked Bess, turning to Cora, "who said that the more she saw of men the more fond she grew of dogs?"

"Poor, misguided female," said Paul pityingly. "I suppose she was an inmate of a lunatic asylum."

"More to be pitied than censured," added Jack.

By this time they had reached dessert, and when they had finished, Aunt Betty proposed an adjournment to the porch.

"It's perfectly dry and snug out here," she said, "and I think the rain will be over soon anyway. When it rains so hard up here it doesn't last very long. But you girls had better get some wraps, for even though it is August, the nights are rather cool, especially after a storm."

There was an abundance of big, comfortable chairs on the porch, and they grouped them into a semi-circle and sat laughing and talking, on the best of terms with themselves and the world.

"That was rather a narrow escape we had this afternoon," remarked Bess. "If we had been a hundred feet further on the road than we were, that tree would have come down plump on top of us."

"A miss is as good as a mile," returned Jack lightly.

"By the way, I suppose those poor old cars of ours are getting a thorough soaking," observed Cora. "What are you going to do about them, boys? It doesn't seem to me that we ought to let them stay there all night."

"I guess it's up to us fellows to take a turn down there and look them over," answered Jack. "The fact is that I've had such a good dinner that I feel too lazy to move. But far be it from me to resist the plain call of duty."

"What's the matter with us girls going along with you?" asked Bess.

Aunt Betty looked aghast.

"What, in all this mud and rain?" she protested.

"You forget that we Motor Girls are used to being out in all kinds of weather," laughed Cora. "But we'll promise to wrap up well if you let us go. It's lucky that our trunks were sent on up here ahead of us, so that we have our rubbers and raincoats all ready to get into. Besides, it's practically stopped raining now."

Aunt Betty was very easily won over.

"I'll send Joel, the stableman, along with a lantern," she said. "He knows the woods like a book by night or day. Then, too, he's as strong as an ox, and he can help to get the cars out of the fix."

"And we'll take a couple of axes along," said Jack. "I have an idea some tall chopping will have to be done before we get the cars where they belong."

The girls went up to get their raincoats and overshoes, while the boys got their hats and hunted up Joel.

He was a tall, gaunt backwoodsman, who in his earlier days had been a guide in the Adirondack region. But periodic attacks of rheumatism had made it difficult for him to continue his calling, and he had become the man of all work at Kill Kare Camp. He knew the forest thoroughly and had an intimate acquaintance with the habits of every creature that had fur, fin or feather.

Despite his somewhat advanced years, he was still a powerful man, and his strength was equaled by his good-nature and reliability.

The boys liked him at once, and he on his part was very friendly and cordial.

"So you've got a couple o' them buzz wagons stalled there," he said. "Never rode in one in my life, but the pesky things suttinly have it all over a hoss when it comes to git up and git."

"You've got a treat waiting for you, then, Joel," laughed Jack. "Some day we'll take you riding, and you'll go so fast you'll have to hold on to your hair to keep it from being blown off."

"I ain't prezactly pinin' fur no sich speed as that," said Joel. "I sh'd think them gals w'u'd be skeered to death to ride in one uv them."

"They drive them as well as ride in them," returned Jack. "My sister can handle one of them as well as any man can. You ought to have seen the race she gave me yesterday."

"Ye don't say so!" replied Joel, and it was evident that his respect for the feminine members of the party had gone up several degrees.

They were soon equipped with a lantern and three axes. In addition, Joel took along some sticks of resinous wood to serve as torches, and they came around to the front porch, where they found the girls impatiently waiting for them.

All started out in high spirits, Joel leading the way. The road was muddy, but they found fairly good footing on the turf that bordered it. The rain had now entirely ceased.

It was not long before they reached the fallen tree, and they found the cars standing where they had left them.

"Ye needn't hev bin much skeered," grinned Joel. "There ain't many folks come along this way, an' them that do is giner'lly honest. It's only when the gypsies come round thet we hev to keep a tight grip on things, specially hosses. Them gypsies suttinly is light-fingered, an' they kin beat a weasel in gittin' into places where they ain't got no business to be."

"We saw a camp of them to-day," said Cora, in whom the word "gypsy" just now woke an instant response.

"Is thet so?" asked Joel in surprise. "Then they're probably headed up this way. I heven't seen 'em around these diggin's fur sev'ral years now, and I wuz hopin' I'd never see their ugly faces ag'in."

"I'd like to see Joel go to the mat with that pirate that took the girl away from us to-day," grinned Jack.

"It would be some scrap," agreed Walter, as he took in the brawn and bulk of the backwoodsman. "I'd bet on Joel unless the other fellow used a knife."

In order to see more clearly what they were doing, the torches were lighted and placed where they would do the most good. Then Joel surveyed the scene of action.

"There's jist one thing to do," he finally announced, "an' thet is to cut through this tree an' git it off uv the road. It might be a leetle bit easier to git the cars around through the brush, but the tree can't be let to stay there blockin' up the road, an' I might ez well git it out of the way fust ez last."

He took off his corduroy jacket and rolled up the sleeves of his shirt, showing the mighty biceps beneath.

"You're not going to do it all alone," protested Jack. "Let us help. There are two axes besides yours."

"Why," said Joel a little dubiously, "you boys ain't used to this kind uv work, an' I'm afraid it'll use ye up too much. It ain't only the strength, but there's a knack about usin' a woodsman's ax thet it takes time to git on to. Still, ye kin try it fur a while if ye want to."

Jack and Paul took off their coats, while the girls, who were perched like so many birds in Jack's car, clapped their hands in mock applause.

"Behold the gallant foresters," sang out Belle.

"'Woodman, spare that tree,
Touch not a single bough!'"

quoted Bess.

"To-day it threatened me,
I've no use for it now,"

improvised Cora.

"Listen to the trilling of the merry songsters," said Jack, with impressive sarcasm. "They toil not, neither do they spin. They mock and fleer at us sons of honest toil. They----"

"Get to work, Jack," Cora interrupted him heartlessly. "I love to see you work. It's so unusual. Joel will have the trunk cut through before you boys get started."

Thus adjured, Jack and Paul started in with a right good will, each attacking the trunk at a distance of about ten feet on either side of Joel.

Both boys were strong and sturdy, and they worked the more vigorously because they were under the appraising eyes of the girls. But their work was nothing compared with Joel's. Nowhere could there have been found a more striking illustration of the advantages of the professional over the amateur.

Joel's work was the very poetry of motion. Back and forth his flashing ax swung tirelessly, biting with resistless force into the very heart of the tree, and in a surprisingly short time he had cut the trunk entirely through.

Walter took his turn with the other boys and did valiant execution. But all were soon winded with their unusual exertions, and were forced to rest, while the perspiration poured down their faces in streams.

"This has got it all over a Turkish bath," muttered Jack.

"I'll bet I've lost five pounds in as many minutes," growled Paul.

"There's an idea for you, Bess," said her sister mischievously. "Talk about reducing. You'd be a sylph in half an hour."

"I'd be a corpse, you mean," responded Bess. "No, thank you. I'll take my reducing in homeopathic doses."

Joel at this point insisted on finishing the job. He had not turned a hair in his previous exertions, and he seemed as fresh as ever when the work was completely done.

"Now how are we going to get the logs off the road?" asked Jack.

"What's the matter with making the car do its share of the work?" asked Cora. "We'll fasten a rope to each one of the logs and with you men guiding them we can drag them to one side of the road."

The plan met with instant approval and in a very few minutes the road was clear.

"Good idea, sis," said Jack approvingly. "Now we'll bundle these tools into the cars and go to Camp Kill Kare in style."