Ruth Fielding on Cliff Island by Alice Emerson

A >> Alice Emerson >> Ruth Fielding on Cliff Island

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9

"Keep him here!" commanded the conductor. "And I've a mind to have both
doors of the car locked until we reach Logwood. Don't let me hear anything
more from you boys and girls on this journey."

He went away laughing, however, and bye and bye they quieted down. Madge
insisted upon making some hot composition, very strong, and dosing Isadore
with it. The drink probably warded off a cold. Izzy admitted to Bobbins
that a sister wasn't so bad to "have around" after all.

While they slept, the car was shunted to the sidetrack at Logwood and the
western-bound train went hooting away through the forest. It was still
snowing heavily, there were not many trains passing through the Logwood
yard, and no switching during the early part of the day. The snow
smothered other sounds.

Therefore, the party that had come to the lake for a vacation was not
astir until late. It was hunger that roused them to the realities of life
in the end. They had to dress and go to the one hotel of which the
settlement boasted for breakfast.

"Can't cross to the island on the ice, they say," Ralph Tingley ran in to
tell his mother. "Weight of the snow has broken it up. One of the men says
he'll get a punt and pole us over to Cliff Island if the snow stops so
that he can see his way."

"My! won't that be fun!" gasped Ann Hicks, who had overheard him.

She had begun to enjoy herself the minute she felt that they were in rough
country. Some of the girls wished they hadn't come. Ruth and Helen were
already outside, snowballing with the boys.

When Mrs. Tingley descended the car steps, ready to go to breakfast, her
other son appeared--a second Mercury.

"Mother, Mr. Preston is here. Says he'd like to see you."

Mr. Preston was the foreman to whom Jerry Sheming had been sent for a job.
Ruth, who overheard, remembered the man's name. Then she saw a man dressed
in Canadian knit cap, tall boots, and mackinaw, and carrying a huge
umbrella, with which he hurried forward to hold protectingly over Mrs.
Tingley's head.

"Glad to see you, ma'am," said the foreman. Ruth was passing them on her
way to the hotel when she heard something that stayed her progress. "Sorry
to trouble you. Mr. Tingley ain't coming up to-day?"

"Not until Christmas morning," replied the lady. "He cannot get away
before."

"Well, I'll have to discharge that Jerry Sheming. Too bad, too. He's a
worker, and well able to guide the boys and girls around the island--knows
it like a book."

"Why let him go, then?" asked the lady.

"Blent says he's dishonest. An' I seen him snooping around rather funny,
myself. Guess I'll have to fire him, Mis' Tingley."

CHAPTER XII

RUFUS BLENT'S LITTLE WAYS

The crowd waded through the soft snow to the inn. It was a small place,
patronized mainly by fishermen and hunters in the season. It was plain,
from the breakfast they served to the Tingley party, that if the
unexpected guests had to remain long, they would be starved to death.

"And all the 'big eats' over on the Island," wailed Heavy. "I could swim
there, I believe."

"I am afraid I could not allow you to do that," said Mrs. Tingley, shaking
her head. "It would be too absurd. We'd better take the train home again."

"Never!" chorused Belle and her brothers. "We must get to Cliff Island in
some way--by hook or by crook," added the girl, who had set her heart upon
this outing.

Ruth was rather serious this morning. She waited for a chance to speak
with Mrs. Tingley alone, and when it came, she blurted out what she wished
to say:

"Oh, Mrs. Tingley! I couldn't help hearing what that man said to you. Must
he discharge Jerry because Rufus Blent says so?"

"Why, my dear! Oh! I remember. You were the girl who befriended the boy in
the first place?"

"Yes, I did, Mrs. Tingley. And I hope you won't let your foreman turn him
off for nothing----"

"Oh! I can't interfere. It is my husband's business, of course."

"But let me tell you!" urged Ruth, and then she related all she knew about
Jerry Sheming, and all about the story of the old hunter who had lived so
many years on Cliff Island.

"Mr. Tingley had a good deal of trouble over that squatter," said Belle's
mother, slowly. "He was crazy."

"That might be. But Jerry isn't crazy."

"But they made some claim to owning a part of the island."

"And after the old man had lived there for fifty years, perhaps he thought
he had a right to it."

"Why, my child, that sounds reasonable. But of course he didn't."

"Just the same," said Ruth, "he maybe had the box of money and papers
hidden on the island, as he said. That is what Jerry has been looking for.
And I wager that man Blent is afraid he will find it."

"How romantic!" laughed Mrs. Tingley.

"But, do wait till Mr. Tingley comes and let him decide," begged Ruth.

"Surely. And I will tell Mr. Preston to refuse any of Blent's demands. He
is a queer old fellow, I know. And, come to think of it, he told us he
wanted to make some investigations regarding the caves at the west end of
the island. He wouldn't sell us the place without reserving in the deed
the rights to all mineral deposits and to treasure trove."

"What's 'treasure trove,' Mrs. Tingley?" asked Ruth, quickly.

"Why--that would mean anything valuable found upon the land which is not
naturally a part of it."

"Like a box of money, or papers?"

"Yes! I see. I declare, child, maybe the boy, Jerry, has told you the
truth!"

"I am sure he has. He seemed like a perfectly honest boy," declared Ruth,
anxiously.

"I will see Mr. Preston again," spoke Mrs. Tingley, decisively.

The storm continued through the forenoon. But the boys and girls waiting
for transportation to Cliff Island had plenty of fun.

Behind the inn was an open field, and there they built a fort, the party
being divided into opposing armies. Tom Cameron led one and Ann Hicks was
chosen to head the other. Mercy could look at them from the windows, and
urge the girls on in the fray.

The boys might throw straighter, but numbers told. The girls could divide
and attack the boy defenders of the fortress on both flanks. They came in
rosy and breathless at noon--to sit down to a most heart-breaking
luncheon.

"Such an expanse of table and so little on it I never saw before,"
grumbled Heavy, in a glum aside. "How long do you suppose we would exist
on these rations?"

"We're not dead yet," said Ruth, cheerfully, "so you needn't become a
'gloom.'"

"Jen ought to live on past meals--like a camel existing on its hump,"
declared Madge.

"I'm no camel," retorted the plump one, instantly. "And a meal to
me--after it has been digested--is nothing more than a beautiful dream;
and you can bet that I never gained my avoirdupois by dreaming!"

Mrs. Tingley beckoned to Ruth after dinner. Together they went into the
general room, where there was a huge fire of logs. Mr. Preston, the
foreman, was there.

"I have been making inquiries," the lady explained to Ruth, "and I find
that this Rufus Blent has not a very enviable reputation. At least, he is
considered, locally, a sharper."

"Is this the girl who is interested in Jerry?" asked the foreman. "Well!
he ought to be all right if she sticks up for him."

"I believe his story is true," Ruth said, shaking her head.

"And if that's so, then the boss hasn't got a clear title to Cliff
Island--eh?" returned the big foreman, smiling at her quizzically.

"That isn't Mr. Tingley's fault," cried Ruth, quickly.

"He'd be the one to suffer, however, if it should be proved that old Pete
Tilton had any vested right in the island," said Preston. "You can bet
Blent is sharp enough to have covered his tracks if he has done anything
foxy. He was never caught yet in any legal tangle."

"Oh, I hope Mr. Tingley won't have trouble up here," declared Mrs.
Tingley, quite disturbed.

Ruth felt rather embarrassed. As much as she was interested in Jerry
Sheming, she did not like to think she was stirring up trouble for her
school-mate's father. Just then the outer door of the inn opened and a man
entered, stamping the snow from his boots upon the wire mat.

"S-s-t!" said Preston, his eyes twinkling. "Here's Rufus Blent himself."

It seemed that Mrs. Tingley had never seen the real estate man and she was
quite as much interested as Ruth in making his acquaintance. They both
eyed him with growing disapproval as the old man finished freeing his
feet of the clinging snow and then charged at Preston from across the big
room.

"I say! I say, you, Preston!" he snarled. "Have you done what I tol' you?
Have you got that Jerry Sheming off the island? He'd never oughter been
let to git on there ag'in. I've been away, or I'd heard of it before. Is
he off?"

"Not yet," replied Preston, smiling secretly.

"I wanter know why not? I won't have him snoopin' around there. It was
understood when I sold Tingley that island that I reserved sartain
rights----"

"This here is Mis' Tingley," interposed Preston, turning the old man's
attention to the lady.

He was a brown, wrinkled old man, with sparse pepper-and-salt whiskers and
a parrot-like nose. "Sharper" was written all over his hatchet features;
but probably his provincialism and lack of book education had kept him
from being a very dangerous villain.

"I wanter know!" exclaimed Rufus. "So you're Tingley's lady? Wal! do you
take charge here?"

"Oh, no," laughed Mrs. Tingley. "My husband will be up here Christmas
morning."

"Goin' to have Preston send that boy back to the mainland?"

"Oh, no, I shall not interfere. Mr. Tingley will attend to it when he
comes. I think that would be best."

"Nothin' of the kind!" cried Blent, his little eyes snapping. "That boy's
got no business over there--snooping round."

"What are you afraid of, Rufus? What do you think he'll find?" queried
Preston, who was evidently not above aggravating the old fellow.

"Never you mind! Never you mind!" croaked Blent. "If you folks won't
discharge him and put him off the island, I'll do it, myself."

"How can you, Mr. Blent?" asked Mrs. Tingley, feeling some disposition to
cross swords with him.

"Never you mind. I'll do it. Goin' back to-day, of course, Preston; ain't
you?"

"I'm hoping to get this crowd of young folk--and Mrs. Tingley--across to
the island. And I think the snow is going to stop soon."

"I'll go with you," declared Blent, promptly. "Don't you go till I see you
again, Preston. I gotter ketch 'Squire Keller fust."

He hurried out of the inn. Mrs. Tingley and Ruth looked at the foreman
questioningly. The girl cried:

"Oh! what will he do?"

"He's going to get a warrant for the boy," answered Preston, scowling.

"How can he? What has Jerry done?"

"That don't make no difference," said the woodsman. "Old Rufus just about
runs the politics of this town. Keller will do what he says. Rufus will
get the boy off the island by foul means if he can't by fair."

CHAPTER XIII

FIGHTING FIRE WITH FIRE

Ruth felt her heart swell in anger against Rufus Blent, the Logwood real
estate man. If she had not been determined before to aid Jerry Sheming in
every way possible, she was now.

If there was a box of money and papers hidden on Cliff Island, once
belonging to Pete Tilton, the old hunter, Ruth desired to keep Blent from
finding it.

She believed Jerry's story--about the treasure box and all. Rufus Blent's
actions now seemed to prove the existence of such a box. He wanted to find
it. But if the money and papers in the box had belonged to old Pete
Tilton, surely Jerry, as his single living relative, should have the best
right to the "treasure trove."

How to thwart Blent was the question disturbing Ruth Fielding's mind. Of
course, nobody but Jerry had as strong a desire as she to outwit the old
real estate man. The other girls and boys--even Mrs. Tingley--would not
feel as Ruth did about it. She knew that well enough.

If anything was to be done to save Jerry from being arrested on a false
charge and dragged from Cliff Island by Blent, _she_ must bring it about.
Ruth watched the last flakes of the snow falling with a very serious
feeling.

The other young folk were delighted with the breaking of the weather. Now
they could observe Logwood better, and its surroundings. The roughly built
"shanty-town" was dropped down on the edge of the lake, in a clearing.
Much of the stumpage around the place was still raw. The only roads were
timber roads and they were now knee-deep in fresh snow.

There was a dock with a good-sized steamer tied up at it, but there was
too much ice for it to be got out into the lake. The railroad came out of
the woods on one side and disappeared into just as thick a forest on the
other.

The interest of the young people, however, lay in the bit of land that
loomed up some five miles away. Cliff Island contained several hundred
acres of forest and meadow--all now covered with glittering white.

At the nearer end was the new hunting lodge of the Tingleys, with the
neighboring outbuildings. At the far end the island rose to a rugged
promontory perhaps a hundred and fifty feet high, with a single tall pine
tree at the apex.

That western end of the island seemed to be built of huge boulders for the
most part. Here and there the rocks were so steep that the snow did not
cling to them, and they looked black and raw against the background of
dazzling white.

The face of the real cliff--because of which the island had received its
name--was scarcely visible from Logwood. Jerry had told Ruth it was a very
wild and desolate place, and the girl of the Red Hill could easily believe
it.

The crowd had left the inn as soon as the clouds began to break and a ray
or two of sunshine shone forth. Two ox teams were breaking the paths
through the town. The boys and girls went down to the dock, singing and
shouting. Mrs. Tingley and the foreman came behind.

Three other men were making ready a huge punt in which the entire party
might be transported to the island. Later the punt would return for the
extra baggage.

This vehicle for water-travel was a shallow, skiff-like boat, almost as
broad as it was long, and with a square bow and stern. There was a place
for a short mast to be stepped, but, with the lake covered with drifting
ice cakes, it was judged safer to depend upon huge sweeps for motive
power.

With these sweeps, not only could the punt be urged forward at a speed of
perhaps two miles an hour, but the ice-cakes could be pushed aside and a
channel opened through the drifting mass for the passage of the awkward
boat.

Mr. Preston had explained all this to Mrs. Tingley, who was used to
neither the woods nor the lake, and she had agreed that this means of
transportation to Cliff Island was sufficiently safe, though
extraordinary.

"Let's pile in and make a start," urged Ralph Tingley, eagerly. "Why! we
won't get there by dark if we don't hurry."

"And goodness knows we need to get somewhere to eat before long," cried
Jennie Stone. "I am willing to help propel the boat myself, if they'll
show me how."

"You might get out and swim, and drag us behind you, Heavy," suggested one
of the girls. "You're so anxious to get over to the island."

They all were desirous of gaining their destination--there could be no
doubt of that. As they were getting aboard, however, there came a hail
from up the main street of Logwood.

"Hi, yi! Don't you folks go without me! Hi, Preston!"

"Here comes that Blent man," said Mrs. Tingley, with some disgust. "I
suppose we must take him?"

"Well, I wouldn't advise ye to turn him down, Mis' Tingley," urged the
foreman. "No use making him your enemy. I tell you he's got a big
political pull in these parts."

"Is there room for him?"

"Yes. And for the fellow with him. That's Lem Daggett, the constable. Oh,
Rufe is going over with all the legal right on his side. He'll bring Jerry
back here and shut him up for a few days, I suppose."

"But on what charge?" Mrs. Tingley asked, in some distress.

"That won't matter. Some trumped-up charge. Easy enough to do it when you
have a feller like 'Squire Keller to deal with. Oh," said Preston, shaking
his head, "Rufe Blent knows what he's about, you may believe!"

"Who's the old gee-gee with the whiskers?" asked the disrespectful
Isadore, when the real estate man came down to the dock, with the
constable slouching behind him.

"Hurry up, Grandpop!" shouted one of the Tingley boys. "This expedition is
about to start."

Blent scowled at the hilarious crowd. It was plain to be seen that any
supply of milk of human kindness he may have had was long since soured.

Ruth caught Tom Cameron's eye and nodded to him. Helen's twin was a very
good friend of the girl from the Red Mill and he quickly grasped her wish
to speak with him alone.

In a minute he maneuvered so as to get into the stern with his sister's
chum, and there Ruth whispered to him her fears and desires regarding
Blent and Jerry Sheming.

"Say! we ought to help that fellow. See what he did for Jane Ann," said
Tom. "And that old fellow looks so sour he sets my teeth on edge, anyway."

"He is going to do a very mean thing," declared Ruth, decidedly. "Jerry
has done nothing wrong, I am sure."

"We must beat the old fellow."

"But how, Tom? They say he is all-powerful here at Logwood."

"Let me think. I'll be back again," replied Tom, as the boys called him to
come up front.

The punt was already under way. Preston and his three men worked the craft
out slowly into the drifting ice. The grinding of the cakes against the
sides of the boat did not frighten any of the passengers--unless perhaps
Mrs. Tingley herself. She felt responsible for the safety of this whole
party of her daughter's school friends.

The wind was not strong and the drift of the broken ice was slow.
Therefore there was really no danger to be apprehended. The punt was
worked along its course with considerable ease.

The boys had to take their turns at the sweeps; but Tom found time to slip
back to Ruth before they were half-way across to the island.

"Too bad the old fellow doesn't fall overboard," he growled in Ruth's ear.
"Isn't he a snarly old customer?"

"But I suppose the constable has the warrant," Ruth returned, smiling. "So
Mr. Blent's elimination from the scene would not help Jerry much."

"I tell you what--you've got to fight fire with fire," observed Tom, after
a moment of deep reflection.

"Well? What meanest thou, Sir Oracle?"

"Why, they haven't any business to arrest Jerry."

"Agreed."

"Then let's tip him off so that he can run."

"Where will he run to?" demanded Ruth, eagerly.

"Say! that's a big island. And I bet he knows his way all over it."

"Oh! the caves!" exclaimed Ruth.

"What's that?"

"He told me there were caves in it. He can hide in one. And we can get
food to him. Great, Tom--great!"

"Sure it's great. When your Uncle Dudley----"

"But how are we going to warn Jerry to run before this constable catches
him?" interposed Ruth, with less confidence.

"How? You leave that to me," Tom returned, mysteriously.

CHAPTER XIV

THE HUE AND CRY

Ruth and Tom Cameron had no further opportunity of speaking together until
the punt came very close to the island. Here the current ran more swiftly
and the ice-blocks seemed to have been cleared away.

There was a new stone dock, and up the slight rise from it, about a
hundred yards back from the shore, was the heavily-framed lodge. It
consisted of two stories, the upper one extending over the lower. Big
beams crossed at the corners of this upper story and the outer walls were
of roughly hewn logs. The great veranda was arranged for screening, in the
summer, but now the west side was enclosed with glass. It was an expensive
and comfortable looking camp.

There were several men on the dock as the punt came in, but Jerry Sheming
was not in sight. Tom had, from time to time, been seen whispering with
the boys. They all now gathered in the bow of the slowly moving punt,
ready to leap ashore the moment she bumped into the dock.

"Do be careful, boys," begged Mrs. Tingley. "Don't fall into the water, or
get hurt. I certainly shall be glad when Mr. Tingley comes up for
Christmas and takes all this responsibility off my hands."

"Don't have any fear for us, Mrs. Tingley, I beg," said Tom. "We're only
going to scramble ashore, and the first fellow who reaches the house is
the best man. Now, fellows!"

The punt bumped. Such a scrambling as there was! Ann Hicks showed her
suppleness by being one of the first to land and beating some of the boys;
but she did not run with them.

"They might have stayed and helped us girls--and Mrs. Tingley--to land,"
complained Helen. "I don't see what Tom was thinking of."

But all of a sudden Ruth had an idea that she understood Tom's lack of
gallantry. Jerry Sheming, not being at the dock to meet the newcomers,
must be at the house. The boys, it proved later, had agreed to help "tip"
Jerry. The first fellow to see him was to tell him of the approach of
Blent and the constable.

Therefore, when Rufus Blent and Lem Daggett reached the lodge, nobody
seemed to know anything about Jerry. Tom winked knowingly at Ruth.

"I tell ye, Preston, I gotter take that boy back to Logwood with me,"
shouted Blent, who seemed greatly excited. "Where are you hidin' the
rascal?"

"You know very well I came over with you in the boat and walked up here
with you, Blent," growled the foreman, in some anger. "How could I hide
him?"

"But the cook, nor nobody, knows what's become of him. He was here peelin'
'taters for supper, cookie says, jest b'fore we landed. Now he's sloped."

"He saw you comin', it's likely," rejoined Preston. "He suspected what you
was after."

"Well, I'm goin' to leave Daggett. And, Lem!"

"Yes, sir?" said that slouching person.

"You got to get him. Now mind that. The boy's to 'pear in 'Squire Keller's
court to-morrow--or something will happen," threatened the real estate
man.

"And if he don't appear, what then?" drawled Preston, who was more amused
by the old man than afraid of him.

"You'd better not interfere with the course of the law, Preston," declared
Blent, shaking his head.

"You bet I won't. Especially the brand of law that's handed a feller by
your man, Keller. But I don't know nothing about the boy nor where he's
gone. I don't wanter know, either.

"And none of they rest o' you wanter harbor that thief," snarled Blent,
viciously, looking around at the gaping hired men and the boys who had
come to visit Cliff Island. "The law's got a long arm. 'Member that!"

"Will we be breaking the law if we don't report this poor fellow to the
constable here, if we see him?" asked Tom Cameron, boldly.

"You bet you will. And I'll see that you're punished if ye harbor or help
the rascal. Don't think because Tingley's a rich man, and your fathers
have probably more money than is good for them, that you will escape,"
said Blent.

"I don't believe he's so powerful as he makes out to be," grumbled Tom,
later, to Ruth. "_I_ was the one who caught Jerry and whispered for him to
get out. I didn't have to say much to him. He was wise about Blent."

"Where did he go?" asked the eager Ruth, quickly.

"I don't know. I didn't want to know--and you don't, either."

"But suppose something happens to him?" objected the girl, fearfully.

"Why, he knows all about this island. You said so yourself. I just told
him we'd get some grub to him to-morrow."

"How?"

"Told him we'd leave it at the foot of that tall pine at the far end of
the island. Then he slipped out of the kitchen and disappeared."

But Blent was a crafty old party and did not easily give up the pursuit of
the young fellow he had come to the island to nab. The coat of fresh snow
over everything made tracking the fugitive an easy task.

After a few minutes of sputtering anger, the real estate man organized a
pursuit of Jerry. He made sure that the forest youth had run out of the
kitchen at about the time the visitors came up from the dock.

"He ain't got a long start," said Blent to his satellite, the constable.
"Let's see if he didn't leave tracks."

He had. There was still an hour of daylight, although the winter evening
was closing in rapidly. Jerry had left by the back door of the lodge and
had gone straight across the yard, through the unbroken snow, to the
bunkhouse used by the male help.

There he had stopped for his rifle and shotgun, and ammunition. Indeed, he
had taken everything that belonged to him, and, loaded down with this
loot, had gone right up the hill, keeping in the scrub so as to be hidden
from the big house, and had so passed over the rising ground toward the
middle of the island.

"The track is plain enough," Blent said. "Ain't ye got a dog, Preston? We
could foller him all night."

"Not with our dogs," declared the foreman.

"Why not?"

"Don't think the boss would like it. We don't keep dogs to hunt men with."

"You better take care how you try to block the law," threatened the old
man. "That boy's goin' to be caught."

"Not with these dogs," grunted Preston. "You can put _that_ in your pipe
and smoke it."

Blent and the constable went off over the ridge. Ruth was so much
interested that she stole out to follow them, and Ann Hicks overtook her
before she had gotten far up the track.

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9