The Boy Patrol Around the Council Fire by Edward Sylvester Ellis

  CHAPTER XXII -- Groping In the Dark

  Five distinct parties were engaged in searching for the missing child,Ruth Spellman. Hoke Butler and his companions had left the bungalow onfoot, because there was not room in the two canoes for them. Knowingnothing of the cause of the doctor's appeal for help, they made no huntuntil, when the greater part of the distance was passed, they met MikeMurphy and his friends. These had advanced at a slower pace, for theywere hunting for that which they dreaded to find, and they meant toneglect nothing.

  When the two parties came together, a brief explanation made everythingclear. Inasmuch as the larger part of the beach to the eastward had notbeen examined, it was agreed that the coalesced companies should returnat a slower pace to the bungalow, and then, if nothing resulted, reverseand push the search all the way to the house of Doctor Spellman. Thiswould be covering the ground twice, and it would be done effectively.

  "Do you think she has been drowned?" asked Hoke of Mike.

  "I do not, for it's unraisinable that she should be. The Sunbeam isafeard of the water and would not step into it. If there was a dock or apile of rocks where she could have fell off, she might have done thesame, but there's nothing of the kind, and the little one couldn't haveslipped into the lake while walking along the shore."

  It may be said that this theory was accepted by every one except theparents and they were inclined toward it. It was their anguish ofanxiety which warped their reasoning and made them fear at times thatthat precious form was drifting in the embrace of the chilling waters,and would never again respond to their loving caresses.

  While scrutinizing every foot of the way, each member of the two partiesscanned the moonlit lake, as far as the vision extended, urged by afearful fascination that scattered cold reasoning to the winds.

  Suddenly Hoke Butler, who was slightly in the lead, stopped short,pointed out on the water and asked in a startled undertone:

  "Isn't something floating out there?"

  All grouped about the speaker and peered in the direction he indicated.

  "Ye're right," whispered Mike, swallowing the lump in his throat; "canit be Sunbeam?"

  The surface of the lake was as placid as a millpond. Barely a hundredfeet from shore a motionless object was seen floating, but it was so lowthat for a time it could not be identified.

  "I'm thinking," added Mike, "that she would not float for a day or two,but bide ye here till I swim out and make sartin."

  He began hastily disrobing, but before he was ready for the plunge Hokeexclaimed:

  "It's the branch of a tree."

  Now that the assertion was made, all saw that it was true. The identityof a limb with its foliage was so evident that they wondered how even amomentary mistake had occurred. The advance was resumed, and in thecourse of the following hour the boys reached the bungalow, where JackCrandall was seated on the piazza with his crutch leaning beside him. Itneed not be said that he was shocked beyond expression by the news.

  "How I wish I were able to join in the search," he lamented, "but I canonly sit here and wait and pray for you."

  "Do you think it likely she has been drowned?" Hoke asked.

  "No; and yet it is possible. She may have slipped while walking on theedge and a child like her is so helpless that it would be all over in aminute or so. Keep up your hunt until she is found and don't forget toscan every part of the lake you can see."

  Jack made no reference to Biggs and Hutt, the tramps, for he knew verylittle about them. Mike, like his intimate friends, had them continuallyin mind, but the same strange dread that for a time restrained them,held his lips mute. He did not want to believe they had had any hand inSunbeam's disappearance, and yet the conviction was growing upon himthat they had kidnapped and would hold her for ransom.

  "And if the same proves true," he muttered with the old glint in hiseye, "it's mesilf and the rest of the byes that will do the biggest kindof a good turn consarning the spalpeens."

  For the second time the beach leading from the bungalow eastward to thetemporary home of Doctor Spellman was traversed, and the search ifpossible was made more rigid than before. With so many at work, a numbertramped through the woods bordering on the open space, though thatseemed useless since in the gloom their eyes were of little help. Theydid not forget to call the name of the lost one, Mike taking uponhimself this duty. He used her right name as well as those by which heand other friends knew her, and his clear voice penetrated so far intothe still arches that it was heard by other searchers who, though theyshouted as loud, were not audible to him and his companions.

  Gradually they approached the desolate home, arriving there aboutmidnight. They had not come upon the slightest clue and no one was foundin the house, nor was any light burning. All were pretty tired, for thetramp was a long one, but they were as ardent as ever to do their utmostto find the missing child.

  "There's no use in going back to the bungalow," said Mike, as the groupgathered in the little clearing; "it strikes me we may as well turn intothe woods."

  It must have been about this time that the searching party which hadgone to the westward completed the circumvallation and joined JackCrandall seated on the piazza,--listening, watching and praying that allmight be well with the lost child. These boys had been as painstakingand thorough as Mike and his friends, and were equally unsuccessful. Notthe faintest light upon the mystery had come to them.

  "I don't think it possible she took that direction, unless it may havebeen for a short distance, for there was nothing to attract her thither.In visiting us she was always brought across the lake, though I heardher father say they had followed the beach once or twice. The distanceis less."

  "We fellows can't go to bed," said Colgate Craig, "until the little oneis found."

  "You have had a long tramp and must be pretty tired."

  "That has nothing to do with it," said Robert Snow sturdily; "we'll keepit up all night, if there's the least chance of it doing any good."

  "The trouble is," said Jack, who had learned the particulars of what hadbeen done from Mike Murphy, "Mr. Hall has made no plans beyond what allof you were to do first. You with Mike's party have gone round the lake,and a part of the distance--the most promising as it seems to me--hasbeen covered twice."

  "Do you think there is any use of our retracing our steps?"

  "Not the slightest; wherever Ruth may be found, it will not be in thatdirection."

  "Where do you advise us to go?"

  "Follow Mike's party; that will be the third time the ground has beentraversed."

  "What do you think has become of Sunbeam, as Mike calls her?"

  "It seems to me she has strayed only a little way from home, grownweary, sat down to rest and fallen asleep."

  The counsel of Jack Crandall was followed. Thus the major part of thesearchers were soon pushing through the woods in the neighborhood ofDoctor Spellman's home. It will be recalled that he, his wife and ScoutMaster Hall, set about this task upon the first breaking up of the BoyScouts to prosecute their separate lines of work. Although they partedcompany directly after leaving the others, the three kept in touch withone another, and after a time husband and wife joined, with Mr. Halljust far enough away to be invisible.

  The Scout Master left it to the parents of Ruth to call to her. They didthis at brief intervals, and they did not listen more intently for thereply which came not than did he. When an hour had been used withoutresult, the three came together in a small open space lighted by themoon.

  The mother, although distressed beyond description, was become morecomposed.

  "What do you think, Mr. Hall?" she wearily asked.

  "I judge that, like all healthy children, Ruth is a sound sleeper. Whatmore likely than that when worn out, she has lain down on the leaveslike another Babe in the Wood, and will not open her eyes until morning?Am I not right, Doctor?"

  "Undoubtedly, provided she has been permitted to do as you say."

  "I do not understand you."
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  "What is the use of our keeping silent, when the same fear is in all ourhearts?"

  "I still fail to catch your meaning."

  "Wife, and you, and I believe she has been kidnapped by those tramps."

  The mother gave a gasp and low moan. Covering her face with her hands,she sobbed:

  "That's what I have feared from the first."

  "I cannot deny that the dread has been with me," said the Scout Master,"yet I have hoped and still hope we are mistaken."

  "I see no room for such hope."

  "But, even if so, it should be an immeasurable relief. It means that shehas not fallen into the lake, nor is she in danger from a night'sexposure."

  "But think of her being in the power of those hideous creatures," wailedthe mother.

  "If they have stolen her it is for the purpose of ransom. They will takethe utmost care that not the slightest harm befalls her, since it woulddefeat their scheme."

  "And this is the twentieth century!" was the bitter exclamation of thephysician. "If the probability occurred to you and me, why did we nottake steps to baffle them instead of wasting our time in groping throughthe darkness of the woods?"

  "I did do so."

  "Now it is I who do not understand."

  "Two of the fleetest of the Boy Scouts,--Alvin Landon and ChesterHaynes,--are at this moment making all haste to the village of Bovil, onthe road to Boothbay Harbor. If they can reach a telephone, they willcommunicate with officers in the surrounding towns and villages, askingfor the arrest of the tramps on sight. Those boys will not waste aminute."

  "Thank heaven for that."

  "Furthermore, at the earliest moment they will 'phone your nephew, andyou need not be told that he and his dog Zip will be equally quick ingetting on the job."

  "_That_ gives me more hope than anything that has happened since mychild disappeared," was the declaration of Doctor Spellman, whose wifeshared in the pleasurable thrill.