When dinner was cleared away, Mrs. Vernon and the scouts gathered young spruce tips from the trees growing so profusely near the Cave. These were woven into a soft springy mattress on the floor of the buckboard, by placing a row of tips where the head would be. The next row of tips was so placed that the stems ran under the soft resisting tops of the former row. So on, row after row was woven, until the floor of the vehicle was covered.

Mr. Gilroy was then helped up and partly carried over to the spruce-bed.

He had been preparing for this ordeal, and managed to get up on the buckboard, but then he sank back in a half-faint. The scouts were at hand, however, with water and a paper fan.

The return trip took more than two hours, and when the trail was followed that led direct to the camp Hepsy jogged along without urging and without balking.

Joan and Julie sat on either side of their patient, with their feet dangling from the rear. Mrs. Vernon drove Hepsy very carefully, and the animal seemed to sense that she must step circ.u.mspectly. Not a bowlder or rut did she cause the vehicle to encounter.

"For which we are duly grateful to tricky old Hepsy," declared Julie, as they neared the camp.

The scouts entertained Mr. Gilroy on this ride down the mountainside, so that he smiled and almost forgot he was a patient. In fact, the scouts forgot he was a stranger, so pleasant was this middle-aged man of forty-five, with his fine face and gray hair.

On the last hundred yards to the Camp, Hepsy p.r.i.c.ked up her ears.

"She smells oats for supper, and a good bed," laughed Joan.

"I'm awfully glad we had Hepsy with us to bring back this couch for Mr.

Gilroy," said Betty.

"Yes, and we're all glad there is such a nice hut ready to receive Mr.

Gilroy. All we will have to do will be to carry the spruce tips from here to the cabin and make the bed," added Julie.

Then they told Mr. Gilroy all about the hut and the rugs and the wonderful furniture, that had taken more than two weeks to build. They were still laughing over the perfect work done on the roof by the young hunter, when Hepsy pulled the vehicle up on the plateau near the huts and stopped.

"Our camp is under those pines, right beside the tumbling waters,"

explained Ruth, pointing out the spot to the tired-looking eyes of the man.

"Well, I've enjoyed the ride, dear young ladies, but I am greatly relieved to be here," sighed Mr. Gilroy.

"Verny, can't you make Hepsy bring the buckboard over to the hut so Mr.

Gilroy won't have to walk?" said Joan.

"I was just going to suggest it. I will lead her by the head, so she won't balk, but you girls remain seated and see that our guest does not roll off."

Ruth and Betty followed behind, and the Captain led the horse carefully over the gra.s.s until the camp was reached. All that was now necessary was for the man to wait until the spruce bed was removed from the wagon to the hut.

"You girls run and make room in the hut so we can lay the bed on the floor. Move the furniture against the walls," said the Captain.

Julie and Joan, being foremost, ran over to begin the work while Mrs.

Vernon unhitched Hepsy to take her to the shed. Ruth and Betty were about to push the buckboard under the trees when a heart-rending cry came from the hut.

The Captain thought instantly of the tramps, and held her heart as she ran to help. Ruth and Betty left the wagon where it was and started after Mrs. Vernon. Even Mr. Gilroy, forgetting his weakness, slid from the buckboard and crept along in wake of the others.

"Oh, Verny! Our lovely, lovely hut! Oh, oh!" wailed Joan.

"Everything ruined! Who could have done it!" cried Julie, stamping her foot furiously.

When the others crowded about the door, they beheld a scene indeed! Mr.

Gilroy sank upon the grapevine seat just outside the door, and panted forth:

"Those rascally vandals! They did it!"

"Oh, oh! everything gone or broken! But why did they do it? It won't help them any!" wailed Ruth.

The table and chairs had disappeared completely, and bits of grapevine and ends of boards scattered everywhere, testified to the cataclysm that struck the inside of the hut. The pictures were torn from the walls, and the flowers were tossed, with their holders, into the gra.s.s near the hut. The willow and gra.s.s mats were in strips, some of them showing where the demons had tried to set fire to them, but they were too green to burn readily.

Suddenly Mrs. Vernon gasped and said: "The annex, girls!"

She feared that the tramps might be hidden there. But the girls thought she meant the food-stock, so they ran pell-mell out of the new hut into the old one, Mrs. Vernon trying to hold them back.

The scouts found the food-stuff had been taken, too. This was too much for them! They fairly screamed with rage. Mrs. Vernon had all she could do to calm their hysterical anger.

"I'll kill them if I get sight of them!" screamed Ruth, with clenched hands, jumping up and down.

"Oh, if we only had that hunter's gun!" added Joan.

"And shoot each other--no thank you!" declared Julie, in so matter-of-fact a tone that it did more to stop the howling than anything else. Even Mr. Gilroy felt like smiling, in spite of the troubles these innocent scouts had had thrust upon them.

"Verny, don't you suppose those poor convicts have gone without food for so long that they had to take ours!" ventured Betty, kindly.

"Oh, oh! how _can_ you pity them, Betty Lee!" cried Joan.

"Betty, if you don't swear to avenge this outrage, I'll spank you good and hard--so there!" threatened Julie, her eyes gleaming dangerously as she leaned towards poor Betty.

"I can't swear, Julie, but I am sorry for two terribly wicked men who don't know better than to hurt Mr. Gilroy and then ruin our lovely home.

The food I s'pose they needed," explained Betty, with more spirit than she had ever expressed in her life.

The scouts were so amazed at Betty's self-defense that unconsciously they pardoned her charity towards the vagabonds.

"Besides, Verny, they couldn't have carried the boxes very far, you know, when it took Hepsy and all of _us_ to carry them in," added Betty.

"And the furniture was awfully heavy, too," said Ruth.

"And too clumsy for them to handle well," Betty added, but she had best have left that unsaid, as Julie's wrath exploded.

"How can you call the furniture clumsy? They were just as handsome as anything I ever saw!"

But no one abetted this statement, so she modified her words. "Well, not _very_ clumsy--only heavy, maybe."

Mr. Gilroy had been thinking very quickly during this conversation, and now he called to the Captain. They all ran over to him to see if he was all right.

"Oh, yes, I feel all right; but I was wondering if you can find it possible to have Hepsy drive on down to that village you mention?"

"To Freedom? What for?" asked Julie, surprised.

"Because I have a theory about this vandalism, and the sooner the police hear of it, the better for the safety of all," replied Mr. Gilroy.