CHAPTER XXI

THE SHERIFF WITH HIS DOGS

Another evening melted into night, leaving in the minds of most of the girls of Central High now encamped on Acorn Island, a feeling of contentment and pleasure because of a well-spent day.

Their activities had been joyous ones; their fun and sport healthful; and nothing had really occurred to trouble their minds.

Of course, Laura was an exception to the others. Jess and Bobby were to a degree disturbed over the mystery of the young man who had visited the camp on two occasions, and about their unexpected discovery of Professor Dimp's presence on Acorn Island.

But it was Mother Wit who had thought out the true significance of these mysterious happenings. She had reason to believe that the "Mr.

Norman" whom Lizzie Bean had talked about--and the man who had frightened the same Lizzie and robbed the camp of food--and the Norman Halliday who was wanted by the sheriff for the robbery of the Merchants and Miners Bank of Albany, was one and the same person.

Not alone that, but he was camping on this island, without a permit from the Rocky River Lumber Company; and his companion was their own respected, if not well-liked, Professor Dimp.

Certainly the old professor could have had nothing to do with the robbery of the bank; nor could he have reaped any benefit by such crime. Laura was sure that the old professor was perfectly honest and respectable.

He was surely not camping against his will, with the strange young man who had saved Short and Long from the farmer's savage dog. Professor Dimp must have some deep interest in him.

Laura, too, could not believe the young man with the gun to be a criminal of the character the newspapers had given the thief and forger who had betrayed his employers in the bank.

"That young man has a good face. If Lizzie's story is true, too, he has a good heart. And he was quick to act to-day when he saved Billy Long; he took a chance for a stranger, when it was unwise for him to show himself.

"There is a mystery about him. The professor would not be with the young man if he were bad--oh! I am sure of that," concluded Laura.

This discussion Laura carried on in her mind. She did not take even Jess into her inmost confidence, and Chet--of course--went back to the mainland with the rest of the boys, when bedtime came.

Poor old Professor Dimp! He had ever been the b.u.t.t for his careless pupils' pranks. His eccentricities, his absent-mindedness, and his devotion to what Bobby called "the dead parts of speech" had made him an object of the pupils' dislike and a subject for their wit.

Of course, they knew he was wonderfully well educated--that the depths of Latin and Greek were easily plumbed by his thought. But respect for a teacher's attainments does not always breed love for the teacher--nor an appreciation of the said teacher's softer qualities, either.

Laura had come to the conclusion that there must be a side to "Old Dimple's" character that few of his pupils had surmised.

There was a bond between Professor Dimp and that mysterious young man from Albany that Laura Belding did not understand. Yet she sought her cot that night with a belief that the old gentleman was good and kind, and that the accusation against his young companion must be very, very wrong!

Could she have climbed a tree like Short and Long, Laura would have gone to the top of one of the big oaks near the camp, the next morning at daybreak. From that height she knew she could see most of the open patches on the island, clear to the western end.

She was very curious as to whether Professor Dimp was still camping in the little glade where she and her comrades had met him. And had the young man returned from the north side of the lake where she had seen him the day before?

Laura was an early riser, as ever, that morning. She was tempted, before the camp was generally astir, to run out to the end of the island and see if the Professor's camp were still established there.

But Professor Dimp had been so sharp with her and the other girls, that Laura half feared to meet him. He was certainly a stern old gentleman, and she remembered now that, from the time the girls of Central High had decided to come here to Acorn Island to camp, Professor Dimp had been quite put out about it.

"Why!" thought Laura, "he was planning to come here himself at that time. He must have already arranged to meet the young man here. And he considers us interlopers. It's very, very strange!"

Nor did Laura wish to discuss the affair with Jess or Bobby Hargrew.

She was afraid to tell anybody what she surmised about Professor Dimp's companion.

It was after breakfast--which Liz served with all the spirit and cheerfulness, so Bobby said, of an Egyptian mummy with the mumps!--that they first spied the big barge coming from the north sh.o.r.e of the lake.

The slow-moving craft was under sail and there were several men aboard of her, as well as a pack of dogs which now and then gave tongue.

Immediately the Barnacle went raving mad. The sigh and sound of so many canines heading toward the island that had been his own domain for a week, quite drove the Barnacle out of such few senses as he possessed.

He barked at the barge from the heights where the camp stood; then he raced down to the sh.o.r.e and emitted a salvo of barks from the landing on that side of the island. Then he raced back again, and so returned to the sh.o.r.e--alternating in his rushes in the craziest possible way.

Meanwhile the barge drew nearer and nearer. The general question at the girls' camp was: "Why were the men and dogs coming to Acorn Island?"

"They can't land here without a permit," Bobby declared. "The Rocky River Lumber Company has posted the island."

"And what sort of game can they hunt with hounds this time of year?"

demanded Jess.

"Those are bloodhounds," said her mother, calmly. "English bloodhounds."

"Goodness!" squealed Bobby, suddenly. "Bloodhounds? Don't you all feel just like Eliza crossing the ice, girls?"

"Not much!" cried Dora, laughing. "On a hot day like this?"

The cicadas were filing their saws in the tops of the trees and the promise of one of the hottest days of the season danced in the shimmer of haze over the water.

"Do you really suppose they are coming here with those dogs?" repeated Nell.

"They have no business to land," said Bobby, again serious.

"I know who they are!" Jess cried, suddenly.

"Who?" asked her mother.

"Chet said something about a sheriff coming to the boys' camp over yonder. And he had a pack of bloodhounds with him."

"But why should an officer of the law come _here_?" queried Mrs.

Morse.

Laura, and Jess, and Bobby looked at each other. Of course, Mother Wit had understood the approach of the barge from the first; but she had said nothing. Now Jess and Bobby burst out with:

"Oh! he must be after that young man."

"What young man?" was the chorus of the other campers.

"The young man who is with Professor Dimp," said the thoughtless Bobby. "Isn't that it, Laura?"

Laura groaned. The cat was out of the bag now, and she foresaw much trouble in the camp on Acorn Island.