CHAPTER XII

THE MOTOR BOAT

The chaperon, who had hastily donned a dressing-gown and warm slippers, made her way to the locked and barred door.

"What is it?" she turned to ask Sylvia, who, too, had arisen, and hastily garbed herself in whatever was nearest to hand.

"Some one knocked, and----"

She was interrupted by the very thing she was explaining--a rap on the stout slab door.

"Is any one here?" a voice demanded. "We see a light, and there is a lady here--two ladies and----"

"Oh, please let me in!" begged a half-sobbing voice. "I am wet through, we are lost and--and----"

"One moment," Aunt Theodora said, firmly. "Let the ladies advance, and the gentlemen retreat."

It was as though she had said: "Advance, friend, and give the countersign!"

"Henry, you go away," said a voice on the other side of the door. "Suzanne and I will go in."

"But what is to become of me?" was the answer. "What will Ritz and I do in this wilderness?"

"We shall settle that later," went on the woman's voice. "Go away. I understand why they do not want you to be in sight when they open the door. There are ladies in there!"

"Oh!" There was a world of comprehension in his exclamation.

"I'm going to open the door," said Mrs. Brownley. "You ladies are welcome to such shelter as we have. How many of you are there?"

"Two women and two men," a feminine voice answered.

"The two men will have to go elsewhere. We have only ladies in here," said the chaperon, as she fumbled with the fastenings of the door. Under the watching eyes of her own four young ladies, she swung back the door. A gust of rainy wind entered, blowing ashes from the half-dying fire all about. From the darkness, into the mellow glow of the hearth-blaze and the gleam from the night-light, stepped two women from whom dripped much water. One appeared to be the mistress, the other a maid, and the former, fairly staggering in, let fall a light valise while, throwing up her arms in a tragic gesture, she exclaimed:

"Oh, what a honeymoon!"

For a moment Mrs. Brownley, and the girls as well, had a wild suspicion that they had admitted a lunatic, for the woman's appearance was sufficiently wild. But a second glance served to show that the disorder of her hair and clothing was due to the storm, against which she had evidently been struggling for some time.

Her companion stepped farther into the light, and Mrs. Brownley quickly closed the door. The maid, for such she evidently was, had a larger valise. She gave a quick glance around, and a smile came to her face, dimpling her rosy cheeks and rippling through her snapping black eyes.

"Ah, madame! we are all right now!" she cried, gaily enough. "Suzanne will look after you, if these gracious ladies will tell us where to find a room. We are safe now, madame!"

Once more the other woman--no, hardly a woman, for she was but a girl in years and appearance--flung her arms wide with rather a stagy effect and again cried out:

"What a honeymoon!"

"Honeymoon!" echoed Mrs. Brownley. "Do you mean to say you----"

"Yes, we are on our honeymoon!" was the answer. "Oh, isn't it--isn't it just--romantic!" and instead of bursting into tears, which might reasonably have been expected, she gave forth a peal of laughter, showing two rows of perfect, white teeth that gleamed against the dark olive tint of her face, her cheeks showing dusky red under the influence of the heat, as she came in from the chilling rain.

"Did you ever spend the first night of your honeymoon tramping through the woods in the rain?" she asked, appealing not only to Mrs. Brownley, but also to the interested girls, now staring at the newcomers with various questions in their eyes.

"I never did," said the chaperon, with the accent on the personal pronoun, "and as for my friends----"

"They are not married--I understand. But, oh! You must think we are crazy to come in on you in the middle of the night. Let me explain."

But before she could do so there came another knock on the door, and a man's voice, an anxious man's voice, demanded:

"Are you all right, Natalie? Can you remain there for the night? Are you comfortable?"

"It's my husband!" she spoke the words with an embarrassed little laugh. "He--he----"

"He can stay with the guides, over in the other cabin," said Mrs. Brownley. "We can put you and--er----"

She hesitated.

"Suzanne is my maid," filled in the bride, Natalie.

"We can give you a room, you and your maid," went on the chaperon. "And if you are hungry----"

"I am--famished. We've been lost in the woods--oh, ever so long! Bob doesn't know a thing about the woods, nor do I, though he thinks he does because he went camping once," and she laughed merrily, as though it were a great joke--all of it, rain included. "So we got lost when he insisted on making the trip up the lakes without a guide," she went on. "He has his man with him--the man and Suzanne are engaged," she added, "so you see we are quite a wedding party. But, oh, what a way to spend a honeymoon!" and again she laughed.

"Isn't she sweet?" whispered Rose to Sylvia.

"She's a bit hysterical, I think."

"Oh, Sylvia, how can you?"

"I mean she's a bunch of nerves, and no wonder, after what she has had to go through," Sylvia retorted. "Poor thing, we must get her warm and dry, and make her some tea. I'll get on some real clothes."

"So will I."

Again came the summons at the portal.

"Are you quite all right, Natalie?"

"Yes, Bob, dear!" She whispered the last against the wood of the unsympathetic door, and turned a blushing face to those in the cabin. "I am perfectly all right. It is a charming place. I hope you find as good. You couldn't possibly come in here. It is entirely--out--of--the question!" and she laughed merrily.

"I don't mind, sweetheart, as long as you are all right, and have Suzanne with you. I can sleep in the woods."

"Oh, Bob!"

"He won't have to!" said Mrs. Brownley, practically. "The guides will look after him and his man. Now then, Miss----"

"Mrs. Parson," was the correction. "Since this morning--or was it yesterday--I've lost track of the time."

"It's morning now," Alice said, with a glance at her watch.

"Then it is since yesterday. Oh, but it is so sweet of you to take us in this way! Bob, you're to go to the guides' tent, or cabin or whatever it is," she called through the door.

"All right, they're here now, at least some men are calling to me to come to them," Bob said. "I dare say I shall be all right. Good night, dear!" The last was whispered.

"Good night," she blew a kiss from the tips of her dainty fingers. "He _is_ such a dear boy!" she added, but it was not said in the least gushingly.

"Well, better get on some dry clothes, if you have them," said the chaperon, as outside the cabin could be heard the tramp of feet and the voices of the guides as they took charge of the other wayfarers. "If you haven't----"

"Oh, we have, thank you, plenty. Suzanne!"

Mrs. Parson seemed to be used to being waited on, and her maid took from the valise some dry garments, and retired with Natalie, as the girls liked to think of her, to the other bedroom. She presently came into the main apartment, clad in a gorgeous Japanese kimono, with heavy gold butterflies and cranes scattered profusely over it.

"I'll have tea in a minute," Sylvia said, lighting the little alcohol stove.

"I beg of you to let me do it," Suzanne said. "I am used to this."

"Yes, Suzanne will make it," said the bride. "Then I'll tell you all that happened. You must think we are a couple of loons to come to you in this way."

"Indeed we are refugees ourselves," said Sylvia. "We were caught in the storm on our way to Raquette Lake and had to come here."

"Oh, are you going to Raquette Lake? That's where we are going to stop--at the Antlers!"

"So are we!" chimed in Rose.

In a moment it was as though they all had known the bride for some time. She was a charming person, democratic, though refined, and she soon sketched for them as much of her history as was necessary to divulge under the circumstances.

She had been often to the Adirondacks before with her parents and, not wanting the usual honeymoon, had stipulated that after the ceremony she and her young husband should be allowed to slip away to the lake region, where she had spent so many happy years.

"And it would have been all right but for the rain, and if Bob had been content to take a guide. But he wouldn't," she said.

"Consequently, when the rain came and we went ashore with the canoe, we lost our bearings. I simply would not go back in the boats, and so we started out through the forest. We carried our luggage, with the help of Suzanne and Ritz, but at last we could go no farther. Then we saw your light and--well, here we are!" she finished, with a pathetic little gesture of her hands.

"And very welcome," said Mrs. Brownley. "We can all go on together in the morning."

"Oh, that will be perfectly splendid. I just love company!"

"Even on a honeymoon?" asked Sylvia, with a sly smile.

"Even on a honeymoon. Bob does, too. He's _such_ a dear boy--a regular _boy_!" and she laughed merrily. Somehow it was good to hear Natalie laugh.

"The tea is ready," Suzanne said. "Will you not all have some?" she asked, for deftly she had found cups and saucers, the condensed milk and sugar, and set them out.

"I'll not sleep a wink if I take tea now," Mrs. Brownley said. "There is some malted milk in my bag. I'll just make a hot cup of that and----"

"Permit me, madame!" interposed the maid. "I shall have the pleasure," and she began making the beverage for the chaperon.

There came another knock on the door, as the tea was being sipped, and a voice demanded:

"Are you sure you are all right, Natalie?"

"Quite, Bob! Go away now, that's a dear. Are you provided for?"

"Oh, yes, we have a bunk and the men are making coffee and frying bacon!"

"Ugh! Bacon at this hour of the morning!" gasped the bride, with a shrug of her pretty shoulders. "There, Bob, run along," she advised.

Somehow the girls, their chaperon and the bride, with her maid, got back to their beds, but it is safe to assume that no one slept much more that night. In the morning the rain had ceased, and though the woods were very wet, there was a promise of their speedy drying, for the sun rose bright and warm.

"Oh, isn't it just glorious!" cried Natalie, as she stood in the doorway and waved her hand toward the guides' camp. "I wouldn't have missed this experience for anything. It is one honeymoon of a thousand!"

"I hope she doesn't intend to have that many," remarked Hazel, who was a bit peevish. She could not stand the loss of sleep. It made her cross, as it does some babies. But she was soon herself again.

Bob and his wife proved the most delightful of acquaintances. He was in fine spirits, even following the rather depressing experience of the night before, and after breakfast it was arranged that the two parties should go on to Raquette Lake together.

"I'm going to take no more chances of being lost in the woods," said the bridegroom.

"You learn your first lessons well," observed Mrs. Brownley.

"Oh, but I didn't in the least mind being lost!" laughed Natalie. "See what charming friends it brought us, Bob."

"Indeed I would do it over again if I had the chance," he said, gallantly, bowing to the girls and Aunt Theodora.

"I like him!" whispered Rose to Sylvia.

"You mustn't!" was the caution.

"Not enough liking to work harm," was the laughing retort.

Once more they were on their way up Seventh Lake. The carry was successfully made, and then came the trip of a little over a mile on the final body of water in the Fulton Chain.

A land journey of a mile and a half brought our friends to Brown's Tract Inlet and in due time they were floating on the beautiful waters of Raquette Lake, over which they were rowed to the village itself, at the terminal of the Raquette Lake Railroad.

The Antlers, about a mile from the railroad station, was soon reached, and there our friends and the bridal party were made doubly welcome, for there had been not a little worriment on the part of some friends of the latter who expected them, but to whom no word could be sent.

"How long are you going to stay here, my dears?" asked Natalie, who was made almost one of the Nowadays Girls.

"It is uncertain," Sylvia said. "We are gradually making our way to Saranac, where my brother is ill."

"Oh, I am so sorry!"

"But he is doing as well as can be expected, so we are not hurrying."

"I see. You are getting in as many experiences as you can, for that quaint little club of yours. It is such a clever idea, my dears! Positively I intend to adopt something like it myself when I get back. I am so glad you are going to stay here. Do you golf?"

"They do everything. I've found out all about it!" interrupted Bob Parson. "They tennis, fish, motor----"

"Oh, do you motor?" interrupted Natalie. "I mean boat, of course, for the roads aren't anything to boast of up here. I do wish we could arrange for a motor-boat trip."

"I think we can," Sylvia said.

"How?" asked Alice. "First we've heard about that, _El Capitan_!" and she stiffly saluted, military fashion.

"I've just been talking it over with Aunt Theodora," Sylvia went on. "I saw a lovely motor boat out on the lake and inquired about it. Seems that it was engaged by a party and they had to give it up on account of a change of plan. So it's for hire and I've planned to engage it for a week at least, and two if we want it."

"Oh, you dear!" cried Rose. "To think of motoring for a week on this lovely lake!"

"When may we start?" Hazel wanted to know.

"As soon as we like. Aunt Theodora has practically agreed, if we can find a reliable man to take with us."

"At your service!" said Mr. Parson, with an exaggerated bow.

"Do you know anything about motor boats?" demanded Natalie, rather suspiciously for a "newlywed." "The last time I was out with you----"

"_De mortuis nil nisi bonum!_" he said, softly.

"Oh!" gasped Rose, "did some one----"

"The _boat_ died," he replied. "I ran it into a pier and it sank. But I do know something about motors."

"Oh, it isn't _that_ so much," Sylvia put in; "I think Aunt Theodora wants a man along just for looks!"

"Once more, at your service," bowed Mr. Parson. Even Alice, who was, perhaps, hypercritical, admitted that he was good-looking.

"Then let's make up a motor-boating party," proposed Natalie. "My husband and I will be charmed to go with you girls. Can you run a boat? Of course you can," she answered her own question promptly.

"We have," said Hazel, modestly. Indeed all four were experienced in boats as well as in automobiles.

"Come down and see the _Clytie_," suggested Sylvia. "She's a beauty!"