CHAPTER XXVIII

RUTH TELLS HER SECRET

"Quick! We must hurry him to a doctor!" exclaimed Ruth, as she bent down over Fenn. "Will he die, daddy?"

"I think not. He'll be all right in a little while. But we'll take him to our house. Lucky the auto is not far away."

"I'm--I'm all right," gasped Fenn, faintly. "I was just tired out, that's all. I didn't swallow any water. There--there seemed to be some sort of a current setting against the shore, and--I couldn't make any headway."

He sat up, looking rather woe-begone, soaking wet as he was, and with some of the red clay still clinging to his clothes. Mr. Hayward was hastily donning his outer garments over his wet things.

"I'll have the auto around in a jiffy!" he exclaimed. "Lucky it's summer, and you'll not take cold. Just rest yourself, Fenn, until I come back, and we'll have you all right again."

"But how in the world did you ever get into the lake?" asked Ruth, as her father hurried away.

"I jumped in."

"Jumped in!" repeated Bart. "How was that?"

"Now we mustn't ask him too many questions," interrupted Ruth. "He's not able to answer."

"Oh yes I am," replied the lad who had been through rather strenuous times in the last few hours. Thereupon he briefly related what had happened since his chums left him to go hunting, ending up with his unexpected plunge into the lake. In turn Bart told how they had searched for him, and how, having met Mr. Hayward and his daughter, the hunt was brought to such a timely ending.

"But what were those men taking out of the cave?" asked Frank, when Ruth had gone down the shore, along which a road ran, to see if her father was returning.

"That's what we've got to discover," answered Fenn. "I think there's a valuable secret back of it. We'll go--"

But further conversation was interrupted by the arrival of the auto--the same big touring car that had so nearly come to grief in Darewell. The four boys got in, Fenn was wrapped in a lap robe, to prevent getting chilled on the quick ride that was to follow, and the car was sent whizzing along an unfrequented road to Mr. Hayward's home, several miles away.

The three chums wanted to ask Fenn all sorts of questions about his experiences, but Ruth, who constituted herself a sort of emergency nurse, forbade them.

"You'll have time enough after he has had a rest," she said. "Besides, he's just gotten over a fever, you say. Do you want him to get another? It looks as though he was."

And that was just what happened. When the auto reached Mr. Hayward's home Fenn was found to be in considerable distress. His cheeks were hot and flushed and he was put to bed at once, though he insisted, with his usual disregard of trifles that concerned himself, that he was "all right."

A physician was summoned, and prescribed quiet, and some soothing medicine.

"He has had a severe shock," he said, "and this, on top of his former attack of fever, from which he had barely recovered, has caused a slight relapse. It is nothing dangerous, and, with careful nursing he will be all right in a few days."

"Then, I'm going to take care of him," declared Ruth. "It will be a chance to pay back some of his, and his folks' kindness to me and my father. Now mind, I don't want you boys to speak to Fenn unless I give you permission," and she laughed as she shook her finger at the chums to impress this on them.

Fenn, under the influence of the medicine, soon fell into a deep sleep, which, the pretty nurse said, was the best thing in the world for him.

"I guess we'd better go back to camp," proposed Bart. "All we brought away from there are the guns, and some one might come along and steal the other stuff, which isn't ours."

"That's so, those smugglers are still around I suppose," added Ned. "We had better get back, I think."

"You'll do nothing of the sort," declared Mr. Hayward good-naturedly. "You're going to be my guests, or I'll be very much offended. We've not got such a fine place as some, but you're welcome to what there is. If things were different--but there, I want you to stay."

He seemed affected by something, and his manner was so queer that the boys could not help noticing it. Ruth, too, appeared embarrassed, and, at first, Bart and his chums thought it might be that she was not prepared for company, since, as her mother was dead, she had the whole care of the house, though there was a servant to help her. But her invitation, which she added to that of her father's, assured the boys that they would be very welcome.

"You can't rough it so much as you could out in the woods," said Ruth, "but I think you'll like it here. We have a motor boat, and you may wish to run it on the lake."

"A motor boat!" exclaimed Bart. "That settles it! We stay!"

"But what about our camp stuff?" asked Frank.

"I'll send a man to gather it up and ship it back to Duluth," said Mr. Hayward. "There's no need of you going back there at all. I'll be glad to have you stay. We're a little upset on account of--"

He stopped suddenly, and glanced at his daughter, who did not appear to be listening to what he was saying. But she heard, nevertheless, as was shown by her next remark.

"Oh, dad means some of the servants have gone," quickly explained Ruth. "You see we had too many," she went on. "I decided we could get along with one, for I want to help do the work. I must learn to be a housekeeper, you know," and she blushed a little. "We're not upset a bit, daddy. You see, I'll manage."

It seemed as though something sad was worrying Mr. Hayward, but, he soon recovered his usual spirits, and got the boys to give him directions for shipping back their camp stuff.

"Now, I'll look after it," he said, as he prepared to leave the house, having changed his wet garments for dry ones. "I have some other matters to attend to, and I may not be back until late. I guess you can get along here. You can pretend you're camping out, and, if you get tired of that, Ruth will show you where the motor boat is. Only, don't upset," and, with that caution, he left them.

The three chums decided they would try the boat at once, and, Ruth, having ascertained that they knew how to run one, showed them where the launch was kept in a neat boat-house on the shore of Lake Superior.

"Don't be gone too long," she said. "You can't tell what will happen to Fenn."

"I guess he couldn't be in better hands," said Frank, with a bow.

"Oh, thank you!" exclaimed Ruth, with a pretty blush.

"That'll do you," observed Bart, nudging Frank with his elbow. "I'll tell Fenn when he gets well."

Ruth returned to her patient, after urging the three chums to be back in time for dinner. She found Fenn awake, and with unnaturally bright eyes.

"You must go to sleep," she told him.

"I can't sleep."

"Why not?"

"I'm thinking of something."

"What about?" she asked with a little laugh. "About all the wonderful adventures you had?"

"Partly, and about that cave. It's the same one."

"The same one? What do you mean?"

"The same one you talked about when you were at our house. The mysterious cave, where the men were at work. I see it all now. It's the same cave! There is some secret about it! Tell me what it is. Don't you remember what you said? You wanted to find the cave, but couldn't. I have found it!"

"Oh!" exclaimed Ruth. She drew back as if frightened. "Oh!" she cried again. "Can it be possible. It seems like a dream! Can it be my cave?"

"Tell me about it," suggested Fenn, for even his illness could not deter him from trying to solve the mystery.

"I am going to tell you a secret," answered Ruth. "It is something I have told no one. You know my father is--or, rather he was--quite wealthy. He owned considerable property, and was counted a millionaire. But lately, through some misfortune, he has lost nearly all his wealth. I suspect, though I do not know for sure, that some wicked men have cheated him out of it. But he does not know that I am aware of his loss. He has kept it a secret and he tries to keep up when he is with me, but I can see the strain he is under. He does not want me to suffer, dear daddy! But I don't mind. I don't care for money as long as I have him.

"He thinks he can get his wealth back again, and so he has been making all sorts of sacrifices in order that I may continue to live here, in the same style we used to. But I found out about it. I discharged all the servants but one, to save money, and I am economizing in other ways."

"But about the cave," insisted Fenn.

"It sounds almost like a dream," went on Ruth. "One day, when I was walking through the woods around here, just before daddy and I took that automobile trip East, I was on a ledge of the cliff, about opposite where you were in the lake to-day. That particular ledge is not there now, as a landslide carried it away, but it was quite large, and easy to get to, when I was on it. I was after some peculiar flowers that grew there.

"As I was gathering them I saw an opening in the cliff, and I could look right into a large cave. I was so surprised I did not know what to do, and, much more so, when I saw several men at work. They seemed to be taking stuff out--valuable stuff, for they were very careful with it. I must have made some noise, for one of the men came to where I was looking in.

"He was very angry, and tried to grab me. I drew back, and nearly toppled off the ledge into the lake. Then the man threatened me. He said if I ever told what I saw something dreadful would happen to me.

"I was much frightened, and hurried away. I was going to tell my father of what I had seen, but the memory of the man's threat prevented me. The thing got on my mind so I was taken ill. Then came the automobile trip and the accident. But I could not forget the cave. It seemed like a bad dream, and it followed me. I did not know I had mentioned it in my delirium at your house, until you told me. Then I was frightened lest something happen to you, as well as to myself, and I begged you never to refer to it. But I could not forget it. All the while I kept wondering who those men were, and what they were taking out. I thought perhaps they might have found gold. Of course it was foolish, and, sometimes I think it was all only a bad dream. Only it is not a dream about poor daddy losing all his money."

"And it isn't any dream about that cave!" exclaimed Fenn, sitting up in bed. "It's real. There are men in it taking out something I think is valuable. They are doing it secretly, too. I don't know who it belongs to, but we'll soon find that out. By some curious chance I have discovered the same cave you looked into. I'll take you to it, and we'll see what those men are digging out. I'm going to get right up and go back there. I'm all right! We must go before the men take all the stuff! Where are the boys? Tell them to come here and help me dress."

"No, no!" exclaimed Ruth. "The doctor said you must be kept quiet!"

"I'm going to go back to that cave!" declared Fenn, and, getting out of bed, clad in a big bath robe, he began to hunt for his clothes, which, however were not in the room, having been taken to the laundry to be pressed.

"Mary! Mary!" called Ruth to the servant. "Telephone for the doctor. Tell him Fenn is delirious!"