CHAPTER XIX--"IF AUNT RACHEL WERE ONLY HERE!

As soon as they were sure Mrs. Holloway had quite recovered from her fainting spell, Ruth Fielding and Helen wished to get as far away from the fire as possible.

There was nothing they could do, of course, to help put out the blaze. Nor did it seem possible for the men who had come from the ballroom to do anything towards extinguishing the fire. The flames were spreading madly through the interior of the cottage; but they had not as yet burst through the walls or the roof.

The cottage had not been torn from its foundation, although it had been sadly shaken. If it fell it might not endanger the hotel, for it was plain that what little cant had been given to the burning house was away from the larger building, not toward it.

Ruth and Helen had wet their feet already; but they did not care to slop through the puddle on the porch again, so made their way to the ballroom through the main part of the house. There was less noise among the frightened women and girls now than before; but they were huddled into groups, some crying with fear of they did not know what!

"Oh! is the house tumbling down?" asked one frightened woman of Ruth. "Must we drown?"

"Not unless we want to, I am sure, madam," said the girl of the Red Mill, cheerfully.

"But isn't the house afire?" cried another.

"It isn't this house, but another, that is burning," the Northern girl said, with continued placidity.

"Oh, Ruth! there's Nettie!" exclaimed Helen, and drew her away.

In a corner was Nettie Parsons, crouched upon a stool, and the girls expected to find her in tears. But the little serving maid, Norma, had run to her and was now kneeling on the floor with her face hidden in Nettie's lap.

"The po' foolish creature," sighed Nettie, when the chums reached her, a soothing hand upon the shaking black girl's head. "She is just about out of her head, she's so scared. I tell her that the Good Lo'd won't let harm come to us; but she just can't help bein' scared."

Nettie's drawl made Helen laugh. But Ruth was proud of her. The Southern girl had forgotten to be afraid herself while she comforted her little servant.

There was nothing one could do but speak a comforting word now and then. Ruth was glad that Helen took the matter so cheerfully. For, really, as the girl of the Red Mill saw it, there was not yet any reason for being particularly worried.

"In time of peace prepare for war, however," she said to the other girls. "We _may_ have to leave the hotel in a hurry. Let us go upstairs to the rooms we were to occupy, and pack our bags again, and bring them down here with us. Then if they say we must leave, we shall be ready."

"But how can we leave?" demanded Helen. "By boat?"

"Maybe. Goodness! if we only had a boat we could get back across the river and walk to the Big House."

"Oh! I wish we were there now," murmured Nettie.

"I wish you had your wish!" exclaimed Helen. "But we'll do as Ruth says. Maybe we'll get a chance to leave the place."

For Helen had been quite as much disturbed by the appearance of Miss Miggs as Ruth had been. She, too, saw that the woman's accusation had made an impression upon the mind of her cousin, Mrs. Holloway.

"I hope we get out before there is trouble over that horrid woman's ticket. Who would have expected to meet her here?" said Helen to her chum.

"No more than we expected to meet Curly at Merredith," Ruth returned.

They went upstairs, Norma, the little maid, keeping close to them. Helen declared the negress was so scared that she was gray in the face.

They heard a group of men talking on the stairs. They were discussing the pros and cons of the situation. Nobody seemed to have any idea as to what should be done. A more helpless lot of people Ruth Fielding thought she had never seen before.

But after all, the girls from the North did not understand the situation exactly. There was nothing one could do to stop the rising flood. There were no means of transporting the people from the island to the higher land across the narrow creek. And all around the hotel, save at the back, the water was shoulder deep.

The rough current and the floating debris made venturing into the water a dangerous thing, as well. The fire next door could not be put out; so there seemed nothing to do but to wait for what might happen.

This policy of waiting for what might turn up did not suit Ruth Fielding, of course. But there was nothing she could do just then to change matters for the better. The suggestion she had made about packing the bags was more to give her friends something to do, and so take their minds off the peril they were in, than aught else.

There were other people on the second floor, and as the girls went into their rooms they heard somebody talking loudly at the other end of the hall. At the moment they paid no attention to this excited female voice.

Ruth set the example of immediately returning her few possessions to her bag and preparing to leave the room at once. Her chum was ready almost as soon; but they had to help Nettie and the maid. The former did not know what to do, and the frightened Norma was perfectly useless.

"I declare! I won't take this useless child with me anywhere again," said Nettie. "Goodness me!" she continued, pettishly, to the shaking maid, "have you stolen the silver spoons that your conscience troubles you so?"

But nothing could make Norma look upon the situation less seriously. When the girls came out of the door into the hall, bags in hand, Ruth was first. Immediately the high, querulous voice broke upon their ears again, and now the girls from the North recognized it.

"There! they've been in one of your rooms!" cried the sharp voice of Miss Miggs. "You'd better go and search 'em and see what they've stolen now."

"Hush, Martha!" exclaimed Mrs. Holloway.

Ruth turned with flaming cheeks and angry eyes. Her temper at last had got the better of her discretion.

"I believe you are the meanest woman whom I ever saw!" she exclaimed, much to Helen's delight. "Don't you _dare_ say Helen and I touched your railroad ticket. I--I wish there were some means of punishing you for accusing us the way you do. I don't blame your scholars for treating you meanly--if they did. I don't see how you could expect them to do otherwise. Nobody could love such a person as you are, I do believe."

"Three rousing cheers!" gasped Helen under her breath, while Nettie Parsons looked on in open-mouthed amazement.

"There! you hear how the minx dares talk to me," cried Miss Miggs, appealing to the ladies about her.

Besides Mrs. Holloway, there were three or four others. Miss Miggs was dressed now and looked more presentable than she had when endeavoring to escape from the hotel in her raincoat and slippers.

"I--I don't understand it at all," confessed the hotel proprietor's wife. "Surely, my cousin would not accuse these girls without some reason. She is from the North, too, and must understand them better than _we_ do."

No comment could have been more disastrous to the peace of mind of Ruth and Helen. The latter uttered a cry of anger and Ruth could scarcely keep back the tears.

"Perhaps we had better look out for our possessions," said one of the other ladies, doubtfully.

"Yes. They _did_ just come out of one of these rooms," said another.

"Oh! these are the rooms they were to occupy," cried Mrs. Holloway, all in a flutter. "I--I do not think they would do anything----"

"Say!" gasped Nettie, at last finding voice. "I want to know what yo'-all mean? Yo' can't be speaking of my friends?"

"Who is _this_ girl, I'd like to know!" exclaimed Miss Miggs. "One just like them, no doubt."

"Oh, Martha! Mrs. Parsons' niece," gasped Mrs. Holloway. "Mrs. Parsons will never forgive me."

"Gracious heavens!" gasped one of the other women. "You don't mean to say that these are the girls from Merredith?"

"Yes," said Mrs. Holloway. "Of course, nobody believes that Miss Parsons would do any such thing; but these other girls are probably merely school acquaintances----"

"I should like to know," said Nettie, with sudden firmness, "just what you mean--all of you? What have Ruth and Helen done?"

"They stole my railroad ticket on the boat coming down from New York," declared Miss Martha Miggs.

"That is not so!" said Nettie, quickly. "Under no circumstances would I believe it. It is impossible."

"Do you say that my cousin does not tell the truth?" asked Mrs. Holloway, stiffly, while Miss Miggs herself could only stammer angry words.

"Absolutely," declared Nettie, her naturally pale cheeks glowing. "I am amazed at you, Mrs. Holloway. I know Aunt Rachel will be offended."

"But my own cousin tells me so, and----"

"I do not care who tells you such a ridiculous story," Nettie interrupted, and Ruth and Helen were surprised to see how dignified and assertive their usually timid friend could be when she was really aroused.

"Ruth Fielding and Helen Cameron are above such things. They are, besides, guests at Merredith, and we were put in your care, Mrs. Holloway, and when you insult them you insult my aunt. Oh! if Aunt Rachel were only here, she could talk to you," concluded Nettie, shaking all over she was so angry. "_And she would, too!_"