CHAPTER XIII

CRAWLING IN THE SHADOWS

"You jump in the car and wait a few minutes," said Ted to Nora.

It was almost dusk and the moving picture party was about to set out for Lenox in the trim little car which, Ted insisted, was tamed, educated and "fed from her hand" when it went out of gas.

Nora willingly complied with the order to take her seat and wait. Dark shadows fell from the trees to the narrow roadway, and while alone there Nora was just wondering if everything was going to happen in one single day.

Cousins Jerry and Ted had many things to look after before setting out, for while Vita was a capable houseworker, she knew nothing of home management. Some minutes passed and the others had not yet come to the car where Nora sat so quietly that the squirrels had no idea a single human being was in the black car. One gay little furred skipper had the audacity to hop on the running board, but Nora from the depths of her cushions, never stirred.

A rustling of the leaves, much heavier than the tread of squirrels could possibly have been, gave her a start. She just peeked out in time to see something crawl across the road and continue on toward the path to the cottage.

"Oh, what was that!" Nora barely whispered. Then she raised her head and gazed intently at the crawling thing, that now was not more than an outline in the coming darkness.

For the moment she was too surprised to jump out and follow. Could it be a bear or some big animal? Certainly it was no small woodland creature, and as it passed the car she could hear queer, jerky breathing.

Being so near the house there was no need for alarm as to her personal safety, so she did jump out now and ran to meet Ted and Jerry who were just turning in from the barn drive.

"Oh," Nora exclaimed breathlessly. "Did you see--anything?"

"Anything?" repeated Jerry.

"I mean did you see--anything queer?"

"Why no," replied Ted. "But Nora, you look as if you had."

"I did, really. Something stole out of the bushes and crept across the path, toward the kitchen." Nora was still short of breath from her fright.

"Now Bobbs! You don't mean to say that some wild, roaring lion----"

But Nora interrupted Jerry. "Honestly Cousin Jerry," she declared, "I did see something, and we can't go out and leave Vita alone until we find out what it was."

"Bravo! Spoken like a Scout!" sang out the irrepressible Jerry. "Now let's all have a look."

"Over there," directed Nora, and while neither Mr. nor Mrs. Manton appeared to take the matter seriously, they did, never-the-less, follow Nora's directions and quietly prowl along the path.

"There," exclaimed Nora. "I saw it again!"

"I thought I saw something scamper off myself," admitted Ted. "What do you suppose it can be?" She stepped out squarely in the driveway and stood watching.

"Give me a look and I'll announce," said Jerry, his cap in one hand and a great stick, more like a tree limb he had hastily snatched up, in the other. He was going to have some fun out of it, at any rate. He never could miss a chance like this.

Thrashing down the bushes from the drive to the garden path took but a few moments, then they were within sight of the door.

"What's the matter?" called out Vita. "You find big snake?"

"No, we're looking for it," answered Jerry. "Did he come your way?"

"I no see, not any," said Vita fully. She never depended upon the scant Englishothers were apt to employ. While speaking she kept moving from one spot on the path to another, and her actions seemed so absurd Ted questioned the maid again.

"Now Vita, you know perfectly well you have seen something," she insisted. "And we are not going away until we find out what is around here. Just look at Cap sniffing! He knows," continued Mrs. Manton, moving up nearer to Vita and closer to the house.

"Nothing a-tall. Everything all right--good," persisted Vita backing to the doorway.

"Say Vi," called Jerry in his cheeriest voice, "who's your friend? Are you trying to hide him behind your skirts? I told you, Ted, she should wear a uniform."

"Oh, Jerry, do stop your nonsense," begged Ted. "We shall be late for the pictures. Just run in and look around the house. Of course everything is all right, but we don't want Nora worrying while we're away and Vita's alone."

Nora had been looking sharply from one dark spot to another but no further disturbance appeared.

"Nothing could get into the house with Vita right at the door," she reasoned aloud. "I suppose it was just something from the woods. Maybe one of those 'possums you told me about, Cousin Jerry."

"Maybe, and again maybe not," he answered. "But just wait until I shake this stick over the premises. Vita will feel a lot safer when I wave the wand of warning over the place," and he entered the house with Vita so close to his heels that both Nora and Mrs. Manton looked surprised.

"Queer, how she acts," admitted Mrs. Manton. "I just wonder---- But of course she is only hurrying to get us off. She knows we will miss the first show if we do not get away at once."

Jerry was soon out, stick in hand, and a broad grin on his handsome face.

"Nary a thing," he announced. "Nora, I am afraid your scouting has gone to your head. That, or you are seeing things."

Before Nora might have replied Ted insisted they hurry off or give up the trip to Lenox, entirely.

"I'm ready," Nora said, instead of commenting on the moving shadow. "I shouldn't like to miss that picture."

"All aboard!" sang out Jerry, and when the little car shot out of the woods into the splendid turnpike--the pride of all motorists for many miles around--Vita might have entertained her mysterious visitor (if she really had one) to her heart's content, for all of the party bound cityward.

Since her arrival at Woodlands Nora had little chance for auto rides, there were so many more interesting things to do, so that the short trip to Lenox now seemed something of a luxury.

But the evening's entertainment was even more delightful. The attractive little theatre was so prettily made up with colored paper flowers over the lights, with breezy electric fans and such simple contrivances as, in the larger city, Nora had not seen, it all appeared new, novel and attractive. It was quaint and cosy, and such an effect was ever delightful to the fanciful daughter of a woman who called herself Nannie instead of mother.

All about them people greeted the Mantons, and it was plain they were held in high esteem by many, farmers as well as more cultured folks, plain or dressed up--all had a pleasant word or a cordial greeting for the government surveyor and his attractive wife.

Nora wondered if the Girl Scouts ever came in to see the pictures, but Ted expressed the opinion that when they did come they came in a crowd and made a regular party of the occasion.

"But they have so many pleasures of their own for evenings," she told Nora, "I shouldn't fancy they would want to come under an ordinary roof often during the summer months."

After the big picture with all its wizard scenes had been enjoyed, they started back towards Wildwoods. It was then that the fear of that crawling thing again crowded down on Nora and caused her to shiver until she actually shook.

"Too cool?" inquired Ted, unfolding a soft knitted scarf from her end of the seat.

"No, just shivery," truthfully answered the imaginative Nora.

It was very dark along the country road, and only the flashing lights of passing cars penetrated the dense blackness of the tree-tunnels through which the party rode. It may have been this or it may have been the accumulated fatigue of her big, full day, but at any rate, Nora felt very much inclined to huddle up to Cousin Ted and hide.

The humming of the motor was like a lullaby, and the voices of Ted and Jerry mingled so evenly that presently Nora forgot, then she forgot to think, and then she stopped thinking.

She was sound asleep in the cosy comfort of Theodora Manton's encircling arm.

"I'll lift her," she heard a voice whisper.

It had seemed only a minute since she entered the car and here she was home, at the very door, with Vita standing there, lantern in hand.

"Oh, thank you, Cousin Jerry," spoke up Nora bravely. "I am wide awake now. How perfectly silly to fall asleep?"

"How perfectly sensible," he contradicted. "I wish you had not awakened. I should have had a great joke to tell your Girl Scouts," he teased.

Nora laughed lightly. She was on the ground and anxious to get into the cottage. Why she felt so timid was not clear even to herself, but somewhere within her dread lurked, and when Ted proposed lemonade and crackers Nora excused herself on the grounds of being deliciously sleepy. For once she accepted Vita's offer to light her lights and make the window right for the night.

"You go quick asleep?" Vita remarked, turning down the soft summer covering from the little bed.

"Oh, yes. I fell asleep in the car," returned Nora, yawning.

"That's good. Then you hear no storm----"

"But there is no sign of a storm, Vita."

"Oh, but maybe. Or maybe, yes, some big birds fly and make screech----"

"Vita!" exclaimed Nora sharply. "What ever are you talking about? Are you trying to--scare me?"

"Oh, no. No get scared at--any t'ing." mumbled Vita while her own excited manner seemed real cause for alarm. "I just like to know when my little girl sleep very good, like baby."

Truth to tell Nora was too sleepy to argue, otherwise she might have demanded an explanation. Vita was plainly excited, and this fact coupled with that of her strange actions earlier in the evening was unquestionably enough to cause suspicion; but rest to a girl afflicted with "nerves" is a precious thing, and when it came to Nora she had no idea of risking its loss by any sort of argument.

But Vita seemed to want to linger longer. First she looked at one window, then at another. She even plumped a cushion--as if that were necessary to a night's comfort!

"Where do you sleep, Vita?" asked Nora, drowsily.

"Oh, in a good bed, in the little room by kitchen," replied the maid.

Nora recalled the maid's room. It was on the first floor just off the kitchen. So it could not have been Vita who slept in the attic.

"Would Vita get you a nice cold glass of water?" asked the solicitous one, still anxious to please.

"Oh, Vita," a yawn interrupted, "I am so sleepy----"

"Then I go----"

"Yes, you go. Good night, Vita," said Nora sweetly, "and I hope I sleep as soundly as I threaten to and as well as you want me to," finished Nora. "Isn't that being a very good girl?"

"Very, very good," said Vita happily. Then she went out quietly and left Nora to her coveted slumber.