Chapter 23

SCOUTS EVERY ONE

"WE have company," said Grace, noticing rather resentfully, that a strange figure occupied a corner of her porch. "And it's a man!"

They were almost up to the steps. Evidently Mrs. Philow was very much interested with her guest, for she could be seen gesticulating earnestly.

The girls quickened their steps and as they approached the figure turned, caught sight of the party of scouts, and stood with his cap in hand.

"It's Ricky!" cried Royal, breaking away from Kitty's hold and running to the young man, who now stared in undisguised amazement.

"Royal!" he called in answer. "As I live, our own little Royal!"

"Well," gasped Neal, attempting to get his greeting in. "Isn't this rather a surprise?"

"I should say so," answered his friend. "However did our bonny boy turn up here? I have burned out my wireless trying to get a word about him. Mrs. Alton is almost ill again worrying. Where have you been?" He was looking over the child with a familiar and critical eye.

"I've been in the woods with Kitty, rolling in the mud and sleeping in a tree hammock," announced the boy proudly. "And, please, Ricky, I'm going to take Kitty home with me. She hasn't any nice girl's things in the woods."

Mrs. Philow and Leonore were standing waiting for an opportunity to extend hospitality.

"This young man just came to take a peek at his old room, Grace," the mother explained. "You see, he is the Mr. Gordon we have been hearing about, and now to think everybody knows everybody--"

Leonore was blushing prettily. Neal had stepped aside to speak with her. No doubt, he was praising the running of his launch, and inviting her to try it.

Kitty edged up to Royal and pinched his fat little leg. "You're not going to give me up, are you?" she said timidly.

"Nopy-nope!" answered Royal. "You must come too. Ricky, where is mother? Take me to her."

"I am going to do just that," replied the good-looking sailor.

"Oh, no, please don't," begged Kitty. "I couldn't let Roy go out of my sight--I wouldn't," she protested.

"But you may all come along. How would that be?" replied Richard Gordon. "My launch is lying at the pier, and the Royal is at anchor just over there."

"And is our big yacht out there?" asked the little boy.

"Surest thing," answered the yachtsman.

"But how do I know--know you are not a kidnapper?" Kitty stammered suddenly.

Every one laughed, but Kitty's distress was genuine.

"He is not a kidnapper, Kitty. He is my Ricky," said Royal. "Please hurry and take me to mother."

The girls were too surprised at the whole proceedings to venture any suggestion, but upon being pressed by Neal and Dick, it was arranged that all hands should take a flying trip out to the launch, and see Royal presented to his mother.

Kitty objected--said she was afraid of the ocean, and made other excuses, but when she finally realized that the little boy would be taken off without her if she did not go, she at last consented.

"Another excursion," called out Cleo. "Come on girls, the more the merrier," and chaperoned by Leonore, the party undertook that delightful sight--seeing a millionaire's yacht.

A more dramatic picture than Kitty on that wonderful yacht can scarcely be imagined. It was awe-inspiring to every one, but to this quaint, picturesque little figure, it was nothing short of marvellous. Once Royal saw the slender, dainty little woman, he called "Muzzer" there was no longer any doubt as to the genuineness of the claim, in Kitty's mind.

"Yep," she said. "That's the lady he talked about, that's his mother."

"And to think I would have sailed away again without my baby, but for you," said Mrs. Alton to Kitty. "How can I ever thank you?"

"I loved him, and we had good times," explained the girl, "but I would never have been brave enough to get away from Aunt Hannah but for these scouts. I'm going to be a Girl Scout as soon as I get in a higher grade," she said emphatically.

It was quite a task to decide what to do with Kitty. They finally arranged that the two young men, Neal and Dick, would run around to the island, and brave the fury of Miss Hannah Morehouse, in a manner calculated to quiet any possible objections on her part. In fact Royal's father sent a very strong message, charging her with misusing the funds given in her charge, to be expended for his little son.

"The whole proceeding is an outrage," declared the millionaire. "When the doctor ordered a sea voyage for my wife, and said it would be injurious to the child, this woman made plans to take the boy, live in the open, and roll in the mud and so forth."

"She did that all right," broke in Kitty.

"It seemed feasible," he continued, "and while she said it would be costly--that did not matter," turning to the group. "Why, I feel only the brave fight of this child has saved him for us. And I am not sure what course I shall pursue in dealing with Hannah Morehouse."

"Only Daddy!" begged the golden-haired boy, who clung to his mother, "please don't let her come around here. She's too mean to Kitty and me, and we don't ever want to see her again, do we Kitty-dear?"

"All ashore, who are going ashore!" called out Neal, and at that the happy party climbed back into the Runner, the auxiliary launch of the yacht, Royal, and in a few minutes were again at Sea Crest.

"And you can come back with me, Kitty," begged Julia. "I have a big house and you can have a room to yourself until you are ready to go to school as Mrs. Alton wishes to arrange."

"And Kitty," said Louise, when the bewildered child was quiet enough to listen, "you need not worry about the hundred dollars Miss Hannah refuses to pay you for you own a lot of property on Luna Land."

"Aunt Hannah's property!" she gasped. "I knew it. I'll run her off the place, but I'll build a nice little house for good old Uncle Pete."

"Here's your bag," said Grace; "don't lose it."

"Oh, wait, girls, sit down until I give you your stockings and things." They dropped down on the terrace, and she dragged the things from her bag. She drew a purse from the very bottom of the satchel, and looked around before she opened it.

"Now wait," she said again, biting her thin lips. Then she pulled out a piece of yellow paper from a rusty leather purse.

"Our fire-bug threat," exclaimed Louise. "How did you get that?"

"I wanted to tell you long ago, I was the Weasle, but it wasn't all my fault. Aunt Hannah said if I acted queer folks would shun me, and then I didn't have to worry so about hiding Royal.

"When I got started at it, it seemed like fun. I had no girl friends, and I liked to scare the others, so I used to fix fires on the beach, and let them get fanned into flames by the wind. But I never set fire to chicken coops, and those other places. I guess robbers did that. Then, as soon as you girls came around, and acted so brave about it, I saw it was more fun to have friends than to scare them off," she finished with an expression of genuine contrition.

"Well, it's all right now, Kitty, and you have been very brave to watch so faithfully over Royal. That was good scouting," said Isabel.

"But think of Louise saving my life from the pier?" she exclaimed.

"And what a fine moving picture we all made holding that life net for you this afternoon," Cleo reminded her, laughingly.

"I can't quite believe it about the papers," Kitty reflected aloud.

"The tin box is in my daddy's safe, but the deeds to Luna Land are being searched by lawyers," explained Louise.

"Suppose we stop at Captain Dave's and tell him all the news first," suggested Margaret.

"All agreed!" called Helen and it was almost sun down before the group in front of the station, with Kitty Schulkill as a centerpiece, disturbed the picture.

It was the end of a day, the end of a vacation, and is the end of our story, until we meet the happy little group in our next volume, to be called "THE GIRL SCOUTS AT CAMP COMALONG."

THE END.

THE GIRL SCOUT SERIES

By LILIAN GARIS

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=3. THE GIRL SCOUTS AT SEA CREST= _or The Wig Wag Rescue_

Luna Land, a little island by the sea, is wrapt in a mysterious seclusion, and Kitty Scuttle, a grotesque figure, succeeds in keeping all others at bay until the Girl Scouts come.

=4. THE GIRL SCOUTS AT CAMP COMALONG= _or Peg of Tamarack Hills_

The girls of Bobolink Troop spend their summer on the shores of Lake Hocomo. Their discovery of Peg, the mysterious rider, and the clearing up of her remarkable adventures afford a vigorous plot.

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Transcriber's Notes:

Obvious punctuation errors repaired. Varied hyphenation was retained, for example, bare-foot and barefoot and ball room and ball-room.

Page 52, "posible" changed to "possible" (possible to do so)

Page 83, "diectly" changed to "directly" (directly off the)

Page 112, "Captian" changed to "Captain" (The Captain shook)

Page 115, "realiable" changed to "reliable" (their reliable khaki)

Page 149, "you're" changed to "your" (Louise, your daddy)

Page 159, "towl" changed to "towel" (towel over the)

Page 177, "terrrors" changed to "terrors" (had wild terrors)

Page 188, "Luney" changed to "Looney" (boss of Looney)

Page 190, "It's" changed to "Its" (Its origin was a)

Page 192, "Hanorah" changed to "Hannah" (There is Hannah)

Page 197, "Teddie" changed to "Treddie" (the valiant Treddie)

End of Project Gutenberg's The Girl Scouts at Sea Crest, by Lillian Garis