Ruth Fielding At Sunrise Farm; Or, What Became of the Raby Orphans Read online

  CHAPTER VII--WHAT TOM CAMERON SAW

  Of course, Ruth was not at all sure that she could do anything for SadieRaby if she found her. Perhaps, as Helen said, she was fond ofshouldering other people's burdens.

  It did seem to the girl of the Red Mill as though it were a verydreadful thing for Sadie to be wandering about the country all alone,and without means to feed herself, or get anything like proper shelter.

  In her secret heart Ruth was thinking that _she_ might have been as wildand neglected if Uncle Jabez, with all his crankiness, had not taken herin and given her a home at the Red Mill.

  They stopped and saw Ruth's old school teacher and then, it being pastmid-afternoon, Helen turned the headlights of the car toward home again.As the machine slid so smoothly along the road toward the Lumano and theRed Mill, Ruth suddenly uttered a cry and pointed ahead. A huge dog hadleaped out of a side road and stood, barring their way and barking.

  "Reno! dear old fellow!" Ruth said, as Helen shut off the power. "Heknows us."

  "Tom must be near, then. That's the Wilkins Corner road," Helenobserved.

  As the car came to a halt and the big mastiff tried to jump in andcaress the girls with his tongue--poor fellow! he knew no better, thoughHelen scolded him--Ruth stood up and shouted for her friend's twinbrother.

  "Tom! Tom! A rescue! a rescue! We're being eaten up by a greatfour-legged beast--get down, Reno! Oh, don't!"

  She fell back in her seat, laughing merrily, and keeping the big dog offwith both hands. A cheery whistle came from the wood. Reno started andturned to look. He had had his master back for only a day, but Tom'sword was always law to the big mastiff.

  "Down, sir!" sang out Tom Cameron, and then he burst into view.

  "Oh, Tom! what a sight you are!" gasped Ruth.

  "My goodness me!" exclaimed his sister. "Have you been in a fight?"

  "Down, Reno!" commanded her brother again. He came striding toward them.If he had not been so disheveled, anybody could have seen that, dressedin his sister's clothes, and she in his, one could scarcely have toldthem apart. A boy and a girl never could look more alike than Tom andHelen Cameron.

  "What has happened to you?" demanded Ruth, quite as anxious as Tom's ownsister.

  "Look like I'd been monkeying with the buzz-saw--eh?" he demanded, but alittle ruefully. "Say! I've had a time. If it hadn't been for Reno----"

  "Why, Reno has hurt himself, too!" exclaimed Ruth, hopping out of thecar and for the first time noticing that there was a cake of partiallydried blood on the dog's shoulder.

  "He isn't hurt much. And neither am I. Only my clothes torn----"

  "And your face scratched!" ejaculated Helen.

  "Oh--well--_that's_ nothing. That was an accident. She didn't mean to doit."

  "_Who_ didn't mean to do it? What _are_ you talking about?" screamed hissister, at last fully aroused. "You've been in some terrible danger, TomCameron."

  "No, I haven't," returned Tom, beginning to grin again. "Just beenplaying the chivalrous knight."

  "And got his face scratched!" tittered Ruth.

  "Aw--well---- Now wait! let me tell you," he began.

  "Now he's going to make excuses," cried Helen. "You have gotten intotrouble, you reckless boy, and want to make light of it."

  "Gee! I'd like to see _you_ make light of it," exclaimed Tom, with somevexation. "If you can make head or tail of it---- And that girl!"

  "There he goes again," said Ruth. "He has got to tell us. It is about agirl," and she laughed, teasingly.

  "Say! I don't know which one of you is the worse," said Tom, ruefully."Listen, will you?"

  "Go ahead," said Helen, solemnly.

  "Well, Reno and I were hiking along the Wilkins Corner road yonder. Itwas just about where your Uncle Jabe's wagon, Ruth, knocked me down intothe gully that time--remember?"

  Ruth nodded.

  "Well, I heard somebody scream. It was a girl. Reno began to growl and Iheld him back till I located the trouble. There was a campfire downunder that bank and the scream came from that direction.

  "'Go to it, old boy!' I says, and let Reno go. I had no reason tobelieve there was real trouble," Tom said, wagging his head. "But Ifollowed him down the bank just the same, for although Reno wouldn'tbite anybody unless he had to, he does look ugly--to strangers.

  "Well, what do you think? There were a couple of tramps at the fire, andReno was holding them off from a girl. He showed his teeth all right,and one of them had his knife out. _He_ was an ugly looking customer."

  "My goodness! a girl?" gasped his sister. "What sort of a looking girl?"

  "She wasn't bad looking," Tom said. "Younger than us--mebbe twelve, orso. But she'd been sleeping out in her clothes--you could see she had.And her face and hands were dirty.

  "'What were they trying to do to you?' I asked her.

  "'Trying to get my money,' says she. 'I ain't got much, but you bet Iwant that little.'

  "'I guess you can keep it,' I said. 'But if I were you, I'd hike out ofthis.'

  "'I'm going to,' says she. 'I'm going just as fast as I can to therailroad and jump a train. These fellers have been bothering me all day.I'm glad you came along. Thanks.'

  "And with that she started to move off. But the tramps were real ugly,and one of them jumped for her. I tripped him up," said Tom, grinningagain now in remembrance of the row, "and then there certainly _was_ afuss."

  "Oh, Tom!" murmured Helen.

  "Well, I had Reno, didn't I? The man I tripped fell into the fire, butwas more scared than hurt. But the other fellow--the one with theknife--slashed at Reno, and cut him.

  "Well! you never saw such a girl as that tramping girl was----"

  "What's _that_?" gasped Ruth. "Oh, Helen!"

  "It might be Sadie Raby--eh?" queried her chum.

  "Hel-lo!" exclaimed Master Tom, turning curious. "What do you girls knowabout her? Sadie Raby--that's what she said her name was."

  "My goodness me! What do you think of that?" cried his sister.

  "And where is she now?" demanded Ruth.

  "Aw, wait till I tell you all about it," complained Tom. "You girls takethe wind all out of my sails."

  "All right. Go ahead," begged his sister.

  "So, that Sadie girl, she came back to my help, and when one of thefellows had me down, and Reno was holding the other by the wrist, shestarted to dig into the face of the rascal who held me. And once shescratched me by mistake," added Tom, laughing.

  "But between us--mostly through Reno's help--we frightened them off. Theyhobbled away through the bushes. Then I took her to the railroad, andwaited at the tank till a train came along and stopped."

  "And put her aboard, Tom!" cried Ruth.

  "Yes. It was a freight. I bribed the conductor with two dollars to lether ride as far as Campton. I knew those two tramps would never catchher there. Why! what's the matter?"

  "Goodness me!" exclaimed Helen, with disgust. "Doesn't it take a boy tospoil everything?"

  "Why--what?" began Tom.

  "And her name was Sadie Raby?" demanded Ruth.

  "That's what she said."

  "We just wanted to see her, that's all," said his sister. "Ruth did,anyway. And I'd have been glad to help her."

  "Well, I helped her, didn't I?" demanded Tom, rather doggedly.

  "Yes. Just like a boy. What do you suppose is to become of a girl likeher traveling around the country?"

  "She seemed to want to get to Campton real bad. I reckon she has folksthere," said Tom, slowly.

  "She's got no folks--if her story is true," said Ruth, quietly, "save twolittle brothers."

  "And they're twins, like us, Tom," said Helen, eagerly. "Oh, dear! it'stoo bad Ruth and I didn't come across Sadie, instead of you."

  Tom began to laugh at that. "You'd have had a fine time getting her awayfrom those tramps," he scoffed. "She didn't have but a little money, andthey would have stolen that from her if it hadn't been for Reno and me."