"Now be careful!" whispered Hal, as he got out his flashlight. "Maybe the tramps are there!"
"I've got my hatchet!" exclaimed Ted.
"I'm not going in if the tramps are there," declared Janet.
"We'll look first, and see," offered Hal.
"But I don't want to stay here alone!" objected Janet, as her brother and Hal slid down into the hole and looked into the black opening of the cave.
"We won't go very far," promised Ted. "We'll be back in a minute.
Don't be afraid."
Then he and Hal went into the cave, while Jan, half wanting to cry, waited outside.
CHAPTER XIX
THE BLUE LIGHT AGAIN
Flashing his light about, Hal walked boldly into the dark cave. Ted followed, just a little bit afraid, though he did not want to say so.
"Don't go too far," begged Janet's brother. "Jan'll be afraid if we leave her alone."
"I won't go far," promised Hal. "I just want to see if there're any tramps in here."
"Listen an' maybe you can hear them talking," suggested Ted.
Hal, though larger and older than Ted, was not quite brave enough to go very far into the dark cave, even if he did have his light with him. So, after taking a few steps, he stopped and listened. So did Ted.
They could hear nothing but the voice of Janet calling to them from outside.
"Ted! Hal!" cried the little girl. "Where are you? I'm going back to camp!"
"We're coming!" answered Ted. "Come on back and get her," he added to his chum. "Then we'll look for the blue rocks."
"I guess we can't find them unless they're right around here," returned Hal, as he moved his light about in a circle.
"Why not?" asked Ted.
"Because this cave is so dark, and my flashlamp doesn't give much light. We could hardly see the stones if they were here."
"Then how are we going to get 'em?" Ted demanded.
"I guess we'll have to bring a big lantern. Maybe we ought to bring your grandfather along."
"I guess we had better," agreed Ted. "But we can look a little bit when we're here. Let's go for Janet. She's crying."
Janet was crying by this time, not liking to be left alone outside while the boys were in the cave. They ran back to her and her tears were soon dried.
"Will you come in a little way with us?" asked her brother. "There isn't anything to be afraid of. Is there, Hal?"
"No, not a thing. We won't go in very far, Jan. And maybe you can see the blue stones. We couldn't, but sometimes girls' eyes are better than boys. Come on!"
So with Hal holding a hand on one side, and Ted on the other, Janet went slowly into the cave with her brother and his chum. Hal flashed his light, and by its gleam the Curlytops could see that the cave was large, larger even than it had seemed when they were in it with their grandfather.
"Look on the floor for the rocks," suggested Hal. "That's where the tramp-man would put 'em if he brought 'em here."
But they did not see the blue rocks, nor any others. The floor of the cave seemed to be of stone or hard clay, and there was nothing on it. They did not go in far enough to see the sacks which Grandpa Martin said someone had used for a bed, nor did the children see the bread and other bits of food which might have meant that someone had had a picnic in the cave.
"I guess the rocks aren't here," said Hal, in disappointed tones as Janet said she wanted to turn back, for she did not like it in the cave. "Or else maybe they're away at the far end."
"I'm not going there!" exclaimed Ted.
"No, I guess we won't go," agreed Hal. "We'll go and tell your grandfather and have him come with a big lantern."
"Hark! What's that?" suddenly called Jan, taking a tighter hold of her brother's hand.
From the back part of the cave came a noise. It was as though a rock had fallen—probably it had—from the roof of the cavern.
"Someone's throwing stones at us!" cried Ted.
"Who? Who? Who?" a voice seemed to ask.
"Oh, dear! We don't know who it was!" cried Janet. "Come on out of here! I'm afraid!"
"That was only an owl," said Hal with a laugh. "Owls live in dark caves in the daytime and when it's dark they hoot and call 'who!' I've heard 'em lots of times around the Home."
"There isn't any cave at the Home," objected Ted, who was as frightened as Janet was.
"No, but there were owls in the trees. I heard 'em lots of times. But we'll go out. I guess maybe that was a loose stone that fell down and made the first noise. But we don't want any to fall on our heads. Come on!" called Hal.
Together he and Ted led Janet back to the mouth of the cave, where they could see the sunshine. And even Hal, who was not so frightened as the Curlytops had been, was glad to get out.
"It's too bad we couldn't find the blue gold-stones," he said. "But maybe the tramps didn't hide them there, anyhow. We'll look around some more."
"Let's eat," suggested Ted. "I'm hungry, and I've got a lot of cookies in my pockets."
So they sat down on a stone in a shady place not far from the cave and ate the things Nora had given Ted. They then got a drink from a bubbling spring not far away, and pretended they were on a picnic.
Ted's muddy stocking had dried by this time, and he and Jan, using sticks, scraped most of the dirt off.
"Now we'd better be going home," Jan suggested after a bit. "There isn't any fun here."
"Yes, we might as well go," agreed Hal. "And I'll tell you what let's do!"
"What?" demanded Ted.
"Let's look in the place where Trouble found those blue stones and see if we can find anymore."
"Oh, yes, let's!" cried Janet. She was happy again, now that she was out in the bright sunshine.
The children remembered where Baby William had found the pretty rocks from which he had made his castle, but when they reached the place not a one was to be had, though they searched all about.
"I guess Trouble took them all," said Janet. "I remember now. I helped him look for more and we couldn't find any."
"Well, maybe there'll be some more somewhere else," suggested Hal hopefully. "Let's look."
So they looked, wandering about in the woods not far from camp, until they heard Nora ringing the bell for dinner.
"Well, where have you children been?" asked Mrs. Martin as they came trooping up to the tent, tired, hungry and dirty.
"Oh, we've been looking for gold," explained Ted, but he did not say they had visited the cave, where they had been told not to go.
"You didn't dig any more deep holes, did you?" asked his grandfather.
"No, sir," answered Ted.
After dinner Ted asked Hal why he didn't speak of having Grandpa
Martin go to the cave with the big lantern.
"I thought you were going to do that," he said to Hal.
"Well, I was. But maybe we can find some more of the blue stones for ourselves. We'll look around before we ask your grandpa to help."
Janet wanted to stay around camp and play with her dolls that afternoon, and she took care of Trouble.
"Then we'll go for a goat ride," said Ted. "Come on, Hal."
The two boys hitched Nicknack to the wagon, and set off down the island.
"We'll look for some more blue rocks," suggested Hal, and Ted was willing.
On and on the two boys rode, now stopping to look at some pretty flower, again waiting to hear the finish of some bird's song. They looked on both sides of the woodland path for some of the blue rocks, but, though they saw some of other colors, there were none like those they wanted.
"Whoa there, where are you going now?" Ted suddenly called to Nicknack, and the little boy pulled on the reins by which he guided the goat—or "steered" it, as he sometimes called it.
"What's the matter?" asked Hal.
"Nicknack wants to go over that way and I want him to go straight ahead," answered Ted.
"Maybe he sees some of those blue rocks the way he wants to go," suggested Hal.
"Oh, I don't guess so," replied his chum. "I guess he just wants to get some new kind of grass to eat. Whoa, Nicknack, I tell you!" and Teddy pulled as hard as he could on the reins, without hurting his goat, for he never wanted to do that.
But the goat would not go straight down the island path. He kept pulling off to one side, and at last Ted cried:
"Here, Hal, you take hold of the lines and pull with me. Maybe we can steer him around then."
"Can we pull real hard—I mean will the lines break?" asked Hal.
"Oh, no, they're good and strong," answered Ted.
So he and his chum both pulled on the one rein—the one to get Nicknack's head pointed straight down the path instead of off to one side, but it did no good. The goat knew what he wanted to do, and he was going to do it.
"Look out!" suddenly cried Teddy. "We're going to tip over!"
The next minute the front wheels of the wagon ran up on a little pile of dirt at one side of the path, and the cart gently tilted to one side and then went over with a rattle and a bang.
"There!" laughed Hal, as he rolled out on some soft grass. "We are over, Ted."
"I knew we were going," said Teddy as he, too, laughed and got up. "Whoa there, Nicknack!" he shouted, for the goat was still going on, dragging the overturned wagon after him.
But Nicknack did not stop until he reached a little bush, on which were some green leaves that he seemed to like very much, for he began to chew them.
"That's what he wanted all the while," said Teddy.
"Well, let him eat all he wants, and then he won't be hungry any more and he'll pull us where we want to go," advised Hal.
They did this, after setting the cart up on its wheels. When Nicknack turned away from the bush, and looked at the two waiting boys, Ted said:
"Well, I guess we can go on now."
"Yes," added Hal, "and I hope we'll find those blue rocks. But I don't believe we're ever going to."
At last, however, when it was getting rather late in the afternoon and Ted had said it was time to go back, Hal, who was driving the goat through a part of the woods they never before had visited, pointed to a big stone buried in the side of a hill and cried:
"Look! Isn't that rock blue, Ted?"
"It does look kind of blue, yes."
"Then it's just what we're looking for. See, there's lots of little blue rocks, too. Let's take some back to camp. Maybe they're the same kind Trouble had, and there may be gold in 'em! Come on."
They piled the rocks, which were certainly somewhat blue in color, into the wagon, and started back with them.
"We found 'em! We found 'em!" they called as they came within sight of the tents. "We got the blue rocks!"
"Well, they're pretty, certainly," said Grandpa Martin, as he picked up one from the wagon, "but they're no better than any other rocks around here, as far as I can see."
"They've got gold in 'em, Hal says," Ted stated.
"Gold? Oh, no, Curlytop!" laughed his grandfather. "I've told you there is no gold on this island."
"There's something in the blue rocks," declared Hal. "Feel how heavy they are—lots heavier than any other stones around here."
"Yes, they are," agreed Grandpa Martin, as he weighed one of the
stones in his hand. "There might be some iron in them, but not gold.
Look out!" he suddenly called as the stone slipped from his hand.
"Look out for your toes!"
Laughing, the Curlytops and Hal jumped back. The blue stone which Grandpa Martin dropped, struck on the edge of the shovel which was out in front of the tent. As the rock hit the steel tool with a clang, something queer happened.
At once the rock began to burn with a curious blue flame, and a yellowish smoke curled up.
"Oh, the rock's on fire!" cried Janet. "The rock's on fire!"
"Yes, and look!" added Ted. "It's burning blue, just like the light we saw on the island one night."
"And how queer it smells!" exclaimed Hal.
"Sulphur!" ejaculated Grandpa Martin.
He and the children looked at the queer blue fire that seemed to come from inside the rock. What could it mean?
CHAPTER XX
THE HAPPY TRAMP
Grandpa Martin stood looking down at the queer, burning rock. The blue fire was flaming up brighter now, and it made a strange light on the faces of the Curlytops and Hal as they gathered about. The sky was cloudy and it was getting dark.
"Oh, what is it? What is it?" asked Ted and Jan.
"It smells just like old-fashioned sulphur matches that my grandmother used to light," said Nora, who had come out, having seen the queer light from the cook-tent.
"And it is sulphur that is burning," said Grandpa Martin. "That rock has sulphur in it, not gold, Hal. And it is the sulphur that is burning with the blue fire."
"But what makes it?" asked the children.
Grandpa Martin did not answer for a few seconds. He stood again looking down at the flaming blue rock. Mrs. Martin, who had started to put Trouble to bed early, came out and looked.
"It's like something I once saw in the theater," said the maid. "I don't like it—that blue light. It reminds me of the time our house was struck by lightning—that sulphur smell."
"It is the same smell," said Mr. Martin. "Curlytops, I think you have found something very queer in this blue rock. I don't know just what it is, but we'll find out. See, the stone is burning like a lump of coal now, but with a blue flame instead of red."
"Just like the night we saw the blue fire on the island before we came camping here." said Ted. "Is it the same thing, Grandpa?"
"I don't know. Perhaps it is. Where did you get the blue rocks?'
"Over in the woods," answered Hal. "There's a great big one there. As big as this tent."
"Is there?" some one suddenly asked. "Then please show me where it is! Oh, can it be that at last I have found what I have been looking for so long?"
The Curlytops and the others turned at the sound of this new and strange voice. A man seemed to spring out of the bushes back of the tent. By the light of the blue fire Ted and Jan saw that his clothes were ragged and torn in many places.
"Oh! Oh!" gasped Jan. "That's the tramp!"
"Well, I guess maybe I do look like a tramp, all ragged and dirty as I am," laughed the man, and his voice sounded pleasant. "But I am not a regular tramp. I am Mr. Weston—Alfred Weston," he went on, speaking to Grandpa Martin. "I haven't a card with me, but when I get washed and dressed and shaved I'll look more like what I am. Excuse me for intruding this way, but I could not keep from speaking when I heard what you were talking about."
"Then aren't you a tramp?" asked Ted.
"No, though I have been tramping all over this island looking for the very blue rock you children seem to have found. I wear my oldest clothes, just as my friend Professor Anderson does, for we have been going through briar bushes, into caves and mud holes and our clothes are a sad sight. But we are not tramps."
"Is there someone with you?" asked Grandpa Martin, looking over the man's head toward the bushes, out of which he had come.
"There was another. Anderson is his name. But he has gone to the village, and I was on my way to row across the lake to join him when I happened to pass by your tent, saw the blue light, and heard what your children said. Do you really know where there is a big blue rock like this little one that is on fire?" he asked as he pointed to the flaming blue light.
"Yes, we found a big one," said Hal.
"If you will show me where it is you will get a lot of money," said
Mr. Weston. "That is, if you will sell me the meteor," he went on to
Grandpa Martin. "I understand you own part of this island," he added.
"About half of it, yes. But are you looking for a meteor?"
"Yes, for a meteor, or fallen star, and the blue rock your children found is part of it. We have been looking for it a long time, my friend and myself, and we had about given up. Now we may get it. Will you sell me the fallen star?" he asked.
"I'll see about it," promised Mr. Martin with a smile. "Perhaps you will come into our tent and tell us about it. Are you—well, I was going to say the tramp—but are you the man we saw before, wandering about our camp?"
"I presume I am. I don't mind being called a tramp, for I certainly look like one. However, now that the fallen star is found I don't need to be so ragged."
"Are you the ragged man that pulled Trouble out of the spring?" asked
Ted, as they watched the blue light die away.
"I did pull a little boy out of the spring," answered Mr. Weston, "though I didn't know his name was Trouble."
"That's only his pet name," laughed Grandpa Martin. "But come and sit down and tell us your story. The children have been wondering a long while what the blue light meant, and who the ragged man was. And, to- day, they've been trying to find what became of the blue rocks that Trouble made into a playhouse."
"I took those rocks, I'm sorry to say," answered the ragged man. "I'm sorry to have spoiled Trouble's playhouse. I wanted those pieces of rock, for I thought perhaps they were all I would ever be able to get of the fallen star."
"Was the blue rock really once a star?" asked Hal.
"Well, yes, a part of one, or at least part of a meteor, or shooting star, as they are called. Now I'll tell you all that happened, and I'm sorry if I have frightened you. My friend and I didn't mean to.
"Some time ago," went on Mr. Weston, "we heard about Star Island—this place that was so named because it was said a big meteor had landed here many years back. Professor Anderson and I decided to come here and see if we could find it for the museum which is connected with the college in which Anderson teaches.
"For we knew that, though most meteors are burned up as they shoot through the air before they strike the earth, yet some come down in big chunks, and we wanted such a one if we could get it. So we hunted for it all over this island. We saw you, but you were never very near. Sometimes we stayed in the cave at night, but usually went back to the mainland. All the while we were hunting for the blue rocks, for that is the color of this particular meteor.
"A few nights before you folks came here to camp, when we were digging in the ground hoping to find what we wanted, our shovel must have struck a piece of the meteor, for there was a flash of blue fire that burned for quite a while."
"We saw it," cried Ted, "and we didn't know what it was!"
"Teddy and me—we saw it!" added Jan.
"Well, that was all of the meteor we could find for some time," went on Mr. Weston. "And as that burned up—was consumed—we didn't have any. Then, the other night through the bushes we happened to come upon some blue stones, and I took them away.
"Then my friend and I hunted again to find the big piece of the fallen star, but we could not come across it. I was about to give up, but now we are all right. I am so glad! Can you take me to the big blue rock?"
"We will to-morrow," answered Hal. "It's too dark to find it now."
"You had better stay in our camp until morning," was Grandpa Martin's kindly invitation, and Mr. Weston did so.
"This meteor is a good bit like a sulphur match," said Mr. Weston. "When anything hard, like iron or steel, strikes it, blue fire starts and burns up the rock. The big piece will be very valuable.
"But we'll have to be careful not to set it ablaze. We picked up a lot of different rocks on the island, hoping some of them might be pieces of the meteor. But none was. Once I saw your little girl picking flowers, as I was gathering rocks. I guess she thought I was a tramp. Did I scare you?" he asked Janet.
"A little," she answered with a smile. "Sometimes we stayed in a cave we found on the island," went on Mr. Weston. "I thought once the meteor might be there, but it was not."
The next day Ted, Janet and Hal, followed by all the others in camp, even down to Trouble, whose mother carried him, went to the place where the big blue rock was buried in the side of the hill. As soon as he had looked at it Mr. Weston said it was the very meteor for which he and Professor Anderson had been looking so long. They seemed to have missed coming to the hill.
The museum directors bought the fallen star from Grandpa Martin, on whose part of the island it had fallen many years before, and so the owner of Cherry Farm had as much money as before the flood spoiled so many of his crops.
Thus the story of the fallen star, after which the island was named, was true, you see, though it had happened so many years ago that most folk had forgotten about it.
A few days after Mr. Weston had been led to the queer blue rock, he and Professor Anderson, no longer dressed like tramps, brought some men to the island and the big rock was carefully dug out with wooden shovels, as the wood was soft and could not strike sparks and make blue fire.
"For a time," said Mr. Weston to Grandpa Martin, after the meteor had been taken to the mainland in a big boat, "I thought you were a scientist."
"Me—a scientist!" laughed the children's grandfather.
"Yes. I thought maybe you had heard about the fallen star and had come here and were trying to find it, too."
"No, I haven't any use for fallen stars," said Mr. Martin. "I had heard the story about one being on this island, but I never quite believed it. I just came here to give the children a good time camping."
"Well, I think they had it—every one of them," laughed Mr. Weston, as he looked at the brown Curlytops, who were tanned like Indians.
"Oh, we've had the loveliest time in the world!" cried Jan, as she held her grandfather's hand. "We're going to stay here a long while yet. Aren't we, Grandpa?"
"Well, I'm afraid not much longer," said Grandpa Martin. "The days are getting shorter and the nights longer. It will soon be too cold to live in a tent on Star Island."
"Oh, Grandpa!" And Jan looked sad.
"But we want to have fun!" cried Ted.
"Oh, I guess you'll have fun," said his mother. "You always do every winter."
And the children did. In the next volume of this series, to be called "The Curlytops Snowed In; or, Grand Fun with Skates and Sleds," you may read about the good times they had when they went back home.
"Come on, Jan, we'll have a last ride with Nicknack!" called Ted to his sister about a week after the meteor had been dug up. In a few days the Curlytops were to leave their camp on Star Island. Hal Chester had gone back to his home, promising to visit his friends again some day.
"I'm coming!" cried Jan.
"Me, too!" added Trouble. "I wants a wide!"
Into the goat cart they piled and off started Nicknack, waggling his funny, stubby tail, for he enjoyed the children as much as they did him.
"Hurray!" yelled Ted. "Isn't this fun?" and he cracked the whip in the air.
"Hurray!" yelled Jan and Trouble.
"Baa-a-a-a!" bleated Nicknack. That was his way of cheering.
And so we will leave the Curlytops and say good-bye.
THE END
End of Project Gutenberg's The Curlytops on Star Island, by Howard R. Garis