CHAPTER XXII
THE WITCH’S CURSE
Amy started the motor and the Water Thrush drew away from the landing. Belle Ringold was so angry with the Roselawn girls and the Dogtown children that she ran down to the edge of the lake and shouted:
“You keep away from here—all of you! Don’t you dare come back here. I’ll show you——”
“Who made you the owner of the old Carter place?” sang out Amy, cheerfully. “Take it easy, Belle. If only you and Sally are going to be here, you won’t have much of a party to-morrow.”
Jessie was watching Henrietta, who stood on a seat in the stern of the Water Thrush and who went through some very strange antics, scowling all the while in the direction of the old Carter place.
“What are you doing, child?” the Roselawn girl asked.
“I’m putting the come-other on ’em. I’m a witch. I’ll make ’em sorry they talked like that about Montmorency Shannon. He wouldn’t steal a pin! They’ll have bad weather, you see if they don’t. And when they grow up and get married and have children, the children will have rickets. You see!”
Amy went off into a gale of laughter while the boys grinned. They were very well acquainted with Henrietta’s ways. But Jessie shook her head and beckoned the little freckled girl to her.
“Do you think that is a nice way to talk?” she asked Henrietta. “I know you learn to forgive your enemies in the Sunday School.”
“Yes, Miss Jessie. I forgive ’em in the Sunday School. But this isn’t Sunday School. You got to take your own part, or nobody won’t help you. Mrs. Foley says so. How d’you s’pose a little, homely thing like me could have got the best of all those Dogtown kids if I didn’t make ’em afraid of me? They know I’m a witch and can put the curse on ’em.”
“That is an awful way to talk,” admonished Jessie. “And Amy and I won’t like you if you talk that way. It’s all right to play being Spotted Snake; but to use bad language and say ugly things isn’t nice at all.”
Henrietta looked at the older girl very closely while she said this. Her face fell a little for, after all, she did not want to displease the Roselawn girl.
“All right, Miss Jessie. I’ll try to be good like you say——”
“Be it ever so painful,” added Amy, who was listening and laughing.
“Just the same,” the freckled little girl added, “I put the bad weather on ’em for to-morrow—you see if I didn’t.”
The launch transported them to the Dogtown landing within a very few minutes, and when they got there no automobile was in sight. But Montmorency Shannon, grinning broadly, was lounging on the dock.
“Hey! What did he do to you, Mont?” shouted the boys.
“You haven’t got to go to jail, have you, Monty?” questioned Henrietta, with anxiety.
“Not yet,” said young Shannon.
“Was it Mr. Stratford?” asked Amy, shutting off the power and bringing the launch easily into the dock.
“That’s who it was, Miss Amy,” responded the red-haired boy.
“What—what did he want?” Jessie asked with hesitation.
“Wanted to look at my aerial. Said it was all to the merry,” said the boy, still grinning. “Guess those girls over there at Carter’s will wish they’d let me finish that job.”
“Do you mean to tell us that that is all Mark Stratford wanted you for?” Amy demanded.
“Well—er—that’s about all. I’m buying my radio set from the Stratford Electric Company and Mr. Mark came over here to tell me I could have it right away and pay him for it when I get the money. He is all right, that feller!” and Monty’s face blazed with admiration.
“Why, I wonder if Mark goes around giving credit to all the boys who want to own radios?” marveled Amy.
But Jessie saw farther into the matter than her chum. She asked with interest:
“Have you got a pen of rabbits, Monty?”
“Yes’m, I have,” said the red-haired boy.
“And you are going to sell them to make up enough to pay for your radio set!”
“That’s what I wrote to the company. Mr. Mark, he got the letter. And he drove over here to tell me he’d give me credit till I could get the butcher to take the rabbits. He said he didn’t want any boy who was so much interested in radio telephony to wait for a set. He’s going to pick me out one himself, and it’ll be a dandy!” finished Montmorency, in a glow of eagerness.
“Oh, Montmorency Shannon!” gasped Henrietta. “Then they ain’t going to arrest you?”
“What d’you mean—arrest me?” asked the red-haired boy. “I didn’t cheat ’em. I only asked ’em to wait till I could sell my rabbits.”
“But the watch, Monty! The watch!” cried the freckle-faced girl.
“Hey, Spotted Snake, what d’you mean? I ain’t got a watch.”
“But he had! And it fell down with him when he busted his aeroplane. And he lost it. And now they say we found it up there at Miss Jessie’s, and——”
“Hold on! I don’t get you,” said Monty, scowling. “Who says I stole a watch?”
“That Miss Belle and Miss Moon,” Henrietta said hastily. “But Miss Jessie and Miss Amy know you didn’t.”
Amy whispered to Jessie: “I feel condemned. Don’t you?”
Her chum nodded, but she said nothing. She was watching Montmorency Shannon. His face expressed nothing but anger.
“Well! They’re the mean things!” he gasped out at last. “I’m going to tell my mother and she won’t do any more fine laundry for the Moons and the Ringolds! You see!”
“And you won’t help them put up those wires, will you, Mont?” asked one of his mates.
“You’re right I won’t.”
“I’m glad Spotted Snake, the Witch, put the come-other on ’em,” muttered little Henrietta, but watching Jessie with caution.
“You are all right now, children,” said Jessie, the boys and Henrietta having gone ashore. “I am glad you haven’t to wait for your radio set, Monty. And when you get it all fixed let me know. I want to come down and see it, and listen in.”
“You come along, Miss Jessie,” said the red-haired boy, “you and Miss Amy. You’ll be welcome.”
But he did not speak with enthusiasm. It was plain that he was troubled. Nor were Amy and Jessie carefree as they went homeward in the Water Thrush.
“Mark was awfully good to see Montmorency,” Jessie remarked. “But what will he think when we tell him about those children being up at the house the evening his plane fell?”
“We’ll not tell him,” declared Amy, with conviction. “Why should we? It certainly isn’t Monty Shannon who got Mark’s watch; otherwise he would not have to sell his rabbits to pay for a radio set.”
“But what has become of the watch?” groaned out Jessie.
There was a thunderstorm that evening which interfered with some of the radio concerts. But Jessie and Amy heard again Mr. Blair’s voice out of the air announcing the hospital fund concert on Thursday. What effect on the drive for funds for the Women’s and Children’s Hospital the dance at Carter’s Grove on Wednesday would have, they could only surmise.
After the thunder rolled away and the lightning ceased to flash there was still a drizzle of rain falling. When Amy started home Jessie held her back until she could find an umbrella in the hall closet.
“Pooh! I’m neither sugar nor salt,” cried the flyaway girl.
“But your frock is even more delicate,” laughed Jessie. “Hold this over you. It has by no means stopped raining.”
“You’re right. And it doesn’t look as though it would stop for a week. Oh, Jess!”
“Well?” asked her chum.
“The Witch’s Curse!” Amy exclaimed, giggling. “Maybe that funny little kid has put what she calls the ‘come-other’ on that Ringold crowd and their entertainment. I certainly do hope so.”
The next morning the skies were still weeping, and little hope seemed offered for the afternoon and evening when the rival entertainment at Carter’s Grove was advertised to take place.