CHAPTER 13 JAMIE’S PRESENT

NEXT morning after the Brownies had swept the cottages and washed the dishes, Miss Gordon announced that she had a delightful surprise.

“Another beach picnic?” guessed Rosemary.

“A treasure hunt?” laughed Sunny.

Miss Gordon smiled and shook her head. Both guesses had been incorrect.

“I know!” cried Vevi. “We’re all going to the pond to search for Clover, the turtle!”

“We’re hiking in that direction, but not to the pond. Captain Tarwell has given us permission to visit the ship cabin. We’ll have lunch there, using the outdoor grill for cooking.”

“I’ve been there a lot of times already,” said Vevi, a trifle disappointed by the announcement. “Now if he would only give us the key—”

“But he has,” explained the Brownie Scout leader. “I was very much surprised. Captain Tarwell came to see me last night. He said he’d been thinking matters over and had decided that he was being selfish never to allow anyone to use the cottage. We’re to have use of it as long as we’re at Silver Beach.”

“May we hold our exhibition of sea shells there?” asked Connie eagerly.

“Yes, indeed. If we like, we may stay overnight too, using the bunks. Of course that would mean taking in considerable bedding.”

“I wouldn’t mind!” declared Jane. “I think it would be fun!”

“Captain Tarwell made one stipulation,” Miss Gordon warned the girls. “We must be very careful not to damage anything in the cottage. Or to disturb any of the possessions there.”

“The Bible?” asked Connie.

“The captain didn’t mention that specifically. But he probably had it in mind.”

“We won’t hurt anything,” Sunny declared, speaking for all the Brownies.

Jane demanded to know how soon they could start for the cottage.

“As soon as we can assemble the makings of a lunch. If everyone works fast, it shouldn’t take long.” Each Brownie was assigned to a particular task. Connie buttered rolls. Miss Gordon looked after the things which would be needed to cook outdoors. Jane and Sunny filled the thermos bottles with milk. Vevi was sent to the corner grocery store to buy an additional supply of paper plates and napkins.

“Do hurry dear,” Mrs. Williams advised her. “Everything will be ready by the time you return.”

“Don’t poke along as you sometimes do,” Jane called from the kitchen. “Get a move on!”

Vevi made up her mind not to keep anyone waiting. So she walked as fast she could to the store. She bought the paper plates and napkins, and remembered to pick up the change.

On the way back to the cottage she decided to take a short cut along the beach. As she walked, she kept looking down at the sand, hoping she’d find a pretty shell for the exhibition the Brownies were to have.

She was so intent upon the search that she did not see a man in black bathing trunks coming toward her. When she glanced up she was nearly face to face with the lifeguard, Raymond Curry.

Vevi would have walked past him without saying a word had he not stopped her with a question.

“Have you seen my son anywhere this morning?” he asked.

“Jamie?” Vevi shook her head. “I haven’t been up very long though.”

“When did you see him last?”

Vevi thought it odd that the lifeguard should ask so many questions.

“Why, I saw Jamie late yesterday afternoon,” she replied, thinking hard. “He ran off after a car was broken into.”

“Did Jamie—say anything? About running away, that is?”

“Why, yes he did. But I don’t think he meant it.”

“He meant it,” the lifeguard replied. “Jamie never came home at all last night. I got in late myself and didn’t look in his bed until this morning when it was time to call him to get up. The bed wasn’t slept in.”

Vevi was shocked to hear that Jamie actually had carried out his threat. Mr. Curry, she thought, had never shown much interest in his son.

“My mother always tucks me into bed at night. That is, when I’m home,” she said. “Don’t you even say good night to Jamie before you go to sleep?”

“Jamie’s too old to be tucked into bed,” answered the guard. “I’m not worried that he won’t come back in a day or so. The thing is, I’d intended to leave town and take him with me. Now I’m in a spot.”

Mr. Curry seemed to be thinking aloud, scarcely aware of Vevi’s presence. In a moment he started on down the beach.

“If you see Jamie anywhere, let me know,” he flung over his shoulder.

By the time Vevi reached Starfish Cottage all the lunch baskets had been packed. The Brownies were in the yard, impatiently waiting.

“It took you long enough!” Jane greeted her. “Did you bring the paper plates?”

Vevi held up the package. “I hurried as fast as I could,” she said breathlessly. “Mr. Curry stopped me for a minute to ask me about his son.”

“What about him?” Jane demanded.

“He’s run away again.”

All the Brownies gathered close to hear what had happened. Mrs. Williams and Miss Gordon were especially disturbed by the news.

“Jamie seems so unhappy and upset,” remarked Connie’s mother. “I knew yesterday that something was dreadfully wrong.”

“He and his father seem to have no understanding of each other,” agreed the Brownie leader. “I do hope the boy is found soon.” Jamie slipped from everyone’s thoughts as a start was made for the ship cabin in the hills. Miss Gordon drove slowly so that the girls might enjoy the beautiful view of the ocean front from the higher level.

Presently, the car came within view of the little cottage. Miss Gordon parked just off the highway and the girls walked the remainder of the way, carrying the lunch baskets.

“It’s really almost the same as our cottage now!” declared Vevi, prancing up the path. “I guess it was lucky Connie and I lost ourselves that day in the fog!”

Miss Gordon unlocked the front door with the key Captain Tarwell had given her.

“Now remember,” she cautioned the Brownies. “We mustn’t disturb anything. But we’re free to use this cottage as a meeting place while we’re at Silver Beach. We can have our exhibition of shells here too.”

The girls moved from room to room, admiring the clever carpenter work. Rosemary noticed that the floors were all pegged instead of having been nailed together.

“Want to see the old Bible?” Connie asked the other Brownies. “With the notation about Captain Tarwell’s son?”

The girls all were eager to read what had been written so many years before. However, when Connie searched for the Bible she could not find it.

“I guess Captain Tarwell must have taken it away,” she said at last. “He probably didn’t want strangers reading about his son being lost at sea.”

Miss Gordon, Vevi and Jane had wandered on into the tiny kitchen. It had been built very neatly with high shelves on three of the walls. The stove was an old fashioned wood burner.

The Brownie Scout leader noticed at once that wood had been burned there recently. When she touched one of the stove lids it was faintly warm.

“Captain Tarwell may have been here last night,” she remarked. “He likely burned a little wood to take off the chill.”

“Someone slept here again too,” Connie declared. She had noticed a mussed blanket lying on a bunk in an adjoining room.

“That’s odd,” remarked Miss Gordon. “Captain Tarwell has a very comfortable room at Silver Beach. I shouldn’t think he would care to stay here at night.” “Especially when the cottage is so dusty,” added Vevi. “I don’t think it was Captain Tarwell at all!”

“It may have been the same person who was in the cottage that day of the fog!” added Connie. “But who was he?”

As the Brownies went from room to room they found other evidence that someone had been there ahead of them.

Dried bread crumbs had been left on the top of the kitchen table. On the floor near the wall bunk Connie discovered muddy shoe tracks.

“Why, these prints are no larger than if I’d made them myself!” she exclaimed. “They’re much too small to have been made by Captain Tarwell’s shoes!”

Miss Gordon and Mrs. Williams were inclined to agree with Vevi and Connie that someone other than the captain had been making use of the cabin.

“Whoever the person is, I hope he does no damage here,” Miss Gordon said anxiously. “If Captain Tarwell is unaware his cottage is being used, he might blame the Brownies for anything amiss.”

Although the cottage had been kept locked, an extra key had been left hidden beneath the shingle by the front door. Vevi and Connie thought Captain Tarwell was taking risks in leaving it there.

“This place is too dirty,” declared Rosemary. “Let’s clean it up for Captain Tarwell.”

“I had intended to suggest that very thing,” said Miss Gordon. “In fact, you’ll find a broom, dustpan and dusting cloths in the car. I also brought window cleaning spray if anyone feels industrious.”

“I’ll help dust!” Sunny offered quickly.

“I’ll sweep,” volunteered Connie.

Jane said she would dust also, which left Rosemary and Vevi to volunteer for the window washing job.

“I have to see about my pigeon,” Vevi suddenly recalled. “I’ll bet he hasn’t had anything to eat or drink yet today.”

“You thought that up to get out of work!” Jane accused. “You don’t want to wash windows.”

“Vevi will have time to feed the pigeon while Mrs. Williams is bringing the cleaning things from the car,” Miss Gordon said. “Let’s all see how Vevi’s bird is getting along.”

The Brownies trooped out of the cottage into the yard. Vevi was relieved to see the pigeon cage where it had been left in a sheltered place.

“Why, someone already has fed Snow White!” she exclaimed.

“This morning too,” agreed Connie, noticing the uneaten grain in the pigeon’s basket.

“It must have been Captain Tarwell,” declared Sunny. “He probably was afraid you’d forget to look after the bird, Vevi.”

Now Miss Gordon knew that Captain Tarwell had not been at the ship cottage that morning. She had talked with him on the beach shortly after breakfast. However, she did not mention this to the Brownies.

Vevi removed Snow White from his wicker cage, gently stroking his glossy feathers.

“He needs exercise,” she remarked. “But if I let him fly free, he might return to Mr. Green’s loft.”

“No chance of that!” teased Jane. “He’d just get lost again.”

Miss Gordon remarked that she did not know what to do about Vevi’s bird. The Brownies soon would be leaving Silver Beach to return to their homes at Rosedale. She did not think Vevi’s mother would want the little girl to bring a carrier pigeon with her.

“We must try to find a good home for the bird,” she declared. “We can’t keep it here at the cottage more than another day. The pigeon shouldn’t be so closely confined. Besides, it needs a warmer place.”

“Couldn’t we keep it inside the cottage?” Vevi suggested. “It would be warm there.”

“No, dear,” Miss Gordon replied firmly. “Captain Tarwell would not want a pigeon flying around in his house. Of that I am certain. If Mr. Green won’t take the bird back, we must find a new home for it or let it go free.”

“A hawk might get him,” Vevi said, close to tears. “I want to keep Snow White.”

Miss Gordon merely shook her head and said no more. Vevi understood though, that when the time came she would have to let the pigeon go.

“Don’t you mind, Snow White,” she whispered to the bird. “I’ll find someone who will want you. I promise.”

“Say, what’s this over here in the bucket?” Connie suddenly demanded.

She had wandered over to the back of the ship cottage, noticing a tin pail which someone had placed there. A board half-covered the top.

As Connie curiously lifted off the board, a piece of paper fell from it to the ground. Seeing that something had been written on the torn sheet, she dropped the board and picked up the paper. “Why, it’s addressed to Vevi!” she cried. “A note!”

“A note for me?” demanded Vevi very much surprised.

Forgetting Snow White, she hastily thrust the pigeon back in his basket.

“What does it say?” she questioned, running over to where Connie stood.

“It’s very poor writing,” Connie replied, trying hard to make out the words. “All it says is, ‘For Vevi and the Brownies.’ It’s signed ‘Jamie.’”

“What has he left for us?” Vevi asked. “Is the present in that pail?”

“It’s something alive,” declared Rosemary, joining the group of Brownies.

The girls peered down into the pail which was three-quarters filled with water. A turtle was swimming slowly around.

“Jamie calls that a present!” scoffed Jane in disappointment.

“But it is!” cried Vevi. “It’s a wonderful gift! Just look at that old turtle’s shell. See what’s painted on it!”

“C-L-O-V-E-R,” Rosemary spelled out the yellow letters.

“The fastest turtle at Silver Beach!” Vevi laughed in sheer delight. “Now the Brownies will be able to enter the race at the hotel Saturday! With Clover we can’t lose!”