CHAPTER 3 FOG

BARNEY Fulsom was raking papers and seaweed from the beach when Vevi and Connie hurried up. They were quite breathless from hurrying so fast.

“Please, Mr. Lifeguard,” began Vevi, “can you tell us how to get a turtle?”

Barney leaned on his rake, smiling down at the girls. “What kind of turtle?” he inquired. “A huge one that lives in the sea?”

“Oh, no, we want a little turtle,” explained Connie, “One that won’t bite. And one we can enter in the hotel beach race next Saturday.”

“If you want to win you probably will need a fast-moving snapper,” the life guard replied. “You never can make a pet of it though. The same is true of a pancake, musk or mud turtle. Other kinds of pond turtles are more friendly.”

“How do we reach Cabell’s pond?” Vevi questioned eagerly.

Barney told the girls to take the main paved road leading away from the beach. When they reached Bus Stop 23, they were to turn off onto a dirt road and keep walking until they came to the pond.

“Is it far?” Connie asked.

“Less than a half mile. It’s a pretty walk through the trees. Once you reach the pond, you’ll see plenty of turtles.”

Connie asked if the turtles were hard to catch.

“Well, there’s a trick to it,” the lifeguard answered. “Turtles are fast in the water. If they see you coming, they’ll duck down to the bottom of the pond. I’ll lend you my net and that should make it easier.”

From the bathhouse Barney brought a long-handled net. He warned the children to be very careful at the pond.

“The water is shallow there,” he said, “but if you should tumble in, you’d ruin your clothes.”

“We won’t fall in,” laughed Vevi. “When we come back, we’ll have a lot of racing turtles!”

Carrying the net, the two girls went first to Starfish Cottage to tell Mrs. Williams where they were going. They could not find her or Miss Gordon, so they left a note saying they would be gone for an hour.

“It looks sort of misty,” Connie said, glancing at the sky. “Do you think we should go, Vevi?”

“Oh, we’ll be back in an hour,” Vevi replied. “Come on.”

They started off along the main highway. Cars whizzed past very fast. One driver stopped for a moment, offering the girls a ride. Vevi and Connie did not know him, so they turned down the offer.

Presently, they came to Stop 23 and the winding dirt road.

“It can’t be much farther now to the pond,” Vevi sighed. She was feeling a little tired.

The road wound through low ground, in among the tall, whispering trees. Soon Vevi and Connie found their shoes coated with dust. The air seemed chilly too for the sun had disappeared under a thickening blanket of clouds.

“Maybe we shouldn’t have come,” Connie said anxiously. “I didn’t think it would be so far.”

“Neither did I,” admitted Vevi. “We can’t turn back now though. We must be almost there.”

The children trudged on. And then, as they were becoming very discouraged, they glimpsed an expanse of blue through the trees.

“There’s the pond!” cried Vevi. “We’ll get our turtle yet, Connie!”

Although small, the pond was very attractive. It was rimmed with trees and shrubs and at one point had a tiny sand beach. An old boat was tied to the end of a sagging dock.

Vevi and Connie walked out on the planks, taking care not to slip through any of the yawning holes.

“Oh, look!” cried Connie. She stopped so suddenly that Vevi who was directly behind, bumped into her.

“What do you see, Connie? A turtle?”

Connie shook her head. Without saying a word, she pointed toward a bird with a striking feather pattern of orange-red, jet black and white.

Amazingly, the little fellow was digging and pushing in the mud, turning over small stones in a search for food.

“Oh, I wish I knew the name of that bird,” Connie whispered. “I’d report on it at our next Brownie Scout meeting.”

“It looks like a dove with bright orange legs and feet,” added Vevi in awe.

Her words startled the bird. Frightened, it took wing.

In the air, the colors merged, giving the bird the appearance of a flying marble cake.

“Oh, we must tell Miss Gordon about this place,” Connie declared happily. “Why, it’s simply alive with birds!”

Overhead, gulls were winging in graceful flight. Sandpipers twinkled at the water’s edge on their fast-moving, tiny black legs.

Vevi, however, was more interested in finding a turtle she could race.

“I don’t think this old pond has any turtles,” she complained. “I don’t see a single one.”

“I do!” exclaimed Connie whose eyes were keen.

“Where, Connie?”

In her excitement, Vevi nearly fell off the dock.

“Out there in the middle of the pond. See that log!”

Vevi gazed where Connie pointed. Sure enough, a small spotted turtle was perched on the log, drying his shell.

“Let’s get him!” she cried.

“How? We can’t wade out into the middle of the pond.”

Vevi went quickly to inspect the old boat. There were no oars. Besides, several inches of water had seeped in over the floor boards.

“We can’t use that old boat either,” said Connie quickly. “It would be too risky.”

“There must be other turtles in this pond,” Vevi declared. “We’ll find ’em.”

Leaving the sagging dock, the girls started around the pond. The water was very still. Several times they saw bubbles rising to the surface.

“Turtles must be down there,” Vevi declared. “But I can’t see a single one.”

The girls walked until they were tired. Finally they sat down on a little bank to rest.

“It’s getting late,” said Connie, glancing at the murky sky. “We ought to be starting back to the cottage.”

Vevi shivered, for the air had turned damp and chilly. She would not admit, though, that she was the least bit cold.

“Let’s not go just yet,” she pleaded. “I want to catch a turtle.”

“So do I,” agreed Connie. “But since we aren’t having any luck—”

Vevi at that moment grasped her friend’s arm. She pointed toward a clump of reeds and lily pads directly below where they sat.

A tiny head was peeping out of the water. For a minute, Vevi and Connie both thought that the creature was a snake. Then, in the clear water, they made out a round, curving body and four claws.

“A turtle!” whispered Vevi. “Watch me get him.”

“Be careful or you’ll scare him away,” Connie warned.

Carrying the net in her right hand, Vevi slipped down the grassy bank.

Just as she was about to reach out and scoop up the turtle, his head disappeared from view.

“Oh, he’s gone!” she wailed. “How mean!”

A moment later, however, the turtle’s head popped up again farther from shore.

“I’ll get him yet!” Vevi announced grimly.

She stripped off her shoes and stockings. Then, moving carefully so that she would not splash, she stole toward the turtle.

“Now!” whispered Connie.

Vevi made a quick sweep with the fish net. She felt something heavy hit the circular rim.

“I’ve got him!” she declared triumphantly.

“Where?” demanded Connie.

Vevi had raised the net. The turtle had not been trapped.

“I’ll get him next time!” Vevi said crossly. “He’ll stick his old head up in a minute and then I’ll net him.”

Patiently, the girls waited. But the minutes went by and not a glimpse of the turtle did they obtain.

Vevi began to feel very chilly without her shoes and stockings.

“We can’t wait any longer,” Connie told her. “It’s late and the sky looks funny.”

“Sort of smoky,” Vevi agreed.

Wisps of fog were filtering in over the treetops. The girls could feel dampness everywhere.

“Fog is coming in from the ocean,” Connie said uneasily. “We must leave right away.”

Vevi began to pull on her shoes and stockings. She had lost interest in turtles. The heavy mist went through her light clothing making her quite uncomfortable.

“It won’t take us long to get back to Starfish Cottage,” she declared. “My, I’m hungry!”

The girls walked very fast along the dirt road. However, before they had gone far, Vevi stopped short. A look of dismay came over her freckled face.

“Oh, Connie,” she wailed. “I left the fish net lying on the shore! What’ll we do?”

“We’ll have to go back,” Connie decided. “Barney wouldn’t like it if we lost his net. Oh, Vevi, why didn’t you think about it?”

“I—I just didn’t. Connie, you wait here. I’ll get the net. It won’t take me long, if I run.”

“All right, but hurry,” Connie agreed. “Fog is coming in fast. I’m cold already.”

Leaving her friend to wait along the roadside, Vevi hurried back to the pond. It took her a long while to get the net. By the time she returned, mist was swirling everywhere.

“It took you an age,” Connie said.

“I hurried as fast as I could,” Vevi puffed.

Hand in hand, the girls hastened on down the road. Fog was settling everywhere, blotting out all but the closest trees.

“It’s like being in a forest fire—only colder,” Vevi murmured uneasily. “Oh, Connie, what if we couldn’t find our way home?”

Connie had been afraid of the same thing. But she spoke bravely.

“We’ll come to the main road any minute now,” she said to encourage Vevi. “After that it will be easy. We’re not far from Starfish Cottage.”

The dirt road dipped down into a small, winding valley. Here the fog had gathered even heavier. Hurrying along, the girls could see only a few yards in front of them.

Presently, to their relief, they saw a ribbon of dark pavement ahead.

“The highway!” Connie exclaimed. “Well be all right now.”

At the exit to the dirt road, the girls paused. Landmarks did not look familiar.

“Do we turn right or left?” Connie asked in perplexity. “Which way is toward Starfish Cottage?”

“I remember passing a large white house,” Vevi recalled. “We should be able to see it from here.”

“The trouble is we can’t see anything in this fog, Vevi. Nothing looks right.”

Connie’s voice quavered. Cold and tired, she longed to be snug at Starfish Cottage. Even now, the other Brownies would be preparing for a warm supper.

“I guess we turn left,” Vevi said after a moment.

“Left? Why, I’m sure the ocean is the other way.”

Connie and Vevi stared at each other, truly alarmed.

The fog was settling about them like a damp rain cloak. Nothing looked familiar.

“We can’t be far from home,” Connie murmured. “But this mist is getting worse.”

“And we’re lost,” Vevi added in a frightened voice. “Oh, Connie, what’ll we do?”