Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 169, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 July 1919 — A Camp Honeymoon [ARTICLE]

A Camp Honeymoon

By IZOLA FORRESTER

(Copyright. J 919, by the McClure Newspaper Syndicate.) “Well, it’s seven miles from Nowhere, sure enough,” Dell declared with a sigh, aftea they had climbed the trail for three hours, and still the camp on Mirror lake ley far ahead of them. “I don’t- care, though. The farther the better, and I hope we’ll never see a white man all the time we’re here.” Wah-tonah, the guide, heard, and never changed his expression. If the white women who camped on the lake chose to think nobody else cared to camp there likewise, it was not his fault, nor his duty to instruct them. Two weeks before he had climbed the same trail with the three men who wanted to be where there were no women. One had been very ill. One was his brother and helped him over the rough places along the trail. The other sang much. His voice rang out in the wilds like some clear-toned bird call. The guide remembered, too, that he had been like the old hero hunters to look upon, tall and slim and strong, and he had laughed much and cheered the other two. There was no fear that they would meet unless the curling smoke of the camp fires betrayed them to each, other, but Wah-tonah felt his conscience was perfectly clear in the matter. They each had a whole side of the lake to themselves. If they would stay on their own sides there would be no trouble. And here he had a happy thought. Gravely he looked at the three; the one too fat, the one too thin, the one with the hair like sunlight and eyes like deep water in shadow. He did not know their names, but this, one he liked best, so he addressed her. ■ “Too much bear on lake,” he told her. “Not where you go. All good there. Too much bear other side lake.” “We'll stay right on our own side, thanks, Wah-tonah,” Beth said promptly. “Anyway, we’re all pretty good shots.” But she remembered what he had said. After the second week at the camp one day she had swung out into the woods to pick berries, and there came a suspicious crackling in the underbrush. Watching keenly, she heard the slow, heavy movements of a body pushing its way through, and before she thought twice she had slung her rifle to her shoulder and sent a good shot straight at the moving bushes. Almost instantly there came a good, leavy broadside of strong language, and Beth sat tight on a log, longing to laugh and only glad the shot had not taken effect. > Out from the woods came her “big game,” six feet two, dressed in khaki, and frankly furious. At sight of her he stopped short, stared and then laughed with her. “Well, you did clip my hat,” he said ruefully, showing the two neat holes through the peaked crown. “Do I look like a bear?” 7 “You acted just like one,” said Beth. “How was Ito know. Wah-tonah, our guide, told me there wasn’t a soul up here hut us, and there were bears on the other side of the lake.” “The cheerful liar!” exclaimed the intruder. “He took our whole outfit up there a month ago, and knew we were going to stay, and he s been up with supplies twice since, and never told us anybody was here but ourselves. “We’ve got a dandy camp down oh the shore in that little curve where the pine grove is. Probably he didn’t tell us about you because —well, my aunt’s with us, and Dell, that’s her daughter; Dell’s just had a really terrible experience. She is completely disillusioned, and the engagement’s broken, and we came up here to try and make her forget. She had heard of the lake from him, and always wanted to come, I believe." ' “Isn’t that too bad!” Stanley settled himself beside her sympathetically. “May I help pick berries, too? Maybe we can fix up a tigice whereby I’ll trade fresh fish with you for huckleberry pies; how’s that? I’m dying for a whole pie. We’re not much on< cooking, any of us. There’s Frank Carter —maybe you’ve heard of him, awfully clever fellow, scientist at Columbia —and his brother, Hal. I roomed with Carter during our post-grad, years and when he had to come up here with Hal, I told him I’d stand by. He’s been pretty, sick; nervous breakdown and worry.” "Halbert Carter?” queried Beth, eagerly. “Why, he’s the man, you know.” “The man?” “Yes, the one Dell was engaged to, and they were to be married this fall, and she went to visit a girl friend, Madelaine Collier, and she found out he’d been engaged to her, too.” “Well?” Stanley tried to look serfc ous. “But he had told Dell she was the only girl he had ever loved.’’ “Didn’t that prove It, when he’d found out the other was a mistake?” “I don’t know.” Beth looked away from him over at the waters of the lake. “I suppose to men engagements are just happenings, but perhaps they don’t realize there are girls who are different, who really do believe in— * “What?” “Why, in romance, don't you know,” She flushed a little, but went on, feeling she was pleading Dell’s cause against one who was an infidel in the faith of loving. 2 “It was an awful

shock to her to find out he had been all through a real engagement before. Madelaine told her she had even started her trousseau.” ■ “It may do her good to tell her”— his tone took on a quick sternness as he stood up—“that Hal’s absolutely smashed up over her silly nonsense. He loved her completely. He made us bring him up here because it seemed they hpd planned to spend their honeymoon nere in camp—” “That’s what Dell told me. I must get back, or they’ll miss me.” “Let’s try and tie up these ends of romance again, you and I?’, he said. “And don’t 1 think me an infidel. I be-, lleve, too, in love at first sight.” She ran back down the overgrown path to the camp with his words ringing in her ears and a guilty load on her conscience. But the secret of the other campers was as safe with her as with Wah-tonah, and when she coaxed Dell to take a long hike with her she never betrayed the plan Stanley had laid out. He was to bring Halbert halfway round the lake, up to the rocky point where the pines were and leave him there to rest just when Dell would find her way up the narrow trail. The two conspirators waited down at the base of the cliff. They had known each other now for two whole weeks, and when Dell and Mrs. Cameron had marveled at the fish Beth caught she only smiled happily. There was too much at stake to give the secret away. “How long shall we leave them up there?” asked Beth, hopefully. “Till they come down. If there had been any trouble she’d have come flying back the minute she saw him. It’s all right. I’ll bet a cooky they get married up here Mid chase us all away,” he laughed up at her. “I’ve had a corking time, haven’t you? I wonder if you still believe that?” “What?” “Love at first sight.” Above them there came, a whistle, then a hail from Hal. “Don’t answer yet,” he began. “They won’t miss us a bit. Didn’t you know the first day we met that —” “They’re coming down,” said Beth. “I know it’s all right.” He took her two hands in his and forced her to turn to him. “I’ve never even asked a girl to marry me before,” he said, “and here you won’t even listen to me. I’ll throw you over my shoulder and carry you back to camp if you don’t answer me.” She laughed Up at him teasingly as Dell and Halbert came in sight together. “I’d love a honeymoon in camp, too," she said.