Cherry Ames 22 Rural Nurse (19 page)

“Sorry, terribly sorry.”

THE WHOLE TRUTH

183

“You have to do your duty, I know that.” Mrs. Barker’s eyes were red from weeping, but she was self-controlled.

“Floyd deserves to be punished. He injured a lot of people with that Nature’s Herb Cure. I just want to know one thing. How long will my son be—be away?” Jane and Cherry exchanged glances. Hal had a hard time telling her it probably would be three years. Was there anything they could do for her, Cherry and Hal asked, anything at all? Mrs. Barker shook her head.

Jane said warmly, “I want Mrs. Barker to come and live with Mother and Bill and me. We’ll turn that old house into a happy place, you’ll see. Now we can go ahead and repair the place—thanks to you two.” Hal was embarrassed and Cherry said no thanks were necessary. All they wanted was to see that ankle completely healed. That would be very soon now.

Jane said cheerfully, “Did I tell you that I’ve got a job? Just this afternoon! The owner came by to talk over the letter of application I’d sent in. It’s a good and interesting job at the big motel restaurant near Muir.

That’s thanks to you two, as well.” She did not want to rejoice in view of Mrs. Barker’s trouble, but Jane’s relief and happiness showed in her face. “I’m going to telephone Mother and Bill the good news tonight.”

“Well, don’t tell your mother I’m coming to live with you,” Mrs. Barker said. “I can manage in my own house, thank you! I’ll be over to visit every day, though, I expect.”

“Maybe you’ll change your mind when you meet Bill,” Jane said. “That reminds me! We’ll be married in 184
CHERRY

AMES,

RURAL

NURSE

Sauk. Of course you’re invited to the wedding. Cherry, I want you to be maid of honor.”

Cherry accepted with great pleasure. She felt sure she could persuade Aunt Cora to let her give Jane a wedding breakfast or reception.

Hal cleared his throat and said he’d been reading up on new therapy that might be just the measures for Bill.

“You see,” Mrs. Barker said bravely, “things
do
work out for the best.” Hal and Cherry both kissed Mrs.

Barker goodbye. They said “Cheers!” to Jane.

In the car, driving home to Sauk in the darkness of evening, Cherry thought of the patients she had missed seeing today—well, she’d catch up later this week—and about the 4-H Club youngsters—about the monthly report to be sent to her supervisor, Miss Hudson—and about going to the monthly district meeting with other rural nurses....

“Wake up, Cherry!” Hal said, pulling up in front of Aunt Cora’s house. “You’re home.”

“I wasn’t asleep, just daydreaming. There’s so much important health work to be done in the county—”

“You’ll do it,” Hal said. “We’ll do it together.” That was a happy prospect. Cherry said good night to Dr. Hal, and went into the house to her long-suffering aunt.

“Praise be it’s all over!” said Aunt Cora. “I never in all my born days—I dread to think what you’ll be up to next, Cherry.”

“Wait and see,” said Cherry, smiling.

In case you missed
Cherry Ames, Camp Nurse ...

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c h a p t e r i

Summer Begins

“i,” said a light, clear voice, “am a mountaineer!

And I know who you are.”

Cherry jumped. “Yes, I’m going to be camp nurse.” She smiled at a pretty blond girl of about eleven who stood in the train aisle. “You don’t look much like a mountaineer to me,” she added, laughing.

“Confi dentially, I’m Sue Howard, and there’s the rest of the Mountaineers—my cabin mates, I mean.

‘Mountaineers’ is our unit name.” The girl waved to a group in the seats further up the aisle. Then she sat down beside Cherry in the temporarily vacant seat.

“We’re all dying to meet you, Miss Ames.” Cherry held out her hand—a cool, strong, immacu-late nurse’s hand. “How do you do, Sue Howard? How did you know my name?”

“We heard about you from Aunt Bet and Uncle Bob.”

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CHERRY AMES, CAMP NURSE

“Oh, of course.”

Aunt Bet and Uncle B. B. Wright were the directors of Camp Blue Water for girls and its brother camp, Thunder Cliff.

Cherry had met Mr. and Mrs. Wright through a neighbor when she had been at home in Hilton, Illinois, for an Easter visit with her family. The neighbor, Mrs. Pritchett, who lived three houses down the tree-shaded block, had known all four Ameses for years and could remember Cherry and Charlie in their twin baby carriage.

“Someone who likes children and who likes the outdoors,” the Wrights had said, “is the kind of nurse we want,” and Cherry certainly qualifi ed. Her mother felt, and Cherry agreed, that this job would be a good change of pace from her recent nursing work in a big city department store. Besides, she’d always enjoyed working with children.

Interviews in New York followed. Dr. Robert Lowell, the camp physician, and his wife (who was a nurse herself) both approved Cherry’s qualifi cations—and liked her. The Wrights did, too.

So here she was on the last Saturday in June, her luggage holding a summer’s supply of nursing equipment and crisp white uniforms, riding into the mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania in a train jammed with lively campers.

Sue went on, “I hope you don’t think I—well, sounded awfully forward, Miss Ames, speaking to you like that, but I’m an old camper, you see. So’s all my
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cabin, except Katy Osborn. She’s new.” Sue’s forehead wrinkled when she said Katy’s name, as if she were doubtful or baffl ed. “I thought maybe we could be a great help to you. I mean, show you around and explain how we do things at Camp Blue Water.”

“Thanks ever so much. It
would
be a help. And I’d love to meet the other Mountaineers.”

“Oh, good!” Sue said. “‘I’ll bring them over—” As Sue left, Aunt Bet came down the aisle. She was a sympathetic young woman with a smile like a sun-burst.

“Hello, Cherry, has anyone brought you sandwiches and milk yet?”

The camp director said that they just had a basket lunch on the train for the two-hundred-odd girls, their counselors, and the boys and young men counselors belonging to the boys’ camp—Thunder Cliff.

“It gets too complicated to do more than that,” Mrs.

Wright said, “but supper at camp will make up for it.

My husband went ahead with the service staff last week. They’ll have everything ready for us.” Aunt Bet smiled at three very small girls who were entertain-ing themselves by making faces. She turned back to Cherry. “Three of our Midgets. Have you met many of our girls yet?”

“I’m in the process, Mrs. Wright. They’re a fi ne group, aren’t they? I’m really looking forward to spending the summer with them.”

“Wait until you see the girls in action,” Aunt Bet said proudly.

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CHERRY AMES, CAMP NURSE

“They seem to be plenty active right now,” Cherry said, laughing. “I’ve already helped Dr. Lowell treat a skinned knee and hiccups. And, oh yes, I refereed a fast spelling bee. Loved it. I hope I’ll do lots more than nursing.”

“Of course you will. I think the girls are going to love you, Cherry. Anyone who looks as pretty as you do—” and Aunt Bet rose, with an extra smile for Cherry’s rosy brunette good looks. A counselor at the end of the car was beckoning, and Aunt Bet went toward her.

That was the girls’ head counselor, Kay Rogers, down there with Aunt Bet, Cherry remembered. She had met Kay a few days ago at the Wrights’ apartment, at a staff meeting. Cherry had met most of the counselors for both camps then. She recalled that day as a friendly confusion of faces, voices, handshakes, and instructions.

A few persons had been outstanding, among them the boys’ head counselor, Reed Champion. Cherry hoped to become better acquainted with the likable young man.

And now, this bright morning, a crowd of young fi gures fl itted around her. The older girls exchanging snapshots were Seniors. The eleven-to-thirteen group, Cherry knew, were called the Intermediates, and they were the peppiest ones. Juniors—the eight to tenners—and the Midgets—the littlest ones—made up the other age groups.

“Well, here we are, Miss Ames,” Sue announced, coming back up the aisle, fi ve or six more young faces looming up behind her. “You
said
you wanted to meet the Mountaineers.”

“I do! But fi rst, I’d like you all to call me Cherry.”
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“Oh, thanks. We were going to, anyway, pretty soon,” Sue said. Then, changing the subject with no preliminaries at all, she asked, “Miss Ames, I mean Miss Cherry, did you ever nurse a criminal?”

“Don’t go asking silly questions,” said a plump little girl. “I’m Mary Alice Burton, Miss Ames, since
some
people don’t perform introductions. Such as my old friend Sue.”

“I’m Ding, that’s short for Margery Page.” This girl had cropped hair and an impish smile.
“Did
you ever nurse a criminal? We have a serious reason for asking.” Before Cherry could answer, Sue made a point of formal introductions.

“Dot and Dee Smith. They’re twins, though you’d never believe it, except for looking exactly alike.” Dot and Dee had reddish hair, and were alike as two freckles. “Stale old joke,” the taller twin protested.

“
I have a twin brother,” Cherry said with a grin, “but people can tell us apart.”

Sue and Ding whooped with laughter. The Smith sisters looked delighted, and Mary Alice chuckled.

“The reason people can tell Charlie and me apart,” Cherry said, deadpan, “is because my twin is blond and I’m dark.”

She thought for a moment of her brother, and her parents, and their comfortable gray frame house in Hilton. Except for that very good visit with them at Easter, she’d scarcely seen her family for months. Why had she chosen to spend the summer away from them?

Cherry felt a pang of homesickness.

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CHERRY AMES, CAMP NURSE

“Why, I’m as bad as any other new camper,” Cherry thought. That reminded her of Sue’s earlier remark.

“Sue, didn’t you say there’s a new girl in your cabin this summer? Where’s Katy?”

There was a brief silence. Then Sue said politely that perhaps Katy would decide to join them later.

“Is she in hiding? Nothing criminal, I hope,” Cherry teased.

Sue was fl ustered. She picked up a newspaper.

“Speaking of criminals, Miss Cherry, and we were, before—would you please look at this article?” Lil Baker, one of the counselors, called to Cherry,

“Don’t let my girls pester you with that newspaper story. They’re mad for mysteries.”

“So am I,” said Cherry. “Let’s see what’s so interesting.” As Sue handed her the newspaper, Cherry asked,

“What’s so special here?”

“Well, the man they suspect did it—” Sue hesitated.

“A few people think they’ve seen him passing through the towns near our camp.”

“A mystery on our own doorstep!” Cherry exclaimed.

“Could be. Please hurry up and read it, Miss Cherry,” she said, pointing to a headline: NEW CLUE IN NEW YORK LOAN COMPANY ROBBERY

As she read the news article Cherry noticed that the twins wandered away, and then Mary Alice murmured,

“Excuse me,” and left. Presently Ding scampered off,
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but Sue waited doggedly beside Cherry. So it was Sue who was the mystery hound.

“What do you think?” Sue asked.

“Let me fi nish the whole article fi rst.” The case was one Cherry had read about, but now an unexpected new angle had cropped up. Two weeks ago a lone man had robbed a loan company in New York City. He had entered unobtrusively late on a rainy Friday afternoon when the loan company offi ce was crowded.

He must have known that Friday the fourteenth (the date nearest the fi fteenth) was the semimonthly date on which people came to pay off their loans—a day when a great deal of cash was being received in the loan offi ce.

The man must also have known intimately the layout of the big offi ce, and where the employees would be busy at that hour. For he had boldly walked down a private corridor and into a deserted inside room which held the company’s safe. No one saw him, no one stopped him, since the employees were occupied in the front offi ce with clients. From the safe the man took a large sum of cash. It was only on his way out of the inside room, as he was going down the corridor, that two women employees noticed a man wearing a raincoat and a hat pulled low over his face. But when they tried to stop him—for this area was for employees only—the man pulled a gun.

“Great balls of fi re!” he had said, according to the women’s report, “Get in that door and keep still!” He had pushed them into a washroom, keeping them covered, locked it, and then apparently had made his 194

CHERRY AMES, CAMP NURSE

way through the crowded outer offi ce into the street—

just another man in slouch hat and raincoat whom no one had noticed.

The curious thing was that both women had described the man as
faceless.
They had been able to see a little beneath the pulled-down hatbrim, but the face had been smoothly, horribly featureless. He was slightly below medium height, they reported, but otherwise the bulky, free-swinging raincoat hid his fi gure completely. The only identifying mark was the man’s use of the phrase, “Great balls of fi re!” What was so provoking about the case, Cherry thought, was that the loan company would release no information about
how
the man had gotten into the safe, nor would they speculate on the possibility of an inside job. But now, a reporter had extracted from the loan company the fact that one of its cashiers was a man below average height who frequently used the phrase, “Great balls of fi re!” The man’s name was Jack Waldron, he was twenty-eight years old, and he had left for his vacation just a few days before the robbery took place.

“It would have been easy enough for him to come back to the offi ce, disguised, like that, and take the money,” Sue said. She had been watching the place where Cherry was reading.