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diff --git a/20870.txt b/20870.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b8e725d --- /dev/null +++ b/20870.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6982 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Motor Girls Through New England, by +Margaret Penrose + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Motor Girls Through New England + or, Held by the Gypsies + + +Author: Margaret Penrose + + + +Release Date: March 22, 2007 [eBook #20870] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MOTOR GIRLS THROUGH NEW +ENGLAND*** + + +E-text prepared by Al Haines + + + +THE MOTOR GIRLS THROUGH NEW ENGLAND + +Or + +Held by the Gypsies + +by + +MARGARET PENROSE + + + + + + + +The Goldsmith Publishing Co. +New York, N.Y. + +Copyright, 1911, by +Cupples & Leon Company + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER + + I THE SHADOW + II STRIKE OF THE LEADING LADY + III A MISHAP + IV TO THE RESCUE + V FRIEND OR FOE + VI A THIEF IN THE NIGHT + VII THE SEARCH + VIII THE BEGINNING OF THE END + IX THE START + X AN EXPLOSION + XI THE RESULT OF A BLAZE + XII QUEER COBBLERS + XIII A DELAY AND A SCARE + XIV THE MIDNIGHT TOW + XV THE GIPSY'S WARNING + XVI THE DISAPPEARANCE + XVII MISSING + XVIII KIDNAPPED + XIX THE DEN OF THE GYPSY QUEEN + XX CORA AND HELKA + XXI MOTHER HULL + XXII SADDENED HEARTS + XXIII ANOTHER STORY + XXIV THE COLLAPSE + XXV THE AWAKENING + XXVI SURPRISES + XXVII THE CALL OF THE HEART + XXVIII VICTORY + XXIX A REAL LOVE FEAST + + + + +THE MOTOR GIRLS THROUGH NEW ENGLAND + + +CHAPTER I + +THE SHADOW + +"Look, girls! There's a man!" + +"Where?" + +"Just creeping under the dining-room window!" + +"What can he want--looks suspicious!" + +"Oh, I'm afraid to go in!" + +"Hush! We won't go in just now!" + +"If only the boys were here!" + +"Well, don't cry--they will be here soon." + +"See! He's getting under the fence! There he goes!" + +"Did you get a look at him?" + +"Yes, a good look. I'll know him next time." + +Bess, Belle and Cora were holding this whispered conversation. It was +Belle, the timid, who wanted to cry, and it was Cora who had really +seen the man--got the good look. Bess did say she wished the boys were +around, but Bess had great confidence in those boys, and this remark, +when a man was actually sneaking around Clover Cottage, was perfectly +pardonable. + +The motor girls had just returned from a delightful afternoon ride +along the shore road at Lookout Beach. Bess and Belle Robinson, +otherwise Elizabeth and Isabel, the twins, were in their little +car--the _Flyaway_--and Cora Kimball was driving her fine, +four-cylinder touring affair, both machines having just pulled up in +front of Clover Cottage, the summer home of the Robinsons. + +"Did the boys say they would come directly from the post-office?" asked +Belle, as she eyed the back fence suspiciously. + +"Yes, they had to drop some mail in the box. We won't attempt to go in +until they come. At any rate, I have a little something to do to the +_Whirlwind_," and Cora pulled off her gloves, and started to get a +wrench out of the tool box. + +"I'll get busy, too," declared Bess. "It will look better in case our +friend happens to come around the corner." + +"No danger," and Cora glanced up from the tool box. "I fancy that +gentleman is not of the type that runs into facts." + +"Do you think he is a burglar?" asked Belle. + +"Well, I wouldn't say just that. But he certainly is not +straightforward. And that is a bad sign," replied Cora. + +"And not a person in the house to help us," sighed Belle. "Oh, I don't +see why mamma----" + +"Now, Belle Robinson!" interrupted her sister. "You know perfectly +well that mamma had to take Nellie and Rose over to Drifton. They have +to get ready for school." + +"Mamma fusses a lot over those two girls," continued Belle. "It seems +to me a lucky thing they happened to run away--our way." + +This remark was lost upon Bess and Cora. Bess was intent upon +something--nothing definite--about the _Flyaway_, while Cora was +working assiduously trying to adjust a leaky valve. + +The prospect of dark coming on with no one but themselves about the +cottage, and the late appearance of the strange man, kept each one busy +thinking. Presently Belle exclaimed: + +"Oh, here come the boys!" and without waiting for the young men to turn +the corner, which marked the end of the Clover Cottage grounds, she ran +along with the news. + +Jack Kimball, Cora's brother, Walter Pennington, his chum, and Ed +Foster, the friend of both, sauntered along. + +"I suppose Belle will say we had a bandit," remarked Cora, with a +laugh, "but to tell the truth, Bess, I did not like the fellow's +looks." She closed the engine bonnet and hurried to the sidewalk. + +"Neither did I," replied Bess, "but it never does to let Belle know how +we feel. She is so nervous!" + +"I'm glad the boys are here," finished Cora. + +"Oh, I'm always glad when they are here," confessed Bess, stepping up +beside Cora, as the two waited for Belle and the young men to come up +the gravel walk. + +"Hello, there!" saluted Jack. "More haunted house?" + +"No, only more haunts," replied Cora. "Guess he didn't like the style +of the house." + +"Oh, you girls are too fussy," said Ed. "Seems to me if I were a young +lady, and saw a young chap hanging under my window, I'd be sort of +flattered." + +"We prefer the hanging done in the open," exclaimed Bess. "Besides, he +didn't hang--he sneaked." + +"He crawled," declared Belle. + +"No, I distinctly saw him creep," corrected Cora. + +"Mere baby, evidently," hazarded Walter. + +"Well, I suppose he was after----" + +"Grub," interrupted Jack. "The creeping, crawling, sneaking kind +invariably want grub. It was a shame to let him go off hungry." + +They all took seats upon the broad piazza, after the boys, by a casual +look, were satisfied that no intruder was about the grounds. Belle +kept close to Ed--he was the largest of the young men--but Cora and +Bess showed no signs of fear. + +"Let's tell you about it," began Bess. + +"Let's," agreed Walter. + +"Then listen," ordered the young lady with the very rosy cheeks. + +"Listen while they let's," teased Jack. + +"I won't say one word," declared Bess; "not if the fellow comes down +the chimney----" + +Every one laughed. Bess had such a ridiculous way of getting angry. + +"No joking," went on Cora, "when we came up the road we did see a +fellow sneaking around the cottage. I'm not exactly afraid, ahem! but +I may as well admit that I am glad you boys appeared just now, and I +hope the interloper caught a glimpse, ahem! of your manly forms." + +The three boys jumped up as if some one had touched a spring. Ed was +taller, Walter was stouter and Jack was--well, he was quicker. Bess +noticed that, and did not hesitate to say so in making her special +report of the trio. + +"At any rate," ventured Ed, "we are much obliged, Cora. It's awfully +nice of you to notice us." + +"Suppose we take a look through the house," suggested Cora. "Not that +I think anything is wrong. You know, girls are never really afraid----" + +"Oh, no! they are only afraid of being afraid," interrupted Walter. +"Well, come along. And, since Ed is the biggest, let him lead!" + +The incident merely furnished sport for the boys. A burglar hunt was +no uncommon thing at Clover Cottage, and this one was no more promising +that had been a dozen others. Belle did not venture in with the +searching party. She had her fears, as usual. Cora by reputation was +not timid, and she had that reputation to maintain just now. As a +matter of fact, she knew perfectly well that the man who took the +trouble to crawl around the house had some sinister motive in doing so. +Bess had not really seen him do it, so when she went in, along with the +boys, she had scarcely any fear of running down either a sneak thief or +a tramp, both varieties of undesirable citizens being common enough at +the watering place. + +It did not strike Cora Kimball just then that she had a particular part +to play in the impending drama which was to involve herself and her +friends. In the first volume of the series, entitled "The Motor +Girls," Cora found it her duty to unravel the mystery of the road, when +a wallet, empty, but which should have contained a small fortune in +bonds, was actually found in the tool box of her own car. Then in the +next volume, "The Motor Girls on a Tour," Cora again had the lines of +the leading lady, for it fell to her lot to "keep the promise" that +restored little Wren, the cripple, to her own, both in money and in +health. In the third book of the series, "The Motor Girls at Lookout +Beach," it was Cora again who had to unearth the mystery, and now---- + +She smiled as she followed Ed into the big pantry. + +"You girls and boys seem to count me a star," she said pleasantly. +"Ever since we were organized you have been keeping me in----" + +"The spotlight," finished Ed, with an unmistakable smile. "Well, Cora, +we will try to let you down easy this time. Here, Bess, you poke your +nose in the cubby hole and see if you see anything." + +"Oh!" screamed Bess, "I'll do nothing of the sort. Let Cora." + +"Why?" asked Cora. + +"Because--you're never the least bit afraid," stammered Bess. + +"Thanks," said Cora, without hesitation thrusting her head into the +aperture through which dishes were passed. "Ouch!" she exclaimed, +hastily withdrawing with her hand on her nose. + +"What's the matter?" asked Ed. "Did you bump into something?" + +"Yes," replied Cora, looking straight into the eyes of Bess. "I just +bumped into--a fact." + +Then she and her brother walked into another room, leaving their +friends to discuss the happening and follow at their leisure. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +STRIKE OF THE "LEADING LADY" + +"Exactly what did you mean, Cora?" + +"You know perfectly well, Jack." + +"No, really, I did not know what you--bumped into. Did you hurt your +nose?" + +"Not the least bit, my dear brother. And the real bump--the fact, you +know--was that I just discovered how much these two little girls depend +upon me. Bess said I was never the least bit afraid----" + +"And are you?" + +"Perhaps. At any rate, I didn't like the looks of that man, Jack. I +don't intend the girls shall know it, but I was just the least bit +afraid to come in the house. Who do you suppose he might be?" + +"Why, Cora!" and Jack looked his surprise. "What's up? Are you going +to strike?" + +"Don't you believe me, Jack, that I was afraid?" + +"It is not like you. But I suppose there was something----" + +"Well, Jack, even a leading lady may get tired. I am going to try to +do a little less of the leading." + +"Angry with the girls?" + +"Why, bless you, no. Why should I be? Aren't they the +dearest--babies. But you boys----" + +"Oh, mad at us! Cora Kimball!" and her brother threatened to injure +his beauty on the matting rug. "If I had only the least idea that you +didn't like us, I would have packed the whole crowd off to the +bungalow." + +"Still you insist upon misunderstanding me. Well, I may as well give +up, Jack. Let us talk about something else." + +"I might make another mistake. But I would like to tell you what some +of the boys said about the dance last night. They were just raving +about you. Did you like Porter?" + +"The boy with a smile? Yes, I did. I don't know when I saw a young +man so real. You know, Jack, with all due respect to boys hovering +around twenty, they usually display too much--hover." + +"Chumpy, you mean." + +"If the word were a little less--aspirated. Girls might say--crude." + +"Real nice of the girls. But Porter asked me if I'd bring him around." + +"Why not? Bess had a splendid time with him." + +"But he spoke of you, Cora. And he's a great fellow at college." + +"By all means cultivate the great," replied Cora. "But here come the +others. Ask them." + +"Striking again, Cora. All right. If Porter wants to take Bess to the +games----" + +"He's welcome. I have already promised Ed." + +It was an hour after the strange-man scare, and the Robinson girls had +finally been convinced that there were no miscreants lurking anywhere +about the place. The excitement had made Bess prettier in the deep, +red flush that overspread her face, and Belle, the pale, dainty blonde, +had actually taken on a tint herself. Cora had the color that comes +and stays, and only her deep brown eyes seemed brighter after the hunt +had been declared "off." + +"If mother were only home," sighed Belle. + +"Thank goodness, she is not," put in Bess. "Bad enough to hunt +burglars without consoling mamma." + +"Are you girls going to stay alone to-night?" asked Ed suddenly. + +"Oh, no, indeed! We expect Nettie back from the city. Never was there +a girl like Nettie for scaring away scares," replied Bess. + +"But suppose she does not come?" spoke Jack. "Don't you think it might +be well----" + +"To hire a special officer? No, thank you," answered Cora. "We are +not the least bit afraid. Besides, we have a gun." + +"The dearest little revolver," went on Bess. "Father got it specially +for mamma, and she won't even look at it, so it's mine." + +"Yes, and you most scared Nettie to death with it," interrupted the +twin sister. "What do you think, boys? Nettie wouldn't touch the +thing, and actually took a dustpan and a brush and scooped the weapon +up from under Bess's pillow. Wasn't that dangerous?" + +"And dumped it in the bureau drawer," added Cora, with a laugh. +"Better let me take charge of that, Bess. I won't take chances with +Nettie scooping it up while I'm here." + +"Very well, Cora. You may take charge of it. Father suggested it was +not a bad thing to have along when we take lonely runs. But, of +course, I should never dare to fire it even to scare a tramp." + +"Say, are you girls going to stay here all summer?" asked Walter. "I +thought you had planned for a tour somewhere." + +"We have. We are going to tour in our cars through New England," +answered Cora. "First, we are going to the Berkshires, then we may go +to the White Mountains. Of course, we are not going to let our cars +get rusty around here." + +"No, indeed," put in Bess. "We are only waiting to arrange about our +chaperon. Isn't it dreadful to be a girl, and have to be toted around +under some maternal wing?" + +"Well, no. I shouldn't exactly think it dreadful to be a girl," and +Jack made a funny face; "that is, a real nice twin girl, with rosy eyes +and blue cheeks----" + +"Jack!" + +"But I was just going to say," went on that young man, "that the toting +around might be inconvenient--at times." + +"Couldn't a fellow or two do the toting?" asked Walter the innocent. + +"That's just exactly the trouble. If we were perfectly sure we would +not meet a fellow or two," replied Belle, making a very pretty mouth at +Walter, "there would be no need of the toting." + +"Then don't meet them--take them along. I'll go." + +"Me, too," added Ed. + +"Me, three," multiplied Jack. + +"We fully expected you all to come," drawled Cora coolly. + +"Oh, you did? Isn't that nice! They fully expected us all to come, +and never told us a word about it. Now, that's what I call real cozy, +and real----" + +"Jack," interrupted Cora, "have we ever had a long trip entirely +without you?" + +"Seems to me you did have one or two--rather disastrous they were, too, +if I remember aright. But we caught up. Now this time you are really +going to allow us to go in the line, eh?" + +"Just to wind up the season," Cora reminded him. + +"Oh, sort of a winder. Well, it's all right, Cora. I hope we can fix +it to go. When do we start, if a fellow might make bold to ask? You +see, my car is in the shop. Walter has loaned his to some one up the +State. But a little thing like that doesn't matter when the girls say +we shall go----" + +"If we have to walk," finished Ed. + +"We did plan to leave as soon as mamma could arrange about a friend of +hers to accompany us," said Bess, with a sigh. "We hoped she would +know when she came back to-morrow." + +"Well, I'm going to take my car down to the garage," remarked Cora, +getting up from the porch swing. "We can talk of the trip after tea. +And we have also decided to ask you poor, starved bungalofers to tea. +Have you had any since you went to housekeeping?" + +"Ed _said_ it was tea," replied Jack, "but I think it was stove polish +thinned out. We didn't really enjoy it. Now, that's awfully nice. To +stay to tea! Bess, may I take your car in for you?" + +"If you would, Jack. I am lazy after the sunny ride. Seems to me the +sun never goes down at the beach." + +Ed had not asked permission to run Cora's car down the street for her, +but he was now cranking up, while Walter deliberately took his place at +the wheel. + +"Let the 'chiffonier' do the work," said Walter, with a laugh. "He +loves work." + +Cora stepped lightly into the tonneau of her handsome machine, and Ed +followed. "To the Imperial!" he shouted into Walter's ear, "and see +that you get there, man!" + +So the tables were turned, and Walter was "doing the work." As there +was nothing left to do, Walter threw in the gear lever and let in the +clutch, while Cora, laughing at the trick, settled herself comfortably +at the side of Ed. The _Whirlwind_ skimmed along the avenue, first +down to the post office and later fetched up at the garage. Bess and +Jack, with Belle, followed, and as the little party glided along +through the sea-side town, many admiring glances were cast in their +direction. + +"If Nettie does not come," remarked Ed, "are you sure, Cora, you won't +be the least bit afraid alone at the cottage?" + +"Why, no. There is a telephone wire over to the hotel, and, besides, +I'm going to cock the little ivory pistol before I go to bed. A sneak +thief always runs at the very sound of a pistol." + +"Well, I hope you will have no occasion to fire," replied Ed, "but, if +you do, fire from the south window, and we will hear you." + +"And run all the way up the beach?" Cora told him, laughing at the +possibility. "Why, there is always an officer on the pier, and he will +be only too glad to have a run--he needs it." + +"You have it all planned?" + +"No, how silly! I was only thinking that in a real emergency it is +well to be ready." + +"I guess you won't have any trouble. Here, man," to Walter, "don't you +know better than to drive the lady into the barn?" + +But Walter paid no heed, and before the car stopped it was properly +stalled in the very end of the big stone garage. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +A MISHAP + +"The tea was just right," declared Ed, "and I can't see why you will +not consent to let us entertain you for the remainder of the evening. +Just because the maid has not come down is surely no reason why you +should lose such a fine evening's sport." + +"But we never leave the house entirely alone after dark," protested +Belle vaguely. + +"Lucky house," put in Jack. "But I don't believe the cottage would +mind it the least bit, would you?" and he put his ear to the wall. +"No, it says to go ahead. Yes? What's that? Delighted? Of course, I +knew it would be. Nice Clover," and he patted the plain, white wall. +"Of course, you want the girls to go out with us in that dandy little +launch. I knew it! Now, girls, get ready. It is time to start." + +"And no chaper--" they all protested. + +"Quit!" shouted Walter. "I have it on good authority that when a +girl's brother is along, and when there are twins in the same party, +and when there are two fellows, near twins, in aforesaid same party, +that makes a cross-finger combination on the chaperon. She doesn't +have to come along." + +Walter was looking his very best, which was always good, for the brown +boy was now browner than ever, with the tan of beach sand and sun. +Bess wore a most becoming linen gown, with just a rim of embroidered +pink around her plump neck, and she, too, looked charming. Then +Belle--Belle always wore dainty things, she was so perfectly blonde and +so bisquelike. Her gown was of the simplest silvery stuff that Jack +described as cloudy. Cora, after her auto trip of the afternoon, had +"freshed up" in dazzling white. She loved contrast, and invariably, +after driving, would don something directly opposite to that required +for motoring. Her dark hair looked blacker than usual against the +fleecy white, and her face was strictly handsome. Cora Kimball had +grown from pretty to handsome just as naturally as a bud unfolds into a +flower, with the attending dignity. + +"If Cora thinks it's all right," weakened Bess. + +"I don't see why we shouldn't go," replied Cora, "especially as the +boys cannot have the launch for another evening. But I suppose that +would mean a second change of dress," with a look at the flimsy +costumes about her. + +"Why?" asked Jack. + +"These--in the evening on the water?" + +"Why not? Wear shawls or something----" + +"Yes," assented Belle. "It is all right to be dressed up in a launch +when we don't have to motor the boat." + +"Oh, I'll attend to the motoring," promised Ed. "I am the fellow who +borrowed the boat." + +"Has Nettie a key?" asked Cora. + +"I guess so," replied Bess. "We can leave the cellar window----" + +"We can do nothing of the sort, Bess Robinson," interrupted Belle, "and +have that man sneak in? I guess not!" + +"Oh, your man!" protested Jack. "Haven't you forgotten him yet? +That's what I call faithful." + +"Well, at any rate, I am sure Nettie has her key," finished Bess. "And +there is only one more train. If she does not come----" + +"I'll sleep in the hammock on the porch," volunteered Jack. "It would +be heaps better than melting in the bungalow to-night." + +"I thought that bungalow was perfection," remarked Belle. + +"It is--on the catalogue. But after a day's sun like to-day we just +put our ham and eggs on the corrugated iron roof, and they are done to +a turn in the morning, with nice little ridge patterns on them." + +"If we are going sailing, we'd better be at it," Walter reminded them. +Whereat the girls ran off to get wraps, and shortly returned ready for +the trip. + +Nor were the wraps lacking in beauty or usefulness. Cora had a family +shawl--the kind that defies description outside of the French-English +fashion papers. It was of the Paisley order, and did not seem to be +cut any place; at the same time it fell in folds about her arms and +neck with some invisible fastenings. Her hood was made from a piece of +the same wonderfully embroidered stuff--a big red star, with the points +drawn in. Bess and Belle both wore pretty cloaks of eiderdown. Bess +was in pink and Belle in blue. + +"Take your guitar, Cora," suggested Ed. "We will have some singing." + +"And you can play that piece--what is it? 'Love's Hankering?'" asked +Jack. + +"'Love's Triumph,'" corrected Bess, "and it's the prettiest piece out +this summer. Cora plays it beautifully." + +"It is pretty," confirmed Belle. + +"Yes, I like it," admitted Cora. "As long as you are bent on a +romantic evening, we may as well have the little love song," and she +slipped the strap of her guitar case over her arm as they started off. + +Jack took his banjo. He, too, liked the new summer "hit;" in fact, +every one was whistling it as well as they could, but it took tuned +strings to give it the correct interpretation. + +It was delightful on the water. The smaller bay opened into another +and provided safe motor boating. The tide was slowly receding, and as +the party glided along, little moonlight-tipped waves seemed to caress +the launch. Jack and Cora were playing, Bess and Belle were humming, +while Walter was "breathing sounds" that could scarcely be classified, +and Ed was content to run the motor. + +"Now, isn't that pretty?" asked Belle of Ed, as Cora and Jack finished +the popular piece. + +"Very catchy," replied the young man. + +"But Cora has given it a twist of her own," said Jack; "the end goes +this way," and he correctly played a few bars, "while Cora likes it +thusly," and he played a strain or two more in different style. + +Was it the moonlight on the baby waves? was it the murmur of that +gliding boat? or was it something indefinable that so awakened the +sentiments of the party of gay motorists? + +For some moments no one spoke; then Jack broke the spell with a lively +fandango, played in solo. + +"This seems too good to last," prophesied Belle, with a sigh, "Do you +think it was all right to leave the cottage alone?" + +"Now, Tinkle," and Walter moved as if to take her hand, "haven't we +assured you that the cottage expressly desired to be left alone +to-night, and that we fellows wanted your company?" + +It was a pretty speech for Walter, and was not lost on the sensitive +Belle. + +"How about sand bars, Ed?" asked Jack. "Might we run onto one?" + +"We might, but I guess I could feel one coming. The tide is getting +away. We had better veer toward the shore." + +"Oh! is there danger?" asked Belle, immediately alarmed. + +"Not much," replied Ed, "but we wouldn't like to walk home from this +point." He was twisting the wheel so that the launch almost turned. +Then a sound like something grating startled them. + +"Bottom!" exclaimed Jack, jumping up and going toward the wheel. "That +was ground, Ed!" + +"Sounded a lot like it, but we can push off. Get that oar there, +Walter; get the other and----" + +The launch gave a jerk and then stopped! + +"Oh! what is it?" asked Bess and Belle in one voice. + +"Nothing serious," Cora assured them. "You see, the tide has gone out +so quickly that it has left us on a sand bar. I guess the boys can +push off. They know how to handle oars." + +But this time even skillful handling of oars would not move the launch. +Ed ran the motor at full speed ahead and reversed, but the boat +remained on the bar, which now, as the tide rapidly lowered, could be +plainly seen in the moonlight. + +"What next?" asked Cora coolly. + +"Hard to say," replied Ed, in rather a mournful tone. "If we had gone +down the bay, we would not have been alone, but I thought this upper +end so much more attractive to-night. However, we need not despair. +We can wait for the tide." + +"Till morning!" almost shouted Belle. + +"It's due at three-thirty," announced the imperturbable Walter. + +"Oh! what shall we do?" wailed Bess. + +"We might walk," suggested Cora. "It isn't very far to that shore, and +it's shallow." + +"Mercy, no!" exclaimed Belle. "There are all sorts of holes in the mud +here. I would stay forever before I would try walking." + +Cora laughed. She had no idea of being taken seriously. + +"Now, you see," said Walter, "my wisdom in curtailing the chaperon. +Just imagine her now," and he rolled laughingly over toward Jack. + +"Easy there! No need for artificial respiration or barrel-rolling just +yet," declared Jack. "In fact, if we had a bit of water, we'd be +thankful. Let me work the engine, Ed. Maybe I can give luck a turn +and get more push out of it." + +Ed left his place, and Jack took it, but the sand bar held the little +launch like adamant, and it seemed useless to exert the gasoline power +further. + +"Suppose we have the little ditty again," suggested Ed, taking a seat +near Cora. "What was it? 'Love's Latitude?'" + +"No, 'Love's Luxury,'" asserted Walter, as he made a comical move +toward Belle. But Belle was disconsolate, and she only looked at the +moon. It was almost funny, but the humor was entirely lost on the +frightened girl. + +"When in doubt play 'The Gypsy's Warning,'" suggested Cora, picking up +her guitar. "There is something bewitching about that tune." + +"See if we can bewitch a wave or two with it," remarked Jack. "That +would fetch us in a little nearer to shore." + +But the situation was becoming more serious each moment. There they +were--high though not exactly dry upon a big sand bar! Not a craft was +in sight, and none within call! + +"If we only could trust the bottom, we fellows might get out and push +her off," suggested Walter, "but it wouldn't be nice to get right in +the line with Davy Jones' locker." + +"Oh, please don't do that," begged Bess. "It will be better to stay +safely here and wait for the tide than to take any chance of losing----" + +"Wallie. Sometimes he's Walter, but when it comes to the possibility +of our losing him, he's Wallie," declared Jack, clasping his arms +around the other boy's neck. "Starboard watch ahoy!" + +"Right about face, forward march!" called Walter ridiculously. + +"That's not the same set," corrected Jack. "This was another kind of a +watch--stem winder." + +The jollying of the boys kept the girls from actually feeling the +seriousness of their plight. But to wait until morning for the tide! + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +TO THE RESCUE + +"Don't tell the girls, but I am going to swim ashore," whispered Walter +to Jack. "A nice fix we would be in if Mrs. Robinson came home and +found the girls missing." + +"Swim ashore!" repeated Jack in surprise. "Why, Walter, it's a mile!" + +"Can't help it. I can do it, and I see a light directly opposite here. +You give Ed the tip to keep the girls busy, while you stay back here +with me. I'll be overboard in no time." + +Jack tried to persuade his friend not to take the risk, but Walter was +determined; so, unobservedly divesting himself of his heaviest +garments, he dropped over the side of the launch and was soon stroking +for the shore. + +For some time the girls did not miss him, but Belle, keen to scent +danger, abruptly asked if Walter had fallen asleep. + +"Yes," drawled Jack, "he is the laziest fellow." + +Cora pinched Jack's arm, and he in return gave her two firm +impressions. She instantly knew that something was going on, and did +her best to divert Belle's attention from it. + +"But where--is--he!" exclaimed Belle, for her gaze had traveled to the +end of the launch and back again without seeing Walter. "He--is gone!" + +Realizing that the young man was actually not aboard the boat, she sank +down in abject terror, ready to cry. + +"Don't take on so," said Ed. "He is all right. He has gone ashore to +get help." + +"Gone ashore!" exclaimed both Belle and Bess in a breath. + +"Girls, do you imagine we would sit here calmly and try to quiet you if +there was anything actually wrong?" asked Cora. "Why don't you give +the boys credit, once in a while, for having a little common sense?" + +Looking across the water, the movement of the swimming youth could be +seen, where the moonlight reflected on the waves. + +"Oh, I am so frightened!" exclaimed Belle. "I felt that something +would happen!" + +"Something always does happen when it is expected," Cora told her, "but +let us hope it will be nothing worse than what we already are conscious +of. It was splendid of Walter to go, and I am sure he will return +safely." + +"He's a first-rate swimmer," declared Ed, looking anxiously at the +little rippling motion that marked Walter's progress. "He can easily +go a mile." + +Then quiet settled upon the party. It was, indeed, a gloomy prospect. +Stranded--Walter swimming in the bay--and nothing but sky above and +water beyond them, just far enough away to be out of the reach of the +launch. + +All the thoughts of the young folks seemed to follow Walter. Belle hid +her face in her hands, Bess clung to Cora, and the two young men +watched the progress of the swimmer. + +It seemed hours when, suddenly, a movement in the water, not far from +them both, was noticed by Bess. + +"Oh! what is that?" she called. "Can it be----" + +"Oh, it's Walter!" shrieked Belle, clasping her hands. + +"It can't be!" answered Ed, at the some moment raising a lantern above +his head to see, if possible, what was making the splash in the water. + +"It's as big--as--a----," began Belle. + +"Horse!" finished Cora. "I saw a head just then." + +"Oh, it's a whale!" cried Bess, actually dropping into the bottom of +the boat as if to hide from the monster. + +"And he may have eaten Walter!" wailed Belle. + +"Girls!" commanded Cora. "Do try not to be so foolish. There are no +whales in this bay." But all the same her voice was unsteady, and she +would have given worlds for a reassuring shout from Walter. + +Another splash! + +"There he goes! It's a porpoise!" cried Jack. "No danger of one of +those hog-fish going near a man. They're as timid as mice. Just see +him go! There ought to be a lot of others, for they generally go in +schools. Maybe this one was kept in because he couldn't spell 'book,' +and is just getting home." + +Cora breathed a sigh of relief at Jack's joking tone. She didn't care +to see the big fish swim--she was only too glad that he was going, and +that he was of the harmless species described by Jack. The others +watched the porpoise as he made his way out to the open sea. + +"My, I'll bet Walter was frightened if he met that fellow," said Ed. +"I wish he hadn't gone," he whispered to Jack a moment later. + +"He said he would fire a pistol when he got to shore. He took a little +one with him, and it's waterproof. Let's listen." + +As if the magical words had gone by wireless, at that very moment a +shot was heard! + +"There! He's safe! That was his signal!" cried Jack, and Cora said +afterwards that he hugged Belle, although the youth declared it was his +own sister whom he had embraced. + +"Now, we will only have to wait and not worry," Ed remarked. "Over at +that light there must be human beings, and they must have boats. Boats +plus humans equal rescue." + +The relief from anxiety put the girls in better spirits. Bess and +Belle wondered if Nettie had returned, and speculated whether, on +finding them gone, she might have notified the police. Cora was +thinking about what sort of lifeboat Walter would return with, while Ed +and Jack were content to look and listen. + +A good hour passed, when a light could be seen moving about the beach. + +"They're coming, all right," declared Ed. "Watch that glimmer." + +The light moved first to the north, then in the other direction, until +finally it became steady and was heading straight for the party in +distress. + +"Wave your lantern," suggested Cora. "They may not be able to see it +as it stands." + +Ed stood on the seat and circled the light about his head. + +Breathlessly they stood there--waiting, wondering and watching. + +"I'm going to call," said Bess, at the same moment shouting, "Walter!" +at the top of her voice. + +"C-o-m-ing!" came the reply, and this time it was an open question +whether Bess hugged Ed or Jack. + +"Now we will be all right," breathed Belle. "Oh, I shall never want to +see a motor boat again! The _Flyaway_ is good enough for me." + +"Yes, I fancy a motor on the earth myself," Cora agreed, "but, of +course, a little experience like this adds to our general knowledge. I +hope Walter is all right." + +"Just hear him laugh," said Jack, as a chuckle came over the water. +"Likely he has struck up with some mermaid. It would be just Wallie's +luck." + +The merry voices that could now be heard were reassuring indeed. +Nearer and nearer they came, until the girls actually became interested +to the extent of arranging side combs and otherwise attending to little +niceties, dear to the heart of all girls. + +"It's a mermaid, sure," declared Jack. "I heard her giggle!" and he +grabbed out Cora's side comb to arrange his own hair. + +"Oh, it is--a girl," whispered Bess to Cora. "I heard her voice." + +"I hope she's nice," answered Cora, "but as long as we get some one to +pull us off we have no occasion to be particular." + +By this time the rowboat was almost alongside. + +"Hurrah!" shouted Jack. + +"Also hurray!" added Ed. + +"Walter, you're a brick!" exclaimed Cora fervently. + +The light of the lantern now fell upon the face of the stranger. + +The stranded ones looked upon the countenance of a girl, not perhaps a +very young girl, nor a very pretty girl, but her face was pleasant, and +she pulled a stroke as steady as did Walter. + +Walter stood up. He was enveloped in a bath robe! + + + + +CHAPTER V + +FRIEND OR FOE? + +When their launch pulled up to the dock that night, an anxious party +greeted them. Nettie had returned from the city, and upon finding the +cottage deserted had waited a reasonable length of time before +consulting the neighbors. Then she found that the young folks had gone +sailing. + +That settled it, for the waters of the bay are never considered too +reliable, and when the girls did not return by ten o'clock Nettie +locked up the cottage and set off for the beach. + +Of course, she learned that such a party had gone out, but in what +direction no one along the beach front seemed to know. The upper bay +course was the last thing thought of, and, when Nettie did succeed in +hiring a fisherman to set out and search, he went down the cove +opposite to the course taken by Ed in his motor boat. + +In half an hour the fisherman returned, and, as luck would have it, he +brought with him Walter's cap, which had fallen overboard as the youth +started out from the stalled motor boat, and so drifted in the other +direction. + +In the rapid time that bad news always flies, the report became +circulated that a sailing party was lost. Hazel and Paul Hastings, two +friends of the motor girls, heard the report at their cottage, and +hurried down to the little wharf, where they found Nettie in the +deepest distress. + +Just as Paul was about to set out himself, the launch chugged in, with +the party laughing and singing, Cora playing that same tune, and with +our friends was the little lady from the bungalow, she who had rescued +Walter, and who went with him to the succor of the stranded ones on the +sand bar. + +It was a wonderful evening, and when Cora, with Bess, Belle and Miss +Robbins, the new girl, stepped ashore, they evidently did not regret +the length of time spent upon the water. + +Miss Robbins, it developed, was a young doctor, stopping up the river +in a bungalow with her mother. Her boat was towed by the launch when +they came in, and, although she wanted to row back, the others would +not listen to such a proposition. + +"It won't take half an hour to get to the garage and bring my car right +down here," insisted Walter, "unless you prefer walking up to the +cottage with the young ladies, and I can run over there for you. I +will have you back in your bungalow in ten minutes more." + +Miss Robbins was one of those rare young women who always did what was +proposed for her, and she now promptly agreed to go to the cottage, and +there await Walter and his car. + +As they entered the little parlor Bess drew Cora aside and demanded: + +"How ever did Walter find out that she'd just love to go to the +Berkshires? And he wants to know if she is _homely_ enough to be our +chaperon," she added, with a laugh. + +"She is," replied Jack's sister promptly, and in a tone of voice +remarkably decisive for Cora, considering. + +"But she's nice," objected Bess. + +"Very," confirmed Cora, "and we should conform to the rules--homely, +experienced and wise." + +"She's a lot of those," went on Bess, who seemed taken with the idea of +going to the hills with Miss Robbins as chaperon. "Besides, I like +her." + +"That's a lot more," said Cora, with a laugh. "I like her, too. It +seems to me almost providential. We are going to the Berkshires, she +wants to go, we can't get a mother to take us, so a young doctor ought +to be the----" + +"Very thing," finished Bess, and she joined the others indoors. + +"But here is Walter back. How quickly he got around! Looks as if +Walter is very keen on time--this time," and the tooting of the auto +horn outside drew them to the door. + +"Walter's privilege," whispered Cora, just as Miss Robbins hurried to +the steps. + +"Isn't this splendid," said the stranger, with polite gratitude. + +"One would not mind getting shipwrecked often for an auto ride. And +such an evening! or night, I suppose it is now." + +"I'll go along," said Cora, realizing that she ought to do so. + +"Me, too," said Jack, thinking he should go with Cora. + +Bess and Belle would then be alone with Ed. Of course, Nettie was +about, and they might sit on the porch until the others returned. Jack +jumped in with Walter, while Cora and Miss Robbins took the second +seat. The car was not Walter's runabout, but a larger machine from the +garage. + +"I'll have to come down in the morning for my boat," said Miss Robbins. +"We've been living on soft clams lately, and I have to go out quite a +way to dig them." + +"Do you dig them?" asked Cora. + +"Of course, why not? It is muddy and dirty, but it's lots cheaper than +buying them, and then we are sure they are fresh." + +"I'll go up in the boat when I fetch the robe back," said Walter, who, +it was plain to be seen, liked the excuse to visit the bungalow on the +rocks. "What time do you clam?" + +"Well, I have to call at the fresh-air camp tomorrow. I'll be back +about eleven, and can then get some dug in time for lunch." + +"We are bungalowing," spoke Jack. "Why can't we clam, Wallie?" + +Walter poked his free elbow into Jack's ribs. + +"You can, of course, what's to prevent you," and he gave him such +another hard jab that Jack grabbed the elbow. "But I wouldn't start +tomorrow--it's unlucky to clam on Wednesday," finished Walter. + +The girls were too busy talking to notice the boys' conversation, if +the pokes and exclamations might be classified as such. + +"Don't you ever sink?" called back Jack to Miss Robbins. + +"Oh my, no! I can tell all the safe and unsafe places." And she +laughed merrily. + +"It is late for us to bring you home," said Cora. "I hope your mother +won't be frightened at your absence." + +"Oh, no, mother has absolute confidence in me," replied Miss Robbins. +"You see, mother and I are chums. We built the bungalow." + +"Built it?" echoed Cora. + +"Yes, indeed. You must come around in daylight and inspect it. +Poverty may not be a blessing, but it is a pace-setter." + +Walter felt this was the very kind of a girl he had dreamed of. She +might not be pretty, but when she tossed the bath robe out to him as he +was virtually washed up at her door, tossed it out while she ran to get +her own wraps to join him in the rescue, he felt instantly that this +girl was a "find." Then, when she spoke of going to the Berkshires, he +was further convinced, and now, when she told of building a +bungalow--what an acquisition such a woman would be! + +"Aren't you afraid in the bungalow--just you and your mother in this +lonely place?" asked Cora, as they drew up to the territory that +outlined a camping ground. + +"Well we never have been afraid," replied Miss Robbins, "as I am pretty +good with a revolver, but there seems to be some tramps around here +lately. One visited us this morning before breakfast, and mother +remarked he was not at all a pleasant sort of customer." + +"We had something like a similar call," said Cora, "only the man didn't +ring the bell--he crawled around the house." + +"Mercy! Why didn't the boys chase him?" + +"They did, but he was beyond chase when they arrived. That's the one +thing uncertain about boys--their presence when one wants them," and +Cora stepped out of the machine to allow Miss Robbins room to pass. + +"There's a light in the window," remarked Jack, as he, too, alighted +from the machine. + +"And there's mother! Mother, come out a minute," called Miss Robbins. +"I want to----" + +"Daughter!" exclaimed the woman at the little door. "I am almost +frightened to death. What happened? Where's your boat?" + +"Why! you frightened, mother? About me?" + +"Well, I suppose I should not have been," and the lady smiled as she +stepped within range of the auto lamps. "But that horrid tramp. He +came again!" + +"He did! How long ago?" + +"Just as you left. I cannot imagine why he should sneak around here at +this hour. He could not have wanted food." + +There was no time for introductions. The excitement of Mrs. Robbins +precluded any such formality. All talked just as if they had been well +acquainted. + +"We could tell the town officers," suggested Walter. "It is not safe +for women to be alone away up here." + +"He wanted to hire a boat, Regina," said the mother, "just as if he +could not get one handy at the pier." + +"Shall we hunt for you?" asked Jack. "We are professional burglar +hunters--do it 'most every evening." + +"Oh, thank you! but there are no hiding places about our shack. Either +you are in it or out of it, and in one way or the other one is bound to +be in evidence," said Miss Robbins, smiling frankly. + +"What did your visitor look like?" inquired Cora. + +"He was tall and dark and very stooped," replied Mrs. Robbins. +"Besides this, I noticed he wore boots with his trousers outside, as a +farmer or clammer wears them." + +"Oh!" said Cora simply. But she did not add that this description +tallied somewhat with that of the man she had seen about Clover +Cottage. She particularly saw the boots, but many clammers wear them +that way. + +"I fancy the girls will be timid to-night," Cora remarked, as they +started back to the cottage. + +"Yes, this has been what you might call a portentous evening," agreed +Walter, "and I do declare I think Miss Robbins is--well--nice, to put +it mildly." + +"Wallie," said Jack. "I will have an awful time with you, I can see +that. But you are young, boy, very young, and she is already a doctor, +so maybe there is hope--she may be able to cure you." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +A THIEF IN THE NIGHT + +"Hush!" + +"I heard it!" + +"Call Nettie!" + +"I would have to go out in the hall--the noise was somewhere near the +second stairs." + +"But I am so frightened--I shall die!" + +"No, you won't. Please be quiet! I have the little revolver!" + +Cora crept out of bed and left Belle trembling there. She only +advanced a few steps when the sounds in the hall again startled her. +The stairs certainly creaked. There was no cat, no dog. Some one was +walking on those steps. + +Cora realized that discretion was the better part of valor. It would +be foolhardy to run out in the hall, even with the cocked revolver in +her hand. If she could only touch the button of the electric hall +light! She stepped out cautiously. Something seemed very near, yet, +at that moment, there was no sound, just that feeling of some one near. + +She reached her arm out of the door, touched the button, and, in an +instant, had flooded the hall with light. + +As she did so she saw a man turn and run down the three steps near the +window, part way up the stairs. + +The window was open! Cora was too frightened to move for a moment, +then she raised her revolver, and the next instant the sound of a shot +rang through the house. + +The man dropped out of the window. + +Cora ran to it, looked down, saw the figure on the ground beneath, and +fired again, but not at the man. + +With a cry the fellow jumped up, and as he hurried away Cora saw that +he limped. She must have hit him! + +In all this time she could not give a word to the three frightened +girls who were screaming and shouting for help. Nettie had run down +from the third floor, Belle was threatening to die, and Bess was doing +her best to make the boys down at the bungalow hear her cries. + +"Did you kill him?" gasped Belle, when Cora finally returned to the +bedroom. + +"No, indeed, but I guess I hurt him a little. He limped off rather +unsteadily. I had no idea of hitting him, but just as I fired toward +the window he darted into it. I could not help it. He should have +surrendered." + +Cora was as pale as death. Her black hair fell in a cloud about her +shoulders. She sank into a chair and still held the smoking weapon. + +"Put that down!" commanded Nettie. + +"Not yet--he might come back," murmured Cora. "There is no reason for +you to fear, it is not cocked," and she held up the revolver to prove +her words. + +"Oh, do put it down!" begged Belle. + +"Seems to me you are more afraid of the revolver than of the burglar," +remarked Cora. "Do you realize that a man has just jumped out of the +window?" + +"Of course we do," wailed Bess, "but we don't want any more things to +happen, and it's always the perfectly safe, unloaded guns that shoot +people." + +"Oh, I'll put it away, if you feel so about it," and Cora stepped over +to the dresser as she spoke. "I really hope I have not hurt the man +very much!" + +"Couldn't have, when he was able to get away," declared Nettie. "But I +just wish you had! The idea of a mean man sneaking around here! +Likely he's taken the silver. I didn't bring it up last night!" + +"Well, that was not your fault, Nettie," Bess said. "We had so much +excitement last night you are not responsible. Besides, you wanted to +go down for it, and I said not to bother. But I hope he didn't take +grandma's spoons." + +"Let's go down and find out," suggested Cora. + +"Oh, mercy, no!" cried Belle, who all the time continued to shiver +under the bed clothes. "Let the old silver go--grandma's spoons and +all the rest. We may be thankful we are alive." + +"But the man is gone," declared Cora. "I saw him go." + +"Yes, but there might be another man down stairs. Who knows anything +about such persons or their doings?" + +"Again I'll agree, if it makes you feel better," replied Cora. "But, +you see, mother has been away so much, and Jack is always at college, +so that I am rather educated in this sort of thing," and as she glanced +at her watch on the dresser the other girls could not help admiring her +prudent courage. + +"What time is it?" asked Nettie. + +"The mystic hour--when we are supposed to be farthest from earth," +replied Cora. "Just two." + +"There is no use in trying to sleep any more," said Bess. "We might +better get up and dress." + +"And look like valentines in the morning! No, indeed, I am going to +bed," and Cora deliberately dropped herself down beside Belle. + +"Oh, Nettie will keep guard," said Bess, apparently disappointed that +Cora should give up her part of the "guarding." + +"Strange, the neighbors did not hear the shots," the maid said. "But +it is just as well. We might have had to entertain people more +troublesome than burglars. I'm going down stairs. I must look about +the spoons. Mrs. Robinson will be so angry----" + +"You will do nothing of the sort, Nettie!" commanded Belle, sitting +bolt upright. "I tell you we must all stick together until morning. I +won't consent to any one leaving the room!" + +Even Bess laughed, the order was so peremptory. Nettie fussed around +rather displeased. Finally she asked if the young ladies wanted +anything, and learning that they did not made her way upstairs. + +"If you are to stay in this room, Bess," said Cora, "please get some +place. I want to put out the light." + +"Oh, we must leave the light burning," insisted Belle. + +"Must we? Very well," and Cora drew a light coverlet over her eyes. +"Good night, or good morning, girls. Let me sleep while I may. Who +knows but the officers will be after me in the morning!" + +Bess dropped down upon the couch in the corner. Both twins had +unlimited confidence in Cora, and as the time wore on they both felt, +as she did, that there was no longer need for alarm. + +"She's actually asleep," said Belle quietly. + +"Good girl," replied Bess. "Wish I was. I hate to be awake." + +"But some one has to watch," said the sister. + +"What for?" + +"He might come back." + +"With a ball in his leg, or somewhere? Not much danger. Cora was +plucky, and we were lucky. There! a rhyme at this hour! Positively +dissipation!" + +"I am glad mother was not at home," whispered Belle. "Of course, that +was the man who has been sneaking around." + +"Likely." + +"Did Cora say so?" + +"No, not just so, but she said she saw him." + +"Do you suppose they will say anything about her shooting him?" (This +in a hissed whisper.) + +"Belle?" + +"What, dear?" + +"I must--go to--sleep!" + +"Then I must stay awake. Some one has to watch!" + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE SEARCH + +The spoons were gone! + +Nettie discovered this very early the next morning, for the truth was, +the maid did not return to sleep after the escape of the burglar from +the Robinson cottage. + +The fact that she had been intrusted with the care of the table silver, +during the absence of Mrs. Robinson, gave the girl grave anxiety, and, +although Bess was willing to say it was partly her fault that the +silver had not been brought upstairs that night, Nettie felt none the +less guilty. + +The boys, Ed and Jack, were around at the cottage before the tired +girls had a chance to collect themselves after breakfast. + +"We have got to make a quiet search first," said Jack, after hearing +the story. "No use putting the officers on until we get a look over +the neighborhood. From Cora's version of the affair he could not have +gone very far." + +This was considered good advice, and accordingly Jack went back to the +bungalow for Walter, so that all three chums might start out together. + +"Did you really get a look at him?" Ed asked Cora. + +"Not exactly a look," replied Cora, "but I noticed when he jumped up +into the window that he wore a beard--he looked almost like a wild man." + +"Naturally he would look to you that way, under the circumstances," +said Ed, "but what stumps me is how you expected him--how you had the +gun loaded and all that." + +"Well, didn't he prowl around the very first day we came in from +leaving mother at the train? He seemed to know we would be alone," +declared Belle. "I hope he is so badly hurt that he had to----" + +"Give up prowling," finished Cora. "Well, I hope he is not badly hurt. +It is not pleasant to feel that one has really injured another, even if +he be a bold, bad burglar." + +"Don't let that worry you," encouraged Ed. "I rather guess his legs +are used to balls and bullets. But here come the fellows. So long, +girls," as he started off to meet Walter and Jack. "If we don't get +the spoons we will get something." + +"Where are they going?" asked Bess. + +"Oh, I am so nervous and tired out this morning!" and Belle's white +face corroborated that statement. "I feel I will have to go back to +bed." + +"It's the best thing you can do," advised Cora, for, indeed, the +dainty, nervous Belle was easily overcome. "I might say, though, go +out on the porch and rest in the hammock. The air will help." + +Nettie was already searching and beating the ground from under the hall +window out into the field, and then into the street. She had found one +spoon, and she had also found a spot that showed where some one had +lately been lying in the tall grass. + +Cora joined her now, and the two came to the conclusion that the man +had rested there possibly to do something for the injured foot or leg. + +"It is well you found even one spoon," said Cora, bending low in the +bushes to make sure there were no more dropped there, "for that will +help in identifying the others." + +"But I do feel dreadfully," sighed Nettie. "I have been with Mrs. +Robinson so long, and nothing of the kind has ever before happened." + +"There has to be a first time," said Cora, "and I am sure Mrs. Robinson +will not blame you." + +"Only for you what might have happened," exclaimed the girl, looking +into Cora's flushed face. "I cannot see how you ever had the courage +to fire!" + +"I had to! Think of three helpless girls--and a desperate man. Why, +if I showed fright, I am sure we might have all been chloroformed or +something. Why, what's this? I declare! a chloroform bottle! There! +And it's from the town drug store! Well, now, wasn't it lucky I had +the revolver?" She picked up a small phial. + +"Don't tell Miss Bess or Miss Belle," cautioned Nettie. "They are so +nervous now, I think they would not stay in the house another night if +they knew about the bottle." + +"All right," agreed Cora, "but it will be well for the boys to know +about it. It shows that the man went to the Spray drug store, and that +he must belong about here some place." + +Meanwhile, Ed, Jack and Walter had done considerable searching. They +followed what they took to be a trail, down over the railroad tracks, +through swamps, and they finally brought up at an abandoned gypsy camp! + +"They left in a hurry," declared Ed. "See, they had a meal here last +night, at least." + +The remains of food and of a campfire showed that his surmise was +correct, and Jack made bold enough to pull down an old horse blanket +that hung to the ground from the low limbs of a tree. "Hello! Who are +you?" exclaimed Jack, for back of the improvised curtain lay a man +asleep! + +The other boys ran to the spot. + +"That's him," whispered Ed, ignoring his education. "Look at the +bandaged foot!" + +The man turned over and growled. He was not asleep, but pretended to +be, or wanted to be. + +"Here!" exclaimed Ed, giving him a shove, "wake up! We want those +spoons you borrowed last night!" + +The fellow pulled himself up on his arms and made a move as if to get +something in his pocket, but the boys were too many and too quick for +him. + +Ed and Walter had his arms secure before he had a chance to sit +upright. Jack whipped out a strap, and while the fellow vigorously +protested and exerted a desperate effort to free himself, the young men +made him their prisoner. + +"You stay here, and I will go for the officer," said Jack, having tied +fast the man's hands and noting that the sore foot would not permit of +any running away. + +"What do you want?" shouted the man. "If you don't let me go, I'll----" + +"Oh, no, you won't," interrupted Ed. + +"A nice chap to break in on a couple of girls! Even robbers should +have some honor," and Ed pushed the man back into the grass just to +relieve his feelings. + +"I didn't do no breaking in," said the fellow, turning in pain. "I got +kicked with a horse." + +"A little iron broncho," remarked Walter, with a smile. "Well, that +sort of kick stays a while. I guess you won't feel like running after +that horse. Did he run away?" + +The man looked as if he would like to strangle Walter, but he was +forced to lie there helpless. + +Jack had gone. The officer, after hearing the story, decided to ask +Cora to go to the swamp to identify the man. With this intention the +two stopped at the cottage, and Cora promised to hurry along after them +down to the abandoned camp. + +"I can't go this very minute," she said, "but I know the way. I will +follow directly." + +"No need to go into the woods," said the officer, on second thought. +"Just step down to the station house. We will have him there inside of +half an hour." + +This was agreed upon, and when Jack and the Constable had gone toward +the camp, Cora, without telling Bess or Belle, who did not happen to +see the man with Jack, slipped into a linen outing suit and started for +the country police station. + +The road led cross-cut through a lot. There were trees in the very +heart of this big meadow, and when Cora reached a clump of birches she +was suddenly startled to see an old woman shuffling after her. Cora +stopped instantly. It was broad daylight, so she had no thought of +fear. + +"What do you want?" she demanded of the woman, whom she saw was an old +gypsy. + +"I--want--you, young lady!" almost hissed the woman. "Do not get Salvo +into trouble!" and she raised a black and withered hand in warning, "or +trouble shall be upon your head!" + +"Salvo!" + +"Tony Salvo! Liza has spoken!" and the old gypsy turned away, after +giving Cora a look such as the young girl was not apt soon to forget. + +But Cora went straight on to the police station. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE BEGINNING OF THE END + +Cora was pale and frightened. Jack and Ed had already reached the +office of the country squire, where that official had taken the sulky +prisoner. Walter went back to the cottage to assure the young girls +there that everything would ultimately be all right. + +From under dark, shaggy eyebrows the man stared at Cora. He seemed to +know of the gypsy woman's threat, and was adding to it all the savagery +that looks and scowls could impart. But Cora was not to be thus +intimidated--to give in to such lawbreakers. + +"Do you recognize the prisoner?" asked the officer. + +"As well as I can tell from the opportunity I had of seeing him," +replied the girl, in a steadied voice. + +"What about him do you remember?" + +"The beard, and the fact that he is lame. I must have hit him when I +fired to give the alarm." + +The man looked up and smiled. "Humph!" he grunted, "fired--to +give--the alarm!" + +"Pretty good firing, eh?" demanded the squire. "Now, Miss Kimball, +please give us the whole story." + +Again the man cast that swift, fierce look at Cora, but her eyes were +diverted from him. + +"The first time I saw him--I think it was he--was one evening when we +were returning from a motor ride. I saw a man creeping around the +cottage. He had that peculiar stoop of the shoulders." + +"He's got that, all right," agreed the squire. + +"The next time I saw the person, whom I take to be this man, was last +night, about midnight. I was aroused from sleep, and upon making a +light in the hall I saw a man under the window. The next moment he +jumped out, and again I saw the figure under the window." + +Cora paused. Somehow she felt unreasonably nervous, but the strain of +the night's excitement might account for that. + +"What have you got to say for yourself, Tony?" asked the squire. + +"Not guilty," growled the man. "I was at the camp last night, and when +the old folks were packing up I got kicked with that big bay horse. +Ouch!" and he rubbed the injured leg. + +"Looks funny, though, doesn't it, Tony?" + +Jack and Ed were talking to Cora. "If you have finished with us, +Squire Redding, we will leave," said Ed. "My sister is not used to +this sort of thing." + +"Certainly, certainly," agreed the squire politely. "I am much obliged +for her testimony. I guess we will hold Tony for the grand jury. +Gypsies in this county have to be careful, or they lose their rights to +come in here. I think, myself, we would be better off without them." + +"Then give me a chance to leave," snapped the man. "The rest are gone. +We are done with this blamed county, anyhow." + +"Well, you will have to settle up first," declared Squire Redding. +"Those spoons were valuable." + +"I ain't got no spoons! I tell you I was at the camp all night, and I +don't know nothin' about this thing." + +"Very well, very well. Can you furnish a thousand-dollar bond?" + +"Thousand-dollar bond!" and the gypsy shifted uneasily. "I guess not, +judge." + +"Then here comes the man to attend to your case. Constable Cummings, +take this man to the station again and lock him up. Here, Tony, you +can walk all right. Don't play off that way." + +But Tony did not move. He sat there defiant. + +Officer Cummings was a big man and accustomed to handling prisoners as +rough and as ugly as this one. The two steel cells back of the fire +house were often occupied by rough fishermen and clammers who forgot +the law at the seaside place, and it was always Tom Cummings who put +them in "the pen." + +"Come, Tony," he said, with a flourish of his stick. "I never like to +hit a gypsy; it's bad luck." + +The prisoner looked up at big Tom. Then he shuffled to his feet and +shambled out of the room. + +As he passed down the stone steps he brushed past Cora. Whether +intentionally or otherwise, the man shoved the girl so that she was +obliged to jump down at the side of the step. Jack saw it and so did +Ed, but big Tom winked at them and merely hurried the prisoner along. +Cora only smiled. Why should the man not be rude when her evidence had +accused him of a serious crime--that of breaking and entering? + +"I didn't tell you about the bottle," she said to the boys as they +walked along. "I found this bottle in the fields." + +"Chloroform!" exclaimed Jack. "You should have told the judge, Cora." + +"But could I prove that the man had it? Besides, it would be awful to +have that made public." + +"You are right, Cora," agreed Ed. "First thing we'd know, it would be +in the New York papers. 'Attempt to Chloroform Three Young Girls!' +That would not be pleasant news for the folks up home way." + +"Oh, well, I suppose you are right," said Jack. "But that bottle puts +a different light on the case, and it seems to me the fellow ought to +suffer for it." + +"And do you know that old gypsy woman, Liza, met me and tried to scare +me into--or out of--identifying Tony? She made a most dramatic threat." + +"Did, eh? I thought all the gypsies had cleared out!" exclaimed Jack. +"I'll go and get a warrant for her----" + +"She took the eleven o'clock train," said Cora. "I saw her going to +the station as I came up the street. Oh, I wouldn't bother with the +poor old woman. This man is her brother, and naturally she wants to +keep him out of trouble." + +"At the expense of trouble for others." Jack was determined to have +justice for his sister. "I'm going to make sure she and the whole +tribe have left the county. The lazy loafers!" + +"Now, Jacky," and Ed smiled indulgently. "Didn't Liza tell your +fortune once, and say that you were going to marry the proverbial +butter tub? It is not nice of you to go back on a thing like that." + +"Did it strike you, boys, that this man answers the description of the +man Mrs. Robbins was frightened by?" asked Cora. + +"That's so," agreed Ed. "I'll bet he had his eye on something around +the bungalow--not Miss Robbins, of course." + +"Well, it seems better that he is now safe," said Cora, with a sigh. +"I'm glad I am through with it." + +"I hope you are," said Ed, and something in his manner caused Cora to +remember that remark. "I hope you are!" + +But Cora was not through with it by a great deal--as we shall soon see. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE START + +"Dear me! I did think something else would happen to prevent us from +getting off," said Bess, as she and Belle, with Cora, actually started +out to get the autos ready for the tour to the Berkshires. "And to +think that Miss Robbins can go with us!" + +"I'm sure she will be a lot better than a nervous person like dear +mamma," said Belle. "Not but what we would love to have mamma go, but +she does not enjoy our kind of motoring." + +"It does seem fortunate that Miss Robbins wanted to go," added Cora. +"I like her; she is the ideal type of business woman." + +"Is she?" asked Belle, in such an innocent way that the other two girls +laughed outright. + +"Oh, I suppose I ought to know," and Belle pouted; "but we always think +Cora knows so much better--and more." + +"Which is another fact I have bumped into," said Cora. + +"I just feel that we are going to have the jolliest of good times," +remarked Bess, as they started down the road. "I never care what route +we take. Isn't it fine that the boys attended to all that arrest and +police business for us?" + +"Very fine," agreed Cora, "but I like to have my say now about our +plans. We are going to take the main road along the New York side. We +will touch Bridgeport and Waterbury. You might like to know that much." + +"There are the boys, and there is Miss Robbins! My, doesn't she look +smart!" suddenly exclaimed Bess. + +"That's a smart outfit," Cora agreed, as they saw the party +approaching, Miss Robbins "done up" in a tan suit, with the exact shade +in a motor cap. + +"I'm so glad we have all the things in the cars. It is so much better +to do that the night before," remarked Belle. + +"But you didn't do it the night before; I did!" her sister reminded her. + +"Did you bring the hot-water bottle?" asked Cora. "If Belle gets a +headache, you will surely need it." + +This was not a joke, neither was it intended for sarcasm, for on +previous tours Belle had suffered, and the getting of reliable remedies +was one of the real discomforts of the trip. + +"I put in the water bag and mustard, too," said Belle. "Bess is just +as likely as not to get a cold, and she has to have mustard." + +"I suppose Cora brought cold cream," called Bess, with a laugh. "That +is usually the important drug in her medicine chest." + +"I did," admitted Cora. "I will surely have to use a barrel of it +going through the changes in the hills. I cannot stand a stinging +face." + +Mrs. Robinson had taken a notion that her twins were outgrowing their +twinship, consequently their outfits for the mountain trip had been +made exactly alike in material and effect. The result was, the boys +purposely mixed the girls up, asking Belle what made her so thin, for +instance, when they knew perfectly well that she was always thin, and +that it was Bess who had to own to being stout. + +The twins' costumes were of hunter-green corduroy, with knitted green +caps. Cora wore mole-color cloth, with a toque to match, and as they +now stood before the garage, waiting the coming of the others, who had +stopped at the post office, many admiring eyes turned in their +direction. + +"They have a lot of mail," remarked Cora gleefully, as Jack waved +letters and cards to her. "I hope it is nothing we don't want just +now." + +"As long as the gypsy man is safe, we needn't fear anything +unpleasant," said Bess, "but I did feel a lot better when I heard that +they took him to the real county jail." + +"Oh, yes," and Cora laughed. "You seemed to think that man was our +particular evil genius. Bess, all gypsies are supposed to steal." + +"Hello!" + +"Here we are!" + +"Everybody and everything!" + +"No, Wallie forgot his new handkerchief--the one with the pretty rose +in the corner." + +"And Jacky forgot his rope. We won't be able to haul him this time." + +"I forgot something," began Miss Robbins, "my absorbent cotton. See to +it that if you must get hurt you don't get----" + +"The nose-bleed," Ed finished more practically than eloquently. + +Miss Robbins was to travel in Cora's car, with Cora and Hazel Hastings. +The boys had tried to alter this plan, they declaring one boy, at +least, should go in the big car, but Cora argued that the _Whirlwind_ +was distinctly a girl's auto, and only girls should travel in it. This +put Jack in his own runabout and Walter and Ed in the _Comet_. The +Robinson girls, of course, were not to be separated, as the _Flyaway_ +seemed to know all about the twins, and the twins knew all about the +_Flyaway_. + +The weather was uncertain, and the fog horn at the point lighthouse had +blown all night, so that the girls were naturally apprehensive. Only +Cora's car was canopied, so that should it rain they would be obliged +to stop and wait for clear weather. + +Nevertheless it was a very jolly party that now waited at the garage +for the machines to be run out. The boys went inside and attended to +the very last of the preparations, while Cora, too, insisted upon +looking over her machine before starting off. + +"You'll have a fine trip," remarked the man at the garage. "I think +the run through the Berkshires one of the best there is. Fine roads +and nice people along the way." + +"Well, we need both," answered Miss Robbins. "I don't know so much +about roads, but people--we always need them." + +"All aboard," cried Ed, as finally they all did get into the cars, and, +as usual, the _Whirlwind_ led. Next came the _Flyaway_, then the two +runabouts with the young men. + +"What a fine chauffeur Miss Cora is?" remarked Miss Robbins to Hazel. + +"Yes, but you must call her Cora," corrected Hazel gayly. "We make it +a rule to go by first names when we like people." + +"Then you must call me Regina," added Miss Robbins. "I hope the young +men don't make me Reggie." + +"They're very apt to," commented Hazel. + +Cora had thrown in the third speed, and was now bending over her wheel +in real man fashion. They were getting out on the country roads, where +all expected to make good time. Bess also threw on her full speed, +following Cora's lead, and the boys, of course, gave the speeding +signal on their horns. + +"My!" exclaimed Miss Robbins admiringly, as the landscape flashed by. + +"Can't we go," added Hazel exultingly. + +"It's like eating and drinking the atmosphere," continued the young +lady physician. + +"I do love autoing," went on Hazel. "My brother is a perfect devotee +of the machine. But we do not happen to own one of our own." + +"That is where good friends come in," said Miss Robbins. "This trip is +a perfect delight to me. And, really, it will fix me up wonderfully +for what I have to undertake this fall. You see, we have just closed +the bungalow, mother has gone home, and that left me free to go to the +Berkshires and have a little pleasure, together with attending to some +business. I have a very old patient there. I have to call on her +before she leaves the hills." + +"And you really have patients?" Hazel looked in surprise at the young +woman beside her. + +"Of course, I do. But this one I inherited--she is a great aunt of +mine." + +Hazel leaned forward to ask Cora what her speedometer was registering. + +"Only twenty miles an hour," replied Cora. "And we could go thirty +easily. But I don't fancy ripping off a shoe, or doing any other of +the things that speed might do." + +"I shall enjoy it all the more when I am so sure of that," spoke +Regina. "I cannot see why people take risks just for the sake of----" + +"Hey, there!" shouted Ed, as his car shot past Cora's. "We are going +on ahead." + +"So--we--see!" answered Cora dryly. + +"What do you suppose they are up to?" asked Bess, as she turned the +_Flyaway_ up to the side of the _Whirlwind_. + +"Haven't any idea," replied Cora, just as Jack, too, shot by. + +"See you later," called Jack. + +"Not deserting us, are they?" asked Regina. + +"Oh, no, just some lark," answered Cora. + +But scarcely had the boys' machines disappeared than a trail of three +gypsy wagons turned into the mountain highway from some narrow +crossroad. + +"Oh!" sighed Belle, apprehensively clutching the arm of her sister. + +"Don't, Belle. You almost turned me into the _Whirlwind_," cautioned +the sister, as she quickly twisted around the steering wheel. + +"Those are the beach gypsies," Cora was able to say to Bess. + +Then no one spoke. Bess leaned over her wheel, while Cora looked +carefully for a place to turn out that would bring her clear of the +rumbling old wagons. + +A woman sat in the back of one of the vehicles. She poked her head out +and glared at the approaching machines. Then she was seen to wave a +red handkerchief so that the persons in the next wagon could distinctly +see it. + +The motor girls also saw it. + +This caused some confusion, as the motorists were trying to get out in +the clear road, while the wagons were blocking the way. + +Then, just as the _Whirlwind_ was about to pass the second wagon, the +driver halted his horse and stepped down directly in her path. He +waved for Cora to stop. + +"Don't!" called Miss Robbins, and Cora shot by, followed closely by +Bess, who turned on more gas. + +The gypsy wagons had all stopped in the middle of the road. + +The automobiles were now safely out of the wanderers' reach. + +"That was the time a chaperon counted," said Cora, "for I had not the +slightest fear of stopping. I thought he might just want to ask some +ordinary question." + +"You are too brave," said Miss Robbins. "It is not particularly +interesting to stop on a road like this to talk to gypsies when our +boys are out of reach." + +"We must speed up and reach them," said Cora. "I might meet more +gypsies." + +Belle was thoroughly frightened. Hazel did not know what to make of +the occurrence, but to Cora and to Bess, who had so lately learned +something of queer gypsy ways, the matter looked more serious, now that +there was time to think of it. + +"There they are!" shouted Bess, as she espied the two runabouts stopped +at the roadside. + +"They are getting lunch," said Hazel. "Look at Jack putting down the +things on the grass." + +"They certainly are," confirmed Cora. "Now, isn't that nice of them? +And we have been blaming them for deserting us!" + +Neither the motor girls nor the motor boys knew what the meeting of the +gypsy wagons was about to lead to--serious trouble for some of the +party. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +AN EXPLOSION + +The rain came. It descended in perfect sheets, and only the fact that +our tourists could reach a mountain house saved them from more +inconvenience than a wetting. + +They had just partaken of a very agreeable lunch by the roadside, all +arranged and prepared by the boys, with endless burned potatoes down on +the menu as "fresh roasted," when the lowering clouds gave Dame +Nature's warning. Next the thunder roared about what it might do, and +then our friends hurried away from the scene. The run brought them +some way on the direct road to the Berkshires, and in one of those +spots where it would seem the ark must have tipped, and dropped a human +being or two, the young people found a small country community. + +The special feature of this community was not a church, nor yet a +meeting house, but a well-equipped hotel, with all the requisites and +perquisites of a first-class hostelry. + +"No more traveling to-day," remarked Cora, as, after a wait of two +hours, she ventured to observe the future possible weather. "It looks +as if it would rain all there was above, and then start in to scoop up +some from the ocean. Did you ever see such clouds?" + +Ed said he had not. Walter said he did not want to, while the girls +didn't just know. They wanted to be off, and hoped Cora's observations +were not well-founded. + +Miss Robbins found in the hotel a sick baby to take up her time, and +she inveigled Bess into helping her, while the wornout and worried +mother took some rest. The little one, a darling girl of four years, +had taken cold, and had the most troublesome of troubles--an +earache--so that she cried constantly, until Miss Robbins eased the +pain. + +When the boys realized what a really good doctor the girls' chaperon +was, they all wanted to get sick in bed, Jack claiming the first +"whack." + +But Walter had some claim on medical attendance, for when the storm was +seen to be coming up he had eaten more stuff from the lunch basket than +just one Walter could comfortably store away, and the headache that +followed was not mere pretense. + +So the rainy afternoon at Restover Hotel was not idle in incident. It +was almost tea time when Cora had a chance to speak with her brother +privately. She beckoned him to a corner of the porch where the rain +could not find them; neither could any of their friends. + +"Jack," she began, "do you know that the people in the gypsy wagon +really did try to stop us? All that prattle of Bess and Belle was not +nonsense. Only for Miss Robbins I should have stopped." + +"Well, what's the answer?" asked her brother. + +"That's just what I would like to find out," replied the sister. "It +seems to me they would hardly have stopped a couple of girls to ask +road directions or anything like that, when so many wagons, easier to +halt than automobiles, had also passed by them." + +"Maybe they wanted some gas--gasoline. They use that in their torches." + +"But why ask girls for it?" insisted Cora. + +"Because girls are supposed to be soft, and they might give it. Catch +a fellow giving anything to a gypsy!" + +"Well, that might be so, but I have a queer feeling about that old +witch's threat. She looked like three dead generations mummified. Her +eyes were like sword points." + +"She must have been a beaut. I should like to have met her witchship. +But, Cora dear, don't worry. We boys are not going to run away again, +and if we see the gypsies we will see them first and last." + +"But there are bands of them all over the hills, and I have always +heard that they have some weird way of notifying each band of any +important news in the colony. Now, you see, Jack, the arrest of that +man would be very important to them. They are as loyal to each other +as the royalty." + +"Nevertheless it is a good thing the fellow is landed, and it was a +blessing that he went for the cottage instead of to Miss Robbins' +bungalow. _They_ had no means of calling help," mused Jack. + +"I suppose it was," answered Cora. "But I tell you, I do not want +another such experience. It was all right while I had to act, but when +it was all over I had to----" + +"React! That's the trouble. What we do with nerve we must repeat +without nerve. Now, what do you think of your brother as a public +lecturer?" and Jack laughed at his own attempt to explain the reaction +that Cora really felt. + +"My, wasn't that a bright stroke of lightning?" exclaimed Cora. +"Listen! Something is struck!" + +"That's right!" + +"An explosion!" + +A terrific report followed the flash. Then cries and shrieks all over +the hotel alarmed those who were not directly at the scene of the panic. + +"Oh, it's the kitchen! See the smoke!" + +Jack and Cora rushed indoors, their first anxiety being to make sure +that all the girls and boys of their party were safe. + +"Where is Bess?" + +"Where is Belle?" + +"Where are Walter and Ed?" + +"Oh! where is Miss Robbins?" + +Every one was looking for some one. In the excitement the guests at +the hotel were rushing about shouting for friends and relatives, while +smoke, black and heavy, poured up the stairs from the basement. + +Jack, Ed and Walter were among the first to get out and use the fire +extinguishers. There were plenty of these about the hotel, but on +account of the injury to the men who were working in the kitchen at the +time of the explosion, and owing to the fact that all the guests in the +hotel just then were girls and women, the men having gone to the city, +there really were not enough persons to cope with the flames that +followed the lightning. + +"Quick!" shouted Cora, "we can get the buckets. Bess take that one," +pointing to the pail that hung on the wall, and which was filled with +water. "Belle, run around and find another! Regina is with the +injured men, so we cannot have her, but there is a girl! Won't you +please get a bucket from the hall?" this to a very much frightened +young lady. "The fire extinguishers seem to be all emptied, and the +men are beating back the flames from the stairway." + +In a remarkably short time more than a dozen frightened girls and women +had formed a bucket brigade under Cora's direction, and as fast as they +could get the pails they handed them, filled and again refilled, to the +boys, who were now doing all in their power to keep the fire from +spreading to the dining-room floor. + +"What happened?" demanded one woman, when Jack turned to take a pail of +water from Cora. + +"Lightning struck the boiler," replied the young man. + +"Oh, mercy!" exclaimed the same unreasonable person, who was delaying +the men with her questions. "Any one hurt?" + +"Yes, three," and Jack, his shirt sleeves rolled up, and looking like +the earnest worker he was, dashed again down a step into the dense +smoke to splash the pail of water on the smouldering but now +well-wetted woodwork. + +It seemed then as if all the guests but our own friends had run out of +the building, and were huddled on the porch or standing in the rain +under the trees along the path. + +Ed and Walter had carried the cook and the dishwasher out from the +kitchen immediately after the explosion of the boiler, and the other +injured ones were in the little cottage adjoining the hotel, where Miss +Robbins was binding up their burns and making good use of her skill and +the materials that she carried in her emergency case. + +"But I am afraid this man is very dangerously injured," she told Ed. +"A piece of the boiler struck him directly on the back of the head." + +"Should he go to the hospital?" asked the young man. + +"Without question, if he could. But this is so far from anything like +a hospital." + +"We could take him to Waterbury in Cora's car," suggested Ed. "That is +large enough to make him somewhat easy." + +"The very thing! But I could not go with him. This other man is +suffering so," and she poured more oil on the face that had not yet +been bandaged in cotton. + +"Cora could run the machine, and I could hold Jim--they say his name is +Jim." + +"Poor Jim!" sighed the young lady doctor. "He has a very slight +chance. See, he is unconscious!" + +Ed rushed out, and in a short time had the _Whirlwind_ at the door. +Jack and Walter were still busy with the fire, but they stopped when he +called them, and together all three carried Jim tenderly out, and when +Ed got in first they put the man in his arms. Cora also had been +summoned, and without as much as waiting for her cap, but, getting into +the cloak that Bess threw from the hall rack, she cranked up, and was +at the wheel, following the directions for the nearest way to a +hospital in Waterbury. + +"It is his only chance," remarked Miss Robbins, when she heard some one +say the jolting of the auto would kill him outright, "and both the car +and its chauffeur can be depended upon." + +CHAPTER XI + +THE RESULT OF A BLAZE + +"That was plucky, Cora." + +"What, Ed?" + +"You running into Waterbury with a man who might have died in your car." + +"Then he would have died in your arms." + +"But I thought girls were so queer about things of that sort. When one +dies in a house, for instance, a girl never likes the room----" + +"But you would have had to keep your arms. Ed, I think the pluck was +all on your side. But I do hope Jim has a chance. He seems an awfully +frail little fellow." + +"Weighs about as much as you do, I should judge. But they say that +kind of build is the best for fighting disease--there is not so much +blood to take up the poison." + +They were riding back to Restover. Ed insisted upon driving the car, +although Cora declared that she was not the least tired. The trip to +the hospital had been made at a very high rate of speed, as the +unconscious man seemed in imminent danger, and Cora's hands now +trembled visibly from their work at the wheel of the _Whirlwind_. + +"I suppose we will have to live on love tonight," remarked Ed, "for +that kitchen is certainly a thing of the past." + +"What saved the second floor?" + +"The heavy beams and metal ceiling. I guess they have had fires before +in that hotel, for the ceiling was practically of iron. I just wonder +what the boys are doing about now. I fancy Walter has turned nurse to +assist Miss Robbins." + +"And Jack has taken up the role of engineer--to be made chief of the +fire department. I shouldn't wonder but what they had formally +organized by this time." + +"He certainly deserves to be chief; he did good work. When a gas +tank--a small affair--started to hiss in the servants' dining room, +Jack grabbed up a big palm and dumped the contents of the flower pot +into the tank. It was a small thing they heated coffee on, and when, +the next moment, the tank broke it was surprised to find itself buried +under a bed of sand, with flowers on the grave." + +Cora laughed heartily at Ed's telling of the incident. Certainly +strange things, if not really funny things, always seem to occur during +the excitement caused by fire. + +"If everything in the kitchen is gone, don't you think we had better +bring back some refreshments?" asked Cora. "The folks will all have +appetites when they find there is nothing to eat." + +"Great idea. Here is a good-looking store. Let's load up." + +"But is there no manager at the hotel? Who was or who is boss?" + +"Jim. The management of that sort of place goes into the shape of +bills and accounts, settled every month. Some New York company owns +the place. It was a failure, and they leased it to a local man. +That's why there will be no one to look after things now." + +"Well, we will buy the food and send our bill in to the company. I +guess they will be glad enough to pay it when they hear of the +emergency." + +"Yes, it would not do for the hotel disaster to get into the New York +papers, with a starved-to-death head. Well, here's our store. What +shall we buy?" + +Cora and Ed left the car and went into the store. They bought all +sorts of canned goods, although Cora declared they would have to be +eaten raw. Then they bought bacon and eggs. Ed insisted on that, no +matter, he said, if they had to come to town again and take back to +Restover a gas stove. He insisted that no well-regulated emergency +feed ever went without bacon and eggs. Bread and butter they procured +for fifty persons. Some cake for the ladies, Ed suggested. Pork and +beans, canned, Cora thought might do for breakfast, even if they had to +be eaten from the cans. Then the last thought, and by no means the +most trifling, was wooden plates and tin cups. The bill footed up to +ten dollars, and Ed insisted that the man make out the bill as paid and +marked for the Restover Hotel. + +A half hour later the _Whirlwind_ drew up to the hostelry. + +The rain had ceased, and the hotel patrons were almost all out of +doors, so that the motor girls and boys trooped down to meet Ed and +Cora. + +As was anticipated, hunger prevailed, and when it was found that stores +of eatables were in the tonneau of the _Whirlwind_ even the most +helpless, nervous ladies at the hotel wanted to help get the +refreshments into the house. + +"But where can they be cooked?" + +"What can we cook on?" + +"There is no gas stove!" + +"Not even an oil stove!" + +"We can't eat bacon raw!" + +"The bread is all right, anyway!" + +Such was the volley of remarks that came out from the crowd. + +"We will manage somehow," said Cora. "Our boys are used to emergency +work in the line of eating and fixing meals." + +"Seems ter me," whined a wizen old lady, "thet the girls knows +somethin' about it, too!" + +In the dining room on the second floor were two chandeliers. Under +these were, of course, tables, and before the anxious ones had time to +settle their fears there stood on these tables Cora, Bess and Belle, +and on the other Ed, Jack and Walter. Each of our friends had in his +or her hand something that answered to the pan or pot brand of utensil, +and in the pan or pot, which was held over the gas, was something that +began to "talk-talk" out loud of good things to eat, sizzling and +crisping. + +It was very funny to see the young folks cooking over the handsome +chandeliers, from which, of course, the glass globes had been removed. + +"Well, did you ever!" exclaimed more than one. + +"Those young folks do beat all! I used to think ma and pa brung us up +right, but whoever on earth would have cooked bacon and eggs over a +lamp," ejaculated an old man. + +"I guess driving them machines makes them smart," said another guest, +as she took the pan Cora handed down and gingerly slopped the stuff +over on a wooden plate. "I guess it is a good thing to know how to +drive an automobile. Makes you right smart! Whew! but that was hot!" +and she put the overheated fingers into her mouth. + +"Put another dish over it to keep it hot," Cora ordered. "And can't +some one set a table? That is not such a difficult thing to do." + +"See here!" called out Ed, "this is no pancake party. I am not going +to stay up here cooking all night. I am going down to eat. We have +enough of tomatoes warmed to fill the wash bowl, and I love canned +tomatoes if they are out of a washbowl. We washed the bowl, and +sterilized it, and it's as good as a soup tureen." + +There stood the white wash basin almost filled with the steaming +tomatoes. As Ed said, there could be no objection to the crockery. + +Jack had charge of the water for tea. This took a long time to boil, +owing to the fact that the kettle was a very much bent-up affair that +had been rescued from the ruined kitchen. + +Bess was cooking canned peas, while Belle insisted that all she could +do was to turn over, with a fork, the things that cooked nicely on +Cora's pan. + +"Done to a turn!" announced Jack, as he jumped down with his pots. +"Now, if you folks need any more you will really have to go into active +service." + +His initiative was followed by the others, and presently the less timid +of the guests had put food into pans and taken up their places on the +tables to do their cooking, while it seemed that all at once every one +"fell to" and procured something to eat. + +"Let there be no unbecoming haste!" remarked Walter gently, but it was +a great meal, that. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +QUEER COBBLERS + +"Isn't she disappointing?" remarked Hazel. + +"Very," answered Cora. + +"To think that she should leave us for a patient!" + +"I cannot understand it." + +"I have heard that girls not home raised are like that--they have no +sentiment." + +"Nor honor, either!" + +"Well, she didn't think she was bound to go with us, and, of course, +there was money besides reputation in being on the spot when the hotel +owners would arrive. But I am disappointed." + +"I hope the boys will not feel obliged to return for her," and Cora's +lip curled slightly. "She is such a good business woman she ought to +be able to get to the Berkshires from here." + +"Walter seems enthralled," and Hazel laughed. "I wonder how Jack got +him to leave her?" + +They were on the road again, and Miss Robbins, the physician, the +business woman, the chaperon, had stayed behind to take care of those +who had been injured in the explosion. There were good doctors within +call, but she simply would stay, and saw no reason why the girls should +not go on alone. To her the idea of being obligated to them was not to +be thought of when a matter like professional business came up. Of +course, this was a general disappointment, for the girls would never +have entrusted themselves to her patronage if they had not felt certain +that she would keep her word with them. However, the fact was that +they were on the road again, and Regina Robbins was happy on the sunny +porch of the big hotel, incidentally attending to a cut or two on one +man's face and a bad-looking burn on the arm of another. + +Bess and Belle were driving along, "their faces as long as fiddles," as +Cora said. The boys had taken the lead, and they were having their own +trouble trying to convince Walter that Miss Robbins had "dumped" the +girls, and that it was a "low-down trick." + +The _Whirlwind_ glided along apparently happy under the firm hand of +its fair owner. The _Flyaway_ seemed, too, to be glad of a chance to +get away again, and as Bess threw in the third speed, according to +commands from Jack, who was leading, the little silver machine darted +away like an arrow freed from the bow. + +The day was wonderfully clear after the rain, and even the sunshine had +been polished up by the scouring of the mighty storm of late summer. + +"I shouldn't care so much," Belle confided to her twin sister, "but +when we get to Lenox alone, without a chaperon, what will people say?" + +"Well, Tinkle, we have not got there yet. Maybe we may pick up a +chaperon between this and that." + +"If we only could! Where do we stop tonight?" + +"Wherever we get." + +So they sped on. Mile after mile was lapped up in the dust of the +motors. Out through Connecticut, over the line into Massachusetts, and +along the splendid roads that border the Housatonic River. + +Houses were becoming scarcer and fewer; it was now largely a matter of +woodlands and roads. + +"We have to make time now," called Cora to the twins. "The boys say we +should get to Pittsfield by evening." + +"To Pittsfield! Why, that's----" + +"About a hundred," called Cora again. "Look out for your shoes, and +don't be reckless on the turns. Stripping your differential just now +would be fatal." + +"All right," responded Bess, "but mine is not the only car in the race." + +"Thanks," called back Cora, "and now we will clear off. Good-by!" + +The _Whirlwind_ shot ahead. Jack's car was clear of the +other--Walter's, and as the run had to be made against time it was best +for each machine to have "room to look around it." + +"Oh!" gasped Hazel, as Cora swerved around a sharp bend, "I don't fancy +this sort of riding." + +"But we have to get to a large town before night. It's all right. The +roads are so clear." + +On they flew. Only the shrieking of Jack's siren and the groaning of +the deep horn on Walter's car gave messages to the girls. + +Several miles were covered in silence, and then they came to a +signboard. It told that the main road was closed, and that they must +take to a side road--a highway that was fairly good, but much more +lonely. + +"I suppose we'll get back to the main road before a great while," said +Cora. + +"I hope so," returned Bess. "This looks dreadfully lonely, doesn't it?" + +"Don't think about it," came from her sister. + +On they went, the way becoming wilder each instant. Yet the road +itself was fairly smooth, so that it was not necessary to slacken the +speed of the cars. + +"Something really smells hot," said Hazel. "Could anything ignite?" + +"Not exactly," replied Cora, "but we don't want to get too hot. It +makes trouble." + +She slackened just a bit to make sure that Hazel's anxiety had no +foundation in fact, for, indeed, the big machine was using its engine +and gas to the utmost capacity. + +Just ahead the glare of the _Comet_ could be seen as it plunged into a +deep turn in a deeper lined wood. Jack, in his _Get-There_, was after +the first, and then the girls had difficulty even in getting a +responding sound from the toots and the blasts which all were +continually sounding. + +"They are away ahead," said Bess. "I thought they had seen enough of +getting too far away from us. How do we know but that we might meet +the gypsies on this lonely road?" + +"I wonder if it is late or early for motorists?" asked Cora of Hazel. +"We haven't met a single party." + +"Just happened so, I suppose," said Hazel. "Surely people out here +must enjoy this sort of weather." + +"Listen!" + +Cora gave three sharp blasts on her horn, but no answer came. "The +boys are getting too far ahead. + +"I will have to accelerate----," she called. + +She pressed down the pedal and bent over the wheel as if urging the +machine to its utmost. Then there was jolt--a roar! a bang! Cora +jammed on brakes. + +"A shoe is gone!" she cried. "Exploded!" + +Without the slightest warning a big tire overheated, had ripped clear +off the front wheel, the inner tube exploded, and the car had almost +gone into a ditch when Cora stopped it. + +Bess had seen the trouble, and was able to halt her car far enough away +to avoid a collision. + +"Isn't that dreadful!" cried Cora, her face as white as the tie at her +throat. "It ripped off just from speed!" + +"Can't it be fixed?" asked Hazel, who now was out beside Cora. + +"Oh, of course! but how and when? I have another shoe, but to get it +on, and the boys, as usual, out of sight!" + +She had pulled off her gloves and was looking at the split tire. It +was marvelous that it should have come off so clean--simply peeled. + +"And it's five o'clock," said Belle, with her usual unfortunate way of +saying something to make things worse. + +"But it isn't midnight," almost snapped Cora. + +"Let's try to call the boys," suggested Belle. "Aren't they dreadful +to get so far away?" + +"Very rude," and Cora showed some sarcasm. "But the thing to do right +now is not to wait for anybody, but to get to work. Bess, can you help +me slip in a tube and put on a shoe?" + +"I never have, but, of course, I'll try," and she, too, pulled off her +gloves. + +Cora quickly opened up the tool box, got out the jack, and then she +unbuckled the shoe that was fast at the side of the _Whirlwind_. + +"I always thought folks carried them to ornament the cars," said Hazel, +with an attempt at good nature, "but it seems that a cobbler is the +thing we ought to carry for an ornament. We really don't need him, but +we do need new shoes." + +"How long will it take?" asked Belle. + +"There's no telling," replied Cora. "It isn't exactly like putting a +belt on a sewing machine." + +She handled the inner tube freely enough, and soon had it in the big +rubber shoe, partly inflated. + +"Easy as putting tape in a jelly bag," remarked Hazel. + +"But we must get it on now and blow it up," said Cora. "Bess, get the +pump." + +The pump was gotten, after which, with much exertion, the shoe was on +the rim, and then the blowing began. This was not so easily +accomplished as had been the other parts of the mechanical operation. +First Bess pumped, then Belle tried it. Hazel was sure she could do +it, for she often blew up Paul's bicycle, but this tire would not blow +full. + +The girls were rapidly losing their complexions. Such strenuous +efforts! + +"Oh, that's hard enough," declared Bess, trying to push her pretty +fingers into the rubber. + +"Yes," answered Cora, pressing on the tire, which sank with the +pressure, "it's about as hard as rice pudding!" + +"How many pounds?" insisted Bess. + +Cora looked at the gauge. "Sixty. I have got to have a full ninety +for this car." + +"Then I don't see how we are going to get it!" + +Cora did not heed the discouragement. She was pumping now, and the +shoe was becoming rigid. "If I get it a little harder I'll call it +done!" she panted, "though we may ditch the car next time." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +A DELAY AND A SCARE + +It was an hour later when the boys came back. They had discovered the +loss of the girls when they had gone so far ahead that it took some +time to return. The race was too much for them. They were obliged to +admit that, in its interest, they had forgotten the girls. + +"If Miss Robbins had been along, I fancy Walter would not have become +so engrossed in the race," said Belle maliciously. + +"Well, Miss Robbins was not along," replied Walter, with equal meaning. + +"And what's more, Miss Robbins will not be along," spoke Cora. "I have +heard of all sorts of things being permissible in the business world, +but this, from a young lady, seems to be----" + +"The utmost," admitted Jack. "But, sis, you must make allowances. We +would dump Miss Robbins in the mountains, and likely crawl home by +train, while the hotel reputation will continue to reputate." + +"Suppose we quit buzzing and get at the car," suggested Ed. "Seems, +though, as if Cora had about fixed it up." + +"I'm not so sure," said Cora eagerly. "I am afraid that there's +something wrong other than the 'busted' tire. I was just about to look +when you gentlemen returned. But will you please finish pumping first?" + +Finally it was hard enough, and then Cora jumped into the car, while +Jack cranked up. A noise that might have come from a distant sawmill +rewarded the effort. + +"A nut or a pin loose," suggested Walter, who now did what Jack called +the "collar-button crawl" under the big car. + +But that was only the beginning, and the end was that night came on and +made faces at a very desolate party of young people, stalled miles from +nowhere, with nothing but remorse of conscience to keep off the damp, +night air. + +Jack went around literally kicking himself, demanding to know whether +they hadn't done the same thing before, and dumped those poor girls in +a graveyard at midnight. When would boys learn that girls can't be +trusted out of sight, and so, while the boys are supposed to be the +girls' brothers, these same brothers must forego sport of the racing +brand? + +Jack really felt the situation keenly. There was no way out of it, the +girls could not get to a town even in the able-bodied cars, for Cora +would no more leave her _Whirlwind_ there in the darkness than she +would have left Bess or Belle. Then, when it was proposed that one of +the boys stay to guard the machine, and the others of the party go +along to some place, the objection of "no Miss Robbins" robbed the +distracted young men of their last argument. + +"We will stay together," announced Cora. "At any rate, that will be +better than some of us going to a hotel, and all that sort of thing. +We can bunk in the cars." + +"Oh, in the woods!" almost shrieked Belle. + +"Well, no, you might go up a tree," said Cora rather crossly. + +"There's many a nest unseen----" + +"Wallie, you quit. The unseen nest is not for yours. You are hereby +appointed for guard duty!" and Ed snatched up a stout stick to serve as +"arms" for the guard. + +"I have a little something," admitted Jack, flashing a brand new +revolver. "I have heard of the gypsy camps around these mountains, so +I came prepared." + +"Oh, those gypsies!" and Belle had another spasm. "I feel that +something will happen tonight! Those dreadful gypsies!" + +"We can lock you in the tonneau of Cora's car," suggested Ed, "and when +the gypsies come they can't 'gyp' you. They may take all of us, but no +power on earth, not even palm reading, can move that monster." + +The idea that she really could be locked up in the car gave Belle some +comfort, although Bess and Hazel were holding a most secret convention +over under a tree, where the last rays of light lingered as day hurried +along. + +"Why did you speak about the gypsies?" Cora asked Jack, by way of +reproof rather than question. "You know the girls go off in kinks when +they think of the burglar." + +"Well, I suppose I shouldn't. But the fact is, we might as well be +prepared, for there are bands of our friends tied up around these +hills. Fortune telling is a great business among summer idlers." + +"Well, I hope we have seen the last of them. I'm going to stay in the +open, in the _Flyaway_. I'd rather do it than be cooped up with the +girls in the tonneau, and there will be room for Bess, Belle and Hazel +inside the _Whirlwind_. It won't be so bad--a night in the wide open." + +"Oh, we fellows don't mind it, but, sis, might not some cocoon drop in +your hair in the night? We had better rig up some sort of hood." + +"My own hood will do nicely, and I am almost dead from the exertion of +that tire. I grant you, I will not lie awake listening for gypsies." + +"Then we boys will take turns on the picket," said Ed. "You can really +depend upon us this time, girls. One will be awake and watching every +minute." + +"Oh, I'm sure it's all right out here," replied Cora. "What would any +one want in these woods at night?" + +"Might want fishing tackle," answered Walter. "Yes, I agree with thee, +Edward; it is up to us to stay up to-night." + +With this positive assurance, the young ladies proceeded to make +themselves comfortable in their novel quarters. Cora curled up in the +_Flyaway_, and the _Comet_, with Ed and Jack "sitting up in a +lying-down posture," as they expressed it, was placed just where the +young men could hear the girls whisper should any gypsies appear, or +rather be scented. The first man to do picket duty, Walter, was in the +_Get-There_, directly out in the road, so that presently it seemed a +night in the wide open might be a novelty rather than a misfortune. + +Some time must have passed. Belle declared she was not asleep. Bess +vowed she was still asleep. Hazel begged both girls to keep quiet, but +the light of the gas lamps from the _Get-There_ was bobbing about, and +the flash of a new revolver was reflected in the night. + +"What can be the matter?" sobbed Belle. "Oh, I knew we shouldn't stay +in these dreadful woods." + +"As if we could help it," complained her sister. "Belle, if you insist +upon going on motor tours, why don't you try to get some sense?" + +"All right, there!" called Jack, who now, with another headlight in +hand, was looking under and about the _Whirlwind_. + +"Yes! What's the matter?" answered and asked Bess. + +"Nothing that we know of," replied Jack, "but Wallie thought he scented +game, and we need something for breakfast." + +"Goodness sakes! Likely a turtle or something," growled Bess, dropping +her plump self down plumper than ever on the cushions. + +"I don't believe it," objected Belle. "They wouldn't wake us up for a +turtle--or something." + +"Make it a moose then," suggested Hazel. "Moose are plenty in New +England, they say." + +"With the horns?" asked Belle. + +"With and without," replied Hazel. "But if you don't mind, I'm going +out to join in the hunt. I have always longed for a real, live hunt." + +"Oh, please don't," begged Belle. "It might be a man!" + +"No such luck. There's Cora with her lamp. They are certainly after +something," and with this she opened the tonneau door and went out with +the others into the wild, dark, lonely night. + +"I distinctly saw him," she heard Jack say. "Now, keep your nerve. +Cora, where is the little gun?" + +"I've got it," she replied. "I feel better with it. You boys have +two." + +"What is it?" asked Hazel, now thoroughly alarmed. + +"A man!" whispered Cora. "Walter saw him crawling around, and we are +bound to find him. He is alone, that's sure, and there are seven of +us." + +"Oh!" gasped Hazel. "But isn't it dangerous?" + +"A little, of course. But it would be worse to let sleeping dogs lie. +It may be a harmless tramp--or a poor laborer--a woodsman." + +At the same time she knew perfectly well that any character of either +type she mentioned would not go crawling around under stalled motor +cars in the Berkshire hills. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE MIDNIGHT TOW + +A more frightened set of girls than were our young friends that night +could scarcely be imagined. Although Cora did tramp around after Ed +and his lamp, with her pistol in her hand, she was trembling, and had +good reason to be alarmed. As for Bess and Belle, they were, as Hazel +said, "tied up in a knot" on the bottom of Cora's car, too terrified to +cry. Hazel herself felt no inclination to explore on her own account, +but was actually walking on Jack's heels, as he poked the motor lamp in +and out of possible hiding places, seeking the mysterious shadow that +had been seen to move and had been heard to rustle in the grass. + +But he was not found--a big slouch hat being the only tangible clew +unearthed to a real personality. And this Walter dug out of a hole +near a rear wheel of the _Whirlwind_. + +"Don't tell the girls," he whispered to Jack, "but here's his +top-piece." + +"Put it away--in the _Comet_. We might need it," said Jack, in the +same low voice. + +"Well, girls, of course you are frightened," began Ed. "What do you +say to all crowding into the _Whirlwind_ and talking it out the rest of +the night? We could make noise enough to scare away a dozen tramps." + +This idea was greeted with delight, even Bess and Belle venturing to +poke their heads out of the tonneau door to beg the boys "all to come +in." + +No more thought of Miss Robbins! It was now a matter of doing the best +they could to restore something of the girls' lost nerves. And Ed, +Jack and Walter undertook the task with considerable more seriousness +than it had occurred to the much-alarmed girls it might be necessary to +give the matter. + +All the girls asked for was protection--all the boys thought of giving +was confidence. + +"My poor, dear _Whirlwind_" sighed Cora, as Ed assisted her into the +tonneau. "To think that you have made all this trouble!" + +"No such thing," interrupted Walter gallantly. "It is up to us. We +deserted you just to see who would make the hill in best time, and this +serves us right." + +Bess, Belle and Hazel found plenty of room on the broad-cushioned seat, +while Jack decided that he wouldn't mind in the least sitting down on +the floor beside Cora, who had the folding chair. + +Ed and Walter took their places outside "on the box," and when the +three other cars were lined up close the dark, dreary night under the +trees, with the prospect of a man crawling around with malice +aforethought, brightened up some. Even the moon peeked through the +trees to make things look more pleasant, and to Belle company had never +been so delightful before. She actually laughed at everything Jack +said, and agreed that it would be fun to live in a motor houseboat. + +Cora alone was silent. She pleaded fatigue, but Jack knew that his +sister did not give in to fatigue so easily; he also knew that she had +seen the gypsy's hat! + +She lay with her head pillowed on her brother's shoulder and closed her +eyes, feigning sleep. + +It was the same little sister Jack often told stories to, and the same +black head that now was so glad to rest where many other evenings it +had rested, when the mother was out and the sister did not like to "go +to bed all alone, please, Jackie dear!" + +"It's a great thing to have a brother," blurted out Bess, in her +ridiculous way, until Jack declared that he had another shoulder, and +she might appropriate it if she wished to be a "sister" to him. + +"I guess I am too nervous to motor at night," admitted Belle. "I +think, after this trip, I will plan mine by daylight." + +"But this was so planned," said Cora. "Whoever thought we would be +stalled, that we would lose Miss Robbins, and that we would have to +camp out all night in the _Whirlwind_?" + +"Of course, whoever thought it?" agreed Jack, stroking the head on his +shoulder. + +"Do you suppose Walter and Ed are dead?" asked Cora. + +"Not that, but sleeping," returned Jack. "If they die they will never +forget it as long as they live. There is a sacred duty in standing +picket duty." + +"Oh, a light!" suddenly screamed Bess. "It's coming this way!" + +"Steady, there," shouted Ed, in his clear, deep voice. "Pass to the +left!" and he tooted the horn of the _Whirlwind_. + +"A machine!" announced Jack, as he jumped up and peered through the +wind shield. + +"Oh! isn't that lovely?" gasped Belle, willing at once to abandon her +company for the prospect of getting out of the woods. + +By this time a big motor car had slowed up at the side of the other +cars. The chauffeur alighted and, with all the chivalry of the road, +asked what the trouble was. Leaving out the scare and the hat part, +the boys soon told of their difficulty and the young ladies' plight, +whereat an old gentleman, the only occupant of the car, insisted that +the young ladies get in with him, and that his man, Benson, be allowed +to tow the stalled car out of the hills. They decided to do this, +agreeing that they had had enough of "camping out." + +"What name? What name did you say, sir?" he asked Jack, at the same +time kicking his many robes up into a corner to make all possible room +ill his magnificent car. + +"Kimball," replied Jack, "of Chelton, and the other names are----" + +"That's enough, plenty," the gentleman declared heartily. "I knew +Joseph Kimball, of Chelton, and I guess he was your father." + +"Yes," replied Jack, astonished at thus meeting a family friend. + +"Well, when he went to Chelton I located in New Hampshire; that's where +I belong." + +"Do you? That's where we are going--to the White Mountains, after a +little stay in the Berkshires," finished Jack, as he handed Cora into +the handsome car, and then likewise assisted Hazel and Belle. + +"Well, I guess we can fix you up then," said the old gentleman, in that +hearty manner that can never be mistaken for mere politeness. "I have +a girl of my own. We are in the Berkshires now." + +"I will be delighted to know----" then Cora stopped. She had not yet +heard the gentleman's name. + +"Betty Rand--that's my girl. She's Elizabeth, of course, but Betty's +good enough for me. Get right in here, girlie," to Belle. "Got room +enough?" + +"Oh, yes, plenty, thank you," and Belle slipped down into the cushions +with an audible sigh. + +"Well, you can depend upon Benson. See that! He's got the car hitched +already! Never saw a fellow like Benson," and Mr. Rand spread the robe +over the knees of Belle and Cora, with whom he sat, while Hazel had +taken the small chair. "Keep warm," he told her. "Night air out here +is trickish. I always take plenty of robes along." + +Hazel assured him that she had every comfort, and then they heard Ed +toot the horn of the _Flyaway_, as he and Bess started off in the lead. +Walter was in his _Comet_, and when Jack was sure that everything was +in readiness for the _Whirlwind_ to be towed after the big six-cylinder +machine, he jumped into his _Get-There_, and presently the whole party +was off again, going toward Lenox. + +It was a wonderful relief--every one felt it--to be moving away from +dread and darkness. + +"I always come up by night from New York," said Mr. Rand. "The roads +are clear, and it saves time. Besides, to-morrow is Betty's birthday, +and I have to be home." + +"Yes," said Cora politely. "We had no idea of traveling alone like +this, but our chaperon----" + +"Well, you've got one now," interrupted the man nicely, noticing Cora's +embarrassment. "I often do it for Betty--she's only got me." + +There was a catch in his voice this time, and while the three girls +instantly felt that "the bars were down again," and that they really +did have a chaperon in the person of this delightful gentleman, still +it would have seemed rude to break the effect of his last remark. + +"We are getting her up, all right," he said, referring to towing the +_Whirlwind_. "Never saw the like of Benson." + +"Isn't it splendid?" exclaimed Cora, looking back into the darkness and +thus discerning the lamps of her car following. "It is a dreadful +thing to be stalled." + +"Can't be beat," agreed Mr. Rand. "We get it once in a while, though +Benson is a wonder--knows when to stop without getting a blow-out." + +"That's what we had," said Cora, "a blow-out." + +"Girls speeding!" and he slapped his knees in good nature. "Now, Betty +thinks she can't go unless the engine stutters, as she calls it. I +declare, girls are worse than men these days! Speeding!" + +Cora tried to tell something of the circumstances responsible for her +speed, but he would take no excuse--it was ordinary speed, just like +Betty's, he declared. + +"And you lost your chaperon?" He said this with a delightful chuckle, +evidently relishing the circumstances that threw the interesting young +party into his company. + +"Yes," spoke Belle, "there was a fire at the hotel, and she was a +doctor. Of course, we didn't count when there were men to be bandaged +up." + +"A fire!" repeated Mr. Rand. "At a hotel! The Restover, I'm sure. +Why, that is my hotel. I mean I am one of the owners, and on my way up +I met the woman doctor. So she was your chaperon! Well, I declare! +Now, that's what I call a coincidence. That young woman--let me see. +She was nursing the head waiter. Ha, ha! a good fellow to nurse. +Always keep in with the head waiter." + +"Oh, he was that good-looking fellow, Cora," said Hazel. "Don't you +remember how he soared around?" + +"A bird, eh?" and Mr. Rand laughed again. "Well, say," and his voice +went down into the intimate key, "I wouldn't be surprised if your +chaperon gave up her business. I heard some remarks about how very +devoted she was to that head waiter." + +"Oh, Miss Robbins would never marry a waiter!" declared Belle. "Why, +she's a practicing physician!" + +"But sometimes the practice is hard and uncertain," Mr. Rand reminded +them. "I shouldn't be surprised when I go back there to straighten up +accounts to find the doctor and the waiter 'doing nicely.'" + +"But how is the man we--that is--who went to the hospital?" asked Cora +eagerly. "He was very badly hurt." + +"Oh, Jim, wasn't it? Why, he is getting along! By crackie!" and he +slapped his knee again, "I have it! It was you who took Jim to the +hospital! Now, I see! A motor girl with black hair and a maroon +machine! Now, I have, more than ever, reason to be your friend, Miss +Kimball. Jim has been with me for years, and had he died as the result +of an accident at Restover--well, I shouldn't have gotten over it +easily." + +"But some one had to take him," said Cora modestly. + +"Oh, I know all about that. That's like your excuse for speeding, and +it's like Betty again. Wait until she hears that you saved Jim." + +"One would never know we were towing a car," intervened Hazel. "We +sail along so beautifully." + +"But you babies have been awake all night," said Mr. Rand suddenly. +"Now, couldn't you just tuck in somehow and sleep a wink or two? You +won't get a chance when you see Betty. She's a regular +phonograph--friendship's her key." + +"I am sleepy," confessed Cora. + +"I'm tired," admitted Belle. + +"And I'm dead," declared Hazel. + +"Then it's settled. You are each to go to sleep instantly, and if +those fellows blow that horn again, I won't let them in to Betty's +party," and Mr. Rand, in his wonderful, fatherly way, seemed to tuck +each girl into a perfectly comfortable bed. "Now sleep! No more----" + +"Gypsies!" groaned Cora, but although he said not a word in reply, he +knew perfectly well just what she meant. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +THE GYPSY'S WARNING + +It was at Betty's party. And as Mr. Rand had told our friends, Betty +was a wonderful girl--for being happy and making others happy. + +Now, here it was less than a year from the time of her dear mother's +death, and on her own birthday, of course, she would not have a party, +but when Daddy came in with his arms full of company and bundles, as +Betty put it, of course she turned right in and had an impromptu +party--just to make Daddy happy. + +It was an easy matter to gather in a few of the nearby cottagers, of +whom there were many very pleasant samples, and so, when the evening +following the midnight tow arrived, the party from Chelton found +themselves rested and ready for the festivities. As usual, Walter was +devoted to Betty. Jack liked her, Ed admired her, but Walter claimed +her--that was his way. She was a pretty girl of rather an unusual +type, accounted for, her father declared, by the fact that her mother +was an Irish beauty, and gave to Betty that wonderful golden-red hair, +the hazel eyes and the indescribable complexion that is said to come +from generations of buttermilk. + +And withal she was such a little flirt! How she did cling to Walter, +make eyes at Ed and defy Jack, giving to each the peculiar attention +that his special case most needed. + +Belle and Bess found it necessary to take up with some very pleasant +chaps from a nearby hotel, while Cora and Hazel made themselves +agreeable with two friends of Mr. Rand's--boys from New York, who had +many mutual acquaintances with Chelton folks and, therefore, could talk +of other things than gears and gasoline. + +Mr. Rand was on the side porch, and when the drawing-room conversation +waited for the next remark, his voice might be heard in a very animated +discussion. Cora sat near a French window, and she heard: + +"But the hat! How did his particular hat get there?" + +The answer of his friend was not audible. + +"I tell you," went on the gentleman, "this thing has got to be watched. +I don't like it!" + +"Oh, Coral" chirped Belle. "Do sing the 'Gypsy's Warning.' We haven't +heard it since the night----" + +"Walter fished up a chaperon," added Jack, with a laugh. + +"The 'Gypsy's Warning'!" repeated Betty. + +"It's a very old song," explained Cora, "but we had to revive +something, so we revived----" + +"The gyp," finished Ed, getting up and fetching Cora's guitar from the +tete in the corner. "Do sing it, Cora. This is such a gypsy land out +here." + +"Are there?" asked Bess, in sudden alarm. + +"There _are_," said Ed mockingly. "There are gypsy land out here!" + +"Oh, you know perfectly well what I meant," and Bess pursed her lips +prettily. + +"Course I do; if I didn't--land help me--I would need a map and a +horoscope in my pocket every single minute." + +"Come on, Cora, sing," pleaded Hazel. "Let them hear about our +Warning." + +"I'm afraid it's too late," objected Cora with a sly look at Betty and +Walter. "We should have sent the warning on ahead of us." + +She stood up to take the instrument from Ed's hands. She was near the +French window again. + +"I tell you," she heard Mr. Rand say, "these gypsy fellows will stoop +to anything. And as for revenge--they say once a gypsy always a gypsy. +Which means they will stick by each other----" + +"Come on, Cora. We want the song. I remember my mother used to sing +the 'Gypsy's Warning,' and she brought it right down to date--we never +went near a camp," said Walter. + +The threat of the old gypsy woman rang in Cora's ears. She could see +her raise that brown finger and hear her say: "If you harm Salvo, harm +shall be upon your head." Cora had testified against Salvo. A hat +known to belong to a member of the tribe was later found at midnight +under Cora's car, miles from the town where the robbery had been +committed. Were they following her? + +"Oh, really, I can't sing to-night," she protested rather lamely. "I +have a cold." + +The voices on the porch had ceased. Betty was claiming her father for +some game. The evening had not been a great success. + +"And to-morrow," faltered Walter, "we pass on. I wish we had decided +to stay in the Berkshires, but of course the girls must make the White +Mountains," and he fell back in his chair as if overwhelmed. "I fancy +Bess is ambitious to climb Mount Washington." + +"I possibly could--as well as the others," and Bess flushed at the +mention of anything in the flesh-reducing line. "I have always been a +pretty fair climber." + +"Yes, that's right," called Jack. "I remember one time Bess climbed in +the window at school. A lemon pie had been locked up inadvertently." + +"But you ought to see more of Lenox," spoke Betty. "I do wish you +would stay--for a few days at least." + +"So do I," said Walter with flagrant honesty. + +"But the season wanes," remarked Cora, "and we must keep to our +itinerary. Now that my machine has been overhauled I anticipate a +royal run. Betty, can't you come with us? Mr. Rand says you have been +here all summer----" + +"And too much is enough," declared the ensnared Walter. "Betty, if you +would come we might mount Mount Washington." + +"What do you say, papa?" + +"Why, go, of course; it would be the very thing for you. And then, +don't you see, I shouldn't have to give up my job as chaperon," and he +clapped his hands on his knees and chuckled with a relish that all +enjoyed. + +Mr. Rand decided that he would go and take his gorgeous car, and the +pretty, bright little Irish Betty! Why, it would be like starting all +over again! + +Hazel was fingering Cora's guitar. The chords of the "Gypsy's Warning" +just floated through the room. Walter hummed, Jack almost whistled, Ed +looked the part, but Cora! + +Cora, brave, beautiful and capable--Cora jumped up and seemed to find +some flowers in the vases absolutely absorbing. Cora did not take any +part in rendering even the subdued "Gypsy's Warning." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE DISAPPEARANCE + +"But it is lonely, and I think we had best keep close together." + +"But I want to----" + +"Show Betty how beautiful it is to be lonely. Wallie Pennington, you +are breaking your contract. No one was to get----" + +"Personal. Oh, all right--take Betty," and Walter emitted a most +unmusical brawl. "Of course, you and Ed are keeping the contract. You +are doing as you please. Behold Ed now, carrying Cora over a +pebble----" + +"That's because Ed loves _me_," declared Jack, "and he is saving Cora's +boots." + +"All the same, I simply won't carry Bess. She might melt in my arms." + +The young men were exploring the woods in the White Mountains. The +girls were racing about in absolute delight over the ferns, while Mr. +Rand, who had actually taken the "jaunt" from the hotel afoot, sat on a +huge stone comparing notes with his muscles, and with the inactive +years of discretion and indiscretion. + +"They're like a lot of young animals," he was saying to any one near +enough to hear, "and I--I am like something that really ought to know +better." + +"Just suppose," said Jack to Ed, "that a young deer should spring out +just there where Belle and Hazel are sitting. What do you think would +be the act?" + +"Hazel would try to catch the deer, and Belle would go up a tree. Give +me something harder." + +"Well, then, suppose a tramp should come along the path and ask Betty +for the thing that hangs around her neck. What would happen then?" + +"Walter would get mixed up with his trampship. That, too, is easy." + +"Cora says we have got to get back to earth in time for the Chelton +fair. Now, I never thought that Cora cared about that sort of thing," +Walter remarked. + +"But it's the home town, and Cora knows her name is on some committee," +replied Ed. "I guess we will get enough of these wilds in a week. At +any rate, all Cora does care for is the car--she would rather motor +than eat." + +Betty had taken some wild berries to her father. "I say, sis," he +pleaded, "can't we get back? I am stiffening, and you may all have to +get together and carry me." + +"Are you so tired? Poor dad! I didn't think the walk was too much. +But you do feel it!" and she sat down on a soft clump of grass at his +feet. "Well, as soon as the girls get their ferns and things they want +to take home for specimens, we will start back. If you really are +tired, we could get a carriage at the foot of the hill." + +"And have you youngsters laugh at me! Never! I would die walking +first," and Mr. Rand stretched himself to show how near death he really +was. "Now, I tell you, we will all take the bus back. That would be +more like it." + +This suggestion was rapidly spread among the woodland party, and when +the girls did finally consent to desert the growing things and leave a +"speck of something for the rabbits to eat," as Jack put it, the start +for the hotel was made. + +At the foot of the hill, or the opening of the mountain path, an old +woman, a gypsy, stood with the inevitable basket on her arm. + +"Tell your fortune, lady? Tell you the truth," she called, and +actually put her hand out to stop Cora as she was passing. "Tell it +for a quarter." + +"Take a basketful," suggested Ed, sotto voce. "I would like to know +what's going to become of Wallie when we get back to Chelton." + +As usual, Walter was helping Betty, who, with her light laugh and +equally light step, was making her way over the last stones of the wood +way. + +"Tell your fortune----" + +"Oh, no," called back Mr. Rand, who had stopped to see what was +delaying the party. "We don't need to be told. Here woman," and he +threw back a coin, "take this and buy a--new shawl." + +All this time the woman was standing directly in Cora's way. The path +was very narrow, and on either side was close brushwood. Cora stepped +in the bushes in order to get out to the road, and as she did she +stumbled and fell. + +In an instant Ed had caught her up, but not before the old woman had +peered deep into Cora's face, had actually moved her scarf as if +looking for some mark of recognition. + +"I'll help her up," the woman exclaimed, when she saw that Ed was angry +enough to thrust her to the edge of the pathway. "I see a fine fortune +in her eyes. They are black, her hair is black, and she has the +appearance of the girl who runs an automobile. Oh, yes, I remember!" +and she now turned away satisfied. "These girls ride much. But +she--she is their leader!" + +"Oh, come," whispered Belle. "I am so frightened. That is one of the +gypsies from the beach camp." + +Cora had regained her feet, and with a bruised hand was now passing +along with the others. + +"We might have had a couple of quarts of fortune out of that basket +just as well as not," insisted Jack. "I never saw anything so handy." + +"Oh, those gypsies are a pest," declared Mr. Rand. "But I am just +superstitious enough not to want to offend any of them. I claim to be +a first-class chaperon--first-class!" + +"Are you hurt, Cora?" asked Bess, seeing that Cora was pressing her +hand to her lips. + +"Only scratched from the brush," and she winced. "Those berry bushes +seem to have a grudge against me." + +"But the old Gypsy?" asked Bess, as the two girls stood close together. + +"Oh, I didn't mind her rant," replied Cora. "They always have +something wonderful to tell one." + +"I wish they would not cross our path so often," went on the other +girl. "Seems to me they have been the one drawback of our entire trip." + +"Let us hope that they will now be satisfied," said Cora with that +indefinite manner which so often conveys a stronger meaning than might +have been intended. + +Both girls sighed. Then they joined the others, while the old gypsy +woman looked after them sharply. + +Ed was hailing the driver of the bus--"Silent Bill," they called him, +because he was never known to keep still, not even at his grandmother's +funeral. Silent Bill lost no time in getting his horses headed right, +also in starting out to describe the wonders and beauties of the White +Mountains. + +It was fun to take the bus ride, and no one was more pleased at the +prospect than was Mr. Rand. + +"Nothing like sitting down square," he declared. "Why young folks +always want to walk themselves into the grave is more than I pretend to +understand." + +"My, but that old gypsy woman did frighten me," said Belle to Hazel. +"I never saw such a look as she gave Cora! I honestly thought she was +going to drop. Maybe she----" + +"Blew powder into her eyes. The same thought came to me," replied +Hazel. "Well, I hope we won't see any more gypsies until we get within +police precincts. We have had enough of them here." + +Then Silent Bill called out something about how the air in those peaks +would make a dead man well. "Look at them peaks!" he insisted. +"That's what fetches folks up here every summer." + +"They fetched me down," remarked Mr. Rand, "but then I never did care +for peaks." + +"Now, Mr. Rand," corrected Cora, "didn't you take a peek into my auto +the night it broke down? Seems to me there are peeks and peaks----" + +Amid laughter they rode along, enjoying the splendid scenery and +bracing air, but the gypsy's face was haunting Cora. + +That evening there was to be a hop at the hotel. As many of the +patrons were soon leaving for home, it was expected that the affair +would be entered into with all the energy that could be summoned from +the last of the season. There would not be another big affair until +the next summer, so all must "make hay" while the lights held out. + +Our friends had some trouble in finding just the correct wearing things +in the small auto trunks, but pretty girls can so safely depend upon +youth and good manners that simple frocks were pressed literally and +physically for the occasion, whereas many of the all-season guests at +the Tip-Top were not so self-reliant. Motor-made complexions, and the +eyes that go with that peculiar form of beauty, formed a combination +beyond dispute. + +Cora wore her pale yellow poplin, Betty was in all white, of course; +Bess looked like an apple blossom in something pinkish, and Belle was +the evening star in her dainty blue. Hazel "had on" a light green +affair. We say "had on," for that's the way Hazel had of wearing +things--she hated the bother of fixing up. + +The young men were not expected to have evening "togs" in their +runabout traps, but they did have some really good-looking, fresh, +summer flannels that made them appear just as well dressed and much +better looking than some of the "swells" in their regular dress suits. + +"What a wonderful time!" exclaimed Betty. "I never thought we could +have such a jolly good time at a regular hotel affair." + +"Why?" asked Hazel, wondering. + +"Because there are so many kinds of people that----" + +"We are all chorus, and no spot light?" interrupted Walter +mischievously. "But we might put you up on the window sill." + +"Indeed!" and the little lady flounced off. "Now you may fill in that +girl's card over there--the red-headed one. She has been looking at +you most all evening, and I have promised at least four dances." + +Walter looked as if he would fall at Betty's feet if there had been +sufficient room. + +"Betty! Betty!" he begged. "If you do not give me the 'Yale' I shall +leave the ballroom instanter." + +"Oh, if you really want it," agreed Betty, and off they went. + +Bess was soon "puffed out" with the vigorous dance. She was with Jack. + +"Let's sit it out," she suggested. "I seem to be all out of breath." + +"Certainly," agreed Jack. "But couldn't I get some for you, or send +you some?" + +"Some what?" + +"Breath, wasn't that what you wanted? Here is a splendid place for a +breathing spell." + +Bess laughed and sat down with her partner. + +"There are all sorts of ways to dance," she remarked as the +"red-headed" girl, who had eyes for Walter, stepped on her toes in +passing. + +"Those girls from the Breakwater seem to have spite against us," +remarked Jack. "That is the second time they have stepped on our toes." + +"And she is no featherweight," answered Bess, frowning. + +"Strange thing that good clothes cannot cover bad manners," went on +Jack, who was plainly annoyed. "Let us take the other bench. She +can't possibly reach us in the alcove." + +Cora was just gliding by. + +"Lazy," she called lightly. "You are missing the best dance." + +"I'm tired," replied Bess. "Besides we want to watch you." + +At this Ed, who was Cora's partner, gave a wonderful swirl to show just +how beautifully he and Cora could do the "Yale Rush." + +"Cora is _such_ a good dancer," Bess whispered to Jack, "but then Cora +is good at most everything." There was no sarcasm in her tone. + +"Oh yes, for a little sister she is all right," agreed the young man. +"She might be worse." + +"Oh," exclaimed Bess suddenly. "I saw such a face at that window!" + +"Plenty of faces around here to-night," observed Jack lightly. + +"But that--oh! let us go away from here. I am nervous!" + +"Certainly," and Jack took her arm. "Now if that were Belle," he +proceeded calmly, and then paused. + +Bess was actually trembling when they crossed to the stairway, but she +soon recovered her composure. + +She said nothing more about the face she had seen peering through the +window and tried to forget it, as the dance went on. + +After the "Paul Jones," a feature of the Tip-Top affairs, had been +danced, every one wanted to cool off or down, according to the +temperature desired. Cora was with Ed. They had drifted out on a side +porch. Without any preamble one of the waiters touched Ed on the arm +and told him there was a message for him waiting in the office. + +"How do you know it's for me?" asked Ed, astonished. + +"You are with the motor girls, aren't you?" replied the man, as if that +were an explanation. + +"I'll take you back to the others," said Ed to Cora. "I may as well +see what it is." + +"Oh, run along. It may be something urgent," suggested Cora. "I can +slip back into the dance room when I want to, or I can wait here. You +won't be long." + +Ed followed the waiter indoors, then went into the office as he +directed. He was not absent more than ten minutes, but when he +returned to the porch Cora was gone! + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +MISSING + +"I left her here ten minutes ago!" gasped Ed, trembling with +excitement, as he related the news. + +"She must have gone inside," replied Jack, equally alarmed. "We must +look before we tell the others." + +"No, give the alarm first, and look afterward," insisted Ed. "The +thing that counts is to find her; people's nerves may rest afterwards. +I think we had best call the hotel manager. That message sent me was a +fake. It was an envelope addressed to me, and contained nothing but a +blank paper. It was a game to get me away from Cora!" + +"Perhaps you are right. But I do hate to alarm every one. I know that +Cora would feel that way herself. What's this?" and Jack stooped to +the porch floor. "Her fan!" + +Ed almost snatched the trinket from Jack's hand. "The chain is +broken," he said, "and she had it on when I left her. I remember how +she dropped the fan to her side and it hung there." + +Here was a new proof of something very wrong--the chain was broken in +two places. + +"Don't let us waste a moment," begged Ed, starting for the hotel +office. "I will speak with the manager first." + +Jack felt as if something was gripping at his heart. Cora gone! Could +it be possible that anything had really happened to her? Could she +have been kidnapped? No, she must be somewhere with some of the girls. + +He followed Ed mechanically into the office. The manager was at the +desk looking over the register. + +"A young lady has just disappeared from the west-end porch," began Ed, +rather awkwardly, "and I fear that something strange has happened to +her. I was called in here by this fake message"--he produced a slip of +blank paper--"and while I was in here she disappeared." + +"No one else gone?" asked the manager with a questioning smile. + +"Why, no," replied Ed indignantly. "I was with Miss Kimball almost up +to the moment she disappeared." + +Jack stepped forward. "I know that my sister would not give us one +moment's anxiety were it in her power to avoid it," he said. "She is +the most thoughtful girl in the world." + +The manager was looking at the envelope Ed held. "Who did you say told +you about this?" he asked of Ed. + +"A waiter." + +"Just come along with me, and we will see the waiters and kitchen men +before we disturb the guests," said the manager. + +They passed through the halls, where knots of the guests were strolling +about passing the time between the dances--all apparently happy and +contented. But Jack and Ed! What would be the outcome of their +anxiety? + +"This way," said the hotel proprietor. "Let me see, you are----" he +paused suggestively. + +"My name is Foster, and this is Mr. Kimball," said Ed. + +In the kitchen they found everything in confusion. The chef had lined +up every man in the department, and he was questioning them. + +"What's this?" asked Mr. Blake, the proprietor. + +"Some one has been in here, or some one here has made away with a lot +of the silver and with money from the men's pockets," replied the chef +indignantly. "We have got to find out who is the culprit. I won't +stand for that sort of thing." + +"Certainly not," Mr. Blake assured him, "but perhaps we can help you. +Mr. Foster, will you kindly pick out the man who told you about that +message?" + +The men stood up. Ed scrutinized each carefully. + +"None of these," he said finally. + +"Are you sure every one is here, Max?" asked Mr. Blake. + +"Every one, sir; even the last man I hired, who has never had an apron +on yet." + +"Could it be any one from the outside?" faltered Jack. + +"No one could get in here and manage to make his way through----" + +"Excuse me, sir," said a very blond young waiter, "but I think a +stranger has been in here. My locker was broken open and my apron--one +of the best--is gone." + +"Is that so?" spoke Mr. Blake sharply. "Then we have no time to spare. +The young lady----" + +"Oh, don't say it," cried Jack. "Cora kidnapped!" + +"Jack, old boy, be brave," whispered Ed, patting him on the shoulder. +"Wherever Cora is, the gods are with her!" + +"We must first institute a thorough search," declared Mr. Blake. "You +men form an outside posse. Be quick. Search every inch of the +grounds. Max, no more kitchen duty to-night. Here, Ben, you ring the +hall bell. That will bring the porters together. Then, Dave"--to a +handsome young Englishman--"I put you in charge. That young lady must +be found tonight." + +Ed and Jack exchanged glances. Would she really be found? Oh, how +terrible it all seemed! + +"I must speak with Mr. Rand," said Jack. "Ed, you tell the girls." + +All that had been gayety and gladness was instantly turned into +consternation and confusion. A young lady lured away from the Tip-Top! +And the hotel crowded with guests! + +Belle was obliged to call for a doctor. Nor was it any case of +imagined nerves. The excitement of the big ball had been enough, the +disappearance of Cora was more than her weak heart could stand. Bess +tried to be brave, but to lose Cora! Then she recalled the face at the +window. + +Hazel and Betty waited for nothing, but took up a lantern and started +out to search. If she had fallen down some place! Oh, if they could +only make her hear them! + +"Here, porter," called Mr. Rand, when he had heard all the details that +could be given, "get me a donkey--a good, lively donkey. I can manage +one of the little beasts better than I can a horse. I used to ride one +in Egypt. I'll go over the hills if it is midnight." + +"Oh, don't, Mr. Rand," begged Jack. "You are not strong enough to go +over the mountains that way." + +"I am not, eh! Well, young man, I'll show you!" and he was already +waiting for the donkey to be brought up from the hotel stables. +"Nothing like a good donkey for a thing that has to be done." + +But it was such a wild wilderness--the sort chosen just on that account +for hotel purposes. And after the brilliancy of the ballroom it did +seem so very dark out of doors. + +"This way, Hazel," said Betty courageously. "I know the loneliest +spot. Maybe she has been stolen, and might be hidden away in that +hollow." + +"But if we go there alone----" + +"I'm not afraid," and Betty clutched her light stick. "If I found her, +they would hear me scream all the way to--Portland!" + +Men were searching all over the grounds. Every possible sort of +outdoor lantern had been pressed into service, and the glare of +searchlights flickered from place to place like big fireflies. + +It was terrible--everything dreadful was being imagined. Only Ed, +Walter and Jack tried to see a possibility of some mistake--of some +reasonable explanation. + +It was exciting at first, that strange, dark hunt, but it soon became +dreary, dull and desolate. + +Hazel and Betty gave up to have a good cry. Jack and Ed insisted upon +following Mr. Rand on horses, making their way over the mountain roads +and continually calling Cora. + +Walter followed the advice of the hotel proprietor, and went to notify +the drivers of a stage line, which took passengers on at the Point. + +But how suddenly all had been thrown into a panic of fear at the loss +of Cora! Not a girl to play pranks, in spite of some whispers about +the hotel, those most concerned knew that Cora Kimball was at least +being held a prisoner against her will somewhere; by whom, or with +whom, no one could conjecture. + +What really had become of daring, dashing Cora Kimball? + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +KIDNAPPED + +"Oh! Where am I?" + +"Hush! You are safe! But keep very quiet." + +Then Cora forgot--something smelled so strong, and she felt so sleepy. + +"We are almost there!" + +"But see the lights!" + +"They will never turn into the gully!" + +"If they do----" + +"I'll----" + +"Hush!" + +"She is a strong girl!" + +"So much the better. Give her a drink." + +"I don't like it." + +"You don't have to." + +"Do you know what they do now with kidnappers?" + +"She's no kid." + +"But it's just the same." + +"Hold your tongue. You have given me more bother than she has." + +"Salvo deserved what he got." + +"You deserve something, too," and the older woman, speaking to a young +girl, gave the latter a blow with a whip. The girl winced, and showed +her white teeth. She would some day break away from Mother Hull. + +They were riding in a gypsy wagon through the mountains, and it was one +hour after Cora Kimball had been taken away from the porch of the +Tip-Top. The drivers of the wagon were the most desperate members of +the North Woods gypsy clan, and they had not the slightest fear that +the searchers, who were actually almost flashing their lights in to the +very wagon that bore Cora away, could ever discover her whereabouts. + +It was close and ill-smelling in that van. Cora was not altogether +unconscious, and she turned uneasily on the bundle of straw deep in the +bottom of the big wagon. + +"She is waking," said the girl presently. + +"She can now, if she's a mind to. We are in Dusky Hollow." + +"I won't be around when she does awake. I don't like it." + +"If you say any more, I'll give you a dose. Maybe you--want--to go--to +sleep." + +"When I want to I shall," and the black eyes flashed in the darkness. +"We did not promise to----" + +"Shut up!" and again that whip rang like the whisper of some frightened +tree. + +"Oh, stop!" yelled the girl, "or I shall----" + +"Oh, no, you--won't. You just hold--your tongue." + +The horses shied, and the wagon skidded. Were they held up? + +"Right there, Sam," ordered the driver. "Easy--steady, Ned. Pull over +here." + +The wagons moved forward again, and the women felt that the possible +danger of discovery had passed. + +"Keep quiet in there," called a rough voice from the seat. "These +woods are thick with trailers." + +For some time no one within the van spoke. Then Cora turned, and the +woman wearing the thick hood clapped something over Cora's nose. + +"Oh, don't! She has had enough. Let her at least live," begged the +younger woman, actually fanning Cora's white face with her own soiled +handkerchief. + +The night seemed blacker and darker at each turn. Shouts from the +searchers occasionally reached the ears of those within the wagon, and +once Mr. Rand on his donkey might have seen them but for the trickery +of the driver, who pulled his horses into some shadowy bushes and +waited for the searchers to pass. + +The young gypsy woman peered down into Cora's face. + +"She's pretty," she said, with some sympathy. + +"Well, by the time she's out perhaps she won't be so pretty," sneered +the older woman. "I swore revenge for Salvo, and I'll have it." + +"Oh, you and Salvo! Seems to me a man ought to be able----" + +"You cat! Do you want to go back to the cave?" + +The girl was silent again. + +"Where--am I? Jack! Jack!" Cora moaned. + +"Here! Don't you dare give her another drop of that stuff, or +I'll--squeal!" + +The old woman stopped, and in the darkness of the wagon Mother Hull +felt, rather than saw, that the younger one would do as she threatened. +She might shout! Then those searching the woods would hear. + +"We will soon be there. Then she may call for Jack until her throat is +sore!" muttered the hag. + +Cora tossed on her bed of straw. The chloroform kept her quiet, but +she knew and felt that she was being borne away somewhere into that +dark and lonely night. She could remember now how Ed had gone inside +the hotel, and he had not come back! He would be back presently, and +yes, she would try to sleep until he returned! + +She moaned and tried to call, but her voice was like that strange +struggle of sound that comes in nightmare. It means nothing except to +the sleeper. + +"She's choking," said the gypsy girl. + +"Let her," replied Mother Hull. "We can dump her easily here." + +"You--hag!" almost screamed the girl. "I will shout if you don't give +her air." + +"Here! here!" called a voice from the seat. "If you two can't keep +quiet, you know what we can do!" + +"She's choking!" insisted the girl. + +"Let her!" mocked the man. + +"I--won't. Help! Help!" yelled the girl, and as she did the light of +a powerful automobile lamp was directed into the gypsy wagon! + +"There they are!" could be heard plainly. + +"Where?" asked the anxious ones. + +"In the gulch! Head them off! I saw a wagon!" + +Quicker than any one save a mountaineer knew how to swing around, that +wagon swerved, turned and was again lost in the darkness. + +"Thought they had us!" called the man from the seat. "Lena, you will +pay for this!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE DEN OF THE GYPSY QUEEN + +Cora opened her eyes. Standing over her was a woman--or was it a +dream? A woman with flowing hair, beautiful, dark eyes, a band of gold +like a crown about her head, and shimmering, dazzling stuff on her +gown. Was Cora really awake? + +"Well," said the figure, "you are not bad-looking." + +"Oh, I am so--sick," moaned Cora. + +"I'll ring for something. Would you take wine?" + +"No, thank you; water," murmured Cora. + +The moments were becoming more real to Cora, but with consciousness +came that awful sickness and that dizziness. She looked at the woman +in the flowing red robes. Who could she be? Surely she was beautiful, +and her face was kind and her manner sweet. + +The woman pulled a small cord, and presently a girl appeared to answer. + +"What, madam?" asked the girl. + +"Some limewater and some milk. And for me, some new cigarettes. Those +Sam brought I could not use. You will find my key in my dressing +table." + +She turned to Cora as the girl left. "You may have anything you want," +she said, "and you need not worry. No harm will come to you. I rather +think we shall be great friends." + +She sat down on some soft cushions on the floor. + +Then Cora noticed that her own resting place was also on the floor--a +sort of flat couch--soft, but smelling so strongly of some strange +odor. Was it smoke or perfume? + +"Do you mind if I smoke?" asked the woman. "I am Helka, the gypsy +queen. That is, they call me that, although I am really Lillian, and I +never had any fancy for this queening." She smiled bitterly. The girl +entered again with a tray and a small silver case. "The water is for +my friend," said the queen, and the girl walked over to Cora. "Do you +think you are strong enough to take milk? Perhaps you would like lime +in it." + +"Thank you very much," murmured Cora, "but I am very sick, and I have +never been ill before." + +"It is the chloroform. It is sickish stuff, and Sam said you had to +have a big dose." + +"Chloroform!" + +"Yes, don't you know? Don't you remember anything?" + +"Yes, I was on the hotel porch with Ed." + +"With Ed? I wish they had kidnapped Ed, although you are very nice, +and when I heard them putting you in the dark room, where we put the +bad gypsy girls, I insisted upon them bringing you right here. I had +some trouble, Sam is a rough one, but I conquered. And let me tell you +something." She stooped very low and whispered, "Trust me! Don't ask +any questions when the girls are around. You may have everything but +freedom!" + +"Am I a prisoner?" + +"Don't you remember the gypsy's warning? Didn't Mother Hull warn you +not to go against Salvo?" + +"The robber?" + +"Hush! They are listening at that door, and I want you to stay with +me. Are you very tired?" She was lighting a cigarette. "I would play +something for you. Do you like music?" + +"Sometimes," said Cora, "but I am afraid I am going to cry----" + +"That's the reason I want to make some noise. They won't come in here, +and they won't know you are crying. We must make them think you like +it here." + +Cora turned and buried her face in the cushions. She realized that she +had been abducted, and was being held a prisoner in this strange place. +But she must--she felt she must--do as the woman told her. Just a few +tears from sheer nervousness, then she would be brave. + +"Don't you ever smoke?" asked the queen. "I should die or run the risk +of the dogs except for my cigarettes." + +"The risk----" + +"Hush! Yes, they have dreadful dogs. I, too, am," she whispered, "a +prisoner. I will tell you about it later." + +She picked up an instrument and fingered it. It seemed like the harp, +but it was not much larger than a guitar. The chords were very sweet, +very deep and melodious. She was a skilled musician; even in her +distress Cora could not fail to notice that. + +"I haven't any new music," said the queen. "They promised to fetch me +some, but this trouble has kept the whole band busy. Now, how do you +like this?" She swept her white fingers over the strings like some +fairy playing with a wind-harp. "That is my favorite composition." + +"Do you compose?" + +"Oh, yes, it gives me something to do, and I never could endure +painting or sewing, so I work out pretty tunes and put them on paper. +Sometimes they send them to the printers for me." + +"Do you never leave here? Am I in America?" asked Cora. + +"Bless you, yes, you are in America; but no, to the other question. I +have never left this house or the grounds since I came to America." + +"From----" + +"England. You see, I am not a noble gypsy, for I live in a house and +have sat on chairs, although they don't like it. This house is an old +mansion in the White Mountains." + +"It is your home?" asked Cora timidly. + +"It ought to be. They bought it with my mother's money." + +Cora sipped the water, then, feeling weak, she took a mouthful of the +milk. Every moment she was becoming stronger. Every moment the +strange scene around her was exciting her interest more fully. + +"What time is it?" she asked wearily. + +"Have you no idea?" + +"Is it morning?" + +"Almost." + +"And you are not in bed?" + +"Oh, I sleep when I feel like it. You see, I have nothing else to do." + +Cora wondered. Nothing to do? + +"Besides, we were waiting up for you, and I could not go to sleep until +you came." + +"You expected me?" + +"For days. We knew you were in the mountains." + +"How?" asked Cora. + +"Because one of our men followed you. He said you almost caught him." + +Cora vaguely remembered the man under the auto when they had been +stalled in the hills. That must have been the fellow. + +"My friends," stammered Cora, "my brother will be ill of fright, and my +mother----" + +"Now, my dear," said the queen, "if you will only trust me, I shall do +all I can for you. I might even get word to your brother. I love +brothers. Once I had one." + +"Is he dead?" asked Cora kindly. + +"I do not know. You see, I was once a very silly girl. Would you +believe it? I am twenty-five years old!" + +"I thought you young, but that is not old." + +"Ages. But some day--who can tell what you and I may do?" + +In making this remark she mumbled and hissed so that no one, whose eyes +were not upon her at the moment she spoke, could have understood her. + +Cora took courage. Perhaps she could help this strange creature. +Perhaps, after all, the imprisonment might lead to something of benefit. + +"I could sleep, if you would like to," said Cora, for her eyes were +strangely heavy and her head ached. + +"When I finish my cigarette. You see, I am quite dissipated." + +She was the picture of luxurious ease--not of dissipation--and as Cora +looked at her she was reminded of those highly colored pictures of +Cleopatra. + +It was, indeed, a strange imprisonment, but Cora was passing through a +strange experience. Who could tell what would be the end of it all? + +Cora's heart was beating wildly. She could not sleep, although her +eyes were so heavy, and her head ached fiercely. The reaction from +that powerful drug was setting in, and with that condition came all the +protests of an outraged nature. She tossed on her couch. The gypsy +queen heard her. + +"What is it?" she asked. "Can you not sleep?" + +"I don't know," Cora stammered in reply. "I wonder why they took me?" + +"You were to appear against Salvo at his trial, I understood. It was +necessary to stop you. Perhaps that is one reason," said the gypsy. +"But try to sleep." + +For some moments there was silence, and Cora dozed off. Suddenly she +awoke with a wild start. + +"Oh!" she screamed. "Let me go! Jack! Jack!" + +"Hush!" whispered the gypsy. "It would not be safe for them to hear +you." She pressed her hand to the forehead of the delirious girl. +"You must have had a nightmare." + +Cora sighed. Then it was not a dream, it was real! She was still a +captive. + +"Oh, I cannot help it," she sobbed. "If only I could die!" Then she +stopped and touched the gentle hand that was stroking her brow. "You +must not mind what I say to-night. It has all been so terrible," she +finished. + +"But I like you, and will be your friend," assured the voice as the +other leaned so closely toward her. "Yet, I cannot blame you for +suffering. It is only natural. Let me give you some mineral water. +That may soothe your nerves." + +The light was turned higher, and the form in the white robe flitted +over to a cabinet. Cora could see that this gypsy wore a thin, silky +robe. It was as white as snow, and in it the young woman looked some +living statue. + +"I am giving you a great deal of trouble," Cora murmured. "I hope I +will be able to repay you some day." + +"Oh, as for that, I am glad to have something to do. I have always +read of the glory of nursing. Now I may try it. I am very vain and +selfish. All I do I do for my own glory. If you are better, and I +have made you so, I will be quite satisfied." + +She poured the liquid into a glass, and handed it to the sick girl. + +"Thank you," whispered Cora. "Now I will sleep. I was only dreaming +when I called out." + +"They say I have clairvoyant power. I shall put you to sleep." + +The gypsy sat down beside Cora. Without touching her face she was +passing her hands before Cora's eyes. The latter wondered if this +might not be unsafe. Suppose the gypsy should hypnotize her into sleep +and that she might not be able to awaken? Yet the sensation was so +soothing! Cora thought, then stopped thinking. Sleep was coming +almost as it had come when the man seized her. + +Drowsy, delightfully drowsy! Then sleep! + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +CORA AND HELKA + +"What a wonderful morning! It makes me think of the Far East," said +the gypsy queen. + +"Have you been there?" asked Cora politely. + +"Yes, I have been many places," replied Helka, "and to-day I will have +a chance to tell you some queer stories about myself. I have a lover." + +"Then you are content here? You are not lonely?" + +"But I dare not own him as a lover; he is not a gypsy." + +"This is America. You should be free." + +"Yes," and she sighed. "I wonder shall I ever be able to get away!" + +"Shall _I_?" + +How strange! Two such beautiful young women prisoners in the heart of +the White Mountains! + +Cora repeated her question. + +"Perhaps," answered Helka. "You see, they might fear punishment if you +escaped; with me it would be--my punishment." + +"But what shall I do?" sighed Cora. "Do you really think they intend +to keep me here?" + +"Is this not a pleasant place?" + +"It is indeed--with you. And I am glad that, bad as it is, I have had +a chance to know you. I feel some day that I shall have a chance to +help you." + +"You are a cheerful girl. I was afraid you would put in all your time +crying. Then they would take you away." + +"No use to cry," replied Cora, as brightly as she could. "Of course, +it is dreadful. But, at least, I am not being abused." + +"Nor shall you be. The gypsies are not cruel; they are merely +revengeful. I think I like them because they are my truest friends in +all the whole, wide world." + +A tap at the door stopped the conversation. Then a girl entered. She +was the one who had been in the van with Cora! + +She looked keenly at the captive and smiled. + +"Do you wish anything?" she asked of the queen. + +"Yes, breakfast to-day must be double. You see, Lena, I have a friend." + +"Yes, I see. I am glad she is better." + +"Thank you," said Cora, but, of course, she had no way of knowing how +this girl had tried to befriend her in the gypsy wagon. + +"We have some splendid berries. I picked them before the sun touched +them," said Lena. "And fresh milk; also toast, and what else?" + +"We will leave it to you, Lena. I know Sam went to market." + +"Yes, and will the young lady like some of your robes? I thought that +dress might not suit for daylight." + +Cora was still wearing her handsome yellow gown that she had worn at +the Tip-Top ball. It did look strange in the bright, early morning +sunshine. + +"Would you?" asked Helka of Cora. "I have a good bathroom, and there +is plenty of water." She smiled and showed that wonderful set of +teeth. Cora thought she had never before seen such human pearls. + +"It is very kind of you," and Cora sighed. "If I must stay I suppose I +may as well be practical about it." + +"Oh, yes," Lena ventured. "They all like you, and it will be so much +better not to give any trouble." + +"You see, Lena knows," said the queen. "Yes, Lena, get out something +pretty, and Miss----" + +"Cora," supplied the prisoner. + +"Cora? What an odd name! But it suits you. There is so much coral in +your cheeks. Yes, Miss Cora must wear my English robe--the one with +the silver crown." + +To dress in the robes of a gypsy queen! If only this were a play, and +not so tragically real! + +But the thought was not comforting. It meant imprisonment. Cora had +determined to be brave, but it was hard. Yet she must hope that +something unexpected would happen to rescue her. + +"Lena is my maid," explained Helka. "I tell her more than any of the +others. And she fetches my letters secretly. Have you not one for me +today, Lena?" + +The girl slipped her hand in her blouse and produced a paper. The +queen grasped it eagerly. "Oh, yes," she said, "I knew he would write. +Good David!" and she tore open the envelope. Cora watched her face and +guessed that the missive was from the lover. Lena went out to bring +the breakfast things. + +"If only I could go out and meet him!" said the queen, finishing the +letter. "I would run away and marry him. He has been so good to wait +so long. Just think! He has followed me from England!" + +"And you never meet him?" + +"Not since they suspect. It was then they bought the two fierce dogs. +I would never dare pass them. Sometimes they ask me to take a ride in +the big wagon, but I never could ride in that. You see, I am not all a +gypsy. My father was a sort of Polish nobleman and my mother was part +English. She became interested in the great question of the poor, and +so left society for this--the free life. My father was also a +reformer, and they were married twice--to make sure. It is my father's +money that keeps me like this, and, of course, the tribe does not want +to lose me." + +"And this man David?" + +"I met him when I rode like a queen in an open chariot in a procession. +That is, he saw me, and, like the queens in the old stories, he managed +to get a note to me. Then I had him come to the park we were quartered +in. And since then--but it does seem so long!" + +"Could not Lena take a letter for me?" asked Cora timidly. + +"Oh, no! They would punish her very severely if she interfered in your +case. You see, Salvo must be avenged and released from jail. I always +hated Salvo!" + +Cora was silent. Presently the girl returned and placed the linen +tablecloth on the floor. Following her came the other girl, with a +tray of things. It was strange to see them set the table on the floor, +but Cora remembered that this was a custom of the wanderers. When the +breakfast had been arranged, the queen slipped down beside her coffee +like a creature devoid of bones. + +She was very graceful and agile--like some animal of the forest. Cora +took her place, with limbs crossed, and felt like a Turk. But the +repast was not uninviting. The berries were fresh, and the milk was in +a clean bowl; in fact, everything showed that the queen's money had +bought the service. + +They talked and ate. Helka was very gay, the letter must have +contained cheering news, and Cora was reminded how much she would have +loved to have had a single word from one of her dear ones. But she +must hope and wait. + +"Do take some water cress," pressed the strange hostess, possibly +noting that Cora ate little. "I think this cress in America is one of +your real luxuries. We have never before camped at a place where it +could be gathered fresh from the spring." Daintily she laid some on +the green salad on a thin slice of the fresh bread, and after offering +the salt and pepper, placed the really "civilized" sandwich on the +small plate beside Cora. "There is just one thing I should love to go +into the world for," said the queen. "I would love to have my meals at +a hotel. I am savagely fond of eating." + +"We had such a splendid hotel," answered Cora with a sigh. "It seems a +mockery that I cannot invite you there with me--that even I cannot go +myself. I keep turning the matter over and over in my mind, and the +more I think the more impossible it all seems." + +"Nothing is impossible in Gypsy land," replied the queen, helping +herself to some berries. "And it may even not be impossible to do as +you suggest. But we must wait," and she smiled prettily. "You have a +very great habit of haste; feverish haste, the books call it. I +believe it is worse for one's complexion than are cigarettes. Let me +begin making a Gypsy of you by teaching you to wait. You have a great +deal to wait for." + +Cora glanced around her to avoid the eyes of the speaker. Surely she +did have a great deal to wait for. "Do you stay in doors all the +time?" she asked, glad to think of some leading question. "I should +think that would hurt your complexion." + +"We often walk in the grounds. You see, we own almost all the woods, +but I am afraid they will not trust you yet. You will have to promise +me that you will not try to escape if I ask that you be allowed to walk +with me soon," said Helka. + +"I could not promise that," Cora replied sadly. + +"Oh, I suppose not now. I will not ask you. We will just be good +friends. And I will tell you about David. It is delightful to have +some one whom I can trust to tell about him." + +"And I will tell you about my friends! Perhaps I will not be so lonely +if I talk of them." + +Cora was now strong enough in nerve and will to observe her +surroundings. The room was very large, and was undoubtedly used +formerly as a billiard parlor, for it was situated in the top of the +big house, and on all sides were windows, even a colored glass skylight +in the roof. The floors were of hardwood and covered partially with +foreign rugs. There were low divans, but no tables nor chairs. The +whole scene was akin to that described as oriental. Lena returned with +the robes for Cora, and laid them on a divan. Then she adjusted a +screen, thus forming a dressing room in one corner. This corner was +hung with an oblong mirror, framed in wonderful ebony. Helka saw that +this attracted Cora's attention. + +"You are wondering about my glass? It was a gift from my father to my +mother, and is all I have left of her beautiful things. It has been +very difficult to carry that about the world." + +"It is very handsome and very massive," remarked Cora. + +"Yes, I love black things; I like ebony. They called my mother Bonnie, +for she had ebony eyes and hair." + +"So have you," said Cora. + +"I am glad you are dark; it will make it easier, and the tribe will +think you are safer. I really would like to get you back to your +friends, but then I should lose you. And I don't see, either, how it +ever could be managed unless they want to let you go." + +Cora sighed heavily. Then she prepared to don the garb of the gypsy +queen! + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +MOTHER HULL + +"Mother Hull wants to talk with you, Helka." + +"She must send her message by you," said Helka to Lena. "I never get +along with Mother Hull." + +Cora gasped, and then sighed the sigh of relief. Would that dreadful +old woman enter the room and perhaps insult her? + +"She is very--cross," ventured Lena. + +"No more so than I am. Tell her to send her message." + +"But if she will not?" + +"Then I will not hear it." + +"There may be trouble." + +"I have my laws." + +The girl left the room, evidently not satisfied. + +Presently there was a shuffling of aged feet in the big, bare outside +hall. Helka turned, and her eyes flashed angrily. + +"Go behind the screen," she said to Cora. "If she wants to see you, +she must have my permission." + +At that the door opened, and the old gypsy woman entered. + +"I told you not to come," said Helka. + +"But I had to. It is----" + +She stopped and looked over the room carefully. + +"Oh, she is here," said the queen, "but you are not to see her." + +"Why?" + +"Because I have said so. You know my laws." + +The old woman looked as if she would like to have struck down the +daring young queen. But her clinched fist was hidden in her apron. + +"Helka, if they take this house they take you." + +"Who is going to take it now?" + +"The new tribe. They have sent word. We must give in or they govern." + +The new tribe! That might mean more freedom for Helka. But she must +be cautious--this old woman was the backbone of all the tribes, and +every word she spoke might mean good or evil to all the American +gypsies. She was all-powerful, in spite of Helka's pretended power. + +"They cannot take my house," said Helka finally. "I have the oath of +ownership." + +The woman shook her head. All the while her eyes were searching for +Cora, and she knew very well that the stolen girl was back of that +screen. She wanted to see her, to know what she looked like in +daylight; also to know how she was behaving. + +"What did she say about Salvo?" hissed the woman. + +"She says nothing of him. Why should she? Salvo did wrong. He should +be sent to jail." + +This was a daring remark, and Helka almost wished she had not made it. +The eyes of the old woman fairly blazed with anger. + +"You--you dare--to speak that way!" + +Helka nodded her head with apparent unconcern. + +"Why not?" + +"There is always--revenge. I might take your girl friend farther into +the mountains. That would leave you time to behave." + +"Have we so many houses?" almost sneered the younger woman. + +"There are holes, and caves and rivers," answered the woman, with the +plain intention of frightening the disloyal one into submission. + +"We left off that sort of thing when we came to America," replied Helka +undaunted. "I will take care of this prisoner. I have agreed to." + +The old woman shuffled up nearer to the screen. Cora felt as if she +must cry out or faint, but Helka spoke quickly. + +"Don't you dare to step one inch nearer," she said, assuming a voice of +power. "I have told you to go!" + +A dog was barking fiercely under the window. + +"They will watch," said the old woman, meaning that the dogs would stay +on guard if Cora should attempt escape. + +"Oh, I know that," answered Helka. "But I have told you to go!" + +Cora was trembling. She remembered the voice, although she was too +deeply under the effects of the chloroform when in the wagon to recall +more of this woman. + +"I only came to warn you," said the woman. + +"You are always warning," and Helka laughed. "I am afraid, Mother +Hull, that we will begin to doubt your warnings. This young girl makes +an admirable gypsy, yet you warned me so much before she came." + +The woman stooped over and whispered into Helka's ear. "And I warn you +now," she said, "that if she gets away I will not save you from Sam. +_You_ will _marry_ him." + +"Go away instantly," commanded the queen, springing up like an +infuriated animal. "I have told you that before I will marry Sam I +will--I will---- He sent you to threaten me! I----" + +"Helka! Helka!" soothed the woman, "be careful--what you say." + +"You leave me! I could throw myself from this window," and she went +toward the open casement. + +"There now, girl! Mother Hull was always good to you-----" + +"Go!" + +The hag shuffled to the door. Turning, she watched Helka and looked +toward the screen. Helka never moved, but stood like a tragedy queen, +her finger pointing to the door. + +It was exactly like a scene in a play. Cora was very frightened, for +she could see plainly through the hinge spaces of her hiding place. + +When there was no longer a step to be heard in the hall, Helka sank +down on the floor and laughed as merrily as if she had been playing +some absurd game. + +Cora was amazed to hear that girl laugh. + +"Were you frightened?" Helka asked. + +"A little," replied Cora, "she has such a dreadful face." + +"Like a witch," admitted Helka. "That is why she is so powerful--she +can frighten every one with her face." + +"And the new tribe she spoke of?" + +"Has, I believe, a beautiful queen, and they are always trying to make +me jealous. But since I have seen you, I care less for my gypsy life." + +"I am glad! I hope we may both soon go out in the beautiful, free +world, and then you could meet David----" + +"Hush! I heard a step! Lie down and pretend illness." + +Again Cora did as she was commanded. It did seem as if all were +commands in this strange world. + +There was a tap at the door. + +"Enter!" called Helka. + +A very young girl stepped into the room timidly. + +"Sam sent this," she said, then turned and ran away. + +Helka opened the cigar box. "Cigarettes, I suppose," she said. Then +she smiled. "Why, it's a present--a bracelet. I suppose Sam found +this as he finds everything else he sends me--in other people's +pockets. Well, it is pretty, and I shall keep it. I love bracelets." + +She clasped the trinket on her white arm. It was pretty, and Cora had +no doubt that it had been stolen, but as well for Helka to keep it as +to try to do anything better with it. + +"I should like to give it to _you_," said the queen suddenly. She took +off the bracelet and examined it closely. + +"Oh, I really couldn't take it," objected Cora. + +"I know what you think, but suppose you got out some time? This might +lead to----" + +"Oh, I see. You need not speak more plainly. Perhaps when I go I may +ask you for it!" + +"It has a name inside. Betty----" + +"Betty!" exclaimed Cora. + +"Do you know a Betty?" + +"Indeed, I do! She was with us when----" + +"Then that was when Sam found it. The name is Betty Rand!" + +"Oh, do you think they have harmed Betty?" and Cora grew pale. + +"Bless you, no! I heard that the girls had been searching the woods +for you. She may have dropped it----" + +"Oh, I hope so. Dear Betty!" and Cora's eyes welled up. "What would I +not give to see them all!" + +"Well, now, dear, you must not be impatient. See, I am reforming. I +have not smoked today. And that is something that has not occurred in +years. If you should make a lady out of a savage, would you think your +time ill spent?" + +Cora gathered up the robe she wore. It did seem as if she had been in +gypsy land so long! She was almost familiar now with its strange ways +and customs. + +"You are not a savage, and I love your music. If you come out into the +world, I am going to take you among my friends. We all have some +musical education, but you have musical talent." + +"Do you really think so? David loves music. Shall I sing?" + +"Are you not afraid of that old woman?" asked Cora. + +"Not in the least. Besides, if I sing she will think all is well." +She took up her guitar. But after running her fingers across the +strings she laid it down again. + +"Tell me," she spoke suddenly, "about your mother. I hope she will not +worry too much. If ever I knew my sweet mother I should be willing to +live in a cave all my life." + +Cora had always heard girls speak this way of lost mothers. Yes, it +was sweet to have one--to know one. + +"My mother is a brave woman," said Cora. "She will never give up until +all hope is gone." + +"I know she is brave, for you must be like her. And your brother?" + +"He will miss me," answered Cora brokenly, for she could not even speak +of Jack without being affected. + +The great, dark eyes of the gypsy looked out into the forest. Cora +wondered of what she could be thinking. + +"Jack," she repeated, "Jack what?" + +"Jack Kimball," replied Cora, still wondering. + +"That sounds like a brave name," remarked the queen. "I am getting +spoiled, I'm afraid. I cannot help being interested in the outside +world." + +"Why should you not be?" asked Cora. + +"Because I do not belong to it. To be content one must not be too +curious. That, I believe, is philosophy, and----" + +"There is some one coming," interrupted Cora. + +"It is Lena. I am like the blind. I know every one's step." + +And she was not mistaken, for a moment later Lena entered the room. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +SADDENED HEARTS + +"I am afraid she is dead." + +"Jack, you must not give up so easily. The detectives have faith in +the steamship story." Ed was speaking. + +"No, Cora would not be induced, under any circumstance, to take a +Portland boat, and she could not have been taken away unconscious." + +"Girls before this have been led away with fake tales of a sick mother, +and all that," said Ed feebly, "but I must agree with you--Cora was too +level-headed." + +"And Belle is really very ill." + +"Mr. Rand has sent for a nurse. Belle feels as if she must die if Cora +is not found soon. She is extremely sensitive." + +"Yes, the girls loved Cora." + +His voice broke and he turned his head away. The two young men were +seated on the big piazza of the Tip-Top. It was just a week since the +disappearance of Cora, and, of course, Mrs. Kimball had been notified +by cable. She would return to America by the first steamer, but would +not reach New York for some days yet. In the meantime Mr. Rand, who +had turned out to be such a good friend in need, had advised Mrs. +Kimball to wait a few days more before starting. He hoped and felt +sure that some news of the girl would have been discovered by that time. + +"Walter 'phoned from Lenox," went on Ed, after a pause. "He had no +real information, and the young girl at the sanitarium is not Cora." + +"I was afraid it was a useless journey. Well, let us see if we can do +anything for the girls," and Jack arose languidly from the bench. +"Misery likes company." + +They went up to the suite of rooms occupied by the young ladies. Hazel +met them in the hall. + +"Whom do you think is coming to nurse Belle? Miss Robbins!" + +"What?" exclaimed both in one breath. + +"Yes, Mr. Rand insisted that she is the proper person, and it seems +there is some reasonable explanation for her conduct. At any rate, it +is well we will have some one we know. Oh, dear, Belle is so +hysterical!" and Hazel herself was almost in tears. + +"When is Miss Robbins coming?" asked Jack. + +"Mr. Rand 'phoned, and she said she would come up at once. Then he +sent his car out from his own garage for her." + +"What would we have done without Mr. Rand?" + +"Come in and speak to Belle," said Hazel. "She feels better when she +has talked with you, Jack. Of course, you come also, Ed," she hurried +to add, seeing him draw back. + +The young men entered the room, where Belle, pale as a drooping white +rose, lay on a couch under the window. She smiled and extended her +hand. + +"I am so glad you have come! Is there any news?" + +"Walter is running down a sanitarium clew," said Jack evasively. "I +feel certain Cora is ill somewhere." + +"Where has he gone?" + +"To Lenox. We had a description from a sanitarium there. But, Belle, +you must brace up. We can't afford to lose two girls." + +She smiled, and did try to look brighter, but the shock to her nerves +had been very severe. "Did you hear that Miss Robbins is coming?" she +asked. + +"Yes, and I think she is the very one we need," replied Ed. "She may +even be able to help us in our search." + +"She is wonderfully clever, and it seems she did not mean to desert us +at all. There is some sort of story back of her attention to the +wounded ones at Restover," said Bess, who had been sitting at a little +desk, busy with some mail. + +A hall boy tapped at the door and announced that some one wished to see +Mr. Kimball. + +"Come along, Ed," said Jack. "You represent us." + +In the hotel office they met two detectives sent by Mr. Rand. They +explained that they would have to have a picture of Cora to use in the +press, for the purpose of getting help from the public by any possible +identification. + +At first Jack objected, but Ed showed him that this move was necessary. +So it was, with other matters, very painful for the young man to +arrange with the strangers, where his sister's private life was +concerned. Jack soon disposed of his part of the interview. He +declared that Cora had no gentleman friends other than his own +companions; also that she had never had any romantic notions about the +stage or such sensational matters. In seeking all the information they +could possibly obtain, that might assist in getting at a clew, the +detectives, of course, were obliged to ask these and other questions. + +"Has all the wood been searched?" asked Jack. + +"Every part, even the caves," replied the detective. "We visited +several bands of gypsies, but could not hold them--they cleared +themselves." + +"But the gypsies had threatened her," insisted Jack. "Could any have +left the country by way of Boston?" + +"Impossible. We have had all New York and New England roads carefully +watched." + +"And there are no old huts anywhere? It has always seemed to me that +these huts one finds in every woods might make safe hiding places for +criminals," said Jack. + +"Well, we are still at it, and will report to you every day," said the +elder man. "We have put our best men on the case, and have the hearty +cooeperation of all the newspaper men. They know how to follow up +clews." + +"Of course," agreed Jack. "There was nothing in the Chelton rumor. I +knew that was only a bit of sensationalism." + +"There was something in it," contradicted the detective, "but the +trouble was we could not get further than the old gypsy woman's threat. +She had told your sister to beware of interfering with that jailed +fellow, Salvo. I believed there was some connection between her +disappearance and that case, but, after talking to every one who knew +anything about the gypsy band, we had to drop that clew for a time. +There are no more of the tribe anywhere in the county, as far as we can +learn." + +"And they have not been around here since the day they moved away, when +we were travelling over the mountains," went on Jack. "Of course you +have, as you say, taken care of all the ends, but the arrest of that +fellow seems the most reasonable motive." + +"Had Miss Kimball any girl enemies? Any who might like to--well, would +it be possible for them to induce her to go away, on some pretext, so +that she might be detained?" asked the other detective. + +Jack and Ed exchanged glances. There was a girl, an Ida Giles, of +whom, in the other books of this series, we were obliged to record some +very unpleasant things. She was an enemy of Cora's. But the +detective's idea was absurd. Ida Giles would have no part in any such +conspiracy. + +"No girl would do anything like that," declared Jack emphatically. The +sleuths of the law arose to go. + +"Thank you for your close attention," said Ed. "We certainly have +fallen among friends in our trouble. The fact that I left her +alone----" + +"Now, Ed, please stop that," interrupted Jack. "We have told you that +it didn't matter whom she was with, the thing would have happened just +the same. Any one would have fallen a victim to the false message." + +Again for the detectives' information the strange man who called Ed +into the hotel office was described. But of what avail was that? He +was easier to hide than was Cora, and both were safely hidden, it +seemed. + +Finally, having exhausted their skill in the way of obtaining clews, +the officers left, while the two young men, alone once more, were +struggling to pull themselves together, that the girls might still have +hope that there was a possibility of some favorable news. + +"It looks bad," almost sobbed Jack, for the interview with the officers +had all but confirmed his worst fears, that of throwing more suspicion +upon the Gypsy tribe. + +Ed was silent. He did not like to think of Cora in the clutch of those +unscrupulous persons. The thought was like a knife to him. Jack saw +his chum's new alarm and tried to brighten up. + +The door suddenly opened. Both young men started. + +A young woman entered the office. + +"Mr. Kimball, Mr. Foster!" she exclaimed, as the boys looked at her in +surprise. "I am so sorry!" + +It was Miss Robbins. + +"We are very glad to see you," said Jack. "We need all sorts of +doctors. Belle is very ill, and the others are not far from it." + +"And Cora?" she asked anxiously. + +"No news," said Jack, as cheerfully as he could. + +"Listen. I must tell you while I have a chance--before I see the +girls. The man I stayed over to nurse is my brother!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +ANOTHER STORY + +"Oh, Miss Robbins!" exclaimed Belle. + +"My dear! I am so sorry to see you ill!" + +"Yes, but Cora----" + +"Hush, my dear. You will not get strong while you worry so. Of course, +you cannot stop at once, but you must try." + +Hazel, Betty and Bess had withdrawn. What a relief it was already to +have some one who just knew how to control Belle. It had been so +difficult for the young girls to try to console her, and her nerves had +worked so sadly upon their own. + +"I suppose you thought I was a perfectly dreadful young woman," said Dr. +Robbins cheerily. "But you did not know (she sighed effectively) that +every one has her own troubles, while a doctor has her own and a whole +lot of others." + +"Had you trouble?" Belle asked sympathetically. + +"Indeed I had, and still have. You should know. But wait, I'll just +call the girls in and make a clean breast of it. It will save me further +trouble." + +The tactful young doctor had planned to tell her story as much for the +purpose of diverting Belle's mind as for any other reason. She called to +the girls, who were in an adjoining room. How the strain of that one +dreadful week had told upon their fresh young faces! Bess had almost +lost her peach-blow; Hazel, never highly colored, but always bright of +eye, showed signs even of pallor; Betty had put on too much color, that +characteristic of the excitable disposition when the skin is the +thermometer of the nerves, and her eyes not only sparkled, but actually +glittered. All this was instantly apparent to the trained eye of the +young doctor. + +"Come in, girls," she said. "I have decided to make a full confession." + +They looked at her in astonishment. What could she mean? Might she have +married the sick man? This thought flashed into the mind of more than +one of the party. + +"You thought I deserted you?" began Miss Robbins. + +"It looked like it," murmured Bess. + +"Well, when I went out on that lawn to work over the injured, I found +there a long-lost brother!" + +"Brother?" + +"Yes, really. It is a strange story, but for three years mother and I +have tried every means to find Leland. He was such a beautiful young +fellow, and such a joy to us, but he got interested in social problems, +and got to thinking that the poor were always oppressed, and all that +sort of thing. Well, he had just finished college, and we hoped for such +great things, when, after some warning enthusiasm, he disappeared." + +"Ran away?" asked Hazel. + +"Well, we thought at first he was drowned, for he used to sit for hours +on the beach talking to fishermen. But I never thought he had met with +any such misfortune. Leland is one of the individuals born to live. He +is too healthy, too splendid, a chap to up and die. Of course, mother +thought he must be dead, or he would not keep her in anxiety, but that is +the way these reformer minds usually work--spare your own and lose the +cause." + +"And what did happen?" asked Betty, all interested. + +"I happened to find him. There he lay, with his wonderful blond hair +burned in ugly spots, and his baby complexion almost----" + +"Oh! are all his good looks gone?" gasped Belle--she who always stood up +for the beautiful in everything, even in young men. + +"I hope not gone forever," said the doctor, "but, indeed, poor boy, he +had a narrow escape." + +"But whatever took him into the kitchen?" asked Bess. + +"He went down there among the foreigners to study actual conditions. Did +you ever hear of anything so idiotic? But that is his hobby. He has +been into all kinds of labor during these three long, sorrowful years." + +"And you were helping your own brother! And we--blamed you!" It was +Belle who spoke. + +"I could not blame you for so doing. I had been enjoined to secrecy the +very moment poor Leland laid his eyes on me. He begged me not even to +send word to mother, as he said it would spoil the research of an entire +year if he had to stop his work before the summer was entirely over." + +"But he could not work--he is ill?" said Bess. + +"Still, you see, he could keep among the men he had classed himself with, +and that is his idea of duty. I let mother know I had found him in spite +of his 'ideas,' but I did not tell her much more." + +"Will he not go home with you?" asked Hazel. + +"He has promised to give up cooking by October first. Then I am going to +collect him." + +"What an interesting young man he must be," remarked Belle, to whom the +story had already brought some brightness. + +"Oh, indeed he is," declared Miss Robbins. "He is younger than I, and +when I went to college he promised to do all sorts of stunts to prove my +problems. He even wanted to try living, or dying, on one sort of food; +wanted to remain up without sleeping until he fell over; wanted to sleep +in dark cellars to see what effect that would have; in fact, I thought we +would have to lock him up with a bodyguard to save his life, he was so +enthusiastic about my profession. And as to anti-vivisection! Why, at +one time he had twenty-five cats and four dogs in our small city yard to +save them from the possible fate of some of their kind. I tell you, we +had our hands full with pretty Leland." + +"I should love him," said Belle suddenly and emphatically. + +Every one laughed. It was actually the first real smile that had broken +the sadness of their lives in that long, dreary week. Belle returned the +charge with a contemptuous glance. + +"I mean, of course, I should love him as a friend of humanity," she +answered. + +"Cats and dogs!" exclaimed Betty. + +"A friend of dumb animals is always a friend of humans," insisted Belle. + +Dr. Robbins smiled. Her cure was already working, and, while her story +was correct, the recital of it had done more for those girls than had any +other attempted cure of their melancholy. + +"Well, I cannot agree with you that one fond of animals--that is +excessively fond--is always very fond of mankind," she said. "Still, in +Leland's case, it was a curious mixture of both." + +"He will become a great man," prophesied Hazel. + +"If he does not kill himself in the trying," said the sister. "He came +too near it in the fire. But suppose he should insist on--on digging +sewers?" + +"Oh, you could restrain him. That would be insane!" declared Bess. + +"I don't know about that. Sewers have to be dug," contended Leland's +sister. + +"I wish we might meet him," ventured Bess. "I am sure he would be an +inspiration." + +Poor Bess! Always saying things backwards. He would be an +inspiration--in digging sewers! + +"Well, you may some day, if he ever consents to become civilized again," +said Dr. Robbins. "You see, he may take to the lecture platform, but +very likely the platform will be against his principles. He will want to +shout from the housetops!" + +A step in the hall attracted them. It was Ed. + +"Jack and I are going to town," he said, his face flushed with +excitement. "The detectives claim to have a clew." + +"Oh, good! I knew Dr. Robbins would bring luck," declared Belle, +actually springing up from the couch. "I am going out in the air. I +feel as if Cora were here already!" + +"Easy, Belle," cautioned the doctor. "We must insist upon discipline for +your mind and body. You must not waste energy. It is well to be +hopeful, but bad to get excited." + +"But I can't help it." + +"Now, girls, we will let you know at once over the 'phone if we have any +news," promised Ed, making his adieux. "We really are hopeful." + +Hope, as contagious as fear, had sprung into the heart of each of them. +Yes, there must soon be news of Cora! + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +THE COLLAPSE + +"We are to go out to-day!" Helka's face was beaming when she gave this +news to Cora. The latter had longed so for the sunshine since shut up +in the big upper room. + +"Out where?" + +"In the grounds, of course. They do not let us on the highway." + +"And does that satisfy you? You could go--if you chose." + +"Well, I could, and I could not. I would be afraid if I ran away that +old Mother Hull's face would kill me in my sleep. She is a dreadful +woman." + +"But that is superstitious. No dream can kill. I wish that was all +that held me here," and Cora sighed deeply. + +"But you have promised not to try to escape while you are in my +charge," Helka reminded her. "And surely you will keep that promise!" +There was alarm in her voice. Helka had not told Cora all of her fears. + +"Yes, I will not run away from you. I doubt if I could do so, at any +rate." + +"Indeed, you could not, but you might be foolish enough to try. I keep +hoping for you all the time." + +"You are very good to me, Helka, and I hope that whatever becomes of me +I will not lose you entirely. But sometimes I have a fearful dread. I +feel as if I will choke from actual fear." + +"I don't blame you. The faces of some of our tribe are enough to +strangle one. But I have promised to take care of you, and you need +fear no violence, at any rate." + +They were seated on the floor, as usual. Presently Lena appeared. + +"Fetch the walking dresses--the brown and the black," said Helka. "We +are going out in the woods." + +"Sam did not go to town," ventured Lena. + +"Why?" asked the queen sharply. + +"I don't know. He asked if you were going out." + +"Indeed! Perhaps he expects to walk with us. Well, don't hurry with +the things. We have all day." + +Cora was disappointed. The very thought of getting out of doors had +brought her hope--hope that some one might see her, hope for something +so vague she could not name it. + +"Can't we go out this morning?" she asked. "The day is so delightful." + +Helka gave her a meaning glance. "I wish Sam would bring me some +fruit," she said to Lena. "Tell him I have not had any for days, and +say that the last--from the farm was delicious." + +"All right," assented Lena, "I think he--will go." + +"I think he will," agreed Helka. "He never fails me when I ask for +anything. Sam is ambitious." + +She was bright and cheery again. Yes, they would take their walk, and +Cora would be out in the great, free, wide world once more. + +"How do you manage to get such up-to-date clothes?" she asked Helka, as +she inspected the tailor-made walking dress of really good cut and +material. + +"Why, I have a girl friend in New York who sends by express a new gown +each season. You see, it would not do for me to attract attention when +I am out in the grounds." + +"But, if you did attract attention, would not that possibly help you to +get away?" + +"My dear, the situation is very complex. You see, I have a respectable +lover, and I live every day in hopes of some time joining him. Should +our band get into disrepute, which it surely would do if discovered +here, I should feel disgraced. Besides"--and she looked very +serious--"there are other reasons why I cannot make any desperate move +for freedom." + +Cora thought it wise not to press her further. It was a strange +situation, but surely the woman was honest and kind, and had befriended +Cora in her darkest hour. What more could she ask now? + +Helka gave Cora a choice of the dresses, and she took the black +costume. There was scarcely any perceptible difference in their sizes, +and when gowned Helka declared Cora looked "_chic_." Helka herself +looked quite the society lady, her tight-fitting brown costume suiting +her admirably. + +Cora was trembling with anticipation. She wondered if they would be +allowed to roam about at will, or how they would be guarded. Finally +Helka was ready. + +"We will have Lena with us--that is, she will be supposed to be with +us. Then--but you must wait and see. It is rather odd, but it is +better than being indoors." Helka rang her bell and Lena appeared. + +"We are ready," she said simply, and again the girl was gone. + +It seemed ages, but really was but a short time before Lena returned. + +"All right," she said, "the door is opened, and the dogs are gone." + +It was the first time Cora had been out in the hall, and she looked +around in wonderment. It was dark and dirty, so different from Helka's +apartment. Lena led the way. There were three flights of stairs. + +"You girls do not do too much sweeping," complained the queen, as she +lifted her skirts. "I should think you would have had Christine brush +down these steps." + +"I told her to, but Mother Hull sent her for berries," explained Lena. + +They passed along, and finally reached the outer door. The fresh air +blew upon them. + +"Oh!" exclaimed Cora. "Isn't it good to be in the open air?" + +"Hush!" whispered Helka. "It is best that you make no remarks. I will +tell you why later." + +Mother Hull was crouched at the steps. She looked up first at Helka, +then at Cora. My, what eyes! No wonder Helka said they might kill one +in a dream. + +Down the steps and at last on the ground! Cora's feet fairly tingled. +Helka tripped along lightly ahead of her. Two ordinary-looking men +were working on the grounds. The place seemed just like any other +country house that might be old and somewhat neglected, but there was +not the slightest evidence of it being an abode of crime or of gypsies. + +"This way, Cora," said Helka. "There is a splendid path through the +woods this way. I love to gather the tinted leaves there." + +As they turned the men also turned and made their work fit in exactly +to the way the girls were going. + +"Our guard," whispered Helka. "They will not speak to us, but they +never take their eyes off us. I don't mind them, but I hate the dogs. +They never call them unless they fear I might speak with a stranger." + +"What sort of dogs are they?" asked Cora eagerly. + +"I don't know; not thoroughbreds, I can tell you that. I could make +friends with any decent dog, but these--must be regular tramps. I hate +them." + +Cora, too, thought she might have made friends with any "decent" dogs, +but she had the same fear that Helka spoke of regarding mongrels. + +A roadway was not too distant to be seen. If only some one would come +along, thought Cora, some one who might hear her voice! But if she +should shout! They might both be attacked by those savage dogs. + +"Oh, see those gentian," exclaimed Helka. "I always think of David's +eyes when I find gentian. They are as blue and as sweet and----" + +"Why, Helka! You leave me nothing to say for my fair-eyed friends. +They have eyes, every one of them. Here are Betty's," and she grasped +a sprig of a wonderful blue blossom. "And here are dear, darling +Belle's," picking up a spray of myrtle in bloom, "and here are the +brown eyes of Bess," at which remark the eyes of Cora Kimball could +hardly look at the late, brown daisy, because of a mist of tears. + +"All girls!" exclaimed Helka wonderingly. + +"Oh, I know some boys," replied Cora, running along and noting that the +men with the dogs were close by. "Jack is dark. I really could not +tell the color of his eyes!" + +"And he is your brother!" + +"The very reason," said Cora with something like a laugh. "Now I know +that Walter has eyes like his hair, and his hair is not like anything +else." + +"But Ed's?" and at this Helka smiled prettily. "I had an idea that +Ed's eyes were sort of composite. A bit of love, that would be blue," +and she picked up a late violet, "a bit of faith, gray for that," and +she found a spray of wild geranium, "and a bit of black for steadfast +honor. There! I must find a black-eyed Susan," and at this she +actually ran away from Cora, and left the frightened girl with the men +and dogs too close to her heels for comfort. + +For a moment Cora wanted to scream. She was too nervous to remember +that she had been promised security by Helka: all she knew, and all she +felt, was danger, and danger to her was now a thing unbearable. + +"Helka! Helka!" she called wildly. + +The other girl, running nymph-like through the woods, turned at the +call, and putting her hands in trumpet shape to her lips, answered as +do school girls and boys when out of reach of the more conventional +forms of conversation. + +"Here I am," came the reply. "What is it, Cora?" + +"Wait for me," screamed the frightened girl, while those dreadful dogs +actually sniffed at her heels. + +Cora felt just then that the strain of being so near freedom, and yet +so far from it, was even worse than being in the big room. + +"I know where there are some beautiful fall wild flowers," said Helka. +"We may walk along for a good distance yet. These grounds are mine, +you know." + +"If they were only mine!" Cora could not help expressing. + +"You see, my dear, I owe something to my dear, dead mother. She loved +this life." + +"But your father. Did he?" + +"I can't say. I wish I might find him. He is not really dead." + +"Not dead!" + +"No. I say so at times because we call certain conditions death, but I +do believe my father lives--abroad." + +"And he is a nobleman?" + +"You folks would call him that, but he is not one of us." + +"How strange that you should be so bound by traditions! And you know +your lover--is not one of you." + +"Oh, yes, he is. That is what makes him love me. He is called a +socialist. He is not a gypsy, but he will not be bound by +conventionalities." + +"But suppose he knew of this crime?" + +"We do not admit it is a crime to hold you for the release of Salvo. +They cannot convict him of the robbery if you do not appear against +him. It is a sort of justice." + +It was very vague justice to Cora, and she knew perfectly well the +argument would have little weight with her friends, should she ever +meet them again. + +But she must meet them! She must induce this girl--for she really was +nothing more than a misinformed girl--she must induce her to escape! + +If only she could get a letter to David! + +If only Lena would take one for her! + +My, how her heart beat! Helka was picking flowers, but Cora was +looking out on that roadway. + +An automobile dashed by. + +"Oh!" exclaimed Cora, clutching Helka's arm. "I cannot stand it! I +must call or go mad!" + +The dead leaves tried to move! Something stirred them to unnatural +life. There was a shuffling of feet! A riot of fear! Chipmunks +scampered off! But the girl lay there! + +"Cora! Cora, dear!" wailed Helka. "Try to live! I cannot lose you! +Oh, Cora, I must make you live!" + +But the form on the dead grass was lifeless. The automobile had dashed +by. A cloud of dust was all that was left to mark its path. + +"Cora! Cora!" almost screamed Helka. "Wake up! They are coming!" + +The prostrate girl seemed to moan. + +Then they did come. + +Cora was apparently dead! + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +THE AWAKENING + +"What did I do? Did I--did they--oh, tell me?" + +Helka was leaning over Cora as the girl regained consciousness. It was +night, and the room was quite dark. + +"You did nothing, dear, but faint. That was not your fault. Take +another sip of this milk. Do you feel better?" + +"Yes, but I was so afraid that I screamed, and that they--those +dreadful men would punish you." + +"Not afraid for yourself?" + +"Not if I could not help it. But you had nothing to do with it. Oh, +Helka, I will die if I am not soon set free! I can't stand it." + +She burst into hysterical tears. Cora Kimball was losing strength, and +with it her courage was failing. + +"How could you escape?" + +The words came slowly. Helka was thinking deeply. + +"Could we get Lena to take a note to David? He would surely rescue us." + +"But then--they might pour out vengeance upon him. I could not take +the risk of anything happening to David." + +"You are too timid, Helka. Such straits as we are in demand risks." + +"We might poison those horrible, savage dogs. Lena might do that +without her own knowledge. I could fix something. Do you know +anything about poisons?" + +"Not much," replied Cora, "but I suppose if we got anything sure to be +poison it would do." Hope sprang into her heart. "How did you get me +indoors?" + +"They carried you. The air was too strong for you after such close +confinement." + +"No, it was that automobile on the road. The sight of it simply +overpowered me. Oh, how I wanted to call to those in it!" + +"Poor girl! Since you came I, too, have wanted to be free, and I am +not as much afraid as I used to be." + +"We are in America, and have no right to fear." Cora thought at the +same time that probably her own fearlessness accounted for her present +plight. + +"If we could poison the dogs, and then slide down from one of these +windows in the dark, perhaps we could get away," said Helka. "But what +would happen when we found ourselves out in the dark woods? If they +found us----" + +"There must be no 'if.' They must not find us. I am afraid of nothing +but of this imprisonment." + +"Well, we will see. To-morrow I will get Lena to go to town for me, +and perhaps we may be able to arrange something." + +"And you will not write to your David?" + +"Don't you think that dangerous?" + +"The very safest thing, for he is a man, and how could they injure him?" + +"And so handsome and so strong! He is like some grand old prince--his +hair is like corn-silk and his eyes are like the blue sky," and Helka, +as she reclined, with her chin in her hands, upon her couch, almost +forgot that Cora was with her. + +"Then you will write to-morrow? Tell him to come to the end of the +path at the west road by ten to-morrow night, and if we are not there +we will leave a note so that he will see it." + +"How quickly you plan! What about the dogs?" + +"Lena will fetch the stuff to-morrow morning, and they will be dead by +night. Then we will tie a rope to the window-sill or some strong +place, and we will slip down. Oh, Helka, I will go down first, and go +out first, and if they do not miss me, they will not miss you. It will +be safe to follow me as quickly as you see I am off!" + +Cora threw her arms about the gypsy queen. As she spoke it seemed as +if they were already free! + +"And when we meet David! Oh, my dear Cora, now you have made me--mad! +Now I, too, will risk life to get away! I must go out into your +world--David's world!" + +"Then we must both sleep, and be strong. Tomorrow we will be very good +to every one. I will be well, and if I cannot eat I will pretend to. +Lately I have almost choked on my food." Cora sipped the milk and then +fell back exhausted. + +"I nearly forgot your illness, I became so excited with our plans. Do +you know when you fainted they were all very much frightened? They +would not like to have you die!" + +"But they might easily bury me. I should think that would be safer." + +"No, it is very hard to bury one. Somehow they find the dead more +difficult to hide than they do the living. I guess the good spirits +take care of the dead." + +"And we must take care of ourselves! Well, that may be. At any rate, +I am glad I did not die. Oh, Helka, if you only could know my brother +Jack. He is the noblest boy! And our girls! You know, we are called +the motor girls, don't you?" + +"And you all own automobiles! I have never been in an automobile in my +life," sighed Helka. + +"But you are going to ride in mine--in the _Whirlwind_! Doesn't that +name suit you? It sounds so like your gypsy names. Why did you say +they call you Helka?" + +"Well, I wanted something Polish. Holka means girl, so I changed it a +little. My father called me his Holka." + +"How do you know that?" + +"From my mother's old letters. She told me as much as she wanted me to +know. She said I was not all a gypsy, but I might choose my life when +I grew up. She left me with a very kind gypsy nurse, but when she +died--they took me to that horrible Mother Hull." + +"What a pity your mother should have trusted them. Well, Helka, when +we find David, he will find your father. What was his name?" + +"Some day I will show you the letter, then you will know all my strange +history. My music I inherited. My father was a fine musician." + +The winds of the White Mountains sang a song of tired summer. The +leaves brushed the windows, and the two girls fell to dreaming. + +Cora thought of Jack, of Ed and of Walter; then of the dear, darling +girls! Oh, what would she not give for one moment with them? + +Helka dreamed of David--of the handsome boy who had risked his life to +get a note to her; then of how he followed her to America, and how he +had, ever since, sent her those letters! + +Yes, she must risk all for freedom! + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +SURPRISES + +"Some one wants Dr. Robbins on the 'phone." + +The hall boy brought the message. Dr. Robbins jumped up from her book +and hurried to the hall telephone. + +"Yes. Hello! That you, Leland?" + +"Yes, dear. So glad to get a word with you. How are you?" + +"Well? Now, you really can't be----" + +"What? Going away? Run away?" + +There was a long pause after this monologue. + +Dr. Robbins was listening to the voice--presumably that of Leland. + +Then--"Leland! Are you crazy?" + +Another pause. The young woman's face might have been interpreted, but +the 'phone was silent to outsiders. + +"You don't mean to say that you are going on some dangerous trip in the +mountains--yes, I hear, in the mountains--to help some foolish girl? I +know you did not say foolish; I said that. Leland, listen to me. Do +you hear? All right. Now, listen. Don't you dare to go away again +and not tell me exactly where you are going. I have only just--yes, I +know all about your ideas. I am sure she is charming and worthy and +all that, but----" + +Dr. Robbins tapped her foot impatiently. Oh, the limits of the +telephone! If only she could reach that brother! + +"If you do not--report--look for you around Hemlock Bend! Yes, we'll +do that. Oh, Leland!" + +She dropped the receiver and stood like one shocked physically as well +as mentally. For a moment she remained there, then turned back to the +room at the side of the girls' suite. + +Mr. Rand was sitting there. + +"What has happened?" he demanded. "You look as if there had been a +ghost in that message." + +"Oh, there was, Mr. Rand! What shall I do? That brother of mine is +running off again!" + +"Where?" + +"He didn't even say. His words were like those of some madman. If we +did not hear from him within three days, we are to look for him about +Hemlock Bend." + +"Where in the world is Hemlock Bend?" + +"As if we knew! That is just like Leland. Poor, dear Leland! Never +practical enough even to send a straight message. Oh, Mr. Rand, that +boy will kill us yet!" + +"Don't you fear, little girl," and there was an unmistakable note of +tenderness in Mr. Rand's voice. "One who means well usually does well, +however strange may be his methods. The first thing to do is to see if +we can get him again at the Restover." + +Without waiting for her answer, the gentleman rushed out in the hall +himself, and was presently calling up that hotel. As he happened to be +one of the owners of the summer house, it was not difficult for him to +get direct communication and answers. But the man asked for was gone. +Had just gone. Had just caught a north-bound train--the express. + +"Can't get him there," reported Mr. Rand to Dr. Robbins. "Now to find +Hemlock Bend." + +Guide books and time-tables were hastily consulted, but evidently the +place was too small for printed mention. + +Dr. Robbins was in despair. That dreadful young man! Gone to some +out-of-the-world place to rescue some absurd girl! And now he had +actually gotten away! + +Belle, Bess, Betty and Hazel had just returned from a melancholy +ramble. Belle was better--really better now than some of her +companions, who had been bearing up well under the strain--but all the +young faces were very sad. The boys had telephoned that they had some +hope for developments in the clew they had gone away to investigate, +but that was very meager encouragement. The boys always had hope--over +the 'phone. Dr. Robbins told them part of the story. + +"Oh, the idea!" exclaimed Belle. "Isn't that like a tale of the olden +times--for a young man to run away to rescue a lady! Now, what in the +world is she being rescued from? Exactly. That's the impossible +Leland. Never says who she is, what she is, or what about her. Now, +as if we could put a story like that together!" She sank back as if +mentally exhausted from the effort to "put it together." + +"But we must find Hemlock Bend," said Betty. "I feel as if I could lay +my finger on every bend in the White Mountains." + +"All concentrated on your particular person," said Hazel, with a smile. +"Well, I feel that way myself, only you being smaller, Betty, have a +more compact concentration." + +"I think I have it," exclaimed Mr. Rand, as he returned with his hands +full of pamphlets. "It is near--near----" + +"Let me look, Daddy," interrupted Betty. "I can see better, perhaps." + +He handed her one little green booklet. She glanced over it and +mumbled a lot of stuff through which she had to pass in order to get at +what was wanted. Then she paused. "Oh, yes, there's a place on the +Woodland Branch railroad called Hemlock Grove. Of course, that must be +around the corner from Hemlock Bend." + +They all agreed that it must be. Then to take the trip--they would not +wait for three days. Mr. Rand said that would be absurd, but when the +boys should return to the hotel, which would be that afternoon, they +would all start out in their cars. They would make a double hunt--for +Cora and for Leland. + +"It is a long trip," said Mr. Rand, "but I will take the big car, and +Benson--couldn't do it without Benson--and we will be able to ride or +to walk almost the length and breadth of the county." + +From that moment until the boys did return the young ladies were all +excitement getting ready for the trip. + +"I just feel now that something will happen," declared the optimistic +Betty. "If four girls and four boys, besides the best man in New +England, to wit, my daddy, cannot find them, then, indeed, they are +lost." + +"Oh, I, too, feel so anxious," sighed Bess. "I think the run will do +our nerves good, if nothing else." + +"And I feel exactly as if I were starting out to meet Cora," declared +Belle. "Oh, what would I give----" + +"We all would," interrupted Hazel. + +"But to think that Leland should put us to trouble just now when our +hands and hearts are so full," wailed Dr. Robbins. + +"Well, as misery likes company, perhaps our trouble will get along +better in pairs," said Hazel, without knowing exactly what she meant. + +Jack entered the corridor. His handsome, dark face was tanned to a +deep brown, and he looked different. Had he news? + +"Where is Mr. Rand?" he asked. + +"Just calling to the garage," said Belle, a note of question in her +answer. + +"Well, girls, we have found something. We have found Cora's gloves!" + +"Oh, where?" It was a chorus. + +"On the road to Sharon. I found one--Ed the other." + +He took from his pocket the gloves. They were not very much soiled, +and had evidently only lain in the road a short time. + +"They are the ones she wore the night of the ball, when she +disappeared," said Belle, looking at them carefully. + +"Then we will take that road and search every inch of it," declared +Bess, also inspecting the gloves. "The dear old things!" and she +actually pressed them to her lips. "I feel as if you had brought us a +message from Cora." + +"Those gloves have never been out of doors a week," said Jack +seriously. "They have been carried there--placed there--just to throw +us off the track. We will start out in the opposite direction." + +"To-night?" + +"As soon as you girls can get equipped. We must find Cora now or----" + +"We will find her," cried Bess. "I know we will. Oh, just let us get +on the road! I think the cars will scent the trail! I feel as if I +were simply going out to meet her by appointment." + +It was a brave effort, for the girls felt anything but certain. So +many hopes had arisen and been dashed down! so many clews had been +followed, only to be abandoned! so many messages had been sent in vain! + +But with such hope as they could muster up the party in four +automobiles started out from the Tip-Top. Without exception every +guest was interested in the case, and as the motorists chugged off many +were the wishes of good luck that were wafted after them. + +To find Cora! to find Leland! or---- + +Another disappointment would seem too cruel. Walter declared he could +pick a trail they had never yet followed. Betty said she knew a very +dark and dangerous pass, where she had lost her bracelet. Belle wanted +to go by the river road, so that when it was actually left to Bess to +decide, as she was next in authority to Cora in the Motor Girls' Club, +she spoke for the way through the woods, straight up into a rough and +shaggy pass. + +"They would never dream of an automobile getting up there," she +declared, "and if she is in hiding they have taken her far away from +the good roads." + +Wonderful for Bess! Wonderful, indeed, is the instinct of love! + +Scarcely had they turned into the wooded way than they espied smoke +stealing up through the trees. + +"There must be some one over there," declared Bess, the first to make +the discovery. "See! Yes, there is a flag!" + +"Oh, maybe they are those dreadful Gypsies," murmured Belle. "Let us +wait for Mr. Rand and the others." + +"I am too anxious to see," objected her sister. "The rest are all +within calling distance. See, there are the boys. Let us hurry into +the side road. Whoever they are, they have had wagons up here." + +It required careful driving to cover the pass, for the roadway was +newly made, and by no means well-finished. Great stones continually +rolled out from under the big, rubber wheels, and Bess was on the alert +to use the emergency brake, although the road was somewhat up hill. +She feared the motor would stop and that they might back down. + +"See!" she exclaimed, "there are children! They must be Gypsy lads and +lassies." + +Over in a clump of evergreens could be seen some children, playing at a +campfire. Yes, they might be Gypsies. + +"Wait! wait," called Jack and Ed, who had now observed that the place +was inhabited. "We will go in first." + +"All right," called back Bess, a little sorry that she could not have +had the glory of doing the investigating alone. + +By this time most of the searching party had reached the spot. + +"We will get out and walk over," suggested Jack, his voice trembling +with anticipation. + +It was growing dusk, and the smoke seemed to make the woods more +uncanny, and the depths blacker and more dismal. + +The children in the underbrush had climbed up into the low trees to get +a view of the automobiles. + +Jack, Ed and Walter were making their way through the brush to reach +the spot whence the smoke was coming. + +Mr. Rand and his men were hurrying over from the cross road. + +"Go slow!" he called, with the disregard of speech that makes a saying +stronger. + +"All right," answered Jack. "We'll take it carefully." + +"It's a camp!" exclaimed Walter, "and Gypsies, I'll wager." + +"Oh, I am so frightened!" cried Belle. "Yet I would brave them alone +for the sake of dear, darling Cora." + +"Of course you would," Betty assured her, as she picked herself up from +a fall over some hidden root. + +Dr. Robbins had secured a stout stick, and she made her way with more +care over the uncertain footing. + +"There's a family of them, at any rate," remarked Jack, as he neared +the open spot, where now could be seen a hut. + +A rough-looking man was waiting to see what they wanted. He smoked a +pipe, wore heavy shoes and clothing. + +Mr. Rand spoke first. + +"Good afternoon, stranger," he said in a pleasant voice. + +The man touched his hat and replied with an indistinguishable murmur. + +"Camping?" went on Mr. Rand, scarcely knowing how to get into +conversation. + +"Sort of," replied the man shortly. + +"Might we intrude for a little water?" continued the old gentleman. +"The girls had a dusty ride." + +"Certainly," replied the woodsman, motioning toward a pail and dipper +on a bench in front of the hut. + +"Hard to get at," whispered Jack to Walter, "but he doesn't look so +bad." + +"No, I rather think he is not the man we want," agreed the other young +man. + +"Stay here all year?" asked Ed, as he handed the brimming tin dipper to +Bess, and turned to the stranger. + +"Pretty much," spoke the man with the pipe. "But is there anything +wrong? Anything I could do for you?" + +This caused the whole party to surmise that he must have heard that +"something" was wrong. That looked suspicious. + +A woman emerged from the hut. She was not altogether untidy, but of +course showed that she lived far from civilization. She bowed to the +party, then called to the children in the woods. + +"Well," said Mr. Rand finally, "we are looking for somebody. You +haven't happened to hear or to have seen anything of a young girl in +these parts, a girl--who might have gotten lost in the woods; have you?" + +"I have heard that a girl was lost," replied the man. "But I'm one of +the forest rangers and I keep pretty close to my post at this time of +the season, watching for fires. There are so many young folks camping +and reckless with matches. Is there no trace of her? The missing girl +from the hotel, is the one you mean, isn't it?" + +Then he was not a gypsy! The forest ranger! + +"No, I am sorry to say we have not yet discovered her," went on Mr. +Rand. "But you being here in the very depths of the woods would likely +know of any gypsy camps about, I believe." + +"There are no camps in the woods this year," the man assured him. "We +have kept them out of this particular clearing by law. There are a lot +of them scattered about in the mountains, but as far as I could find +there is no camp deep in the woods. You see every summer someone gets +lost in these woods, and we don't like the gypsies to have the first +chance of finding them. But sit down," and he cleared the bench of the +water pail. "You must have had a weary search." + +Everyone sighed. They were still without a possible clew. + +"We will rest for a minute or two," said Mr. Rand, "but we must still +cover a lot of road tonight. We are out to find her if she is on the +White Mountains." + +And so after some conversation and advice from the forest ranger the +searching party again pressed on. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +THE CALL OF THE HEART + +"I am not the least bit afraid; in fact, I think I shall just sing to +show them I feel secure," and Cora snatched up the guitar. She +fingered it tenderly, then let it rest for a moment in her arms. "Did +Lena say it was all right?" + +"The dogs are drugged. I didn't have the heart to kill the brutes, +ugly as they are. They will not awaken." + +"Good! Then everything else will be all right. Oh, Helka, can you +imagine we are so near freedom?" + +"I never was frightened before. Whether it is the thought of meeting +David, or whether it is the thought of leaving them all, I cannot say, +but I am shaking from head to foot," said the queen. + +"That is natural. You have been with them almost all your life. But I +shall show you what real life is. This is slavery." + +Helka looked about her uneasily. "What shall we do first?" + +"When it is very dark, and all are in bed, I will fasten the rope to +the big nail that Lena fetched. Then I shall try it from this side, +and if it holds me I will slip down. Then I shall run. When you no +longer hear the leaves rustle, or if you can hear the whistle I will +give you as a signal, then you must come." + +"And if you go, and I cannot get out! Oh, Cora, I should die here +alone now!" + +"Faint heart! Be brave! Be strong! Say you will win!" + +Cora was jubilant. To her it meant freedom! She had no fear of +detection. All she thought of was success. To get away and then to +send word to her dear ones! + +Lena tapped on the door. + +"Helka," she said, "could I, too, go?" + +"You, Lena--why?" + +"I will not be happy without Helka and without the good lady. I, too, +would go away!" + +Her eyes were sad, and her voice trembled. + +"Why, Lena, they would search the earth for you--you are a real gypsy," +said Helka. + +"But I have no mother, no father, and what right have they to me? In +the world I could learn, I would work for you, I would be your slave!" + +The poor girl was almost in tears. Her manner pleaded her cause more +eloquently than could any words. + +"How would you go?" asked the queen. + +"When I go out to lock the barn, I would just run, and run through the +woods. I would wait for you at the big oak." + +"Where is Sam?" asked Helka. + +"He went out with the wagon this afternoon. He will not be back." + +"And Mother Hull?" + +"Smoking by the fire. She will sleep. I have put some powder in her +tobacco." + +Cora murmured a protest. + +"Oh, she likes it," and the queen smiled. "Tonight it will be a treat. +But the men--the guards?" + +"One went to gamble his money that you gave him; the other is out with +his fishing pole. I have fixed it all." + +"Good girl. You told him I wanted fish for breakfast, and you told the +other he could spend his money at the inn. Lena, I wish you _could_ +come with us." + +"I _am_ going. I will not stay here." + +"But in the morning, when they find three gone--what then?" + +"In the morning," said Cora, "it does not matter what. We shall be +safe some place. Yes, Lena, we will take you. This is no life for any +girl." + +Lena fell on her knees and kissed Cora's hands wildly. She had +befriended Cora ever since she saw her lying so still and white in that +awful wagon, and now she might get her reward. + +"You will come up with tea when everything is safe," said Helka. "That +will be our signal." + +Lena went away with a smile on her thin lips. True, she was a real +gypsy girl, but she longed for another life, and felt keenly the +injustice of that to which she was enslaved. + +"Then I will sing," said Cora. "See, the stars are coming out. The +night will help us. I have marked every turn in the path. I pretended +to be moving the stones from the grass, and I was placing them where I +could feel them--in the dark." + +"You are a wonderful girl, Cora, and your world must also be wonderful. +I have no fear of its strange ways--but my money? How shall I ever be +able to get that?" + +"Never fear about the money," replied Cora cheerily. "What is +rightfully yours you will get. My friends are always the friends of +justice." + +"And they will not fear the tribe?" + +"The tribe will fear them. Wait and see. Now, what shall I sing--the +'Gypsy's Warning?'" + +"Yes," and Helka lay back on her low divan. + +Again Cora fingered the guitar. Daintily her fingers awoke the chords. +Then she sang, first low, then fuller and fuller until her voice rang +out in the night. + + "Trust him not, oh, gentle lady, + Though his voice be low and sweet, + For he only seeks to win you, + Then to crush you at his feet!" + + +At each stanza Cora seemed to gain new power in her voice. Helka +raised herself on her arm. She was enchanted. The last line had not +died on Cora's lips when Helka repeated: + + "Yes, I am the gypsy's only child!" + + +The remark was rather a plaint, and Cora came over very close to Helka. + +"You must teach me a new song," she said. "I want one to surprise my +friends with." + +"Then you are so sure of reaching them?" + +"Positive. All America will seem small to me when I am free," and she +patted the hand of the queen. + +"Free!" repeated the other. "I had never thought this captivity until +you came; then I felt the power of a civilized world, and I felt the +bondage of this." + +The girls were speaking in subdued tones. A single word might betray +them if overheard. Yet they were too nervous to remain silent, and +Helka seemed so impressed, so agitated, at the thought of leaving, +forever, her strange life. + +"Do you think it is safe about Lena?" she asked. "I would not like to +get that faithful child into trouble." + +"It would be much safer to take her than to leave her here," Cora +reasoned, "for when they found us gone they would surely blame her." + +"Yes, that is so. Well, I have never prayed, that has always seemed a +weak sort of way to struggle," said the queen, "but it seems to me now +that I must seek strength from some One more powerful than those of +earth. There _must_ be such a power." + +"Indeed there is," replied Cora. "But now let us be happy. See the +stars, how they glitter," and she turned back the drapery from the +window. "And see, we shall have a great, big, bright moon to show us +our way." + +"Hush!" whispered Helka. "I heard a step. Listen!" + +Neither spoke for some moments. Then Cora said: + +"It was someone in the hall, but the person has gone down the stairs." + +"I wonder who it could be? Lena would come in." + +"Perhaps that little, frowsy Christine. She seems to stay out of +nights. I heard her last night when you were sleeping. I really think +she came in very late, crept upstairs, and then I am sure she tried +this door." + +"She did! Why did you not call me?" + +"Well, I was positive it was she, and I did not want to make trouble. +You see she has been listening again." + +"She belongs to another tribe and has only come here lately," said +Helka. "I have always suspected she was sent to spy on me. If it were +not just to-night--this very night--I would call her to an account." + +"If the child is under orders," intervened Cora, "you can scarcely +trust her to do otherwise than spy. But what do they want to know +about you that they cannot readily find out?" + +"You could scarcely understand it dear. We have rival tribes, and they +each want me--or my money." + +"There is another step! There seems to be so many noises to-night." + +"Perhaps that is only because we are listening." + +"We want to listen, and we want to hear," and Cora put her ear to the +keyhole. + +"Are they gone?" + +Cora did not answer at once. Then she turned to Helka. + +"I am sure I heard two voices. Should we call? Or ask who is there?" + +"No, it will be better to take our chances. It would be awful to be +disappointed now," said the queen in a whisper. + +"Surely Lena would not have betrayed us?" + +"Never. She is as faithful as--my right hand." + +"Of course! But I cannot help being afraid of everything. Helka, we +should take some refreshment. That will give us courage." + +"I hope Lena will soon fetch the tea," and the queen sighed. "This +suspense is dreadful." + +"But it will pay us in the end. If we made a mistake now----" + +Cora stopped. + +A tap came at the door, at which both girls fairly jumped. + +"I will answer," said Helka, immediately regaining her composure. She +opened the door. + +"I forgot my lesson book in your room to-day," said a voice that proved +to be that of Christine, "and may I get it?" + +"Not to-night," answered Helka decisively. "You should not forget +things, and it is too late for lessons." + +"But the man--Jensen--says I must get it. He is my teacher, and he is +below." + +"Tell him Helka says you must go to bed: to bed, do you hear? At once! +I will have Lena see how you obey me." + +The girl turned away. Helka locked the door. + +"What does that mean?" asked Cora anxiously. + +"They are watching us. We must be very cautious. But she is only a +timid child and she will go to bed. I do wonder what is keeping Lena?" + +"If they should keep her down stairs all night, then could we not +venture to leave?" asked Cora. + +"I don't know. They might suspect, and they might keep Lena. You take +up the guitar and I will ring." + +Cora obeyed. How her hands trembled! To be found out would almost +mean death to both of them. + +Helka pulled the cord that rang the hall bell. Then they waited, but +there was no answer. She pulled it again, and after a few minutes she +heard the familiar step of Lena. + +She opened the door before the Gypsy girl had a chance to knock. + +A wild gesture of the girl's hands told Helka not to speak. Then she +entered the room. + +"They are watching," she whispered, and without waiting for a reply she +darted out into the hall again and crept down the stairs. + +"Can't we----" + +"Hush!" cautioned the queen as she pressed Cora's hands to bid her keep +up her courage. + +It seemed hours. Would the trees never stop rustling, and would the +steps below never cease their shuffling? + +"I have said that this was to be my night of music," whispered Helka. +"The night of the full moon always is. So we must have music!" + +A long line of automobiles had rumbled along the narrow road. Not a +horn sounded, not one of the cars gave any warning. It was night in +the White Mountains, and besides the party from the Tip-Top, who had +been searching from late that afternoon, there were also, on Mr. Rand's +orders, two officers in a runabout. + +"Which way?" called the boys from their car. "Sounds like water!" + +"Oh, mercy!" exclaimed Bess, who was quite near. "Don't let us run +over a falls!" + +"No danger!" came back from the Rand car. "That water is half a mile +away." + +"This is rather unsafe for the girls, though," said Jack to Ed. "I +wonder if they don't want to change cars?" + +"I have just asked Bess and Betty," replied Ed, "and they would not +hear of it. Strange that such timid girls can be so plucky on +occasions." + +"They're game all right," observed Jack. "I almost feel, now that we +are out in the woods, that Cora is along. It is tough to think +anything else." + +"Perhaps she is. I never felt as encouraged as I do to-night," +declared Ed. "Somehow we started out to win and we've got to do it!" + +Now, the one great difficulty of this searching tour was that of not +sounding the horns, consequently they had to feel their way, as on +almost any part of the mountain roads there might be stray cottagers, +or campers, or rustics, in danger of being run down. + +The lights flashed brightly as if trying to do their part in the search +for Cora Kimball. + +Giant trees threw formidable shadows, and smaller ones whispered the +secrets of the wood. But the girls and boys, and the women and men +were too seriously bent upon their work to notice any signs so +unimportant. + +Suddenly Jack turned off his power. He wanted to listen. + +"Did you hear anything?" asked Ed. + +"Thought I did, but these evergreens make all sorts of noises." + +"The others are making for the hill. We had best not lose sight of +them," suggested Ed. + +At this Jack started up again and was soon under way. But something +had sounded "human." He felt that there must be some sort of life near +them. + +In a few minutes he was alongside the other cars. + +"What kept you?" asked Bess, eager for anything new. + +"Nothing," replied Ed. "We just wanted to listen." + +"We will leave the cars here and walk. I thought I saw a light," said +Jack. + +"I am sure I did," declared Bess. "Oh, If only we find a cave, there +are enough of us----" + +"The young ladies should not venture too deep in the woods," suggested +Officer Brown. "We had best leave them with one of the young men here." + +"Oh, no," objected Belle. "We must go with you. We are better in a +crowd." + +"Just as you say. But look! Is not that a light?" + +They were almost in front of the old house. Cora and Helka were tying +the rope to the open window. + +"Sing! Sing!" whispered Lena, at the door. "Mother Hull is listening." + +Quickly Cora picked up the instrument again, and, although voice and +hands trembled, she sang once more the last verse of the "Gypsy's +Warning," while Helka played her little harp. + +"Hark! Hark!" shrieked Bess. "That is Cora's voice! Listen!" + +Spellbound they stood. + +"Yes," shouted Belle. "That's Cora!" + +"Oh, quick," gasped Betty, "she may stop, and then----" + +A rustle in the bushes close by startled them. A man groped his way +out. + +"What do you want?" he demanded. + +"Oh, Leland!" + +It was Miss Robbins who uttered the words. She made her way up to the +stranger, and while the others stood dumfounded she threw herself in +the stranger's arms. + +"You, Regina? Here?" + +"Yes, is this the Hemlock Bend? Oh, to think that we have found you!" + +"But I must go! That was her harp. That was Lillian--somewhere in +that thick woods!" + +"And the voice was Cora's," interrupted Jack. "Where can she be--to +sing, and to sing like that?" + +The detectives with Mr. Rand were pressing on. They soon emerged from +the thicket and saw the old mansion. + +"That is the Bradly place," said Officer Brown. "Only an old woman and +a couple of girls live there. That is no place for one to be +kidnapped." + +"No matter who is there," declared Bess, "I heard Cora sing, and that +is Cora's song, 'The Gypsy's Warning.'" + +"And I heard Lillian play," declared Dr. Robbins' brother. "I have +promised to rescue her to-night." + +"And that is why you came?" asked his sister. + +"Yes, she is there, in a gypsy den!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +VICTORY + +"Is SHE asleep?" asked Cora, as Lena poked her head in the door again. + +"Yes, and she will not wake. You may go!" + +"One more little song," begged Helka. "I may never play my lute again." + +"Why, Lena could bring it," suggested Cora. "It is not much to carry; +and your box, I will take that." + +Helka ran her fingers over the strings. + +"Sing," she said, and Cora sang. + + "His voice is calling sweet and low! + 'Babbette! Pierro!' + He rows across, he takes her hand, + And then they sail away!" + + +"Yes," interrupted Helka, "he will come, and he will take my hand. Let +us go!" + +"There! There!" screamed Bess. "That was Cora's voice!" + +"And that was Lillian's lute! Did I not give it to her?" insisted the +strange young man, Leland. + +"Then our lost ones are together," said Jack. "I am going!" + +"Wait! Wait!" begged the detectives. "The dogs in there would tear +you to pieces!" + +"They must eat my hot lead first," said Jack grimly, drawing his +revolver. + +"No, wait," implored Mr. Rand. "A false move now may spoil it all." + +Every man, young and old, in the party took out his revolver and had it +in readiness. Then, in a solid line, they deliberately walked up to +the old house--through the path lined with boxwood over the little +flower garden. + +"Yes, there is a light. See it near the roof?" + +The girls were almost on the heels of the men. They could not be +induced to remain in the lane. + +"What is that?" + +"A woman's voice," said Officer Brown. "She is calling the dogs!" + +But no dogs came. Instead, a girl, Lena, confronted them. + +"What do you want?" she demanded rather rudely. + +"You," said the younger officer--Graham by name--and as he spoke he +seized her arm. + +"I am only Lena. I have done nothing. Let me go. Help! help!" +shrieked the girl. + +This aroused the old woman. She flung open the door and stood with +lantern in hand. + +"Lena! Lena," she shrieked. "The dogs! Where are the dogs?" + +But Lena did not answer. + +"Sam! Jack! Tipo! Where are you all? What does this mean?" + +The searchers stood for a moment considering what was best to do. As +they did so something came dangling down--the rope from the window near +the roof! + +"Cora!" + +She fell into the very arms of Bess. + +Another moment and a second form slid down in that same mysterious way. + +It was Helka! And Leland was there to grasp her. + +"Lillian!" he murmured. + +"Oh, David! Am I--are we safe!" + +The door had slammed shut and the old woman was gone. + +"Is this the girl we are after?" exclaimed the officer in astonishment. + +"None other," declared Mr. Rand. "And I say, boys, just pick these +girls up and carry them. That will be no task for you." + +Cora was weeping on Jack's shoulder, Helka was folded in Leland's arms. +To her he was David. + +"What happened?" asked Betty. + +"Don't leave Lena," begged Cora. "She must come with us!" + +"Simply get everybody down on the road," suggested Mr. Rand, "then we +may be able to tell Lena from Cora and all the rest." + +How different it was going back over that path! How merrily the girls +prattled, and how excited were the men! + +It was Cora! Cora! Cora! + +And it was Helka! My friend Helka! + +Then Lillian. And David! Even Lena! + +It was well the automobiles had a few spare seats, for there were now +four new passengers to be taken back to the Tip-Top. + +"Belle!" said Cora, when she could get her voice, "however did you +venture out here?" + +"Now, Cora," and Belle protested feebly, "I have been very ill, since +you left; and you know I would have gone anywhere to help find you. +Anywhere in the world!" + +Cora kissed her fondly. Nothing and no one could resist teasing Belle. + +"Of course you would! But who has Lena?" + +"She is with the Rands," replied Bess, "but we claimed you. Oh, Cora +Kimball!" + +As only girls know how to show affection, this sort was now fairly +showered upon the rescued girl. + +"It almost seemed worth while to have been lost," Cora managed to say. + +"When shall we hear all about it?" asked Belle. + +"Not to-night," objected the twin sister. "It is enough to know that +we have Cora." + +The automobiles were rumbling on. Every mile post took them farther +from the gypsies, and nearer the hotel. + +"Hey there!" called Mr. Rand. "You boys keep a tight hold!" + +"Aye, aye, sir!" shouted back Walter. "Seems to me Mr. Rand is getting +very gay," he remarked to Betty. + +"He simply means," said the dutiful daughter, "that you must look +carefully after the girls. They might be after us--the gypsies, I mean. + +"Oh," said Walter, in that way that Walter had. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +A REAL LOVE FEAST + +"However did it happen?" demanded Belle. + +"Please let the child draw her breath," insisted Mr. Rand. "Remember, +she has been kidnapped--a prisoner, a slave!" + +"No, not that," objected Helka. "She was my guest." + +"I knew we would find her," declared Betty, crowding up to Cora's chair. + +"We didn't," contradicted Ed, "she found us. She simply----" + +"Flopped down on us," finished Jack. "Cora, I never knew I loved you +until I lost you." + +"Oh, yes, you did, Jackie. You always made sugary speeches when--you +wanted small change." + +"And the dogs?" asked the detectives. "What happened to them?" + +"We put them to sleep!" announced Cora, in the gravest possible tones. +"Do you know, we never could have done it but for Lena." + +"Lena shall be rewarded," declared Walter. + +"Wallie!" warned Jack. + +"The newest girl!" whispered Belle. + +"At any rate, no one can steal Helka," said Cora, glancing over at +Lillian and David. "But how does he come to be Leland?" The question +was aimed at Dr. Robbins. + +"Oh, that boy! He must change everything--even his name, although it +really is Leland David." + +"David for strength, of course," said Cora. "Oh, I just must scream! +Think of it! No more dogs! No more eating off the floor----" + +She caught Helka's eye. "What is it, Cora?" asked the gypsy queen. +Cora clasped her arms about her. + +"Isn't she beautiful?" whispered Belle. "Did you ever see such a face?" + +"Glorious," pronounced Betty. + +"But say, Betty, did you notice how the daddy takes up with the doc?" +said Ed. "I am dreadfully afraid of stepmothers." + +"I'm not," said Betty, with a shrug of her pretty shoulders. "I rather +like them." + +"Had one on trial?" teased the boy. + +"No, on probation," braved Betty. + +"Then," said the officer, aside to Mr. Rand, "we shall raid the place!" + +"Exactly, exactly! There may be more girls under the stoop or up the +chimney. That place should not be allowed to stand." + +"It was a great find," admitted the officer, "but I never would have +been able to do anything if the young ladies had not recognized the +voice. That place has been there for years. The Bradly house would +have got past any of us." + +"Yes, the girls helped," said Mr. Rand proudly. "I have a great regard +for girls." + +"You say silver was stolen from the seashore cottage? Likely it is in +that place." + +"Haven't the slightest doubt of it, and more, too, I'll wager. Now, +boys"--to the officers--"you have done a good night's work. We're a +happy family, and I don't want to keep you longer from yours." So, +with promises to soon overhaul the old Bradly house, the men of the law +departed. + +"But why did you sing, Cora? How could you?" asked Ed. + +"Oh, I knew I was soon going to be happy, and wanted to get used to +it," said Cora, with a laugh. + +"You haven't failed," said Dr. Robbins. + +"Praise from you? No, thanks to my good friend, we had everything but +liberty. Didn't we, Helka?" + +"Oh, she's too busy. Let her alone," suggested Jack, his face radiant. + +"And you have on my bracelet! Cora Kimball!" accused Betty. + +"Another link in the endless chain," explained Cora vaguely. "That is +a present from Gypsy Land." + +"Suppose we eat," suggested the practical Mr. Rand. "I have cabled +Mrs. Kimball. She had not yet sailed." + +"Oh, poor, darling mother!" exclaimed Cora, her eyes filling. + +"Poor, darling--you," added Jack, not hesitating to kiss her openly. + +"Next!" called Ed. + +"Halves on that!" demanded Walter. + +"Fenn!" shouted Cora, for, indeed, the boys threatened to carry out the +game. + +"Maybe you would like--a minister," suggested Mr. Rand mischievously, +glancing at the undisturbed Helka and David. + +"For a couple of jobs?" asked Walter, looking keenly at Mr. Rand and +carrying the same look into Dr. Robbins' face. + +"Well, I don't mind," replied the gentleman. "Betty is getting beyond +my control." + +But Lillian, the gypsy queen, was not in such a hurry to wed, even her +princely David. She would have a correct trousseau, and have a great +wedding, with all the motor girls as maids. Her fear of the clan was +entirely dispelled, just as Cora said it would be when she breathed the +refreshing air of American freedom. + +"So you are the Motor Girls?" she asked, trying to comprehend it all. + +"They call us that," said Bess. + +Then the porter announced supper, and at the table were seated fifty +guests--all to welcome back Cora and to sing the praises of the real, +live, up-to-date motor girls. + +There is little more to tell. A few days later the house where Cora +had been held a prisoner was raided, but there was no one there; the +place had been stripped, and of Mother Hull and the unscrupulous men +not a trace remained. + +But Tony Slavo was not so lucky. He was still in the clutches of the +law, and there he remained for a long time, for he was convicted of the +robbery of the Kimball cottage. + +Cora arranged to have the gypsy girl, Lena, sent to a boarding school. +As for Lillian, who resumed her real name, Mr. Rand engaged a lawyer +for her, and most of the wealth left to her was recovered from another +band of gypsies who had control of it. So there was a prospect of new +happiness for her and Leland, who promised to give up his odd ways, at +least for a time. + +Cora soon recovered from the effects of her captivity and she formed a +warm friendship for the former gypsy queen, even as did the other motor +girls. + +"Oh, but wasn't it exciting, though?" exclaimed Bess one afternoon, +when, after leaving the Tip-Top Hotel they had resumed their tour +through New England. "I shall never forget how I felt when I saw Cora +coming down that rope from the window." + +"Nor I, either," added Belle. + +"I wonder----" + +"Who's kissing her now?" interrupted Jack, with a laugh. + +"Silly boy! I was going to say I wonder what will happen to us next +vacation." + +"Hard to tell," declared Ed. + +"Let's arrange for us boys to get lost, and for the girls to find us," +proposed Walter. + +"Don't consider yourselves of such importance," said Hazel, but she +blushed prettily. + +"Oh, well, it's all in the game," declared Jack. "I feel in my bones +that something will happen." + +It did, and what it was will be told in the next volume of this series, +to be entitled, "The Motor Girls on Cedar Lake; Or, The Hermit of Fern +Island." In that we will meet with the young ladies and their friends +again, and hear further of Cora's resourcefulness in times of danger. + +The tour through New England came to an end one beautiful day, when, +after a picnic at a popular mountain resort, our friends turned their +cars homeward. + +And so, as they are scudding along the pleasant roads, on which the +dried leaves--early harbingers of autumn--were beginning to fall--we +will take leave of the motor girls. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MOTOR GIRLS THROUGH NEW +ENGLAND*** + + +******* This file should be named 20870.txt or 20870.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/0/8/7/20870 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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